Glenn

I took sax lessons for years and played jazz. Most of the time when I listened to it I thought it was pretty boring. I knew the musicians were talented, and were doing some cool stuff but for the most part the music was a bit over my head. Nowadays I LOVE listening to jazz. It takes time and listening to alot of music before you can appreciate it. If you don't dig on it, put it away for a couple years. I would recommend not writing it off totally though. There is some really great stuff you won't want to miss when you can really appreciate it. Brokeskier is right on the money too... Coltrane, Thelonius Monk... I would add Miles Davis to the list for sure.

Ok, well with that in mind, maybe the 163 makes more sense. I guess it depends if you are bringing multiple boards out west. The 161 will be a little more on the versatile side of things, but not by much. I just checked out their website and they don't really provide weight/length information. Since you want it to be a mountain board I would say go for the 163, and if you are gonna spend a day in really tight technical trees, bring out the 158.

What a mess... reading this stuff makes me want to wring someones neck, and it's not even my home mountain. Does anyone know Washo's motivation?

So... how does this relate to previous statements made that they are pressing ahead? Have the sn

161 should be fine. Unless you are doing tons of powder riding (20+ days) it doesn't make sense to get a larger board for float alone. 161 should float without to much work. Best to get the size that works best for your typical riding situation, specifically PA hardpack, riding park at BC. I'd say the 161, or even something shorter since it's park riding. What does the neversummer website say about board sizing in your weight range? Your boots are small enough you won't really have to worry too much about drag, especially if you have a short boot design. My 9 1/2s never cause me trouble.

If you have problems floating the 161... there are problems. So that shouldn't really be a consideration. Pretty set on the neversummer brand eh?

You know it, with my grizzled facial hair, lanky build, and my nerdy interests I'm a marketing dream come true P.S. I just got a receipt from pay pal. I hope that means you got your money??

... This has been my experience as well. There are a few who do ride quite often. However, the vast majority of the people I know with the student pass rode less than 15 days. Further, several of those 15 days were at a mountain other than the one they had the season pass for.

People who are in college now will have families in just a few years. One of the big problems facing ski areas is getting people into the sport. What better than roping in people who in a few years will have families and a resonable sized disposable income (along the lines of college education leads to higher salary). Sure some will be a drain, but not all. My friends and I typically ride early morning, or evenings. Not peak times. Also, other mountians are offering student passes, so if they don't offer it they will lose business to other mountains. All that in mind, it's still money. Sure they may not be the best at bringing in money now, but it is still $200 a person. I usually meet a handfull of people from ESU at CB everytime I'm there. I bet they make a good chunk of change on students. There are also other things that may or may not play into the mix. Like what kind of image CB is trying to portray, and whether or not they want lots of young attractive, athletic, fun loving people around their mountain (this isn't me being vein, I'm making a generalized statement about college students). College kids (that are old enough) do love bars...

Cool thinks for the link pyro! I couldn't imagine why they would do that. The college pass has typically retained the same price regardless of when it is purchased. Posting the prices this early in the season isn't neccissarily beneficial, as no savings is gained by purchasing this early. I'm curious as to what the price will be though.

WHAT?!?! Wow that really sucks. So this doesn't directly affect me any more, since I'm not getting a student pass this year, but I have lots of friends who are. Dumb move CB. Gonna go out on a limb and say the average college student does not have $500+ to spend on a season pass. I know a bunch of people from ESU that rocked the season pass simply because it was such a great value at $199. LAME!

... all there products are that high? I find that hard to believe. I also find it hard to believe they are the only company with that kind of technology. I'm going to make a guess that gore-tex is among the typical "best in class" waterproof products. Not outrageously superior (100+% better). Feel free to prove me wrong.

I always waterproofed gear with scotch guard. I'm not sure if they changed the breatability of the materials or not. Seems to work though. When things start lossing their water resistant nature, just spray some more on and you are set. Never tried nikwax or the like. Probobly the same or better than scotch guard. I'm going to guess it's more expensive also.

Brian: I thought you said you gave mary jane a pearl necklace how much did that cost? Thurgood: You obviously missed the point of that story. ------------------------------------------------------- One pearl neclace deserves another...

I was kind of wondering the same thing myself, but didn't want to be rude. Kind of weird to think about manners on the internet...

They are one and the same. Name change went megan -> guts -> megan. The "edit by guts" is just a side effect (maybe even a bug ) with the name changes.

I'm not trying to call you names... I wasn't trying to imply that you cared what we thought either. I (and hopefully the others) are simply trying to shed some light on what the _other_ guy (in this case a store tech) is thinking/feeling. I simply would hope that you and others would strive to make the "classy" desicion. Kinda like; if everyone picks up one piece of trash....

Dude thats fine, just don't waste a shop tech's time/pay?!? (do they get commision I don't even know) on fitting a boot if you are going to buy it elsewhere. If you can't find anything at the store that works, cool go elsewhere, don't find a boot that works, and buy it on line. Thats a kick in the nuts. It's like cutting someone off in the park... Yeah you can do it but it makes you a douche.

... if we could guarentee that enough people (who did not have season passes to that mountain) would show up to fit the requirements for group rates we would. Even then... I personally don't have the money to spot X number tickets, to wait for people who don't show up on time, or any number of other problems. Attendance, and meeting as a group first, if we can get people to show up, we can start to talk about group rates.

Eh, we had mid seaons PASR days 2 seasons ago that worked rather well. They were at the popular mountains, and we had a resonable turnout at every one. They were also misorganized and many several people showed up to PASR days without ever meeting up with the "group." However... I do have to admit only doing it at the "big" and more noteably at exclusively pocono mountians is lame. I'd like to reach further west in the state, as well as hit some of the smaller mountains, I'm just not sure how to make it happen. I think a balance would be best and a dedication to make EVERY PASR day worth while is what needs to happen. I don't think many days is the best way to do it, and I don't think ignoring the middle of the season is the way either. I'm PM'ing you about the banners...

Perhaps... I think we need to get a little more organized with them. Last year I'm not sure if they really happened at all. I think we planned way to many, and they lost their importance, because there were so many. Lack of staff involvement for various reasons definately contributed to the apathy.

Holiday weekends are lame for sure, but midnight sking/riding seems like it would be a real good time. I'll probobly try to go... If nothing else it will seperate the men from the boy in terms of who can handle the conditions with sleep deprevation

Alright, that's fair. I do too. However... I don't really feel like there is a huge difference getting that fresh cord on a green, or mellow blue crusier, which is essentially all BB has despite whatever their trail ratings are. My point in referance to the powder was simply that, being the 2nd 3rd... even 10th person to hit a run on fresh cord isn't that different than being the 1st. Being the 1st to hit a powdery run is way different than being the 10th, though it's still a good time....

Also BB is clearly the better "park" mountain, and it has the lights. With the park crowd being younger, and your typical midweek early morning skier not being a park rat, it just fits. Not just a coincidence that BB opens around the time high schools are letting out. To the first tracks comments... I'm not sure first tracks at BB are anything worth jumping up and down about. It will be cool to see the parks in perfect shape at 3 when you get there, but it's not like having THE first run down ANY trail at BB is that exciting. First tracks on black diamonds are a good time, and even then, it's not that big a deal unless there if fresh snow. There aren't really any great blacks at BB. First tracks at JF are a totally different story though. With the lack of lights the 3p.m. opening time doesn't make a whole lot of sense for JF.

... and the point of that comment was? What policies does this remind you of that CB has implemented since the new owner? CB simply is not the big bad guy you would like it to be. Especially in light of the new owner who is making major moves to improve the experience for the customer. I can't think of ANY mountain in this area that would do something this stupid. I agree with ski though... If fraud is the issue, implement better passes. Surely installing a bar code/pass scanner at every lift is far less expensive than paying an additional person to man a season pass ticket window for... the season, or multiple seasons. RFID scanners are coming down in price, and they wouldn't even require human interaction, unless someone's pass wasn't valid... in which case it would involve the same level of involvment as booting a person who didnt' have a pass at all. Plus you could offer all sorts of extra goodies to your customers, like number of runs, number of days on the mountain etc etc etc. All without "holding up" the line like a conventional bar code, or manual ticket checker might.