Dan

Ha! Just tell your wife I'm a voodoo priest you met on a snowboard trip, that should clear things up. Might make it hard to get away for future trips though. That was Halloween 2001, I believe. I don't even have the original photo anymore, it might have been taken with a film camera... Happy to be part of your family lore ;-)

Hell Lee, I didn't know you spent that much time around here! Are you from Portland? I grew up in Beaverton and live in Richmond (SE Portland) now, my sister has been in and out of town, but back in Beaverton for 10+ years, and my folks are in Camas. I was just starting to get into alpine in the 2000/2001 season, riding at Meadows (on a Sinner with maximum stance width around 17" lol), were you still around town then? Both of those campers are sweet - love that Hilux kitted out for expeditions. Good thought on the traveling for better prices - when we're ready to pull the trigger, I'll look around other states - Tacomas are definitely hot here. Thanks for the suggestion.

Nice - we are lusting after a Tacoma with one of these light 'n' fast campers on top: https://gofastcampers.com/pages/camper-landing. We'll get there. Funny thing is my wife is even more eager than me and wants to know our timeline for making it happen -- just a little hard to convince myself to trade in a 2013 Outback that we bought new for a used truck with 100k more miles. Govy is close to skiing, but pretty limited other ways - no grocery store for example. I'd love to move to Hood River or somewhere else in the Hood River Valley, but for now work and family commitments are keeping me in Portland. Housing around Hood River is $$$ anyway so it's hard in that respect.

I got some compression road biking shorts and didn't notice a difference in performance or recovery, but they were on sale, so no complaints. There's enough high-end athletes using compression gear that I imagine there must be something to it, but maybe it only comes into play when you're really getting after it.

Hey Lee! Sorry, I missed your post when you made it. That BMW looks like a sweet ride -- my wife and I aren't looking at anything quite that cool, but we are talking about trading in our Outback on a Tacoma for better camping access on Forest Service roads. As far as snowboarding, I failed to work through my 10-pass at Mt. Hood Meadows last season (sigh), so I think I'm going to skip the 10-pass this year, buy a spring pass, and do more trips and some skinning in the winter. I still love riding and my new Thirst board (first custom board I've ever bought new) is a blast, but the 90-minute drive to Mt. Hood (and the long waits for good carving days here) has gotten pretty old.

Awesome! Good on you for making it happen - I've always been curious about what those indoor slopes are like.

Yeah, certainly for snow sports, the midweek riders (at least on Mt. Hood where we don't have destination resorts) are the people who really get it. Midweek riders have generally been at it a good long while, know how their skills compare to other riders, and are just out there to have fun. Weekend riders are much more likely to feel they have something to prove..also, it's crowded!

You might also try the Tahoecarvers Facebook group, I know they have been pretty active in the past, I'm not sure if that's still the case.

IDK about "getting old", I feel like I "got" old! Shoutout to LeeW, Tex1230 and Sinecure, where you guys been?

I have to say, this looks amazing. Too bad I don't have $12k to throw at it...but if there's a well-heeled carver out there, the manufacturer's site is here. You buy it and I will rent it from you ?

Oh? I'm surprised to hear that...if so, does that mean that anyone with the designs can legally fabricate and sell TD3s?

Wolf was right, I was thinking about the angle markings on the center discs -- sorry for the confusion.

Hmm, I would like some 6 degree cant discs but it looks like there's no angle markings on the ones Travis is selling - not an absolute deal breaker, but inconvenient.

Hey Bryan, yep, feel free

Conditions weren't great for photography, but I grabbed a few snaps. This top one below is the best one - Dane mid-driveby. LOL, I wasn't ready for him to come around on that side or this would have been a real front-page photo. Got a not bad photo of the Flyin' Hawaiian Buster too: And...a couple more photos. The groom was not bad... And we had a good crew...(from left to right, Gray on Tray, MikeT, Keenan, Buster, Kram, and Dan - this is day 1, before DW3, Jburk, Pusbag and his wife showed up. Dane was the photog so not shown). MikeT was working on his nose grab: And generally kicking a** and taking names... Kram was smooth as usual All that carving is Thirsty work!

Me too! I still have a longboard he sold me in about 1999 :-) not to mention all the snow gear that's gone back and forth between us over the years. He can definitely help you get set up.

Hey Mike! It has been awhile, I was hoping to run into you at this session. Looks like I will be riding Tuesday/Wednesday, hope to catch up with you!

Yah, I feel pretty confident that this inner tube carver would be a great person to hang out with...just like we Americans are...let me just say "easier to get along with" than our president. Also, this looks both hilarious and fun.

Thanks Mark! Yep, I know about mounting orientation, and this controller is a little more limited in what it will tolerate, but I still have options. Agreed that the controller is better than the bracket, that thing would hurt, especially in an accident. Velcro is a great idea - there's enough slack in the cable that I can move it to the side out of the way and then put it in its original location when I'm actually towing.

So, I didn't know anything about trailers or towing when I got our Subie set up to tow our teardrop, and I especially didn't know that the damn brake controller was going to hit my knee all year long just so we could use it for three months in the summer. We had it done at Uhaul, and they put the brake controller in a very standard location by the driver's right knee, where you can reach it for adjustments and manual trailer braking if needed. It's fixed - screwed to a mounting bracket which is screwed to the dash. If I had done some research up front, I might have found out that there are unpluggable / detachable brake controllers, which would have made a whole lot more sense for us. Does anyone know if it's possible to retrofit, or would that require a whole new installation? My other option (actually, might be my first option) will be to look for a detachable mounting bracket that clips on or something like that so I can move the brake controller out of the way for the bulk of the year when it's not in use. I haven't seen anything stock from Tekonsha, but I need to check the controller model and look again -- otherwise, I think I might be able to McGyver something. All wisdom appreciated!

Hey Russ, sorry I missed you at Mt. Hood last week, it was a tough week to get away. Turns out my pooch is having surgery next week, but I'll still be at Bachelor through Wednesday or maybe Thu morning. I'll look forward to seeing you then.

Sorry to hear it, we'll catch you next year. I am definitely familiar with the "too much work to ride" predicament and it blows.

I looked at the Wahini site after the owner posted in the "buy Bomber" thread. It looked like they were suggesting you could mount their boards as teleboards or with alpine snowboard bindings...is that what others got out of it? I've never ridden one though. Chances are they don't actually have Bomber bindings in stock; if they did, they should be charging a premium for them at the moment.

Conditions can play a part too...one day maybe 11 or 12 years ago, when I was at best an intermediate level carver, I made pretty much perfect laid out carves down HRM face at Mt. Hood Meadows. It's a reasonably steep pitch and the snow was hardpack that day. I was riding an Oxygen F-67, which even then was nothing to write home about: a very soft freecarver with a very perceptible speed limit - you don't have to go very fast before you start blowing out of turns. But somehow everything lined up and I nailed the run a few times, I think the soft flex played well with the hardpack conditions. Well...it was probably 6 or 7 years of more learning before I made turns that good again, lol. Fortunately there were a few witnesses to my moments of glory that day who developed a wholly inaccurate idea of my skill level.

Thanks for the kind words Bryan! It was a great day and everyone was slaying...too bad conditions were too perfect to take the time to shoot video ;-) Have definitely missed seeing you on the hill; hope that we connect a few more times before the lifts close down!