John Bell

Please e-mail me at belljohnr at yahooo dot com. Thanks!

That's OK, Chris; like Queen Latifah, I'm comfortable with my curve. (I only have one, and it's right in the middle.) But seriously--thanks much for the info; you probably saved me from buying too short a board. See, what I'd *like* to do is carve some huge, laid-out arcs. But down here we have all these snowplowing 2-year-olds on skis, jibbers sitting down in the middle of the double-blacks rolling blunts, etc. So I'm thinking I should go for a lower SCR, lest I smack into one of them. And maybe it's unrealistic to think I could ever try EC in upstate NY or Vermont. The other thing is: What about the officially listed range for a board? For the 4x4, I recall that at 170 lbs. (future tense), there's something like 4 different lengths whose "suggested rider weight" I'd fall into. So are you saying that I should avoid being anywhere but dead in the middle of the range?

OK, so I just weighed myself again after moving to NYC and eating nothing but lamb gyros, cheap Chinese food, and buttered bialys for 3 months. And I was shocked to find that (at 5'8.5" tall) I've plumped up to 180 lbs. I like to think most of it is brain and bicep. And I think my pants weigh at least 5 lbs. But anyway... What length board would be ideal for me? I do plan to drop about 10 lbs. once I start hitting the gym. (Just got the membership yesterday, so this will happen.) I'm usually about 170, though 160 is a long-term goal. (I may have to take up cigarettes to achieve the latter.) I'd previously thought that a board in the mid-160s would be ideal--but now I'm told that I should be looking at 170 or more based on my weight. The person who said this seems knowledgeable. But won't a board that long have too big an SCR for the east coast? The "get to the point, windbag" section: Length: 165 or so may be too soft for my weight. But 170 or longer may be too big an SCR. SCR: I want big enough to make learning not overly frustrating but small enough to make it easy to avoid mowing down people out here in the East. But I do want to try Eurocarving someday--although I'm not sure you can even do that on TD1s. (Of course, by then I might just spring for new bindings.) Help! Thank you!

Yeah--I wonder how they did that. Transparent P-tex? BTW, wiki says Hans Ro:sch was a '50s bobsledder.

I tried it once, and it was great. Funny thing was, the scariest part was the ride up on the little prop plane. Once I'd jumped out with the trainer guy hooked to my back, it was a novel sensation--but not really that exhilarating in a stomach-dropping way. There was no falling sensation--I believe because the plane was already going a certain speed. I think it cost me $160 in 1996, but I'm glad I tried it, even though I didn't get a huge rush of danger. What did give me that rush was tandem-aerotow hang gliding. This is where you are strapped into a harness and an instructor is with you in another harness, usually hooked up under yours (sometimes to the side). Then an ultralight plane tows you up to altitude, the HG pilot cuts loose, and you glide around till you land. You take off at a general-aviation airport, and the glider has wheels mounted onto it, since it can't land the normal way (wherein the pilot stalls it near the ground and lands on his feet). My instructor had been an acrobatic competitor, and I asked him to put the glider into some cool maneuvers. First he stalled the glider--it literally comes to a stop in midair--and then put it in a nosedive. Let me tell you: I can't imagine anything more frightening (in a good way) as that. It was that roller-coaster sensation, but with the genuine fear of death.

I'm interested in both the board and bindings.

E-mail sent.

And go ahead with the CT scan. While it's true that they pack a massive whallop of radiation--you don't want more than two of these in a lifetime if you can avoid it--brain damage is a sure thing, versus potential radiation risk. Definitely stay off the slopes in the meantime; a second impact would likely be catastrophic.

I think they should put all the babies in one section by themselves--like a kennel. Give each one half a mini-bottle of in-flight hooch, and they'll be down for the count! In seriousness, I think the airlines should offer adults-only flights--or at least all-adult sections of the plane.

Glad to hear that, man. I'm sure not every flight is bad. I know not all their employees are slackers. It's cool they did that for the military folks. Our flight yesterday, however, was 1.5 hours late leaving. Then we sat on the tarmac for 45 minutes--while they unloaded a few passengers who had already boarded! (Not us, but we felt bad for them.) All while the cabin reeked of urine from some improper technique in draining the lavatory on the previous flight. Ultimately, we were delayed 2 hours overall--with no explanation or apology. Then, upon arrival at JFK, the baggage claim took literally an hour to unload everything, with long stretches where nothing came out of the chute. Thus we were late for the airport bus, which stops running at 11, and had to take a cab (eating the prepaid return trip we'd bought for the bus). And so AA joins US Air and Delta to form my "unholy trinity" of airlines. On a positive note, United has always been great.

1. If you’re sitting behind me, keep in mind that I LOVE it when you kick my seat! It really keeps the flight unpredictable. The best time is when I’m trying to sleep. Whee! Am I on a 747 to Cleveland or a 1939 DC-3 over the Andes? 2. When you lower your food tray, make sure to let it drop quickly so that the person sitting in the seat to which it is attached is reminded of the overly permissive parenting you were raised with. If you do it hard enough, it’ll feel just like you kicked my seat! If you have an obnoxious little 12-year-old boy, let him do this over and over—giggles all ‘round! 3. If you’re on an outer seat and I need to get by, you don’t need to get up—because let’s be honest; you’re lazy! So stay put and enjoy a face full of rump. You don’t mind if I pass a little gas as I squeeze past, do you? 4. By all means, bring the baby! Everyone loves hearing the little bastard scream its head off, gurgle, goo, poo, and all the other “cute” behavior it can dish out. Even better: Let it crawl all over the seats and stick its little mitts between them, trying to grab at those behind you! Don’t worry; I put the BabyTaser on safety, honest. 5. And let’s not forget you, flight attendants! Instead of asking the mom to pacify her screaming toddler, come over and shower it with attention! That’s what you’re there for, after all—to indulge your unrequited maternal instincts, you barren old cougar! 6. Lady passengers, don’t forget to put on hand lotion and even makeup in your seat! Everyone loves a good whiff of cocamide dea and sodium hydrobenzene. Allergy, schmallergy! 7. When you get up from your seat and need to grab something for balance, just use the one in front of you, with the sleeping person in it, rather than the seat you were sitting in! The jiggle of my seat as you squeeze your fat ass behind me says “Hey, buddy! I love you!” 8. On an overnight flight, when the lights are dimmed and other people are trying to sleep, it’s the perfect time for you to talk loudly to your family members. And, if we're over the ocean, open that window and check out the fantastic view of the wall of cloud below us! After all, sunlight never woke anyone up. 9. The armrest is all yours! by John Bell, seat 34E (Does it show that I just flew American Airlines yesterday?) Tee hee. Tongue is in cheek, for those without funny bones.

Just now checking e-mail for the first time in few days while on vacation. That is definitely good to know. Kind of surprising. I may just leave mine as-is till I can get them to the real deal at Okemo or the like. Thanks for the informative post.

What does it mean that my quiz chose Millard Fillmore? This was actually pretty interesting. My results chose someone other than the one whom I'm supporting. What would make it more accurate would be if it required you to enter a percentage (out of 100) for each issue. That way you'd be forced to prioritize each in relationship to the others.

Thanks for the thoughts, guys! That does help. Didn't know Atomic was so well regarded. (I'd considered an Oxygen but shied away because of the cap construction.)

I've heard that I shouldn't go with anything wider than a 25 at most for TD1s. True, some kind of plate would probably help. But we don't get the huge pow out here anyway, so I might as well go with something 20-22 or thereabouts, I figure.

Not really. I wouldn't want something that's more than 7-8 years old, though.

I believe it's measured in J-Lo units.:D

Still trying to find something narrow enough for TD1s and yet versatile enough for pow. Here's what I've compiled so far: Head Icon (24.7 cm. waist) Nidecker Smoke (25.1 cm. ) Rossi J. Jones Narrow (25 cm. ?) Nidecker Proto (21.5 waist) Atomic Firestarter (25 cm.) F2 Speedcross/Diablo (roughly 22 cm) Obviously there are superior offerings from Coiler, Donek, Prior, etc., but I'm wondering what's out there among the McSnowboard companies. Any others I should know about? Thanks.

I asked almost the same question back when I was firm in my refusal to consider hard boots. I recall the Never Summer Titan is highly regarded as NS's freeride stick--as is the Arbor A-Frame. (NS also has a 3-year warranty.) There's also the Nitro Pantera, Madd BX, Nidecker Megalight. I should caution that I haven't actually ridden any of these myself, but this is what I've been reading. But Donek offers a basically *handmade* freeride board for $450--which is a steal at half the price of a Burton Vapor. And a lot of people would probably plug the Prior AWD and Rad-Air Tanker. Bindings: Stiffest are Catek Freerides, followed by Rome Targas, perhaps Union Force and Burton Cartels or C60s. As to boots: I've heard the Solomon Malamute is great, but I use K2 Raider BOAs and love them. Quite stiff. I was a bit nervous about the BOA system, but it has yet to fail me, and it saves time over laces. Good luck!

Got a photo?

That would explain why it costs $2000 and why I've never seen it for sale anywhere, online or otherwise.

Chef, my bacon tastes like feet!

I live almost right across the street from the UN, in Midtown East (2nd Ave at E. 42nd). My wife and I have plans to go up to VT at some point after mid-January; we might have room for one more sometime. We went to Butternut a couple of weeks ago; it was about 2 hours each way via the Tectonic Parkway or Teutonic--whatever the hell that thing is called. Anyway, next trip, I'll post a notice on the NY/PA section of the ride board.

Thanks for the info, Q. That sounds reassuring. I'll probably use them.

That's a sweet board. Yeah, I get the impression they make really solid boards; they make the Swoard boards in their factory.