EnisiWaya

In engineering circles we used =to remark about those people desperately in need of a plexi-glass belly button to see where they where going. In fact at Hamilton Standard in Windsor Locks,CT we in the facilities engineering group often sent six inch diameter Plexi-glass belly awards to deserving individuals via the internal mail system. Heh heh heh! GWS

I have ridden tankers and an arbor 166 woodie in late day 14 inch of fresh New England snow turned in to massive "Harbor Chop" hillocks and valleys. The tanker blew through the Haystacks like they were not there, but the woodie kept up fine and did not bounce around like a paint mixer which was the feeling of being on the tanker. The tanker alas felt like it was taking you for a ride " hang on" while the woodie felt like you were driving a Porche down a slightly bumpy old mountain road GW

What you ask for is an all mountain board good in the trees good on hardpack carves like a Donek or Sword but is soft boot board. I am still pissed of at them for something they pulled with outfitting my snowboard staff (all the senior instructors and all the certified instructors and clinicians at Ragged)a few years ago. made a deal and then welched on it. But, BUT, get an Arbor Woodie. This thing in soft boots with a good stiff binding or something like my SIS high back and performance boot will out carve any Burton or Rossi race board with hard boots. I twill go into the trees, you can whip it around using independent leg action in a six foot arc iin the bumps. You can lay down trenches all over the mountain just like with a Donek or Coiler in soft boots if they are aggressive all mountain ones not park specific bathroom slippers. Looking at your other boards I would suggest if you are 160 to 190 LBs get a 162 if over that but under 250 go with the 166. you do not need to go longer as the woodie if ridden well will float even in Idaho pow. If yo rally want to float and speed most time in really lightweight pow get the Woodie wide in the same sizes otr if borderline get the shorter one. I have put over 40 folks onto Arbor boards and over 25 of them were Woodies. Not one single complaint from anyone. Put some onto park Arbors some onto Womens specific Arbors , and evey one loves thier arbors. Plus even for full time instructors an Arbor is a 7 to ten years board. They are REALLY that well built. Grandpa Wolf

It has been my experience (personally) that if you have a federal military arms collectors ticket, that a full automatic MAC11 can take down (cut right through the trunk) an old apple tree about 16 inches diameter, With one full banana clip. I do sincerely believe that would also stop a Polar or even Grizzly bear. One thing with the MAC11, If you plan to fire a whole clip in one long burst, you have to hold on very very tight and hold on to the strap very very tight. If you don't do that you will waste most of your ammo shooting holes in the clouds. Grandfather Wolf

Bob I am not saying anything against your little video as to technique or style. I myself ride like that much of the time just enjoying the feeling of swooping down the MT. <!-- / message --> BobD <!-- sig --> __________________ Because I'm so inclined ..... I would call this the seagull flight soaring on the beach air technique. I try to get all my staff rider/instructors to the point of being more like an Osprey or Goshawk going in for the kill. Look at the video. Just before you put your hand down in the turn I have them stay arms out level to the slope. then staying level at that shoulder height above the snow do a full leg absorbtion of the board staying level and not rising up as in a cross over or cross through turn but executing a pure no shoulder rise cross under turn. When the board is up hill extend you legs fully and push it up hill from you HARD enough to bend the board. Now you are carving a trench but the trench is up hill from you. By doing this you are carving the first part of the turn up hill from you using leg muscles then the middle of he turn you are riding it through using the centripital force. Then at the bottom you are already using your legs to start absorbing the board for the new cross under turn. This keeps the board from being over pressured at the bottom of the turn. You have now accomplished a turn where the pressure on the edge is constant through the turn and from turn to continuous turn. With this technique you can carve Christmas ribbon candy turns even on NH blue (ice) snow. The neat thing is the feeling of fast slow fast slow fast slow. Everything is a balance of forces In terms of the physics of it, so when you make the edge pressure constant instead of the normal varying pressure of most riders and skiers, now the thing that changes is your speed. As the board starts to come into the fall line you are almost motionless in free fall then at the bottom of turn / start of new turn you are moving like a rocket as you execute the cross under.. As you cross the board underneath you to put it up hill from you and pressure it with your legs you are moving Yourself down the hill with both your momentum down the hill plus your leg extension. It is like falling down the hill at speed and then adding your best basketball jump shot speed from leg extension on top of that. The board speed is fairly constant as is the pressure, but you are moving fast slow fast slow to be down the hill from the board and then up the hill from it then down then up . The push pull fast slow ride is a total gas of a feeling.I expect my staff to be able to do this before we train them to teach lessons in the woods which are very tight quarters here in NH. The wonderful thing is once you have mastered the max all out push pull turn the technique it works on carving board of course but it works equally well on soft boot boards and even on shaped skis (at least from my experience with a 13 meter of less side cut). One caveat is that once you have mastered the technique your edge changes to a new turn happen in micro seconds so anyone following you has no time to react. So tell them to give you space. I have had request private lessons with ski race coaches who have seen me skiing this way to teach them how so they can get their racers edge changes faster. In actuality of physics it is an aggressive cross over turn but cross over turn in both skiing and snowboard has come to mean rising up and crossing over the skis/board. So in the sport we call this a cross under turn Which describes the feelings of the turn not the actual relative positions of rider to the board. I personally prefer to call it a push pull turn. LOL Snowboard instructor teaching ski race coaches how to change edges and make cross under turns and then push pull turns. Grandpa Wolf

Thank You... and I completely agree:biggthump<!-- / message --><!-- sig --> __________________ It just takes guts to do it the first few times..........then the adrenaline takes over and you can't stop falling down the MT LOL But once you go there then you can ride bumps trees anything....because you have learned to have absolute trust in your board and your ability to ride its edges. big BIG thing to accomplish better than ASSI level 3. Can't count the level 3s I've trashed on the MT. It is all about just letting go and doing it, not talking about it. GWS

While some may say twist is twist I think there are two types of or methods of twisting the board Type one : active specifically leg and foot gentle twisting. With beginners and the newer Burton and other learning boards they are intentionally soft in the mid section to allow twist. At Ragged MT when we went to the Burton LTR boards I could not demo Independent foot use with my ten year old Arbor Woodie at those slow speeds. So I took a junk old snow jam rental board 162 and modified it. with the LTR system you use the twist allowed by the board to help initiate the turns. This makes the learning curve take off big time. It also has a by product: By teaching independent foot action the shoulders stop trying to turn the board. So the wind up face up the hill and hope the board turns while the edge is lost and the rider goes down is virtually eliminated. Burton and others offering LTR type boards put a lot of money in to research before they started the new LTR program with LTR specific boards. It is a boon to teaching couch potatoes successfully to ride. The biggest increase is the ease of teach parent skiers with boarding childerren how to ride. Type two: aggressive fully dynamic carving in both soft boots and hard boots. When you are railing the board cutting trenches most riders stand up and crossover. At the MT the snowboard super and I hammer our staff to be fully dynamic even during edge changes. This means going to cross under or at least cross through turn initiation. To teach this we work with our staff to get them to feel like free fall flying down the MT much like the pure carve guys. Once they get used to "falling " down the mountain then we try to get the muscles added on to the natural twist caused by the movement of falling past the board down the mountain. Now Once that happens every turn initiation while carving the rider is further down the mountain than the board. Big twist even in a stiff torsionally stiff Arbor or Rossi race board. Now move on to violently falling down the MT at each turn initiation. ?then comes the staff contest. Track on the snow, who has the shortest (has to be less than stance width) edge change in their clean fully carved rut track for the day? Winner gets an extra free comp pass to give out to friends and such. Tracks with overlap of edges in contact with snow with no blowout or skid just clean overlapping ruts gets free beer that night at the MT pub. Grandfather Wolf .

One year I hired a guy from CT that worked at a marina in the summer. He had grown up before college working to help his dad in dad's landscaping business. put him together with our head of maintenance and he spent the fall helping to clear brush and prepare the trails and lift and snow making equipment. Just a thought Grandfather Wolf

Derek after 42 years in snow sports business I would say presenting your self as a professional, or in your case as a professional in process is of the utmost importance. Most mt managers and marketing managers either hold teaching/coaching certification or held it in the past. Many a time in Colorado, and especially here in New England have I seen several unexpected bus groups show up. In these cases it was all hands on deck to teach lessons, including upper management. Join AASI NOW http://www.aasi.org/01/home/Benefits_Of_Membership.asp I do not know if they still have the affiliate (non certified ) membership level. Most folks go to a Level one clinic as they join. In your case you could join and register for an early season level one in the area of the country you want to go to. If you get hired elsewhere you will have time by nov-dec to change your level one clinic location. By joining and registering for your level 1 now you accomplish the following: 1) you have proven that you are serious and and plan a professional career in the industry. 2) you can then order all the teaching manuals and videos to study now and be totally up to date and in step with current teaching models and progressions. You CAN dry land practice most of the level one and two material for certification exams. This professional attitude and commitment can in many case get you hired without waiting for a hiring clinic. I myself have many times in the past hired instructors who were certified or in progress of becoming certified pre-season start. 3) You will probably be able to purchase PSIA/ASSI gear and receive significant discounts on pro form for equipment purchases. 4) through the AASI PSIA website you will be able to access extensive info about the National Ski Areas Association. www.nsaa.org, Maybe even who to contact at specific areas. If you want to go to Colorado talk to Rocky MT division of AASI. Then I would recommend contacting the smaller areas that still need full time personnel. I taught at Eldora while attending CSU Fort Collins. The cost of fuel has already started a trend in skier/rider visits towards the smaller more local areas. hope this helps Grandfather Wolf also know as "Dances With Trees" by my scout groups.

In my 42 years of teaching I have found that the company coat is a go there target for out of control skiers and boarders. they see it and just never look anywhere else so guess where they go. now with us carving and using the whole trail instead of going straight down the mountain we are always NOT Seen by the general blinders on looking tat the lodge at the bottom public. However Teaching makes you into the perfect target especially if you are teaching a class at the time. The four worst getting run down incidents I have had were all adult skiers teaching there children them selves when they were not able to control thier own speed and direction. The other problem is that when teaching, you are watching your students. So you have tripled your chances of catching an edge, falling over failing to load yourself on the chair successfully and more. Many of my fellow snowboard staff members can tell stories about thier worst falls occurring while teaching on the beginner slopes. Then there was my good friend Al Fontee. we taught many years together at Sunapee and then Ragged mts. Some 8 years ago even though he always wore his helmet while teaching. He was not wearing it one friday afternoon as he was just making a couple of easy runs. FAther and Daughter pulled out in front him without looking up hill. In avoiding the ten year old girl he lost control and went into the trees. Concussion kept over in Hospital finally sent home on Sunday. Died that night from the concussion. I still miss him. So Carvers are targets on the hill. A company coat makes you a day glow target. I don't even get in the lift line without a helmet on. Have had helmet hit by ski falling on it in the lift line because some Adult idiot, with more money than brains, was showing off his new bindings to his buddy's kid and dropped the ski. Boris I'll bet you have some good ones to tell as I understand the lift lines in eastern Europe are beyond description. Grandfather Wollf

I share birthday and triple mercury astrologicals with Paul McCartney It is a complicated life that most would not care to deal with But all three of These women are special beyond words. I just am lucky enough to be able to in one way or another take care of each of them. Ya see they are what is important, not me........my life is dedicated to them. not demanding of them. I hope you all can understand that one. It's all about love from the heart without concepts of ownership you just love without any conditions. I grew up in a classical New England since 1632 family all love and respect and even mere acknowledgement was conditional on how you had performed at dance class(age five) , music lessons ( age five at Hartt coll. of Music,soccer team or founding the HS ski club ( at age 15), or what ever. Oh yeah we had educational opportunities most did not. But we also had pressure to excell where if you came in second in the state Wrestling finals as a first year Wrestler against five year wrestlers it was never spoken about in family since you only came in second. My HS sweetheart taught me about unconditional love. A novel Idea!!!! Trust me it works. GWS:D

Ok enough!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been reading this thread for days amazed by the self serving pomposity of attitudes. I have been happily married for 32 years. for at least the last 18 my wife has been on my case =to find my high school sweetheart. finally did this year. she had our daughter when she had graduated HS and I was only 17. In CT no rights not even to demand a court appearance. now i am in touch with her and , my grandchildren. also as a Native American I consider her other 3 children as family. Plus Wife Marilyn and I have two wonderful kids both grad college suma cum laude. Plus my next door neighbor Harriet and I have had a thing for 22 years. she got married 15 ago and then (they live on cape cod) bought the house across the street as a ski house. A year ago this march Travis( her husband and a good buddy) died unexpectedly in an air port terminal from a massive brain hemorage. Harriet and I are very close. My wife just says,if am am going across the street for a while to be with Harriet, just let her know so she doesn't worry about me being hurt in the barn or something with my dissabilities. Our place has big barn (and you can get lost in the attached buildings) So......... I love 3 women and they have no problem with it. you can call me or PM me What i know is not for public consumption. What the phone no? search my posts. Such a small effort!!!! GWS

Scott, I appealed to my clan brother the tribal Uku (chief) Our prayer circle has helped save folks with terminal brain cancer. Your father is now in the prayer circle of the Cherokees of Kentucky Chickamaugua Western band I hope we can help. keep the faith, and trust in creators powers to heal all things. So please carry in your heart the knowledge that you have the ancient ones who belong to this land not own it with you and your family. have trust and if you want to or need to for support you can call me anytime 603 938 5282 GWS Chase "Grandfather Wolf Singing"

Don't believe it can be genetic, ask for pics i'll post them. I am filing a suit against the VA for the disability evaluator using my build to lower my disability percentage because of my build. I consider it as racism since I have never lifted weights or worked out in my life. GWS EZE back me up here buddy. LOL

I have not tried Donek's equivalent so i can not vouch for it. But I have put 20 instructors or so and at least five snowboard racers on Arbor Woodies for free ride. they have all loved the fact the "Woodies" will carve almost as hard as a race board even on New England clear blue "snow". If you have good bindings. Not sure what to use, PM me. I just won't deal with Them (Arbor) because of a personal issue with their management saying one thing, promising one thing, and then changing the deal half way through to have a single major ski MT's entire 25 person senior and certified snowboard staff all on Arbor boards But their boards are incredible. So my next free ride board will be built by Sean when I get the $$$ together and it will be just as I want it . !/2 way between an Arbor Woodie and an Arbor wide Woodie in width but not at 166 or 172 but at my choice of 169 (Dense New England woods between the trails are involved in the specs.). Many other special things like non constant radius side cut and flex and some interesting torsional additions I have in mind from all my years as an engineer and 42 years teaching snow sports here in New England, to NATO standing forces in Europe, and In Colorado ( CSU man Aggies forever!!!!). Sean if you are catching this would love to talk to you about a Hard conditions board that can handle New England Ice and close coupled filled with brambles glades and still carve on a race course and handle big POW. The other consideration is her age. Arbor Woodies are virtually "BULLET PROOF" They last forever!!!!!!!!!!! I know five or six of us who have 9 or more years on them teaching full time including riding in the trees. And all our boards are still going Strong except one. my Protegee finally after beating his wide up in the woods broke it dead center on a tree in the woods. It was a bout five inches in diameter maple and he broke the tree too soo.......(he is a mule or Moose as you may), Mine after 12 years of 2 g turns and my 6'2" size 50 sportcoat and 227 lbs ( I am naturally, genetically from my Mohawk mother, built like "Arnold S" with out ever working out) is finally loosing a little of it's snap. but it still holds true laide out turns on soft boots with my forearm on the snow on "blue snow", I just have to work the back foot a tiny bit harder than of old. GWS

Ok Jack we are only a few hours apart. You can take the photos i get to do the computer enhancement and layout. i am expert at both Picasa and gimp. have done photos for internet sales of Jensen convertibles (498 total production) for my neighbor by taking pics of her late husbands red one and turning the pics into the green one. Yep, he owned two of them, even the top Jensen expert in the whole world could not tell. SO you take digital photos jack and i will massage them and get them into PDF for printing Calendars. Deal? \Chase/GWS

There is this great movie based on true story about these middle aged women in the UK (Great Britain or england as you will). to raise money for the expense of a needed operation for one of the husbands they decide in this womens gardening club to do a risque calender showing thier boobs off. Great movie great story. to raise even more money we could do two calenders. One of the women for the guys and one of the guys for the women. As long as none of the pictures are posted on the boards here it can be as risque as we want. has anyone seen the movie? we could do it. what does every one think. Female death for breast cancer is a big deal as is male death rates from testicular and prostate cancer. We as a dedicated community could do something really good for the rest of society and even many of our own who are struggling with these cancers. GWS.

I wish I still had the video of him on stage when he went on and on about counting coup points for tagging joggers in Perterboro, NH with your car bumber, and then talked about; yeah right like he's going to go on tour to a state that mentions death on it's car tags.lol:rolleyes: GWS

Sent an email to a fellow Granite Stater and then thought I would share the meat of part of it with you guys too. we GSers (Granite Staters) don't intend to take too much BS Right buddy? I know EZE is Probably right in with us too, he lives in the next town. I don't think the folks realize you can carry a handgun in a holster in public in NH as long as it is not concealed even with out a permit. For concealed carry the law is written as "MUST ISSUE" so the local police chief has to go to the local court and present overwhelming evidence that you would be a public danger to deny you a concealed weapons permit. Most of Florida's and NM 's changes in the last ten years are modeled on NH rules and law from what I have heard. GWS/Chase:eplus2:

If you break into my house and even threaten one of my wifes 8 guard cats ( a 30 pound Maine Coon cat is a formidable opponent even for a 200 lb intruder) <btw most="" dogs="" cross="" over="" other="" side="" of="" the="" street="" to="" go="" by=""> I will shoot you. Our animals when on our premises are afforded the same rights of protection by firearms from lethal threat under NH law as our children. However I have been told by a past Police Chief and a friend who is a State trooper,,, if they fall back out through the door way to drag them back into the house before they get here. Most of us Granite Staters that live other than in Nausea (a part of MA who's residents call "Nashua, NH" that gets to have NH car tags), Take our tag statement very seriously. "Live Free or Die" grandpa wolf/ Chase:eplus2:</btw>

GAvin wrote Kids are bad but here in the northeast we have the adult version called "Ski East". They are even worse. I try to head them off ahead of time by engaging them in conversation about racing. Technique, equipment, coaches. Then I drop the "bomb" and ask how their training is going and if they do Nastar as a regular measure of handicap improvement. "oh you do very good...........what is your current handicap? I used to be a pacesetter." This while I'm on one of my boards. LOL Then they ask What was your handicap? Or you can lead them into it. Oh I had a 13 but that was against Andy Roblar the US ski team downhiller, He was 28 and I was 48. Talking to them establishes that you are in front of THEM. But even better By talking about their perceived Sport/racing ability they will talk about themselves (EGO Ego Ego.) So Gavin if you need some Nastar gold pins let me know I am sure I have extras around her along with maybe even an extra Mountain Dew Challenge gold medal or two. Thing to remember is a fully nailed carved turn is always faster than a skidded one. As a carving boarder you know much more about crossover, Crossunder, Push Pull and other ways to nail a turn than most of their coaches. Ask them if they have any free run time. Make a run date with them. then kick A$$$. Christmas day was out with son Sam We were on Exhibition under the six pack lift. I was doing push pull turns full width of the trail on my Omecarve Dynastar skis. two of the racers were bombing straight down the center of the trail and just could not quite catch me. They were running flat (lots of surface drag) and I was not just on edge but was getting lift off air time from tail coil up/release with every turn. Acceleration, OH Yes. At the lift line they both came up to me and asked how I did that. I just said "oh I never ski parallel and I just fall down the mountain and drag the skis along for the ride not the other way around." They went off shaking thier heads .............Ten minutes later with my easily recognized, flamed black helmet, buzzed their course on my GS board. LOL So ....just my way of handling the oafs. Chase

:lol:My snow gear purveyor was a Mr. Solomon in Hartford, CT, we lived northwest of there a ways. He had the hardest to understand German/Yiddish accent but was very fair and good to me As my parents policy was we had to earn the money for our gear and then they would pay for lessons cello, skiing whatever.. Started with suede mucklucks and bear traps. Then we routed out the bottoms with a hand plane and screwed Salomon segmented metal edges on our skis. Next was the dover cable "safety release" bindings. Then came the Raichle laced inner and outer hiking/ski boots. THen we got our hands on some Teflon that Ensign Bickford Engineering (the Primacord / Darworth Folks)was trying to figure out what to use it for for Dupont. You had to burn it with a torch and then use aircraft grade contact cement to put it on the bottom of the skis. neat thing was it was the same thickness as the Salomon edges. No waxing all you had to do was scuff it with 220 sandpaper every couple of runs. I spent the winter of '64 on that set up training to become a ski instructor. We had to be full certified with tip rolls and GelandeSprungsAnd of course final forms and all that on command during certification exams to be able to teach our own classes in 65 at age 14. With eastern junior full cert the parents helped with gear for '65. Got a pair of Alu omega metal skis(eventually became the omega core for Dynastar), Marker bindings and ...!!! drum roll the first pair of Dolomite leather 6 buckle racing boots in the town. You had to put them on with just a silk dress sock as one size smaller than shoe size. then put a chair in the bathtub fill it with hot water then sit there for two hours doing homework while gradually tightening up the corner buckle for the inner boot and then the outer boot buckles. Then steal Moms fancy Hood hose hair dryer to dry them. when dry you used a fish boning knife and separated the inner boot from the outer. Then you took Dr.s tongue depressors and some fiber glass resin and cloth from Kaman Aerospace, Hamilton Standard, or Pratt and Whitney (if yours did not someone in the neighborhood's dad did work at one or the other). Put the tongue depressors in vertically and fiber glass cloth on both sides of them. Insert foot and tighten buckles and wait for two to 4 hours for the resin to start to set up well. Now you had some serious lateral stiffness and could actually bend the skis and make them carve . Head 190 metal sandwich GS skis, Marker Rotomats and Nordica Astral Slaloms Wow ! just like the fancy New Yorkers who came up to the Berkshires on the weekend! Your ears must have been burning from the comments of the locals(even up at Saranac or Placid) as we raced each other down the trails. LOL You had the G Fox/Lord and Taylor/Neiman Markus rig..........We'd make comments like fancy never equals fast. and so on....:rolleyes: Hope you take this all tongue in cheek brother. BTW I went to CSU and taught at Eldora AGGIES FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Chase:biggthump

I go to a Bowen Therapist in Peterboro, NH she does wonders. For 7 months I could not lift my left hand striaght out to shoulder level. She did some kind of massage thing that uses the facia as a nerve communicator and in five minutes I could lift my hand to 30 degrees abouve my shoulder. It works.

Trow me down the stairs my slippas. sometimes we park the cars side by each!

get a pair of Da bone gloves. keep your hands warm and protect you from wrist injury. Teaching since 1985 on board won't ride without them. Chase