Looking for Lessons in Whistler

[Gravityphile]

I'm hoping to find someone to ride with at Whistler Blackcomb March 16th to 22nd. I will be on my very first hardboot setup (a demo from Prior) and would really appreciate some help getting started. Is there anyone who would be willing to ride with a new guy and offer advice (or just point and laugh)?

[Gtanner]

I'm hoping to find someone to ride with at Whistler Blackcomb March 16th to 22nd. I will be on my very first hardboot setup (a demo from Prior) and would really appreciate some help getting started. Is there anyone who would be willing to ride with a new guy and offer advice (or just point and laugh)?

There aren't really any actual lessons at Whistler.

Send a note to Prior, they may be able to hook you up with an old Canadian Pro (Darren Chalmers) who resides in Whistler. The other option is to connect with Pan on this forum. He's a good instructor, rides plates, and I think he has priviledges to teach at Whistler.

If I wasn't working like a fool with my plant shutdown, I may have been able to meet you for a few turns, but alas, it doesn't look too promising.

-Gord

[Gravityphile]

Gord,

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm bummed that you are stuck at work. Please let me know if your circumstances change. I sent a note to Matt Dussault at Prior asking about Darren Chalmers contact info, and a sent a Visitor Message to Pan. I'm really grateful for your interest in my project. Thanks again for the help so far,

Johnny B

[BlueB]

Hi Johnny, welcome on Bomber!

If you are up for alpine lessons at Cypress Mountain, I doo that through Cypress Snow School. Various discounts are available.

I have tons of private gear that you can pick/choose/use. There is no charge for gear usage.

Good wether coming up tomorrow, Friday and Saturday, somewhat sketchy on Sunday. After that I'd be away for a week.

Boris

six04 six575733

boris at blueb dot biz

[Gravityphile]

Boris,

Thank you for your reply. Sadly, I am committed to the Whistler Blackcomb area and won't be able to join you at Cypress this trip. I do appreciate the effort, and will keep you in mind for future trips to Canada.

Thanks again,

Johnny B

[Gravityphile]

Gord,

Matt had an email address for Mr. Chalmers, so I sent him a quick note. Thanks again for the help,

Johnny B

[charliechocolate]

I'll be up there tomorrow. PM or text me if you're looking for someone to ride with. 7seven8 316 9five8o

[tenorman]

hi GRAVITYPHILE

were you able to hook up with DARREN CHALMERS?

in case you didn't and still need some help i might be able to give you a few pointers.

i'm not an instructor so all i can do is give you very BASIC pointers and perhaps take a video of you so you can post it on bomberonline and get some feedback from the membership. TRAILERTRASH contends that many BOL members are 20 plus year riders who stilll don't link turns properly--i am afraid i am one of them.

i'll be riding either blackcomb or whistler tomorrow (tuesday march 19) and again on thursday march 21 and then again saturday march 23. my friend BRIAN will also be up there with me the same days. i am too old to ride every day anymore as i need at least a day off in between to recover and rest my bum left shoulder. since march 22nd is your last day i may leave earlier around 1pm on thursday march 21 so i can maximize my rest time in order to do a half day in the afternoon on friday march 22nd in case you still need me to hold a video camera for you.

the BOL members are all video junkies as they invariably ask newbs to post video of their riding whenever one of them asks for riding advice yet few ever do. usually the brave newbs who do end up getting excellent advice and are glad they did.

sorry i didn' t reply sooner but i was away since mar 1st and just got back on the 14th and just saw your post. hopefully you will see it in time.

tomorrow i will be riding a black 1999 ELAN BALLISTIC 171 with f2 bindings and white UPZ boots and my friend BRIAN will be on a 2012 black KESSLER 185 with CATEK bindings and he also wears white UPZ boots.

either leave your cell number or get BRIAN's (he does not have a BOL account) or my cell number from BLUEB or CARVINGSCOOBY as they practically know the cell numbers of all the vancouver area carvers.

we will be eating lunch at the rendezvous on BLACKCOMB around 1130 am so you might be able to find us ordering our lunches from the asian noodle/stir fry place at around that time. hope to be able to at least take a few runs with you if you have already progressed beyond the beginner stage.

doug

[tenorman]

hi GRAVITYPHILE

it was nice meeting you yesterday. especially since i got confused that the noodle counter was in the RENDEZVOUS instead of the GLACIER LODGE--another senior moment lol.

BRIAN and i were shocked at how well you were riding on only your second day of hardbooting. don't know whether it was your surfing background or the private hardboot lesson you took from the whistler ski school on monday that was the reason for your rapid progress.

i am taking the liberty of posting the video that BRIAN filmed of you yesterday (tuesday, march 19) since you probably weren't going to post it for fear of a few BOL knuckleheads making snide NEWBIE comments.

heres the video:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B88B0UCPwMfcbmFRNEpDb3FtSUU/edit?pli=1

looking forward to taking another couple of runs with you again tomorrow (thursday.) BRIAN tweaked his shoulder yesterday and apologizes for not being able to make it tomorrow as his kids are bugging him to take them to whistler so he will be taking them on friday instead of trying to ride thursday. i will be starting later tomorrow (10 or 11) to conserve my energy so i can try riding again on friday. either way one of us will be available if you need any help (riding tips or camera holding) on both thursday and friday--your last 2 days before heading home.

i will text you when i am on the way up the gondola tomorrow.

doug

p.s. for any onlookers willing to offer helpful suggestions please note that GRAVITYPHILE was riding a lot better until he met me. in the video i told him to deliberately exaggerate the matching of his shoulder level with the horizon and reaching for the non-turning edge as he had a mild case of dropping the inside hand/patting the dog. prior to that he had a very quiet upper body with only a mild case of dropping the inside shoulder until i started to fix what wasn't broken.

Edited March 21, 2013 by tenorman
trying to embed

[BlueB]

Great riding GP! 2nd time ever, wow!

We have invasion of new tallent to the sport. 2 weeks ago I had another experienced softbooter student ripping h/boots right from the get go.

Who gives h/boot lessons, from Whistler Snow School?

[tenorman]

hi BLUEB

sorry for the delayed response but i ended up riding the full day on both thursday and friday so was too tired to log onto this site until now. GRAVITYPHILE showed vast improvement between the tuesday session and the thursday session. he was still riding the green learning area by the catskinner chair so i moved him to the larger steeper emerald chair and finally to the even steeper solar coaster chair. he was able to negotiate the blue SPRINGBOARD run quite adequately except he had to slideslip the steep part near the beginning (the area that GTANNER said would be classified as a black run back east.) according to one of JACK MICHAUD's old posts about when he was a snowboard instructor, usually a person's technique breaks down if you put him on a steeper slope than he is comfortable with but this wasn't the case with GRAVITYPHILE--by midrun he was showing the same form on the blue SPRINGBOARD run as the green CATSKINNER run.

the only thing that i wasn't sure of was he sometimes washed out while trying to finish a hard heelside turn--similar to his washout at about 15 seconds into the posted video of his tuesday session. unfortunately BRIAN couldn't make it on thursday so i couldn't film and try to critique his riding at the same time so no actual video (except the aforementioned) showing this. GRAVITYPHILE thought he was washing out because he wasn't pressuring his front cuff enough as per the BOL articles. that might be true but the problem was at the end of the turn and not the beginning since pressuring the front cuff is to initiate the heelside turn not to finish the turn--perhaps the reason is there isn't enough weight on the back foot at the end so he washes out? what is your opinion based on the limited video evidence and my untrained observations since i am not an instructor?

he was riding a demo 164cm 4WD set up at 55 front and 52 rear with 3 degrees lift only front and back as recommended by CHRIS PRIOR himself. since it is not a metal board i told GRAVITYPHILE he still needs to come forward at the beginning of the turn and then move slightly back at the end of the turn instead of staying centered as per the most recent posts on BOL which pertain mostly to riding metal boards.

the only other thing could be that he is not getting enough support from his boots and/or bindings? he was wearing track 225 boots with BTS (yellow springs.) his bindings were BOMBER SIDEWINDERS with yellow pads and yellow rings . the combination of the track 225 being the softest DEELUXE boots and the flexible SIDEWINDERS with the softest yellow pads might have been the main reason for his washouts due to his outperforming/overpowering his equipment. simply just too much FLEX in his carving system? ( he is about my size and about half my age and quite athletic.)

his boot fit is probably okay since he ordered all the stuff (boots and bindings) brand new from BOMBERONLINE so the boots (and liners) would not have been previously molded or shellpunched to someone else's dimensions and the bindings would not have been indented by someone else's riding peculiarities.

my suggestion to him was to either stiffen up his boots by getting stiffer BTS springs (red?) and extra powerstraps? or to stiffen his bindings by getting stiffer pads/rings or do both. i've never owned SIDEWINDERS (only the regular TD3) so i am afraid i might be giving GRAVITYPHILE bad advice about getting red pads and rings especially since i have subsequently checked the site and there is no red pad (the stiffest is blue? or is the red just out of stock?) also there is a disclaimer by BOL about using red e-rings without a plate or is that just for the BP version? probably the best thing to do is to get GRAVITYPHILE to contact BOMBER or vice versa on the best way to stiffen up his boots and bindings in the cheapest possible manner. luckily the costs of extra elastomer pads and rings and BTS springs aren't too prohibitive.

if in your opinion he is indeed overpowering his equipment then maybe you could ask MICHELLE or FIN to contact GRAVITYPHILE to make sure he orders the correct (stiffer) pads and springs. his technique is good and he will eventually adjust to his TOO SOFT setup but i personally think he could benefit from a stiffer setup based on my observations of his riding style. this is not a case trying to adjust equipment instead of technique--you saw the video.

almost forgot your original question--the WHISTLER ski school instructor that gave GRAVITYPHILE the private hardboot lesson was JOHN SHELLEY (spelling?)

thanks

doug

p.s. as GRAVITYPHILE was leaving on FRIDAY we didn't meet up on that day until after the lifts were closed since BRIAN's kids tagged along and we had our hands full watching out for them (especially his 16 year old son who was in the process of transitioning from softboots to hardboots.

[crucible]

Johhny B is making a mockery of all of us who have spent years trying to get good at alpine carving... the guy has got TALENT.

Geo

[BlueB]

From what I see on that video, washout happened when hic COG was way too far beyond the edge late into the turn, so he started loosing the ballance, then he did a guick evasive move with legs (tried to pull the board back under him) which broke the carve and coused the slide/crash.

At weight similar to yours and his current skill, he should be fine with blue BTS for carving and yellow for pow/freeride. I can't tell much about Sidewinders, as I didn't ride them, but all yellow sounds like trouble, except for pow. I couldn't ride Scoobys experimental TD3s with yellow pad and extra yellow suspension kit under - felt like rubber band.

[pan]

Hi Johnny,

Sorry for late reply. Just saw this thread, and I didn't receive any private message. I was at Whistler & Blackcomb running training sessions and courses on March 19-21th. I saw 2-3 hardbooters during that week. I recognize one of them is Doug.

If you are looking for a hard plate lesson at Whistler in the future, you can request me through snow school. If I'm not available, you can ask for John Shelly. Shelly is an ex-alpine racer and is currently a SBX coach working on his way to CASI 4.

If you come visit at lower mainland, you are welcome to join my training sessions. I run training sessions for Grouse, Cypress and Seymour snow schools and also give entry level race training at Grouse and Cypress.

I'll be up at Blackcomb from April 12th and will be with CASI super course. If you are up that week, feel free to pass by and say hi.

A+

Pan