Da Hooger Booger

Well i just started smoking unfiltered Pall Malls again, cardio is suffering but i find if i remember to breath right i'm just fine with most cardio workouts. I usually start with cardio, pushups, then weights, situps, more weights, then bench pressing. I'm going to go pick up some wax and i have a small grit hone at home to smooth out the edges.

Not many people i know listen to the Prodigy, they've got amazing tracks, Liam Howlett is a genius. Listen to: Your Love, Skylined, 3 Kilos, Break and Enter, all of those are a journey for the senses. I did watch the girl jump roping, is she Eastern European? She's beautiful.

Well i never thought about it that way.... No homo..... I don't have a jumprope here in my apartment, wouldn't deep knee bends and dancing to The Prodigy suffice? I do that.

Yeah thinking logically here the cutting or leading edge of the board is the only portion which is affected by angle of grinding, as the upper portion seems to be there for rigidity only. I applied Vaseline to my edges when i put my board away to protect from rust. To me the leading or cutting edge would just require a flat honing but maybe a very steep angle chamfer? This seems to be alot like valve seat grinding! You want to get the perfect seat location and angle. As to the workout vid, well, kinda feel a little emasculated cause it's a chick. Mind you, nothing ventured nothing gained i suppose. So, thanks.

Hi guys, i'm in college now and so will unfortunately only be able to carve a few times this year. I want to ask all the veteran trench diggers here what kind of excercises/muscles i should be focused on to get ready for the next great season of hardbooting! I've finally hopped on the hardbooting train last season for half of it and finally got used to the movements and learned alot by self teaching. I can finally lay trenches deep on both heelside and toeside. I also want to ask about tuning boards. Obviously tuning represents an important facet of hardbooting and it came to my attention that the family ski shoppe my whole family went to to get their ski's and my board tuned ($25 special...) does a fairly shabby job. They pretty much just get young teens to run it through a belt waxer a couple times then take a layer of metal off the edges with a belt surfacer. No honing whatsoever. I want to do my own waxing and sharpening myself. Can you guys point me to some guides of where to start? I would appreciate your input. Merry Christmas, Winter is coming! Edit: Jack, works now! Thanks alot for the prompt-ness.

Surprised this forum doesn't just shut down during the summer (yes i know we aren't all from North America, no flaming). I haven't been on here since like after March break when i came back from an awesome 3 days of carving at Whiteface in Lake Placid, when i was just getting the hang of it. Can't wait till winter.

Sorry but, carving technique in trees and moguls? It just seems like that wouldn't work so well.

...on my Hooger Booger Grinder 158. Board was great, flexy, but seemed unforgiving though i've heard "old school" alpine board's are like that. I was hardbooting for 3 days at Whiteface Mountain in Lake Placid, NY. Great mountain, i've never been out west, but to me Whiteface seems like the closest to it, with i think about 3850 ft of lift serviced vertical. It was great, first day the gondola and Summit Quad were on wind hold, and it was about 11C and very mushy. I regretted not bringing my Grinder 148 with soft bindings for the later part of the day. Next day was good, it all froze to boilerplate, but was groomed thankfully after it froze, so it was loose and easy to carve in. Same with the third day. I found i was getting deeper and deeper carves. Things i Refined -controlling speed by making sure i maintained a C carve and carved slightly uphill before carving my downhill edge -towards the third day i think i was correcting my "sitting on the toilet" and using my knees more for heelside carves -steeps were hopeless... however, i think this was mainly caused by yet again boot overhang (i will take bird eye pictures of my boots in my bindings for you guys to judge if this is limiting how deep my carves can be) -found to be switching edges much faster, which played a part in speed control -always found myself gaining too much speed after 1 or 2 carves on a steep run, scared myself with the speed, and didn't have to courage to just keep carving and had to bleed speed by skidding, which was pissing me off I loved the mountain however, if anyone has ever been, i thought Mountain Run was the perfect run for steep carving or even ECing, it was consistently steep and wide. Never any lift lines, and beautiful view.

I would say the extremity of tolerable boot overhang depends on how hard you carve dude, if you're achieving maximum angulation regularly, boot overhang should be minimal. Don't bet it on my two cent opinion, seeing as i am a pretty new carver. I'm basing this on the fact that i rock size 10 ski boots and have to ride 60/60 angles on my old 158 Hooger Booger, and still have a fair bit of boot overhang, yet bootout was never a problem.

That's exactly what i did BlueB! I rode them flat. :P Thanks for the help, i'm glad i found this forum! :) I was surprised with the bindings, they were pretty good, they sqeak a little under flex, but very little play between the inserts and the binding, i think the bail's are 6MM, so yeah they were awesome to start with, it's amazing too the increased amount of pressure you can exert on your board with a stiff setup. The HB feels like a piece of gellatin as of now, thanks to an actual stiff setup!

Hey guys! Tonight was my first night, took a good 3 or 4 runs to get used to the stiffness, i never realized how stiff a stiff setup really is. Things i noticed/observations: -felt like i was alot taller, riding on top of the snow, and felt more rigid -much bumpier ride than soft, but this is justified -very fun once i added some finesse to it -found myself i think it's called augering, where the front portion of the SCR is digging in too much -the stiffness seemed to be helping me lay down trenches pretty fast and getting the hang of the technique -wasn't used to the responsiveness and control, noticed i was gaining speed too fast, figure i need to get faster in edge transfer -old Wombat bindings that came with the board held up fine Felt great once i got the hang of it, really is very little margin for error in hard boots too. I was pretty sore in the legs. Got a ton of the weird looks from people wherever i walked/rode on the hill. The uncomfy ride made me wanna go home eventually, it was really busy/chewed up.

Thanks BlueB, you're very knowledgeable on these forums. I appreciate it. I weigh only about 145, is it ok to have a bit of flex in those Wombats? I know some degree of flex is essential for a good ride, but i don't want them to be shattering when i'm at high angulation. Nor do i want to ruin the front end inserts, weirdly, the 158 only has 4 on the front, i guess i mean only 1 set of inserts.

Could I use the stock Wombat bindings to learn on that board? Since they do flex a bit when I buckled in on them on the carpet. I'm just going to use these old Koflach ski boots. The front is all one piece so a fixed stiffness, just 2 buckles on the back to push in the whole heel side.

I was thinking of getting some proper bindings, i figure i might as well buy the OS2's because they're a pretty widely used binding, and many carvers on here swear by them. Also, i don't mean to sound like i got paid from Catek, but just as they say, the independent cant and lift adjustments sounds like the ultimate. I'm pretty new to carving, haven't even gotten into a stiff setup yet. That's why i bought a Hooger Booger Grinder, figured a 158 would be a good starter board. The existing Wombat's that came with it are circa, what, 1995 or so? They're probably strong enough to use with ski boots, but they seem a bit too flexy for my liking, i mean, carving strains your bindings quite a ton. I just want to know whether the Cateks will be too stiff for the HB 158?

Over here in Southern Ontario, Canada the resort I ride at Blue Mountain is always jam packed, as in the singles line can get 100 feet long and start going up the hill. Weekdays usually dead, but weekends man, ridiculous, sucks to be a carver here, Whiteface Mountain in Lake Placid when I went was MUCH better, and I went during the holiday season, not busy at all, but it's the closest topographic feature on the East Coast to a real mountain. :( unfortunately I wasn't on hard boots at the time to take advantage of the wide GS perfect runs near the summit.

Thanks for the comments. I really have outgrown the 148 hugely, i need more control. With the 148, on very soft plastic Firefly bindings with softish Sims boots, and a flat stance, i'm very able to replicate carver, mostly the early part of the video (ankle movements) on the soft boots, it's just that i'm afraid to dig trenches on heelside because of the ridiculous binding overhang. It really becomes a problem because i can never fully control my speed, because my binding overhang makes it so i can never use my HB's sidecut to it's full potential on heelside. I figured getting into a stiff setup, paired with a longer board will remedy this problem, so that i can actually enjoy carving. Like i said, i'm positive it is the boot overhang, my toesides are very good, i can do deep semicircles, and actually did a 360 carve once.I think with the existing stance i'm used to on the 148, i'm completely ready to transistion to stiff, and more control (longer board). I am pretty confident i have the movements down pat. I was more in the market for a 168 HB, but figured a 158 was going to be up my alley too, i know i'm probably going to outgrow it soon as i get on plates, but whatever. My second question would be, how exactly do you transfer your skills on the stance you're used to, over to the hard binding stance? Will it just come in time?

I was riding a Hooger Booger Grinder 148 all these years (i'm 17) that i picked up at a yard sale, i rode it for a couple years with all plastic really flexy Firefly bindings, used a flat stance or a forward stance for a while. Then i realized the carving potential i had with the 148, i started experimenting and getting low so i could lean on edge further and further, i got to know the board really well. I reached a wall though last season with it, i was always trying to master the heelside carve, but it never got nearly as good as my toeside, i realized it was probably boot out, one night i actually adjusted both bindings to angles of i'd say 50/60, gave it a go, it took a few runs to actually get used to the new feel, but i could actually do a proper heelside carve, without having to lean way the hell back to initiate a heelside carve or to compensate for the massive 1.5" binding overhang. I reached a point where i knew i needed something with more control, i quickly found i've outgrown it this season. So i lucked out and found a Grinder 158 with original Wombat bindings for 40 bucks. What i want to know is, would it be ok to just use the Wombat bindings and ski boots before getting into carving full stop? I hear ski boots are unforgiving, forcing you to develop good habits early on. I mainly am worried about the bindings, they seem to be some sort of plastic coated metal, they're deffinitely not plastic, and deffinitely stiff enough to use today.

I'm not a skidder, change it. I can carve, just watch me. Lol, just joking, but i'm no skidder. On-Topic:Exactly how many boards are out there? Limited production, that's all i know. Nice looking board though, Hooger Booger doesn't make just those shaped boards though, i saw one, "Hooger Booger U.F.O.". Can someone check up on that model, it was huge and really wacked out tip and back. Really wacked......

It's a Grinder 148. Like a race board but slightly wider, and no hard bindings. I have replaced the old leather bindings on it with firefly bindings. Nice looking board, especially good for carving. Good all mountain (or in my case:hill) board. Hooger Booger (Austrian). Made these for 3 years producing around 300-500 each year, only about 1000-1500 of these are out there, and i have a 148 cm one. Got it at a yard sale for:25 BUCKS! Many of them also got destroyed.

Yes i'm stuck at riding at this crappy resort for years more until i'm old enough to go backcountry. Here's some good webcams. http://www.bluemountain.ca/south_base_lodge_web_cam.asp http://www.bluemountain.ca/badlands_web_cam.asp If it's too dark:Wait till morning (obviously). http://www.bluemountain.ca/grand_central_lodge_web_cam.asp

Man, i found this jewel at a yard sale for: 25 BUCKS! Exact same except for length (148 mine). They only made those models for about 3 years, making only about 300-400 per year. It's a nice board, just to tell you, carves nice, good all mountain board. It'll be worth something later on in life (I think....).