mattj
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Posts posted by mattj
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LCI Attendance: Season 2014/15.
It is with much regret that I must inform the LCI that I will not be joining them in season 2014/15.
I tore my left Achilles tendon in early summer 2014 (had a 1" gap in the tendon) and after surgery, spent the rest of summer and fall learning to walk again. Currently, I am walking well but I still have some swelling around the tendon and surgery site that will (hopefully) disappear in time.
I plan to get my boot liners re-molded late summer/early fall this year and I intend to return to the LCI for season 2015/16.
Regards,
Matt
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Looks like I'm going to be able to get to SES this year. Anyone have a spare bed/couch/floor for Wednesday night through to Saturday morning?
Matt
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Found this on a news site and was amazed.....
"Strapping your feet to a board and then sliding down a snow-covered hill requires skills that most humans aren't born with. So to make it just a little easier for novices to learn how to snowboard, Australia's Streetboardz has created a board with a built-in handbrake that lets riders easily stop before things get out of control.
Dubbed the Boarder Kontrol system, the brake is activated by the rider tugging on a leash which causes a thin metal blade to dig into the snow. The harder the rider yanks, the deeper the brake digs into the powder, and the quicker they'll stop. But with a gentle tug it can also be used to keep the rider's speed in check, and because the brake's metal blade is rounded, it can even be used while turning.
Because the Boarder Kontrol system is really only useful until a rider learns how to control their speed by carving, Streetboardz doesn't intend to sell the board to the general public. Instead, they're working to market it to resorts and hills that rent equipment to those hoping to learn to snowboard without ending up in the hospital with a broken limb."
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I missed today and was thinking about taking to family to Loveland tomorrow figuring that New Years Day might be empty. Then I saw the forecast from NOAA:
New Year's Day: A 20 percent chance of snow before 11am. Partly sunny and cold, with a high near 8. Wind chill values as low as -21. Blustery, with a northwest wind 11 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph.
It didn't sound so bad until I converted it in to Celsius: A HIGH of -13.3C and a Wind Chill of -29.4
Ouch! Going to wuss out and stay home instead.
Matt
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I don't know why but the first thing I thought of was this:
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Sigh, nothing from Vancouver will play on my PC in the US.
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I can confirm that Mario's technique at the top of each chair was a little unorthodox but achieved results. His eight bounce euro-carve on Spillway was a sight to behold and will provide much work for the groomers trying to fill in the divots.
Matt
The Tribe having a rest - Ice, Big Mario & Teach.
Dusty Bottle watching the fun
Loveland early
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Bump.
I still have 2 x 4-Packs.
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Only 2 4-packs left.
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Dave,
parcel just left. Insured with delivery confirmation.
Matt
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No problem. My paypal Email is matt_jackson @ hotmail . com
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G'Day All,
Due to my brother cancelling his Colorado trip, I have 3 Loveland 4-Packs for sale.
$100 bucks per 4-Pack or $25 for a single ticket.
Matt
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The main things that have helped me are:
1) Riding with the LCI. Sometimes the level of Awesomeness leaves me speechless.... :-)
2) Getting a new-school metal board (Donek 184 GS prototype)
3) Widening my stance and going with pure lift front and back with no cant
4) Reading Bomber and watching video's
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I have been playing around with recording my tracks using my phone (Droid Bionic) and then putting them on Google Earth.
Seeing my track in Google Earth was kinda neat but I really wanted to see what my speed was during the track.
It took a while to sort out how to get what I wanted and I now have a working process.
My process is:
a) Find software that records a track without draining the battery too badly (see below);
a) Select the finest/most accurate GPS logging option that the software supports - usually 1s increment;
b) Record the track; and
c) Export it as a GPX file for further processing.
Software:
Alpine Replay: Haven't really played with uploading tracks to the website.
Endomondo Sports Tracker Pro: Didn't do what I wanted.
GPS Logger: Works fine.
Open GPS Tracker: Works very well
Sports Tracker: Works OK
Smart Tracker: Works very well
My Tracks: Works very well
Processing:
This was the fun part. Google Earth can display GPX and KML files but it only shows the tracks, not the speed.
After a fair amount of digging and playing, I thought I would have to write my own KML builder using python/shell script as ESRI ArcMap etc wouldn't do it.
A better Google search uncovered "GPS Visualizer" which reads KML/GPX/CSV files and builds KML's that can be coloured by speed. This worked really well. It also has a heap of other options for colouring the track - Altitude, Time, Climb Rate etc.
http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/map_input?form=googleearth
Result:
This screen shot from Google earth shows some tracks from Loveland yesterday (7 Dec 11) and the estimated speeds.
I'm not sure how accurate the "Estimated Speed" is. My Donek 184 GS is pretty quick and I'm getting better on it but I'm pretty sure that I wasn't going 67.3 mph at a few points on my track......
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I clicked on the links and this is what YouTube says:
The uploader has not made this video available in your country.
Sorry about that.
Any ideas?
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At the end of last season I was lucky enough to get one of Sean's Nomad Prototypes.
My board is the Green one that Sean is riding in this video:
I took my son Brady (6yr old, on skis) up to Loveland on Friday (28/10) and with the new snow, I took the Nomad prototype instead of a carving board thinking that there would a fair amount of soft stuff around. When we got there we discovered that there was only one chair open, one green, one blue and it was all groomed. No powder or soft snow except in the roped off areas.
The last time I rode this board was at Loveland at the end of last season and it went great in the powder and through some trees - as many as my confidence would let me ride through. I remember not feeling too confident on the hard groomed runs for some reason but really liking it in the powder, softer snow and slush.
Looking at all of the groomed snow and remembering the last time I rode this board made me think that I should have brought a different board but I'm glad I didn't.
Friday was our first day on snow this season so we stayed on the one green run that was open. I started the day with the bindings roughly centered on the board - 2nd last set of holes on the front and middle set on the rear - and had fun but felt that I was leaning back a lot. After lunch I moved both bindings back one hole and it felt better.
I spent most of the time doing slow skidding turns behind Brady and when the slopes were clear I managed to get a few higher speed carved turns in before stopping and waiting for him.
The board is easy to carve and felt very solid and smooth. It looked weird having so little board behind the back foot but it went great. I was worried about it getting squirrely at higher speeds but it didn't. I just tipped it up on edge and away it went! I think the 14m sidecut at the back (info from Sean's video) really helped.
The board has a VSR and I had a go using the shorter radius at the nose by pushing my weight forward and doing some shorter slalom type S turns and I was surprised by how fast the board turned. The first time I tried it was an eye opener. I started with a few shallow turns to pick up speed, pushed my weight forward into a toe side turn and the board turned so fast I was half way across the run before I realised what had happened!
Overall it was a great first day and I had a heap of fun on the board.
Sean has now put the board details up on his website and I wholeheartedly agree with his description of the boards performance in powder and on groomed slopes.
Setup details:
Board: Donek Nomad Prototype
Colour: Green
Length: 163cm
Bindings: TD3 SI with yellow elastomers
F: 50deg, full 3deg inward cant
R: 45deg, full 3deg inward cant
Stance: 20in
Binding location:
F: Last two holes in the insert set
R: 2nd last two holes in the insert set
Boots: Raichle SB324 with Fintec heels
Rider: Intermediate with some powder and very little tree riding time :)
Yo Lci!!
in Colorado
Posted
Late reply: Sunday. Cold. Very cold. Seriously cold. Windy. Snowing.
It was around 3 deg in the morning and got upto a balmy 7deg in the afternoon. Visibility did improve as the day went on but it was riding by braille most of the time.
I spent the day on a Donek Nomad, chasing a skier around the mountain. The runs either side of chair 8 were the best. Coming down Scrub, not much fun.
Returning from chair 8 to the base area via "the face" was the worst decision of the day. That run is just nasty.