jason_watkins

saw that and thought of you dan :) I borrowed a longboard from a buddy... the thing terrifies me. How I skated back in middle school I'll never understand.

TV: Since you have a deadicated basement room you can darken, consider front projection. The full on movie experience, and surprisingly affordable. projectorcentral.com is a good place to research some options. Speakers: A set of something like NHT's SuperZero combined with a good subwoofer can sound excelent. Another safe option would be most of B&W's line, their quality is excelent. Energy is another good brand, and some of their Connesuire line has been for sale online at a fantastic deal lately. In general I'd suggest you stear away from what Best Buy et all sells, and go listen to some speakers at an independant hifi store. Find what you like, then find the best deal on it online. Subwoofer: http://www.svsubwoofers.com/ and http://www.hsuresearch.com/ are probibly the best values.

No, it's quite smart actually. They're building a database of social connections. It's also why gmail has been by invite only. This information should be fairly lucrative for them in the future.

Hey man, glad to hear you're ok. Yeah, I used to bike to work regularly, and was always very paranoid about drivers. It's scary how many oblivious drivers there are out there. Of course, bikers in portland tend to do their share, by ignoring traffic controls when it's convenient for them, which of course doesn't help matters. But anyhow, all that ranting is besides the point. Find some nice sidestreets to get to work on. It's more plesant scenary anyhow :).

Wildwood is very good. Higgins is debatibly the best in town. Lemongrass is great. I also like Typhoon on 23rd (but was disappointed the only time I went to the one on broadway). A hidden gem for thai is Khum Pik Bahn Thai on SE Belmont. It's in an old victorian home, the husband runs the tables and the wife and grandma run the kitchen. Excelent food. Another pizza option is Pizza Oasis on NW 22nd and burnside. Thick style stuff. Another favorite of mine is the Rose and Raindrop. Mellow attitude, cozy well worn pub feel, but better than average pub food. El Gaoucho has the rep of being the best steakhouse, but it's bloody expensive and is too snooty for my taste. I'm partial to Ringside on burnside and nw 22nd for steak. For ethiopian my fav is Horn of Africa. Fusion in SE is an excelent eclectic little place. Thrift store kitch turned into stylish decore, and a great eclectic menu to go with it. Delta Cafe on woodstock would give you more of the portland trendy hippie flavor... but despite those pretentions, it's good comfort food.

http://portland.citysearch.com/ What price range and atmosphere are you looking for?

Sorry, haven't been frequenting over here. Assuming by your other thread you're targeting downtown. In the immediate surrounds of PSU is very conveninent, but fairly pricey. There are tax subsidized income restricted buildings in that area your son may qualify for. Moving out from that area, anyplace near the streetcar line or the light rail is fairly convenient to get to and from PSU without a car. So that defines a corridor that really spans the city east to west. I like my neighborhood: the alphebet blocks NW of downtown. Start looking at stuff off NW 21st and 23rd, centering on marshall or so and spreading out. It's a short drive, quick walk, or short ride on the streetcar to get to PSU from here. Plenty of places to eat or get a drink. NE portland is definately the cheapest, and is popular with the grad student crowd, judging by some aquantances. The neighborhoods arn't so good (higher risk of petty theft, not really of violent crime). Beyond that, if he plans to use a car, anything in the city interior is pretty convenient. Cutting through downtown proper or getting accross the bridges in busy times can be a little bad... but definately better than trying to hit freeway to get to and from the suburbs. Overall, the central city is a fairly neighborhood oriented place. No matter where you look, you should be able to find something near a cluster of restraunts and pubs, and of course a grocery. I rather like that, compared to the suburbs where your only close option is a strip mall full of franchise places.

damn, the snow gods hate us yeah, I'm not likely to show up either. I wish I'd not taken so much time off work for other things, it seems wed was a kickass day :D

lone: how do you think it'd manage at commuter duty?

huh In my memory I recall you hinging at the hips a bit more and angulating, as well as riding with a quicker rythem. Maybe that's just cuz Bryan was around that day so you were riding with a bit more of his style.

Ironicly enough my buddy rides a balance (159 I believe) from about that model year (same base as your pic, slightly different top sheet coloring), and I used to ride a donek wide 161 all the time. As for stability at speed, there's no contest at all, definately the donek. The burton rode very loose. I suppose that might be a taste issue, but I'd much rather the board that will track flat and punch through chop (or be damp enough to soak it up). The balance danced base flat, let alone on chop. The balance definately was quick to maneuver at slow speeds on steeper slopes. Very easy feeling compared to the donek. But once you give the donek some speed it comes alive. Plenty of snap out of the tail to pop into the next turn, making it very maneuverible once you start truckin' a bit. Plus with the gobs of edge hold you can actually commit without being worried about the board getting away from you.

Jeeze, what's all this crap about the ski area boundary on meadow's page. I guess with vista being in more people are wandering into white canyon. http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/total_forecast/text_only.php?wfo=pqr&zone=orz011&county=orc005 Forecast looks great. I'll be headin' up to meadows on sat.

So this is the thread wherin we learn Randy is a man-whore :) Barry: it should please you to know that I remember all the names of the girls I've had meaningless casual sex with and then never spoken to again. Seriously though... I mean, epic snowboard is well.. epic. And the perfect day of heliboarding is up there on my list. But c'mon, a full day with your dream date? I'm definately gonna have to go with that.

Coverage is awsome. I'm sure it'll melt and compress down, but right now, everything on the lower mountain is ridible. Randy: nice to meet you and share some runs. Mike/Bonnie: guess we were just outta sink with eachother today :D The rest of you: it was crazy crowded today (for a weekday), people parked down the access road and all. Saterday is gonna be nuts. Check ze forecast, tomorrow might be a rain out. Friday is lookin' good though, to bad I can't play hookey twice in one week :D

Coiler AM 169, 20cm waist (9.9m sidecut). It's fairly soft compared to other boards I've ridden, particularly in the waist. I handles chopped up runs great, and I had a good time with it in the trees with a couple inches of fresh a few weeks ago. Today was the first time I took it into deep fresh. Understanding that my skill with hardboots is still improving, I did find float to be a bit of an issue today. If I carried speed I was fine, but no picking my way slowly through the trees. I don't really mind though, usually on a day like today I'd rather be on a dedicated powder ride. Still, with a bit more mileage on it in those conditions I think I'll be able to manage it if need be. But for everything else so far, I love it. I think dampness is a key feature for a AM hardboot board.

Just a thought, but you might want to look for someone with experience fitting AT/Tele boots, since their flex is more similar to hardboots. I think next season I'm going to have to get some real footbeds... the off the shelf ones I've got right now have a bit to much arch for my foot. I was planning to go to OMC since they seem to be the place to go for alpineism types.

I know the feeling. I've barely gotten to ride this season, but I've had a few days where I was hitting a level of technique consideribly above what I thought I was capable of. I keep bummping above a breakover point where suddenly everything just starts working unconciously. It's frustrating because I don't think I'll be able to put in enough mileage in the season that remains to really push myself accross that breakover point permanantly. I'm going to have to rediscover some of this in the first few days of next season :rolleyes:

There's more templates than what he has listed. So just ask, because what you want might be available without going to a custom template. My all mountain 169 has a 20cm waist, and otherwise is stock specs, which has worked out to be just about perfect for me.

Actually, canned food day this year was pretty empty. Not weekday emtpy, but not the crowd you'd expect. I'll be there tomorrow and saterday, possibly sunday too. Hope to see some of you guys. I'll probibly have radios, and I'll defiantely have my cell on me (503-381-8125).

There's quite a few incentives going for Mt. Bachelor right now. If you've got a season pass to a closed WA resort (or schwietzer, ski bowl or a couple others) you get $10 off. You can buy a 3 day ticket for $99 as well. March 18th is the wells fargo $10 friday, coupons should be at your local wells fargo. I'll be there the 18th, 19th and 20th with some buddies.

Racers: yeah, they were there. They had most of the ridge line above heather on shooting star again, and had taken over half of the bottom bit of the run that heads over toward the top of the heather chair before making a left turn to the shooting star base. Additionally, they had a course set on vista and a course set on cascade. Overall, there were less schools operating than 2 weeks ago when I was up and bumped into you. Coverage was 'ok' on the upper slopes, You can lap vista or cascade with little issue. The lower mountain is trashed. Defiantley ride a rock board. They came close to gettin' me to spend $4 on some damn french fries, but my will was strong ;). On the plus side: lifts operated at full speed all day, lines were short, and aside from some crowding around 10am, for the most part, you could find a gap in the people on a run and have some room to play. Hope to run into you slopet.

MikeT: Yeah, I don't really know what I look like when I get on it. Maybe I can drag Dave Dean up to the hill tomorrow with his dv cam and get some footage to do some self coaching on. God knows I'm not going to have many more days to ride this season :/. Hrmm... not a bad idea, bonus is I'll get to film dave breaking whatever bodypart he's sure to break when he overshoots the big table yet again. :D

Dan and Dave. Nice to bump into you guys, would be cool to chat on a chair sometime. Sorry I was the laggard this morning. Once the snow softened up and I got used to that board, I started havin a really good day actually. Saw you guys from the vista chair on cascade a couple times. Since I've discovered that old burton makes an ok slush board, I'm probibly gonna go up tomorrow morning.

Ok, that makes it solid, I'll be up saterday.

email me at: jason_watkins@pobox.com