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Would you be willing to separate the bindings and board? I need only the board. Email me if you can do that.

Fernie is a fantastic place to ride but not on pure carving gear like an F2 Silberfeil. The powder and tree-riding is too good to limit yourself to the groomers. There are also a lot of traverses which can be hard on any snowboarder and especially bad on a narrow alpine board. If you fall over in the deep snow, you'll get a workout just trying to extricate yourself. I rode a Prior 4WD and a Burton Fish with plates and hardboots last year at Fernie. Good thing about Fernie is lack of crowds. Whistler gets stupid busy on weekends and even weekdays if there is a special event happening.

I'm all over the place. I'm running the Rec Series for AOS so I'll be at a different hill every week in January and February. I hope you'll be bringing your kid out for some races. Schedule at www.ontariosnowboarders.ca I helped out with Burton Chill last winter so I rode at Snow Valley a few times. I got about 3 turns then I was at the bottom. Still, I like the vibe of the place and the chalet is comfy. I'm not sure if I'll have time for Chill this year. I try to get out to MSLM because that seems to be the de facto hub of hardbooting in S. Ontario. I find the drive to Blue too long and the potential for white-outs too great. If I make the trek to Collingwood, I usually bum an invite to one of the private clubs. Keep us posted on the ride board and we'll meet up for some carving. Don't forget about SOS (Southern Ontario Session). Henry

I got 3 calls to go play golf today. I said "No - it's snowboarding season". I'm standing firm on this. If you can't ride, stay busy doing prep work - winterize the car, wax boards, watch videos, work out or lay on the couch and visualize.

Rotation, counter-rotation, push-pull, over-under...am I the only one who just doesn't get this stuff? Here's how I ride: Gain speed, unweight by standing tall, then weight and load the nose to initiate the turn. I let the board do the work until I'm ready to start another turn. I try to keep the upper body quiet and work the legs. The only other thing I do is quick edge to edge turns where I basically throw my board back and forth under me. I think these are cross-throughs or cross-unders or whatever. I think I fall into that group that learns intuitively and can't really translate technical instruction into execution. I'm the same way in golf. I just sort of figure it out by experimentation and just do what seems to work. Maybe that's why my golf scores are so inconsistent and why my riding style can be characterized as "Edge of Disaster".

Thanks for the detailed info Barry. I'll email you for specifics as we look toward more specific destinations. We'll do some sights for sure but only for quick day trips. During our Tuscany vacation, I didn't really like Florence or Rome. We enjoyed driving to the small villages during market day, picking up fresh food and enjoying a sandwich and wine in the piazza. We always ate out for dinner but liked to prepare something fresh and simple for breakfast and lunch. Same thing in Paris. You could pick any little shop, pick up some bread and cheese and a bottle of wine and have a great lunch. Of course, you had to be careful where you sat because the grass there is definitely not for walking on and the gendarmerie make that very clear. I'll check out Gap Adventures Allee. I've seen their brochures for South America and such but not Europe. BTW, I love CR. Did an "eco-tourist" trip there in 1992. Fantastic vacation. Loved the rain forest and interior. Hated San Jose and the beach.

Scotland eh? I think you missed the part where I said we like to eat. Keep the suggestions coming. Greece sounds pretty good. I liked the movie "Shirley Valentine".

That first photo...that's...not...Jasey...on...a...K...KK...Kessler, is it? Say it ain't so. How bout some pics of the Canadian girls who finished 1st and 3rd?

Thinking of Spain with my wife. Maybe even run with bulls while I still have a fighting chance of outrunning them (or just outrunning the next guy). Any other suggestions? We like to eat. We like to "go native" as much as we can - ie. small hotels or house rentals, shop and cook for ourselves. We like it low key, unhurried. We're not much into touring. We like to stay in a small area for two weeks and get to know it. Done Tuscany. Loved it but want to try something else. Prague? Hungary?

I can see this thread going in the wrong direction fast. If it hasn't already. I just want to see Kramer losing it. It's already gone from YouTube (damn suits). I guess Mr. Richards just can't handle life as a has-been. I predict he shows up in Celebrity Boxing taking on Debbie Gibson.

Boris, you're killing me. We're a month away from real snow, if we're lucky. Give us the report on Whistler when you make it. I might have to jump on a plane.

Noma is a company that stamps their name on all kinds of cheap electrical parts. Extension cords, Xmas lights. AFAIK, they don't actually manufacture a thing. Here's another similar dryer I found at HomeDepot (Canada again). Maybe you'll have better luck finding this one: http://www.homedepot.ca/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CatalogSearchResultView?D=930488&Ntt=930488&catalogId=10051&langId=-15&storeId=10051&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntx=mode+matchall&recN=0&N=0&Ntk=P_PartNumber Allee: I know exactly what you mean. I went in there today to get a part for my shower door. Didn't find the part but left with two of those dryers, a set of router bits and some saw blades.

Good old Canadian Tire has this boot dryer on sale for $39.99 this week. I picked up two and couldn't be more pleased with the setup. Three heat settings, one hour timer, long flexible hoses, ozone setting (for disinfecting) and you can easily detach from wall mount to take on the road. Link: http://www.canadiantire.ca/browse/product_detail.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=1408474396673381&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524443294463&bmUID=1163801283188&assortment=primary&fromSearch=true

Did you see the teleboard under "Weekly Specials"? Someone has to buy that and shoot video.

For you collectors of the weird and arcane.: http://www.boomtownsports.com/catalogue/SNOWBOARDS/ Monoskis, skiboards, a Hooger Booger and if you poke around his other pages, you'll find snowskates. I have no connection to the store and maybe the site is just really old, who knows. The Deelux Fastex freeride board caught my eye though. Any connection to Deelux, as in Raichle? I'm also thinking someone should buy that 90cm board and bring it to SES. I'll bet you can do 360s with it.

sent you email

Any kind Bomberites in the Toronto area have an 8mm camcorder I can borrow for a weekend? I need to transfer some tapes. In return, I will offer the loan of any of these snowboards, beginning Jan. 1 (I have a few out on loan until then): - 182 Coiler All-mountain - 175 Coiler Race Carve II - 168 Volkl RT - 160 Burton FP - 174 Prior 4WD - 164 Volkl Spline - 156 Burton Fish I think I have too many snowboards. But I digress. I will pick up and deliver.

Ice? I prefer the term "packed powder". I ride with a couple of BC guys every winter and I have to explain ice to them. "It's like the stuff you put in drinks". One of them has never ridden east of the Rockies and can't believe we actually get that kind of condition. My first ever trip out west was to Whistler in the 80s. We got a big dump and I couldn't believe how you could just fly through the bumps and over cornices without a care. In the East, there were many days that ended early for me with something broken - glasses, skiis, boots. Unforgiving is the word.

In the 2005 Ontario provincials, a guy named Mike Zeyl (I know I'm not spelling that right) came in 3rd in Junior PGS on softie gear. None of the hardbooters took him seriously until he suddenly showed up in the semis. I talked to him and he said he would love to ride a racing rig but he has size 14 feet or something like that. Can't find affordable boots and a wide enough board.

You guys ever have trouble figuring out what boards to bring on a trip? Then when you get there, you lament the fact that the "right" board was left at home? That's the problem with a multi-board quiver.

Geez man, watch a little hockey game and miss out on a binding deal. You guys are quick.

Anyone else get this spam from MLB.com (of all people)? It's $49.95 a year or $4.95 a month. So who's going to shell out to get their snowboard racing fix?

Darren: Check your email. I sent you pics of the Prior. Henry

Darren: I have a short Prior GS board with bindings. I'm in Toronto. I think it's either a 149 or 152. Bought it off Houghton two seasons ago and it's been lightly used. I'll shoot you some pics later and we can talk. Henry

I rode my RCII at Sunshine last year and had a blast. There is grooming a-plenty and the runs are wide. Occasionally, I would duck into powder stashes and as long as I kept my weight back, the Coiler handled it fine. So definitely take the Coiler with you. I did not, however, take the Coiler into deep pow. For that, I would want something wider, for sure. If you do rent or borrow a powder board, there's no real reason not to ride it with plate bindings and hard boots. I ride my Burton Fish and Volkl Spline with plates all the time. Just don't ask the rental shop to mount them for you.