Justo8484

agreed. i live in philly with a full time job in south jersey. get housework done midweek after work to free up your weekends. take long weekends to go up to VT. i still got out 30+ days this year. it's the least i've had in years, but weather didn't help my cause by not providing any skiing in november or april this year. there's always ways to free up some time to get on snow, even if it is just for a 2-3 hour trip up to spring or bear or something smaller/closer.

plaza2.0 was super fun... after we built it. that was probably the most i've tried/learned all season. also, based on the effort i've seen out of everywhere i rode locally this year, i'd bet on blue for next year. sidewinder was consistently good this year, even with the crappy weather we had all winter. it just seemed like blue's park staff cared more and put more effort in than anywhere else i rode, so props to them.

Yup I got the grille and a bottle of propane ready to go, cleaned it tonight after making dinner. Rose and I will probably be playin it up for the healthy crowd with some grilled veggies. Oh, and beer. Lots and lots of beer.

you mean like the old p10/12/14? i liked em at the time, but honestly, that heel skis like crap compared to the fks/pivot or px heel. also, the p series still had the old narrow afd, and on a ski as wide as the 94, you're gonna want something with a meaty afd to get power to the edges. px14 racing would be a great binding on that ski. i know evo had them stupid cheap a little while back.

I missed it too. Oh well. I'd rather not have another $500 on my credit card right now

the slicers arent a park ski at all. it's an all mountain ski with the same construcion as dynastar's park ski, which makes it super lively. super 7s are fun, i haven't been on the bentchetlers, but i'd check out the k2 obsethed too. if they've got some of next year's stuff, check out the pettitor as well. kinda similar the the obsethed from two years ago, which is what i have. it's a much more versatile ski than the current one, and kind of replaces it, since seth's ski next year is a lot more AT oriented.

Just buy dynastars slicers. The only other ski worth checking out from those companies is the Rossi experience 98. K2's stuff in that waist range isn't that quick turning or lively, but the king fujas is a pretty fun ski for soft snow, but gets squirrelly at speed on groomers. Salomon shoguns are 2x4s. The atomic theory is on the narrower end of that spectrum but kinda fits what you're looking for, but I find them kinda dead feeling. Fischer's all mountain skis are solid, but I think the dynastars have similar characteristics, but ski better.

Does this surprise you?

Agreed. That turn isn't blind heading towards blue. It's pretty blind on the way home.

Hokendaqua is a racetrack. That road was awesome in a brand new car freshly paved three years ago.

1"-2" of really, really sticky snow

Holy crap how did I miss that abomination!

Sitting in the top lodge having a beer right now, wifi is indeed free

who's skiing tomorrow? i might need to try and use their wifi to do some work, but i should be up by 10ish...

why i ride there: 1. I grew up 10 minutes away and my parents and friends ski there 2. once it's open, sidewinder is the longest park in the area, with the most features per run combined with lower or central. boulder's jumps might be better/bigger, but you can hit 4 features in a run if you're lapping the jumpline at boulder. at blue you can hit 3 rails, then 3 jumps, than about 6 or 7 more rails, all in one 10 minute lap 3. the lifts (quad and 6pack) are fast and comfortable, and if you have a season pass, there's a VIP line to cut down on time spent waiting in line. i don't think i've spent more than 5 minutes waiting in a lift line this year 4. in my opinion, the trail variety is better than everything else around. there's several 'steep' trails, a few good bump runs, some winding cruisers, and a great beginner trail that's long enough to really get the hang of it throughout the course of one run. 5. i ski everywhere on the mountain and, similar to many of the friends i ski with, have different skis for different conditions and will frequently switch between skis during the day. the lower lodge/parking lot setup at blue makes it very easy to go back to your car between runs to swap skis without having to carry them to a locker/rack/ski check. this also provides and excellent opportunity to rehydrate with adult beverages.

photo from bear yesterday. screamin seamen 3. way underrated. also, not me. i met the kid up at park 1260... sorry i forget the name!

that's a pretty ignorant response... to use a surfing analogy, since it's pretty similar, you don't just get on a surfboard for the first time and immediately paddle out into the middle of the lineup. you sit on the beach for a little while and observe, then paddle to the outside and stay out of everyone's way until you're confident that you'd be able to maneuver well enough to not hit someone. the same thing applies to the terrain park. i've got nothing against people learning how to ride park, and honestly, i don't care if you suck, but if you do, don't get in the way and make it unsafe for others. it comes down to common sense. don't sit where people can't see you before they drop in to a feature, and don't cut people off. that's all. i think most beginners can grasp that concept.

yup that was me. nice to meet you? ha. i realize you can only legislate common sense to a point, but a crash like that was complete amateur hour. plenty of people had been hitting that jump, and tricking it, all night long, and if the kid had any idea of what he was doing, if he was unsure of the speed to hit the thing, he would have asked to follow someone into it who had speed dialed. i've done this plenty of times, and in fact, did it on that same jump last night. i'm sure i'm not the only one, but i guess after riding park for 10+ years, you get a little smarter with how you approach things.

any idea what happened to that dude last night? he seemed like he was in pretty bad shape. and yes, last night was another epic gaperfest at the crick.

based on that report, i'm really glad i went to bear last night. no sugar at all, it was nice and soft, with a few really fun features in their park. i did my good deed for the day and helped park crew and patrol block off a jump after some kid got murked when he overshot by about 10 feet and landed on his back. no helmet, of course. I know it's kinda preaching to the choir here, but please wear a helmet when you ski and calculate the risks you take. the kid had to get tobogganed down because he couldn't feel or move his legs. scary, scary stuff.

mini zaugg for the luge course, not a real zaugg, although you could definitely do some fun things with that. for whatever it's worth, not that you're skiing there, #2 is an awesome jump. i just wish it were about 10-15 feet longer, but it's built really well, as are 1 and 3, but 2 is spot on.

i still don't understand what flipcore is or how it makes the ski ride any different, after reading the tech manuals and watching videos about the thing. from my understanding, they're not milling their cores, they're pressing them. so they're just flipping the mold upside down, or what? pressing camber into the ski then flipping it and pressing rocker in the tip? it makes no sense to me. it's a hybrid camber ski, just like many, many others on the market. i haven't been on it, but it flexes similarly to many other skis that i like, so i don't see why it wouldn't be awesome, but i just don't understand the marketing hype behind it.

based on your gripes, you might wanna check out the 191 ON3P billy goat. i haven't ridden them, but based on them using the same construction as my jeffreys, and having a shape pretty similar to the super 7, i think they'd fill in where the 7 lacks. i skied the s7 last year in PNW glue and thought it was entirely too soft, and then flexed the super 7 in a show and it didn't feel like the difference in stiffness was enough to make up for how soft the s7 was. i'd love to get on em and check em out, but after finally getting the jeffrey in some real snow, i'm pretty sold on something a little bit burlier than what i've been skiing the past few years. landing drops felt so much more solid. maybe i'll format a nice review on em once i get the time.

i think this is the only action photo i took from the trip... taken on monday, 5 days after a storm