Ride Fuse snowboard boot review

This is a review of the Ride Fuse snowboard boot. I bought this boot in 2023 to hopefully be the solution to my old Thirtytwo TM-3 boots.  And I just added an update here on these boots in 2024 below.

Ride Fuse snowboard boot 2024
Ride Fuse snowboard boot 2024

I first got the 8.5 Ride Fuse boot which was the same size as my previous boots, but after wearing it around my work I figured it was going to pack out and get more spacious. It definitely felt and looked bigger than the same size in my Thirtytwo boots.

So I looked a little longer and eventually found a size 8 and got them. I didn’t really like the blue color way much so I ordered some other blue laces that thought would go better than the white ones that came with it.

Ride Fuse boots are pretty stiff (8-10) out of the box for a freestyle boot.

They felt awkward and so I would wear them for an hour or two and then go back to my old 32 boots.

I think the Ride Fuse boots could get better, but as they were breaking in I found my self trying to customize them more by getting additional insoles to take up space. My feet are weird and my ankles are skinny which leads to some boot fitting issues.

With the size 8 Ride Fuse I noticed my foot was starting to move around in the boot so I got some heel shims then they kinda still moved and there were pressure points on the widest side of my foot where I developed bunions near my pinky toe probably from wearing my TM-3’s daily working 8-10 hours in the park.

So I already went through like two seasons of ongoing boot modifications with my TM-3’s so I started to think I would sell them on ebay.

But then I changed my mind after putting the old TM-3’s on again. But too big after a few weeks of using them so I got the 7.5.

What I liked about the Ride Fuse and it’s features

Pros:

  1. It’s got an articulating cuff so when you flex the boot it doesn’t distort.
  2. It’s mostly lace and has a boa for the tongue and inner liner.
  3. The inner liner is different as it doesn’t have the traditional central tongue. It kinda wraps and is called the Mobile Trap Wrap Liner .
  4. The rubber sole is pretty good for traction – Michelin® Hybrid Fiberlite Sole. Sometimes I thought the gripped my board better 1 footing than the TM-3’s but then others I thought maybe the TM-3’s got better traction walking in snow. But still good.
  5. I like the exterior tongue on it – called Slime tongue which is supposed to provide dampening.
  6. It’s a low volume boot. It has much less volume especially in the heel area of the boot compared to the TM-3.
  7. It’s a fairly lightweight boot. It felt about half the weight as my TM-3’s.

Cons:

  1. It’s not as heavy duty as my TM-3’s.
  2. They are part BOA. Which is fine for some but they give me anxiety that they will break. They have not broke yet although I met a guy on ebay who said the dials on his broke.
  3. Liners are kinda wimpy. They will pack out in 30 days and you’ll gain half to a full size. Probably pretty typical of snowboard boot liners (except TM-3‘s) although they have the wrap instead of traditional tongue which I liked at first although they did cause some light bruising on my shins.
  4. Not very warm. I had a coworker with Ride Insano boots who was always going in to warm up his toes during the season.
  5. They are not very waterproof. I’ve had 2 pairs of these and both in wet snow and rain would get wet and I would have to take the liners out (daily in spring) to dry. I think there was a leak in the seam of the sole.

I tried on a lot of boots before buying these online. And I actually never tried the Fuse on in a shop before ordering online. But I tried the K2 Maysis, other K2 boots, the Ride Lasso, Ride Lasso Pro, Ride Deadbolt, some Northwave boots, Deeluxe boots, Team ID and others, Burton Tourist, Salomon Echo, Salomon Launch, Salomon Dialogue, Rome boots (no articulating cuff) and more.

None of them really stood out however I tended to think the ski company boots (surprisingly) like Ride, K2 and Salomon fit better.

I read about the Fuse and heard good reviews on them and I remember a rep for Mervin boards saying to try on a lot of boots and find a company that has a mold that fits your foot better.

So it seemed like all the ski companies were fitting better and I can tell you to at least size down a half size for these boots and maybe all of Ride boots and for K2 boots too as they are made by the same company. In my experience all the K2 and Ride boots ran about a half size large.

I spent about 10 hours in the Ride Fuse boots and will probably sell them as they loosened up and I even wonder what a size 7.5 would feel like after the pack out or if I could even get into them. I mean in Thirtytwo boots my toes were crammed in the front and hurting but there was empty space around the rest of the foot that was hard to keep tight.

Measure with the Brannock device if you haven’t.

That’s a good starting point. I got one foot that is a 27mm (size 9) and another a 26.5 (size 8.5) and was told my volume is a 7.5 (skinny lower ankle heal area) so it’s complex fitting a boot.

I mean my toe space was good with the Fuse but they were loosening up and getting more spacious and my foot was moving around as mentioned before.

Update 2024 on the Ride Fuse

So I was trying to sell these on Ebay and then the start of this season I wore my old TM-3’s one day and got a black toe so I thought I am not doing that again and I took the Ride Fuse’s back out of the box and decided I needed to wear them.

So initially these were uncomfortable. I put some heel wedges in them to take up some space and another intuition insole under my left foot to take up some more space.

So these are stiff and I didn’t heat mold them and the liner right at the top at my shins hurt for 10-14 days. They got kinda red and bruised.

I also went from not riding to wearing these 8 hours a day almost every day working in the park and riding.

The liner I am not sure I like. At first I thought it looked cool but learned later that it distorts a bit when you flex. It kind of needs an articulating cuff like the shell has so it doesn’t do that. But you can only see this if you take the liner out of the boot and then do some bends.

And my ankles are skinny so it might not distort like it did for me. I got some pressure points in there that were caused by that.

So heat mold them if you can probably. Now they are a little better. My damn left foot is a pain to fit. It’s got less volume and width than my right foot but is a little longer.

I think in the last week or so they have improved some. But for a while there back I was trying on other boots.

They were really stiff at first and I couldn’t ride well, but they broke in. The bigger you are probably the faster they will break in. I am just over 150lbs.

So support is good, traction seems ok. As far as comfort goes not very, but improving ask me later how it went.

Overall I met other people that were pretty happy with this boot and on their 2nd or 3rd pair. So if it works for you it works. Definitely size down a half-size or go to a shop to try some on or buy multiple pairs online.

It’s a lightweight and low volume boot which is a plus. They are pretty stiff feeling which can take some getting used to. They are not a high-end boot but maybe med-high range and still pretty stiff. Like most boots do they will packout and loosen up with time.

Learn more about the Ride Fuse snowboard boot on Evo.com.

Related:

I went skydiving

Back in 2009 I was living in Busan, Korea and I took a trip down to Hawaii for a few weeks to escape Korea, buy a computer (actually the one I am using right now to write this in 2023), and skydive.

Why?

To do something scary and I was thinking then of starting my site ESLinsider.

Anyways this was in Oahu. I believe we flew up to around 12,000 feet in that little plane and jumped out. It’s a tandem dive so I don’t think I liked the guy I jumped with so much as he was a little uptight compared to the other coaches or whatever you call the guy you are strapped to…

But the jump was pretty cool. It’s like a free fall for a minute maybe until he pulls the chute. Cool to see the clouds coming and going through them. There’s some anticipation and a little bit of fear/excitement before the jump, but I think the scariest part was when he pulled the cord and then just hanging there in the air attached to him floating down to earth.

When you are free falling it’s going so fast, but I felt pretty vulnerable there all attached by my back to this guy and slowly coming down to earth.

Bern Macon 2.0 Helmet review

I got this Bern helmet for snowboarding because my other helmet seemed a little big. That was a Giro Emerge helmet.

I think I liked the Giro but it looked a little big and it got looser with time so keep that in mind when you get a helmet. It might loosen and then consider if you will wear a balaclava or beanie or not.

So I liked the look of this Bern helmet and it is lower profile than the Emerge. But the MIPS system doesn’t look as sophisticated as the Giro. The Giro has a “spherical MIPS”system which is more than a thin piece of yellow plastic.

The only thing I didn’t like about the Bern macon 2.0 was the thing in the back is hard plastic and I went a little smaller and got a small vs. the med in the Giro.

It’s hard plastic and has no padding over it. If I unbutton one of the snaps where it attaches it will loosen and the pain goes away however it’s a little less tight and more wobbly.

I made this video comparing the two.

Bern Macon 2.0 vs. Giro Emerge

There were pluses and minuses to both.

The Giro Emerge also has PPE foam which is a little more capable of repeatable impact vs. the PPP foam in the Bern. However the PPP foam is lighter.

Learn more about these helmets on Evo.com

Riding Brundage mt terrain parks 2023

So in Dec 2022-Apr 2023 I worked at Brundage mt ski area in the terrain park which was great.

Here’s a video of me riding a bit in the Brundage terrain park in 2023. “Beat My Line” is my boss’s idea to see if we can bring together some shredder’s and share shred or something.

This is the first one of Brundage’s “Beat My line”

We tried it 3 times this one was probably my second best take. Funny how that can work your best take and something goes wrong with the camera. And the filming could probably be better, but it’s got to be tricky holding a camera (especially over or around those knuckles) and riding.

I did a frontside 360 melon grab off the first kicker came up a little short, a backside 180 and then I hit the rainbow switch and slide a 180 over it.

This video from Brundage contains what’s in the beat my line video and a few other shots.

Hiking some backcountry near Brundage. I was a looking for a place to build a jump and the video is a little shaky but it’s totally beautiful up there.

What’s it like working in the terrain park?

This is my second season working in the terrain park. I love it. I also briefly worked in the terrain park at AZ snowbowl back in the late 90’s before there were rakes!

So if you are thinking of working in the terrain park at a ski area then this is for you. You’ve got options for lots of different jobs, but is the terrain park for you?

Who is this job not for?

If you don’t ride the terrain park and you don’t think you’d like building features and taking care of them then it’s not for you. If you just want a job to get a pass well there are a lot of other jobs you could do like: rentals, waiting on tables, instructing, grooming, mechanics, janitor, hr, lifty, etc.

I’ve done instructing, rentals (2-3 seasons) and waiting on tables. All of them provided time where I could usually ride daily. If you got a night job you could ride all day.

At the beginning of last season at Cannon I had a job in rentals and my boss told me I wouldn’t be able to ride as much as the previous year because of school camps or whatever and in my mind I was like no way. I do this because I love to ride and no ride break sounds lame.

So I quit and moved out west and found a job working in the terrain park where I wanted to be anyways.

So…

  • If you don’t ride the terrain park then don’t work there.
  • If you are not stoked on it then don’t work there.

If you don’t ride the terrain park then you won’t care about the work that you do because you are not a user. If you hit these jumps and features then you will care and want them to be smooth.

I am surprised that where I currently work some of the guys are not that stoked on the work or riding the park.

What?

They seem a bit jaded and lazy. I don’t get it. You work at a great mountain that’s totally beautiful with a good park too and you don’t like it? Probably not for you. Fortunately this year I got a boss that knows what’s up and does good work. We’ve got groomers that focus just on the park.

Last year that wasn’t the case. At Lookout not one of the groomers cared about the park. None of them rode it and getting them to do anything other than groom around all the features was difficult. They would cut out the sides of the landings when passing through and never actually groomed the landings.

You need a dedicated crew for that someone who cares.

This year is a different story we got a good guy in charge, but some folks (rakers) that have been here a long time hanging around that just don’t care that much.

Duties working in the terrain park:

  • Open and close the park
  • Place signs
  • Open and close ropes
  • Set up fencing
  • Carry tools sometimes when riding
  • Raking features (this a big part of the job)
  • Patrol park
  • Block off jumps and call patrol when needed
  • Teach people common sense like clear the landing when you fall and don’t put your ski’s on on top of the jump
  • Radio when needed
  • Set rails and boxes
  • Set brushes or whiskers or paint edges of jumps
  • Test features
  • Rake! Keep jumps and features smooth

I like making jumps

Even when I am not working in the terrain park I tend to find myself building jumps. A few seasons back I built a little park with some shovels on the hillside in the farmcountry. It was fun.

There are a few clips of it in this video:

Snowboarding 2022 at Lookout pass’s terrain park

This past winter I worked at Lookout Pass ski area in Idaho. I worked in the terrain park and it was one of the better jobs I’ve had. Digging in the snow and making jumps is something that I would do even if I wasn’t working like I made this earlier post called Cannon Kicker.

So getting paid to do it was even better. Lookout pass is an area in northern Idaho that get some of the most snow in Idaho. Somewhere around 400 inches a season. The snow was on the wetter side kind of like the PNW. The weather was kind of mild. It didn’t usually get that cold.

But enough with the weather. That’s boring. You can look those things up. Here’s a video I made with some clips from the season.

So last season 2021 was my first season having a pass since 2002. Yeah a long time. And in between 2002 and 2021 I might have done some snowboarding in my parents backyard hiking up some old logging trails and a few times elsewhere.

But it’s coming back. I feel like my riding has improved since starting up last season. And it’s been fun too. I can’t believe I stopped for so long. COVID came along. I was living in Japan and that wasn’t going so good so I came back to the States and started up working at the ski area which was fun.

But the west is the best as far as snow goes in the USA. So I went to Idaho where I wanted to go. In fact I lived in the small town of Wallace just down the road.

Related:

Giro Emerge helmet review

This is a review of the Giro Emerge MIPS helmet. Here is a video I made about it.

The helmet…

Works fine. It’s a MIPS helmet…

What does that mean?

MIPS stands for Multi-directional Impact Protection System. Called a slip plane, the interior layer, frequently yellow, allows for 10-15 mm of rotational movement between the head and the helmet in the critical 10-15 milliseconds after an oblique impact. This reduces the rotational forces exerted on the brain during impact and, presumably, reduces brain injury relative to the same helmet without MIPS. – source

I didn’t notice at first but there is a layer in there that will move. This is called a spherical MIPS which is different than the traditional MIPS in my Bern macon 2.0 helmet.

This helmet is made from a multi-impact foam called EPP.

EPP vs EPS?

EPS is made from polystyrene, while EPP is made from polypropylene. Polypropylene is more flexible.

EPS is lighter but it is not really considered a multi-impact foam. It will crack easier and EPP is a little heavier but it tends to not deform permanently.

It works fine for me. Is slightly larger than needed but I tightened it up wearing a bavaclava (also adds warmth) and added some sticky foam pieces on the inside.

My head is kind of skinny so looks a little big on me. It’s not quite as low volume as I’d prefer, but the chin strap is better than the Bern helmet I used to use and you can take off the ear pieces if you want.

They have many different colors that you can choose from.

Learn more about the Giro Emerge helmet here or the Bern Macon 2.0 on Evo.

Cannon Kicker

These are some side hits and jumps that I made at Cannon Mt. ski area in NH in 2021 and a few backcountry farmcountry ones near where I live in Monroe, NH.

Sometimes you just see a spot like ohh, there’s a jump there if you dig it out or pile up some snow. And sometimes the snowcats will take them out when they widen trails. Of course side hits aren’t in the middle of trails like terrain park hits, but normally on the sides and out of the way.

But by the time you go looking for these or even find this post they could be long gone because conditions change everyday.

Tuckerbrook side hit

Here’s me hitting a side hit I built.


Last season I made a few side hits in Tuckerbrook. This one which was off the side and near the top of Fox tail was one of the better ones while it lasted.

Like another mentioned here it started off as a snowmaking whale on the side of the trail. But I chiseled out a take off one day when the snow was soft and enjoyed it for a few days before it turned to ice.

Tuckerbrook is rad.

It’s the beginner area, the lift is slow and the runs are short. But there are a few fun blue runs, some rollers, banks and the snow tends to stay nicer here than the upper mt probably cause it is less steep, less windy and gets less traffic.

I think they could build a cool park over there on some of the trails mentioned below, but since it’s the beginner area maybe they won’t.

I worked on a few hits on Turkey trot, Bear Paw, Fox Tail and Deer run in early 2021.

I even sort of made a cool gap between Fox tail and Bear paw late season. There’s an area there that with enough speed you can jump from Fox tail over some pipes (hopefully covered in snow) and land on the side of Bear Paw. I had to shovel some snow in the landing to make it smoother and you have to ollie hard off the side off Fox tail. I was a little sketched out but knew I could do it. And I actually recorded it but when I went to play it back the camera phone had shifted while recording and I lost it ;-/.

Spookie hit

This one is on Spookie. It’s a snowmaking whale that seems to be sitting there and it originally had a straight wall of ice on it carved out by the snowcat which made it not hittable but I saw the potential and cleaned it up.

Snowcats up there often leave these icy walls on the sides of some trails and that is kind of dangerous and ruins any jumps or wall riding on the side of the trail – at least at Cannon. You can hire me to go in and smooth them outˆˆ.

It was/is a big block of ice and I first went in there with a shovel and tried chipping away at it to smooth it out and no way. Then the next day it heated up softened (when I took the pic) and I went back.

I was debating carving out a groove to hit it like a hip but just ran out of time. I smoothed out the wall and transition to make it more approachable. It has more potential to work on it. At the moment the best way to hit is like the line you see above if you look closely.

But it’s often very icy so beware.

Started making a hit above it too so you could hit it along the tree line pointed towards middle ravine, but that needs more snow.

Taft slalom hits

Taft slalom is my default choice trail off the top of Cannon. Upper ravine is nice too especially when the snow if good because you can carve those fun turns like a bordercross trail.

But I tend to stay on the sides of Taft. And you can hike out to the Saddle when the snow is good.

Here’s a fun hit especially when the snow is soft.

You got to zoom in on this one to see it.

It’s on the left before the second snow gun. I saw the spot and was like oohhh. Took my shovel there and piled a little more snow and tried to carve it out better but there’s a lot of ice in there and my plastic shovel couldn’t do much. So I kept hitting it and eventually carved out a take off.

One surprising day I went up there to find 3-4 inches up there and some wind drifts along the left side there and it was good and had a nice soft landing. It was sketchy though because if you zoom in there was a branch sticking out into the trail and you had to point it between the stick and snow gun to land right.

But luckily someone cut that stick out and fortunately did not take the jump out so it’s safer and better.

Farther down on the left of this trail is another sidehit that’s fun but I didn’t make except dig out a rut and some ice in the take off. I didn’t take a pic of that one though. It’s just past this one to the left on that last roller before Taft flattens out towards the saddle.

Tramway hits

This one to the left already lost it’s glory as it hardly exists anymore. The snowcats had built up an icy pile of snow on the side of a little roller there and I thought that would be a good place. Then it snowed and I went in with my shovel and made a nice smooth take off on the day of the pic. It’s between the 1st and second tram tower.

This one is also on Tramway below the other but near the 2nd tower shown in the previous pic. There’s a bank there on the side and you can drop off it and into this gully and shoot back on the trail.

It was kinda there but I went in with a shovel and chiseled it out and made the take off cleaner although last time I saw it it wasn’t looking very good.

Imagine a new kind of “park”

It’s my dream.

Normally a terrain park is on a separate part of the mountain.

But what if the park was all over the mt?

I mean it kind of is already, but what if you built a sidehit here, a berm there and a hip over there? What if you just enhanced some of the natural features already there?

But someone might say that’s dangerous. Well, it depends on the feature and where you put them skiing is dangerous already and if you mark the hits off with signs and put them out of the average skiers way then you’re probably okay.

Some people like to ride the whole mt. and in safe areas on the sides of trails or where there is space you could hire me to build side hits with a shovel and basic tools;-).

It could be a new kind of park. You could be first to the marketplace with this kind of park^^. You could put some signs there next to features to warn people and hire me to make them (with my degree in fine art I could guarantee that they will stand outˆˆ!).

If you want to see some awesome non-terrain park sidehit jumping check out Arthur Longo’s side hits series… I recommend #3.

Of course most of us including myself don’t ride anywhere near his level. But here are a few more side hit jumps I made.

  • Frontside 360 melon grab (tap, lol) off a side hit I made 0:07
  • Frontside 180 tail grab off a side hit I made 0:22
  • Indy straight air 0:37
  • Mute straight air 0:32
  • Backside 180 mute off a big park hit at Cannon 0:42
  • Switch frontside 180 stalefish off a little kicker I made in the farm country 0:57
  • Backside 180 mute off a little kicker I made in the farm country 1:05

Bill’s hill

“V” marks the melting jumps I built

A neighbor and family friend down the rode let me build some jumps on his hill. Some you can see a bit in the video above towards the end. They were melting down and this was one of the last days there. I would go there on days off and hike them.

This hill actually had a rope tow on it way back in the 60’s. There is also some steeper terrain up in the trees you could do if it ever snowed enough. You could get 500 vertical ft here with a rope tow up into the trees.