Steve Prokopiw

If it were not for my experience at last year's OES I would still be thinking a freakstyle board with old 123s was plenty for carving.I still love that stuff for park and trees and have been riding and teaching on nothing but hardboots since 89 but have not owned a dedicated carving board since my 92 Lacroix Nidafly asyms (in all three flexes no less..Brian wanna see a pic of em?) I bought new old stock 225s from Hardbooter to go to the OES with and came home with the intent of moving up in board length and boot performance and having made a first payment on Mike Tovino's Coiler AM 182.I am proud to say I have paid it off and it is sitting next to my bed(my new mistress;move over time trial bike)waiting for the F2 TI RACE Standards (so I can use my Rossi Bandit skiboots)I just ordered from Hardbooter.com and whispering in my ear that snow is coming. After riding with Abel there I decided it was a long term goal to own a 197 Burner(I have an old 200cm monoski I rode for three years as a snowboard)but rode Mike's Coiler AM 182 based on everyone's assessment that it would fit my weird freestyle/ec hybrid style of riding.They were right and I was hopelessly hooked in much the same way as when I first road a fixed gear track bike. I was so born to do this but may not have discovered yet if not for this site and the super cool people that frequent it.Also because of this site, more up to date snowboard boots are in my future but for now I am excited by what I have put togeather so far.I have never done anything I cared about without alot of passion and the enthusiasm the people on this site have for this sport is contagious.Thanks to all,especially Mike T and Brian. Can't wait for snow!

Wow there is hope for the system.Awesome!

The only people I can't talk politics with are some of my relatives.

Beer,good beer that is, has been a great recovery tool after races for me over the years when doing stage races or consecutive days of racing,but in that same famous photo of the smokers there was most likely brandy in those aluminum bottles. I'm thankfully too much of a light weight for that, but have had a few good performances when hungover.Once you puke on your breakaway partner you feel much better.This actually happened at Downers Grove when I was a cat 3. I had won the day before at WoodDale and made a deal while drinking a bit too much to celebrate.The deal was that if we could do it again at Downers, Lawrence would get the win.We did and he did but not before I puked over my shoulder and all over his bars and hands when we were digging deep to stay away the last few laps.You could hear the spectators we passed being grossed out. Good times.

Scantily clad babes are needed.Otherwise 'how low' is the coolest one IMHO.

Yeah, but think how deep our trenches might be if we were on on steroids!

The dew drops on all the kids toys in the yard were all frozen.Looked just like those little plastic nubs on my old winterstick topsheet.

Ha ha, he called you 'Brain'.

I have changed over to UPS too.In the past year shipping my ebay sales Fedex and US Postal have doubled for bikes and wheels(seems like collusion; never thought of myself as a conspiracy theorist,but...).The p.o. s have always been inconsistent with bigger packages but are now just consistently overpriced.I no longer ship anything bigger than a crankset(in a flat rate box if it's the other side of the Mississppi)via Postal. UPS can be even more if it's gotta be 3 days or less but I often find that a package is due to arrive in three days with regular ground (1-6 days guaranteed)shipping for a third as much (or even less) as 3day Select. I find it typical for these greedy corporate times in which we live that their main excuse is increased fuel costs.A truck that carries 50-100 packages does not use another 1000.00 in fuel in a day but that's what it seems we're paying for.

HEY LOWELL.Steve Prokopiw just saying high how are ya from way up in North Idaho! You still at the Village? Hoping to get down for a visit this winter and would love to ride with you if so. BTW,I didn't know Jeff was talented.:)Is he still at the Village too?

Doug will have to get a 426 built and then he can just call it the HEMI !

...of course after 300 or so days one gets used to the slop...

A Basin could have been bought for 4,000,000 when Vail Associates had to sell it in order to clinch approval of their buyout of Breck,Keystone and the Basin as I recall.They sold it to someone who sold real estate .Sounds a little pie in the sky, ut for the price of a time share and dues 200 people with 20,000 each could conceivably have owned the Basin.I think Berthoud went for much less after one of it's belly ups.

DEFINITEYLY SOUNDS LIKE A CASE OF SMALL MAN'S COMPLEX.Height,like all have said here is just one of many possible factors in choosing the right ride.I would not be surprised if the mod rides a bike that is way too big...

Not that I have the $ but it seems that one way to alieviate this trend would be for groups of actual users to buy and operate small areas as co-ops that are essentially members only.I remember mountainbike racing at a ski hill hill in Michigan 20 years ago that was owned by something like 25 families.This kind of arrangement is common for wakeboarding and waterskiing co-ops on lakes/ponds where the ownership is for waterfront or even an entire manmade lake. There is so much private and accessable land near where I live that I think about this concept every time I'm out there on my bike.Of course,it helps to be pretty far north these days when it comes to our changing climate, but this has always been one of my 'if I won the lotto' dreams.

"Jesus Built My hotrod" ...Great tune to get psyched for ridin a long board on a steep slope with no one in the way.

to a snowboard scene of all time in my book is when Electric Head Part1 (White Zombie) is used to present Terje backflipping off a sixty foot cliff in TB-4. I've been a fan of both ever since.

Hey BJvircks. I'm looking at teaching at Lookout Mtn Resort about 18 mi from us and about 25 mi from where you stayed last year.They are taking better care of their mtn than Silver and are not owned by a parent company that lies to condo buyers about planned improvements to the mountain that they have no intention of following through with while they sell real estate in town and on a golf course built on a mountain of mining tailings. Lookout is owned/run by a guy who is not that well liked but at least he and his partners are walking their talk with improvements by putting in another lift and more terrain.Great back country there as well.Also the cheap motel I emailed you about is just 7 miles from the resort.Fridays are 16.00 lift tickets for those over 40 years old. I have actually not been to ride there yet but am making the switch this season based on largely positive feedback and much higher lesson volume and having ridden my bike up there this summer to scope out the great looking(short but longer than in Iowa) carving runs.. SEE YA THIS WINTER!

I hit 49.5 in a Duathlon this season.(in the run haha)Enough to get me a 150.00 ticket on that street in a car.If it weren't for the legs moving at a 137 rpm it would feel alot like tucking on a board.

... of doing lots of cool stuff will last much longer than cars and will still be accessable(hopefully) long after they should already have taken my liscense. Hence the fact that my beater car which might never die despite my best efforts,is worth less than the Coiler that I'm buying from Mike T. Of course,that car has gotten me to alot of memories...

Now I know what I'm doing the week of my birthday!(Mar 4) It's cool that two of these shindigs(+Big Mtn in Jan) are within reasonable driving distance in 08. I have dreams about riding that soon-to-be-mine Coiler at these mountains.Hard to believe it's only two months 'til ridable snow!

I generally answer that I'm a 'hardbooter' when asked whether I ski or board.At my local hill it seems somewhat dubious to be labeled a snowboarder; and for plenty of not so good reasons.In fact,with a few exceptions,most of the 'cool' (in my clouded parental opinion)and easy-to-talk-to kids I know are skiers... and racers at that.I sometimes give the advice to "get really good at hardbooting with a help of a good instructor or coach and you too can be different from the masses and yet 'cool' at the same time". Yeah,who am I kidding;at least 'chicks' my age(42) seem to dig it and my wife claims it was the way my hardboots lifted my ass that made her want to go out with me 15 years ago. Of course, most people,especially kids, don't really want to be that different from the masses.

It's interesting how the tradeoffs are always skewed by the detractors to suggest that if there is any inconvenience or negative at all the idea is bs.Without a doubt air pollution is the most ecologically pressing matter in the world right now.Water is just as important and is polluted by the status quo as well.As long as special interests of the established big industries are served at the expense of of the environment,progress toward meaningful stewardship rather than conspicuous consumption will be very slow and won't come in time to have a meaningful effect.

I think from a perspective of fairness that the ability of the most genetically gifted athlete should be assessed and then those not lucky enough to have won the genetic lotto and therefore not born with the physical traits necessary for greatness(ie, everyone else) should be allowed to take whatever medical measures possible to even the playing field.Monitored by regular health testing of course.Think that's silly? I believe one reason some athletes are tempted to do performance enhancing drugs is that they know that even though they possess the intestinal fortitude,they simply were not physically born with what it takes to win,but crave victory anyway. This probably would make more sense in an aerobic sport like cycling where vo2 max(an unchangable trait that varies widely)matters so much,but even in baseball there are tasks that athletes are simply born with more or less ability to do. So let em even things up.And hey,that would be more entertaining.

I don't know what his reasoning is for such huge cants but he had some of the smoothest style and prescision I witnessed at OES 07. Seems however, that would also limit a riders abilities in other terrain though I only saw Tim carving on groomers and he was great at that.