Dan

I got no artwork, but I have thought that a drawing of a bulldozer or excavator digging an s-shaped trench in snow would be pretty cool.

I don't typically follow basketball much, but our hometown heroes the Blazers had a pretty good playoff run this year, so I got kind of engaged, and I have one thing to say: go Raptors! Congrats on your win!

Hey Josh! Fortunately, I think my issue can be corrected with PT and yoga, no surgery required - it's just a badly strained back muscle. I was wondering about carpooling, since there are a couple of carvers in SE Portland, but sounds like you'll be coming from Hood River anyway. It would be great to get folks together sometime this summer for a beer - let's see if we can align schedules once more consistent warm weather is here.

One of the local riders here in Portland, Jburk, told me he's been attaching his stomp pads with industrial strength velcro. That way he can remove the stomp pads for grinding - the velcro patch is thin enough to go through the grinder without creating problems.

Welcome aboard, Jschindler! Always nice to see a new carver here / on the hill. I'm done for this season due to some back issues (John can tell you about that, LOL, he had to open my bindings for me one day because I couldn't bend over that far) - I'm focusing on recovery and rehab so I can get back on the snow next season. I'll hope to see you at Meadows this winter, I had a pretty tragic season this year (maybe 10 days), and hoping to do better next season. What part of town are you in?

I'll keep an eye out at the end of the year...it's not like I really need any more gear anyway

Hmm, not sure how I missed this when you initially posted. Is it still available?

No disagreement, I think you'll find that many Americans feel the same way.

I own a Superconductor, but have never ridden a Kessler, so I can't give you the input you'd need to make an informed decision. Clearly the only thing to do is buy one of each I am not a "one-board quiver" guy, but I have found that I'm less and less willing to interrupt a day of riding to switch boards, and my Superconductor has pretty much become my go-to board for anything other than soft snow / powder, replacing my Coiler Mini-Monster. A lot more reviews in a lot more detail (by much more perceptive / skilled riders) can be found in the Reviews section of the board, but I will say that it is lively, forgiving of technique errors and less-than-ideal conditions, and has edge hold as good as my metal boards. What's not to love?

Clinica Pro Medium? Hmm, actually I don't think that could be it, it looks to me like the "S" in Daveo's original image is not a uniform thickness throughout. The most upsetting thing about this whole thing is not how hard it is to tell Helvetica-ish fonts apart, but that so many articles included the detail that Bomber was described as a "total failure". I beg to differ!

I've been really happy with my Level gloves -- I think the model is Super Pipe. I might have 50-80 days on them (OK, I know that's one season for some of you animals), and other than a little bit of Shoe Goo, they're going strong. I know good form / good habits is the way to go, but built in wrist protection is a nice backup until the day when I lick all my bad habits

Never been; I'm looking forward to a full trip report, including ride video and photos of the food options

Bluebird and A+ firm carving conditions at T-line yesterday, great riding with Jburk, Mark M and Mark S, and Keenan! I should have taken advantage of the opportunity to sample Mark's carload of demo boards, but I was having so much fun on my Superconductor that I couldn't bring myself to get off the hill to swap bindings. Hope you guys have fun today and tomorrow, I wish I had gotten some photos yesterday!

Octavio will be in Spain and Igor is going to be windsurfing in Maui, so you guys are stuck with just me -- I'll be there on Sunday for sure. A little on the fence about ticket vs. pass because I'm not so sure I'm getting back up to Timberline this season, but we'll see how the spirit moves me.

I was there on Sunday, can confirm slushy glue on lower Shooting Star! Didn't realize HRM was closed for the season already

At Meadows today, I saw some patrollers practicing towing a sled. They stopped halfway down a run and I caught up to them. When I caught up, I pulled over, put on a puzzled expression and said "Hey guys, thanks for getting the sled ready for me! But how did you know I was going to be here?" The patroller who was towing the sled didn't miss a beat. She looked at me and said in a serious tone "Well, we've been keeping an eye on you."

Ha, true dat. I will also say that if a carver describes a board as being "fast", I think I know what it means. It's when a civilian uses that language that I'm uncertain what they have in mind. I guess when asked, I could say "Yes, I wax it."

The perennial "Is that board fast?" Yeah, like anything with a waxed PTEX base, when you point it downhill, it accelerates rapidly. I'm not quite sure what people mean when they talk about some boards being "faster" than others.

I was in the stands for that one but it happened outside of our view. To the best of my recollection, you're right: it was structural - the plate or the board (or both), not the bindings. I believe he was riding for Sims, but I heard once that it was actually a custom-built Prior with Sims graphics.

Meadows conditions yesterday: highly variable. HRM had melted and frozen and was smooth and bulletproof. Cascade was a cheese grater: icy sastrugi everywhere off the groom. There was supposed to be 3-5" overnight, but the winds must have been nuking up top because there was no deposition on the lee sides of things, just scary ass knobs, lumps, and ripples. On the other hand, the midmountain was riding pretty nice, with a few inches of pretty dense snow that had been groomed in. It's probably great today, and will be good tomorrow too as long as there isn't a melt/freeze today.

Awesome! I will look forward to seeing you guys out here. I can ride on the 28th for sure, we'll see about 29/30. Are you focused on testing, or do you want to give people a chance to demo boards too? If you want to offer demos, I could post on NW Carving Reports on Facebook (blech) if you're not in that group.

I'm down for Timberline. Kram, when can you make the trip?

I'll probably get a day at Meadows this weekend. Pretty crappy season for me though, my "snowboard as little as possible" campaign was more successful than I wanted. What, are you thinking about coming out? I could probably get a day or two at Meadows if you come out. Bachelor is possible too, but that would have to be on a weekend.

Great!

Hey Dredman, I have a softbooting friend that's interested in MCC 2020 - I was going to point him to the website, but it looks like the dates have only been updated on the top page - the "what is it?" and schedule pages still reference the 2019 dates.