Board Report: Pow! (Day 9)

Posted on by
Reply

01/20/12

The first true powder day of the year, and the snow keeps falling! Went up for a solid half day in the morning, and had a good 6 to 8 inches on top of a bit more soft stuff. Falling didn’t hurt, which is a first for the season. However, for some reason my feet kept cramping up! This is after a few good days of no craps at all after having the Intuition boot liners baked and molded. I still may have them redone to do some final tweaking, but we’ll see how Sunday’s adventure goes, with even more snow.

Oh…and I got into the air a few times too. I’ve been wanting to get more comfy off the snow and finally got up the gumption to just try it. Only had a handful of hits, but gotta start somewhere. The soft stuff brings confidence, that’s for sure!

Board Report: Snoooooooooow! (Day 8)

Posted on by
Reply

01/07/12

After what has been, apparently, the driest December on record, we finally got snow. 7″ over night as a matter of fact. While it couldn’t really be considered a powder day and was, technically, “dust on crust”, it was still a hell of a lot softer than it has been.

It was surprisingly uncrowded, which was quite nice and we ended up riding for about 3 hours straight before we decided to get on with the rest of our day and save some energy for a possible revisit tomorrow.

I can say that one benefit of it being as hard packed as it has been is that it’s allowed forced me to work on my switch carving

I sure hope the snow keeps up, but there’s nothing else in the upcoming forecast….

Board Report: Naughty and Nice (Day 7)

Posted on by
Reply

12/26/11

Back to back days are fun, but it’s nice that it’s not back to back ALL day. I historically have enjoyed hitting the mountain on holidays, Christmas in particular, because it is not crowded at all and today was no exception. We were able to skate onto any chair we wanted.

The bonus for today, of course, was new gear. Angy loved her new board and bindings. I was a bit wary at first getting her a reverse-camber board, but she took right too it and seems quite comfy on it even after only a few hours. Defiantly glad I got it for her, as she puts it “it’s so fast and light!”. Her progression continues, and was at a point to be able to appreciate the difference in the new board…so worth it!

Board Report: ‘Twas the Day Before… (Day 6)

Posted on by
Reply

12/24/11

But you wouldn’t know it. Very clear, very sunny, and quite warm. All are good things…however, we need snow. The resort is doing a decent job with the snowmaking as coverage is pretty good so long as you stay on the runs, but that’s about it. The snow itself is pretty hard thought, good for carving, but not so good for falling, it all hurts. The crowds are down though, and at the end of the day, we got to board so life doesn’t suck!

Board Report: Surf & Snow (Day 5)

Posted on by
Reply

12/10/11

A very quick trip up the mountain this morning. It’s not snowed a whole lot so the trails were pretty hard pack and we both were feeling a little sketch with it it all, but the weather was nice and our primary goal was achieved:

The view this morning:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7004/6492633911_6f5ae5e639_z.jpg

And this was the view less than 30 hours previous:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7164/6492633455_7467e56b9b_z.jpg

Thanks to the miracle of modern travel, we were able to go for a swim in the Gulf Coast of Florida one morning, and be thousands of miles away, and thousands of feet up in the mountains the next. That’s pretty damn cool…

Back to the Beginning

Posted on by
Reply

So after playing with it for a number of weeks, the Facebook comments integration just isn’t working out as well as I’d like. So, for now, I’ve gone back to the standard WordPress comments, but with reCAPTCHA enabled to hopefully help with the spam.

Also, I’ve not posted nearly as much as I had planned on, but with all this in place, I’ve got at least one less excuse from doing so. Though that just means one more excuse I’ve got to think of…

Board Report: Progression (Day 4)

Posted on by
Reply

11/24/11

I typically enjoy heading up the hill on holidays. The crowds are usually away, and folks seem to be in a generally happier mood. This day was no exception, with the added bonus that I got to see my boardmates progress.

For her second day ever, Sierra made great strides. She did her second “learn to turn” lesson, and by accounts of her instructor she’s very close to “getting it” with regards to connecting turns. We have plans to head back up at least one more time before she goes home back east, so hopefully she’ll be able to do her S turns by then. On top of all this, she’s got the energy of a 13 year old girl, so despite the fact she took some pretty hard falls, she’s still really excited to go again.

As for Angy, she started making shorter S-turns on steeper terrain which is fantastic. The mental hurdle to handle the steeper stuff when you’re not feeling confident on your feet is pretty big. It doesn’t matter if you’re just starting out, or if you’ve been doing it a while, when you go to the next level in whatever progression you’re taking, there’s a lot of mind-work to do. It was awesome to watch her push through it.

As for me, I’ve be working a bit on buttering. It’s a balance shift, and my board really isn’t the type that’s made for it, but it can still be done. I need to work on doing it switch next time, something that hurts my head a little (see above about mind-work). But I’m excited by the prospect as well.

Board Report: A Boarder is Born (Day 3)

Posted on by
Reply

11/20/11

Decent snow, a lot more terrain, and best of all: a newbie. Today we took Angy’s niece up to Brighton for her first Snowboarding EVER. I’m always a little wary of introducing someone new to the sport as unless they’re of a particularly athletic talent the first day snowboarding is going to suck…a lot. Typically there’s lots of falling, a great deal of which is directly upon the tailbone, so by the end of the day it is very sore.

With this in mind, I usually try to get at least a two day commitment out of a new boarder before I’ll agree to take them up. With the commitment made, we dropped Sierra off for her first lesson and we went on our way. Two hours later I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I asked the two requisite questions: “Does you butt hurt?”, “YES!”. “Do you want to go again?”, “YES!”. It’s that second “YES” that’s key…and warms my heart. A Boarder is born.

Expired

Posted on by
Reply

The warranty on my car that is. It actually happened a few days ago. I watched it as it passed 36k miles. I have considered, on and off, about buying an extended warranty. Most things I’ve read say it’s not really worth it with deductibles and exclusions and all that. My last car had a great extended warranty with it, as it was bought “certified pre-owned” and up to 100k miles.

This car, however, is a Jeep. I have grand plans to modify it which would pretty much nullify any warranty that I can get. As it is, it does have a lifetime power train warranty, so there is that. But I expect some of the modifications I have planned could present a fight with the dealer if things come up. I know there are laws, particularly the Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act, that offers some protection but some battles aren’t even worth fighting. It’ll be a call made if/when the time comes.

In the meantime I now have the knowledge that I’m on my own. If nothing else, a warranty gives you peace of mind, something that seems rarer and rarer about much of anything in this day and age.

Board Report: A Quick Morning (Day 2)

Posted on by
Reply

11/19/11

I decided to take a quick morning trip up the Canyon as Angy had to work this morning and the snow had come. 11″ of it as a matter of fact! Brighton looks totally different than how it did a week and a half ago, what a difference a few more inches can make (zing!).

The snow was soft and plentiful, and while not terribly deep I did get my pow float on somewhat. I was only up there for a few hours, and I did spend a goodly amount of time tweaking my bindings a boots. I decided to try loosening things up a bit as I’ve historically ridden very, very tightly but I’ve come to the conclusion that this might be holding me back. I imagine this experiment will take a few days to sort itself out.

The other reason for the short day is that I’ll be going again tomorrow, this time with Angy and her niece, who will be going for her first time. That should be a lot of fun…I hope she loves it as much as we have.