SunSurfer

I'll be riding at Snowmass and ready for riding buddies from about 1pm. Got some NASTAR runs to make in the am. Who else is around tomorrow and ready to ride?

Thursday: Clear skies and sunshine, temp topping out high 40's at Village Express Base, 42 at Sam's Knob, but snow holding up reasonably well. Saw a couple of carvers from the chairs, but never caught up with them, or them me. Rode Elk Camp, Alpine Springs, Sheer Bliss, and the Express today, finishing off with some steeps practice on Moonshine and Ute Shute. Coverage generally better than Tuesday, yesterday's little bit of snow has made a difference.

Wednesday, Snowmass: Small amount of snow fell off and on during the day, only enough to obliterate yesterdays tracks at the edge of the runs and the more obvious brown spots. Now (9:15 pm) no snow falling.

Not me, theboarderdude is the thread originator.

Tuesday, Ran into Adas and we carved Wandering Jesse and Naked Lady. A few flakes of snow this am but no significant snow. Lots more brown patches appearing, and by late afternoon the run in area to the Village express chair was no longer ice but slush. Adas' opinion - Buttermilk and Highlands are the places to go currently, fewer people and better snow. With the conference I'm attending here at Snowmass I have commitments to attend to here tomorrow, and I want to work on my NASTAR skills before SES starts.

Yes, the skin crease on the sole of the foot underneath the joint between the distal 1st metatarsal and the 1st proximal phalanx. Just trying not to use technical language, but still be unambiguous.

http://forums.bomberonline.com/index.php?/topic/37883-alpine-snowboarders-hand-armour/ Have made a second pair, same basic concept, neater construction, but 1/ no ski tip projecting from the bottom and 2/ no flat face below the shell. 3/ GoPro mount for either selfies or videoing riding partners on top of the the Right hand shell. I tried riding without them today. My hands felt naked and vulnerable, and I was much less confident in my riding. As soon as they were on again I was happily throwing myself into turns and feeling better balanced. Not sure if this is all psychological, or, if the act of holding them and tensing the muscles in my arms is making my neuromuscular balance system more sensitive from a proprioception (position sense) point of view. Whatever, I ride better with them on. And I have a generally no touch riding style, I don't "pat the dog".

It's had 48 hours rest, now board alone, laid on a polished flat desktop, has 2mm of camber left! My 180 NSR with a plate and TD3s on has 5-6mm gap under the midsection. The board has been modified to have a set of UPM inserts, but that's all. What camber remains appears smoothly distributed along the length when I look down the edge with it laid on the desktop. I had the same understanding about how Coiler cores were constructed which is why I had thought stress micro-fractures in the wood fibres were the only realistic explanation, and my resulting concern about board failure in use.

It's having "a cup of tea and a lie down" in the board bag as I write!

Have had the chance to run the UPM+ version back to back with my previous "best so far" standard UPM setup. Conclusion: a plate can be too long for my liking. I prefer the solid feel I get with the fixed axle essentially under the skin crease at the base of my big toe, between the two major sites humans use to apply balancing forces with their feet, the ball of the foot and the big toe (the smaller toes are much less important but this setup gets them roughly over the axle as well). They allow the use of the lower leg and foot muscles to let you rock back and forward. Try maintaining your balance only standing on your heels if you want a contrast. I've got a 29cm foot. From tip big toe to the skin crease is 6.5 cm. That means the crease is 8cm in front of the middle of my foot. At the 65 degree binding angle I use, the centre of my binding needs to be approx. 7cm from the line of the axle to place the crease over the axle. The shock absorption is still very good with the front axle fixed, I've been happily carving through the late afternoon lumps at Snowmass. Remember, the mechanicals isolate the flex of the board from the plate, and the whole board flexes along its' length when it hits a lump. Edited for typos and extra detail: Stance 50cm C-to-C, 65F , 60R, axles at the max. 62cm apart, axles bosses in the standard holes on 4mm Bomber Boiler Plate. Straightforward with UPM inserts, but also my Kessler slalom board has enough inserts to achieve it with a 4x4 plate mounting kit. Overall effect is about 1cm setback of the bindings relative to the plate centre.

I was changing bindings over in my room at the Snowmass Inn when I noticed that my beloved Coiler AM WC 177 had lost pretty much all it's camber. It just sat on the carpet the whole way along, looking tired. I hadn't noticed anything while riding it (with a 4mm UPM BBP on), it was still an awful lot of fun! So I'm thinking that the loss of camber reflects multiple small tears in the wood core from essentially wood fatigue. The plate is still providing lots of torsional stiffness through the midsection, which may be why I didn't notice anything very much. Either that, or I'm just too poor a rider to notice (rhetorical statement, no confirmatory comments required!). So a board that's lost it's camber is perceived to be worn out, from what I've read on the board. You wouldn't on sell it to someone unless they wanted to make a wall decoration. My question is Do I significantly risk a catastrophic failure of the board by continuing to ride it? While the opportunity to demo a range of boards to potentially replace it awaits me at SES next week (drool!, Note to self: must try a Nirvana) I already have way too many boards in the stash at home, and this favourite is still carving beautifully! Does it absolutely have to be retired and replaced?

A "bad" day at Aspen is better than the vast majority of days I get back home. Day @ Snowmass started cold with high cloud, and a few flakes of snow, but no significant fall. Cleared by mid morning but remained cool with the snow remaining in good condition throughout the day. I spotted what looked like tracks of another carver but never laid eyes on them. Good carving to be had, but I needed to keep my eyes peeled for the thin patches and hard pack. Getting a board waxed at a shop in the mall another customer said "Oh it's you! We were having fun watching you from the chair." Lots of locals know about SES from previous years and I think I may have managed to convinced a couple of interested guys in their 20s to come and demo some stuff when it gets underway.

Handicaps for the Aspen group of mountains need to be interpreted with care. Having run all 3 courses in their previous versions - Snowmass is unchanged. Aspen Highlands, previously the easiest of the three, is not open to the public at present. Aspen Ajax has changed significantly. Still on the same slope, it has moved to the left hand side of that run. The start is now in shade, and drops away quite steeply for the first 2-4 gates before getting gradually less steep as the course progresses. The line of the course is now straight, so all the gates are visible from the start, previously it curved away to the right behind trees and the finish was not visible from the start. My initial impression is that it is now more challenging to get a fast time than previously, even though the steep start potentially gets you up to speed quicker. It had me on the brakes for the first few turns on my first runs yesterday.

I've found a way to distract attention from my board. Riding lifts with my hand armour gets a question pretty much every time. The commonest follow up question after the explanation is "Are you going to patent it?" Then there was the Aspen teenager who just thought it was "Totally badass!" I have a spare set with me for anyone who would like to have a try during SES.

Wireless internet at the Snowmass Inn has been down for about 36 hours but is now back. Sunday dawned cold with high cloud, clearing off mid morning to blue skies. Great riding on the groomed fresh few inches of snow from Saturday. By the end of the day the hardback/ ice showing through in a few patches but the day had remained cold and the snow was not slushy at all, not like the previous 2 days. I rode Aspen all day, saw J Callen waft past below me on Ruthies, reminding me of all I have to learn! Rode a lift with a local who had torn the metal edge off of one ski when he hit a rock in a deepish mogul well, he'd been home for another pair of skis when I spoke to him. But overall a great day, good light for the first time on this trip.

Agree with Adas. Rode Snowmass today after a decent sleep after arriving from NZ yesterday. (Anesthesia conference starts Sunday) With the temperature here in Snowmass it reminds me of home (NZ). The lower slopes are a soft/slushy by the end of the day, and there will be a refreeze tonight so tomorrows groom may well initially be quite crispy! Under the top few cm of snow is hardpack, so bring your best edging technique. Bit thin in places with a bit of grass and the odd rock showing through (Bull Run @ Elk Camp particularly). Light was flat today with high overcast, and a few tiny flakes of snow drifting out of the clouds on the uppermost part of the mountain. Not a bad first day, having eased out of condition muscles in the spa pool between the Pokolodi & Snowmass Inn. Forecast last night was for a moderate amount of snow for Colorado generally over the next 48 hours as a depression from the South bearing moist air and a cold front from the North meet. Will post daily updates.

Neil and I aren't really disagreeing, probably just reflecting different faults in the technique we had before applying the tip we've offered. I've had the pleasure of riding with Neil and at that time he was a far better rider than I am now. My tip is a technique that allowed me as a beginning carver to learn to consistently set my edge on both edges, call it heel side/toe side, left or right. Breaking the line of the body and legs at the waist and hips allows the board to be tilted onto the edge while the rider remains feeling in balance. To get the edge to set/grip the carving edge needs to get the full commitment of your body weight. If part of you is hanging back then that will be transmitted to the board through your lower body, and the edge will not set properly. Once your body has learned what it feels like to set the edge properly the things we are talking about become almost automatic, built into your neuromuscular memory.

Google Earth tells me the great circle distance from Wellington to Aspen I'm travelling come January 29th @ 0700 is 11,930km. However, I'm flying Wellington - Sydney - LA - Aspen with QANTAS + partners American Airlines for the convenience of direct flights and not having to haul my bags between the international and domestic terminals at LA, so that comes to 15,470km and just over 24 hours travelling time from initial takeoff to final touchdown. Worth it for 16 days in Aspen with great people. The extra week is for an anaesthesia conference in Snowmass. It's a hard life but someone has to do it! Aspirin already started, acetazolamide from tomorrow. 3 nights to go!

Assuming you're not riding duckfoot, and riding with a forward facing stance then relative to the direction you are looking - when you turn to the left, the right knee is the outside knee when you turn to the right, the left knee is the outside knee This video, posted already in the Video section, shows the result of this in a series of low speed clean carves in a mild gully, then a flat slope, and finally a double fall line slope. The resulting angulation at the waist/hips is clearly visible, particularly in the heelside turns, which were the ones giving AcousticBoarder grief. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpLOxzHolNg You could think of it as almost lifting up the non-carving edge as well as pressing down on the carving edge. The result is a steeper/higher board angle and good downward pressure on the edge from the body position giving great grip.

I used to have the same problem. I now make sure that the knee on the outside of the turn is applying pressure to the inside edge, heelside or toeside. It's another way of thinking about getting the body angulation that Corey talks about. To learn how to do it I went back to the green runs and practiced until the carve was clean either side. I didn't need speed to carve cleanly, just better technique.

Health supplements may cause bleeding, often considered minor by the user, usually from the wallet. As soon as I read on the SportLegs site this is "European" lactate, (not common American lactate, oh no!) I am pretty sure they're trying to blind you with trivia. If it worked they wouldn't need to appeal to exotic nebulous properties. And I don't want to know how personally you know the effects of sildenafil. But anyone who needs it should go see a doctor and get a cardiovascular check up cause the need for sildenafil is a pretty sure sign of vascular problems in men.

True Corey, arousal is generally required for sildenafil's class of drugs to cause that particular set of blood vessels to dilate. I'm going to assume you would be lusting after the snowboards ;)

I'd be more convinced if the evidence wasn't all anecdote from individuals, rather than cardiopulmonary exercise testing from a sports lab. Lactate is just lactic acid without a hydrogen ion. The best way to get your lactate levels up is to exercise. The mechanism of action the website hints at doesn't make biochemical sense. Better off taking Viagra, at least that has real lab data for improvement in sports exercise performance at altitude ( in around 50% of subjects).

More like a new binding design, but a thought provoking idea never the less. Is the apparent offset of heel and toe pieces to match the boot centre to the board centre line, or, for Gilmour bias i.e. the toe as close to the edge as possible with this binding?

Thanks Tom, You've just confirmed my decision to take a pair of bail bindings and a suitable board in the bag to SES to make the most of the Pureboarding clinic. And Pat, there won't be a plate on that! Well, not to start with :)