Ski

As far as I know, Gary never raced outside of NASTAR or club racing until early this year when he entered a Masters race. Simplified, Masters racing is where old Skidudes go. It's an extention of, and overseen by, USSA. It is a step above ASRA racing, although there are a number of people that race both. I believe he was "released from employment" at Park City Mountain Resort a couple of years ago, where he coached and gave lessons to adults. Dranow is just really odd to me. He has used the NASTAR board to take recreational skiers through a journey that visited his broken neck and subsequent operation, complete with photos and horrible descriptions. I recall the photo of him sitting in his hospital room, drugged, and his robe half off, and I wondered about all the children that were seeing this after just looking to find racing tips. 95% of NASTAR racers are people just out to have fun on miniature golf style courses. That NASTAR is a "feeder program" into USSA is true, but only to an extremely limited extent. It gets little kids to say, "Wow, that was fun, Mom, can I do it again?" So Mom signs them up with a USSA program that offers coaching and venues. And when it comes to racing, coaching is everything. And NASTAR has absolutely no coaching beyond over-priced mini-clinics at the vast majority of resorts. There isn't really a downside to NASTAR, other than that most courses are just tuck runs. Kids get into a habit of tucking everything, but half of all ski races for juniors are slaloms. Learning slalom early is like learning to play in the infield first in baseball, as opposed to the outfield first. Everything comes at you faster and you learn the technical side first. It's much easier to move from an infield position to the outfield later (other than old sluggers that are moved to first base because they are too slow to run down fly balls). So coaches try to build off of slalom at an early age, even though a lot of kids want to specialize in speed events. It's why Bode always had a chance to be a great downhiller, wherein a great downhiller almost never becomes a slalom skier.

Hah, some pretty interesting testimonials. "Uh, yeah, it may help in flat light in downhill events a little, but I haven't tried it" and "I haven't really looked into it, but when I get time, I'll be sure to". The Masters racers that smoke Gary by 10 seconds on real GS and slalom courses consider it a joke at best. Saying that people will improve because he's teaching enough of the regular race edging, but his "unique" waist steering is just plain silly and he even mislabels muscle groups. But maybe the guys that completely destroy him in Intermountain Masters are wrong and he's right. Who knows.

This would be for a different day, though. It's probably best to just stick with some laps on our hill for starters.

Blues are best, but I've been wanting to try something steep, as long as it's wide. Boomer might be pretty amazing to try, especially since it has a runout.

Thanks, that's what I figured. Just grab one of the spots that the hunters use.

So where's the best place to leave a vehicle and walk to the North face slopes? In other words, is there a spot you wouldn't mind leaving Jeff's BMW while we grass ski?

The news said lawns were white around Dushore, which is NW of WB/Scranton; the same storm that's dumped a foot in MI and Ohio. They actually had blizzard warnings posted...

You parked in the main lot? Nobody was around or cared you were there? Any other hikers/sightseers? And are there any 'keep the hell out' signs that you noticed?

While hiking my muddy pathway up to my oil coated final few runs of the PA season, it started to snow. It felt like winter for a little while.

Sib, I think it's Gary Dranow's NASTAR cult following. Along with waist turning, there's a special feature on narcissism. I dare you to sign up for it and ask to see his scars. Just don't mention anything to do with Masters Ski Racing.

So he's doing more radical things to his skis than the USSA junior freestyle program kids? Durability beyond 8 days is a measure of performance. If a ski loses integrity after a week, then there's a real problem. Rob, I'm just not into the honey and kissing-ass-to-get-something approach. Nor am I into taking my daughter skiing and watching grown ups working on their technique and then later making shitty, snide remarks to that grown ups friends. But I wish you all the best with your particular approach.

Wait a sec...they make a fragile, piece of shit junior version, but get props for throwing a free set your way? What was that car that used to explode from rear impact?

His comments are never based on any actual knowledge or fact. He has no clue as to the participation levels of USSA, which is the true measurement of interest in ski racing in the US. An American just won the overall World Cup. What kind of an asshead picks this time in history to announce racing is dead? Skierforever is just a stinky old brownie hound that surfs porn and any message board that welcomes his stupidity (CB's!).

Did something change? Have some of us forgotten Skierforever is bitter old bitch that gets off on writing inane comments just to get a rise out of anyone? And DaveK is just as big of a bitch for sticking up for that p*ssy by banning people who tell Skierforever to shove it up his already filled *ss. Kulish banned me for life three times for telling Skierforever I would pull his arms off if I ever found out who he was.

Our scenic views rule!

Ha, it was all luck---years and years of luck---eh Sib?

Man, this forum got so busy toward the end that I didn't read 1/2 the posts. I just realized 'Dude asked me that almost a month ago...

A lovely and generous lady sent me some of her unused vouchers. I skied CB twice and shared the third with Atomic, because he's too cheap to buy his own lift tickets.

I thought there was a gate they locked that blocked access to the lots...guess there's one way to find out for sure.

Where would you park? PM me if if you'd rather not post it... BTW, bring a rag to wipe down your gear. You get a nsaty coat of oil even from snow that looks pretty clean.

Holding up better than Montage, although there are probably some deep spots somewhere down on the North Face. I had to use a shovel to bridge one spot to connect the headwalls at our hill today.

So we'll count you and Greg in...