What are the odds?

We bumped into Mark, the photographer again today, and my lovely wife made pic of the day: http://brettonwoods.com/activities/photos_and_cams?alpine%20photos

Mugging for the camera at Breton woods today

I made the Bretton woods website this morning on the teleboard: http://brettonwoods.com/activities/photos_and_cams?alpine%20photos

 We got fresh tracks all day because lots night's reason kept the school-vacation crowds away. I think there's a lesson in that.

recent events and blog status

Yesterday I bumped into Martin Fey, one of the inventors of the teleboard, when I was doing some night-riding (one of the cool aspects of being in New England). It was fun to catch up and try to keep up, but it also reminded that I've been woefully inactive on this blog.

So, here's what's up:

In short, this blog, and the teleboard book I'm working on, are temporarily on the back burner, but not abandoned.

I am still riding my teleboard (probably ~20 days on snow this season), and I am still very enthusiastic. But I have also realized that I have far too many projects in progress. In order to fix that, I'm trying to finish the things I've started by focusing on them a few at a time. So you can expect to see activity here again, but it might be another season or two before it really picks up again. Feel free to reach out to me if you have questions about teleboarding that I can answer, as I think those would make for easy blog posts (I am used to answering these questions all winter).

P.S. I wrote more about work-in-progress on my other blog.  

Snowboarding to start the season

Since my Teleboard is in the shop, I started the season on a snowboard--twice, proving definitively that learning to teleboard does in fact teach snowboarding. I had a lot of fun ,of course, and learned a little finesse as I went. Forward slanting bindings seem to help. It's time to get serious about winter now though. The teleboard should be out of the shop in a few days. Stay tuned and think snow!

Getting some air at Sunapee

Me, hop turning on over-sized bumps

Mikey especially likes the view of Lake Sunapee.

Yesterday I took the day off work along with friends Mikey and Jeremy and headed over to Sunapee. This was a case of following deals and conditions. We got an early enough start to see the lifts start spinning, and rode nearly every open trail. (Full disclosure, I have no financial relationship with Sunapee, or any other ski area.)

Fooling around on the beginner area's terrain park

Both of my co-conspirators were on snowboards, and Jeremy was early intermediate. Since Jeremy needed some advice getting down steeper sections in control and without chatter, the conversation turned to technique. Unsurprisingly, nearly all of it was relevant to teleboarding.

Lessons of the day:

• One-footed hop turn: I've written before about the utility of hop turns on steeps and how any kind of jumping is good practice, but there is an even easier way to quickly pivot your board. Hop with your back foot but leave your front foot on the snow. As you are getting ready to transition into a right turn, get your weight onto your front foot. Quickly pull up your back toe and set it back down to the left of where it was. Your foot need not leave the ground for very long, nor go very high. This will help you make very quick and solid turns. You can also use more subtle version of this to turn on top of moguls.
• Round scraping turns: (Thanks to Mikey for articulating this and to Jeremy for learning it in front of my eyes) Scraping the snow is the simplest and most common way to control speed on the snow, but it doesn't have to lead to slashing zig sags, unbalanced J-shaped turns, or poor form. I think the key is to not rush, even if you are on a steep slope where you could accrue speed to quickly. Let each turn develop gradually, and do it with steady rythym. If you apply this thinking to your scraping turns, your turns will come out round and you will go at a constant comfortable speed. I like to think of this as half carved turn, half hockey stop.
• Blending techniques: I tend to write about techniques in pure form, but they can be adjusted and combined to your liking. If you know how to do sinuous, purely carved turns, and you also know how to do a hockey stop, you can make the round scraping turns I just mentioned. A hop turn can be toned down to make a light-footed turn where you stay on the ground, but still rotate more easily. The examples go on and on. Learn pure forms, and improve by trying extremes. But when trying for the best or most appropriate turn, ask yourself how you can mix and match techniques for the best outcome.
• Even application of pressure: You can overcome chattering edges by pressuring your board hard, but smoothly and confidently. If you've ever learned to drive a car with a manual transmission, this is like getting the engine to stop lugging at low speed by just hitting the gas.
• Get lower, lower than you think. Your whole body, especially your knees, is your suspension. You need to be in the middle of that range so that you can either extend or compress at any given moment to respond to shape of the slope and the turn you are making. Nice theory--In practice, people tend to ride to high, especially when they are tired or nervous. Also, you can get incredibly low on the teleboard, so the middle of the range is probably lower than you think. So adjust your stance to be lower, then lower still. Everything will start working better.
• Goof around: At the end of the day you get tired. You probably know that this is when most injuries happen, so you should just call it a day, right? Maybe not. Why not go ride a part of the mountain that's way below your ability level? Yesterday Mikey and I found a beginner level terrain park, and it made the day complete somehow.

End-of-day fun

Making the best of meager conditions in New England.

This is a tough winter in New England for anyone who likes sliding on snow, even in northern VT. But my most recent 2.3 days riding the teleboard tuned out very satisfactorily, possibly because I employed every coping strategy I know. Here's a list:

Race gates

* cameraderie. Riding with friends can press mediocre snow into service for a fun and memorable trip. Swapping stories in the hot tub is almost as good. Thanks to my friend Steve for making it happen again this year at Smuggs!
* Follow the conditions, not the trail map. My favorite trail was closed and others that are often enjoyable were better for displaying machismo than making satisfying turns. I found some good snow by taking the path of most resistance on popular trails, and later by visiting an obscure glade. The best riding was to be found on morse mountain, which is where the beginners tend to ski. It turned out that the one expert trail under the lift line was relatively unscraped. In addition, the wide, shallow, easiest-way-down trail received the best grooming and snowmaking on the mountain. My teleboard and I carved deeply sideways into this modest-looking slope, turning it into an exuberant spectacle. Teleboards are perhaps most at home when carving hard and turning heads.
* Get up early. My 3 runs before breakfast and the long ride home today were the best of the trip, and it was no accident. I made the first tracks on newly manufacured snow on a trail chosen the day before.
* take your technique out of the box. Play with the coefficients on all the parameters af your turn and find something better for the situation you are in. For man-made wind-slab on boulders I found my sweet spot by reaching a pole down further than usual and throwing a few hop-turns around to punch through the snow. When my edge found purchase in flatter terrain, sitting down hard into the turn or throwing my torso at the ground did the trick. (Watch video of extreme carving and try to imitate it sometime--It's even more fun to try than to watch, and falling from 4 inches doesn't hurt much.)
* Be opportunistic. Race gates open to the public cleared my head. A terrain park provided soft snow on an icy day. When what normally works for you fails, something unexpected might work.

smiling ladies

Thanks to everyone who showed up for making this trip one to remember!

Telemarking at smuggs

At Smuggler's Notch, Looking at Madonna from Morse

My friend Adam wanted to build some telemark skills today, so I jumped on the opportunity and joined him. Sinc my M.O. is helping people learn, and because my skills are somewhat past his, I filled his head with too much information and told him to focus on the best nugget and ignore the rest. I have a lot of respect for instructors who seem to know the right thing to say in the first place.

Adam, learning telemark turns

I also got to thinking about crossover skills. Like how practice alpine skiing teaches upper/lower body independence that translates to the teleboard so well. Or how being used to the quick-turning teleboard makes me more nimble on a snowboard. Today I noticed another crossover skill. Riding a teleboard has made me a better telemarker bygetting me used to always being on edge. I think being on only one board with such a pronouned sidecut has ensured that I naturally make an effort to keep the teleboard as much as possible. It prevents catching an edge and is a good way to keep your speed up in the flats. Today I found myself keeping my skis on edge, which served a different purpose. The parts of the trail that would have been merely runout were instead a place to practice carving telemark skis. And that is quite a valuable skill. Even so, I'll be back on a teleboard next time.