Steve Prokopiw

I've been outta the RUSH loop for quite awhile but still play all my 70s,80s early90s ,but 70's RUSH still rules. I remember being disappointed that their light and tech show was weak at Denver about ten years ago and they kind of lost me then since they seemed all about innovation and then took the cheap way out by putting on a halfway effort at the show.Still a fan though. Unimportant opinion/anaylisis;Their first 15 years kind of fit my mindset for the type of snowboarding and overall life experience I was into at the time and the precise and calculated viruosity with their instruments/composition the last 15 years sort of fits the carving mindset. PS. One of my Toronto native wife's brothers roadied for them for a summer and the band members attended a barbecue in her backyard when she was in her teens.Six degrees....

On our relatively tight mountain I have been finding more and more that some people resent what I am doing and will literally take their lives into their hands to make their points, by skiing quite purposefully into my line at which point I usually pull out and say "excuse me "in the most self accusing, polite way possible. Then ,when they stop part way down the slope to rest,I gleefully dig deep trenches as I pass by. Some, particularly boarders, are seemingly just ignorant as to what might happen if they obliviously sideslip through my predictable turns. But, with the others I have actually started to wonder if they will try to get EC banned as the think the mountain is their's alone.I actually confine most of my carving to a slope or two that are not used until near the end of the day by the sun seekers. The real irony is that they are now much more accepting of the sideslipping jib bonkers who they accuse of scraping the snow off the mountain than they are of carving.

The Jackass lift(4) is fixed according to my better half and I get to go sans kids on Saturday,Mar 17St Paddy's Day. Any palm draggers want to hookup I'll stop at the lodge around 10:00 for a few minutes after a few warmup laps.Steve

I was teaching a devo group of ten year olds about 12 years ago and was standing up looking downhill as they were kneeling.Suddenly, their eyes go wide but none of them makes a peep.I was inverted and sitting right down before I could even take a breath, The lady on skis was doing a highspeed powerplow according to the kids. She did not get hurt nor did I. I always wondered if it would had been worse if I had had a second's warning to tense up.

As it gets too easy (still fun though) to slide one or both hands along the snow,form like that of the racer in the photo gives me something to aspire to.Seems like improving my core strength will be mandatory.

Enjoyed looking at the great pics.

I am now even more proud of my three year old son Evan. Not because last Wednesday was his tenth session of three or more bunnyhill (500 feet long)runs on his board, but because today he learned to poop on the potty! Thank you Lord!

Don't know if this will help, but I rode a borrowed Coiler(I believe a 182) for two days at Bachelor this past weekend.It was designed for a rider that weighs 45 lbs more than I do and yet rewarded my aggressive input so well that I am buying it. I ride a tight little mountain with narrow runs,a couple of which are a lttle steeper than what I experienced at Bachelor and I believe I will be able to turn it in the same tight spaces I usually do with my 161 all mountain board.It has a rounder tail however than the GS board and is probably not as stiff,but my point is I think they make a killer product.

I always took my students to the Beav to learn to carve and when they graduated I took them to Vail.

Matt and I had a great time at the OH YES!(my pronunciation of the OES) I for one learned alot about where carving is going and has gone since I was out of the carving board (but not out of hard boots)loop the last 13 years or so. Brian had me try a 185 Identity that was fun, but a little skinny for my taste. Then Mike let me ride his custom 182Coiler at Brian's and just about everyone else's recommendations .I commadeered the thing all weekend after which I left him with earnest money as I intend to buy it! Most fun I've had on a board and on a mountain(Bachelor rules for carving)in a long time.Man I miss big mountains.Matt went home with a complete setup of board,boots and bindings that Doug (owner of the most insane(252!)board I have ever seen)gave him a screamin deal on after seeing Matt take to ripping on it like he was born for it. Neither of us is going to stop riding our all mountain rigs anytime soon at Silver,but I have to say that it would be hard to want to ride anything else but a long,cheek flapping,trench digger rig at Bachelor.Anyway,we both intend to come back next year and I am hoping to return once more this season as the people I met and rode with as well as the kickass mountain and a superfun board made many great and lasting impressions on me. Next year I intend to bring a couple of my old school trays and a neon suit to match!(well,maybe just the boards...)Oh, and I'll bring Maureen(who was on hardboots the day we met 15 years ago) the kids ,our pets and all of our belongings... Thanks from us to Mike and Bonnie and everyone! LONG LIVE THE OH YES!

I am going to bring the last four Extrem boards I have left over from repping in Vail,to maybe trade or sell .They are all new unused allmountain 2005 models .145,151,155, TRANSFERs(midlevel in their lineup, handmade 450.00 original retail)and a 165 JUSTICE 685.00 original retail(supersweet and it won't hurt me to keep it,but for the right sale or trade...) I am interested in race boards made in this century as I have yet to own one.Steve p.s Hey Mike, Matt and I will be staying at motel 6 in Bend and will meet you in the am friday as per the schedule

The second paragraph of this quote by philfell may be the best advice I have ever read on carving.

I saw this thread and couldn't help myself. I have a three year old boy who did nothing but cry and whine on skis and was simply unwilling to allow us to use edgy wedgies or a harness(he gets this streak from his mommy).It probably did not help that 'snowboard' was his first multi-syllable word as the 'rents are both board instructors.Well ,one day Mommy calls me at the shop to say "Guess who's snowboarding?!" As, of couse, the question was rhetorical, I replied"Oh man,is he ok?" "He's more than ok he's shockingly good at it!" We have a combined thirty years of teaching between us and in one session our three year old turned conventional wisdom on it's proverbial ear. Our thing was going to be skiing until he's five,and most of the moms and dads we've taught before teaching their kids have wanted the groms to wait until seven or eight(we usually were able to get them to relent by the time kids were six) Besides availability of properly sized equipment; physical coordination , attention span, and an actual desire to try it have always been the main factors for us deciding whether a child is ready to give it a whirl (in a one on one private of course).I have never heard of anything like physical imbalances or asymetry being a potential problem,but along those lines Evan just gets up and heads down the bunny slope whichever direction the board is pointed after he does his little toeside hand drag carve to a stop, which he figured out how to do within minutes during his first session.(yes, I said carve) After a little experimentation he is definitely goofy stance like mommy is (I'm regular), but that has not deterred him from getting up and starting off switch.It's quite simply more about looking in the direction of travel when initial balance is concerned. No, he does not yet really link turns but is very close and we don't force him to perform the falling leaf or garlands etc.Having a vastly improved and widened bunny slope/lift this year at Silver has helped due to it's safer width ,perfectly pitched slope and conveyor lift, otherwise I doubt we would be letting him board yet. Undoubtedly,it also helps that he is very energetic and physically strong and coordinated.He also happens to be shorter than average and looks like a helmet with boots on when boarding. It should be noted that his one year old brother,Nathan has been on one our backs for every run Evan has made on the bunny hill(five today,until the snow castle beckoned).Maureen walks in her soft boots with him on her back and I ride one footed in my hard boots when I've got him.He gets to say he started at one. This post is merely about our experience so far and not meant to say we're right and everyone with a differing opinion is wrong...I am, of course, open to any questions or opinions. It's meant to say that three year old Evan is right because he truly wants to do it and in the end that is all that really matters.

I find that part of the addiction I seem to have developed recently for surfing this site is the tech stuff.I can see that of the appeal of the pure carving equipment and specs/angles has maybe as much to do with it as the actual riding.(I'm like that with bike stuff) I used to ride narrow carving boards (late80s-mid90s)all the time and eventually became more of a one board rider on an allmountain board,but never got out my hard boots.For me it's always been about the boots being more comfy and supportive and the heel hold of the boots being superior.The boards have been secondary.That said ,I am buying extra lotto tickets in the hopes of affording the type of pure carving steup from the new millenium that I read about here.P.S. It's alot of fun carving regular and switch on a 25-26 waist ,allterrain stick with 45 degree angles and an inch of underhang.(this is a shorter, slightly less self absorbed version of what I deleted yesterday)

-31 ambient temp at Copper around 1991/92. I was snowboard foreman and tried to cancel lessons and almost got fired for it. People actually took the lessons! I've been less bothered but more careful about low temps ever since.

Got a little too into the trend toward wider boards discussion ;I could have just said I have always liked wider , all mountain boards for carving.Previous message deleted.My apologies

Well,the 'Silver lining' (pun intended) is that the top third of chair 4s terrain is only accessable by hiking on weekdays and a cat shuttle til noon on weekends thus leaving more fresshies for those of us who don't mind earning it. Other very old lifts that break down regularly are bandaided so the very wealthy (world's largest window manufacturer)parent company can avoid spending any real money on anything but real estate and a waterpark and golf course at the base of the gondola that is being sold under what seems like the false promise of a master plan up top(they have owned it for 11 or 12 years).To their credit the ads do say"future developments should be taken as planned not promised".The real estate speculators seem not care as they don't have to live in an area with artificially high prices and rediculously low wages. I am starting to see why many long time locals like the place being run down because they (and now I)get lulled into a certain complacency that comes with low business volume and low work volume and slopes devoid of customers on weekdays(another part of that silver lining ;as long as you don't actually need to work there for money and didn't come up to run a skischool the company treats like they want to see it die, and you don't mind working in a toxic mine or flippin burgers,not that there's anything wrong with that)They tried quite literally to kill the race program here (kicked nastar and quite a few loyal customers out for good)and my last big fight before stepping aside was to make sure S.M.A.R.T. lives with the help of a few great people who felt the same.Those people are the glue that holds the place togeather and are growing racing again despite the parent company. I could go on and on, but now we're here for the great bike path and to be near my side of the family and,to make a long long story short ;it is great to be a stay at home dad right now after 18 full time seasons of teaching snowboarding;broke but happy. My three year old kicks butt on his little board in the beginner area/tubing hill (he and his one year old brother love tubing and gravity!)the very good bunny hill and magic carpet is the one significant area improvement so it ain't all bad for a family as long as 5 is running after it's time to move on from the bunny hill... It may be a great place someday.

I built up a 62cm Soma Smoothie in my shop last summer(Silverpro Bike Shop, Kellogg, Idaho; open by appointment) It was for a 6'5" 265 lb fifteen year old whose dad wanted him to stop borrowing his 5'11" mom's mtb. I used 600 gram 36h Vuelta rims and 28c tires and retro shimano 600 AX centerpull brakes,but it still came in under 24lbs. I had to have a taller friend test ride it... He loves it. By the way, I have a 200cm monoski that I used mounted as a snowboard for several seasons that would look great standing next to the Serotta!

We are pretty used to riding in trash bags up here at Silver though we have been pretty darn fortunate with snow this year.Unfortunately,I can't say that for the apparently severe lack of pride in grooming here since Chris B. and his incredible miracle workers all left.(I think wallyworld and mickey d's were paying better...) So, even if it rains I am looking forward to being above 5500 ft and on my way to some good groomies while riding a working chair lift.Haven't been on a detachable since spring 04. I feel like I am about to go to Disneyland!

If it was mine;Seeing as how it was just marti gras, # 8 reflects what I was doing Saturday after riding but #7 reflects how I felt on the hill Sunday morning.(besides flames are everywhere)So one vote for the wavy cool #7.

I knew a guy many years ago at Vail that snapped his femur doing that(on a fresh groomer no less).Ever since I have been careful not to get the front knee too extended or ,especially, locked ,especially in softer conditions.

It might suck ,but the rider who is even slightly more skilled than his or her tree riding friend owes it to said friend (or student) to ride behind them in deep conditions. It is simply not enough to stop once in awhile as an unconsious(or just pissed off and pride damaged enough)is not able (or unwilling) to answer a voice or radio call right away or at all.Now try hiking up 100 yards through 3 feet of fresh before your friend suffocates...

I used to live and work at Copper a long time ago and still have friends there and I can say with a clear consience that is is the best place to carve in the Summit. Every pitch you could want and not as flat as Breck.

Copper was always my favorite when I lived down there. Every pitch you could want. Not as flat as Breck, not as skied off as Keystoned and not as small as A Basin.

To anyone new to carving that is going to the OES; I am (and have been for 18 years) a certified spreader of the hardboot gospel (level three AASI, former examiner,former Silver Mountain Ski/SB school director,former Vail instructor/supervisor). I am now a stay at home dad who has his first pass from the family this season to go have some good natured extreme fun and would love to pass on any knowledge that might prove helpful if it is ok with the organizers of the event. By the way, I could use a place to crash from the night of the 8th to the morning of the 11th if anyone can take in a nonsnoring guest. Looking forward to digging deep at Bachelor! Steve Prokopiw P.S. I just told Bryan at oldsnowboards.com how I've just started surfing the hardboot sites and how rediculously computer illiterate I am in order to explain why I had not yet changed after two years (just did, must have been pushing the wrong button...)my profile to reflect that I now live in the great state of North Idaho and no longer live near or teach at Vail, but at Silver Mountain in Kellogg, Idaho.My Apologies.