Ski and snowboard info

[Maulik]

I'm calling for help finding good ski forums - specifically technical information to handle maintenance, performance of gear, etc.

ED: Focused this thread a bit...

[AZK]

not to hijack, but a while back i was reading in some magazine about this sweet ski school in either vermont/maine where it's like $400 for a weekend that includes lodging and snowboard lessons 1on1, like some special deal on certain weekends... I always wanted to learn how to snowboard, does anyone off hand know of what school/lodge I might be talking about? Or is this a needle in hay stack kinda thing?

[AceLuby]

[ QUOTE ]
not to hijack, but a while back i was reading in some magazine about this sweet ski school in either vermont/maine where it's like $400 for a weekend that includes lodging and snowboard lessons 1on1, like some special deal on certain weekends... I always wanted to learn how to snowboard, does anyone off hand know of what school/lodge I might be talking about? Or is this a needle in hay stack kinda thing?

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't spend that much on first time lessons IMO. Go to someplace on a random day and get group lessons. You might get 2-3 other people w/ you, but the time I went it was still 1 on 1. They all teach you the same stuff the first time and you will end up spending most of the day on your knees or your butt. I love snowboarding, and my 2nd time was a breeze, but the first time for everyone is that you fall a lot and lessons don't help out all that much.

It's really something that takes your brain to just figure out, unlike skiing which lessons help out immensely.

[James282]

Best ski forum by far, IMO. At least it was when I lived in ski towns and had a reason to read them. You'll find everything you need here.

http://forums.epicski.com/

[James282]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
not to hijack, but a while back i was reading in some magazine about this sweet ski school in either vermont/maine where it's like $400 for a weekend that includes lodging and snowboard lessons 1on1, like some special deal on certain weekends... I always wanted to learn how to snowboard, does anyone off hand know of what school/lodge I might be talking about? Or is this a needle in hay stack kinda thing?

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't spend that much on first time lessons IMO. Go to someplace on a random day and get group lessons. You might get 2-3 other people w/ you, but the time I went it was still 1 on 1. They all teach you the same stuff the first time and you will end up spending most of the day on your knees or your butt. I love snowboarding, and my 2nd time was a breeze, but the first time for everyone is that you fall a lot and lessons don't help out all that much.

It's really something that takes your brain to just figure out, unlike skiing which lessons help out immensely.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agree with this post. You need to get the muscle coordination down first before lessons will help you. Snowboarding is a lot less technical than skiing at the beginner level...and you won't likely get unlearnable bad habits in snowboarding by figuring out the coordination before lessons.

But yea, that does sound like a good deal - no clue what type of place would offer such a steal.

James

[gilper]

Tognar isn't a forum it's a retailer but they have excellent information on ski gear maintenance.

And as previously mentioned, epic ski is a pretty good forum.

[nubs]

[ QUOTE ]
Best ski forum by far, IMO. At least it was when I lived in ski towns and had a reason to read them. You'll find everything you need here.

http://forums.epicski.com/

[/ QUOTE ]

I hear alot of bad things about epicski and occasionally get IM'ed thread titles from the forum like "Most agressive looking goggles?"

http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=3

Is what my friend swears by and it has alot of great back country trip reports. You can get alot of good info if you can tolerate the harsh unmoderated vulgar posters.

Here is a great example of a trip report:
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=81197

[Xanta]

I raced FIS (reasonably high level of international racing) for 2 years and learned most of everything you need to know about basic ski handling and maintenance, pretty much everything up to remounting bindings and base grinds (anything beyond that you're probably gonna want to go into a shop for anyways). If you have any specific questions I should be able to answer them. Be sure to mention your regular conditions and what you want in ski performance, I could tell you about $6/gram wax if you wanted [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Maulik]

azk,

this is what google documents/notepad was created for store information you want to access later. When I read a review about a favourable set of knives, I save the information for purchases later.

[AZK]

great point...what do you do when you are in bed reading a magazine, or at the airport..i've entertained the idea of just ripping out the pages that interest me...