Zaskoda

Being from Texas, snowboarding has always meant long trips to somewhere that actually has both mountains and snow. For a long time, I pondered and discussed the idea of an artificial snowboarding surface. In my mind, some kind of little styrofoam balls seemed like the right way to go. Eventually, I caught a reference to artificial turf in a snowboarding magazine – thus confirming that it does indeed exist.

Then, while checking out Snowgo, I found my way to this article and eventually to the website for Snowflex. This stuff looks pretty cool. Unlike my idea of lots of tiny balls, these surfaces are more like astroturf with extra padding. According to the article, it doesn’t ride like snow, but it’s “pretty darn close!” It sounds like fun regardless.

But that article was about a resort in the UK. I’ve dug around for more info on artificial snow turfs and it seems it isn’t used at all in the US. This is ironic because snowboarding was invented in the US. If I could go to somewhere close and ride a day on artificial turf for a reasonable price, I’m certain I’d be there at least a couple times a month. Does anyone have any investment capitol they need to get rid of?

I tell ya, I’d like to do it… I’d like to bring Snowboarding to Texas!

Most of my snowboarding trips have been to Angel Fire in New Mexico. In fact, it’s the only resort I’ve been to more than once. Obviously, my review is based on limited reference, but I’ll offer what I can.Angel Fire mountain’s base elevation is 8,600 feet and summit is 10,677 feet making for 2,077 feet of vertical drop. There are two high-speed quad lifts, one on the front of the mountain and the other on the back. Lifts run from 9am to 4:30pm (4pm on the back).The resort itself seems rather commercial. Accommodations are, for the most part, rather nice. The pool and hottub are great. The food is decent, but expensive. I’ve heard many people mention AF having the highest food prices of any resort they visited. Lift ticket prices can be a bit stiff as well. During the value seasons, we’ve been able to snag 3 days of lift tickets, lodging, and breakfast for about $300 per person (quad occupancy!). We shaved off a little more by sneaking folks in and putting them on the floor, but lift tickets alone stack up well over $100 for 3 days. Because the value rates include lift tickets, we’ve found that there’s not much money to be saved by staying at other lodging unless you’ve got a pretty big group. That is, unless you own an RV – you can get an RV hook up pretty cheap (less than $15 a night IIRC).The mountain can be fantastic when there’s snow on the ground. Unfortunately, being so far south, Angel Fire frequently has issues with lack of snow or poor quality snow. More than half the snow during a regular season is man made. The flip side of this is warmer weather, I frequently don’t need a coat while riding Angel Fire. When the snow is good, there is a wide variety of runs. There are lots of wide easy trails available for beginners along with a nice variety of blues and blacks for more advance riders. One of the nicest features of Angel Fire mountain are the snow parks. There are 4 parks total, 2 of which have been added since the last time I was there. One park features a 400 foot Olympic style half-pipe. Overall, the mountain is very snowboarder friendly.

If you’re interested in night life, there is none. The resort has a bar that’s usually sparsely populated (aside from – maybe – spring break) and there’s never anything going on in town. You might be able to find something going on in a nearby town such as Red River.

If you’re planning a trip, here are my suggestions: Watch the snow report – obviously. Call and ask several times for deals, sometimes they fail to offer you the best rates. Once on the mountain, head to the back. The back of the mountain has the best runs and is usually less crowded. If possible, bring food or head into town for food. I usually pack my coat with snacks while I’m boarding to avoid having to eat in one of the high priced restaurants.

On a scale from 1 to 10, I give it a 6.

MP3 players are popular. A few years ago I picked up an MPIO 128 meg DMG MP3 player. This was around the same time that the original iPod was released. I originally got the player just for mountain biking, but have used it extensively. It ended up being my best friend on campus when I went back to finish college.I didn’t just go out and pick up any old player. I did a lot of research and, at the time, the DMG was the best value for the dollar. Before they started branding their own products, MPIO designed and manufactured lots of OEM units distrobuted by some of the biggest names in electronics. The DMG player has solid state memory instead of a spinning hard drive (like the iPod). This means it can store less (a lot less), but because there are no moving parts it uses far less electricity to operate. This makes for a nice long battery life. Additionally, hard drives are sensitive to being bumped and I didn’t want a wipe out on my bike to damage my MP3 player.

All in all, I’ve been very happy with my DMG… HOWEVER, there are many new products available on the market today worth checking out. Even though it’s not a solid state device, the iPod is very popular among snowboarders. It’s even more tempting now that Apple’s released the iPod mini. Alternatively, Dell recently joined the MP3 player market with a product that directly competes with the iPod (Dell is also competing with iTunes music store). Also, while you’re checking out big name players, Creative Labs has been in the MP3 player market for a while. Yet another popular player, that used to belong to Diamon Multimedia, is the Rio player. But the biggest names aren’t always the best products. Do your research!

I was nervous when I first brought my MP3 player to the mountain. I wipe out a lot… I get snow everywhere… and when snow melts, it turns into a substance that’s deadly to electronics – water! But, I’ve taken it on most of my snowboarding trips and have never had anything remotely close to an accident. I keep it in an inside pocket in my coat. It’s not a water tight pocket. In fact, it’s made of net material. A lot of newer coats and bags have special pouches designed for your mp3 player. Having had no trouble, I thought these were somewhat gimmicky. But, Burton has something on the market that really seems like a damn good idea. While my player is safe in my pocket, sometimes I have to take it out when I want to adjust the volume, change songs, or just turn my player on or off. This means I have to remove my gloves, unzip my coat, reach into my pocket, etc. The Burton Amp Pack solves this by wiring the controls onto the shoulder strap. Note: I also found a bit info on a Burton iPod jacket with the controls on the arm.

If you’re wondering if having music on the mountain is worth the trouble, my answer would be – “YES, it is!”

P.S. Navigating Burton’s flash centric Web site on dial up sucks!

As I’ve mentioned before, there are a LOT of snowboard manufacturers, and here are a few. The first name on that list is, without a doubt, the biggest name in snowboards, Burton. Burton was there when snowboarding was just getting started and they’re well known for high quality gear. I have heard some say that, when you buy Burton, you’re paying for a name and can get a comparable board at a lower cost elsewhere. However, everyone agrees that buying a Burton means buying a good board.The best source I found for information on boards thus far is the 2004 Snowboard Buyers Guide from the editors of TransWorld SNOWBoarding. The various top ten lists in this zine include these brands: Academy, Arbor, Atomic, Burton, Flow, Forum, Option, Ride, Rome, Salomon, Sims, and Unity.Although I can’t really afford it at the moment, I’d really like to get an Arbor Mystic. This board really impresses me. The most notable thing is it’s bamboo construction. Its light and strong with lots of flex. The only drawback is the fact it’s designed for half-pipes so it has a stiffer tail than I probably need. But that’s ok, cause the ’04 board has a sexy graphic.

Last year, I organized a spring break snowboarding trip. Lots of folks were new and asking questions, and thus began my research into equipment. While researching, I found that my snowboard was actually somewhat small for me. This basically means I have more control (turning, jumping around) but less stability and speed. Since then, I’ve wanted to get a new board, but I have yet to put the cash down on one.I’ve found acceptable equipment for most of the crew. We found less expensive brands such as Rage on clearance for 75% off at Academy sporting goods. One of my friends walked away with a board, bindings, boots, helmet, wrist guards, a leash, and a multi tool for about $80. I wish I would have picked up an extra board at the time, but I was beyond poor. For a beginner, I would highly recommend shopping around for a deal like this. The boards rode fine, and for the same amount they would have spent renting boards, they owned them.

But deals like that aren’t common. I need… well, want… a new board, and as long as I’m putting down the cash I’ve decided I want to try to get a higher quality board. Thus, I have continued to research snowboards. I’ll tell you some of what I’ve learned.

There are two main types of boards, freestyle and freeride. Freestyle boards are more centered (front to back) and are designed for the parks. Freeride boards set the rider back and are designed for all-mountain riding and are good in powder. Beyond these two overall categories, there are many other design aspects to consider. The length of the board should match the distance from your feet to your nose (mine reaches my chin). The width of your board should be proportional to the size of your feet. The Camber (the amount of arch), spring, and flex affects the amount of “pop” your board will have. The sidecut of the board will affect how well the board turns.

While reading up on all of these will give you a better idea of what to choose, it seems like the best course of action is to just start riding different variations. Luckily, I’ve had the chance to ride several of my friends boards and get a feel for each. Since I like to ride in different places, my conclusion is that I need to buy two more boards. One average sized freestyle board with lots of pop for my jumps (and eventually rails) and one extra long freeride board for hauling ass down the mountain.

There are literally hundreds of brands of boards, and it seems that there’s actually a high percentage of good boards available. Soon I’ll post an overview of some of the most popular brands I’ve come across in stores, magazine reviews, and via word of mouth.

I will leave you with one last tip, don’t be afraid to play with the settings of your board. Foot placement and angle can greatly impact the feel of the board. I current ride at about 5/-5 degrees – my feet are almost parallel. This helps me ride switch – aka goofy foot (backwards). The only way you’ll know what feels right for you is by experimenting. (there’s a line you can use as often as you want).

This is, perhaps, to be the most personal entry for this Web site… as it’s all about me. I’ll start with some quick stats. I’m an average looking 27 year old guy. I have an average build at 5’10″ and 165lbs. My work revolves around computers and many of my jobs have been in the gaming industry.That aside, let me tell you about my snowboarding history, not to be confused with THE history of snowboarding: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

So lets go back, way back, to the mid-to-late 1990′s. At that time, I considered snow sports to be something that “other” people did. Not that I wasn’t interested, just that I never seriously considered trying them. That was, until my girlfriend’s father organized a ski trip to New Mexico. I found that I liked snow skiing, and continued to go on many trips with her family, even after the two of us stopped dating each other.

We went skiing almost every year, and I’d worked my way up to skiing black diamond slopes. On our 2001 trip, my brother bought a Kemper snowboard, boots and bindings. It turned out that he didn’t like snowboarding, and lucky for me we wear the same sized shoe. I spent a full day on the bunny slopes learning to ride a snowboard the hard way – without instructions. Lesson #1: Don’t start off going straight down the mountain. Lesson #2: Put your weight DOWNHILL. Lesson #3: BUY wrist guards!

My most spectacular crash flung me forward into a handspring that landed me square on my back. This drew the attention of many pre-teen boarders who quickly became my mentors. I’ll never forget their first words, “hey man, are you alright?” That night I found myself soaking in the hot tub washing down vicodin with beer. Still, I ended up buying that snowboard off of my brother and have ridden it ever since. And while I’ve continue to hit the slopes every year, I haven’t worn ski’s since that 2001 trip.

I’ve tried many of the sports that fit into this genre now popularized by the X Games: bmx & mountain bike, skateboarding & roller blading, water sports (ski/wake/knee), etc. But snowboarding has, by far, been my favorite. While snowboarding has a rather difficult initial learning curve (unlike skiing), it has a rather steady flow of achievement beyond the curve. Once you learn how to carve the snow, many doors suddenly open. It’s a great feeling of exploration.

There are many amazing riders out there, and every time I go I see more and more sick tricks. I don’t have the skills to ever be a sponsored boarder. Due to cost and geography, I only get to ride, at most, a few times a year. Still, every trip is marked with a new achievement which keeps me thinking about the next trip all year long. This season brought me my first 180, and it was good. Maybe this Web site will keep me occupied until the next trip.

That’s my story. As I’m currently in the market for my next snowboard, I’ll soon post the results of some of my recent research.