boarderboy

Thusfar, ours seems to be one of the best purchases we ever made. (Thanks for the pre-buy endorsement!) Good luck with a lot of work on a smallish AWD! BB :o

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/05/us/the-carolinas-work-to-clarify-their-borders.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp A little historical perspective on the founding of The Ice Coast's Southernmost Carve Outpost... Mountain lions, timber rattlers, 'skeeters, and "the Goodliest Lande's" single, wild-eyed marsupial ... oy vey !! Enough to make you want to just pack it in and sail back to Merrie Olde England... BB

But for God's sake, don't go south!!! Being a Possum Pouch native and a boarder of almost 25 years, I can tell you that even on N.C.'s loftiest slopes, snow sport is a very iffy thing - highly dependent on ever-more-fickle Ma Nature - and in the worst of winters nigh on nonexistent. (M. Yellow of this forum will probably dispute that, and let him have at it. Haven't met him yet, but by all accounts he's hardcore and very comfortable with our "white ribbons of death".) I say all this having boarded Tahoe a good bit, Aspen/Snowmass, Virginia and West Virginia a lot, Maryland and Vermont a little, and your own Seven Springs, too. To me, there's something downright depressing about riding ice groom at 9:00, corn (if you're lucky) at noon, and slushies by 3:00 - all this in a setting of barren, brown hills. (You're obviously familiar with that scenario in Penna, and if you can live with it, here's to you!) If you don't live slope-side, the only way to ride "good" conditions down here is to have the freedom, and means, to drop everything on a moment's notice, and travel - often hours - to reach your bliss. And you better do it quick, too! Then there's summer - hotter, more humid and drought-prone all the time - a seeming contradiction I know, but nonetheless true . Tarheelia hath its charms, and the OBX wave magnet makes up for a lot, but if you crave the culture and relief of winter's intervention like I do, stay away, young man - stay far, far away... BB

Mid to late '60's longboard era, Carl Ekstrom built asym surfboards. If I'm not mistaken, he's still active in board design!! At any rate, as of late asym design seems to be making more of an impact on short surfboards than it did on longboards (?) Granted, the dynamics are different - no bindings, a softer, more fluid medium, and the ability to make subtle foot and forward/back trimming movements. FWIW, I still have my Burton M6 modded with Sims SnowStix. Think I experienced my first real hardboot carves on that board. Great memories and still, to me, one of the best topsheet graphics ever. As a lazy minimalist, I don't like to think about or over-analyze gear too much, but the fact that today, highly-regarded Pureboarding will still build you a custom, apparently dynamite asym carver is strong evidence that the concept remains viable... BB

since Bobdea first used the description, tongue in cheek, in sparring with Mellow Yellow about the highly subjective nature of slope difficulty designations, there's been some question about whether it's actually the "Tarheel State" with its official dog, the Plott Hound, or more a "state of mind" kind of thing. (This is all complicated by the fact that there's an ongoing discussion between "the Old North State" and our "Palmetto State" brothers and sisters to the south about the actual whereabouts of the boundary that has separated us lo these several centuries. It seems that many of the great oaks and other organic references on the original King's Grant survey have either disappeared or morphed unrecognizably.) So far, we've spent $850,000 in an effort to sort all this out, and tempers are flaring as The Line moves around. Taxes and school districts, you know... Personally, I prefer to think of Possum Pouch as simply the East Coast's Southernmost Carve Outpost - weather permitting. I'll leave it at that ... BB

Today, 03/22/12, you're not trying out your comfy-mod boots anywhere close to Possum Pouch (current temp 77 F) are you? cheers BB ;)

I feel about anyone who manages to "live the life" in the sorta super-heated and expensive world of ski Meccas the same way I do about anyone who figures out how to live and work in NYC. Props are due. Having on this forum a former board builder who inhabits both soft and hard booting (not to mention ski) worlds year after year in some of the planet's gnarlier terrain is a huge plus. Besides the obvious repository of tech knowledge, your self-styled "bad boy" social commentary is just plain fun to follow. cheers, and may next winter be kinder to Aspen slopes than this one! BB

[Adios mi amigos :) going on Safari Fair offshores, clean faces, and more tube time than your legs can tolerate... BB

and then there are the infamous DarkSide cookies. (Have to ask Skatha about those...) :angryfire BB

I like Appalachian... a lot. If there were a trophy for getting the "most from the least," they'd win it year after year in my book. And I knew you'd do this. I really did! But here's the thing, that 'white ribbon of death' is starting to look really off-white. I'll wager you'd ride something lower than your third string rock board on it, too. Nevertheless, Jason, real congrats on the (Beech?) carve shot. A laid-out hardbooter with full head gear is one of the raddest pics possible. And still hope to get my son up to see what a real alpiner can do. Maybe he'll "convert." (Maybe hell will freeze over, too... ) Down here in the flatlands, we did come perilously close to having our first winter in recent memory with NO frozen precip, period. Providentially, that last Alberta Clipper did bring us a skim of flakes, and a whole two inches up Roxboro way. Does the heart good. Til late next fall, looks like all my carving will be of the hero-groom asphalt variety, interspersed with some liquid ripple riding during the Doldrums. Hope springs eternal... Cheers and thanks for the stoke !!

(The snowboarding opossum from Off Topic got in more turns than I did this year.) Snowshoe's a (sadly) known and given. Next season, gonna try to figure out the storm tracks that dump on Timberline and Wisp; then let the weather dictate when I ride. Never been to either place and look forward to new terrain. BB of Possum Pouch :sleep:

Yeah, me, too. Wow, a blast from the past... BB

Also great skill, joie de vivre, and (apparently) a damn good wetsuit on display ... !! BB

We get da picture(s). It's snowing pissloads out west. Glad da King remains open to host your legendary carvefeast this season. And congrats on the 360. Near perfect form. That conscientious edge maintenance really pays off... At the banquet, please say a word for us flake-starved spirits out on the southeastern hardboot'n frontier.. BB p.s. when you've recuped from SKES, please email me @ youngmrtbury at att dot net. got a potentially fun business preposition for ya

(I think) for these incredible pics. Between SES and SKES, this is a jealous moment for boarders on the southern frontier... signed snowless in Possum Pouch :o

A Gardisil dipping, perhaps. Speaking for the untold (and mostly anonymous) hordes of those who've suffered Aphrodite's Revenge, I really hope so. Like you say, "We are Legion..." If not Sharri's, maybe you can modify the Darkside Cookie recipe just enough to add some prophylactic value. Promote 'em with a chorus of O, Susana, don't you cry for me I've just come from the doctor, and I'm cured of my VD ... BB ;)

By golly he really did it! Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow!! Six more weeks of balmy, sub-tropical winter! WOW !! Maybe premature celebration, though. Maybe should wait til local Guru, Possum Pouch's own Sir Walter Wally, makes his prediction ... closer to midday, I think. Will keep ya'll you posted... BB ;)

And they're outta fuel. Russian ship w/USCG ice breaker is crawling toward them with 1,000,000 + gal. gas and diesel. But they're still more than 90 miles out. Crew of the icebreaker has been at sea since May... BB

near Pagosa Springs. They (like New Mexico) have been getting dumped on. BB

that was on ebay late last season. Have not ridden yet, but impressed by ash/carbon workmanship, and the graphic is 'da bomb'. This particular board is wide enough to give me decent plate angles with my 30.5 AT boots. I also hope to use it with softies as a powder ride, should I ever again see true, low-moisture powder. This is the first split tail I've owned since my Burton Elite 150, circa maybe 25 years ago. Will try to post pic. BB

Thanks for the link Hope their "hunch" is right! BB

For the true locavores 'round Barre, I'd offer The Possum Pocket - smoked, and pulled with, perhaps, a side of yams... According to MassAudobon, the critters are becoming quite common in your neck of the woods, albeit with nipped off ear tips and tails after a truly deep freeze... cheers BB

Another snowless, out-of-shape winter in Possum Pouch, vicariously surviving on the exploits of the legendary big-gamer, John Gilmour. Do all us hapless Old Farts a favor, J.G., and turn your rekindled energies to board building, lest we less fortunate fossils descend into terminal, envious Mad(d)ness. BB

No?!! Whatdahell izzit??!! BB