2013 Captain's Log (AKA Rider's Log)

Went out today with my son and wife, pretty fun but a little busier then I would have liked.

Day 1: Finally got out on some snow today with the wife. Went to our local hill just outside of the city. Shit ton of cars in the lot, but lift lines were really short for some reason. Guess everyone was inside drinking instead of actually riding..
Pretty warm out, around 36ish, and snow was sticky soft mashed taters. Not going to complain though. The hill is usually dust on icy crust, so I'll take some snow snow to dig into. Started the day with the skunk ape, but brought a buddies board along to try out. It's a 07/08 T.Rice, and holy shit why the hell have I gone so long without camber!?! Really though, that board rips, and fully plan on picking up some camber REAL soon. Don't get me wrong, love my rocker and all, but that feel.....oooohhh that feel.
I also picked up some new boots a few days ago, and they ride goood. Felt nice to not be in packed out, beat down equipment. Also played around with stance and rotated my highbacks per the advice in that one other thread. Feel like everything is starting to get dialed in. Got huge expectations of myself this season and I'm stoked about it.

Jesus I can't believe I have gone 8ish years without camber. I have been a fool.

Anyways, rode for a few hours. It started to rain/sleet, we went home. Great day though. Counting down for next weekend, finally getting out of this state and going to ride the southern tier with some friends and family for a few days.

Originally posted by spenser   just feels so much more solid.

No joke.

And not to turn this into a side convo on camber profiles which have all been argued ad nauseum, but that is for real. Also picked up my skunk ape when rocker and the like were all the rage. Don't get me wrong, I love that board. So playfully sloppy and paired with the banana traction still grippy, I can play around on that thing for days, and it does great (for me) in the tight east coast trees. But other than that I have always been slightly bummed out about it when I really want to get haulin ass down some groomers, Groomers of which, are 85% of what I ride. I don't live in an area with much snow. Why the hell would I ever get rid of traditional camber?
I felt like I couldn't side out from shit. Felt like all my carves were so smooth/nice/perfect. The tightness I could get my carves was insane.

Bleh.

Thinking about picking up a Ride DH next week. My local shop has one on sale for just over 200.
Oh, and With my new boots I am totally fine on skinnier boards. I normally rock a WW of 26.+ The T.Rice is just barley 25. I think. I sized down a full size on the boots, and they have some "shrink tech" on them. So much smaller than my old boots. I feel like after riding today, my entire world has been turned upside down, no wait, opened up. Yeah. I feel like so much has opened up for me.
/Rant.

^You got 16 days already? Lucky. I've only been able to go to Tahoe for 6 days so far. Hoping to go snowboarding again during MLK weekend.

I am REALLY feeling your photo's.  

Originally posted by spenser screenshot from the 2nd of max.  first try ever...

New Year's Day.  I think this was Day 4 for me, but Day 1 since acquiring a GoPro for Christmas 
These are all screen shots taken from GoPro video footage... Spenser is that how you get your "screen shots"?

Anyway, it was a super super fun day with lots of side hits and small airs.  Late in the day I actually ripped a few 180s on the dual mini-spines they have set up at the resort.  I didn't realize what I was doing and made my first Backside 1, which is weird because I've only ever done Front 1s but I guess I was just feeling the flow and spun the other way, haha.  Shitty light in the shadows, sorry about that.  Oh and I only got about 45 mins of video on a 16 GB card, is that normal?
Should be posting more and more media as I get better at this GoPro stuff...

1st GoPro self portrait

The biggest thing i absolutely hate in snowboarding right now: GoPro's.
So many shitty home "edits" out there now, such a waste.
"Hey guys, come watch a video of me following my friend down a groomer while he makes skidded turns and acts cool!"
In all seriousness, riding in the videos aside (because as long as you're having fun that's all that matters (i guess)), people should at least put some effort into their "edits". Putting some crappy music behind a few minutes of riding is not an "edit". Use some transitions, use some effects, create a flow, USE COLOR CORRECTION! I would say 9/10 videos do the GoPro no justice at all in terms of video quality. Yes it takes time, but it can atleast salvage a video with poor riding from unwatchable to maybe tolerable.
I'm going to go ahead and end my rant here because i'm sure many will already feel offended...

I'm talking about 90% of people that use GoPro's... and Spenser def knows he is not one of them.

Sure, I know he's indirectly referring to me. But that's why I didn't make a video I instead settled for still images. It takes way too much effort and time for me to make a video of Spenser's quality, I'll be the first to admit that. This was the first time using it, and I wanted to see what kind of video results it gave me. Now knowing that it obviously takes great HD video, but also knowing that it is beyond my scope to make worthwhile video compilations, I'll probably just stick to having the GoPro take still frame photos from now on.

Glad I could provide fodder for your bitchiness Scorer. Up yours. Instead of posting a "shitty home edit" I only posted 7 shitty photos. Maybe I was a little over-excited about it but damn...
And if you're riding but not having fun, then what's the point? Just trying to help keep the stoke going here, since "pictures are video strongly encouraged" (directly from Page 1). Be careful what you wish for.

I wish I could. Just not a priority right now, too busy with other good things in life to spend hours learning an editing software and then putting it to good use.

Originally posted by robnezz23 Sure, I know he's indirectly referring to me. But that's why I didn't make a video I instead settled for still images. It takes way too much effort and time for me to make a video of Spenser's quality, I'll be the first to admit that. This was the first time using it, and I wanted to see what kind of video results it gave me. Now knowing that it obviously takes great HD video, but also knowing that it is beyond my scope to make worthwhile video compilations, I'll probably just stick to having the GoPro take still frame photos from now on. Glad I could provide fodder for your bitchiness Scorer. Up yours. Instead of posting a "shitty home edit" I only posted 7 shitty photos. Maybe I was a little over-excited about it but damn... And if you're riding but not having fun, then what's the point? Just trying to help keep the stoke going here, since "pictures are video strongly encouraged" (directly from Page 1). Be careful what you wish for.

Oh don't be so sensitive. I actually wasn't referring to your photos at all.

Hey Chad, remember when you were cool? Neither do I, but you should make your way over to these parts for the festivities next month.

shwazy, oh, shwazy...why'd you have to post a duplicate set of pics directly underneath?  we would have understood which post to which you were referring

spenser:  there are a couple of really epic/professional looking shots in there.  the one of brandon's air looks even more massive with your point of view.  pulled back seymour canal lifestyle shot is another standout. well done!

anyway, spent the last couple of days riding Heavenly.  They got a couple of inches over the weekend, but despite the enormity of that mtn, the weekend warriors did an amazing job of tracking most of it out. 

overnight teens and cold daytime temps kept the snow pretty hard the first day...wasn't really feeling it.  However, it was bluebird, so I just took it easy exploring some new undiscovered (to me) nooks and crannies of the nevada side. 

Next day was also blue, but much warmer and softer.  Lotsa deep mogul riding.  It wasn't that easy to find fresh tracks, let alone powder stashes...but I did.  Rode more switch this day than ever...until I tweaked my neck so it didn't really want to turn as far for optimal vision.

hard to do justice to the height/scale of this mtn(s), so I just took a couple pics:

Originally posted by Piranha shwazy, oh, shwazy...why'd you have to post a duplicate set of pics directly underneath?  we would have understood which post to which you were referring

I know you are all dying to see this edit of my day 17, about five friends and my wife riding ankle deep in the east Tahoe bc. It was bluebird so I dragged along my contour, but the trip turned into more of a long traverse than a mission to ride pow. We navigated from Inclne Peak to Rifle Peak (above the other side of Incline Village), with a couple side runs in between. It was a long day, with a lot of traversing on my splitboard that reminded me how difficult that can be and how much more practice I need to wrap my brain around it, but that's what I get for following skiiers.

Originally posted by Winner#1 spenser - what is rime?

Originally posted by batmanwest Originally posted by Winner#1 spenser - what is rime?   Rime is ice that forms from fog pretty much. It's when you have a lot of water vapor in the air and mix it with quite cold temps. The vapor or fog actually freezes to most surfaces to what seems like out of now where. Pretty cool stuff, unless you have sub par coat/pant combos   You should google the stuff, it can actually do REALLY cool things.

Day 18, snuck out of the office this a.m. to ride groomers with a friend at Mt. Rose, total sunshine Tahoe day up there (above the smog of this inversion in Reno).  Seemed like there was a lot of pogonip in town with the freezing fog.  Here's a shot of my boy Brian looking for something soft in the chutes on his tele setup:Pulled out my 06 custom 62 which I haven't ridden for a while.  Nothing too exciting but it was good to get out and my knee is starting to feel a little more solid.  Heading to San Diego this weekend we'll see how it holds up if I get a chance to get in the ocean

^^just got back from the ocean - basically flat.  Paddled out a few days just to get some exercise.  Hopefully, that'll keep my core in decent shape for the next storm...which seems to never be coming. 

day 38.  got 20+ new inches of really heavy snow in the past couple days while they were closed. half rain at the bottom but snowing at the top.... very, very wet day. bottom half was kinda slow in the fresh snow beccause it was so thick, but still super fun.  upper mountain didn't open til 12:30 because it was on wind hold, so almost everyone left, and it was just us an a few others up there for untouched hot pow!  so fun.  the top half was still heavy, but fast unlike the bottom.  tomorrow will be awesome, as it barely got ridden today.

^^ That is some killer looking pow. Very envious right now. I hope my next trip (to Wolf Creek) will be as great looking as this. I'd love to ride fresh pow just once this year in Colorado.

Had THE most hilarious bail today. Decided to ride the right hand line of yamabiko (nozawa), done it hundreds of times. Goggles fogged up slightly and light was super flat, figured id just ride a bit and let the air in. Clipped in, headed off towards the trees as usual when... whats this? Am i? hang on? Im freefalling? Smashed into the ground in a crumpled heap. After a couple of seconds of bewilderment and stunned amazement (and obviously pain), i looked up. The bastards had cut a path through that part so people could get to the crest easier after coming off the lift. Its a 2 meter fekkin drop! Hilarious if you saw me though i imagine.