Tim says

Hey I just got a new snowboard and am looking to replace my old bindings because they are rusty/falling apart/pieces of shit. I've never had to buy new bindings before so I have no idea what's good and whether or not stuff like the width/length of my board and size of my boots have an effect on what I should get. Any advice?

Haha, I'm pretty sure I won't need to get screws put in but I'm definitely going to get a cast. Thanks for all the support though, worrying about falling/getting my cast wet is gonna suck. ...that is if I can convince my parents to let me go up with a cast on

Get some Burton Overmittens. I've had mine for about three seasons now and they're pretty sick. They've got a nice fleece lining on the inside that stays warm and dry and a leather palm so it's easy to grip your bindings. The only problem with 'em is if it's below like 10-15 degrees and you don't have hand warmers in the palms tend to freeze.

This friday I was up at seven springs and was with some people hanging out in Santa's Beard terrain park. I decide I want to hit the picnic table they have set up because I'm an idiot and I thought I could do it. I was able to get up on to the table and slide down it fine, but when I was about to jump off I caught my back edge and flew down about four feet onto my now fractured wrist. Thanks to that, I can't snowboard til like early-mid march...I'm retarded.

K, so when I went to Blue Knob there weren't any actual jumps in the terrain park, but I did find a couple little kickers people had built off of a couple runs. Whenever I'd try a 360 I would ride up on my heel side and pop off the lip while throwing my arms/torso/head around but then only make it around 180 before slowing down and getting really off-balance...what could I be doing wrong?

My brother, dad and I left the hotel at around eight thirty on Saturday, mainly to miss any traffic and potential crowds. After seeing maybe three other cars the entire way up the mountain (all of which were driving the other way) we hit the summit. It was pretty sunny and snowing lightly and by the time we hit the slopes (at nine thirty) there was still hardly any people on the mountain. We started off on Mambo Alley, just as a warm up, then quickly progressed to runs down Jack Rabbit, Upper High Hopes, Expressway, Upper Route 66 and Shortway, capped off by the smooth ride on Run Out to the bottom. Lower High Hopes was open, but was extremely icy, making it both extremely fast and very hard to stop on with out falling. The lift on Route 66 was (just as I had been warned) the single slowest lift I had ever been on, but still provided a fair view of the snowmaking jets on Deer Run and the NASTAR course. Sadly, though, the midstation was not open, and what we could see of the lower mountain was dotted with twigs and grass sticking up from the snow. Still, the snow was good, there was only ice in the really high traffic areas and on Lower High Hopes, and even that got better as the light snowfall continued all day. On Sunday the thermostat read a balmy 1 degree as we reached the summit, and loose snow was being blown in great gusts across the packed base all across the mountain. The snow was better than the day before, almost less packed down and softer and provided for less ice and a smoother ride. The midsation opened up and allowed access to Deer Run and Lower High Hopes. Deer Run was great, and the combination of Blue Knobs groomer and snowmaking machines left huge mounds in the snow between maybe five to fifteen feet high by about thirty feet around all over the run. It wasn't all bad though, as this provided for extremely steep sections while giving some variations on the standard slope terrain. Other than that it was pretty much the same as the previous day, although a thin coat of powder covered up the ice on Lower High Hopes making it much less frightening to go down. Overall the weekend was great. There was almost nobody there (which was surprising for MLK weekend) and I maybe only waited for a lift three times. The only downside was that almost none of the lower mountain was open and none of the glades were, but that's to be expected since it's been a warm winter with almost no significant snowfall. Oh, and I was going to try and take some pictures, but it was too cold on the mountain and my camera wouldn't turn on.

Yeah...it's raining pretty hard in Pittsburgh, but thankfully it looks like State College and Altoona are getting pounded so Blue Knob should be excellent. It did snow a lot earlier today though, I went into a class w/o windows and came out an hour later and about 1-1.5 inches had fallen.

Are the rails any good? Or did they literally pick up a pipe rail from a skatepark and drop it in the snow (which is what they do at Hidden Valley). Because on a snowboard those tend to be pretty much impossible unless you're shaun white.

Is deer run any good? The pictures make it look sick and it's one of the couple runs they're making snow on. Btw, what about their terrain park? I've gotten some mixed feedback as to whether it's any good or not.

I'm heading up to Blue Knob for the first time this weekend...anyone have any runs (of what's open) they'd recommend? And, if a run is closed, is it going to be fenced off like at seven springs or am I going to be able to sneak on without much trouble.

Whoa thanks for all the feedback, I'll try it out when I head up to Blue Knob this weekend...dunno if their park's any good though.

...can you be a little more specific? That's basically what I've been doing

I've been snowboarding for a few years and just recently began to hit the parks. I used to skateboard, so basic grabs and rails came easy enough, but I can't spin farther than 180 without going off balance and wiping out...any suggestions?