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Wuz Happenin'?!

スキー&スノーボード2004-2005

Oreta!!!

It's quite amazing that Bear Mountain is still open. (they plan to close after Monday the 24th) I remember by the end of January several runs still didn't have any snow! At that time I thought for sure there would be many bare spots toward the end of March and the place would be forced to close before April. But a few late storms in February and March changed everything. And instead of having to close at the end of March it is still going strong with plenty of snow. Actually the coverage is good enough that I think they should stay open until the end of this month!

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Still plenty of snow in SoCal! Nice grab, btw (not me)

I rode Bear Mountain probably for the last time this season today. As I started driving up the mountain in the morning I ran into a phenomenon I've never seen before. It had rained in L.A. the night before but I didn't think that had enough to affect the local mountains. But shortly after climbing up Highway 330 I noticed the scenery started to change. It looked like everywhere around me had freshly fallen snow and soon I began to see leftover snow on the road! I got the best confirmation when I saw cars coming down the mountain covered in snow. Although I had re-positioned my bindings to freestyle stance I couldn't have been happier. After all, this was past the middle of April, in SoCal!

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Top of Bear Mountain Sunday 4/23...amazing!

But as Highway 330 turned into Highway 18 and I passed through Running Springs, suddenly all the new snow just disappeared! I couldn't see anymore new snow either on the side or the middle of the road. It was like magic...one minute you see them, the next minute they're all gone!

I still arrive at Bear Mountain in under 1 hour 45 minutes. I was surprised how many people showed up, though. Usually Bear Mountain's parking lot is pretty empty at the end of the season. Today the top was kind of foggy and icy in the morning but as soon as you ride down a little more the snow became quite soft. Go all the way down to the bottom and the snow turned slushy. Because of the different snow conditions I told myself to be very careful and only caught an edge once as I was approaching a kicker (I was looking at the lip of the kicker too much and lost concentration).

Although quite a few people showed up and some of the lifts weren't running, I never had to wait in line for more than 3 minutes. I just kept taking the Express all day. I spent most of the time today doing freestyle and generally messing around on my board. There was a steep hip with a long takeoff that takes you onto another course that I'm sure J.T. would've loved to try. I kept hitting that throughout the day but with the slushy snow it was hard to figure out the exact speed I needed to clear it. On a couple of runs I did an indy grab and a high BS 180. Of course I also hit up the kickers but again spring time snow made approaching difficult. If I dug my edges too much as I approached the lip I would slow down too much. But if I didn't put enough pressure on my feet I would easily catch an edge or take off unbalanced. I'm slowly but surely gettng better at boardsliding. I even tail pressed the long box a few times! I practiced nose-tapping + 180 and even tail-bonked the trash can a couple of times!

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Not as cool as this but I did it

I originally thought since the snow would be very slushy, I'd probably finish before 1pm. But I had so much fun that by the time I called it a day it was almost 2pm! Unfortunately tragedy struck after I finished changing and was getting ready to clean the Jeremy Jones 156 I just bought this past February. As I was wiping the snow off the board, I noticed something wrong near the tail. I took a closer look and almost couldn't believe my eyes...it was a huge crack!! People who know me will tell you that I'm very careful and take very good of my gear. For a while I couldn't figure out how the crack got there. After replaying the entire day in my head, I think I found the most likely cause:

Toward the end of the day I was hitting the last tabletop near the base. Since I couldn't pull off cleanly on the 2 kickers before that, I wanted to make sure I went into this with enough speed and take off flat. Everything was fine but right before I reached the lip I felt I was carrying too much speed and panicked (I often do this)! As I went airborn I totally forgot to grab and lost all of my concentration, including bringing up my legs. I only sucked up my knees right before I landed and I ended up landing on my tail!

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Kind of like this but not nearly as extreme

Well, below you can see the result of that. I haven't even used this board for a full season yet...kuyashii!! I'm really surprised this happened because even though the Jeremy Jones has a softer flex it is a top-end pro model board made by Burton. But since I bought it on eBay I won't be able to claim it with Burton under warranty. I've shown the board to my co-workers (both are big time snowboarders) and a shop and they all told me that the damage cannot be repaired. The only thing I could do is put some epoxy on the topsheet and hope water won't get into the core. Now I'm not sure if I should take this board up to Mammoth this weekend. Is this really the end of my Jeremy Jones?!

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Say it ain't so!=(
by snoboyaro | 2006-04-23 16:03 | Snow
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Riding down Main St in Mammoth during the 2006 New Year storm!
by snoboyaro
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