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

I have been saved by skiers enough times that I am always thankful to see them in the trees :)

Day 2: Local hill again. Wife and co-worker tagged along. In the past few days they made an insane amount of snow, and the snow they made the night before was fantastic. You know..as fantastic as man made can get . Nice and dry and held an edge like a boss. Wasn't too chopped up when we got there around noon. Blue bird day and warm, temps hovering just above freezing. Rode the t.rice again as I have a new love affair with traditional camber. The groomers left some nice little lips all over the place and tons of rollers. Nothing big, but just enough to boost off of and get a few feet of air.

Felt so good yesterday. Was focusing on practicing ollies most of the day. Just hauliin ass and throwing ollies off anything with the slightest lip. Had some pretty good ones mixed in there. It's weird, on a skate board I have an ollie of almost 3ft if I try, but on a snowboard (before yesterday) I could maybe get a sloppy few inches of awful form. Don't know what it is, but it just feels so wrong to me to try and ollie on a snowboard. Probably cause I can't slide my front foot up as you do on a skateboard. Camber really helps though, and that t.rice is sick with how much you can load it up with and the amount of pop you get in return.

This board really is making me rethink EVERYTHING I thought I wanted in the past few years. Contemplating selling all my rocker boards but one (to keep for the one MAYBE two days a year I get to ride "pow") and picking up two traditional camber sticks. One for bombing groomers/cruisers, and one for jumps and jibbing. The more I play around with this thing the more I notice rocker (for me at least) is cheating my style and robbing me of performance. Everything is just better on camber IMO 

Anyways, here are two pictures to post up of why I normally don't post pictures of my Ohio days, haha. Brutally small, over priced, crowded, but still fun if you keep an open mind (and crack some beers).





Oh, and they had an airbag set up for the weekend. Sat around and watched some kids try and hit it while we had some drinks on the patio. Every once in a while someone would actually get some air off the thing, but IMO they effed up where the roll in was. Too close to the bag, and all the lighter kids couldn't get enough speed. It seemed anyone under 180 was too light to really hit it. Everyone was trying to straight line it, but only getting 8 feet or so off the lip. Picture to show just how close the roll in was for this thing....

Arrows show the roll in and lip for the bag. I know the picture is shitty, but you can get the point. Man I would of been pissed if I spent the money to hit that and couldn't get enough speed to do anything...

Originally posted by Piranha thing that sticks out in your pics is the all the lights and snow blowing equipment...detracts from the winter mtn vibe, imo.

Couldn't agree with you more, but the thing is, without all those guns we couldn't ride in Ohio. Annual snowfall for this place (mad river mountain) is 28 inches I believe. Mix that with how unstable our temps out most of that snow only sticks around for a day or two. The only way we have a season in Ohio is because temps get down cold enough at night to crank out lot of snow. Mix that with a ratio of about an acre per snow gun, and it keeps us riding for about 3 months of the year. Place is around 144 acres, with something like 133 guns.

Night riding is pretty fun, but something the wife and I usually only do 2 or 3 times out of our season. It can get old real fast.

Originally posted by spenser which year cambered t-rice do you have? that thing is a poppy beast.  even the c2 model shot me to the moon when I rode it.

It's an 07/08 model. Rocking a 157. Thing is insane. Really glad my friend doesn't ride anymore and that he is letting me use it for the season. Like I said before, with the new boots I am able to scale down to a smaller WW on boards now, and totally dig NON wide boards again.

day 40.  groomers firmed up a bit today, but it was super fast and fun, and great weather.  rode solo all day and did speed runs from top to bottom.  the slash ATV is a beast.  the faster the better.  reminds me of old unincs, and is exactly what I would expect out of Gigi's daily board.  loving it.  boosting scary fast roller ollies, carving, high speed tripods, and there was one side hit in particular that was primo.. finally!  perfect for lofty back 1 variations.  I missed that hit being so good; it's probably been 6 years since it was so perfect.

Day 5. No new snow for over a week but the warm conditions made the snow all soft. I rode park for most of the day and Mt Hood Skibowl finally put some real effort into making the park super great. Boxes on one side, rails on the other... YOUR CALL. I tried my first FS Board slide on a box. It was mighty scary. Something about sliding backwards.. not my cup of tea. The highlight of my trip. I went 55.6 mph down the slopes according to an app call AlpineReplay. Great day!

Days 10-14 were in Tahoe. Crap, I wanna move there so bad. They didn't get any fresh snow but man it's pretty there.

Day 1 Heavenly
Day 2 Kirkwood (wind holds most of the day)
Day 3 Squaw
Day 4 Heavenly
Day 5 Heavenly

Here's some highlights of the pictures

1 pic, just my favorite from the backcountry adventure this weekend

Ummmmm, that chute looks pretty rad.  I want to do that.

totally jealous.  My shitty resort don't got no chute...and the 5" we got last night was a wet mess. 

wow that's a scary looking chute!

I'm not sure what you mean... you just ride down it, that's all.. haha.  the video is boring, no gnarly riding on it that day, but I just wanted to test the zoom.  on a day with the right snow conditions, that place is so sick.  steep, a few good hits on the way down, and there's that lip to looker's left that you can slash real good as you go.

Day three: Wifey and I drove up to Holiday Valley NY for the weekend to party and ride with friends we haven't seen for a while. Got to the resort and drove around for at least 30 minutes trying to find a place to park. Had to walk another 20-30 minutes to get to a lift. Not the best way to start a day, but it was blue bird and warm when we left the car so couldn't complain. Temps were in the high teens but felt so much warmer than that with the sun blasting. As soon as we got to the hill clouds took over and became VERY flat light. Kind of bummed since I grabbed my sunny day lenses over my ambers when we left the car. Couldn't see shit all day.

Despite the lack of any thaw-freeze cycles in the past two weeks, the trails were quite icy. The snow that wasn't ice held an edge great, but out of nowhere you would hit an ice patch and totally wash out. Kind of frustrating/sketchy.

Rode the T.Rice again, as I can't get over the damn thing when it comes to hard pack. The place did have a TON of boosters/rollers on every trail, so spent most the day making sub-par carves and working on my ollies.

Around two it got SUPER busy. Like...dangerously busy. lift lines weren't bad, but congestion on the slopes was sketch. Doesn't really show of sketchy it was, but all those black dots are people just creepin down the hill...



Might not seem like a ton of people, but it literally was like that top to bottom, on 90 percent of the runs we went on. We opted to go grab some food and beers.

Drank said beers and went back out for another 2 hours or so, then called it day after they turned on the lights. Snow was just too beat up, and too many noobs criss crossing all the runs. Didn't feel like getting hurt. Head back to my friends house for hot tubs and cases.

Day 3.4: We were planning on hitting up a private place just down the road, but my friends roommate could only get 2 lift passes, and there were 5 of us. We ended up just not going out at all as everyone was too hungover to get mobilized before 3pm, so a friend that was in town, the wife and I grabbed some more beers and some trees, and hiked my friends back yard for the better part of the afternoon. Nothing big or "exciting", but it was a damn fun time, and better than we expected. About a foot of dry pow (with zero base) in his back yard with a little roller at the bottom you could get a few feet of air off of. I have to say, it was one of the more fun times I have had in a while riding. It was just such a chill time. That and it was fun to press around/tripod/pow manual with a beer in the hand .

Seriously though, damn fun time. We also learned you can get way more speed on the hill than anyone thought, so my friend might build a back yard park this coming fall up there. Sink some rails into the ground, make a roll in at the top and so on. Should be rad.

One of the wife hiking up...



Pretty much the same shot, but really liked this one...



The wife cell phone videoed the tiny hit at the bottom...might post one of those up later...dunno. Pretty lame sauce stuff if you weren't there, but one of the kids did try a misty 720 and landed on his face...which was pretty damn funny. Had to kind of be there though....

We were going to ride this morning, but woke up to about a tenth of an inch of freezing rain, so we just called it a trip and drove home. Just two more weeks and I'll be up in VT, so counting my losses on this trip, and getting ready for the next.

Day 19, resort groomers.  Thought I'd have a lot more days by now the way the season started, but you know.  Knee was feeling pretty good today, things are looking up and I intend to get after it from here on out

Day 3: pushed in a third day this season and the conditions were pretty good in some spots, had some soft white stuff to ride on and underneath it all was ICE.  It was everywhere. but that's how it is out east and the fluctuating temps =_=". Still had some pretty good runs in, one of the buddies I went with has now surpassed me, going down faster no fear of speed for sure. I'm afraid of catching an edge and really eating it.  Wanted to ride switch but I wouldn't have been able to keep up.

Originally posted by CalmlyCoasting Day 47!? You guys always look like you killing it and having a flat out great time.. Tomorrow will only be day 11 for me. Great photos Spenser, I always enjoy stopping by this thread just to take a look at them.

Yeah, I stop by this thread only to check up on Spenser haha.

I'm on day 20...but no epic pow yet. ugh.

https://vimeo.com/59142735

Originally posted by spenser https://vimeo.com/59142735

We only recieved 6-8in from Nemo but still so fun.

haha yeah, my first tomahawk in years.  I went head over heels at least twice, maybe three times.  felt rad.  I laugh every time I watch it.

Originally posted by | | | bryman | | | ^^^ I had a couple (ok 3) on my first day with the T.Rice last year before I figured out my setup . . . Honestly I didn't think they were that great!  But it definitely taught me some important lessons on how to ride my new deck.    Day 20 for me today, more groomers at the resort with my wife and a friend.  Sun was out and actually the resort is riding real nice, I think I might head back out there tomorrow.  We're ready for a pow day in Tahoe for sure.    Hadn't been on my custom vrocker for a while, very much enjoyed being back on that stick.  I know everybody around here is up on camber's tip (and I get it) but I think that might be my favorite ride.  Also there was a retro/gaper party at the lodge so that was a lot of fun as well.    -b

Day: 4!