Ride Insano - my trials & tribulations

These are stiff boots!  They don't really flex, they articulate.  If up-unweighted turns are your jam (particularly on torsionally stiff boards), these might be for you.  There's a lot of lateral support if you're running steep binding angles as well.  But if you like to get surfy and have more movement below the knees, I think they're a bit much.

I got these 3 years ago when I was mostly freeriding and they were definitely too much.  Very locked in.  After about 30 days the liners packed out and the protrusion of the boa knob became a real problem.  I developed peroneal tendonitis and eventually tore it on a pow day.  I recommend adding a little foam behind the boa to eliminate this pressure point (the tongue tightens up and covers the front):

Ride uses a HEAVILY modified version of the Intuition Dreamliner.  I now have an actual Dreamliner to go in it:

Ride's only has mesh over the ankle bone, the foam is rather thin, and I think the toe box is just neoprene.  The actual Intuition is all closed cell foam and those yellow bits are as stiff as some boot materials.  This seems to have solved my peroneal issue, plus it's just way more comfortable, supportive and responsive.  These are older Intuition liners that don't have any harness, so I just use the Insano harness without the clip locking into anything.  It works fine.

If you want to go even stiffer, the Intuition Pro-Tongue is probably the way to go (there's not enough room for their wrap liner).

Another BIG problem with the Insano is the crappy flat insole.  If you have any sort of arch, ditch that ASAP.  When the boa clamps down your foot will over pronate and cause problems.  I've used the Kneed2Ski insole in the stock liner, but once it packed out the thicker Kneed2Move worked even better (for my relatively high arch).

I've now rode these on my Stranda Shorty with Flux CV-LTD bindings and they were a really great match.  On my Freecarver 6000 with Jones Mercury bindings they were good, but I kinda missed having a little more surfy feel.

I'll probably save the Insano for my more 'serious' carving days.  With over 30 days on them, they're still significantly stiffer than my 20 day old Vans Verse (with the same liner).  The footprint is a bit smaller as well.  Here they are side-by-side, both size 8:

The Vans are definitely more comfy and offer more dosiflexion (there's a significant flex point right were the tongue inserts taper down).  They have a surfier feel, but still very good lateral support.  They're certainly better for going off-piste... though I might just use my old K2 Thraxis with with Intuition Pro-Tour for those slack country days. 

I guess I have a boot quiver now.