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Lower Mainland Carvers' Diaries, 2022/23


Jarcode

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Day 34, Manning

Another easy day, went a bit longer this time, and managed to carve a lot more. Still taking it very easy, but my flexibility has already improved a lot over yesterday. Working on really leaning into my heel side and staying straighter, since my usual posture is not exactly comfortable right now.

Had a 2.5 hour private lesson today, all bunny hill shenanigans. Tested my patience a bit, but we persevered.

Still cutting the day short to stop myself from doing something stupid freeriding.

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A dry morning turned into a spectacular pow day. I had a bit of time to ride, aside from usual Saturday morning "floating trainer" duties. Few laps with Patrick. Tony and windsurfing crew were spotted too. 

I was still on the ElDiablo. Just because. 

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Day 35, Manning

Riding harder today, I can really feel the shocks in my back on heel side carves... really focusing on leaning into the turn and avoiding any flexion of the lower back. Kicked up the forward lean on my front foot a bit, it was clearly too straight before. Feeling better the more I ride, which is a good sign.

Rode the WCRM today instead of the bastard, I feel like I can trust the edge hold on it a lot more. The bastard is also getting even more epoxy repairs now, this plank is unlikely to survive the season.

No lessons today, just got some talks with the club out of the way and put myself on availability for walk-ins.

Excellent carving conditions. Steady light snow through the day, cleared up at the end.

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Was a really productive session. My carving felt a lot better than usual, partially thanks to my injury which was punishing my bad habits, and the rest was due to @BlueB's training. This is why I continue to make the trek out to Cypress.

Lessons were really fun. Students that I started the program with seemed happy to see me again, and apparently they were asking for me! Ran into Ray in the middle of my lesson, who seemed surprised I was teaching on hardboots.

If the conditions are nice next Tuesday, I may join for both the morning and afternoon carving sessions.

After the long drive back to Manning and unpacking, I'm still awake at 2AM, so I'm going to sleep now..

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Day 37, Manning

Three lessons: one large school group at the start, two staff lessons afterwards. Enjoyed a little bit of freeriding, had a low-speed fall on the flats where I hooked my nose unexpectedly and slightly folded it. Not sure what I did wrong but I'm operating on insufficient sleep and too much caffeine, so I just called it after that.

Back is surprisingly fine, front ankle sore because the cuff plastic dug into it on the fall again. Annoying, since I seem to keep doing this by accident. Going to keep taking it easy just in case.

Otherwise, the carving is incredible. Was greeted with extra snow when I returned, and hero groom conditions in the morning. Way better than the mush at Cypress (although that was carvable mush).

The training from @BlueB yesterday is paying off, my toe side feels completely different now.

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Day 38, Manning

Three lessons again, two very fun school group lessons... quite advanced! Got two kids carving, which was good to see. So much improvement out of these returning students. One private staff lesson afterwards, also fairly fast progression for a beginner.

Helped the short-handed ski patrol with sweep. Snow was excellent in the morning, visibility was "variable" (far from Cypress fog). Showboated around the CSIA and CASI L1 courses running today.

More tomorrow!

 

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Frozen washboard everywhere, in the am, except Sky Chair! It got better later, though... cried was quite big too. 

My student left early, I spent the rest of the day exploring around. Eventually I've settled on riding moguls down the Ripcord. 

VSR and ElDiablo 

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Day 39, Manning

Today, we had a school trip that required "guides" for all of their students, so all of the instructors were taking on a slightly different role today. Mostly assessing skill level, and showing people around terrain. We were getting both skiers and snowboarders in our groups.

There was chaos involved in trying to get people in the appropriate skill levels. Lots of bored advanced snowboarders in my group waiting for others, although I did finally manage to shed some students in the morning to let them have some fun in the powder.

I had to teach some rudimentary skiing (wedge turns, coming across the hill to control speed, weighting the downhill ski). There were some students mistakenly put into my group that shouldn't have been with me, and I had to improvise some instruction to get them down the hill safely. It seemed to work, but helping skiers put on their skis on a steep slope is not pleasant.

In the afternoon, my group grew to 11 people! Thankfully we shed some students later, and were left with some faster riders. One of my snowboarders slowly slid off a cat track into a treewell and got stuck...  no injuries, but I guess that's why we're guiding them around.

Snow was excellent today. We got a bunch of snow and there was powder to explore in the morning, hardpack will be great tomorrow after another round of grooming. Most of the students were Cypress regulars, and they were happy to ride on something soft. Some of the snowboarders were afraid to commit to their riding because they're not used to being able to trust the snow!

There was a bit of unrelated drama at the end of the day. Left me in a foul mood.

@BlueB glad to see you're getting a lot of use out of that AMT I traded you!

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Day 40, Manning

Today's weather was the most erratic I've ever seen. From blizzard to sunny within five minutes, clouds clashing overhead leading to a lot of surprise snowfall. Conditions were excellent through the day, good carving, but the grooming took a considerable drop in quality. I was getting airtime carving up featherstone due to the ridges.

My schedule was surprisingly light today, so I ended up booking a ski lesson after morning carving. Got to parrallel turns pretty fast, lifting up the inside ski... not quite sure what to do with the poles. Lots of things to think about at once.

Had an extremely fun private lesson with a new kid today. Got an incredible amount of progress, and had his parents tag along on the final run... they were in shock with how much his riding had changed! Looks like I'll be seeing him again.

Today feels like I'm back to normal flexibility. My carving feels really good now.

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Day 41, Manning

It got a bit cold today, started at about -20C in the morning, but the sun came out and made for a really nice bluebird day. The grooming and hardpack was perfect, extremely grippy snow. I had a lot of free time to carve in the morning, and just kept going over and over. Pure bliss.

Some free ski instructors joined in on the carving fun with me. Had a lot of comments about my equipment today...

Two lessons in the afternoon, one public, one staff.

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Day 43, Manning

@roch and his brother come out to Manning to get a taste of our perfect carving conditions. Clear visibility with breaks of sun, our usual high-quality grooming, and grippy snow for carving. Featherstone was groomed really nicely today.

One school group lesson, and one no-show. Pretty much a full day of freeriding.

Made an effort to practise what we were training on yesterday, it really helped in the steeps!

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Day 44, Manning

Today we were operating in the red; no school groups today, and only 17 tickets sold online at the start of the day. The resort was dead, AGS went to skeleton crew mode and I had no lessons booked. The thing is, it was a clear blue bird day with the same excellent grippy snow, all freshly groomed...

Naturally, I rode with a bunch of staff (mostly on skis) and went until my legs and knees started to get sore. We were riding orange streak over and over, and I was leaving my signature trenches. Eventually one of my coworkers started to complain about them, and then patrol complained about my tracks!

We got some clips today, camera's HDR decided to malfunction though so they're all going to come out with an annoying blue tinge.

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