Recap Your '07-'08 Season

[Thor VonRippington]

Let's have your highlights folks!

Where did you ride? Take any riding trips? How many days did you ride? See any epic conditions? Meet any new carver friends? Get some new amazing equipment? Goals for next season?

[Mike T]

I will when my season is over

Actually I haven't been riding since my local hill closed on May 18, but I have a day or two at TLine left in me.

[AccidentalChef]

Wow, highlights... too many to list this year.

Late December: My first real day on hardboots, if you can call it a real day. Just went up to the mountain to help out a couple friends who got snowboards for Christmas. Made my first real toeside carve on the last run of the day, and was completely addicted.

January: Another day at Loveland, then a trip to Jackson Hole for MLK weekend. Epic? Just look at the car in our condo parking lot after 2 straight days of snow. Also, on Monday when the snow stopped, my first real heelside.

February: Took most of the month off because of a mild knee injury in January, but met up with the Loveland crew towards the end of the month. In addition to making some good friends, they taught me how to actually link my carves. Also, folded the nose on my Alp. That felt good.

March: More riding, more improving. Got a Prior WCR Metal 187 for my birthday, way too much board for me at that point, coming from a Burton Alp 163. Did a week in Utah. Bola sent me out there with a Dupraz, which I used on two good powder days. Couldn't give the Dupraz back to Bola.

April: Breckenridge and Keystone at the beginning of the month, first consistent decent turns on the WCR, partly because of trying softer bindings. Got my Loveland season pass, and spent the rest of the month there meeting most of the local hardbooters and getting even more comfortable on the WCR. Learned to love how fast that board is.

May: End of the season at Loveland, and I rode 3 days. Friday, May 2, it was dumping, and the Dupraz got a workout. My first day on softies since the '90s, too. Saturday, some practice softboot carving, which helped me learn to initiate turns more with my ankles. Sunday, end of the season. I was so worn out that I didn't get too many runs in, but the bbq afterwards was worth the trip for sure.

Ok, I guess there weren't too many to list. I got in 23 days this year, and I can't complain about it. I wish I'd had a pass the whole season, instead of just the end, but I only paid full price for lift tickets 3 days. Next year, I want to hit 50 days, and keep improving my carving. One of these years, I need to be able to keep up with the rest of the loveland crew.

[Allee]

I had an A-list season. My most beautiful memories ...

Freshtival in Calgary (the film festival that showcases the new seasons ski movies). What a great vibe - everyone just whooping it up and having a good time, lots of celebs (TJ Schiller and Mark Abma in the house on the night Bartron and I went). One of the best nights out of the year, will be made an annual event.

I finally made SES and it rocked. I met so many awesome people! Too many highlights to mention. SES was the first time I rode in the trees (thanks guys!), and my first time in Colorado. It won't be the last.

I finally got to go to Big Mountain, and ride with Kathy (yay!), and Johnasmo, Dr D, Dredman and others. Big Mountain was the first time I rode in powder past my knees. That Monday was EPIC and the first run down Big Ravine that morning ranks as a highlight in my snowboard life. I'll be back there too.

I went to race school at COP. That was the first time I'd been to COP - can you believe that? Mark Ballard is an awesome guy, and the drop in people from the race team were a blast. I sucked, but I think I got better towards the end :-) The three nights I went were a ton of fun. Hopefully we'll be back next season!

I got to go back to Kimberley for closing weekend, and ride with my nutty skier friend Michelle through crazy house-sized moguls and fluffy tree stashes (when she chose the run), and on huge empty groomers covered in a perfect layer of powder (when I chose). By the time we got to Fernie the next day we were both so burned we lasted three hours on the hill, wasting a 20+ cm dump from the night before. But it was worth every minute. What an EPIC day.

I finally felt like my riding was getting somewhere. Sometime this season I ticked over 100 lifetime days (and I've been riding since 1996, how sad is that?), and now there are days where I feel like I'm starting to really get it. It's the best feeling in the world. Props to all the people from this board who have helped so much, with advice and time on the hill, and all my sexy new gear.

Next season - I'll be cat boarding in BC on my birthday with friends, I'll be back in Aspen for SES 09, and I'm looking forward to happy days in the BC and Alberta Rockies with the many friends this sport has given me.

I'm all warm and fuzzy now.

[tex1230]

Thanksgiving weekend - Stratton - boards Madd 170 and Coiled 176EX

I think this was where I learned that I don't like wide boards...

random weekends @ Stratton

Xmas Week - Stowe - Madd 170 & Madd 158, and a lot of skiing

good powder toward the end of the week

random weekends okemo, stratton

President's weekend - Stowe - Insane Powder day on Friday - waist deep in the trees - kicked my ass.

ECES - Stowe - not much happenned there ;)

got to ride w/PSR, carved more than I have in years, met a bunch of drunks, enabled them, and generally had a good time...Oh, and the Madd 170 F3 was there and it kicked ass

end of season - Okemo - Cursed trip.

[BlueB]

Highlights? Wow, there were so many this year...

In random order:

1) This was a spectacular powder season. It culminated in a night ride after the resort reopened after a heavy storm throughout the day - first tracks down the steeps, very small crowds, Dave and Roy on my side, 4807 under my feet, what more one could wish for?

2) I got plenty of reckognition from fellow instructors for strong soft boot carving, after I got banned from teaching in hard boots. Introduced 3 of them to hard boots, they all loved it. Moral victory, I guess...

3) Cypress has more hardbooters every year.

4) Acquiring and trying few great boards. I guess honnors go to the Virus Vamire, what a board!

5) Getting through the season without any injuries or sprains worh mentioning.

6) Learning to ride softies better and starting the soft quiver.

7) Learning to EC on black diamonds. Heel side finally came together.

8) A spectacullar day at Whistler (WES).

9) Last but not least, and probably the most pleasurable, watching our bud Roy (Scooby) progress into a real and fearless ripper in less then 2 seasons!

I guess it's only fair to mention the down side, too:

1) I had really a flu-plagued season. I even lost the count of how many. At one stage it switched dangerously close to pneumonhia.

2) I was told that the hard boots are unacceptable for teaching, unless there's a specific request. Due to human stupidity, malice and behind the scenes polythics, I lost the very long battle for our cause.

3) I didn't get to my annual quota of 50-60 snow days, due to baby-sitting problems. Still had about 40, though.

4) Few deals go wrong on eBay, and lo and behold, one sour deal on Bomber :(

5) Getting banned from skiing with my little son in the back-carrier.

6) Closing of the local hills in the first half of April, while we still had unbelievable cover right into June.

7) Not skiing enough. Too busy riding all my beauties ;)

[svr]

Had a good start and more than 1 meter of new snow on opening day in November here in Japan and spent two months on tankers with td2's and AT boots and then one month on tanker with a td2 hybrid soft binding.

Went to Davos, Switzerland in january for a freeride 08-09 gear test for a week and had epic conditions and plenty of new snow.

Broke my left fibia Playing rugby first weekend back in japan from switzerland and was not able to enjoy an epic midwinter here and had to cancel trip to the PACNORWEST session with Jon Dahl and company as well as Jim and the MHM crew.

End of March and begining of April and only 50% healed I decided to go to the Longboard Classic and First-tracks invitational in the Arlberg region of Austria and a week of powder riding in Switzerland and had over two meters of fresh fall during the visit.

Got to ride a lot of next years gear and have been on my 08-09 Tanker 200 since January, but am quiting rugby so that I will be able to ride the whole season next year without injuries from another sport. Even with my injury still managed 30 plus days on snow, but was not a good year to have an injury as the Mid-winter throughout Japan was very good.

Plans for next year consist of going back to Europe again, and hopefully making it to the OES as I thoroughly enjoyed the stories and photos from the trip and can't wait to meet everyone there and maybe an Argetina or Kashmir trip that will be determined based on funds and weather.

[Jon Dahl]

I hope my season is not done, in spite of a rather large to do list here at home. Too few on snow days this season, had a really quality week with my impromtu mini-session. My new fav board is the pearly white 192 Tanker. What a board!! Sold both of my swallowtails, then bought a 181 Nitro Sabre off of craigslist. Just addicted to them, I guess. Bought the 156 Rad-Air vessel, rode it once, decided I like more sidecut. Want the LSD 164! The Vessel is a great bump board, so if I end up keeping it, it won't hurt my feelings too much. I've had a lot of fun this spring on the split, toured one day in the Olympics, lots out there to do. Next winter I am hoping to start kiteboarding, so new adventures await! If I could do the longboard classic and kite it, too, that would be the ultimate. That's all I can think of, for now...

[Newmax]

Hmmm... somehow after every winterseason, I think "that's been the best! It'll be hard to top that next year!" So this time it's been kind of an "exponential increase" in being great. 67 days on snow, and then the two highlights: our first trip to Aspen for SES 08, meeting sooo many great people there, was in my opinion the best time of my life! And second the season-closing with the Freecarvingmasters! Anothertime with a lot of great alpine-freaks! WOW! :D

[Gecko]

NEW FURNACE....

[Victory]

...in Fernie, BC. January 15th after a 60cm dump that week. Ohhhhhh yaaaaaaaa.......

[Dr D]

40 days on the mtn and 6 inches of fresh on 80-85% of them.

Unreal season

downers only two days of really good groom due to all the fresh powder:eek:

[davekempmeister]

I get on snow a couple of dozen days a year and the only hill in the whole state of Maryland is a place called Wisp 3 hours west. Went for a weekend with my now 6 year old daughter and had the best time of my life cruising greens. She skis and started to really groove on that trip. It brought so much joy and renewed interest for me to see her progress. Probably my greatest day ever. (btw, other hills are closer but in PA. The hill in western MD by the name of WISP gets lake effect snow and annual totals about that of Fairbanks AK. Surprise!)

[Dave*]

The 07/08 season recap

About 85 -87 days total

73ish Cypress

1 night ride at Grouse with the "crew" after work

12ish Whistler/Blackcombs

All in all a great season, good days far out numbered the so so days ( only a few this year), lots of powder, my carving has "improved" if we can call it that, suffice it to say Dave* has a style unique unto himself, kind of like a mountain gorrilla thrashing around in the forrest.

Have to admit I did lose the fire to ride once May rolled around so didnt hit the 100 this year.

Highlights , late season powder in the "deathstar section" of Cypress with Rod the softbooter, Pete the liftie, and George ( aka Crucible), had a ton of fun at the BlueB organized WES, any day carving it up with the Cypress regulars BlueB/Roy/Pierre//Ruwi/Geoff the instructor kid , like BlueB said watching Roy progress from last year to where he is now, the day my MP3 player came up with AC/DCs Back in Black on random play just as I nosed over into #4 real name Black on Black, that one made me giggle the whole way down. The day Johnnie the terrain park guy got his entire park build crew to try and follow me carve for carve down a blue groomer ( they actually followed for three laps ), almost meeting Alexa Loo ( I was too awestruck to say hello ), shooting the s^t with Mark Fawcett about powder boards of all things, a few half days riding with Chris Prior ( makes me want to improve to his level) etc ... the list could go on.

Quotes of the year came from the aussie girl I was riding with when I started alternating laps with Geoff the instructor-"Why are you teaching the instructor?" ,, the cranky old guy who said " I hope you arent showing these kids how to leave those goddamn trenches in the snow",, Chris Prior who said " thats the cheapest I have ever sold a new board for,, ever( laughing the whole time) ",,,,BTW thanks Chris....

Ride of the year award : Prior Titanal Fatjack

Sexiest looking board award: Dupraz D1++

Moment of terror- almost killing George in a classic episode of vectors gone bad.

Stupidest move/How far can you drive with a Prior Ti board just sitting on top of your roof and not have it fall off, Creekside to fucntion junction, I got lucky there.

Dave*

[groovastic]

I've had a rather bad season

Rode only about 10 days. Only weekends. I just started working so I could not get any vacations this winter

But I got myself a new Xtasy Element 169 and it's really good for my weekend trips to rather small hills in Slovenia.

And still trying to explain to my girlfriend that I really should buy a 07/08 SG Race T since I found it "so cheap"

Oh, I forgot to mention.... I bought new Cateks and a second hand f2

[Cindy Kleh]

Best season of my wretched life, but the highlights were:

- teaching my husband to ride, then doing knee-deep powder in the trees under the Panoramic lift 3 weeks later.

- getting into the park and pipe for the first time and winning silvers at Nationals in both.

- winning golds in GS and slalom and my fourth straight national overall alpine title.

It will be pretty hard to beat that next year!

[patmoore]

Like Cindy I had a pretty good year. Still can't wipe the silly grin off my face. BTW, that's Phil Mahre autographing a bib in the background and US Team member Kaylin Richardson at the left of the shot. Also pacesetting were Deb Armstrong and Chad Fleischer.

[SEJ]

That's easy, SES! Not only was the riding and weather epic, But talk about making new friends, WOW! The rest of the season paled by comparison.

[carverchick]

Well my season started off with a bang, no pun intended. I fractured my leg Christmas eve. Then broke it completely two weeks later in Lake Tahoe, probably at Mt. Rose.

Then I spent 3 months in a walking cast, but I did get to go to Cabo San Lucas the end of February.

Upon finishing my rehab in Cabo, I came back home, received the green light from the doctor to ride with caution. I then received an early birthday present from Al, a 2007 Prior AWD which was a much needed booster and I finished the season by carving hard into early April.

I can't wait for winter demmit! I need to violate the snow badly :P

[Dave Pushee]

First full season as a retiree living within easy drive to mountain.

Lost count of the days, but at least 60.

NH had more snow than I've seen in a long time (and I've been around a loooong time).

- Dave

[crucible]

My 07-08 recap:

65 days total:

45 at Grouse

4 at Cypress

5 backcountry

9 in the Interior and the Kootenays

2 at Whistler

My highlights gotta include :

-driving the Winterstick 25th anniversary Swallowtail for 7 outings at my local hill Grouse Mountain. For a sub 8000 ft peak in the Pacific Northwet to get powder dry and fluffy enough to float a Swallowtail is UNPRECEDENTED in 25 years of riding here. People were stopping me mid-run and asking me what the hell was on my feet- and how could I go so fast in a whiteout in the middle of the night?

- riding out from Grouse down the Grouse Grind during X-mas break when the tramway got so slammed with traffic and snow that it broke down for three hours- strapped on the Petzl headlamp, pointed the trusty Oxygen Proton down the shadow of a powder snowshoe trail - and went for the gusto. I made it down 2/3rd of the way before the snow covered rocks and stumps forced me to hike with the deck on my back.

- Borrowing a pair of PVS-7B night vision goggles from one of my LE customers and using them to ride the Cypress backcountry on a moonless night. Note to self- just because everything turns from pitch black to crystal clear green doesn't mean that you have any depth perception to speak of...

- Being shown the untracked wonders of the "Deathstar" by Dave* and being sworn to secrecy- after 25 years on the local hills, it's so cool to know that there is still "terra incognita" out there.

- riding with my carving homies- Dave*, Boris, Roy, Ruwi, Doug, Carla, and my girls, Maya and Brenda.

- getting my first Coiler from Mike T and being able to understand the concept of a "quiver killer" for the very first time.

Finally, like Dave* has posted, not being run down by Dave* and slaughtered like roadkill when I popped out of sequence and got right in his rapidly accelerating path... the three cartwheels and final flip that I spun as a direct result of this near miss was the biggest crash that I have done in five years.

Like they say, "It's just training unless somebody's bleedin"...

Thanks for the season guys!

Note to self- gotta go to Mt. Baker more next season!

George

[rwmaron]

Highlights of the best season yet:

- near perfect conditions during a family weekend U.P. trip in February where I (finally) nailed some steeper terrain;

- becoming the only alpine boarder on our local hill's ski patrol in late March;

- the day in mid-May when the UPS guy delivered the demo Prior 4WD from Bomber;

Any of the days over the course of the season when I hooked up with other carvers (by design or coincidence) - JOlson, Scuff, Ryan, Dave W., and Bumpride, among others - thanks for the opportunity to hang out with you guys!

[Dave ESPI]

began the season with 10 in the quiver, sold a few, ended with 7, one that is retired forever with a split sidewall from over riding a freestyle (GNU) board like a carver, but gained 2 boards, and replaced one that was stolen.

Got Pwnd' on a Rentiger and yardsaled so hard on it that I completely detached from the board, and learned a scary lesson that someboards really do have a mind of their own.

Have met a few new faces, got to ride with local buddies, taught lessons to people who wanted to learn to ride like a carver, and got to end the season (carving) with some old dawgs at Jiminy on what was one of the best most consistant conditioned here snow in memory, and also to be present on the trail with an unfortunate colission with a skier and a carvefather.

Downnote?

nah, went up to Stratton and OKEMO for 2 more days and it was fn snowin on one of the first days of spring !

Cost me 110.00 for a new pair of gooooogles, but atleast they look good :)

[Mark Brown]

Hit the 'Loaf on New Years day with the family and had epic conditions the rest of the week. Thanks Eric for all your help.

Weather for MAC Tracks was the pits, but lots of fun with the local crew - thanks to Phil for organizing another great one!

Trip to Quebec (Le Massif/Mont Grand-Fonds) was a bust: 40 degress and rain day of our arrival with the typical -20 that evening... Suprised they could groom the resulting granite. Add to that the boss (She Who Must Be Obeyed) was down with the flu and didn't come while the offspring yard sale'd and tweaked her knee on the 3rd day ending her season. Lot's of quality bonding time with the daughter so all was not lost!

Weather at Stowe for ECES sucked but the crew was awsome! Thanks again Jack and Geoff!!!

Got a total of 4 days on my season pass to the local bumps due to work and general sucky weather here in the mid-atlantic -- those were some *very* expensive runs...

[colintkemp]

December 21 – First real day on the Donek 185 FC. Sick board; props to Sean and Co. Proper coverage, and a solid day with my buddy Dan (former pro freestyler who can lay them down like the best carvers, and then he hucks 540s and stuff – a joy to watch ride).<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>

New Years – Utah – More on the FC. Sick snow; sliced my finger on a screw on my OS2s; blood everywhere – good look.<o:p></o:p>

January – Epic powder days at Sugar Bowl in Tahoe. One of them was the type of day where you can just point downhill, carve up the pow, blast through the chopped up stuff, and drop rocks here and there. Face shots; huge smiles in the lift lines. (FC is proving to be a great do everything board)<o:p></o:p>

February<o:p></o:p>

Colorado/SES.<o:p></o:p>

- A-basin – Sweet carving day, and then I broke my Virus Cybor… Grrr.<o:p></o:p>

- Buttermilk (SES). Great too meet everyone, and to link up turns with TVR. And then, I demo’ed Frank’s (of Virus) custom titinal Berserker; and then Frank stoked me with a deal on it b/c of the broken Cyborg. So, lose a Virus from the quiver and then gain a Virus to the quiver… Thanks again Frank.<o:p></o:p>

- Vail. (FC) Oh my, the back bowls are as sick as everyone says….<o:p></o:p>

- Breckenridge. (FC) Epic, sunny groomers. Carving with my better half; she was on her Oxygen 149; a perfect day.<o:p></o:p>

- Keystone. (FC) And on the fifth day, God made my body give way. Fun hill, but body was dead – declared victory at 1 p.m.<o:p></o:p>

- Overall: Five days, five mountains. Superb.<o:p></o:p>

March/April – overall good hard pack carving conditions in Tahoe b/c of the huge January/February dumps. But no pow days. Took a really bad spill in mid-April, tweaking my elbow. I don’t really remember the fall. Elbow is just better now. <o:p></o:p>

May 5 (cinco de mayo…) Dan and I played hookie from work and rode on a Monday. Rode the Kessler 185 (w/ hangl) for the first time (what a machine) and then got back on the Volant to end the season. Super corny snow; good times.<o:p></o:p>

Great season. Now it’s time to focus on swimming…

Hey TVR, where's your summary?