kipstar

Yeah e$$ay; dOnT mEsZ wId aZn PrYdE :-)

So RJ... where are you from?

Violence never solves anything, but it sure is fun to do a Steve Austin 3:16 and open a can of whop ass of someone. Can someone explain this whole wrestling sport/ I don't get it at all. :-)

Go second hand; wade through ebay, bomber, catek and all the other forums... for me so far got 2 sets of fritschis, (the older plastic ones) for $100 for 2 pairs, same as the oxygens I already had that have proved to be fairly strong (I have trashed a few boards with them, but the bindings are still going after about 150 days)... I bought a pair of F2 titaniums for $90 delivered supposedly still unused which I still haven't seen myself, but am told they are in great condition. The older cateks and bombers second hand would be fine for the most part, because they are built like a rock. These other ones would all do the job if you are 160 pounds (that's about my weight); the difference in force between guys like us and the 200 pound plus guys is quite a bit; however as soon as you get better, you can just offload the 'mid price' ones and get a set of bombers or similar. The biggest thing I'd recommend; try to get a pair where (like the F2s I think, and definitely the fritshi/oxygens) the bail locks onto itself, and doesn't rely on the locking force against the boot to hold it. It means you don't need to overtighten the bindings, and IMHo that is what breaks bindings and bails. I have some snowpros as well, and they are quite a bit more frail IMHO than the F2s or the oxygens. However, at your weight they should be fine too.

I heard those knives cut pickles about as well as D-Sub can cut the cheese.

Fair enough. OK... in New Zealand and Korea that I have seen for myself there is not the degree of recklessness on the slopes that I have seen for myself at Squaw, diamond Peak, mammoth, Mt rose, Alpine Meadows, Homewood. korea gets crazily crowded though, so it might be different during the super crowded times. Not a big sample, and certainly not enough to comment on the rest of the states, so apologies for the generalisation.

I know some of these free heelers ride the park and stuff. Anyone got videos or good website for tele? I always have been interest in this sport .....

Out of interest D-Sub, after you are done with the boots, is there any reason why over summer you could not drop some pickles in there, and that way when the season started, you could have: - happy D-Sub non smelly boots - happy D-Sub stomach filling pickles Always thinking of your best interests :-0

Jack I take your point, and it is little puzzling to me that in other countries without the 'nanny state' mentality you mention of America, there is also not the degree of dangerous skiing that there is in the states. I have thought for a while about this, and conclude there are a few things causing it: - the increased range of groomed runs, including some very steep runs now that previously would have required negotiation of bumps, ice, etc - the new carving equipment and snowboards specifically for learning fast and getting good fast that allow someone with not much experience to go very fast on these sorts of slopes, perhaps more so than before - the line with the carving skis means people are going downhill, and not scrubbing speed by skidding turns, they are holding most of it through the turn. A fair few of the boarders are now riding almost the same way - the lack of personal responsibility and urban hooligans 'chav' culture - simply a lot more people on the same runs - the snow in USA (at least on the west coast) is so much softer and easier to ride that say the variable snow of NZ or Korea, that you can go fast knowing that you are not going to run into ice or slush or rocks around the corner For me, I think the thing the mountain can do is to start policing who is ridnig what runs, like they do in New Zealand, with volunteers cruising around, telling beginners to stay off advanced trails, telling people without the skills to slow down, that sort of thing. Clipping tickets and so on are a last resort. More importantly, they can explain why you need to avoid others, and so on. Edukation. This develops a culture of people not being idiots. Mt Rose generally seemed to have that culture, Alpine had it, Diamond peak did not (every time I've been there, I've been fighting with people). They should not have to guarantee anything, and other than gross negligence, but they need to understand that they are operating a business and with that, perhaps not by law but certainly morally, come certain responsibilities to aid the safety of the resort.

My answer to that is that the ski resorts need to actually have enough staff on to make sure the runs are safe, and to promote safe skiing and boarding. Compared to when I last went to USA, since these new carving skis and more grooming, it just feels like there are more people on the runs, and a lot of them are going a LOT faster. Slow down!! be in control!! Check your lines, and avoid others!! The ironic thing is that all this 'suing' 'I will kick your butt' stuff actually makes people less likely to take responsibility for their own actions, because they think there is some solution if they get in trouble. Better to be a man (or woman) and step and ride responsibly in the first place. I am the LEAST likely person to get in a fight. But rest assured if I am provoked and hit hard (being hit softly i don't care about, is dat da best you can do), then I will hit back, and I will do so until I am either laid out or have adminsteered a good pummel to his face. Elbows and the push kick are my best suggestions, and for real damage is push kick right into the knee or upper thigh. This reduces the balance issue, because the foot does not have to be lifted very high, it also plays on the weakness of lateral and quick movements by the assailant, since they are also probably in ski boots or snowboard boots. My worst move I can suggest is right out of Tekken 2 :-) This would be the Jack 2 special move with the big looping hooks.. there is no reason why someone cannot roll under punches, and anyway, punches are fairly weak ways of dealing with confrontations. However, wearing gloves does favour punching once again.... so hard to say. My own suggestion, is to do ilke the Hulk Hogan, and then pick the guy up, hold him over your head, then body slam him onto your board. THen go and run into one of the those ropes they use to fence off, then run back and do a leg drop thing on him, then you got the pin for 1....2.....3! All over the neeeeeew snowboard combat champion of the wooooooooorld AAARERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR ANGGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLL!!

Yep, I'd say unless you are riding very hard snow or ice, then just ride with blunt edges, and that will be good enough...sort your boots our first, then the edges ;-) Tuning and waxing and stuff is all a bit over-rated :-0

Adas Once again, you are not, what, speaking engrish. You do not want to go to Colorado after SES. I do not believe that you want to go there. You want to take the 395 to Tahoe. And FYI I am conseederably fatter at the moment, than yeeeow. So I think I cuold not handle them there chikadee chutes of Keystone and the altitude. Do you get altitude sickness?

Well, I'd have to try to be sure, but I don't think a muay Thai roundhouse would be that hard in boots; it isn't like you kick with your foot unlike most other martial arts, and the balance point is fairly stable; I am very inflexible, and can still kick on a slippery serface ok, but icy would not work. The hard bit would not be getting your leg going, it would the other foot still on the ground slipping around. There is one version of the kick where you explode right off the ground, and both feet end up off the ground, that might work best ;-) The cutting downwards kick where you take the guy's lead leg out (preferably from back to front so you hit him in the hamstring), that wuold be well painful if you got it right. I might have to go home and see if I can do it; certainly it would be slower, but I think quite possible to do, provided the other guy was willing to stand around waiting for the pummeling. I would stick with the elbows or knees, absolutely no problem to deal out some serious damage with those. I've sparred against most other martial arts, and I don't think too many have a similar kick to the muay Thai roundhouse; I have heard that kempo is similar but I don't know if it is true. I DO know that when they had the series between the kung fu masters and the Muay Thai fighters in the 70s, that all the rounds finished after one or two kicks, with the kung fu guys just decimated by the power of the kicks; they had to stop promoting them because no Thai people would bet or watch them. not so sure about other arts. In general, non Thais can learn Muay Thai, they can even develop a fairly strong kick, but it is usually slower, and not as powerful as the Thais doing it. The k1 guys for instance, they are so big, so their kicks are not so powerfully snappy or quick, but their punches are very powerful (even in sparring from what I recall :-). K1 Max (the middle weight division) is a lot closer to Thai Muay Thai, but without elbows, it favours fists too much. I'd say, evolving the subject, that wingchun seems to stand flat footed and be infighting so probably that would be the most useful since you don't give up upper body speed in ski gear. Also, it is lethal against inept boxers. One of my friends used to have the street fighter game, the full arcade machine, at home; he and his friends mastered all the moves on it; a great game indeed :-) I might try on my boots, and I'll report back as to whether it is possible. For sure though, the Muay Thai gyms aren't going to let me do a 5 rounder wearing riachle indys. Well maybe heads, but definitely no raichles ;-)))))

seems ok, possibly a bit on the long side, but the nideckers are not so stiff so you should be ok for that... I would mount it up to start with about a 5 degree difference between front and back foot, at the minimum angle possible to avoid overhang; probably that is about 50 back 55 front depending. Start off with reading some of the articles about mounting up a board; to start with though keeping it simple is enough IMHO, and then start tweaking from there.

Dear Swifty I trust you understand that Kiwi riders are a different breed to you Americans. Therefore, if you intend to ride with a Kiwi rider, these are the items you need to prepare, as stated by the New Zealand embassy: - 2 lumps of stale fish - a six pack of beers...for breakfast....each - at least two pairs of boots which are about 5 sizes too small - an elfgen tongue kit for the powder days - bomber bindings (of course!) - some good cliff drops, 100, 200,, er, 500 foot cliffs, that is the ticket - a date with yeah, Christy Brinkley, yeah - a T bar, so the NZ joke, 'single' 'yes, I am not surprised' can be told a EVERY trip up the mountain Kiwi Rider, I think you will need to buy 2 items: - bomber RAB kit (or at least get one on order for our tahoe trip next year) - some new bling bindings for yo' ride - don't bother taking your short board, just take the 168

Well i have been in a few situations where it came to punches, all with skiers :-0 Muay Thai (if trained Thai style) has a lot of emphasis on the teep (push kick) and the elbows and grappling with knees. So, the push kick is easy enough to keep someone away from you, and if someone is stupid enough to punch at someone in a helmet ?! well, I suppose you could do a quick knee to their thigh and take 'em down. Without helmet, elbows are the most lethal attack weapon in Muay Thai, because people have no idea how to defend and also because it is super quick....I have seen a few Americans on TV doing Muay Thai, and other than the K1, it looks a little more like a freestyle combination of martial arts than Muay Thai alone. It is the classic raise both hands in the air like bEAVIS in the I am cornholeo section, and say I don't want to fight I don't want to fight, then within range unleash an elbow, and that's it, the guy is getting stitches and is either concussed or close. Doing a roundhouse style kick or the 'jeerakai fahd hahng' (the spinning tail of the crocodile) where you go around into a spin then kick the guy in the head with your heel (strictly a show off finishing move); well I am not sure that wearing ski boots and doing that woudl be too easy...soft boots maybe. Best approach? Walk away. If that doesn't work say sorry and walk away. and it that still doesn't work, well then the 'I don't want a fight' is the last resort. Who on earth is Zangeif?

Yep, Ray sugarfoot was da man at our gym; only sparred with him a few times and held bag for him that sort of thing; as he is a lot bigger than me; back then I was a welterweight, and he was world champion cruiser weight; a big difference. Was well happy to hold my own with him once in knee sparring (which was about my best point!) Other guys you might know who I trained with far more: Jason Vamoa, Ronnie Slyman Sefu and Mike Angrove, who was involved in K1 somehow.... While these guys were really very good, and so quick for big guys, the standard here is on another planet; I've trained at the same gym as one of the top 10 Lumpini fighters; you are talking far better physical shape, harder training and just more all round technique; the guy has over 100 fights under his belt and he is 19 I think. This is his day in the weeks leading to a big fight: 6am: run about 2-3 miles all on the toes 7-9am: morning training session; mostly pad work, no bag work at all, just combinations every 3 minutes with 1 minute break between round in which he does about 20 set ups before each rest rest during day 4-6pm: afternoon session; this is hard sparring;about 80% intensity; when i saw him; 3 guys in the ring with him for knees (all also champ level), he spars with one until he takes them down or abuot 1 min is up, then the next guy who is totally fresh for 1min, then the third guy. This for 3min on, when finished the 3 min, immediately do about 20 seconds of sprint knees training with a trainer with pads....this just round after round after round for about an hour and a bit.... then sit ups then some weight training.... The subtleties are just overwhelming at a high level, and as with K1 max vs. K1, the speed is far quicker; the K1 max guys would be quite competitive here and some are already fighting here; by comparison the K1 guys are on TV, and Thai people call them the buffalos or elephants fighting meaning big and very slow. Much like boxing really, the action (other than when Roy Jones Jnr went up in weight a few years back) is in the welters, middles, not the heavies. You can watch champion level Mauy Thai here everyday, so we get a bit spoilt...not sure why I don't get serious about; ah yes, I remember, I am not any good and a wimp! The UFC style fighting is good, but to be honest I cannot understand a lot of the subtelty of it, when commentated well though it be well cool :-) my friend who did wing chun was the same; once it got to sticky fingers, where you are learning how to completely screw someone up, he quit. That is a very cool art actually, just so efficient, I think JKD has taken the inclose elements of Wing CHun and combined with a ton of other things AFAIK.... D Sub D Terminata in D ring :-) You got to admit this is getting scary; you like drum and bass, I like DnB. You know Muay Thai, I know Muay Thai. You snowboard I snowboard....well just to dispel any issues, I don't think we should watch brokeback mountain together aiight?!

Yep, trained Muay Thai - full THai style with elbows, knees and the works for a few years - one of the guys I trained with ended up in the K1, a guy called Ray Sefo (and his brother Ronnie), another couple have ended up in K1 max. Mind you, I think the K1 is a lot softer and easier than real Muay THai, but Ray Sefo was super sharp and quick at Muay Thai; I was terrible, especially given that I am 1/2 Thai, well Thai Chinese anyway! And I trained here a few times, on account of my former job where looks matter (news reading, modelling, acting) I couldn't train much. Let's just say I felt very much like a beginner, the standard here is crazily high! But as a result of getting pummelled by people who looked really soft outside the gym and were friggin machines in the ring, I have decided to avoid fights at all costs. Also, when training a lot, it gives you confidence to know that you can cause serious damage to someone with a quick elbow they won't know how to block, and then you figure, why bother, I know I think I can win. Maybe :-) After the pain of some major leg kicks, black eyes and so on, a small hit on the slope is not so bad, although the only concussions I have had (2) both were from snowboarding. I ride super conservatively most of the time, and despite that have had a few collisions, hence my comment; like driving a car or riding a bike, eventually you have a prang. To check uphill most turns and wait for runs to clear is great, but sooner or later it seems like the inevitable will happen... As the saying goes, God give me the strenth to forgive others, and the strength to bury all the bodies of the people who pi$$ me off :-)

On Mammoth, I tucked chair 2 from the top, blasted around that bend to get to what used to be chair 18, and was doing maybe 50km around the bend; unfortunately another guy was tucking on skis to get to the chair that goes to the warming hut side, and ran right into me from behind as I swung around the bend and cut off his line. Next thing I knew, I woke up nearly in the trees, with no hat, a HUGE chip out of my board and he was in full yard sale as well. First thing I checked was that I didn't lose any teeth. There was a decent crowd half saying, 'kill the boarder' the other half saying 'idiot skier'. Fortunately we just looked at each other, both with nice concussion headaches and started laughing; patted eachother on the back, checked we both hadn't broke anything and that was that. Ronnie McCoy fixed up the board for free when he heard the story, so all is well that ends well. This is a sport of speed and danger sometimes; neither of us should have been going that fast and we paid the price with a huge explosion. I could have picked a fight, and some of the crowd wanted me to; the remainder were trying to egg on the skier; but at the end of the day I didn't lose any teeth; and so no reason to push the guy and risk that he was actually a boxer or something that could punch out some. I am confident enough of being able to lay out some one eventually with Muay Thai elbows and knees to back me up, hell a big kick to someone's knee with a boot on and they won't be skiing again that season but you get hit in boxing or Thai boxing; plus what is this fight going to prove? That I can ride? That I score lots of girls? That I have big cahones? Screw that; forgive and get back no the run. I don't think the whole yelling and getting excited thing helps, and the only time violence solves something is in the ring yo yo yo and that's totally emotionless violence and mighty good fun. I think getting cut off is just inevitable when you turn like we do. Life is short. Why waste time getting all stressed out about the bozos?>

that's a beautiful picture frame. Please remove the big shiny thing and line the camera up so we can see the picture frame. Ms Ima Skia.

aloha wahines, dakine dat look so pretty...... Funny how many hawaiins go boarding; I ran into some last time in Mt Rose as well, but no nice looking hopa haole wahines though :-*(

I suspect that you are better off with both legs in the same situation than to risk the one leg goes one way and the other is still attached to the board situation. Pre-releasing or a binding breaking goes through my head on the chair lift about once every 3 runs; expecially since reading here of all the problems with some plastic bindings and the need to replace parts. HOwever, there are a few things that help such as the toe clips which lock onto themselves rather than locking onto the boot through leverage; once I went to them, the bindings stopped releasing in jumps like the old emeries and snowpros used to. Really sorry to hear about the injury.... would be curious to know the boots, the binding and board involved.

I used to ride a nitro scorpion 155 which feels quite a bit shorter than the 164 or whatever the next length is up from that, and the 164 and my oxygen 178 are not significntly different in space they take up on the mountain. THe short slalom boards are a blast to ride; the key is to get one which is for slalom, and then it will turn really quick underfoot and the cat tracks become a lot more carveable, as do the flatter runs. You ride them slower for the most part IMHO but they handle well. In NZ at a lot of fields you could not really ride a 178 or a 197 because the runs get very narrow and bumpy, the slalom boards are great in moguls and narrow runs. The disadvantages; they don't like ultra high speed; I suspect that laying long drawn out turns is not so good because they turn faster than that; they can get worse edge hold, although that depends a lot on technique; they are a bit more sensitive to weight distribution and thus less forgiving sometimes. They can submarine a bit more in chop and slop. Definitely a worthwhile second ride on a smaller hill.

But Rob, your LG is only 65cm. That means it is junk. You need to get a custom Samsung 66cm. The 65cm is the reason people are not using keyboards anymore. Look when you watch TV. How many people are using a keyboard? Or driving? Or eating cakes? Or even when sleeping? If we brought back the excitement of a 66cm centermeter keyboard, this will save alpine keyboarding. That's what I am promoting. For the first time. Ever. Completely linked keyboarding. You can find more at my website www.extremekeyboarder.com.sluts

So if I go to say 1xtra, I can just copy the file somehow? Can you explain this slightly more to an idiot (me)!?