Tommy D

A friend built a nice workbench in my garage: with a top almost as large as a sheet of ply, it is sturdy(screwed into the wall) and large enough for anything I need. Construction is 2x4, ply, and wood screws to hold it all together. I secured exra carpeting to the top (occasionally, I vacuum it), and there is a full-sized shelf about 8-10 inches off the floor for storage. EDIT: Vises mount no problem; The 2" edge of my 2x4s is facing out, flush with the perimeter of the table, with 2x4s (2" side facing up) on edge inside of those. Think of an 'L' beam flush with the underside of the ply. EDIT: oh yeah ... my workbench can support well over 250 lbs :D On the warmer and sunny days I move the vises out to my deck. :)

I almost made the mistake of pulling out my ski movies the other day. Looks like you made the mistake for me! :-p Awesome vid: that is a unique style, but looks like it might get painful after a full day. It looks like the rider is all hunched over! There's no doubt the rider can carve, but is it me, or does his style make him look like he's in recovery mode most of the time?

This might be yesterdays' news, but it's news to me: There is a carver on the banner for this page of the Mount Snow web site. Yeah, I'm bored at work!

Don't flame me on this, and I have yet to find anything online about this, but ... There was a study done a while back on military (Army? Marines?) basic training. The jist of the study claimed that given a fit athlete, stretching before/after a strenuous workout, ie-running, made no discernable difference to the athlete, as long as the athlete went through a brief warm-up and cooldown cycle. That said, when I get out mountain/road cycling, I don't stretch at all, but do warmup/cooldown. I do the same before working out or hitting the bag, too. Occasionally I will stretch, but don't notice any difference in the way I feel during/after the excercise. Before I hit the slopes, I do light stretching at the top of the first lift ride to loosen/warm up a bit, as I'm usually pretty cold early in the morning on a snowy piste. By no means am I an expert, or professional athlete, the above is only my experience. :) I did a google: http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0396.htm http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20040505/Feature1.asp http://www.humankinetics.com/products/showexcerpt.cfm?isbn=0736041508&excerpt_id=3402 Note, the above do indicate light streching may not be a bad thing ... I found an article (study on military basic training) I mentioned above: http://www.sportsinjurybulletin.com/archive/1002-stretching-flexibility.htm FWIW

I'm a crossover skier who learned how to carve on ski boots. It is possible, but it is much easier and your progress will be faster with snowboard specific boots. If you do go with ski boots (And you are fit) you might have the most luck setting very high stance angles. A friend of mine still uses ski boots, and he is most successful at angles between 65-70 degrees.(Maxed-out on TD1 bombers, I think.)

Check this out! http://www.schwinnstingray.com/index.html The next best thing to having my own chopper! :D

When I was at Big for a week, I noticed the ratio of riders on plates was greater than at other resorts I've been to. I saw riders on plates off-piste on freeride gear, and other riders on carving decks on the groom. At the time, there was also an alpine snowboard team training. I met this one guy (probably in his 60's) who was absolutely ripping on an Identity snowboard. Heh, he even jumped into the training course (with permission) and showed the young'ns how it's done. :D

Hey, you can do it in the pipe, too! :D

I remember having a lot of fun carving up Sunapee. This year I'm either getting a pass for Stratton, ($849), or a pass that covers Stratton, Okemo, and Sunapee. ($1300) I'm leaning towards a Stratton-only pass, as logistically, that is the easiest mountain for me to get to regularly.

Doing laps on the groomers is what I do on my alpine setup...But given the opportunity/condtions, I'll work the bumps too. In my case, I use ski equipment for hitting trees/pow/bumps. Frequently I'll freecarve in the morning, then ski in the afternoon.

If it is any consolation, your crashes are quite spectacular. It's time you started wearing body armor! :D The last time Johann hit a tree, it left a mark ... On the TREE! :p

That's IT! Where's the snow!?!?!?! I can't take all this teasing anymore. :D

If you like Balvenie, try Oban. It is very nice, too. MacCallan 18 and Balvenie 21 are very nice!

The Downhill Edge at Sugarbush used to do really good race tunes, but unfortunately, I haven't been there in a couple years.

Yup! Online gamer here! Hi, my name is Tom, and I'm a gamer. :D I haven't gotten into R63 at all (never played it), but I do love MotoGP2, and I am patiently awaiting my pre-order Halo 2. BTW: I use Xbox Live, but I think you are referring to PC gaming?

I have manifold envy. :D

This is supposition, but here goes: I had always assumed the '3D' used in Volkl marketing indicated that the sidecuts were modeled in a 3-dimensional space, not a 2-dimensional plane. (I know very little about snowboard manufacturing ... maybe they all do this, mebby nobody does?) If this is true, then might it be possible the different radii come into effect in stages, as the board is flexed, rather than at different points along the board length? I can see how this would promote a stable and predictable carve, regardless of how the board is flexed, or how far it is inclinated. Regarding dual sidecuts: I have demo'd skis with some crazy sidecuts as are described above, with larger radii at the tip, and shorter at the tail. They weren't any fun at all, and did not want to release at the end of the carve. To use a driving term, the skis loved to oversteer, and were rather unstable at speed. Not to mention turn initiation was a real PITA too.

As the resident Volkl snob, I have to cast my vote for the RennTiger SL. Here's why: It has lots of energy. It will carve short to medium turns very well. It pops from turn to turn when desired. Edge hold is impeccable, especially on ice. It is the only type of alpine board I have ever ridden. :) I have to say that I am impressed with my girl's Ride Fuel. It seems to be a rather nimble board suited to a range of conditions, including some softie carving.

I use court shoes designed for raquetball/tennis; they provide great feel for the longboard, lots of grip, and lots of cusion. I do use Superfeet in my ski boots. Oddly enough, I don't use any footbeds in my snowboard boots: The circulation in my lower foot gets cut off if I do, even with the shells completely unbuckled. But my feet feel fine, so it isn't an issue! JOECARVE: Great avatar! :)

Yeah, I'm on vacation! :)

Yeah, I think I would hurt myself on a Freeboard. I tried a carveboard for a couple days (The shop let me demo it for 24 hours) and it is really cool to ride. However, I suffer from a lack of good areas to carve. For now, I'll stick with my longboard and carve the school parking lots. :)

CB: You mean Crew Beeotch? ;) Yeah, you need a CB to get you to and fro the autoxes. heheh

Budget?? Heh. That depends on what you want to include in the budget. If you are just starting out in autocross, you want to buy a good helmet that fits well. After that, it's about $20 to autox for a day, depending on the club. (I started this way.) After that, the budget can grow as far as you let it. Over the course of about 3-4 years, I slowly modded my car up to the point where I was happy with it: Just remember a fast car at the autox may not be a comfortable car on the street! That said, the first mod anyone makes should be getting a good instructor, and then a good set of tires, preferably race tires on a spare set of wheels. After that: Go with whatever moves you, though I suggest finding more grip is more important than more power. Sheesh, I'm dodging the budget question, aren't I? Here goes: Over about 3-4 years I purchased (for track/autox/street) Tires: summer, winter, competition Wheels: summer, winter, competition Coil over kit, sway bars Brake upgrades: Pads, rotors, etc Recaro seat, Momo steering wheel (Mostly bling factor, but it is a lot more comfy than stock, and smaller diameter) Figure $2000 for two sets of wheels/tires, $2500 for the suspension/swaybars, and $1000 for the seat/steering wheel. The above, and other incidentals (wear items: Tires, brake pads, gas) I spent an average under $2000 over 4 years mostly for autox, but that included a few track days, too. And most of that was spent in the two years I was most active. I know a lot of people who spend a heck of a lot more money than that, but they take it very seriously and like to compete at a national level. Consider this: For this year, on my WRX, I have spent probably about $300 bucks for sway bars, and I'm using my race tires from a year ago. That's as far as I'm going with the WRX, so my budget for the rest of this year is probably a replacement set of brake pads. Next year, I might need to replace the tires. I did replace the seats with Recaros, but I have a sensitive back which I like to pamper with comfy seats. The interesting thing about the above mods is that they work well at the track, too, so you don't need separate budgets. Just be prepared to replace tires/brakes more frequently if you go to the track. 132bpm: Are you thinking about giving autox a try? There's no safer way of learning and exceeding the limits of your car, and more importantly, no safer way of finding your own limits. Send me an email if you want to discuss further. I know there's a bunch of other folks here who autox, mebby they will chime in?

I only started autoxing about 6 years ago, and I have raced with CART a few times. For two years, I was autoxing almost every weekend from May - Sept with various clubs: CART, PCA, SCCA, FCSCC, WSCC, PSCC ... Even an overnighter to Rochester, NY. Well, you might say I burned myself out! Heh. So I took last year off, but now I'm back into it about once a month, with the PCA. Until this year, I was autoxing my Impreza RS. Mods: H&R coilovers (400/450lb springs, f/r) sway bars f/r, heavy-duty top mounts, upgraded brake pads, larger front rotors, single stage brake booster, Recaro seat, and race tires (Hoosier/Kumho). The car had imperceptible body roll, and was lightening fast through the corners. Every thing else was stock, but who needs more bhp when you don't need to slow down? ;) The only thing I regret is that the suspension wore itself out before I got to a race track. Oh, and I love when it rained. :D

Yep. My manifold glows red too! :) Same thing in 944 Turbos. It's pretty cool, especially on the 944's at the track, at dusk; watching the cars hit the braking zone for T1 at LRP with glowing rotors and manifolds is really cool! :) I've toyed with the idea of a post luber, especially as I autox. However, I let the car idle for a few minutes before shutting her down after a hard run, and I use Mobil 1, so I should be safe. :)