The Official Michigan Winter Thread

[sabatoa]

Originally Posted by Leo

I didn't blame Dave though lol. I just said him not bringing Zoey was the final straw. May wasn't going either way which made it already tough.

If Dave brought Zoey, I probably would have gone, but would still have been stuck in a "how much will I get to ride?" situation.

If only there was some sort of pass to PK, you wouldn't have to worry so much about how many hours you get in..

[david_z]

Originally Posted by Leo

I didn't blame Dave though lol. I just said him not bringing Zoey was the final straw. May wasn't going either way which made it already tough.

Ahhh I was under the impression that May was going and that you two and/or the parental units would be swapping out kid duty like last time I saw y'all there together when Dylan was an infant.

But yeah my kid won't sit still so keeping her happy in that lodge would've been an absolute chore, and no fun for anyone.

[chomps1211]

Gonna try and hit PK tonight after work, assuming I get done early enough. Doesn't look good for riding for a while after today and I want to see how my first DIY board wax job rides.

(...man, did I make a mess in the garage!)

...any chance of seeing anybody else there tonight?

[sabatoa]

Man oh man guys.

If you like park and live near Lansing then you need to get out to Hawk Island.

I went out there tonight for the first time and this place is sweet.

Super nice set up, everything was super we'll maintained. It wasn't crowded at all.

There is a progression row at the bottom, ride on box; ride on rainbow box; fat rail; up rail. After that a ride on dance floor then a gap to box.
















At the top is the gnarly stuff. A down rail; 10ft kicker; down to flat fat rail; and then this crazy thing you can do a bunch of stuff on. I've seen people Ollie the perpendicular rail, ride the down rail, hit it from the side etc. I included lots of pics of that one.







More continued on the next post...

[sabatoa]

...These are all that weird feature;









Then at the very end you can hit a 5 ft high cannon; jib a wall or ride out on a c-rail.





I mainly sessioned the kicker. It took me a couple runs to start landing my straight airs. I was washing out at first so I got used to maintaining a toe edge on the landing. I tried adding a simple indy but never got the grab, got the board up but never grabbed it. Still need to work on air awareness.

After that I went to the flat box for a few hits and sadly only nailed 50/50s. By this point I was tired and didn't have energy to try my board slides.

The price for Hawk Island is $10 for half day 1pm-close (which to me seems like their full day but whatever) but you also have a $3 parking fee to get into the county park. You could plead poverty and they'd waive the fee but I dunno.

IIRC Wednesday is free parking day.

Weekdays they're open from 4pm to 9pm
Weekends they're open from 10am to 9pm

There is a warming fire pit, a warming house and food/drink sold on site in the warming house.

[ankkassa]

wow that would really help with my jib progression. thanks for postin all those pics. but anyway to day i had my first ever boarder-cross time trial and i ve never felt so nervous and yet calm at the same time cant wait to actually race then idk what i would do but if u guys go to alpine it worth checking out there boarder cross track and i recommend staying in the middle to the left of the rollers or else u may fall of the edge and just eat shit..

[boardaddicktd]

wow that parks legit! genius setup!

[chomps1211]

Hey Sabatoa!!

Sounds like you had a blast! Great revue of the place!! You still got Highlands planned for the weekend??

PK was pretty good last night. I guess all the posts I've read about DIY waxing being pretty simple & hard to "F" up were right,.. (...your advice too!) I was certain I did a pretty crappy job waxing that Rome GR board, but Man!!,.. It rode great!! It was WAY faster than it was out of the box with the factory wax! I'll do my Arbor next!!

I wanted to let you guys know that the last 1.5 hour or so of the night, on a little lip feature that got formed near the top of Quicksilver, I managed to get a little air!!! (...that might not be the correct term for what I was doing! Got ragged on last year for calling my little ollies, "Air!")

I was getting a Little air now mind you!! Riders were using this feature to "Pop" off & get some 3-5 ft. high Ollies using it, and since it was on a pretty mellow part of the slope, I thought I'd see if I could get over my mental block over even trying to lift off!

Well I hit this feature at least a dozen times or more before closing,.. 1st 2-3 I just rode over it, letting whatever speed I had do the job of getting me off the ground. Those never got me more than a couple inches off the ground but,.. I was keeping my balance & successfully riding out through the choppy stuff bellow it, so I kept going back to hit it with more & more speed.

...last 3-4 times I hit it fast enough to get a good foot or two of height!! I only fell once!! ...and when I did fall, rather than wait 5 min. to ride to the bottom, get back up the lift. I unstrapped & climbed back to the start to hit it again right away! Stuck It the 2nd time!!!

They closed the Quicksilver down about 15 min. before close so I went over to the black run & it had a small pile of chop near the top of it so I hit it too! I stuck that one as well!! Unfortunately, they closed that run too before I could get back up to try it again!

I was pretty surprised & definitely STOKED at how well I did considering I've been sorta freaked to try again after getting "Accidentally" airborne & cratering last year!!! I sure hope I don't lose "It",.. or my nerve to keep trying this once the Jan. thaw leaves!!! It felt pretty cool!! I'd like to try and get more dynamic than just "popping" next time,.. see if I can use ollies to get a bit more height!!!

[sabatoa]

Nice!

Who was giving you gas last season on your ollies? Who even saw them?

No Highlands for me this weekend. The weather scared my wife off so instead Leo and I are riding at Holly on Saturday, not sure the time yet but I bet he'll want to do the morning. I know Dave is doing the airbag event at Cannonsburg on Saturday.

Glad to ride with Leo but bummed that I'm not at my place this weekend. I love me some Highlands.

[chomps1211]

Originally Posted by sabatoa

Nice!

Who was giving you gas last season on your ollies? Who even saw them?

Almost a year ago to the day,.. 1st season, Being "Totally" ignorant NooB, I posted one of those Gapper GP bunny hill vid's & actually, almost ALL of the guy's just gave me congrat's on it! But you know how it is,.. I remember the 1 guy trying to piss on my cornflakes!!

Heres that post's url link in case your interested. third post down has the link to my 1" Ollie vid!

http://www.snowboardingforum.com/sno...r-catchin.html

...It's pretty embarrassing for me now to read that post & watch that vid!

Originally Posted by sabatoa

No Highlands for me this weekend. The weather scared my wife off so instead Leo and I are riding at Holly on Saturday, not sure the time yet but I bet he'll want to do the morning....

Well, If the snow's at all ridable this weekend, I'd love to hit Holly! Haven't been there yet this year. Let me know if you guys are actually going to go, & I'll see about getting out there myself! We can hit a few runs before you 'n' Leo get lost in the park!!