johnasmo

Winter is coming... it's just not here yet. :( Video from yesterday. Still less than a foot at the summit. WTF, ride on! <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/CXMMqwzhSWY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Tower fixed. They even ran it a few hours today for scenic lift rides. Now we just wait....

Wow, that video showed up here before I even got it posted to the product review board (along with actual review). I was going to leave it there and see how long before it got generally discovered, but I guess the bomber community never sleeps... About "Asmo" boards, can I get a complementary board for having the "Asmo" online moniker for over 30 years? Not that I could ride it of course, but I'd give it the old Montucky try until one of us was lost forever in the deep snow. And of course I'd follow-cam dreadman making it look smooth and easy. I should at least be grandfathered in for some stickers and swag, eh? Do they float on water???

Here's some summertime product testing of a Alpine Prior Pow-Stick versus the always versatile Coiler Classic for the specialized sport of Alpine Wakeboarding. What we learned is that both still feel more like wake boarding than slalom waterskiing. The result of having no fins, perhaps? The powder oriented setback and shape of the Pow-Stick seemed to have the advantage in getting out of the water and gave it a more surfy feel and better loft for wake jumping. The Classic shape, however, had good straight line speed, maybe producing less drag, which would be an advantage in the real-life sport of pond skimming. Of the two, the Coiler is the only one that's already a proven pond-skim champion (2011 Big Mountain Pond Skim). Both boards produced less drag in the water than the rockered wakeboard also ridden that day. Go camber! Along with the boards, this testing also involved boots, pitting a pair of Deluxe Track 700 with BTS and a Bomber replacement liner against a pair of UPZ RSV boots with stock liner. Here the clear winner was the closed cell liner of in the Deluxe. They floated, while the UPZ with it's older fiber liner sunk like rock along with the board, making deep water starts much more challenging. <iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xe5FB70ZyOg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Cabin fever, not just for winter anymore...

Summer's here and the time is right for... snowboarding! Keep in mind that this place is only 6800 feet at the summit. WMR opened for summer operations last weekend, but chair 1 is down due to ground slumping that moved tower 6 a couple feet. That's gonna bugger the MTB season if the snow ever does melt... <iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/i0dxmEE32pI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Reason #161 to live in Whitefish: Fresh pow for Memorial Day weekend. This is 47 days after Whitefish Mountain Resort closed for the season. Still top to bottom, summit to parking lot runs, 15 minutes from town. Dave and I grabbing some fresh tracks in the morning. WooHoo! <iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/68EKE-uOvmg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> 5:00 PM update: Back up with Eric the Sqwal Guy; still good!

Helmet mounted, but not a GoPro. Just a normal Canon pocket camera and trip to the hardware store to fab a bracket to bungee it to chin guard on my helmet. The camera is a Canon Powershot SD 960IS and the hardware spend was about $3.00. I really should upgrade to something that will shoot with higher quality video, but I like that this setup is pocketable and expendable if something goes terribly wrong. I'm on alpine gear too. I just pull the camera out of my pocket now and then, slip it in place, then carve with my buddies a bit. I like when I'm stacked up above somewhat synchronized so I'm not turning the camera so much, but sometimes I'm just tail gunning. Sometimes I'll skid along one side if I want to get a little side view, but most of the time I'm right there carving with them.

For those who haven't seen many Sqwals in action before, I recently edited some follow-cam video of our resident Sqwal guy, Eric, from the local mountain (Whitefish, MT, USA). First one is from Feb, carving groomers on a Donek Sqwal replica; second is from May 8th hiking for late season turns on his "powder" sqwal. <iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/y7Lf8OzGlcM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4PWs-n7UFOA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

That just leaves Sunshine Village across the border, but that's a 5 hour drive for me, and expensive. Guess I'll just hike locally. Conditions have been good over here in Montucky land. Been getting a high percentage of really nice runs lately; just not a high count.

I like it. Having best pitches with worst lift wasn't good value for your lift $$$. Maybe now we can finally get more than 35K vertical in a day.

Sunny and 65 in town; 55 in village; 45 at summit. Still top to bottom coverage. Fine spring riding; where is everyone? Day 153 and counting... <iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/jzocF5PfCYk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Sill good top to bottom snow coverage here in Whitefish. WhooHoo! Been hiking it a lot with Dave, and we even got SkwalGuy Eric up this week. <iframe width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/MzmtEAKfsSM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

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Frigid. I believe the water comes from the ice covered snowmaking ponds further up the mountain; so just a few degrees above freezing. But the air temp was good -- I took two more runs from the top of the mountain after splashing out of the pond skim. No more ball slap inside the one-piece ;), but was tolerable until my hands froze.

Oh yeah, I was so caught up in posting pictures poached from Big Mtn Photos that I forgot to mention the back story! It was a field of 63 competing for a $1000 prize. Progressive rounds being made more difficult by gates on hill AND in water and lowering of the start point until farthest skim wins. Winning combo was dredman and a Coiler (NSR 182?).

Dakine "Spike" stomp pad. Available in charcoal and clear. Swosh Swosh on a substantial stomp pad is way easier than fussing around trying to chip packed snow off your boots using the heal receiver. And with the toe cleaned by the stomp pad, you can kick away ice on the binding surfaces most of the time if there is any, but usually the problem is only snow packed on the boot from stepping on the snow prior to launch. I have both TD3 step-ins and standards (sidewinder) and find the step-ins to be more tolerant of a half-assed stomp pad procedure. The standards sometimes take multiple attempts before everything is cleared from the boot's surfaces. With the step-ins, it's usually just swoosh swoosh (one toe swipe, one heel swipe), step in, eyeball the pins for for complete engagement, and go. With the TD3 steel receiver, it's easy to get a visual on the pins after stepping in, even while moving.

Nice work, Ace. Looks like I'm gonna need a camera upgrade one of these days. What camera are those from? Still pocketable size?

Here's another one of a day at XXS Whistler. Digital effect done in post processing, not real tilt-shift lens work, so I think we'll see more and more of these until the novelty wears out. Both of these are really well done -- lots of good shots to start with. http://www.vimeo.com/18447758

1) Washing out heel side. 2) Cruising a blue. 3) Catching air in the water park.

Love the 1080p clarity. That must be a GoPro HD mounted on the skwal, but what was the skier using?

It was a road trip weekend. If that was day 3, what about the others? Yes, they were good days too, but my upload speeds are pretty slow. Here's more. Day 1 was a powder day. It's fun to watch Dave1 (dredman) tackle all the moguls and crud and trees on his alpine board. <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/754REJUf1fE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Day 2 was groomer heaven. There's some cool follow-cam work at 3:00 where I got stacked up within spitting distance of Dave2 (Big Dog Dave) for at least 10 tight turns on Ambush. <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Dq70N-erx7w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Apologies if your carving season is over, but you could have been here: http://www.bomberonline.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=34376

Shot yesterday, April 24th. The Montucky crew closes down Big Sky. That's Dave1, Dave2, Kelly2R and yours truly, going bell to bell on a spectacular, bluebird, hero snow, top of the season day. A number of BOL cards were dispensed to the curious, as this place apparently doesn't see very many carvers.... <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/T3GAjn-dTVs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

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O h h e y, forgot about the pond skim vids. BOL'ers representin' in the pond skim. That's me in yellow. Dave in red. I suck. Dave's a champ. <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/S3kPx0JZPL0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>