tenorman

hi cypress crew sorry i can't make it this sunday. i was up on thursday and grouse has lost a lot of snow the last week. quite a few bare spots and rocky patches. probably the best coverage is on THE CUT. the runs like CENTENNIAL and EXPO are still okay but in order to access those runs you have to negotiate inhospitable rock strewn terrain to get there. the main red gondola is shut down for maintenance so only the smaller (much slower) blue gondola is running so up/downloading will take a lot longer. i had to wait for over an hour in the downloading lineup on thursday night--budget your time accordingly if you have time sensitive plans for sunday evening. i renewed way back at the end of february when the renewal notices were first sent out so i already gave my ticket to my neighbour. i didn't foresee cypress closing before grouse--highly unusual lol. have fun guys. later doug

hi GABE i just got back from walking my dog. thanks for responding so quickly. now that i've locked your ORIGINAL response in a quote, you can't change it by editing--GOTCHA. as you can guess this is my final post on this thread. have a nice life. doug p.s. i'll take option A (completely ignore)

hi GABE please don’t blame BLUEB for phoning your mom. i made him do it as i wanted to make sure he had your parents’ permission to take you snowboarding at cypress since i wasn’t sure they knew the WHOLE story. evidently you told your mom about the upcoming trip to cypress BUT DID NOT TELL YOUR PARENTS THAT YOU DAMAGED THE BOARD AND BOOTS LAST WEEK. wtf? understandably your mother became quite upset when she thought BLUEB had called seeking money for damages. in order to calm her down, BLUEB had no choice but to tell her that he didn’t want any money and that he was just making sure that he had your parents’ permission to take you to cypress. i am really upset about this GABE. if you simply told your parents the truth in the first place they surely would have insisted on buying the stuff (if not the board at least the boots as that was clearly beyond a simple repair.) BLUEB would not have ended up getting screwed over by trying NOT to get you into trouble with your parents. i distinctly remember you telling me you were getting a SWOARD for christmas. the 161 cm size with the soft flex option recommended to you by PATRICE (of SWOARD) during your purported exchange of emails with him. at the time (march 20th) grouse was only scheduled to open for another few weeks (before they extended the season.) this means that you would be starting your carving life with a brand new SWOARD next year. RUWI and i suggested that you not buy a brand new board because you would likely wreck it during the learning process. before you rebut this again please remember that RUWI was also there on the chairlift to hear it firsthand when you told me this. this smokescreen you are throwing up with the SWOARD (or DONEK or whatever brand of board you pull out of the air) is an independent event from the fact that you are responsible for the damaged nidecker. whether it has a thin edge or thick edge is immaterial and doesn’t absolve you of responsibility. imagine if you test rode a bicycle and smacked into a brick building and damaged it. you would then have to pay for the damages whether it was brand new bike or an old beater bike. If the bike was a new high tech machine, then you would pay 1000s of dollars. if the bike was an old beater, you would pay about 50 bucks. why are you claiming that it is any different with a snowboard? actually we are dealing with NESTED smokescreens as the nidecker is itself a smokescreen for the damaged boot. there is no thin edge type excuse or thin plastic excuse or thin buckle excuse or whatever. the boots were in serviceable condition when you borrowed them. you had an accident with them where part of the boot got ripped off. why are you not responsible for them? see the above example with the bike. the fact that you had no idea how the buckle snapped off despite being warned by at least 2 people (myself and BLUEB) not to leave any undone does not alter the fact that when you return the boots they will be damaged. in fact you are claiming they are unusable which is why you are asking BLUEB to let you borrow his raichles. he offered you their use BEFORE you told him about the damaged boot. i am shocked you had the nerve to ask to borrow them saying that you couldn’t do up the top buckle on the boot THAT YOU DAMAGED. i am even more shocked that he agreed—BLUEB is a lot more patient and understanding than i am. GABE, the above quote is not an apology. although you say you are sorry and offer to recompense BLUEB, the manner in which it is done is to make BLUEB feel bad for RIGHTFULLY SCHOOLING you. it is also intended to make BLUEB feel guilty about making you doing something that your HEART was not into—SO WHAT IF YOUR HEART IS SET ON ANOTHER BOARD, YOU STILL DAMAGED THE NIDECKER AND THE BOOT (WHICH YOU CONVENIENTLY RELEGATE TO SECONDARY STATUS.) it is insincere offering to buy and/or repair and then refusing to acknowledge responsibility or be bound by your promises to buy and/or repair in subsequent posts. you manipulated BLUEB into letting you off the hook by bringing the matter into an internet forum instead of handling it privately in the first place. you even weaseled out of fixing the board by saying that you didn’t know what you were doing. your internet resources told you the board was okay--those same internet resources will tell you how to fix the board. lots of info on epoxy on the internet so you can’t use that as a valid excuse. your apology is merely a matter of protocol and completely devoid of any real sorrow or contrition. it’s nothing more than a BACKHANDED SLAP. what is most galling about this is you are trying to claim the innocence of a small child despite the calculating circumstances detailed above. UNBELIEVABLE! this trading of a MINOR concession (the nidecker) to win a MAJOR concession (the damaged boot) from BLUEB is underhanded and nefarious . i find it totally despicable. again if you had just simply told your parents the truth from the beginning, then you wouldn’t need to “talk them into” anything. saying “at least i wasn’t trying to” does not nullify the fact that you said it anyway. read your own post carefully! it was one of the 20 or so attempts to get me to teach you how to eurocarve. the only way I could stop another 20 exasperating requests was to actually link a few eurocarves and wait for you to inevitably fail to duplicate them in order to point out that you needed more practice weighting your edge (i.e. racecarving.) this above quote about eurocarving is merely another example (of many) where you feel that you can nullify anything you say by simply saying “you weren’t trying to” or “you forgot” or “you may have said it but can’t remember” or whatever. this is why it is so enervating trying to reason with you at all. in addition, you are constantly backpedaling and editing posts a FULL day later without an explanation. this smacks of spin doctoring and damage control. it’s not unusual to edit a post a few minutes later (last second thoughts, spelling and other minor issues) without providing a reason, but an edit made much later looks suspicious without an entry in the “explanation” box on the posting input screen. don’t forget that bomberonline emails me a notification that you responded so i know exactly what you wrote before you edited it a day later. it would be embarrassing to you to trot it out but i will if you argue about it—MY MEMORY IS PROBABLY BETTER THAN YOURS. it’s a waste of my time arguing with someone who isn’t burdened with an excessive reverence for the truth. i can’t deal with your massaging the facts, editing the truth, willfully ignoring pointed questions and/or deliberately misinterpreting them. you’ve run the gamut. on top of all this you seem to feel that whatever you say should have no future impact. wtf? i was hoping RUWI would take over helping you hardboot--however he has to help his friend’s son so he won’t have time. evidently you became quite trying during subsequent snowboarding sessions. i only snowboarded with you twice and i was at the end of my rope at the end of the second session—especially when the father of the little girl you almost took out on your failed eurocarve came up to me afterwards in the chalet and gave me sh*t in front of about a hundred people. based on your reply to my previous post i now realize i should have just let the little girl’s father grab you by the scruff of the neck. originally i was going to tell you this in person but SINCE WE WON’T BE SNOWBOARDNG AGAIN, this forum is the only way to do it. you chose to let it play out on the forum instead of dealing with the initial matter of the damaged board and boots privately with BLUEB (and your parents) so don’t blame me for trotting this out now. GABE, i am one of those people who does NOT believe in first impressions. your first impression should be no different than your tenth impression. a nice person who becomes more nice on subsequent visits is called a BRO. a nice person who becomes less nice on subsequent visits is called an AS*HOLE. try to keep this in mind and act like the former. there are still a lot of other hardbooters at grouse and BLUEB will likely be visiting often due to the olympics being held at cypress next year so there will be no shortage of people willing to help you. just keep my advice from the previous paragraph in mind and hopefully you won’t repeat your mistakes. i’m sorry but i lack the patience to help you and i don’t wish to be your bodyguard when you annoy people on the hill by choosing to eurocarve on crowded slopes (especially without looking uphill first.) let’s just chalk our parting of the ways up to PHILOSOPHICAL DIFFERENCES and leave it at that. doug p.s. another hint: in all the previous posts you deliberately gave the impression that you didn’t withhold information from your parents—not cool. don’t do it again.

hi GABE based on the many irreversible prior posts i think this should be handled on the forum and not email or msn. it will be better for everyone concerned if you just bought the board and boots. the board can easily be fixed with epoxy. a longer buckle can be taken off an old ski boot and attached by drilling about a centimeter past the torn part of the cuff. if an extension is needed it can likely be made from an old boot tongue. you are still growing and it is not the most financially prudent course of action to buy an expensive board and boots that you will likely grow out of in a year or so. unless you are a full grown adult, serviceable used equipment is the way to go. not every kid who just started snowboarding this january is lucky enough to have parents willing to buy him a brand new SWOARD snowboard for next christmas. even if they did you won’t have enough time remaining this season to develop your skills to the point where you can fully exploit such a high performance board. you will likely wreck it in the process. wasn’t it better to wreck a cheap board like BLUEB’s old nidecker than a brand new $1000 dollar SWOARD? i hope you show this post to your parents and that you are not hiding this CHEAPER alternative from them because it would mean a delay of at least a year before they get you a new SWOARD. your parents will thank you for saving them a bundle of money as BLUEB’s used but serviceable stuff will cost a lot less than the brand new SWOARD/F2 BINDINGS/DEELUXE or UPZ BOOTS package that your parent were willing to buy you. plus the cost will double as soon as you grow out of it--or break it in the learning process! the salutary side benefit is you will have the satisfaction of knowing you did the right thing by not taking advantage of your parents (and BLUEB.) the buckle likely broke when you were unable to complete a heelside eurocarve turn. your riding skills haven’t progressed to that point yet. your toeside eurocarve still needs work as you are still reaching for the snow instead of letting it come to you. the last time we rode together you asked me about 20 times to start teaching you a eurocarve and each time I suggested you learn race carving first. please take the hint and don’t keep insisting. also your cajoling me about not being able to eurocarve will NOT make me show you how to do it before you learn to race carve. trust me I can eurocarve (ask RUWI, BLUEB and CRUCIBLE) i just don’t want to set a bad example for you during your learning stage. you need more practice with your racecarving before you can even think about learning a proper eurocarving technique. i think that had you kept practicing racecarving like i told you to, you would have been a LOT FURTHER ALONG WITH YOUR EUROCARVING at this point. chances are you would also have had better control over your edges and likely would have avoided the skier that damaged the board and boots. racecarving will teach you how to properly weight an edge so you can learn what I call (for lack of a better term) ANGULATED eurocarves which will then automatically lead to BANKED eurocarves. don’t asked me what an ANGULATED eurocarve is until after you learn how to racecarve. in the meantime, i’ll give you a hint—search CARVEDOG’s posts when he mentions that it is okay to touch your hands to the snow as long as you touch the downhill hand before touching down the uphill hand. you were riding a lot better at the end of march when you were keeping your shoulders level with the horizon. i don’t know what happened to your riding form in the video. initially i thought it was the boots but judging by your subsequent posts, it was actually all the bad habits you developed by stubbornly attempting to eurocarve before you could carve with a properly weighted edge. i admire people who don’t just blindly let other people tell them what to do and if you have the determination to disregard people’s advice or even worse TO ASK FOR ADVICE AND THEN RESENT IT WHEN PEOPLE GIVE IT TO YOU then maybe it’s better to just learn by yourself. i don’t have any kids so i never developed a lot a patience so maybe you should ask RUWI who is infinitely more patient than i am to help you instead. i’m surprised BLUEB hasn’t lost his temper yet. i even remember telling him before he lent you the boots that “GABE might get lazy and undo the top buckle as i told him how i was once forced to use my rossi course kx ski boots to snowboard and i had to leave the top buckle undone on my rear boot. AND that i had to duct tape the undone buckle to my cuff to make sure it didn’t get sheared off in case of a fall. i also explicitly told him in no circumstances undo the top buckle on the FRONT boot” JUST ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE! GABE, it doesn’t matter if the skier didn’t say sorry or who was right according to the alpine code. the important thing is to avoid dangerous situations. take DAVE ESPI’s advice to check uphill before riding—ESPECIALLY when eurocarving. remember at the end of march when you showed me your toeside eurocarve and you lost control and almost hit that little girl? that wouldn’t have happened if you had looked up before you started the turn. then a few runs later when you unpredictably hooked into a heelside turn and carved across the fall line in front of the young ski racer on the EXPO run. both times you could have avoided a dangerous situation by simply looking up and checking traffic before proceeding. you even had the nerve to tell the young ski racer to watch where he was going! maybe that skier that ran over your board was karma for your scaring that little girl when you blew your toeside eurocarve?. don’t play the blame game—it’s doesn’t matter. it’s more important to set things right and keep the scales BALANCED.. BLUEB did you a HUGE favour by offering you a cheap old board in case you crashed while learning so you wouldn’t toast an expensive new board. that’s exactly what happened BLUEB is a typical old school European (gracious to a fault) and he will never accept your money. in that case get your parents to insist on buying the equipment. I GUARANTEE YOU THAT BLUEB (AND I) WILL MAKE SURE IT’S PROPERLY AND SAFELY REPAIRED. please, no more excuses or playing the part of the victim. even though BLUEB is willing to let you off the hook, DON’T LET YOURSELF OFF THE HOOK. Just do the right thing and you will earn the respect of everyone and most importantly your OWN. GABE, i don’t think I can make it to grouse this weekend but i will be there next weekend for sure. please remember i will only ride with you if you delay your eurocarving attempts until after you learn racecarving. otherwise you are on your own. please take a couple of days to think about what i just wrote and you can reply or not. i’ll check this thread again on the weekend. later doug

hi GABE nice riding in the video. that’s the first time i’ve seen you ride in hardboots—i’m impressed. BLUEB's quote would be more accurate if the word YEAR was replaced by the word WEEKS. i have seen GABE carve on softboots and he rips. i think he was just unfamiliar with hardboots as that was his first time using them during the video. the video definitely did not show what he is capable of due to his ill fitting equipment. i think next year we will all have trouble keeping up with GABE! GABE, continue practicing the KEEPING YOUR SHOULDERS PARALLEL TO THE SLOPE exercise i showed you the last time we rode together at the end of march. you were consistently close to grabbing your non turning edge when you were still riding on your soft boots so maybe your hardboots need some tweaking/and or downsizing in order for you to regain your previously more angulated riding form. take BLUEB’s advice to NOT eurocarve (banked turns) until you can properly racecarve (angulated turns.) racecarve style allows you to ride in EVERY snow condition while eurocarving doesn’t work when snow conditions deteriorate. you can make a small boot bigger but UNFORTUNATELY, you can’t make a big boot smaller. in your case since it is a nordica boot, you may wish to contact bomberonline member PAT DONNELLY for possible help. i remember him posting on bomberonline about 10 years ago that he was able to use a pair of size 11 (mondopoint 28) nordica sbh boots even though he only had a size 10 foot. i can’t remember what he did exactly but I seem to recall it was quite comprehensive. i can vaguely remember him posting about making a shim board to take up volume under the footbed and some sort of homemade neoprene ankle immobilizer to keep his heel from lifting and maybe some sort of tongue pad also. i am probably forgetting some other things he did to make his boot SMALLER so it’s probably best to contact him and get it directly from the horse’s mouth. sorry i couldn’t join you and ruwi today. i made that dvd of the eurocarving that you wanted and will give it to you next week. just promise me you won’t try anything you see on that dvd until AFTER you perfect your racecarving lol.

fixed it for ya! in WW's honour (and absence) please allow me to take the liberty of posting this impertinent music video. it may not be WW's type of music but at least the brazilian vibe is preserved. i was upset at the way WW was banned but judging by the bullsh*t that occurred i am sure that WW isn't too choked. he probably feels about as much remorse as being kicked out of the book of the month club. hope i have the pleasure of EVENTUALLY reading more posts from the infamous WW (aka bomberonline's fugitive from INJUSTICE.)<object width="425" height="344"> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDU9i0MWv6k&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></object>

hi mr_roboteye i guess this thread has my name written all over it. my favorite gloves are kombi lobsters. I bought them on boxing day 1993. i liked them so much that I bought two more backup pairs at the end of the season (a red pair and a black pair as those were the only 2 colours they came in. the following photo shows my original red pair from december 1993 THAT I AM STILL USING albeit heavily duct taped. these gloves are so bomb proof that I can throw them in the washing machine weekly without issues. the only bomberonline member that might possibly have an older pair of usable gloves is JOHN GILMOUR. i remember a JOHN GILMOUR post on bomberonline about 10 years ago about his pair of 12 year old (circa 1988 approximately) GRANDHOE TRANSANTARCTICA gloves with insulated zip off gauntlets. he also mentioned another pair of gloves but I can’t remember what they were—it’s difficult for an old guy like me to remember things from 10 years ago. my memory isn’t as sharp as it was when i was younger. if JOHN GILMOUR’s gloves are still useable today then they would be about 22 years old which beats my 16 year old KOMBI LOBSTER gloves hands down (pardon the pun.) oh wait, the thread title isn’t the OLDEST pair of gloves but the UGLIEST pair of gloves—in that case……….. I WIN, I WIN, I WIN!!!!!!!!! CRUCIBLE: i did actually used them as oven mitts once at a barbeque up at mount seymour. haven’t tried handling highly toxic radioactive material with them yet but they will probably work too lol. new gloves may look more presentable but wouldn’t have nearly the same cachet as duct tape!! here is a photo of my seldom used backup pair of BLACK coloured kombi lobsters (only used when i forgot to put duct tape in my on hill repair kit which in my case RARELY happens.) although it has faded over the last decade you can still barely see the yellow lettering of the word “kevlar” on the grab patch on the palm: here is an advertisement for kombi lobster gloves from an ancient (about 15 years old ) SNOWBOARD CANADA magazine: sorry i don’t have any more information on my KOMBI LOBSTER gloves but you may wish to contact bomberonline member GEN KANAI as i remember him posting on bomberonline about 10 years ago that a guy he went to college with designed snowboard gloves for KOMBI (specifically the kombi JUSTIN glove.) maybe he could put you in touch with his friend? in case you are one of those people who find LOBSTER CLAW style gloves too cumbersome then you might try the MARMOT GULLY gloves. you may wish to contact bomberonline member MICHAEL PUKAS for more information as i remember him raving about them on a post on bomberonline about 10 years ago. i was going to try them when my last pair of discontinued KOMBI LOBSTERS bit the dust. Thankfully 16 years later I still have 2 pairs of near new KOMBI LOBSTER gloves waiting patiently in my closet so it will be awhile before I try the MARMOT GULLY gloves lol.

hi TEX1230 you might enjoy watching the 1998 movie called “pi” about a computer geek trying to predict stock market behavior. here is a link to a review: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0138704/plotsummary i guess the writer or director wasn’t too mathematically inclined or he would have realized that mathematician KURT GODEL’s work disproves the very premise of this movie. entertaining movie as long as you overlooked the mathematical inconsistencies and weren’t too hung up on randomness and incompleteness theory. sorry to be so far off topic but I got bored waiting for my pizza to arrive.

hi MASAHIKO it’s great that you did not have to void your warranty on your remaining 2 pairs of td3 bindings. if you need your binding to be stiffer in the future, there may be another fix (actually i thought of 2 fixes) that probably won’t be too expensive or troublesome. first: have you asked FIN if using a matching td2 HEEL bail would allow the binding to centre and also accommodate your size 26.5 boot? you could try this yourself since you are also a td2 owner but you would probably want to wait until the end of the season since you are likely still using your td2s on another board. if it works maybe bomber industries will just allow you to send back your td3 heel bails for td2 heel bails. second: have you considered raising the boot instead of the binding? since a lot of fintec heels were recalled perhaps you could get some defective ones out of bomber industries’ garbage bin. ask for heels that are structurally sound but have faulty pins. i don’t think they can ALL be recycled so bomber industries may be willing to sell you a few for a low price (if not free) if you agree not to use them as step ins. they will probably want to remove the pins (for liability reasons) before getting them into your hands which is also good as there will be no cumbersome pins to get in the way when engaging the heel bail. i was initially puzzled by how FIN was able to get a smaller size 25 boot from his demo fleet to fit the td3 while your much bigger size 26.5 boot was too small. the difference had to have been that the demo boots had fintec heels (not standard heels like yours.) the additional height and/or bulk of the fintec heel must have effectively taken up all the “slack” in the binding so it was able to fit snugly (properly.) you may want to confirm this with FIN but i can’t see any other possible explanation. this will probably be my last post to this thread (for a while anyway lol) as i am all out of ideas. i hope the above 2 ideas are of help to you (i like the second idea better as the fintec heels look durable and you have to replace heel pieces anyway—right?) i don’t think you should be afraid to ask bomber industries for further assistance as i am sure they will see your continued interest in the constructive and cooperative spirit it is meant. only the most callous and indifferent would consider you a thorn in the side. it can only improve future production runs. i guess you would have never thought that with a very common size 26.5 boot that you would be relegated to the status of a statistical outlier lol.

hi MASAHIKO a month has passed since february 16th. can you now use your remaining 2 sets of td3 bindings without voiding the warranty? good news perhaps? doug

hi ruwi if you have any doubts about this oldschool f2 speedster rs (not sl) board you can try mine before you buy it. it came in 2 shorter gs lengths (164cm and 166cm.) both had disproportionately huge 13 meter sidecuts so they rode a lot longer than their short lengths would indicate. i felt that for a lighter rider they were just as stable as the longer 170cm and 172cm models with the 14 meter sidecuts. just phone or email me before midnight on saturday if you want me to bring my old 164cm “route 66” graphic speedster rs up to grouse for you to try on sunday.

are you sure it is a 171?. your pic shows the serial number and the f2 convention is that the first 3 numbers is the length. hence your board should be a 172 unless it is off spec. it is most likely a 14 meter sidecut. back when the 172W was the wide version of the narrow 170N it had a 14 meter sidecut. however what is confusing about your board is the 18.8 cm waist is too narrow for a 20 cm waisted 172W and is too wide for the 18.0 cm waisted 170N as well as being too long. so another explanation is that it might be a later year model when f2 went to the 4 board/4 sidecut lineup instead of the old 4 board/2 side cut lineup (actually 2 boards but a narrow and wide version of each with either a 13m sidecut or a 14m sidecut.) even in the new school 4 board/4 sidecut lineup your 171 (172 according to the serial number in your pic) would have been the second shortest (currently it has grown to a 174 cm length) board in the series which has a 14m sidecut. my older model 170N has a running length of 148.5 cm which would be equivalent to your 172W if yours is indeed an old school f2. f2’s recommended stance width on my 170N (which would be the same for a 172W) is 46 to 50 centimeters (18.11 to 19.68 inches.) yeah I’m a packrat and I save the spec stickers on all my boards lol. if you are concerned about the board being too stiff, it will help to ride the narrowest stance you are comfortable with. a narrower stance will make the board feel flexier; a wider stance will make the board feel stiffer. IBRUSSELL's advice to shift the bindings toward the nose is good if you want the board to ride like a shorter board and turn quicker—makes sense for a beginner. the tradeoff is you get less pop off the tail. when you master the board you can move the bindings back to get more tailpop for the airborne turn transitions that older f2s are noted for.

hi BRYANZ DIVEBOMBER's suggestion (and your intention) of getting a shorter learning board is a good idea. you need a shorter and easier to flex board for crowded days and icier runs anyway and so much better if it does double duty as your learning board. sounds like you made more progress than most people do after their initial outing so i wouldn’t worry about the big sidecut on your board. most beginners initially turn using mostly just the sidecut but eventually your skills will develop to the point were you can alter your turn radius by actively bending the board. for an athletic 200 lb guy (sounds like you from your descriptions of your riding) it should be no problem. a shorter board for crowded days and icy runs AND FOR YOUR NEXT FEW LEARNING DAYS is still a good idea but don’t sell yourself short by getting rid of your 16m sidecut f2. keep it as you will master it a lot sooner than you think. the pre-integrated-conshox f2’s from the late 1990s early 2000s were the stiff ones that required breakneck speeds in order to work properly. your 2006 believe it or not is a lot softer and easier to handle—you will realize this once you get a few more days under your belt and graduate from the shorter board that you intend to buy as a learner. as for the floppy rear bail on your td1s just use a rubber band to keep it in an upright position and keep a few spares in your pocket. if you thought questions about what kind of board you are riding was annoying just wait for people asking you if the rubber band is the only thing holding your foot to the board lol. i learned of this rubber band trick from a post about 10 years ago from former bomberonline member CMC--best tip i ever got. i'm still using a rubber band on both my pairs of td1s for the last dozen years lol.

hi guys: finally feeling better after having a wisdom tooth removed last monday after procrastinating for over a quarter of a century. if you ever need to convince a young person to have it done, i’m your man—it’s a painful and scary process for an old guy. UR13: we brought CHRIS PRIOR along to meet you at the OLYMPIC CHAIR at about 5 minutes after 10 am. when the lift attendant said no other hardbooters had shown up, i wanted to wait for you but unfortunately, neither MR_ROBOTEYE or DAVE* wanted to ride the OLYMPIC CHAIR so i got outvoted. besides it was a friday so CHRIS PRIOR was due back at his factory before noon. sorry we didn’t get back to you until 12:30—we didn’t know you had to be off the mountain by 1pm. even though the 4 of us only had 1 run together, i was still able to learn something from you. all morning DAVE* and MR_ROBOTEYE kept asking me why you were riding the OLYMPIC CHAIR with its flat beginner terrain. had they ridden behind you and observed like i did instead of racing ahead they would have realized that you were generating speed much like a slalom snow ski racer (pre shaped skis era flicking stiff traditional skis out to the side with quick one-footed-carving-on-the-outside-ski motions) on the flatter parts of the course. it also appeared that you were drawing on your skateboarding background by pumping your board similar to both an LDP (long distance pumping) longboarder relying more on the flex in the middle of the board and a slalom skater working the ends of a much shorter skateboard and relying more on the stiffer rear truck for propulsion. I noticed that your madd 158 appeared to shoot forward during the second half of your turns due to your momentum generating style of riding. i am definitely going to consciously think more about pumping my board for speed/momentum when on flatter terrain from now on. thanks for the “passive” lesson by example. well DAVE* and MR_ROBOTEYE, skateboarding allows you to do almost subliminal things as a snowboarder that the non-skateboarding snowboarder might only vaguely sense, but yet not be fully aware of. that’s why i think you guys were questioning why UR13 was riding the OLYMPIC CHAIR—pearls before swine lol! FYI it is legal to skateboard on city streets in vancouver—you could have skateboarded from stanley park to granville island quicker than by driving. most bomberonline members will flame me out for saying this but YOU WILL HAVE MORE FUN SKATEBOARDING ON VANCOUVER STREETS THAN SNOWBOARDING IN WHISTLER—so be sure to bring your skateboard next time. MR_ROBOTEYE: all new info above except for the part about CHRIS PRIOR being a good rider—that has always been true. it’s funny how somebody’s stance evolves over time. i remember CHRIS PRIOR posting on bomberonline about 10 years ago that his stance angles were 58 front and 54 rear and that he wore burton reactors. his stance angles looked to have decreased slightly and he might now be sporting a slight outward cant on his back foot—one of us will have to remember to ask him to confirm this as it looked like his rear knee was twisting out toward the snow during his toeside turns much like a surfer’s rear knee grazing the water on a right hand wave (regular footed surfer.) i remember him telling me that he rode lift only (zero canting) on both his front toe and rear heel many years ago. it could have been an optical illusion and that he had no outward cant but he was strong enough to flex the cuff on his rear boot to the degree that would allow his knee to get into that position or he could have modified the cuff on his rear boot (a raichle 325) to be more flexible. the 177cm board was a shocker as i remember that about 10 years ago CHRIS PRIOR posted on bomberonline that he rode nothing shorter than a 185cm. i’m going to have to remember to demo a 177 when we go to his demo tent during the telus festival and find out first hand what all the fuss is about with these shorter boards. DAVE*: i’ve got a lot of KRAZY KARPETS that i bought for making skateboarding armour. i’ll bring you a couple of pieces if you want. unlike ptex it is designed to slide on snow without requiring wax. in addition it is flexible and doesn’t create a hard interface with the glove fabric that is subject to tearing like a ptex/fabric interface. if you don’t like my duct tape and/or KRAZY KARPET solutions you could try GATORBACK. BLUEB might be able to get some in small quantities through his connections at the sailing club. i remember TODD BROWN posting on bomberonline that he could send out GATORBACK samples to other bomberonline members. however, that was about 10 years ago so i doubt if he has any left. maybe you could contact him to ask where to get it if BLUEB is unable to do so.

hi UR13 great you didn't make it to LOWER dave murray where the corner is. you'll be easy to spot on the OLYMPIC chair tomorrow so just enjoy yourself and we'll hunt you down. see you tomorrow--i'll buy you lunch. later doug

hi MR_ROBOT-EYE i’ll stop by your place sometime between 8 and 10 pm to drop off a lift ticket for you. ONDREJ: i replied to your post in your whistler thread. UR13: i hope ONDREJ’s earlier post which contained the words DAVE MURRAY and ICY in the same sentence didn’t cause you to take that run sight unseen. chances are your whistler friends would have stopped you or at least spotted the infamous coaches corner for you. since your friends like BLACKCOMB better then hopefully you didn’t make it to the DAVE MURRAY DOWNHILL on whistler mountain. i suggest you not try it on a short 158 cm board. if you stubbornly insist, then at least wait for us to take you there tomorrow afternoon and we will try to spot coaches corner for you. coaches corner looks like an long innocuous sweeping right hand turn until the sneaky compression launches you about 6 feet in the air and at least 100 feet down the hill onto an off camber landing. even if you prejump just before the lip you are hauling so fast it’s impossible not to launch. not only do you have to deal with a sketchy landing but you gotta keeping cranking hard to the right. hopefully, my description has discouraged you. hope we can make some turns with you tomorrow but only if it doesn't interfere with your host's plans. later doug

hi ONDREJ BLUEB is organizing a get together but we have to wait for CARVINGSCOOBY and RUWI to recover from their respective surgeries (hopefully soon.) at least one of us will be sure to email you the next time we can all get together on the same day. i am also a big fan of the DAVE MURRAY run that you mentioned in the "UR13" thread. actually i like any run in the orange chair (or what used to be called the orange chair) area as i find that they do the most (and best) grooming on that part of the mountain.

hi UR13 i just forwarded you an email i got from DAVE*. his plan makes good sense so it looks like we will see you at the the lightboard beside the ROUNDHOUSE restaurant on top of whistler mountain at 9:30 am on friday. if you want to make any changes please post on this thread to avoid endless rounds of email tag. don’t worry about not being able to keep up since you are just a young guy in your thirties. i’m in my early fifties so i should be the one worried about keeping up lol. here is a group photo of us and we will try to wear the same gear to help you identify us when we meet. DAVE* is the guy in the tiger striped fullface helmet in the middle of the photo and I am the guy on the far right in the black fullface helmet with duct tape all over my gloves. we may be using different boots and different snowboards depending on the snow conditions. BLUEB might be able to make it also—he’s the guy who has his board propped up on its tail. mr_roboteye has to work friday and apologizes for missing out. he’s the guy licking his board in the photo. <link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cloyal%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026"/> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:shapelayout v:ext="edit"> <o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1"/> </o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--> <o>:p></o>:p> see you friday morning doug

hi mr. roboteye and Dave* since you 2 have the most knowledge of whistler “time saving shortcuts”, could either of you please email UR13 and then let us all know either by email or posting on this thread about the meet up details? we may have an extra guy (CRUCIBLE) joining us if he can draw down some banked holiday time from work so make sure he stays in the loop. mr roboteye, i’ll stop by thursday evening to drop off your lift ticket as i might need to drive up separately since i am not sure whether i will be leaving from the valley or the city. later doug

hi TD1FAN i also use the baking soda with water in a spray bottle but i also mix in isopropyl alcohol in the same proportion as the water. not only does the isopropyl alcohol kill germs but it makes the liners dry a lot faster. after you get them clean, your regular maintenance can be just spraying with a 50/50 solution of isopropyl alcohol and water after each use--this is what old school tour-de-france racers did before the advent of quick dry synthetics.

hi crucible thanks for posting that. i missed all that because i took advantage of the 48hour madness event to ride during the low volume 2am to 8am period. i did see one kid with a kessler running off the gondola as i was leaving but didn’t investigate further as i was too tired from snowboarding all night plus i had to rush home to feed my dog. i was wondering why they closed off the olympic chair at 4am and started grooming the peak. the snowboard racers must have requested the old FIS ski course which started up at the peak and cut left at the big building before the ski patrol dispatch and continued down the face to the bottom of the site of the old blueberry chair. since you are younger than i am, you may not remember that grouse successfully hosted a FIS ski race about 20 years ago back when MOLSON was still the title sponsor. i remember all the spectators going nuts when ALBERTO TOMBA was announced as the next racer. that was also when i first realized that the skis you bought weren’t anywhere close to what the pros used. from my vantage point in the finish area, TOMBA’s skis looked like they were about 6 inches thick underneath the bindings and appeared to be of sandwich construction painted to look like cap construction! hopefully, the groomers did a good job and grouse will have more alpine snowboard racing even if only in a peripheral sense.

hi ruwi must have just missed you as i was arriving when you were leaving. i was there on both days of 48 hour madness from about 2am until about 8am. it’s surprising how many runs you can fit in and how tired you get when the slopes are deserted. i was carving non-stop for 5 solid hours each day on practically empty slopes with an hour each day spent standing in the cafeteria lineup. there were more people in the lodge and cafeteria than on the slopes—which was okay with me. i guess the buildup of ice during the night sent all the softbooters scurrying into the lodge.

hi BOBBY BUGGS what's to tear up? looks perfect. more importantly is your shoulders are in the proper position--i guess the arms just ended up where they were because of the perfect shoulder position. just my 2 cents.

hi caspercarver WEST CARVEN’s post got me thinking down an entirely different path. i had a similar problem many years ago with a custom narrow 16 cm waisted prior wcr (based on mike kildevald’s 16 cm waisted 170cm prior he rode in the late 1990s.). it seemed to always want to turn in one direction. it finally dawned on me to check the ACCURACY of the insert placement. i discovered that they were off-centre (along the east/west axis.) i don’t have the board in front of me but i think it was about 4 or 5 millimeters closer to the toeside edge than the heelside edge so it kept wanting to turn toeside. if you need to know the exact measurements of the mispositioning of the inserts, then you can email my friend TOM EDSTRAND through his website at LANDYACHTZ LONGBOARDS as one of his employees (SAM WARSH) an excellent snowboard builder who used to work at OPTION SNOWBOARDS is trying to re-align the inserts for me. better if you ask his boss TOM EDSTRAND for permission before bothering one of his staff as i told SAM it was no rush and to take as much time as he needed—most skateboard companies are ramping up for the busy summer season right about now. if your inserts are okay then i wouldn’t rule out your narrow stance quite yet. nothing wrong with a 16.5 INCH stance—especially if that’s what the board manufacturer recommends (examples: burton factory primes and older model f2s and older model nideckers.) i agreed with former bomberonline member WILLIAMBLAKE that some people are riding with ridiculously wide stances—typically a newbie on an old snowboard. i think if you need a wide stance then get a board that is built for a wide stance and vice versa. that being said i think most modern priors do require a wider stance so for someone who is 5’10 i’m guessing your particular prior board would require at least an 18 or 19 inch stance . i think it’s possible for a good rider (such as yourself based on what i see in your videos) to depart from the manufacturer’s recommended stance width but it probably means you have to work harder to make the board do what it’s supposed to do and could ride even better if you optimize (in this case, widen) your stance according to the recommendations of the board builder. bottom line: THE BEST ADVICE WILL BE FROM THE BOARD BUILDER AND NOT A BUNCH OF INTERNET CARVERS (MYSELF INCLUDED.) finally in the highly unlikely event that it is user error the only thing i can suggest is maybe you are too aggressive? as your heelside turn keeps getting better each time i see it in a newer video you may just be OVERpushing the envelope. it could be that you are coming forward too fast and/or too much and don’t have enough weight on your BACK foot so the insufficiently weighted edge just starts wandering. this diving forward turn initiation is necessary for an older f2 beamer or older stiffer nosed race oriented board but your new board appears to have a more “friendlier” orientation (progressive flex/softer nose/tail for easier initiation/finishing etc.) which probably means a more centred and less race oriented “diving to the nose” style? or if you do still have to dive to the nose then you have to be more precise in FINISHING your turn by getting your weight sufficiently to the rear and at the proper moment. you can test whether this is the case or not by deliberately trying to trigger the same heelside error repeatedly. go to a deserted part of the slope and keep making the same turn where you lose the edge until you can almost predict when it’s going to start skidding. as soon as the edge feels like it wants to skid then immediately rock back with all your weight onto the tail of your board (i.e. stomp on your back foot and try to get your ass into the back seat.) if this stomping on the back foot/rearward weight shift gets the sliding edge to hook up again then you have your answer. i hope i explained the “getting more weight on the back foot” idea properly. you may want to search the term BACK FOOT PIVOTING—bomberonline member ROB STEVENS once devoted almost an entire episode on his old snowboarding show the RIDE GUIDE on BACK FOOT PIVOTING so you might try to ask him directly for more help if this is indeed your problem.

hi mr. roboteye and BLUEB looks like it will be friday, february 27th as that’s the only day BLUEB can make it. i’ll phone DAVE* on the weekend but i think he’s real busy with his new job at the hospital. let me know by early next week if this schedule is okay with you guys and then we’ll make definite arrangements to meet with UR13 no later than february 20th. That way he has a week to decide what is the easiest way for him to meet us on the hill (or make up an excuse to avoid us lol.) btw mr. roboteye it was my idea to go so you are my guest—i’ve got your lift ticket and lunch covered…..please don’t bring up the subject again.