method9455

Go right ahead and buy your boots online. See how that works out for ya. The whole internet price thing is crap too, I don't know about ski gear prices but if you serach for snowboard gear online everything you get is crap and or more expensive than it is at my store. I remember a few of my friends thinking they were getting great deals, and they came into my shop and ended up getting better boards, boots, bindings for so much less. Besides ski shops won't die. THe last two years have been horrible weather wiise and our shop has had the two best years in the last 30. We're a single store and we can survive, these other stores are doing something wrong, either too much inventory or not enough saved up for the lean times (thats your $50 mounting charge, you think it costs $50 in labor to mount a ski? Hell no, but to keep a ski tech there for all the times there are no skis to be mounted, you need to charge $50 for the time that he is working)

and as you pointed out, they are under 1, maybe 2 headwalls per run. In a park every single feature is blind, dozens of times over. Every jump is blocked by the ramp itself, and the height and speed is much greater. On a rail you can be on it and have no control over where you will land even if halfway through it you see the person. Besides, you go over a headwall and theres a kid there most likely you don't have a huge amount of air, I'd like a little bit of edge down before I hit the kid, a jump they're just getting hit. On a rollover at least your head can see the kid before you really launch, and there is enough time to if nothing else lay yourself out on your side and slide through the kid instead of putting a ski through him. I know I've laid myself out a few times to stop myself from hitting someone. When I was at mount snow there was a blind rollover/left hand turn and my brother was about 4 feet to hte right of me, and we both ollied the roll over. THere was a chinese guy and his son standnig right under it, and i laid myself down fast enough to land in a toeside turn, i avoided hitting the kid but i flew into the woods feet first and hit a tree. it was the scariest moment on a snowboard i've ever had. but the chances of it happening are low. now think of every feature being like that, except that a billion new kids think that landings are a great place to sit down while they search their pants for the balls to hit a 20 foot ride on box.

really the #1 thing they need to do, without a doubt, is the lip design. Sadly its the least expensive thing they can do too. All they need to do is use a wider ramp and they will be set. Some time soon I will post some pictures, but the differance between the park they have now, and a seriously good park, is a 4foot by 2 foot patch of snow on each side of hte current lip. You just can't get tech on the rails right now.

I wouldn't call that nice and long, a good like 40 foot flat box or a 50 foot kink rail would be a nice addition

the main park is fine cuz the park pass keeps them out, but the parks with no pass are insane

think combination of the most rediculously dressed park rats (we have 200 guys thinking they are the next street jeremy jones with the airblaster and neon colors and basketball jersey overload) right next to the gapers who wear the NY Giants football jacket skiing and pizza down on their rentals sharing a lift, it really is classic

I suspect so, they didn't have enough snow to make it past this weekend as far as I can tell. This week looks like 50s and rain.

yea I haven't fallen getting off a lift in 3 years, which considering i snowboard and teach a lot of new people is an accomplishment cuz new snowboarders wipe out everyone. Actually my friend straight up pushed me once this year for the hell of it but that doesn't count. And the lift didn't stop cuz i got my ass out of the way quick, but yea, the best are the times i took the bunnyhill lift becuase it doubles as a jib park lift at mountain creek, and its so damn slow and the people coming off the top still die all the time its amazing

It's not that detachable lifts are harder to get on, they're harder to get off. Actually not necesarily harder to get off, its just that there is less momentum getting off and the disaster cases pile up right there instead of getting their ass booted farther down the hill. On a normal chair if the people fall, they wind up at the bottom of the hill and the people after them can avoid them half the time anyway so the chair doesn't stop, on a detachable lift they fall like right there and block it all up. I dunno, either way its not the lifts fault. Somehow even gondola's stop I really don't understand that one.

yea cadillac the thing you still haven't realized is that there are concerns at a ski shop that are bigger than 1 customer. Our shop is known for our customer service (for the record its not Nestors) and we are the kind of shop where if you buy a pair of boots from us, and you come back and dont like them we'll do custom stuff, and if you still don't like them we'll either give you a differant pair of boots, or subtract what you paid for the first pair from the new pair. Doesn't happen often, but it a few pairs a year. That gets expensive when we're selling 300-650 dollar boots. But even with all that customer service, we can't warranty off the rack. There wouldn't be a shop if we did that. As for mounting on the spot, we do it a lot but if there is no tech, or the tech is backed up, its not going to happen. Come in late march when no one is buying skis and try to get your ski mounted is a crap shoot. Come December and it will be possible 99% of the time becuase there is at least one ski tech the entire day. As for paying for the mount, thats entirely at the discretion of the sales guy. We list our ski mounts at $25 if you buy the package from us, $50 if you didn't. Its $50 all the time if you didn't, but that $25 can disappear if I want it to. I'm sure you walked into the shop with the attitude your showing here, and I know exactly why your paying the $25 and not getting it done that day. And that if the sales guy liked you he could cut out the mounting charge and call in a favor and get the manager to mount it on the spot for you? I know if a guy is being an arrogant prick to me I'm charging him sticker price on everything and if he asks, no I can't cut out that mounting charge, see its listed right there on the wall. It's not unfair, you get what you give, and if your just being an asshole buying skis, then your getting the advertised price. If your a nice guy, we want you as a loyal customer, so we give out perks - usually a lower price, throw in a free mount, free t-shirt, free lock, free lift ticket, if we have to get the manager to mount it becuase we dont' have a tech, we do. YOU just aren't getting those perks becuase it's apparent what your attitude is. As for what justo said about the snowboard bindings, we don't charge either even though it takes just as long. By the time you adjust the binding to the boot size, the guys riding style, and mount it, its about the same time. But everyone in the shop can do that, you are paying for the tech guy with the mounting charge. He has a certification that takes time to learn, not just to do it, but to do it and not screw up by holing a ski or getting someone hurt.

Justo nailed it on the head. I went to blue for the first time Friday, and had an absolute blast. I'm so glad I went because I cut school with my best friend & girlfriend and had the best day of snowboarding since getting back from Canada in january. Great way to end the year. I'd never been to Blue before so I spent a lot of time exploring, but its going to be my home mountain for the next 4 years probably since its closer to my college than Mountain Creek, and I need trails like Challenge & Razors edge for free riding so Bear Creek is out, maybe some day trips but w/e. Anyway, mixed feelings on the park. My first run through to check it out I was so disappointed. Then I went back and started hitting stuff - here are my impressions. 1) Jibs inventory - the jibs themselves are pretty good, not all quite up to the quality of Mountain Creeks but for the most part equal to what I see around and definately better than the Shawnee/Camelback variety. Plenty of variety, I saw a few weren't up and saw like 5 more rails around. My only issue was the flat-down at the very bottom was so sticky, and the first rail on the top right needs to be trashed becuase its bowed and warped. Basically, good job on the jib inventory, hopefully they'll go through it and throw out some shitty ones, but I liked it 2) Jib setup - basically sucked. I know its the end of the year, but Justo is right. The rails need to be setup differantly. Its not really even the gap, longer gaps and higher gaps are nice but my biggest problem is the width of ramp. They are so damn narrow like 4 feet, some even smaller. basically so narrow you can't hit things from wide out. I like my boarslides with about 6" between my heels or toes and the rail. You can't do that on these, and I've never actually gone straight onto a rail and spun to boardslide before so it was throwing me off, and there is no reason not to make the ramps the full blade of the cat (like 6-8' like mountain creek and bigger mountains) so you can spin approach however you want. 3) Jumps - at first my friend and I were cracking up at the size of the jumps. I realize that its the end of the yar, but those ramps are big enough for like a 40 foot jump and the gap to the knuckle is like 2 feet, but then when I actually started going with the flow of the park they worked out becuase you can't get that much speed in there with all the turns. A perfect example is the up-flat rail and then it comes into the high flat box and then that 2 jump line with the c box on the right. (The c box has to go,) You come in off the up-flat nice but then you have to speed check hardcore for the flat box becuase there is no gap to the rail and you clear it at speed, and then you need a huge ramp to make it to the knuckle becuase its basiclaly flat there. My main issue with the jumps is the trail, I don't like how there are those jumps and then a turn, if the trail were straighter itd be safer, I can remember skidding down the landings of some jumps before and i'd hate to hit a tree that way. That and the landings are so short for all the jumps. 4) Trail, I have mixed feelings. The pitch and exposure is good, and the snowmaking at blue kicks ass. BUT, sidewinder is a bad trial for a park. But there is no better one. My only other guess is if they took the connecting trail from the quad and then lazy mile, made a jump line on that top trail and then jibs but that isn't a good compromise becuase its so flat. Challenge/Razors are too steep, Paradise is the easy trail off the quad for new people, so it kind of has to be sidewinder as far as i can tell. Butt he windy trail sucks becuase the flow gets thrown off a bit and it sucks if you fall that you can end up in the woods really easy. If they cut it straighter at each corner so it just gets wider and straighter minor turns are fine, but when you you are coming down off a big jump, hitting the wallride, and then trying to make a 90 degree turn to hit a rail, it doesn't flow as well as it could. In the end, its a good park but has plenty of room for improvment. I hope they do, and judging by everything I saw, they are improving it. I'm going to rate it as 2nd best behind mountain creek, better than shawnee's, even though shawnee sets their rails up better, just beucase you can hit a lot more on the way down at blue than at shawnee. I've never been to Bear Creek and Camelback sucks for park, Hunter's park is so shitty too.

06 Line? I just posted a long story in another thread on this site about how pissed off our shop is at Line this year. So many fucking problems. And most companies are pretty good about replacing stuff, but not only is Line being really bad at replacing obvious warranty stuff, they aren't even replacing skis for guys who SELL the skis to people. A guy here delaminated a pair on the roof rack without them even touching snow, sent them back, and got nothing in return but a check for a pair of NEXT YEARS line skis. THats great, but he wants to ski this year. And it was like january when that happened. the p12 jibs are basically pre-06 Rossi powe 120's right? we don't carry look but we stocked up rossi 120 series bindings for hte next like 5 years now that rossi changed the heelcup to lose the turntable, basically making it suck. If your riding park you need a turntable binding or your acl is done.

that one guy at work bought a pair of prophets for himself (delam after maybe 8 or 9 days of skiing), a pair of motherships for his sister (broke on the way up to vermont like i mentioned above). we had a customers bring back delam skis as well. Plus a broken line binding and then another guy who wanted to buy a brake for a line binding and they didn't have anymore so the guy was screwed. We got a letter apologizing to us from Line becuase at that point about half of the stuff we got from them was f'ed up in one way or another. Its sad because they were so good up to this year. If you notice next years catalog comes with a letter talking about the quality assurance problems they've had this year, how they are going to fix them for next year, and how they are no longer going to make bindings. I know for sure that a few shops around us dropped them becuase of it (I believe all the Pelican stores did) and my store is thinking about it, probably will get one or two pairs just to see how they are but definately not the size of hte order we had this year. It is a shame though becuase the reason the shop guys buy so many of them is because they ski so well. The guy at our store who does all the ordering swears by them

what kind of ski/binding?

My shop mounts skis on the spot, BUT if you come in at random hours and we don't have a ski tech, or we're backed up, they won't be mounted. Realize mounting skis isn't difficult but it IS easy to make mistakes, and those mistakes could hurt someone, so everyone mounting the bindings has a certification from each company. At our store, we only have 4 techs even though we sell a lot of skis. As for them replacing your ski, no one just hands out skis off the rack becuase we have no idea if the company will warranty replace them or not. Of course a shop guy knows what SHOULD be covered by warranty. One of the guys at our store bought a pair of Line skis and had them delam in the car rack on the way up to Vermont, and sent htem back and they didn't replace them. (he got a credit for next season, but was left hanging for this year), and he is working at a shop selling 10 pairs a year they should care about him. It was a situation that should have been covered underwarranty, but wasn't. The shop isn't going to stand up for a manufactor that does that, surely if the customers are getting mad becuase the company isn't standing behind its product (and we see a lot is coming back) we're just going to drop the line. But we're not going to give out free skis and hope the company (which is fickle) sends us a replacement. All the things you mentioned, not being able to mount the ski on the spot, not replacing one on the spot, charging for mounting, are things done by ski shops everywhere. It's not even rediculous, the whole buisness is so turbulent you have to get money while you can so you can stay alive during not only the warm weeks of each winter, but the winters taht just plain suck

second on the narrow down box. like 4" wide down box, 30 foot long, streetstyle setup is perfect. I could do those rails all day and have a blast.

hmmmm i mapquested it, maybe that was to one of hte mountain south. either way i remember thinking it was an easy enough drive but i should check it again whoops, its an hour and a half from my house. 2 hours 1 minute from U Delaware according to mapquest. bear creek is a little closer i believe, but i'm not sure by how much. Roundtop and Liberty are like an hour. Either way I'm thinking i need the vert. If i get a day with no classes (which i can probably pull off cuz i have like 20 credits already so i can pick my schedule ahead of the other freshmen) i can get up like 6am, drive up for the opening, leaving like 2 or 3 and be back in my dorm for dinner. whoops, its an hour and a half from my house. 2 hours 1 minute from U Delaware according to mapquest. bear creek is a little closer bu like 15 minutes it says. Roundtop and Liberty don't seem worth getting into a car for. Either way I'm thinking i need the vert of Blue becuase 1,000 feet is like my minimum. If i get a day with no classes (which i can probably pull off cuz i have like 20 credits already so i can pick my schedule ahead of the other freshmen) i can get up like 6am, drive up for the opening, leaving like 2 or 3 and be back in my dorm for dinner, and i know some guys from UDel do it already so i won't be alone.

plexi isn't that smooth really you can feel its stickyness. also dont' use aluminum coping, steel rusts but if you clean it with a file its fast, aluminum is sticky for some reason

well you shouldn't have been suprised ParkBuilder posted the park layout on friday becuase i asked him before i drove an hour out there for it. i could have gone to mountain creek for free but i felt like doing some free riding and the trails at shawnee had snow that was like a hundred times better than what was left at mountain creek. besides shawnee isn't the best place for late season park becuase there is dirt under the features instead of a flat trail with snow features, there is less snow to push around. if those plateaus in the middle where snow instead of dirt there would be enough snow to push around and keep it going, but you can see the dirt melting through. it opens faster that way but ends sooner. i'd personally stick with the dirt, i'd rather hte park open full earlier than close later becuase parks usually have a low priority on snowmaking and the mountain usually closes with plenty of coverage anyway. Either way, i still had a hell of a lot of fun, mostly just becuase of those 2 spines and the up-flat-down setup plus the nostaligia of going back to shawnee after a 4 year absesnce. My first day of snowboarding ever was at shawnee, and so was my last day of snowboarding before college, and its kind of unclear how much i will do in college so its like full circle for me. Besides i remember when i was throwing 360s on skis like 5 years ago thinking bushkill would be the perfect place for a park. and i also rememeber breaking two pairs of skis in 2 days, and then getting nutted on the 3rd day and deciding it was time to snowboard instead. Good fucking times. If i had a drink i'd toast it to shawnee for lots of memories.

I'll be there friday from opening to like 4ish, looks like the weather won't melt it away too much between now and then so i'm hoping to see it in good shape. If Blue is worth getting a season pass to it might factor into my college selection. UDel is like an hour and 20 minutes from it, so i could reasonably drive from my dorm to skiing on my off days during the week, but my other college is University of Maryland, and that is like 3 hours from the nearest ski hill. I like a bit of both, but if i could snowboard easily from one and not the other, i'd go with that one. My friends at school are like snowboarding is going to decide where you go to college? And i'm like, hell yea, snowboarding is my life i'll die without going once or twice a week all winter.

$100 for me, I work at a local shop, I was stoked with $100 and the rest of hte guys were so mad becuase last year it was $50 or something rediculous like that. I went 30 days to creek on it, and then got 1/2 price lift tickets at Tremblant for 4 days and saved myself about 100 bucks canadian. It was a great deal, and it sucks to pay that much any where else.

how is the park holding up

up until last year mountain creek pulled out the rails but left the jumps and some of the jumps that were on the skiers left going downhill never melted becuase they were never hit by the sun, and they lasted deep into april. guys would hike up and they kept taking the snow off the table to make a run in and run out, they were pretty die hard. last year was the first time they plowed out the tables on closing day and i think they will again this year

"be carefull of the urban set-up it's mad Chester PA" thats classic right there

no its harder than that, i've been on the same quest. you can open up the yellowpages and look for plastic suppliers, i found one by me named EMCO that sells 4x8' sheets of it, or you go online. I think the site i was looking at was industrial plastic supply