Robert2

I always thought online stores will be cheaper than brick and mortar stores because they just don't have the same retail overhead. But that doesn't change the fact that you can go board shopping now at the army navy store and walk out with a board for under $200 or $300 that you couldn't touch for those numbers last year. I bought 4 boards last year , two in stores , and two online. I always try to give some business to the local stores but there's no way I'll pay my local store full retail pricing... $500 or more for snowboards. Not when my online boards cost $160. Justo said:::: has she tried them on? i checked those out a few years ago and the crash pads brand pads i found to be much more comfortable and less restrictive. Can you post a link to a web page showing pads you like.

$110 for the season locker. Its more than worth it for me. I paid for my 2010 season pass last March so getting bit with the $110 fee now isn't so bad.

I bought TOTAL IMPACT SHORTS by R.E.D. today for my wife at the ARMY NAVY STORE. I was looking for a hip hockey check guard but none of the sports stores in the Lehigh Valley had anything for adults... just junior sizes for the hockey protection gear. I noticed the ARMY NAVY store is having their half off marked prices sale on last year's snowboards again. They had piles of all brands of boards in the half price racks. So you may want to buy a $500 burton or $600 ARBOR for 250 or 300 this year. I'm done board shopping for a while. I got my boards in May last year.

The lower lot and entrance were so jam packed last year on a weekend that I just figured the top lodge would have less people to trip over. My mission at Blue is to meet up with Friday night school groups to teach snowboarding to my relatives from Philly. So as you all probably know by now that tripping over people is an understatement when these kids offload the buses on Friday nights. Its just a sea of people stripping off street clothes and booting up for the snow. Looks a lot like Woodstock. As far as keeping anything in lockers goes... I don't know about you guys but I never leave any clothing or boots in season rental lockers. Everything that gets wet with sweat goes home to be washed and dried out every day. You wouldn't wear gym clothes without washing them would you? I have a boot dryer and if a ski resort would pump warm air into the lockers I'd leave boots in the locker. I bought boots and a board for my wife today.

There are season rental lockers available at the bottom lodge. I picked the top lodge location just because it seemed to me that the bottom lodge had the swarms of snow tubers.

I have 3 exact same boards with bindings so I'll leave two at JF and Blue and keep one at home in case we do the odd night session ...midnight madness... at BB. The advantage of having a locker is that there is no "special" needs for transportation to the mountain. You don't need a big car or one with racks and when you go with a group of people you don't have to figure out how to make it all fit in a small car. I don't drive so for me its just that much easier to get a ride when I don't have to have a driver worry about how to fit a sharp edged snowboard in a car ... sometimes with baby seats. I'm like any 15 year old kid looking for a ride. It just helps a bit more when you don't have to carry the gear to the mountain...especially on public transportation.

Blue mountain is now renting season gear lockers. I got on the list last year and today I got the call that they are now renting for this season. So if you don't want to haul your skis or board all winter now is the time to rent a locker.

There's a few places that set up rails to grind in the summer time and they lead into the rails with fake snow...nothing really more than the same polyethylene plastic that white kitchen cutting boards are made of. Has anyone actually ever ridden on this stuff with a snowboard? Its supposed to be as slick as boilerplate hardpack snow but still lets you grab an edge for control. You can buy 4x8 foot sheets of this stuff from plastics suppliers or skate rinks from: http://www.coldproducts.com/products.php I figured out that about $2000 of these panels would fit in my yard.

See what I'm talking about?!!! She was not ready to be on that mountain yet. If you started her off on carpet at home then perhaps she would have had a chance instead of being very uncomfortable out of control on slippery snow. So whats the worst thing that can happen on carpet? You wind up playing twister with her and she gets rug burned? Anyone ever seen a FUSION scooter? Its got large outboard wheels and a T handle bar. It rides just like a snowboard. You can teach a newbie what a toe sided and a heel sided turn means on that scooter and then link turns.... on flat blacktop.. not hills. Its nothing like riding a skateboard. If your newbie can link turns with a FUSION scooter then your newbie will have a better chance on the snow. Just another way to prepare todays XBOX generation some balance without a joystick button game controller. Nintendo Wii Fit is nice for balance training too but leave them in the old age home and GET OUTSIDE for exercise.

Yea I guess I must have missed the point. I said my wife wants to learn to snowboard this year and all of the sudden everyone has some kind of teaching advice for me.... as if they actually had as many hours on snow teaching newbies, and relatives, as I do. Thanks for the input guys ....really. It may be helpful for the weekend warriors with the girl friends but all this advice has little bearing on me teaching my wife. We've been married 28 years and have grandchildren so if you really think spouses can't communicate you need a few more years to catch up with me.

I see that to be standard operating procedure for small places like JF and BB where it only takes a handful of people to do daily operations,rentals,food service, a few lifts etc.... but I would think the bigger resorts in VT would have a better grip on the start date. What was the VT start date last year ..that Sunday? How much later did Blue open? BB opened a week or two before JF did last year. If I can't go to VT much earlier than I get daily BB riding I won't be bothering with VT.

Looks like good way to go. BUT I can't find any OPENING DATES on any VT websites. How's a person supposed to plan a winter trip in advance if the ski resorts don't post opening dates?

I'm in it for the long haul. A daily fitness program. One crash and the whole season is screwed. Two years ago I got an arm full of stitches from a long board skateboard fall. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time for that accident. It took two months for that wound to heal. So I sort of try to do things without the crashing now.

I already did pay for the lesson. My wife thought the instructor didn't give shit about her crappy rental gear or ability level so she walked off the lesson and hated the snow ever since. last year someone said "picture or it never happened" I found the staff picture... could be something like 1995 when face fur was not white:

I'm not your average kid falling down the mountain. I've had more than 5,000 rides down the hills at JF and BB in everything from boilerplate ice to fresh powder without one crash. I was a snowboard instructor for 5 years. I've taught more than 1,000 people all ages from 10 to 55 years old how to snowboard. I don't teach any half pipe or rail tricks, just how to stop and turn and ride. You don't have to be a Burton sponsored mutant ginger jumping off cliffs to make a shitload of money in snowboarding. ALL beginners need lessons and way back when I was an instructor we got tipped for giving lessons and no injuries. I made more in tips every day than the hourly wage paid by BB. I think what is boils down to is the weekend warrior who pays $50 for a lift ticket and waits in weekend lift lines is going to be a little pissed off right out of the gate and suck at teaching if his SO is keeping him from getting any real snow slide time just to teach a lesson. You could spend over $500 on rentals, lift tickets, lunch, clothes ..etc.... and never get to really ride more than a bunny slope if you took your SO out for the first time to learn to snowboard. Since I have 5 days a week in zero crowds on the white stuff I'm not going to be pissed off like that guy. When I teach I expect to never get away from the beginner areas. Thats why I said last year that you guys can come find me in the PASR jacket... I won't be freeriding when I have a beginner student on Friday nights. Just because you ski or board does not make you a good instructor. A lot of people take their friends out and just watch them fall. Thats not a lesson. I have a rigid structure lesson that I give the same way to everyone I teach and the 1st half the lesson can be done on carpet in the lodge. So when its 15 degrees outside and the newbie will freeze before mastering simple things like strapping in, rolling over, getting up..... its better to do that training indoors instead of having them flop around in the snow like a fish out of water. Also a good thing to note is the sausage affect of tight clothes. Dress your newbie and have the newbie sit on carpet and strap in BEFORE YOU GO TO THE SKI RESORT. Note how tight the clothes are. If your newbie is wearing a bunny suit and its impossible to touch her toes to strap in on carpet then don't expect any better outside on snow. Remove the bunny suit from the equation. Wear over sized bib pants and a long jacket instead of tight form fitting clothes. Practice on carpet the basic moves to roll over and get up. If your newbie can't do a single push up then your newbie isn't going to get up on the snowboard either. Its good to find out these things before you are standing on the $500 ski resort investment. If you can't do it on carpet today, at least you can do some push ups and other strength training before the snow falls. GET IN SHAPE before going to the ski resort. Beginner ski lessons are absolutely grueling. Snowboarding lessons just a wee bit better. Most standard ski resort beginner lessons start off in a nearly flat training area where they teach you how to walk and turn in skis and then play with a very slight hill for downhill control training. BUT then they make you walk up that hill. It may only be 100 feet of slight incline but its still humping uphill in real tight plastic boots and unwieldy skis. It doesn't take very long for exhaustion to take over. Once exhausted, the newbie starts to make mistakes, and you don't want to be making mistakes when sliding down a hill. Snowboarding lessons can be the same place, same hill, same humping up the hill, but now the newbie on the snowboard has to drag this huge fat ass board up the hill without chopping up themselves with the sharp edges or twisting a frail ankle. Exhaustion is again your worst enemy. So what to do for these wimps? I like to start snowboard newbies off with quick release stepin FLOW bindings and never make them walk up the hill dragging the snowboard on one foot. The faster the newbie can get in and out of the board the faster they will run up that short hill and learn how to ride and turn. Its much easier to walk uphill than skate uphill for most out of shape newbies. Of course we do teach them how to walk up a hill chopping ice with the board edge but don't make them do it all the time. It also helps to bring bottled water and power bars to the lessons. I used to carry HERSHEYS KISSES and give them out for energy until a doctor I was teaching told me that hard candy metabolizes much faster than chocolate. I don't like hard candy because its a choking hazard while chocolate will melt if it goes down the wrong pipe. Don't teach anyone to snowboard without providing armor. Roller blade wrist guards, glove liners, and over sized mittens over the wrist guards. Roller blade knee pads, worn over the base layer underwear and under the snow pants. Roller blade elbow pads... under the winter jacket. A snow sport helmet. And finally.... a hip hockey check guard to protect hips and tail bone. Once you wrap up the newbie in armor they become tough as a turtle and when they fall they either bounce right back up or ask you to help flip them over first. Each fall becomes a thrill rush instead of a day ender. The most common injury on snow is a broken wrist. You will put your hand out to break a fall and without armor you just end your day on the snow. Armor up and forrrrrrrrgettttabout iit.

No thanks. I've got my two season passes for JFBB and BLUE so I won't mind finding something to slide on here in PA every week day this winter. Also... new news here.... my wife demanded that I teach her to snowboard this winter. That will put me on the snow on weekends this year like never before. Funny thing about teaching spouses to ski.... over a decade ago ... when I was an instructor at BB.. the wise bosses in management laid out the rule that NO INSTRUCTOR SHALL TEACH THEIR SPOUSE TO SKI. It seemed that way too many guys would take their wife or girlfriend to the top of a black diamond and give a little push and say "go honey". So I never actually taught my wife how to snowboard back then. Whats the steepest black diamond at Blue?

OK.... not quite the yellow snow I was hoping for. So how about some clarifications on what you guys are calling crappy conditions? Keep in mind that my idea of good fast snowboarding surface is Pocono hardback, groomed cord ice... with the possibility of snow cone granular or sweet and low ice dusting an inch or two at best. I'd ride blue ice any day before sticky ankle grabbing wet new snowfall. I stay away from black diamonds and like the open road... like Exhibition and Lehigh at JF. I'd figure I could find that kind of terrain at any resort out west. What is WROD? Does anyone actually know of any ski resorts out west that groom like JFBB does or am I only going to find a "new" experience going out west and finding nothing but ungroomed natural surfaces? Understanding that out west the ski runs will be miles instead of hundreds of feet I don't know what to expect of a ski resort to spend on burning fuel to groom miles of slopes in November. JF always groomed... to the last week day I went last year..they groomed... but the bigger BLUE the TRUE neglected to groom and the surface was like dirty chunky sharp volcanic ash. Whats it like to ski out west? Great consistent grooming or just a total crap shoot every time you go? As far as timing goes...I thought Vermont really does not open until close to our ski season here so I wouldn't bother a VT trip when the Timmy bus will take me for my daily dose of the white stuff here. I thought a trip out west would be a month before VT opens.... thats why I was asking for input.

Where is the best early winter place to go on a ski trip if you do not drive? I can get on a plane to go anywhere but once there... can't rent a car. So what ski resorts are car-less friendly that will be close enough to an airport or AMTRACK train that they have shuttles or reasonable taxis and once there, not be screwed because you don't drive. Sort of looking for some place to go before BB/JBFF/BLUE open at the end of November.

Actually yes..... I saw some of it long before I became active posting in this forum and when I did start posting I stayed clear of Blue Mountain threads because I only did ride at JF so it was around the same time all these circle jerk posts were posted. I thought the Ski Patrol on TV stuff really sucked and they showed a lot of ski patrol stuff I thought would embarrass a lot of ski patrollers to say they were represented by this one TV show. That doesn't change the fact that this forum ALLOWED postings that are insulting to ski patrol. I'd like to think that if I get hurt at Blue Mountain I will be handled by ski patrol like any other injury.... and not have the guy working on getting me off the mountain say... HEY LOOK WHAT WE GOT HERE FELLAS.... ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE PASR ASSHOLES GONNA WRITE NASTY SHIT ON THE NET ABOUT US. Lets just go over there to the circle jerk shack instead of fixing this guy for a medovac ride.

its ironic the blue mt employees are calling us assholes (great P/R move on their part). I don't remember ever chasing them to their car... Yea ironic.... after all the shit GSS shoveled their way: Posted by: GrilledSteezeSandwich May 21 2008, 12:43 PM Haha..busting unruly snowboarders looking to party on the slopes..lol..I guess they didn't see me on gaper day after beer #7. If they showed the circle jerks in the ski patrol headquarters..it would at least appeal to the gay audience.. Posted by: GrilledSteezeSandwich Sep 24 2008, 10:28 PM Fo Shizzle..I don't expect the ski patrol show to be as good as Deadliest Catch..the only crabs the ski patrollers encounter is after the Thursday night circle-jerks..

I bought the season pass because I was asked to meet the buses on Friday nights to teach Philly kids. So if you see school ski club trips on Friday nights you will likely find me there.

The irony here is that I made the PASR lettering so I could be found by you guys on the slopes. Instead of me looking for people with no markings I figured you could spot me anywhere.

No joke there. They were not happy they just finished selling me a season pass. One of them was ski patrol. So yea... great image guys. People who never met me thought I was an asshole because I wore PASR on my jacket. Thanks. That was lots of fun. IS THAT what you want for a PASR image? That's what you got.

Sure that makes sense. I never thought anything should be over moderated here. Just pointing out the possibility that since each and every post gets tainted with GSS dribble it sort of makes anyone a little gun shy about jumping in the pool just to get drowned by the overabundance off total horseshit that gets added to every real post. You have a core group of skiers that grew up together at Blue and a few others so your core crew is fine with insults and sarcasm but that doesn't do anything good for new members or site image. Its obvious there is site image problem. I went to Blue mountain to buy a season pass and after I purchased the pass I asked the office full of people if they ever heard of pa ski and ride .com and stood up displaying the red jacket with PASR robert2 on it and they totally freaked out. Someone actually said "Oh no, You aren't one of those #$$#@!@ are you?" Great image guys. That sure was lots of fun. See. I do have a sense of humor.

Gee.... I wonder.... perhaps this site does have a slow pulse rate because its not moderated and anything goes. Maybe people who are lurkers would actually post something if they were not certain to be abused by immediate and tasteless sarcasm by GSS. Perhaps there would be many more postings if this site was family friendly and blocked trash like your www.gsssucksblackcock.com posting. But then again. Maybe not. The only way to really know the answer to that question is for THINKSNOW to decide where to draw the line and really moderate the forum content. I always did wonder why 8 mountains don't link to PASR on their web sites and why the only resort advertisement in PASR is JFBB. Somebody isn't impressed. Perhaps if it were a clean family friendly forum there would be more interest, more valued content, and more paid advertising. Just a thought. But hey what do I know about the internet anyway. Not much. Just that $15 buys a domain name that makes a great April fools day joke.