In this review I'm going to take a look at a pair of 2010 thirtytwo Focus Boa snowboard boots that I picked up a few weeks ago, after spending a day demoing them in the snow at a resort in Tahoe.

Even though I am an avid snowboarder (I try to go to the snow almost every weekend during the winter), I haven't evaluated my gear in years. This season, however, I decided to take a look at my options with the snowboard boots.

The Upgrade

It was only after the shoelace on one of my 5 year old Salomon Dialogue boots snapped that I even considered checking out other boots. I was always *kind of* happy with the Dialogues but never really fully happy.

Here are some reasons you, like me, might not be happy with your boots:

• They were hard to get into and yet my foot would move around inside. They were comfortable to walk around in but little did I know that it was actually a sign of the wrong boot size – more on that later.
• The outer lace, which uses this seemingly pretty cool one-pull quicklace, would actually constantly loosen itself.
• The inner lace never really tightened well either.
• They're kind of ugly… Here, check my old ones out.

To cut the long story short, after trying on a few different models and weighing all positives and negatives, I selected the 2010 thirtytwo Focus Boas for my demo day. The next day, absolutely in love with them, I came back and bought a pair on the spot.

Main Highlights

Here are some highlights that make these boots top notch:

• Dual Zone Boa Lacing System
• Fully Heat Moldable Liner = Custom Fit Comfort
• Forward Lean
• Excellent Tongue Strap And Inner Lacing

Here's each one in detail:

Dual Zone Boa Lacing System

The Boa lacing system is what really sets these boots apart from most others, and anything I'd seen before.

Rather than having conventional laces that you need to tie, the Boa system consists of a dial and a metal cable. It is very simple.

You push on the dial to lock it and crank it clockwise to tighten the metal "lace".

When you want to loosen the grip, just pull on the dial and it instantly lets go and loosens the cable.

What this achieves is nothing short of amazing:

• The quickest way to lace up and unlace.
• Having this very durable cable instead of a soft lace makes it almost impossible to snap it (in an unlikely case that you do, there's a spare one in the box).
• It doesn't untie throughout the day.
• Small adjustments, such as tightening the lace, are very easy – I just have to turn the dial a few more clicks, which is possible to do while going down the hill.

Now, note that I mentioned a dual zone Boa. After the original Boa system came out, there were some complaints that it doesn't tie the cable evenly at the top and bottom – some people prefer to have a tighter fit at the bottom and a loser one at the top, for instance.

To address this issue, the 2010 Focus boots actually come with 2 dials and 2 sets of cables – one in the front and one on the side, controlling the top and bottom cables respectively.

I have to tell you – after using them 4 times this season, I am still excited about the Boa. I don't have to mess with my laces anymore, don't have to tighten them, and here's the most beautiful part: when I get down the hill, I unlace and walk around relaxed and comfortable (by pulling on the dials – takes 2 seconds). Then, when I'm back at the top of the lift, a few cranks and I'm back in business (6-10 seconds).

To summarize, the Boa cable system rocks.

Check it out in action in this quick video I shot:

Fully Heat Moldable Liner = Custom Fit Comfort

Another feature of these boots that makes them stand out is a fully heat moldable liner.

What this means is that you can essentially custom mold the inside of the boot to your foot.

It only needs to be done one time, when you buy the boots, and can be done at a local snowboard shop (it costs $10 at Tahoe Dave's, for example but is included for free if you buy the boots from them).

What sets the thirtytwo Focus boots apart from others is that most boots only contain a partially moldable liner. With the Focus, however, the whole liner can be molded.

In order to mold the liner, I had to put on special socks and wait till a special machine heats the boots up. After that, I had to put them on and stand around, flexing, for about 15 minutes. This ironed out all pressure points and eliminated any discomfort.

To summarize, the heat moldable liner is very comfortable and after molding fits your feet like a glove.

Forward Lean

The Focus boots are angled forward for more convenient riding.

At first it may feel a bit unnatural, until you realize that on the mountain most of the time you ride bending your knees a bit and this forward lean is actually much more comfortable than the plain L shape of your old boots.

In fact, because of the Boa system that allows you to quickly unlace when you walk around, this extra lean never bothers me.

Excellent Tongue Strap And Inner Lacing

The inner lacing system is excellent – it locks in very easily, holds all day, and unlocks with a quick pull.

In order to make unlacing the inner lace easier, the thirtytwo folks added a loop to its bottom – pull on it and it relaxes the whole lace from the bottom. I found this very helpful at the end of the day.

There is also a strap going through the front of the tongue, which keeps it centered and snug with your leg.

A Note On Boot Size

I think the biggest mistake you can make buying new snowboard boots is getting them in the wrong size. Therefore, I highly suggest you try the boots out before you buy.

If you get them too big, your foot will move around and you will not have enough control. What's worse is it will most likely cause pain all over your foot and lower leg as you try to steer with a loose boot.

Even worse, if you get it too small, you will probably be in pain by the time you get half way down the mountain.

It turns out my previous boots were a size and a half too big: 10.5. I didn't know what I was doing 5 years back and didn't have the right person helping me out, so I went "safe" with something I felt less constrained in.

With thirtytwo boots, just go with your regular size. I wear size 9 shoes, and the size 9 boot ended up being perfect. Another person confirms the same observation here.

What's In The Box

• boots
• an extra metal replacement cord (don't think I'll ever need it but nice to have just in case)
• a little tool for opening the cord mechanism
• a snowboarding poster
• a hamster (OK, maybe not)

Buy thirtytwo Focus Boas

I hope I helped influence your buying decision in one way or another and that you'll give these great boots a go.

They come in 2 different colors:

• Black/Silver – these are the ones I got
• Green/Black

Here are some places and direct links to purchasing the Focus Boa boots:

• your local snowboard store (I highly recommend Tahoe Dave's in Tahoe City) – these guys usually know what they're talking about and if they have the product on hand, you can try it out immediately
• Amazon.com
• Endless.com
• Zappos.com
• Backcountry.com
• Evogear.com
• SnowboardConnection.com
• ShorelineOfTahoe.com (though these seem to be an older model – 08 or 09)
• ValSurf
• VerticalUrge

Similar Boots With A Dual Zone Boa System

Here are some competitors with a similar dual zone boa system, if you want to check them out and compare to the Focus:

Gallery

2010.01.05 thirtytwo Focus Boa Snowboarding Boots

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Everyone and their mother are throwing out their predictions for 2009 nowadays, it’s a new fad. It’s like you’re not cool anymore if you don’t have twitter, a Mac, and a set of random predictions for the next 12 joyous months.

So I decided to throw in a few ideas of my own to be part of the cool crowd again (how much cooler can I be already, you might think, and I wouldn’t blame you).

Disclaimer (read it, tough guy)

What this post is:

• about the future of technology and the Internet, 2009 and beyond.
• my ideas on what is going to happen or should happen. If they happen to match someone else’s ideas – it doesn’t mean I ripped them off, it just means we share the same opinions and they’re more likely to come true.
• awesome.

What this post is not:

• predictions I pulled out of my ass, like “the market will bounce in August 2009” because some random douche said so.
• a collection of stolen ideas. I have reserved a separate post for that purpose.
• a raptor on hoverboard.

Things That Need To Happen

1. Socially Editable Maps

With the advent of the GPS technology in the last couple of years and GPS prices falling (my originally $800 Garmin Nuvi 660 now costs about $200), the biggest frustration I have now is the accuracy of information. In the world of Google Maps and Wikipedia, why is it that I have to wait a whole year for map updates that are obsolete by the time they come out? The Bay Bridge repairs change the roads on an almost monthly basis, for example.

I want to know about road changes as soon as they occur.

The next big thing will be a company, either existing, like Google, or a startup, that will introduce the social aspect into the mapping technology. It will do for maps and GPS what Wikipedia did for text, using the same approach. The details are of course to be worked out.

After this concept becomes successful, GPS companies, will need to support such updates over the air, with a push of a button. This ties in closely with prediction #2 and #4.

2. Open Source GPS Goes Mainstream

Google, the father of Android, needs to get behind this one as well. In fact, an open source GPS device would really be a subset of Android’s functionality, in a dedicated device, so it shouldn’t be that hard. In the far future, it will be built into automobile dashboards but I don’t foresee that happening in the near future.

Combined with prediction #1, this will be a killer device. I really believe that free, open source software is the wave of the future, the natural direction of where software development is heading. Look at Linux in the past few years. Look at Android now. Release one and I’m be #1 in line for one. Those who know me IRL know that I can’t go anywhere without a GPS anymore. I once forgot a GPS at home and ended up in Chili.

3. Photo and Video Cameras Will Go Wireless, Anywhere You Go

Photo and video cameras will be able to post pictures and videos to your home computer, sites like Flickr and YouTube, or email themselves directly to your friends… as soon as you record them, over cellular and Wifi networks.

Cell phones with cameras? Think cameras with cell phones. Some Wifi enabled cameras already came out, like this Canon SD430 (DP review here), and this freshly announced at CES 2009 Sony G3, and now it’s time to go cellular.

The next prediction is a generalization of this concept.

4. Wireless Connectivity Everywhere, In Every Device, Anywhere You Go

Cell phone carriers will sign an increasing amount of deals with companies that want to build devices which connect to the Internet or private networks anywhere you go: GPSes, cameras, digital picture frames, cars, fridges.

The future is completely wireless. People are sick and tired of cords, clutter, and Rick Astley – I know that for a fact and digg says so.

5. Android Will Become Hugely Successful

Alright, I’m dead tired of all the posts about how Google’s Android is going to flop in 2009. I sincerely feel that people with that point of view have never experienced Google and open source, played with Android itself, or realized what exactly an open source phone OS means to developers, manufacturers, and consumers.

Android will become a platform of choice in the next couple of years as everyone starts to realize its limitless possibilities, the OS matures, thousands of new apps get written for it, and new Android phones flood the market. The only Android phone released so far, HTC’s G1, has already received praise from consumers, as well as my friends (even the females ones are excited. And yes, I have female friends).

Motorola announced a few months ago that its new phones are going to run Android and Windows Mobile exclusively. If a company with an R&D department as big as Moto’s stands behind something, you bet your ass they’ve done they’re homework. And what’s not to like? They can now:

• take something that’s supported by the biggest Internet company in the world and the community, for free.
• stop worrying about writing and maintaining their own OS – BAM, tons of money saved.
• concentrate R&D on the hardware.
• if need be, freely develop the features they want that Android doesn’t support yet and contribute them back. Everyone wins, except maybe Symbian developers that don’t have a job anymore.

Android is going to be a revolution. Apple and Android fighting it out will be the best thing that happened to us since the invention of sushi.

6. Open Source HDTVs

The open source revolution will continue and start penetrating the HDTV market.

Personally, I think set top boxes are a waste of effort, time, and money but give me an HDTV that can run Youtube, Vimeo, LastFM, Pandora, and any other site through some sort of a plugin or browser, with a build in Media Center that connects to my computers and goes Wifi, that uses open source, upgradeable software (most likely Linux based), and I will buy it in a heartbeat.

Yes, what I’m saying is if my TV and HTPC did something dirty, I would totally dig their offspring, and so would millions of other people who don’t want/need/care/understand HTPC. TV in general holds a special place in my heart, and make it an even better experience, people.

7. Twitter’s Popularity Will Explode

Now for some social media. Twitter will continue dominating the microblogging arena, similar to YouTube dominating the video space. The site will grow extremely fast, much faster than now.

Competitors, like plurk, will probably secure certain small niches but nobody will be close to touch twitter.

Twitter’s significance in the business world for will be revolutionary. It will become second nature for every company to have one or many twitter accounts as means of connecting to consumers on a personal level. Think an opportunity for mini press releases, many of them, daily, not boring ones, the ones people are actually going to read.

8. Social Media Jobs Will Be In Increasing Demand

SEO, social marketing, and viral campaigns are very cost effective ways of brand promotion, and every company will want to jump on board.

As more and more of them realize this, they will start needing more people with marketing skills of John Chow, Chris Brogan, Nicky Cakes (this dude is hilarious), Jeremy Schoemaker, and the like.

9. YouTube Will Continue To Dominate

This one is easy:

• Biggest user base.
• HD. My favorite greasemonkey plugin YousableTubeFix exposes hi/lo FLVs, MP4, and HD MP4 options. Better quality equals better user experience.
• Chromeless player. YouTube is the only company I know of that has a Javascript controlled chromeless player, which can be embedded in any other flash player. Combined with already existing millions of embeds all over the Internet, YouTube’s popularity isn’t going anywhere any time soon.
• Google backed. Anything is possible when you Google owns you. Competition releases a good feature? YouTube has the resources to one-up it in no time. Need for more servers? YouTube will just buy a few thousand more with the $1.65Bln Google gave it. Traffic explosion? No problem – YouTube has been mooching off the Google CDN for months now.

At the end of 2007, I predicted that in a year we will experience unprecedented HD quality online video. This prediction came true when Hulu and fueled by its success CBS, ABC, NBC, and pretty much every other TV network released their free online TV sites. YouTube launched HD a few months later.

So, my YouTube prediction for 2009 is it will sign deals with major TV and movie networks to finally start showing legal TV episodes and movies. It will become the biggest legal TV and movie hub on the Internet.

10. PostgreSQL Will Gain Popularity

Sun’s buyout of MySQL in 2008 surely sent some shockwaves around. However, I predict that the following factors will contribute to PostgreSQL gaining momentum:

• certain features of MySQL were moved to Enterprise only. Open source enthusiasts don’t appreciate an open source project going partially closed source, so they will be looking for alternative software, like PostgreSQL.
• having spent years with MySQL, I am incredibly frustrated with certain quirks that should have been worked out a long time ago. As software architects look for stable, mature, cost effective, and easy to maintain databases, they will find PostgreSQL increasingly attractive.

Don’t take my word for it. I highly suggest taking a look at this whitepaper comparing MySQL and PostgreSQL. here are some highlights:

• Online operations and reorganization. This is my biggest beef with MySQL. Almost any ALTER table command will prevent writes to the table while it’s being altered. This operation requires double the table size because an ALTER simply makes a copy of the table, a rename, and then drop of the old one. This takes FOREVERRRR. PostgreSQL, on the other hand, supports a lot more online operations that will not take down the table. MySQL promised to support online ALTER TABLE by 2009. Will they keep their word? I highly doubt it.
• PostgreSQL supports function based and partial indexes.
• PostgreSQL supports nested triggers.
• PostgreSQL supports user defined datatypes.
• PostgreSQL has an IP address datatype (woot!).
• MySQL’s default engine doesn’t support online backup and recovery (*cough*, MyISAM, *cough*). Don’t even get me started on MyISAM, which doesn’t support referential integrity, transactions, of any other ACID properties. Yes, I know, there's InnoDB. It’s a lot better. But it’s still not good enough.

If you have spent time interfacing with both MySQL and PostgreSQL, I’d like to hear from you. Everyone I talked to so far who had used both, preferred PostgreSQL.

For all the MySQL fanboys, I was and still am one of you, I use MySQL every day. I’m only trying to open your eyes so you can see the rest of the world.

In fact, I think the only reason MySQL is so much more popular than Postgresql nowadays is luck and marketing by MySQL AB (hey, it sure paid off, I’m not saying anything).

So, here’s to PostgreSQL having a bright future.

Bonus

As a bonus, here is a collection of links to other interesting predictions for 2009:

• http://www.pr-squared.com/2008/12/social_media_predictions_2009.html – a great list of social media predictions.
• http://battellemedia.com/archives/004772.php – 14 online predictions as well as analysis of past years’ predictions.
• http://news.cnet.com/5-predictions-for-2009/ – 5 CNET Digital Home predictions.
• http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/01/predictions-for-2009/ – Engadget’s predictions.
• http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/felten/predictions-2009 – 38 predictions freedom and technology related predictions.
• http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/2009_predictions_across_the_we.php – ReadWriteWeb’s predictions across the web.

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