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Right now there’s about 50 bros over on sn*wboardingforum who say they desperately want to carve or at least want to learn to turn bent at the waist with their torsos dragging on the snow.

SG Soul is an amazing board on hardpack, pow, and slush. Looks funny but it’s a quiver of one. Not as good at carving as a hardboot rig but damn close.

Snowshoe’s annex called Silver Creek has a couple of nice carving runs I think. I haven’t been there this year. If I’m solo it’s easier to fly to SLC for 4 days. I’m 20 miles north of DC. The drive to Snowshoe gets longer every time I do it! One neat thing about the shoe is the abundance of southern accents and good manners. Seven Springs is good. Good coverage. A handful of solid carving runs. It’s a good destination if you have your family in tow. They have lots of entertainment options. Plus the breakfast buffet at the main lodge is outstanding. I like that the place employs cool locals. Coverage has been solid this season. My closest hills are liberty, Whitetail, and Roundtop. All 3 are working. Everything is covered. Whitetail has the only detachable quad lift. All others at the three closest PA hills are fixed. On a crowd-free day you can get a lot of turns off that quad!

I love it when they crash and leave a 50 ft trail of skier flotsam. I did a quick search for videos of skiers carving (on skis). I didn’t see anything that looked WOW! But I’m open to the possibility. If anyone can show me awesome carving on skis I’d love to see it. I bought skis this season and 2-planking doesn’t feel right. I appreciate their practical value. But I’m not feeling it.

I think you identified the real problem. What if we came together as a group and resolved to stop wearing neon and acting strange?

I often talk to folks in softies who say they like the look of carving in hardboots. I think some might try it if the gear was more accessible. Then again, maybe that’s naive. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever successfully convinced anyone to try riding their current board with a + + stance. People get attached to their stances and styles even when they don’t make a lot of sense. What does the person who is going to start riding plates and buying skinny boards look like? What car do they drive? How many times a year do they participate in snow sports? How old are they? What is their motive getting involved? Etc. Answer these demographic questions and then you might have an idea where to find next season’s fresh meat. I wonder how many new, non-racer hardbooters join the ranks in a given season. Any guesses?

Got both of mine stuck in my hair. Still, cool stickers. Thanks, JM.

Demoed a couple at Ski Roundtop a couple years ago. The boards looked very cool but the weird recesses edge design didn’t suit me. I found that it required more angulation to get an edge engaged than a regular edge would require. I think it might be handy for cheating landings off of park features but that’s not what I’m all about.

Your question about subjectivity is one that I’ve wondered a lot about. I didn’t know that the cross country bros had a way to measure flex like that. Fascinating. I had previously toyed with the idea of comparing boards quantitatively by locking them into various types of support and placing fixed amounts of weight on them as a means of comparing overall flex and section specific flex. It seemed like by measuring deflection under standard amounts of weight and then comparing the measurements of different boards it might be better possible to know what “a stiff board” or “a soft nose” actually means. Also thought about comparing boards by measuring the amount of water they displace when submerged. That would give a board volume measurement that might be useful. Also thought about employing Archimedes’ principle of upward buoyant force (weight of the water displaced by and object equals that object’s buoyancy) as a means of comparing different boards. I wonder if there’s a correlation to buoyancy and various boards’ powder riding traits? I’m not an engineer and I don’t know anything about how boards are actually made. so someone please tell me: do board builders or ski makers do this stuff already? If they do are the numbers closely guarded? Why isn’t there some independent reviewer doing this with the popular off the shelf boards? Ultimately I’d love to have this kind of info to use when deciding on a board.

Hey loner bro, is that a monoski and a full face helmet?

I have one. It’s light and lively. Medium stiff. It carves nicely. It’s fairly long and narrow compared to something like a Burton Custom. I’m not sure I want a long, surfy board like this when I’m in the trees. But maybe you do. One word of warning, while mine is fine, some of the old Tankers are reputed to be a bit fragile.

I never relax. I hate the very idea of it.

Dude. Literally everyone at Snowboarding Forum said that was the sickest laid out carve -EVER-.

Before I started hardbooting I was a skinny weakling with no friends. I got no female attention. Bullies would kick sand on me at the beach. Then I started hardbooting and I bought 6 boards in 3 seasons. I focused on getting low. I lost some toenails. That’s about it.

When this snow season ends I’m looking to get started with wingsuit jumping. I’m 6’00” and 170lbs and I’ve got a 31” inseam. Im usually a 38R but I could probably upsize to a 40R if I put on a sweatshirt or two underneath it. Anybody got one in my size that they’re looking to part with for a reasonable price? I’m not sure if I’m really going to like wingsuit jumping so I’m looking to get started with minimal initial outlay. Hopefully someone has one in blue or yellow without a bunch of ugly logos and ads all over it. Inbox me. Thanks.

I messed up and voted for her for World Star Sport of the Year.

Gabor Mate has a lot of excellent material available on YouTube. His theories on the causal role of traumatic childhood experiences on adult mental as well as physical illness appear to be gaining traction.

I've heard a rumor that opening might be 12-14. Seems plausible. The ground is cold and their water sources are about as full as they can be. New owners have changed a few things I hear. Optimistic it'll be a decent season for all 3.

I decided to give riding in hardboot gear a try because my favorite thing about snowboarding was and is turning! Especially as I got a little bit older and a little less willing to smash my body in my leisure time activities, I decided to focus my riding on making nice turns. I soon figured out that hardboot gear was the best tool out there for what I was looking to do on the snow. After making that realization, it took more than a year for me to collect some gear (the wrong gear). And then a little while longer for me to put together a hardboot kit that didnt all but guarantee death on the slopes. Keep in mind that I live in a place where the snow isnt great and the mountains aren't great either. Perhaps if I had regular access to excellent conditions nearby to distract me then I'd never have pursued alpine riding. But that's not the case. After playing with gear and technique for a couple of seasons I can now say that I'm totally hooked. The amount of control that riding on properly set up alpine equipment affords an intermediate level rider like me is really an awesome thing! I find myself carrying speed through turns in a way that I could not have imagined just a few seasons ago. A lot of what I have learned in hardboots has improved my softboot game as well. Im finding that both kits have their virtues. Looking back, I must say that I totally failed to predict the number one benefit that I have experienced when it comes to riding on alpine gear. Sure, the high speed turns and riding up the mountain are great. But without a doubt, the number one upside and the very best part of riding my local ski hills in hardboot gear is all of the favorable attention that I find myself getting from the ladies. I mean it. The snow girlies apparently can't hold themselves back when they see a man walking in a pair of UPZ boots while holding a really skinny snowboard. I don't know why that is the case. But I've seen it first hand and I know it to be true. If before I got involved in this project I had known that so much female attention was lavished on hardbooters (even entry-level hardbooters) then I know that I would have put together an alpine kit a decade ago. I feel like someone should make a PSA telling men about this phenomenon and post it up in the various Corvette owner forums and really any place where there might be appreciable numbers of men who might be thinking about purchasing a toupee. But I'm too busy for all that. Happy carving my friends. And may the 2018-19 season see you making your best turns yet. Whether you're on the snow or not.

Seven Springs ran some lifts last weekend. Based on the weather I'm thinking they'll be open this coming weekend too. If they're open, and if they have a few trails ready to ride, then I'm thinking that I'll be there. Anybody else considering it?

I've never been to Blue Knob. Rumor has it the place is a bit rough around the edges. This is coming from my local skier pals. Based on what Ive read at the ski report sites and based on a few dusty old threads over at DCSki, it appears that BK some of the tallest/steepest runs in PA. Sounds like the local advanced skiers really dig this place when there's ample snow coverage. But all accounts seem to agree that they have limited snowmaking capabilities. I vaguely recall that Blue Knob has changed hands a couple of times in the past decade. If I had good reason to believe that snow conditions at Blue Knob were decent on a day when I was headed out to another nearby hill then I'd definitely be willing to put in some extra drive time to check it out. I'm remembering now that about 10 years ago (right after I had moved back to DC from being in the northern rockies) I had made plans to go to BK with some coworkers. One of them grew up skiing BK. When my pals picked me up the morning of the outing they said that snow conditions weren't right for BK and so we ended up going to Whitetail instead.

Toko always gives me a rash and then it's painful when I walk around.

Hola Senor Chuggs I see where your post is kinda old. But given the scarcity of leisure-time hardbooters around here I thought I'd reply to it anyway. If you're in Bmore then that means I'm based between you and Liberty / Whitetail. I'm going into my 3rd season in hardboots. I'm good for about 30 local outings a year. Liberty is my go to spot for midweek, post-work riding. Locally I've seen a few dudes riding in hardboots but I get the impression we're few and far between. I'm not connected to the racing world so for all I know there may be a throng of local hardbooters who spend their weekends standing around our local hills wearing a Spyder suit and leaning on a Kessler. In total, I think I've counted maybe a dozen different hardboot riders on the local slopes in the past few seasons. But personally I only know two or three folks around here who ride alpine just for the fun turns. If you want to meet up please do send me a message. I'm not always good about checking the forum so the best way to reach me is by email or text. I'll PM you my contact info. Regards pez

Hey what kinda kid board is that? Asking because I’m my experience good kid gear is hard to find.

Dain bramage