Adam

I have been snowboarding for 20 years, moving up from steel toe army boots to these DCs, trying everything in between. I've never worn a boot this responsive.

Admittedly, on the first day they were very uncomfortable on my toes. I was still able to make it from first chair to close, though, doing some pretty heavy riding. By day three, they were perfectly broken in with no more pain. Also, I'm a person who commonly has pain across the tops of my feet (particularly my left foot as I ride regular most often) and in my ankles. Due to the stiffness of these boots and the completely separate double boa design, I never had any foot or ankle pain, even from the moment I put them on. These are truly the first boots I have ever worn that are responsive and give me no pain (once I broke them in).

From a riding style standpoint, I've tried them in the park on my Evo and in the deep stuff on my T-Rice with Horsepower. Truly perfect for both.

The only reason I dropped these from five to four stars is because they looked completely worn after one day of use. This was especially true of my right (commonly back) foot. By habit, I use that foot to hold up my board while on the chairlift. Although these boots are stiff enough that I do not have to hold up the board to prevent foot numbness, I still hold it up to prevent knee soreness. The few times I held the board under the edge, as opposed to under the bindings or my other boot, left deep gashes in the leather. In other words, the leather looks good out of the box, but it does not wear very well (at least from a looks standpoint). That being said, it is probably the leather design that allows the boots to break in so well, so there is probably a trade off.

All in all, these are the most responsive, most comfortable, and best boots I have ever worn. While maybe not the most qualified, I am pretty qualified to make that statement since I have owned at least 5 different pairs of dedicated snowboard boots over the last 19 years and have demo'd at least 20 more. If you don't care about your boots looking worn (and I don't), I doubt you will find a better pair. At this point, having ridden them half a season, I can't imagine going back to something less stiff or less comfortable. Despite picking up two new boards this season, these are probably the most important purchase I made and helped make every day on the mountain a little more enjoyable and a little less painful.