Ski

Just FYI, nothing bad meant by calling park rats..er, park rats. "Kids that prefer the park" was too long... My point is that "Kids that prefer the park" will have the most improvements of us all over the next few seasons. That's it. The trend to put in new pipes is over and the Poconos weather doesn't sustain a superpipe very well. So it's new rails, boxes, and other features. I like the park at Montage. The lift to the race start runs right over the big hits and rail. You get to be entertained by the carnage of bunny skiers doing yard sales.

Well, Shawnee sucks goat balls? I dunno...I kind of like the apres ski on a spring weekend afternoon...you drive out and end up in a three mile backup for that goddamn flee market. It takes a half hour to get down to the light. Luckliy, you have something to read while you wait, since there are people shoving flyers in your car window that walk up and down the road. Mmmmmm, Shawnee....

heheheh

It just seems that the growing majority around here are the kids that want to hit the parks. Places like MC and BB have shown that it's a small investment that brings in tons of student passes. I really don't care what ski areas turn their blue squares into. Man, if it keeps Montage open, they can turn the entire upper mountain into one big park. Just leave the North Face alone.

I wasn't saying other things weren't bad or good. And you, ThinkSnow, will be blasting around Blue by mid-season looking for more to do. Extra curricular activities? You mean booze and chicks?

MC is the perfect example. Even pathological lying psychos like SnowSnow slimed his way around every MB on the planet telling everyone that MC "killed" every other ski area, including "lame ass" Jackson Hole. It used to take 10 years to be a good intermediate skier...now with short, cut skis, people end up better and wanting more a lot sooner. I also think it's one of the reasons that NASTAR is growing so fast. Sib is one of the few people that I know that's happy just plain old skiing every day.

"...when i mowed that girl down" Should have read: "...when i mowed that TINY LITTLE FRAGILE INNOCENT girl down"

Pocono park rats and jibbers all have the most to gain in the next couple of seasons. You can't change the vertical or do much about the acreage, but if you have a hill, a snowgun, and are willing to pop for some rails, then you can get kids stoked. Tubing---freaking tubing---is the thing that had kept Montage in the black for the last few years. And I think it was Seth, from the CB board, asking if they could drag a picnic table up to the terrain park for jibbing. I used to ski BB a lot at night when I was in Central Joisey. For skiing, BB makes Shawnee feel like Sugarbush. And rails are dirt cheap when compared to buying just one new snowmobile. Ski hills around here will continue to give more and more space to parks, pipes, and tubing. You think CB hasn't looked into more "on site" tubing lanes? You think the CB Board of Directors don't drool over the idea of getting more non-skiers into the main lodge to $40 for a family lunch? Because of insurance fears, ski area tend to make changes really slowly. But they've started to recognize that you can have different difficulty levels of parks, so I bet new "features" will start to pile up...

Ha! I'm hoping for rain mixing with sleet all next weekend at CBeach.

One of many pics from the first (and relatively unsuccessful) message board that was an alternative to the old CB board. "Now that's a real shame when folks be throwin' away a perfectly good white boy, like that."---tree trimmer

It's an absolute priority, set in stone. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Wow, no way! I call top bunk!

Every ski has a purpose, you know? I mean, despite the countless faults and the fact that you have others, you've kept 'Dude, right?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...ssPageName=WD1V

Well, I was going to sell the 9.20's cheap, but then 'Dude, 'Mom and I rock skied Belleayre. I was screwing around in the 70 degree slush to see their hydroplaning abilities and added some nice gouges.

I thought I read "give"...

Ha...no, sorry. the GS:11's are my good skis. I just realized that my 4-year-old has six pairs (the blue Fischers are two sets of identical skis that were a "gift").

It's the last to open in the Poconos, right before XMas. We really don't ski here until after the lifts close, though; we're busy elsewhere. Trying to work it out to go to the Sugarbush camp. Any chance you'll go?

Yeah, sorry, 'Dude, spiked my rum with a little coffee.

Hey, Skimom, my 2 cents. There are stable heavy skis as well ask squirrely heavy skis. Some light skis are great in crud, some are terrible. What makes a fast ski? Hermann Maier is the greatest modern day speed skier and he's on Atomics, with a specific combination of ingredients. Firstly, his bases are sintered, as opposed to extruded. We get extruded bases. Atomic techs find the absolute best roll of base material and slice off the premium, most pure sections. They come along and cut off the piece of meat with the least amount of fat and grissle; we get hot dogs made out of pig lips and chicken butts. All World Cup racers are on sintered bases, but the top racers for each line get the best base material. That's what Bode meant went he crashed his "fastest" pair of Rossi's at the Beaver Creek downhill last season. He had a dozen pairs, but those were the fastest bases. Another variable is the dampening device. Some like the Salomon bars, but Maier's above-average strength works best with the power channels that run the length of the Atomics. The sidecut match is important because it's directly related to how you enter and leave a turn. And especially how you accelerate, once you release the pressure at the end of a turn. There's been a long battle between wood core and foam core. Foam is generally regarded as lighter and viewed as a lower end material, although some high end skis use a process that gives great results. A heavier skier has an advantage in a speed event, especially if there's a lot of tuck sections. Heavier kids have an advantage even in GS and SL, although turn execution takes over pretty quickly. Just watch a J5 race and the bigger the kid, the faster he/she reaches the second gate; who is faster by the finish is often the kid that turns better. The combination I look for in a fast ski is the dampener and the stiffness. If I can run a ski all out and not have it chatter, then I don't necessarily care if it feels light or heavy. Stability at high speed means everything to me. Losing contact from the snow is the enemy. And if light were fast, then I want to race you with you flat and me on heavy-ass 8mm lifter plates; even a tiny bit of leverage overwhelms any thought of a weight issue. I've heard doctors recommend womens skis to men that have had knee surgery. Seems to me that if you are skiing an unusually light ski for your size, then aren't you giving up stability and asking for trouble? Bottom line is probably a bad answer to your simple question: if there was one specific combination for a fast ski, then there would be one brand---or lots of brands of the exact same kind of ski. Just my 2 cents from my own experience and I could be completely wrong about everything...

I thoroughly enjoy giving Atomic a lot of crap because he's been driving BMW's since he was 13 and will have his own wine cellar at school this fall, but I give him props for learning to lay a GS ski on edge. What happens when an 18-year-old, high-energy, very good recreational skier goes up against a smooth, well-coached and passionate, Mom-aged racer? Well, the rest of us would be entertained and isn't that what's important? I, for one, really enjoy humiliation when it's finally being experienced by someone else. But losing to 'Mom wouldn't be bad...just imagine losing to skierforever.

'Mom caught some cocky at Hood...

nm

Did I just read that Skimom is calling out Atomic for a challenge? Still mid-August and the trash talk has started.

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