*** Official Snow Surfing Thread ***

Chocki

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I tried telemarketing once and had a good time, but I’d rather cut my dick off and fuck myself in the ass with it than not snowboard. Two planks are for traveling in the mtns, one is for having fun. IMO

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I’m hoping my parking lot bro Cole “Medina” is around again this year. Didn’t get to ride with him last winter bc he was always heading out the gates to the backcountry and me to my #d chutes. From the sounds of it “I’m having trouble not breaking boards doing backflips“ he knows where the dank launch pads with clear landing zones are and would force me to step up my game following him

Turns out the mtn is open 7 days/week now so I ain’t in no hurry to get up there.
Its gonna be a long winter, I still have base repair to finish on one board along with waxing them and I really don’t like to ride pon equipment that isn’t completely dialed in. I think I’m going to build a workbench real quick bc if I don’t rn it probably won’t get done this winter lol

A fresh wax job with temp specific wax makes a huge difference especially if you like to go fast. The wrong wax/no wax can ruin your day and that would suck wicked hard especially if you were on vacation

 
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92122

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Mother Nature is laying it down with this storm... Provided we dnt warm up in late Nov - December we should be good to go for awhile.


 

Chocki

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Mother Nature is laying it down with this storm... Provided we dnt warm up in late Nov - December we should be good to go for awhile.


Stocked for the Cali bros, we’re looking at scraps here (1-3”). In addition to the classic dumps, we get a lot of scraps here and they really help with coverage/add up over the winter.


Just got done checking out the last and besides helmet maybe the most impotent riding gear. Gloves etc and goggles. Cold hands and/or not being able to see is another day ruined.

Goggles get cleaned, Cat Crapped, then treated like gold (in the sack when not in use). **** yellow for storms/overcast days and smoke for sunny won out quickly last season.

stocked to give these a try this winter. Their gloves then mittens were dank even on the most frigid days. Liners and or hand warmers help. Just greased them up and the Buffalo leather is looking tight but fuck those cords. Not a fan of the cords

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r32

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Can I ask at what age do you stop snowboarding?

Last time I went, about half way through a power run, I had stop next to a tree and rest as my legs were on fire by 2pm. There I realized I was the oldest snowboarder on the mountain by at least 15 years, and I'm in my 40s. It's kind of a weird moment of reflection for me and I really started to ponder when everyone else stopped? I swear there was not a snowboarder older than 30 on the entire mountain.
 

Chocki

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Can I ask at what age do you stop snowboarding?

Last time I went, about half way through a power run, I had stop next to a tree and rest as my legs were on fire by 2pm. There I realized I was the oldest snowboarder on the mountain by at least 15 years, and I'm in my 40s. It's kind of a weird moment of reflection for me and I really started to ponder when everyone else stopped? I swear there was not a snowboarder older than 30 on the entire mountain.
Yesterday was totally ancient buzzard day at the mtn lol. Lots of old dogs, most but not all on skis. I think more of the cool kids snowboard than ski these days?

Im over 50 and I don’t see myself ever stopping. It’s too much fun. My recs for an AARP card carrying rider would be:

Stiff af boots. Saves energy when your ankles aren’t flexing all the time, also made for carving/riding gnar.

A board that ignores/destroys chunder, chunky snow, etc. This was a game changer last winter in terms of energy savings. Rutted out powder fields can now be moto’d through as fast as you want, which can be good or bad.

Skills pay the bills. The more tech you are the less effort riding takes

Armor thyself like a gladiator. The more the better. You only need to use it/need it once. Leatt back/chest shoulder protector, mtb ass pad shorts, elbow pads this winter, and I think Troy Lee Designs knee braces could be another game changer short and long term re knee health
 

crustBrother

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Lots of old dogs, most but not all on skis.
i think that's mostly because we are the dying breed of buzzard that learned on skis because snowboarding didn't exists when we were little birds learning how to slide

20 years from now, the buzzards will all be on boards

buzzards rule!
 
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Chocki

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My FIL is 81 and still skis. Cautious and slow-go on the blues only but he still gets out there!
Wow and good for him. Doing something that gets you out there is good for longevity

Mammoth this morning.


:love:
I rode there one day many moons ago and all I remember is JFC is that place big. Like being at the top and deciding to call a wrap for the day and it takes hours to get back to your car.

All this talk of riding with Father Time got me thinking even more about my knees and I’m definitely getting a pair of these now having read the reviews (Moto and mtb)

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hammies

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I rode there one day many moons ago and all I remember is JFC is that place big. Like being at the top and deciding to call a wrap for the day and it takes hours to get back to your car.
Compared to some of the ski-circuses in the Alps, Mammoth is a small hill. St. Anton, Val d'Isere, Kitzbuhel, etc. are all ginormous compared to anything in America.

Lift tickets are also *much* less expensive. Example: A day ticket at Arlberg gets you on 87 lifts and 500km of pistes and off-piste trails, and costs only 67 Euros.

If you get good snow, a trip to Austria will spoil you rotten.
 

Chocki

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Compared to some of the ski-circuses in the Alps, Mammoth is a small hill. St. Anton, Val d'Isere, Kitzbuhel, etc. are all ginormous compared to anything in America.

Lift tickets are also *much* less expensive. Example: A day ticket at Arlberg gets you on 87 lifts and 500km of pistes and off-piste trails, and costs only 67 Euros.

If you get good snow, a trip to Austria will spoil you rotten.
There‘s a completely different scale at work for sure in the Alps, vast af. But tbh even in my youth I never caught the big mtn bug, and after last winter I’m already spoiled rotten.

 

Chocki

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I used to RIde here fairly reg
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Went up to the mtn bc it had snowed a few inches to do some drills, work on carves, go fast, build the legs up etc
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Along with eating some tasty food and experiencing the finest in slopeside dining SoCo has to offer.

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Cold af and kinda windy. Viz was garbage. Saw some not young dudes riding fast and hard, was very very impressed.
 
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92122

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Stiff af boots. Saves energy when your ankles aren’t flexing all the time, also made for carving/riding gnar.

A board that ignores/destroys chunder, chunky snow, etc. This was a game changer last winter in terms of energy savings. Rutted out powder fields can now be moto’d through as fast as you want, which can be good or bad.

Skills pay the bills. The more tech you are the less effort riding takes

Armor thyself like a gladiator. The more the better. You only need to use it/need it once. Leatt back/chest shoulder protector, mtb ass pad shorts, elbow pads this winter, and I think Troy Lee Designs knee braces could be another game changer short and long term re knee health
I plan to ride as long as I can, and see plenty of middle aged and even older folks on Snowboards.

Agree with the stiffer boots for max support.

While I cant bring myself to wear arse padding or body armor of any kind, I have been wearing EVS SX01's the last 14 seasons. Had tried them for Moto but quickly went to something else, so repurposed them for snowboarding and then got a new set and gave the old ones to my buddy. I think it's just as much about the warmth of the neoprene leg sock as it is the support. I could take or leave the metal pivots to honest but overall, these are good.



And while I have always ridden stiffer more aggressive boards, I'm starting to realize that I might be doing myself a disservice. Not that I will ever ride anything softer than intermediate to advanced, but choosing a board that doesn't beat you up too much for the conditions you actually ride in is key. Fast smooth groomers and you like to bomb, yes, get a bigger stiff board, but when the resort is all beat up on a mixed conditions day, you'll make it so much easier on yourself with a bit of nose rocker and a softer torsional flex to weave through all the chunder.


Case & Point, I set the aggressive full camber Jones Aviator aside this season for a new Jones Frontier. Swapped the like new bindings over and am going to see how it feels.

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Chocki

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Some pics from the beat lab this am.

This board is for those days you look up at the mtn and say hey bud let’s party
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When it’s time to get ill.
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Big Bird will be making appearances on powder days this year now that I know the mtn better/have a game plan for riding it(chutes/bowls/open faces that don’t end up requiring navigating wicked tight trees along with groomer pow). At 1/2 off the fastest powder board in production was something I just couldn’t pass up.

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One of the reasons I will ride until I die is all the comedy I would miss at the mtn if I didn’t. My first day out I got to shepherd back to the lifts two lost Russian tourists I stumbled onto when a cat track unexpectedly ended. I convinced them a short powder run down through the easy trees actually going towards the lifts was a better idea than hiking up towards horseshoe bowl and babysat them until they collapsed on the cat track. Yd I got to witness some Jerry kids misadventures on a mellow but very rocky ridge this time of year as I rode by on the groomer below. They seemed to navigate it ok but then for some reason it appeared they had decided to send the 6’?+ plus drop to flat to get to the groomer I was on. I considered taking pics but decided I didn’t need to add insult to injury. I looked back as I rode away to see the first Jerry completely sprawled out on the deck below the others. I’m assuming they followed suit with similar results

And even if I wasn’t old I’d still be wearing body armor. Why not? It doesn’t seem to affect my riding in any way except to let me get even gnarlier than without it and apparently “cultivating a mindset“ is very important to being successful these days and I think armoring up before riding helps me do just that along with granting me temporary invincibility for the day.

Now as I do up my pads I say to myself it’s time to activate Kruger lol
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Chocki

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Thanks for that link. Really good info and explanation of independent weighting and foot work. With another la nina winter forecast, chances look pretty good up here for repeated freshies.
No fresh snow in the forecast here means more time to study/practice dark wizardry. Working on a list of edge/turn drills for my next day out.

Found this the other night as I searched the web for more powerful spells to cast this winter. It’s dense af with knowledge especially with how to look at terrain and where to turn, etc. I agree with pretty much everything except what he says about boards(boarderX type board = fast, etc) and carving all the time (steep n firm= round/finished skidded turns).

”start to look, for riders/Dark Wizards on the hill that do actual travel in arcs (Skiers to, as they have the same problem). You’ll maybe see one or two that are worth watching. look at how they travel around the mountain in constant arcs and how far around they steer the board in order to control speed.

Also look at where they look and how their upper body stays inline with their board.

Whilst the guy skidding down the hill might seem faster and more aggressive, the guys carving and flowing with the terrain will actually be able to carry much more speed, but will also be able to loose and gain speed from arc to arc. Snowboarding, for them is not about getting to the bottom, but about fitting their flow to the terrain of the mountain.”




One thing that made a huge difference riding the steeps last winter was not dropping in whenever possible to doing a heel side turn. Starting steep runs with a toe side turn made life a lot easier.
 
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Icu812

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After being an intermediate skier since that first time with the boy scouts at Badger Pass waaaay back then, and seeing some of the first snowboarders up on Bachelor in Oregon, at 45 I said, 'that's it, gotta do it'...'Bout killed myself (medium athleticism here). But I finally found 'Paco' (rip) up there and he took me to the proper place I didn't want to go, the bunny slope (oh, how embarrassing, damn kids), but there I learned how to snowboard, at least to the point where I love gettin' the music going in my ears and just gliding as fast as I can on a blue run...at 71 I'll do that all day with no pain whatsoever. We're heading up to Bend next week for Thanksgiving with our kids/grandkids but Bachelor is having opening day on Friday with not that much base so I'll probably pass. Been to Whistler a few times, love that place.
 

Chocki

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After being an intermediate skier since that first time with the boy scouts at Badger Pass waaaay back then, and seeing some of the first snowboarders up on Bachelor in Oregon, at 45 I said, 'that's it, gotta do it'...'Bout killed myself (medium athleticism here). But I finally found 'Paco' (rip) up there and he took me to the proper place I didn't want to go, the bunny slope (oh, how embarrassing, damn kids), but there I learned how to snowboard, at least to the point where I love gettin' the music going in my ears and just gliding as fast as I can on a blue run...at 71 I'll do that all day with no pain whatsoever. We're heading up to Bend next week for Thanksgiving with our kids/grandkids but Bachelor is having opening day on Friday with not that much base so I'll probably pass. Been to Whistler a few times, love that place.
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