John Gilmour

aspen is getting slushy with frozen corn starting to form- still excellent in the AM for ripping... days are numbered... I'd say 5 days until it is just constant slush and not refreezing at night. Ruthies is still good until about 1pm. copper good from 10:30- 12. Buttermilk... didn't even risk going there. Snowmass is all slush- except for slot which they are not grooming much. Gunbarrel on Highlands is good-0 but bottom half of hill is all slush. I'm DJ'ing a good part of the day at diffferent Mt.s All info is second hand... but reliable.

actually, first day of WCS I took two runs under the cloud 9 lift and felt my back was too sore for work. Cougar Den... I hear they have good food.

1. Gilmour Bias (the simplest and most important power transmission through to the board- put your weight where it works) 2. Riding alone on the slopes including the lift so I had to think about what I just did on the lift instead of chit chatting. 3. Season passes and steep terrain. 4. Hurling myself at the snow and making sure my board is there to catch me. 5. Making other peoples poorly designed crap flexing decks work with good technique (ever wonder why I try to carve on a powder board?), so I can apply solid techniques to great gear. Tryin' to look stylin' fo all dem bitches....(that actually don't exist in large numbers at any ski resorts.) but at least you can pretend so you ride harder and faster.

can we pursue this thought about making all skiers wear bikinis? ...uh...ok. I remember ski resorts...testing the water about showcasing snowboarding.... They would first show a photo with skis and snowboards in the rack together in the background. Then they would have snowboard lessons in their catalogs. They did not want to show snowboards getting air... mom's were worried about their kids getting landed on...or hanging out in pipe and ending up in the ER. So they showed snowboards carving. I remember a great Bretton Woods catalog from about 1995 with some red haired guy carving up a storm on a Madd 170. The skiers saw a guy in ski clothes , in a skier type turn, in control, on the ground, and wearing familiar looking plastic boots...non baggy pants, and facing forward down the fall line instead of sideways. (anyone know who this guy was?) In Aspen, top of the Sundeck, there is only one really large wall sized poster in a place where you can see it from every table. It is a shot of Chris Klug cutting a nice line on a carving set up, and a side by side shot of him in pow on soft boots. I think the resorts like the carvers- because they look more like skiers. Aspen cooperates with Joerg's carving groups, even at times has closed off runs for the carvers to specifically use (prior to SES with Pure Carve) . When I find myself flanked by skiers...closed out narrowly on both sides.... I say.."If you can't beat'em join'em" and I just do short radius ski turns- facing forward, cross under turns- to mimic skiers and make my movements more understandable to them and predictable. And skiers, when I ski with skiers....often say they like my carving style and wish other snowboards would do that instead of scrape. So I would be really surprised if they were to ban carvers...and their gear. because historically, they have liked us. I do feel that there seems to be less emphasis of late on people riding SL boards when learning..and they seem to go to some Freecarve/GS length deck...and they try to learn with 175-181cm sticks on green trails... which.....I can see becoming problematic. SL riders look more like Skiers are are more understandable. I just don't see enough people on shorter Alpine set ups save for Joerg and his crew. I just want a nice set of comfortable hardboots again... UPZ's are next on my list. I'm here at snowmass, waiting for the sun to come out to ride with the OP. I want to show him my technique for looking up hill prior to turning. instead.. I think I'm stuck making a Whitney Houston remix.

I think the worst case scenario.... is a well accepted court precedent set where the downhill carver is found at fault. Without the uphill skier "thinking" he will be found responsible in an accident 100% of the time- the uphill skiers would be more emboldened to pass and ski agressively with less respect for the novice or intermediate. I could see it now in court..the expert uphill skier argueing that he could not be at fault because the other guy was a beginner. a few days ago I was reading through the carvers almanac...and I agree if you are the one carving it is in your best interest to look around and yield to others (just as I mentioned watching for people with poor judgement passing you from above) but I do not think it should be a rule which should be used to establish a court precedent. If it could ...maybe they could modify the wording in the almanac so it can not be used.. I'm no lawyer... I don't understand all these worldly things and flying chairs, I'm just a caveman, but I do know this... if you start changing right of way rules that have been around for decades you will have more injuries. (SNL tribute) The United States Virgin Islands is a place where people drive on the left side of the road....with American cars with left hand drive. simply imbecilic..... we bought the islands from the Dutch...who might have had British driving habits...or perhaps it was the donkey carts before cars were in use. But they did try to change right of way at one point.... reversed everything... and there were a zillion accidents (keep in mind in the USVI it is completely legal to drive with an open beer in your hand). I don't think a ski resort could ever ban carving.. it would be too hard to enforce. They can ban snowboards (like Alta, Mad River Glen, Deer Valley) because they suck, and are not willing to modify any terrain. This is a bad precedent for skiing. Because I certainly could imagine resorts banning skiing. For instance Mountain High in California is predominantly snowboarders ...so much so that they could likely reduce accidents by banning skiers. I don't think people really want this... I would like it (skiers don't add value to my snowboard experience unless they are in bikinis )... but I don't think people in general would like this.....unless they mandate that all skiers don bikinis....(we will assume the men will give up skiing instead of wearing bikinis).

In regards to Rob Stevens crash... First off it sucks that anyone who contributes to snowboarding should get hit. In regards to the original writers of the code not accounting for carving.... well as I see it.... not matter what the person is doing, carving or just skiing completely erratically (but in control enough to avoid others) I see the downhill skier as having the right of way merely exercising their right to enjoy their lift ticket. The world is full of idiots. Or as one person said.... "It's a crazy world out there, and we are the ones that make it crazy". I ride Ruthies...all the time..... (I figure a bunch of people have ridden this here..the day after SES) and every so often I see the amazingly annoying ski instructor who is taking their low intermediate clients down what was once a World Cup Downhill. It just blows me away. Same thing for the Dad who takes his kid of the same low level down that same run, (actually the guy who hit me on Ruthies takes his kids down it- and he is proud to say his kids can ski/snowplow Ruthies ...errr....when should be saying his kids won the lottery for not dying for having a parent that puts his kids in harms way and creates a hazard for others. Sadly he is the same guy who played football on the slopes ignoring ski patrols warnings....and by now should really know better....especially with how many accidental deaths his family has experienced.) People are obstacles----->sometimes padded like lift towers...you must stay far away. SO what do I do? I typically pull over and wait.... give them as much time as they need to be out of my way so our paths NEVER have the possibility to cross. Now I understand at Hunter Mountain you would be waiting all day long. Been there done that. And crowded slopes push people to modify or ignore part of the code for their own intent - which typically leads to accidents. If I am overtaking someone from above, and they suddenly change direction and are moving laterally across the slope. Before I am hit by them... I still WAS above them.... just before we hit. And in my mind just before impact (or close call) ........ I would likely think... "Oh Crap..... I didn't give this guy enough bubble space when I planned to pass him. He WAS/IS ABLE TO HIT ME." I don't like granting people below me... the ability... to hit me. I don't trust others... and if I am above I can determine whether or not I will grant some idiot BELOW ME the ability to hit me, whether they see you or are "as blind as a bat with fogged over eyeglasses under goggles." (People above you ALWAYS have the ability to hit you until they pass you...not much you can do about that...if you see an idiot coming for you...it's quite possibly too late to avoid being hit- BUT by looking uphill every so often, I can gauge whether there is a person who is too close or is starting to compromise my safety bubble- I pull over and let those people pass...and if they are going to pass I always make sure I do not take up more than 3/5 of the slope so they can pass safely (if you hog the entire slopes they will inevitably at some juncture..... pass too close)....if they are still getting to close and not working the edge to pass..I'll pull over.....LUCKILY for me ...typically I'm going fast enough that I rarely get passed and have my safety compromised. ) Before making the decision to overtake someone, you have to decide if you are "granting" the person below you the ability (not the right) to hit you, in their wildest spastic attempt to hit you seen or unseen. If you don't grant people the ability or possibility to hit you... you won't get hit. Rob did give this guy the ability to hit him if he was not seen. Certainly if Rob is going 10mph, and the HB guy was going 30mph....and came laterally across the slope at 30 mph... Rob is at a disadvantage to avoiding being hit because he will likely be less maneuverable at that speed. But the likelihood is that Rob was going faster and tried to pass. And granted the guy the ability to hit him (not the right to hit him...but the ability) , if the downhill HB'er were to make a sudden carve. As a SB'er for the time being....when I see anyone with race skis or a carving set up..I am wary of their ability to make a sharp turn and pass accordingly... typically giving a bit more breadth of room than normal. I'm not saying Rob would lose in a court of law or was even wrong in his actions - he was most likely right- ... I'm just saying he willingly gave someone the ability to "Reach out and Touch him" if the downhill skier exercised the most spastic of moves. (I was going to say "perhaps not knowingly" but knowing RS's a carver and head of CASI certainly Rob has enough experience to gauge whether a fellow HB'er can carve- and even likely could glance at the guy's board and predict the fellows SCR to within 2 meters). When you give others below you ...while passing... the possibility to hit you (even if remote)....eventually you will get hit. As an experienced snowboarder..I trust my own abilities and judgement more than others on the slope. So when I overtake someone, I also make sure I have a nice big bubble....and if that bubble looks like it will get temporarily compromised (like on a crowded day) ......I MAKE CERTAIN I have the maneuverability and alertness to be able to dodge ANY and ALL skiers I pass during that short duration. (yes, it is a bit like Asteroids™‚ - a video game which dates me- out there at times). As likely the superior skilled slider..when passing...I always make sure that either the other person does not have the ability to hit me... or if I grant them this ability.....I make sure I am on my "a-game" to avoid them even if they want to play "chicken" unexpectedly. OR- I just wait. A minute waiting on the slope make seem like a long time.... but assuredly its a lot shorter than the line at the Emergency Room. And to keep this on topic... I missed SES this year because I hurt my back ..and also was really sick with a cold. So I was bummed not to be able to ride with people. Wishing I had been able to hook a few solid turns with the bro's.... figuring..oh well wait until next year... :( I had just bumped into Ray and Frank D. earlier with Klug, and took the day off to play DJ at the top of Aspen Ajax. I was walking into the Little Nell using my secret way to avoid the stairs- snag a hot cider- and get into Apres ski and passed by a Green coiler in the rack... thinking hmmmm Bruce V. only makes a couple hundred a year...and how many are green??? and recent???...I paused and saw a slight nick on the right side. Aha! The room number was on claim sticker on the board- called the front desk at the Little Nell...and...I'm going to meet him 3 hours... unfortunately I'm up at 5am because my back hurts. -now that is investigative reporting. My life is an inexplicable series of unusual fortunate coincidences

This might be the best worded Madd post of all time. Makes me want to design and spec again... my legs are up to it...which is more important than the brain. Because..I'd be foolish to try this again. If I made All mountain or BX boards first..it would be easier to get fiancing from someone on teh slopes.

In about 30 years of snowboarding... In the beginning on crappy gear.. a lot of snowboarders hit skiers when following skiers who could stop much quicker. Now... as a carver... I find I never get hit by snowboarders- only skiers. Particularly- amatuer skiers who think they are hot shots. It doesn't happen often... but its typically a guy in his mid 40's or 50's on outdated gear. I don't count hits as the only collisions..I also count near misses..and its always "that 40's - 50's guy". Last guy to hit me... was 2 years ago... he had carved with me for 3 days prior in hardboots on a F2..he got on his skis (He used to be a moguls competitor)..and had seen me ride and should know my riding style..after 3 days. I was in a heelside carve and he just nailed me when attempting to overtake me. Classic complete disregard for skiers responsibility code. He went rag doll flying.....about 30 feet across the slope- blew out of his skis- poles- everything..yard sale.. and then calls my carve "aggressive" ...lol.. c'mon guy, take responsibility for ignoring the responsibility code. The downhill skier has the right of way (unless entering a trail from below or starting from a standstill)...and if you can't go downhill safely with people who you ski with....don't ride with anyone...ride alone...or take up needlepoint. This guy- ...as I found out...always skis too close..perhaps because he feels he could avoid a mogul at speed..why not a skier? But it is the wrong way to think. He's not even a dumb guy.. he used to be on the Advance Team for the President. Just goes to show you..it's hard to trust anyone on the slopes...everytime I do I am disappointed....and that is why I do not trust anyone anymore... and always look first. PERHAPS .... snowboarders are used to looking to the sides of the slopes. While skiers have more "tunnel vision" because of short radius turns so they aren't used to looking the full width of the slope. I found it remarkable (but not unusual) that this guy was absolutely safe to carve with but COMPLETELY UNSAFE to ski with. It might be the mid set the gear puts you in. I skied last year, on Palmer PO2's ...and I found I was intimately more concerned with the bubble space of about 8 feet around my skis and looking ahead down the hill as opposed to across...so I was guilty of the same thing. :( -------->I was on empty slopes at June MT. but if I had been at crowded Mammoth I would not have been as aware of others Like wide carving skiers or snowboarders on a crowded piste. I was more tightly concentrated on the mechanics and timing of my gear...there is more to keep track of when skiing than snowboarding- twice as many edges and poles too. Women rarely try and pass and get closed out..they are a lot smarter than a 40-50 year old skier guys on energy drinks.

I used to have the same issue.... In my Head Stratos boots. I tried padding to no avail because under G's the foam would just compress...and of course the cable would not compress.... and it would smask my heel. I also ran them through the other sides ...but still got irritation. It got so bad that I had to wait a few days before I could get back in my hard boots. So.... I thought... what if I used a "Padding material" around the cable that would not deform much or compress? So I took shoe goo... (one of my all time favorite products for rapid prototyping) and put a tiny dab on the side of the cable to firmly stick it to the side of the boot- and curled up a phone book (Who sues phone books anymore anyhow??Geriatrics??) to create pressure to press the cable to the side of the boot. I used starting fluid as a solvent to remove any old mold release compund from the plastic to ensure a good chemical bond and a piece of skatebord grip tape to slightly rough up the plastic for a nice physical biond. I bent the cable out of the way of hot spots in my heel. So it did not go exactly straight up- but around hte ankle bone in my case (what works for you YMMV) Left that over night. Inspected it. Now the cable was bonded to the side of the boot. It was as close to teh boot shell as possible the whole way up. Now I used tons of shoe goo...just glopped it on top of hte cable itself. Using a rubber glove dipped in water (so the shoe goo would not stick to the glove) I smoothed the shoe goo to either side of the cable so that the cable appears to blend into the wall of the boot- and I copied the contours of the boot. In the end it looks like the cable was molded intot eh boot itself during manufacturing. There is not abrupt bulge of the cable..just seemingly a nice rounded inner boot cuff. Pain gone... completely..forever. My shells eventually ripped apart from riding (as they all do).... and it was a bitch removing the cable- but with patience and stretching the shoe goo by clamping onto the edges with needle nose pliers.. it all removed completely without damaging the cable.. took the better part of a PBS Frontline Episode to remove it all. I posted this before.. but if it even helps one person... it was worth writing this again.

Snow conditions were good enough today to carve down Aztec with dull edges on a powder board in soft boots. Come out for SES.

Perfect timing for a storm for SES! I can not even see the mountains from my window. Just whiteness. My legs feel toasted every day out here until I get 40-50 days. There is that much good groom to be had. There is so much snow I have to swap from my Rossigonol Judge Powder board to my Salomon 160 Sick stick...because it is pointless to even try to carve for 3 days until it gets packed. Sarah Palin says she can see Russia from her window, I can see Ruthies from mine- but not today. It's 7:30 am and I am watching the groomers just coming down off the bottom Ajax now (the only section with visibility) ... must have been a long night... "JG- I wouldn't mind a 158 but I'm loving your old 180. Might have been the conditions, but it was sooo surefooted. I think it like to be ridden further toward the nose like the 158 so I may move the front foot forward. You get visiting rights at ECES. " ... ah carbon fiber kids coming home for the holidays... as we used to say in the 1990's move forward..the rear holes are for girl racers. --oddly my post count appears frozen in time. 996 and I don't care for 911's.

My bad- I didn't see the the photo of the o-sin. Yes that is a later model. Dynastar did make some alpine boards under their house name. The one that got away... that I should have bought but was expensive and the ugliest deck ever made was the dynastar hoodooguru. That was a serious fun ride at the time... maybe the most fun for a freecarver I ever rode prior to 1992.

Fantastic grip and cushioning right now ...and we get more snow tonight.

Get your butt out to SES I LIVE IN ASPEN. If you just want to bring your carriages I have a 158 for you to ride with discs. Could I make it easier?

O- Sin (made byu a ski co .)was 92-95 likely, hot shine was 94-95 I think.

Left to right... Susan Sagatopoulos (cant spell it), Kevin Delaney, Me, Jeff Grell, Anja Schriener (added to make us all look good). Talk about luck... So a few days ago I got my free pass working as a Mt. Photographer. it snowed immediately.. conditions are perfect now. I show up for my first day of work..can't find my wallet and pass...It delays me... I get fitted for the dork uniform. They say.. "well john it is too late to take photos now...just come up and help us test some cameras as a test subject" So I go up on snow next to the gondola. I'm hamming it up..even give Robert (my boss) my best version of "Blue Steel" from Zoolander. Who should walk up in the middle of this embarrassing behavior? Kevin Delaney. ONLY in Aspen could you show up to work on the first day ..forget your pass, and get the day off to ride. It's like Aspen was just put on this earth for riding... So Kevin rounds up the posse. ------ Some history to make this relevant..... In the early 1980's I was the first Sims and Winterstick rep on the East Coast...I did it to buy boards wholesale for myself. I didn't even have a drivers license or a car.. but I managed to sell every board I could get my hands on. I called the company JASBAR sports an acronym for because I did not want to pay retail for boards. Later JASBAR would run the worlds first snowboard camp... Steve Day sold me the the other half of the company we registered in Boston (to get a tax reseller number) for $1 a few years later. Steve wanted to order ski gear... I just wanted snowboards...Steve never snowboarded... but as a skier who went to MIT he correctly predicted that snowboards would get side cuts, and core profiles, and flat bases like Skis. At the time the boards were straight or were shaped like fish or surfboards. Now ironically... they are rockered, some are spooned, some have weird fish shapes..and split tails.. weird... I told Jeff Grell that it was nearly impossible to do a heelside turn on Hammer proof East Coast Artificial snow..asked for snowboarding tips (as I had never seen any video of snowboarding) , and out of desperation to make a heelside turn and help with heelside traverses finally glued soccer shinguards together with shoe goo and duct tape and put a skateboard spacer block on the back to allow for lean adjustment- to get heel support like a waterski binding (I thought the plastic would tear on those holes,,,,but surprisingly they were far more durable than the production hi-baks made of ABS from Sims that followed. The ABS was stamped and was bent and tended to crack..I was forever drilling these out and replacing them with shin guards..mostly because I could not get replacements fast enough. I would speak to Jeff Weekly...trying to find out when boards would come in... sometimes I would not get 2nd reorder boards until March or April...and we always said we would look forward to riding together. I remember talking to Jeff ...wondering if the Hi-bak should be patented... I was hoping he would say he was making thousands of boards..BUT that year production was 250-350 boards (and Sims was the second biggest manufacturer) ... I said "You know... you take such a brutal beating your first day out...I doubt if many people can take this sort of a beating to go back for a second day- I really don't think this will ever be mainstream- only skateboarders and surfers would bother with it" and that was that... we both thought a patent would be a waste of effort. I had never experienced Colorado snow... I only knew East Coast frozen Granular. I went to hard boots immediately... Koflach Valluga Lites - copied Tom Sims set up- converted my bindings with extra long bails ..and hoped the hi-bak would just go away or mutate into something entirely different and more efficient and effective. I still think it is ridiculous that the toeside has so much less leverage than the heelside. Ironically I would have to cut the hi-baks off to fit the Koflachs. And later when I had Madd.... I was frustrated that I ever made softbooting viable. Today... I enjoy the comfort and warmth...but agonize over the foot pressure (and later cramping) in fast turns. For Jeff and I it took 30 years- after promising in the 1980's to ride with each other at some point in the future- (I doubt he remembered that promise from the 1980's) , but we rode today. Ironically...Jeff could not ride super hard because his rear toe strap was about 1/8 of an inch from cracking off completely. We laughed that bindings were holding back the inventor of the first manufactured hi-bak binding. There was a snowboard magazine back them... Originally called "Absolutely Radical" by Tom Hsieh- it was renamed ISM for International Snowboard Magazine. It was a newspaper mag..that later would have colored covers.. I took an ad out in the 3rd issue for the First snowboard camp ... I still have it. Jasbar sports was set up to take the liability- which freaked out Steve since we would be going to avalanche prone Europe. I got a cool slide of Tom Sims in a Striped Shirt jumping to use for a photo in the Ad...I had it typeset and rasterized..and sent off the ad. I think it was $179 for an 1/4 page ad. I had met a guy "Milo" who was working at the Winter Sports show in Boston selling a trip to Tignes Val d'Isere for $714 for 2 weeks, airfare, airport transfers, and all lift tickets, and lodging included with food! I asked if I could sell this same trip to snowboarders, and house them in their own complex, and have access to snowgrooming machines to make the worlds first halfpipe made using machines instead of shovels. He made a call and it was approved..something that would have been hard to do with liability in the USA at that time. Milo and I pitched the same trip at the same table...he for skiers, me for snowboarders. The movie Apocalypse Snow was being shown over and over again at the same SKI show..and I would wait until the end and try to herd the movie viewers to our table to try and sell them the trip. I think they thought I was insane and just came over to humor me. The price also was super low...-perhaps too low, ...many people doubted it was real. We also both looked too young to be taken seriously... I also didn't speak French well enough, and had never seen Tignes... it was a hard sell. I ended up selling the trip to my friends who believed in me. I made about $70 per camper and needed 20 to cover Jeff and my costs. Jeff Grell was really excited about this camp..he started a company called "Snowsurfing International" and he sketched a half pipe that started out really wide on a gentle slope and as the slope increased it got narrower with higher walls eventually blowing out into a large bowl. I told Jeff I would hire him to teach..he was really excited.. Tignes had about 114 lifts (many were surface ones) at the time. BUT I needed 20 campers to pull it off. I only got 7 (not enough to pay Jeff to come) and it snowed so much that the lifts were shut down for about 6 of the 14 days. The lodging was tiny...like nearly closet size. Pretty much the crazy snow and small number of campers and the difficultly of riding surface lifts made it a disaster... some just started skiing again. Kevin Delaney threw well organized Adult snowboard camps. I would read about him in the Mags and got to skateboard race with him this summer. He won a world championship too. OCEANSIDE 2011 OPEN SLALOM CONTEST by Chris Yandall on Monday, July 25, 2011 at 1:00pm GIANT SLALOM - MEN’S A GROUP 1. Joe McLaren 24.2000 2. Kevin Delaney 24.2230 3. Richy Carrasco 24.5940 4. Jason Mitchell 24.6040 5. Ryan Ricker 25.6000 6. Brent Kosick 25.8710 7. David Hackett 25.9390 8. Paul Price 25.9770 9. Lynn Kramer 26.1780 10. Josh Harvey 26.4590 11. Keith Hollien 26.5640 12. Jonny Miller 26.6860 13. John Gilmour 26.8380 14. Max Capps 27.1050 15. John Oshei 27.1460 16. Key Dougherty 27.1500 17. Chris Pappas 27.6540 18. Tim Kienitz 27.6600 19. Michael Kaelon 28.0370 20. Pat Brickner 28.1690 21. Tiger Williams 28.5080 22. Chris Yandall 28.5820 23. John Ravitch 30.7050 24. Alec Bryant 33.6830 DQ Mike Hess 99.0000 Taylor Clark 99.0000 GIANT SLALOM - OPEN B GROUP 1. Pat Fisk 24.6 2. Lisa Scott 24.7 Divisions O=Open M=Masters Tight Slalom A Group 1 O Joe McLaren 14.857 2 O Richy Carrasco 15.438 3 M Paul Price 15.671 4 M John Gilmour 15.979 5 M Keith Hollien 15.985 6 O Lynn Kramer 16.217 7 M John Ravitch 16.525 8 M David Hackett 16.681 9 M Brent Kosick 17.521 10 O Josh Harvey 18.093 11 M Chris Pappas 18.387 12 O Kevin Delaney 99.000 13 O Tim Kienitz 99.000 Tight Slalom B Group 1. M David Hackett 15.422 2. O Ryan Ricker 15.930 3. M Chris Yandall 17.091 4. M Michael Kaelon 17.108 5. M Pat Brickner 17.154 6. M Lisa "Baildog" Scott 99.000 Hybrid Slalom B Group 1st Brent Kosick 22.730 2nd Josh Harvey 23.201 3rd Pat Brickner 23.49 4th Chris Pappas 24.572 Speed Trap Results 1 O Ryan Ricker 11.715 2 O Max Capps 11.869 3 O Key Dougherty 11.906 4 M Jonny Miller 12.086 5 M Brent Kosick 12.178 6 O Joe McLaren 12.258 7 O John Oshei 12.264 8 M John Gilmour 12.379 9 M David Hackett 12.385 10 O Jason Mitchell 12.416 11 O Josh Harvey 12.572 12 O Lynn Kramer 12.592 13 O Richy Carrasco 12.619 14 O Tim Kienitz 12.807 15 M Mike Hess 12.855 16 M Michael Kaelon 12.883 17 O Alec Bryant 12.977 18 O Taylor Clark 13.170 19 M Chris Yandall 13.277 20 M Paul Price 13.654 21 M Chris Pappas 14.074 22 O Patrick Fisk 14.809 HYBRID 1 Joe McLaren, USA /Pro 2 Richy Carrasco, USA /Pro 3 Kevin Delaney, USA /Pro 4 Mike Maysey, USA /Pro 5 David Hackett, USA /Pro 6 Lynn Kramer, USA 7 John Ravitch, USA 8 John Gilmour, USA /Pro 9 Keith Hollien, USA /Pro 10 Paul Price, Great Britain /Pro 11 Brent Kosick, USA /Pro 12 Josh Harvey, USA 13 Pat Brickner, USA 14 Chris Pappas, USA 15 Tim Kienitz, USA 16 Michael Kaelon, USA 17 Chris Yandall, USA 18 Ryan Ricker, USA 19 Lisa Scott, USA 20 Patrick Fisk, USA So it was odd for me to skate with Chris Pappas and Kevin Delaney before I got to snowboard with them. I had almost snowboarded with Kevin...in that I was helping to give programming feedback to Bruce Caselwitz (Wild Duck rep) who was running the snowboard and ski simulator at the Sports Club LA in NYC on Columbus Ave. I would get on this machine with a huge 10 foot video screen in the 1990's and follow virtual Kevin through a mogul field.. in the end..it felt pretty real. So for Kevin it only took 20 years before he and I would ride together. Tom Sims and I rode together at Stratton about 10 years ago. The day earlier... I jumped into a gondola only to find a guy in it with a snowboard... at first... I thought..."hey this guy is too good looking to be a regular snowboarder" (remembering this was the tail end of Aspen's gay ski week) , and then I started talking to him...and realized... oh.. is this?.... hmmm.. is this?... well... it was Chris Klug, who had lost about 20lbs since I last saw him...his face a lot slimmer. Chris Carol used to rep. Madd for us in Aspen..and he was there today too. I remember Chris using a funky Snowboard and tilting Funky hard bindings at Loon certifying people to snowboard circa 1983-84... yes..you needed to get approved to ride (I think they wrote it on your ticket- and you had to wait sometimes for 2-3 hours to get recertified every time and PAY $10-$20 every time) ..and iF there were no certifying instructors... you had to rent skis AND COULD NOT SNOWBOARD EVEN THOUGH YOU DROVE THERE TO SNOWBOARD..... Only Stratton offered a upper mountain and lower mountain certification cards to show to lifties (so you did not ahve to retest every time... though that took a year or two) ...I had to use a scuba diving license for ID to get a card...as I did not drive at that time. I endlessly had to convince people to drive-everytime I wanted to snowbaord..which meant I had to teach people to ride , and get them hooked.....and when I finally got my license I was renting cars from National (Who rented to 20 year olds) and the ONLY TIME I DROVE was in snow storms ....because the weather forecasters would "predict snow".. and I would drive up on dry pavement only to find it didn't snow and the snowboards were a disaster on frozen granular... so the only way to guarantee fresh snow was to drive in a massive snow storm.. rear wheel drive sedans with no snow tires and a novice driver with only a few hours behind the wheel trying to read maps when i never navigated before. (My concept of driving was from NYC- sticking your hand in the air for a Yellow cab) ... it's amazing I ever survived. I practically fell asleep on every single sleep deprived exhausted drive back home. Some drives would take 6 hours skidding everywhere..no SUVS to rent back then. Snowboarding then...on that gear... was soooooo exhausting. The days of finned snowboards with no hi-baks, no side cut, and virtually no tail... trying to ride those on bullet proof artificial snow made by gap guns....(no HKD guns existed in the 1980's) those were painful days... but also in some ways the most fun. It was a brotherhood like no other..and I doubt a bonding like that will ever exist again. All snowboarders were instant comrades. It was impossible to be a dorky snowboarder. I thought...and still think..that many skiers look like dorks. (sorry skiers) I hated the clothing.... the skin tight pants of the 1980s... and the cost of ski gear at the time... was like $400 for an outfit. I used to borrow ski gear when I skied before snowboarding... but when I first snowboarded..I didn't want to be dressed like a skier on a snowboard. So the first day I snowboarded at Loon...I bought some huge baggy dutch winter Army pants for $15, and I bought this cotton woven hoody for apres surfing...the thing was like 1/2 inch thick. I wanted to look like a person surfing on the snow. It was all cotton. I froze my butt off (the stuff got wet and froze into a solid mass) , I got beat to death on the frozen granular and could only turn toeside well and barely could turn heelside without heel support...I was using LL bean boots and the Sims bindings had Fastex clips which gave me bone spurs on the top of my feet for years later. Later the bindings would have these coat hanger type wire hoops. Burton went to rachet straps (which always broke) the Sims bindings could release after landing jumps. None of the boards allowed for stance width adjustment, or many angle adjustments. The metal edges were segmented and nearly impossible to hand tune. (Gilmour Bias ...however was possible- as the bindings on Sims boards had two arcs). The boards worked OK only with about 4 inches or more of powder... but didn't work very well on anything else other than slush. Whenever there was a storm... snowboarders would figure out which resort had the greatest snow accumulation and we would all be at the same resort. Jerry Morse "G-wood" was one of the crazier Flite riders who landed a teaching position at Magic Mountain... we would tear it up. Every storm was like a snowboarder reunion. 30 years later.... it's still the same stoke.

I like the old stuff too. I'd love to have an Checker Pig G6 chorus: (like a G6 , like a G6) or even a G5 to mess around with trying to make a variety of riding techniques push the gear to beyond what was possible in the day. Just T nut everything first, and use modern bindings.

Caught the tail end of the perfect groom day....wasting time on the job learning silly photo packages. Amazing conditions even at 1:30 .".uber long layouts on Ruthies keeping the lifties entertained..trying to get some carving converts. Rode up the gondola with Chris Klug who wants to see new Madds again chatting about Anton Pogue on the 158. Klugs working for Southerbys selling real estate - tonight he speaks at Aspens Wheeler opera house giving a talk with Jeff Grell "pioneers of shred" history of snowboarding. So all excited to break out a MADD on my day off...I call Buttermilk to make sure the hardboots are in stock- dig out my 158's... And awake...to 4 inches of powder and flat light. Ajax and Highlands are buried in snow clouds. Snow nymph in da house.

Those were super fun..I rode Fin's ...scary ride but fast.

I need to get some hard boots for them.. the edge hold and snap makes them never seem boring..I never remember them being as good as they are until I get on them. 1992-1994. What people don't know is that there were a few made that had even better edge hold... than the Originals... Same thing with the Madd 170's. We extended the carbon wing a bit. They were a bit more twitchy but had ridiculous grip. Bola sold me a Used Demo Rossignol Judge 169 a few years back I think it was a year or two old...so maybe it's a 2006. It is a total heavy sluggish park bench...but that's the challenge. 2008 Salomon 160cm Sick stick.

So much snow.... the Avalanche crews delayed the opening of the AJAX until 9:40 (typically first tracks start at 8:00 am so they were nearly 2 hours behind schedule). The gondola line stretched at one point... out of the Plaza- down the street past the Little Nell- across that Street and up to City market. Which was perfect because- A. I arrived at 9:30 late B. The long line scared off everyone..and people went to the other three mountains. It was epic and empty. C.The mountain was socked in the clouds until 10:00 am anyhow- sun came out at 10:10 am D. With the long line...no one at the head of the line dared come all the way down to the bottom to get stuck on the line they THOUGHT was there...but in fact went away completely. Leaving the entire bottom of the Mountain to the few who knew there was no gondola line..leaving everyone else stuck at the top using only 600 vertical feet for fear of a line at the bottom. The other 3 mountains likely opened on time leaving people to track out snow in dense fog... poor guys. E. All of the above. All of the above... I had some of the best bluebird powder runs today...because no one was daring to go to Jackpot or Bingo Glades... for fear of getting stuck at the bottom.By the time the crowds figured it out..I had my fill. This snow will make a great base because the first 2 inches that fell were wet from rain and snow mix- packing nicely to cover rocks... and then about 14 inches on top of that. I hit a few drifts that were waist deep on the run next to Walsh's run.. The south faces were best. I'd say SES Aspen will be good after all.

http://www.snowforecast.com/coloradofcst/aspen.html 5-8 at base 8-14 above 9000 feet. Muwaaaahhhahahahaha!

Hmmm... Let's check it out...