method9455

Yea I would second the last years boards/bindings, it is definately the way to go. Shop around though, that site you linked is really hit or miss. I picked up a GNU Altered Genetics for $200 and it lists for $650+, that site has it for $549 - $100 is not much of a discount. This time of year play the local tent sales and inventory blow outs. People need to get rid of those boards and the deals are just ridiculous.

Oh shit really? That is one hot tip, this was our little secret, I can't believe they read it. Oh wait, if you had actually been here during a season you would know they post in here and we respond to them. The reality is most people complain we rep JFBB too much It's called the white ribbon of death for a reason, what do you think Loveland looks like right now? If anything I would say we sound like Sarah Silverman because we are incessantly bitching about every little problem we see.

It is standard for the group leaders to get a comp pass. Hell all the kids in my ski club used to get unlimited season passes for an extra $50 on top of the normal price at Mountain Creek. I also know that shop employees can pick up season passes in the $100 range at most mountains so this really smacks of cheap. Nickel and dime the twice a winter skiers, hook up the guys who promote your mountain. My answer - tell them you will go somewhere else next year instead. And do it, Camelback will be happy to have your business I'm sure.

One guy can make boat loads of difference. Look what Park Builder did at Shawnee a few years back, it was really fun for about 2 years while he was in control. Before and after he was there, didn't really have much of anything going on. I'm not so sure that the exposure of Camelback's parks is what makes them icy. The parks face west correct? That will make them a bit more icy at night but the parks at Mountain Creek are largely west facing now and they aren't particulary icy. I think it has to do with snowmaking and grooming.

I'm definitely hitting Sno more often this year.

+1 Seriously, wtf? Your topic is "BB early open was a zoo" i.e. too many people, and then your point is "BB can't sell tickets early". Get a clue. I didn't get a JFBB pass this year because I'll be traveling most of the winter, but I'll be there opening day buying a ticket for sure. So if your point is that all the people there are just season pass holders, I point to the fact that many PASRs only went to JFBB before their home mountain was open, myself now included in that list. Plus a lot of people bought passes primarily FOR the long season - that was me last year. Size matters, when you are a small mountain you have to do something to make up for it. Length and parks are the answer for JFBB. If they opened on the same day as Blue or Camelback wouldn't it be pretty weak?

Both are solid, I've sold a lot of the spx series and had no one come back and complain about them. I really like the relays but have sold fewer, people are warry of the soft heel cup but I think its a good idea.

There is no one answer. Having sold boards for 5 years I can tell you for no one person is the order of importance of the gear the same. I put the order of importance this way Broken > Pain > Control > Performance > Condition > Aesthetics There is no one thing that is most important. If you foot is normal, then boots don't really matter. If your ankle is narrow boots are crucial to being able to do a toeside turn. Will the board hold you back? That makes it sound like you are just learning. Once you are on a level where you can trully feel the difference between boards you will know the answer to that question. When I pull out my jib board, I know it holds me back freeriding. There is just no way to put the edge down at the speed I do on my freeride board and not fall on my face. It just won't take that force without deflecting too much - which leads to that chattering. Nor does it track straight. That board holds me back in some instances and there is no question about it. When I first started out, a jib board was fine all over the mountain since I didn't push it. So only you can answer the question you are asking and really you need to go deeper. My best board is my most expensive board, but my 2nd best board is not my 2nd most expensive, and one of my favorite boards is one of my cheapest. Price doesn't equal fun with snowboards. What you really need to think about is what you want to do. Does the board not have enough pop to ollie high enough? Does the board chatter when you are freeriding? Does the board feel too big, too small, too heavy? Does it not track straight? If it doesn't feel that way, then thats not what is holding you back. Truthfully the best money I have ever spent snowboarding was private lessons. It cost about $400 for 2 days, but I learned more in 2 days than I had in 20-30 on the hill on my own. It might be worth foregoing gear and getting coached to really get your potential out of the gear.

Why?

I'm buying at least one, it is a good deal.

You are more likely than I to have pictures from Camelback do you have any to post that highlight the problems? I don't think I've ever taken a picture there but it was so obviously visible to anyone looking that it might help to clarify a bit what we're saying.

Humans are always the limiting factor in engineering, Of course these are the theoretical maximum capacity, every time the lift stops you go below that. Since people fall a lot less often getting on and off high speed detach lifts they run closer to their theoretical maximum than a regular lift.

That is true, that is about as good as a white ribbon of death can get. A week or so prior to that they even blew some snow on their bunny hill and let people hike it;. Wonder what they will be doing this year with the rough economy- at least energy & gas prices are falling.

Thanks for the real numbers. It is well known that at maximum capacity the fixed grip and detachable move about the same number of people up the hill. As people have said, the chairs are spaced out further. While a lot is said about spacing the chairs out evenly - a bigger problem is loading and unloading the people at a safe rate. You really can't load/unload people much faster than they do. Thats why you go to 4,6,8 person chairs rather than doubles, and then above that gondolas. Loading a chair is inherently serial, while loading a gondola can be done in parallel. So why install them? Because customers like them. The ride IS shorter per person, so when you are on an exposed lift in frigid wind (note - do not go to camelback to experience this effect) you won't be frozen to the core by the time you get off. And if the chair isn't at max capacity, you get several more runs per day. They are also easier for noobs to get on and off of. And a lot of people also think they ARE faster.

Thats probably what they say about us at Mount Snow's opening day.

I transitioned from shorts to pants last week, went out this morning and it was the first day I wish I had a hoodie on instead of a t-shirt. Leaves are turning, I feel good. Who else starts feeling the stoke right about now?

Jacket is the only thing I splurge on, they last a really long time and the difference between the right one and the wrong one is just too great. I haven't had any "hard" good lasts more than 60 days on the hill which is about 2 seasons for me, but the jacket will last 5+ years.

Nick nailed it but I'm taking a shot too. 1) Your right that the current trends are ugly as hell 2) The reason people are buying them are becuase of TWS gear guides and regular issues, pros wearing this crap, and good riders on the hill wearing it. Girls generally pick their asthetics independent of the current trend and go with what they like (and match). Guys either follow the trends, don't care, or aggressively buck the trend. I fall in the latter. 3) Every company still makes the plain colors 4) The choice of what colors to get are up to the shop owners. At my shop we'd get a handful of out there stuff (say 20%) and the other 80% was a lot more normal. And what did we have left over at the end of the year? Never any of the plain stuff was left, but we had a lot of camo at 50% off. As much as you see on the hill, it is a small fraction of the total. 5) You are more likely to see these patterns on crappy resellers like the House than in an actual store. Most manufactures don't sell direct to online sites.. IA regular retail store has a choice of 20 brands and can only carry a few, Why pick one where I have to compete with websites undercutting price because they don't have to pay for retail space or staff. So what you see online are overstock (like my old store http://cgi3.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?View...hcountrysports) being sold direct by retail stores, guys selling stuff off their pro form (which if caught their store could get a lot of shit for) and bulk overstock resellers. So many times people come into the store, waste our time trying on boots then go and try to buy them online to "save" and end up paying more, or can't find it. Since your basically looking at left overs you are going to find the stuff people didn't like and thats why its ugly as hell. If you are buying through the normal channels you have your options, but you get screwed on price. (Trust me, I don't buy anything at full price either, it is too much). I've done 6 year end blow outs and the common thread is that the gear left is either too ugly, too expensive, or an odd size. I generally take the too expensive stuff, I'd rather have the high end board with last years graphics than a medium board with this years graphics. I generally do that for pants too, but jackets I really shopped for a good one no matter what the price. A jacket is the most durable piece of equipment you own. Pants get ripped/stain, boots pack out, boards & bindings break, helmets get dented, goggles get scratched, gloves rip, but there is not much that happens to your jacket. Divided over 5 years, a $300 jacket is worth it. As for your friend's board sucking off a pro-form, that is not uncommon at all. A lot of pro-form stuff failed QA and is considered "2nd quality". Not all of it, but a lot of times they are. Also, not sure if this is true everywhere, but at our store most of the year things are negotiable. From late october to Christmas you can't walk in and ask for a discount because everything is selling, but come January if you will pay $300 and the jacket you want is $400, and you tell the manager that, he will negotiate down from there. We have the price, the sale price, and the limit to where we don't make any money on the item but its gets it out the door. At some point you have to just start selling gear so you don't take a loss. I've sold lots of gear at prices where you make no money or lose money just to get rid of it. No one is going to list a board online that way because they don't have carrying costs like a store does.

Ha I missed that response. DHarrisburg is right, not only is DINGO a scrub but I wouldn't step foot in a Zumiez if someone had a gun pointed at my head.

I don't think you will find anyone who denies that. This has a lot more to do with economics than physics. The problem today is making the most snow for the least amount of money over the course of the season, not necessarily the snow at the warmest possible temperature. I also would rather have the quality of the snow that comes out of a fan gun over a longer season, it is pretty amazing how much of a difference there is. You can feel it on Mount Snow where you have fan gun trails right next to normal gun trails that get the same exposure and weather and grooming. You can't really compare one mountain to another, but trail to trail on the same mountain is an apples to apples comparison.

This seems to have disappeared down a black hole, nothing on the TV station, nothing from Blue, nothing from the production company. Maybe they couldn't come up with anything worth filming (as we thought would happen). It would seem strange that the company that makes its money off appealing to the MTV crowd would film a show about the man coming down hard on the MTV crowd. I guess they expected more Baywatch in snow and less Cops.

Bump, any word?

It sounds like he would be considered an independent contractor and they've terminated the contract so there can't be any repercussions anyway. As am artist/consultant your reputation is all youcan bank on so he made the right move here especially with a fairly reserved post.

I would have no qualms about paying for something worth framing if the shots are good I know how hard they work to get the pics.