NateW

More evidence that the main reason for banked turns in BX events was to make softbooters competitive. :)

Will it perforate? Discuss snowboarding topics, as planned, but at the end of each episode, shoot something.

The Science Of Snowboarding Because if you don't test, you don't know. Or maybe just "Nerds With Tools." :D

This is my left elbow on the first weekend of March, after stopping to tighten up my boots and getting nailed by an out-of-control skier... [ATTACH=CONFIG]30732[/ATTACH] It was out-of-joint for about 3 hours... The folks at the first-aid shack were concerned that it might also be broken so they called me an ambulance so that I could get some X-rays. The folks at the hospital decided that it was simply dislocated. So they had one person pull back on my upper arm while another pulled forward on my lower arm to pop it back into place. Then they had me stare into a bright red dot that wiped my memory of the event. (Or maybe they gave me drugs, how would I know?) My range-of-motion is way down from normal - I can only straighten it out to about 20 degrees, and flex it to about 100 degrees, so now I'm spending about 3 hours a day (45 minutes x 4) doing stretching exercises to try to get my flexibility back. My physical therapist is taking measurements twice a week and I'm making slow but steady progress. With luck I'll have it all back in 2-3 months, provided I spend 30-45 minutes stretching before I try to bend it anywhere near the extremes. There's a chance that my range of motion won't all come back, though... Apparently, the longer your elbow sits dislocated, the more scar tissue forms in the ligaments, and that scarring can be a real problem. And my body is apparently pretty aggressive about forming scars. And 3 hours is a relatively long time. I think I'll probably be able to snowboard again, but mountain biking is rather uncertain right now. But I really want to go biking so at least it's easy to stay motivated to stretch.

Thanks! I have slightly revised your description of the collision. :) The Stevens Pass first-aid people were fantastic. It turned out that my left elbow was dislocated, and my forearm was cut pretty bad. We didn't know about the cut until they got my coast off, because my arm was almost numb, but the first-aid guy said "that's his ulna" while explaining me to the aid car crew. I'm not sure how long this will take to heal, but from what I've read online I think there's a chance I'll get a couple more days in at the end of the season.

I've had this happen to me twice. The first time I just laughed, but a short while later, I realized there's a perfect retort for that question. "Hey, I was just about to ask you the same thing." :) Also, next time somebody asks me what it is, I'm going to answer "it's a bicycle." I forgot who posted that above, but it was brilliant. :lol:

A couple friends of mine just had a baby boy, and they were taking birthing classes to prepare for the big day. At some point the topic of the placenta came up. The teacher said that some families bury it, and then... One of the guys in the class blurted out, "It grows?!?!?!?!" ...and then they plant a tree there.

That right there is the 2nd best picture I have ever seen posted to BOL.

This is something I noticed about a lot of the EC videos that show guys getting their shoulders down to the snow. I'm not there yet but I do think it's helping. Speed helps too.

If the banks are high enough, there won't be any advantage to riding alpine gear. That's the whole reason for having banks - it makes the softboot setups competitive. Someone needs to bribe the course crew to keep the banks small. :)

Wow, Al, that's a painful-looking X-ray image. I thought it was just a gnarly dislocation until I noticed the hardware, and the noticed why the hardware was needed. Ugh. Get well soon. And you too, Kimo!

Cord. There was a time when I would have voted powder, though.

Yep, he totally just call you a nazi. I'd be pissed if I was in your place. (quoted so I don't look dumb if he deletes that) :)

Build a race course where hard boots will shine, and start the racers in groups of 4-6 like BX. It would basically be a BX course with smaller berms, or no berms at all. I can't think of any reason why this sort of thing would be any less entertaining than BX. Maybe more so, if they speeds are higher. Tailor it around boards with ~15m sidecuts, for example, with minimal skidding, just full-on railing all the way down the course. For bonus points.... ....bill it as a BX race, and invite all the usual BX competitors in addition to the top-tier alpine racers. And watch the softbooters get smoked by hardbooters when there's no berms to keep them on-course through the turns. Perhaps that would be mean. But it'd be fun to watch it unfold... :)

I voted "no." Two of the forums that I frequent have a section for "deleted" threads. Threads don't really get deleted, they just get moved into that section and locked. So people can still read them, but the flames sputter out. One of them has the dead-thread section visible to all users - the dead threads serve as examples of what not to do. The other only has it visible to moderators - it's basically just there to help the moderators keep track of the persistent troublemakers. And +1 from me about deleting threads (or just prices) from classifieds. Those threads will fade into the background on their own, so why bother deleting them? The prices would be a useful reference for other buyers and sellers.

About half of my runs contain a mistake that leaves me sliding on my butt or my hands. Maybe more than half. About half of my days on snow contain a crash that leaves me sore for a day or two. But that happened at least once a day until I was in my late 20s. I used to think that a stiff neck and back was just an inherent aspect of snowboarding. It took me a long time to realize that only comes from falling hard.

Whoops. Forget everything I just wrote. :o

I wish I had some useful insight here, but I'm just stumped. What positions are your forward lean adjusters set to? I have mine fully upright. I UPZ I went from Raichle 325/Lemans to UPZ and then bought a second pair of UPZs just in case. I use intuition liners, but it sounds like the issue here is with the boot geometry, not fit.

That's a great sign. Kids have been describing desirable things are "sick" for years and years. They're finally catching on to the glory of the forward stance. Finally! Can big-name squaretails be far behind? Seriously though... I scrape my toes and heels against the ears of the intec receiver. Sometimes it takes a couple tries, but it works.

I agree with the Donek Axxess recommendations. I have two, and I ride backward quite a bit. They have enough of a tail to them that I have no worries at all, on any terrain. I am seriously considering ordering my next one with two tails, rather than two noses. If you like to ride fast, there's a variation of the 172 Axxess that has a 13m radius. That's mine, it's listed as 08Waddoups172AX on their specs page. It's narrower than the other Axxess boards, at 19cm, but it still has more float than most skiers get. And you can get whatever dimensions you want for an extra couple hundred bucks. Plus you get your name in their catalog. :) http://www.donek.com/specs_hard.html

I've had good luck with both. I switched to Turtle Fur mostly because there's no velcro closure to come undone or futz with when putting it on. All of the neoprene masks seem to use velcro at the back. I can feel the difference in my lungs with/without a mask. Most days I don't care, but when it's really cold out, I gotta have my mask.

One of the things that helped me progress was to drop my head, almost like I'm trying to look back under my armpit rather than over my shoulder. No, I'm not actually looking back under my arm - just exaggerating to give you an idea of which way I'm bending. I think I can look back more comfortably that way than trying to simply swivel my head 120 degrees. Plus it pulls my posture into a better/lower position. Mostly it just takes practice. Try different stuff, and eventually something will click. I tried riding backward on skis a couple weeks ago, and that was hard. I still suck at it. But I made some good progress by pointing straight down the fall line, then sliding almost 180 degrees, riding backward for one single turn, then sliding around to forward again. No edge-to-edge linked turns, no straight backward, just one backward turn at a time. Then I worked on making those turns as big and gradual as possible, so it's almost like going straight. I'll worry about linking turns after I get more confident. I've tried riding backward on skis before and this was the first time I actually felt like I was getting better at it. So maybe it will help with learning to snowboard backward too. It can't hurt to give it a shot. I have an easier time carving backward with 55/50 - 65/60 angles than with 45/40 angles. I don't know why, but for some reason moderately steep angles are hard for me. And yes, wiping out in reverse sucks. My whole upper body hurts right now from one of those, right into the face of a jump I was approaching. I thought I had this stuff down pat, but apparently I need more practice too!

Spikes: http://duplaga.blogspot.com/2010/12/leather-jacket-x-spikes.html But not as dense as shown there. They really need to be spaced further apart to get proper penetration. Shoulders, upper arms, a couple rows down your back, and you're good to go. Next time someone hits you from behind, the trail of blood will serve as a warning to others.

I bought Fin-tecs as soon as they came out, but I've never been stuck in a binding in all the years I've been using Intec. No freezing, no cable issues. I carry a spare set of heels just in case, but I have never had to use them. If you un-weight your heel when you step out, there's only a few pounds of force on the cable. I think they should last a long time. Once I had a pin break, but that was on the first day with a brand-new set of F2 heels. My foot stayed in the binding, and I didn't notice the problem 'til I got to end of the run and noticed my rear foot was a little loose. So I run with dual leashes for the first couple days with a new set of heels just in case. It hasn't really been an issue though, other than that one time, I'm just paranoid.

Same here.