NMU Alpine Boarder

I am assuming that you're running the with the Lake Superior Division, right? If that's the case, I would ride the longer F2... Although you are running courses set to skier specs, you'll want the extra length of a GS board... This weekend in Houghton, you should see some pretty open GS courses... Once you get some experience and the timing down, you'll start carrying the speed... How many boarders are running with MCSA this season anyways?

I've got quite a diverse grouping of forums that I post on... It can lead to quite a bit of time reading when I can't get on them for a few days :freak3: NCAA HOCKEY http://www.USCHO.com Fishing around Chicago, IL http://chicagolandfishing.com/ Fishing/Hunting/Outdoors in Michigan http://www.Michigan-sportsman.com Dirt Track Racing http://www.4m.net/ These 4 and Bomber are my main sites that I post on regularly... Each is it's own little community and I've made the most of them... If any of them went down, I would be hurt.....

I'll 2nd the Dominator wax... I would use the HX 07 (white) Hydrocarbon wax when racing in sub-zero temps... It seemed to be more user friendly than the Swix CH4.... Also seemed to get better glide than SWIX as well... The key here is making sure that you are getting all the surface wax off through scraping and brushing... These waxes are hard and take some muscle to remove... Take your time and be thorough...

Ran into my 1st major problem today... Just curious what I could have done differently... I was given a pair of Line 181 skis w/ Marker Griffin bindings... Kid got new, bigger boots, so he wanted a re-mount done... Kid dropped off the skis on Thursday night and needed them by tomorrow AM to fly out west somewhere... Quicker than normal turnaround, but doable... So I go and get everything ready to go... Pull off one of the toe pieces and see that there is a set of plugged holes... My first thought is that this is gonna be the 3rd time the ski is going to be drilled, so I better call the customer to make sure he wants me to do the re-mount... (I am under the understanding that a ski can only be drilled 3 times) I call the customer up and explain the situation... The customer has no idea that there are plugs in his skis... He bought them new and only had them mounted once... I explained that you could only drill a ski 3 times, so I asked if he wanted me to proceed... At this point, I realized I wasn't sure what I could do if he told me not to proceed... Thankfully I was told to just mount the bindings since he was leaving tomorrow... Looking back on this deal, there are several things that could have sent me down a path I would rather not tread... - Since I pulled the toe piece off, how could I have replaced it without damaging the ski if the customer didn't want the full remount? Could I have just placed 2 inserts into the 2 holes that the toe piece screwed into? The screws for the track were not touched, so that was ok... I simply couldn't have just rescrewed the hardware back into the ski, correct? - It appears that the other shop just plain effed up the drilling/spacing for the toe pieces... Both skis had plugs about 6-7 mm short of where the final placement ended up being... There was only 1 set of heel pieve holes however.. After careful placement, I was able to get 3mm clearence between the old/new screw holes for the toe pieces... Problem is that there are now 12 holes on the frontside of the ski... I assume that this is it for mounting these skis now? There is no way to mount bindings and have the boot mid-sole anywhere near the ski mid-sole... - Say something like this happens where you do misdrill something... I would always tell it to a customer, but what can you really do if they are pissed? Is there any alternative to just plugging the holes? - These were freestyle skis, so they were a truly centered mount originally... I was able to mount these just behind center, close to the more traditional mounting placement... If I run into a similar problem on a traditional ski, can I mount the bindings toward the center? Is a center mount something that is only desirable for freestyle? All in all, today was definitely a learning experience... Everyone seemed to come out of this happy, but I can see how this could have blown up really quick...

Although you scrub speed with the skid, you gain it back by traveling a shorter distance... You are also able to keep the board pointed down the fall line, so you aren't fighting gravity either...

Thanks for the advice guys I actually only use a file to clean up any major damage... 9 times out of 10, it's a pass with a corse Diamond stone, then touch-up work with medium/fine stones... As for taking my board into a shop, I thought about that, but I'm in Chicago... To be blunt, I don't really trust the shops within an hours drive... With the cost of a sidewall planer being $40-50, I figured if I used the tool a few times, I would pay for it instead of dumping $20 to have a shop do it each time... I'll make a few calls and see what shops around here can do exactly...

I was tuning my Volkl RT last night and noticed that my edges are to the point where the edge is flush with the sidewall... I can't run a file/stone without taking off sidewall material before touching the edge... Currently my side bevel is 3*... Is it possible to shave the sidewall in this instance or is that only to be done on race skis? Are there any other options available to me? I didn't work the edge to a point of no return, did I?

If I were going to sell mine, I would start out at $175-200 depending on condition...

The height thing is actually the #1 problem I have with customers when selling to the masses... It's usually the one concept that the feel that they need to argue with me on... They are stuck on sizing the board to some point on their face... Even after I explain my starting situation on a board, (being a 5'9", 120'lb kid who was put on a 159cm softy board... Thing was HORRIBLE to ride and almost made me quit...) customers still seem to want to ignore weight being a part of the equation... Even more so if the one of the parties involved is someone who skis... Then again, the people that seem to latch onto the height thing and refuse to let go are also the ones that want to go with their shoe size or bigger with boots as well

I thought there were no girls on the internets :lol: Them signing up here would be impossible ;)

Actually, this is how we do things here in the Midwest... There is a pretty strong contingent of riders in the Minneapolis, MN area... Every year, they put together a Midwest Expression Session in Jan. or Feb... They've also got a good contingent of racers going through their local USASA program as well... Great group of people... Several of them have helped me out through the message boards and/or e-mail on several occasions... There are also several smaller contingents of riders throughout the Midwest... There are several riders in Central Wisconsin, and some regulars in Lower Michigan as well... Most of the carvers here are more than happy to ride with others who share the interest if they see them on the hill... Just watch the ride board, and you'll get a feel for where most people are hangin out...

I hope y'all got the guns fired up in Minny... Rumor has it that the local terrain park here in Chicago was able to fire up their guns last night Won't be long now

Thanks for the kind words from everyone... It's going to be..... interesting to say the least... Had a simple wax/sharpen on 2 boards this weekend and it took almost as much time to track down the needed tools and stones as it did to do the actual work... I'm definitely going to have to get in there this week and take inventory and organize everything... I'm also having fun trying to get certified to work on ski bindings... No one seems to have the authorization/shop codes that I need to enter on the Rossi/Marker/Salomon website to get certified without paying for it... All in all, despite being a little rough around the edges, things seem to be coming into place...

For the past year, I've been working at a Dick's Sporting Goods here in the Chicago area... It's not what I want to do with my life, but given the economy, I've been able to make it work... They quickly noticed I knew a good amount about skis and snowboards, so I was given some latitude in working in that department... My experience was mostly on the sales floor however since we had the department lead running the shop, and another 2+ year veteran of the store covering whatever our lead couldn't... My "shop" experience was hand waxing some skis and mostly mounting snowboard bindings for customers as they bought their gear... About a month ago I was asked to go through our Ski/Board Tech training... Attended a great clinic on the how and why, but still lack the actual experience of working on other's gear... Fast forward to today.... I was informed that our lead's last day would be a few days from now and that I would, in all likely hood, be running our shop this winter... I kinda had an inkling that this was coming since our lead had been having problems with our new store manager since the manager started back in June... Still kinda shocking to see it actually happen... So here I am, basically being handed the keys to the shop... Kinda scares the crap out of me, lol... I've learned a ton from you great folks here at BOL and from various other people... Got a ton of experience from working on my own gear as well... It just kinda hits home when you are the guy that someone comes to when they can't fix it themselves, lol... If I messed up on my own gear, it was my own damn fault... Now the margin for error is gone... I know that we're located on Chicago's south side, 2 hours from the nearest "real" ski area, and that 90% of my work will be mounting snowboards and system skis... It's just that other 10% of work that bothers me... Guess I'm just gonna have to go track down some 1980's style 200cm skis and start mounting/remounting bindings and play around on the stone/base grinders, lol... Oh well... Should be an educational and hopefully fun winter :flamethro:flamethro Any tips

I don't have a coach, so according to the description I'm not ready for this board :freak3::freak3: How old is this deck? It's got to be at least 10 years old...

So, ummm, Go Hawks? Also, Go Habs, Bruins, and (ugh) Wings.... I want an Origial Six Conference Final....

Plenty of good info on the other thread and here... Most things have been mentioned already... Having a car is a major plus... Just keep in mind that if you go towards Downtown Chicago, parking is gonna cost you... It sounds like you are looking for more "after hours" type things, no? As mentioned elsewhere, I would suggest hitting up the Loop and Downtown... Michigan Ave. is fun to just wonder around and people watch... Lots of historical sites and plenty of odds and ends to keep you busy... It's pretty cool to poke your head into alot of the shops down there as well... You can see all the trendy fashions, technology, etc... If you have a morning or evening open, and the weather is nice, take a stroll along the Lake Michigan Shoreline... There are tons of access points... Northerly Island would be a good place to start (free parking to boot!)... I do a ton of fishing down there, and it's another great place to just go and people watch... You also have great views of the Downtown architecture... It's a great place to just get away and relax... When are you looking to come to Chicago? Feel free to e-mail me through Bomber if you need help with any specific info or whatever... Lived in Chicago my whole life, and am more than happy to help someone experience the city :)

Well, I was on a college drinking team that had a skiing problem:freak3:

CLASSIC!!! Not that the "Politics" part applies to BOL or anything :lol:

So wait... Riders can put $1500 - $1800 into a board, apply $300 in wax for a single race (which is applied by a wax tech, NOT the rider), get custom boots/bindings, etc. etc. but they are gonna complain about someone making a fundamental and obvious improvement to their outerwear I'm sorry, but that is just being arrogant and/or retarded... Eliminating aero drag is a fundamental point of ALL RACING... Cycling, skiing, sliding sports, skating, etc... In a sport where advancing can be decided by an inch or two, why not give every advantage you can get? If you want freestyle, go over and start doing spins and butters in the park... Over there, your outerwear has little effect on your performance... Here, you are obviously trying to gain every tenth of a second you can... With the amount of R&D that goes into their gear, I think that this is totally hypocritical... I wonder what would happen if someone showed up with a 2 piece slalom ski suit? Per the rule that was posted somewhere here on Bomber, this would be legal since it's 2 piece... Yea, it would piss someone off, but too bad... There is one goal here and that is to make it to the bottom of the mountain...

There is (was?) also a Comfort Inn right across the street from the Super 8 that I have stayed at in the past as well... Clean, nice staff... Like any hotel, you do get what you pay for...

Ugh... The fact that they are holding SBX Eliminations and the Men's Downhill till Primetime tonight is going to make it darn near impossible to make it through the day without having the restults spoiled Sometimes I wish our world wasn't so connected...

One of the key things that I was able to take from snowboarding into skiing was the concept of angulation. From the very start, I was not afraid to commit to my turns and allow myself to "get low" and inclinate the skis. Instead of starting with small movements and slowly increasing the angulation, I went right over and found out what too much angulation/inclination was and worked back from there. This allowed me to be carving basic (parallel ski) turns from the very beginning. It was kinda funny... I was excelling at carved turns and some pretty advanced concepts, but had to learn about kicking the skis sideways and stopping from scratch, lol... It also took some time to feel balanced when I was making "relaxed" turns where I could stay upright... I too am looking into getting a pair of skis to play around on when they go on sale at the end of the season or next year... What is everyone else riding on?

History Channel is currently airing an episode of MODERN MARVELS dedicated to the Vancouver Olympics... Pretty interesting... They are touching on making and maintaining the venues mostly... They already did a segments dedicated to snow grooming/making, the bobsled/luge track, and are doing speed skating now... There will be a rerun of this at 11 or 12pm EST... Just wanted to give a heads up... Figured this would interest most here :)

I'm out there 2-3 times per year... Usually it's to take a friend out for the first time with the Burton "Learn to Ride" package, so I am only on plates while they are being taught then I switch over to softies to help them... EDIT: Actually going to be out there tomorrow (Fri 2/5) so a friend can try our awesome sport... Holler at me if anyone is out... I'll be in a Green/Yellow NMU Alpine Team jacket, and a blue/white MX helmet...