Strider

Hi Chad, I'm up there periodically as well. The patrollers on hardboots are fun to ride with like Al says. If you ever get down towards the Tyrol area drop me a line as its my home hill and we have a group of about 15-20 hardbooters there. Brett

I'll take the UPZ's if Grey doesn't want them.

If the heels are t-nutted in they should still be holding fine. The problem you'll have is getting a lot of moisture in there and having things rust. You could try epoxy to fill the void. However, if those are standard heels and not intec, then you'll be missing a large part of what holds you into the binding and its time for new boots.

Hello, I'm interested in the boots. I just saw the post. I need to consult with "she who gets angry at frivolous expenditures" but I will get back to you ASAP. You can e-mail me at:brett at nemke dot com if someone else already has dibs. Thanks, Brett

Hey there, Have you ever rode your plates on this board? I've seen you out at Tyrol in the past. I'm interested in the board, but even though I have softies, I need something I can take out west with plates soI don't have to drag 2 pairs of boots everywhere. I'm in Madison so it'd be easy to make a deal. thanks, Brett

I've got 6 of them on my high school team, and I know the G-team up in Minnesota probably has more. You probably just won't see them out much on a crowded weekend unless there's a race.

I am hoping to be able to go to Nationals, I'll get to test two theories: -Bachelor's courses are too damn easy -Bachelor's par times are too high for their too-easy courses which has been making my handicaps look much, much better than they should. (TOV19 if anyone wants to tell me just how bad Bachelor's pacesetting must suck...) I was wondering who it was that had handicaps less than half of mine :) I'm the guy in second behind you right now. Pacesetters and courses definitely make a big difference. We have a small, icy hill that they set turny courses with skier gates and have pacesetters that run true to their handicap. Its great for seeing if you improve over the year, but not so great for rocking good handicaps. It seems that when I head out west my handicaps drop a lot. That being said, I went to Nationals once and then course was much harder, but it was the last year where we were racing with the skiers and I've heard the snowboard course isn't too hard. I've also fopund the competiton at USASA better, but of course it costs a lot more to race in those, and you only get 2 runs instead of unlimited. NASTAR nationals is a blast though because they give you a bunch of swag and there is some kind of free entertainment each night. USASA is pretty much racing and thats it.

Hey Griff, NATAR can be decent depending on who sets your gates, and if they'll use snowboard gates, etc. Even then, it is usually a fairly open course with few offsets or tricky gates. Its a good place to get practice and comfortable in the gates without having to pay a ton of money. Like Divebomber said, any decent GS board will work well, personally I use a Coiler 181 NSR for all of my GS whether its NASTAR, race league or USASA and it works fine for me. There's no reason to spend the money on a KEssler or something like that if all you plan to be is a recreational racer, and have limited funds like a lot of us. Good luck and have fun. PS...if you are racing on tall gates, don't start hitting them until you have a ton of practice in them, and even then it can be dicey if you make a mistake. Its really easy to hook one and take your shoulder out.

I was riding with 4 skiers at Copper and everyone went by a couple of the mountain hosts (or whatever they're called) and one patroller. It was in a slow ski area and we weren't going very fast (and I was actually passed by 3 of the skiers in my group as we went by them) but making a lot of small slalom turns just for fun since it was a slow area and I didn't want to take up space. We got to the lift line and they came down and pulled me out of line and read me the riot act that I was going to fast and buzzing them. Luckily the skiers I was with came over and asked what the problem was. the patroller thought that they were on his side and thought that I annoying the skiers with m y small turns, but they said thatthey were with me and in fact were going faster than I was so why weren't they in trouble. They all kind of shut up and then warned all of us to slow down and left. I still know that it was because of the stance angles and the way it looks when you ride. You "look" fast even when you're going slow. the worst is when you're in control and people rocket by with no control and you still get talked to because you're on an alpine board.

Sorry we missed Christmas Eve, but the weather dictated that we stay home that day.... I'm coaching one of the local high school teams and plan to be at the USASA races to help out but wasn't really thinking of racing since I know I won't be able to make nationals this year, but if a bunch of you guys from MN showed up I could be talked into it just because it would be fun. They always run NASTAR after the USASA events too so we'd still have a fun way to compete. The only reason I'd not be there is if my son had an away ski race that day...I'll have to check into that. You guys figure out when the MN expression session is this year? going to try and make it again.

email sent.

Hey there. I'll most likely be out at Tyrol a few days next week. Not sure yet, but the most likely right now will be Christmas Eve day. There's usually a bunch of us hardbooters out there, but weekdays might have fewer of us, damn work always wrecking my fun!

Hey Vick, I live in Madison and ride Tyrol. I coach the high school racers, and also have an adult race league team. If you're looking to get batter at carving, or even cruising look us up at tyrol. there's a pretty big group of harbooters that ride there and they are all happy to help out new guys. Most of us can rock the softboard just as well ( I still love to ride the halfpipe even though it seems to be dying around here) and can help out with that too. I would agree that the HEad board is just fine for what you want to do right now. Drop by and watch us rail some turns on the hard rigs and see if its something you want to learn.

Its still a really good accomplishment, especially with a shotgun. We have the Lb restriction here too (for good reason) and it's pretty tough for most to pull that back so young.

I heard they were at Buck this weekend. It will probably take one of your nice carving runs, but there should be some really good carvers (mostly skiers) there and should be fun to watch.

Its nice to see a young guy get into it early. It's pretty impressive to get his first bow buck at 12 My son is 7 and sat in the ground blind with me a few times this year and we got a doe on one of them. It always amazes me that the young ones have the patience for it...I know I sure didn't at that age. Congratulations to both of you.

Thats a nice looking 8 pointer. I got 3 this year as well, 2 does and a 4 pointer with a nice sized body. How tough was that goose? My dad shot a turkey at about 20 yards one night when we were out. It was a pass through right in center mass. The bird flopped a bit and then layed there. We left it until close to dark while we waited for deer. When we went to get it we got about 5 yds from it and it up and flew off with its insides hanging out. Tough, tough birds. I'm sure it didn't survive, but there's no way to track a flying turkey. I was planning on doing my spring turkey hunting with the bow this year, but now I'm not so sure.

Thanks Al. I do the majority of my riding at Tyrol Basin as I coach one of the local high school teams and that's where we practice. I rarely get to Cascade, Devils Head, or Alpine Valley but do go to different hills around the state for races. I used to get to Granite Peak a few times a year since my relatives all live there, but their new policy kind of makes me think about boycotting them. Hit me up with a post on the ride board and we'll try to do some riding some time. We do have a pretty big group of hardbooters at Tyrol on a regualr basis, and we have the best bar of all the ski hills around here :D

NSR 182. Topsheet was a photo of the sunrise I took from my deer hunting stand last year. Not a great pic of the board, but you all get the idea

Back in college ('93 ish) I was a trip leader for our annual college ski and snowboard club trip. the other trip leader was a snowboarder who convinced me to give it a try. told me he would "teach me." We went straight to the tram and I asked if maybe it might be a bit tough since it was my first time. He said no way..I was a such a good skier I'd have no problem. He told me how to edge a board on the tram ride up and we clipped in at the top and he yelled "Followme" and was gone. It took me 4 hours to get to the bottom , but I was linking turns by then. I've been back since, but I haven't ridden there extensively on a board, but even on skis I don't remember a lot of groomers, mostly because the off-piste type of stuff there is so awesome that its hard to want to go on a groomer. Snow King has unbelievable steep groomed stuff for a small hill and some great ticket prices. I wouldn't bring any of your big race shape boards, but the schtubby sounds like a good choice. If your wife isn't into bumps, ungroomed, natural terrain stuff you'll definitely have to ask her for a personal day to go exploring. You might also want to get her ready to spend a lot of time on a smaller number of runs than she'd expect at most western resorts. If you head into the Hobacks be ready for a poma ride back to the main part of the resort unless they've changed that, and there are a good number of traverses depending on where you go.

Saw this on a website this morning and was wondering if Jack thought this was accurate..... Definitely a bit NSFW and probably offensive at parts.

There's a large group of carvers at Tyrol. Its a half hour from Madison. The hill is short, but never too crowded and no flat runouts at the top or bottom. Any given weekend there will 3-4 of us carvers out there, and on Monday nights there will be up to a dozen or more between the high school racers and the adult beer league that goes on. We also have the best bar and bartender of the WI hills As far as terrain goes, I like Granite Peak, even with the runout at the bottom. Definitely the largest of the hills nearby. The UP is great, especially Marquette Mtn., but is a 4+ hour drive from the southern part of the state. Mt. LaCrosse has a couple of great steep runs, but short again. Cascade is close to Madison as well, but gets super crowded on weekends and has a flat top so the part of the hill thats decent isn't much bigger than Tyrol. Devils Head has the worst grooming, and the southern exposure just kills the snowpack. Just up the road from Mt Lacrosse you can get close to Welch, BUck Hill and a few other in MN that are nice and also host a decent crew of carvers. The Midwest Expression Session is usually set up by those guys each year so you could plan your trip accordingly. Nothing like the ECES or SES wit hdemos and all, but a whole bunch of Midwest carvers ripping it together.

I have an old Bridgestone RB-T that I starting switching out components to my new frame on last fall. I need to get back at that project, but I'd send the frame over to you for the cost of shipping if you're interested. I need to check the frame size, but I know I have 700CC wheels on it that may or may not fit my new frame so they may need to go too.I haven't ridden it in about 10 years, and need to check the condition of the frame, but its been hanging in my garage the whole time so it should be in good shape. I can also send you pics if you want. Wasn't sure what I was going to do with it anyway.

Thanks for the replies. I'll give you a call when I get in to Boise, and have to make the drive up to Ketchum. I'm sure I'll take any info on restaurants you have, especially since my wife and son will be on their own for a couple nights while I'm working. I'll definitely be out on Baldy on Thursday. Its my first free day and I've got a free ticket for that day. We'll probably do a half day on Dollar on Sat if I can arrange the Fedex pickup of our stuff for late in the day. My son is 6 and loves to rip it up on his skis so it'd be fun to see some other kids. Looking forward to seeing what Idaho has to offer. Brett

$350 with shipping has been the going rate for used Coilers here. Good luck with selling it, I love mine.