Buying Head/Blax Stratos on the internet (bootsize)

Post by **Transistor Rhythm** » Monday 10 March 2008, 10:12

I'm more of a casual snowboarder, already happy when I can go to a resort for one week in a season. When I first learned to snowboard some 15 years ago the rental place gave me a race or alpine board (forgot what it was exactly) and hardboots. I can't say if snowboarding using softboots is easier to learn, I only know I learned it using hardboots, and I don't like riding the softboots they only seem to stock in rental places nowaday. I don't care about tricks, riding in reverse or what's cool with teenagers, I just want to ride groomed pistes as gracefully and fast as possible.

So I figured I need to buy my own boots, plus some bindings, and maybe a cheap allround board for the first season so I don't have to shell out for everything at once and I have a less steep re-learning curve (right?).

I got my mind set on a pair of Head Stratos because they seem more endurable than the other boots. Since I live in Holland, there are no stores in my area stocking them. Besides that, buying used or new on the internet is a lot cheaper.

So I read the guides on the internet, followed their advice about measuring size and put a piece of paper on the floor, put my heel against the wall and put a line with a ballpoint in front of the tip of my big toe. 28 cm give or take a millimeter. So that SHOULD be size 28 mondo, right?

Still rental boots are really uncomfortably cramped when I try size 28, I'm more like a 28.5 maybe even 29 sometimes. Also when I look at my shoe size, it translates more to that kind of sizes.

Can somebody shed some light into this please?

Post by **Transistor Rhythm** » Monday 10 March 2008, 11:14

Oh and second question: are Blax Cirrus not good compared to Stratos or Ingemars? Or are they nice learning boots if I can get by cheap?

-----

Oops, wrong category posted?

Post by **Arnaud** » Monday 10 March 2008, 11:30

Transistor Rhythm wrote:28 cm give or take a millimeter. So that SHOULD be size 28 mondo, right?

Not sure

I use Head Stratos Pro.
Making the same measurement, my feet are 26.5 cm long, but the minimum shoe size for me is 28 Mondo. I tried a pair of 27.5 but it's definively too short and I got pain after 2 hours.
Head Stratos 28 or 28.5 have the same shell, while 27 - 27.5 are shorter.

Difficult to buy without trying

Post by **eaglefly** » Monday 10 March 2008, 13:59

According to Alpinecarving.com "Head makes half-size boots (like 27.5), but the only difference between a whole size and the next half-size up is the thickness of the footbed. Since you will want to use your own custom footbed, there is no difference in size between a 27 and a 27.5."

My size is not around 28 but as Arnaud, same difference in cm : my foot is 25 cm long, my Head Stratos pro boots are Mondo 26,5. However it is a bit too big for my girly feet so I've added a sole inside. My perfect size should have been mondo 26 I guess but it was not available in the store...

Post by **tobsinger** » Monday 10 March 2008, 20:29

I'm using a Head Stratos (the orange one) in 27 Mondo, but my feet measure 26cm.

The 27 is on the edge of being too small, on my left leg i had to take out the innner sole for a few days. I was wearing the boot for one week every night at home for about 3 hours after backing the inner boot.

I would always recommend to wear boots at home before using them makes it much more comfy the first days on a board.

Post by **Transistor Rhythm** » Monday 10 March 2008, 20:45

Hmmm you are all so consistently having the same experience about the size of Head / Blax boots I feel tempted to take the plunge and try 29 mondo's. If they would end up being too small I could still switch to a 29.5 liner, can't I?

Post by **Arnaud** » Monday 10 March 2008, 20:50

I'm not sure, but I suppose that 29 and 29.5 have the same shell, so it should be also possible to adjust the 29 liner to your feet by thermoforming.

Post by **Transistor Rhythm** » Monday 10 March 2008, 21:44

OK, I won a pair of Blax Cirrus off eBay for I think a low price, size 29

I sure hope they will fit

Post by **h3in3k3n** » Tuesday 18 March 2008, 10:49

hi, could u post a little feedback plz?

i'm very interested in, cause everywhere u can read size in mondo should be ur bootsize... did u all do the "shell test" without the liner and putting ur fingers behind ur heel??

Post by **Freecarver** » Tuesday 18 March 2008, 18:17

On my old Deeluxe SLC edition the shell says 295mm and I'm 275 mm.mondo.

I think what it's counts is the liner size.
Every boot shell can fit 2-3 different size liners.

If you can get thermo liners for your boots I think this is the perfect solution.

I'm always buy boots by mondo size and never had problems.
I had never experienced with Head boots but I thing that I would be doing the same with any boot.

Post by **Transistor Rhythm** » Thursday 20 March 2008, 15:31

Surprisingly, I didn't receive Cirrus boots but Vector boots, according to the Almanac they're top of the line instead of the cheapest of the cheap freecarve boots.

Hmmm with the liners on my toes seem a bit cramped, but standing up it just seems about right without the liners I have something like three fingers of free space after my heel but I can't really see if I do it right, but it scares me a bit.

On the other hand, it's really hard to get the top clamp to close at all. I halve pretty big calves, and probably the boot has been thermofitted for someone having completely different build than my build.

So I go find a good bootfitter in Holland, and hopefully it all will turn out okay.

Post by **Transistor Rhythm** » Saturday 22 March 2008, 15:21

After better inspection it seems that I have about two fingers of space, which should be perfect in theory. But I really don't know where to turn to for the thermofitting, can any shop specialised in skiing do it or should I go to a place where people know about snowboard hardboot fitting?

Dutchies?

Post by **tobsinger** » Saturday 22 March 2008, 18:39

any sports shop which does thermofitting of any boot can theoretically do it. the question only is, if they want to do it.

it's nothing else as a hot air fan that is warming up the boot to the right temperature.

i actually did it twice at home in the oven. it's easy start with 80°C put a wood board (chopping board) in the oven so the boot doesn't touch any metal parts. warm it up for 10min. take it out, it should be nicely soft. put it on with your snowboard socks.

if you have problem zones (e.g. ankles) tape them with a bit of padding under the tape. so the boot will be more compressed in those areas.

put on the boot and tighten the straps really hard. keep it on 10-15min.

Done. really easy.

link in german but the pics show it all, self explainable.

Post by **Thomo** » Tuesday 8 April 2008, 16:23

Yep, think you are correct with the size. Mine are a 27 (if memory serves me right) which equates to UK 9. They are the most comfortable boots I've had though they seem very stiff.

I bought mine from:

http://www.blue-tomato.at/en/WelcomeAction.bto

but it seems they are out of stock. Perhaps you could try in the new season. They had them in black.

Good luck.

Post by **Transistor Rhythm** » Tuesday 8 April 2008, 16:33

I went to a shop in Malden, somewhere near Nijmegen. They heated them, and put some conformable footbeds in it instead of the standard Blax ones. It feels okay, but haven't tested them on piste yet (but my Hot Special 162 arrived just today

).

The place also did custom footbeds and foam liners. The shop is called Austria I think. They hadn't seen snowboard hardboots in a while though.

---------

About the stiffness of the boot: they are just as uncomfortable even in walkmode as skiboots, I had a few hardboots on rent for a week 15 years ago that had three straps and were very comfortably compared to ski boots while walking.

Weren't Koflach boots designed more like all-mountain hardboots?

ExtremeCarving FORUM

Buying Head/Blax Stratos on the internet (bootsize)

Buying Head/Blax Stratos on the internet (bootsize)

Beware!