Ski

Just busting on you TT. Enjoy your rails tomorrow. Whistler and Breck suck, anyway

Skiing in the UK is sorta like surfing on Lake Michigan...it can be done, but... Poor Rajeev and Jim go back home and describe skiing in America as a pretty weird activity, I bet, with stories of urban rails and flat downs...

No, no, no, we're just very happy where some people decide to ski.

Most terrain in PA!!!

Ha, people were lining up to hit it today and had friends taking their pics doing it. People who didn't look like they normally spend much time in the park were even hiking to hit it over and over.

We're always there.

That's okay, Chippy, you're growing up I almost gave him a time-out for what he was doing on the SBX course before racing. Was it last year or the year before that I used to beat him in GS? DH, stop teasy Chippy with sexy pictures.

Method, just fyi, race team coaches didn't come here. And this is just a troll from Philadelphia seeing if he can get attention. Haven't you ever had a kid randomly call you and ask if your refrigerator was running? This is him.

How to pack for a ski trip. Look at our $4,000,000 slopeside second home. Why this BMW is better than that BMW. Endless brochure articles on skiing at over-priced Euro destinations. Warren Miller fan? Great. The back page essays are 10 year old repeats. Repeats from Ski Mag. Get in shape doing leg stretches. Get in shape doing squats. How to turn. How not to turn. How to turn better. Ski Mag belongs in the back pouch of a first class airline seat where people who almost never ski can relax and read on their way to St. Moritz, where they will mostly dine out instead of ski.

Just wondering if it's still $51 to ski at Elk? Any deals we're missing?

Ski Mag has become just about the most useless advertising rag in the ski industry, BUT every once in a while there's a great story. Paul Hocheman (sp?) did a feature about skiing at Vail the day after it closed with WC downhill skis, was one. And a former World Cup racer working for ESPN joined a beer league in Massachusetts for another cool story. That's two good stories that come to mind in the last five years. I get comp issues because they send them to NASTAR entrants, I believe. The Carving Cup's mission statement is to bring a type of racing that is much closer to what normal humans do. Speed suits aren't allowed and courses are generally set on blue squares. A typical course has 21 or so gates---actually 21 rows of three different color padded round pillows, where you get more points for carving around the furthest one. Then your speed is calculated into it. Carve the most radically wide course at a fast time and you win. Racers don't use poles and ski lengths and sidecuts are pretty much for slalom. As a matter of fact, a lot of ex-WC slalom racers are on this tour. Some courses have ledge drops off the fall line and banked turns, all meant to trick the skier. It's big in Europe because carving is so much more important to them. The typical Euro skier doesn't share the American affinity for powder days. Not saying there aren't powderhounds in Europe, but great carvers are held in a higher esteem. For regular racing, giant slalom is the closest discipline to recreational skiing. Carving Cup racing takes out the speed suits and the gates and reduces the athletic maneuver to your body's alignment over your skis. I suppose I can speak to this because I gave up my GS skis this year and have freeskied and raced every day on 155cm and 157cm slalom skis. It's pretty amazing to lean over and brush the snow with your hand at 40mph. This is a relatively new discipline that I hope finds a place in the US. It's sure is a lot cheaper for the ski areas and skiers to participate.

If you get Ski Mag, check out the feature on the Carving Cup....if you don't, it might be worth the cover price. I had noticed Reliableracing was selling the 'gates' in their Hill Supply site, but I didn't really pay attention until someone sent me a YouTube video link a couple of months ago. Anyway, here are a few links to the sport: Official Site

That's sweet, Hon, but the things you did do for us were plenty I'll pm you a link to the website that eventually posts results. It'll show up as WEEK 8, but the smart kid who maintains it isn't at the mountain until the weekend. It should also show up on NASTAR, but they are two weeks behind sending it there.

bump

It's a globe? Really? Thank God you knew that to be able to spread your wisdom. Cool that you find a brethren sole in Rob. Have fun at his beach house. You can sip lemonade and watch kids play on the beach this summer while swapping stories about cop killing clans from Franconia.

1st Grade, you're such a moron. You know exactly what I was talking about, especially because I clearly stated what I was saying. This whole fucking thread is about Bode winning the Overall. Typical for you to jump into a thread and get all shaky and up upset, screaming that you know something. Bode sucked at GS. Bode sucked at slalom. He won a globe in COMBINED, which gave him the overall title. You really think anyone doesn't know the overall title is also a cup? Do you think YOU are teaching people something? Jeez, you're an angry troll. And why are you congratulating World Cup racers on PASR?

"Bode is one of the most frequent personalities I hear talked about on the slopes." You just make shit up. That's a fact, Rob, and you know it. Do you really want to waste time posting how park kids are following Bode Miller's UNTELEVISED racing career and cheering on this terrific personality? I'm around racers on a daily basis and they aren't talking about Bode. Lindsay, yes, a little. Ted, yes, a little. But the race community in the Poconos cares about USSA kids and the recreational skiers don't have any clue what he's been doing because they never see a race. If some NS kid gives Bode props, it isn't because of anything Bode has accomplished, but just something they heard Bode did to act like an asshole---which they do cheer. The biggest trend in racing isn't World Cup, or anything Bode is doing, but 'Carving'. Ski Mag finally did an article on it. A type of racing with a mission statement which includes the idea of making events 'much more in tune with how regular people ski'. It's a form of racing that even makes fun of 100mph downhill events.

Yeah, Big, I heard they were going to be laying off morning/day shift folks... Slopes just can't take the heat and skier traffic. It sucks for people who work pm shifts, but it'll preserve the snow a lot longer. Sort of like how they clear the glacier at Mt. Hood ski camps once it warms up in the afternoon.

Main Entry: li

The difficulty of the course is up to the skier/rider...the super fast German guy on my team was running it all out before the race and was scaring me

Ha, like you have a pulse on the ski racing community I better not find out you're still inviting 14 year old racers to your beach house. Wanna hear a quick story on someone who is good for the sport? One of the better amateur division racers broke his collar bone this past week. His team was barely holding a lead and they needed his score to clinch the season title, last night. This 40+ year old guy, who is old enough to make his own health decisions, is his team's leader and usually wins the amateur overall title. Anyway, this guy showed up with his arm strapped to his torso, looking white as a ghost and obviously trying to put up with skipping his pain meds. The guy raced with one arm, which blew his season average score, but skied fast enough to give his team the amateur division title. Things like that get a "wow" out of me. Not someone who overcomes a hangover. My friend, Joe, is no Bode---he's better than Bode. That is someone who is good for the sport.

F*ck, I was embarrassed to actually see what you were beating me on I don't think your adjustment will take more than a few turns....

Anyone heading up this weekend should def take a run through it, whether on skis or a board. It's tamed down a little from the tour event, but still better than any roller coaster ride on the planet. They removed the 'do not enter' tape from the start ramp, so you can run it right out of the gate.

Wow? It's cool that you've become a racing fan, DH. And Rob, too, since for a while there all people in speeds suits were fags. It was an amazingly disappointing season on the men's side, since the overall leader---and last year's champion---got hurt. The only Cup Bode won was in Combined, which some of the top racers don't bother with. Bode finished 29th in the world in slalom and 13th in the world in giant slalom...wow? I think using "wow" is reserved for someone who doesn't follow racing or thinks he's needling someone who doesn't like Bode. Either way :yawn And in Bode defense, it did suck that weather shut down the course for the final downhill, taking away his shot at the Downhill Cup title. Even the winner, Didier Cuche, said it would have meant more to him to win it outright on the last day. Cuche also said it wasn't the same with last year's winner, Aksel Lund Svindal, hurt. But maybe Cuche doesn't know what he's talking about CONGRATS, though, to Ted Ligety for winning the final WC giant slalom race (Bode was a DNF), which gave him the 2008 World Cup Giant Slalom Title!!!! GS racing on any level is the hardest discipline to win, in most people's opinion. It's by far the most competitive. If Ligety trains more for speed events next year---instead of just trying to hang in for downhill portions of combineds----he'll give a healthy Svindal a run for the title next year.

Thanks, Nick, once you're an old guy (21), you can come slum with us any time. BTW, Brian's just uber humble and is always right with our absolute fastest guys, despite skiing on 10 yr old Rossi's.