CarveItUp

Tara, Beth and Monique, aka "the broads on boards"

Thanks to all. We had a great time. Here are the group shots:

I seem to remember being at Osler 2 years ago on Superbowl Sunday. We were still finding untracked cord when the lifts closed! There were no lift lines. Derek and I are in for the 6th. I'm not keen on the "ol' farts" name, as I'm neither! I bet Zaphod and Diva will be in as well... I'll get them to RSVP also. Beth carveitup.net

Beth and I would be in for a Friday or Sunday. I'll be in Japan from the 24th-28th so I may miss out if that's when you do it but otherwise we're game! Derek www.carveitup.net

In Canada (if I read correctly), the duty on Ski boots is 0% - yes, that's right. But snowboard boots is something like 16%. There's injustice for you. Derek

My dad has hatched a plan of heading to Whistler the weekend of May 1st and I'm wondering if it's worth my student time and/or money to join him. What is it like at Whistler that late in the season? I suspect it can be hit or miss for conditions, both in terms of snow and skies. Can anyone tell me what the conditions are like now and if they are likely to get better or worse? (ie. has it been a warm or cold spring and how does that affect everything) Thanks, Beth ps. his backup plan is to Colorado, so if this comes out negative I'll be back for information about there!

I've been riding longer than my boyfriend Derek... and my favourite board is longer than his. He thinks he hit the jackpot... a girl who rides boards in winter, bikes in summer. beth

It's on. We're going to Glen Eden (that totally excellent place with 300' of vertical) on Thursday evening. So far it looks like Zaphod, YYZ, Mr. DP and SPALC are in. Any other takers? The weather looks good, they've removed the bogus freezing rain from Tuesday's forecast. It's not a big place, so I'm sure we can find each other. We'll be on channel 7-21 as usual. Party on! B-B (yes, I watched Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure while marking the other night).

Annoyedatklug here... didn't want to use my regular id so my girlfriend wouldn't know I got her a new board (UP 168) for christmas. I think she figured me out anyway. Finally got my order a few days before Christmas after a few calls to Burton. Thanks to Molly for her help. I notice that the web site no longer offers shipping to Canada. It seems that Burton isn't supposed to ship boards across the border. Now all we need is a little snow here in Ontario. Only been out once so far and it's killing me. It's almost like KlugRiding is handling the delivery of winter weather too. ;) Hopefully winter will be "better late than never" as well! Derek www.carveitup.net

Went to MSLM today. Tons of carvers... at least a dozen or so on one hill. There were some people I hadn't seen before and it was encouraging to see some younger kids out there on plates. Saw a couple of people on swoards too. Also caught a glimpse of the new TD2s. Anyway, conditions were a little crispy in the morning. Machine groomed granular was their description but the sun was out and it softened up nicely in the afternoon. There are a few bare patches starting to appear so pray for more snow. Derek www.carveitup.net

We're going to MSLM tomorrow. Looks like it might be the last nice day for a few... FRS channel 7-21. Likely on Promenade to start. Probably about 4-6 of us mainly on Burtons. Derek www.carveitup.net

Ok, so I've been reading the threads about instructors and people asking about taking lessons or teaching on plates and I'm curious - which resorts will teach alpine snowboarding? My experience hasn't been too bad. A bunch of us went to Whistler a couple of years ago and arranged a full day with an instructor for the four or five of us. She was a tiny girl from Japan named Yuki and rode a burton ultra prime. She was really happy to get the chance to teach on plates because she doesn't get to very often. Even though we'd all been carving for quite a while, she taught us a lot and we had a great day. I also had a friend who was pretty new to snowboarding (her brother had given her a new alpine rig for xmas) and wanted to get a beginner lesson at Blue Mountain in Ontario. There was an instructor there on plates who took her on solo for a couple of hours. I've also seen at least one Ski Patroller on plates at Blue. Derek www.carveitup.net

I skied maybe 3 times when I was a kid and then decided to try snowboarding about 10 years later - having not been on the snow at all during that time. I started on plates. A Nidecker something-or-other rental in Collingwood, ON. Didn't even try softies for at least three years. The reason? Everybody I rode with (mainly about 10 people named McNally - see video on carveitup.net for 3) rode plates. The first day was tough but I'm sure it is for everyone. Once I realized that a little speed is needed to make the things work, it got a lot easier. All that said, the reason for the title of my post is that I found the transition to softies REALLY easy wheras a couple of friends I know that started on softies had to essentially re-learn from ground zero. So IMHO, it is better to learn on plates. You will be a more versatile rider. Derek www.carveitup.net

That was our video. Our mommies made us take it down due to the swearing. :D No, really our new host doesn't want us posting anything that may infringe on copyrights so we will likely be reposting it sometime in the future without the music. In the meantime, we have just finished editing a brand new video with some great riding - and to make it all the more amazing... all the riders are riding Burton alps!!! Check it out at www.carveitup.net Derek

Ok, looks like I may have been a bit premature with my little announcement. Let me address a few of your concerns... Our hosting service is free if we are willing to put up with pop-ups. After discovering how many popups there are, we have decided to pay the fee required to get them removed. In fact, I just did. We delayed doing this until we were sure that the service was going to be reliable. So you should see the pop-ups disappear in the next 24 hours or so. The real trick to finding a host was finding one that supports our scripts. I personally wrote the scripts that the site runs on in PERL. Many hosts do not allow PERL scripting since it can be a security threat. This host is one of the few that does. Unfortunately, I am not an overly experienced web designer and PERL is the only language I know in depth. The idea of the site is to provide a meeting place for Canadian carvers. It is always nice to ride with other carvers riding so we can learn from each other and meet people with a common interest. The bulk of the content (links, classifieds, forums, singles, quivers) is script driven and you can add your information. We will be adding more content soon. Finally, I would like to point out that we are nothing more than fellow carvers who are not looking to make a buck but rather to bring together the canadian carving community. We have created this site in our spare time at our own expense so I hope you can look past the odd weakness and keep visiting. CarveItUp

Greetings all! Now that the snow is back (and we've found an alternate web hosting service), http://www.carveitup.net is back online. The site is aimed at Canadian carvers but is open to everyone and provides classifieds, photos, a forum, ride board (in progress), singles page, a place to brag about your quiver, links, ebay search links, resort reviews and much more. We also try to use the site to get Toronto area carvers together so if you are in the area, drop by to see when and where others will be riding. We are still getting some of the site back online so bear with us. We should be fully up to speed in a few more days. Derek