Sincraft

Just wondering, how much you lose after being down 6 months without touching snow after your first season? I'm getting older and in a hurry to learn all I can so I can really enjoy myself. I finally felt comfortable bombing down blues (more like light blues) , hitting some bumps here and there and trying silly little things like dropping over ledges and stuff like that. Only got out 15 times though this season, at the end I was hitting some sharp 8'ers slowly.

AND

What is the dumbest thing you've ever done on a board? Noticed I said ON the board, be that in the air or on the ground
Mine would have to be, attempting to strap in to save time while on the lift and falling out right as the lift was about to let people off. I plopped on the side of the ice fortress that the lift sits on and slide to the bottom. painful, but I jumped up and gtfo..

fayewolf

Can't answer your first question as this is my first season.

Dumbest things i've done:

1. I'm really directional challenge (road AND mountain), got really lost on the mountain, rode all the way down to a lift, not knowing what it is or where it took me, got on it, and stressing about what route to take down while on the lift and fell on my ass unloading because i wasn't looking

2 Forgot to strap in my rear foot and wondered why it was so hard to turn!

little devil

Dumbest thing I've done at the start was riding with my binding a little loose and always putting in more runs before tightening them. I was lucky enough that when my binding came off the board I was at the bottom of the hill standing. That could of ended everything real quick.

__________________
"It's so hood to participate in a sport that costs thousands of dollars a year and the TechNine crew is just here to remind us of that" - Bakesale

ippy

At the start of my second season i got a brand new board to celebrate it (a very stiff freeride ripper it turned out) and ended up catching more edges in my first couple of runs than in the entire previous season combined. Basically ten steps back. At the start of my third season though, didnt notice any falling back except in maybe my switch riding. At the start of the fourth season absolutely no difference at all.

The dumbest thing always involves following the pow either to the point that im bootpacking back up the mountain, or as this year, riding under an old dead lift this year on myoko suginohara and realising a hair too late that the stanchion i was about to fly past was actually about 4 meters lower than the ground i was currently riding on Im way too inexperienced to deal with that kind of scenario if i had to think about it. Thankfully i had just enough time to think "be calm and land this!" And because i did it turned out to be the highlight of my season
Swings and roundabouts

Probably the dumbest thing though is every time i duck a rope when im riding on my own if im honest. That creek bed video still gives me the heebie-jeebies as it rightly should.

KahWhyC

That happened to me too expect I was in the middle of the mountain on a trail. Good thing I did a speed check and it came off loose. I sat there for like 10 minutes trying to tighten it back with my house keys.

Sincraft

DUDE wtf are you doing with your keys in your pocket man. I've seen a couple time where that turned ugly for people. Also, you know those nice little pockets that some companies put in the chest area, yea, those are for ipods without glass screens, highly recommend you don't put things that could twist and go 2-3-4" into your body, especially in the heart region. If you search hard enough, you will see some reports of what happens when this kinda stuff goes bad. I throw my keys in the car and just take the fob, or, if I have to take the key because I dont have the fob for some reason, I put the key in my back pocket with a tissue stuff down so it doesnt flip around on me.

CAll me paranoid but...shit happens.

So, what happens when your binding splodes while riding? Starting to think my 40$ morrow bindings aren't the answer for me then? 200 pounds of weight pressuring bargain basement bindings at decent speeds and solid ice conditions, kinda scares me now. I checked out other bindings from ride, etc, but they feel like the same exact build quality.

I think the thing that scares me the most is that the base plate and the binding bottom with snap. They are just plastic instead of a metal baseplate. I didnt see metal baseplates at any of the other brands I looked at but wasn't really focusing on that too much either at the time.

Sudden_Death

The only thing I find I lose is my timing and that takes a bit to get back.Things like knowing how much speed it will take to clear certain distances.When exactly to take off.That kind of thing.

As for dumbest, probably hanging out with all my friends at the local sledding hill.It was glare ice and my board back then didn't even have steel edges.So my friend proposed Chinese downhill.All of them on sleds and me on my snowboard.I won, but fell at the bottom and the guy finishing a close 2nd slammed his GT sno-racer into the back of my head.My prize was 8 stitches and a concussion.But it did help convince the parents that I needed a board with metal edges.

schmitty34

My bumbest thing was probably this year. We were riding at night and then hit the bar afterwards. Riding from the bar back to the car I decided it would be fun to see how well I could ride my board without using the bindings. It was super easy until I picked up a ton of speed and tried to carve heelside and the board shot right out from under me. It took off towards the snow bank and I had to dive an slide to catch it righ before it shot off the 20 foot snow bank onto the cars parked below.

It was really funny (the beer helped) but could have stuck my board through a windshield if I didn't catch it.

schmoz

Here's an insight, into what I hope are 'rookie mistakes':

1) Decided that there wasn't nearly enough fresh powder in bounds, travelled out of bounds, avalance prone area upon closer inspection... skier triggered type 2... luckily I was above... Don't know what it is, but I am CONSTANTLY ending up in potentially dangerous situations. I forewarn my mates, and tell them NOT to follow me especially if its a powder day(No friends on powder days remember!).

2) Before hitting jump didn't strap in left foot (I am goofy)and upon front-side grab realised as much...

3) To avoid a trail covered in ice-laden moguls I decided to travel down what I thought was a tree-run... not sign-posted... After 2 minutes it was clear that although there were trees aplenty, no one... NO ONE would have made the area their playground. Also, bears are beginning to emerge... Paranoia gave me a fighting chance to persist and get out asap.

@ Sincraft: I have heard some horror stories, re. base plates (I have the chanel on my board) - mate landed after kicker, base plate broke... didn't end too badly... sprain, type 1 PCL tear... [base plate was outdated though, also, conditions contributed - icey]

Sudden_Death

Hmm, never thought about the wildlife angle.The only thing I have seen are squirrels but the idea of smoking a deer isn't appealing.