Jack M

Am I nuts or is that bail FUBAR'd? Looks like a crobar special. The bend in the bail wire looks straightened and the toe lever has no over-center cam effect. If that's not the case and the camera is playing tricks on me, I think Fin is right (duh, he would be) - the boot looks too wide in the toe. It appears to be interfering/colliding with the bail wire. Those are ancient, obsolete, worn out boots. I think you should return them to whoever you got them from and demand a refund.

Oh absolutely. Gotta roll in it while we can! In any event, I believe the Boston Celtics are still the winningest team in all of American sports, all time. Nya nya.

yeah, I think we're arguing semantics. interesting.

It's not corroboration if it's inaccurate ;) North America: The black and white Safaris were available in the 88-89 season. See photo of 88-89 catalog in Paul's post. Pink and white PJ (pictured above) was available in the 89-90 season. Fully asym (nose + tail) "marble notebook" PJs with tails colored purple (PJ5, PJ5s), pink (PJ6), or green (PJ7) were available in the 90-91 season. I rode them all. Heeeeuge Burton Boy here (recovering). :D I don't disavow the existence of mid-season early release of next year's product. Burton does this a lot. However those boards are never in catalogs, and are limited availability.

uhh, that's how it's always worked. You'll notice the Burton catalogs that hit stores and mailboxes in September (or even August) 2007 were marked 2008. Burton dates their products like car manufacturers, not Microsoft ;) Nils, we've already established that the production Comp I was an '89 model and was 160cm. At least in North America, I am sure.

it just warms the cockles of my heart. from here.

Thanks, agreed. No, of course not. If someone is clearly negligent to the point of endangering others, there is recourse. However I don't believe a 7 year old on a crosscut is capable of that. Well, to a point, yes. If you are in a physical condition where a slight bump that would be inconsequential to most skiers will put you in the hospital with a 75-large tab, you either need to find another sport or accept that risk. My grandfather accepted it until he was about 84, then hung it up. From what I've read I don't think what happened is outside the realm of accidents to be reasonably expected at any ski hill. Sure, nobody should have to expect or consider the possibility that a kid is going to schuss straight down a steep crowded trail, but that's not what happened here as far as I can tell.

No, I know, the '89 Comp I was multicolor, but the stripes were jagged like the b&w Comp II and III. The '88 Safari, in my picture, had smooth stripes. The photo is from a timeline display that Burton had in its Burlington, VT factory store. I saw it in person. It simply displayed one example board from each year from about '77 to '04 or whenever it was up. I used that picture because it's the only picture of an '88 Safari of any size that I could find. The one in the picture appears to be about 175, and in any case definitely not a Comp I. I really don't think the "Comp" designations appeared until '89 anyway. Agreed. I think we're confusing the term "out". I'm only talking about production boards that any schmoe could purchase from a retailer, and when those boards were available. I think you're talking about when prototypes and team boards hit the slopes. Yes? Production year 1989 Airs were black with a big B and a weird pattern that had stripes and lines and white silhouettes of airport ground crewmen. Fugly. Purple Airs with the big red "AIR" stretching the length of the board were production year 1990 (available in stores early fall, 1989).

That would have to be one large 7 year old. But of course, I would expect and request some compensation in your example (the likes of which I've never seen or heard of), because I was clearly at zero fault and the kid was clearly at 100% fault. (Hmm, actually that would be questionable according to bullet 3 here.) We do not know in this case if the blame is squarely on the child. We do not even know if the guy was even injured in the collision. I think it's quite possible the guy was having a sh*t day and cashed in all his grumpy chips on that kid, then went off and wrecked himself as a result of his fury. Are you telling me that if my kid happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time on the hill and happens to bump into Mr. Glass that we're out 75k? Well that's not acceptible risk to me! I guess we'll just quit skiing! F#@k! I refuse to believe we now live in a society where in order to participate in a sport, I must accept risk of lawsuit, but the other guy doesn't have to accept risk of injury. That would be complete bull. I seriously hope a major dose of Karma happens to Jim Chalet, the slime sucking bottom feeder who makes his fat living off of this lunacy. And all his ilk.

model year 1988 Safaris were rainbow zebra stripe, not black and white. I believe the 87 Safari was the same. Yeah, if you were in the inner circle you could get protos or early releases of next-year boards with the next graphics, so it wouldn't surprise me if a few b&w safaris made it out onto the hill in winter/spring of '88. Paul's post has a picture of the 1989 catalog. It shows the picture of the black & white Safaris. The '89 catalog contains no mention whatsoever of a production PJ (or any asym for that matter) at all. Any PJ on the hill in '89 was a proto or limited early release. Lucky you! Thanks Willy, that post turned into this article. edit... what the farg... my embedded picture keeps disappearing. I'll try to attach:

You never made any mistakes as a kid? You never skied out of control? You never attempted a questionable pass without politely announcing "on your right"? If so, you were a way better kid than me. I'm not saying give all kids a pass to do whatever they want, I'm just saying kids make mistakes. It's how we all grow up. Come on. A 7 year old simply does not have the same presence of mind nor judgment as an adult. They cannot be held accountable for the same things or at the same level as an adult. Furthermore, I stand by what I said about risk. If you can't accept that people/kids are possibly going to crash into you on the ski hill, do something else. Yeah, in a perfect world it would never happen, but it does.

Chris told me after the Metals first came out that the benefit of metal (dampness) is simply not realized on short boards. Short boards are for quicker turns and slower speeds where dampness simply matters less or may even be undesired. "Damp" is the last word I'd use to describe my Madd 158 and I love it to pieces. If you're a small person you might use a shorter board for long turns in which case metal would be appropriate. But that's got to be a minority of a minority of a minority, so they're not going to make them as standard.

It always seemed to me that Bauer and Nerva typically rode next year's prototypes for R&D and photo op's. There was one lone 171.5cm PJ in 1990 - this one: The rest of the 1990 lineup was the three M's which were basically Safaris with new graphics and quadratic sidecuts. In 1991 there were 4 asym PJ's and 2 asym M's, but the M's had become freecarve boards while the PJ's were "race only" (0cm tail length! ) 1989 (winter of '88-'89) was the year of the black and white Safari. Of this I am absolutely certain.

Okay, simple. Consider a man who would grab a 7 year old and swear at him and threaten to sue him. I would not put it past that man to allow a harmless low speed collision (basically an invasion of his space) to send him into a rage. I can also imagine that man stewing and frothing about it for the rest of the day.... to the point where he becomes so distracted and careless about his own skiing and wrecks himself. Then he conveniently recalls the name of the kid who hit him and his father, and presto. This guy is clearly insane. Kids are going to be kids. They make mistakes. Sh!t happens, especially on a ski hill. If you can't accept the risk, stay the hell home.

89 was the year of the black & white Safari. No, there's nobody in the picture with Nerva. Just him, horizontal on a toeside up near the crest of this snow drift that looks like a perfect wave. The topsheet of his Safari is perfectly facing the camera. Yeah Paul, I've been seeking that turn ever since too. Hasn't quite happened. 19 years and counting...

Allee, read the article then rewrite your post. come on. http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20071220/NEWS/541382740

The two-page spread of Jean Nerva surfing a powder wave on the inside front cover of that catalog is still to this day the best photograph of a snowboarder ever taken. To me it says, "this is snowboarding. you can't do this on skis." Paul, can you oblige?

It will be but a footnote in NFL history if they don't close the deal on Super Sunday. Still, nice to see a 35 year record topple. In New England, of course. But it's not a perfect season yet. And I'm not having any of this nonsense talk about the videotaping illegitimizing anything. Everyone was doing it, the Jets tattled because they're a bunch of NY whiners. When did that happen? Week 1? 2? So the Pats ran the table without video anyway. If you argue that the record is illegitimate, then you must believe that none of the World Series championships of the late 90s, early 00s were legit either.

Sorry, I need to correct my earlier post. Sure, it will help you a bit to learn better balance, coordination, etc. However it's not a required skill. I tried it and did not have fun. The only way I could justify the time spent riding the opposite stance is if I had already mastered carving in my usual stance to the point of boredom, AND I was getting at least 40 days a year on snow. As it is now, my snow time is far too precious to spend on such an academic, un-fun exercise. Unless being a complete newbie again and doing the power snow-angel are fun for you. Now, riding fakie in softies at low angles can be fun. However riding an opposite stance at high alpine angles is a completely different thing altogether. I set up my freeride board at 5/0 (overhang notwithstanding) and tried mixing up forward/fakie riding 50/50 for a day. It was surprisingly easy and fun at those angles. However reversing the stance at my usual 33/24 sent me back to the bunny hill.

It is. I don't know what the deal is there. I thought Tinklers were all custom, but yes, they all seem to have short sidecuts for their length. They sure are purty though. F2 race boards typically have long sidecuts. Their 173 has a 14m. Same as Prior's 185 (187). My Schtubby will be that. The AMs, 4WDs, Axi do nothing for me. Waaaaay too short sidecut. I demo'd a 174 4WD and couldn't get off it fast enough. Too turny. The numbers on all those boards don't add up to me. Ben, you're on.

Sorry, I kick 10 times better with my right foot. I'm goofy. Kicking has very little to do with snowboarding. Sliding has everything to do with snowboarding. Ragged is on my list. Someday!

There is precisely one valid reason you might want to do this: if you feel you are not as good as you could be, and you cannot progress. If you run and slide on some ice, or on your kitchen floor in your socks, which foot do you put forward? That is how you should stand on your snowboard. If your run-and-slide stance is the same as your snowboard stance, then forget about it. The only other reason for doing this is so you can tell a good story in the bar apres-ski.

My 180 is 16m. I got yer 195 right here. :p

I am 90% certain the Burton Air was a production board for the first time in the 1987-88 season. I might be off by one year. It was the first round-tail Burton freestyle/freeride board. It was not and is not a carving board in any way.

This Blade would be history, and worth buying: