timmytard

Oh, I love Baker. I miss that mtn.

I like to tell people I suck & I always wipe out, just to see the fear in their eyes.


TT

__________________
If whatever doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger.

Then I am so close to immortality

gjsnowboarder

If you could describe your ride stance(right or left foot forward), and how you normally fall this would make giving you tips that are pertinent to your situation eaiser.

That being said practice your boneless riding. (the art of riding with one foot straped in and the other foot loose, but place on the board ( typically in between your bindings). The easiest place is in the learning area where they do lessons or on a real mellow green. In a learning area there will typically be a bench or chair you can practice getting of on. Think about getting you lead shoulder and hip to point down at the same angle of the incline of the off-ramp straight away from the chair. It sometimes helps to feel your lead foot roll from the inside to the outside of the foot. With the back foot start off with at least the toe part of the boot over the board just before you get off with the nose of the board pointed straight away from the chair. When the board starts to touch the ground start to turn the foot it can sit flat on the board and slide it up against the back binding with the outside of your foot. Your weight should be close to 60% of the front foot and 40% on the back as you start to slide. Remember to keep looking forward out ahead of you and you should be fine. Eventually you will start to get crazy with getting off the chair and be able to ride any position on the chair, only on one leg, switch, and grabing your nose.

P.S. one additional tip also is to remember to breath to allow your body to relax.

ig88

Thanks for all you guys for the invaluable advises. I have learnt a lot from all the responding posts.

Last week I had my first riding days of this season. I took all you guys' advises into consideration and I think I am very comfortable unloading from the chairlift now. The first few attempts I just told myself to brave it out. This made a whole world of difference in my head. I did not fall even just for once over 4 days of getting off the chairlift. On several occasions I even helped adjacent riders/ skiers to steady themselves as they unloaded.

The other thing I noticed was that I wasn't doing much at all this season and I easily managed to ride away from the chairlift. I suspected it's because I waxed my board for this season and the stick just glided forward without any effort. Last season my board just stay put on the landing and I had to scramble to push the chairlift behind me to propel me forward.

Thanks everybody who gave me their personal insights into how to handle getting off chairlifts. Much appreciated. Cheers.

Clayton Bigsby

Cant tell you how many times I slid down that chair ramp, the first ever MT BAKER banked slalom was under that chair, then they moved it over to the halfpipe. Years ago team Burton was up at BAKER filming a video and they filmed Keith Wallace or Brushie coming off of that chair, then he ollied up on to the left rail and grinded down it. BAKER always had some of the gnarliest ramps and for that we used to always reach down and buckle in while on the chair before unloading. Just south of this chair (#1) was a rope tow that the old school ski patrols would crank up the motor to see who could go up the mtn the fastest, someone on here might have the exact mph, but I want to say the winner was clocked at over 30 mph.