Yard Sale

I had a breakthrough today. First, just rotating helps immensely. Seems like the most fundamental thing to do, but it's sometimes hard for some reason. And I don't know why, I discovered by accident, putting my knees together (?!) helps everything. I suspect it's what a shooting guru coined "the Trick of the Day," but I like it.

I'm having a hard time staying centered on my heelside turns. Is there any kind of trick to help avoid "sitting on the toilet?" I started carving a year ago and I ride 55-50 angles.

As a former San Francisco resident now living near Reno, I'm qualified to tell you it is 3.5 hours from S.F. to Sugarbowl and 30 minutes from Reno to Mt. Rose. Just don't waste your time and money until we get more snow.

eos4life, I replaced the stock liners in my Head Stratos Pro with Intuition moldable liners. They are much different, a huge improvement. After getting them, I can't really call the stock liners moldable. Maybe, as they are made in Canada, they'll be less expensive for you than for me.

My brother is going to try carving and he needs some mondo 28 hard boots, with Intec heels or Intec compatible. Lemme know what you've got.

More jib = less gold. Meanwhile, who was the woman on the Donek? I think she was one who went down in one of the heats and I saw the bottom of the board past the finish. P.S. I didn't see any chicks on hardboots, whereas about 25% of the dudes were on plates. What's up with that?

If you like the ECing, check out my other video. Roman, you will need the latest version of the QuickTime player, free from Apple. http://www.apple.com/quicktime

I just got taken out by a snowboarder. After getting off the chair and clicking in, I did one good toeside carve across the hill and then gingerly skidded around toward the SLOW sign above a trail crossing. No crazy, unpredictable lines, nothing like that. I heard the guy a second before impact. He ran over/into the back of my new Donek and hit me in the right bicep. Never saw him until after the yard sale. Other people came up and asked if we were OK. He hurt my arm, but he didn't seem too good himself. After asking him if he wanted the ski patrol, I said, "Thanks a lot" and left. Why hang around? It's not like he's going to offer to pay my medical expenses or replace damaged equipment.

http://media.putfile.com/Lay-It-Down-Clowns This is more or less a blooper reel from my other video, Laws of Gravity. Same two expert riders doing laid-out turns, plus four more beginner to intermediate carvers on a blue square run at Mt. Rose. QuickTime movie, under 5 min, 10.3 MB.

Nevermind, I'm using putfile.

Check it out at http://www.putfile.com/yardsalecrash Two of Tahoe's best carvers digging trenches on a black diamond run on a beautiful day at Mt. Rose. QuickTime .mov, 320x240, 15.5 MB, about 2 min. 45 sec. Stay tuned for the blooper reel, Lay It Down Clowns, featuring four more less-talented riders.

I just checked out Google Video and it's not ideal. For one thing, my videos use unlicensed copyrighted music. I'd rather keep them low-key, limited to the carving community. So... Derf?

Well, I just finished the first one. At 27.3 MB, putfile isn't going to work. (It took hours to render and compress, so I'm not going to redo it to make it smaller.) I'll look into Google Video and if it doesn't work out, Derf will be hearing from me. I guess I should use this one as a test bed to make sure most people can view it, before I use the same specs on the next movie.

Can anybody host a couple carving videos for me? I'm putting together a couple movies from video taken at Mt. Rose, starring expert, intermediate, and beginner carvers.

...because hippies gotta ride, too.

Finally! I was worried. Hope he enjoys them.

Actually, I prefer riding them in the fall, winter, and spring, when precipitation = traction, there is no dust, and my body doesn't overheat. But as the picture of the CR250 shows, you can have too much of a good thing.

Thanks for all the great pictures.

PokerRoom because its Java client is the only way to play poker on a Mac. I just finished 15th of 541 in a No Limit Hold Em tournament tonight. Woulda been better but somebody got lucky with his 44 against my AA.

Sure, I'm an online gamer. Poker.

I got the 167 Pilot, which Sean recommended for my height (5' 7"), weight (180 lbs.), and (in)experience. It's the model with the widest waist, 20 cm. I just started riding alpine boards and hardboots this season, with little success. I've ridden hardboots on a Nale Speedball 157, Rad-Air Reto Lamm 164, Sims Premium 167, Prior 4WD 169, and Swoard 175. Toe-side carves are no problem, even if my technique is lacking, and heel-side carves are very sketchy and entirely devoid of technique. So I guess I'm the ideal target customer for the Pilot, a struggling beginner carver. Before riding it, I used Zoom Renew graphite base prep followed by graphite all-temp wax. I didn't touch the edges. I mounted my TrenchDigger step-ins on 3-degree cant discs at 54 degrees front and 45 rear. This morning, I stuck to the intermediate runs at Mt. Rose (Tahoe), which had firm, day-old snow. The Pilot took to toe-side turns effortlessly, but seemed to generate more speed than I expected. Of course I had trouble with my heel-side carves, but I found that more speed and a more aggressive initiation of the turn seemed to help me carve the Pilot on its heel side. I made my best heel-side carves so far on this board. My biggest fear of the 167 Pilot was that it would be exactly like a wider version of my Sims Premium 167, due to their similar sidecuts and effective edges. In fact, it is more like the Sims than the other boards I've ridden, but it is different enough to be worth the purchase. The Sims will sometimes lose its edge hold and skid or chatter down the hill for reasons I can't comprehend, especially on my heel side. The Donek always felt like it was on rails (or rather, a single rail) on my toe side and gave out on my heel side twice: once when I freaked out about an intersecting skier, and once when I got completely lazy in the turn. This was in snow conditions that had an expert carver washing out and crashing his 203 cm Donek left and right. Because it generated more speed than I expected, I couldn't link turns down the slightly steeper and much narrower Lower Ramsey's trail. And on the wider Kit Carson trail I found myself just riding out a bunch of carves uphill instead of linking the turns. When I did link turns, I would build up such a head of steam I was forced to slow down back to my comfort level. So, with just a few hours on it, I'm satisfied that it's the right board to help me develop my carving skills. I'll post updates later as needed. Now about that topsheet... :(

Do the edges need work before you can ride it, or were you just personalizing your board to your tastes?

Burton Custom 159, circa 95 or 96, I forget. The one with the Pegasus and red base. It was all I had until I sold it before this season and got a bunch of boards to replace it.

My black LSD doesn't have the teeth-like nose. It's got an aluminum protector with a design in the base, just a different design. I use last year's Flow Pro C-FR. Carbon fiber heel piece, strong highback, and stiff tongue. Their Pro XFR has an even stiffer tongue. I was skeptical at first but after a few days they broke in such that stepping in is easy. I haven't touched the edges yet. I don't know what the factory angles are. Maybe RJ can help with that.

Today at Mt. Rose: A middle-aged woman in a stylish (in a middle-aged woman kind of way) one-piece suit with a fur hat (wanna guess whether she was on two planks or one?) telling her friend that helmets are dangerous because they are heavy and throw off your balance, etc.