AccidentalChef

Awesome day for sure. Felt like a major breakthrough day for me, my comfort and confidence are through the roof compared to even a week ago. Being able to ride the 9m sidecut Burton and switch to the 14m Prior without skipping a beat is something I never could have done before. Huge thanks to everyone out there, whether you gave advice or just made good turns in front of me that I could learn from.

Just got back from a good day up there today, and looking forward to another one sunday. A decent amount of the advice everyone gave last week started coming together today, guess it just had to sit in my head a bit.

I'll be there, with both boards for once.... unless someone is bribing me with beer, in which case I'll just bring the race board, to ensure you get a powder day. Anyone feel like carpooling from Denver?

The Axxess was great. I'm kind of surprised how much I liked it, really. I think my perfect board at this point might be about halfway between the WCR and Axxess, which sounds like it might be a Coiler AM metal. hmmmm.... I've finally learned my lesson about bringing two boards. However, for those really wanting a good powder day, I could be persuaded to bring only a race board to the slopes. My fee for this service will be a 6 pack of good imported or microbrew beer.

Best day? How can I pick just one? This was my first year on hard boots, so almost every day has had some sort of breakthrough happen. Which one do I pick? First toeside carve, first heelside carve, first time I actually linked them smoothly? Learning to absorb chop with my knees so I don't end up in the woods? Learning how to be dynamic on the board? I could think of a dozen more. Most of these breakthroughs are courtesy of the Loveland crew. I can't even guess how terrible my carving would be without their advice, especially Mario, Inkaholic, and Monodude. Best day? No idea. Best season? I'll take this one.

That might actually work. My friends have a 6 AM flight back home, and I have to drop them off at the airport. I'll give you a call in the morning and let you know if I'll make it or not. Anyone know if the season ticket office is going to be open Sunday morning? The loveland site says you can ride free the rest of the year if you buy your pass now, so I think I'm going to do it.

I should be there also, if I've gotten enough sleep to survive it.

Too bad you can't make Breckenridge on Friday... I was hoping for someone to ride with who won't try to take me through the trees or down bump runs when I'm on a GS board... heh. You should try to make it to Loveland on Sunday whether you do Copper or not. The crew there is great.

Bordy, Just wanted to say I'm one of the ones who really appreciates the knowledge you share here on Bomber. Hopefully you'll reconsider your decision, but if not, I guess I'll have to keep an eye on Hardbooter.

Angie, If you're there Friday we can definitely make some turns, as long as you don't mind riding with a beginner-ish carver... still my frist season this year. If you can survive the traverse over there, I had the most fun on peak 7, though the runs do have some flat spots to work around. I'll be driving up there from Denver on Thursday night and hopefully getting on the slopes early on Friday.

Was a good time at Breck for sure. I made it til 3:30, legs are toast today. Yesterday was the first day I felt good on the WCR. I had to just keep it pointed downhill more and trust it to be stable at speed, and make the big turns the 14m sidecut wants to make. Mostly, though, I felt good on the board because of all the advice I got last week from Ink, Monodude, and Mario. HUGE public thanks to you guys. I feel like I learned as much in a day riding with you guys as I'd have figured out in a season riding alone. Don, my friends were pretty impressed with your riding. They were talking about it the rest of the day. Hopefully they end up moving out here next year and we can talk them into trying a mono, skwal, alpine board, or anything more interesting than skis.

These only have about a half day on them. Purchased in December 1999, and they're way too big for me. I didn't get around to returning them back then, and they've been in my closet ever since. Make me an offer on them... it's Spring Cleaning weekend and I need the space on the shelf.

I got 2 demo days on the D1 6' in some gorgeous Utah powder a few weeks ago. I couldn't give it back. I've never ridden a big swallowtail, but now that I've got the Dupraz I'm not sure I even care. The board is a blast on powder days, manageable in the trees, and can carve pretty well (if only I had the technique to take advantage of it) on packed powder. I haven't ridden it on anything icy and I doubt I ever will; I've got better tools for that job.

Didn't realize everyone here had such good taste, though I gotta agree with Allee about the Supertramp. Gecko, I want to borrow your ipod, but make sure swap out the Limp Bizkit for some of Mario's Social D first :D

I've got a couple friends flying in this week, and they're going to be spending some time up in Breckenridge. I'll be up there with them this coming Sunday, Monday (half day), and next Friday. They're both pretty advanced skiers who'll be spending most of their time on the steeps and bumps, so I won't be doing a ton of riding with them. Anyone feel like meeting up any of the three days?

I was misled by the lovey snow report... 5" sounded like perfect dupraz conditions. Oh well, learned my lesson. From now on, always bring the Dupraz and an alpine board. I just wish I'd followed Ink's advice about binding angles earlier, I might have been able to improve even more.

Oh man, that's absolutely insane. Can't even imagine it, but then I've only got 2 days on a longboard so far. I don't even think my speed wobbles the other night were that fast.

Had an awesome time up there today. Everybody's advice helped quite a bit, and I felt like I was improving all the way to the last run. Looking forward to some very sore legs this week.

Looks like I could use a ride up too. I'm in Capitol Hill in Denver, but I can meet up anywhere. I can drive but I'd prefer to kick in some gas money. and just catch a ride. I wouldn't mind catching first chair, but I don't need to catch first parking space like Mario :lol:

Picked them up tonight. Should be interesting to see how they feel compared to the Catek step ins.

Looks like Sunday will work for me. I think I'm going to try to pick up a second set of bindings this week, so I don't have to switch them from board to board at lunch if the snow gets soft. Ink recommended something softer than my Cateks, and Bola's got some Nideckers in stock... any opinions on them? I don't think he has them in step in, but that's fine.

Not sure yet if I'll be able to make it, since my mom is in town visiting. I'll let you guys know soon. If there's new snow I might not be able to resist... gonna want to get some time on my new Dupraz. I'm blaming you for this one Ink, if you hadn't brought me the board, I wouldn't be required to buy it. :D Anyone have any extra discount coupons or anything? I should really be saving money right now, since I'm giving so much of it to Bola this week.

When I rode softies back in the 90s, Eldora was the mountain I spent the most time at, since my aunt lives in Nederland. I only got 5ish days a year in back then, but I was damn proud of myself the first time I made it down Corona, on my alp 163 with 3 strap Burton bindings. I'm sure none of the turns were pretty, but that hardly mattered to me at the time. I do remember the run being steep enough that falling could result in sliding a pretty significant distance down the slope before I managed to stop myself. I'll feel good about my carving ability the day I get down Corona without skidding a turn.

Bringing this one back from the dead... At the top of Brighton yesterday, I was staring off at the view. Bluebird day with great visibility, so it was pretty incredible. I'm riding hard boots on a Dupraz D1, and a lady skis up, stops next to me, and asks me if I lost one of my skis. At the end of that run, I'm waiting in the lift line and overhear two kids in front of me arguing about what I was riding. I don't know how it turned out, but when their chair showed up they'd determined it was definitely not a snowboard. Despite being directly ahead of me in line, they didn't think to ask me what it was. I was also stopped this week by a family at the top of the lifts. They'd been riding up behind me and couldn't figure out how my bindings worked, so I gave them a demo. They asked if my setup (Prior WCR metal) let me do more tricks. I told them I have two tricks; turning left and turning right. I've had the same questions as most people about what the board is too. Monoski, monoboard, uniboard, etc. etc. etc., but I got a new one today. I overheard a guy saying to his kids, "Look, it's one of those slalom skis!"

I spent today at Brighton. 7-8" of fresh on the mountain, so I took out the Dupraz. I didn't like most of the trails at the mountain, but I did have lots of fun on the Snake Creek lift. I couldn't tell you which trails, since I spent a lot of time making wrong turns. The Dupraz was great though. Felt like surfing in powder, and still railed through the chop in the afternoon. Even better, I think I may have figured out cross through today, trying to spend as much time on edge and as little time flat as possible through the chop. If tomorrow is a powder day, I'll probably hit snowbird. If not, back to Solitude again on the WCR. I've learned the mountain and I'm happy with their grooming. Anyone want to meet up? I'll be in black pants, an olive green jacket, and a black full face helmet. I'll likely spend most of my morning on the greens, but I think the stuff I figured out today on the Dupraz will transfer well to the WCR and I might move to the Eagle lift by the end of the day if I have the energy.