First day on plates!!!

[twelsch42]

So I head up to Loveland with two sets of gear. I was worried about the snow conditions so I brought my soft gear for the first few runs. This way I could get my riding legs feeling good before I broke out my alpine gear. I was a little worried about everything. Could I get off the lift? Could I handle this huge (not really) board? Was everyone going to point and laugh at me? Are my boots to small? Would I get shin bang? Was my heel lift too much, not enough? Are my angles too steep?

Lets just say I felt better on my first run in hardboots than I did all of last year on my softies. I was hooking up some 'norm' carves. Keeping my knees apart. Trying to stop any counter-rotation. I think part of what made the transition so natural was the idea of carving your downhill edge, which I practiced lots of on my softies last year.

It is pretty easy to skid out on a heel side carve, what I've read is true. Although sometimes when I was expecting to skid out my heel edge actually hooked up more than I was ready for.

I'm 6'2" and skinny, I was riding a 169 4x4 with stratos pro's. I never even thought twice about the board, it was not too long, or too stiff to learn on. I can't wait to get this board into the trees and into some thick crud to see how it really rides. The boots are going to need some subtle fitting / packing out / heat molding, to solve a few minor issues.

I saw atleast two others on plates at Loveland yesterday. I'll be back up for an early half day tomorrow I think.

twelsch

[Bordy]

lucky you... Have fun.

(insert jelousy icon here)

[Guest]

Nice!

And I, as well, am extremely jealous.

[inkaholic]

Keep an eye on the ride board for CO. Big Mario, DT, PC and others along with myself are the local HB crew for Loveland. We usually post on the ride board but even if we don't the schedule goes like this, on hill at 8:30 chair 1. Mainly we ride the weekend due to weekday obligations.

Hope to see you out there this season and glad you had a good first day.

Ink

[pebu]

Talk about needing a jealousy icon... You're already boardin... This morning was our first morning of accumulated snowfall... As a matter of fact, it's almost all gone already... :'(

[Mark Brown]

(large sigh) -- we're still 4-6 weeks away from the start of our blown ice season...

[Jack M]

So nice to hear about someone starting out the right way and having a great experience. Sounds like your equipment was dialed. Have fun!

[Sinecure]

Great to hear. The heelside skid out could just be a question of weighting your rear foot a bit more as you finish the turn. Tough to tell without seeing you, but that's not uncommon. Also, its easy to sit down too much on heelside, bringing your COG inside of the edge and then deflecting the board (not sure if that's a good term - I mean, lowering the angle a bit) so that you have less edge bite.

Have you had the Head boots heated yet? Most shops should be able to do this for you. Its not the same as Thermoflex, but at least the lower part of the boot is thermo-moldable a bit. It should help. Once you get more comfortable, you can also experiment with swapping out the tongues for the stiffer ones (or softer, depending on what you have on there now).

Enjoy the snow. I hope we get some soon.

[D.T.]

It is pretty easy to skid out on a heel side carve

It's all about the body positioning. The more you ride, the better it gets.

As Ink said, there is always a group of weekend warrior there on Saturdays and Sundays. If you miss us at Chair 1 at 8:30, check for us on Chairs 2 or 6 unless its a powder day, then check Chairs 4 and 8. Feel free to join us!