Carvers WORST NIGHTMARE!!!

[pmorita]

Resurrecting an old post.  I was hit from behind, again, while riding at Okemo this weekend.  Must be spring break as there were lots of college kids at the mountain and I was blindsided by another snowboarder straight lining.  Worst part was that he started yelling that it was my fault for not looking up hill before I turned.   

I know that he was in the wrong and he basically admitted that he was the uphill rider, but does this even matter?  Weekends are crowded.  These moron kids think everyone needs to get out of their way.  People really don't know how much of the trail we take up.  

I don't even argue with these folks anymore.  I just make sure that we are both OK and get on with my day.  Is this wrong and I should I try to teach more?  Interested in other's input.

Thanks

[billyt.]

Trails are a little more crowded during mid week than usual due to remote work. Tuesday through Thursday is your best bet.3-4 hard carves then stop and wait.

[Rob Stevens]

On 2/6/2012 at 9:32 PM, BobD said:

So does rotating your head (and Upper body on heel sides) detract from your form, or do we have Bomber style, Euro style, and contorted looking behind you on every turn style?

I find not having a head to be the least stylish. 
to get around that, If I know I’m going to eat up ground on my next heel turn, I’ll check it uphill before I’ve left my toes. If I’ve got a decent field of vision, I can usually spot even the most pinned, gaping straightliner. 

[SunSurfer]

5 hours ago, pmorita said:

Resurrecting an old post.  I was hit from behind, again, while riding at Okemo this weekend.  Must be spring break as there were lots of college kids at the mountain and I was blindsided by another snowboarder straight lining.  Worst part was that he started yelling that it was my fault for not looking up hill before I turned.   

I know that he was in the wrong and he basically admitted that he was the uphill rider, but does this even matter?  Weekends are crowded.  These moron kids think everyone needs to get out of their way.  People really don't know how much of the trail we take up.  

I don't even argue with these folks anymore.  I just make sure that we are both OK and get on with my day.  Is this wrong and I should I try to teach more?  Interested in other's input.

Thanks

I'm pretty much like you. I look at the other rider/skier and think about how likely is what I say to change their behaviour? There are relatively few people today who will admit they were at fault in a collision, even in a NZ where the consequences of admitting fault are minimal.

[snowburn]

5 hours ago, pmorita said:

I should I try to teach more?

I had a close one last week. Rider was attempting to pass me during a carve I saw him coming in the corner of my eye and pulled out of my turn and luckily he did the same. We both said whoa. Good thing I was wearing sunglasses bc goggles would of blocked my peripheral vison. When we got to the bottom of the run I told him "FYI carvers take up a lot of room and if attempting to pass to give us lots of room". He admitted he didn't think I was going to turn that fast and turn as wide even though my speed and turns were consistent. This reminded me that usually the bottom can get congested especially as the day progresses and to be extra careful in the busy zones. Then later that week I was skidding to a stop at the bottom when a skier decided to turn way left to a stop suddenly in front of me a bit back from the usual stopping area. I wasn't expecting her to cut in my way. We collided at a slow speed but both didn't fall down or get hurt. My board hit her ski boots so minimal damage just a pair of chips on my edge top sheet. 

Spring Break is next week so be careful out there. Its going to be busy up there. Although our local college will not have a spring break this year due to CV19.

[John Gilmour]

O okOne thing I’ve done since the very beginning of Teaching snowboarding this to tell people to try to divide the trail up into five lanes and stay out of lane one & lane five. 
 

One reason for this is if for some reason something goes wrong at least you’ve got a 20% buffer before you’re in the trees.

The other reason is that if some person does try to pass you, he’s got 20% of the width of the trail on either side to try to squeeze past you and if you should happen to overshoot your turn by 10%, he still got 10% to go past you without  hitting you, he doesn’t have to time his turn exactly to your turn to squeeze by, this is snowboarding not Frogger.

 

 

and if you happen to overshoot your turn by even more,Leaving just 3% space between you and the trees and he tries to be an idiot and still  squeeze by, at least you won’t be the one in the trees.

 

There’s a false sense of confidence when they are only one or two people are on a slightly narrow trail ....people travel at a higher rate of speed thinking they’ve got lots of room It’s just a single person to avoid, and all takes is bad timing.

Because skiers typically don’t make really wide finish turns they don’t realize how fast we come across the trail. They don’t understand that the best thing to do is to be going the exact opposite way across the trail on a seemingly collision course, aiming for a space about 3 feet after the tail of our snowboards. That’s really the only safe spot. Because you can’t reappear in that spot ever again, and you can’t possibly turn around quickly enough to hit him before he well down the hill.

 

... but instead most people try to get a “good” ( not) 29 feet away ...distance  from you, there’s no sort of aiming at a spot behind your tail whatsoever. And inevitably at some point the timing is wrong and . 
 

that 20 feet is eaten up in less than 1 second . And as you come across you don’t have weight down hill - so you can not make an instant slalom turn. 
 

I got hit at Killington - end of the day . Only 1 skier hundreds of yards up hill.  He could have waited 20 seconds he straight lined and was too tired to even turn slightly. But he hit me from above as I was heelsiding ( gunfighter)  on a Layle Gregory Hammer 154 recovering from an injury. He was going 35-40 mph I was doing 10-15 mph . 3:50 pm. 
 

Trail was 60 feet wide - no one else on it. I was hooking turns methodically in the middle three lanes . Very predictable. 

I got jolted slammed my shoulder into him  . Skier but through this tongue , broke his nose, and broke his arm both bones like a noodle - blood everywhere.  He spun through the air like a unstuffed doll. Total yard sale . I normally would have been Wtf?  But felt sorry for the tired skinny weary guy who should have nit taken a last run so tired. 
 

he was apologetic- and I walked him to ski patrol.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[*Ace*]

I have seen you almost get creamed on numerous occasions trying to show off for the Bomber tent. Here is one classic example.

http://figmentoriginal.com/atc1.gif

[barryj]

50 minutes ago, *Ace* said:

Here is one classic example.

Hey Ace

That link doesn't seem to be working???? 

[*Ace*]

9 minutes ago, barryj said:

Hey Ace

That link doesn't seem to be working???? 

Hmm. Edited with link to image instead. Not sure what's up?

[BlueB]

1 hour ago, *Ace* said:

I have seen you almost get creamed on numerous occasions trying to show off for the Bomber tent. Here is one classic example.

http://figmentoriginal.com/atc1.gif

How that even ended up without a disaster, it's a miracle! 

[snowburn]

33 minutes ago, *Ace* said:

Hmm. Edited with link to image instead. Not sure what's up?

worked for me

[wjholm]

This happened to me a couple weeks ago on a Thursday afternoon.  Had the place to myself.  High School ski race that day.  Didnt expect the little s#*t heads to be straight-lining my favorite run, far from the competition.  Can't prove it; but, I think they were trying to buzz me.  Caught him in the corner of my eye at the last microsecond.  REALLY HARD HIT.  My board is totaled.  The teenager that hit me flew 30-40 feet down the run and slid much farther.  Neither of us got up very quick.  Had a discussion with his coach.  Thank God we both limped away, my board will never turn again......

 

[queequeg]

51 minutes ago, wjholm said:

 ... Had the place to myself.  High School ski race that day.  Didnt expect the little s#*t heads to be straight-lining my favorite run, far from the competition.  Can't prove it; but, I think they were trying to buzz me ...

Sorry that happened to you (and your board, which I hope the little bastard is replacing).

In my experience, ski-racing teams are by a very wide margin: collectively the most irresponsible group of people on the mountain. Mostly for the way they think that they can straightline on runs open to the public because "I'M A SKI RACER AND I'VE GOT THE MADD SKILLZ SO SCREW YOUR DISCOMFORT WITH MY IRRESPONSIBILITY". It's obnoxious.

I suspect most of these little pricks get away with this sort of thing because: mommy and daddy are flush with cash and donate to the ski-school etc ... Most of them don't grok the idea that the gates on a race-course don't move; and while their skills do allow them to charge down a CLOSED COURSE without endangering anyone but themselves: that same logic does not apply to open slopes where downhill skiers can behave unpredictably. God how I despise these little race-school pricks.

[trailertrash]

13 minutes ago, queequeg said:

God how I despise these little race-school pricks.

Didn't you cream a kid at an ECES?

[queequeg]

40 minutes ago, trailertrash said:

Didn't you cream a kid at an ECES?

lolz: I was waiting for this predictable comment. Yes I did, some twelve or so years ago.

I came in hot at the bottom of the run, and threw my board sideways to stop—when suddenly a lady who had her back to me started moving backwards into the path I was taking. She could not see me and I was already stopping as hard as I could. Her boot caught the tail of my board, and my remaining energy caused me to straighten out, and the result was that I plowed into a pile of people at the center of which was a small child, and its ogre of a father. Nobody was harmed but the kid was understandably freaked out and the dad went into ultra-testosterone-freakazoid mode. Ski patrol was remarkably kind about the whole thing but pulled my pass for the day, which was the least I could have expected.

It was tremendously embarrassing (I'm sure this is why you are bringing this up) and easily could have been avoided if I had not been carrying so much speed so close to a crowded area. I definitely learned my lesson that day. The lady walking backwards into the tail of my board was pretty unpredictable, but it was still a pretty dumb move to be carrying all that energy into a human-dense area like that. 

I suspect there are very few people—if any—on this forum who have not made some kind of error in judgement of this kind at some point ... but: some people just looooove to fling mud. I have no problem admitting it when I've a mistake, which is a quality that I am quite proud of. We all make them, but as long as I am in the habit of learning from mine I'm not going to be embarrassed by my past failures ... particularly when brought up in some cowardly potshot.

[bumpyride]

Probably makes for a safer ride and a better court case. 

 

http://www.shootshescores.com/movies/Hard_Hat2.gif

[trailertrash]

1 hour ago, queequeg said:

particularly when brought up in some cowardly potshot.

You made broad generalizations of a group that can't even defend themselves on this forum for something you yourself are guilty of and you are calling anyone cowardly?

Do I have that right?

You embarrassed the organizers and everyone else at that event when you tried to show off. 

[queequeg]

55 minutes ago, trailertrash said:

You made broad generalizations of a group that can't even defend themselves on this forum for something you yourself are guilty of and you are calling anyone cowardly?

Do I have that right?

You embarrassed the organizers and everyone else at that event when you tried to show off. 

Seems like you are really looking for an argument John. I hope you are doing alright, seems like you might not be having the best day.

[yamifumi]

It is true that ski racer kids are one of the worst. There are a lot in CO ski area. Though there are really good ski racer kids but bad apples ruins others.... they also have no problem smashing back of your board either.

@b.free always say “look back as much as you can”. It actually makes a nice turn by looking back as it forces me to pressure with rear leg but it also gets me dizzy  

[Corey]

11 hours ago, queequeg said:

It was tremendously embarrassing (I'm sure this is why you are bringing this up) and easily could have been avoided if I had not been carrying so much speed so close to a crowded area. I definitely learned my lesson that day.

Kudos for sharing the story and owning up to it. 

I'm glad my poorest decisions weren't in front of a lot of people or caught on video. 

[Neil Gendzwill]

The combination of strong skills and the bulletproof attitude of youth makes for annoying behaviour in ski racer kids. I don’t blame them too much, we were all young once. It’s on their coaches and parents to haul them up short. 

[pmorita]

Getting more than I expected from this thread.  Neil, couldn't agree with you more on holding parents and coaches accountable.  

In the end it sounds like getting hit from behind happens too often and it's on us to constantly look uphill for stray bullets.  Really makes me appreciate MCC and the no passing rule.  Everyone stay safe.

[Shred Gruumer]

On 3/7/2021 at 7:23 AM, pmorita said:

Is this wrong and I should I try to teach more?  Interested in other's input.

I'll beat the snot out of them any chance I get... Then I head to the parents a teach them too... It's just as much their fault for raising this problem child. 

[*Ace*]

Little clip of a racer kid buzzing Fin. I believe he talked to the coach and he pretty much just blew him off.

[yamifumi]

16 minutes ago, *Ace* said:

Little clip of a racer kid buzzing Fin. I believe he talked to the coach and he pretty much just blew him off.

What in the world......that’s insane. Someone could have gotten hurt really bad.