queequeg

+1

I haven’t tried an allflex, but my brief experience with plates is that I can’t stand them. They do smooth things over a bit, but to me, that is not worth the tradeoff of the extra stack height, and reduced snow feel (which I realize is part of the point). What I really dislike about them for recreational riding is how they make the board less manageable at slow speeds on cat-tracks and such. I can see why racers like them but I don’t think the tradeoffs work for recreational carving.

Fantastic — thanks for sharing!

I am a total noob when it comes to this stuff but maybe Ace can help you!

I’ll take these if nobody else has. Do you take Venmo?

I assume that you are talking about Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant? I ****ing love that place!!!!! There is also Tommy’s Joynt, which should win some kind of international award for the worlds sketchiest buffet, but also has its own profoundly divey (sp?) charm of its own. This is my current favorite tequila drink: https://makemeacocktail.com/cocktail/8776/blazing-saddles/ The habañero tincture is totally necessary!

Following johnasmo’s post: I do find that a somewhat softer flex pattern works much better on ice. So if you have a softer board, giving that a go might help a bit.

IIRC that dude has an entire youtube channel full of similar things. He is so awesome!! That said: thats the best one by far IMO.

Its a great spot! Did you surf deadman’s too? Watching people surf mavs is always a wild time

At this point in my life, I am no longer willing to go to the mountain when it is mobbed with people on weekends etc ... which means I only go snowboarding a few times a year, and will usually go for an entire week or more. I find that I can have fun on the mountain in just about any kind of conditions other than crowded. Ice, Powder, Crud : it’s all fun as long as there aren’t a bunch of people around mucking up the works! I guess for me it is quality over quantity — but if I could ride a whole lot more I certainly would.

Feelin’ better Bobby? Glad to hear it

Hey Lamby — can you be more specific about which toe is the problem and where the crash is? I have an egyptian foot, wherein my biggest toe is the big toe and the rest are smaller. It sounds like your situation is similar but that it is the next toe over - a greek foot? Am I getting that right? When one toe is significantly longer than the rest, this poses a problem because it will always end up taking more of a beating than the rest of your toes, as the first point of contact. As Corey and RoroSnow pointed out: good liner molding procedures can help: but if you have one toe that is much bigger than the rest: a tiny bit of hard padding can help to redistribute pressure to reduce stress on the one hot-spot. No amount of punching shells will prevent my big toe from being in agonizing pain by the end of the day, but adding a bit of volume around the rest of the toes helps. Use some *hard* bootfitters foam to add a teensy bit of volume around your shorter toes — so that they share some of the load. I add some bootfitters foam in front of the rest of the toes to assure that pressure is distributed evenly across all toes rather than just the big guy. It does not take much at all but it makes a *huge* difference. My point is: if one toe is significantly longer than the rest it is always going to take the brunt of the beating, unless you add some support to distribute that pressure across the remaining toes. Hope that helps!

This sort of thing could be turned into a fun carving contest. Every contestant gets a full (plastic) glass of liquid at the top of the run, and has to get through a series of limbo-gates or DQ. The person that makes it down with the most liquid remaining wins. Sounds fun?

I saw a guy on a PJ 6 @ Sunapee in NH when In school — like 94' (I think). I think it may have been Bordy as apparently he was carving there at the time. Decided immediately that I had to get a hardboot setup and learn to burn turns. Saved up all summer for a PJ and some Megaflex boots! I used to ski there at night all the time! Loved that place! I made my first fully railed turns there thanks to the kindness of another hardbooter helping me figure out the technique! IIRC there were a good number of people carving there at times.

Ice is the best teacher. Sharp edges help, but what matters most is your technique. This is what works for me: Do not stand tall, remain crouched down as low to your board as is practical — and during transitions smoothly pass the board beneath you rolling it from heelside to toeside with your hips from a low and crouched position. You can set an edge and carve hard on ice but your transitions have to be smooth and confident. Angulate like a mofo, and reach for them boots! What did it for me when I was working on this is staying low and rolling the board through my transitions with my hips and feeding the new edge into the channel it is making for itself slowly. Ice can support a ton of edge pressure but you've gotta get the board railing into a channel cleanly first. Having another ice-coast carver help you out in person can go a long, long way here.

IIRC this was the most asym of the asyms. Would love to see a pic!

I think the thing about this community's general disparagement of skidding and sliding isn't that skidding and sliding are "invalid"; it's that they are techniques that are applied in an inappropriately broad manner by a large portion of snowboarders. Skidding and sliding to slow down are totally valid techniques, and I do it ALL THE TIME. The issue is when skidding and sliding become your go-to technique for general maneuvering. Skids and slides are *THE* *BEST* technique for bleeding speed without a directional change and being good at it can really save your bacon. I've found myself in situations where suddenly I have a skier on my left and a skier on my right and I want to get away from them but can't carve my way out because that would lead to a collision. Slashing away speed is the best way to deal with that and get them in front of me so that I don't have to trust them. I'm constantly slashing and skidding on cat-tracks to keep a predictable line and not get hit. It's a valid technique that should be in your toolbox, just not one that you should be applying wantonly everywhere.

I bought a Blackstrap balaclava and a few of the performance running masks @dredman mentioned, as well as some of the Airable Masks that @arcan mentioned— thanks for all the input people!

Some people really know how to live. wow.

Woof. I really feel for the the way essential/low-wage/blue-collar workers have borne the brunt of unequal treatment throughout this thing, it’s just so painfully unfair. They have to work to survive in these economically unfair times and have so little control over the amount of risk they must take on.

I’ve been stuck on All Them Witches, for what seems like a century. Such a pity that they lost the keyboard player, they’re not the same without him.

Thanks @jack! Depressing to hear that mountains are permitting people to slide with traditional perforated masks, I am surprised those have not been outlawed. Looking forward to seeing the MCC gaiters! I don’t usually ride with anything covering my lower jaw, because it never really seems to get particularly cold in Tahoe (either that or I’ve been very lucky) but I suspect MCC will be a lot colder and that I’ll be happy to have my mug concealed — I’m gonna buy a few different options to see which one works out best for me.

Thanks @dredman!

Thanks for the help @Jonny!

I looked into the ANON m4 goggles with the integrated magnetic face mask, but it would appear that the mask that it comes with has a patch of big old breathing holes, making it fairly useless for the capture / supression of water droplets. I am guessing I could just wear a KN95 and be done with it but I wonder what people are wearing to keep themselves and those around them safe on the mountain?