Strider

Well, the fee is for the season. We have 7 race nights and 2 practice nights and the cost is $65. Our team cost is generally a bit higher because we buy shirts or fleeces or something with our logo each year. No helmets reguired. We start at 7 each Monday night, and are usually in the bar getting our gear on before the race, and after celebrating. Stop on out sometime and ride as a guest if you want. Just ask for Brett and the "Dead Sexy" team and someone will point you in our direction. We do still have room for one more racer on our team as well. Hope to see you out there sometime.

HEy all, We have an adult race league that happens every Monday night at 7 pm at Tyrol Basin. People are welcome to come and ride as a guest with our team. As always there is plenty of liquid entertainment after the races. Hope to see some of you out there.

I know its a long way off, but I'm finalizing plans to be there late March. Will post here once I know the dates. Would love to ride with you if it works out.

I'll be there and so will my dad carving at least part of each day. Would love to ride with any of the area hardbooters, unless there's awesome pow which we don't get here in WI. Might also try to head over to Keystone for the Wed. night session. Hope to see some of you out there.

Wanted to drop you my e-mail. bnemke@tds.net If you can send over the group picture, and the individual pics with names I will incorporate them into the video we're puting together. Thanks again for setting it all up. Look forward to hearing from you.

Great snow, great weather, and a great bunch of riders. I wanted to thank all of the MN crew for having us up there. We definitley need to keep doing that. John and I will try to get the video up before the snow melts

So, it looks like we will definitely be there. Going to drive up tonight after our race league gets finished. I was wondering where on the hill/chalet are you guys going to meet up? I know its not a huge place, but figured we might as well not spend the morning chasing over the hill looking for hradbooters. I also assume people will be out there at 10.

Looks like its in the works for us. Any cheap hotels around Rochester/Red Wing if we drive up Monday night?

As one of the Tyrol Basin regulars I'd love to come up there, and Brent even told me about it before you posted, but I just can't ditch work on a Tuesday right now. Maybe later in the season.......damn it would be fun to ride with a new group of hardbooters.

Okay, I used to play a lot of console games back in highschool and college, and nw only occasionally play FPS on the computer. That being said I just played the coolest game ever for PS2 called "Guitar Hero." I know that compared to really playing the guitar its nothing, but having played the trumpet for more years than I care to count, I'd have to say musically its pretty damn entertaining. Lots of cool songs, awesome interface if you use the guitar, and a ton of fun challenging friends to see who can play each song the best. Highly recommended.

Les Moise in Milwaukee(whitefish Bay) is the only place I know of that has a decent bootfitter. They work mostly with skiers there, but the principles on inside fit are pretty much the same. For all of you who asked about the racing, there is a USASA series at Tyrol There is always slalom and GS on the Sun of a com p weekend. It has decent participation, but a lot of the better racers don't compete unless they know they are going to drop the $$ top go to nationals that particular year. The reason being, it costs about $40 everytime for USASA, and the NAstar on Sundays is $10 for unlimited runs. Also, the MOnday night adult race league is a whole lot more fun and we might try to go as a team to NASTAR nationals one of these years. If any of you want to ride drop me an e-mail when you're coming out. I've been an instructor at Tyrol for 14 years now, and love to ride with a large group of platers. Also, team captain of DeadSexy Snowboard team, which is our Monday night team, and we still have 2 spots open for this year. You can find the info on the league here http://www.tyrolbasin.com/race/adultrace.html There is also talk of running slalom practice one to two times a week independantly of any leagues or competitions, but that is not a sure thing yet.

I bought it last year and really like it as well. It can't replace a good hot wax for the beginning of the season, but it works great to keep you going throughout the season. I also cheated once I got it. I took a sample of the fabric to my local fabric store and bought a yard of it. Then, I cut a piece of PVC to the width of my board and made my own shim to hold the cloth and can do my whole board in one swipe. Buying the extra cloth also made it possible for me to use a different cloth for each kind of wax I use so I don't mix the waxes. The thing that I really like is the edge tuner. Using the sandpaper does a great job of polishing the edge and making it really sharp without taking away much material. Of course iof you have rock dings and such a file will still be needed to get them out, but for basic tuning it works awseome. Two thumbs up from me.

Its only a small hill here in the midwest, but I paid $200 for my season pass by finding a buddy who never had one and having him buy one too. Its their way of getting new people to the hill. Regular rate is $40 a day all the time, any day. Keep in mind though that Tyrol Basin only has like 400 vertical feet. My favorite deal is thew 4-pass to Copper. I go there every year. You can get a 4-day ticket for $69. Its only available until November though. Nice thing is it doesn't have to be consecutive days and it has no blackout dates.

I ride my plates on my Atomic Don 167 and it works just fine. Its a stiff all-mountain board that I use for pow, trees, park, pipe, etc. I weigh in at 170, and ride more freeride like angles when on that board, 33 front, 28 rear. Even when I push it hard or miss a landing I don't seem to have any problems, although if I really nosed over on a landing I would be more worried about cracking off the nose than if I was using my soft-boot step-in highbacks.

I've taught skiing(and snowboarding) since 1990 and have a lot of experience with kids. I agree with the people who said it all depends on the child. My son started last winter at 22 months and we didn't use a leash. The leash can be helpful, but you need to know what you're doing. Too many parents just use it as a brake which is obviously not a good thing. The edge holders on the other hand can be invaluable. At 23 months my son was too weak to turn the edges and tips in on his own. With the tip hoilder on we were able to teach him to turn by the second day on snow. If you get one, I recommend getting one that snaps apart as well. This way they can still walk around and get on the lift, and you can experiment with parrallel skiing for a change of pace. A few other things to consider. Most importantly is attention span. The minute thye want to stop and do something else you should. They will probably want to come back and ski more, but if you make them do it they will just shut down. Also, if you have one that wants to go go go make sure to take some breaks becasue thye will be tired. Try to get boots now if you can and have him walk around the house with them on like a game so he is used to the feel of the boots. Hope you have a great time with it

PAt, We've got a large rec-league team that races in a NASTAR handicapped league. We all want to go and would rather go to NASTAR than USASA given that we love to race, but also like the non-race events and group of people that go to NASTAR. Unfortunately, Utah is just too far away for us to make it a worthwhile trip, and then there are the issues of skier gates, course setting, and non-snowboard specific prizes. We all can deal with the gates and course set-up because we always do, but teice a year the league runs snowboard gates for everyone(much grumbling from the skiers) and we always close our raw times in by almost a second to the skiers. This is a lot considering our courses are on a 250 ft. hill with an 8 gate course. We all plan on going next year especially if its in Copper, so that will add 4 people to the 30-35 class, 1 to the 55-59 class, and some in the female classes. Also, we have a few who've been to both NASTAR and USASA and they all said that the competition i nthe open class at USASA is better, but overall NASTAR was a better time and more bang for the buck.

I'd have to agree with Phill. I ride a 172 Oxygen in both the SL and GS and have no problem, but you need to use a more straight up body position with a solid cross under in the SL. I do have a 162 Rossi with a much tighter sidecut, but it is also a slower board although easier to handle in "tight" gates. Smaller sidecut may help, but also work on some technique if you think you need it.

Hrmm...doesn't seem possible since I readjusted them just last week. I know that even when I tighten the bolts down on mine, the wheel thingys still spin a bit, but the cuff can't move up or down.

As people already pointed out they are for side canting. I DO NOT ride with mine loose, and actually always check the adjustment at different times during the season to ensure that they are in the right place. I have nice straight legs(not bowed or knock-kneed) so I ride with my cuffs straight, but pushed down low. I do agree with Randy that they are a poor system for canting and tend to break. I've had to replace 3 bolts alkready. IF you really have some serious cant issues you're better off doing it at a boot fitter, or using shims.

Using skis actually does make it much easier. I aqlso found that once you get used to how your camera works, you can hold it in an underhand way and extend your arm down low and point it in the direction you want. I've been able to absorb most of the shock/shake using this technique, but it took a season to get used to it so I could keep the person in the frame the whole time. Oh..also helps to bend you knees a ton and use them as shock absorbers.

That first pic set is great. Just wondering why you're 10 feet outside the gate. :D After lookin at the time-lapse set for the entire course I got another idea for your toe-sides. Drop me a liner and I'll reply later. Sweet sets though...we gotta get him to come out for a MOnday night or Sunday afternoon race sometime.

AAsi level 2, ans PSIA level 2. Took level 1 in softies, but on an old PJ. Was told if I didn't learn to ride hardboots I'd never get anywhere. Took level 2 about 7 years later in softies on a freeride board and passed with flying colors and was told to take level 3 immediately. Took level 3 and had both set-ups along. Started on softies and soon realized that the hardboard would not be coming out as I was chastised for having "too aggressive of a stance." I ride my freeride board at 27 front, 18 back. Passed the first day and failed the second. The examiner the second day was about 24 years old, new to ed staff and knew very little about dynamic carving. In fact, that was my teaching assignment which he failed me on. He said that the concepts I was teaching(taught the group a cross-through turn after reviewing cross over-and under as no one in the group was doing anything other than a cross-over) weren't applicable to freeriding. The older examiner that was supervising actually corrected the examiner at that point and the new guys response was " I've never ridden an alpine board and don't see the relevance of that type of riding." Right then and there I decided that it probably wasn't going to be worth my while anymore and am now looking forward to the new snowboard coaching programs that USSA is developing. The best part was that at the beginning they talked about how you need to adapt to the client and teach to thagt person'r stance/ability, and the first thing they tried to do was change my stance to duck. Anyway, I hope that in other areas that aren't in the central division there is a little more acceptance of carving instead of being focused on freestyle only. Until then, I don't see much use in AASI anymore.

You can go to Les Moise in Milwaukee for good bootfitting, but I don't believe thay carry the HEqad or Deluxe boots so I thinkyou'd have to get the boot first.

Q #1 Besides the obvious answer that it is fun, I also considered it important to the evolution of my riding. I have been an instructor for 15 years and it drives me crazy when I see kids who can barely make it to the kicker, but can drop a 720 like they are on a trampoline. I've always thought that to be a decent rider you better know how to carve. Its a great feeling on the groomers, helps control on the steeps and all-mountain riding, gets you used to high-speed edge changes for trees and racing, and most important to the freestylers you need to carve the walls to ride the pipe well. Q#2 When I first started riding alpine gear I thought it did; however, it just takes some time to get used to the gear and the stance just as it would if you switched from a freeride board at 12-5 angles to a 9-9 duck stance on a freestyle board. As one of the previous posts pointed out most people carry more than 1 board in their quiver. I have my a 162 slalom board, a 172 GS board, and my 165 freeride board. I ride hardplates on all of them and the lowest angles are 38-27 on my freeride board. Once used to it, riding switch is no harder than when I used softies at 27-15. Also, just because the new instructors usually don't believe me when I tell them I can boost as big as they can on my gs I usually will run my full out race setup in the pipe for a weekend just to prove its the technique and not the equipment that limits a person's potential. Q#3 Well, this one is tough. I love to ride all over and especially freeriding when I'm out west, but here in the midwest it gets boring so there tends to be a lot of park structures all over the hill. I ride at Tyrol Basin which is a great snowboarding hill. We do usually ask the general manager to keep one of the steeper, wider runs groomed without kickers so we can lay down some nice hard carves without running out of room to really crank some big turns. I think thats about all you can do. Q#4 I definitely do not think its endangered. Since I started riding plates about 9 years ago I've seen the numbers steadily increase at our hill. It used to be a few of us "older"(I'm 33) guys who still had our old PJ's that would be the only ones out there. Over that time I've seen a lot of skiers switch to boarding because they loved the look of the carve, but didn't realize that boarding wa more than just jibbing. In the last 4 years I've seen a huge increase in interst in the younger board crowd. I've started to get carve request lessons, and I have 3 extra old gear beginner carve setups that I keep at the hill that get a lot of use. Every time I do a Carve clinic for the instructors more and more of them ask me about buying the equipment and learning to read gates. Also, a good indicator is our Monday night race league. We started out with 1 team that had about 5 snowboarders against the 12 skier teams. Now we have 2 full teams of ten and more people trying it all the time. Q#5 Worst thing has to be the lack of easily obtained demo equipment. There are only 3 boot makers out there so you have to take your chances with fit unless you're lucky enough to have a shop nearby that carries them. Also, I've probably bought and sold about 8 boards over the last 3 years trying to find the one with the right feel, and just to see how everything out there does feel. With my freeride board I was able to go to a demo day at the local hill and try boards from 6 companies in one day. THe SES is the only place you can do something like that for race/carve boards. I'm adding #6 which is the BEst thing about carving. I think that the community of hardbooters is exceptional. I've never run into another hardbooter that wasn't happy to ride with you and help with technique, or showing you the mountain. Its also a great group to sell and buy things from as no one seems to be out to gouge you and it is the best way to try a lot of equipment. I just hope that more people realize it and give it a try. And lastly....thanks for putting out a great magazine. I've loved every issue, especially the history behind all the boarding. I even bought my dad who's been hardbooting for 5 years now a subscription.

Nitrogen N2 78.084% Oxygen O2 20.947% Argon Ar 0.934% Carbon Dioxide CO2 0.033% Neon Ne 18.2 parts per million Helium He 5.2 parts per million Krypton Kr 1.1 parts per million Sulfur dioxide SO2 1.0 parts per million Methane CH4 2.0 parts per million Hydrogen H2 0.5 parts per million Nitrous Oxide N2O 0.5 parts per million Xenon Xe 0.09 parts per million Ozone O3 0.07 parts per million Nitrogen dioxide NO2 0.02 parts per million Iodine I2 0.01 parts per million Carbon monoxide CO trace Ammonia NH3 trace Ever since I've kept this compound between my mitt and the snow, I have seen little or no wear! Go figure.... [/b] I'd have to agree. Once I started keeping this compound between my gloves and the snow/edges of the board/trees/ice....I've seen a much better durability out of my gloves.