CarveAlbertaToMe

I've moved to Calgary for school, so I got myself a season pass to Nakiska. I live by the Foothills Medical Centre and plan to visit Nakiska most weekends, so let me know if anyone needs a ride. The Max Bell sale was a huge waste of time. Everything was completely overpriced. You could buy brand new equipment for cheaper directly from a store than what they sold there. For example, they had a used 5-10 year old snowboard with a delaminated topsheet for $100, used 2 years old Burton Genesis bindings for $270, the list goes on. There was seriously nothing there at a reasonable price.

Will anyone be in Sunshine for the last week of the season? I'll be there probably until Thursday.

Can anyone highlight the advantages and disadvantages of DGSS vs. BTS for UPZ boots? The BTS seems loud and clunky (I've seen videos of both on YouTube, but I'm on mobile now and don't want to spend all my data for the links), but I've read more anecdotes of people who said their DGSS had destroyed their canting disk than people with BTS. Does both systems have the same risk of blowing up the canting disk, or is it more specific to DGSS?

Perhaps a BX board? I'll be preparing for Sunshine's Banked and Style competition that's on Saturday, so expect lots of crashes. Any idea where's a good place to send my old board for edge work in Canmore or Banff? I want to set my edges with 1 degree bevel on the base, and 2 degrees bevel on the sides. Would Nakiska's rental shop be able to do this?

On a related note, does anyone know if boot sellers tend to run sales at the end of the season? I'm planning to buy new boots and bindings, but it's so late in the season that I might as well wait for next year. Perhaps the UPZ RC12 will be even better than the RC11?

When you say "there", where do you mean? I'll be in Nakiska on Thursday, and Sunshine Village on Friday and Saturday. Nooo, don't go! There's another 2 months for the season! Come out and play!

I know this forum is more about carving in hard boots, but does anyone have advice for a banked slalom and style competition? I've never competed before, and the competition seems like an especially odd one. This video from last year shows that you go through a banked slalom course first, then have to hit rails and jumps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ThWHI0WF7Y I think I'll do well in the banked slalom section, but I'm not so sure about the rails part, because I've never actually done rails before. I'm no beginner, I just didn't want to mess up my edges by doing rails, so the closest I've come is when I rode boxes 5 years ago. Now that I ride a new Donek, I figured I could sacrifice my old board to my Ferrous enemies. Does anyone have tips as to the technical difficulty level that I should be shooting for? Would 50/50, then 180 off be enough to score decent points? Would they deduct points if I jump back to my normal direction so I don't have to do the turns in switch? How big of spins on jumps should I be aiming for? My goal is to beat at least half the competitors. I'm no freestyler, but there's no more bordercross or banked slalom events in Canada this winter, and I'd like to see how it's like to compete in one of those events. My plan is to practice my rails and spins on Thursday and Friday before the competition that's on Saturday. I'll bring plenty of armour so I'll be ready for all those crashes.

All the UPZ boots on the site are only available for pre-order for next season.

It's super disappointing how little snow came down. A few days ago it was forecasted that Sunshine will receive 36 cm, then that got downgraded to 32 cm, and now 12 cm. Sunshine wasn't too bad today, but I was expecting a small powder day. Nakiska is also expecting 12 cm, and it's the last day of my vacation, so going there will save me about 40 minutes drive. Until next time! Have fun!

It looks like Sunshine is expected to receive about 10cm of the good stuff by tomorrow, 32 cm total before Sunday. Therefore, it's safe to say that I'll be in Sunshine the next couple of days.

Darn, I should have gone to Sunshine, then. Nakiska received no more than a millimeter of snow overnight. I basically went down the bordercross course all day long. It wasn't a bad day, just a bit underwhelming. Hopefully it snows like was promised tomorrow.

It was hard pack in the morning but then softened up in the afternoonThey got about an inch of fresh snow during the day, hopefully more tomorrow. The conditions today in Nakiska were far better than Sunshine was 2 days ago. I got some good turns in. I don't know who/what Scurfield is. Care to enlighten me? I'm planning to visit Nikiska the next 2 days, so hopefully I'll see you there. There's a storm bringing over a foot of snow to Sunshine on Saturday evening, so I'm planning to go there on Sunday. Sunshine has become one giant mogul with mogul acne everywhere.

Update: the snow conditions in Sunshine Village are terrible, so there's no point to invite people. The last decent patch of snow is in Mount Standish, and even that isn't consistent enough to commit to a good turn. Do you expect Nakiska to be better? Edit: I'll go to Nakiska tomorrow and let you know how it goes.

Will anyone be in Sunshine Village from March 21-24? Let's dig trenches deep enough to make our grandfathers proud!

I have no idea what's with all the socialist hate towards a new premium brand. Do people make these rude remarks when Porsche releases a car that costs twice as much as your Corvette? If you want to buy a cheaper boot, get a Deeluxe or UPZ. That doesn't mean Mountain Slope should change so you could afford their Porsche. They seem to shoot for the premium market. Good for them. It's an entirely different question whether the extra $$$ is worth it. Hopefully someone here will pony up the cash and live to tell us about how it performs (assuming that their wife didn't kill them yet). Are the .951 even better than the Deeluxe 700? I have no idea. I don't plan to buy from them, but if they're even a little better than the 700 then I'm sure it'd be worth every penny for someone out there.

Donek Incline 158 with a 27.8 cm waist and custom graphics, Burton Cartel bindings, and size 8 Ride Anthem boots (not pictured; stiffened with duct tape, fiberglass, and booster straps). I have US size 7.5 feet but unfortunately that's so uncommon that I had size up to 8. I'm planning to buy size 7.5 Burton Driver X boots once I need new boots, which will make my wide board seem even more ridiculous.

^Worth it

This is when carving transcends practical functionality and becomes a pure art form. Snowboarders are too busy brutalizing the snow that they forget how much they love it. Remember to make love to the snow every once and a while. Caress it... Gently with your fingers. Pound it... With your edges for that adrenaline rush. Kiss it... Like you're trying to blow love back into your relationship. Okay... I'll stop. Here's picture from today on my 'softboot' setup. I've stiffened the boots like crazy with duct tape, fiberglass, and inelastic Velcro straps. The boots are now significantly stiffer than the stiffest softboot sold today. I ride a Donek Incline with a 28 cm waist (size 8 boots), and Burton Cartel bindings. You could basically see pencil line trenches all the way down the hill.