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Topic starter 25/03/2024 12:02 am
I tried to search for an existing topic but then I thought I'd make a new one for this. I've been thinking a lot about how I use highbacks. Lately I've been going for less and less forward lean and sometimes I've ran into an argument about how much you really need for carving. I say it depends on the style but with what I'm doing I thought I might be able to make it work without highbacks at all.
So that's what I tried today. This is with Flow Freeballer FS bindings that are based on Fuse chassis but don't have highback at all. The funny thing is that these have significantly larger bootout factor so I don't really recommended these bindings for any kind of riding but they were good for this test. Here goes:
Turn initiation was worse than with Flow Fuse Carbon Hybrids but strangely the turn itself was maybe even better without the highback. I think I'll try even less forward lean with Fuses next. If you compare this vid to the "100fps" vid, you can see how the lack of highbacks actually results in less extreme edge angle with the laid down heelside turn. This makes sense but I thought it would be bad for the turn. Instead the turn felt more dynamic. I think it has something to do with the boot flexing so that the edge angle keeps alternating a bit to absorb surface irregularities better. I kinda like it.
I rode this with heavily used Salomon F4.0 boots which were not that stiff to begin with and now they are pretty much medium flex.
25/03/2024 1:49 am
@xargo Nice!
Looks like a small pivot on the heelside initiation. Not surprising given that you didn't have a highback to crank on. I still want to see some video where someone else holds the camera, it's hard to analyze exactly what you're doing with all the image warping.
When I started riding Flows this season I sometimes forgot to lock the highback before starting down the run. I never notice if I start with a toeside but heelside was a different story. In my opinion, highbacks are for heelside only.
I'm just slaying...
Topic starter 25/03/2024 2:48 am
Yeah I did small pivots to make sure I wouldn't crash that safety fence. Those bindings are really sketchy and I was afraid I might pop out of the binding so I played it safe. The heel was only held in place by a small strap which was really low and these bindings are too large for my boot so the boot was moving around the chassis. I felt like that was a bigger issue than the lack of the highback. I'm pretty sure I won't be repeating that test. 😆 Here's a screenshot showing how sketchy that heel strap is:
Btw. I process these with zero "Distortion Control" in Insta360 Studio so these don't have any warping. I've done that lately to show the decamber more realistically. Earlier I used some but I tried to use as little as possible and now I use 0. As a default Insta360 applies quite a bit of radial barrel distortion to include more stuff in the field of view. That's done computationally and you can choose not to do that in Insta360 Studio. Most action cameras do the same thing but optically.
Of course some minor stitching errors remain but I've calibrated that so it's not really an issue. Of course someone filming me would give different kind of perspective but no warping going on here.
I agree about highbacks being for heelside only.
