method9455

Almost all the reps for boot companies say that forward flex is for 90% of customers unimportant and just a personal preference. On shaped skis the side to side flex is what is important. That 10% is for racers. So basically forward stiff boots are mostly for people's own mindset that stiff boot = better. The main exception to that was the Lange guy, but even he was talking much more about heel pockets and shell fit over liner fit than stiffness.

ha yea she takes me out, she paid for us to go rock climbing for a date, thats when you know shes a keeper. Or when she get wrecked doing a boardslide one day but still managed to get dressed up nice that night, thats when you know. The internship was a wierd deal, the guy really wanted me to go work for him but I didn't want to leave my job at the shop but he offered enough that it was worth it to leave. The shop works out becuase you have a hourly wage, commission, and then bonuses when you do ther stuff like tuning, stringing, and then there are spiff/tips/pro forms/discounts on gear & lift tickets, its a great job, except that you HAVE to work weekends, which as a high school kid eats into snowboarding time. Now as a college kid working weekends is awesome, i can ski during the weeks, work on the weekends, I get the money but miss the crowds. Most kids don't make out as well as I did at a shop, they hired 8 teenagers in august and by january there were 2 left and I made commission and hte other kid didn't. You have to work really hard, you have to go to all the gear clinics so you know your shit (i remember missing out on a sick halloween party becuase I was spending 4 hours listening to ski reps), so if you aren't committed and you don't go to the classes, you don't know your shit and you can't help anybody. But for anyone who loves winter its heaven, your office is a room full of gear with a tv playing snowboarding or skiing videos and you spend all day talking to people about what you love. Your lunch break is eating while you get to tune up your gear every week. Someday after my engineering career is done I might end up owning a ski shop out west, I know its a hard way to make money but if you were pretty set it would be a lot of fun.

I'll answer a few questions (i also realized I came across as an ass before, wasn't a great day in general sorry) 1) If you come in and say, hey man I'm not going to buy a boot today but i want to try some on, I'll have no problem doing everything I do for a paying customer, I'll get you all the boots you want, spend all day with you. I do that a lot, especially weeknights when its not busy and people are stopping in after work. When they leave I give them my card, maybe they'll come back, maybe they'll send someone else back after getting good service. I'm not sure what percentage do but a hell of a lot do come back even if they found them cheaper somewhere else becuase I (or someone else in a good ski shop) helped them well. So its not buy or not buy, its being deceptive about what your intentions are. If you pretend like you are going to buy them when all the while knew you were just going to get them online, thats really lame. 2) I know about the pay believe me, I work in the summer for $15 an hour at an engineering internship that looked better on my resume and paid a lot more, but working in a ski shop is great (and with the perks you come out ahead a lot of the time so I'm not complaining about the job as a whole its great I'm going back for my winter break this year). Hourly is like minimum wage up depending on how old you are, how long you've worked there or at other shops etc. I started at like $7 an hour which was a $4 an hour cut from before but with commission it comes out to like $12 an hour if you do well, but if you don't do well it is back down to $7. Sometimes you have a good day and make $16 sometimes you have a bad day and make $9. If you aren't working on commission its like $8 which is about on par with working at Hollister or some other clothing store in the mall (this is all for teenagers don't know what older guys get), but your day is more likely to be retail store shit like tagging items, cleaning up dressing rooms, unpacking boxes. At least the shit your tagging and boxing is snowboarding gear. There are also people on commission selling clothes, they make equal or more than the guys selling gear. The shop usually throws a little extra on your paycheck for working in the shop tuning, or if you string tennis rackets etc becuase that is time you can't be selling so they make up for the loss of commission. All in all, it works out better than most other teenage jobs in terms of money if you buy a lot of snowboarding gear. If you just walked out with the paycheck you'd have less, but I divide my money between saving, girlfriend, and snowboarding gear. Luckily, shes a snowboarder so most of the gifts are from the shop anyway so, I saved a shit load of money last year and came out way ahead just becuase of discounts. But still, a discount on a snowboard doesn't pay for dinner out, or put gas in your car, and Mazda doesn't accept a snowboard as payment for the car. At some point the cash is important too. 3) All my comments are null and void if the guy at the shop sucks. If he sizes you wrong, doesn't know what the fuck he is doing, picks out the wrong shit, fuck him. We would never sell a kids boot for that much money, thats insane. We were selling adult boots for 60% off at our sale from last year, so that would a $500 plus boot to be at that price, which for most adults is overkill much less a 6 year old. As for pricing in the shop, there is leeway depending on the time of year, high season like going into christmas you can't push much, but when there are down turns, warm weather, begining/end of season, the boss gives us a heads up on how far we can go off whatever the sticker says to get rid of stuff, so tell the guy hey I like this board but its too much for me. Maybe he'll make that work out for you, or maybe he'll show you a differant board thats similiar and he can make the price work. Sometimes one company isn't selling well and we can lower the price on those further than anyone else. Just talk to the guy its in his interest to find the right thing for you and have you walk out happy. If you walk out happy you come back next year for bindings, the year after for boots. If you walk out unhappy or feel ripped off you will never come back. We're not car salesmen who see you once every 5 years so whatever I won't be in the job by the time you get back. If you come back for tune ups, accessories, clothing, more gear, your kids rentals a happy customer will give more money to the shop on that stuff than one snowboard. (The margin on snowboards are low too becuase you can price shop around a lot more easily than ohter stuff)

No one is saying that the boot is sloppy on the foot, but they're saying it has differant characteristics. The big toebox is for curling your toes, but if you foot is held securely that doesn't mean your sliding around in them, it just means you can move your toes. The softer flex on the boots matches the softer flex of the skis. Lateral support is still the same as a 'stiffer' boot and thats what matters on shaped skiis anyway. Softer inside = less crash when you land hard, shock absorbing heel is key becuase landing on your heel sucks no matter what sport you play. And these boots only have 2 or 3 buckles becuase they don't need the stiffness so why be dragged down by the weight? (Especially Nipples isn't that big so why buy a boot with 4 buckles and a lot of stiffness if its just going to break his shin when he lands hard forward?) Realize that park is a lot differant than racing and it requires differant boots to deal with it. However you are correct that it doesn't require differant fit. The boot should still fit snug and the foot not slop around side to side for and back, but that doesn't mean the toebox can't accomidate a differant foot position. If the ski is differant, the body position differant, the stresses are differant, and the forces going from the foot to ski are differant, why shouldn't the boot be differant? As for what kind of boots, a lot of the guys I know that ski park are in salomons (I know a few in foils). I don't know many in the Krypton even though it was designed for park but I also have a small sample size. (edit - of course I am a snowboarder 1st and a skier 2nd, and I don't ski park or race on skis I just cruise on skis so I don't have 1st hand experiance with all that but I talk to a lot of freestyle skiers)

I'm not sure why it was that way. I know the JibLab didn't hate skiers a few of them were skiers, in fact in their videos it was more skiing than snowboarding. But if you look at all the Tour De Creek pictures it was all snowboarders. It might have something to do with sponsors.

Whatever man, work in a shop, spend two hours with a guy helping him with 10 pairs of boots, have him pick one out, write it down, walk out the door, buy it on the internet for $20 less than you seel it for, while you could have helped 2 or 3 other people but you were nice enough to spend the time with him instead. Now realize your paycheck is minimum wage for those 2 or 3 hours becuase you were answering all his questions and running around getting box after box, and tell me it doesn't suck. Its commission selling, I don't see how it is any differant being a waitor that gets snubbed with the tip. I'm all for people going into 3 or 4 shops and trying on differant brands of boots, seeing who is the most helpful, whatever. At least some sales guy out there worked hard enough, picked the right boot for you, and is getting the commission. If its not me, at least someone is. But if you come in, use all the services of the shop and then take advantage of buying it from somewhere that DOESN"T give those services (thus the price is less) you are cheating the shop and the guy working there. Tell me how that is not true? Sure its your right to do it, but I certaintly can think your a prick for doing it. As if that last $20 matters in a sport where the lift tickets you buy are $65? But do you think the money matters to the kid who is working those weekend days hed rather be snowboarding? Hell yes it does. So yea, a bunch of people are going to get mad about it, but guess what, I can't see a convincing arguement for how its differant than snubbing a waitor for a tip, someone tell me that.

I've always like Salomon boots, they were down for a year or two but the quality and comfort are back up with the best of them again this year.

i knew there would be an upslope box. so much fun. I agree with justo on the skiers being allowed in the shop contest. My shop half of our park rats are skiers so that would suck without them.

Screw that I hope you didn't try them on in the shop. Don't waste the sales guy's time if you don't plan on buying them there if he works on commission. That would be like going to a restaurent and ordering the drinks, having the waitor come help you all night, but you brought the food in from another place so you don't have to leave a tip. Sidenote they are great boots but there are a dozen great boots out there for my feet I like K2's better, but a lot of people find the 32s more comfortable. By now most of the original innovations of 32s have been copied but they still have a pretty cult following. Most boots have similiar foam, and I feel the 32s are getting somewhat flashy with their material choices, like the timba's this year, but whatever they're still a good boot.

I'd put the up-down box in the middle, setup the flat boxes in a line so it was flat, 1 foot drop flat, and setup the other rail as a downslope streetstyle.

yea pros it will be a 4 inch ollie pad its basically nothing for snowboarding. Makes getting in and out of a place quick a lot easier.

mc crew's not at BB, only 2 guys are. Sure two guys who know what they're doing enough to guide them along but the new rails at MC are up to the same quality as they always have been. Don't expect Mountain Creek to get worse because they left. Remember MC also has park passes which BB doesn't which could be a major factor when the crowds go and chew up the edges of ramps, block landings, cut people off. All that doesn't happen at Creek's park.

where are the pictures?

naw they have a long time before the season starts, camelback just built their new one in like a week

2:00 PM - helicopter landed in parking lot, not running or lifting anything just yet. Can't take a screen capture from windows media player? Lame

Don't see no stinking helicopter

Agreed skis theres a bit more going on for the spin, but I also hate when skiers go onto a box and halfway down a flat box hop & spin a 180 so they're going the other way, it looks gymnastic-tastic

Its too bad cuz the concept is good, a rainbow with a long flat on top, smooth, could be nice. But the curve is just wrong you can tell already. Its like the rainbow rail at camelback, it would be great for little kids but on a full size board the radius is just too tight and the snowboard gets squirrelly when you flex it like that. Same reason super pipes are easier than small pipes.

Yea spinning on boxes is so easy. I learned to do a 360 across the top of the box long before I learned how to lock into a smooth frontside boardslide without falling. You just coming and twist a bit, and then at the end finish in whatever the fuck direction your facing, your usualling going so slow you can land almost perpedicular to where your going and if the uphill edge is down, you can ride away.

How do they get the cable around?

There is no reason to ever ever ever mount your own skis. You won't have the jigs, you won't have the bits. By the time you buy the bits even, your behind the game in terms of money, and without a jig you'll never get it straight. Not saying you couldn't do it at home, but it wouldn't be cheaper by a long shot. Its basically a clamp that holds the skis, a jig you line up, a drill bit that has a depth set so you can't drill through (easily), and then screw it into the ski with some epoxy in there. Some people say well what if you want to mount them somewhere else on the ski than what the factory says, if you go to a good ski shop and tell them what you want they'll do it. ADJUSTING the bindings, a lot more plausible, once the bindings are on the ski fiddling with a philips head screw driver on the back and the little tab that moves it forward and back for the pressure, thats something a very small number of people do. If I were a skier like I am a snowboarder, I would at least know how to check the DIN settings and everything so after the shop mounts it you can check. Everyone takes it on faith that the shop doesnt' fuck up, but its a possiblity so why not know what it should look like? Not to mention at home you won't be able to test the mountain pressure without again, another jig and a calibrated tool. So all around, just go spend the money and get the fucking thing done at a shop. You don't change the airbags in your car yourself why would you change your own bindings. Oh and that applies mostly to kids skis, twin tips, or Rossi. Throwing bindings on anything with a system like the Atomics or Volkl, just slid the frickin binding on and follow the instructions online and it isn't too hard. Its just drilling a bunch of holes in a ski to set up something that has very small tolerances is not something to be done free hand.

I have some like MS Paint drawings i did back in the day. I'm nto sure if i have them or I can throw something together real quick after I write my papers, so tonight I'll post it.

wow that one guy who got nutted, that looks so painful. now i remember why i snowboard, you might get thrown down a flight of stairs still attached instead of losing the skis, but fuck that my nuts are protected

The proportions on the other box are fucked up too. Its long so your going to need speed or its going to look retarded. You can't gap it. So, you are going to ride in, that curve is mad tight unless they build a huge pile of snow up to it. Thus it ends up being like 2 feet tall. Or you ride so fast to try and make it look good that you fly up that tight curve, and land about 5 feet down the flat section. Maybe you'll get thrown, maybe you'll slide it, but either way it won't look smooth.

My personal hatred right now is for people who go onto a box, and then ride halfway down and do an ackward like hop and half spin and then slide out to the end and pretzel out. It looks so ackward and I'd rather slide the whole box smooth with a tail slide than see you do like a tail slide combo into a nose slide with a half spin out where you land halfway across the trail but ride out all fucked up. It maybe be tech, it may not be I haven't tried it, but either way it looks like ass. I'd rather watch a nollie nosepress with no spin than that crazy shit anyday.