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Kimo

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Posts posted by Kimo

  1. It's down to two lifts - Pine Marten and Summit. On a good day, the carving runs are Beverly Hills and Healy Heights (Summit) and Thunderbird, Coffee, Skyliner, Old Skyliner, and Leeway (Pine Marten). Lift hours are 8 - 1 daily.

    Man! Those runs bring back some good memories. I haven't been to Bachelor since '92, but I've probably been there 5 or 6 times. Since I've gotten into carving, I've always thought back on Bachelor and wondered what Thunderbird would be like on a hard boot setup. It's gotta be a rockin' run.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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!

  5. anyone ever have a good time at Eldora Mtn. CO? didnt think so.....:nono:

    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.

  6. Seems to me that B and C (the center section, basically) have the most force on them, and are therefore the most important. Everything else is just a bonus.

    That said, I have been wondering lately what the distribution of force is like on my boards, and what the distribution should be for best results. Been toying with the idea of writing a simple program to visualize the curves for different core thickess profiles, but I'm not sure I understand the math well enough.

    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!

  7. Another point: someone I talked to compared this to the case where Ford was liable for Bridgestone tires delaminating on their SUVs. That comparison is invalid, because Fords were being supplied with the faulty tires as original equipment. Intec heels are not the only option on Bomber bindings. I think when the end user specifies what parts they want on their product, it shifts responsibility.

    ...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.

  8. it would help if you posted the story too cuz that would be cool :biggthump

    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.

  9. 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.

  10. Kimo, true, without lessons, softboots might be easier. But nobody should learn to snowboard on their own, right? Steeps - if we're really talking about steeps, standing up between each carve takes too much time and you will quickly exceed your speed limit. I think the best advice for steeps is to learn cross-through technique (see tech articles).

    Pumping carves is fun, but only when you have total confidence in the snow.

    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.

  11. I thoroughly disagree. I've taught several skiers how to snowboard on alpine decks and in their ski boots. None had ever snowboarded before. Oh yeah, one of them was my wife and we're still married!

    Only thing I would say is that snowboard-specific hardboots are better for learning.

    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...

  12. 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.

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