nick malozzi

I'm sort of indifferent about the entire thing. I'm not a fan of Shaun White. I mean I admit he is a very talented rider in the pipe, and he's certainly pushed hard in that arena. Just never really dug him, but I'm not going to bash him either. He's doing his thing and that's cool. As far as the pipe goes. It was a cool idea, and it employed a number of people for a good chunk of time while it was being designed, built, and now maintained. So I look at that as a good thing. It is also placed in an area that few people can get to. So they aren't taking away any legit terrain from anyone with it. It is also in a slide path, so odds are the few that make it out there would possibly avoid that area anyway depending on conditions. I guess I look at it this way, they aren't really getting in anyones way, pumped a lot of money back into the snowboard community (as opposed to Shaun going out and buying more cars, houses, etc), and maybe the end result is he learns a few new tricks and makes some cool videos. The part that does irritate me however, is the interviews with the US Snowboard team coach who is making huge claims because of it. Claiming how now Shaun can really become an innovator and push pipe riding way beyond what it is today. Maybe he will, but maybe he won't. If they held a comp on that very pipe, yea sure. He'll throw down WAY harder and stick a ton of tricks never done in competition. However, I'm not sure I'd be claiming he's going to take this new bag of tricks and be able to consistently apply it to a competition pipe that isn't nearly as nice as that thing. Anyway, let carrot top do his thing. I've got no issue with it.

so is hitting the same handful of crappy runs over and over again day in and day out to rack up your "vert". tele skiers get a lot of respect from me man. it was one hell of a work out, and it certainly was fun. i'm just not ready to be a n00b again. i can ride a lot of terrain rather comfortably on my board, and it would take way too long to get to that point on tele skis.

If I'd buy the condo I'm currently renting my rent would go down about 300 bucks, and the HOA takes care of everything outside my door. So unless I wanted to upgrade something there would be no maintenance. That's cool though. By all means, keep handing over your income to so landlord. It's not really all that different then the money you hand over at the casino.

And he also brought a lot of valuable information to the site, and seemed to know a lot about racing. The racing content on this site has suffered drastically since. I'm not saying he isn't a nut case, but so are numerous others on here. Is a shame he hasn't come back.

Why would you piss away 20K on someone else's property as opposed to having a healthy down payment on your own place?

Agreed. I think a lot of us miss him around here.

Fully pimped out and outfitted expedition raft (frame, boat, trailer, cooler, dry boxes, oars, etc... all top of the line). If there was any money left over I'd save it for booze on my trip down the Grand Canyon.

Well since Glenn started the pissing match I'll add mine. I tried tele last year, and it was pretty damn hard. I had the basics down by the end of the day, but it was one hell of a work out. However, whenever I just pushed back my heals and skied as though I wasn't on tele it was so god damn easy it wasn't even funny. That all being said, I have played Ice Hockey since I was 5. So it was a pretty natural thing for me. Not saying If I had normal skis I'd be some sick ripper, but honestly I think it is way easier then my first time on a board. I felt like with a nice pair of twin tips I'd be riding switch in no time, and charging fairly hard. I mean I took the crappy tele rentals I had into the park, and was getting bigger air then Doug could ever even dream of. Long story short, I'm not trying to hate on skiers, cause there is def a lot of skill there when you start pushing the upper level of certain types. However, I don't think your going to find anything in skiing that will cure the monotony of PA mountains. Their still going to be too small, too crowded, and poor snow. Push harder on your board and find another level. In my opinion if you are a rider and your bored your not charging hard enough, and same thing goes for skis. Just my 2cents. edit: i intended on burning skiers a lot harder in my post, but bitched out cause i'm busy today and can't keep up with a flame war in real time like i prefer to. sorry if i got you excited with the first sentence.

As far as HR goes why don't you just ask your HR department. They may have the rules in place for various reasons. To scare people, to strictly enforce them, to cover their asses. It all depends. Get an answer from them before moving forward, after all... you may break every rule they write, but if they don't enforce them then you are good to go. I've signed off on a ton of rules at various jobs, and 99% of the time the rules only applied to certain people. It sounds like you did an awesome job working with them. I'd be shocked if your company is against you having some leisure time with them. After all, it is just going to make the relationship stronger (unless you puke on one of them in a drunken stupor).

I agree man, the money is in the vacation home business. I was a part of it when I first moved out here. Designed websites for a major player in the vacation home game. I was let go when the economy tanked, and now my old company was bought out by another that has been scooping everything up.

In my experience last year this statement was not true. I rode buddy passes 3 times on non holidays and they were not all the same $55 price. Maybe things changed this year though. While it is certainly true that the ski industry lost a lot of revenue last year, from what I heard the government is requiring employers to pay for travel expenses incurred by certain types of work visas. Specifically, the work visa type most international ski resort workers apply for. So revenue loss or not, I guarantee 99% of the resorts are not willing to pay the travel bills of all the South American workers. It would bankrupt them.

Re there clif notes available for your posts? Thanks in advance.

There was some other crappy benefits too, but I just copied the ones that were decent or may apply to me with the people I'd probably use it on. Sucks that they are shafting the employees so hard on friends and family stuff. It seems like at the least you should get the same benefits as the pass holders, and in my opinion you should get more. Edit: OH and I heard on NPR that a lot of the resorts lost a ton of international staff due to the changes to the work visa programs. Maybe you all should strike for better benefits since there won't be tons of South Americans able to be scabs.

I believe I get 10 (but I'd have to check to confirm). I don't want to promise too many of them though cause I want to be sure I have a few for Trish, and Jesse and Elizabeth are going to come out and visit at some point as well. If Zaldon comes out again and you are in need, he is certainly welcome to them. The only catch is I need to be there to use them.

How many days are you going to be on the hill. A buddy of mine came out last year, and the cheapest way was to actually buy a pass. It all just depends where you want to go, and how many days. The epic pass does offer buddy passes, but Jordan is correct on the date scenario. They also vary slightly per resort. Last year I used some buddy passes and Breck was 60 one time, 65 another, and Keystone was 75. All weekend non holiday. So it is sorta a crap shoot. edit: somehow i totally missed your post on how many days you'll be here. pass wouldn't be worth it. if glenn can't make it happen for you and you want to ride at wp let me know. i get a bunch of half off passes with my pass. i can spare one as long as it is sat or sunday so i can ride too.

It is like the a karamatic(i think i just made up a word) balance or something around TTc6 goes bye bye and we gain this guy. Like I said, hope you're ready for attack, and PLEASE stick around.

Down is without a doubt warmer. I agree 100% with you there. It is hard to compare the two though in a lot of instances because down's ability can also be affected a lot by the baffle set up and the other materials etc etc. I mainly go with the synthetics because then i don't have to worry about the moisture issue. One less thing for me to worry about. That all being said, I absolutely love my down sleeping bag, and will never go back to synthetic for sleeping. Oh, and if you get down anything. Hang it inside out to dry. If there is any water proof coating it will be on the outside and not the inside. So as you sweat all day the interior will absorb the moisture into the down. If you toss it on the back of a chair or something right side out it will never fully dry out and the down will clump, creating cold spots. Do the same for your sleeping bag. I don't think it applies as much to synthetic bags, but it can't hurt. Finally, bags, vests, jackets, fucking anything with down or a synthetic insulation like that shouldn't be stored compressed. It is only going to hurt its ability to keep you warm. Let em hang out and breathe.

I really hope you stick around. Be ready to get flamed hard in the near future, but please stick it out. Always like to see people stirring the pot.

I'm in no way trying to validate this dude, but I will say this and I hope some people in the PASR community will understand this. Being a REP for any company in any sport does not in any way mean you are awesome at whatever it is your company makes gear for. Typically it means you have been around the sport long enough and networked well enough to get yourself an in somewhere. I admit, if you are around the sport for a long time you are probably pretty decent. Please don't twist my words and think I'm saying REPS suck. That simply isn't true. However, if you think because someone has a job as a REP that means they are good at said sport then you gotta wake up man. Furthermore, if you think that every REP coming in is going to tell it to you as it is (meaning being up front about what boards are good and bad) then again, wake the hell up. In the end most are concerned about how much product they push. Some are going to take the "I'm a cool laid back dude like you" approach, and others may take the "All our boards rip approach, all others suck". No offense to you shop kids out there, but stop looking up to these guys. They are no more "elite" then you are. Take what they say and what gear you see them riding with a grain of salt. The Burton REP that Kevin spoke to may be wrong or he may be right. Either way, he did his job, because Kevs shop prolly pushed a TON more in numbers of boards since the staff wasn't scaring people away pushing a high dollar board. In the end the production cost between models is miniscule so really the numbers are what they care about. Other reps may be totally lost themselves. It sounds to me like the K2 rep out there has a screw or two loose riding a powder specific board at a PA resort when he has access to pretty much their entire line. Anyway, I hope this all makes sense. REPS are salespeople and salespeople care nothing more then the number of boards they sell. If they don't care, then you'll more then likely be meeting a new rep next season. Good luck selling this things brah... you should prolly look elsewhere though.

I'm a big fan of down. It has a bunch of downsides... is if it gets wet it is useless as an insulator like most organic material, and down takes a good bit of time to dry. That being said, I won't wear it as an insulating layer to snowboard in. Far too often do I get snow down my back, or start sweating heavily. Now, I'd certainly wear a down insulated shell as most are designed to take care of those issues with water proof fabrics etc. Most down vest have a slightly water resistant coating, but aren't really designed to get too wet. If you find one that is, it is going to be a much less flexible layer and feel bulkier. I'm a much bigger fan of a nice fleece layer. It handles moisture better and is a lot more comfortable. Taking all this with a grain of salt though, people certainly do this on a regular basis. So it isn't a "Your an idiot if you do" situation. My advice would be to get a lightweight vest. Not because of the weight issues, but because it is going to fit as a layer nicer. The bulkier vests are not going to be very comfortable under a shell. In addition, the lightweight down stuff isn't just about being light. In my opinion the weight difference is negligible. The real benefit is packability. If your out in the BC and want to shed a layer, a lightweight down layer is going to fit into your pack WAY easier then some bulky layer. Your other option, and in my opinion probably your best. Is to get a synthetic "Down Like" jacket. Something with Primaloft or a similar product. It will still keep you warm if it gets wet, and packs down almost as good as down. The other nice feature is that there are no down feathers in it to slowly pop through the fabric and fall out (yes that happens). I know you're trying to keep it on the cheap, but I REALLY like my REI Spruce Run Jacket ( http://www.rei.com/product/785192 ). 150 bucks seems steep at first glance, but when you think about how many different ways it can be used the price seems cheap. It is a jacket and a vest. So you get two items for one. Synthetic, so it can handle getting a little wet. It packs down to be about the size of a Nalgene bottle (probably could get it smaller with a nicer stuff sack then what it comes with, and packs even smaller if you leave the sleeves at home). To give you an idea on warmth. I was wearing that, and a long sleeve non insulating synthetic shirt around at night during the Westwater trip. If I wear it and a tshirt to walk Buster in the morning and it is higher then 45 degrees I'm sweating by the end of the walk. It has ghetto arm pit vents, but this I mean you can just half unzip the sleeves and you can get a little vent action. I plan on wearing it if it gets SUPER cold this winter while riding, or if I'm in the BC to wear as a vest while hiking/shoeing. Compare it to similar MTN Harware, Patagucchi, etc brands competing items and it is almost half the price. Anyway, that is my lame ass plug. Even if you don't get it, maybe it can give you a baseline to go from. </gear whore rant>

I fail to see any point in wasting all that snow on a "70ft" jump that 5% of the park riders can actually hit, and less then that can actually do something aside from straight air. I've seen the pics of the jumps, the lips and build quality is always garbage. Build NICE smaller jumps that more people can actually do something off of. Edit: Oh and, I'm guessing the "70footer" is a marketing thing. Something they can toss around in ads. You want good ads, build nice well maintained jumps and head out with a camera and snap some shots of kids just killing it. You're not going to get better marketing material then that.

We have about a foot here in Westminster as well. I was about to go out and shovel off my steps with my avy shovel (which would have sucked), and I look out my window to clean steps. Holler to the HOA!

I hope you aren't surprised by that.

Oh I know there are rails everywhere. I'm not a big rail guy though. So I'm not about to go out and spend a bunch of time setting up for a rail just to smash my face trying it. Maybe I'm a bitch, but my face is my meal ticket, haha.

Yea, there is a small hill nearby I thinking i might go try and build a jump on. Not sure yet though. I haven't seen any easy rails to go attempt, but I haven't actually been looking. So who knows.