dantheman0177

That's the Aussie spirit of adventure, right there!

Skipuppy, Forget about marraige, but I'll be your grunt any time you want to come to Australia (or indeed if you make the journey to SES). I think you are my hero

The guys at Full Bore do a pretty good product and I know they can do a custom job too. How do I know? Well I manage the building they are in, and I check out their factory all the time. I have also got various custom bits and pieces (surf board bags, snowboard bags, kayak paddle covers, footstraps, etc) from them. Also, your USD / AUD exchange rate advantage could really work in your favour. Website is www.fullbore.com.au Good luck Dan

And we thought we had this whole supremacy over women thing wired, and you go in and play the ulitmate trump card If the grunt work means lugging your gear to the top of the mountain, as long as I get to board back down, well, I'll cop that sweet. :D

My girlfriend tells me I have too many toys already.... but I would like to receive my new racing double kayak (K2) and new super light carbon paddles.

Good stuff. Wish I had got into it that young, rather than in my late 20's. Oh, and if you want girl support, there are some awesome female riders out there. Just look at Michelle for starters!

Phil, after all, I am an estate agent!

Um, I think you will find a link at www.grantsforhotuscarvingchicks.gov.au If not, well I guess we can always make short term subsidised accommodation available.

You know I think we might even have government grants for your kind of imports :D And Michelle, if you are such a sucker for the accent, do you reckon you could rig the SES raffle for me this year again? A board would be just great

I know when I am outnumbered and will choose to beat a hasty retreat rather than fight an unwinable battle. That being said, ladies, you are independent free thinking individuals, so I will leave it to you to make your own minds up.....

Here we go....Post #100 Phil, didn't you realise that's why the Brits sent us convicts overe here in the first place. They were scared we'd take all the good women and the race would be left to wither into insignificance....oh, gee, seems like that happened anyway! haha But if you Americans didn't want us to come take your girls too, you shouldn't have pushed globalisation and affordable mass transport to us. So if you hadn't done that, we wouldn't be invading the world (so to speak).

Export? How about you export yourself and Michelle over here??? Might even make all your local guys realise what they have been missing out on right under their noses! Otherwise, come to SES. I will be there (for what that's worth) along with one of my best mates who all the girls here reckon is great.

30, commercial real estate agent. Surfing and snowboarding are the only things that keep me sane.

We have a pretty good Inter Schools competition and most of the race club meets seem to have lots of juniors. However I am not sure how much alpine snowboarding is involved. I have a feeling it is more aimed at skiers than boarders. Also, our hills are really small in comparison, so the courses are pretty short. But it might be worth having a look around the web, because it could provide a good out of season opportunity for you, as well as a cost effective one, given the value of our respective currencies.

That's right. In places like....Australia!!! :lol:

The new DC soft boots that I ordered yesterday have the cable system in them and it is pretty awesome. A friend of mine doesn't like them though because he has a big calf and the system cranks the lace at the same pressure all the way up the boot, which he doesn't like. Me on the other hand, I think it is great. I also have a set of 3 year old Flow bindings, which I am due to replace this year. For our hills here, which are short runs and have crappy snow, the step in's are great because you don't waste time at the top of the run strapping in. But there is way too much flex in the binding (particularly side to side) and they are hard to get really tight across the toe. They are also a bugger to get into in powder. As much as I hate the hassle of ratcheting in at the start of every run, I am going back to a stiff set of straps this year for sure.

Gabe, I tried hard booting for the first time last year at SES. If you can make it to one of the Expression Sessions, I highly recommend it. The people are awesome; so friendly and helpful that you can't help but improve and have fun doing it. The set up I started on was a Burton Coil 173 with fairly soft old Burton bindings and a new pair of LeMans boots. In terms of binding angles, I just did what the BOL articles suggested and set them as low as possible without any overhang. Basically that meant 50/45. Considering I ride 18/6 on my soft boot setup, it was a bit trippy at first. Just go slow for starters until you start to feel the rythym. Sean Cassidy suggested riding in Walk Mode to get used to the stiffness and I found that helped. Then once I stared to feel comfortable with the set up I played around with the foward lean, but basically I now ride 3 & 3, which is the middle setting, locked on both boots. That is, unless it is cruddy snow (which is most of the time in Australia) and then I just go back to walk mode. At SES I demo'ed the Donek Axis and the Prior 4WD. Both awesome boards. The extra width certainly helps in the transition from soft to hard boots. I don't recommend going to a narrower board too early because it will require a much more aggressive angle on your bindings which is tough to get used to. I tried a Donek Freecarve and just couldn't quite get it at the time (though hoping to graduate this year). Other than that, all I can suggest is to just ride and ride and eventually it all clicks and you don't even realise it. Good luck. Cheers Dan

I'll be there, plus one friend in soft boots who I will try to convert over the course of the week. We are driving in from Vail, probably on Sat morning and leaving the following Sat morning. Coming all the way from Torquay, Australia. Hey Fin, am I going to win the "Furthest Travelled to get to SES Award" again???

Billy, Burton Balance...talk to me. What sort of weight range would it handle? Conditions over here are not A1 for carving hard boots often, and my mates all ride in softies, so I like to have a stiffer, carve friendly free ride board. Also what would we be talking for shipping to Oz? Cheers Dan e: danielh@hayden.com.au

I got one last year when I was in Canada. I think it cost me about $300 CAD at the time. It tracks speed and distance through a GPS unit that you strap around your arm, or somewhere appropriate. I actually find it a bit chunky, so I have actually not used it all that much. But it seems to work pretty well. I don't know how it would go for snow sports though because there is a built in error of about 25 metres and I also think that it works on the basis of horizontal movement, not vertical.

Oh yeah, and just a sneaky way to push the posts & views up into immortality!

Ah yes, point taken (though I did want an excuse to use the machine gun guy, sorry it had to be you)

Oh now Peter that's not nice.... Time to defend some fair maidens

It has to be because you look so damned good trying to struggle out of it!!! :D

Some fantasies, while good, should not be shared on "this" kind of forum!