Alaskan Rover

My gripe about the wiki entry is the following statement: "The term 'alpine' has come to be mostly associated with snowboarding in hardboots, as they are the choice for people seeking the purest carved turn." That statement alone makes it seem that alpiners feel they are superior to other boarders...in that other boarders have no business messing in the sanctified purity of the carve. What a bunch of malarkey. Gravity IS Life.

I give it up to these guys!!! They show some MEGA-talent....not to mention brass....uh, never mind. And the fact that they STICK the landing after such crazy-long jumps is utterly AMAZING!! They pretty much HAVE to stick those landings, or they might end up in a morgue. Gravity IS Life...and sometimes death.

Well, this video SORTA answers my question about long-jumping with a board, as that IS a long jump!!!...but still no boarder jumping a 90 meter jump yet. World's longest snowboard jump....120 feet: What's AMAZING is that they STICK the landing after such a LONG jump!!

Ummm...with today's harder bases, I have never had great luck getting P-tex to stick for very long, clear OR black. I mean, in a pinch, they will hold for a day or even a few days...but the p-tex ALWAYS pops in th end. When I am needing to use P-tex, I use a low torch flame on it, and you basically have to keep applying the flame...(sorta like doing the old-fashioned leaded repair on a car fender instead of the new body-filler...but a lead amalgam IS far better for fender repair, IMHO). Anyway, yeah...the clear may have a little higher melting point then the black. If you keep a flame on the stick, you will get a LOT LESS of those carbon flakes making a cosmetic mess of your repair....plus that carbon does NOT add to adhesion. ALSO, it is a good idea to warm up your board base as much as possible...this will create a better adhesion with the P-tex. I took my board in to a local shop recently to get some "spring gouges" (sheeshh...how do you spell 'gouge' anyway...that doesn't look right!! I must be having a temporary stroke) repaired...they said they would make it look like new. A week and 45 bucks later, it was done. Two days later, all the professionally repaired gouges were back again, waving 'Hi' at me. I should have just done the repair myself for all the good that did me. Gravity IS Life.

Personally, Stephanie, I LOVE France...used to live right next-door to it as a little kid, and so we'd go into France fairly often...as a change of pace from frumpy Geneva. But I have quite a few Quebecois friends who feel like they are looked down upon when they go to France, as if when they speak french with their Quebecois accent, they are somehow second-class citizens to the TRUE french. I have noticed this very same odd reaction to Australians visiting England when I used to live there for a short while....many British view Aussies and kiwis as somehow second-rate.

Actually, here in Virginia...the attitude poked at in jest in the Onion, is really TRUE for a lot of the people that I have encountered in this state. Of course, the people of whom I am speaking about have necks more approaching the red part of the spectrum, but still... I think that essay, while seated in humor, points to an underlying facet that many in this country actually have with Obama...something broiling just underneath the surface that they just don't want to say in today's society. I would say that essay is actually spot-on, for a limited number of Americans....but MORE than you would like to believe. Gravity IS Life.

By the way....I saw the 10 foot long Alpine board on Bvarsava's photobucket page that was linked to this thread. Ha ha...too funny!! I wonder what the carving radius on THAT thing is????? a mile? Seeing that ultra-long board, though, reminds me of my dad's old ski-jumping skis...he used to jump on the equivalent of 30 meter jumps back in his day...but no 60 or 90's. But still, it makes me wonder: has anyone ever heard of anyone ski-jumping on a 60m or 90m with an alpine board??? Not that I would even THINK of attempting it, but just wondering..... The dynamics of the landing would have to be TOTALLY different of course, and that crazy forward lean would not be necessary (nor possible) on a board.

I can't say I know much about a board like that...'cept it looks like a mighty fine ride. I DO notice that you use West System. I use it often for board surface repairs, as my aged FatBob is starting to get a little top-sheet delam. That West System works great...as long as you match the catylist for the correct shop temperature. I usually just end up using whatever catylist number I have on hand for my sailboat repairs. Also: Where'd you find that great OLD canister vacuum??? Or is that part of some vacuum-molding set-up? That thing looks like it will last FOREVER!! I've had to buy two new shop vacs recently, because either the motor burns out or something else breaks on them. I love OLD tools. Have a 1960 Black & Decker drill with ALL alloy body that belonged to my grandfather and looks to last into NEXT century, and powerful as hell. No planned obsolescence in tools back THEN!!!

A MILE???? Sheeshh. I am not even sure how mamy runs I would have to take at these small resorts in Virginia to even EQUAL a mile. I think a WHOLE bunch!!! Last Friday at Wintergreen I was taking 22 second runs from the top of Eagle Swoop to the bottom. To be honest, I really didn't get a lot of carves in during those 22 second runs...maybe three, interspersed with a lot of steep flatboarding. But yeah, up in Alaska or at Hood or Blackcomb, I absolutely LOVE those LONG runs where you can carve to your heart's content!!! I am just hoping Wintergreen is going to be open for ONE last weekend!!! I don't take too kindly to having to go 2 more hours west to Snowshoe, WV. Especially with gas prices back on the rise.:(

To wax tangentially just slightly more....I guess I should add: America is an odd duck of a country. Presently we idolize the ultra-wealthy...putting them on a pedestal, while at the same time lamb-basting them as if on a bar-b-que spit. I admit I am guilty of this myself at times...I guess it is part of our "entertainment" psyche. But...I have to ask: what principles are we teaching our children? That money and the begetting of money trumps ALL? It seems we have become a culture of 'bling' and the begetting of MORE bling. Good example: The PGA Golf Tour....the ONLY professional sport that gauges 'athletes' based upon how much money they make...(well, there IS horse-racing also, but the monetary purse of the HORSE is tracked, not the rider, so much). Baseball has ERA, etc...football has lifetime rushing yardage, etc,...basketball has Average points per game....boxing has lifetime wins vs. losses...etc etc etc. The PGA ONLY has lifetime purse earnings as a gauge. What's up with the PGA??? "Well, Joe Blow III, with that 33 foot putt, just added ANOTHER $1.25 million to his take for this tourney." What a great and noble thing to teach our children.

Mud: Okay...#1) I am talking about FEDERAL taxes, of course...which is why I noted IRS. Presently, this country has NO federal property and sales taxes. These are taxes currently paid to local and state governments, NOT the federal gov. Point #2) IF all present exemptions and loopholes that the ultra-wealthy use are accounted for...I DON'T think they DO pay 70% of the tax in the country. I am not the IRS and I do not have access to IRS records, so how am I supposed to quantitatively prove that point without a data-set? All I am saying is that there are a ridiculous amount of tax loopholes out there that need closing. And you can take THIS to the bank...they WILL be closed. The new tracking of American Swiss Bank account tax scofflaws are ONLY a start. With current monetary transaction databasing, originally put into place to track "terrorist" money-laundering...the "flow" of money can now be more easily tracked. You think the IRS is not going to start using that "connectivity"?? I'm not saying this is good or bad, just saying it WILL be the future. #3) If corporations were required to pay FAIR amount of taxes WITHOUT sheltering profits behind a littany of shelters and useage of loopholes, there WOULD be more $$$$ going towards needed gov programs. Presently, tax attorneys are becoming wealthy helping the wealthy make use of numerous exemptions that are questionable at best. If these exemptions were CUT, there WOULD be more money flowing into the system.

Here are some things I would like to see happen in this country: 1) Close pork-barrel IRS tax loopholes for large corporations...many of which pay few if any taxes when all loopholes are facilitated. --------- 2)Replace the current sliding tax rate system with a "flat-tax" of 15% across the board for all citizens that are currently above the poverty-level, currently $14,000 per annum. For those below the poverty level, the current sliding scale will still apply. Close ALL exemption tax loopholes for those making more than $350,000 per annum. Limit certain exemption loopholes for those making less than $350,000 such as calling your residence a "farm" if you have 7 rabbits and a goat. And start taxing churches as the "businesses" that some of them apparently seem to be. If these churches can afford to pay $4,000,000 for a new church building, they can afford to pay a minimal tax, at least! If above corporate and individual loopholes are limited or closed, there would actually be FAR more money coming into the government yet MOST individuals would be paying FAR less taxes than they are now (unless you are making over $350,000 per year) under the 15% flat-tax. I think it is currently unfair that someone who makes $17,000,000 a year actually pays, because of a littany of exemptions and loopholes, LESS of a percentage of ACTUAL income tax PAID, then some "joe" making $37,000 a year. I think that is a sacriledge, and those loopholes need closing. --------- 3)Re-submit this nonsense of a new health-care plan so that it includes a "public option". Not a single-payer system, but a public option system. A public option would mean that your 'Basic' health coverage would be paid by taxes, and if you desire more comprehensive insurance, then that would be paid for individually per plan. Admittedly, this would still equate to a health system whereby those with more money get better coverage, but I don't know of any way around it without going to 100% single-payer system. I think a "public/private" option system would create NEEDED competition to a private health system that has run amuck with greed. --------- These THREE things would be a GREAT start....but it seems with all the non-stop bickering in this nation, it would take a hundred years to get there! :( Gravity IS Life.

I must admit, Petrol, that I DID laugh at that statement. Humor is good food! Zeta: Do you think, perhaps, that Italy's history of governmental fascism under Mussolini in the thirties and forties has somewhat tempered and annealed your thoughts on a government's true role in society? Mussolini, Stalin and their ravages upon the people were a long time ago...another world ago. I don't think "government", as an entity, can be evil...only the individual people WITHIN those governments can be evil. The same can accurately be said of corporations. Profit is not evil, only its offspring: Greed. It is indeed the individual's right to embrace greed over altruism...likewise, however, it is society's right to seek redress when such embrace threatens the very makeup of society.

"If capitalism is so bad, why do people leave socialist countries to live here?"....posted by Aisling. Aisling: See that's the point. People confuse socialism with communism, and they are of two entirely different subsets. The socialist countries I was using as examples were Sweden; Norway; Dennmark; Finland and Switzerland. I see now nor ever NO mass exodus from THOSE countries to the U.S. I don't consider Cuba; North Korea; China; Venezuela amongst others as TRUE socialist countries, but rather as totalitarianist Marxist regimes...that people DO leave in droves to escape. Sweden, et al, are countries whose political systems actually work fairly fluidly, thus giving their respective populaces no concrete reason to leave. In fact, most citizens of those aforementioned socialist countries are quite deservedly proud of their countries and governments. Of course, NO system of governance is EVER is perfect...such would simply be an exercise in impossibility. Those aformentioned countries DO, in fact, have a working system of capitalism...it works cohesively with a socialistic government....there is no reason why it cannot here, also. I think such 'Randian', 'Galtian' philosphy as embraced by the conservative right in this country is actually fairly abrasive to a democratic system and is more aligned with outright anarchy. In no way is charity FORCED upon a person in the countries I had mentioned...it is TAXES not charity. We are forced to pay taxes in this country too. Taxes that pay for our roads, airports, schools, etc etc. As far as health is concerned though, I DO somewhat align myself with the "OTHER SIDE" and believe that the best health care is proactive care that we give to OURSELVES, by eating right and taking care of our bodies and our minds. And I firmly believe that INDIVIDUALS should be ultimately responsible for our health and not rely upon some sort of a safety net. So I guess I am a very odd duck of a socialist...one that believes in the strength of the individual, but hopes that the individual can indeed be altruistic. Does that make me "Bi"?? Gravity IS Life.

I see quickly that the bickering in this thread mirrors the bickering that has been going on in Congress about healthcare. I think if Congress would have used a bit pragmatism and logic on BOTH sides, healthcare would not have become such a pivotal and volatile issue. It seems to me that our present healthcare system has become a juggernaught that rolls over all logic like a great big boulder...and the people that get squashed are the people in the middle...that just want to live, not to take advantage, nor to snipe on others whom they think take advantage, but people that simply want to have "affordable" healthcare. Case in point: last spring I received a fairly deep laceration on my lip when I stupidly pulled on an extension cord too hard that snapped back like a viper and it's plug hit me right in the face. Certainly not a life-threatening injury...but a laceration that needed sutures. It was the weekend, and the doctor's office was closed, so I went to the emergency room. After waiting for 2 hours, I was finally seen by the triage nurse, who swabbed and put a squirt of neosporin on the laceration and then a small bandage and told me to wait again in the waiting room, and a doctor will come out promptly. Three hours later and still no doctor, I decided this is ridiculous and left. Being an offshore sailor, I had a full medical kit handy and gave myself a low-concentrate local anesthetic shot of tetracaine and sutured my lip myself using a mirror. It worked well, and I thought that was the end of it. I was astounded a couple weeks later when I got a bill for $60 that was unpaid by my insurance. I found out that the hospital had billed my insurance company $335 for basically waiting in the waiting room for 5 hours and a bandage and a little bit of neosporin. The insurance paid $275 of this robbery! I was seen by NO doctor and had NO procedure done, and the hospital STILL overcharged for the visit, as if a procedure HAD been done! That is the state of our health care system today. If I had NO insurance, the total cost for the aborted emergency "waiting room" visit would have been $15 for supplies and $30 for the few minutes of triage nurse and admitting clerk use. Total. But since I had a "gold-plan" insurance plan, my insurance company (Regence) was billed $335 !!!! Is that logical?? So, it is not JUST the insurance companies that are at fault here....it is also the hospitals; the malpractice tort lawyers; the pharmacutical companies that overcharge for proprietary drugs when generic drugs will suffice; the super high cost of medical school that doctors need to make up for (I know doctors that are STILL paying off $350,000 worth of medical school bills!); the high cost of running a tech-intensive hospital (the average anesthesiologic NURSE makes $189,000...saw THAT on Yahoo News the other day)...All these healthcare costs add up to one big cluster %@#&. Not a "healthcare" industry...but a "sickcare" industry. A pragmatist would derive that our present system has become capsized by costs, but that NO ONE particular segment is 100% at fault...it is a collective of faults. A pragmatist would ALSO derive that the health of a populace should really be the ultimate responsibility of each individual person or family...and the most intelligent thing that we can do is take care of our bodies, our minds and our heart and soul as if they were a shrine. Eat healthy meals instead of Doritos and Pepsi...get off that damn chair or couch and do something active and physical...your body will thank you...and REALIZE that YOU are the one that is ultimately responsible for your health. If you hand over your health to some juggernaught of an industry, you will get exactly what you deserve...to be treated like a number. Remember that you are NOT a number, and take responsibility for your OWN health. Be PROACTIVE to your health. Your body will thank you for it. Those are my two cents, anyway.

I guess my biggest gripe about the thing is that entrance into the plan will be mandatory...and then they will have the gall to fine me via the IRS if I don't wanna play. I wish they would have just been able to do what they were originally going to have, either a single-payer system like Canada's or better, the public option that would have created competition to those HUGE insurance companies and corporate hospital groups like Humana. I wish the tea-party treasonist nutcases would have just shut up....they and the ultra-conservatives screwed up any possibility of getting REAL reform...so what we ended up with is STILL a private system that just made the insurance companies even wealthier. What gives???? Presently, we have among the best health care in the world...you just have to be exceedingly wealthy to afford it. That's the rip...you either have to be very poor and get free health care (but NOT great health care), or ultra-wealthy and be able to afford it easily. Middle class families just get shafted by the present system. It is very true...our present system is "SICK CARE" not "Health Care". A system based upon making profit off of the sick has ABSOLUTELY NO incentive to keep a population healthy!

I am just wondering what in the world is sooo bad about socialism, anyway. I am not talking about Marxism (a form of communism),Stalinism or other any type of totalitarianism. It seems communism always degrades down into a totalitarianist "state of control"...The old Soviet system and present North Korea being good examples of bad communism. Communism simply doesn't work. Socialism, however, should NEVER be confused with communism or totalitarianism....it is FAR removed from those old idealogies. A true socialist country embraces both social values AND capitalism. Six countries come readily to mind: Sweden; Norway; Denmark; Finland; Netherlands and Switzerland....Oops, I forgot Iceland (although Iceland IS having very tough times, presently). I have been to many of these countries as an adult (minus Iceland and Finland) and have lived in Switzerland for many years as a child (granted, I had a child's eye view of the political world back then!)...and have found ALL the countries I have visited to be working VERY well as governmental systems. Yes they HAVE higher taxes than us...as high as 60% when local, and "federal" taxes are added up. But they ALSO have HIGHER wages, and often shorter work weeks to boot! The countries are VERY clean and well-run...trains are on time; the governmental services that people pay for actually work! They don't have all this nonsense about "State's Rights" and "State Soveignity" (good grief...what a bunch of malarkey, anyway! We're ALL the same country...let's start acting like it...driving down most economic Best Buy and Home Depot-strewn boulevard's these days, I can barely tell what state I am in anyway, and if I was blind-folded, and shunted off to a different state, I MOST SURELY wouldn't be able to tell...I think that would be true for most, too). Anyway, what I am getting to, is that those six countries that I have mentioned are very well-run countries, mostly the people are happy and proud of their countries, the countries are clean and for the most part VERY sensitive to environmental and social issues. They DO have capitalism (that what drives their economies, of course), but just not such a lob-sided capitalism as we have here. Capitalism in this country is almost a religion...whereby the biggest ideal that we seem to teach our kids is that "you, too, can get rich, boys and girls!" I have spent much time traveling in those countries, and they seem more concerned about bringing up their children in a socially-responsible manner, one based upon 'family values', social acceptance. I realize, of course, that these countries are far smaller and more culturally homogenic than the U.S....but they give us a shining example to strive for nonetheless. If we would get rid of 90% of our corporate federal tax loopholes...and stop funding wars for oil, we would have enough money to have working programs like the afore-mentioned countries. And contrary to popular opinion, their healthcare systems DO work...some of which are a composite between single-payer and optional private health plan purchase. So, what EXACTLY is so bad about socialism (in the above context), anyway?...I must ask again. Gravity IS Life.

Aisling: Sorry for redacting the quote of your post, but such was done for space-saving. As for your first point: I believe the NATIONWIDE polls show that 55% or more were actually IN FAVOR of the healthcare bill. You apparently fell for the diatribe based upon a few regional polls largely taken in "red states". The overall polls (if one believes partial polls) still show a majority in favor. Also, you as a nurse should know full well that doctors have basically been in bed with the drug industry for at least the last 30 years....and at points have sunken to little more than street-corner "pushers" for the ever growing number of prescription drugs that are flooding our society. Quite a few doctors have been shown to have been getting "kickbacks" from the drug companies and "favors" from drug salesmen. And yet do they get their license to practice taken away?...No, most certainly not. There are more than a few broken windows in our health-care system...the only people that are happy with the status quo are the insurance companies which are getting filthy rich off the atrocious insurance fees; and the Galtian, head-in-the-sand conservatives that blanche at ANY type of government intervention, be it good or bad...perhaps the very same people that would be yelling out of the other side of their mouths if their Social Security were ever taken away. Good Grief, Charllie Brown...who opened up this "can o' worms" of a thread??? ;)

Given my above statement, however...let it be known that I DO have many problems with the bill...my biggest being the present MANDATE that ALL citizens be REQUIRED to purchase a plan. As, a student of the U.S. Constitution, this one facet is to me an acute anathema...and strikes against the very freedoms that the Constitution tries to defend. By the way, this requirement that ALL Americans be REQUIRED to PURCHASE a plan was ORIGINALLY put forward by the Republicans in a rendition of the plan from last year. The fact that it stayed in the present bill is a disgrace.

Petrol posted: "Services ARE. btw, health is NOT a 'right' either, besides government, the main problems were/are TORT, inability to purchase across statelines & 'third-party-payer' big gov will grow greatly and intrude in your lives in ways previously unimagined while innovation, quality and availibility of service plummet." Petrol: Please take note of the wording of the following famous writs: Preamble to the U.S. Constitution: "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." My take on what the Constitution means by "promote the general welfare" is to do that which is necessary to ensure that the health of the american people is not run a sunder by matters of profit and greed. While the Declaration of Independence is more diffuse on the matter, I take the words "Life" and the "pursuit of Happiness" to mean in part, a right to be able to afford care of health that would in fact sustain life...and a pursuit of happiness UNENCUMBERED by thoughts of having the health of one's family CO-OPTED by a capitalist health-care system, to the extent that one cannot afford proper health care for one's family. I, believe, in essence, that health is indeed a right...because how can we have "Life" without health?

Actually I am both happy and sad about it's passing...happy because I have been sick of the status qou health system in this country...and this bill, soon to be signed into law (finally!), sends a signal to the insurance companies and the lawyers, shareholders and bean-counters who run them...that the status quo is no longer good enough. I am saddened (and disgusted), though, by the conservative right, who managed to pummel and pillage the very best part of the ORIGINAL plan right out of the bill and into submission...the "single-payer public option". This was the only ingredient in the original plan that would have given NEEDED competition to an industry gone totally and selfishly AWRY. The health of the American people should NEVER have become merely another market from which to make a profit...and Americans should never be held hostage by the health insurance capitalists. Health is NOT a commodity to be bought and sold like some silly derivative.

I was just kidding about the rain, of course. I used to live on the Kenai Peninsula in Homer and then moved across to Seldovia, so I know about the rain...ha ha. Not nearly as much rain as Valdez, though! About Girdwood being in a rainforest: while a very few boreal scientists DO consider that area to be a rainforest, I think they do so erroneously, as most boreal scientists limit the Chugach temperate seasonal rainforest as encompassing Prince William Sound, including Seward and parts of the southern tip of the Kenai, but NOT extending up the eastern side of Cook Inlet, nor ANY part of Turnagain Arm...indeed MOST of the Kenai biome is NOT considered temperate rainforest. There IS a patch of Sub-Polar Rain Forest on the WESTERN shore of Cook Inlet...just not the eastern shore. Now, that's not to say it doesn't rain cats and dogs in Girdwood, as it DOES (more dogs than cats there!)...but Rain Forest is a technical term. As for the areas of Hatcher Pass and Tin Can Alley being crowded, yeah, it CAN get crowded, if you consider 15 people a crowd (I often do!). I mostly go those places on the weekdays when the anchorage and Wasilla weekend warrior snowmachiners are safely in their offices...those places are usually quite vacant during the weekdays. If I REALLY want to get away from crowds, I'll either head to the St. Elias Range in the Yukon, or the mountains directly west of Tazlina Lake in the Chugach (south west of Copper Center), That area is heaven!! Too many people on Turnagain Arm for me..ha ha. I used to like Girdwood alot 10 years ago...can't say I like what they're doing to it now at ALL, though. The dang developers from the "states", don't seem to know they're destroying a beautiful place. Gravity IS Life.

No, he was talking about leaving a black base in the sun just long enough to warm it up so that the hox wax forms a better "meld" with the base. Sounds sensible to me....however my base is white, so it wouldn't work as well for me. Leaving your base out in the sun for days and weeks will indeed lead to molecular degradation...just like you should never leave your scuba fins and mask baking under your rear windshield like I stupidly did once...ruined a brand new Scuba-Pro mask that way!! The sun breaks ANYTHING down, especially people!!

Normally, up in Alaska, I usually find places to board all year long...but for times like this winter when I am "down in the states" as they say (maybe that's some weird carryover from when Ak was a territory [1958, I think], or maybe it's just emblematic of many Alaskan's need to feel different), and won't be getting back to the snow until the fall, I just take my board to the shop, have all the craters and canyons filled and a nice coat of machine wax put on for the moderate temps found in the fall. Then when I get it home I'll put a super SOFT wax only on the edges to stop rusting and put it in the bag. That way, it's already waxed with the wax best for early-season and ready to go. Then, more times than not, sometime in July, I'll take it back out...put it on the living room floor, put my boots on, strap in and try to wish myself into December...hasn't worked yet, but I'll keep on trying. :) Gravity IS Life.