dhamann

limbo line! more torque/g's from hardboot equipment for sure. then there's snowboarding...

Day of the year. Almost. Nothing like that day last spring Jack but still great. Met up with a stellar crew. Got yelled at by sledneck/patrol for limbo on boardwalk. Ran a few gates. Thanks Dan!?! Spillway sucked again but we still slayed it. Last groom Saturday? Gondi ran good later in the day. Chopped up middle of day. Flume is pure ice. Not even boiler. Ice. Comp, hay hey hay, kings, sluice all nICE. Softening up. Kinda.

musta missed ya. only saw a younger rider straight lining haulback. all i found was a cover up layer of frozen granular that just won't hold or stick to the frozen surface below. maybe more fun on softies, but i kept riding that thin line of blow outs on almost every turn. held a few turns better over on the ungroomed. going with softies today. hoping to have more fun and less frustrations than yesterday.

... on a weekend at that. (so you have been outside of Maine. jk homey.) @workshop7 those are a couple trails at looniville off north peak. it's really only the upper sections that can be a challenge. the rest of both trails are like tough blues. maybe like an easier diamond elsewhere. south peak has more sustained vert. FYI: don't pay for a weekend ticket at Loon, ever. i seriously don't know how people tolerate such crowds and think that's what skiing and riding is like. makes me puke blood

Cool. Green jacket. Spillway/sluice. King pine early likelihood too. White K180

@Jack M nice. Bummer I missed you all. Made the commute today. Here til Thursday. I'll do what I can to hold down the trenching for you guys. Firm is right btw. Better than mount snow on Saturday though. Eeks. PSA: Never go there on a weekend with plans to ski/ride.

Is anyone at Loaf this week? Pic from Sunday posted today? Heard there was a four pack of rut makers Sunday morning. Some skier had to complain about my ruts.. softies on a firm sunny Monday afternoon, end of day. Hardbooting tomorrow.

been there. look at it the other way around. (hardbooting is easier with less crowd pleasing versatility). been seeing more of a younger crowd trying to teach themselves to carve out there on the slopes recently. keep doing what we do and some will dive into the deeps. some will be happy staying at mad river glen. nice. i was shown the K2 Thraxis when getting liners molded earlier this season. it has this integrated into a 3rd boa, fixed to the shell. liner can be replaced. would be curious to try the asian tongue. wait, that came out wrong. wonder if you'd have to use some sort of velcro, etc to keep it fixed between liner/tongue. different stiffnesses as well. nice. where have these gone in the US? i remember having a set of airwalk freerides with this similar concept. higher cuff too.

Nice. Any recommendations on what area of the mountain(north area?) or trails to spend for a "power hour" first thing in the morning? I've heard horror stories about weekend crowds but I'm headed there next weekend with my lovely wife. Will be on softy freecarve setup most likely. Any recomendations much appreciated! And if anyone wants to shred, let's do it.

gecko stealth black bumpers/screws/5mm insert extensions. never used. (105 USD package) asking 75+shipping bomber power plate kit. 3* and 0* cants. blue/purple erings. used approximately 125 times. asking 125+shipping. see how that works? SOLD power plates

Kessler mornings. Jib softies afternoons. My ankles need a break. Geez... us. Saturday is gonna be tough. @skidad62 I think that was from last weekend.

Not exactly hero snow out there but plenty of fun to be had with the right equipment/patience. Upper Gondi run of the day. Tomorrow: boardwalk wall to wall.

@daveo thanks

No idea bob but there's sure to be more of them around. Does anyone have insight as to what the pros/cons are to a ptex topsheet? Is there already a thread regarding this?

Not 6 days. 6 hrs! Really? Should this be gone by now? The supply/demand is there? Ok. 10cm worth that extra test cheddar? Perhaps but there's gotta be someone for this gem. Get some!

Nice. Well there ya go folks. Ground once. Once! This thing wants to rip. Who's gonna rip it!?! I'd demo it but that's already been done. And proven. End of the week. This has got ta go. Got ta. C ya. Bu bi. Y'all mis'n sumpin big here. Don't blink.

Oh come on. This is a cherry picker. Titanal. Bomb through anything. Carvey fun to play with 10-13vsr. Gtfo. Up to 200lbs get give or take(ish). Ya know all owners have taken care of this hawg. I'd like it myself but have others coming. Get on it shredsters. Nice deal here. Still plenty of edge left. Ever ground? Structured?

is this sold? PM'd

hot laps Friday

ya. how does one acquire those? like 20 of em

board is in fantastic condition and E did a fantastic job packing it. she's arrived safely. i've had this on my radar since the original posting and thanks to the community here, nobody snatched it up. cheers to that and thanks Eunil! see you at the finish line it just needs 100 coats of wax SOLD

Indeed. I only see the younger crowd in hardboots only to run gates. Don't recall ever seeing younger riders freecarving. Freeriding seldom. Like after a race. Probably because they're on race focused equipment which isn't very enjoyable to freecarve. I think there's a common misconception regarding hardboots with the masses. A lot of us have heard such equipment referred to as a "race board" or sometimes a "carving board". Hence the pondering quandary. Get em on an MK. Holy crap that board is fun! Ginsu carving low angle slopes will hook any rider with a basic snowboarding skill. Race it? Sure. Just load the tail.

wow. Edge hold engaged! conditions: firm east coast loose granular sugar/dust on crust/ice. warm in the 30-40's for two weeks prior, rain for a couple days, froze. gave it a day to get groomed then rode a couple days after the freeze. it started scratchy. day temps started in high teens. riding temps ranged from 25-32 i'd day. partly cloudy start with increasing clouds. board: donek saber 164 (glass) plates were set up symmetrically on board. the Cross comes standard with red (hard) bumpers. this test was with all medium (orange) bumpers. will mix/match in future. this is the only day i've ever ridden any gecko plate so it's all initial impressions. light in weight for sure. as expected, they do exactly what they're intended to do. direct pressure to more of the edge so there's more contact with the surface. can you still bend the board? sure, but it's more work. the plates make you ride more of the sidecut of the board rather than altering the sidecut by using various techniques such as torquing the board torsionally. these plates don't really allow that to happen. maybe the stealth's would? i started on some easier blue's to get a feel. after one run on a blue i had felt enough. took it to the blacks. upper walking boss at loon to be exact. still held an edge great, but with more speed my ability to control the turn radius had decreased dramatically. granted this is run number three. maybe i could use some more practice? i kept to a more controlled speed to feel the reactions of the plates on both blues and black slopes. after a few runs i realized i could relate the board ride and feel to be more torsionally stiff similar to an alpine race board. the dampness of the medium bumpers was one of the first realizations of what the plates can do for your riding. i wasn't ready to take it at high speeds initially, but of course that had to happen at some point. yes, very damp. not everything can be built into a board construction. uh oh. some might disagree with that! when there's a product like this on the market, i'm not so hung up on board construction anymore. a secret weapon if you will. not to get off point here, but board construction is definitely important which can accentuate the experience of snowboarding and making a turn. these plates do exactly that as well. in a competitive environment, it can be splitting hairs a little bit depending on the level of riding, but i might go as far to say that these plates produce an unfair advantage. however, they're game so ride it like you stole it. they definitely improve control while on edge at both medium speed and high speed. low speed doesn't interest me, so i can't provide any feedback there. high speed edge control was a little sketchy initially due to how much more of the edge is engaged. after being used to sliding a little speed check in here and there at high speeds for many years, the plates are helping the board engage more of the edge and therefore hold a grip far better than without or as with bomber power plates. a little more experience riding them for more than one day should help adjusting to how the plates perform at different speeds, conditions, etc but as stated, initial thoughts. power plates vs cross? lmao. just recycle that metal somewhere. gecko cross blows the power plates away on every level. similar rise of 10mm with cross. unsure of rise on power plates, but similar. say 15mm just eyeballing it. the dampness the cross produces is hands down a much softer ride for many reasons. mainly the disbursement of contact points of all the "fingers". weight? uhm, metal vs carbon fiber. duh. install/removal for tuning and waxing is much easier/quicker. edge to edge control might be close depending on reaction speeds of the rider, but once on edge the control as stated above is phenomenal. i have no affiliation with anything other than giving some feedback to the community here. i've only ridden power plates for comparison. never stepped on an alpine board with any kind of plate, but i intend on using the cross with hard bumpers to test with an alpine board. i just have a hard time getting out of softies now that the board performs like an alpine board with these things.

sorry Jack. i apparently don't know how to shoot with an iphone. should've gone landscape and changed my settings on my phone. next time! Jack's obviously on hardboots. Dave on softies. got a few shots, but not all laps. this day was an "11"