skategoat

We accept the danger of skiing or snowboarding. I willingly engage in it knowing full well that I could be injured or killed. When I ride a ski lift, I don't sign off on it possibly falling out of the sky.

What I meant was, I've never seen lifts in Europe or Asia that are as old as the ones we have in North America. The first time I snowboarded in Austria, I was blown away by their lifts. Automated RFID entry gates, conveyor belt loading and heated seats! Then I came back to Canada and went to Lake Louise and rode their gondola that must have been 50 years old. I know this has a lot to do with the fact that the lift systems are built in Europe and shipping costs must be enormous. That Outside article I linked to is long but it's worth a read. It seems that a lot of the ski industry is in denial. They regulate themselves with very little or no independent oversight. I know most ski areas are conscientious about safety but running lifts that are 30 years old is not any different than driving a vintage car every day. The old car might look and run great and you might be religious about maintenance but you're not going to be able to spot metal fatigue and one day, you'll hit a pothole and the balljoint will just snap. I don't know if you recall but I was at Sugarloaf the day the King Pine chair failed. That was too close to home for my liking. That chair was manufactured by Borvig and installed in 1975. Borvig went out of business in 1993. Trying to find parts for one of those must be like owing a Studebaker.

You might want to give this a read. It's an eye opener and a bit scary. https://www.outsideonline.com/2069911/your-local-chairlift-death-trap In the same article, the writer talks about the 2010 Sugarloaf failure: I'll just leave it at that.

You can actually lightly stone grind the top and remove all the marks. The topsheet is p-tex.

Anyone thinking this incident wouldn't happen here should be reminded of two incidents at Sugarloaf in less than 5 years. The first was a lift cable falling and the second a rollback in 2015. In both incidents, the chairlifts were over 25 years old. I have never been on a lift that old in any other part of the world.

I honestly don't know. I've ridden it and I'm a beginner. It's stable. The dropthrough trucks help with that. But... you definitely don't want to be bashing this against curbs.

Last call on this at $USD250 or CAD$325. Be the only one on the block with an Apex longboard!

The head-to-head finals races are up on Youtube now. Besides Oguri and Narita, there was Bruno Bosnjak from Croatia who wore hard boots on both feet. And if you want to see guys rip, check out the final with Matti Suur-Hamari and Keith Gabel. It's worth noting that Matti races in FIS SBX and has done as well as fifth at the NorAm level. He's missing his left leg below the knee.

Oguri was 7th and Narita was 3rd. So maybe they are onto something. Will have to keep an eye on the banked slalom. I hope I can stay awake long enough to watch the final. BTW, the women's LL2 gold medalist, Bibian Mentel-Spee is an incredible story. She was the Dutch SBX and HP champion and would have made the 2002 Olympics but was diagosed with cancer and had to have a leg amputated. She came back as a para snowboarder, won multiple championships including the 2014 Gold. Then cancer came back in her spine last July. She had surgery in January and here she is, a gold medalist again - two months later. What a boss.

Teammate Diachi Oguri had the same setup. This opens up a secondary market for selling one boot or one binding.

Same coach who told me I was ruining snowboarding told me he likes to ride wearing Sorels. Maybe that's the direction FIS is going. That should do wonders to grow our sport /sarcasm. I don't know any SBX riders who ride duck but some ride low angles, close to 0 on the back foot. Mostly the guys with freestyle backgrounds like Jarryd Hughes.

Good eye. It appears he is riding duck. Got a little more intel on Narita. His left leg is paralyzed below the knee. I'm guessing the hard boot is there for support. Pretty smart of him to try it. There must be some other adaptive snowboarders who could benefit from that. And damn good thing FIS isn't in charge of Para. They would ban the hard boots for being un-snowboardy.

Not sure if anyone noticed but the bronze medalist in this morning's Men's Snowboard Cross SB-LL2, Gurimu Narita (JPN) was wearing a Deeluxe hard boot on his front foot with F2 binding. His rear foot was a traditional soft boot. I didn't see the final but in qualifying Narita was absolutely flying. He had the fastest qualifying time in a very deep and talented field.

Sold pending payment.

Price reduced again.

I don't run Apex anymore but when I did, I would have to decline giving advice on any modifications. A couple of things to consider 1) it's a dusty, dirty job. 2) carbon fibre is very abrasive.

Do a quick Google search and check out all the test events. And check out this video from Burton going on and on about "no compromises" and not rushing the product to market. If the flaw is as obvious as you say, that's a major failure. You should probably talk to Chris Cunningham at Burton who is in charge of R&D.

The Canadian riders would put a foam block under the nose to control the nose flex on the board. Jasey used to swap out different densities of foam every training run until he dialed it in. Kessler started stiffening up the nose of the board a bit so the duckbill became unnecessary. Too bad because it was a nice place to put our logo.

I thought Burton tested those bindings over several seasons. They even had Terje Haakonsen involved. At least that's what all the marketing hype said. I can't believe they would miss such a major flaw. Maybe this is why they are not yet widely available.

Zone: Sending you a pm.

It's an excellent article well worth the read. I chuckled when I read:

If I were a snowboard coach, I'd be sniping around the edges of a ski race inviting athletes who might be frustrated by the rigidity of ski racing. My opening line would be "Snowboarders have way more fun.". I know Canada Snowboard planned a talent ID camp for skiers a few years ago to the point where they ordered boots and boards for the skiers to use. It caused an uproar with Alpine Canada (the ski racing governing body) and they had to cancel. At this point though, what does the sport of alpine snowboarding have to lose?

Make me an offer before I hurt myself riding this thing.

Set A sold. Set B still available. Price reduced to USD$160 because I can't find one of the centre discs and the one I can find has a small chip in it. In case you've never owned F2s before, the first thing you do with them is ditch the centre discs. They have no functional purpose and tend to shake loose when riding.

Pavement carving season is almost upon us. Custom carbon fiber longboard by Matt Napier, a well known custom longboard shaper in Canada. It's a dropthrough model. WB: 30.25" Length: 39.25" The deck, trucks and wheels are in mint shape. There is some discoloration at the ends from some adhesive foam that I had added as nose and tail protection. No crashes. No curb hits. Napes charges $650 for the deck only so I am thinking USD$325.00 for the complete board. Last call on this at $USD250 or CAD$325. The Apex sticker is removable but that might lift off some clearcoat so I left it on.