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Discussion starter · #521 ·
Third day up at Whistler today. The weather was a bit odd--there was an inversion, so it was warmer up the mountain than at village level. About 4 degrees C at the roundhouse meant that the snow, while groomed to corduroy, wasn't crispy. Although even with the above-zero temps, some areas are definitely getting well-polished. We need some fresh to cover that up.

I rode the Ejack with the new Katanas last Friday and today. Last time I wasn't really happy with my riding, which had me concerned that I might not be happy with the Katanas. Today, however, was much better. Two things were different--one was the boots I was using, the other was the snow, which was colder and harder last time. I'll give the Maysis boots another try, probably tomorrow--I have to admit, I may not have had the Maysis adjusted properly last time.

I'm going to make a point of icing and massaging my foot tonight. I think I may really have that Morton's Neuroma thing in my right foot. Irritating but not agonizing so far, but these things always get worse over time.

So how'm I doing overall? Really well. I followed some better riders today, including one staff person (probably an instructor). I could keep up with him, although my carves aren't anywhere near as clean. But interestingly, when I'm following someone, I'm quite happy to go a lot faster than I am otherwise comfortable with. So it's obviously a confidence thing more than anything. My form is good, mostly, although I occasionally lose the toeside form and go back to my old style. It's easy to catch, though, because as soon as I do that, my toeside carve suffers.

On the other side, I don't think I did the heelside stutter even once today. A couple of times it felt like I was close to it, but again I was able to catch myself. And even if I'm not up to my full speed downhill form yet, I'm damned close.

The only place I'm not happy is with my toeside turns in mogully conditions. I flubbed the turn twice today in a mogul field, and the second time I almost did a swan dive. Ungood. Unfortunately there isn't a good, consistent mogul field for me to work with yet (the stuff I was trying today barely qualifies as a field), so I'm going to have to wait for more snow on that one. However, given how well I'm doing on the other stuff, I have high hopes.

I'm also making progress on penguin walk, but still not practicing ollies nearly enough.

Tomorrow, I'm going up with the Blur with the Cleavers. Should be a blast!
 
Discussion starter · #522 ·
Conditions were a little different today. The inversion has either weakened or left entirely. It was below zero in the morning, although barely, and continued to get colder over the course of the day--although the sun was out too, so not quickly. I rode the Blur with the Cleavers and my Ride Lassos, not wanting to trust the Maysis boots until I've done some more testing.

One thing I'll say right now--the Blur is not the best choice for hardpack or crispy snow. It's not terrible, but the Ejack is so much better in those conditions that I don't see why you'd bother. The Blur also has a tendency to get a little squirrelly and catchy on polished snow, which Whistler has plenty of right now. I had a couple of scary 'almosts' around the Chick Pea hut where it leads off to Orange Peel.

I will say about the Blur though, it does love to go fast. I had a little trouble getting used to it first thing in the morning, and almost decided to head down and swap it out for the Ejack. But I stuck with it and soon got the rhythm. There was one point that really made my day as well. Going down Orange Peel, and I was really getting into the hard C carves, and I actually lifted off into the air transitioning from a toeside to a heelside. That was great. I've felt that unweighting before in those circumstances, but I've never actually lost contact with the snow before. New high for me.

I only did six runs, but five of them were long. I did the Orange Peel, Pony Trail, Expressway run that takes me down to the Red Chair then on down to Olympic station. It's not a particularly difficult run, but it's long (as mentioned) and I get lots of opportunity to do S carves and get my speed up. And I think most importantly right now, I work on my stamina. My biggest limiting factor last year was running out of gas, and I've spent the entire off-season getting my fitness level up. And having fun mountain biking. I think I've been successful--I started to get some rear-leg burn a couple of times, but just adjusted my form and it went away. I also had some foot pain on the first couple of runs, but got past that as well.

In summary, not great snow, but a good day snowboarding anyway.
 
That's odd because I find that the Blur excels on hard snow, the grip amazes me. But then I've spent near 50 days on it, I ride it with a very forward stance and very stiff boots and bindings.
 
Discussion starter · #524 ·
That's odd because I find that the Blur excels on hard snow, the grip amazes me. But then I've spent near 50 days on it, I ride it with a very forward stance and very stiff boots and bindings.
It may be because I'm comparing it to my Ejack, which completely blows any other board I've ever ridden out of the water for grip on hard snow. Like I said in the post, the Blur wasn't terrible, and I was railing some nice arcs, but on a day like today, I think I'd grab the Ejack.
 
Discussion starter · #525 ·
Whistler day

Bleah! Yeah, that's right. Whistler. Bleah. There've been predictions of heavy snowfall all week, but just as it always does, such a prediction stays in the future and never arrives. So I went up the mountain to find hard, hard, hardpack. I suppose if I wanted to look for an upside, it would be that I'm getting early practice on boarding in these conditions, but honestly I'd rather not.

Interestingly, about mid-morning it started to snow, heavily enough to accumulate. And I started riding more aggressively almost right away--far too soon for there to be an actual difference in conditions. It kind of proves that a lot of it is psychological.

Unfortunately the snowfall stopped and we went back to crap.

I did get four hours of riding in, and my legs weren't screaming, so I'm definitely getting fit enough for a good full day of riding. My feet hurt, though, especially my back foot. Might be partly too tight boots, but I was also wearing the Morton's Neuroma pad that I bought. The good news is it stopped the neuroma pinch; the bad news is it messed with my boot fit. I'll try tomorrow without it and with boots less tight.

One significant event today--going down below the Red Chair base towards Olympic station, I "found" an unmarked obstacle in the form of a snow sinkhole over some running water. Not a big one, but in trying to avoid it I lost control and wiped out. Turns out wiping out on hardpack does kind of hurt.

Anyway, not a great day overall. I sure hope the snow starts falling for real, soon.
 
Discussion starter · #526 ·
Whistler half-day

If that. I wasn't expecting much for my second day, since it hadn't snowed or anything overnight. But I also wasn't expecting fog, just to throw another bleah into the mix. I'll say one thing for Whistler, when you get fog it isn't the all-encompassing, becalmed-in-hell blanket that you get on the locals. In Whis, it comes and goes either by altitude or by moving to another part of the mountain. But it's still fog, and boarding on icy hardpack in fog when you can't see ahead of you is terrifying.

For some reason though, some patches of snow were softer and actually carvable. I think it might have been manufactured snow, because it had that creamy, textureless feel. I was able to open up when a soft patch coincided with a clear patch, but overall it was just too stressful. Quit after six runs.

Still, I'm making good progress on my technique. One ironic thing I've noticed is that my heelside carve is now actually better than my toeside. I now have a technique issue on my toeside carve where my front leg is straighter than my rear leg, resulting in less edge on the front. I've noticed this issue in previous years, but it was swamped by all the other bad things I was doing. Now it stands out. The problem is a combination of shifting weight back and rotating too much to look downhill, both of which contribute to a straighter knee. When I get it right, my toeside carves are great.

Work continues.
 
Discussion starter · #527 · (Edited)
First Seymour Day, and Other Stuff

First day up on Seymour. I had high hopes, for some reason, and got the shaft, as usual.

Okay, that sounds way negative, but Seymour and I have a love/hate relationship going back more than a decade. It's the mountain I learned to snowboard on, and for years I would do full days on the weekend regardless of the weather. Not so much, anymore. I guess I've been spoiled a bit, and I'm getting old and crotchety a bit, and most importantly I can just come back another day. So my tolerance for crap weather and crap snow is low.

The predictors looked good on snow-forecast.com, and Seymour's website said it was snowing. The reality was a fine drizzle that occasionally turned to wet snow for a minute or two, combined with in-and-out fog. The snow was snow-cone consistency. Unfortunately, after that great start at the end of November, it's been poor pickin's since--for all the locals, and even for Whistler. So the boarding itself was no great shakes, but there were some other things worth mentioning.

I do want to take a moment to give kudos to the Seymour lifties though, for keeping on top of people about masks. They had a guy who would single out people in the line-up and tell them to put on a mask. He also wasn't impressed with Airhole masks, and would tell people to adjust them so they weren't breathing through the hole. Makes sense, right? What's the point of a mask with a hole in the middle? He also commented at one point to one of his co-workers to not let a particular customer on the lift if the guy took his mask off. So they're on top of it. Good.

So now on to the other stuff. First, helmet. I've bought a new helmet, a Giro, to go with my new wireless ODTs (more on them later). The Giro has individual Velcro-sealed earflaps instead of the stupid godawful zipper on the Smith. Way easier to deal with. However, I'm right at the top end of medium or the bottom end of large for the Giro sizing. I went with the medium, and I may be regretting it. Not sure yet. It's a comfortable helmet overall, though.

Gloves. I wore the Dakines today. They were soaked by the end of the session. Or at least they felt soaked from the outside. My hands weren't wet or cold, so I'm not quite sure how to score that. I'm sure I'll get other opportunities, though.

ODTs. I bought the new wireless ODTs, the ones that don't have a wire connecting them either. The jury is still out, but first impressions aren't favorable. First, you have to turn each earpiece on individually. I guess that shouldn't surprise me, really. There's a whole lot of announcing from each earpiece until everyone is synched up with each other and with the phone. Each time you press a button, though, you get a high-pitched beep by way of feedback. It's unnecessary and irritating. And the damned things automatically power off after five minutes of idle time. Maybe there's a way to adjust that, but I haven't seen it yet, and it isn't mentioned. And last, my left earpiece abruptly stopped working partway through the morning. Couldn't get it back for anything. It started working again after I popped them in the charger, but if that's going to be a habit, they'll get a 0/5 rating from me in my loudest voice.

Meanwhile, I took the older ODTs out of my Smith and put them in the Giro. You can thread the cable connecting the earpieces around under the padding, and charging is way easier since I only have to pull on the Velcro to get the right earpiece out. This may end up being my preferred solution, since so far I liked the UI on the older model better.

Goggles. I had a real fogging problem this morning, and it would be tempting to blame it on the new helmet, but I think I've finally figured out what's going on. When I put the goggles up over my helmet in rainy or snowy weather, moisture accumulates along the top of the goggle--along the foam that covers the vents. Once that foam is soaked, I'm screwed. Riding forces air down through the vents (and consequently through the soaked foam) which forces moisture into the goggle interior. And voila, fog. I brought a spare lens, and swapping it didn't help. I dried the second lens in the bathroom using the Dyson hand dryer--didn't help, at least not for more than a few minutes, and I'm concerned about whether blasting the lens like that might damage the anti-fog coating. The solution, sadly, seems to be to keep the goggles on my face at all times in crap weather so the foam can't get wet. Or maybe I should bring several spare goggle frames.

The new Perceive lens from Anon is impressive, BTW. I quite like it. May buy more.

So one last bit of good news--Seymour has started populating Mushroom park with features, and I really like what they've done. No, I mean really. There are several ride-on features, including a ride-on tube and an almost-ride-on tube. Also, two small to medium jumps. I avoided the equipment today, as it's still early season, but I ran the jumps a few times. Felt good. I may go back just for that. I sure hope they don't disassemble this stuff in a week, though.

I also took a few minutes to practice riding switch. I do okay on Goldy, but I'm pretty shaky on Chuck's. But hey, first day, right?

Oh, and this was my first trip up the mountain with the new car. It was funny--going up Seymour Parkway, I used up about 70 km of charge, then coming back down I got back about 50. So start with a full battery and everything will be fine.
 
Discussion starter · #528 · (Edited)
I've just finished two days in Whistler. Yesterday was okay, semi-cloudy with a bit of recent snow, and not too busy. Today it snowed all morning, and unfortunately that brought out the crowds. Or maybe it was just Friday. Hard to tell.

I've used the Blur both days, and I have to say, that board is definitely growing on me. It isn't as maneuverable as the Ejack, but it's way better for long, swooping carves. And TBH, I did some moguls on the Blur today, and it's not impossible--you just have to be a little more on your game.

The mountain is gradually getting filled in, and the mogul fields in Lower Ratfink are now usable, if a little freaky still. They've also got the Enchanted Forest trail open now. That was really bumpy yesterday, but they smoothed it out overnight. Kind of boring today. There are sections and stretches where you can find semi-untouched snow if you're early enough and a bit adventurous. I found a few, although I'm still a little tentative with unknown terrain. But it'll come.

As mentioned above in passing, my large S turns are coming along well, and I'm getting used to speed. Actually, my real issue with speed is in icy conditions. As soon as it gets even a little snowy, I get a lot braver. My biggest issue is actually still conditioning. I'm not getting the rear-leg burn any more, which is partly being in better shape and partly using better form. But I still get sore feet after a while, and my legs do still get tired. When that happens, I just don't have the jam to be as aggressive and quick on the board. Going to have to keep working on that. On the positive side, I weighed myself today, which I haven't done since biking season shut down, and I'm at 199, so only a couple of pounds off my low point. And with the treadmill for off days, I should be able to continue to work it off. And get my endurance up.

I had one big minus today -- I forgot my Anon face mask. I've printed and mounted a checklist for snowboarding now, so I won't forget anything again. The other big item on it is to clip in my keys and zip up my pocket. I found my left pocket wide open after a couple of runs this morning. Fortunately I had clipped in my keys, but it still scared me. Anyway, I had to use my walking-around mask, and it forces all exhaled air up into the goggles. So fogging was an extra-special bonus issue today.

I packed it in earlier than I would have liked, because A) the wind was picking up, which meant B) the lifts were stopping or running in slow mode, which meant C) huge line-ups. And I wasn't interested in ending up trapped in a gondola or on a chair for twenty minutes or so if things got too breezy.

One last good item--Olympic is now open all the way to the village, although the stuff is pretty brown towards the bottom. One or two good snows and that'll be fixed, though.
 
Discussion starter · #529 ·
I really, really, really fucking hate Seymour.

Today could very likely be the best snow day so far this season. I mean it was pounding down, all the way up Seymour Parkway. Pounding down in the parking lot. Expectations were high. So were the crowds, unfortunately, but I was willing to put up with that for a piece of this. Got in line, got to the gate, and....

Bzzzzzzzz. No reservation found.

What the actual fuck?

Well, the tl;dr version is that Seymour has instituted weekend-and-holiday rules starting today. A Monday. A non-stat, before-Christmas, not-yet-xmas-holidays Monday. Which means that from now until Jan 4th, I have to reserve a four hour block in order to ride on Seymour. Well, my fault, right? They told me, right? Actually, no. The original announcement of the reservation system made no mention of this. The website has no front-page announcement. There is a box with a button with some really unobtrusive text, and if you're looking for it you can follow the link to an explanation, but it's very much an after-the-fact thing. Pull notification in its worst form.

So fuck that. And fuck them. I am done. I'm going to get my wife and daughter up to Cypress and sell them on the Easy Rider bunny hill there. No more Mt. Seymour. Fuck them.
 
Discussion starter · #530 ·
Went to Cypress Mtn today. Much better, in that they haven't changed the rules without notice. I left very early (6:38am), and a good thing too, as a lot of other people seem to have had the same idea.

I somehow managed to get on first chair for the Lions chair, so I got first run down Collins. That was, however, the only regular run I did all morning. Spent the rest of my time on the bunny slope, practicing my switch riding. It's coming along, and another day or two of practice will probably be enough.

Unfortunately, the entire planet descended on Cypress, resulting in stupidly long line-ups. The line for Lions at one point stretched literally back to the entrance to the ski area, and even the line-up for Easy Rider was getting out of hand. Finally at 11am, I packed it in. On the way down the road, I drove past all the people waiting to get into the parking area. And drove past, and drove past, and drove past... honestly, some of those people will get parked just in time for dinner. How much do you have to love skiing or boarding to put up with that kind of a wait?

I won't be going up Cypress again until after New Years. Ditto Seymour (if at all). Hopefully once the holidays are over, things will calm down a little.
 
Discussion starter · #531 ·
Apparently Cypress Mtn believes that a significant percentage of the traffic from the other day was non-skier/snowboarder provincial park users. Today they put out an email where they've now implemented a parking fee for anyone not able to show proof of ski pass. Damned good idea. They also talked about the volume levels and such, and about how the road up to Cypress is the provincial government's responsibility.

TBH, I found their email to be proactive and informative. At least Cypress is taking an active part in the whole COVID control thing (after a questionable start). This was way the hell better than Seymour's "oh by the way" handling of the xmas break.
 
Discussion starter · #532 ·
Holidays update

Not much to update, really. I have not been snowboarding since Cypress on the 22nd. Xmas break is always insane, but this year brings a whole new level of whack to things. I will be going on Monday the 4th (still not sure if Seymour or Cypress), and hopefully things will be back to something like normal.

It's frustrating, because in theory I could ride every day, but snowboarding is just not like mountain biking, even in normal times. But I will persevere. There's no question my riding is way ahead of previous years, and if I can get up the mountain a lot for the rest of the season, I should end up at a new level. And being in better shape is helping, too.
 
Discussion starter · #533 ·
Update for several days

Monday, Cypress: Went up, parked, looked at the torrential rain coming down, went home.

Wednesday: Whistler. It dumped Tuesday night, so there was significant new snow Wednesday morning. And then, although snow-forecast.com didn't really predict it, it snowed all morning. Great day. I stayed out there until 2pm.

Thursday: Whistler. Snow all tracked out, nothing new since Wednesday a.m. Cold. Plus, I think I overdid it a bit on Wednesday. Found myself running out of gas by 11am and had to pack it in.

So that's the short version. Longer version: Wednesday morning, there was untouched freshies everywhere. I did my requisite burying-it thing once. Buried the nose, and had to dig down to find the snowboard so I could unstrap. Then when I stepped off, I sunk up to chest level. I gotta tell ya, that was a scary few seconds. I got myself out by crawling on my knees, pulling myself along by the snowboard. And the thing is, that wasn't off-piste--it was just to the right of Ego Bowl, just above Cougar.

I used the Blur both days. I'm really loving this board more and more. It is definitely not happy at low speeds, though. Just have to remember to be conservative until I get up to speed.

I did a lot of moguls both days, and I think I'm now ahead of or at least even with where I was last year near end of season. So that's a great thing. I've got the toeside turn issues completely figured out. That doesn't mean I've got them conquered, but when I do screw up I know exactly what I did wrong.

My carving was insanely on-point on Wednesday, and I had a blast. Thursday (today), not so much. There was some aspect of fatigue, of course, but it was mostly the fact that today was hardpacked groomed snow. I'm just not having fun on that stuff.

On Wednesday I left home at 7:05, and ended up having to take the Fitzsimmons lift because the gondola line-up was just too crazy. Today, I left at 6:45 and managed to get into the gondola line-up before it got out of hand. But that tells you that the lining up is still frantic, even after Xmas holidays are over. Hoping that will peter off a little, as I'm finding myself less and less patient with the idea of getting up so early to go boarding.

I'll be going up to Whistler every week this month, so should be getting some good boarding in. That doesn't leave a lot of days for boarding on the locals, but if I have to choose, Whistler is the easy winner.
 
Discussion starter · #534 ·
First of two days at Whistler today, and wow, was it ever a blast! The day started out inauspiciously, when I drove out of the parking lot to find a driving rain. I asked myself if I really wanted to stand in the rain for an hour and a half, and myself said no fucking way. So I went back inside, intending to go up later in the morning. But around 7:45 the village cam showed a not-bad line-up, so off I went. And it worked out well--I ended up top at about 8:30.

It was not busy today, even around 10:30 which is usually peak line-up on the Emerald Express. Talking to a guy on the lift, he said this is probably normal for non-holiday weekdays. Sure hope he's right. This was just about ideal.

Anyway, on to the conditions. There had been snow in the last 24 hours, and especially overnight. Typical of Whistler, it comes down unevenly on one face vs another, so while the Red Chair side had maybe 6-8" on average, the Family Bowl side had a foot to 16". And I was able to enjoy a lot of untracked runs before it finally began to get chopped up. I am now equal or better than my skill level at the end of last season, which really bodes well for the rest of this one. Unless they shut things down, or I get covid, or I break a leg. All of which are possible. :poop:

I might add that I wiped out 3-4 times today, include one complete ass-over-teakettle on the moguls. But the snow was so deep and so soft, t'were no biggie.

Interesting thing, though--on the way up the lift, I glanced over at some boarders who were riding the tree lines, and I realized that I've kind of given up on some kinds of riding. I don't do side hits as much, and I don't do tree lines as much. Of course, it might be different if I rode Seymour more. Their side hits are better and more abundant, while their runs are meh compared to Whistler. So there's that.

I had a couple of bad times over the course of the morning, though. For one, when I went down Olympic below Red Chair, I found pea soup fog so thick I had to stop to figure which way was uphill. Eventually got down, but wow, it was bad.

For another, I tried out a black diamond run today -- Goat's Gully. Won't be doing that again soon. That's a level of moguls and steeps that I'm not ready for just yet. I survived, but there was a lot of side-slipping.

Last thing... I don't think Whistler is going to put up the park or jump lines this year in the Family Bowl. They have enough snow now, but there's nothing. Maybe it's a COVID thing.
 
Discussion starter · #535 ·
Jesus, why can't I get 2 days in a row of good boarding? Went up today--and understand, I was 4th person in line for the gondola, so a magnificent setup for a great day--to discover that the snow is elephant snot. It's probably okay uphill from the roundhouse, but downhill from there, it's like riding on contact cement. I did two unscheduled tamedogs before I gave up.

On the plus side, I've confirmed that the lineups aren't forming as early now, so 7:30 arrival is probably sufficient.
 
Discussion starter · #536 ·
Aaaaaaand, another shitty day. This time, high winds combined with a sudden drop in temps froze the snow from yesterday, and high winds blew any new stuff off into the trees. So a skating rink with ice gravel everywhere.

I have learned one thing from the last two days, though. If it looks like it's going to be something like this, arrive late--like 10:30 or so--after it's warmed up and the early birds have "conditioned" the snow.
 
Discussion starter · #538 ·
So this is turning out to be a pretty mediocre season, all in all. There've been some good snows, like the beginning of the season and the Christmas holidays (of course). And some individual really good days. But I've been to the locals maybe, what, a half dozen times? And that's not because I'm always at Whistler. My Slopes app says I've done 21 days, but most of them haven't been what I'd call quality. Although I'll admit, the ones that have been quality have been really good.

I went up Whistler today. Didn't really expect a lot, since it's been almost two weeks I think since they've had any significant snowfall. Of course, hardpack on Whistler isn't as hard as hardpack on Seymour, since you don't generally have the same freeze/thaw cycle to put down layers of ice. But hard is hard, and I am still more tentative on those conditions.

I did three runs and called it a day. You can only really ride where it's sunny, because the shaded areas are both hard as fuck and have extremely poor light conditions. And with the distinct lack of new snow (and not much of a base, either), a lot of the otherwise rideable areas aren't necessarily so right now. Bottom line, not having a lot of fun, better things to do.

I did take the Insta360 up, finally. I used it with the helmet mount. The Insta is a great camera, but I don't think any camera can turn a helmet mount into something useful. Maybe with a unicorn mount, but I'm just not up for that. Next time, I'll bring up more equipment in a backpack and play with configurations. I'll also make sure I bring and use the wrist-strap and control. Too much of a PITA to constantly take the phone out to control the camera.

More next week.
 
Discussion starter · #539 ·
Lower Mainland Boarding

I did Cypress yesterday and Seymour today, and wow, talk about a world of difference.

First, the setup. It snowed Sunday through Sunday night and Monday morning, accumulating more than a foot of new. I left home early (I thought), at 7:20 for Cypress. I knew I was in trouble when I was fighting a pack of cars all the way up Cypress Mountain Parkway. I even ended up about halfway back on the first parking lot. What I didn't realize at the time was that Monday was a Pro-D day for a lot of school districts, so it was a day off for a lot of students.

And yeah, it was busy. The wait times for the lifts resembled what I used to get at Seymour on weekends, i.e. 2/3 of my time spent waiting or lifting, and only 1/3 going downhill. But the snow was great, at least for the first hour or so. Then the crowds kinda thrashed every available square foot, and after that it was all chunder and moguls. I left before noon, swearing never to go back. But now that I know about the Pro-D day, I'll give it another try, especially with the day I had at Seymour today.

But not to get ahead of myself. I brought up the Yes PYL and the new Heritage. The PYL has the Now Pilots on it, and the Heritage has my Flow NX2s. I had some trouble with the PYL, mostly on heel turns, which I thought was odd, but I stuck with it. Turned out I was basically reverting to bad old habits. Concentrating on getting the heelside form and shape right helped. Nevertheless, the PYL felt off.

I switched to the Heritage mid-morning. It is definitely a different board. It feels a little more forgiving because of the rocker in the middle, but also like a bit of a boat compared to the PYL. I also found that I'm not as enamored with the Flow bindings as I used to be. They might just need some adjustment, but they felt loose. I'll check and tighten before the next time I take the board out.

Today I decided to try Seymour. I left a little earlier, not wanting to get caught in the same crush (I hadn't found out about the Pro-D day yet). Left at 7:10, got there at 7:50, and had to wait until 9:30 when they open the lifts. Well, at least I got first chair! :cool:

The crowds weren't huge--they were more than typical weekdays in past seasons, but not as bad as a weekend. And strangely, most of the crowding was on the Mystery chair. Lodge never really got a crowd the whole day, and in fact in a couple of cases I rode right up the line to the chair.

I brought up the PYL and the Proto HD this time. The Proto has one of my 2 new pairs of Katanas on it. The PYL continued to feel funny, which was really beginning to bug me. Either it's 1) the board, or 2) the bindings, or 3) both. I finally decided to get a wax and sharpen, so dropped it off at the service desk. I'll pick it up on Thursday. I do think there's a good chance that the edge sharpening will help, as the PYL hasn't been tuned in a couple of years. And that far back, I was still skidding my heelsides, so I could conceivably have a really bad heel edge. The other possibility is that the board doesn't really go well with the Now Pilots. I'd find that to be a bit of a stretch, considering how well the Pilots paired with the EJack, but you never know...

Meanwhile, I switched to the Proto, and it was wild! My heelsides improved immediately, which unfortunately could be due to 1, 2, or 3, so no help there. Still, I felt much better. Mostly I stuck to the groomers today, as I was still trying to get my Seymour legs. But they did have a couple of good jumps in Mushroom park, and I gave them a couple of runs. But I did go down Unicorn several times, and although the first couple of runs were tentative, by the time I was on the Proto I was just ripping it.

And the last thing--I stayed until about 1:30, and left only because of obligations at home. Could have still gone for a couple more hours. And that's just like the ol' days when I was working weekdays. So it really is the run/wait/lift ratio that's killing me at Whistler. Good to know.

Couple of misc comments:

The gates at Cypress are either overloaded with the volume or are crappy quality. They were mis-reading people's passes all morning and having to be reset by the lifties. The Seymour gates, on the other hand, work great--possibly too great. You don't even have to wave your pass at them, just walk by and they open for you. It's a little creepy.

I used the Insta 360 at Cypress yesterday at filmed my carves. I may be deep-carving in my mind, but as it turns out, not in reality. Lots of work still needed.

I'll be going up to Seymour on Thursday, and I'll try using the 360 in the backpack to get video. We'll see how that works out.
 
Discussion starter · #540 ·
Seymour Again

I left a little later this morning, just after 7:30. Still made it early enough to get a choice parking spot. I picked up the PYL for the shop (they open at 8am). I also brought the old Heritage (the 2010) and the Proto.

First, my theory about the heel edge being dull was spot on. With the tune-up, the PYL ran beautifully. I still want to replace the bindings in the long-term, but it's not as much a critical thing now. I also tried out the Proto again, which also performed wonderfully, UNTIL things started to get polished. Then the Proto basically fell apart. I guess that's some of that rocker-vs-camber stuff, but the Proto is not my best polished-hardpack board.

I also tried the Heritage. Um. I know that used to be my favorite board, but I'm not sure why. It performed like a tugboat. And not the overpowered ones, either. But since the PYL benefited so greatly from a tune-up, I figured I'd give the Heritage a chance as well. In it went, and I'll pick it up tomorrow morning.

I'm also going to bring the new Heritage up tomorrow, along with the PYL. We'll see how the new Heritage behaves. It already has a tune-up from a few weeks ago at Whistler, so I should be getting its best game. When I'm done, one of these boards will be going bye-bye. I think it'll probably be the old Heritage.

I should mention that I've just ordered a Rome Speed Freak with Cleaver bindings. It should be here early next week. Thus the need to make room by getting rid of one of my old boards. If the Speed Freak turns out to be even better than the Blur, I'll probably swap them. Whistler is where you really need the big-mountain action. Lower mainland is where we just need a big mountain (nyuk nyuk).

I need to spend some time in Mushroom park, though. My jumps were a little wobbly today, and I still haven't hit the boxes and other features. I have my Race Face pads, and I have the USWE back-protection backpack, so I should be okay.

Speaking of the backpack, I set up the Insta 360 on the backpack and tried it out on a couple of runs. It's okay. It gives a sort of "following drone" look, but it's no good for examining my form. I did a couple more runs with the selfie stick, and that worked much better. For all the screwing around, it looks like old school is still best. I'll be bringing the camera up tomorrow as well, and try to get some action shots.

Regarding my "carving", I definitely need a lot of improvement, but I need the visual feedback to do that. This should work for me.

All in all, a really good day on Seymour. Occasional snow showers, no fog, good snow. And not crowded, except the Mystery line-up.
 
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