Skully

OK, the official verdict is Saturday will be at Solitude. Sounds like the meeting place is at the west end of the parking lot near the Eagle Express chair. If someone would like to post directions, great, otherwise, just wing-it... Tailgating? What time does the party start? :D Sunday is still Park City...

We picked The Canyons on Friday (Today) because we wanted to get AWAY from the racer-heads. ;) Just kidding Jeff. The choice was made due to someone generously donating some 1/2 price vouchers for The Canyons, and their choice was Friday. It does look like Saturday's choice will be Solitude. I will confirm with Dave in a little while and update....

Again, like Dave mentioned, we're "loosely" organized this year. Anyway, Saturday, we're thinking about riding Solitude. Anyone out there who is planning on riding with us Saturday, please check in with us and let us know what your preferences are. You can post here, leave a comment over on the Hardbooter.com blog, email dave (at) hardbooter.com, or email me through my profile and let us know. S. Bullet don't you ride Solitude quite a bit? Where's a good place to meet? Friday is at The Canyons. Again, we'll meet in the lower parking lot near the Cabriolet lift, roughly between 8:00 and 9:00. Again, we have access to a limmited ammount of 1/2 price tickets, but we need to know if you are planning on using one of those vouchers... P.S. I've got a Rossignol World Cup Race 190 for sale. If anyone is interested and wants to pick it up at the WTC for a good deal, let me know.

OK, just talked to Dave and as of right now, here's the plan: Thursday 2/26: Snowbasin. Get to the Parking lot Early. Friday 2/27: The Canyons. We actually have a limited number of 1/2 price discount tickets available for The Canyons. First-come first-served as far as I know. Email dave (at) hardbooter.com to get in line for one of the discount tickets (I'll make him the boss of who emails him first, and who gets the discounts...). Meet in the lower parking lot at the bottom of the Cabriolet. I'd say at least by 8:30. Saturday and Sunday, 2/28 and 3/1: As of now, these days will probably be at Park City Mountain Resort. Other resorts are a possiblity also. If you have any preferences, chat with us on the hill, or email Dave... Feel free to contact me via my profile with any questions also...

Keep up the good work Fin (and Michelle). If I ever get lucky enough to make it to SES, I'll donate my share of the beer to?????

Are you asking if there are backcountry areas on the way between SLC and Park City? Yes, but not really. I haven't seen too much hiking done in Parley's Canyon. Most of the backcountry opportunities I know about are in the canyons nearer the ski resorts....

Just thought about posting an update here on the Ride Board. If you're planning on comming to the Wasatch Trenchin' Convention, see this post: Wasatch Trenchin' Convention Changes

OK, I've never been to SES (only dreamed of attending), but I have been involved in other smaller, similar events closer to home, and I know that it's near impossible to have everything at an event like this go perfectly, most of the time, due to circumstances beyond anyone's control. Fin and Michelle spend an IMMENSE amount of time and energy putting on SES so that regular Schmoes like us get the opportunity to ride the absolute latest and greatest alpine gear available, and hang out with other Schmoes that enjoy riding down hills on alpine equipment. The charges for demos don’t go into Fin and Michelle’s pockets. That $ goes to their insurance co. so that they can continue offering us demos. If you want things to go better at events such as SES, VOLUNTEER to help the organizers. I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t turn down a helping hand, and things might end up going a little smoother. My $.02…

For those of you that don't follow the goings-on over on the Hardbooter.com blog there been some unforseen changes to the format of the convention on Feb 26 - Mar 1. Basically, Park City Mountain Resort has decided not to allow a demo tent on the hill. There will still be Demos available via Hardbooter.com, but they will have to be taken care of off-hill. We'll still be getting together and riding, but again, without a demo tent on the hill. For all the details of the changes see this post, and to keep up-to-date on ride times, and meeting places, just keep an eye on the Hardbooter.com blog

Will video do? http://hardbooter.net/blog/?p=450

Email dave at hardbooter dot com and let him know. I'm sure you'll have to show up early anyway, but it's worth letting him know. You want to ride the 200cm, right Jen?

Just an FYI, Dave and Billy will have all of these boards available to demo at SES. If you want to ride one, get your name on the list early....

Nobody get's into ski / snowboard instruction or coaching to get rich. Pretty much everyone who does it has a pretty deeply seated love of the sport. If they don't have that love of the sport, they don't end up staying in the industry for long. Accept tips graciously. You've earned them.

Good to meet you too Mike. Fun making turns with you. Mr. "TheU" you should be able to send me an email now. There were some issues with my account that have been taken care of now. Click on my username, and it should give you the option to send me an email. We should be able to get together at some point, I'm at The Canyons every weekend, holidays and any other time I can get up with the family...

Holy Crap! A hardbooter with a season pass at The Canyons? (That might make 3 of us total!) I'll definitely be there on Feb 1, possibly working, possibly not... Jan 31 is a possiblity with a kid in tow. Hit me up via my profile if any of you want to try and hook up some time during the day.

http://www.bomberonline.com/reviews/index.cfm

Hardbooter.com has got a new blog site up and running. Will Garrow is posting about his carving shenanigans, along with some resort updates, and all of the old hardbooter.com articles, gear reviews, videos, etc... Check it out: Hardbooter.com Blog

At the "formerly ASC" resort where I work, ASC preached that they wanted you to ride what they sold, but they never actually enforced it... Now that ASC no longer exists, It's not an issue at all.

Billy has put the "B squared" through the paces, and initial impressions are good. He'll probably do a review of it when he gets a few minutes off from coaching. Dave has also ridden it, but I didn't get his review. If I can pry it out of their hands one of these days, I'll let everyone know what I think of it, although I haven't met a prior that I didn't like yet, especially with that funky metal in it.....

A few more links: http://www.snowbird.com/imagelib/pr/Avalanche530update.pdf http://www.examiner.com/x-2028-Salt-Lake-City-Outdoor-Recreation-Examiner~y2008m12d14-Snowbird-avalanche-buries-at-least-one-skier http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=5084224 http://deseretnews.com/article/0,5143,705270509,00.html http://www.abc4.com/mostpopular/story/Salt-Lake-City-woman-killed-in-SnowBird-Avalanche/VxvwCawNfEa-6MEpnTBNwA.cspx http://forrestgladding.blogspot.com/2008/12/snowbird-avalanche.html "There's been a slide inbounds" are 5 words you never want to hear if you're an empoyee at a restort......

I don't think that hardbooter currently have a demo Spearhead or Swallowtail. They do have Khyber though. I don' think the D1 has shown up yet. It would be nice if it were in your garage, they might get a chance to see it again if you had it...;)

Wow, the Salty Geeks actually have some Priors in stock? So how many WCR Metals did they have? (NOT)

Or all 4 at once: http://www.gearattack.com I work less than a mile from the Backcountry warehouse... All 4 of those sites are bad on my pocketbook.

Like Gecko said, most people try to make the rear truck on a slalom board "Less Responsive". On my GS board, when I run it with a single rear truck (Airflow 110mm) I run 2 89a Retro bushings. A "Jimz" shaped bottom, and a stim shaped top. It's probably de-wedged 5-10 degrees, though I'm not sure, as my GS board has a kicktail similar to your Axe Both Gecko and I weigh more than you, and use what appears to be softer bushings (since Gecko says his Venom feels like 90a), that's why I was wondering about you using the yellow barrel. Try out the softer bushings. Like you mentioned, with the narrowness of the Axe compared to your LDP board, there will be less leverage to get harder bushings to turn, so the softer bushings might feel better. Definitely. Slalom turns on a skateboard remind me a lot of quick, cross-under slalom-style turns on a snowboard.

You may want to play around with the de-wedging. I believe that Richie usually sets up the Axes with 3 soft Khiro wedges, trying to get the kingpin on the RTS close to verticle. I'm surprised you use a yellow barrel. I've got 40+ lbs on you, and I rarely use that hard of bushings on my slalom boards, so you may want to experiment with different bushings also. I don't own an LDP, so It's possbile that harder bushings work well there..