carvedog

Any chance of replacement pads for the Fintec heel? Thx Sean.

If you fly and can only bring a certain amount of gear that can be limiting. I brought the softies just in case because with Jackson you never know. It snowed 14 on top the day after we left. And yes exploring with a good skier might have been a challenge. My kids didn't want to go on too much steeper stuff but we still did five or six tram laps. They ski well but are slow to explore and I didn't want to ruin them. The Coiler I am riding is a 180 NSR I got from Corey Dyck a couple of years ago. Love that thing. Was starting to get comfortable in the soft bumps on it but stopped after nearly tagging a large piece of granite protruding thru the slush. Great board. Hey there. No worries. My enthusiasm for carving sometimes gets the best of me. Unless I am teaching or snow is deeper than a couple of inches I am usually in hard boots so I am Ok with some marginal conditions in getting from one great spot to another.

Hi Buell. Yes everything is working very well. The new knee is sometimes a bit sore the next day after going really hard but any kind of normal riding and there are no issues. Hip seems rock solid. Rebecca was so nice to help me clip my bindings as I couldn't actually do it. I won't forget that. Please come visit again. Amen to that brother. Carving is the pinnacle of expression of joy in this life for me. Art, motion, physicality and creativity all come together in one sweeping curve after another.

Just got back the Jackson......and I thought it was awesome. Would have ridden the Coiler 180 the whole time but I wanted to do the Alta shoots and couple of others that are a little narrow for a 180 race board. Yeah it sucks for carving....except for all the places it didn't. There is a run called Grand that is freaking epic. Don't know how I didn't find it before but I was off on Thunder mostly then. Grand rivals the best that Baldy in SV has to offer, it is a little shorter but holy hell that thing was butter. I did find several other runs that were butter too but couldn't tell you the name or how to get there. Top half of the mountain was carvy winter snow and the bottom half was corn turning to slush. And it was fun and all good. I did raise a few eyebrows getting on the Tram with plates.....so it goes.

Just a few. Maybe five or six out on hard boots on a good day.

I started hard booting in '93 and it seems as though I have gotten better. I used to carve until my legs gave out and would stop there on the side of the run gasping like a fish out of water. Learning to breathe properly thru the carved turn has been a major element to not getting gassed and 'torn up'. I did three laps on Warm Springs yesterday (3,100 vertical feet of carving perfection) in 50 minutes. 10 minute ride up and I had to wait a couple of minutes here or there for the random skiers to clear the run. That was after a morning of carving all over the other side. And I could have done more. Not bragging about being in shape or anything, but perfect snow with decent technique and no one around can make you feel like a God. Less than perfect snow, a few recovery moves and having to ride a different arc than the board wants to not hit skiers makes a carver more tired. That was on a Sims Burner 197 so not exactly a mellow ride but it does love the speeds. For almost being April it is so good right now. North faces still winter snow and sun exposed faces turning to perfect corn.....

One thing I do to have people learn balance is riding switch a bit. And not meaning full backwards riding, but being able to ride the 'tail' of the board leading the way on gentle skidding traverses. It is not easy if you haven't done this it can make a big difference in centering you up. And yeah your board is likely a bit long, really narrow and whatever....but if you learn low speed control you will begin to ride the board, instead of board rides you. Critical to not just learn carves but carve to skid and back to carve. And especially toeside. Not just heelside because it's easier.

If you can message me your cell I can send the photos direct to you. Not sure when I will have time to upload to this site.

Burton Wind in 27.5 to 28. I thought they would work for me but just a bit too tight. Very good condition. They will take a Fintech Intec heel and that is how I tried them but put regular heels back on. I think I paid $100. Pics to follow if interested.

I have a couple of pairs of boots and several bindings. The one pair of boots is pretty new(ish) and I think I paid $75 for them. I wear 10.5 and about 28.5 in Mondo. I will try to shoot some pics if you are interested.

Sorry but I don't buy this....

I have Conformable liners and they rock. Third set of shells and hundreds of days and they still work great. Had them fit in Burton Fire and they are now in Stratos Pro and work pretty well. My first Zipfits were great and lasted for several hundred days as well. They next two I couldn't even get a season out of them. One was soft foam and one was cork. They Surefoot liners were so painful I only rode them for about two hours. No padding went behind the heel so every toeside turn the heel bone pushed hard against the shell. They say they will redo them and I will try that out this next week.

Cold smoke on top of perfect groom today with all bluebird conditions and 25F. So dammed good. Tomorrow may be better. Then more snow on Thursday. If anyone is within striking distance the conditions now are the stuff of dreams. Get thee to the Mtn.

So top four qualifiers in men placed top four in finals. Top five women place in top four finals. Seems fair to me.

Your comment on moguls prompted me to jump into this tread. ....a brother by another mother. Old guy (56) here with a titanium hip 3. yrs ago, titanium knee 2.5 yrs ago. I love the bumps and have been riding a lot on my Cobra 164 Never Summer. Loving it. I didn't realize just how good this beauty could carve. A couple of years ago I only rode soft boots to teach and on deeper powder days, but I have been killing it this year with this board. Riding with Burton Mission bindings and Burton Freestyle boots in size 11 (found next to a dumpster at a thrift store that supports our local library. They had been left out in the rain and the people at the shop don't have time to dry things out) at 30F/15R for angles. I have gone thru several different iterations of soft boots and binders, all with different levels of pain and arch crushing. I have none of that now. Besides the comfort carving is effortless and stable and ridiculous speeds as well. As long as I don't go too hard. I find I am doing a lower angle carve and a little more round than my HBs and just having a ball. I have carved on wider boards but don't like the delay going edge to edge. Also don't like them as well in the troughy bumps. Also after riding 55 to 65 on my race boards the 30/15 feels positively sideways and makes for pretty effortless switch riding. Funny just yesterday someone commented on how 'forward' this binding setup is. I do have to say I do not like to skate very much on the more sideways setup, but whatever. So just adding to the carving stoke in whatever you are on. And bumps and powder. Oh yeah yesterday we had a good 7 inches with some wind ( not a ton) which added to the redistribution of powder and made for some very deep pillows. I got a face shot so hard it blasted under my goggles..... gonna go tighten them up a bit.

That made me laugh.

Hey Curtis..thanks. Wow. I want this. Have to sell some stuff to make it happen. Looks like you are still in Boulder. I think I have a friend who could pick it up. Not sure if your old email addy still works. I will pm you and we'll go there. Thx.

You still have this beauty?

Not even a mention of Sun Valley? Today was 5 star conditions with NoBody around. Doesn't get any more premium than that. I don't go to the mountain for food but when I have joined guests there it is really good.

Instead of 'throwing' my knee, particularly in 'firm' conditions I will place my hand on the outside of front knee and push it toward the snow going thru the turn on toeside. On heelside hand pushes on back knee towards centerline of board. This also does great things for keeping shoulders level throughout the turn. I like it. I had this same thought.

Wow.....that is....just...... I have spent years of my life in the woods here. Almost every powder day afternoon. During years like last year it becomes just incredible. Everywhere the woods are filled with lines, not just a couple of tight ones. There are some black holes and some very dense and tight trees with deadfall in places but it is really amazing. And there is a LOT in play in bounds. If you start going out the gates then it just compounds the goodness. Going OB does add a bit of hazard. You should come play again. Love to be your guide. And Arnie is all right. At least he skis and cares about the environment. I have never seen him with anyone but himself around town. As in no bodyguards or anything. We do have some high rollers come thru with security but Arnie doesn't seem to be one.

Of course we have supplemental O2, but you have to know someone in the patrol shack to get the supplemental hangover cure. Not sure I get the 'no woods' reference...

The under bed board storage in that one pic is awesome. Good to see you guys carving the Big Fish. Maybe someday I will get to travel and board again......

So today was another one....3 day groom, that is. People go all gaga over powder and I hit it hard the last couple of days and had a ball too. But today was three day groom day. That is the special time when the groomers have had a couple of nights worth of tilling the freshly fallen goodness. Now that we have a decent base of snow the third day carving has been excellent and today was no exception. Superb, chalky, groomery, beautiful, smooth goodness everywhere. And the bonus is that it was too warm to blow snow, hovering at about 30F, so no piles of man made messing anything up. Most people don't understand how exciting this is. And it was a Monday meaning not a lot of people. Well anyway, I had a really, really good morning and I know I made some skiers mad because of the trench depth. FYI this is in Sun Valley and it is just about as good as it gets.

Sounds to me like you are twisting your shoulders around too much. Your toeside looks leaned over. Try reaching for the snow with the other hand. Beware all kinds of quick turns can happen.