mirror70

I know of about 40 World Cup riders who disagree. If you're breaking bindings like that, it's not because you're a specimen of all that is Man - it's because your equipment is setup wrong, you're riding wrong, or (most likely) both.

FWIW, Michelle Gorgone still rides Burton plates on her Donek. I suppose someone will reply to this with "Yeah, but she probably replaces them with brand new ones after every single run."

I know freestyle is for chimps, apes, and gorillas, but I'm sure that if we all take a moment to lower our noses a few degrees, we'll see that freestyle is a very strong and very important part of snowboarding. Saying otherwise is, well, idiotic. Clearly, since we ride hardboots, we are the smartest people on the hill, so it only makes sense that we would understand the importance of freestyle. Right? Now, I do agree that not allowing you to teach anything at all on hardboots is a less than intelligent decision. On the other hand, I do see why AASI cares so much about freestyle. The problem that I see is the level system. AASI level 1 means that you can survive a LTR as a student (but not necessarily teach one), and Level 2 means that you are great at carving, great in the trees, and competent in the park. Level 3 means you invented snowboarding. If AASI wanted some rankings that actually meant something, they would have opted for more than 3 levels. Even 4 would make a world of difference.

Actually, it's quite different. Competitors in a halfpipe contest can do a hundred different spins, inverts, grabs, and combinations of those elements. "Competitors" in cmc's colonic cranium insertion contest can turn left and can turn right. That's the equivalent of a halfpipe comp where only frontside 180s are allowed, and you must do them on the right wall. CMC is the kind of person where, if I see him on the hill, I will go inside and change to softboots just to minimize the risk of being associated with him.

1) Move either the toe or the heel block one step closer. You'll need to switch the screw position for this to either the inside or outside - whichever is the opposite of how you have it now. 2) Turn your binding a few degrees in that direction. If you had it at a natural spot, your foot wouldn't end up getting turned.

Is the Madd still available? What is the condition of the carbon butterfly?

If the lifties were really on top of their game, they wouldn't have allowed that situation to happen in the first place. A six year old is simply not allowed to ride a lift without an adult, and in a group it must be done in a 1:1 ratio. Rules are rules, even if you're a liftie.

I'm a fan of the Atomic Alibi. Carves very well, floats well enough in powder, goes anywhere you want it to. It's available in sizes up to 166.

Some people might say that these restrictions are pointless, idiotic, and make a total farce of air safety. I say everyone should just look on the bright side: At least no terrorists will die with a clean shave or a fresh manicure. Don't you feel safer already?

Rather than leaning forward and having trouble with folding the nose and excessive leg fatigue, you could try moving your stance forward. The drawback to doing this is that you don't get to pat yourself on the back every time you say "MADD" and "advanced technique" in the same sentence, but the upside is that you'll ride the board better than those with the shoulder touching fetish.

The Canadian National team was at Sugarloaf this week, so uh, yeah - we had a few hardbooters on the hill as well. Killington is a fantastic mountain if you fit into all of the negative NY stereotypes.

Their website says a 1-hr private lesson is $110. While that is higher than many places, it's not too far out of the ordinary. You don't really want to go more than an hour anyway, because there is a limit to how much you can take in at one time.

Gleb, If you find yourself at Sugarloaf looking for a lesson, sign up for a private and request either Erik Beckman or Fuzzy. It's money well spent.

Yeah, I ride an F2. I think Meghan introduced us last winter?

I don't know if he still teaches there, but if you're looking for a lesson at Wachusett, Steve Fleck is the guy you want to request. He's a BOL poster, USASA medal winner, and has great stories about how he got that bump on his head after running into the old drunk guy.

Scharffen Berger? Don't you mean "Hershey Deluxe"?

The video is from this year's Absinthe flick, Futureproof. The linear distance was reportedly well beyond that of Chad's Gap (150ft from end of the kicker to the very front of the landing), so I'd guess the drop was well beyond 60ft. Yes, the rider suffered a season-ending injury from that. Damn good flick though. Probably as good as Pop, but with a bit less jaw-dropping air time.

I'm there most weekends. Matty - I was on hard boots Sun morning and softies in the afternoon, and hard boots all day Saturday. I saw 4 others on hard boots Sat, and 5 others on Sun, but none of them were you. Which trail were you on?

Sugarloaf was great all weekend.

Excellent, thanks.

How about this? (8.3MB)

A friend is looking for a boot fitter in western WA for some work on a new pair of ski boots. Any recommendations? FWIW, he usually goes to Crystal, Stevens, White Pass, Schweitzer, and Silver.

That's part of the "us against them," superior, confrontational attitude which has helped to shove carving into the 0% marketshare niche that it currently is. As shocking as it may sound, there are in fact people who like carving AND going through the park, and are smart enough to realize that hardboots and too-stiff boards aren't always the right tool for the job.

I can think of a few reasons, the two primary ones being: 1) You can't walk into a store and demo a Donek, Prior, or Madd, but you can walk into a store and demo an Atomic, Burton, Nitro, Salomon, etc. 2) If a carver is looking for a soft setup, then he's probably not looking for an experience which is identical to what he gets on his hard setup. Given that, how are the three board makers you mentioned any different from a more mainstream board maker?

Nitro has a railboard with a dual edge and unique beveled base that I'm sure a lot of the BOL community would be interested in.