iRide
Zaskoda’s Snowboarding Journal

I found an ad for this thing while researching a movie full of snowboarding ladies called “As If“. Now, I’m not sure who the target market is for this product. While I’m sure an all female cast will appeal to all those young ladies dreaming of becoming a snowboarding pro… I somehow think it might appeal to a whole lot of the boys. I’m not so sure about that box cover though…. So, back to the topic…

While researching, I happened across a press release for something called the T-Board. I’d reference the site I found it on if I could find it again. Anyway, thing looks like large inline skateboard. It actually looks like a whole lot of fun, regardless of how close to snowboarding it actually is. The only problem is, if I got one, I have no idea where I’d ride it… I live in a relatively flat area. Maybe I could get someone to pull me with a bicycle and tell people we’re land-wakeboarding???

Well, I’m no expert. In fact, I’m just about as novice as one can be without being entirely clueless. I just completed (less than 30 minutes ago) my first Yoga class. While it was mostly what I expected, I was still surprised. Some of the positions really challenged me - to the extent that I failed to complete everything the teacher took us through… and it was a light routine.

However, it wasn’t so much the strength stuff that made me think this fit well for snowboarding. It was a combination of the stretching (pretty obvious) and the balance (perhaps a little less obvious). I sorta found myself looking at myself in the mirror while balanced on one foot and my arms raised up above my head thinking, “this is probably going to be really helpful.” When we were leaning way over to one side and the teacher was saying “you’re between two walls of glass,” it was easy to imagine myself trying to keep a nice flat stance while strapped to a board.

I’ve actually heard other snowboarders talking about the benefits of Yoga and even had a friend who’d stay behind in the mornings to do some stretches while the rest of us would hurry off to the lifts. However, now that I’ve tried it first hand, I can recommend it. I’ll also likely continue to do it.

I was digging around on google trying to find information on my old Kemper board (aka, the beater board). I’m pretty sure I got it in the spring of 01 so it’s probably either an 01 or an 00. It’s a Kemper Storm 156cm. It’s the first board I’ve owned, the board I learned on, and it’s been pretty good to me. I was a little sad to see that there weren’t any pictures of it online. I guess it’s just that old. Anyway, since google image search yielded no images of the Storm, I figured I’d take a picture of mine and put it online. While I found no pics, I did manage to find one short review:

this is a really good board! i bought it about a year ago and i only had to get it refinished once. the flex is increditable and its strong! i was doing stupid things with my friends and i saw a little jump so i tryed a frontflip over it and got my tail stuck in the ground. i thought that was the end of the good old kemper but when i can down on it, it flung the snow and dirt up! its very strong! and this board carves great and handles even better in the air! i can spin my 540s alot my clean. they use to be all skechy. its not the lights board but i like that. i would tell anyone thats a pretty good boarder to buy this board.

No award for grammar there… but I agree. It’s a fairly light board considering the age. It’s also very strong. And, oddly enough, I didn’t have to get this board waxed for years. I sorta left it outside for a winter and the edges started to rust so I finally did get it waxed and edged. Afterwards, it was slower than ever before. Maybe it was just a bad wax job, but I had to get several coats of wax put on to get it back to the same performance level it was at after years of riding without waxing. Strange.

It was cheap - boots, board and bindings were around $250. It’s a crap board compared to my 05 Burton Custom, but I don’t think I would have known the difference when I was first learning to ride… and besides, 4 years is a huge gap in snowboard technology. The Storm has taken a lot of abuse and I still loan it out for friends to ride - usually to learn on. Since it’s a bit shorter than my Custom (156 vs 162) and considerably more worn - I’m probably going to use it mostly as a park board from now on.

A week and five days from now I should be on a bus half way to Winter Park. If you ever read my journal, you already know this. So yesterday concluded my heavy weight training. From here, it’s low-weight/high-reps, lotsa cardio, and a slightly better diet.

My body isn’t the only thing I want to work on before I go. I intend to bring my laptop so I can clear the photos and movies off of my camera each day. The problem is that my laptop’s card reader isn’t currently working. I have a Dell Inspiron 630m with an integrated card reader running Ubuntu 6.10 aka Edgy Eft. What the hell is an Eft? Anyway, the Linux kernel that comes with 6.10 is 2.6.17. The kernel that supports my card reader hardware is 2.6.18. So, to get my card reader working, I have to do something I’ve never done (by myself) before: compile a new kernel. I’m nervous as I really don’t want to blow my laptop up. I *could* just use my external card reader… however, it irks me to have hardware on my laptop that I can’t use. Can we get three cheers for open source software? Still, it beats Windows XP any day of the week.

I’ve also been making the last of my purchases. Today I snagged a Demon Wheelie Bag for $60. I really have no idea what the quality of the bag is. Most wheelie bags I’ve found start at $100 and quickly run up to over $200. I barely missed a $150 bag for $50 on craig’s list recently (arg). Anyway, here’s hoping the Demon bag is good for the money.

I also took some time to try on helmets. I’m glad I went shopping instead of getting on online. I tried on a dozen helmets, easily. I found two that fit well enough to consider buying, and only one that I really liked. The best fit for my head was the Giro G10. (I would link you directly to the helmet on their site, but like so many companies, Giro doesn’t realize that using pure flash prevents people like me from promoting their products with a direct url link… less dumb please!). The helmet runs just over $100 (about $110). The built in headphones were another $30. That puts me at about $150 for a really nice setup. I was hoping for $15. Still, if I damage my head, it will probably cost more than $150 to patch it back up. I’m just having a hard time putting the money out. For this trip, I might just borrow a crappy helmet from a friend.

And this brings me to my last purchase consideration. I would like to get a hand-held video camera. I’m on a tight budget. I think that a good zoom will be a pretty important feature. Given that the slopes are usually white, I don’t think I need to worry about low light quality. I originally thought I wanted a mini-DV cam. With all this in mind, I was originally completely sold on the JVC GR-D650. For less than $350, I can get 25x zoom and a pretty sharp picture. Then, for a comparable feature set, and slightly less money, the JVC was pushed aside for a Cannon ZR700. I still get the 25x zoom, but for less than $300. (By the way, if you’re reading this and you’re looking for a comparable camera with better low light, check out the Cannon Elura 100). However, all this research was focused on a miniDV cam. I’ve recently considered checking into other media and ended up reading this:

Given their ease of use and the fact that they potentially eliminate the need for media, it’s a wonder that hard-drive-based camcorders still haven’t replaced DVD-based camcorders in the post-MiniDV world. After all, a camcorder the likes of Sony’s Handycam DCR-SR40 can store as much as 440 minutes of MPEG-2 video in its highest-quality setting on its built-in 30GB hard drive. Dropping to the lowest-quality option bumps that up to 1,250 minutes.

The upshot is that the video is ready to move to my computer with ease. I imagine that this would save me a lot of time. I have no idea what kind of software tools have improved the miniDV to digital video file process, but the last time I did it required recording the digital video file real time. That’s no fun.

The downside is that the low end camera runs a couple of hundred dollars more. There’s also the fact that the camera has a hard drive. I don’t know if this is an issue or not. Hard drives traditionally don’t like being bumped hard, and this might happen if I wipe out while I have the camera with me. However, iPods also have hard drives, and snowboarders love them. In fact, I’ve never heard of an iPod’s hard drive being damaged when someone fell with it. (Does this happen???)

Anyway, if anyone has a camcorder recommendation, please let me know. I’ve got a week and five days to decide if I’m gonna spend the money.

Well, I’ve got about 14 days until the snowboarding trip. A friend of mine linked me to and entry on Wil Everts’ blog called Day 45: Morning Commute. She sent me there to see the video on the page… knowing it would get me stoked for my trip. The first part is some snazzy lift riding (hard core to the bone, lemme tell ya)… but then, they go DOWN the mountain. For something so simple, it sure was wonderful. No crazy freestyle tricks or nutty grinds… just a wonderful run through some rather deep powder. And really, the powder was the star of this video. See the snap shot I took from the end of the video? That’s either Wil or his friend Wil’s friend JP. See the powder all over him? That’s not from falling down.

I can’t wait to go. I’ve been with my gym routine for 4 weeks now. This last time, I had a voice in my head encouraging me by talking about the snowboarding trip… so I over did it a little and I’m very sore. This made me realize that after this week, I should probably stop with the heavy weight lifting. I don’t think I’d have much fun if my body hurts before I even get there. So next week will be lots of cardio and lots of lighter reps.

I still need to get that helmet, snowboard bag, and video camera. I really want the video camera, but it might just be beyond my budget this year. Here’s hoping… if not, maybe I can borrow one from work. Anyway, I gotta get back to imagining myself in 4 feet of powder… I mean work.. err.. something.