Dave ESPI

OKEMO = S:LOWKEMO.... they are speed police. I had a bad accident there racing back in 02 so I'm biased anyway. Stratton, or a few other places are more carver friendly. Bosquet has 3 good carver runs. I did my PSIA ASSI lv1 there, and spent a few good many days and nights there (and in the bar too). feel free to come to Jiminy. LMK when, I will try my damndest to come ride with ya :) oh and the Berkshire east DA BEAST ! is a nice worthwhile hill too :)

Sell it to OLDSNOWBOARDS.... he will enjoy it on the wall more than U on the slope ;)

I hope FIN has the sidewinders @ SES since he can't provide Audio..... :p Definately looking forward to demo-tenting them... and the Whistle that will come with them if U ride @ keystone :p:eplus2:

That would also be my percentile..... but at 6'2" its solid muscles and jawbone ;) I bulk up preseason to around 160 or so (and I have a very fast metabolizm so its extremely difficult for me to gain weight) I'm 155#s presently, but by april I'm usualy down to around 146 @ around day # 50 on the snow for the season (plus gear weight; Im at 175) Just besure to round out those edges before making a bench.... a friend of mine sliced his thigh rather cleanly while carying it on his bench when he forgot to grind the edges off the back of his... EDIT: atleast I don't feel sooooo so bad anymore about my fave board getting toasted after 35 days or so on it... I guess for the way we ride, its the ultimate compliment?

RE: annoying attention whores. * and a rare few interesting tweets (such as news, or weather warnings) not me for damn sure. I vote : Most irritating creation of 2009

where I dont see it...... NINJACAMO indeed rare, You did kinda "shoot it".... with 35mm

Bobby, I am still licking mine, and all I taste is saltyness and bacteria....... I gotta stop carving thru the park & under the snowguns.

Im going to wholeheartedly agree unequivicably with Johns advice and statement about a shorter board giving a rider a tougher time initialy, but makes them a far superior rider once on something bigger. I started out on smallish boards with softboots 151 and also with hardboots 157, yet can ride stuff up to 177 (still trying to master the 190 WC) and have to say that If you don't get the feel for the short boards, it will hand you your ass on a silver platter. Once you get good on the smaller stuff and move up to a longer ride, it will feel like a Jaguar with the handling, and the floated ride of a RollsRoyce :) Oh, and good to see yer still keeping the soft stuff too ;)

Thanks for the well wishes and <3 here guys (and girls) for Kathy. We went to the Ortho office today and they took a look at it and asked for another Xray. THe thing I didn't want to do is freek Kathy out about needing surgery, but I knew that the way her bone was fractured they would want to slap a plate n screws in because of was an inward fault line break and if it didnt heal properly the fib would rub on the tip and be an eternal issue for her. The Dr. did indeed confirm this, and said also her down-time would be halved and could start PT with her in around 4 weeks and have her on her feet walking on it again in just over 2 weeks which was far better news to her ears once she was past the "OMfnG SURGERRRYYYY ??? REALLY?!!!! " knee jerk reply and shocked emotional outburst. She goes in for OUT-PATIENT op on thursday around noon. With anyluck she won't be in a cast for Aspen, but if she is; atleast it means priority boarding and shuttle service for the airlines (maybe a first class upgrade?) hehehee. ALways a bright side to a crappy situation. She vows to get back on the board again, and is also now "nolonger afraid to fall and break something"

Take it to a reputable repair shop.... Might be fixable with a deep injection of good epoxy. If it is near your bindings, I would be hessitant to ride it. If its got any movement that is not responsive to a binding over it saddly I'd say it has seen its last hard days ride... or you risk a complete delam or worse.... bodily harm :( Its a bummer dude...... I know, I have 3 sitting on my wall rack right now as well. I'm a featherweight kind of a guy too, but that doesn't mean we dont have the strength or ride ability to bust boards like the heavyweights can ;)

FIn, Its TUESDAY..... feed us salivating dogs some audio !

PSIA is all about the rhetoric and "Pro Knowledge". AASI will be looking for you to know the core values and the level 1 instructor manual and the book that you get. Read it, familiarize yourself with the exact phrasing and termanology in it. If U can ride well, and are exemplary in your technique, you will have no problems with it at all. They really want to see that you understand the conceptual models and can teach with a comfortable level of instruction and pace of actions. If you do it in hardboots and an alpine stance, you will need good form and also they will want to see not only bowing of the board, but rocking fore/aft with body motions aswell as ankle based and knee/ upperbody based carves. ....and no.... your cant just pass level 1 with a pulse and a board strapped to your feet as someone had suggested elsewhere... :rolleyes: Earn it, and excel at doing it. ps: riding/ carving "fakie" and tossing 180s off little rollers and nose/tail butters will impress the hell outa the frestyle softbooters and the ASSI Examiner ;) In my teaching experiences when in a HB setup, I simply say to the students this phrase: "Today we are learning to snowboard. Keep in mind that there are various styles and a multitude of equipment we can use. While my gear is different in appearance, the body motions and techniques are equal across all snowboarders. Everyone is here to learn for various reasons and have personal ultimate goals. Where there are some people who are "parkers" and do tricks, and "freestyle" and "All Mountain Freeride" people who just go out to ride around, I am on the other end of the 3 diciplines of snowboarding spectrum: I go fast in one direction and epitimise the elegant grace of railing turns and "carves" in the snow. To do anything advanced, we all must begin at the same basic level, and that is what brings us all here today".... Or something to that effect. I've had a lot of awesome lessons and even had people come up to me and say " I NEVER KNEW SNOWBOARDING COULD LOOK SO AWESOME! I WANT TO LEARN TO RIDE LIKE THAT!" and take a lesson. That to me, is the greatest compliment as a teacher, and if we can instill that in people to want to snowboard, its GRAVY for us Hardbooters reputations :)

I have to say that I rarely ever see broken ankles especialy with softbooters. My GF has been learning to snowboard for the past month as she really wants to be part of a major aspect of my life(snowboarding), and also to find a way to enjoy winter. Having lived in the northeast all her life and also a bad case of reinauds, she loathes the cold and despised it untill she met me. We now Snowmobile and snowboard together, and her family is shocked and awed that she would be so brave to do such. Yesterday she was doing amazing, and the breakthrus were happening with her bieng able to turn and control her slides and understanding the sidecut and turning radius and how to tweek boards to get them to bend to your wishes and will under your feet then it happened. :( She somehow went from a toeside lean to a heelside (riding regular), slid around to stop on her heels, over-rotated then started sliding switch. She got nervous and somehow leaned and caught an edge while attempting to turn the board back straight down the hill. I can only describe it as an "ass-over-teakettle- nose roll butter turn" to the ground with her front leg tweeked over almost 65+ degrees and her shoulder touching the ground as the board twisted under her and rolled her to a toeside stop. "AHHHHH-EEEE My ankle !.... it hurts it hurts get me out of this binding!" she said. I was 6 feet from her, and immediately surveyed her positioning and safely released her from the contorted pretzel she was in. "OH SH*T" I thought..... this sucks. Hope she only sprained something. She sat for a few moments, she had range of motion, could wiggle her toes, and said she was ok to stand and put pressure on it. We walked off the slope after I watched her walk around and move her legs and feet and she (being an ER nurse) felt confident she was not seriously hurt went back to the lodge. Inside, she took a rest, I went for a few runs and came back to check on her. She took off her boot and her ankle just did not look right. It was a tad swollen and at that point I knew we had to go see a Dr. My shift was over, and we left the resort and went home. On the way I suggested since her pain had increaased a bit that she should seek a co-workers opinion about it for "peace of mind sake" as the Hospital where she works is on the way. She begrudgingly agreed. Well, I have to say that it was the fastest IN/OUT I have ever seen. 28 minutes from her hobbling in the ER, we had been seen, Xrayed, and one of the Doctors with whom Kathy has had a long time rappor with was on duty saw her immediately. He asked me what happened when she was in for the Xrays, I described her motions, and told him I fear she busted it, or may have torn ligiments. I went off to get some food for us @ the cafeteria. I texted her and said I loved her, I got a reply a few seconds later that made my stomach flip..... "Its broke". ARGH!..... Busted Fib. Dr. Said it was a clean break and would heal really well. It looks like 2010 SES has its first -spectator/ cheerleader/ Hot Tub companion headded to Aspen in less than a month. However she is determined to be riding again this spring :) Thasssmahgirl! a true snowdier in the artic army!

I've only had 3 that I can remember...... (hurrr hurrrr hurrr) There were a few when I was first starting to snowboard (back before helmets were not a rarity), but the worst was in 2002. I was racing gates @ Okemo and clipped my heelside edge and had a superslam @ around 45mph. I "bounced" off the boilerplate and hit my head sohard on a rock that was exposed that I split my helmet in half. I lost involuntary control of a few functionns momentarily and lets say "made a mess" of my pants to avoid being gross, and when I woke up a few seconds later I rolled over with the worst hangover feeling ever! The odd thing, noone saw me go off the edge and slide under the race fence and when I was climbing out of the ditch, I was lucid, but obviously not "right". Ski patrol was alerted but I insisted on getting down the rest of the trail on my own. I was quite shaken up after it, and was not able to race for nearly 2 seasons, and did not return to OKEMO until last year. I have to say that going down the same trail and seeing the place where I lost it was one of the toughest things to do afterwards in retrospect. I was on hardboots last year when I went so it was a huge confidence booster when I ran it a few times and amped up each run faster than the last. A big part of recovery is "mental"... just as much as the post- brain swelling of a concussion :)

Anything under a 10 size boot and you have the pick of the litter as to boards of choice with Hardboots and Plates and still be under 45 degrees. I envy U small feet people LOL.... In powder however, the plates and hardboots can also be a huge hinderance. I had some freshie blower powder this weekend, and it was a chore to ride thru in an alpine setup, but in softies, I was lovin it! Don't be so quick to dump the softies, just keep the right tool for the job and also have fun ripping the carves too with HB and Plates :)

BOTH. Gear up with the right tool for the job depending on conditions when you see them and all the details are plainly in sight. Perspective is everything!

Nose-stuffed Comando-rolls on a softy setups are fun! :hammer: Ass-over-teakettle on a HB setup... OMFG scary. Try to avoid such at all cost... lol. May want to grab a new boot liner. Everyones foot molds differently and since yours were not new, you should try new inserts. It might make all the difference. Glad U had a good first day! Keep riding!

Day # 14 on the hill today Bob..... Day 14...... and your tally> ? Occasionally you post something USEFUL in a thread, and I still can value your drivel, so I figured I'd take ya off ignore for Newyear.... Obviously My xmas wish didnt come true.... yer still a botard and clearly still an internet dweeb. clearly this is not one such thread. U R TEH WEENAR. back on iggy U go.

I tried something "new" today and hated it. We all have our own likes and dislikes and when we try to "get with the times" we realise there is also technology that inders our particular ride style. For giggles I pulled out my 3 strap Burton Custom freeride bindings, and airwalk Advantage boots. I rode 3 trail runs, and then went in for lunch. I swapped out for a brand new pair of Salomon Malamutes and K2 FOrmula bindings on the same board. The results? I rode awesome and had great form in the "old gear", and even got a compliment for such from another snowboarder. I ride the "new gear" and felt extremely rigid and awkward and was unable to do half as much as I could with identical setup in "old technology" without concertedly more effort and discomfort. {mocking voice} BOBDEA: "thats because you suck......" (or some lame arm-chair snowsurfer retort that Im sure he will have) Why don't we all just free ourselves from HIGHBACKS alltogether while we are at it? Hell, just dump the bindings and go NOBOARDING :) Softbootsailer, Ignore the morons and those who hate us who can just go out and ride and tear it up in whatever we are comfortable on.... style is still style, and if it looks good, and you do it well, and it works, then there is noone who can say a word about its lack of viability as "technique".

Its all about the wind-chill. If the temp is 30 and Im doing 44mph down a hill its about 0. If It is 0 and A wind chill of 20 and Im doin 44 down a hill...... NO FN WAY. I was out today it was -3 before wind....blowing snow, 40 mph winds, and I was wearing 3 layers and warm gear, I did like 8 runs, and said "DING- I'm DONE !" A popsicle; flavor of: me. It gets "Unenjoyable" at a point and I'd rather watch Warren Miller movies or drink wine around a fireplace and terrorize the local Innkeepers pet cat or dog (or hot wife) with affection :)

I measure a Mondo 32 but ride Mondo 30 in the HEAD boots. Every bit less in boot size I can get is a few ticks of the angles I need to ride with BIG FEET ! I fit US 12 to 13 shoe depending on the maker and I have narrow "E" width feet.

Bobby you are in a smaller boot if memory serves... 10.5 ? Id love to be under 60s on anything narower than a 25! LOL. I found it was not somuch the angle as it was the toes and heels lining up on the edges, and finding my stance needing to be fore/aft shifted or wider as opposed to just the boot/binding angle. The wider boards are a tad slower to get over edge to edge, but just require a slightly different technoque with rolling our weight thru the turn. IMHO it looks just more streamlined and gracefull as a carver as opposed to the quick slap chop turns that can appear to be "jerky" and fast to the human eye of an observer, but again, thats just more of a cruising speed thing. See ya soon :)

Always nice when after beating ourselves up, we take it to our own and make adjustments and then find out they worked ! Sometimes we get lucky Now ya just have to get out and shred shred shred !

rub some 'tussin on it! if it still hurts..... MORE TUSSIN ! ~Chris Rock.