Bullwings

well, i'm finally in the clear. i sprained my ankle about 3 weeks ago due to my liners packing out a bit (have had them refitted since then). haven't been on the slope for 3 weeks either x-rays came back and they're all clear, no talus fracture, and the ankle feels great. i waited about 2.5 weeks before i got the x-ray so there wouldn't be any swelling clouding up the picture.

D-Sub go enroll as a college student at one of the local mammoth colleges (probably only one...). they get lift tickets for $5 according a few of the students i've talked to while on the lift. as for runs, i'm mainly looking at stump alley, broadway, st. anton's (one of my favorite runs there), saddle bowl and a few others. think i'll be able to use that FCI 171 for the whole day? or probably be prepared to switch to my atv mid-day around lunch?

anyone going to be there? i think it's only going to be one day, for lame reasons, but i have free lodging, so no complaints there. thinking of trying out the donek fc 171 for the first time, i figure the larger runs will be much more forgiving and allow me to really move around and try things. i'm hoping for snow till wednesday or something, and then no snow for the rest of the week so it'll be harder packed. heh, i actually don't want powder

I'll vouch for the atv since it's what I rode last year on softies and then started this season on plates. i have size 12 feet and ran something around 36/30 on them, and it was great for my soft boots. the 23.5 cm waist is pretty accomodating. i then picked up some TD2s over the summer and have been using those on it at 50/45. so far it's been great for me, although i have yet to take it in pow.

for your toe, bail, you loop a piece of rope/shoelace through the front toe bail. then, on the toe buckle of your boot, you put the shoelace/rope (thin - not some rock climbing rope) under the front boot buckle before you snap it closed. i'll see if i can find a picture found it. here

what kind of guide do you use with those? i just got one, and it doesn't fit in my side of beast pro, so I can't use it on any of my side edges :( i did use it on my base edges though, and they feel great.

if you're new like me, i'd get EC'ing out of your mind for the rest of this season. it'll make you develop bad habits, IMO (this is only if you're new...). i just started out on HBs this season and been focusing as much as possible on technique over style/looks. i pretty much try to keep all body parts off of the snow as much as possible, hands included. the few times that i did put my hand down and touched the snow, i could feel a wash out coming on, or actually did wash out. i'm pretty sure it's because i ended up breaking at the waist and lost angulation in my shoulders. the best and lowest carves i've gotten are all ones where i felt and knew i had good angulation. i even had one where i got pretty close to touching an elbow if i shifted my arm down a bit (which i didn't). i have yet to repeat that incident, but I feel that at my learning stages, i'm much better off not touching the snow as much as possible. anyway, gl with the technique. ps. ignore this if you're an expert pss: done thread jacking

Big bear is reporting 6-8 inches of new snow. mammoth is currently reporting 3 inches and it's still snowing. i'll probably be out there next weekend. snow fall was at record elevations. areas in the valley actually saw snow fall at city levels, motclair, fontana and more. that's pretty much unheard of here. this is insane, no snow in the east, and snow fall in SoCal at elevations below 2.5k feet... wtf is going on here? mind you, i'm not complaining, seeing as how i live out here

Another back from the dead thread here... more of this has been going on as of late, but i figure there's a lot of good info here (better than starting a new one). however, with all the good info, i'm not too clear on an answer. I know you "should" loosen/remove your bindings before waxing, but that seems a bit excessive if you wax every day or every other day of riding. plus, it's a PITA to do that with TD2s, what with having to remove the top plate first. so, if i'm careful about not overheating the board, which I already am (not using a clothes iron either), is it really necessary to remove/loosen my bindings?

i just injured my ankle on the 12/26 and it appears to be an ankle sprain. however, today, which is a day over 2 weeks, i got an x-ray to be sure that it's not a talus fracture - i specifically told my doc to give some extra attention to my talus. bone necrosis is definitely not something i want deal with. look up necrosis pictures... now, imagine that sht going on under your skin and flesh and in your bone. i think both skatha and big mario have fractured that bone if i'm not mistaken. from what i gathered lurking the boards, skatha's ended up turning into a 2-surgery healing process. i'm not trying to scare you or anything, but i'd rather not throw gasoline on the fire if it can be prevented. gl with that

awesome :biggthump chair 7 and 10 is what it's all about. No lines over on that side, and lots of blue runs to pick from. website said they opened up more blacks and a few double blacks, stuff i'll be avoiding while i learn the carvin in HBs. glad you had a good day. i'm gonna have my ankle x-rayed tomorrow to make sure it's not a talus fracture.

SoCal resorts rely mainly on man-made snow both for good and bad snowfall seasons. right now is about average. although it is pretty warm at normal city elevations. we're having highs of 80*F right now. mammoth is really lagging behind. december of last year had 120+ inches. december of this year had 58". supposedly this el nino junk is supposed to give us above average precipitation according to the national weather and climate service, but we have yet to experience that. i'd say that without the snowblowers, we'd probably have no season right now...

my experience with boot fitting and the suzukas: they felt great, albeit a little bit of pain the first 2x out (in the instep -- i'm flat footed and pronate a lot, although my shoes don't show it). by the 5th day, they packed out and were loose. i went back to the Surefoot that i had them fitted and molded at, and they did a bunch of stuff to give me a really great fit. we spent around 1.5 hours of me trying the boot on and them re-adjusting based on what i told them (no re-molding, yet and i don't think it'll be necessary). Anyways, the boot fits like a glove now, and it was all for free. They told me to come back again if I still had problems with them after that. i bought more smartwool socks so i wouldn't be a complete freebie and because those socks rule. i have yet to try them out again. i'm still letting my ankle heal up. i'll probably give it a try this weekend. definitely go back and have them re-fitted at the place you originally had the work done.

cool, my friend's FR2s should be coming in soon then. that should push his limits higher, along with the demo atv i convinced him to get. also, i just want to see them. the fr1s look so cool in the pictures, i can only guess what those fr2s will be like when i get to pick them apart and see the whole interface with the board and everything. what board did you mount them to? tanker?

before i used to wear a helmet because of the stuff i did. now, i wear a helmet because of the other people. it's kind of like seat belts in your car (aside from it being the law). who cares how safe of a driver you are. there's a ton of other people on the road that don't know how to drive.

It's times like this that I hate work with all these deadlines and stuff and pretty much being everyone's bitch (i'm way down at the bottom of the ladder. in fact i'm still on the floor and have yet to take a step on the ladder). In any case, I'm gonna give my ankle till the next weekend (13th or so - i've quite a bit of vacation days too now ) to heal up. I'm still limping a bit, althought that's probably a combo of the ankle brace and injury. Glad yours is doing better. StonedRider: i used to straightline it quite a bit before. then i picked up an all-mountain carving board and figured out what that was about -- 10x more fun and safer too. i had a few near misses with people straightlining it (not the smartest thing).

Yeah, that's what i was worried about. is there anything in particular that could ruin the camber of a board other than riding hard for a lot of days? too many speed check hockey type stops maybe? i was doing a lot of straight lining (and less carving) on it in softboots last year before i figured out what carving was.

cool, thanks for the referal i've been wasting a lot of wax. i do full hot waxes every time out. crayon method seems effective and efficient. what about graphite vs. regular wax? is graphite wax harder to crayon in? all my boards have black bases, so there's nothing to worry about there.

since we're all talking about camber... is ~ 3mm of camber normal for a prior atv (about 15 days on it so far)? that doesn't seem like much at all, especially compared to my donek fc1 (never ridden yet) which has about 11-13mm of camber. i was expecting the donek to have a lot of camber, but i wasn't expecting my atv to have so little.

anyone ever take the scraped off wax and iron it back into your board? it's probably as stupid as it sounds in my head, but what if it's clean and everything?

if i recall correctly, the knurling is on the outside of the boot (right side for the right boot and left side for the left boot). but, like james said, if you punch it out 3-4 mm and don't see any knurling, you're probably punching it out hte wrong way.

i was gonna say the exact same thing as James. one thing to do, is the first time you punch the pins out, sharpie the end with the knurling or make some kind of marking. it would probably shorten the life of your boots if you punched the knurling the whole way through to the other side...

no offense taken here at all. and yes, i would be a wall, or a noob, rookie, etc. etc. it's kind of hard for me to take in all the technical talk and apply it to my riding. I've only had 5 days in hardboots so far and i'm running into the common heelside problems that many have. also, i've never seen myself nor have i ridden with anyone that knows and understand hardboot technique so i can't see what i'm doing wrong, and no one is going to tell me what i'm doing wrong. a lot of it is trial and error and trying to remember exactly what i was doing when i washed out or put down a really nice low carve that surprised me. in short, just because i read something, doesn't mean i can translate it to my board, or even know what it means exactly.

I've been reading here, carver's almanac, EC and i still don't know where i should be facing. some say to face the nose of the board. others say, you should align your hips with your binding angles and face roughly in the direction of your binding angles. (i'm seeing more of this than the former) I'm really confused as to where I should be facing. Is this kind of a racing technique vs. recreational/extreme carving technique kind of thing? Maybe if i just hopped on a skwal instead that would make life easier -- I'd be facing my binding angles AND the nose... on the feed the dollar note, I'm liking that. i noticed that i can carve much tighter and smaller radii when i load up the nose at initiation, but it also treated me to the "folding the nose" experience for the first time. that was scary and cool at the same time, but only because i came out of it without injuries.

me me me i really like seeing all the DIY stuff that everyone here does to their gear. i wouldn't trust anything i did myself. all i'd be doing is setting myself up for a stephen hawkings mobile.