johnstewart

Huh? How do you figure? Mine have sounded great to my pretty picky (if not audiophile) ears. Granted, the included earbuds suck something awful, but with a good pair of headphones there is no reason the iPods should not sound great.

This weekend, I was riding with another hardbooter and a couple of kids on freestyle boards yell out to us as we get off the lift "What do you call those?". I shouted back "What do you call *those*?" Last night I was there and getting a lot of comments... which is pretty weird because there are a fair number of hardbooters at Tyrol. Usually people are pretty familiar with them. Then I realized that Tuesdays are only $10 lift tickets, so the place was full of folks who get only a few times a year, and the regulars were all home trying to avoid the crowd. Got one commenent on the lift... "So do you snowboard, too?" Lots of people commenting on how cool it looked (it helped to have my Volant on, with the stainless topsheet... that is the coolest looking board). I probably explained about carving at least a dozen times on lifts up (I was riding single). When someone asks you what kind of snowboard you're riding, what do y'all say? Carve board? Race board? Alpine board? I usually give all three, and then spend a few minutes explaining.

Which race circuit? USASA? I've never done one of those races, but I might give them a whirl this year. Thing is, they only seem to have one alpine race on the Tyrol schedule... all the rest is boardercross and then the slopestyle and crap. I do come out every Sunday I can for public NASTAR; there are a number of hardbooters who do, too (some from our team, Dead Sexy). There is also a Monday night adult race league which is a lot of fun. Two runs down a NASTAR course, and then the best 6 people from your team get points towards your team score for the night. You're probably a little far away for that, huh? Most on Monday night are skiiers, but there is one other snowboard team usually to compete against.

I ride with a couple of guys with the earflap headphones on their Giro 9's and love them. I bought them for mine, but didn't like them because they smush my ears too much - I've got a freakishly big head and big ears, so I went back to the iPod earbuds (which suck, too, but I ride with them because I don't care if they get messed up).

Giro 9.9 Lightweight, inexpensive (well, *only* 100 clams). Can remove insulation from vents, and remove earpieces, for warmer weather. Has saved my noggin enough times I should probably be wearing a new one.

Bump... anyone? Bueller?

Thinking about some new boots. I've done the Thermoform thing myself at home, with decent but mixed results. If I buy online, I'd like to go to a good bootfitter to have them fitted by an expert. Can anyone make recommendations for someone in Madison, WI? Or near(ish)... Milwaukee? Heck, I'd even go to Chicago, I guess, if I'm shelling out a few hundered for good boots.

What year? Ever been ground?

Cool; thanks. Definitely a different perspective. The last board I mounted my TD2s on, I made the cant plate parallel with the run of the board, not parallel with my boots. Will give that a try this weekend. I would love to get a clinic on how to set up my board for my own body mechanics. I think I mostly end up slapping them on and just getting used to whatever I've set up.

So, if you're goofy as in the article in the picture, this would mean rotating the cant plate counter-clockwise, right? It's just not quite clear to me when you say "moving cant". The point of reference, I am gathering, is the lowest part of the cant plate, right? So, for my regular stance an outward cant would mean moving the lowest part of the cant plate to be more towards the toeside edge of the board, as opposed to parallel with the boot? thanks!

Meaning *what* towards the toeside edge?

This Halloween my wife and I dressed up as Pam and Jim from the Office (US). I decided I needed to shave my beard to make it authentic... she disagreed. She'd never even seen me before without a beard; it was the first time I'd shaved in many years. When she came home to find hair in the sink, she freaked out... nearly a divorce. =)

Hmmm... definitely the sort of thing I was looking for, thanks. However, he's only got 2 stretches listed (looks like perhaps he meant to finish it up later but never did so).

I've been keeping in pretty good shape this summer (3 nights a week of ultimate frisbee, which is very leg-intensive, plus some mountain biking). However, I don't *ever* stretch, nor do anything specifically to prepare for the season. Any recommendations on specific stretches (or exercises) to prepare? I know one of the things I need to work on is just getting my knees bent more, so whatever might help with that... thanks! johnS

Anyone seen/used these? http://www.freebord.com/ Looks uber-cool. I bought a cheap longboard a couple of summers ago and never got the hang of it - I just couldn't control my speed. This thing lets you "skid" your turns when you want and "carve" when you want...! A buddy just ordered one, so I hope to see first-hand how well it works, but from the video it looks like something I Must Have.

Yours were loose on Monday night; that's what I was looking at in your boots (trying to figure out what to do with mine)!

Ahhh... SIDE cants. Now it makes some modicum of sense. One would think I would want to get those set to the right place, and then crank them down so they don't move, right? thanks!!

I guess I don't understand then. What is their purpose if not to prevent the boot from moving on that hinge??

Okay, so the nut, ideally, should be tightened down, not allowing the boot to flex on that joint? I know by default the 123's are NOT tightened down, and I've been riding them (as has $trider here) with them loose.

I've got a pair of Raicle 123's. I finally think I understand all the settings on the forward lean (I replaced mine with the 5-pos ones from a pair of 124's). It is still a total mystery how the ankle nuts should be adjusted. On each side there is an allen nut and around it a plastic thingie that spins (with 3 indentations in it). If I tighten up the allen nut, the top of the boot will not slide in the channel in the lower part of the boot. I don't know what spinning the plastic piece around it is supposed to accomplish. I also don't know if I'm supposed to want this free to flex, or should it be tightened down? Can anyone explain why this is there and the optimal way to adjust it? thanks!

Wow... I'm so very, very, jealous. I kinda wished I'd spent my yearly trip out west with you guys instead of heading to Jackson Hole (in a few days)!

bump... anyone?

The worst one I saw was out in Big Sky. We're headed up the Challenger Lift... this is the one that has dire warnings all over the entrance to the lift because there is nothing but expert terrain. I had gone to the peak of Big Sky and handled it (this is after learning to snowboard only a few weeks before!), but there was one run off this Challenger Lift, on your the right as you're coming up that lift, which was just too steep for me to attempt, even with the soft snow we'd gotten. Anyway, we're headed up the lift and some guy goes STRAIGHT down the frickin' thing! He must have easily been doing 60+ MPH. Falls in a cloud of snow. The ski patrol was working on him for a LONG time... no idea what happenned to him. I happenned to have my video camera going at the time, so I got a shot of it! It's 2:20 into this (this is 35MB huge, so probably not worth downloading just for this!): http://johnstewart.com/video/BigSky_YardSales.avi This video is all the crashes I got on video of our group during the week there. I'm the only boarder... but keep in mind I'd JUST learned to ride. =) Now *MY* worst crash was two weeks ago. I was having a breakthrough day, finally railing my toesides like I'd never done before. I was hauling ass on this wide hill at my absolute top speed. I got to the left as there was a woman with her brood in the middle of the hill (still plenty of room - really wide hill). Anyway, I didn't realize the groomed stuff dropped off on the left side into ungroomed powder. I saw it when it was too late to avoid. I tried to keep my weight back and ride it out, but my nose dove under and I think I slapped my face off the snow, then got tumbled around. Took a rock in the kidney (which still hurts). Blood everywhere from my face; looked like a dog exploded or something. I now am riding scared and it's pissing me off.

Here is a pair I think I'm going to get. Kevlar! http://www.pmgearusa.com/kevgloves/kevgloves.htm

Wow, sure enough... plate bindings for skis. And *I* was just kidding! No release with a twist? As if skiing wasn't hard enough on my knees. I can just picture the ski pinwheeling at the end of my foot, slicing and dicing my knee like a food processor. Ouch.