The rise of hardboot snowboarding

 The rise of hardboot snowboarding is upon us. Phrasing like this makes it sound like some kind of villain, but the only thing these hard plastic shells are stealing are people's hearts. 

 Years ago I would have said never; buying an expensive pair of boots and then drilling holes and cutting pieces out of them? Naw, soft booting isn't really that bad, in fact I thought it was great! Last year I started saying maybe. The binding tech had come a long way and I'd met a few people who swore by it, never to return to the soft boot. The big hold up to me is that people were still wearing ski boots! Nothing against skiiers, but the mechanics are different and I was buying top of the line snowboard boots. It seemed unlikely that a ski boot at any tier would compare with the leading snowboard boot.

 Image courtesy of phantomsnow.com.

 Well, a lot has changed over the last year, and these changes brought us the Phantom Slipper. At long last a hard boot designed specifically for splitboarding! Safe to say my answer is no longer a hard nope, but a yes to the hard boot. I've not yet had the pleasure of trying the system out, but I'm definitely plotting a way to try some hard boots out for next winter. I've even had a few friends say that with the addition of the Link-lever, they like the hardboots even more than their old soft boots! And that's for the way down, not just the way up. 

 To read a bit more about the boot and the history of hard boot modifications, just out this article on the TGR website.