nigelc

one of the problems is that while the rules make clear that those downhill have right of way they also say that those traversing must give way. In every incident I have been involved with this year the other party has claimed I was traversing. When I am carving i am often changing edges across the fall line, particularly when trying to control speed. No matter how many times I have pointed out to the moron involved that as they were not in sight uphill when i started downhill then they must have been overtaking me they have refused to accept they were in the wrong. Its one thing being hit by an idiot, but when said idiot then claims its your fault the red mist comes down. I have in the past made mistakes and hit people on the skifield, though not for some years. In all cases I have been horrified and apologised profusely. I understand that it is not a perfect world and sometimes things do not go to plan. This attitude of messing up and then not accepting responsibilty i do not understand at all. The last offender this year abused me so much that i had a total loss of temper.

I have been collected six times this last season. It's getting to the point where I am considering giving up. So far I have not been badly hurt but only by good fortune. Before I set out I always wait - sometimes for five or ten minutes - for a gap when the slope is less crowded. Each time I have been hit by some moron straightlining out of control. They are skiers and boarders, old and young, no particular group has a monopoly on stupidity. Each time they have claimed it is my fault, even though clearly I am downhill and riding very much in control. The ski patrol are useless and do nothing to enforce rules. The ressponse i get from them is unless they see the incident they can do nothing. Four additional incidents this season involved people I was riding with being taken out from above, on one occaision sustaining a concussion, on another a hard enough impact to break loose a catek binding from the board. I have had enough.

I threw my wife off that swing for her 40th birthday..... ......of course there is no way you would get me on it other than at gunpoint

matiu's email is matiu68@libero.it

ex world cup rider Matiu Matteoli is teaching at coronet peak, NZ. I took a lesson this week and I am happy to thoroughly recommend his teaching. just a heads up

PBO or even Boron - boron would give you metal in fibre form. Would it work ? no idea. It would empty wallets very effectively.

ok. i had an opinion, it was wrong. still i learned something:)

the rubber may give some dampening but isn't it in there primarily to absorb shear as the board flexes to avoid core bond shear failure? chris prior or sean martinwhat do you say?

also I was thinking more of a process like that used in high end yacht sails where the designer uses finite element analysys to determine a stress map of the sail and than the sail is constructed by gluing individual fibres aligned with the stress lines. Interestingly this process and cnc machinery that is associated with it was adapted and used by boeing for the seamless composite tube fuselage on the new dreamliner

Actually I would have thought that there is allready enough longitudinal stiffness from the wood core and whatever woven rovings/csm are between the layers of layup. I was envisaging unidirectional fibres layed corner to corner diagonally across the board to specifically adress torsion.

the good news is that mine is coming along pretty good. I have been cycling on the road and on the wind trainer and I am back to running about 25km's a week. The only thing which gives me stress is if I plant my right foot and twist. No more soccer! I will definitely be on my board in a few weeks. Injury was around first of march.

surely what metal gives is aboard which is very stiff torsionally .i.e.very low stretch for the metal membrane and very soft longitudinally i.e. very low resistance to bending for the metal. I have never understood why this could not be achieved with composite construction. Surely the ability to place individual fibres aligned to resist specific stress makes composite construction ideal for isolating specific stresses.

The point my surgeon, a personal friend, made to me reagrding the pcl repair is that for 50-60% of people undergoing the surgery the outcome is no better than what I have now in terms of joint laxity and prospective further meniscus damage. I have a complete rupture of the PCL. Essentially he sees the risk of undergoing the procedure as higher than not having it. New Zealand has a very high rate of knee injuries due to the rugby culture and the surgeons here get lots of practice.

thats what I would have thought until snowmans use of the word float, which is why I am intrigued

from the happy fun plate thread: "Turning a short board long requires the mastery of the float. Some people have a brutally hard time with this, usually its because they feel the need to be in a locked in turn all the time" I would really appreciate some further detail on this Snowman, if possible

I know I am not very bright and I am old and I have had red wine but why oh why is there that bull**** captcha on the search function which we never used to have and which for the life of me I cannot get past?

looks like Ondrej's old board? Or at least he had a very similar choc - When i watched him ride it he certainly cut some deep trenches and he looked like he was having a blast!

should be in queenstown 2nd and 3rd weeks of august, knee permitting.

I have been hit three times by skiers from behind in the last year in almost identical circumstances to you. I am really losing my sense of humour about it. I am carefull. I check uphill before i start. I look uphill while I am riding whenever i can. Some of these guys are going so fast over unsighted rises or are so out of control that i am becoming very concerned. Also hit by one snowboarder in the side of the head when he launched unsighted onto a cat track leading into a lift line-up area. No sense of humour on that one - red mist and i just gave him the full benefit of a solid right hook with an angry 100kgs behind it. i believe he appreciated my point of view more keenly after that and i felt a great deal better.

much appreciated - I am sure it will while away the hours!

How easy is it to remove a top sheet? I have an old board that fits the specs of something i want to try but it is much too soft. I am considering peeling off the topsheet and laying up carbon in place of it to acheive what I want. The board is worth nothing to me and I have plenty of free time and access to cheap carbon and resin etc. I am planning to vacuum bag the new layup on top of the exposed core/old layup. if it takes a few goes to get it right then i am fine with that. Anyone with any experience with this stuff?

Funny i rode on mine every day for a week after the injury. It was good while riding but other more mundane stuff like going down stairs was very painfull. A good friend of mine is a good orthopedic surgeon catering mostly for knee injuries here in NZ. Due to the rugby culture there is a limitless supply of customers for a knee surgeon. His advice to me is that the outcomes for PCL reconstruction are no better than I have now - a grade 2 (100%) rupture and that there is a 90% chance of undergoing a painful oeration for no gain. He has told me to get on my road bike and start pedaling to build up the muscles holding my knee together. Luckily my quads are reasonably good from carving! The captain of the NZ rugby team - the All Blacks - sustained exactly the same injury before the world cup in australia in 2003. he was declared fit to play international rugby again four weeks later and he is still playing, though in semi retirement.

Try the above. available from McCoo's in skiers plaza, Whistler. Not as good as the right size boots but they will take up quite a bit of slack and will prove alot cheaper. personally I would choose the right size boots AND the intuitions.

Sore knee on return from whistler recently which also did not improve - yup the MRI confirms a ruptured PCL and damaged medial collateral. Worse is that like you the other knee is almost as loose - because as it turns out according to the doc I have also destroyed that one, probably a couple of years ago. What fun. As a friend of mine said growing old is not for sissys

both times on toe side at end of turn so weight on back toe, both times a little out of balance when hitting a large bump which forced my weight back further causing total losss of control, catching the heel egde and slamming onto my back. Thank god for helmets. First time tear to medial ligament on back leg, shoulder seperation. second time worse medial tear and complete PCL ruture on back leg. accidents were foure years apart. boots in ride mode always