Jack M

:lol:

I agree on the black jackets and the lack of backgrounds. I think some kind of background or trail edge is necessary - all white is just bad, but where we were shooting there wasn't much background worth capturing. We will try for a more picturesque shooting location and angle this time!

Congrats Chris!

This year the ECES is proudly sponsoring one American Olympic PGS racer - Tyler Jewell! All proceeds from the event will be donated. However as we strive to keep costs down for our participants, there usually isn't a huge sum left over, so any extra donations will be greatly appreciated. For this reason, we are limiting our sponsorship to just one racer at this time. If a windfall of donations comes in, we will consider spreading it to the other US Olympic racers. ECES T-shirt and raffle ticket sales will be used to generate our donation to Tyler. If you would like to contribute more than that to Tyler's ECES sponsorship, you may Pay Pal your donation to me at michaud.jack(at)gmail.com. Make sure you reference Tyler Jewell. Because the ECES happens after the Olympics, I will be personally fronting a minimum donation of $500 to Tyler before the Olympics. This is a huge opportunity for the freecarving community to come together and show our support for our racing brethren. Tyler has worked hard and sacrificed much to live the racer's dream and get a college education, including living in a tent! I hope we can make a significant donation and help get Tyler to Vancouver. The time for us to step up is now! Here are some info and articles about Tyler and his quest: http://www.nbcolympics.com/athletes/athlete=2452/index.html http://www.teamusa.org/news/2009/07/20/going-for-the-gold-tyler-jewell/14440 http://skiing.teamusa.org/athletes/tyler-jewell?cmpid=2&keyword=Tyler%20Jewell http://www.ussnowboarding.com/athletes/athlete?athleteId=1176 Thanks to Phil Fell for helping to put us in touch with Tyler. Pay Pal your donation to michaud.jack(at)gmail.com and reference Tyler Jewell. (replace "(at)" with "@") Thanks!!!

Thanks for your insight. Here are some shots from the last ECES: http://jmphotocraft.smugmug.com/Snowboarding/ECES-2008 My file names start with jm_... and were taken with my old 30D and 70-200/4LIS. The ones that start with Stowe... were taken by another shooter with a D300 and 70-200/2.8VR.

I don't know anyone who ever believed that, and I don't recall that ever being alleged. Hardly the "vast majority".

Nice. I will be shooting at the ECES, and I was thinking I'd bring my 1D Mk IIN, but maybe I should take my 5D Mk II instead? I have a 24-70, 70-200/4LIS, and a 100-400L. I'd rather not bring everything. Your thoughts? What do you mean by "helping" the AF? Turning on the assist points?

I'll never understand why the pot thing was ever an issue. It's not on the IOC's list of banned substances, so why did they ever make one single peep about it? He was robbed.

Is that it? It really doesn't look like $100k. If I were into cruisers/musclebikes and I had that kind of dough, I'd be all over a Confederate.

what board?

Great shots! This is what I wanted to see in this forum! Camera? Nice exposure.

"A string of bad luck"? I think that's way over-simplifying. I think it's a referendum against socialism and the super-majority. No party should ever have one. That form of "democracy" is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner. They're all idiots anyway... http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/25/cbsnews_investigates/main6140406.shtml

Thanks. It's rare that rime ice grows that thick around here. I'm not sure I've ever seen it like this.

Removed "Southern". It is raining sideways in the mountains of Maine. :( Damn glad I took an impromptu day off on Friday to get some. Sugarloaf was a perfect 10 that day.

Just to be clear, I am only arguing about using hardboots while giving <i>beginner</i> lessons. I measured my success by the number of people who successfully learned to link turns, control speed, stop, and have fun by the end of a 2 hour group lesson. By that measure, I was quite successful. (90%? 95%?) I didn't need the money or the free pass, I just wanted to give back to the sport and have fun. I wouldn't have continued teaching if I wasn't doing that. I returned for 4 years of teaching part time. I did it all in hardboots. So I have the data to suggest that teaching in hardboots is not a problem. I don't think you have any data to suggest it is. Let me ask you this Kent, right now at Sugarloaf there is a snowboarding instructor who is a woman who looks to be in her late 50s (gray hair) maybe older. She looks about as hip as anybody's mother. Should she not be allowed to teach beginner snowboarding to adolescent males?

Jasey is having a great year. Would be nice to see him add an Olympic podium finish to his long and distinguished resume. Congrats also to Klug for his second top-10 finish of the season. He's having a better year than last.

Nice Rack!

We should re-do this poll with options for East/West USA and Canada. In the US, I believe eastern passes are generally more expensive than western passes due to more snowmaking and grooming needed here, but I'm not sure.

The board is a little short, but it may work for you for a short time. As your speed increases and you start carving better, hardboots allow you to put more force into the board. Many softboot boards simply aren't built for that. You probably won't damage the board, but it will simply skid out of the turns. You may as well try it if you have it or can get it easily. If it would cost you any money to get the board, I wouldn't bother.

what is your height and weight?

great! :)

~tb wins.

Mondopoint is supposed to be the length of your foot in centimeters. You should be able to use a Deeluxe 27 no problem, maybe even a 26 with some custom fitting, but perhaps your high arch/instep is interfering with fit. You should probably seek a good bootfitter.

Sour grapes from a has-been. I can tell you first hand Seth Wescott oozes style outside of a course.

I think that's a bit harsh and unnecessary. In my experience, my equipment simply was not an issue in a beginner lesson, and the vast majority of my students successfully learned to ride the lift, link left and right turns repeatedly, control speed, and stop, after a 2 hour group lesson.