Eric Brammer aka PSR

So, Yesterday, I got a call from Mr. Dean, and he was enthused about running both the Port Jervis race in N.J., and then the Killington race right afterwards. Things look good for both races (enough hay-bales) with a lot of top riders already signed on (a concern, since Maryhill is close on the schedule, and in Washington State), so it'll be fast and entertaining! In my talk with him, I noted that I knew of a road here in VT that could, potentially, use a chairlift (vs. cattle-car trucks or the back of a U-Haul) to get competitors back up the hill. We might have enough time to scout that out for an '017-'018 venue. I think it'd lend to better flow of riders, less chance of an 'active' course having the unwanted obstacle of a Van in the road, and perhaps a means to bring spectators to better viewing spots, as well. Now, Maryhill is one road I want to get back to and ride before I am too old to do so. I might even be able to race on it yet? But it has, like Killington, a childhood connection for me, as I rode it in the early 70's (loose-ball bearings, plastic board), and it's been 22 years since I've been there (honeymoon). I do miss getting out West and visiting the old haunts. Maybe next summer... As for these two Eastern events, do as I said before; Bring a good camera, folding camp chair, sunscreen, and a cooler! It's Live entertainment at it's best, if not fastest!

No, it's a Leash [remember those?] that's attached up front, but wrapped onto the rear leg...

So, now that "mud season" has abated, and the Deer Flies/Mosquito-Hawks aren't yet in the woods, have you been out and gettin' some stonewall/boulder action? Meanwhile, I'm mourning having sold my Ross Mt-Hood Cruiser, which featured 4 gears at less than 1-to-1, and Shimamo Biopace elliptical (thus not 'two-stroke' pedal power<but smooth power) chainrings. even if it weighed too much. It'd crawl on spots that I didn't even like walking over!

A recessed Theater lighting shroud for a spotlight set-up? Since I cannot determine the scale/size quite, this is only a guess, but it looks familiar.

Thanks! Curt. But sometimes that glint in my eye was seeing If YOU were as fast Me ! Well, and then I was too good at the coach thing, and you smoked by me... And, dang, my mother used to say the 'old age and treachery would defeat youth and exuberance any day'; well, I guess not always... As for the Nastar query, I haven't raced on flats much, and only really paid attention to 'the pace' of a race. While numbers/times matter, it's The Ruts you need to worry about, or wax, or conditioning of the racer; Times are just a result of what you prep for. [[ But if anyone wants good 'war stories' from a few races of mine, I have them, and a medal or two, as well. Although,T. Sims was one dude I didn't catch up to (while he was still racing), but he quit racing when he was a decade younger than I am now. 12 years ago, I got 2nd at The Worlds Super-G, and I actually wasn't paying much attention to myself (I was coaching Schwippy) on a slalom skateboard. That was a 38 mph (clocked by Chips Radar) Slalom run down Turri Road. Even OLsOn said I looked 'fast' ! In nightime BX at Stratton, Heingartner got me by doing a method over, but next-to-me on the last jump. Psyche!! , but I took it in stride, as he and Karol are of 'my generation', and he did a great move at the last to catch me. It's all relative, but what I can provide (beside boring war stories) is inspiration, safety, skill-building, an a few remedies based on my experiences of over 3 decades racing a snowboard. ]]

Hell, I don't even know!!! Maybe Pat Moore would know? Nah.. Sorry..

What I saw that intrigued me was the construction method seemed to be, um, flexible enough to be modified into a snowboard race boot. It would be likely too responsive (even in it's 'softer' flexes) for most recreational riders. Certainly the buckles would have to be re-positioned a bit, the rear of the cuff if a spring-kit were installed, and I personally would want to round off the DIN toe/heel blocks as I burn through those on Dee-Lux's as it is. The shell material seems (at first glance) more robust than the thermoplastics most boots are made of. I'm not saying this boot is 'great' as it is, just that it might serve as a basis for a Snowboard Racing hardshell , IF it can be tweaked in production. Considering how highly valued Northwave boots are now, a racer's boot made of this construction might be worthwhile. Although, $1300 'as is', ow, that's steep!

Sugarbush still has 10 groomed trails, two with moguls, and a 30" base. They'll be open into May, but at $75/day, I did the math and didn't like paying them as much as I earn an hour for the privilege to use their lifts....

https://dodgeskiboots.com/boots/#360-view From what I can see, this likely isn't a really good boot for snowboarding as it exists... But, it has potential !

Alaska!

Oh, and as for a truly narrow powder board, I like the 'super-skinny Winterstick RT' that's proposed, in concept at least. But my experiences with narrow powder boards started with a board that had one extra feature that's not shown; A Snurfer always had a Rope to keep that nose UP!

Yeah, so board width can 'take away' some good movement options, as a 'skinny' will force the rider rely less upon flat-board-rotary-steering; is that the 'trade off' for quicker edge-to-edge response, or is there another advantage in a forward-angled stance? Well, I believe there's a good extra benny in a forward-angled stance, even one that reduces the 'splay' differential a bit. It's in the ability to move really far ahead of, or behind, the board's longitudinal center. You can exert pressure to the nose or tail, and do so while on edge, thus allowing one to 'work' the board's edging both sooner, and later, within a given arc. It allows the rider to commit very early to the edge, which is in keeping with the quicker edge-to-edge feel of a narrower board. If the rear foot is canted, toe-down/heel-up, a 'platform' is created that allows the rider to recover from putting hard pressure into the latter part of turn. This creates thrust for the board, and lets the rider regain their poise between turns.Overly dynamic moves used in EC or Race carving simply aren't very functional at, say, softboot angles. And using too soft of a boot at angles above 55* denies the 'joy-stick effect', where one simply aims the lower leg (from the knee down) against the boot-cuff to create an edged turn. So, while there's less ability to input rotary (and thus, often, recovery moves) movement at high angles, the edge trust goes up a notch, and the precision needed to make the edges work also increases. Why I prefer the lower (for hardboot) angles for my own riding comes in large part from the versatility. I can perform quite well across several disciplines or terrain features with little discomfort. But I have also noticed that I'm not all that much slower in gates on a good BX board vs. a Slalom board (I actually got a USASA 1st place in Slalom at Bromley using a student's 153cm BX board some years ago; My competition was not amused.), simply because can still gain in thrust, and get 'on edge' early enough. With Burton pulling back from Racing, the 'intermediate' carving boards like E-Decks, Alps, and M's faded in the market, and we were left with demanding, race-bred boards, and a smaller niche in the sport. Boards like the Donek Pilot have in part re-opened carving to riders, and BX boards have given softbooters a taste of edging. Now, since I see big-mountain back-country riding being a focus of the mainstream board builders, I am hopeful that a renewed focus on functional, carved turns will take root. If it does, the next few years could be pretty interesting!

So, what's important here to understand is 'diagonal' foot placement, where you can both put fore/aft pressure as well as toes/heels, using the cuffs less for direct edge engagement, but still having enough 'leverage' to put the board up on edge in harder snow. If you watch any of Jim Zeller's (or Tom Burt!) riding from , yikes, 25 years ago, you'll see he had the ability to be up on edge pretty aggressively, but could also steer the board when the conditions promoted a flatter-to-the-snow surfing style. What you want to discover, is that stance that lets you do several 'styles' of riding with relatively similar effort. I always try to keep my toes/heels near to the the board's edge, without overhang. So, that criteria means that my stance angles change in regards to the board's width, but the 'differential' , or "splay" remains consistent. I usually run with a differential of 15*-12* more angle at the front foot vs. the rear. On a 'skinny', like my old Madds 158 (waist of 18cm? or so), the rear foot had to be at 42* or steeper, so 45*R,57*F at 20-1/2" was spot-on; whereas my O-Sin 4807 it's 39*F,27*R at 21", with the front foot being a bit inboard of the edges. In both cases, I'm using a flat front foot, and a cant-wedge under the rear foot, allowing for better recovery when putting the power down into the tail. However, these angles still let me shift my hip fore-aft easily, so keeping the nose up, or putting the board flat near the nose, are easy moves to make. I can also use lots of rotary steering easily, even when leaned up through 30* to the snowpack. Edging pressure input can be done toe/heel, as I would in softboots, or by leaning into the bootcuffs. This gives me a wide range of 'driving' options, and there's really no place on the hill I can't ride, except going switch (damn flat tail!), but, hey, that's why I have a Tanker, so... I truly believe that a hardshell stance that's close to the 40* mark is the most versatile, as it lets the moves of hip placement have greatest range of effective motion; Up-Down, side-to-side, and fore-aft. With Softboots, that becomes much more 'across' the board, due largely to highback's limited leverage (as compared to a hardshell's cuff), so you end up in the high-to-mid-20's for a stance angle, and thus, you ride a wider board to keep from stubbing your toes.Softboots then also lose not just the 'edge response' of a hardshell cuff, they lose the ability to truly 'power up' the tail, so it's almost a double whammy. What makes up some of that loss, though, is that the hip can move further up-down, as the ankles can flex more. If, hopefully 'when', the softboot crowd rediscovers the 3rd-strap combined with 'power wing' highbacks, or makes a stiffer, but adjustable boot, or accepts Flow's tongue system (preferably, all 4 options in one binding/boot combo?), we might see hardboot-like performance from strap-on gear. We are close to that epiphany, but...not yet, quite.

The first man-made-snow banked slalom run was something I did at Okemo in the 1989-90 season. I had a full-page photo (from ISM magazine) that I taped to the Mountain Managers desk, of Mt. Baker's banked course, and a post-it note asking if we could please do this with snowguns and some grooming. The first big obstacle was location. I wanted Lower Wardance (now just "Wardance', as the upper got renamed 'Searle's Way' after a Patroller), but the racer's pretty much owned it, so Lower Chief was where 'the Banked Park' ended up being set. The second issue was 'how do you make this?', and I had to explain how I thought it could be done. I got quite an education in snowgun operation and placement during this, but the concept of moving the guns, in a planned arc, on a fixed schedule did pay off. Having a Pisten Bully with an angle-articulated blade and groom kit was the last piece to the puzzle (well, and Chet, the guy who drove it!). We made banks about 5 ft. high by 50 ft. long, six of them, in a loose "S" down the left side of the trail. No start/finish areas, and Ski Patrol promptly put big honking nets up along the berm edges to keep people from jumping, but, overall, it worked out O.K.. Nice to see that the concept lives on somewhere else, a quarter century later. Of course, Mt.Baker was, and I suppose IS, the real inspiration! I hope I get to see someone figure out how to blow true "Powder" from snowguns before I die! With That, the possibilities of Fresh Tracks would be endless!

I saw this on BBC, and, man, what a tragic loss! This girl had such style, always calmly riding stuff that was absolutely hairball, making it look Easy... And, 21 is just too young....

I first skated this hill in 8th grade, which was summer of '78. My dad took me up to the 'then new' Bear Mt. road, and let me skate down to just above the 'hairpin', whereupon, he declared the rest of the hill to be 'too steep' for me. I was on my trusty solid-ash 36" home-made kicktail, Cal Slalom 7" trucks, Rad-Pad (Thanks, Yandall!) wedged risers, and grippy Road Rider #6's. It was a long enough board that I had to use multiple mini-kickturns to arc it enough to keep crossing the hill at the mid-point of the lane. It was a scary hill for a youngin', but it gave the idea to try to ride the whole thing. That didn't happen until my Sophomore year, and I believe I was the first (along with K. Burnham) to luge that hill. We'd made 3 sleds by then, one of a solid 7/8" thick by 5-1/2' long piece of maple (from the furniture maker down the street from me), and two of plywood, one in a single board, 3/4" ply Oak at 5' long, and a board made of two-pieces that features (yes, still have it!) removable footpegs and is just over 6' when the pegs are on. Kev and I started at the Bear Mt. intersection, toasted our shoes above that hairpin, but rode the whole hill. Later on that summer, we got clocked at 62 mph down the lower section! Those old Blue 70mm Kryptonics were hella fast! I think we ran either ExTrackers and/or Motobuilt trucks, although, K.B. did have a set of Gullwing wide Pros (not the RKP type, but the pre-cursor to Pro 3's) that might've been used. Protection was biker jackets, hockey or Flyaway helmets, double-levis, Vans shoes, fireplace gloves, and goggles. Anyways, last year's race was 35 years since I first rode that whole hill, so that event, the Downhill Throwdown, was a special event to me. Marc Dean organized it, and I taught him how to Luge some 21 years ago, so, hey, I did manage to pass on a little of my youthful dreams to the next gen. or two. So, here's a link to IDF's race schedule, and if you happen to be near Killington in mid June, well, bring a camera! http://internationaldownhillfederation.org/races/ Parking is at the Gondola lot along Rt 4, but you can also come to the top from the Snowshed side, using the road that goes out past those condos, but the road will be closed after you get to where the gondola crosses.

Years aren't an indicator, really. Days on the hill, that's one true yardstick to watch. In my experience with Raichle/DeeLux hardshell boots is that +-600 days is as good as you'll get usually. They're fairly robust boots, by and large, but go check for cracks carefully. One spot I've seen 'let go' is [not my boots,btw] in the arch of the rear boot, possibly from repeated kicks into chairlift footbars? Of course, how you ride, for how long, and general care-taking will vary the lifespan by a good bit. I had one pair, when I first started riding 'skinny' boards, that had the heel 'shelf' nearly burned off on the corner, because I had sanded the heel-blocks on my F-2 Race bindings, and the next thing up the food-chain to hit the snow in a carve was the heel of the boot itself. Those got retired a bit sooner than I had hoped... Storage is another factor. Direct sunlight will degrade plastics (look at your headlight lenses! oh, wait, my Saab has glass lenses,hmm..) as will several molds/fungi that'll eat petroleum-based products. So, did you store them dry, out-of-the-sun, and not in the ol' barn? So, check for cracks carefully. Take the cuffs, tongues, inner foot-plate and soles off, use a magnifier too. If there are any cracks, strip the shell for parts, and move on. Foam-fitting and older pair of boots is not the best use of money, btw. Thermofitting, fine, because the liner can go into the next pair, but foam is quite permenant, stiff, and precise. It's best used for a fresh (or at least fairly recent) pair of boots. Also, if any shell stretching or inner dremel work is needed on a given shell type, it is best done when the whole kit is fairly new. Both of those 'shell fixes' have potential to weaken a boot, and if it's already old, then, it starts to turn the corner from 'possible' to 'probable' un-intended failure down the line. Oh, and slightly off the topic, has anyone else noticed Dodge Boots from Vt.? Those look like they might have some potential..

1989, Safari, 205cm. Rockered nose, slight base bevel at nose/tail, TWO cambered sections, one just forward of mid-stance, one higher arch under the rear foot towards the tail. Variable quadratic sidecut, too. 62 mph in the slush at The Open. Game changer, yup.

Slopestar, if you just click into the Link I posted on Don't Trip trucks, it'll bring you to the Cyloslaloms. Once on Stoked, just look thru the Don't Trip trucks for the features (like adjustable angles!) or width (look for spacers-on-axles; always nice when you can get the wheel width/axle length right! I run my Nersh Tophats Inverted because they're too damn Fat [worse than Ampul or Sims Comp slaloms from the early 70's!!] to fit on Estlund's super-S-camber. I'll scout for the 'goods' on Seismics, but for now, only 'wide' [180mm axle] variants are in stores, and the 'skinny' versions are custom-order [Monkey Wrench Works had the last batch, don't know if Eric is still fixing those?], where they put true 8mm axles into cut-down hangers to fit width and traction demands. Anyone (beside Drayton, that is..) ever see the Virage Vite truck? I had a few braincells involved in that project on the concept/design/milling end of it, but it was too expensive (going from the material-to-finish) to make work using the CNC tech at hand. I think it would've been a decent truck to race or LDP with, but it's cheaper to find old Lazers and send them to MWW and let Eric fix what's weak. For now, Don't Trips are one of perhaps 7 'good' front choices, and are in the 'better' catagory, and are in the top 5 rear-truck choices as well (not counting extinct stuff like Radkals or PVD's). As the flow ebbs from street to speed, it's at times hard to catch that wave as it passes....

Did they attach any floatation (foam bits, ziploc bags?) stuff to the sk8boards?! In my experience of having a sk8board go under [drainage ditches, usually], they sink, quick too. I'd hate to have to comb the surf-spot to find the board later. And, Softtrucks would've been my pick, as seawater is tough on bearings, axles and the like...

Wel, Nitro, that doesn't look as bad as I feared it would! But, it also looks like you didn't 'dig' very far, either.

Probably not the wise move with a Roe, as Gareth uses several layers of composites in those (including carbon fiber) . The boards are really thin in select spots, too, so there would be that to consider as well. And, in this case, I think a 1/4" raise, and better bushings will cure the ills nicely.

Yeah, that's what I assumed, late-at-night, seeing these (only) two photos. However, I think I was on the wrong end of the board (oops ). But, if my correction of my 1st post is correct (oooh, yet Another assumption; not good, statistically, is it? ), what we're seeing is a delam and edge break along the front heel edge, yet, no break in the topsheet or sidewall. That's odd in itself. But a solid object, found at the right moment, could impinge the edge up against the riser plate. If that's the case, the board did as I've expected with Volkl's core, and it bent without much deformation of the sidewall or topsheet, and the hardness of the edge couldn't bend enough. Without a base-of-the-board photo, it's a guess anyhow, but methinks this is an impact that would've done similar damage regardless of the plate, but the plate added a fulcrum that 'pulled' the edge apart at the break. Anyhow, without a crash-test-dummy and the data from it, I'm still taking stabs at it, not espousing facts.

3* of lift is a lot. As is true with canting. A stiff cuff, angled the 'wrong' way (keep in mind, everyone's biomechanics differ) will throw a nice monkey wrench into anyone's ability to balance, steer, or edge the board. That was one of the beautiful things with Catek's design, that such 'tweaks' were just a few turns-of-the-screw away. Anyway, nice 'guided discovery' moment for you! Glad you found it!

OOPS! I just went back, looked at the bindings, and realized that they are Intec/step-ins. I thought I was looking at a heel-loop, not a toe bail. Doh..