Neil Gendzwill

The visibility and snow conditions have a huge effect on the kind of day you're having. Flatlight is particularily insidious - all sorts of subtle visual cues that you didn't realize you were relying on are gone. But aside from that, yeah, we all have good and bad days with sports. Somedays you're the windshield, somedays you're the bug...

I just donated to Canadian Red Cross. Google has a list of organizations you can donate to. I note American Red Cross has already collected over $3M through the Amazon link. From the world-wide reaction, I don't know if cash is going to be an issue - the logistics of actually getting the aid to the people seems to be the main problem. Odd though how people keep calling this the greatest disaster of our lifetime - 600,000 dead in China in '76 barely dented the news then and I guess they're forgotten now.

How about most of the above? For my latest purchase, based on the terrain/mountain I like to ride, I selected a general style of board, then a manufacturer based on recommendations from people I trust (BOL), then give my requirements to the manu and let them sort out the details. That's 4 of the poll options.

Factor of 10 in energy, not amplitude. My dad teaches geophysics here at the university. They have a monitoring system here which can pick up earthquakes on the other side of the world as small as 5.0 - this one would have easily pegged the needle for quite a while.

Wally, that one would be your fault. You're the uphill rider, you came over a blind ridge out of control. No excuse.

This classic from the Straight Dope settles the matter. Have a joyous and peaceful Christmas, everybody.

Ski Canada did a profile on Owl's Head - mellow, mellow, mellow. I believe their summation was "lots of opportunity to view the scenary as you cruise down the unchallenging terrain".

Happy hannukah, have a blessed Festivus, whatever. Have a listen to this tune to put you into the Christmas spirit.

I usually do them at the end of my normal workout, and then rather than do it all at once I do one minute sets (or sits, wucka-wucka) with a minute rest between them. I can't do much more than 2 minutes at a stretch after I'm done with squats, etc. They're kinda funny to watch from the outside - just looks like the dude's resting against the wall, until you notice the sweat pouring and the shaking thighs...

What you want is a Prior 4WD or a Donek Axis, probably in a 170-ish length. Coiler makes a direct competitor, the AM, but as you point out delivery is an issue. Either of them new will chew up all of your budget, though. If you check the Prior website you'll find some used/demo boards for a little cheaper. If you want to do this on the cheap, you could get an old Burton Alp. There's some NOS ones at Klug's site, see here. The 64 would be a good starter board for you but at your weight it's probably pretty soft - I think you'd outgrow it pretty fast.

Just keep in mind while you're doing that chair sit - world cup skiers can do that sucker for 10 minutes. 10!!! I can do 3 or so if I'm fresh.

Hey, my Dad's 69 and still goin' - on skis, but still. He's not shy of hitting the bump runs with me.

I'm 43 and it's getting better, not worse, thanks to some fairly serious cross-training. Pick up heavy stuff a lot in the off-season, and do some running or biking - you'll find a big difference.

You can ride the same angles you have now if you like. I used to ride my Burton Asym Air, which was a 25 cm waist, with 33f 30r, worked fine.

I doubt the guy wants to switch to hardboots, but really Bombers or Cateks are not necessary if you're going to use 413s on a freeride board. A pair of F2 step-ins would do just dandy.

It all gets into grey areas. You can't live in a rubber room, but some safety measures make obvious sense. Libertarian types like to argue those extremes but geez, can't you guys wrap your heads around something that is simply not black and white? There really hasn't been much of a protest here about seatbelts and helmets. Drinking and driving laws are stiff too, but nothing compared to say Norway. Probably the best thing we could do for our health care system is to ban smoking, but that ain't gonna fly. So they tax the hell out of cigarettes, and ostensibly plug the money back into healthcare.

I won't get into an argument over the benefits of public health care. I'll only say that I, like the vast majority of Canadians, support it. There are problems, but the system as a whole is a Good Thing - I'll leave it at that. You need to balance risk/benefit as always. I'd hazard a guess that the number of people as a percentage who require helmets in a crash in a convertible is considerably lower than those in bikes. And of course seatbelts are useful in even minor crashes with very little inconvenience to the driver.

Yup, here in Canuckoland where your idiocy in not wearing seatbelt or helmet translates directly to dollars out of my pocket, I fully support the laws. But I'd support them even if we didn't have public healthcare - the government has a certain duty to protect it's citizens. Especially with kids - lets make sure that even if kids' parents are dolts, that there are laws which force the use of carseats and seatbelts. As far as ski helmets - that's kind of a grey area to me. Not really enough risk to justify the government intervention, although I think they should be involved in certification.

Do you also oppose mandatory seatbelt and motorcycle helmet legislation? Just curious.

Thomas Grandi finally did what we all knew he could and scored a gold in GS at Alta Badia. CBC's report is here.

I think that's actually a pretty fair description of an AT (alpine touring) binding. Here's an example.

Doh! Mine looks like the Bomber leash, except it's a different brand. It's short enough that I don't have trouble with it flapping - just attach one end to the upper boot strap.

I've got a short leash with a Fastex buckle in the middle. Both halves of the buckle have a short loop of cord attached. One part of the buckle is attached to the front toe bail, the other to one of the buckle straps on the boot. Click together and go. Forget the brand name.

Which year of PJ had the mixed black and white swirly bottom which supposedly combined the best features of regular ptex and carbon? I lusted after that board...

You want it that short, too? If you check the custom section at Coiler, Bruce has already done a 159 cm AM with an 18.5 cm waist, so you wouldn't have to pay any extra for that template. Main problem is the waiting list - I don't think you could get it for this season.