Corey

I rode every board I own this year! Longer ones in the mountains and at one local ski area, short ones at the other local ski area. I LOVE changing boards often when riding boring terrain! It's so much fun to change up how I approach the same run with differing boards. Standouts: Coiler EC 175 - This is my go-to board for mountain riding. Friendly, makes big or medium turns even with the 14/16m sidecut. I typically don't have to think about the board at all when I'm out on this one. It was NOT a good match for MCC on those days though. The runs felt very narrow for some reason, even though they weren't... (OMG trees, OMG edge of groom!) It was a little too much board for those conditions. It was truly epic at a local hill and Kimberley BC! Coiler Revelation 180 - This one ate up Turner Mountain at MCC! A little tighter sidecut than the EC with stiff race-based core profile. This thing is a monster when you're ready to do some work! Coiler AM VSR 167 - My playful little friend with something like a 10.5m radius. I've had this for 10+ years. It's my go-to when I don't know what's on the mountain. It'll carve tight to medium turns, do light pow, survive moguls (rider holds it back!), eat ice, plow through chop. My avatar pic is on this board, on what I considered to be a tough day on very firm snow. If I could have only one board, this is it. Donek MK-ish variant (20cm wide with rounder tip/tail) - This is the freak show in my quiver. It turns SOO tight when you load it up! It's exhilarating even at low speeds. It makes my knees hurt, but I can't tell if it's because of the construction/design or because I end up pouring all my energy into every turn. It's comical to lay down a morning's worth of turns on the Coiler EC on a steep face and then take the MK out to turn inside those same carves in way less real estate.

That's not how this virus travels from person to person. It's liquid droplets of saliva that are briefly airborne after someone coughs/sneezes that drive the 6' spacing. They don't stay airborne for long. Completely unrelated - This is an awesome guide to disinfecting your groceries and/or take-out food: https://youtu.be/sjDuwc9KBps

Neat! How does a wing compare to a kite for snowboarding? I assume a wing is a little easier to learn. I'm surrounded by acres of flat snowy and tree-free fields with strong winds many days of the year.

This looks so awesome!

Let's not let this devolve into another soft vs. hard debate. Racing is a special application that's very different than freecarving. You can prioritize aesthetics and sacrifice an exact line in freecarving because it doesn't matter, but in racing you don't care how the heck you look as long as you have a faster time. Ugly stuff happens and you have to deal with it because you don't get a second chance. In freecarving, I'd rather make an ugly skid than hit a tree/pole/person. Thankfully, we tend to have large margins of error built into our choices.

What did the contract say before the outbreak? For reference; I recall most Aspen-area places having essentially no cancellation refunds. I agree that they can't change after the fact. If they're trying to change the policy due to a pandemic, well, they're a**holes, and your credit card company is your best bet.

The last ski area near me has closed. It's small but can build shockingly-long lift lines as the lifts are slow. Quite easy to maintain social distance. This place is all about extracting revenue - I can't see them closing for public health unless it affected them financially. I suspect they weren't having enough people come to afford to keep the lights on. Glad I had a fun day there on Saturday!

Vertical room. i.e. they're not too much lower.

Re: F2s being lower than TD3s. They are indeed lower, but it's surprising how much room the toe and heel slider blocks take up in comparison to the TD blocks. That mechanism takes a lot of room.

The ears/pins slide down the angled ramp, pushing the toe into the front bail. They don't bottom on the flat past the ramp. You size the binding so the whole system wedges the ears on the ramp, the toe in the bail, and the pins hold the heel down. The whole system is pretty tolerant of errors. About the worst thing that can happen in the short term is the pins failing to engage. Can't argue with that! I guess I've been lucky. One broken cable, though I don't ride as often as many here. I do almost 30 in/outs per day though. I do carry spare cables and a full set of spare heels, just in case. I also carry spare internal arms on multi-day trips.

Random Sunday morning comparisons/thoughts: Fintec moves the pins forward, so you need to slide the heel block of the binding a little forward. Nice for big feet, annoying for small feet in UPZ boots. Ears that support vertical loads are plastic on F2, steel pins on Bomber. I've seen a few F2s with broken plastic ears. If the ears break the big pin takes fully-reversing loads, which scare me. You can get individual parts from Bomber. You just replace the whole F2 unit if ever needed. Over time the Bomber stationary steel pins wear down into a D-shape from the binding rubbing it, causing you to need to tighten up the binding to remove slop. Eventually you run out of room in the big pin pocket and you have to chose between slop or not engaging the big pin. I've rotated the little pin 90-degrees before (very carefully with a vise) to give more life. I got new pins from Bomber, but getting the old ones out is a challenge I haven't tackled yet. The Bomber handles are lower profile. They're actually made from the Burton molds, which was a pretty cool score for Bomber! The F2 handles are bigger, which I much prefer as I leave mine tucked inside my pants. Way easier to grab with thick mittens through pants. Related: I hate the look of Intec (or Fintec) handles flopping outside lifted cuffs. Reminds me of pants tucked into socks. To each their own! I gave up on replacing the Bomber heel pads. They wear fast if you walk on rough cement. Shoe Goo works well and lasts about as long. I didn't walk on cement as much when I used F2s, so no idea how they fare. Shoe Goo is the only option for them though. Any of the ski boot protectors are smart, if not dorky, if you walk much in your boots.

Fintechs are really slippery on ice/tile/polished concrete. I add Shoe Goo, but it wears off quickly. On snow? I love them and won't ride anything else.

While both my cars are manual, and I love driving them, I was completely impressed by an automatic C7 Corvette. It was in the right gear at every moment on the track, and I certainly couldn't shift that fast. Ripping through the gears in the dogbox in my FF is freaking awesome! A little pressure on the shift knob, lift slightly off the throttle, and it's in the next gear before you get the throttle back to the floor. Epic!

Mighty slow at the local hill, the below pic is 5 minutes before first chair. It did pick up by 2 PM, surprisingly. Still slow for a Saturday though.

My 2015 Mazda 3 loved the twisty road from Libby to Turner Mountain! I was really wishing for AWD on the steep hairpin, but I'm stunned that they designed a car that is that tail-happy with the stability control turned off. They have some driving enthusiasts at Mazda! Of course, it's a narrow public road and you could meet someone coming down at any moment, so I left a lot of room for error/surprises. I had the same car at an ice race school on an oval track a few weeks prior. I wasn't going to push it, but there was 100' or more of runoff on an under-60 mph track so I ended up really tossing the car around! There's something fun about entering a corner slightly backwards in your daily commuter! My Formula Ford sits neglected since fall. I need to strip it to the frame and get a crack welded and check the rest of the tubing. Autocross starts in early May, pending COVID-19 progression. One of our club members ordered a C8 Corvette. I'm REALLY excited to see one in person!