TrenchKnife

Try changing your binding angles first, being as its a hole in the cartilage, as opposed to full thinning. You might be surprised at how many alpine riders are able to bypass continued knee trauma by simple binding angle changes and canting adjustments. At this late point in the season (even in the PNW) you may consider switching to a soft setup and then simply work on anciliary muscles/groups over the Summer on a bike. Binding cants can really exacerbate knee issues. Try trading cants for angles, as doing so can significantly reduce focused meniscal stresses and erosion.

?!?! GS/DH Race stockers still have plenty of shape, still "shaped skis" by any standard. (I ski on 2010 race-stock {full-sidewall/temp-rated} Racetiger 216s & 168s.)

Initiate with hop turns, this teaches correct extension/retraction for clean initiation and timing.

I'm heading back up to Vt. tonight.

? Are you serious? What about Stowe or Stratton?

Try to familiarize yourself with a very short alpine board first. Longboards allow a lot of latitude for sloppy balance, and many riders' skills suffer as a result, often with the board riding them, as opposed to vice-versa. This is all-too-common in hardbooting.

Had the sickest experience yesterday: Two local ex-racers too me down a psychotic pipeline trail for a few runs yesterday. Just 3 minutes down the road from Mt. Peter, two cars, hike in from the Appalachian Trail at the top of Mount Peter. Never knew there was anything so steep and rideable so near NYC. I'm at my desk in the city and my legs are still shaking.

We may have met. I was teaching there for Pete Ruschp, Lowell was AD and Bud did a lot of the snowboard school training. I certified quite a few riders then. Back then, Bud and Lowell were hard-to-miss in the North face mountaineering pants and bright randonee boots. We used to spend our off days on Mansfield's North face, we'd hike up from the Troll hut on the chin and ride the steep & deep of the face. Long hike back, though. That was the season when Rick Dryfoos from Smugglers' was starting the first PSIA manual over at Stowe, without Pete Ingvolstad's (Or Sherm White's) knowledge. We tried to help him as much as we could.

OK- I'm outta here for Burgers and Beers. Wish we could continue this conversation over brews and some wings. Sound like a great bunch of folks here, and this discussion would undoubtedly go better in that light. Believe me when I say I'm smiling when I post here. I'd like to have a few cold ones with you guys. Truth: your next one's on me.

Excluding Mansfield's "Front Four", of course, ;)

Stats can be massaged to say whatever we like- you're taking averages into account, not individual trails. Stratton is definitely one flat resort,for the most part, BUT: it's race trails made for world class downhills. I've run DHes at Wengen and Kitz, so, without sounding like Mr. "Been there, done that" , I can speak to real downhills. I lost it on the Steilhang on a big wide ole 204 safari (not my beloved 210), and i lost it there years before on my Fischer 223s. The US Open DHes at Stratton were gnarly.

Why do I think I was speaking to you earlier today on the snow? Sounds like a forming concensus, as this is very much what the crossover guy was saying today. I agree about watching the olympic footage too. It seems the two sports are beginning a return to one another

Try skiing with much of the same movement progression. That's what the guy i spoke with today says he does. pretty interesting. I may be looking into a set of skis!

Reread the posts: I'm referring to 1980s DH events. they were NOT set differently then. I competed in those.

Gosh. Thanks for the education. I bow to your "been there seen it and done it" statement. what could I have been thinking? Clearly, you're a superior snowboard racer.

I ran into a guy on the hill today who I've noticed hitting gates on his Sl. Board for the past few weeks- a washed up snb. racer and major coach it turns out. Today he was on Slalom skis going through the same course and he says he's on skis more than his board now. He told me that he feels switching back and forth helps his hardboot riding. has anyone alse heard anything like this oustide of a mental hospital? Either way, though, the guy rocked the slalom hard on both modes.

I ride my soft setup with steep, semi-alpine (55/50) angles and feet relatively close together. This is my favorite way to ride. I prefer this to freestyle stance or hardboot, frankly.

Well, we got the day off, so i blazed the cross-country back up to Washingtonville and put a few nice runs in at Mound Petit! Wonderful! I'm staying up here for the storm tonight. Any Mountain Creep riders interested in riding in Warwick tomorrow?

I guess Andy Coughlin, Shannon Melhuse and the rest of us who found the 1980s US Open DH courses to be steep and gnarly just aren't up to your level yet.

I snb. raced in the '80s as I stated earlier, and I ran downhills and trained on downhill courses that were FIS std. Evidently in your storied career you missed the iron mountain DH and the wengen DH & Kitzbuhel events, which were full FIS DH rated courses. You may have missed competing at the 1987 & 1988 US Opens, which were also actual DH courses. While they scared the living daylights out of me, and I fell in the 1988 US Open DH, I was uninjured and came back for more. technically, a snowboard is safer to dump on at high speed, i have done this myself...more than I care to remember. No two skis going in two different directions at a 22 DIN setting, just a shocked competitor with both feet firmly attached to a wooden board, sliding down an icy course into soft fencing. believe me on this: it is not so bad.

If you get there during the week, you won't be able to miss other hardbooters. it's a tiny, empty little hill. I'm the ravishingly handsome devil in the brown parka on the SG. I'm in the city for the past couple days but hope to be at mount petit there for Thurs. or Friday through the weekend.

Trained snb. racers routinely raced dh events in the 1980s and 1990s. I know of none that sustained "serious injury" as a result. The removal of the DH, and then the SG from the US Open spelled the beginning of the end for snb. competition in the US. It's a shame because these were excellent events that sucked even the skiers off of the trails and assembled them along the course to watch. What you seem to miss is the fact that having "both feet strapped to one board" reduces the risk of knee trauma, and higher speed events on hard surfaces allow for less blunt-force trauma, as DNF "sitters" simply slide, as opposed to have their forces stopped at the expense of bones and ligaments. Snowboard DH was and is an exceptional sport.

I read recently that a snb. coach is working to start a new alpine series in the US that includes DH and SG .

JT: you should try mount petit.

JT- snowboard downhills used to be common in my day.sometimes they called them "Super-G"s for insurance purposes. good snowboard racers have no problem with downhills, this less technical event is better suited for a non-stepping discipline.