Woohooo! This might be the only day I get to make it to the WTC this year, It’s gonna be nice to ride with some of the crew for a change…
I met Dave in the parking lot and proceeded to mount up a B-Squared. I didn’t bother to bump my angles down, switching from my speedster, and I thought I measured my stance-width correctly (but found out later that I hadn’t.) Once we got things together, we headed up the mountain. There had been a skiff of snow overnight, but quite a bit of the mountain had been groomed. We decided to make our way to the “old” side of the resort to ride the Super Condor lift. After a wrong turn by Dave on the way there we finally made it and hit Apex Ridge. Apex Ridge is one of those “vanity” runs, underneath a lift. I followed Dave down, and it was hilarious watching the folks on the lift rubber-necking on the lift to watch him. As the name states, Apex Ridge is a “ridge” with the potential of dropping off of the sides if you make a mistake. Dave said he liked the run, but I think it may have given him flashbacks to his “Femur Ward” run, so we headed over to Boa for some turns, then headed back to the Sun Peak lift to meet up with Kirk, and some other friends of Dave’s.
We headed back to Super Condor with Kirk, and proceeded to make some ruts on Boa. By this time I’ve finally become somewhat accustomed to the B-Squared. As I mentioned earlier, I kinda screwed up when I first mounted my bindings, and the board did not feel great on the first few runs I took. I could feel the metal in it doing it’s job, but it just wasn’t doing it for me. Toeside turns felt OK, but heelsides for some reason didn’t. Dave told me I needed to be more aggressive (What a surprise for a whimp like me.) So, while we waited for Kirk, I switched my stance up a bit, bumping my angles down to 55 front / 50 rear, and widened the stance about 1/2 inch, moving the front binding forward. So at this point I was about 1/2 inch forward on the insert pack. Holy schmoly what a difference that little change made! Now the board really felt good. With the taper, I still had to work the back foot more than I’m used to, but what a fun ride. The metal ate up bumps and ruts like it’s designed to do, and the board became more fun with each run. Now that I think about it, it kind of reminded me of a Madd, only a whole lot better. Maybe Madd / Prior Metal hybrid – damp, but with more pop than any of the other metal boards I’ve ridden. The more you give / put into it, the more it gives back. It’s
definitely got Billy in it’s blood – you’ve got to be on top of it. I’d say it’s not as easy to ride as some of the other metal boards out there, but it’s also got more pop in it. It’s definitely a “do-anything” board. I’m not a racer, but I’m pretty sure this board would do fine in a GS course, but it’s still short enough to throw around and ride pretty much anywhere. I even took it off-piste for a few yards now and then, and even with the hammer-head nose, it seems to float just fine. Hopefully at some point I’ll get some more time on it to really play… I think Dave has put them on sale, so now is the time to grab one if you can, they might never be this cheap again.
After a few more runs on Boa, Dave had to hit the road, and Skate showed up. We took a few runs with Skate on Super Condor, and Kirk and I swapped boards so he could try out the B-Squared. I wasn’t going to complain about riding Kirks Prior WCRM 187…
We decided to make our way over to the opposite side of the resort and check out things on the Dreamcatcher lift. Dreamcatcher is new as of last year, and even though The Canyons is my home resort, I haven’t had the time to make it all the way over. There was probably 3 times as much snow on the Dreamcatcher side of the resort, as compared to the other side, and the runs that had been groomed were pretty chopped up, but we still enjoyed the exploring. That Dreamcatcher lift would be a dream on a powder day. Tons of open trees to ride everywhere. At that point we decided to make our way off of the hill. A run through the meat-gates on Doc’s Run ended our day. (No complaints, of course.)
I did take my crappy little point-and shoot camera with me, but I absolutely suck at shooting action shots with it. Sorry Kirk and Skate, the only half-way decent shot I got was of Flourescent Dave on Boa
After wrapping up a great day we capped it off by going over to Squatter’s for a well-deserved late lunch.
On Monday I got a chance to ride with a good friend of mine from NC, Matt “Skinny” Bagwell. He and I were freshman together back at UNCG. While I stayed in academia Matty became a tattoo artist which brought him here for the Salt Lake Tattoo convention. If you are into ink and ever down in Charlotte NC make sure and stop by Ace Custom Tattoo and talk with Matty, he is one badass artist. Just look at eh new piece he did on Flavia. 
He and his friend Stephanie stayed at our place then we all got to ride yesterday. I threw on an extra layer because of the weather on Sunday and I am glad I did. It was windy and snowing up there the whole day. It was Stephanie’s first day on a board and she rocked it with some help from Matty. After lunch (Buffalo chili at Summit house is the best) Matty came out and rode with Flavia and I. A few runs later he was ready to call it quits. I guess you kind of tired when you haven’t ridden in 2 years and the try to keep up with a couple of people on a Nidecker and a Kessler. Well that is a basic summary of the last week so now it is time to get back to work. The forecast for Park City is snow and more snow all week until Thursday and then more snow starting on Saturday or Sunday. Hope you can make it up there and take a run with me. We will be back riding Thursday morning then all weekend.
er geek and he’s actually full on so sitting with him on my Apple and he gave me some good lessons on keyboard shortcuts.