Zaskoda

Honestly, I was looking for information on Netbooks when I ran across Cheetah Ultra Sports‘ new snowboard, the Whip F117. I ran across the board on a Gizmodo post. The stick costs nearly $2k and looks like a snowboard mated with a Cyclon ship. I have to admit, it’s dead sexy.

The hole in the board is… odd… making for certain that this is not a powder board. This leaves me wondering just what this board IS good for. The product page suggests it’s good for new riders. However, in my many years of teaching, the best thing I’ve found for new riders is some soft powder.

Perhaps it’s an interesting board for the park, but will the hole get caught on parts of rails, boxes, and pipes? If it’s lighter, it might be nice for areal tricks. How this board snaps and carves could have a big impact on take-offs and landings.

The risers are extremely high. I hear a lot of riders like risers, but I rarely see them and never this high. I was joking with friends the other day about making elevator snowboard boots. I imagine they would feel something like this board would feel. Unfortunately, I’ve never had the experience of riding with risers, so I can only imagine.

Part of me wants to take this board onto Snowflex terrain. There’s something that feels appropriate about taking a space-age looking board onto an artificial surface. Ultimately, I would really like to demo this board and find out how it feels. However, until I can, I’m going to have to classify this in the gimmick category – a very expensive gimmick.

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Just finished integrating a flickr plugin for a photos page. I also installed a lifestream plugin but didn’t finish setting it up.

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Over the weekend, I moved Zaskoda.com to a new server, installed wordpress, and slapped up a modified theme based on artwork Nino gave me. I’m still hacking and carving as I try to move slightly closer to the unreasonable vision I had for the site. Hopefully in time I’ll have something here worth showing. It seems there’s never enough time to do all the little fun things you want to do.

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It’s been a strange weekend. Let me start by talking about my new job. In April 08, I parted ways with my employer and set out on my own. I quickly secured a large client for a huge social media project. Through the summer, the project ramped up to a nice bulk head in the fall. My client said the results were better than another similar and more expensive project they were running for a different IP. However, my client was bought out by South Peak. For reasons I do not fully understand, South Peak has refused to pay my invoices submitted last fall leaving me broke and in debt to my subcontractors for a huge bulk of money. The whole thing forced me into a situation where I had to get employed on the quick. And I did. My first day of work is this coming Wednesday.

With my self-employment phase at an end (or on hold???) I will be stuck back into the crowded weekend lift lines like the rest of the office trolls in the world. As such, I’ve been trying to get as many slides in as possible before I got to work. As luck would have it, my buddies Jeff and Lynn are in town! I spent the past two days riding hard; we started both days at A-Basin and then hit Keystone for night riding. Steph went up with me yesterday and got her 8th day down.

So, not only were the past two days generous in giving us loads of riding time, but I found myself giving back in various ways. First, on Friday night I helped two young Christian girls down the mountain. They were there to “integrate” their culture with snowboarding culture. I laughed, but did my best to teach and to get them down safely. Then, yesterday, on our way up, we gave a snowboarder a lift to the top of Loveland pass – which isn’t very unusual. On the way up, a car was jacked up sideways in the middle of the narrow icy road; so we dropped off our passenger and went back to push the car around and get them headed to safety.

This all set a strange tone for the day that was topped off in a very unexpected way on our very last run at Keystone. While pausing on the last bit of the slope, some guy yelled as us, “dude, come set my arm!” We looked over at a young boarder holding his shoulder funny. A few minutes later I was out of my board, standing over him, grabbing his left arm firmly. With a solid tug and a loud pop, his arm went back into socket. “Thanks dude, it feels better already.” Even though his order of beer suggested he was somewhat numbed from alcohol, I was still impressed – he seemed like a pretty tough guy.

So I saved the Christians, then we gave a snowboarder a lift, then Steph managed traffic while I pushed a car to safety on an icy narrow road, and then I reset a guys shoulder. Not a bad weekend’s work! I suppose I could also mention that I did a few new things in the park at Keystone. I hit my first kinked box without a problem. I also took my first corrugated pipe.

I’m going to try to ride with Jeff and Lynn again tomorrow and hit Steamboat on Tuesday… Then it’s off to the office grind for who knows how long… *sigh*

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I’m a bit slow on the Happy New Year as it’s already the 6th. Steph and I did the family tour for the holidays; but we managed to hit Wolf Creek on the way home. Our timing was perfect. Before our arrival, the conditions were a bit packed. The day we rode saw a foot of fresh powder. Fun times.

The attached photo is from a video Russ shot on a recent visit. Most of the riding was at A-Basin. In the vid you’ll see Steph, Russ, Mike and myself. I must admit, I love it when someone else takes over the camera work for a change! Russ even has an HD version up on the tube.

I took a moment to update my links over on that sidebar. I’ve added a number of blogs I’ve been keeping tabs on. Every once in a while I stumble on to a new one and forget to bookmark it. It seems that more and more snowboarding blogs are coming online. It kinda makes me want all of us to get together and do something.

Anyway, have a happy (and safe!) new year.

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