Kimo

Yo! Neeraj! Are you out from under the anesthesia yet? How's the preliminary post op eval look?

Hey, I can't remember if you go under today or tomorrow. Good luck with that. I hope you get a strong one.

For you Summit carvers... or anyone who rides there a lot: Which pass would you get, a Colorado Pass (Vail/Beaver Creek/Keystone/Breck/A-Basin) or Rocky Mountain Super Pass (Copper/Winter Park)? Why? I'm guessing Colorado Pass, but I figured I'd ask.

I just take a hand grenade and pull the pin and then slide it into an empty tin can. Then I take some string and tie one end to the grenade and one end to my board. Then I bury the can and grenade in the snow just so that a light tug on the string will pull the grenade free from the can. Then I stand about 150 feet away and just watch with an eager grin on my face. I've been doing this for about 9 years and I have yet to see some punk thief get blowed up. Dammit! Don't these young kids know what an alpine board is worth? Actually, I just use a cable lock and I make sure I loop it through one of the bails on each binding 'cause I'm just as paranoid of somebody yoinking one of my OS2s if it wasn't also secured as I am of some body taking my whole setup if I didn't lock that.

I'm not passing judgement on your board. I ride a FP myself. I'm just using some strategery to get Burton to slide you a replacement... um, if there is such a thing anymore. You could say anyone of their competitors names. Ooooh! How 'bout Kemper? That would be a true insult.

You're making me cry. Both because you have to let them go and because I can't scratch up the cash to snag one from ya.

Tell 'em you were just trying to keep up with somebody on a Sims and it was apparently too much for the board to handle. If that doesn't work, a little duct tape oughta fix 'er right up. Better yet if you can get some cargo pit tape or speed tape from an aircraft mechanic.

and I always thought I was the only one on the mountain ever locking my stuff. I don't know how much good it does 'cuz you could probably cut thru my cable with some toe nail clippers, but if figure if my board is just a little more difficult to steal than some one else's I'm that much better off. Kinda like the two guys camping in the woods when a big grizzly wanders into their campsite. One guy immediately starts putting on his running shoes. The other guy says, "you idiot, you'll never out run a grizzly". The first guy says, "I don't have to outrun the grizzly. I just have to outrun you." -- HA!

I have had a good time at Eldora. Not a great time, but a good one. Actually, if Corona is groomed, you can throw down some nice EC carves. Mainly, though, I go there because I'm lazy and it's soooooooooooo NICE to have a short drive.

It's sad what a man will eat when he's starving. Who am I to criticize those less fortunate than myself.

It's not hard to give beer back. In fact, it's quite easy. Problem is most people don't want it back after it's been used a little...

I already got a tour and some free samples. Unfortunately, I had to give the free samples back after a couple days.

Bummer, I was going to ask if you wanted to go riding in the next couple weeks. So, you say this place does really good tunes, huh?

Funny, my gut tells me that the most pressure would be at the tips due to the deflection/decambering. However, the analytical side of me says that (assuming a constant radius/curvature of decambering along the long axis of the board), the greatest force would be at B and C. Reason 1, the thickness of the board being greater at B and C would mandate greater force to maintain constant curvature with the thinner sections, A and D. Reason 2, A and D are essentially the tips of a lever so the force transmitted thru your feet to the edge of the board will decrease in proportion to the distance from your feet. I would think one of the board builders would be able to shed some light on this one. All that being said, I'm guessing A and C would be most important because A initiates the carve and C handles the weight shift when I change edges, but that's just a guess because I'm bad when it comes to keeping my board tuned. In fact, I doubt I could cut a piece of perforated toilet paper with my edges. What I really like is the tennis raquet analogy. I think quadrant B is without a doubt the most important one to have strung... well, C if you're left handed or French. Duh!

I did not intentionally leave out Firestone's role in the debacle I recognize they were partly responsible. I just meant to explain Ford's role in the judgement as reported by the news program on tv.

...I suppose this is a bit late and a bit of a digression to follow, but I'm just now catching up on this thread. It is my understanding that Ford got dinged in the whole Firestone tire fiasco because of their own actions, not just the fact that they supplied their vehicles with "defective" tires. Ford had determined that the Explorer was more prone to rollover than other SUVs in its class. Their solution to this was not a redesign of the suspension, it was to recommend users (drivers) decrease the tire pressures (down to something like 22psi compared to, what?, 36psi on average in most cars) in order to get the tires to lose traction and slide out rather than hold their grip on the road and allow the vehicle to flip when the lateral acceleration in a turn exceeded the capability of the suspension's ability to maintain the vehicle's vertical orientation. Unfortunately, running tires at low psi and highway speeds puts a tremendous amount of extra wear on the tire due to increased pliability/flexing of the sidewall/tread which causes extra heat and mechanical stress (I remember reading an article from Sean Martin about shear flow and delamination/board failure and I bet that has something to do with this issue as it relates to ply separation). The additional wear and excess heat accumulation ultimately led to ply/tread failure/separation and caused drivers loss of control and ultimately, in some cases, the very rollovers that Ford was trying to prevent in the first place. At least, that's what I remember from the 20/20-60 minutes-what ever the heck tv show did the story 3 or 4 years ago.

Not quite sure what you meant. There isn't a written story. If you want to see the news channel web page where it came from... http://www.9news.com/acm_news.aspx?OSGNAME=KUSA&IKOBJECTID=3d549fcd-0abe-421a-00d4-ce5359a8ec1e&TEMPLATEID=0c76dce6-ac1f-02d8-0047-c589c01ca7bf Look for the Feb 13th story If you got confused by the commercial, you just have to wait. It will trail into the story.

Hey, at least you did it at the end of the season. When I broke my back 2 years ago, it was on my first day of the season. I think they call AC separations "Piano Key" separations because of the way the end of your clavical sticks up at your shoulder joint. Your's may not be bad enough to behave this way.

I'd bet somebody already posted this when it was new 2 months ago during the Olympics, but I'm too lazy to go see if they did. Nice local news story about Sean's operation in Colorado. http://www.9news.com/includes/buildasx.aspx?fn=http://wm.kusa.gannett.edgestreams.net/news/1139844332391-02-13-06-whereisgregg-final.wmv&sp=http://wm.kusa.gannett.edgestreams.net/ads/sales/pre-stream/frontier-prestream905.wmv

Actually, toe side on the steeps just came to me. I've been demo-ing a couple Doneks from Sean. It was on the Freecarve II 179 that I first was successful at this. Eventually, I was practically flinging my body downhill as I set my toe edge and it held everytime. Now, I may not have the best technique and I promise to work on it, but I think this is what you mean by confidence in the snow (and board). I just was too fatigued to attempt settting the heel edge that aggressively. Maybe next week... oh, damn... I have to give the boards back to Sean tomorrow.

Unfortunately for me... I didn't have the benefit of your tuteledge as did these skiers to whom you refer. I was on my own for the first ten years that I piddled around with hardboots. I eventually got there riding off and on in hard boots while swapping out of my soft boots. Eventually I figured a lot of it out. Incidentally, thanks for your articles. They've helped fill in the holes. Now if I could just figure out how to throw down those laid out heel side carves on the steeps...

Actually, the thought of going straight from skis to a carving board scares the hell out of me. I wouldn't want to do it that way. Maybe there are some of you who have, but definitely not me. I think starting in soft boots on a freestyle board is the way to go, get comfortable on that, then work your way up to a carving setup.