gdboytyler

With a surfing background, I'm more use to calling turns frontside/backside. For snowboarding toeside/heelside is definately more user-friendly. When surfing, if you do a frontside bottom-turn, its the same as a toe-side turn. But then, if you do a frontside cut-back, you end up doing a heel-side turn. Then it really gets confusing when you start calling fronstide/backside off of straight jumps or rails.

Mtken, Thanks for the tips. Do you want to get some runs in together on 2-11 or 2-12 at Breck? On 2-13, my brother's kids will be joining us, so the riding will probably be pretty slow.

In the Mike Olsen article, he talks about making bindings with tongues. Is he talking about bindings with Elfgen tongues? I used Elfgen tongues on my Burton soft bindings for years. I then switched to Flow bindings. I remember the first board I ever saw with camber was a green Gnu. I demo'd that board, but couldn't ride it for sh1t. It just felt too stiff. Now that I can carve, I'm sure I would appreciate that board a lot more. Mike Olsen really was ahead of his time.

I'll be riding in Breckenridge for 3 days with my soft-booter brother from 2-11 to 2-13. This will be my first time in CO. Any tips on what are the best runs for carving? The steeper, the better. Any powder tips would also be appreciated in case I get lucky. It's too bad I can't make it to SES. I'll be sooo close. But the trip is mainly for visiting my brother and his family who live close to Breck. Is A-Basin or Keystone worth visiting or should I stick to Breck? My bro is recommending that we just ride at Breck the whole 3 days.

I was also interested in the Dainese protective gear, but it was too expensive. I ended up getting a Rock Gardn Flak Jacket that was made for mountain biking. Check it out at this site. Flak Jacket I bought the flak jacket at a local shop for $140. I've used it for 6 days now and it is comfortable. I forget that I'm wearing it. The coldest weather I've used it in so far was only around 25 deg F (-4 C). I also wear hockey shorts under my snowboard pants. The hockey shorts have a lot more padding than snowboard specific padded shorts. I haven't had a good slam yet to test the flak jacket, and hopefully I won't need to test it. But I have fell on some rails in the snowboard park and the hockey shorts definately saved my butt. The hockey shorts also helped when I've tried EC turns and I've lost an edge and slid out on my hip. Before someone asks, I DON'T use the same board for the park and carving. I also use the hockey shorts whenever I go skateboarding in pools and halfpipes.

GaryJ, the Mammoth trip is on. I'm going Mon, Jan. 10. I'll be snowboarding Tues and Wed. I'll email you my phone number. Call me, if you go.

GaryJ, I went to Summit early on New Year's day, and I didn't have any problems with the crowd, even though the resorts got sold-out. After Miracle Mile started to get crowded, I moved over to the chairs by the Wall and had plenty of room for carving. MLK day shouldn't be any worse. I'm actually trying to get some friends together for an impromptu trip to Mammoth on Monday night. I usually don't plan my Mammoth trips too far in advance. I'll email you when it gets closer to MLK day to see if you're going to make it out.

Corner of PCH and Tustin... I know that shop. It's been through a few name changes in the past 5 years or so. I've had that shop sharpen my edges before. I've got the tools to do my edges, but I always procrastinate. GaryJ, I'm going to Snow Summit on Mon. , Jan. 17 (MLK day). I get a free lift ticket that day (my B-day). You should join me. I'll definately be riding my carving board in the morning. I usually switch to my freestyle setup after lunch and hit the snowboard park. I was at Snow Summit yesterday and it was the best carving conditions I ever had in SoCal. I stayed on my carving board the whole day (Oxygen Proton 164 GS). I didn't see any other carvers on the mountain.

Thanks for the link. If I don't find a highly recommended shop nearby, I'll probably end up using PTC after the season is over.

With multiple boards, I've gotten too lazy to sharpen all the edges myself. If I'm going to pay someone to do it, I want them to do a better job than what I'm capable of. As for a base grind, the bases on my two Oxygen Protons seem to be a little concave. I don't notice it yet when I'm riding, but I want to be pro-active. So are there any good shops in the L.A./OC area or Big Bear?

I'm about the same height and weight as Cindy and ride a Oxygen Proton 149 SL. I would highly recommend that board. It's easy to turn and you won't need a better board as your skills progress. The 149's can still be found cheap on EBay and I think someone was selling one for cheap in the classifieds. I would recommend staying away from Burton Alps. The Alp is OK for a beginner, but once you get better, you'll want to drop the Alp.

Can anyone recommend a good shop in the Los Angeles/Orange County area to tune my snowboard? I'm looking to get the edges sharpened on the bottom and sides and maybe a base grind.

I'm pretty sure the Burton Fish came out before the Prior Khyber. I think this is the third season for the Fish and maybe the second season for the Khyber.

I also agree with Mike T's comments on forward lean. For years, I used Nordica snowboard boots that had a lot of forward lean, with very little adjustment. I had always assumed that I got tired a lot faster on my alpine setup because of the higher stance angle. Also, I couldn't ride top to bottom without stopping. I would always switch to my freestyle board and softboots at lunch time because of the thigh burn. It didn't matter if I was riding hard or just cruising, my legs burned out too easily on my alpine setup. When I switched to Raichle boots everything got easier because when I bought the boots, the forward lean setting was minimal. Immediately, my legs could handle a full day on my alpine setup and I could ride top to bottom without stopping to rest. Now I've zero forward lean on my front foot and some forward lean on my back foot. I still ride my freestyle board and soft boots a lot in the afternoon, but now it's because of choice and not out of necessity.

I've got a 149 Proton SL ($50 on Ebay) and 164 Proton GS ($150 on Ebay). I think both boards are great. I'm 5'7", 135 lb. My previous carving specific board was a Burton Alp 157(?), which paled in comparison. If I had known the edge hold of the Protons were so much better, I would have gladly paid retail years ago. I had demo'd some PJ's, but couldn't really tell the difference between the PJ's and Alps. I had gotten the 164 GS first. I liked it so much that it bumped off my Donek Incline 160 as my most ridden board. My only problem with the 164 was riding it in the chopped up steeps at Mammoth. The extra length seemed to be giving me back pains when doing jump turns. I then got the 149 SL and now that is my primary board. It's more conducive for riding the smaller resorts in So Cal and the jump turns in the steeps at Mammoth were easier on my back. The Protons were more versatile than I expected.

I would highly recommend going to EBay and look for an Oxygen Proton 149 SL. I got a new one at the end of last season for $50. I'm the same height and weight as Nuclearboarder and I love that board. Easy to turn and holds a good edge. Go to this site http://www.raceboarders.com/ and click on the EBay link. It will do a search for alpine related snowboard gear.

I was at Snow Summit during the day shift on Saturday. The snow conditions were excellent. Oldvolvosrule was not exaggerating. I think I was the only carver on mountain during the day. I was surprised at how empty the runs were. I saw an incident very similar to Jim Pryor's last season at Summit. A twenty something male boarder was straightlining, aired over a roller and clipped a female boarder that was stopped in the middle of the run. Luckily, no one needed the ski patrol sled. I ended up riding the chair later on with the twenty something male boarder and lectured him on having his buddy spot his landings. It didn't help though, I saw the guys air a different roller 20 minutes later with no one spotting the landing. The stupid stuff is not confined to Bear Mtn.

Instead of re-selling the board, I think you should ship it around the country as a demo board. I'll volunteer to pay the shipping costs for Moxie to send me the board to demo for a week or so and then I'll ship it somewhere else to get demo'd or hand it over to someone in So Cal to demo. That would be a great marketing tool.

Did Miller submit a snowboard patent that Burton ended up buying? I sort of remember reading that story.

I really liked the Burton Step-In Race Plates (lever on heel), until I broke the heel bail and couldn't get spare parts. I then switched to standard TD2's. I tried the Intec heels on the TD2, but found it too difficult to get into the binding from a sitting position. I know 95% (plus) of the time I can get into the bindings from a standing position, but I prefer to have all bases covered. So I stuck with the standard TD2's. With the Burton Step-In, it was easy to buckle in from a sitting position.

Sean, You've got a typo in your links section under "Favorite Sites". You've got "Tahoe Cargers" instead of "Tahoe Carvers". I'm glad you're getting into "freestyle" boards this season. Good luck with the new line of boards.

Surfing is my favorite activity. Snowboarding (at least during the winter) is a great alternative when the surf is not firing. Skateboarding is great cross-training for both surfing and snowboarding.

That's an admirable thought. You should follow through and include a 15% tip on your next board purchase.

What's your reasoning for the prices being artificially low, other than the comparision to skis? I think the comparison between skiis and snowboard price is that skiers are dumb enough to pay the artificially high ski prices.

On my Raichle 224's, I replaced the 5 position lean adjuster with the RAB spring system. I also replaced the stiff spring with a much softer spring. On my front boot, I removed the brass tube and lubed the bolt with white grease. Now the RAB never jams :D I don't need any forward lean on my front boot. Because I've got a bit of forward lean adjusted into my back boot, that RAB doesn't jam either. With the mods, I think the Raichle boots are GREAT.