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The Official Michigan Winter Thread

490K views 8K replies 153 participants last post by  sabatoa 
#1 ·
Alright everyone since Summer is over, fall has just begun and we've already had our first rail jam of the year, it's time to start a new thread for the 10/11 winter.

Last year we had the "Southeast" michigan thread, but I think we should do all of Michigan. Sure, most of population lives in S/E michigan but we all ride the same resorts in the LP and even the UP if we get a chance, so we should have one thread to bring everyone together.

Cheers everyone we're probably only like 70 days from open resorts!
 
#2,793 · (Edited)
Highlands was really good yesterday! Snowed all the time I was there. No ice, except the one time I wandered into the mogels! Whups!! ;)

I tried going with an even wider stance on the Arbor, (...from 21.5 to 23".) Didn't like it! I could ride it, but it felt really awkward! So I set everything back as before & killed it on the black runs!! :) Seriously! I scared myself a couple of times I got going so fast! Sabatoa,.. I might have even been able to beat you to the lift line on those runs! :D

The RGR, is freakin' awesome in this good snow!!! got going just as fast on it for a couple runs tho & that's where it's limits seem to be! Washed out on a turn & slid a l-o-o-o-o-ng way down that black! I was on my back goin' head first down & tried that back flip like I did in the vid clip, I was still going too fast & that move didn't work so well! :laugh: Tip dug in and flipped me again!!
Lottsa snow up my back, down my ass & even IN my goggles!! :laugh: :laugh:
Nuthin' hurt tho but my coolitivity!!! ;)

Oh yes, Sabatoa, hope this doesn't sound or feel like I'm rubbing salt. I'm only bring it up cuz I know you were interested. I did one tentative run down the boarder cross! I avoided the jumps obviously but the banked turns were pretty cool! Tight tho! They are really short tightly arced turns & if you go into them wide at speed, you better be in control, cuz they have a sharp cuttoff at the outside end of the turn & it will launch you!!! (...don't know nuthin' about boarder X so my description might not make sense to you guys.)

One thing though, For some reason, I found I couldn't "Butter" for shit yesterday!! It wasn't the runs here, I started learning to butter when I was up heere earlier in season. Just couldn't hold it, couldn't get any lift to the nose, on either board! My posture, form and balance for buttering seemed way off for some reason.

Does this happen to you guy's?? Are there days when you seem to "Lose" something you've been able to do previously??? (...Sabatoa, the results of that failed kicker were a fluke, not lost skill!) It's seems to be the kind of thing you hear coming from golfers who all the sudden get the "yips!" Where they can't make a straight shot to save there lives! (...not that I've ever golfed.)

Any tips on working thru this?

I'm gong to mount the GP on the RGR today, so maybe tonight I'll have some vid for ya! BTW,.. where's the report on conditions out @ the local's??? It was snowing more down there when I left than it was when I got up here. (...thankfully it began dumping soon after I arrived! :D ) Lets hear how PK, Holly, Alpine etc. were! Somebody must've gone, right? ;)

[edit]
....or did y'all leave town for the LE snow??? ;)
 
#2,794 ·
moving your stance from 21.5 to 23 is a pretty large change I would say too much, for sure. If you want to tweak the stance or experiment, do it in 1/2" increments if possible.

There are definitely days when you just don't "have it". Usually no big deal.


Conditions at Mt. Holly last night were pretty nice, it snowed most of the evening from when I got there around 5 until when I left around 10.

A bit of snow makes everything much nicer. Ended up doing today at Alpine Valley again and a few inches of soft on top of their pack was nice. Started getting crowded in the mid-afternoon but still a real good day and nice weather.
 
#2,795 ·
moving your stance from 21.5 to 23 is a pretty large change I would say too much, for sure. If you want to tweak the stance or experiment, do it in 1/2" increments if possible.

There are definitely days when you just don't "have it". Usually no big deal...
Hey Dave, Unfortunately that 1-1/2 in. change in my stance resulted from moving the binding disks out by only one position on the inserts. no way on my 4x4 inserts to micro adjust. It's OK though, I just moved it back to 21.5 & it's all good again. I really didn't think an inch & a half would wind up feeling s-o-o-o different. Especially since the RGR is shorter and my stance on it is around 22.25". And that's not at that boards center reference. It's actually narrower by one!!!

I really should have known better only because I had already discovered last season that even a small 3 degree diff on the binding angles made all kinds of difference in how my Arbor felt when riding! Oh well, live & learn, eh?

I'm assuming that it's possible that it could be different with a different size, style, camber profile board, but right now at least I know for future reference that my stance should start in the 21-22.5" range and I can dial it in from there if I need to! At any rate, I definitely ride the wider stance better than the 19.75" stance I had been learning & riding on for my first 3-5 months! :)

(...Prop's & many thanks to Leo for pointing that out to me last season after watching my switch lesson vid!!!) :thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
#2,796 ·
Well we wound up going to Bittersweet instead of Cannonsburg and are happy that we did. I hadn't been there before and even though it was crowded as fuck the layout was good enough to keep lines moving well and there were enough different runs so that none of them were busy. Seemed like a lot of the people there, especially the younger snowboarding crowd, were only there to see and be seen so the runs weren't busy at all.

They had a lot of LE snow last week and it showed. Where we live east of GR we only had a dusting on the ground but over there everything was blanketed pretty well and there was a shit ton of snow piled up from the plows along the roads. The snow at the hill was FAST compared to the shit we rode on the weekend before at Caberfae and my wife and I each had to take a couple of practice runs just to get dialed into it. But once we did we had a ton of fun. So thanks to Karp for recommending this place. We'll be back for sure.
 
#2,797 ·
Nice. I went to Cannonsburg on Saturday and it was surprisingly not too busy, but I only stayed on the bunny hill because I took my 4 y.o. son out to try snowboarding. You would not have had very much fun there though because the only decent run w/o a terrain park was setup for ski racing. Their far hill wasn't even open. I had fun with my son and he actually didn't do too bad. The last time down I rode with him and we were actually riding next to each other and it was pretty cool feeling....then he bit it. He had a ton of fun though and fell asleep as soon as he got in the car so I guess it was a success!
 
#2,807 · (Edited)
Cool, you shouldn't have to worry about crowds then.

http://www.boyne.com/Winter/Two_Mountains/Trails_PDF/Trailmap_BoyneHighlands.pdf

The Valley lift on the far left and the Interconnect and North Face lift on the far right close around 3:30p so you might want to hit them first.

Valley services a bunch of cat track width trails that wind through the trees. Depending on the condition they can be pretty fun with little rollers to pop off or icy/sketchy. No way to know until you're there.

Interconnect leads to super long, mellow runs up to a mile long. It also unloads where the North Face unloads. Right there is a warming building that has bathrooms and serves food and drinks. Between the two lifts you have access to greens, blues and a black or two. My experience is that the snow can be pretty good over there because it's really out of the way to get to so the traffic is low.

If you're into halfpipe and kickers then Challenger Terrain Park is where you'll find those, accessed via Challenger lift along with a couple steep black runs. You can also access blue Heather with a little skating from that lift.

Funland is a run with rollers and smaller kickers as well as boxes/rails. You get there from MacGully lift most easiest but Heather (the main high speed lift) can also get you there.

Little John is a green run accessed by Heather. I use that run for my speed laps. With no traffic you can get crazy fast because the run is long and you have clear line of site down the run. There's a curve about halfway through that I love taking at mach speed. It's not banked or anything but it's fun.

The blacks are steep but safe unless they're gladed or terrain parks. Both of which would be obvious by sight.
 
#2,808 ·
^^:thumbsup: Man, thanks a lot for the info. I'll probably refer back to your post once I'm there to so thanks a ton for the help. I'll probably hit all of the above, but mainly the parks. I've never been to a place with a halfpipe, but I definitely want to check it out. Those trails in the trees sound fun so I'll have to check that out to.
btw how's the back, was sorry to hear about your injury and I wish you the best;hope you get well soon
 
#2,822 ·
I am new here and new to snowboarding (only gone twice) but I have the NX2-AT. I tried them out a local shop. It was between the M9 and these. What I liked was I could set it, pop the back latch, step out and when I needed to get back in I just stepped in and locked it. The two times (past 2 weekends) then never needed adjusting. I set it the first time and that was it for the day.

They felt very stiff the first time out. Because I had them a little tight. I adjusted them to be looser (video on Flows site) and they felt much better yet were still secure.
 
#2,823 ·
Leo and I both rode the NX2-ATs at Test Fest last year. I believe they were pre-production models and as such they had some definite kinks that still needed to be refined. The ratchets were not all that. Additionally, the release mechanism was really difficult. It actually took longer to strap/unstrap from these than it did from a traditional binding. This was the first time I had ever ridden Flow bindings, but Leo has owned a pair or two in the past so he may have more insight for you.

Check the reviews section on the forum I know there are other riders who have used these and used the production models which (hopefully) don't have the issues that we had with the demo versions.
 
#2,824 ·
I use NXT-AT's from a few years ago and will never buy another type of binding...maybe if I moved out west I would consider straps, but never in Michigan. The newer M9's are pretty good and if you don't want to drop the cash for NX2's, I don't think you will notice much difference. You could always find prior year models for cheaper too.
 
#2,827 · (Edited)
Oh, about the Flow...

Dave and I tested the NX2 SE which is the newer strap system. The AT still uses the old I Powerstrap.

In my opinion, it's worth the upgrade because as you mentioned, it'll be stiffer plus it has new tech. Flow is notoriously hard to set up and kick into. The NX2 completely solves these problems. Very easy to set up and thanks to the new highback system, you can kick in without an issue no matter how tight you like to set the caps.

I completely agree with Dave on the locking mechanism though. The rep was showing us his weird index and thumb flicking maneuver, but in practice didn't work out so well with a foot strapped in. Maybe they fixed that for the production model or it's something that gets easier over time.

The reason the footbeds look higher is because they are canted. I believe they are 2.5 degree cants.

As for your Missions, yes they are softer to you because of your size. I told Sabatoa when he was buying his new boots that they would be softer for him than the stated flex because of his size. He's freestyling in what's supposed to be stiff boots.

Guys like you two always have to subtract a couple points from flex ratings for bindings and boots. Unlike snowboards, bindings and boots aren't built for specific weight ranges.

I have to caution you though about Flows... they are not for everyone. People coming off traditional straps have more adjusting to do. The feel is almost completely different when riding Flows with Powercaps.

Where do you live? I have an old pair of Flows that I do not use. I might have all the screws for it I dunno. They are large in size and heavier than tanks. But I'd be happy to let you try them out just so you can get a feel for how Flow rides even though the newer models are light years ahead of the ones I own.

Consider the RS if you can get a good deal on it as well. It's their stiffest Powerstrap model:

http://www.flow.com/Products/mens-binding/nx2rs/FI12M1NX2RBLK
 
#2,828 ·
Thanks everybody for the feedback. I hated to cause a deviation from the original purpose of the thread but I got what I was looking for so thanks.

Leo, thanks for the offer of trying out one of your Flow bindings for free, but I think I'd need an XL. I wear a 15 boot.

I think I am probably going to lean away from the M-9s just because I think that they may feel too soft for me. The RS model is out of my price range; the ATs are at the top of it as it stands. I just need to make the decision whether to bite the bullet and order them or stick with my Missions for the rest of the season. It's just now that I'm starting to ride a bit faster and turn more dynamically, I worry about these holding up considering my size.
 
#2,830 ·
OK, I'll wait to see if I can score a deal later on. I don't want anything to fuck up my riding before my Boyne trip anyways. It's all dialed in pretty good now. I'd hate to get up there and have to waste time messing with something I'm not used to.

Thanks.
 
#2,840 ·
I have one more option for you...
PM WiredSports on here. They usually have demo equipment. Ask them if its possible for them send you a pair and in return, you'll purchase through them if you like it.
Thanks this is something I never would have thought to do.

For interested parties; Caberfae is doing $9 lift tickets and rentals this Friday with their web coupon.

See how nice I am, trying to help you punks when I can't get out there myself?
I have tomorrow off from work and would love to go but I have to watch my twin 2-year-olds. I can't wait until they can go with me. It's just as well though, I've decided to take this weekend off anyways to let my groin injury rest up an extra week for our trip to Highlands next week. It's so hard not to go though, especially with all the snow they're getting on the west side and up north.
 
#2,844 ·
I'll tell you what, for a small ski area I was really impressed with Bittersweet over in Otsego. If it wasn't for the family thing and us being up there anyways because of that, I might even wind up going there more over Caberfae. The wife and I had a lot of fun there last weekend and the runs were surprisingly long considering the size of the hill.

When you get back in action we should do a meetup at Hawk Island or something. I don't do park at all yet, but I eventually want to do some small stuff like jumps and funboxes. Might be the place to learn that.
 
#2,846 ·
Cool. I've got a buddy who also lives and works in Lansing and I just got him into snowboarding last year. He is every bit as obsessed as I am now. If the wives don't want to go along we will sometimes just take day trips on the weekends and split gas.

Provided you are not an ax murderer, you'd be welcome to come along.
 
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