The Official Michigan Winter Thread

[[fly]]

Originally Posted by Jay29

How are longboards to ride on flat ground? Do you need a hill? will it act like a skate board on flat ground?

A longboard will roll a LOT more than a regular ol' skateboard, mostly due to the wheels (although there are other factors that play into it). If you really want, and can master pushing and/or pumping, you can REALLY get whipping along on flatground. You don't need a hill by any means, hills are just a fun side-effect of longboarding.

I was actually just out on Wednesday, on one of my longboards. I apparently got far too accustomed to snowboarding over the winter, and was subsequently trying to turn my board like a snowboard...It almost worked because of how I've got that board set up, but do note that I've never ridden a board that feels remotely similar to a snowboard.

PS
I've got a longboard or two for sale, if anyone's interested.

[david_z]

Originally Posted by boardaddicktd

leo: hah, yea i have plenty of spring hobbies but after the spring riding i had experienced last year, im determined to get another session on one of those warm, sunny days! im looking at the wknd of april 15-16. i'm sure someone will be open still. if not i'll put the stick away for the year! the slopes still have plenty of snow. i'm sure at this point, it's whether they're selling enough lift tix to justify keeping the hills open.

Boyne Highlands is closed. Nubs is officially closing this Sunday 4/10. Crystal Mountain closed last Sunday; although The North Face back side will hold rideable snow for a few more weeks, unfortunately there is no parking nearby but it could potentially be poached if you wanted to hike a little bit.

Boyne Mountain is "open daily through 4/10" but... I heard rumors a few weeks ago that because of all the snow this year they might re-open on weekends-only later in the month. There is some ski/golf combination outing on 4/16 but I am not sure if the hill will be open to the public or if it is just for people who sign up for the event.

[david_z]

[fly] what sort of longboards have you got? are they completes or just decks?

[[fly]]

Originally Posted by david_z

[fly] what sort of longboards have you got? are they completes or just decks?

I've got a 38" longboard deck (it's got a kicktail and nose, so it's somewhat functional), and a complete Vision board from the 80's. Are you interested?

[david_z]

PM me or post some pics I might be interested; basically right now i'm kinda interested but mostly curious. still not sure if longboarding is something I'd really get in to since it's soooo flat around my neighborhood.

Is the Vision an actual longboard or is it just the old fish-shaped skateboard deck that are much bigger than today's decks?

[[fly]]

Originally Posted by david_z

PM me or post some pics I might be interested; basically right now i'm kinda interested but mostly curious. still not sure if longboarding is something I'd really get in to since it's soooo flat around my neighborhood.

Is the Vision an actual longboard or is it just the old fish-shaped skateboard deck that are much bigger than today's decks?

The Vision is NOT a longboard...it's the old Tom Groholski shape with frankenstein on the bottom.

You've got a PM coming your way

[david_z]

time to start going through a bunch of video footy that I have piled up from earlier this winter...

Here is March 13 at Mt. Holly where boardaddicktd & I hiked this funbox repeatedly because it was the only feature that you could actually hit since the snow was soooo shitty.

[boardaddicktd]

nice vid! i thought you would've used some Chamillionare hah! so how dope was utah?

[david_z]

I thought about using chamillionaire actually

UT was pretty much awesome, even though an even more insane storm system rolled in on Thursday just as we were leaving.

Sunday @ Brighton - 12+ inches of fresh pow, spent most of the day on Milly hitting natural features & small drops, riding pow, a little time on Snake Creek express lift until they re-opened Great Western about 1pm so we headed over there for an hour to catch more fresh tracks on that side. Wrapped it up about 2pm.

Monday @ Snowbird - 4-6 inches of fresh on top of the 12-16" they had received the day before, spent a lot of time on Mineral Basin/Hidden Peak (backside) but dicked around on the front side too. Snowbird was too much mountain for a few of the guys that went with me, unfortunately, so we only did one day there.

Tuesday @ Powder Mountain - weather was going to be bogus anywhere, the cottonwoods would've been iced over & frozen but it was much warmer in Ogden so we gambled on PowMow. Unfortunately it was too warm and the snow was thick and slow like mashed potatoes. Not nearly as bad as Mt. Holly a few weeks ago, it was decent at the summit but got progressively stickier on the way down to the lifts. We only rode 1/2 day there, but I'd like to go back, it looks like it would be an awesome mountain to ride in better conditions.

Wednesday @ Brighton - a few inches (maybe 4) of dust on the previous day's crust, spent a lot of time crusing corduroy groomers from the Snake Creek and Crest Express lifts. I also got an opportunity to hike Pioneer Peak with burritosandsnow; the hike was exhausting, the ride down was pretty awesome to be able to say I did my first legit backcountry run, but the conditions weren't that great so we only did it once. We closed the day hiking the kiddie-sized terrain park, our legs were a bit too tired to try the bigger features. I did close out the session with a solid line. First hit was the funbox: fs 180 on, sw fs 180 off, next two features were small boxes: bs boardslide, fs boardslide.

Thursday @ Brighton - a trace of snow overnight, but about as soon as we got there 930am it started dumping pretty hard, whiteout conditions up top and a little windy but the snow never stopped coming down. We were making fresh tracks every time we got off the lift because it was coming down that hard & heavy. It sucked having to pack up the car & leave at 2pm for our flight home! By this time everyone was feeling great and nobody wanted to stop riding, but we had a flight to catch unfortunately...

It was probably the best trip we've taken. Gonna be very difficult to top it next year...

I am working on editing some video but it's gonna take a while. I'll post them on my blog when available.

[boardaddicktd]

damn sounds cool dude. if i go back to Brighton I'd like to spend a couple days there. we hit a ton of trees runs. Hard Coin was my favorite. We had too much powder to spend any time in the terrain parks, which looked really legit. 2 of the guys i went with were strictly powder whore skiiers. the western ridge never opened while we were there so i never got to ride that. probably my favorite place out there tho. sounds like u had a pretty good time! so whos goin to Boyne Mtn this wknd? their website says they'll be re-opening for the wknd. yea i got my dirtbike and quad out this past wknd so i'm ready for spring! but...one more trip up north wouldn't hurt!