bobble

you farkin bastage! my eyes are blind!!! i cannot see!!! well, good enough to type anyways. i've seen that one before. it always gets me.

i bought a cheapo plastic 3d camera from loreo. problem is it splits a 35mm frame in half so it reduces the viewable image. there are 3d attachments for SLR cameras that do the same thing as the loreo. the quality isn't great. the viewers for those cameras have plastic lenses. they magnify the image but there's this strange chromatic distortion that i don't like about them. those magic eye books are hard. when you have 3d images of real things as opposed to little dots its easier for your eyes to properly cross to get the 3d effect. whats really strange is if you mix up the left and the right image and try to view it. its like looking into an inverted mold -- the backfground is in the foreground and vice versa. its easy to mistake it as 3d but when you swap the images then it really stands out as being true 3d. the 3d pictures of the gears and mountain scene could've been done on a single camera. i like the mountain one, the trees really stand out. with digital cameras its so frickn' cheap just to take 2 pictures side by side and make 3d pictures. yeah, i hope they do turn out too.

today, buck was most excellent. the high today was about 15F. i was having a blast. i didn't want to leave but i was so frickn' hungry and tired. i left at 1:15pm. a few people were asking about our boards today. re: the 3D camera. i've been playing around with taking stereograms or 3D pictures using a small digital camera. i built that rig for 3D action shots. i honestly don't know how well this will turn out because i don't know much about film SLR cameras. last time i tried this on trent it didn't work very well because i wasn't close enough to him. today, the lighting had changed between runs. i might have overexposed pictures. oh well. if i can get just one shot to work, i'll consider it a success. once i get the photos i'll explain viewing. karl, next time i'll photograph your wall of snow.

yes, that would be him. he initiated talking to us. he even waited at the bottom to ride the chair. he's actually pretty good, but the ski poles???

he scared me just for the fact he didn't yield. as i started my run he would start his. i started going after him. ski poles were another deterrent. for some reason the alpine board, ski poles, uni-suit makes me think of some cigarette advertisement like "welcome to marlboro country". smoke'm if you got them. life is good, indeed

came out in the morning. it was cloudy. temp was 5F i believe. snow was good but i started to feel strange on the board so i went to re-adjust the bindings. found that i couldn't remove the binding so i went home. there was no use in fighting it. bob d. was there in the morning. went back in the evening. i must say that this night was unequivocally the BEST snow i've been on this season!!! i should sleep good tonite. i had increased heel lift from 3 to 6 degrees and added a 2 degree cant. i think i'm closer to getting it right. karl and jesse were there. and so was the guy on an alpine board with ski poles. decepticons rule!

went out for only 2 runs. i didn't dress warm enough. the temp is about 5F. my face wasn't well protected as i thought against the snow guns. it was cold on the chair going thru the guns. huge snow mounds out on the run. i'm talking VW micro-buses dumped on the hill towards the top. could be a problem. i got too spoiled on the volkl. i totally suck right now.

really? good to know. you can always count on the weather mid january to be cold. maybe i'll venture out friday evening. i was worthless today at work from yesterday. i think my only complaint about Welch was all the large snow gun piles left on the runs. in particular Dan's Dive. even going down that easy green was not so fun. you'd think they'd groom it better.

I have a Volkl Renn Tiger 06 model that appears to have something going on directly underneath my plate front. I have Cateks. One day I noticed the front plate appeared to be loose. After I retightened the screws there still seemed to be some play. I removed the plate and noticed that the topsheet had a very slight bulge. When the plate is mounted the bottom surface bottoms out on the topsheet instead of the elatomer ring. When I push down hard near the inserts it feels like it might be delaminating but I can't be sure. Anyone know if something like that is repairable?

yes, thanks trent for putting the event together. i was impressed how you spoke in front of the tv crew. good job! you get my vote.

i went there and left after three runs. i was out on my factory prime. my edges were dull and no wax. i was wiping out toe-side and heel-side. i thought conditions weren't too bad but i didn't want to wipe out in front of any more kids. it was crowded and i was very wary of the racers. i saw from the chair two skiers carve almost right into each other where i had my collision. their skis touched but they recovered. just as well, i went home and brought my boards into Eriks. maybe Scuff can fill in the rest.

i was in a collision with a kid yesterday. i was downhill, he was uphill. it was race day so the place was full of kids straight-lining. i was going down a hill adjacent to a race course that was just set up. i was traversing across the run and lost toeside edge just before we hit. there was a snow fence from the race course nearby and so there wasn't room for him to avoid me. after we collided i thought he was seriously injured. i bruised my hip and this morning my leg is aching. he was curled up and not moving. he was probably 12-14 years old. ski patrol showed up and examined him. it looked serious and i was getting nervous but then they got him up. he claimed that i popped out of nowhere and that when we hit that he flipped in the air and landed on his chest. he wasn't wearing a helmet. i'm glad he didn't land on his head. his father came up and asked if i was okay and apologized for his son. my first mistake was going down that run. my second was losing my edge and crossing into his fall line.

glad that the father of that kid that hit me today wasn't a lawyer.

i saw Jeff from November Snowboards. he heard about the Welch session from someone at Welch. he said he might show up. he was riding catek plates on one of his freeride boards.

today was partly cloudy. temp around 31F. run appeared to be groomed but there was ski racing and so crossroads was pretty scorched. the number of skiers to snowboarders on crossroads/milkrun was probably 50:1. i had a collision with a kid on skis on milkrun. i was towards the bottom half and was on toe-side edge heading towards the blue netting. i was going fast and the board had unweighted off of a rut or something. my turn was turning into a wide turn and i was about to switch back to heal side to avoid the fence. in my peripheral vision i saw ski tips. i fell to my hip. we hit. events aren't clear but we somehow got tangled. i remember feeling part of the impact on my front boot. i came to an immediate stop and felt a little bruising on my hip from hitting the ground. the kid's skis were right near me. i look downhill and this kid was about 20 feet away curled up and not moving. i'm thinking "crap, the kid has a broken leg". i heard someone nearby shouting "go get help". bob d. came down. he said didn't see it happen other than he saw i was down. a bunch of ski patrol guys showed up. the kid was still not moving. it took me awhile to get up. i started to get nervous. i didn't know what to say or do. the patrollers were checking him over and the kid wasn't moving. then someone started to help the kid get up. the patrollers asked "did anyone see it happen?" i said i was the one that was in the collision and that i was downhill cutting across when we collided. the kid said i popped out of nowhere. they asked if i was okay. i said that i just got a bruise is all. i was nervous because it was a scene. as we all know anytime a skier and a snowboarder get into an accident, the boarder is to blame. the kid's father was there. he didn't see the accident but he apologized to me and asked if i was okay. i asked if his son was hurt. his son said that when we hit he flipped in the air and landed on his chest and got the wind knocked out. i tried to reconstruct the collision and i'm still not sure what happened. i'm certain that our boots hit. in retrospect i think i freaked. i think i slid into him on my hip and hands. the skis popped off when we hit. bob and i went inside the chalet and saw the kid and his dad. bob talked to them for a bit. the kid was racing today and seemed okay. i was grateful that he wasn't seriously injured. he should have been wearing a helmut. i don't understand how he could be racing without a helmet. we chided him on that. bob, thanks for being there for me. i think your presence helped diffuse the situation. at least thats how i felt. my board has a new gouge on the top all the way down to the fabric. i went back out after awhile but i was really spooked. there were just too frickn' many skiers. conditions weren't all that great anways. it was chunky. left early. on the bright side ... the guy from november snowboards showed up today. he's riding one of his freeride boards with cateks. he heard about the Welch session from a friend at Welch. he might show up. amazing how word gets around.

i was at welch today (friday). it was very soft snow. kept losing heelside edge. flat light didn't help either.

MLK weekend at lutsen? everytime i've gone there on MLK it was 15 below with a -30F windchill. one year they had serious wind so they shut down the bridge lift (i hate that lift). the only way back was a rope behind a snowcat. haven't been there in a couple years. hopefully it'll be decent up there for you. at buck and welch the snow is like carving on a grape squisheee...

sounds like the action is at hyland. alpine curious? i like that. high five.

i went out in the evening. i was expecting total ice so rode in softboots. the snow wasn't icy at all except maybe at the bottom flats. it almost looked like they blew some snow or moved some around because it seemed like there was a lot of good snow. there seemed to be good snow even on the backside to teachers pet. the icy patches were smaller than i remember from sunday. i think the conditions on crossroads would've been carveable but their were small piles of loose snow. it would've been a challenge albeit a small one. the skiiers were having no troubles carving in it. powder ridge, no effin' way. that run is really screwed up by the race training. lots of ruts. the snow on the terrain park is really good. if i get off work at a reasonable time i might venture out tomorrow on hardboots.

oooh, that sucks. at least no surgery is required, right? i'm hoping to stay away from the disabled list. hey, remember this day? see attached...

"The Hand That Feeds" -- Nine Inch Nails "SuperStylin" -- Groove Armada "Lay Low" -- The Church

today the conditions at buck were fair considering the rain we had yesterday; sunny day, temp below 32F, grooming, hardly any people, no race courses. the bottom half of crossroads was icy and granular. milkrun was better. there were death cookies on the backside going to teachers pet. powder ridge was okay. i tweaked my bindings to 63F, 57R. not sure what the cant or lift is set at. i felt a little pidgeon toed with the rear boot. i'm hoping that facing towards the nose will help prevent counter-rotation. chime in if you got suggestions. as part of buck's expansion plan, they've added a new international airport. this is great news. unfortunately it can only be seen on the kstp skycam. you can't see the airport from the top of buck because its made to look like crystal lake using a cloaking device hidden in the clock tower. (seriously, the kstp skycam is showing the Mpls International airport). -bubbles-

yeah, i think i might have to start avoiding that place. i usually go to the dome but there was a game scheduled so skateville was the only choice. he didn't have the jesus juice, just a bag of Famous A%#$ cookies.

i'm not surprised that boarders outnumbered skiiers. almost every run there were gates or courses set up by ski racers. i don't know why there were so many. i was kinda surprised they were setting up poles close to the carve cup run. from the chair it looked a little too close.

on my way to skateville i drove over to buck just for a look-see. it started sleeting around 1:50pm. there were a few people there. seemed like the parking lot over by the buckstone was fairly crowded. there were tubers going in the rain. a friend and i went to skateville. we sometimes go when the weather isn't cooperating. i rollerblade just about as bad as i board - fair to midland. disco stu was there. this guy is hard to miss. he's one of the djs, about mid 30's, disco-fro, rides rollerskates and does all this rollerdisco moves. he's actually quite impressive but on the same token kinda weird. so disco stu started tailing my ass. in my peripheral vision i kept seeing disco 2-3 feet behind me. i'd turn then he'd turn. i'd try to outskate him and he'd follow. so i pulled over to the side. i was thinking the next time he does that i was going to throw an elbow. then he starts tailing my friend. the hokey pokey came on so we went to sit it out "because that's what its all about!". disco stu comes directly right up to us laughing with a bag of Famous Amos cookies. he extends the bag of cookies to me and then my friend. we both declined non verbally. he skated away and found someone else to harass. it was strange. you just don't walk up to adult males offering free cookies. beer? HELL YEAH!!! cookies??? WTF IS YOUR MALFUNCTION?!? after an hour of blading we left. thank God its snowing right now.