Riding hardboots since the 90's. Lots of gear tweakers in that scene. People treating their clothing with certain kinds of stuff they treat sails with to not rip them to shreds when doing continuous laid down linked turns, boots modifications for extra flexibility, experimenting with all kinds of shapes and materials and hours and hours of talk about edge pressure.

I tried Driver X boots for example. Way to rigid compared to the forward flex of my hardboots!