Allee

to exdreamgirl - thanks for the tips! Will certainly follow up on those, and the next time I hit the hills by myself I might take a trip to Norquay, I've never been there. Hopefully will get out to KHMR before the end of the season as well - I loved that hill last year, even with no snow! A.

Shred, you're a nutcase. I try to avoid trees like the plague, I've always found that bark in your teeth is a really bad look. Jack, the board is a 156 Hot Blast (blue stripe, not sure if that's the GS one or not). Yes, it's a baby, but I'm only 5 ft 9 and 148 lb, so I wouldn't think I'm overpowering it by any means! I also currently ride in ski boots, but Ihave a pair of used Raichle 223's arriving today. I'm about to take possession of a 159 Rossi freecarve board that I bought off the Bomber site, to try something a bit more mellow as the Blast is the only carver I've ever ridden. Might be interesting to see if that makes a difference...

Hey Pat, don't know if you're an Ebay fan but check out item # 3658880041 on ebay.com. Might be worth a bid. If my feet were bigger, I'd bid myself.

And thanks to Sean and Mike, the Sun Peaks thing sounds like just the go, but unfortunately I'm going to be at home in New Zealand late March, sunning myself and drinking decent wine. Maybe next year:)

Thanks Neil. I thought that might be the case with snow school at Louise and Sunshine, but I had planned on heading off to Nakiska this Sat to practice. I'll keep an eye out and see who's there. Perhaps if I flounder down a green slope executing practice carves and falling on my face toeside, someone might take pity and help me out ...:) Never been to Norquay, might be worth heading up there sometime as well. Thanks for the tip!

So I can carve OK, in a racing GS type of style - low to the board and all crouched up. Effective, but not really that pretty. What I really want to learn to do is do those big fluid laid out carves that make people on the chairlift's eyes pop out ... I've done a bit of work following the advice on the Bomber site but don't seem to have made that much progress. Perhaps I'm just too much of a wimp. I suspect what would really help is somebody who knows what they're doing to point out what I'm doing wrong (and some better gear would help too, but maybe we'll get into that later ...) Snowboard school, as many of you have pointed out, is useless for an alpine setup unless you get an instructor who knows what they' re talking about. So - can anyone recommend somebody in the Banff area (Louise, Nakiska, Sunshine, or even out to Panorama/Kicking Horse) that could help? If anyone wants to volunteer to teach me, then I'll be happy to buy your day pass for you so you can spend some time fanging around the mountain afterwards. Or if you know a ski schooler that could help, please let me know! A.

Yep, they're the right size. Drop me a line at rugbyfan@shaw.ca and we can sort out the details from there if you want. Cheers, A.

I'm interested. I have to double check the size on my ski boots, and hit you back on how we get them to Calgary ... thanks, A.