Strider

46/48...but one of them I had the name on the right state, but apparently not the arrow.

That would be true, except that I had that sig up about 2 years ago when I joined on the old format forum boards :) I think I beat you to it :D

I like a nice Stout to start, but then small batch Bourbon is great. I put Bookers in flasks for all my groomsmen a few years back, that turned out to be a lot of fun at the reception :)

Hey Jack, I assume this is a boardercross board or freeride type model? Also wondering if he had a price in mind. Thanks.

I rode ski boots for 4 years. All of the guys at my hill told me I'd ride better and drop my times in the course by .5-1 second just with alpine boots. I didn't believe them, but when I did switch it made a huge difference. The Alpine snowboard boots have a totally different flex pattern that allowed me to "feel" the board better and have better control over it. I don't think its terrible to learn on ski boots, but if you have to buy something and you don't already own ski boots I'd definitely look for snowboard boots.

I spent the first four years on a soft board and worked really hard at switch riding so that it was almost as comfoprtable as my regular riding. Once I started in on hard boards I found it only took a little practice to get comfortable there as well. I agree that its great to give your quads a rest and it really does make peole look twice when you go buy with the flat end in front :D Never caught the tail riding switch, but with all the counter-rotation needed to see where you're going it sometimes is easy to get "stuck" in a carve. We've even done the NASTAR course at our home hill switch just for fun...now that gets scary.

Well, we don't really meet up anywhere since its a very small hill and we can usually spot all the hardbooters prettty quickly. NASTAR runs at 10 so we usually are at the top of the course around then. therwise we usually ride the "b" and "c" lifts which empty into the same loading area. I'll try to be out there....silver helmet, either a yellow Burton, or a red, white and blue Rossi.

Different topic: I will be in Mt. Horeb the first weekend in March. Any carvers at Tyrol? Kenton [/b] Yeah, there's a bunch of us. We'll probably be out Sunday for sure, and maybe on Sat. When you gonna be there? I assume you mean the weekend of the 6th ,7th.

There should be a good crew of Hardbooters at tyrol on Sunday. There's a pretty loyal following for the NASTAR racing. I'd love to ride with some new people too, but I'll be up at Granite PEak volunteering for Special Olympics this weekend. Be sure to post if you're gonna ride at Tyrol again as its my home hill :)

There's a hill here called Whitecap Mtn. that has 2 peaks. There is a lift thats start at the bottom of one and then runs from the top of one over the valley and over the top of the 2nd with places to get off on both peaks. It ios the only way to get to one of the peaks, although you can ride other lifts once there. Over the valley there is only 1 lift tower that is a lift pole attached to the top of what looks like a huge TV antennae thing. It is a good 150 feet in the air. The best part is this lift is about 30 years old...a classic 2 seater with the lift bar in the middle, and no protective bar in front to bring down. The hill is up near LAke Superior and the winds can come howling down throug hthere quite often which really makes it a fun ride.

I ride a 178 Nidecker and a 169 Burton FP. With that said I just bought a 160 Rossi X-VAS because the other boards are just too long at my tiny hill. They work great in a closed course GS run and out west, but otherwise by the time I really get them ripping I'm at the bse again, or trying to weave around 20 kids stopped in the middle of the hill. I'm really looking forward to riding the shorter board and making some nice short radius turns.

Maciek's got it right. Wax with a cheap all purpose wax and then scrape it off when it is still warm and soft. This will pull most of the old wax and dirt off the board and out of the p-tex pores. If you must use a base cleaner the best thing is to use a citrus solvent. Don't let it sit on the base very long and make sure you get it all off. If it does dry out your base you may be able to get a stone grind and get rid of the dry p-tex, but only if it wasn't damaged too bad. Good luck.

Hey there, We missed you guys at the WISO camp this year. We got 12 inches the night before camp and were able to ride all those boulder runs at Whitecap that usually don't have any snow :) Jack's got great ideas. We use this all the time. Also useful are "garlands,"especially in the case where they are having trouble with one turn. You start out with a J-turn and then have them let the board fall back towards the fall line, and then instead of making a j-turn the other direction have them do another J-turn in the same direction. You can link a whole lot of these together if you have the room. It will get them used to letting the board come back to the fall line before they have to make that "scary" transition to the other edge. Anytime you want to ride together or get some more tips on the beginner thing give me a call. You can ask Scott to get my # from BOB. Hope to see ya on the hills.

There definitely are a large number of factors, but I can give you some solid numbers for a short course based on the experience we have at our hill over the last 5 years. If it is a skier set NASTAR course with big gates I and the other good hardbooters run 1.5-2 seconds behind the fastest skier at our hill who happens to also be our pacesetter. This is on a typical 11 gate gs course. On the same course with stubbies we run .5-1 second off his time. Now, when I help set up a snowboard course for USASA, we can get right up on his time and sometimes beat him if he has a bad day :). The stubbies make a huge difference, and no matter what we always have a bit of a different line than a skier so if the turns are more rhythmic for the boarder we're faster, for the skier they're faster. I asked the skiers about this and it mostly boils down to what they are used to. They can go as close to the stubbies as we can, but almost all of them complain that they don't "see" the stubbies the same as a tall gate. They also aren't as used to a snowboard type copurse with more "rounded" turns and it throws their sense of rhythm off. These are only observations from our little hill, but maybe they will help Here's to Good runs.. and fast times.

heheh...pwned ind33d!!!1 I didn't figure there'd be any l337s out there on this site. CS Roxorz Joor Boxxorz!! Anyway, I'm not too good at l33t5p3ak anyway.

As a goofy rider I actually get asked by my regular friends to ride the left side. The reason being only the very short nose of my board hangs over onto their very short nose, thus avoiding all the edge-banging and topsheet scratching that goes on when our tails are pointing toward each other when I'm on the right. Really, its all about which turn the people you ride with are more comfortable with as well. GOOFY RULES!! WE OWN JOO!!!! LOL

I am actually enjoying this thread and have found a lot of great feedback. I am not just whining for whining sakes, or upset about the critique of my riding. Phil is right that you can learn a ton from the examiners. My level 2 guy really ripped me for opening to the hill too much and I spent 6 nights the next season driving 3 hours to his hill to work with him in prep for my level 3. It really helped a ton as I was counter-rotating my heelsides waaayyyyy too much. I guess I was just upset about the inconsistencies. In level 1 I rode a freestyle board duck stance and had never tried raceplates. My examiner then told me I'd never get anywhere riding duck and I had better learn to carve a hard board. I did and after about 5 years decided that I should take my level 2. In that exam I learned the most I ever have in regards to riding and teaching. We had a great group and got a lot of constructive criticism from the examiners. The very next year after spending the season working with the examiner I mentioned above I went for level 3. The first day examiner was great and had a lot of constructive criticism and I again learned a lot. that day my riding was a bit sub-par, but still didn't get failed for any skills and was complimented on my carving skills with a freestyle board. The next day the examiner failed me on all riding skills, and everyone else in our group as well. I am not upset I failed, I didn't expect to make it the first try, but was disappointed in the way it happened. After the first day I felt I knew what I needed to work on and had some good ideas given to me. The second day I left demoralized and didn't know what I needed to work on because the examiner only offered comments like "you're doing it wrong." Sorry to keep revivng this, but I have been encouraged by the replies and I do agree that more work is probably the way to go. I

I agree with the people who have said that you don't need to carve to have fun. However, the point of my post in the other thread was that as a certification organization AASI did a poor job of recognizing carving skills, and in fact made it seem as if teaching them at all was "wrong." I love the pipe and park on my freestyle board just as much as I love carving, in fact it is a great way to break the boredom here in the midwest, but I am shocked that I was told that an aggressive forward stance on a freestyle board is wrong. As an instructor you need to teach people and adapt to what is comfortable to them. I've taught many lessons ridng switch the whole way, and rode duck for a year so I could better understand the mechanics of the ankles and knees in this position. To have AASI tell me that my stance and carving techniques are too agressive for a freestyle board just doesn't seem to make sense, especially coming from an examiner that has never ridden a carving board. I would think that anyone who is examiner level should be able to ride all disciplines and styles. I was actually done thinking about this after a long summer of brooding, but I couldn't help but bring it up after seeing the previous topic. Anyway, everyone on the hill can have fun and everyone can learn, but then then the official organizations should maybe recognize that.

Actually ours was only 2 days long. And the other unfortunate part is if you fail 1 day you're done. I passed the first day and ran into this guy the second day. It was actually frustrating for our whole group as we all failed on the second day.

Thanks for the input Pre-school rider. I agree wholeheartedly on your thoughts about rotation/counterrotation and stance angles. During the exam I was riding with my shoulders square to my stance which is very much square to the fall line, but I didn't actually try to make the duck stance riders ride with their shoulders that far forward for the reasons you stated. I was trying to show them techniques to get the same aggreessive edgeing without the forward stance, but that is probably why the examiner didn't buy it. I like the fact that AASI gives a model, but too many people don't realize that it is only a starting place. Good instructors evolve with their students every lesson and what works for one most certainly doesn't work for everyone. The best part of that exam was one of the comments from my level II exam thew year before was "Very strong level 3 skills. Consider taking the exam next year." I am mostly frustrated becuase there are politics involved where there should be none. Anyway, I still love to teach and still have a great following of students who come back year after year and their input is what really counts. :D

Hey all, I have been instructing since 1994. I am currently level II certified in both alpine skiing and snowboarding by AASI and PSIA here in the central division. I took my level 3 cert last year and failed, but am pretty pissed about it. We had a new examiner who transferred from the Rocky Mtn. div.(Vail school). I rode a freestyle board because they told me that we wouldn't be riding any alpine boards for the weekend. I noticed everyone but me was riding duck stance off the bat. My teaching subject came up as improving peoples carving skills. I was thinking Woo hoo!!! Anyway. I showed a bunch of alpine inspired carving techniques that work equally as well on a freestyle board, you know knee postions, angulation and shoulder postiton, and simple carve drills that isolate movements. The examiner ripped me at the end and said that he didn't understand where I was going. I explained that these were race/alpine inspired drills that work equally well on a freestyle board (they are really just basic riding skills). He said that you NEVER square your shoulders up to the hill and that they are always square to your board. I would have agreed had he said square to your stance which is very forward for me even on my freestyle board, but he made a point of saying that I should always teach people with their shoulders parallel to their board. I tried to explain my racing background and he then said that he didn't understand because he had NEVER RIDDEN AN ALPINE BOARD, and never planned to. The guy shadowing the examiner actually supported me and explained that what I was teaching was valid, but it didn't help. I have been so pissed at failing that way that I don't know if its worth trying again since we only have a few examiners here and I would probably run into the same guy again. Makes me wonder what he would have said had I used my alpine board for the whole exam, which I actually ride the pipe better on because of the extra pop I get up the wall.

SOLD

Hey Mike, I sent you an e-mail today. Brett

Great...we'll see you out there.

Sorry for the late replies...my hard drive at home blew up this weekend :( Have had a few inquiries, but they are still for sale. Still taking any questions and offers that you might have.