Robert2

Well Mr TShannon720..... no offense was taken.... at least you actually spelled sentences. I would like to hear one clarification. When did I ever, in any of my many posts, criticize people who ride in the park? I said I don't ride the park, never learned to ride rails or jumps or halfpipes, because they didn't even start building decent park features until after my time as an instructor. I never tried learning on my own because I didn't want to lose the whole winter daily snowboarding by crashing a rail or jump and breaking bones. If you do become an instructor then perhaps you may show me how to jump and grind. Since I go every day there is a good chance I may learn something new this year. This is my 3rd winter of daily snowboarding after being off the snow for 6 years and every year I do learn something new.

I got this from info@jfbb.com Thanks for your interest in JFBB. Weather permitting Big Boulder plans to open this weekend - Saturday, Nov. 22nd. BB will stay open for the season at that point, so you will be able to use your midweek season pass starting Monday, Nov. 24th. The regular hours will be in effect - 3 p.m. to 9 p.m, Monday thru Thursday, and 3 pm to 10 pm on Friday. So its looking good for week day riding next week.

Sorry about the partial picture. Its a cell phone shot and I had to do it real quick and stow the phone and get the mitten back on before dropping the phone in the lake. I have to figure out a better way to take pictures when wearing snow clothes besides removing gloves or mittens to hit the tiny buttons. Its easy to find me on the snow even when wrapped up for weather. Just look for the helmet cam.

Snowing in Jim Thorpe today while kayaking. Total whiteout. Stoked

I just found out that my son in-law has a Never Summer board. It is very likely I will get to try out this board in a week or two.

HORSE SHIT Joints don't heal tougher. Tendons don't heal tougher. Your tailbone doesn't heal tougher. I don't care how tough you are, if you are brick layer and you rip up your joints you won't be able to do your job anymore if you can't bend down to pick up a brick because you ruined a hand or an elbow or your back. Smash your tailbone and forget doing a desk job, or driving the rest of your life because sitting is very painful. Every injury you have when you are young is one more pain you will have when you are older. I'm not talking 50 or 60 years older. I'm talking about being 30 years old and limping because a busted up knee never is the same again after a bad fall on hardpack. Every time it rains you get joint pain in elbows, back, hip, knees that you beat up when you were a young fool smashing the shit out of yourself with no regard to what happens later. Wear all the armor you can when you are young and you will still ride the snow when you get old and have all the time in the world to play on the snow.

Helmetcam. Oregon Scientific ATC-2K

Being on the snow every day all winter and having taught so many beginners I've seen way too many very bad falls that could have ended a lot better if they just wore the most basic padding..... stuff most kids already have... skate helmets and wrist guards and knee pads. You don't have to be jumping or rail grinding advanced tricks to get busted up real bad. I saw a girl break a wrist on Powder Puff last year. Beginners slam really bad and always put their hands out to break the fall. Most injuries happen to the kids that never took a lesson and just go ride. There was a time, long ago, where skiing was about being in control and staying within your ability zone. Now it seems that flying like superman is the goal and forget learning anything, just go for it. Its not Nintendo. There is no RESET and just start the game again. If you crash you don't get to play anymore. The game is over. For some , forever.

Ever been to the Emergency Room for a crash? I got chopped up by an out of control skier doing cart wheels and a yardsale and I wound up ripping up a shoulder. You can't plan any fall. You don't "fall on your forearms". You crash or get run over. Then depending on how bad you wear a sling or a cast for a few weeks or a month and that can ruin your whole winter. Wear all the armor you can. I was in the ER and there was snowboarder laying on a bed next to me with a concussion. He was totally blind from brain damage. He was not wearing a helmet when he crashed. He had a dozen body piercings in his face and the nurse told him that they have to remove all his metal jewelry , posts, spikes, gauges before they could take him to XRAY. They said it was sort of personal so they had his mother do it. Don't wear your metal when you snowboard. If you end up in the ER do you really want your mother ripping out your tongue spike? If you are landing so hard that you break your arm while wearing basic rollerblade wristguards then you probably would break your arm wearing any advanced protection or no protection at all. Pocono hardpack is solid ice groomed daily to have a grippable surface. There rarely is "soft snow" here and that means to make a skiable surface we get groomed ice. Ice is just as hard as concrete so if you skateboard and would think nothing of grinding rails on steep hills without wearing armor then snowboarding without armor is for you. For everyone else that bleeds, there's armor. Wear all the armor you can.

THANK YOU Now this is acceptable damages. If a salesman in my local store showed me one of these and said $700 I would have bought it last month. The lengths are long but the 160 is still not past my forehead. I'm emailing them about weights. I didn't find and specs about weight ranges. 160 Razor 160 137 8.6 30.90 25.0 30.50 3.9 680 164 Razor 164 141 9.1 30.9 25.0 30.5 4.5 680 170 Razor 170 147 9.9 31.4 25.5 31.0 5.0 680 176 Razor 176 153 10.65 31.4 25.5 31.0 5.4 680 182 Razor 182 159 11.55 31.4 25.5 31.0 5.9 680

Rail riding boards. Park boards that were so beat up I wondered how they present them as something to demo if they didn't take care of them. I thought the idea of demo was to see if you liked it so you would buy from that company. They didn't even care if the wax was totally gone. Thanks for the links. I've been to few web sites about carving and hard boots. I'd like to find an alpine board that I can use with soft boots.

THIS IS THE REASON I POSTED THIS QUESTION about weight limits. I never ever said I think I KNOW anything about the products available now. I just said that when I shop I get no great info from the sales people and then I got shit for buying a year old Burton Air at the Army Navy store for $200. I'm open to all input. Especially if someone tells me a specific model of a specific brand. I did get a few things to chase down here... like NS..... but again... finding a dealer close enough to take a bus to is almost never a reality. I only chose Burton because is was a "trusted name brand". I have no real problem moving up to a longer board other than I'd have to relearn to ride the different length. If the longer board offers a better ride then I'd stick with it. If it sucked I'd just go back to the my 155s and 157s. And since I go every day its not like I'd be upset if it took a while to get used to a long board. Its sort of like ground hogs day around here. I have all the time in the world to try anything.

In the last 2 years the only demos I have seen have been for shredder boards and they were so worn out they didn't even have wax on them. I actually stopped by the tent to get "professional advice" about care and feeding of snowboards but the "rep" was no more than a part time kid signing out boards to try out. I wanted to know what pros used for wax and this kid said they don't bother waxing the boards because they get so beat to shit rail jamming. Oh well. I tried. So much for me asking pros.

Perhaps roller blade wrist guards won't stop you from breaking your wrist but any protection is better than no protection and telling anyone to never wear them isn't good advice. Forgetting the rail grinding and ski jumping , most new kids who catch a toe side edge and slam down on the ice would benefit from wearing roller blade wrist guards, knee pads, and a helmet. Catching a heel side edge makes a backward fall and a tailbone, elbows , head slam. So yea, wear all the armor you can even if its just rollerblade padding. If you bounce back up every time you fall you won't just sit on the hardpack watching everyone else fly by.Too many kids fall, feel pain and don't want to fall again, so they don't just jump up and try again. Its just too easy to stay down. Skiers on the other hand will fall.... collect the yardsale... stand up and by the nature of being up... try and go some more down the hill. The more you armor up the more you get up and go again. Its what makes you fearless. You don't just keep getting hurt by hard slams again and again. My advice about inserting the plates into mittens may not work for everyone but it sure has saved my wrists a few times.

On the coldest of days I'm only wearing 3 very thin layers of insulation and then a shell. The shell has no insulation at all. Its just pockets. I sweat shitless very easily by doing very little, don't even have to do heavy work or play. I sweat just by putting on a suit and a tie. So I have to choose clothes that will stay warm even after they get wet. Layering then removing layers out on the hill is not an option when its freezing temps. thats a good way to catch pneumonia. The cost of the clothes is very misleading. I said I just a bought bunch of the stuff so I could have it all winter and never wear the same clothes any day without washing it. You don't wear gym clothes without washing it ? do you? I also said that it will last 10 years or more if my kids don't snarf it. I haven't bought this stuff for a long time. It just turned out to be time. So my clothes investment now will be for daily wear for a very very long time. Like I said before. I do wear the same layers for daily kayaking during the non-snowboarding months. Could be very true. But then when I ask about weight range they immediately want to sell me a 166 which says they really don't get a lot of heavy people buying snowboards... alpine hardpack or park. Riding a 166 for me would be like riding a surfboard or a canoe. Just too big for my stance. Sure. discuss. A discussion usually involves some sort of input. Not put downs and insults. I've been insulted a dozen time this week and I just figured some kid who wished they could snowboard as much as I do was trying to get under my skin.

Don't fret the warm weather now guys. We've had some real warm Thanksgivings and Christmas seasons and still went skiing 4 months... December through March.

This is about the science of insulation. You can wear a goose down jacket and be warm standing still on a bus stop in a New York winter but if you sweat from heavy exersion and soak the goose down it looses all insulation properties and you freeze. So companies like Padagonia created wicking garments that pull the sweat away from your skin and leave warm air pockets to insulate you from extreme cold. Heavy raw wool does the very same thing but itches shitless so we usually don't like to wear Irish fisherman sweaters snowboarding. Merino wool is very soft and has made its way into long underwear lines because it is warm when wet and does not itch like other wools. I didn't say YOU have to wear ANY product I wear. I said what works for me in the coldest temps wiith high winds. Since padagonia is so damn expensive it was nice to find a competition product that cost half as much as padagonia. Perhaps you have something to share how you stay outside sweating for 3 hours every day without freezing.

There's a lot of threads running in this one thread now. Thanks for the advice to check into neversummer boards. I have no problem buying an NS board for full retail price if it is THE right board for me to ride. I'm not looking for a deal as much as I am looking for what is the right board for me. The discussions about dirt cheap boards and ARMY NAVY verses local shops was not about "right boards"... it was just about cheap boards and how everyone tries to sell me the most expensive board , probably because they figure I can afford it.... being old and bald. Thats why I cracked off the thread to a new one to be about weight ranges printed on boards. Is there any demo days at any PA ski resorts where stores supply NS boards to try before you buy? I've seen some demo boards at tent sales at Jack Frost but that was a long time ago.

Abnormal lows might not count to you now when its 60 degrees outside but when its 10 degrees you can tell me lows don't count. We do get many days of teens and 20s so I dress for the cold. Its just one more reason I have the place to myself when its cold. Too many people who ski don't come out because its "too cold" to ski. I encourage anyone who hates winter to invest heavily in the clothes and then there will be more people at the ski resorts. The more people, the longer they will stay open. Once you learn how to beat the cold you can enjoy winter sports. Beating the cold doesn't mean sitting in the lodge drying off in front of the fire pit. Telling people it doesn't get all that cold here is a real disservice. Sure you can "fleece up" and take few runs but I'm talking about stepping out at noon and not coming back in for 3 hours and staying alive to do it again the next day. You don't have to buy high tech expensive padagonia products. HOT CHILLYs make fleece baselayers just as warm as padagonia expedition weight capilene for half the price. MARMOT makes base layers that perform as well as capilene silk weight. I wore MARMOT, HOT CHILLY , a fleece, and a life vest kayaking last week when it was snowing here and even after getting wet I was still warm. You can wear wet wool and still be warm. Heavy wool Irish fishing sweaters always kept the fishermen warm. I tried the UNDER ARMOR products and froze so I won't do that again.

ASSume this: These are not even wind chills. So yea... dress or die of frostbite. Monthly averages from www.weather.com High Low Mean pricip record high record low Jan 31

Actually I am closer to 50 but yes I don't drive so I can't go home and change. I get off the bus and have 4 hours before the bus comes to fetch me so I don't shit around warming up in the lodge. I get out on the hardpack and don't come in for at least 3 hours every week day. And yes there are 10 degree temperatures at Frost with high winds making wind chills 20 below zero. This thread started about weight limits. At 220 pounds I exceed all board design specs for ANY manufacturer because they rate them for weight and even though I am 5'6" and a 155 board is the right length for my stance I exceed the specs...that say 125 to 175 pounds. So instead of buying a huge long board ..a 165... rated for 150 to 200 pounds..still under my weight I was asking for information how the manufacturers design boards for heavy adults, not just teens. You can get skis for 300 pound adults so why don't they make boards for 300 pound adults?

Really? Wow. No shit.... break a wrist on snow or concrete? Did that happen to you?

The most common serious snowboard injury is a broken wrist. Wear armor. You'll never regret it on hardpack. I wear: Standard helmet with earpad speakers. Roller blade knee pads, UNDER the snow pants, over the base layers. Roller blade wrist guards..... just the plastic palm plate..... cut it out of the velcro assembly then wear a standard thin glove liner then big mittens. Wear the plastic palm plate in between the glove liner and the mitten. You can slide it in and out quick enough when you strap in. I found using wrist guards with gloves never fit and could never strap in when wearing complete wrist guards. You can buy gloves and mittens with builtin plastic armor but I just couldn't see spending $35 on mittens I didn't like just to get the armor. $20 buys a set of roller blade armor.... knee pads, wrists guards, even elbow pads. Wear mittens instead of gloves. You don't break fingers when you fall in mittens...your fingers stay together. I don't wear elbow pads or a hockey hip check guard but I recommend you do if you expect to slam elbows or tailbone on hardpack.

When you stand at the edge of the abyss ready to go downhill in 8 degree air temperature with howling wind pushing UPHILL and the ground up hardpack ice tick tick ticking away like a sandblaster louder than your MP3 player on your goggles you have to dress like astronaut with no skin exposed and your mouth and nose covered so don't breath any of that cold air. Wind chills at 20 below zero can crack your teeth when you munch a granola bar. My water bottles always have frozen if I don't finish them by the end of the day and I carry them in inside pockets. The warm clothes are the only thing that keeps you alive in February so if you don't buy now you will freeze later. You can't wear cotton fleece, flannel, or long underwear with cotton jeans and sweat shitless for 3 hours snowboarding. As soon as cotton gets wet it freezes. So... yes... I spent $1000 on clothes this year but those clothes will last ten years........ unless they grow feet and my kids snarf them for Midnight Madness at BB . Learn to dress for it and you can be drenched in sweat but still be warm. Same thing with rain. All the warm clothes for cold will also keep you comfortable in drenching rain. I wear the same clothes for kayaking as I do for snowboarding. I've been on a lake every day for 6 months and I don't have a tan because I wore long sleeve capilene and gloves so I never got any sunburn. Spending $255 on that capilene for 3 shirts is a lifetime investment. Capilene is guaranteed for LIFE. If it rips you send it back to Padagonia and they replace it for free. So $85 a shirt that gets worn every day forever isn't such a bad deal now is it? As far as worrying about buying a cheap board goes, its simple. I know for a fact that I can ride a $200 so I spend $200. So when prices sore into $800 I step back and ask why should I pay that much for a board. What makes that board so special.... a name ? So if I can find a board that once cost $400 or $700 or more then why shouldn't I pay just $200 for it? I already support my local businesses buying the clothes so its never an issue of dicking a local business out of profits that keep them in business. So this year I figured I would try to find a good board made by a good company instead of just finding the right size and color board. The choice of Burton was only because they were supposed make good boards. Doing real research is impossible. Burton's web site keeps saying a COME BACK LATER message now. Store clerks are a crap shoot. My local store has very limited choice. So I figure I'd play in forums for a while and get some input from riders instead of sales people.

OK... can you be just a little more specific? WHO's alpine board would you recommend?