jtslalom

At the end of every ski season my friends and I used to walk up the slopes to look for dropped items during the ski season. We used to find every thing from money to two-way radios to empty vodka bottles. Now that my local ski area is closed and the snow is slowly disappearing I want to take a walk up the slopes. I talked to a friend who works in the racing department who said that the ski area frowns on this and will kick you out. Since they own all the land their ski area is on, they have the right to do this. I was wondering about the ski resorts who lease their land or who's land is owned by the government or state. What are the restrictions on trespassing on these lands when the ski season is closed?

This couldn't be more true but I live in the town I ride in and still get tired of the same crappy conditions. Twice a year I get a chance to ride in Vermont. This year it was Sugarbush. The condtions were incredible. It seems every time I ride someplace other than my home mountain, the conditions are great. Maybe that is the way with every one. The excitement of riding a strange mountain other than your own makes bad conditions disappear. Conditions that might be considered crappy at your home mountain may be considered good if you are riding an unfamiliar hill.

tilledog, YOU obviously haven't been to NJ. You're right, I haven't been to Utah but I can sure guess that your average snowfall is 10 times that of NJ. I can also tell you that when you enjoy the early season snows I have early season rain. It will be 56 degrees and raining on a Tuesday day then drop down to 20 that night. It will stay below freezing the following day. So the snow hardens to a nice reflective ice you can see yourself in. Tilledog, this is very typical of NJ weather. So please don't tell me that its harder in Utah. When I think of Utah I think of soft pack 90% of the time. NJ is 20% at best softpack. Jack I was not at eces, but I've been all over New England inluding White Face in New York. I have to laugh at what some of the locals up there call hard pack. Sure you do get it, but not like it is down here. Again your average snowfall is much much greater than it is down here.

Most people on this site ride in great conditions. I see pictures from Utah where guys are carving through freshly groomed snow digging soft deep trenches. Other guys are up in New England with slightly harder conditions but still carving through generally the same soft snow. I love the fact that I ride on the hardest iciest conditions out of any one who posts on this sight ( New Jersey). I love the fact that the hill I ride on is scraped off by the end of the night by G.S. and S.L. skiers. Thats when riding gets good. So as I sit here and read all the posts of guys carving through soft groomed conditions I can only dream about, I begin to wonder if people really understand how good they got it. I've been riding since 1988 on the same conditions and know no better. I would like to hear about other local conditions and how people deal with them.

Mountain Creek is now officially closed. They had opened back up last week because of the new snow we got. Saturday and Sunday were the last days they were opened.

Kent, I'm sitting in a high school library reading your post and laughing my but off (I'm a teacher). Kids are looking at me like I am crazy so I invited some over to read it. They also laughed. You have touched the lives of our youth with your post. Keep them coming.

sic t 2, I don't thnk it was president Bush who sent your job over seas. I think it was a mutual agreement by your ceo's who thought it would be cheaper, and it is. Its the same ALL OVER no matter who's president, people lose jobs because of costs not directly related to the president. I will see you over this summer and we'll talk. I went to Mountain Creek Friday afternoon. I've not waited on any long lift lines all season until Friday. It was mad. I took two runs in one hour.The snow was not well set, it was mushy to say the least. I was able to get some good turns in. I put one down and encircled a ski patroler standing toward the side. I will be on your lake soon, buddy tournaments start in June.

Both Mountain Creek and Hidden Valley have reopened through this weekend. Mountain Creek is opened only at Vernon Peak.

I've had three pairs of gloves for the last 6 years. They are all ripped up with holes all over them. Duct tape does work wonders. The question is how is your jacket and pants? My jacket is wearing away on both my right and left side from my hip up to my chest. Both knees on my pants are duct taped and the pocket on both hips have been sewn numerous times.

6-10 inches of snow is to fall on NJ and north to Albany NY. Mountain Creek WILL be opened next weekend for the last weekend of the season. It is not opened during the week this week. What a pitty with all this new snow. Riding at Hunter or Windham should be good this week and weekend. I packed up all my boards and replaced them for fishing poles. I may have to take them back out now.

Mountain Creek will be closing after this weekend. Those of you willing to beat up your board still have a chance to do so. With big bare patches and exposed rocks, Mountain Creek will be rockin ( pun intended )

rider, Ski Stop right off the L.I.E. has some hard boots left. They don't distribute hard equipment any more but they DEFINATELY have some stock left over. If you get the chance go there, go upstairs and specifically ask the the sales person for race equipment. DO NOT pay the price that they ask on any equipment. All the stuff they have is brand new but old. My friend bought an older 99/00 race deck for 50% less than they were asking. I bought a pair of Burton hard boots from them last year for a good price. To answer your question about hard boots and ski boots, buy hard snowboard boots. I rode in ski boots for 4 years. You are not able to get as low with ski boots. They restrict your angulation so that you tend to ride standing more upright than you would with hard boots.

Tom H, Yes you are right, I'd much rather drive my kid to snow board practice rather than soccer practice but since both sports happen at different times of the year, it would still suck driving my kid to soccer practice. :) I can't wait to get my daughter on the slopes next year. I walked her out on the bottom slope of my local ski resort and she loved it. I can only hope that she'll want to stick with it when I teach her.

My wife skis but hasn't since having our now two year old daughter. Next year my daughter will be on a board. This comes after teaching my now seven year old nephew from the age of four. He rips and hopefully so will my daughter.

I was wondering if anybody knows which conic section a sidecut is designed around, hyperbola, parabola, or circle. I don't know much about how manufacturers come up with their sidecut radii, but since the word radius is always used I would assume the sidecut is designed aroun a circle.

Thomas, Just buy a used setup. You can probably get the whole thing for under $250 (boots, board, bindings). Use every thing for one season. If you feel that you aren't getting enough time on the slopes to warrant spending the money for the setup, sell it. As far as all purpose carving decks, I have a Burton E-deck that I ride. It is considered a hard riding soft deck or maybe a soft riding hard deck. Which ever it is, its a good board. I've had it since 1997 and still ride it from time to time. Most all mountain boards I've demoed from reps are good. The best part about them is you can ride hard or soft , in the park or carving down a steep groomer. My suggestion to you is buy a hard setup and don't worry about the price if you can, you'll be able to sell it next year if you don't like it.

There are enough hard riders to keep the indutry going. Don't worry about the numbers. There is NO possible way to get an accurate count, so why bother.

I rode with Ken today (aka sic 2t). He was riding a soft board and carving nicely on it. I thought to myself, boy he can turn that soft board pretty good. I was even more surprised when he flipped the board around 180 and carved switch. From time to time I will jump on my soft board and ride but for some reason never really learned how to carve switch. I can link turns swicth but not really carve. I think this week after seeing Ken ride switch I will jump on my soft board and try to carve switch. I was wondering about how many hard riders ride switch on their carving decks or soft boards?

I will be at Mountain Creek tomorrow morning riding on the racing trail on Bear Peek from 8:00 - noon. Hope to see more carvers.

As mentioned above, for a beginning to intermediate carver the belt parkway tail would probably be the best for you. It does get shade alot of the day so it stays stiff. If it is possible you should take a ride over to Windham. Its about 20 min. from Hunter. It has a much nicer trail layout than Hunter and offers more intermediate trails for carving. It also has steep terrain just in case you get the urge. Have fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There seems to be some talk of how long or short an effective edge should be to maximize performance. I read the effective edge thread where Jack made a comment on centripital force of the snow and having more edge length for the snow to push back on the board. I think theoretically this is correct but I'm not so sure how practical it is. I ride on ICE. I beleive that in order to carve steep icy slopes it is better to have a shorter board with a smaller radius. Snow density on icy slopes is ten fold than that of hard pack or soft conditions. You really need to dig a trench in order to get a good hold. I must totally extend my legs out of one turn, get as far forward as possible so my c.o.g. is over my front foot and dive into the next turn. I angulate quickly to provide good edge contact and compress into the turn. My chest will almost always hit my front knee. As this happens I ever so slightly fall back through the turn. My pressure will move back towards the middle of my boards edge. My board will be perpendicular to the slope coming across the fall line and my turn will end with me releasing the pressure. I will start the same routine over for the next turn. It is easy for me to apply good pressure across most of the boards length and stay in my original line without slipping out. On a longer board its a little harder to move that pressure along the edge. Unless you have tree trunk quads or are traveling at mach 10, the pressure is ditributed over a greater length and will die off at the ends of the edge. This will cause your board to slip out of its line causing skidding. The bottom line is if your strong and have great technique you can carve anything on any board. The best article I have read is the Physics of carving. If you truly understand that article and how it relates to the snow, your board and your body, you can analyze your carving at every point.

I don't ride my soft boards like I do my carving/race boards. My stance angles on my soft board are totally different from my hard boards. I ride 18 back and 30 front. I like to ride switch on my soft board so I don't want the angles to be much beyond 30 degrees.

That sounds like good advice Erik. I like your style. I will be at south Bear peak provided the racing trail is open. If not I might go up to Devils Bit ( the old grand prix) for a while. I'll hopefully be riding with two other carvers. Hope to see you there.

I will be riding at MC on Monday morning from 8:00 A.M. to about noon with a few other carvers at the South Peak and Bear Peak. Hope to see you there.

I use a 1 degree bevel on the side edge and flat 0 degree on the base edge on my Volkl (SL) and Rossignal (GS) boards. I use a 2 degree bevel on the side edge of my e-deck and flat on the base. The mountain I ride on is constantly icy and I seem to hold an edge just fine with these angles.