method9455

I wonder why the delay on the lift towers?

A lot of people like the 2 year old Rossi Axial line of binding (before they eliminated the turntable heel cup) for park. Not sure what people are using now that Rossi has gotten rid of the turntable being that I'm not riding park for my skis, and we still have stock of the Rossi Axials from the past at my shop and still sell most of the twin tips with those. http://www.untracked.com/p998-0512_rossign...e_bindings.html Usually the Axial 140, the TI or Pro ranges. Some people also like the Look bindings, we've mounted them but I hear they're actually rebranded and made by someone else? I'm not sure we dont' sell them. Tyrolia makes a nice binding as well. I'm not entirely sure, I know skis well but ski bindings confuse the shit out of me so I let the guy who runs our ski dept pick them out. Unforanetly now that most manufactures have systems on the free ride skis, they stopped talking about bindings at the tech seminars, so I know a shitload about skis and not a damn about the differances between bindings. As for the skis, they're great. I hear good and bad things about lines, which one did you have papa? We had a few returned last year becuase of delam and shit, but they sent a letter about their quality issues and we decided to not drop them and see how it goes this year. A few guys in our shop have the Prophets and love them. There is also a guy on Scratch FS that he loves, and I almost bought a pair before my speeding ticket last year. He swears you can ride them everywhere, but I haven't tried them on anything steep.

Yea I'm not suprised, Camelback hasn't understood modern terrain parks in a long time. They should build a good intro park but they can not compete with JFBB, Blue, Mountain Creek, or Bear Creek. Just not on the same page.

Thats rough. I filmed a few years ago, we had about 45 minutes of good shots on the tape after about 6 hours of riding. On maybe the 3rd to last thing we wanted to do, we did a shot where I was riding along side the guy as he rolled into the jump, up, over the knuckle, and then I aired a bit cuz I was going the same speed. I didn't fall but right when I landed the screen went black, and when we got to the bottom the camera was completely dead. We got the tape out but had nothing to play it with, and the camera was a loss. This was right when digital cameras were coming out, and it was an analog VHS-C camera so we didn't want to buy a replacement cuz we said we were going to get a digital, so we lost our whole seasons work becuase we couldn't get any of the tapes onto the computer. It sucked.

I made one that was portable and worked pretty well. It used 1 sheet of plywood and maybe 15 feet of 2x4, was about 4' high but I set it up on top of a mini hill so the drop was about 6 feet, that was plenty of speed. I'll post drawings later. Basically, I cut the plywood into a 3'x4' and 5' by 4' section. then I hinged the 5 foot section onto the 3 foot section. I used barn door hinges you get at home depot, maybe liek $10 and they were weighted for some rediculous weight, they weren't the weak point. To hold the platform up, I used 2 saw horses I already had. built the thing upside down, so when the saw horses were sitting upside down on the bottom of the piece of wood you sit on, i screwed 1x2's in that ran the width of the platform to hold the saw horse in place. So when you set it up, you put up the 2 saw horses, then you lay the platform on top so that it locks onto the saw horses. THere was a bungee cord that went around the saw horse so that the platform wouldn't lift up off them. The biggest problem was the transition, it had too much angle. I changed to a 8' by 2' ramp but the same high the next year so that transition was smoother. I went from 5 ply 5/8" to 3 play 3/8" plywood and broke it, so you definately need at least 5/8" plywood for it. On mine I stapled that green grass indoor outdoor carpeting, becuase then you can pack snow on the ramp and it stays up way higher, and also doesn't scratch the board up. A better solution would be to screw 2 2x4 into the bottom of the platform. Then make an A frame with this bracket on top. http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.j...earchId=1259399 when you go to the place you pull the platform out of your car. Flip it upside down, attach the legs, squeeze them open so they bite the 2x4, and then put 1 screw in to make the A frame rigid. Then use wing nuts to attach the down ramp to the hinges. You can have it setup in less than 5 minutes. Shovel snow for 5, hit the rail, take it down for 5, and bail before security shows up. You can be in and out in 15 minutes + your riding time.

Oh ok, I've never been to JF before so I wasn't sure but I'll be there to ride the ParkLogic shit this winter. Have to get my nosepresses down by then for all these smooth ass boxes.

Yea, MC freeriding is THAT bad. There are 3 fun trails on Vernon, 2 fun trails on Granite, 1 on Bear, 2 on South (in my opinion). Of the 3 on vernon, 2 weren't opened for most of last year, and when they were, they were left ungroomed as moguls (ok whatever) except that it rained, then it froze, they iced over solid, and then were never groomed all year. It was horrible. The granite run was fun. The one on bear is closed for the Ski team 90% of the time. One on south never opened, so the other one became the only way down the hill, so it was crowded as hell. All in all I could find one trail worth riding last year, and then only sometimes.

sidenote how long does it take by car to get from JF to BB, and does the lift ticket at one cover the other one for the day?

Well lets be serious, JFBB is going to shit on Blue Mountain, Bear Creek, Camelback, and Shawnee this year. Forget it. Good run guys, but its over. Mountain Creek has been better than those mountains for years. Sorry Papa, but your judging it on 1 day, we all know that. I went 35 days to mountain creek last year, I can remember a handful where it sucked but when it was good it the jibs were better setup than Mount Snow and Stratton, and they were always better built. THe jumps were ok, but you do what you can with limited snow and limited vert. If Mountain Creek gave them more money for snowmaking, they would have been much better off. Not to mention the best pipe south of Vermont no questions asked, and still will this year. Take some of those guys, throw them to JFBB, give them snowmaking, stoked management, a shit load of money to build jibs, and they will beat up on the other Pocono mountains. What did Camelback do? A couple more shitty ass jibs, even if they got 10, JFBB is getting 30, and we know the quality won't be the same as JFBB anyway. The halfpipe at camelback might be ok, or it might be just as shitty as their old one just bigger, either way it won't be a Grand Prix half pipe, it won't be a super pipe, and it won't be pretty much gaper free like the mountain creek one. Blue mountain, maybe they have a shot, lots of new terrain, snowmaking, but their jibs suck. The new ones look horrid, their saving grace will be nice jumps, and big ones. It looks like they moved dirt around to make a lot of step down setups which will be amazing, so for jumps, Blue will probably still be better than JFBB but we'll see becuase MC used to make nice jumps. Bear Creek? A really good effort but they get screwed by the weather, and their vert isn't the same. I don't care what you tell me, I'd rather take a run down 1,000 vert in a park than 500. Although they are stepping it up well too. Shawnee is a toss up, but it will be 4th at best. It was a fun park last year, but they haven't said anything about what they're doing. So now JFBB vs Mountain Creek. Well like dominant I'm a MC local who moved for college. I'm going to hit Mountain Creek when I'm home for Decemeber/January in between my Mount Snow trip and and after a few early season Hunter trips. So I expect maybe 3 days a week for 5 weeks there, so probably a season pass holder there again. I was thinking season pass for Blue but now I'm thinking I'm going to alternate between Blue, JFBB, and Bear Creek. Maybe even hit Shawnee and Camelback just to see it all, so I should get a good impression. I'll take pictures, and I might have to bust out the rope to see how the jumps actually stack up after all the claiming last year. So expect me to see almost 30 days on the east coast, and then 8 days at Utah and The Canyons in March. I should see a lot of vert and a lot of park, so I'll make the JFBB vs Mountain Creek call at the end of the year. But from here? It really is hard to say, Mountain Creek has the advantage of so much acreage for park. You have a park at south, an intro park on Vernon, 4 trails on Vernon with a park pass, the jib park, and the superpipe. From the looks of it, BB has 3 trails and a pipe, so probably equal to the terrain on Vernon's main park. JF has 2 trails. So total, about equal terrain or more in JFBB's favor, but seperated on two differant mountains which sucks. Once I'm on a board I don't want to take it off. I'd say by the looks of it BB has the advantage becuase you have 3 distinct top to bottom trails, so probably will have really good flow. But Mountain Creek has a park pass. Either way, Blue will still have the best freeriding and mountain creek the absolute worst. Most likely the 'best' riders will be at Mountain Creek, and by best i mean those who copied the style of the year best, but not necesarily are the best riders. Camelback will shout louder than anyone about how good they are, and their park crew will still sit on their ass as people get wrecked on 5 foot jumps. Blue will have nice jumps, shawnee will have nice flow and a medium size level thats just fun for everyone I know, and bear creek will keep all the southern riders stoked. I do see parks stepping up everywhere, which means the one big winner this year are the hospitals which stand to make a shit load of money off people wrecking themselves on shit they can't do.

i'm sure they will have one within a week look at how much snowmaking they put in during the summer

good riding. i'd spell sponsor right when you send it though, don't want to give a bad impression. Camera work was good enough, they're more interested in the riding than the film making, although the spotty compression will suck, so send in the full res version obviously, best to burn a DVD.

15 foot lip to knuckle I bet. There is nothing for reference though without a person standing anywhere its hard to tell.

Yea and the X games announcers throw the word amplitude around like they just learned it, and as if its a snowboarding term. Its fucking how much air you got, not how much amplitude. As for the jump lengths, I totally agree with you last year it was such bullshit on this board and everywhere else. Its like a classic fisherman's tale, can't measure with your eyes people. I think I'm going to mark out a piece of yarn in 5 foot increments out to maybe 70 feet and throw it in my pocket once in a while mid season when we start getting rediculous jump length numbers. A 40 foot jump is simply massive, I have a 40 foot pool in my yard so I can judge how long 40 feet is, and if you measure out 40 feet from the lip to the knuckle, a lot of people will say its a 60 foot jump. Go stand next at the end of someones 40 foot long pool, and think of flying over the whole thing, from a jump a little higher than your head and then come back and tell me blue mountain had a jump almost twice as long as that. Becuase last year I couldn't even find a 40 footer there, much less a 65 footer or whatever shit they were claiming.

At this point its about consistant cold more than real snow. I'd take a winter that was consistantly cold over a winter that had a lot of natural snow with warm spells in between. Snowmaking, grooming are 80% of the quality of the snow in the east and real snow is like 20%.

Yea and table tops usually have way more kick than a step down, but if you called them a booter you would sound like a gaper.

Well in this form its a broken C box. Its not banked at all to make you go around the curve with it.

Sometimes I think the people building jibs aren't connected to the people riding them at places. Rainbow to kicker usually sucks unless done really mellow.

Yea the MC one is repeatable because the legs are vertical so if you set it up vertical it will be fine. This one looks like it will rely on snow to keep it at an angle. What happens when the snow melts in the spring? Of course they could be building a second bow like 2 inchs above the outer one and putting the box material at an angle, but from what it looks like here thats not whats going to happen (i've also never seen that built like that but its a possibility)

Well it will naturally even out. People won't go on the one that has a much longer line and I expect them to be about the same speed up the hill give or take 30 seconds so people should just kind of naturally go to the shorter line.

lucky ass mo-fo. So by March you'll know where to find the best lines for powder, and where the best nightlife is right? Cuz i'll be asking for that shit. Since they just got ranked #1 in park again I'll have to hit up the park too, although I'm not sure about Kings Crown, but the 2nd from the hardest looks like the perfect size stuff for me. I also want to hit up the Canyons, especially their natural halfpipe and their wide open tree skiing. And of course I'll hike Jupiter Peak a few times although I'm staying in bounds while I'm out there.

No word yet on whats coming out next year for bindings. I know Burton is working on a Fusion replacement but its a year or more away, and not really a binding for hardcore riders anyway. I told a lot of people not to get bindings last year becuase Burton was using the asymetrical highbacks this year, Ride was changing their entire line around, and Salomon was putting out the Relay. I haven't had more than maybe a half hour playing with the new stuff but i'm impressed by the Rides and the Relays. I've never been a huge fan of Burton bindings becuase I've had some issues with mine. My Ride SPi's from a few years ago are great but really beat up, probably 100+ days on them now and some of the foam and stuff is warn down, but in general they just look beat up so they might be replaced. For freeride/park bindings I think I'd be looking at Ride bindings this year, not sure exactly which one because I don't know the pricing by heart yet. For park only bindings I'd be looking at the Salomon Relay, with the soft heel cup. Probably good as free ride bindings only too but you don't need the fore-aft flex on them just riding around so unnecesary. For "Wow" factor or "i need to have the newest and most expensive" i'd recommend the Burton CO2 becuase they look cool as hell, but don't think they're the best binding out. I'm glad Burton got rid of the full carbon back C60 becuase so many poeple who didn't need them and wouldn't like them bought them last year just becuase they were the most expensive, and therefore 'had to be the best'. Or just becuase they were 'so light' without listening to why most people don't need a binding that stiff.

If they haven't started the lift yet, there won't be a lift. Mountain Creek rails is a possibility, MC has too many jibs and sold off a lot last year to Hidden Valley, and Shawnee could buy some as well if they wanted to spend the $$$.

My only theory on the C box is that it will be setup at an angle like this one C-box But I dunno, the legs are perpendicular to the C so that could be hard.

I agree with you though Camelback has an issue with poor rail maitenance. I remember getting laid out from the last 1 foot of some flat box last year and then it happened to the guy behind me and we went up and there was a huge burr on the metal that everyone was catching. Eventually one of hte park crew came over with a file and tried to get ride of it but I was done with park there I do it more for laughs than to actually ride park.

High Country Sports, Livingston NJ. I'm actually back at school but I'll be working December/January & I just worked this weekend at their sale and I was glad everyone is liking the 32 becuase I've been saying we should bring in 32 for a long time.