Ski

Metz, as I sometimes fondly say to Jeff, I will now say to you: You dick.

Dranow told you he was on the US Ski Team? Yeah, I can see him telling people that.

Doug, he's totally Samurai...last of the Japanese warrior, Bushido Shoshinsu stuff. Don't even joke, man. He can make you disappear.

We're adding one second you your time Thursday for bad sportsmanship, Doug Wanna go for 2 seconds? Sib's right...CB uses brush and stubby gates. J4/5 coaches will even set slalom courses with just brush gates so the kids don't have to think about clearing with their hands and can concentrate on foot work.

Only work on one thing at a time while making a run. I could see your turns on the headwall and, while you made some nice turns, you were skiing to the gate, then turning. That was scrubbing your speed as you jammed the turns. If you start your turn above the gate, then you'll carve much cleaner as you come through the turn. When people "back it off" like you mentioned you did at first, you become a little more aware of the course and your brain reacts better to what's coming at you. It's funny, but when you take a quick look two gates ahead, your brain registers that to some degree. It'll help you with a higher line. We set brush gates (small markers that you can ski over) anywhere from 8 to 12 feet directly above the gates (how high up depends on the course set). The idea is to set your turn up for the brush gates and that will bring your line up. So, picture an imaginary gate about 8 feet above most of your NASTAR gates and start your turn there.

I didn't suggest the course was open to the public...why would a practice course have been open to the public? I said it was funny that Dranow tries to glob onto everyone by saying he was invited to watch. Everyone at PC could watch. You just have to ski up to the side of the course. How have Dranow's Masters results been with the waist steering method?

It's actually funny to see how wrong you are, Rob. Bode is a product of USSA training, but he has a shitty attitude. And his shitty attitude has him sitting at home this weekend trying to figure out what went wrong and why he can't finish a race, while everyone else is just continues on with the tour. Is it a good thing to be such a jerk that coaches tell you to fly home? Then when you get home, you spout hateful rumors about American Heroes like Lance? Metzy, bro, you nailed it exactly. I won't even add to what you said. Going up the levels of racing can be a humbling experience. I am humbled every weekend. The key is to learn from it. Not to act like a jerk and start in with a bunch of excuses. Learning how to race as a parent---really race---is simply a tool. I played soccer in high school and college and am a much better coach of little kids because of it, even just for the simple basics I can pass on. I have seen you carve a turn, Rob, and so I'm at a loss to understand what you could possibly have to offer a junior racer. Non-racing parents such as yourself can teach something just as important as on hill skils; they can teach sportsmanship. And how are you doing with that, Rob?

Well said, Metz.

Ha, Dranow was invited to watch Schlopy train. Everybody else at Park City had to wear a bag over their head or just turn away? If Schlopy signs my skis will they go faster?

This was tonight, Brother Skitzo? I noticed John and the sheriffs hanging outside the ticket windows when we were leaving at around 6pm... Troublemaker, eh?

Ski Montage so you don't have to p*ss in your car on the way to Vermont. That's the message. I am actually ashamed of that commercial on behalf of Montage. I can't even talk about it anymore....it's just terrible.

Typically, the slope is groomed and closed the night before the race, so it's a great surface to race on. And if you can survive those dark spots on Raceway's NASTAR Thursday nights, a day race becomes so much easier. Nothing to fear at all.

I sure hope we get some cold temps before 2/5...it was spring skiing this afternoon, for sure. It was pretty much a mud strip getting from the Phoebe Snow down to Cannonball.

It just really bums me out to read 'Dude feeling like he's gotta defend his skiing. Aside from Johnny, only recently has anyone on this MB even had a glimpse of being on the same planet as 'Dude. I know results mean everything to Adam, but his abilities have already surpassed all the top CAT racer guys that I used to see race every weekend. He also has class and character, which count a great deal and have always made him very easy to root for.

I have gone out of my way to offer volumes of helpful information to you, not as an expert, but as a parent who has been through it, only to have you discard it and attack me and the USSA coaches. Then you always stop and cry. Boo hoo.

Football was the #1 sport for both. And they'd come into the ski season beaten all to h*ll because of it---both were linebackers. Mike, in fact, had a near-crippling broken leg his senior year and missed most of the football season. And I'm pretty sure they were at football camps rather than summer race camps...both are just superb all-around athletes.

That's exactly right, 'Dude. I suppose your balls are too small to actually say who you mean. You know next to ZERO about ski racing and yet you trash people like that?

And some of us will be seeing you in two weeks at MC, JP...one of the best venues in the region, but we just wish you'd build a start house you could ski through.

Yep, for sure. And if you really want the perfect ski, then you need at least three pairs for different conditions. Even with "all-mountain" cruisers, you still concede something in most conditions and trail types.

It's mentioned in this month's Ski Mag...

IDK, 'Mom, I just never put any effort toward that variable. After lots of testing, I've ended up pretty happy with either LF6, LF7, or LF8, with PTFE when it's over 25 degrees. Dr. D sent me some of his low fluoro waxes for both warm and cold snow, but I haven't tried them yet. Montage's NASTAR is just about the perfect testing ground for waxes, since it's usually 30 seconds, with a long tuck.

They are used for their anti-static properties on old, manmade snow. There is friction from static, so it allows skis to pass more easily, as opposed to simply repelling water. I don't use them, so I can't give my impressions, but they do come in LF and HF (graphite only makes up 1/99th of the compound). Best to test it yourself and see how it feels on your skis.

Rob, NASTAR is a pipeline only in it's own vague, overstated definition. By the time kids are J6 age, they should be on USSA development teams. Any decent ski school is MORE of a pipeline to the US Ski Team than NASTAR because there is "coaching" in lessons. Young kids need to learn technical skills. Everyone from Bode to Michael Walchhofer to Raich were slalom specialists. Go ask your buddy, Gary, the following: if you take two 8 yr old kids and had one ski endless laps on NASTAR, while the other was taking lessons from a decent ski instructor, which kid would win a ski race between them? NASTAR is a tool for the coaches of the youngest racers to sometimes use; the courses aren't steep or offset enough to be much more than warmups for older racers. Nobody is trashing NASTAR. NASTAR is just gates in the snow. It doesn't have hurt feelings. The only people of NASTAR are the business guys out to profit off of recreational skiers. Good for them, although I wish it was free, like terrain parks. Perhaps you should start to recognize the value of coaches and instructors, rather than just look for excuses when you don't see the results you seem to expect.

At the level of Jeff and Adam, the ski characteristics dictate the length. In slalom, they'll ski the shortest they are legally allowed, as long as the ski is good enough to not chatter off the snow. If there were no rules, the shortest would be a 150cm, since it takes a certain amount of material to dampen well enough. Make sense? A 140cm ski just wouldn't have room for enough dampening material. For bigger, more natural arcs like the giant slalom turns, 165cm's is probably the very shortest that ski could be to hold edge---maybe 170 for the heavier skier, since body weight matters more with the larger turns. The difference in abilities of skis is really huge. Until you've skied race room versus beginner ski, you really don't fathom the difference. A race room ski will feel like two unbendable wood planks on the feet of a novice. Beginner skis feel like wet noodles for an expert.