SirDoofus

I am interested in the bindings if you still have them. CHeers, Mike

Howdy, I am interested if you still have them and have sent you an email. Cheers, Mike

This sounds interesting. I can't say how often I would be able to attend, however if it is at Meadows on a M, T, Th or F night I would more than likely be able to on a few occasions. Carpooling would definitely make it easier. Cheers, Mike

Hey Dan -- good to hear you are back in town. Thursday is out for me, probably Friday if the snow holds. Yeah I remember Octavio, it'd be good to see him out there too. As long as the snow keeps coming, I am sure we will hook up one of these days. Have fun on Thursday. Hey Jason W. What is your girlfriend's name?? If you happen to get this before she takes off, let her know My wife's name is Jennifer and she will be riding a Crazy Creek 151, she is definitely still in the learning phase but she has fun (sis can't make it). Cheers, Mike

There will be a few of us up Tuesday (2/15) if any of you can make it. My wife an sister who are still in the earlier parts of the learning curve will likely be there too if anybody out there who is still figuring this whole thing out wants some company. We use RF 13:20, give a shout. Hey Dan, are you back in portland now? Would be great to see you on the hill, you too Jim, and Mike T. and of course anyone else I haven't met yet. Cheers, Mike

oops, wrong thread

toward the end of the day, find the widest most bumped out run you can and just start making nice easy long arced turns. Really focus on maintaining your upper body as static as possible. Continue to make your turns progressively more aggressive over the same terrain (you'll know basically what to expect), all the while using your legs to absorb the terrain and keeping your upper body still. I have found it easier if I get into an exagerated squat (really bend those knees and get your hips down) when I do this, it seems to prime my body to flow with the bumps. After a few runs you will find your balance point, be carving hard and actually having quite a good time doing it. Cheers, Mike.

Don't miss this chance to buy a one of a kind, totally custom, dimensionally exclusive, none like it ever built again, C/P/D. This board really is priceless, it has been seen carving up the hillsides all over The U.S. and Canada, in fact you have probably seen it yourself on one of your recent winter slopeside vacations. Imagine owning a board that not only is a one-of-a-kind but that thousands and thousands of people have seen tearing up the slopes. Everyone from Hollywood insiders to Hillbillies have fallen aside in awe as this board has flown by them magically leaving canyons to rival the Grand in its wake. What is a board like this really worth? Impossible to imagine, impossible to put a price on an exclusive piece of nostalgic history such as this. But today is your lucky day, you get the opportunity to own an invaluable piece of snowboarding lore, one whose pricelessness will only continue to soar into the heavens and beyond. Opening bid $150,000.00

Wow, I had no idea anyone had any objections to using a leash. I guess I don't understand what's so hard about wearing one, and it seems to me that taking that extra bit of precaution is a no brainer. JMHO, maybe I'm.....clueless?? Mike p.s. By the way Dan, how have you been?

I am assuming what you mean by pinching ribs together is pinching the rib and hip on the same side of the body together. If not, then I have something else to learn....however.......(ok, so I have a lot to learn regardless)...... .....for what its worth, I have found this practice to be of extreme help to me. One thing a friend of mine told me to try in an effort to help me achieve the "most pinched" position I could was this: When you are transitioning into either a toeside or heelside, try touching your boot (maybe/maybe not literally, but reach toward your boot) with your hand on the opposite side of your turn as you pinch your lowest rib to the upper part of your hip also on the opposite side of the turn. In other words, if you are standard and making a toeside turn, pinch your left lower rib and your left hip together as you reach with your left hand to your left/front boot (of course the opposite applies to a heelside turn). This will keep you from reaching for the snow with your right/turn side, will keep your shoulders more parallel to the slope, and will help you pressure your edge more effectively. I have made some great progress using this little technique and it has helped my confidence astronomically on the harder/bumpier stuff. cheers, Mike

Just curious if any of you have any spare Raceplate toe bails hanging around you might be interested in selling. I had a really great trip over the handlebars the other day and stretched the one on my front binding. Cheers, Mike

Hey Jim -- Dan L. and myself will be up Friday, I am sure we'll see you there. Cheers, Mike.

Johann -- email me sir_doofus@hotmail.com

A Smith Machine is basically a power rack with the bar locked in a guide system, see: http://newyorkbarbells.com/smithgyms.html A sisy squat 'rack' (rack is kind of overdramatizing it) is a small shin/knee high piece of equipment that locks your feet in so you....well, take a look here: http://www.fit-senior.com/acatalog/Fit_Senior_Sissy_Squat_Platform_524.html Hope that helps. Cheers, Mike

The best "exercise" I have found for riding endurance/strength. I have tried just about everything in the weight room at one point or another either as a competetive bodybuilder, powerlifter or college strength coach, and I have found more than anything else, one form of leg training to significantly improve my performance on the slope. Before I get into it though, I want to reiterate what has been previously posted about taking a balanced approach to strength development, it does you no good to have energizer bunny quads if your core can't handle the demands. Basically what I am reccomending is a sort of dynamic variation on wall sits under load. Now I like to do this in a squat format with weight, however, probably any type of pressing movement can work as well. Now keep in mind that when I say "under load" I mean that relatively. It doesn't take a lot of weight to get a good effect, and in some cases it might be prudent not to use anything more than bodyweight. It just depends on the condition of the individual. In any case, I would highly reccomend starting out with light weights and slowly increase the weight as your strength (especially lower back) develops. The exercise. If you are using free bar squat equipment, I would suggest doing this inside a power rack or some other similar device that can support the weigh before you fall to the gound. Using a LIGHT WEIGHT to start out with, get into the squat position like you normally would, get your watch in front of you so you can see it, and proceed to squat down to the lowest (most bent knee) position you are likely to encounter while you are in a high g turn. Then proceed to press back up to the highest postion you are likely to encounter while in that same high G turn/transition. Be sure not to extend so far up that you take the load off your quads, the idea is to maintain constant pressure on the muscles involved in a turn while moving up and down through the normal vertical range one would encounter on the hill (not including coasting, I am toalking about the range you would encounter while you are working your linked turns). Now, do this as long as you can (I wouldn't suggest counting reps) and when you absolutely can't go any longer, check your time and make a note of it. The next time you do it, you want to try and either add a little weight and go for the same time, or add no weight and try to increase your interval by 5-10 seconds, or more if you can. I like this a lot better than wall sits becuase I think it does several things wall sits don't. 1) You are actively lenghening and shortening the muscle under stress which is much more beneficial for functional strength than static contractions 2) you are more closely approximating the actions you go through on the hill, so it is more "sport specific" to carving than wall sits. 3) By adding weight you are emulating the effect of increased G forces encountered in a carved turn (with wall sits the fricition generated by your back and the wall decreases the load on the quads significantly) 4) and you are still getting the benefit of all that lovely lactic acid build up to make your day wonderful Now of course, like anything, there are I am sure, more variations to this idea than there are riders on this board, and I am sure many of them would be quite good. A few I have tried and like include: "Ball Sits" put workout ball in between you and the wall so you can easily move up and down, this is a good one if you don't want to use anything more than body weight, but you can certainly hold onto a weight as well. Using a dip belt to hold wight between your legs instead of on your upper back as in squats. Using a sissy squat rack Using a Smith machine. Varying the speed with which you move up and down. On a few reps I like to "freefall" into the lower postion and then stop myself abruptly, this emulates the sudden increase in G force encountered when you hit a bump or a sudden incline. NOTE!!!! PLEASE BE CAREFUL DOING THIS. Your lower back and knees are particularly vulnerable to injury if you don't use impeccable form. Do not 'freefall' into a position higher than about 60-65 Degrees, i.e. the tops of your quads should be no more than 2 inches or so above parallel to the floor. The reason being is that much above this the ligaments around the knee end up taking the brunt of the load which can be significant when speed is involved, even with a light weight. As you move past 45 degrees, the bulk of the load transfers to the quads, hips, glutes and hamstrings. Also, probably doesn't need to be said but I will anyway....you definitely do not want to drop into a postion much below parallel to the floor, as the knees again begin to progressively take up more of the load the farther past parallel you go. I did for awhile try to make this movement even more sport specific by putting myelf into the general position I am in when I am riding. However its a bit awkward and I decided that it wasn't such a good idea, for me anyway, because I think it strenghened things in my trunk a bit unevenly. But it might be worth a try for you, just be careful. As far as volume and frequency goes, I will leave it up to you to decide what will fit best with your schedule, days riding, etc. I will say that I have had great success doing one "set" 2-3 times per week pre-season along with regular leg training, and then 0-3 times per week in-season depending on how much riding I do that week. There are many schools of though on this particlular subject and I won't get into it. However, for some interesting information on principles associated with training frequency and volume and overtraining you might check out a website www.thinkmuscle.com, click on the articles link, then under 'articles by topic' click on training, then click on the links to hypertrophy-specific training, frequency and endurance. Keep in mind this particular site is dedicated to bodybuilding training which doesn't necesarily correlate really well in some aspects to athletic training, however the principles and research to back them up are interesting. Another site on the same topic is www.hsnhst.com. Just a quick comment on injuries. I was a strength coach for the OSU Athletic Dept for 3 years, and during the whole time I was there we never had an injury in the weight room that occured while someone was using training poundages. Every injury we had was during warm ups, when people were using light weights and not paying attention to their form or what they were doing. It really doesn't take much to hurt yourself if you are out of position, regardless of how easy or light the weight may feel. So please, take every load seriously and always pay attention to your form and position, no matter what. Anyway, good luck if you try it, and I am sure you won't be dissapointed. Cheers, M :eek: