Kimo

Damn! I wish I'd found this thread before yesterday. I just had to get rid of a 2006 Virus Ultimate Gladiator because it didn't match any of the new thong underwear I just bought from Victor's Secret. Since I already bought a new set of Cateks for my new Donek that Sean personally color matched to my new thongs, I had to get rid of the 1 year old Catek OS2s that were on the Virus. I took the "old" Cateks to the recycler and got a buck fifty for them, but the recycler wasn't interested in composite materials. Don't worry though, I found a homeless guy living in a trench who put the Virus on cinder blocks and is using it as a latrine bench now so at least it's being put to a good use.

This is some kind of trick, right? That site is all French to me et je parle un peu Francais. Est-ce que vous savez le URL pour la video? Edit: nevermind. I found it. http://derf.dyndns.org/~derf/gallery/albums/snowboard_videos/ver1.wmv

Hey! That's Prospect. I always end up over there for the whole day. Nice width, good pitch, interesting undulations and frequently deserted except maybe right after lunch for a little while some classes will come through. I love that run. I also saw some Ruby Chief and maybe Teocali. Ruby's alright if you get there early after they've groomed, but it gets crappy and crowded pretty fast. Prospect is one of the last runs they groom so the cord is usually pretty nice and it stays that way a long time since it's usually empty.

I'd say I've adjusted. I came to Boulder for college because of the snow and mountains and I got what I wanted. I honestly can't decide which place I'd rather live, but it's Colorado for now.

Hawaii, huh? I was born and raised there. I grew up in Kane`ohe. My aunt (auntie) used to live right next to Mark Foo. Unfortunately, I was a sponge rider. If I ever move back, I'll probably switch to surfing.

A couple guys, Rob Case and Ron the CarveFather, really liked the Swiss board (not the Swoard) at SES this year. So much so that they bought one on the spot and ordered another. I watched Rob from the bottom of the hill and he was laying them out and linking them up like crazy. I forget the guy's name, something close to Bjorn and he's on the forum, but I think he sells for about $550. I wish I could have gotten to ride the Blade on groomers so that I could say, "Buy It", but I just didn't get the opportunity. Both Alex and Sean are awesome guys and I'd love to send business their way.

I already watch those videos over and over. It wasn't till I got to see a short clip of myself that I saw part of what I was doing wrong. I don't know which video was more helpful, but it's good to have both the goal and the self assessment. Is your avatar a picture of you at Mav's?

I remember being at Jackson Hole in '95 with my brand new asym Burton Alp. I didn't know how to set it up or how to ride it, but I eventually found my way to Casper and started making progress. At one point, I rode the chair with a guy who claimed to be a member of the Casper Carvers. I'm guessing you belonged to that group too.

Our pro boot fitter in Boulder uses foam like this as one of his many techniques so I'd say you're probably on the right track.

Yikes. I'm not an expert on this matter. I got 4 runs on it in 7 inches of cut up powder. I don't think I got to ride the Blade in conditions that would allow a fair review. I am impressed that you remembered I rode it at all, though.

The handy dandy Donek spec sheet says the Blade 180 waist width is 23.5cm.

It was actually a stress fracture that developed over the previous 3 days. I could feel it coming on and was hoping it would hold out. It finally gave out in a small wipeout when the tail of my board caught the snow while I was sliding out and tweaked my leg just enough to finish the job. The second it happened, I was fairly certain what it was. It's suspected that this could actually be due to a bad binding setup with respect to cant and lift that resulted the top of my boot cuff putting excess pressure at the midshaft point of my fibula. The most pain comes from compression with foot pronation, but changing weight on that leg can cause some pain too. I can actually stand still on it with zero pain and hobble slowly on flat ground, but got the crutches for long distances and uneven ground. As for your injury, you know best whether or not you need to get it checked out or get xrays. One thing you want to be careful of with really bad bruises is something called myositis ossificans. Basically, calcium deposits forming in the pooled blood in the muscle. I hear they suck. I had an injury like yours 15 years ago that cleared itself in a week and didn't seem to have a fracture or MO deposits. If had lasted as long as yours, I'd probably go to the doc. Luke, the Bomber machinist, has a similar injury to yours from landing on his camera that was in his thigh pocket. He was almost as gimpy as me. Maybe you should compare notes.

I've got 29.5s and rode the Blade 180, but can't remember exactly what angles I used. If you have TD2s, you can figure this out. We originally set the angles at the limit of where the set screws were, around 45 degrees. Then I had to move the screws to the next position to allow another 3 to 5 degrees increase. I'm guessing that was around 50 degrees. Sorry, but that's the best I have to offer.

OK. I know most of you out there have done far worse than this to your bodies so please let's not make this a contest. For those of you who were curious, my suspicions were confirmed today. My right fibula was fractured, it's a very small, non-displaced fracture and it should heal quickly and without casting. Hopefully, my estimate of 4 weeks is close and I'll have 2 good months of carving left before hiking season. It's a little bit easier to see in the second view, but you should still be able to see the very small line going across my fibula near the middle of each view. Thanks to all of you who made SES fun to be at even after I couldn't ride any more. -Kimo

Well, if they're as cool as the two of you, I say "bring 'em".

Careful, Rich. Carving is very addictive.

In hard boots... yes.

I tried one, but it was on a cuttin' through crud day. I had fun and seemed to be tilting it pretty good, but I didn't get to try it on the groomers due to extenuating circumstances so I can't offer a complete review for you. The stance was definitely something new. I can say that Alex was a really cool guy and I hope he and Sean sell a lot of these boards.

I have a room with 2 queen beds and a kitchenette at the St. Moritz for the nights of 14Feb and 15Feb. The second bed is available for half the price of the room. $209 total for both nights. No smokers, even if you promise not to smoke in the room. No room wreckers either. I will beat you if you incure room damage charges unto me. Warning: Although I usually don't snore, sometimes I do. I won't get mad if you throw a pillow at me to get me to stop and I can furnish you with ear plugs. email me thru this website if interested.

Check eBay for "snowboard case". Found several there with wheels and 190 or more cm.

Hey Neraj, If you read this, drop me an email through the link on my profile. Kimo

Well let me clarify... I wish I was better at calculus. The rest I am quite capable of lower math. Anyhoo, lets just say I fly passenger jets, live in a tiny condo and can't afford that nice new Donek that I want. SES is starting to look iffy too.

I got majors in Biology and Kinesiology and a minor in Biochem and at one point was looking at dental school, but ended up becoming an airline pilot instead. I kinda wish I'd done geology or was better at math and could do engineering. I wouldn't say Eldora is the greatest carving around Colorado. Not even close, but it is still where I got my pass for this season. I did so for the following two reasons: 1) it's really close and convenient and I'm tired of driving 1.5 to 2 hours (or more) each way on the parking lot that is I-70 so a 45 minute drive is a very nice thing and 2) they had a cool deal last year where you could buy this season's pass and use it for the last month or two of last season. That worked really well for me. I'll probably like Eldora more once I get better carving the steeps. They really only seem to have really shallow slopes and really steep slopes, not much in between. Corona run can be fun, but I really gotta work on my heelside steep turns. There's also a lot of terrain that I haven't even begun to explore on my freestyle board. Another plus about hEldora is that if you also like to do any nordic skiing, they've got a pretty good amount of nordic trails that you can use free if you have a season lift pass. Oh yeah, I do have a car, but like some else said, there's a bus every hour or so up to Eldora and I think it's free with a CU student ID. People, including me, give Eldora a lot of $#!+, but it's actually got a lot of good things going for it. Sean: I'm still trying to get the money together for one of your boards, but a bunch of things came up all at once.

I would would say, definitely go to Boulder. Of course, that's where I went and still live so I'm a little biased. You will definitely get to go skiing every weekend if you want. Just don't forget to study and don't kill yourself by alcohol poisoning in some stupid frat hazing event. Keep an eye out for early pass deals. I can't remember if school starts before or after the deadlines for the cheapest tickets. CU's engineering school claims to be 12th or something like that, but it also receives the most NASA funding/projects of ANY college in the US so you could say that they're pretty good in the aerospace arena (that may be more space than aero, though). Last, Boulder's an awesome town, even if it's got a lot of idjits.

I'm guessing he drove shuttles to the top. I'm too lazy to even do that!