Snowboarding

Important Resources

• SBINZ Manual 2017
• Down Unweighting
• Up Unweighting
• Snowmie Down vs UpUnweighting
• Material
• Backcountry

Resources for when I'm Better

• Carving Axiom
• Carving Binding
• Carving Inclination
• Carving Minus Plus
• Carving Position
• Carving Push n Pull
• Carving Rotation
• Carving Snowboard
• Carving Technique
• Carving Terrain
• Carving Vertical
• Carving Laid Down
• Carving Laid Down Backside
• Carving Laid Down Frontside

Tricks I'm Working On

• How to Carve, 2
• 360 into Butter

Travel Tips

• Use southwest. They have the best boot/bag policy (it counts as carry-on).

Maintenance

Boot Care

• Dry your boots asap. Take out the liners.
• For off-season, lace them up so they don't lose pressure. Store in room temp.

Board Care

• Wax
• Inspecting an Edge
• Tuning Edges
• Store at room temp. To be pedantic, put sideways + on cushion so you don't stress an edge or ruin the camber. Clean and leave on thick wax to preserve moisture. Scrape off the wax when the season comes.

Other Gear

• Dry goggles
• Soft wash/air dry clothes

Gear

• Board: Burton Rewind 149 (DPS Phantom), Jones Mind Expander Women's 150 (DPS Phantom), Burton Dragon 152
• Bindings: Burton Step On (Men's small bindings, size 8), Flow
• Shoes: Photon (8), Burton Double Boa (9). Mondopoint 25; 1cm variation in standing/sitting
• Goggles: Zionor X Magnetic
• Helmet: Smith Vantage
• Bag: Burton Wheelie Board Case Board Bag Bona Flora Print
• Clothes: Oneskee

General Board Information

Specs I've Locked Down

• Length: 148-149, possibly 147/150?
• Stiffness: Stiffer (more aggressive), unless park.
• Stance Width: 20-21 in
• Adjustments: 20 or 21 center to center, -9/9, 0/15.

Boards Recommended for Me

• Rider's Choice Gnu (magnatraction; asymmetric; stiff flex)

Previously Tried:

Burton Women's Rewind 149

• Pretty good ride
• Awesome flex, good for jumps/butters
• Reasonably stable at speed
• Good graphic

Burton Custom Flying V 150

• Terrible ride. Kept shifting me over to deeper toeside. Bad stability at speed; hard to force an edge into the snow.

Burton Killroy Twin 148

• Pretty good ride/length/flex
• Stable at speed on ice
• Tried with Burton Step Ons (lots of toe pain with 7.5, better with 8)
• Graphic looks eh

Lib Technologies Cold Brew 149 (2020?)

• Has magnatraction
• Reasonably capable of floating in powder (7, assuming Mind Expander is a 9).
• Caught much more edges, though this may be because I'm used to the Mind Expander.
• Reasonable for moguls/trees. Not great, but doable. (Slightly shorter would probably be better)
• Medium to high stiffness.
• Big snow day with low visibility, so hard to try at speed.

Jones Mind Expander 149 green (Womens)

• Used at 20 center to center, -5, 15
• Powder board with short effective edge
• Soft flex until back foot, then super stiff
• Easy to float. Directional, sits closer to the back.
• I felt I could reasonably carve, but it was really easy to turn.
• Would over-turn at high speeds unless I forced it to an edge.
• Powder House recommended a board that would be carve in more with higher flex for higher speed.
• Lots of hard snow this day, but technically this is my top speed board as of 1/29/2020 (48mph)

Burton Process Flying V 148

• Pretty good for riding fast.
• Good jumps, easy carves
• Started to jitter at high speeds
• Soft flex
• Used at 20 in center to center, -12+12
• Flying V is Hybrid Rocker.

Burton Deja Vu Flying V 141

• Extremely easy turns, but hard to stop/control.
• Serious flex
• Too short for me

Burton Dragon 152

• Good for speed
• Hard to flex/do tricks (9 on stiffness scale)
• Hard to carve on steeps.
• Faster edge to edge and faster turns due to camber + narrow sidecuts
• Too long for me

General Board Info:

• Gnu has a cool feature called "magnatraction" (patented), which is a bunch of waves down the side of the board that make it better for icy conditions.
• Women's boards are typically narrower and have more flex. My boots are slightly wide, so that makes using it difficult.
• The Profile is the side view when you look down the side from the top.
• Burton is bad at the mix of camber/rocker edges, hence the "flying v" and such. GNU and one more brand (Lib Technologies?) are better for this.

Useful Other Resources

• How to buy/choose a snowboard
• Snowboard Rocker
• Choosing Bindings
• Choosing Boots
• Snowboard Trick Terminology and Guide
• How Sidecut Works

Tahoe Info

• Weather/Road Conditions
• Bus 1: Tahoe Ski Trips
• Bus 2: Sports Basement

Bus Comparison

• SB has later pickup and arrives later. Usually after lifts are already running.
• SB has a bus per stop (no stops in between).
• SB is more likely to cancel due to bad weather. TST goes to many resorts.
• SB has good customer service.
• SB good for loading gear up; they do it for you.

Stores

Good Places to Buy Boards

• Evo
• The House
• Backcountry
• Note: Some stores have exclusive boards, so it's hard to find retail. (Powder House ones should be findable online)

Sport's Basement

• Restock once a year in fall
• Unbeatable return policy -- return even if used up to a year. Boot molding counts as "acceptable use".
• Boot work (repairs, etc) 80/h
• Starting near March, EVERYTHING for snow goes to 50%!

REI

• Restock continuously
• Pretty good return policy -- return even if used, but boot molding not included.

Powder House

• Super cheap; highly recommend if at Heavenly
• Helpful people: Cory (Gondola)
• Helpful people: Nigel (green button) -- manager (Zalanta)
• Partnered with Tahoe Dave in North (you can return there)

Burton Northstar

• Nice people to help you get set up, but personally I didn't like the manager very much. Found him rude and presumptuous.

Riding Tips:

• Put the front strap around the front toe (instead of ontop)
  • Doesn't cut blood flow to toes
  • Presses your foot into the binding
  • Better for flipping onto heel edge

Gear Tips:

• Stiff + long boards are bad, but I could probably ride a 151 stiff with more effective edge.
• Factory recommendation for distance between feet is "shoulder width", but 21 inches for men and 20 for women
• Boots wear in around 4 times from the heat of your foot. You can also ask shops to custom heat them for you.
• Today, you basically need an "entire arsenal".

Goggles:

• People carry 2-3 pairs of goggles, one for each type of light.
• Don't let them get scratched.
• Some goggles have squeegees for goggles. Keep the inside of the goggles sealed; this helps the antifog.
• Some are even supposed to get you more light than you could get without goggles (Oakley high intensity yellow).
• High VLT (40-80) for lowlight. Low VLT (~10) for highlight.
• Wear goggles inside your goggles to keep them airtight.

Boots:

• Heat mold them to wear them in faster.
• Toes should line the front as you stand (your foot spreads).
• Mondopoint = cm

Cameras

• Insta 360 One R