Nastar board

[griff]

Just started the Nastar thing and wanted to get an idea of what a good board might be. My main ride is a Volkl SL which I have not taken thru the gates. My first time I used a loaner, Coiler AM 69 which for the first time seemed a better choice. I don't have enough experence to make a judgement on it yet. I have much still to learn for running gates. Here's the bottom line: would I be best to buy the Coiler and use that or put my money on a different board.

I'm open to idea's.

[DiveBomber]

well for staters.... nastar sucks, they set the courses so straight, whats the point?? also they havent switch to triangle gates like they said they would.

and they dont have the start gate pull handles.

So to answer the question.... best board would be one with a bigger side cut, at least a 13 or bigger, cause theres not that much turning.

[griff]

That was one of the points I was wondering about as well. We're lucky on the starting, they have a start house with railings. Thanks for the input.

[Strider]

Hey Griff,

NATAR can be decent depending on who sets your gates, and if they'll use snowboard gates, etc. Even then, it is usually a fairly open course with few offsets or tricky gates. Its a good place to get practice and comfortable in the gates without having to pay a ton of money. Like Divebomber said, any decent GS board will work well, personally I use a Coiler 181 NSR for all of my GS whether its NASTAR, race league or USASA and it works fine for me. There's no reason to spend the money on a KEssler or something like that if all you plan to be is a recreational racer, and have limited funds like a lot of us. Good luck and have fun.

PS...if you are racing on tall gates, don't start hitting them until you have a ton of practice in them, and even then it can be dicey if you make a mistake. Its really easy to hook one and take your shoulder out.

[griff]

There is a few nice GS boards up for sale that I was looking at. So much candy and so little to buy it all with...

[patmoore]

Griff, NASTAR switched to triangular panels for the Nationals four years ago and the ranks of top quality racers grow every year.

Since you live in Massachusetts, consider visiting Okemo some weekend. Unless a private race is scheduled I set one course with ski gates and one with snowboard panels. Unlimited runs for $10. Within the limitations of the width of the layout I set the courses as "turny" as I can. On February 12th (Friday) I'll be setting snowboard gates and arranging for video which we can analyze on a big screen TV while enjoying some of the finer products of the Long Trail Brewery. There will be racers from Wachusett in attendance.

We ran this clinic last year for the first time and had a good turnout of some of the Northeast's top racers. We expect even more this year.

Pat Moore

NASTAR Coordinator Okemo

NASTAR# MOO95

[sfleck]

If it ever stops raining so we can ride again, I'll let you take the Tommahawk out for spin. It's a 180, full titanal, ~14m sidecut. Fun board, but now that I don't really race anymore, and have my new coiler, I'm probably going to get ride of it.

-Steve

[Mike T]

I heart NASTAR. I can race every weekend and no sitting around... show up, take how ever many runs I want, not race if there's powder, etc. What's not to love?

That said the NASTAR courses at Bachelor are often ridiculously straight. Mostly I use my Coiler NSR 185 (13.7 - 17 SCR) and have no problems. Now and again they set the course turnier and I get better times on a Monster (14 - 15) or my Classic 177 (14.2) both of which are softer boards than the NSR. Mostly because the first few gates were sufficiently close together that you just don't pick up enough speed to turn a bigger stiffer board. I always take my 1st run on the NSR though as it's usually the right call. There is a LOT of variation in the course set from day to day @ Bachelor.

I am hoping to be able to go to Nationals, I'll get to test two theories:

-Bachelor's courses are too damn easy

-Bachelor's par times are too high for their too-easy courses which has been making my handicaps look much, much better than they should.

(TOV19 if anyone wants to tell me just how bad Bachelor's pacesetting must suck...)

[griff]

Pat I think we have the 2/12th date set for a bunch of us to come up and do just that run gates. I'll see ya than.

[griff]

Steve surprised to see you checking out the post.. I'll take you up on the try, they say timing is everything.. I owe Noah his Madd-maybe he will forget about it...yea right.

Whats up for tomorrow-is it a wait and see or will it just be called off?

[patmoore]

I heart NASTAR. I can race every weekend and no sitting around... show up, take how ever many runs I want, not race if there's powder, etc. What's not to love?

I am hoping to be able to go to Nationals, I'll get to test two theories:

-Bachelor's courses are too damn easy

-Bachelor's par times are too high for their too-easy courses which has been making my handicaps look much, much better than they should.

(TOV19 if anyone wants to tell me just how bad Bachelor's pacesetting must suck...)

I can't comment on the pacesetters except to say that one of them hasn't been certified. His handicap may be accurate but there's no way of knowing for sure. Certainly the Nationals will give you an idea of how accurate the handicaps are. I hope to see you at Winter Park. The experience is well worth the trip. This will be my sixth nationals. The event just gets better every year.

[patmoore]

Pat I think we have the 2/12th date set for a bunch of us to come up and do just that run gates. I'll see ya than.

Terrific! The course will be open from 10 - 2 but we might be able to start it a little early.

[ncermak]

I didn;t forget about the maddd griff.

also - ride a GS board for that Nastar. we can talk about it tomorrow...if there is any riding to be done...

-Noah

[patmoore]

Hey Noah,

Hope you can make it again this year.

Here's some footage from last year.

[Mike T]

I can't comment on the pacesetters except to say that one of them hasn't been certified. His handicap may be accurate but there's no way of knowing for sure. Certainly the Nationals will give you an idea of how accurate the handicaps are. I hope to see you at Winter Park. The experience is well worth the trip. This will be my sixth nationals. The event just gets better every year.

Thanks! A big part of whether we go or not will be logistics... will we know the schedule in advance so that we can figure out if one of us will be free to hang out with our 7yo while the other is competing... and just as important will our 7yo's races overlap with ours?

How do I find out of a pacesetter is certified?

[patmoore]

Thanks! A big part of whether we go or not will be logistics... will we know the schedule in advance so that we can figure out if one of us will be free to hang out with our 7yo while the other is competing... and just as important will our 7yo's races overlap with ours?

An overall snapshot of the event can be found here. Here's the event schedule. Is your 7 year old a skier or boarder? On Friday, all snowboarders (including kids) begin racing at 9:30. 7 year old skiers compete at 12:30. On Saturday all snowboarders (including kids) begin racing at 9:30. 7 year old skiers also race at the same time. Adult skiers are the opposite of the kids. They race morning Friday and afternoon Saturday. As a dual event racer, I'm hard pressed to be in two places at once on Friday mornings but it's worth the effort. I made a little bit of history in 2008.

How do I find out of a pacesetter is certified?

You can look up their individual record. Jon Lang attended the pacesetter trials on January 2nd at Hoodoo and earned a 25.71 handicap. Racing against him, you've earned a 16 and a 17 handicap - excellent performances. I stand corrected on the other guy. Cody Lathrop did attend the same pacesetter trials and earned the handicap shown in the daily results. For some reason Batchelor is spelling his name Laythrop and he has been assigned two different registration numbers. In any event, if you're earning the handicaps you are against those two guys, you're doing well.

I hope to see you at Winter Park!

[Strider]

I am hoping to be able to go to Nationals, I'll get to test two theories:

-Bachelor's courses are too damn easy

-Bachelor's par times are too high for their too-easy courses which has been making my handicaps look much, much better than they should.

(TOV19 if anyone wants to tell me just how bad Bachelor's pacesetting must suck...)

I was wondering who it was that had handicaps less than half of mine :)

I'm the guy in second behind you right now.

Pacesetters and courses definitely make a big difference. We have a small, icy hill that they set turny courses with skier gates and have pacesetters that run true to their handicap. Its great for seeing if you improve over the year, but not so great for rocking good handicaps. It seems that when I head out west my handicaps drop a lot. That being said, I went to Nationals once and then course was much harder, but it was the last year where we were racing with the skiers and I've heard the snowboard course isn't too hard. I've also fopund the competiton at USASA better, but of course it costs a lot more to race in those, and you only get 2 runs instead of unlimited. NASTAR nationals is a blast though because they give you a bunch of swag and there is some kind of free entertainment each night. USASA is pretty much racing and thats it.

[Mike T]

Pat and $trider - hope to see you there!

My little girl skis, I have to imagine she'll get a nationals invite. I'll probably contact the NASTAR folks to see if they have any suggestions for dealing w/ the same-time races.

[biggerwrangler]

We have had fun there in years past, fun to ride the race area as you can go as fast as you want. nice when everything is busy or thin

I recommend getting guards as the gates hurt. Its cheap!

finals are 200 pre racer at winter park this year

Candice symons, Adam Symons at the nastar site

[smaynard]

Hey Adam, are you going to make it to Winter Park this year?

Send me a note when you get a chance:

(smaynard 06339 at yahoo)

[patmoore]

Setback yesterday. I was making my first pacesetting run in the morning when an outside ski (my left) slid out from under me. Must have been ice under the grooming. I tried to save myself and should have just hit the deck. I slid across the other course and tucked into a ball to miss the gates. I then saw the ropes coming up and ducked my head to clear them. When I came to a stop, both skis were off and I was rattled. I stood up and felt some pain in my left knee (the good one!). There was some loss of stability that scared me. I clicked back in and skied to the base of the t-bar on one ski. I rode the t-bar up and told my partner I was going to ski down to first aid. I descended the mountain mostly on one ski but occasionally put some weight on the ski. as long as the skeleton was stacked over the boot/ski I was able carve a light turn. It hurt a LOT to walk into first aid. They sent me to the clinic in town and an xray didn't really reveal anything amiss. My wife drove most of the way back to CT and I treated the knee with ice, elevation, ibuprofen, and Yellow Tail Shiraz. I scheduled an appointment with my knee doctor Wednesday (I get volume discounts from him).

The race clinic is still on for Friday, Feb 12th at Okemo. I may have to get someone else to do the pacesetting that day.

[guido591]

Pat:

Sorry to hear about your mishap. I congratulate you on avoiding the use of acetaminophen with the shiraz!!! Hope that there isn't any significant injury.

See you soon.

[biggerwrangler]

Hey Adam, are you going to make it to Winter Park this year?

Send me a note when you get a chance:

(smaynard 06339 at yahoo)

We will be there! I will bring a anchor for you to carry on your runs something to slow u down

[Mike T]

... I did a few runs at Highlands. My handicaps were much more reasonable, around 40-ish.

The problem is that there is nothing in the Bachelor course to separate the men from the boys. It's too flat to put much offset into. I have a big fast board with a nice grind so I go fast.

The Highlands course had some pitch at the top and I found myself being late for a gate or two on each run, and skidding around at the top. When it flattened out I would catch up to / pull away from the skier in the other lane. (Except when I was racing fellow hardbooter Charlie... who I never caught )

I so wish I had a course like that to run every weekend, I know what I need to do but I just have to get my body to do it. Need mileage! The namby-pamby Bachelor course is not challenging me, I can get a bit faster by choosing better lines but that's about it.

My times on the Bachelor course are not far off from Shane Groshong and noschoolrider who are both clearly more skilled riders than me. I'm sure they would school me big time on a more challenging course ;)