Neil Gendzwill

Performer Elite (2nd from the left, 2nd photo) was my first board and a sucky piece of trash 'twas, too.

If they're getting low and putting their hand on the road, they're probably trying to slide rather than carve. Or they're just trying to look cool. Most skaters don't approach this stuff with anywhere near the technical fervour that carvers do, although there are some that get techy. Next thing you know Gilmour's gonna jump on this thread and give you a head full of tech.

Thanks Billy - from the pictures the angles looked a lot lower than 60/57.

Looks like some pretty low angles on that Kessler, Billy - care to divulge your setup?

Stock Coiler AM 172, 21.5 cm waist, 45 front, 40 rear with Raichle 224s and Titanflex stepins. Had it in huge bumps in the double diamond stuff on Goat's Eye at Sunshine (Wildside) and it worked great.

Picked mine up at McNally Robinson - but I think that's strictly a Western Canadian chain.

Nice to hear an avalanche success story, for once.

It also develops enough fiscal vacuum to suck all but the deepest pockets dry. Man, that's some expensive racing.

I don't think it's any problem, never has been for me anyways.

Why can't you switch hands? Too slow, or is there a rule against it?

No, that's Victoria Jealouse. I need to get my own avatar but I don't really have a good picture of myself. ETA: fixed, at least I won't get confused with Ms. Jealouse anymore. But her picture was way better.

You'll have no fun in the slush as a first day in hardboots. I think the guys in the shop are right.

Like lonerider mentioned, I'm one of those guys that rides it all using hardboots and 45 degree angles. One option not mentioned is to go for a narrower waisted freeride board and plates. You could get one of the Rad-Air Tankers which have a 24.5 waist, put hard boots on it and ride the same angles you do now if you like. I use about 40 f/35 rear on mine. When I use my AM, the angles go up to 45/40.

Just popped an email off to you, Allee. We'll be at Sunshine Friday, Saturday and probably Sunday. Any other BOL people who are insane enough to be at Sunshine over Easter, please say hi if you see me - I'll be wearing black and probably the only other hardbooter you see.

Bizarre. So your school's violence filter has probably got "kendo" as a key word, as that video is hosted on the Saskatoon Kendo Club website. Kendo is Japanese-style fencing, using bamboo swords and armour. You didn't miss much anyways.

My understanding: Sandwich construction is better for building limited run, or custom or whatever skiis which is why you see the racers on them. They almost never race on stock skis. Cap construction works well for mass production but is pretty tough to customize. FWIW the Atomic production skis are also supposed to be pretty good. Ski Canada consistently rates them very high in their annual tests, which are some of the only tests left that actually say A is better than B for these reasons.

running, cycling, skateboarding, kendo, hopefully a little wilderness canoeing, some family car camping, lots of backyard barbeques and cold beers.

Just picked up my copy today. The whole magazine is very nice, beautiful photos and quality although at $CDN17 still a mite steep... Anyways the carving article was nice to see. The photos were great, my favourite was the one of Scott Phillips. I even got a quote (along with damn near everyone else on BOL), so yay.

Nice summary except that Billy isn't a wannabe, he's an actual real-life racer. See here for his FIS results summary. If you want to see him do a laid-out turn, look here. There's a ton of other pictures in the hardbooter.com gallery of him ripping hard, too.

I prefer sunglasses to goggles unless it's snowing or cold. Oakley Eye Jackets wrap around nicely and I find no problem with my contacts drying out or whatever.

Brain damage sets in early. We'll be there the 25-27, not this weekend. Whether you choose to brave the Easter madness with us is entirely up to you...

We'll be there, riding on the 18th and 19th for sure and probably the 20th. Not sure if we'll be at Sunshine or Louise, depends on what we hear about conditions.

When I say "ice" I mean it's blue/clear and you can see through it to the snow. When I say "glazed" I mean it's opaque but it's got a crust worn to a glossy finish. When I say "hard" I mean it's super-compacted and compressed (and often composed of man-made snow) but no crust and most people could put an edge into it if they weren't panicking and skidding across it. Saw all three of these in abundance at Panorama a couple of weeks ago.

Not sure what you mean by this - are you saying Canadian news is censored?

The Speedcross is a 22.5 cm waist board. I saw a guy in Panorama on an Eliminator, that's one bad-ass looking freeride board. Quite short and low nose, shorter kick than usual, 25 cm waist. Just the sort of thing aggressive all-mountain softboot guys should be on, IMNSHO.