OT: Snowboarding... as in riding... snowboards...

[rakim87]

^ that's how i started. i strapped on the board... went from 0-90 and then prayed at the bottom of the mountain that i wouldn't hit anyone... my baseball playing days kicked in... i slid into first base. rinse, repeat. i finally learned to turn heal side a few trips in.

i hadn't been in 2 years and before that (single trip) i had 2 knee surgeries so it's kind of like starting over. my girlfriend bought me a board for Christmas though.

after my trip to Alpine Meadows on Christmas day that i mentioned above... we had so much fun that less than a week later (New Year's Eve day) we drove up to another lodge, Boreal, and i actually shredded!!! i was so damn happy on the drive home... 180s, 360s and even caught a lip for a short grind... accidentally yes, but you'd never have guessed since i pulled it off so clean. MAN that shit feels good!!

i'm going to empty my coin jar and try and go again this Saturday.

Nah, I didn't go straight down I saw people turning back and forth and started trying to learn how to do that, that's what I meant by carving. So I basically just kept going left and straight cause I didn't know how to turn right lol. I know what you mean though, you can go bullet fast but you can't do crap else. I think it's because you automatically crouch cause you're uncomfortable and that makes you go faster.

[H20nly]

over christmas break we were deluged with vacationers on the mountain (which is fine, normal) but they skiied the shit out of it, we need some new snow BAD

here's my kid, he's 12

we had all new snow right up to Christmas day... so i got nothing but untouched powder on my first trip.

the second trip was a little crunchier, but i was boarding the dark side of the mountain... so when it got busy in that spot for an hour, maybe 2 tops, all the traffic actually chopped the snow up and made it better as the day went on. it was only two days old though.

can't see the pic of your kid. webfilter is blocking it.

@ rakin87 - we're actually on the same page. i meant that i'd go 0-90 because i could only turn toe-side (right, because i board goofy) so depending on where i was and how fast i was going it would get to the point where turning was no longer an option.

[doc holiday]

I was lucky enough to spend a decade skiing in alaska!


On that note they actually had the tram blow off and get hung up on the tower a couple of days ago, luckily only 7 people were on board and only one was injured. it was a freak accident in 45 mph winds which really are not too high for them to have that tram moving.

The pow was epic, but a bit wet. Quite a few 1000 inch winters and now my back hurts and my doc sees me every month.

getting old is kinda odd. One week after I turned 40 tinnitus kicked in my right ear.. no more skiing for me, I carve turns on a bike instead (the kind with an engine).

[simmerdown]

inversion day yesterday, this is looking north into Canada from the summit of Big Mountain...

[oslonovski]

Snowboarding? Fuck yeah! Let's do that I said.
It got ugly... Sticking with skies for now.

[simmerdown]

i talk to skiers all the time about this...some people can't stand the feel of both feet together, some can't get the feel of feet apart...as long as you have fun getting down the hill....there used to be tons of animosity heaped onto boarders for one reason or another, fear mostly...now with the olympics and xgames and all, thats all done

just grabbed a rare older burton at the local used goods shop, couldn't resist when i saw this Canyon 181cm...

thing is a huge noodle (al dente), flies on groomed like scary fast, can't wait to try it in some powder....c'mon UUrl

[doc holiday]

there used to be tons of animosity heaped onto boarders for one reason or another, fear mostly...

it's because you used to call use things like "pole clutching swivelneck ski heads".

I think the snow boarders feared the skiiers.

Tanner Hall will destroy Shawn White if they could have a head to head.

we go faster, and bigger.

I have lots of friends who ride snowboards and we get along, but really the animosity happened because of the way snowboards were marketed to kids. Skiing was what your parents did and therefore lame.

Snowboarding has evolved skiing and the entire sport and for that I'm thankful.

When I was 17 they started allowing snowboards on the ski hills. At the resort I always had a season pass for you would lose your pass.. for the entire season if you took a jump and faced uphill at some point in the air. 360s were illegal. We'd have spotters watching the kickers for ski patrol always staying a step ahead and always having on out.

When those snow boarders hit the slops they talked a lot of smack, hence the animosity. I'm 40 now, I was there and saw it when it happened.

The thing is, we were going bigger then and we still go bigger now.

[simmerdown]

the fear i meant was the justified fear of being creamed by an out-of-control snowboarder, LOL

The first board i had that had real bindings, this would be about '85-86, thought it was so killer with those metal fins and all, hah! no metal edges and 135cm



wish i had held onto it, this one is for sale on ebay for $600! 'vintage' gear now...it still has those 2 holes on the tip if you wanted to put a rope!

[eddiex]

haven't read through all of this post. i missed all last season, due to not having health insurance. anyone here rocking mount hood this year?
this is me...except mine is green with a blue bottom + mission bindings.

[H20nly]

^ i wish i was. i "learned" on Mt. Bachelor. that is to say i learned just how fast a human being who doesn't know what he is doing with a piece of wood strapped to his feet sliding down a mountain of snow can go.

Tahoe is so Polly Prissy Pants. i'd rather be in Oregon. on that note Boreal was siiiick and the lodge is old and unpretentious so less pretentious people go there. it was tres and uber cheap. last week was my first time there but it will not be my last.

[eddiex]

^ i wish i was. i "learned" on Mt. Bachelor. that is to say i learned just how fast a human being who doesn't know what he is doing with a piece of wood strapped to his feet sliding down a mountain of snow can go.

i know what you mean. i used to skate as a young buck, so i thought snowboarding would come naturally, but it definitely did not
i haven't been to bachelor yet....but i want to. i hear it's amazzzing! i LOVE the BEND/SISTERS area in general. we don't make it down there enough!
i learned at MOUNT HOOD MEADOWS. there are a lot of youngsters there, which can suck at times, but i love the terrain.
back in '08 when i first started out, i used to go once a week. i was unemployed with no prospects and my girl got me a spring pass and was like "get out of the house!!!!" but when she learned my health insurance had expired, she put the kibosh on that pretty quickly.
i'm itching to make it up there though....ive got the health insurance part taken care of. now its just the money its always something.

[simmerdown]

when i first headed out West i flew into portland with a lil backpack, my board, and maybe $200 (1990)..not knowing anyone or wtf i was doing..hitched from the airport parking lot to Hood (climbed it to the top, rode it) for a few days, no work there so i hitched it to Bend and rode Bachelor all summer, back in the day they were open til mid-august..never lived east of MT since...

[eddiex]

when i first headed out West i flew into portland with a lil backpack, my board, and maybe $200 (1990)..not knowing anyone or wtf i was doing..hitched from the airport parking lot to Hood (climbed it to the top, rode it) for a few days, no work there so i hitched it to Bend and rode Bachelor all summer, back in the day they were open til mid-august..never lived east of MT since...

wow that sounds awesome!! yeah im from D.C.....ive been here for a little over five years now. i don't think i will ever go back (unless i had to)
i think timberline is open year round (though im not sure the conditions are nice during the summer months) meadows is open from sept. to april....it gets sloppy towards the end of the season, but some fun can still be had on the groom. i like skibowl a lot, but over the past couple years, it seems the snow hasn't cooperated too much with those guys. i wish i had the balls to just hitch hike and ride, like you did. that would be the life. unfortunately, there is rent to pay
there was a story a few years back about oregon being a cool place, because you can ride mount hood, skate portland, and surf the coast all in one day it would be hectic, but you could do it. YEAH!

[simmerdown]

nice, portland's great imo...in spring here in MT i have rode the mountain in the morning, skated the afternoon, and kayked WF lake til dark...no surfing to be had, hah...i don't think i would do now what i did back then, young, dumb and fearless. but if it weren't for boarding i wouldn't be here now, probably back east somewhere, miserable

[eddiex]

how is MT?? i've never been, but i hear it is beautiful?