Am I self indulgent or..........

[jp1]

I spent the first 1.5 hrs. on Razor's. I finally laid down (for me) an 'Admiral Well Placed Linked Carve'. Nice deep pencil line carve, Sweet transitions (there must be a one legged ice skater here) smile :D from ear to ear on lift. My day is complete, I should go get my camera phone for 'proof' !

Next ride up the lift , some Bozo laid down 4 Perfect Carved Tight Radius Gouges 'INSIDE' of my once 'admiral well placed linked carve' !

Show Off. I have no idea whom would even consider doing such a thing. It must be the board :rolleyes: he's on a 177 and I'm on a big ole 178 !

Gotta Love It :lol: :lol:

[Chubz]

You hit it right on the head for me Glenn. I like being in the non-norm club. As I have stated before taking up alpine has taken me back to the memories of being the first kid in my town, maybe county or half of the state who got a snowboard and being the only one on the mountian with a snowboard and people asking questions and telling me that will never go anywhere. I would hope that alpine doesnt blow up like freestyle back in the day and I dont see it doing that, but more and more folks are asking about it.

You also spoke of the fitting in thing, I just chuckle at the kids who don all the garb that is shoved down their throat in the magazines and videos, just to fit in and LOOK cool. The bandanas, big headphones, droopy pants, studded belts, unstrapped helmets, open big puffy jackets yatta yatta yatta. and they cant even ride.

While there might be one good rider in a pack, most are posers and then they ask you if you wanna race or what is that thing. I'm still waiting the corporate spoon fed teen to tell me that's g@y. I'd just chuckle knowing it is our dirty little secret and the populations should remain small to keep our equipment coming but not break its britches.

I love living in my own little exisitence and not only is riding under the lift self indulgent, but so is taking on the questions of people who inquire about it in the lift line or on the chair.

Yesterday was the one of if not the best day:biggthump at Blue and Razor was perfect, except for the straight liners. People were hooting and hollering from the lift, asking questions in line, on the lift and even on the slopes........ UNTIL............JBS and I were having a great day until I was running a crossing route (trying a 360 carve) and I came across the middle and Mr. Smith (Jack Lambert) lowered his shoulder (only to protect himself) and laid me out flat. It knocked me out for a split second and I gave Jesse a pretty good dinger on the shoulder, to which I still feel like an a$$ and very sorry. I'm sure we will here some chidding at BMES. We were both shaken, but rode off and only a slight ding on the nose of the 77T. got lucky but I still feel bad. I blame him because he hasnt been out in recent weeks, rubbing elbows at SES so our timing was off;)

I hope he is ok today, I've only been seeing double of everything so when my wife got out of the shower morning, it was great.

Gotta Run

[Call me jack]

Chubz, Chubz, Chubz, my man!

It ain't braggin' if you can do it. Just sit back in your chair, take a sip of whatever beverage you're happy with, and enjoy one of the simple pleasures of carving in hardboots. It makes my heart glad that you had that happen for you. Especially, under the lift.

Just don't forget....

If you fall under the lift and your likely to get all kinds of grief from those same admirers. Your audience is heartless and demanding but, they are in the same 'boat' as it were. If you fall next time, dust yourself off, and ride on with your chin up, shoulders level, weight forward, and ready to kick some as.......

Mark

Happy New BEEERRRRRR!!!!!

funny, when i fall under a lift, all I hear are gasps, and people muttering 'is he alright? he's on a race board!'

[glenn]

You hit it right on the head for me Glenn. I like being in the non-norm club. As I have stated before taking up alpine has taken me back to the memories of being the first kid in my town, maybe county or half of the state who got a snowboard and being the only one on the mountian with a snowboard and people asking questions and telling me that will never go anywhere. I would hope that alpine doesnt blow up like freestyle back in the day and I dont see it doing that, but more and more folks are asking about it.

You also spoke of the fitting in thing, I just chuckle at the kids who don all the garb that is shoved down their throat in the magazines and videos, just to fit in and LOOK cool. The bandanas, big headphones, droopy pants, studded belts, unstrapped helmets, open big puffy jackets yatta yatta yatta. and they cant even ride.

While there might be one good rider in a pack, most are posers and then they ask you if you wanna race or what is that thing. I'm still waiting the corporate spoon fed teen to tell me that's g@y. I'd just chuckle knowing it is our dirty little secret and the populations should remain small to keep our equipment coming but not break its britches.

I love living in my own little exisitence and not only is riding under the lift self indulgent, but so is taking on the questions of people who inquire about it in the lift line or on the chair.

Yesterday was the one of if not the best day:biggthump at Blue and Razor was perfect, except for the straight liners. People were hooting and hollering from the lift, asking questions in line, on the lift and even on the slopes........ UNTIL............JBS and I were having a great day until I was running a crossing route (trying a 360 carve) and I came across the middle and Mr. Smith (Jack Lambert) lowered his shoulder (only to protect himself) and laid me out flat. It knocked me out for a split second and I gave Jesse a pretty good dinger on the shoulder, to which I still feel like an a$$ and very sorry. I'm sure we will here some chidding at BMES. We were both shaken, but rode off and only a slight ding on the nose of the 77T. got lucky but I still feel bad. I blame him because he hasnt been out in recent weeks, rubbing elbows at SES so our timing was off;)

I hope he is ok today, I've only been seeing double of everything so when my wife got out of the shower morning, it was great.

Gotta Run

You're supposed to go DOWN ;)

Reminds me of a run on Paradise...I was making predictable uniform turns (pretty proud of them I might add) when I was hit from behind by a skier. Older guy who should have known better. Looked like a car wreck...Skis/poles everywhere. I was a little disoriented.

Apparently, according to him, I shouldn't have been going back up the mountain

At first I thought he was joshin' me but immediately realized that he was serious!

Well...Asked him if he was o.k. Scraped myself up off the snow and off I went...

I'll have to be more careful next time :o

Apparently

[SWriverstone]

You guys all missed the most important rule: never look UP at the lift while showing off! (Otherwise you'll do like I did and almost crash into a lift pole, DOH!)

As for freeride companies and alpine, they're plain idiots, period. I don't give a sh*t what the freeride makers believe...right now, the single greatest potential for expanded market share lies with the alpine market. The collective freeride board makers will NOT get more people into snowboarding than are into it right now. They've reached saturation, IMO.

Do they actually believe all these 16-year-olds are gonna still be riding the pipe when they're 50? Alpine is the perfect product for the aging softbooter demographic.

If I were a shareholder in a freeride company, I'd be going

What morons.

Scott

[Dave ESPI]

Part of why I have not returned to Softbooting, I like being set apart from the gangstas

Its why I show up to Instructor lesson line-ups and Do something that I saw in 2005 late in thhe springtime when the CarveFathers' crew first turned me onto hardbooting....

...rip in low and slow with some show as I spray them with snow.... oh oh oh !

It truly is the best when people come up at Private lesson hours and say "I want the guy who was 10 inches off the ground in the turns"

The park rats are more than happy to just go out and play in the park, and not take lessons, but I'd much rather make better riders out of people.

well.... atleast the people who are ski converts...(they just didn't know it yet). Sofar this year Im 8 for 10 on request private lessons with getting people to alter their stances and go from a ducked out "parker" with serious control issues to being a streamlined ripper in softboots.

I also am a whore on Jiminy's Upper Whirlaway to Exhibition trail. Its a sweet trail, and my fave (in prime conditions) for laying massive tracks on the entire hill, save some speed and drop hard down the second steep part and hammer a turn that tends to do either one of 2 things..... wipe me out with edge loss, or throw a "wake wave" about 7 feet into the air of snowspray.

I like the second of the 2 much better ;)

On the flipside, The only run thats better; is the Ace Of Spades, but thats just a trail that I ride for ME, not anyone else as its off on its own, and not in view of masses. I tend to go solo and really push myself on it. It is where I have the best turns, and also the best wipeouts.

[Steve Prokopiw]

of being self indulgent.It's the trait my kids have most inherited from me.

[Ear dragger]

it's true, riding under the lift can be loads of fun. The liftline trails usually have a nice pitch on them, so we like them anyway. Having people watch and appreciate what we are doing is a nice perk.:) The best is having someone compliment you on the technique.

I would love to see more people out there carving, but the masses will stick to what they know. It's a shame that when you walk into an average ski shop, they probably wont have any alpine equipment, or they wont know what the heck you are talking about!! So people will be mezmorized by our method of riding, And the carving industry will probably stay about the same. But I wish it would get bigger!!!

[ptran11]

I would love to see more people out there carving, but the masses will stick to what they know. It's a shame that when you walk into an average ski shop, they probably wont have any alpine equipment, or they wont know what the heck you are talking about!! So people will be mezmorized by our method of riding, And the carving industry will probably stay about the same. But I wish it would get bigger!!!

I totally agree. If I was luckier and saw an alpine rider when I was younger I would have totally have switched. I think alot of people out there, skiers included (which was what I was doing before), would love to carve.

When I first got interested in alpine snowboard I asked around at my local shops, including REI, and no one had a clue about the sport. They all had enthusiasm about it but had no idea how to get started in the sport.

[Fastskiguy]

I just got back from a quick trip to Utah....was on a gondola at Snow Basin talking to a guy and his college-aged daughter. She kept looking at her hand and I noticed it was bruised and I said "you need some hand padding...like these" and showed her my bike (bicycle) gloves I wear under my snowboarding gloves.

"Oh yeah, I hit it on a door in the lodge...but why do you wear them?"

"Well I ride an alpine snowboard and sometimes my hands touch the snow"

and the guy goes

"Hey...red jacket...were you at Powder Mountain two days ago?"

"Yeah, I..."

[daughter interrupts]

"....We saw those awesome turns from the lift! That was so cool!"

:)

[andreac]

I too love ripping (some nice turns) under the lift... had a great day yesterday at our little hill and i was the only carver out there (there are usually a few everyday) and so riding alone was cool b/c every lift up i was with different people and got some great compliments from softbooters and skiers alike who were enjoying watching me... the best was from a teacher from one of the school groups that was there who said he couldn't wait to tell his students i was a girl because they were watching and talking about "that dude that is ripping those turns". sure does make you feel good and even handed out a few cards to people who wanted to know where to get the gear!