Omatic Sweet 160 09'

Be wary of how busy and backed up online shops still are, especially the smaller core shops. I placed an order on the night of Monday, November 30th and it has yet to ship. A small place with limited resources and hands can only do so much, but they were honest and up front about, so no biggie.

And since I am waiting on some stuff, I’ll post when I get it. Actually my boyfriend just got his Omatic Sweet (pic above) snowboard yesterday, and it is pretty sweet. Even better, since he was torn about whether to get the Omatic Sweet or the Omatic Awesome, he got stickers that say “Awesome.” I know it is a great board and I did a lot of research, but I really think his final decision was because the boards were called “Awesome” and “Sweet.”

I looked over the board a bit. Nice flex – not too soft and not too stiff. It will be a perfect board for just about anything. We spent some time looking at widths, but ended up not going with the Omatic Awesome wide. The waist is only 25.6cm wide, but with new bindings and boots he has, we hope this board will eliminate most toe drag he had. He loves the risers on his skis and was considering them for snowboarding too.

As Hampus Mosesson’s pro model and meant for big mountain freestyle riding it’s a twin directional. Definitely going to suit his all around riding style. The sidewall angle kind of falls in the middle so it will allow for some margin of error, also good for a skier.

As promised above, here are some of the good left over deals available around the interweb:
Holiday Sale Coupon – 20% off. Coupon Code: HOHOHO

Find Atomic, Arbor, Burton, GNU, RIDE and more of your favorites at Berg’s Ski and Snowboard Shop! FREE Domestic Ground Shipping on orders over $39!

Buy a Burton Snowboard and get a Lift Ticket Free

Free Shipping on everything – limited time only

Evogear.com is holding DailyDeal sales. Today’s deal got you 25% off ALL Outlet Jackets so I suggest checking those out or bookmark the Gear Deals page to get updates quick. That’s all for now, but I will update on the new stuff when it comes in. There is a mash of stuff from park setups to snow pants!

Today I found another evogear.com email advertising a 20% Coupon for any gear in their Outlet section. I’m currently the personal shopper for a few people for snowboards and clothing, so this helps. Even ski stuff, but I mostly find good deals and they decide if the gear is good or not.

evogear.com Snovember Sale

Enjoy it while it lasts, but hurry. Evo has not said when it will end, just that it ends soon. Hopefully for a few days so I can spend time shopping!

I’ve had some gift cards I’ve been collecting (Visa, AMEX, etc) to put towards the camera. Unfortunately I could not find a good camera shop local and my local Best Buy didn’t even have what I wanted in stock. I wanted it prior to my upcoming weekend adventure in Boston, so I went online. I found it for a good price at Adorama.com. The annoying part was getting my gift cards converted to their gift cards since literally no one accepts split payments online or over the phone. I bought separate gift cards to Adorama with my Visa/Amex gift cards and was finally able to buy the camera.

Olympus Stylus Tough 6000

Even better is that I ordered it last night, just before 5pm. I chose 2-3 day shipping for less than $4 and it was delivered today! It’s because I live only like 2 hours from NYC, but still, props to Adorama for getting it to me so quick.

It’s awesome. I needed something that could handle my clumsiness. It’s shockproof, waterproof, freezeproof and I was told crushproof up to 120lbs. I couldn’t verify the crushproof spec anywhere online, but a BestBuy employee told me that. If it’s true great, if not I’m okay with it. I wonder if Olympus keeps that out of the marketing to get you to buy the next model up…hmmm?

I initially wanted orange, but had such a hard time finding it, I settled for blue. I figured that if I did drop it in the snow, it’s easier to locate than white or yellow. Though I plan on rigging a leash of some sort to my snow pants so I can’t lose it, kind of like those things that no one attaches to their boots and bindings

Having a nice, new portable point and shoot means I will also be taking more pictures and actually using them on the blog! Woohoo! So maybe these things will be a bit more interesting. Now I am currently waiting for the battery to fully charge so I can play with my new toy and once I get to know it better, I’ll put up a review for those interested in it as a future purchase.

I already helped with the boot selection, but now I’m involved in a possible snowboard purchase. Since the boot size is like a 12 or 13, I’m on the lookout for a wide board for everything and not too stiff, you know…just right.

I have a few in mind already. K2 Format, Forum Recon, Burton Bullet and possibly the Ride Fleetwood though I think that may be a bit too stiff.

I’m still researching, but I found some decent boards on evogear.com. I’m even looking locally on like craigslist since this is not a priority purchase as he is first a skier.

If anyone has some favorite wide rides, let me know. I’d appreciate the help!

Lucky for me Hunter also had a Swap and Sell going on downstairs as well as some great sales in their gear stores. I was looking around, not really seeing much and hanging out with friends until I spotted a box. It was a box for Rome Madisons, from last season. I moved swiftly, beer in hand to discover it was empty. Lucky for me I could still read at that point and quickly spotted the bindings mounted on a Rome Lo-Fi hanging from the ceiling. I dragged and employee to the window and said I want them. He then tried to sell me the whole combo, but I already bought one board and the park board is not in my budget yet (and it probably wouldn’t be the Lo-Fi either). I did however get the bindings and a free hat for $105, so I thought I did alright. I’m very new to this negotiating thing.

I kinda got a look from my friends when they found me at the counter buying stuff already. The “we’ve been in the store 5 minutes and you’re already dropping money on snowboard gear you crazy b*tch” look. It wasn’t a completely impulsive buy as those who have been here before know I’ve wanted them for a while. The impulsive thing would have been to buy the Lo-Fi too.

Aside from that, the rest of the day went pretty well considering when I got there friends of friends stuttered their name and almost fell over when being introduced (which is always a good sign). We left Hunter around 5:30p to head on a quick beer run and back to a friends’ cabin and their friends’ cabin. There was all around good times had with beer, food and a night in the hot tub.

The only mishap from the whole weekend is the camera situation. Now I intended on bringing my nice Nikon DSLR, but I of course forgot to head home to grab it. Said other people brought some hand held point and shoots but either forgot the memory cards or the memory card adapters. So they were at least better off than me. My two friends specifically rushed to buy a new camera (after the previous one was stolen) for this weekend and forgot to take the memory card out of the package. All in all, I think we had about 10-15 pictures between us. Maybe I can get my hands on some.

Evogear.com

YARD

26% Off at the Evogear.com YARD SALE

I am looking to upgrade the bindings on my old Rome Blue because I’m just not fond of the Salomon ones I have. I was looking for something softer, more freestyle oriented, on that one since I use it for park and teaching. On my new 09′ Blue though, I’m looking for something stiffer, with more high back support for leaning into a heel side carve.

Evogear.com has a pair of Men’s Union Cadet’s for cheap I was thinking of putting on my old board, but they are a L/XL size. A tad bit too big for me. There is a large selection of Ride bindings, but I kind of avoid them since I hated my last pair. And they have no Rome for me either

I’m keeping up my search, but definitely hope to pick up both pairs by October/November and I’m leaning toward Union and Rome bindings. I’m also having a yard sale of my own, via eBay, because I have an old R.E.D. helmet that I wore a handful of times and basically let roll around in my trunk for a year. I’m also getting rid of a pair of old Burton Moto’s that I wore for a season and have let sit in my closet for at least 3 year and 2 other pair of boots. I’m getting rid of the helmet and boots super cheap, the bindings too, I’m just looking for a tiny bit of cash, but mostly more closet space. That is precious in condo living.

Bottom line: Evogear Rocks!

The wesc headphones I rock out with at work.

Through college I relied on my Roxy Headphone Beanie. I went to school in upstate NY and it got cold. Walking across campus I was warm and oblivious to my surroundings and when I wasn’t feeling class, my professors never knew that I never heard their lectures. The headphones were kind of cheap inside the Roxy hat, but that is not what killed them. My clumsy ass stepped on it one day in my snowboard boots.

So in light of the upcoming season, along with my new binding purchase (Rome Madison’s very soon!), I am looking to acquire a new headphone beanie. I’m also a fan of toasty toes, so I’m looking into these Merrell Slides.

Does anyone have any suggestions on nice headphone beanie? One that is both comfortable and has decent sound quality is preferred. What do you get suckered into buying for the cold months?

Seeing as I just got a new pair of snowboard boots I aim to keep them as fresh and clean as possible in the next few seasons and making an effort to keep my old ones longer as well. I’ve compiled a list of a few ways to get rid of or prevent the unpopular boot funk.

Powder
Some say baby powder in your boots will help absorb the moisture and avoid stench. I’m sure something like Gold Bond would work too.

Rice Sock (courtesy of The Angry Snowboarder)
Load two socks up with rice and after riding drop them in your boots. The rice will absorb some of the moisture so the bacteria can’t grow nice and strong.

The Freezer
A fellow instructor told me try putting my boot liners in the freezer and that the cold would kill some of the bacteria. I put my liner’s in a garbage bag, but left it open (I just couldn’t bring myself to leave the food fully exposed). After a whole day I didn’t notice that great a difference, so I put them back in. I forgot about them until I had to get to the mountain 3 days later and they actually weren’t too bad. After two days though, the smell was back, but not as strong.

Steam Clean
Steaming can work for clothes. It also works to open up the pores on your face and kill bacteria. Since I used one extreme (The Freeze), I thought why not steam? Set large pot on the stove and bring to a boil. I had no where to do it, but hanging your liners above the pot would make it easier than holding them up there. I steamed them for about 10 minutes each and let them dry, but really no difference. I steamed them again and threw them promptly in the freezer and that seemed to get more results, but they still weren’t Febreeze clean.

Plain Old Washing
This one sounds like a good idea, but my problem is getting the inner laces out of my liners and I really don’t want to mess with them. Directions: Throw liners in the washing machine. Simple enough? I’ve read that it really doesn’t do that much on its own, but if anyone tried it, let me know.

Pet Urine Enzyme Neutralizer (upcoming experiment)
Yes. I know it sounds gross, but it’s a cleaning agent. Comes in a bottle you can get from PetSmart for a few bucks. It gets great reviews on the pet store websites for cleaning up dog messes and I think I saw it a while back on a forum. Most of them seem to be natural, so I don’t think it will harm the material. Spraying might work, but some people recommend a heavy application. Since I do have a new pair of boots, I’m going to be trying this one in the next few weeks on the old ones and I’ll update you on the results.

If there are any other methods that have worked wonders for you, don’t be shy! Everyone suffers from it, especially if you ride as much as me or more.

Lucky me that I came across a crazy deal on evogear.com. Seems I’ve been getting lucky a lot lately (with the deals on gear, get your mind out of the gutter). I loved my Salomon Ivy’s but, I needed something a little lighter and low-profile. Walking around in a bulky boot is a downer, but I also need something with support that I can charge in. Hence the F20’s.

Salomon F20W Snowboard Boots

I ordered a 9.5, even though I wore a 10 in the Ivy’s. I probably could have worn the 10’s if evogear had them, but I crossed my fingers. I slid my foot in and it was a little snug standing up, but it just has to be broken in, I hope. Oddly, my left foot fits in better than my right, and it’s really only slightly snug on my right big toe. I bet that with a few days on snow they will feel fabulous.

The best part about the Salomon Fusion series is the low-profile design. They aren’t as bulky and resemble a skate shoe. The foot bed isn’t as comfy as I expected, but it’s better that it’s not too soft and I’m sure it will break in quickly.

The heel hold is amazing. I don’t ever remember feeling that secure in my old boots, like a baby joey in it’s mother’s pouch. The boot conforms around the back of my leg and I can feel the liner around the tendon. I won’t have to re-lace these babies up mid-day to keep my foot in place.

Being that they retail for $230 and I paid about $98 after discounts and coupons, I think I made a good purchase. I also got a Dakine 10″ Wax Scraper, a Dakine Pocket Stone and Dakine Stud Stomp Pad for my new Rome Snowboard. Has anyone had these boots before? Or the F22’s? Let me know! And I will update come winter on the performance of my pretty new boots.