jotate

Hey everyone, just wanted to introduce myself. I've been reading a bunch and posting a couple times in the last couple days, but wanted some decent daylight before posting this so I could take a picture of my board in the garage rather than dragging the dusty thing into my house. Some stats:

Name: Jota (my friends really do call me this IRL)
ASL: 25/M/Columbus, Ohio
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 235
Skill: Beginner-Intermediate
Style: Freeriding
Boots: M3 Militia, size 10
Board: LTD Altitude 96° Latitude, 154 cm
Experience: 1 season, probably 20-25 days

It's obviously an LTD board, I don't know which over those other words indicates the model. Googling for snowboards with keywords "LTD", "altitude", "latitude", and "peak" isn't very effective. Truth is, my roommate and I went to Play It Again sports to buy some cheap gear so as to learn without spending a lot of money. Not knowing much of anything, we followed the advice of the high school kid working behind the register. Knowing now that the "chin and nose" board length is bullshit, I probably should've gone with a longer board. It's done the job though. Pics:





So my story goes something like this. Anyone from the midwest remember that massive snowstorm that came through in March 2008? Friday night, the snow was coming down. My roommate and I were sitting. One of us said "You wanna try snowboarding?" The other said "Hell yes." Next morning, we packed up the Explorer, turned on the 4-wheel drive, and spent 3 hours driving the 50 miles to Mad River. Rented some gear, got some 16 year old girl to give us some lessons, and then we fell down for several hours. It was great.

2008/2009 season came around. We bought some cheap gear and headed back. Went to Vegas in February and spent a day at the ski resort an hour north of the city. It was like night-and-day from what we've got in Ohio.

Epic highlights of my snowboarding career:

Third time out, we mounted a 3-person lift. Me on the left, random skier in the middle, roommate with a board on the right. Neither of us really understood the proper method for loading the lift at that point and had just lucked out. Chair hit us, my buddy got his board tangled with the skis, skis tangled my board, both of us edged into the snow, and the chair folded us like a shirt. Both my roommate and I went face first into the snow as the chair and the skier proceeded unaffected over top of us and up the hill. Embarrassed, we loaded the next chair and discussed how "that probably happens all the time." Got back down to the bottom, the kid working the lift recognized us and said while laughing hysterically "I've been working here for 3 years, I've never actually seen that happen." Go us. \m/

Best fall I ever took happened while I was just screwing around and hit a rough spot, ended up tumbling 3 times over. I came to a stop and realized that, at one point, the only thing physically touching the ground was the very top of my head. It happened right under the lift. Several chairs of people shouted "OMG, are you okay!?" I was fine. I asked them for a score. Perfect 10s. \m/

In case anyone was curious, my other hobbies include drumming, biking, and writing forum posts so long that no one takes the time to actually read them.

TLDR: lol, noob.

Suburban Blend

Way to Go Ohio! If you ever want to drive 5.5 hours to Holiday Valley, NY look me up at Suburban Blend at the end of the resort road. (shop in the basement of The Ellicottville Depot Restaurant) We might just be the closest real hill in your area.

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Suburban Blend

jotate

I fully intend to take a long weekend to Holiday Valley with some friends this season. I'll be sure to find you when it happens.

I've actually been to Holiday Valley once, just before I was into boarding. I was in college at Case Western (Cleveland), just lounging around. The guy who lived across the hall from me called and asked me to go into his room. Conversation went like this:

Him: Alright, look in the top drawer of my desk.
Me: Okay?
Him: You see my set of spare keys?
Me: Yeah...
Him: Wanna do me a favor?
Me: Damn it, where are you?
Him: Holiday Valley.
Me: Isn't that in New York?
Him: ...yes.

One 3-hour drive later, he bought me dinner in Ellicottville.

NthDeGrEe

I live in Kettering Ohio and I use Mad River MOuntain often. Hit me up if you wanna go I'll be there.

Tototundu

I just moved to cleveland. Been going to boston mills and brandywine, mostly because its so close. 30 minutes from work. let me know if anybody is coming my way.

Silvertrumpet18

Hey,

I live in Ohio too. I've been boarding like 8 or 9 years, still not an expert though. Sadly the hill at mad river mountain doesn't compare to many places I've been. Next week I am actually headed down to Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia for my 21st birthday. That is a nice place to go. I took one of my friends there for her first time snowboarding and needless to say she learned how to ride really quick when she went down a blue. It's a lot of fun but not so much an Ohio sport unfortunately.

Deviant

I ride there all the time, boston mills in the weekday mornings, then brandywine once they open at 3:30. (or just brandywine on the weekends)