FTA2R

one possible conflict but i doubt it'll come up. we gotta represent!

certainly didn't get the impression he worked at the mtn, i could bve wrong though. mt. snow was cool, we stayed on a lot of the same trails. first day lots of bare patches, second day rain in 30mph winds, 3rd day hardpack. i was with a large group of party first, ride second people i'm sorta the opposite so i didn't reallyu get that much riding in. house we stayed at was great though. Barry

good one, Phil! Phil, you know, it's quite coincedental you're about the same height as this guy and have the same pants...hmmm the pic you included is you i assume?

so check this... Mt. Snow last Friday this really tall dude (6'4 maybe taller) wearing this outragous all neon suit, pink pants. I thought he lost a dare for sure. Turns out he's an Aussie, and was apparently gettin' quite a bit of comments, and he was apparently just wearin it bein' himself. HAD to get a pic with this guy! Have never seen quite a combination, 'specially on a guy. Big pair to wear this! Maybe this will be SnowPerf Mark's next apparell purchase hahah (see this month's photo contest)

it's a Burton BMC 156, ~3 seasons on it. I could ride something stiffer, but at the time this was a huge step up from what I was riding. Any thoughts on trying plates on this board? === Barry

can you explain the reasoning for the "those are high angles" for that equipment comment. I honestly don't know why you said that and I'm just curious. for the other questions, i'm very unexperienced freestyle, have never even been in the pipe (although I will hopefully take a FS later this year). i had a heelside counter rotation that snowperf pointed out and i admit, i have to consciously think "drive with knees into turn" when going heelside, but i did a pretty decent job squashing that problem when I received instruction with Phil in dec. Basically it comes down to this for me: how can one get high on heelside edge on softies with "mid range" angles and non stick butt out? I could ride just bending my knees a little, but I don't really wanna do that. and I do think that equipment angles def. makes a difference in all this stuff. rider technique does too, but adjusting highbacks certainly seems to. Barry

all, thx for the replies. i am aware i have major "sitting in toilet" syndrome in the pic. I will respectfully disagree about the binding angles, however: several BOLersn (usually newbs) have been running steeper angles on their soft setups, usually to help with the transition to hard. I know there has been prior discussion as to the angle at which effeciency /leverage is essentially lost, but i think the angles i was riding were not steep compared to the angles used by some hardbooters on softies. this leads me to the "plates on freeride boards" question, which no one has addressed... i personally found it very hard to not have toilet seat syndrome with these lower angles. my bindings are rossi hc3000 and 32 lashed boots. I did not have the significant ankle soreness when riding in hardboots. just FYI to other posters, Phil is a local rider and I took a recent lesson with him so we have a rapport (sp?) so I understand his posts. dsub, who is "d b" and I thought that pic is you? thx, for the advice all, keep it comin'

Hi All, Below is a pic of me on my soft setup with angles @ 27 and 19 (if I can remember correctly) - so nothing really steep (fyi, I'm goofy). I'm trying to apply alpine technique to softie riding. As you can see, it's much easier toeside. it seems impossible to not "sit in the toilet" heelside and still get high up on the edge if you do not have alpine like angles. Can someone confirm this? Also, I use somewhat exaggerated motions with unweighting, and my front dorisflexor (is this this bony part connected to your ankle that goes up your leg a bit) was killing me the next day! It must have been b/c I did not have the support of hardboots. Additionally, I'm sure you will notice the hands "in back" on my heelside b/c the angles were pretty mellow...so...this leads me to the following questions: 1. how much of a difference will riding plates on a freeride board make? 2. What angles are people riding plates on freeride boards? ========================================================== MT. Snow report Mt. Snow, VT was nothing to write home about Friday, lots of bare spots, but "hero" snow. Sat. ended up NUTS, as I was on the lift with 30-40 mph winds while raining. They shut the lift down, said lightning was nearby. I cranked up the old Skool Motley Crue (lol) and headed down the mtn- it was one of the most intense weather experiences I've had. Sunday was significantly better, and I finally broke out the Donek. Unfortuenatley I f'n T-boned some kid (i was going across, he was coming down) and chipped my brand new Donek at the nose! I was/am not happy about that. I'm bringing it in for pro repair but have been told it's just cosmetic. Monday they had at least a few inches of powder but b/c everyone was partying so damn much in the house, we didn't make it.

about 1-2 years ago. rec'd an email from Chris himself. ask for Molly, she was very helpful. i'm assuming she's still there.

the difference in length b/w the 2 types of screws i'm working with is very small..i estimate 1-2 cm, 1-1.5 threads. that, plus 2 other factors: 1) just for good measure, I replaced all the long screws with short screws and a few times the shorter screw had some trouble catching (which of course leads me to believe the longer screw is fine and 2) I sometimes worry unecessarily have relaxed me a bit, lol. I always tighten bindings before every time out quite tight and I've never had a problem...hopefully i was just freaking over nothing. Barry

many thx, i've printed out all the recs from everybody. I will be riding my silver donek FC 163 (it has custom black graphics) most likely sunday if there is decent coverage and it's somewhat hardpack. I wear a black helmet, white burton jacket, and grey burton baggy pants. i'm 5'7 and will likely have a camelbak. otherwise i'll ride my Burton BMC 156 (maroon). i will waive to any hardbooters I see. if anyone else is riding at that time or sees me, by all means stop me. Barry ps I ride with music, sometimes a bit loud, so if it looks like i'm ignoring, i'm not, just wave, lol.

f'n great.

i'm packing now, since i have several different boards now, but only 1 pair of plate bindings, some of my binding screws have become mixed up. i have burton race plates (w/ the 4WD base plates) and rossi soft bindings. some of the screws are a bit shorter, i went to the local shop and they gave me some shorter ones. I'm not very handy so i don't know their measuirements, all i know is most of the ones i have are longer and i was putting on my race bindings to my Donek and I heard a few "tightning" sounds when screwing the last screw in. I hesitate to call them "cracking" sounds. (although I think I heard this last time). This obviously is a little worrying though. can someone please tell me if it's ok to use both size screws, the difference is small, maybe a few cm at most, and this small cracking noises- what's up with that? the donek is basically brand new. ok edit. i switched out one of the "washers" and it fits a bit better, still heard the noise though. please reply soon, thx Barry

if you have never been snowmobiling ('bilin, as I guess the locals say), go to Daniel's point (or was it daniel's summit?). It was AWESOME. we rented them adn they are powerful machines (and we didn't even have the super powerful ones), your back may be sore though depending on how far you are hunched over / how long you ride. we had a BLAST though (except for my meathead friend managing to mess up part of his engine). have fun! Barry

"not snowboarding unless linking turns" have to comment on this one, even if thread goes in another direction. I agree and disagree with it. technically it's boarding of course. Takes us back to an old debate- some here don't acknowledge "pipe monkeying" all day as real boarding, or maybe a lower form of boarding, and I'm sure feeling is mutual (ex: carvers closer to skiing, they don't do tricks, etc"). plus this website is named "bomber" online, lol. I say bombing runs is definitley boarding. I think a better question is "does it take skill to bomb a certain run(s)?" Again, I say sometimes yes, sometimes no. Almost any solid intermediate can go as fast as his/her nerve will allow, you know lol? and I personally do respect that. But to ride at speed in at least moderate control-this, in my opinion, is where many of us carvers excel, and I think it is a "loftier" goal than simply "will to bomb a run." I do respect guts, though. what do others think?

ok, so apparently he just bombed a pretty steep black diamond. apparently he didn't feel any chatter....interseting stuff being said in replies above, thx. The whole "alpine is the tool for turning going fast and anyone can straightline" makes sense to me. here's a thought to ponder: does riding the edge "feel" faster than the base? I sorta think so.... === Barry

there is a softbooter i'm friendly with who likes to ride fast. his Garmin GPS clocked him this weekend at 54mph. I've heard these units can be low or high by 10mph- anyone know for sure? Also, can some of the more knowledgeable guys chime in as to whether or not there is a speed at which non alpine boards become unstable? 54 mph is pretty damn fast in my book. The guy is in great physical condition, and definitely a risk taker, but I doubt many carvers go that fast, certainly not recreationally. we all think alpine boards are faster- but is it that they are truly faster or just handle speed better / allow more control at speed? or maybe that alpine riders in general are comfortable with riding faster? If base is faster than edge, and carvers are always on their edges vs. softie riders, (let's assume for purposes of this argument softbooters bomb hills on their base) then our boards really aren't faster, are they? Maybe there's a big difference in base materials? edu k8 me please. === Barry

so I brought the board up in my car (in my board bag), so road salt wouldn't apply. It is a good hypothesis though, and I appreciate it. on a different note, my car is black but is so dirty on teh outside it looks blue (I have a reason for not taking it to the carwash) and yeah, there is that salt residue on the side. when i lived in syracuse, ny (aka Salt City), the damage done there to cars by salt was insane, rust all over the lower portions of the car. looking back, the large amount of cars with excessive rusting really helped to put the icing on the cake re: syracuse being a dump. I still love that city though (and always will!).

i'm going to print this thread out so i can refer to it on the lift. i can always count on my "bomber brothers" to share the knowledge. BobD, re: some Yankee punk fan crashing into me from behind (and possibly damaging the new Donek $$$, that's like my worst snowboarding nightmare. How much worse can it be than all the DC area yo-yo's on a 1000 foot mountain? Guess I'll find out. yeah, i'm a cynic i'll try to check that yahoo site out. thx again all.

as far as i know, the board has not come into contact with any salt. I never lay boards down in parking lots. rust does not seem to be on the edge that touches snow, i guess that's a good thing. Barry

i am going up there for a few days with some friends on Thursday. I have never been there. Can anyone inform me of conditions and give me recs for carving trails (nothing too steep). Should I bring my good board or rock board? I'd be up for trying to meet with any local carvers (may be hard though, as I will be in a big group and I'm not sure what their plans are) thx, Barry

i am going up there for a few days with some friends on Thursday. I have never been there. Can anyone inform me of conditions and give me recs for carving trails (nothing too steep). Should I bring my good board or rock board? thx, Barry

I have ridden my new Donek FC once- on 12/20. I always get rid of excessive snow and dry edge/base/board the best I can before putting starting the 2+ hour drive home. I stopped for dinner, made some additional stops and made a wrong turn, so it was more like a 3+ hour drive home. anyway, there are some rust spots on the upward facing edge- meaning, not the edge that comes into contact with snow, but the edge touching the core. The board apparently was also knocked to the ground due to wind when I was at lunch. i thought it takes usually more than a few hours to start rusting? I've never had this problem before. with a brand new board, I was not expecting this. is it worth it to try removing the rust? === Barry

good pun, right? it's a windy night here, sustained 21 mph gusts to 37, winchill of 18. I just went longboarding outside for an hour or so (had thermals on and 2 fleeces). I'm no great longboarder but it a few times going w/the wind it was like a nitrous boost for your longboard. it's night and there's some traffic and rent a cops at the local town center but it was still fun. anyone else skate in the winter? any of you minnesota (and vicinity) folks ever ride in the middle of the winter there? Anyone ever skated in really crazy wind- like 45 mph+? if so, what was it like? === Barry

i personally don't consider NY the MA. PA yes.