Corey

Got the 07 board today, thanks Adam! The board had typical lift-line scrapes and the edges were a little thin, but it was good for the price.

Last weekend was awesome! 19 cm of snow on Thursday, the groomers packed it down to near SES-quality snow by Saturday. Barely anyone was at the hill so we almost had runs to ourselves. It's been getting warmer and warmer so this weekend was likely going to be the last for me. Whimper... But then - BANG! I slipped on some ice in my back lane one morning and landed in a very strange position, twisting the heck out of my left knee. I can walk in a straight line with only mild discomfort but pivoting on that leg hurts lots. No more riding for me this season! :(

For reference: I popped out of a front binding once (user error - TD1s set too loose). The leash held strong but the plastic ankle cable retainer on my Raichle boots broke instead. It just tore the ankle cable right through the plastic. It was a pretty minor crash with no injury to me. You'd need a very strong method of attachment to make it worth your while, a fastex buckle won't hold. A local resort won't let you on the lift without a leash, they have one person at each lift dedicated to checking all riders in the line.

Removing the sharp edges on the cant disk should help. Even sandpaper would make short work of this.

Can you share the details?

The paperwork is at a special office, usually close to the warehouse. Here in Winnipeg it's close to the airport and the customs office. For your specific city it's best to call UPS to see where the three places are. I've also heard you may be able to do it by fax, I haven't bothered with that yet as the whole process takes me about 20 minutes. I can't stress how easy it is to call them and ask. They bent over backwards explaining the details to me.

I actually broker my own stuff that comes via UPS. It's brain-dead simple, you just carry a piece of paper from the UPS office to Can. Customs and pay the duty/taxes. Then they stamp the paper and head back to UPS warehouse to pick it up. This is all dependent on the offices actually being close to you... Call UPS and ask how to broker things yourself, I was stunned at how helpful they were considering how they make 2 or 3x the shipping cost again in brokerage!

The biggest portion of the costs are the UPS brokerage fees. If the seller can ship USPS you only pay $5 brokerage at the post office, plus the regular duty/taxes. Duty is typically 7% and you pay tax on the duty too. Note that ski boots are duty free while snowboard boots get 7% duty. Hard boots look an awful lot like ski boots...

Email sent!

Congratulations Pat! Most people are lucky to do half as much at 60!

I don't know Dimbeanu at all, but I think a public call-out deserves a public response. Maybe over the top, but it's hard not to get emotional when people are calling you a thief... Some people mocked me for locking up a board at SES. Meh. I figure a casual thief will just steal the unlocked board further down the rack because it's easier.

:lol: That's the funniest thing I've heard in weeks!

I'm no expert but I could take a look at your setup to see if I can help. Let me know.

Bomber article: http://www.moldableliners.com/Pages/molding_liners.cfm These two are good also: http://www.yyzcanuck.com/E_tech_cooking.htm http://www.alpinecarving.com/bootfitting.html#heat

Good to hear Mike! How was the whole cross-border experience? It sounds like it's pretty seamless for you US guys provided it's under the $200 limit. Us Canadians only get $20 duty free.

It's just the standard blue metallic from Donek, shown on the right side: http://www.donek.com/graphics.htm - that picture definitely doesn't do it justice! It's more like a deep metalflake paintjob on a classic hotrod. I don't quite understand the repulsing effect but I hope it continues! From the shins down I look like Captain America with the white/red Deeluxe 700t boots and the blue board... ;)

Interesting thought. I have a Race Technology DL1 that I'm going to be using for autocross this summer. I wonder how that would work. It assumes the frame of reference is pretty flat like a car, but I know people somehow use them on bikes. It's a pretty expensive piece of equipment, I'd need to be 100% sure that some edge chatter wouldn't screw it up! I assume the GPS antenna would be best put on a helmet, but the helmet travels a tighter radius at slower speed than the board does...

Sold!

Sold!

Yesterday was my first time out since SES (damn cold/flu!), what a fantastic day! I had a ton of fun and got to put all the lessons I learned to work. Some random stories that I thought were funny/interesting: 1. I bought a blue metallic Donek FC1 171 demo from SES. That thing is BRIGHT! People in the lift line gave about 8" of clearance all around the board. Someone even commented at the end of the lift ride that they would "turn left at the top to avoid scratching your nice board." Later in the day I switched to my Volkl RT and had people on the tail constantly in the lift line. Switching back to the Donek had people giving distance again. I don't understand it but I like it! 2. The Snowperformance riding style has really changed my approach to the hill and gets a LOT of looks. I've never been approached by so many people with comments and questions about carving. Cheers from the lift are awesome too. Very cool, thanks Sean! :D 3. There was a little natural roller that was really fun to lay a big toeside carve over. I got in some big chop one time and skidded/slid into the kicker on the extreme side. Leaned over 45 degrees and flying off a jump at 10-15 mph isn't cool. Luckily the landing had a perfect slope that I was able to faceplant on and slide out nicely. :p For the record the kicker was icy enough that I only left a pencil line in it. My knee/elbow trenches in the landing were bigger... ;) 4. That Donek makes me smile. It just locks into a turn until you tell it to release. It was a little out of it's element doing very large radius turns (that's not what I bought it for anyway), but ate up the small turns! It felt a lot like a Loaded Vanguard skateboard, except without the fear of road rash. Weee!

Bump, still for sale!

Watch for heel buckles. On a rental set of snowblades I tried the heel buckle wouldn't quite go over-center on my Raichle boots. Toe buckle ones were fine. Those appear to have toe buckles. I'll second the notion that they're really fun. My wife has a set of Elan Razors with a very small radius sidecut and a square tail. They turn like ice skates: you better be ready when you put them on edge! She doesn't ski on them anymore but we're keeping them for when we have kids.

Cool, just got an email from Toolcan. Thanks!

I think it's just general lack of experience for most people. The security lady at the x-ray machine in the airport asked me if the skateboards she was looking at were mine - it took a while to figure out that she meant my snowboards.

SOLD For sale: a used set of Raichle 413 boots, size 28. The original non-thermo liners are included and were never used as I already had thermo liners when I bought these. These boots have the 5-position lean adjusters with powder and walk modes. They also have new AF-series toe and heel pads as I wore out the originals walking on the stupid expanded metal decking and stairs at my local ski hill. As you can see in the one picture, one of the cable covers is a different color as I managed to crack one while changing the position of the cable. :( $90 US + shipping. No 'dibs'. First person to PayPal me gets the boots. Boots are in Manitoba, Canada, postal code: R3M 1E9. You pay actual shipping costs and any duty/taxes from USPS or UPS. I _believe_ up to $200 gets across the US border duty free in personal shipments, but it's your responsibility to check that by calling your customs office. Pictures: http://i27.tinypic.com/xeg8eh.jpg http://i25.tinypic.com/5bcojk.jpg New AF-series toe and heel pads: http://i31.tinypic.com/k0gd4y.jpg You can see the different color cable cover on the left ankle strap: http://i32.tinypic.com/e0ifc0.jpg Shell sizing: http://i29.tinypic.com/2mzfjp.jpg Unused liner, size 28.0: http://i25.tinypic.com/10fnqrn.jpg Liner front: http://i30.tinypic.com/qspjx1.jpg