Scorpio

I don't see anything wrong with trying to win an auction for the lowest possible price. As buyers, we want the best value. What seems unfair to others (ie . "sniping" or bidding within the last few minutes) is not against ebay policy. Individuals have their own strategies for bidding. If it works for one and not another, so be it.

Nate, What are you having Happy Monkey build? Are you testing alpine stock for them or just having them build a freeride deck?

I know there are a bunch of riders here who frequent smaller mountains. There are also a ton of riders here who frequent crowded resorts (big or small) esp on the weekends. How many of you guys are taking out your GS sticks (longer than 170cm) during these conditions? It seems that most everyone on BOL has at least one stick longer than 170cm and ride it regularly. Is that an accurate assumption? The mantra on this forum seems to be 'longer is better' but many of us seem to ride at resorts that may be less than favorable for GS turns whether it be due to the day of the week and crowds, or just the sheer size of the mountain.

For any of you interetsed in purshasing a Tomahawk, it looks like they have a website now. I'm assuming its the same company since its location is in Italy. The site isn't too detailed but does give some basic info. Its in english too. http://home.tiscali.nl/raymondw/tomahawk/index.html

When used to live in NYC, I used to take the Emilio's bus from pipedreams or the Princeton Ski shop one. In all honesty, they're all relatively the same. The emilio's bus seems to have a lot of young kids on it or more uptown people while the princeton one attracts more downtown people most likely becuase location.

Ike, Glad you like the pics. If you want to do any research on the rossi boards, do a search on the site and you'll find a bunch of posts. People ask about rossi boards every now and then. Here's one post from last year which I started. According to Nils in the thread, it seems like this board is a 94-95 vintage with the wood core but there is still debate on this. http://www.bomberonline.com/VBulletin/showthread.php?t=2598&highlight=rossi Although others may have other opinions, I think a 159 would be good for a growing kid like yourself. My girlfriend who is about 5'1 weighing about 100lbs rides a 149cm carving board but is certainly capable of riding something longer. That being said, she's a pretty good snowboarder and an aggressive rider. Past threads will describe the foam core/wood core thing better than me. Email me and let me know what you think.

Ike, email me offline and I'll send you pics. I tried emailing you but your email is disabled in your profile. Click on my username and select the option to email.

Ike, If you're looking for a starter alpine setup without breaking the bank, I have a rossi race vas 159cm with snow prow race bindings I'd sell to you for $125. If you're looking to spend a little bit more, I'd suggest the Donek Pilot. Its new this season and can be bought as a package including bindings from donek. We're all waiting for reviews on them by people who bought them this season. You're other options are to just cruise the classifieds here look for a good deal. Ebay, catek and some of the other carving sites are good too. Or you can continue using plates on your freeride deck. I'm sure a lot of people here will tell you to start with a good pair of boots that fit well. In any case, no matter what "starter" setup you get, you're gonna want to upgrade quick because your skills will certainly progress as well as your desire to get some pretty awesome gear. Just to warn you, its addicting....

Aside from the ridiculous markup, the replenishment cycle for clothing and accessories versus hardgoods is more frequent. A person might buy maybe one board every couple of years if that. Whereas that same person might get a new shirt, jacket, leash etc... every season if not multiple times in that season. Money is def in the soft goods.

I was speaking with an action sports consultant who stategically advises companies in the action sports industry and he made an interesting comment. "One piece of bad news- this is a tough industry right now. Especially in hard goods, making money is difficult. Lacking any significant product differentiation not based on marketing, price is important. Big companies, like VF industries, are getting to be more and more important. It’s not so much the action sports industry any more as the fashion business. What use to be considered big companies in action sports are now smaller companies in this much larger playing field. I’ve been suggesting that if your revenues are under $1billion, you may have trouble competing at this new level unless your niche is very, very well defined." So, although we chastize burton and like companies, they are still about business, for better or worse.

Shred, I dig the Angel wings one. Is that an option on their boards?

My girlfriend has been snowboarding way longer than I have and is damn good at it. She got me into it and now I'm hooked. She may regret it now considering I'm more into it than she is but it's nice having a girl that can rip it up and essentially hold her own with the majority of dudes on the slopes. What sucks is that she tried carving once when I bought her some equipment but she didn't care for it too much. She's gonna stick with her softies and maybe, just maybe, bust out the carving gear once a season if that.

These gone? Pics?

So you shipped her a board, it got lost in transit, she accused you of defrauding her, and then she sends you a pic of her in a thong with an alpine board? This sounds like a penthouse letter. If we were playing bullsh!t, I'm calling "bullsh!t" on you!!!!!

That's just plain awesome. Fin, start up the caption contest again and use this pic.

mail sent.

Dave, did you have to get longer screws when you added the rubber gaskets?

read this. http://www.bomberonline.com/store/boots/sizing_chart.cfm#expect measure your foot in cm and that's essentially your mondo size. Of course other factors such as moldable liners, widths etc... will come into play but this should get you started.

I was thinking about picking up a set of yellow bumpers to replace my purple but thinking about it more, the TD1 is stiff as hell and am not sure the yellows would make much of a difference. I don't want to spend $30 on a new set if the difference is negligible. Anybody have experience with both?

Is the binding sold?

mail sent

I'm sure most of us have been drooling over the gear posted recently by the racers you just mentioned. We'd love to help out a racer's cause but coming up w/ the $700-800 is the hardest part. I'd help out in a second if I had the money to buy one of those tomahawks. If I might ask, do racers buy new gear every season? If a lot of expenses are out of pocket and racer's don't earn the greatest income, how can one purchase multiple decks costing several hundred dollars and the supplemental gear to boot?

I've bought the discs from sean at donek to put under my TD1's. I actually never used them since I mounted different bindings to my axis but they should work. I bought them for $20 including hardware. Sean will probably have to cut some for you but they would certainly work.

I'd rather have this thread resurrected than the "OT - waaaaaaaay OT" thread....

To give some background, I was thinking about helping my girlfriend sell some of her custom made shirts online. Her friends have been asking her to make some so I thought it might be ambitous to try and sell them outside of her circle of friends. If she did, I'd help her out but neither of us have any idea how to create a website.