Opening Day At Mount Peter

It was opening day, my opening day at least since I didn’t get to the mountain on Saturday during the limited hours. Mount Peter opened up on Saturday from 12p – 4p with, from what I heard, were awesome conditions. Saturday had some great weather, but Sunday was a different story. The morning was nice, it was cloudy, kinda cool and the snow was nicely packed. Great for an easy first day.

Gray opening day

I did some laps and checked out the new instructor training groups and just took it easy. I threw in a few little 180s and realized how rusty I am. I became lazy over the past few months so I need to get my legs back and get in shape again. Although I shouldn’t use my snowboarding season to get in shape, I should be already, he-he. I didn’t really get pictures from that day, but just a few shots of the mountain.

Dreary base view

I also don’t want to put anybody up here who doesn’t want to be either. I will get better at this photo thing for the blog, promise.

How Many Snowboards Do You Own?

I have 2 decks right now that I will be riding this season, granted they are the same, Rome Blue, but from 2006 and 2009. My old Blue is beat up and will remain my teaching board, so I’m not as careful with that one. My new one will be broken in this year and be ridden at Hunter Mountain, Mount Snow and a few resorts in Colorado (yay!). I feel that the Blue is a nice deck for all-mountain riding, but I want something I can really throw around in the park. If I can find one before my trip I will possibly be bringing 2 decks to Colorado, though the Blue can handle anything. One more is not excessive in my opinion, but to some of the more recreational riders I know, 1 is enough. So do I go with 3? How many boards do you own and consistently ride? Do you have one for different types of riding (jib, groomers, powder, teaching, summer)? Or one for jibbing and one for everything else? Enlighten me. Maybe it won’t make me feel that bad for spending the money.

I am avidly looking for a park board now (and a snowboard attachment for my Subi), especially with all the deals floating around out there for the Holiday Season Shopping Kickoff. I think evogear.com, SierraSnowboard.com and Altrec.com have put up some great sales, but I’m waiting for Cyber Monday to see if anything better will come along. Be sure to check the Gear Deals page for any new offers.

Shaun White Secret Halfpipe: New Trick Video

You may have seen the link to the web site for Project X, the secret half pipe that Red Bull built for Shaun White. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me. Well, as advertised, I am providing the first notice about the project. There is new footage about the training and Shaun’s new tricks. At first I thought, “a foam pit, seriously,” but, then again, he has to be in perfect health for Vancouver.

I recommend taking a peek. It must be nice to have that half pipe all to yourself, but I also really like to look at the surrounding area. Silverton, Colorado seems like a sick place to go snowboarding.

Planning A Trip To Colorado!

I stumbled upon some great flight deals to Colorado this winter from my area and things may be working out me! Flights will be booked first but, still debating on the time on which to go. There will be lots of skiing/riding (yes, I’m bringing a skier along), but we also want to do some unguided snowmobiling. This is the part where I’m torn about the amount of snow. Shayboarder was kind enough to give me plenty of tips and info already on some places to stay, in and around Loveland, things that could go wrong and types of riding at each.

Ideally I’d like to stay a few nights in 2 different places, and since we want to do snowmobiling, I’m thinking even Winter Park for 3 nights and then head down and stay around Georgetown, CO to ride Loveland and maybe A-Basin. I think staying the first few nights in a village might be good in case there is a major storm to avoid getting stranded on I-70. I’m sure I’ll wait till it’s closer to the trip to book anything and I’ll be watching the weather closely.

It’s probably going to be around early to mid-January (I just can’t wait till March, and the flight times didn’t work for us). Hopefully booking the tickets Thursday! Then I have a bunch to do: car, lodging, lift tickets, etc. I get some discounts through AASI on car rentals, but I found some awesome deals already. And I’ll be checking out Liftopia.com for discounted tickets, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of deals since it’s still early in the season.

If anyone has some favorite spots or recommends a certain snowmobile rental company, let me know!

SOOO EXCITED

Snow Scams – Shops To Avoid

It seems the BoardParadise.com issue is still a big concern, 1, for the people that got screwed and 2, for the fact that they are coming back around as bprideshop.com. Now like I previously stated I had no problems what-so-ever with them. I got everything I ordered exactly. No problems with shipping or my credit card (and I keep a close eye on that).

This got me thinking: Since I don’t have a large choice of shops and do most of my shopping online, are there other bad retailers out there?

Someone mentioned Snowboard Connection, but I have no opinion since I have yet to deal with them. If anyone has any input, let me know. I’m not talking stupid rants, but if you ordered something and got the wrong item (more than once), or never received your order or even had problems afterwords with fraud, let me know.