Sinecure

I sure hope Palmer names that FLF tech "Fluffer". I'd like to ride with a fluffer all the time. Definitely some good "hard rider" puns in there.

I love my Tempur Pedic bed. And green herbs in a vaporizor.

Fintecs for sure. I have a spare pair if anyone wants to buy them off me. I always buy spares of everything. I'll never need these.

Move your bindings back, set your boots in walk mode and go for it. The 179 4WD is a great powder board. If you want to stop by my condo at Alpine, I could loan you a powder board.

Bob, You might want to track down BOL user named hreiter. He travels to Austria pretty regularly in the winter and lives here. You may be able to talk him into schlepping a board for you. His first name is Harald.

I'd love to be anyone's guide at Alpine in the coming days. Only problem is I'm scheduled to be teaching Sat-Weds. Probably won't have a lot of work on Tues-Weds though. Whatever board you take, just move the bindings all the way to the rear as far as you can. That will float your nose more and help you in the pow. You'll be able to turn without burning the crap out of your rear leg quad. If you want to come to Alpine, I have a 196 swallowtail that I probably won't be riding (I'll be skiing on my skis with 136mm waist) most of the pow days in the coming week. If anyone is coming to Alpine, email me and we'll try to hook up. I can definitely take folks on tours of the cool stashes and good tree skiing on dumping days. Of course if you are feeling flush, you can book me for a private lesson any time you want. Up to 5 people in a private and we cut all the lift lines (the ones that alpine almost never has).

I have a little-used Rabansar I'd sell. I think it is around 130, although it looks smaller. PM or email me and I'll send some pics and details.

Post up your set up and stats. Height, weight, stance width, cant/lift, angles, etc. I'm 5'10", 185lbs, 30in inseam. I ride Head Stratos Pros (the black ones). I used to use the stiff tongues, but since I'm carving less, I've gone back to the softer ones. My stance width is ~19.5", 6 degrees of mostly heel lift in the rear and 3 degrees of mostly toe lift in the front (my cant plates are pretty much in line with my stance angles, although I'm considering adding a little inward cant to the rear). My angles vary according to which board I'm riding, but I typically have about 5 degrees of difference between them. On my Prior 4WD for instance I usually ride around 48-50 rear and 53-55 front. On narrower boards that goes up to 55-60. I don't have a BTS. But I do make sure that when I lock into ride mode that my forward foot is locked more upright than my rear boot. Keep asking questions here, see if there are any techno dweebs from BOL near you who will ride with you and help with set up. I think you'll find that you'll get it dialed in with some trial and error.

I've met the guys that run that site. Great stuff and good deals to be had most of the time. It works along the lines of airline seat pricing. If the mountain is slow, the price goes down to generate more business.

Thanks for the tips guys.

This year I've taken a job teaching skiing (mostly) at Alpine Meadows in Tahoe. Teaching skiing is no problem for me. I have AT gear, but few students notice that it is different from their gear unless I break out the Dynafit bindings. What I'm wondering about is teaching snowboarding. It won't happen too often since I'll only be teaching snowboarding to beginners or helping if someone miraculously turns up and wants race/carve coaching help. But the supervisors now know that I can snowboard and that I'm willing to teach snowboarding. They like having bi instructors for times when we get a rush on snowboard school rather than ski school. Today I shadowed a never-ever snowboard lesson and there was a lot of discussion and distraction caused by my board/boot setup. Obviously it is easy for me to explain and demonstrate the skills necessary in the basic snowboard lessons. But I'm wondering about some stuff. First, when you teach in hardboots, how do you deal quickly with an explanation of why your hardboot gear looks so different? And how do you minimize any skepticism on the students' part that they can't do what you're doing because their equipment is different? I don't want to try to convert them, but I don't want the equipment/appearance difference to get in the way of teaching them. Also, are there things I should be thinking, doing or emphasizing in my demonstrations that will help ensure that I'm showing skills in a way that the visually oriented students will relate to? I find my hard boots much more comfortable and easier to ride in than rental softies so I'm reluctant to "suck it up" and just use a rental setup. Also, are there things I should be aware of as I start working on AASI Level 1 cert? I had my board and boots in the locker room today and some of the other instructors were very curious and interested in trying it out. I'm looking forward to that.

Today a lifty asked me "is that scary with angles like that?" I said, "not as scary as riding duck is to me."

Email sent. I'm in North Tahoe through Tuesday. Let me know what you need.

The MotionX GPS app is pretty cool. You can try the lite version free I think. Except I don't think its too accurate. I made it show 90mph once. I wasn't going more than 70, I swear. Plus they kill batteries super fast because they need to stay running.

Say WHAT? That's just wrong. But funny. Chad, come do a demo day at Alpine Meadows so I can play too. Saw a guy on one of your mono skis here the other day and chatted with him on the chair. Ended up talking about 333skis as well.

What's the favor? Or maybe ask us over on Tahoecarvers.com

Redhead

OK. Now listen up. Nobody, I mean NOBODY should make any more donations. I donated and now have 12 chances to win. If any of you other bahstahds donate that lowers my chances of winning. And I need a new ski car badly. Seriously, don't mess it up for me. Do NOT donate any more money to USASA. You're screwing it up for ME! This fine organization does NOT need your support in its efforts to develop USA's next snowboarding talent.

I gave up on the Camelbak brand a few years ago. I find the blue bladders impart a plastic taste to the water. I've switched to using the Platypus bladders that you can buy at REI. I have a variety of sizes and a couple of tubes with bite valves. Platypus uses food grade plastic that doesn't leak and doesn't impart any flavor to the water. Plus most of them can be stood up on their base so I leave them empty on the window sill to dry out after use - rinse with hot water and soap (sometimes), drain, blow air into it and leave it to dry. I have a small one that fits in a pocket and just has a sport-bottle top on it, plus some bigger ones that fit in the bladder pocket in my various backpacks. One of my packs it is hard to thread the drink tube through the shoulder strap so that one I just leave the tube on the pack. Other packs are easier to thread/remove so I swap around. Plus I can carry a spare bladder with a cap on it and just swap when the first one is empty. I find this useful when skiing if we're not carrying a water purifier or there won't be running water available anywhere all day. If you want to keep the tube from freezing up, just blow a little air back into the tube after you drink from it. This leaves air in the bladder, but you can still drink from it and it won't freeze up. Also, keeping the bladder closer to your body keeps the water a little warmer and less likely to freeze up.

My BD crampons work pretty well. I just use them for bc riding, not for real ice climbing so YMMV.

If Soren is still at Granite Chief in Truckee, he's great. Also, believe it or not, the guys at the shop at the base of Alpine Meadows do a good job. They got a bunch of new equipment in the past two seasons and actually know how to use it. If you want a race-ready, perfect (but fairly expensive) job, go to Starthaus in Truckee. Their work is really amazing. They also have a hot box.

Why not just institute a seller rating system? VBulletin already has provision for it - I know because I've seen it on other Vbulletin forum sites. But ban a long-time member because they pissed someone off or made a single (presuming its a one-time issue) questionable deal seems sort of extreme. Fin can ban anyone he wants, and if what a user is doing in any way threatens Bomber's business I can understand such action. But banning users who simply piss you off doesn't seem like it would help the overall community. And if you think what Dave did was bad, go read the Jesse Jones thread on TGR. Now that is epic!

Done. I need a new car soon. Minime is about to turn 16 and has his eyes on mine. Bugger.

Patagucci Primo Flash pants rock. Super durable and waterproof. But $$. Arcteryx stuff is great, although I don't find it quite as durable as the Patagonia. Can't go wrong with Gore-Tex. Event stuff is darned good too.

Now THAT'S sexy!