Phil

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Thanks for the responses. I'll try some of your options and post back later. Of course, I'll try it on wifey's equipment first before I try it on my own. ;) XXguitarist - the board looks great (sorry I did not mention that earlier - thinking only of myself! :rolleyes: ) I hope that it holds up.

I recommend an SL board for riding small hills. They are such a blast. I too, enjoy the F2, but I have tried others and the bottom line is that I prefer to be on an SL stick on small hills (unless there is a GS course or light traffic). I would love to ride a MADD, but I cannot see having a 158. Like Jack said, they are probably not for the big and tall - which I am both. The shortest board I have had in recent memory is a 163 SL - both Volkl and F2. I was ecstatic when F2 came out with the 166 and now they don't make it anymore. :( A 163 SL would be a blast on your hills. I have also found them very fun to play on - I know that you hit up the park from time to time - very easy to jump and hit rails on *if you are already comfy on that stuff*. My $.02

For you MD'ers who need a fix, check out Seven Springs! I would recommend my own Bear Creek, but we are opening with two parks and one cruiser - not exactly a carver's dream. Winter is here! 7Springs:

Equal pressure on balls and heels when standing on your board in the flat. It is a very strong, stable position to be in. It will allow you to make just about any movement you need to on a snowboard because you are starting from a position that allows the greatest range of motion. Think about standing without a snowboard on - four on the floor is natural - I like to call it neutral. The trick is to be able to adjust your bindings and stance so that you can achieve a neutral stance. Every person on BOL would like to give you different stance advice, but the bottom line is that everyone's body is different and therefore there is no "magic bullet" stance. The way that I train people to ride best utilizes a neutral stance. There are some techniques/styles that need some kind of compensation in the stance to make up for other things involved in that kind of riding. Do your best to find a neutral stance and then crouch, twist, get low, get tall - see which stance allows you to start at neutral and still have the greatest range of motion. If you are tucking your back knee into your front, you are limiting your range of motion, so I would recommend trying to get that out of your stance. (don't anyone me for saying that - it is simple biomechanics - so ride how you want, this info is an answer to Brad's ?) Hope this helps. Hope to see you at Bear Creek sometime. I'll also be sneaking down to Roundtop on a few Thursdays this season. -Phil-

Yes, I think it can help very much as long as you are not reinforcing ineffective habits. BTW, make sure that you are actually able to find the neutral stance or "four on the floor" on your current setup without any kind of compensating stance. You should be able to just stand there comfortably without twisting or compensating. If you cannot, then something might need to be adjusted before trying the stuff above.

1. You are as much of an addict as any of us. Congratulations. 2. My wife is in R & D now and she shot her first research video sideways as well. She had a good laugh when she saw me watching that video. 3. For anyone else reading my post before watching the video, there is no need to watch the whole thing, watch the first minute or two, the rest is redundant. No offense intended, Rich. I would start by slowing down. Do you remember when we worked on "finding neutral"? Try to find it again. Can you find "four on the floor"? Try feeling things out a bit more. Untuck that back knee from the front and start driving both and then balance on the edge. This is MUCH harder on the heelside than on toeside. Try to feel even pressure on both feet as you balance on the edge. See how long you can hold that pose on each side and see how high of an edge angle you can balance on. If you feel like one of your feet is twisting or that you are putting more weight on one foot than the other, then try going back to neutral and starting over. Once you feel REALLY comfortable, balanced and neutral, even when balancing on edge, then you can add in fore and aft movements. Note that if you are in a solid, neutral stance, you should also be able to go fore and aft - even on edge - with strong movements. It should not cause you to have to contort your body too much, although you will see much more contortion on the heelside than the toeside. So far, this has been very basic. The idea up until now is to get you in a powerful position on your board whether flat or on edge. The position you were in on the video is not necessarily a strong one IMO. Wiggling your front knee back and forth with your back knee tucked in behind it will not accomplish this. This is just the start. Let me know how it goes.

Thanks. After looking at the HH site and thinking about it more, I would probably be just as well off to have pictures printed, use adhesive to stick them to the vinyl and then cover them with the clear vinyl....??

Actually, I was thinking about cutting it to a size that would fit in my printer and printing pics of my family on it, then applying it to the board and covering it with clear. I was wondering if a regular printer would be able to print on vinyl.

Where did you get it and how much? I have been looking for something like this. My other question is whether or not you could get white and run it through a printer and then get clear and cover the printed portion for protection - kind of like making your own stickers for your board?

I am thinking that any 3 or 4 hole disk is riddled with holes and is meant to be held with 3 or 4 screws. If you think it would be fine, then go for it. The thing about the B disks is that they only have two holes because they are engineered to be held in two places. They are not for other bindings, though, so I doubt that they would fit your F2's.

I have ridden with a lot of people who are using ICS and most of them are using EST bindings. I have not seen any failures in the EST bindings with regard to the 2 screw mounting. I have, of course, seen strap and highback failures as you would expect. The EST bindings have been known to creep (change angles) as you ride, though. OTOH, I have only known a few people to be riding an ICS board with non-EST bindings by using the Burton 2 hole disk. Again, I don't know of any failures, but I also have not seen any burly and super aggressive riders using that setup. All of the people I have seen just happen to be small and/or unaggressive. My problem would lie in the fact that you want to use a disk that was designed for 3 or 4 hole patterns and just use 2 screws. Hey, it's your life, but I would not do it. Burton's 2 hole disks are made to be just that - 2 hole disks. I would trust them because that is what they are made for. I would even trust certain 4 hole disks for 3 hole applications, but still not 3 or 4 hole for 2.

Burton ICS, or Infinite Channel System, equipped boards are meant to be used with EST bindings. However, I believe that the boards come with a 2 hole disk for other Burton bindings (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Theoretically, you should be able to use the two diagonal holes on any binding to hold them to the ICS. Would you really want to? :( Believe me, I am not bashing Burton. I ride a lot of their products and I'm pretty happy with them, but this sounds like a really bad idea, albeit one that would probably work for a short time. The issue of plate bindings on any of their boards is a valid concern as well. I would not do it, but I am a big guy. YMMV.

I would bet that there are more leg injuries in hardbooting because people have narrower than optimal stances. I see these stances quite regularly. With a narrow stance, you do not have the leverage over the board that you should. When something goes wrong, the board has leverage over you. Widen the stance up and you have leverage even when things go wrong. In these situations, you will be more likely to break the board than the other way around, but I prefer that option.

If you are already looking at Donek, I would go with them. As some have said, you cannot go wrong. That being said, Never Summer is a great board maker as well. Their park boards are pretty nice. I am not sure if they meet your definition of "small", though.

I am so glad I could not afford the TD2's that I wanted and needed so badly last year!

and:

I have my four year old sidestep up the stairs regularly. It is very valuable practice for skills she uses on the hill. I have gone down the stairs, but I have not had her try. I was thinking about it, though. Maybe your post will motivate me. What do you think, should I ask her if she wants to, or just push her down?

No matter how you are riding, everything starts at the Earth. Even if you are turning your head and shoulders into the turn, you are still starting with an opposite movement in your lower legs. The movement has to start and/or be counteracted somewhere. Head and shoulder moves are quite common. The question is whether you are looking for a certain feeling in your riding, are you looking to be the fastest through a race course, are you looking to have a "look" to your riding, or are you looking to have efficient and effective riding? I am sure this model will break down in a lot of areas, but it is almost like a continuum: Race...Effic./Effect...Feel....Look I hope that makes sense. I think that people that are going for the feel and look are going to make more gross body movements and you will see this in the shoulders more. People who are looking to be efficient and effective in all situations will tend to keep the movements lower on the chain. Racers will be able to do anything and everything as necessary, although they will tend to lean toward the efficiency effectiveness end of things whenever they can. It is obvious to me that Jack pushes the efficiency/effectiveness side of hardbooting. I don't think that there is any reason to get upset about that. Try to understand where he is coming from before getting out the torch.

"ski parties" are becoming a family tradition at my house. Right now we are doing them at least once a week. My girls just love to wear their skis around the house. There are a lot of skills that you can work on for both skiing and snowboarding at home. That being said, the "ski party" idea does not work as well with snowboards. Here is a pic of the fam last year: I have not taken any pics yet this year. Needless to say, when I got my new SB boots this year and wore them around the house for days on end, the family wasn't phased at all.

Do you mean that there is a possibility that some of what both candidates have been saying may have just been rhetoric?? No, I'll never believe that! :rolleyes:

I am looking forward to them being over as well, but I am really enjoying the gas prices in the meantime. Any bets for how fast they will be back up after the election?

I have a bunch of boards, but for the last 10 years or so, I have continued to keep a "functional quiver" at the mountain. It is pretty simple, really - GS, SL, FR and FS. I believe that these categories serve me well. If I had to, I would be able to make it through with only two: either the FR or the FS and the SL. I am happy to ride anything and teach anything on any one of them, but it is nice to have the option to be specific. When I am doing FS coaching, I prefer to be on a FS board. If I am teaching hardbooters or racing (non-BX) I will be in hardboots, but if I know I must go back and possibly teach the public (especially FS) I will stay on the SL board. I try never to teach public FS on hardboots, although sometimes I will do instructor FS clinics on a race stick. They are my friends and "family" and usually get pumped about it or are indifferent. The GS board is for me alone. If I get a chance to freeride with no chance of having to teach, that is the board I like to ride - dare I say, my favorite. If I am riding the GS and get called in to teach, I will usually go grab the SL. Having a FS and a FR board on hand is more of a matter of having a spare in case something breaks. Boards: F2 GS F2 SL FR Never Summer Legacy FS Burton Custom X Please take into account that I am usually on small mountains. If I am going to a big mountain and do not have to teach or take a specific clinic, I will take the GS stick. If I could only ride one board and it got through one season, I would be impressed. In fact, I would tell all of my friends. If I got two seasons, I would probably post about it on every forum I could as the invincible board. Three seasons would never happen. For me, part of the reason for having a quiver is to make boards last.

Here is a pic of the snowmaking last night.

What is your definition of "open"? I rode Mt. Snow today with all of the Jibblets. They just had their discovery area open. They had a few rails, but they also had room enough to just cruise to the bottom. It was not much, but it was a taste. My girls got to take their first runs of the season on their skis as well, so that was nice. Today was hiking, but they are trying to open the lift for tomorrow. My "taste" of snow has now only made me hungrier.