Phil

I really cannot disagree with this. I believe that there is a huge focus on efficiency and effectiveness, but I think that I also buy into it to some extent. There is a difference, though, between teaching efficient and effective movements and teaching everyone to look the same. I started doing the PSIA Alpine thing and I stopped almost as soon as I started. You could jump over directly to the same level you have on a snowboard, but I knew that I wasn't ready for a Level III on skis, so I just went to Level II. It really did seem like they were making clones. It ended up being a one and done deal for me. I've got the pin, but I really am not interested in continuing down that road. (at least AASI is following the industry - I don't think that PSIA even knows where the alpine industry is) Teaching effecient and effective movements is still better than what we see on BOL everyday IMO. Advice seems like it is always "pinch the pencil" and ride "gun fighter" and "grab the boot cuff" etc., etc. People focus on posturing and angulation (park and ride) and never really talk about good movements and actions that cause reactions on the board. Don't get me wrong, I believe that posture and angulation is important, but it sounds like a broken record around here sometimes with that kind of advice being the answer to every problem that arises in someone's riding. All of that being said, I do like this community - just needed a moment to whine there for the sake of comparison. I feel that AASI has stuck to the idea of using movement based teaching. I like it and I find it to be very effective when teaching the masses of recreation level riders. Again, that is what AASI is for. I never feel that I am teaching someone to be "stagnate", but I might not be understanding what you are saying either. Heck, I know I want to charge! That's a bummer. I have not heard of them being in an exam for a long time. I was just using that as an example to say that it does not matter what you go to the exam on, they are going to test your limits on that equipment. If the upper certs where you are do not do gates, maybe someone needs to facilitate that. We all know that it would help them tremendously on so many levels. Most of the upper level certs that I know have either been in gates or continue to do so - whether that be NASTAR, USASA, or just local stuff. Dave, it sounds like your boss was woefully unprepared and may not even understand the standards and what is going on. I have been helping prepare Level II candidates for a long time and I feel that they usually have a good idea of what is expected of them and when they get to the exam they know what the examiners are asking of them. This year I only had one candidate take the exam. He nailed all of his teaching and pro know, but he has to take a riding retake. He got a similar "unable to isolate..." comment, but his was about finishing his heelside turns specifically. Anyway, he had a good attitude and really understood what he was doing that fell short. He is already looking to fix his "weaknesses" before his retake. I would suggest that your boss get in touch with the examiners to try to better understand where he was lacking. They are really good about that stuff. He really should have cleared that up at the exam. Otherwise, he will have no point of reference from which to start training to go back (if that is indeed his intent). My big question to you is - How much training did he have before he went? To me, it just sounds like he lacked training. There are a lot of people out there who are "good riders", but they lack training, which means they also lack understanding (pro know). Without the "professional knowledge" they also lack the understanding of what they are lacking - in their riding, teaching and pro know. Does that make sense, or is it getting late and I'm talking in circles? Anyway, encourage him. The worst thing that you can do after failing an exam like this is have sour grapes and talk about all of the things that were wrong with it. I have seen that so many times. On several occasions I have encouraged guys who were really bad mouthing the process (after they failed) to go back and train and return to take the exam again. If, after they take it, they still think that the process sucks, then they have grounds to help change it - after all, they passed. The few that have done that actually came around to a better understanding of what was going on, their riding went through the roof, and they passed. In the end, though, they were not upset with the process. How could they be? Everything about their riding and teaching had improved! OTOH, the guys you REALLY need to watch are the ones who fail an exam and have a good attitude about it. Those are the ones that will be the most improved and kill it at the next exam. They have already been through the process, so they have no suprises there, and they work to have an understanding of their deficiencies, so they become all around better riders and instructors. Their attitudes make them winners all around and it pays off in the end. Who doesn't want to ride and teach better, right? Encourage your boss to be the latter and I guarantee that when all is said and done, he will be a better trainer for your mountain than you could have ever imagined.

Upon further thought, you will need an input device for your video, an external optical drive to burn your DVD's and you will probably want an external hard drive as well. That sounds like a PITA when all you would need with the Mac Book Pro is the input device - the optical drive is in the computer and the hard drive is big enough (you may STILL want an external HD even with the Pro). Hope this is helpful and not just me over-thinking things.

I have to tell you that I have no personal experience with either, but - It seems to me that the Mac Book air is kind of glitzy - an "on the run" kind of computer. It does not seem like the kind of computer you want to be purchasing specifically to edit video. I don't know how much video editing you have done, but I can tell you that you will blow through that 128Gb in absolutely no time. 320Gb probably does not sound like a lot more, but by the time you start reaching 80% capacity, you can start dumping stuff you are done with. The other thing that worries me is that there is no optical drive and very few ports for anything else. This may or may not be a problem for you, but you certainly should check into it. The Mac Book Pro seems to me like it is more of a work horse and made to do what you are looking to do. Wanting mobility is understandable, but if I were you, I would go with the workhorse mobility, not the featherweight.

Thanks. Hopefully there will not be a next time, but if there is, I'll be glad to have this! O.K., carry on with the O.P.'s original intent. ;)

Bob, I was told that with the new iMacs (the aluminum, not the white ones) that they pull the glass screen off in order to access the internals. With the white one, there was a screw on the back that allowed you to get to everything. The idea of pulling the screen was one that deterred me from messing with it. If someone can show me a safe, easy way, I would be glad to do it.

Good points from carvedog. I have the iMac that he listed (actually, the 21, not the 24) One thing to consider about that is that you cannot take it apart and self service. I have always taken my pc's apart and rebuilt/fixed whatever was necessary. Last week my superdrive failed and I was immediately aware that I was either going to pay a lot of money or get an external drive (voiding the advantage of an all in one). It ended up being a fried cable. $100 for the service - a new superdrive would have been $300. Just something to think about. I still like the all in one, I just hope that nothing else goes wrong. BTW, the MAC wireless keyboard and mouse are the shiz.

I got my MAC in Jan. 2008 for the same thing - old family videos. I thought that it would take 2 years to do them all and I am dreadfully behind as of right now (I'm only up to '94). Now I have two cameras (Dad's and mine) rolling all of the time so the task gets more daunting. All of that being said, it is all pretty easy. Download the vids into iMovie, drag and drop your project, add transitions, music, whatever, and produce. Once you are done with that, throw it all into an iDVD project and make your DVD. That is how I do it anyway. Rendering the vids takes a long time, so be prepared. Sometimes it take 4 hours. Of course, this is not something you have to sit there for, but you have to wait. I don't know how serious you want to get with editing the vids, but if you want to go all the way, get Final Cut Pro. I wish that I had that for some sports/action stuff that I've done. I do videos of my snowboard students and it is more basic than I would like because iMovie doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles. As far as photo editing, plan on purchasing a program for that. I did not find that anything that came with my Mac was really any good for that, so I go Photoshop. Hope this helps. Off Topic: sorry I missed your Blue Mountain sessions this year. Both were gametime decisions for me - we were just too busy this year - it was a great season.

BigBump - would you mind letting me know who you are? You can PM me if you like. The only reason I am asking is because I know 4 of the 5 riding retake candidates and I am guessing that you are the one that I don't know.

I think that the hardbooters who have passed higher levels of cert have not "just passed" by any means. It takes a serious hardbooter to even consider taking the exam. I would encourage you to take this attitude and continue to your higher exams. It would be great to see someone pass a Level III in the east on hardboots. It would be even better to see it on a race board. It has been a few years since it has been done and I hear that the last guy was a real goober. ;) Be the future of hardbooting in AASI - my hat will be off to you.

What do you HAVE to do at a L III that is so dangerous for the geriatrics among us? Again, I find that the exams are pretty balanced. I just got off the phone earlier with the hardbooter that I mentioned above. He finished his exam (in softies) today. He was telling me that there ended up being five main modules that were brought up: Carving (on blacks FWIW), bumps, pipe, trees, and switch. That all seems pretty well balanced to me. I respectfully disagree with this. We are just instructors at resorts. We are not at the top of any discipline. That is what coaches are for. We are to be the "jack of all trades, master of none". The L III exam modules I listed above cover a lot of bases, but don't force anyone to specialize. If you want to specialize, they have freestyle accreds for that. Unfortunately, there is no "carving accred", but remember, AASI does not lead an industry, it tries to follow it and give its membership the tools to do the same. AASI was created in 1997 and the AASI handbook is in its second edition (first released in 1998 and then released in 2007). Dave, no big deal, but knowing this stuff may help at some point when you rock the hardboots for your Level II. As far as technical ability and requirements (assuming you are talking to Phil Fell) I don't know how much they have really changed from his time. He was strongly discouraged from taking his Level III in hardboots because of what the exam entailed (this by the examiner he ended up having at the exam), but did it anyway. He went on to kill it at the exam. (Phil Fell correct me if I am wrong) It wasn't easy then either. Go back a few years from there, and it did get easier. They had to start somewhere, and sometimes it was not with the best riders. In my early days, I heard a lot of "I did not really like _______ PSIA (snowboarding) event. I was better than the clinician/examiner" Since the inception of AASI, I have heard that less and less and have rarely heard it at all in the last 8 years or so. It seems that those who were less talented riders either faded away, got better, or went unnoticed because of how well they teach and/or coach. I don't see what the advantage to this would be. I have seen and heard where the guy on the freestyle board was asked to teach in the gates and the guy on plates had to teach in the park. Again, it is about being a jack of all trades. Exactly, and this is something from a FS accred, not a Level III. No. I think that it is a real shame that Ski certs are totally about turning. I strongly believe that PSIA is not following the industry. Skiing switch, small jumps and easy (low consequence) rails/boxes, should be in the exams IMO. PSIA needs some young blood to revive a geriatric system.

I either missed that before or it was an edit. I would agree with that statement, although they are still not "alpine oriented" but they carve.

For those who don't know, there are a handful of riders on Bomber that HAVE passed the Level III Exam on plates, be it on a race, alpine, or even a freeride board. Some have even done so with aplomb.

Your experience is a bummer. I can assure you that in the east, you had better be good in the bumps. They seem to really be emphasized. In fact, switch bumps are emphasized as well (I thought that I remembered you saying that you had to do switch bumps at yours - I know a few others on here had to) I have never heard of anyone going and not having to carve well, either. By tomorrow I should have the full report on the exams this year as they are going on right now at Killington. I know one hardbooter who is there, but he is taking it in softies. There are at least six others that I know who are taking it, so I should be able to get a clear picture of what went down this year. I had a great hardboot clientele until two years ago when my wife's job uprooted us from my old mountain. Now I don't see nearly as many. I have also stopped most of my teaching in hardboots because my knees cannot take kneeling/sitting with angles anymore. In fact, my 90 days on board this year were all on softies at some point in the day - I never made it a full day on hardboots. :( That is in direct contrast to previous years where I did the exact opposite. At the same time, I have continued to make new converts regularly. Most are instructors, though, so they get free hardboot clinics as opposed to being paying customers.

Steve, When was carving not a part of AASI? I realize that alpine/race specific equipment is ignored mostly, but carving has always been a part of it from what I have seen. Most of the examiners and L III's that I know would go into our poll as "Master Freecarvers" ;) (wink for bringing up the poll, not because the riders are not Masters). In the east, they still have carving events every year - of course I realize that the east also has more events than most. It is also still possible to pass Level II and Level III exams on alpine or race boards - if you can meet the standards. Maybe your division has a different feel? All of this being said, I know some of the newer examiners are clueless when it comes to alpine issues. Could you elaborate on where your view of them being in the dark comes from? Thanks.

Why not just rock the race board?

The trick is going to be to get a bike with it already on.

The new HammerSchmidt cranks should be able to revolutionize setups like this.

I ride BMX, but I only do it on my MTB now. I have an 07 Kona Scrap that I use. I rode MTB's first and then wifey got me a cruiser. I rode BMX on the cruiser for a short time and then started racing in the cruiser class on my MTB. I gave the cruiser away and have not looked back. I am just too big for those bikes (IMO). BMX is certainly a lot of fun. I generally do not race any more. I am just as happy to go to practice sessions at the track or go hit the local dirt jumps. I also enjoy urban sessions, although I often take the freeride or downhill rig out for that. I just got back from Ray's Mountain Bike Park yesterday. That place is always a blast. They have just about every kind of riding you can think of. If you can borrow a bike, go hit a practice session at a local track so you can try before you buy.

I found this old thing and thought that I would scan it and post it before tossing it. Hopefully when someone does a search it will be helpful.

If you like riding snud on a small hill, give me a shout. I'll be at Bear Creek on Saturday. I don't know if you are into parks, but our parks are legit for such a small resort.

...supposed to be steezy - hands in the crotch, too. :rolleyes:

O.K., now you are scaring me. I am not known for having good ankles in the first place. That being said, I hop on skateboards from time to time and still have no problems with kickflips. My ollies suck compared to when I was a teen, though. I used to be able to ollie up onto some pretty high stuff (2.5' walls was high IMO, maybe others don't consider that high). I probably won't get too crazy with the ankle breaking stuff - we'll see. So can you explain the benefit of torsional stiffness in a skateboard? If you tell me that Monococ is better, I will certainly go that route, it is only $10 more. Are there any drawbacks? I am 6'6" and almost 240 lbs., so extra stiffness always sounds good to me. Are they as strong?

Understood. Thanks again for the reply. I am a freestyle coach on the snowboard, so I would like to get some summer cross training on a skateboard. I have always liked kickflips, shove its, etc. That is why I was wondering about the Fire Stick/Wood. They seem like they are just oversized "popsicle boards" and that is really what I am looking for. Have you seen or ridden them? Anybody else have any thoughts on them?

Great feedback Gecko. I really appreciate it. Now I have to find out if the shop I am working with carries these. What do you think of the Fire Stick and/or Fire Wood? It seems like they are a little more of a freestyle shape (twin). The wheelbase is a half inch shorter, though. Any thoughts? Yours looks huge! How does that thing come around for kickflips? What kind of riding do you do on it?

Are you talking about a hip flexor strain?