SNOWBOARDING!

I've been snowboarding since 1988 and I have to say it's awesome. It covers all of the bases. Beautiful scenery, peaceful powder days being one with nature, high speed thrills on race boards going way too fast, adrenaline pumping cliff jumping, acrobatic "tricks" on jumps and in the half-pipe. Whatever you want, you can get it. I would highly recommend the sport to anyone.

I was an avid skier before I started snowboarding and my favorite terrain was super-extreme. Once I started snowboarding I never looked back. I haven't even put on a pair of skis since the early 90's. Someday maybe I'll put on some skis and see if I still remember... ;) Snowboarding gives you so much more than skiing does, not to mention that it's easier to learn. (after about a week on a snowboard you'll be cruising down expert runs no problem.)

My favorite aspect of snowboarding is riding race boards and "carving." Now you just can't do that on skis. I can lay down almost totally horizontal while turning on my race board and the board sticks to a perfect line. It's quite a rush.

Some random pics:

From a trip in early 1999...

(Sarah, Stephanie, Erik, Mike and Daniel)

From a trip in 2000...

(Daniel, Brian - Danielle, Sarah, Kim, Jeff - Tina, Andrew, Andrew's friend)

Me

Another carve shot and yet another carve shot

My sister Sarah

My Friend Erik

A carve shot, and another one.

My Boards:

Burton Aysm Air (Broken)
Broke this one in 1993 I think, jumping off a cornice. (see below)
Burton PJ7.3 Race board(Broken)
Broke this on in 1996 after an insane trip to Canada. I put a gouge in the bottom and when I returned to Tahoe, I carved hard enough to crack the core right along the gouge.
Burton M5 (My beater board)
A little too small for real use. It was on sale for $50 brand new so I couldn't pass it up.
Burton Supermodel 8.1
Yes, that's a 181cm snowboard! Great for those backcountry powder cruises.
Burton Prime 7.3 180s
Without a doubt, the most awesome board I've ever owned. Nothing but pure adrenaline pumping insane speed. It is definitely a giant-slalom board and it makes really large sweeping turns well. Smaller turns are a little challenging. I'm thinking about getting a shorter "slalom" race board so I can ride both styles...

A few of my favorite resorts:

Kirkwood (south of Tahoe) They have some really nice extreme terrain. I spend most of my winter trips at Kirkwood.
Bear Valley (Really south of Tahoe) When Tahoe has a really good dump the bottom half of the mountain opens making Bear Valley a great mountain. When the bottom half isn't open it's still a pretty damn good resort.
Whistler/Blackcomb (Canada) Without a doubt, the best place I've ever ridden. If you can get there do it! Tons of high-speed quads, extremely long runs, glaciers, you name it.

A few pictures of me:

A Picture of me standing with my Asym (This is from 1993 I think)

A nice 15' air off of a roof top (Also from 1993)

In fact, there's a little story behind that one.

This was shot at the condo's at Bear Valley CA the day before I broke my board! I took a 35+ foot cornice drop the next day, and lost my balance just as I went off the edge. I was moving along at around 15 MPH when I left the edge, so there wasn't much (scratch that ANY) time to regain my balance, and I went flailing through the air and slammed into the icy slope below! (... almost lost my lunch too!) I was pitched backwards when I landed and snapped the tail instantly. Can we say OUCH! Well, $80 later and some miraculous work by the guys at "Helm of Sun valley SJ" and the board is better than new! (Well, sorta') It weighs almost twice what it did, due to the huge slab of wood, fiberglass, and epoxy they used to glue the thing back together! BUT, I've been assured that the board will never break in the same place! (Just on either side of the patch!)

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( ) as of 03/18/99