Trail Report 1/12/08

[funkmaztafox]

Post-script edit: This is a very lengthy post. Those interested only in conditions, that material is bolded. The in-detail info is italicized

 

Woke up at 5:20, showered, headed up from the Del. Mem. Bridge at 6. Booted up at 8:15ish @ Jack Frost. Parking lot somewhat empty. Bought a snow pass and walked out into some VERY THICK, very granular crystallized snow. I dont know how you here explain the texture, but it's the kind of snow that looks like very very small diamonds. Real clear, real solid little dip'n'dots sized pellets.

 

The weather was perfect. Mid-High 30's. I was sporting the Hot Chilly's chest and legs, then the jacket shell and my pants. Was perfect for the conditions. I went and bought a Burton R.E.D. helmet at the Ski Bum yesterday (for a whopping $90). And I had my goggles. So I take to the eastern part of the mountain, making a quick run down Frosty and then Easy Rider. Still quite a bit of corduroy on the slopes. From there I took a Smartstyle scan run through One Park. Kickers looked like they were in pretty good condition. Snow was very thick there as opposed to the slopes where it was a little bit more of the thin layers of the crystal stuffs. After a quick run down One park I headed back up to hit a couple of the obstacles I thought I was capable of. Hit that little intro jump, then the real wide flat rail, and scoped out the jump and last rail once more for my next run....

 

The near finisher:

I've mentioned before I'm a beginner when it comes to terrain parks, that being...obstacles. So I hit the intro obstacle, hit the flat rail, hit the third jump (the shorter one) (cased it ) and then was about to head to the lift, when I saw the last two rails. One was a round rail and one was flat. Heading to the flat one I tried to slow down and get the right speed. I get up on the rail and I wasn't ready for the rail speed. It's the steel rail and I wasn't ready for it. Halfway through the rail something happened and I dont know what. The next thing I know is that i opened my eyes and my face was BURNING. MY goggles....shattered. They were fairly cheap Smiths, but shattered none the less. I am regular footed. I think my board slipped off to the left and I went down to the right, bellying the rail, except my face smacked the ground. It's a GOOD F*cking thing I had my brand new helmet cause if i wouldn't have that coulda been much worse. So I got up, shook it off. Made sure I could feel everything. Nothing felt broken, except my nose...but it's just cause it was numb. Literally I smacked face first into the ground without any cushioning....and i've already told you what this snow is like in these conditions. So I take my gloves off, check my nose fluids, some blood, not a lot. but my face was bleeding a little. I had about 20-30 hair-sized cuts from the snow on my nose/chin/cheeks. I also had a HUGE welp on my forarm right below my elbow. I guess that's where my arm landed on the rail. I was shook...bad. It destroyed most all confidence I had. I'm a strong believer in smartsytle and I thought I had the necessary precautions...how else are you supposed to learn steel rails other than going slow on flat rails? The chair ride up from that run was a very long one. I had to decide if I would continue riding or call it a day..afterall I was in pain..but it cleared up shortly thereafter.

 

So I put the broken-lensed pair of goggles in my coat, and was reluctant the accident wasn't worse. After going to the lodge to make sure I was ok (and there seeing all my facial cuts), I decided that I would at least ride the rest of the mountain to get an idea of the JF scene. I headed over to the western side of the mountain to all the blacks. I rode T-bolt glades then challenge, then lightning->river shot. Still the granular crystal stuff, but a thin layer. All the blacks were well groomed, and the entire morning at JF I only hit one noticeable spot of ice (which was still managable) to my suprise. The top part of Floyd's Folly was all moguls so i stayed off it. Telstar should only be a blue run, but I guess since the only way down from the end of it is a black it has to be a black. The diamonds were all very fun. I liked the down flat down flat down style that Lightning->rivershot had, thus it was my favorite run, but challenge was a close second.

 

After that I decided to hit One Park once more and just stick to the flat box rail and jump. Having a little bit of confidence back I was happy I hadn't called it a day, no matter how big the welp on my arm. It was around 11:45am, so I decided one or two runs down a blue i hadn't done would be good enough to call it a morning. Lift lines were non-existant..the..entire...morning. It was nice. There were also no brown spots with the orange poles in random spots on sides of trails.. Very nice snow coverage. My only complaint of Jack Frost was that the top part of the mountain is flat, not allowing boarders to cut across . Also, I noticed on the trail map the ticket booth gave me had a small terrain park (i guess for beginners) which is now Jane's Lane...why'd they do away with that? (because they have parks at BB?)

 

Noon-time, head to Arby's for the Pick 5. NO PICK 5?!?!?! Aww I immediately regret this decision, shoulda done mickey D's. But there was a cute girl at arby's so i stayed and was tired anyways. Ate and took off

 

Coming around the lake being able to see all of BB was super-fantastic. I also caught a guy do a 5 off one of the BB gap kickers when I turned my head to admire. It was the most scenic welcome of Bear/blue/jf/bb thus far (those are the only 3 i've been at since i got here 1 week ago) Booted up at BB at approximately at 1pm. The mud lot was about half-full. Sun was out, snow was a lot softer than when I had a face full of it, and BB was noticeably more crowded than JF per skiable area. Still, lift lines were non-existant except for Tannerbaum and Little-Boulder, which has very long lines. Temperature warmed up to high 30's low 40s. I caught the 2nd half of freedom park.. I really like their layout there. It's the nicest beginner park i've seen of BC/Blue/JF/BB. I did the smartsytle scan run and headed up the lift for a quick run. hit the first box flat rail and the first jump on the left, then the second jump on the left. By then, the snow had become much more slow, and the jumps you had to get a lot of speed for to clear the top. Still being slightly shaken from the fall earlier, I stayed off other obstacles and just stuck to the flat box rails. I then headed over and rode Tannenbaum. Snow was a little thicker here than over at the JF blacks, but like i said that's probably due to the weather warming up. Headed over to the blacks and rode Draufganger then Bunny's elbow, a few times each. Then back to the beginner terrain park. I stuck to working on jumps, and started doing some grabs, and even came real close to landing a 3 (I tried 3 times). Around 3 I called it a day. When I left, ticketing lines were long, but aside from Tannerbaum and Little-boulder, lift lines weren't a problem[/b]

 

Big Boulder seemed to have a lot more people just started out on the slopes than Jack Frost, which suprised me, but they never really got in my way.

 

What really grinds my gears: Why do people who have no business going over jumps go over them. Like people who RIDE over the top of them, then sit in the 'gully' where people can barely see them if they're a little kid. People also stop at the top of jumps all the time. ugh. I dont intend on hitting those jumps you dont see me diring over them like speed bumps or stnading at the top of them. I wish there was just a kind way to tell them not to do that without sounding like a jerk. Like I said some of the jumps they do that on I have no intention of hitting but I see this happen to other people all the time also. But if I'm only capable of hitting one or two jumps on an entire run full of obstacles, bet your tea kettle i'm going to get upset at the snowboarder who plows at the last second, not giving him enough speed, and using the kicker as a quarter pipe to come back INTO me.

 

Other than that and the spill in One Park, It was a fantastic day at JFBB. I'll admit i'm not a big fan of driving over to the adjacent park. I'm not against split parks they're obviously much different, but how about a shuttle so I dont have to unboot/reboot. Plus JF/BB would make more money doing that because people couldn't go to mickey d's or arby's for lunch

Edited January 13, 2008 by funkmaztafox

[funkmaztafox]

oh, and at BB....the progression pipe, which i presume is a halfpipe?....is CLOSED unlike their site says. not even remotely close to being open....unless i'm super blind.

Edited January 13, 2008 by funkmaztafox

[Papasteeze]

Wow.. thanks for writing that report. It's a nice testimonial of a day spent at JFBB. Not too many people write about JFBB on here.

 

Steel rails are tough. I guess I would suggest using BB's park for progression they have boxes in diminishing widths to a foot wide and steel rails at 6 inches wide down to 2 1/4 inch single barrels. I can't help much more than that with snowboarding.

 

People how sit in unsafe areas. When you know you are right, politely say something. Tell them that it isn't safe to be sitting there, simple as that. You are in the right to help educate, hopefully some day they will know what you know, so help them along by educating them!

[method9455]

Excellent report man. Not sure how I feel about the bolding, it is great if you just want to read the bold stuff but tough on the eyes if you want to read it all. Good idea though we'll see how it pans out. A lot of people don't like GSS's long reports, but I like them. It only takes a second to read and a bunch of detail is more fun then "I went to Blue, it was good.".

 

Couple notes.

 

East Mountain is challenge, t-bolt, rivershot. West mountain is the flatter stuff.

Janes lane sucked as a park last year, that trail is much more fun for free riding than park.

 

I might be mistaken because I haven't been to JF in about a week, but when I was there it was a 3 jump line in a row, with the 2nd being the easiest jump and the 3rd being the hardest. I know it looks a bit different but try it out. There may or may not still be a mini jump at the start of the park, I am counting down the jump line in a row, the one in the middle is the easiest try that out.

 

Flat boxes are the way to go until you get used very comfortable on them, then progress to steel rails. The thing is if there is only 1 or 2 features you hit on the way down, you only get a little practice. As you get better and you start hitting everything you are getting 4 or 5 times as many hits per run so you get a lot more practice in per run and you progress faster, you just have to be able to do them all. So stick with it, it will come and the more you learn the more it builds on itself.

 

When hitting a box, whether it be ride on or gap on with a solid jump, still give it a little pop. You don't have to jump like mad or even bother ollieing for most of this stuff. Just come in real low with your knees bent and stand up so that you are fully extended before you leave the lip, it is not like you are jumping for a dunk in basketball. Just stand up slow and steady you could probably count 1-1 thousand. It just pumps you up the lip a bit and gives you the perfect air to glide smoothly on the rail. If you jump super high and come crashing down on it, it is unstable. If you ride up the ramp without moving it is unstable. This sets you up later when you want to start ollieing hard for big rails, so good to practice it now. Definately exit the ramp flat based. Make sure to bend your knees a little when locking onto the rail and a bit more when you land.

 

When I was learning how to sail competitively one of my coaches told us that you don't want to ride the boat like a bronco, you want to move the boat around you like a tennis racquet at your will. A snowboard is the same way. If you ride up and it feels like you are out of control, you are going to fall. If you are in control and it is an extension of you, you will do better. It is a mind thing the whole way but it helps to think of it as an extension of your feet not something you are riding.

 

If you are coming off the rail, don't fight it. This is what you just described as your fall today, your board decided to go one way, and your instict was to fight it and your body went the other. It is a common mistake and it hurts like hell. On a big rail if your board goes out and you fall forward you hit your shins or stomach and then crash on your arms/face like you did today. If you go the other way you hit your knees backwards and then hit the snow on your tailbone which sucks too. Don't fight it. You will learn to bail as soon as you feel it wavering off one side, just hop off in that direction. Even if you fall at first you will fall on snow. At this point now when I don't lock in a rail I just bail and ride away and continue down the run, sometimes you are just off a bit. If you try to fight it, you won't stay on. Its not like a video game where you lock onto the rail - at least for a long time. When you are a beginner better to do 50% and ride away than 75% and fall on it. Plus falls break your rhythmn, even if you are only getting a bit and riding away you are practicing landing, board control, thinking quickly, and a bunch of other things.

 

Ok you are approaching the rail, look at the rail quick but your eyes on the end of it. Look at the end the whole way not your feet, keep looking at it and then look at the landing once you can see it. Your body follows your eyes, always.

 

For speed, it is better to go faster. Always always always go faster. Unless you are overshooting the landing of the jump, go faster. You want to be going a little faster than you are comfortable with. If you fall on a rail when going slow, you are going to hit the rail. When going fast, you might fall but reach the end and hit the snow instead of the rail, that is always prefereable. You have to balance for less time since you are on the rail for less time. The ramp throws you higher so you don't have to worry about catching it. Your trajectory is over the rail, if you watch a lot of pros do downslope rails it is almost like they are jumping over the rail and just kissing it on the way down, and you watch beginners they have 100% of their weight on it riding it out. No matter what your body tells you, go faster. The only except is a rainbow rail or battleship box, it could launch you, but that is cool anyway. But on flat rails, flat-down rails, down rails, and up rails, you can not go too fast. This is my #1 most important tip for everything. I can't stress this enough, 99% of what beginners to wrong is going too slow. You can

 

Finally, it is just practice. I remember doing my first 50-50, it was an 8 foot rail double barrel, ride on. It took me an hour to work up the courage, and a couple trys to get about 50% of it. It was my 3rd day snowboarding, definately shouldn't have been in the park. Later that year I could go faster, I started hitting a mini battleship, I hiked it all afternoon and the rush I got from a 2 foot high battleship was awesome. Dialed that, moved on to gap on flat boxes and flat rails. I spent most of that first season only doing flat rails/boxes of various shapes and sizes, with a few mini tables and battleships and what not. Then all of a sudden you cross a line and you can do 80% of the rails instead of 20% of them, practically overnight. Then you can 50-50 all of them, and then you start learning new tricks. It is a hell of a lot of fun, and you can do it without hurting yourself too bad.

 

 

 

 

And hey, after 5 years I still don't land them all. Here is a pic from this week, I have a 12" by 4" bruise from trying to spin onto a rail, I landed it a few times, lost concentration one time and ended up hitting the rail on my waist at full speed. But I got back up, and did it again. By the end of the day I had a new trick and it felt great. It was the worst thing that could happen and you know what? It didn't hurt much at all it is the anticipation of what could happen that holds you back from doing it. After you fall, get back up and do it again. Sometimes I unstrap and hike it rather than sit on the lift, if you sit on the lift you think about it for 5 minutes and it gets in your head. Better to get the fear out of your head by just doing it. The people sitting there trying to get their balls together will fall because they are worried too much. Push yourself as far as you feel comfortable, know your limits, but shorten the time between hits and you will do better. Don't bite off more than you can chew, and you will be fine.

 

 

If you ever want to ride I like to teach, I taught one of my friends to do her first rail this week, and I'm up at JFBB fairly regularlly.

Edited January 13, 2008 by Method9455

[funkmaztafox]

WOW. Thanks Method for all that really helpful info. Damn, I wasn't expecting that.

 

The advice on the speed is the opposite of what I would expect, but when you mention it like you did it makes sense.

 

And I know it's a mind thing too, I had that problem trying to learn rolls and flips on the wakeboard, but I just gotta have confidence.

 

Even the tip about the hiking is good.

 

Just a very good post which I think a lot of people should read, definately gonna bookmark it

[method9455]

I should really write it up and post it somewhere, maybe with a video. I've given that advice probably 10 times to people in person and countless online and it always works out. Just go fast, minimize the waiting between hits, bend your knees, and look at the end.

[Papasteeze]

Excellent report man. Not sure how I feel about the bolding, it is great if you just want to read the bold stuff but tough on the eyes if you want to read it all. Good idea though we'll see how it pans out. A lot of people don't like GSS's long reports, but I like them. It only takes a second to read and a bunch of detail is more fun then "I went to Blue, it was good.".

 

Couple notes.

 

East Mountain is challenge, t-bolt, rivershot. West mountain is the flatter stuff.

Janes lane sucked as a park last year, that trail is much more fun for free riding than park.

 

I might be mistaken because I haven't been to JF in about a week, but when I was there it was a 3 jump line in a row, with the 2nd being the easiest jump and the 3rd being the hardest. I know it looks a bit different but try it out. There may or may not still be a mini jump at the start of the park, I am counting down the jump line in a row, the one in the middle is the easiest try that out.

 

Flat boxes are the way to go until you get used very comfortable on them, then progress to steel rails. The thing is if there is only 1 or 2 features you hit on the way down, you only get a little practice. As you get better and you start hitting everything you are getting 4 or 5 times as many hits per run so you get a lot more practice in per run and you progress faster, you just have to be able to do them all. So stick with it, it will come and the more you learn the more it builds on itself.

 

When hitting a box, whether it be ride on or gap on with a solid jump, still give it a little pop. You don't have to jump like mad or even bother ollieing for most of this stuff. Just come in real low with your knees bent and stand up so that you are fully extended before you leave the lip, it is not like you are jumping for a dunk in basketball. Just stand up slow and steady you could probably count 1-1 thousand. It just pumps you up the lip a bit and gives you the perfect air to glide smoothly on the rail. If you jump super high and come crashing down on it, it is unstable. If you ride up the ramp without moving it is unstable. This sets you up later when you want to start ollieing hard for big rails, so good to practice it now. Definately exit the ramp flat based. Make sure to bend your knees a little when locking onto the rail and a bit more when you land.

 

When I was learning how to sail competitively one of my coaches told us that you don't want to ride the boat like a bronco, you want to move the boat around you like a tennis racquet at your will. A snowboard is the same way. If you ride up and it feels like you are out of control, you are going to fall. If you are in control and it is an extension of you, you will do better. It is a mind thing the whole way but it helps to think of it as an extension of your feet not something you are riding.

 

If you are coming off the rail, don't fight it. This is what you just described as your fall today, your board decided to go one way, and your instict was to fight it and your body went the other. It is a common mistake and it hurts like hell. On a big rail if your board goes out and you fall forward you hit your shins or stomach and then crash on your arms/face like you did today. If you go the other way you hit your knees backwards and then hit the snow on your tailbone which sucks too. Don't fight it. You will learn to bail as soon as you feel it wavering off one side, just hop off in that direction. Even if you fall at first you will fall on snow. At this point now when I don't lock in a rail I just bail and ride away and continue down the run, sometimes you are just off a bit. If you try to fight it, you won't stay on. Its not like a video game where you lock onto the rail - at least for a long time. When you are a beginner better to do 50% and ride away than 75% and fall on it. Plus falls break your rhythmn, even if you are only getting a bit and riding away you are practicing landing, board control, thinking quickly, and a bunch of other things.

 

Ok you are approaching the rail, look at the rail quick but your eyes on the end of it. Look at the end the whole way not your feet, keep looking at it and then look at the landing once you can see it. Your body follows your eyes, always.

 

For speed, it is better to go faster. Always always always go faster. Unless you are overshooting the landing of the jump, go faster. You want to be going a little faster than you are comfortable with. If you fall on a rail when going slow, you are going to hit the rail. When going fast, you might fall but reach the end and hit the snow instead of the rail, that is always prefereable. You have to balance for less time since you are on the rail for less time. The ramp throws you higher so you don't have to worry about catching it. Your trajectory is over the rail, if you watch a lot of pros do downslope rails it is almost like they are jumping over the rail and just kissing it on the way down, and you watch beginners they have 100% of their weight on it riding it out. No matter what your body tells you, go faster. The only except is a rainbow rail or battleship box, it could launch you, but that is cool anyway. But on flat rails, flat-down rails, down rails, and up rails, you can not go too fast. This is my #1 most important tip for everything. I can't stress this enough, 99% of what beginners to wrong is going too slow. You can

 

Finally, it is just practice. I remember doing my first 50-50, it was an 8 foot rail double barrel, ride on. It took me an hour to work up the courage, and a couple trys to get about 50% of it. It was my 3rd day snowboarding, definately shouldn't have been in the park. Later that year I could go faster, I started hitting a mini battleship, I hiked it all afternoon and the rush I got from a 2 foot high battleship was awesome. Dialed that, moved on to gap on flat boxes and flat rails. I spent most of that first season only doing flat rails/boxes of various shapes and sizes, with a few mini tables and battleships and what not. Then all of a sudden you cross a line and you can do 80% of the rails instead of 20% of them, practically overnight. Then you can 50-50 all of them, and then you start learning new tricks. It is a hell of a lot of fun, and you can do it without hurting yourself too bad.

 

 

 

 

And hey, after 5 years I still don't land them all. Here is a pic from this week, I have a 12" by 4" bruise from trying to spin onto a rail, I landed it a few times, lost concentration one time and ended up hitting the rail on my waist at full speed. But I got back up, and did it again. By the end of the day I had a new trick and it felt great. It was the worst thing that could happen and you know what? It didn't hurt much at all it is the anticipation of what could happen that holds you back from doing it. After you fall, get back up and do it again. Sometimes I unstrap and hike it rather than sit on the lift, if you sit on the lift you think about it for 5 minutes and it gets in your head. Better to get the fear out of your head by just doing it. The people sitting there trying to get their balls together will fall because they are worried too much. Push yourself as far as you feel comfortable, know your limits, but shorten the time between hits and you will do better. Don't bite off more than you can chew, and you will be fine.

 

 

If you ever want to ride I like to teach, I taught one of my friends to do her first rail this week, and I'm up at JFBB fairly regularlly.

 

Worthy of a bump.. This should go in a trick guide or somewhere stickied. Good stuff Method!

[Kyle]

you know you had a good post when papasteeze comments you

[method9455]

I clean it up and post it later. I was thinking of making a few "how to" videos next time I go up, the trick tips you see online SUCK balls. Its a pro rider who is like, yea so you just roll into the 60 foot street style rail, just pop an ollie, and 50-50 the whole thing .... smoooooth. Word now you know how to do 50-50s. I think you have to be closer to the beginner teach to them, I was a beginner not long ago, many of my friends are just at that stage now where they are doing 50-50s, we learned by trial and error because we weren't skateboarders so I can explain it. If it all comes natural to you, you can't explain it. I'm not a natural at this at all for me its 99% persistence and 1% balls, with 0% skill.