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I've booked a room for Bishop on Saturday already and will board on Sunday. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I'm spend the first part of the day teaching a 'lady friend' how to snowboard for her very first time. This should be an interesting experiment - I won't teach her how to skid and start off with braking and proceed to 'the norm'. If she starts railing and laying them out on her first day... *shakes fist* Hopefully by lunch time she'll feel comfortable enough to leaf and I can spend the afternoon practicing on J4. I really love the runs on that side

Just saw this at REI's super clearance sale for $12 http://www.rei.com/product/744881

Check out this page: http://www.bomberonline.com/articles/practice_drills.cfm But here it is too:

For me I would say attending the expression session is a clinic in itself, but what do you guys think about having an "Intro to Freecarving" clinic for 1-2 hours? I'm asking because I can interest some softbootin' friends who will be on the hill anyway. And I'm sure everyone here has friends who might be curious. Might be a good way to promote alpine snowboarding?

As a newbie I think the 3 best tips that are helping me put it all together are: 1) Reach for front boot cuff with outside hand on heel sides, and on toe side reach behind for rear boot cuff with outside hand. Helps fix all that jarring chatter. 2) Really, really pinch the pencil to get angulated and high on edge. I pinched as hard as I could yesterday and I'm starting to get my speed under control without skidding 3) Steal a look uphill while turning. I just got t-bone yesterday, fortunately he wasn't going too fast

I just checked it out and it's about 2cm from the edges. I can go down to 30* angles but I've been incrementing my angles gradually so I can eventually ride skinnier boards like the Madd.

Watching that first video is so inspiring for me. How many years of riding before someone can get that good?! Between 6:15 and 6:25 I see the board's nose pop up and come chopping down. Is this intentional?

I ride on a Prior ATV 171 with 55f/50r on my MP24. It's waist is 23.5cm I think.

Congrats, your first day was much better than my train wreck at the local resort in S. Calif.:lol: I suggest lessons with a hardboot instructor if you can find one. I took a 2 hour private lesson at Lake Tahoe and it was life changing. I'm sure making the pilgrimage to SES is another one of those life changing moments too

How's March sound for you guys? alpinecarving.com has this to say about Rose: "Mt Rose has the best steep groomers for expert carvers." I hope it has great blues for learning carvers

I still need to work out the details with my buddies. I could also leave OC at 5am and arrive in time for some afternoon riding. I've left at 2am before but I don't ever want to do that again lol I know June's got a reputation for small crowds, but how is it during MLK?

I wish that session was earlier in the season. Improving my skills that much at the season's end would make me sad and super anxious for the next year.

And I have TD1 bindings you can use with it. All you have to do is find boots that will fit

Looks like I will likely be up there for MLK weekend. The plan is to drive up Saturday and spend the night at a motel. Sunday will be a full day of riding and then drive home afterwards. Anyone else got plans? I'd love to meet other carvers and have my technique ripped apart :D Hopefully the crowds will be over at Mammoth because June Sux

Nah don't have a relative by that name. I'm sure you're being sarcastic about "Nguyen" being uncommon right? My sarcasm meter might be broken lol. I think 75% of Vietnamese have my last name so I differentiate myself by riding on hardboots :)

I have to admit I bought the ATV to have the flexibility of using soft boots. But I've only done that once and have chosen hardboots every time since :)

Wow thanks for everyone's input, I learn something new everyday I posed the original question because eventually I want to get a board with a larger SCR and in carving photos I am really amazed to see how much riders can decamber their board. I was confused and thought I was forgetting to do something if mine isn't bending like that. So tell me if I understand this correctly: the board doesn't bend because of something you do directly (like muscling it), but it bends as a byproduct of angulation, inclination, and the force going into the turn. When I'm on the mountain I do all the drills mentioned and they definitely work. I had to stop and take a picture of this heelside from last weekend in June Mtn :D Admittedly, I have a similar problem as BradBrad. My first few turns are good but I gradually pick up so much speed that things get sloppy and I skid to reset the exercise.

Congrats! Way to rub it in Do you know how long before it arrives?

I have a Prior ATV 171 all-mountain board you can test the waters with. I don't have any trips planned until the end of this month so you're welcome to try it out. I live on Santa Ana so it's just up the 5 to the 405.

I've been reading that you can force a board with a large sidecut radius into a smaller turn by bending/decambering it. I had no idea what to do so I tried stomping on my board mid-carve and that resulted in the most bone rattling chatter ever Can you guys explain to this padawan learner how to bend the board?

I haven't been to any expression session so I don't know the details that need to be taken care of. Still, I'll throw my hat in to help put something together for this season. I'm good with an SLR camera, I'm learning video, and I'm a web developer. Hope I'm not totally useless Can you give a quick list of things we can all help with?

I remember seeing threads for past SNES. Is there one planned for this year?

Pst, don't see a pic

Ah so spam is the reason. As a web developer during the day, I've always thought about creating an application for product reviews. I figured there's probably already one out there that integrates into shopping cart systems as well.

I have trekking poles I can use too or I can go to one of those art stores and get a wooden dowel, but I'm just wondering where to get bamboo poles to use for practice drills?