True Confession: crossed back

11 years after crossing over to the dark side, this season will be 90% skis
for me and 10% board.

The proportions have been shifting in that direction for the past 3 seasons.

The boards I use are of the rare "alpine" or "carving" variety - hardboots,
long boards, one direction. The bottom line is that they are only really
fun (at least for an old fart like moi) on groomed hero snow. Add hard or
deep snow, or bumps, and they just are too much trouble. They rock on the
groomers, but are not versatile.

Skis, OTOH - as YOU all know - are the versatile weapons of choice. So, got
myself Volant Machete Souls, 170 cm, and am getting ready for action.

Am I welcome back? Didn't think so...;-)

"Doug Taylor" wrote in message
...
11 years after crossing over to the dark side, this season will be 90%
skis
for me and 10% board.

The proportions have been shifting in that direction for the past 3
seasons.

The boards I use are of the rare "alpine" or "carving" variety -
hardboots,
long boards, one direction. The bottom line is that they are only
really
fun (at least for an old fart like moi) on groomed hero snow. Add
hard or
deep snow, or bumps, and they just are too much trouble. They rock on
the
groomers, but are not versatile.

Skis, OTOH - as YOU all know - are the versatile weapons of choice.
So, got
myself Volant Machete Souls, 170 cm, and am getting ready for action.

Am I welcome back? Didn't think so...;-)

Welcome back!

"Doug Taylor" wrote in
:

11 years after crossing over to the dark side, this season will be 90%
skis for me and 10% board.

The proportions have been shifting in that direction for the past 3
seasons.

The boards I use are of the rare "alpine" or "carving" variety -
hardboots, long boards, one direction. The bottom line is that they
are only really fun (at least for an old fart like moi) on groomed
hero snow. Add hard or deep snow, or bumps, and they just are too
much trouble. They rock on the groomers, but are not versatile.

Skis, OTOH - as YOU all know - are the versatile weapons of choice.
So, got myself Volant Machete Souls, 170 cm, and am getting ready for
action.

Am I welcome back? Didn't think so...;-)





Absolutely. Welcome back.

BTW not all skiers are prejudiced against boarders. Two of my three kids
have been boarders since the first time we went sliding. One of them
switched to skis last year and the other is talking about it for this
year. My wife and I have been two-plankers since the start.
--
Chuck
Remove "_nospam" to reply by email

On 10 Nov 2003 19:02:23 GMT, Chuck wrote:

//snip//

BTW not all skiers are prejudiced against boarders.

For the most part, it's not the boarders that the "anti-boarding"
community is against, but rather the *equipment* they use.

BTW, all snowboarders are more than welcome to ride at Taos, Deer
Valley, or even Alta...they just can't do it on a board, that's all.

-Astro

---
maximum exposure f/2.8
http://www.xmission.com/~hound/astro/03-04/index.htm
---

AstroPax wrote:
On 10 Nov 2003 19:02:23 GMT, Chuck wrote:

BTW not all skiers are prejudiced against boarders.

For the most part, it's not the boarders that the "anti-boarding"
community is against, but rather the *equipment* they use.

True enough. And there's really no reason to be prejudiced against the
alpine boarders at all. They carve instead of scrape - the good ones
are a joy to watch.

Personally, I prefer to ski without the boarders (early morning is a
pretty good bet) but recognize that half the hills around here would be
closed without them. So they're doing me a favor, I guess.


--
//-Walt
//
// The Volkl Conspiracy

Hard-boot alpine boarders are similar to skiiers in many ways. They face the
front of the board, so there's no heelside turn, they don't get air onto
trails (they seldom get air at all, the boards are too heavy), and they seem
to view the hill in much the same way as skiiers do.
I find boarders adapt to skiing very easily. I had a couple of nice college
people who decided to use their 3 lessons to get their Keystone card to
learn to ski. In their first lesson, we exited the bunny hill after an hour
and did a very nice run down Schoolmarm. They were already doing careful
parallel turns. They seem to know about how to cope with sliding, they have
the balance down pretty well, edging is understood, ditto steering.

ant

ant wrote:

I find boarders adapt to skiing very easily. I had a couple of nice college
people who decided to use their 3 lessons to get their Keystone card to
learn to ski. In their first lesson, we exited the bunny hill after an hour
and did a very nice run down Schoolmarm. They were already doing careful
parallel turns. They seem to know about how to cope with sliding, they have
the balance down pretty well, edging is understood, ditto steering.

And I'll bet they're masters at side-slipping.


--
//-Walt
//
// The Volkl Conspiracy

"ant" wrote:

Hard-boot alpine boarders are similar to skiiers in many ways. They face the
front of the board, so there's no heelside turn, they don't get air onto
trails (they seldom get air at all, the boards are too heavy), and they seem
to view the hill in much the same way as skiiers do.

I generally concur but must clarify:

1) There is a heelside turn and it is huge. The alpine rider IS faced
more toward the front of the board than a freestyler, but the blind
spot is not completely eliminated. Since the carving board path is
much more across the fall line than a general skier's path, there is
still potential for collisions between skiers moving down the fall
line and boarders moving laterally. Consequently, a responsible
carving boarder is always sensitive to and aware of traffic above when
turning heel side, and does not rely on the Responsibility Code (yield
to traffic below) to avoid potential accidents.

2) Good alpiners can get air, but landings are harder due to forward
facing stance. Big air is, however, not usually a major goal as it is
in freestyle. Freestyle skill is gauged by how high off the ground
they can get, while carvers are gauged by how low they can get
(horizontal to the snow).

Many carvers are cross-overs from skiing, most are older and more
mature than freestylers, and very few are into the freestyle
lifestyle.

--dt

in article , Walt at wrote
on 11/10/03 1:40 PM:

ant wrote:

I find boarders adapt to skiing very easily. I had a couple of nice college
people who decided to use their 3 lessons to get their Keystone card to
learn to ski. In their first lesson, we exited the bunny hill after an hour
and did a very nice run down Schoolmarm. They were already doing careful
parallel turns. They seem to know about how to cope with sliding, they have
the balance down pretty well, edging is understood, ditto steering.

And I'll bet they're masters at side-slipping.

If Kerrison taught them, I'll bet they are masters at defamation and theft,
too.

"Chuck" wrote in message
...
"Doug Taylor" wrote in
:

11 years after crossing over to the dark side, this season will be
90%
skis for me and 10% board.

The proportions have been shifting in that direction for the past 3
seasons.

The boards I use are of the rare "alpine" or "carving" variety -
hardboots, long boards, one direction. The bottom line is that they
are only really fun (at least for an old fart like moi) on groomed
hero snow. Add hard or deep snow, or bumps, and they just are too
much trouble. They rock on the groomers, but are not versatile.

Skis, OTOH - as YOU all know - are the versatile weapons of choice.
So, got myself Volant Machete Souls, 170 cm, and am getting ready
for
action.

Am I welcome back? Didn't think so...;-)





Absolutely. Welcome back.

BTW not all skiers are prejudiced against boarders. Two of my three
kids
have been boarders since the first time we went sliding. One of them
switched to skis last year and the other is talking about it for this
year. My wife and I have been two-plankers since the start.

It's not a question of "being predjudiced angainst boarders". Some of
know the difference between boarder and not boarder areas, that's all.
If you go to take a shower and the water heater is broken and you get
showered with cold water and don't like it doesn't mean that you are
"prejudiced against cold water", right?

pigo