Rob Stevens Posted February 22, 2008 Report Share Posted February 22, 2008 Blue... How's the teaching going? Are you all straight with the bosses? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueB Posted February 23, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2008 Rob, thanks for asking. Shouldn't this be in that other "trouble" tread? Well, so and so. I guess they can not complain much as I complied with everything... Few people probably still don't like me at 21/6 stance, but for now I'm not going any lower. I get to teach the bare minimum of lessons every Sunday, but I guess that's ok - it makes me feel that I still do something for community and for my pass. At the same time, I have great customer satisfaction feedback. Even the girl who unfortunatelly got lightly injured in my lesson asked to have another lesson with me... I still suffer from softies, but getting hand on them. There's quite a few collegues impressed by aggressive softboot carving. Meanwhile, the number of instructors riding plates p/time has grown by 400% ;) Boris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueB Posted February 25, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2008 Another blurbird day - full gang comes out to play! Dave, Roy, Pierre, Ruwi, myself and young Jeff (but in off phase with the rest). Ruwi and I had to ditch from the morning instructors' session to ride the cord. Being old and having squeeky back and knees is good excuse not to jump the big tables built at our park... Morning started with super firm groom, yet still of a kind where you could somewhat set the edge. Later on it all softened and bumped up... So much ripping drew the attention of one of the local photographers, so some of us are going to be famous ;) Yet another of instructors and a lifty asked for introduction to the dark side, so we'll do that next week... First impression on my new ride, Virus Vampire, is well, effortless! It's like cheating, board almost self-initiates and holds and holds and holds, no mather what you hit. I didn't do anything to crazy or overly aggressive, just learning it. So, I'll write the proper review when I'm ready. For now, it prowed perfectly capable of frozen cord, slush and chopped softening moderate steeps. The very steep black all bumped up I couldn carve up but had to do skid-carves or jump turns... I can see the indications of variable radius turns associated with Virus, but I'll have to study that a bit more. I had the most difficult group lesson of this year. 7 students signed up for Level 2. One couldn't speek English, 3 could link the turns, 3 couldn't turn at all, and one couldn't even stand up and side-slip properly... I managed to convince her and escort her to the Level 1 class. Now, I only had to be split personallity to do 2 classes in one. Managed somehow by spliting them in 2 groups and taking turns with each group while the others would do the preset drill. All happy faces at the end... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xy9ine Posted February 25, 2008 Report Share Posted February 25, 2008 sweet boards, those viruses (virii?). is that the metal w/ wood inlay version? will keep my eyes open for it. probably head up tonight; looks like a possibility of rain for tues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave* Posted February 27, 2008 Report Share Posted February 27, 2008 I am back, after a near two week long stint of no internet, I am not at all impressed with Rogers Internet customer service and the fact that they have a contract with my most hated of all companies UPS. Got the new job so my days off are now thurs, friday, sat, sunday , one week ,,, frid, sat , sunday the next. So expect to see Dave* riding on tuesday evenings ( when not setting up new modem) as I now get off work at 1700 hrs on mondays and tuesdays, so could potentially be on hill by 1815hrs if I hustle and take the right route to mountain. Will restart my updates on thursday. Dave* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave* Posted February 29, 2008 Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 The Thurs Feb 28 2008 report It appears the big "spring conditions switch" has been thrown. Cut banks looking suspiciously brown, lots of conifer "heads " poking up off piste , . Dave* does not like this disturbing trend, dance for ULLR, dance I tell you, bring winter back. Hit the parking lot around 0830 to plus 2celcius, high cloud cover with very intermittent sunny patches. Lions chair side had minimal grooming done, collins only, decent enough shape but hey its collins. Eagle chair side much nicer, a firm spring schmoo in the start warming to a medium spring schmoo by 1300hrs at which time I was burying the ATV and the slush couldnt hold the lateral. It was a tie for run of the day, Raven #1 was buffed to perfection and had the usual lack of traffic so had to punch a few furrows into it, the co-winner was midway aka lower bowen, the midway chair was broken down but had a very nice 4 groomer wide strip beside it that was almost untouched, so back up lions boonie bash the trees to land at the top of the groomers for the money shot, took some before after pics need to upload and see if turned out. The off piste was quite entertaining as well once fully softened. The mountain was very deserted today, I think there were more staff on hill than customers, and most of the customers were familiar looking passholders. The counts Other HBers spotted=0 Rows of cars main lot at quitting time= 6 Eagle Chair laps per hour=12-13 ( it started fast then they geared er down) Chairs ridden with other people= 2 ( over a 4.5 hour span) distance wet gloves left in backpack for three days can be smelt= 6 ( woops) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave* Posted March 1, 2008 Report Share Posted March 1, 2008 The Feb 29 2008 report ,,,,,,, Merry Leap Year Hit the parking lot this morning to temps of about plus 4 celcius and a fairly furious downpour of rain, so the rain gear got broke out, by the time I had hiked to the bottom of midway the rain had tapered to a intermittent drizzle for the rest of my morning. Snow was a firm spring schmoo, very carveable just watch out for the plethora of death cookies, divots, groomer troughs etc, amazingly very few wales in the overall picture. More grooming done O/N on Lions side but spent most of the morning on Raven side. Visibility variable, a few fog/lowcloud banks would roll in every once in a while, and a light wind kicked up by 1000ish, The ravens were going off in that very cool acrobatic show this am. Run of the day again was Raven #1, I give a tip of the hat to the groomer buffing that one up, considering its spring snow they have to work with some groomer is going above and beyond over there ( are you listening groomer guy that covers the lions chair side) Rode till 1100hrs, got bored , ran out of new tunes on the old 1 gig player so home for a nice nap. For those coming out to play tomorrow be prepared for spring conditions, get there early as the crowds will turn the schmoo into humps and lumps pretty quick. The Count Things worth counting today= 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueB Posted March 3, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 Another nice, partially cloudy day, with very low crowd factor... Ruwi and I got sucked into morning instructors session, so we missed out on the frozen cord. However, the session was on carving, so we had pleasure of ripping on softies. Tried some Palmer risers under my bindings. I'm not 100% sure if I liked them or not... Later on, no students for 2 hours, so we changed the footware and jumped on the real sticks. By that time there was quite a bit of loose granular on top of harder stuff, but still carvable. I enjoyed the steepness of the Rainbow the most - It's always nice to hug the slope a bit ;) My heelside EC is comming together nicely now, but only on the steeps. Dave found us a bit later. We learned about Roy's spectacullar fall/cartwheel on Raven's side. Apparently broken board and one of the TD2 bases, however the monster came out of it unshattered. Maybe we'll hear the full story out of the horse's mouth - c'mon uncle Scooby, we need the story! Had a good lesson later on. One of my level 3 students started railing his firs carves by the end of it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave* Posted March 6, 2008 Report Share Posted March 6, 2008 The Weds March 05 2008 report Got the surprise call from work this morning, work overstaffed ( when was the last time that happened ) and do I want the day off, after a 3 millisecond consideration I was scurrying to get my gear together. Arrived at 0845 to sunshine, zero degrees warming to plus 2 c as the day progressed. Snow was a firm and very grippy corduroy in the morning warming to a nice firm spring schmoo by early afternoon. In summary ,,, hero snow. As a side bonus very few people on the hill. Funny thing happened , was shooting the bull with the terrain park supervisor when his two worker kids showed up, they as expected were full of questions RE gear/speed/etc, Johnny quickly threw the gauntlet down on them to follow me carve for carve down midway, next thing you know I have for the next couple laps the entire terrain park staff trying to follow me down a featureless blue groomer , their big question was how to get that low on the heelsides, ended up giving a few tips, sounds like the hardbooters antics on midway this season has been keeping the parkrat staff moderatly entertained. PS; to the tuesday night crew, sorry didnt make it, got out of work a bit late. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueB Posted March 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2008 Hey Dave, this is awsome story! Was that Johnny, the Snowboard School supervisor, my boss? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnisiWaya Posted March 7, 2008 Report Share Posted March 7, 2008 Osiyo brother. I have been in the dumps here in NH The endless 10 to 12 inch with four or five hours of freezing rain on top storms every three days week after week did my back in. So I kept going under extreme pain and only worked one day a weekend. Then my ex-supervisor who was my protegee and I was his first non beginning level instructor "fired" me for not keeping up my time commitments. Dropped my boards and skis on my porch with a 3 by five torn scrap of paper note to bring my pass and coat to the mountain when I could. Called him on the phone and was told it was a leadership thing as I was no longer needed to teach clinics as the staff clinics were done for the year except for the ones he could tech himself. This after spending 7 weekends clinicing for 5 hours a day with no free runs on my carving board ......IN SERVICE TO THE MT. Well they still owe me for four hours of lessons and two pair of top of the line ski poles are missing. So being fired in a way that violates company written policy and numerous state laws and there is my time and equipment missing they will get the nice new Burton shell back when hell freezes over. I have a friend who is and instructor at Sunapee five minutes away verses the 45 min to the old MT so I have several day passes waiting for me up there. Now if I can only get up the energy to go up maybe I can get together with EZE and finally dial this big ass rossi VAS GS board in. THe old Wolf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave* Posted March 8, 2008 Report Share Posted March 8, 2008 The Friday March 07 2008 report Woke up checked the report, wandered out front with the binocs eyeballed the hill and said screw it, back to bed, things were looking clear by about 1200hrs so off to the hill we go. Hit parking lot by about 1240hrs Plus a couple degrees C, high overcast, snow was a very soft layer about 6-10cms deep of spring schmoo with a very firm pack layer underneath. Things were very carveable if you had the huevos and the trust to tip the deck on edge and cut thru the top layer of sludge and ride the smooth hard pack underneath. The hard part was not levering the edge from hitting body parts on the lumpy sludge on top. Hand draggging not recomended lest you rip offending hand/arm out of socket. Gave my self a 3.5 hour session, quit around 1600ish when it started to rain a bit down low and a few snowflakes up high. Talked to one kid on the chair who came up early AM, sounds like it was a peasouper until about 1130 hrs, I guess I made the right call. There are two Johnnies , the park supervisor is the crazy tattoed Austrailian guy, he has been at Cypress a few years now, not the pudgy twinkie supervisor you are thinking of. Wish I could predict the condtions for tomorrow , could be snow , more likely rain ( that is Joey the lifties prediction ) , Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueB Posted March 8, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2008 Granpa Wolf, Sorry about your mishaps. That much for the old protegee's loyalty... and employers' loyalty... Sad corporate world we live in. What can I say, get well soon, have fun on your monster board. B Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave* Posted March 9, 2008 Report Share Posted March 9, 2008 The saturday March 08 2008 report. Woke up expecting a non stellar day,, I was very happy to be proven wrong. Temps started around plus 2 C, warmed to about plus 4-5 C High overcast with infrequent sunny patches. Fist thing in morning beautiful firm grippy just starting to melt hardpack, surprisingly free of groomer wales/divots, that lasted about 1.5 hrs The snow got progressively slushier as the day progressed to essentially 6-12 inch deep spring schmoo, Very few people on the hill today, golf clubs must be getting broken out or something. A few of the usual suspects out and about, Pierre and Roy, Roy looked pretty damned happy on his "new blue" ride. Tomorrow should be a fun day again Dave* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave* Posted March 14, 2008 Report Share Posted March 14, 2008 The Friday March 14 2008 report Temps hovering around zero C, wet snow coming down from arrival to about 1030hrs, approx 5 cms accumulation of the wet heavy on top of frozen firm cord, still very edgeable. About 1030hrs the snow stopped and a big cloud rolled in creating a fog bank with very poor visibility, gave up at around 1115hrs, If the temps go below zero tonight there is a potential for some good groom tomorrow. Lots of little ski racer kids over on eagle side, otherwise hill empty, only about 4 rows of cars in main lot at quitting time. See ya up there tomorrow in the AM Dave* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hellrider Posted March 15, 2008 Report Share Posted March 15, 2008 Took that pic of Vancouver the other night from Cypress mountain..............just awesome !!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave* Posted March 15, 2008 Report Share Posted March 15, 2008 The Saturday March 15 report Hovering around zero to plus 1 c at 0900hrs and steadily warming to a plus 4-5 C by 1430. High overcast with a few afternoon sunny patches , so pretty good visibility all day. Early AM was frozen cord for about an hour , then about a 3-4 hour window of progressivly softening with great carving conditions, to a slow wet spring schmoo by quitting time at 1430hrs. A few of the usual suspects, Roy n Pierre, and we were joined by George ( Crucible ) for the morning. Apparently this was to be the "good" day of the 5 day forecast weather wise, not sure what to expect tomorrow be it Rain/Snow/fog or all of the above at the same time. Dave* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crucible Posted March 16, 2008 Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 I'm lucky to be alive. I was following Dave* down a run called Midway, which is a very wide green run that is perfect for laying down trenches, and keeping about 2-3 turns behind him. All of a sudden I hit a rut that was just outside of Dave*'s flight path and got knocked out of his track- next thing I know I'm trying to recover on a straight line and I see Dave* out of the corner of my right eye bearing down on me with all 230 lbs of him on his Prior Titanal stick of doom. I had a micro-second to get out of his way. We missed a T-Bone collision by 18 inches, tops. He would've killed me for sure. As it was , I was so amazed that I hadn't been run over that I locked my knees straight and then managed to go over the nose on a roller. Three BEAUTIFUL front flips later I came to a slow stop on my face. Not what exactly I had in mind by carving trenches. It was the first big crash I have had in three years. Luckily, nothing was damaged, except my ego- and the adrenaline dump is slowing fading away.... Nice playing with you boys- you sure know how to give good value! George: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave* Posted March 16, 2008 Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 Something to be said for being a moving "tank" , thats why I wear "BOBB" the "big orange brain bucket", As to the near miss, I was like "where f*%k did he come from, he was behind me a turn or so ago", not used to people being able to catch up that quick. As to the crash a) your not having fun till somebody is falling down b) its always good to be on the front row of a good titser c) the Canadian judge gave it a 5.5 , 0.5 deducted from the perfect score of 6.0 as not enough amplitude/air between bounces Near miss aside , it was a fun morning Dave* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueB Posted March 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 Holly smokes! I missed all the fun! I'll be back to the hill tomorrow, finally... George, good to hear that you ride at our hill again. Even better that you are still alive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueB Posted March 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2008 Very frozen cord in the morning turned into sugger on ice later, without substantial softening. Fog was in and out whole day. Light snow in the afternoon. Usual suspects, Dave, Ruwi and me... Roy showed up late and without gear, too tired to ride after yesterday's 10hrs ride (bloody machine!) Ruwi and I had no lessons to teach, so it was play time whole day. Ruwi is a happy owner of a black beauty 4WD now! We started on Midway, no fun - very frozen, sketchy grooming and limited visibility. After coffee break, Dave dragged us to the Raven side - brilliant idea - very steep, very frozen and ungroomed! After he retired, Ruwi and me proceeded to the groomed steeps of Rainbow. Bast part of the day as far as I am concerned. However, all the ECeing didn't go without damages, I got road rush on my lower arm, bruised nipples and broken screen on my cellphone... Note to myself, empty the pockets and wear a bra next time :D Roy's approach with full body armour is starting to seem logical... Finished the day of with few carving runs on softies, after Ruwi retired... Tuesday night would be probably the last evening ride before the night skiing is caned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave* Posted March 18, 2008 Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 The monday March 17 2008 report. A surprisingly good day First off no hangover, minus 1 c warming to about plus 2 c, snowing with approx 12-15 cms fresh "cypress Powder", its exactly what is needed to cover up the hard pack layer that has been formng up. Lots of racer kids on eagle chair , the provincial mini ski racer championships happening. Otherwise hill empty , tons of fresh lines, was poking around in the trees for the first time in a few weeks,. Hopefully another dump hitting tonight could make for a very entertaining morning tomorrow. Dave* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueB Posted March 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 Nope, dry night on the forcast. Cord should be good tomorrow. Hopefully it would last for the evening ride. I think I'm going quite early - don't have to work in the PM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruwi Posted March 18, 2008 Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 Yes, love the 4WD used it again today. Impressing a lot of people, was riding at Grouse in the morning lots of new snow, will be better next morning probably when it's fully packed. Had only one late afternoon lesson to teach, level 1 guy from UK. Earlier met George with daughter and 8-year old twin girls on those cute tiny boards while his daughter on skis. Such a beauty to watch those girls on boards and skis. I wish I had a videocam. George also was impressed with the black beauty 4WD. He ask if the man Boris still have nice boards to forego and might buy. How's that. Will be teaching Tuesday but will be at Cypress in the PM. Hope not to teach so late. Cheers, ruwi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tenorman Posted March 19, 2008 Report Share Posted March 19, 2008 hi ruwi i just checked my tracking number on the canada post website and the only info it shows is that the silberfeil left the rexdale ontario post office on march 13th but doesn't show where it is as of today. however the website shows march 19th as the delivery date so hopefully it will arrive as scheduled and you can try it out on friday. can one of us park at the bottom and then we go up the mountain in one car? i would like to ride my skateboard down the cypress bowl road after snowboarding. here are the 2 pictures of skating down c.o.p. ski area that we talked about when i met you at grouse on saturday--i tried emailing them to you but just ended up getting an out of office reply since you are on holidays until next monday. btw i'm the guy in the purple motorcycle leathers and the "homemade cutting board/blue jean armor" lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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