bigwavedave

Planning to come out tomorrow if Spirit doesn't shut down for cold temps. Laid low this past week as I came back from SES with a bit of a cough. Should'a known better than to ride the chair with those guys riding Virus boards.

tail this is near the middle of the board same scratch in middle of base

$500 shipped (lower 48) $450 local SOLD 20cm waist, 13-18.6m scr, UPM and 4x4 inserts This is a stock 2013 Donek Rev titanal race board with decambered nose and tail, carbonium topsheet. Edges are excellent, 95% left. I used it for 1 season as my recreational carver─never raced. There is a small scratch on the base near the middle (should come out with base grind) and one very small scratch on tail topsheet, otherwise pristine. This board is like new! Likely wt range: From about 160lbs to 225lbs I weigh about 185-190lbs and never felt close to overpowering it in an aggressive turn, and it rode nicely in relaxed mode. Phenomenal edge hold on ice, comparable to Kessler and SG, both of which I rode back to back with this REV. I found it turned a little tighter than the 180 Kessler. My review: http://forums.bomberonline.com/index.php?/topic/37210-donek-rev/ Got a new Rev with a single sidecut, so this one needs to go to a new home.

Thanks for all your work taking and posting such excellent quality photos.

I thought you won a Donek build at SES? Surprised you're not asking "which Donek". Get a board made for the type of snow conditions you ride most. The Nirvana balance that I had seemed optimized for typical "Aspen-like" soft packed powder. Even though it was a great all around board, it was not as good as "race" boards (SG, REV, Kessler) on typical Minnesota firm and ice. If you're riding open spaces and softer snow, the Monster is like a big Nirvana with a "Cadillac" ride.

Thanks to Steve Recsky (riceball) for some great photos at SES

I feel like I just got an extra day! My legs started burning about half way through watching! Great stuff John. I think it's some of your best stuff. The 2/3's slo-mo is about the same speed I see in my mind's eye when I enter carving nirvana...and there was lots of nirvana everywhere on the slopes in Aspen this year.

First tracks on Aspen (Ajax) Mt tomorrow at 8am, then off to Buttermilk for the last day of SES. Short vid-clip of me at Highlands yesterday, second video... http://eaud.smugmug.com/SES-2015-Wednesday/i-pQf9Cqk I'll try and get some pics tomorrow.

Hopefully some one posts a pic of that skwal, it has a gorgeous snakeskin topsheet!

Did ye get some snow then? Monday was my first day at SES. I rode both Monday and Tuesday (day "off" for SES) at Buttermilk in order to acclimate, as the top of Milk is under 10,000'. There are clusters of carvers everywhere you go. Conditions are surprisingly good, better than Spirit has been this year, although with the daily freeze/thaw (highs in the 40's) Aspen is working on developing that icy base layer, at least on the lower third of the mountains. Spent a lot of time on West B'milk where you can board the chair at a midway station avoiding the crunchy snow on the lower mt., and ride gentle groomers over and over--5 minutes up--2 minutes down--much like Spirit without the flat sections. Rode up the chair with Aspen carving icon softbootsailor. Rode at Highlands today with SES. Hoping I made it into some of the many photo ops, as I have't been taking any of my own yet. We have a good Minnesota representation, including Bobble, Trent, thebionicman, myself and rumored sightings of nelsonboat . If you look in the SES photos you will see that "laydownEric" aka (thebionicman) has found a way to get photographed more than Trent! Hope you guys got out on that new snow. Nothing but blue skies and sun screen here.

Ran into Nick from Fergus Falls in the chalet this morning. We met at MES a couple of weeks ago. Got those pre-opening first tracks (and 2nd and 3rd etc) on the express lift side. The snow was superb "Minnesota firm", leaving beautiful "trenches", well really lines, all of 1" depth all over that side of the mt. With temps near zero, a wind chill and a clear and sunny sky, the slopes were free and clear to carve with abandon. Nick riding a 171ish Coiler stubby and later having fun on a 180ish F2 race. I was riding my newly repaired safari REV which seemed hold together fine, riding as good as new! Went over to rip up the Gandy side, Blue Ruin was really nice today, as well as everything between there and Jugular Joe. Gandy has moguls skier's left, upper half, and had it's typical inconsistent grooming. We went back over to the express side about 12:30 and found the lift out of service and all personnel busy trying to get folks off, so we walked back over to B chair to get back up. I left about 1pm, about when they were firing up the C chair. Not even a hint of the ice-base layer today, only on the chair loading/unloading ramps. Hitting the road for SES tomorrow night! ...which assures that Spirit will finally get some much needed snow!

Hip good, neck no longer stiff, board still stiff, epoxy cured, neither of us good as new. Feel the need to ride tomorrow, test the equipment and keep everything moving.

I'll be driving back to MN through Denver on the 14th and can likely fit you and your gear--it'll be tight--small car. Are you going to the airport and when do you need to be there?

Ice to cure my hip and heat to cure the epoxy.

So, I should have left around noon when Russ did, but I was having fun and wanted a few more runs after our coffee break. Well, second run, I got clipped from the right and behind by a skier, who was old enough to know better, pre-super bowl full body contact, out of nowhere at the bottom of 4pipe. The guy laid there for 5 minutes, said he was okay, just had the wind knocked out him, I asked if he wanted a hand--no reply. I expected an apology, but instead had the feeling he was thinking "damn snowboarders", as he made his way off the hill. I'm a little stiff and sore... ...but, my board!! Should be ok with a little epoxy and a clamp.

Started out with patchy flat light turning to bright sun with single digit temps. Russ and I practically had the place to ourselves, at least on the express lift side (over a hundred FIS ski racers over on the Gandy side). Same couple inches of very firm groom over icy base, as long as the groom held up carving was excellent. Midway through our butchering of the hill...

Got on the hill about 9am, parking lot already full of FIS racers who took possession of Gandy, Cinder snapper and Blue Ruin. Did a few runs on Sky Hooker which wasn't as tracked up, then moved over to the empty express side, stole a pre-opening ride up and spotted Russ coming down the hill. Early flat light light gave way to bright sun til about noon. The snow was very good, a couple of inches of nice 'surface groom' over the ever present ice underlayment, which fortunately didn't become apparent until around noon on 4pipe where skidders had scraped off the surface layer. Later, took a few runs through the big-air park and little half pipe to find virgin groom. No ice over there with all the snow they've been blowing around to build all that stuff! No air for me, but found nice carves to be had down the steep faces of the big jumps and through the bottom of the pipe. Very satisfying carving session with conditions way better than last Friday! Plan to be back on Sunday, likely before opening again and get a few runs by riding Gandy chair with the racers til the express starts up.

Thinking of coming up Friday and Sunday. Figure I might be able to get some early runs in and ride the Gandy chair with the FIS racers!

https://www.facebook.com/aftonalpsmn

Here's one from a couple of weeks ago, 2nd run on DaMonstah. Snow conditions have gone downhill since then...

Down under, regular IS goofy. So, how are the conditions at Spirit? Anybody been out?

Planning to come tomorrow!

Different time zones too, if I really tried, I could have ridden at the same time in two different places--chrono-synclastic infundibulum!

Counting the first time I strapped on a snowboard, about '88, technically qualifies me for this club, even though I never got on a snowboard again until I saw some friends on carving gear about '93. To me, it looked as though they were from another planet, swooping down the slope, seemingly in slow motion, yet flying by everything else on the hill! I had to do it, put my skis in the car, rented a board and took my first lesson. Today, it's still one of the most fun things I've ever done--can't wait to get out on the hill in the morning (gotta have the first tracks) and don't want to stop until my legs give up.

Friday at the Porkies in the U.P. on the shore of Lake Superior, feeling like groundhog (or porcupine) day, shadows and tracks...