Strider

We'll be riding there on Sat. if its not pouring rain or anything. If you see some guys looking lost stop and say hi.....

Hello Mr Jones :) Thanks for the offer. I for one would love to take you up on that. We always do a large clinic for all the coaches and racers in early December, and I also come out to Copper every year during the second or third week of Jan. Maybe next year we could work on something. I will also talk to the director of Sports proghramming for Special Olympics and see what he thinks. For now, we basically set using the FIS rules for ski courses as we only reset for snowboarders at our larger events because there just isn't enough people to justify resets at some of the events. Once we set, we then ride the course and make any adjustments that we see necessary given the ability levels of the athletes in that particular competition. A few of our guys have taken the course setter classes from USSA, but no one really "knows" how to set a regulation snowboard course. I would be interested even in just seeing one set and having a good description of the thinking and rules that went into it. Porbably asking a lot, but I would love to do it if it worked out without cramping anyone's time. If you want to talk about it some more just drop me an e-mail through the board. thanks, Brett

Hey guys, If you do something like that I would love to see it. I recently co-wrote a snowboarding manual for Special Olympics International. Its quite a bit different in some ways than a regular teaching/coaching gig and we have a lot of experience with it. However, we have very limited course setting knowledge other than the FIS regs which we have looked up and modified slightly for Special Olympics purposes. Its easy to find the numbers and read about the hard facts, but totally different to put that into use. A practical guide/outline to would be awesome for many people I would think. We also plan to take the USSA coaching/judging courses next year, but the snowboard end of things still seems to be pretty lacking there. Thanks, Brett

This is always interesting stuff. There really isn't too much competition around here on the easier courses ( Scuff needs to come down here so we can ride some) and we are definitley limited by our hill as to the sets we can do. I have always wondered what it would be like to race on a pro-level course. Sounds like it would be a kick in the pants good time for amateur racers like me. How hard is it to try one of these races you guys have talked about, and do people get upset when people like myself show up? Anyway, at 35 its not like I'm going to do whole lot, but it would be fun to measure oneself against the guys who really know how to ride. Keep us all informed with how things go....its interesting reading for some of us

Thanks for the replies guys. Sounds like the best bet would be to explore on the all-mountain/freeride board since we only are going to have 1 free day. I have a seperated shoulder right now(hurts like hell) so I won't be hitting the park too much, but I like moguls so it sounds like I'll have plenty to look at.

Hello, I am going to be going out to Tamarack next weekend to shoot some video and take some pictures for a manual I co-wrote for Special Olympics. We are going to get a free day of riding on Sat. and I was wondering if anyone has been there and what should I expect? thanks, Brett

Well Said. I would definitely agree with that. I've been watching all of the discussions you guys have been having this year as you are all more well versed in this stuff than I am and I have to agree that it is too bad that there isn't a more cohesive track for bringing up the young kids. the coverage across the country is spotty for all of the different organizations. Maybe one day things will get better if we all keep working at it. As it stands, more competitors in all of the organizations is good for exposure.

I agree with what you are saying on the gates. I was just pointing out that it is a good place to go if you are looking for some fun, and not serious racing. In all honesty, once you're up into my age class USASA isn't all that great of a race either, unless you can make it into the open class. Skier gates are definitely harder for snowboarders, but I'm not so sure about the dangerous part. I take a lot more hits from the stubbies on the back of my trailing leg, and the tall inside gate on wraparounds on the back of my head than I do from the skier gates. I would definitley take stubbies everytime if I could find places to run them everyday, but around the midwest we have to take what we can get as far as courses goes. The one good thing about running lines on skier gates is that stubbies are real easy after that, even wen the course gets turnier. Anyway, my point was mostly that it was more bang for the buck if you aren't looking for a super serious race, which I don't consider USASA to be either.

I know that there are some problems with the NASTAR format, but if your racers are looking for an end of the season fun race, I would recommend it. It was a ton more fun than USASA was, and I got a huge stack of SWAG, lots of free food, and some good free entertainment(bands, movies) with my $200 entry fee. Even won a speedsuit. This year the age class winners get a Descente jacket. Anyway, looks liken they might start taking sbnowboarding a little more seriously there. They moved all of the snowboarders onto one course after a lot of helpful suggestions from us who were at last years race. I have not heard if they are going to set snowboard gates, but at least everybody on a board will be in the same place. The competition is not as good as most other races, but if you're looking for a good time with some racing thrown in, its a much better deal than USASA.

Aha...no file there to download for some reason. I actually just saved the "link" by accident. The file itself also does not appear to be present even by left clicking.

I just downloaded it and I got an error trying to play it. Format not supported. Interesting as its a wmv file. Any idea which codec you used?

I always try to stay quiet in my upper body as long as it is aligned right. I can always tell when I'm in trouble because my hands and arms will be windmilling.

Hey all, I'll be at granite Peak this Sat. running the Special Olympics Winter Games Alpine events. Not sure how much freeride time I'll have, but I will certainly be out on the hill. Drop a line if you're going to be there, or come look for all of the kids in bibs running gates on the easy hill. Brett

As both Phil and Jack said, it will not be ideal, but will be workable. As long as you start them slow and drill the basics very good at the beginning they should be able to get the board to work. I have taught for 15 years and have done a large number of lessons for crossovers who "just wanted to try it" and didn't want to get new boots until they knew if they were going to like it or not. Definitely get them to leave their top buckles a little looser, not so loose that their leg bounces back and forth between the cuffs but not cranked down like you would for skiing. This will help a bit on the flex of the boot, although it will still be very stiff. Keep this in mind when teaching them. A small forward movement in a ski boot will translate into a much bigger edge effect than it would in a snowboard boot. And as Jack said, your boards are probably going to be on the stiff and unforgiving side for them. those boards won't really want to perform well until they are going at a speed that is much higher than what they will probably be comfortable at.

Yeah, I have been really bad about that. I should just send up the raw footage and give someone a shot at it. I still have the layoput all figured out, but I need to sit my a$$ down and take care of it already. Sorry guys :o

Its too bad I didn't see this earlier. We ran snowboard gates last night as well. There was a grand total of 6 people out there, all hardbooters. It was cold, but the cord was awesome and no one else was messing it up for us :) I can't make it out tonight because my kids have swim lessons tonight. I'm not sure how many people will be out tonight, but I'll post to our teams e-mail to let them know another hardbooter will be out. If it is like last night there should be some awesome cord, and not a lot of people. The other plus is Tuesdays are $10 lift tix. Its not huge, but there are some decent runs....especially if lift C is open. Be sure to drop a line anytime you're in town and we'll do some riding. Brett

If you're in the Madison area you should head to Tyrol Basin instead. There are a whole lot more of us hardbooters at Tyrol than Cascade. Cascade looks bigger, but the entire top !/2 of the hill is a big flat so you don't really get much more ridable vert. They do have a couple nice cruisers, but the bar and people and grooming are all better at Tyrol. Post when you'll be up here and I'm sure some people will come out to the hill. Oh...and if you're here on Monday we have a race league on Monday nights at Tyrol and we just happen to be running snowboard gates next week.

Any way some one can tape that and get it sent down here to WI so we can see it???

For the best carving runs head to Indianhead. They have the best grooming and several wide, decently pitched runs right out of the chalet. If you like powder and some knarly terrain, then head to Whitecap, which is the opposite direction out of Ironwood (go through Hurley) than the other resorts. They don't do much grooming there, but if it snows a bunch they have awesome terrain for freeriding. Closest thing to riding out west in the steeps and trees that I've found in WI. I've been teaching camps at Whitecap for 10 years now and been going to the UP for a lot longer than that. I would actually consider Powderhorn one of my least favorite up there.

Looks like a good time, but I know I won't be able to make it to PA for it. Just a bit too far to make it a weekender thing.

That helps me bunch Mike. I sent you and e-mail today Kenton. Thanks, Brett

Hey Kenton, I'd be interested in those. My 4 year old is ripping on the skis, but wants to try a board. At his age I may try the hardboot/freeride setup first because the boots will give him more support than softies. Do you have any idea od the sole sizes they accomodate?

Custom builder in MN. The guy rides Cateks on his own board. http://www.novemberboards.com/ The Whistler is the board to look at.

Hey all, I'll be at Copper From Wed. Jan. 24th to Sat. Jan 27th and am always up for riding with other hardbooters. Drop me a line here before Tuesday, or give my cell a call if you head out to the mountain (608)-770-3999. Brett

I guess maybe the Midwest is good for something. We have all of our regular USASA races and the resort (tyrol Basin) actually loves having the events and goes out of its way to make it fun. We usually have a bunch of demo trucks out here and we even get cash prizes for fast times, and lots of swag for door prizes. We also have Nastar every Sat-Sun and Thurs night and they rotate between regular gates and snowboard gates so everyone gets a chance at decent training. I can't speak for them, but from what I've heard the teams up in Minnesota have a lot of training and good gate time as well. Maybe its just an East Coast thing.