I am not a pro boarder. In fact I am a very late fan of the sport. This is more a diary than anything else, although comments and suggestions are appreciated. I'm going to try to keep track of how I do (and what I do) from season to season; what works and what fails; and how I improve over time.
2011-12-11 Just getting started now
Posted 12-12-2011 at 01:46 PM by Donutz
I was up Seymour yesterday for my third session this season. This one felt like the first real session, though. My first time up on Nov 26 was just for a couple of hours because I was getting over the flu. My second time up, last week, was pretty tame because I was just getting my sea legs back. Yesterday, I finally started pushing again.
Unfortunately with the crappy snow situation, there's not a ton of stuff to do. Side hits are non-existant, most of the runs are either closed completely or half roped-off, and where the runs are open, they've been groomed down to snowcrete. In addition, turns out the magic carpet is indeed a bottleneck for the beginner's slopes. The park crew has disassembled Mushroom Park and will be moving all the beginner features into the Pit. According to the liftie, the park rats were making life difficult for the beginners -- basically acting like a biker gang coming into town in those bad 60's movies. Way to screw it for the rest of us, guys.
The biggest downside to the snow conditions right now though is what it's doing to the bottom of my board. I went all last season without doing as much damage as I did yesterday. There are actually a couple of scratches that are deep enough to need p-tex. Grrrrrr.
I spent the first part of the day going down Manning and Northlands, but there really wasn't much to do except a straight run to the bottom. They've put a smallish 20-foot jump in Northlands, but I wasn't feeling solid enough yet to try it out. I spent most of the day on Chuck's Place, practicing switch riding. I alternated each run between switch and improving my carving in regular stance. I also made a point of ollying once or twice on each run. Still not there, but coming along. I also tried doing some butters on Goldie. Mostly succeeded, but I caught my heel edge several times. Damn that hurts when you butt plant like that.
I have to admit, I was pretty bummed with the conditions at the beginning of the day. I was actually considering leaving early around 10:30 or so, but stuck with it. Good thing too, because it did get better.
Anyway, I'm glad I cancelled my week off because this would be a crappy week to use up that time off. There's supposed to be some snow this week, so it might be better by next weekend. But until La Nina actually kicks in, this isn't going to be much of a season. Having said that, if January onwards turns into what we had in March last year, it'll be more than worth it.
On a side note, I found some RED crash pants at Sportmart that have a reasonable tail-bone protector, so I'm ready to try some park features if the Seymour park crew ever get it together.
Unfortunately with the crappy snow situation, there's not a ton of stuff to do. Side hits are non-existant, most of the runs are either closed completely or half roped-off, and where the runs are open, they've been groomed down to snowcrete. In addition, turns out the magic carpet is indeed a bottleneck for the beginner's slopes. The park crew has disassembled Mushroom Park and will be moving all the beginner features into the Pit. According to the liftie, the park rats were making life difficult for the beginners -- basically acting like a biker gang coming into town in those bad 60's movies. Way to screw it for the rest of us, guys.
The biggest downside to the snow conditions right now though is what it's doing to the bottom of my board. I went all last season without doing as much damage as I did yesterday. There are actually a couple of scratches that are deep enough to need p-tex. Grrrrrr.
I spent the first part of the day going down Manning and Northlands, but there really wasn't much to do except a straight run to the bottom. They've put a smallish 20-foot jump in Northlands, but I wasn't feeling solid enough yet to try it out. I spent most of the day on Chuck's Place, practicing switch riding. I alternated each run between switch and improving my carving in regular stance. I also made a point of ollying once or twice on each run. Still not there, but coming along. I also tried doing some butters on Goldie. Mostly succeeded, but I caught my heel edge several times. Damn that hurts when you butt plant like that.
I have to admit, I was pretty bummed with the conditions at the beginning of the day. I was actually considering leaving early around 10:30 or so, but stuck with it. Good thing too, because it did get better.
Anyway, I'm glad I cancelled my week off because this would be a crappy week to use up that time off. There's supposed to be some snow this week, so it might be better by next weekend. But until La Nina actually kicks in, this isn't going to be much of a season. Having said that, if January onwards turns into what we had in March last year, it'll be more than worth it.
On a side note, I found some RED crash pants at Sportmart that have a reasonable tail-bone protector, so I'm ready to try some park features if the Seymour park crew ever get it together.
Total Comments 0
Comments
Total Trackbacks 0
