The STW Ski & Snowboard thread. The 2012-2013 season

Bit of light entertainment:

Some impressive yard sales there, but that last guy is just brilliant.

I remember number 3 well, Tanner Hall breaking both his ankles on Chad’s gap around 2004ish, full segment about it can be seen in Pop yer bottlez or the Like a Lion documentary. He came back a year or so later and then shattered both his knees, and he’s back on it again now!

I’m pretty sure 6 is Hugo Harrison, can’t remember which movie though.

Not for the faint hearted!!

I’m loving the precision of “My ankles are broken. MY. ANKLES. ARE BROKEN!”

I think my choice of phrase would have been more along the lines of “MmmmmuuuuAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh” followed by lots of incomprehensible swearing.

On a different note than TH’s crash 8O, can anyone recommend ski school in Meribel other than ESF?

can anyone recommend ski school in Meribel other than ESF?

I don’t know of any names but I’d search for any ski school with BASI level 4 instructors, after having a few bad lessons with ESF I’d never get lessons off anyone except someone trained in the BASI system, unless MAYBE if it was free 😉 .

Anyone been to geilo in Norway? Got the possibility of a conference/exhibition there in feb….lunch break is 12-3.30pm…

Most spine-tingling, cringey injury section I’ve seen is Bjorn Leines’ in True Life. Spangles the same ankle 3 times in a few months. “Couple more months on the couch… First day back:” [cue another spangling on a hideous rail/fence interface]

Funniest stack section is Optigrab’s with the synched gunfire and explosion sound effects. I’ll dig out a link when I get home unless anyone’s beaten me to it.

sorry, Jambo, not been my self. I think it’s on the flat side, though. probably perfect for some lunchtime turns though.

For my 4 year old’s first trip to the slopes:
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Roxy jacket £25 instead of 80, Billabong strides £30 instead of 165!! Who the hell pays 250 quid on kid’s ski gear??
From TKM, obviously 😉

Who the hell pays 250 quid on kid’s ski gear??

Rich families in Whistler?! 🙂

Most spine-tingling, cringey injury section I’ve seen is Bjorn Leines’ in True Life. Spangles the same ankle 3 times in a few months

Sounds tasty 😉 .

Who the hell pays 250 quid on kid’s ski gear??

S&R, High St Ken or King’s Road, high season. Regular kit outs of over £2000 on little Tamara’s kit… Kiddy Kjus to start off with, obviously. 🙂

Jeez, I’ve told her to be really careful with her 55 quid ensemble so I can Bay it on as soon as she out-grows it!

260 of your British Pounds!

They are utterly perfect in every detail, mind you. But then they should be…! 🙂

£2k? £250? £55?

Jnr has made do with Decathlon’s finest all in ones for the last 5 years, bought in the sale at the end of season for about £15, worn the following season (all of 2 weeks skiing looking like all the French kids), then sold on eBay for more than we’ve paid for them. 2 suits about to go on in the next few days too.

He’s now graduated to jacket and pants in day glo green. 1 jacket, 2 pairs of pants for £60 (surfanic). He’ll have grown out of them by Easter.

Decathlon appear to have replaced C&A, haven’t they! 🙂

A quick tot up in my head says junior will be adorned with over 1500e of new kit this year and another 750e pair of skis will be lying idle as he can’t ski both pairs at the same time. 😐

Right. That’s it. RETRO KIT TIME!

Oh, and let me just say this…Mono. Visors. YEAH!

Oh, and why not?

And, on another note, some mad quivers!

How many of one, almost exactly the same, ski does one skier need?

😉

As I see it –
One pair piste cruisers
One pair piste flyers
One pair all rounders
One pair ski tourers
One pair phattttt pow plankz*

*That is the correct spelling.

sorry, Jambo, not been my self. I think it’s on the flat side, though. probably perfect for some lunchtime turns though.

on a fully expensed work trip, i’d take what i could get…

on a fully expensed work trip, i’d take what i could get…

I’m still angling for a Japan trip with work….! 😉

Went skiing for the first time last year and absolutely loved it. I’m hoping to get in at least a couple of trips this year. I’ve been putting in the hours at Chill Factore and can’t wait to get back on the mountain.

Still not found some good bargin gloves, but these look ok, gortex at least

anyone have experience or better alternative for similar money?

Kombi-Ryde-Gloves

otherwise i might just chance some oneill ripper pro gloves that i’ve seen for less than £20

How long were you lot skiing before you got your own skis?

My best buddy was big into his ski racing. In our house at Uni for his skis alone we had the following:

2 x 155cm dry slop slalom skis
2 x 165cm snow slalom skis (training pair and race pair)
2 x 182cm GS skis
1 x 202cm SG skis
1 x 230ish DH skis
2 x all mountain/park/freestyle skis that he won.

When you added in the rest of us each with at least 3 sets each I think at one point we had about 30 sets of skis down in the basement.

And one board from the token boarder!

shifter – Member
For my 4 year old’s first trip to the slopes:

Roxy jacket £25 instead of 80, Billabong strides £30 instead of 165!! Who the hell pays 250 quid on kid’s ski gear??
From TKM, obviously

We have a Trespass outlet near us. £55 seems expensive for kids stuff.

£40 and it does him two seasons ‘cos they’ve got the relative sizing of their jacket and trousers wrong. Well more precisely the stuff from 3 years ago the trouser fitted last year. Bought a new set last year where the jacket fitted but the trousers were too big. Next year the trousers will still fit but the jacket will be too small. So buying once every two years at present.

got my boots in my third season, then skis the following summer.

got better skis one season later and they lasted 4 or 5 seasons. Now have two pairs of skis but if I didn’t own them would probably just rent: given the cost of transporting and servicing them, it’s cheaper then renting, but only becuase I’ve already bought them. If I hadn’t, renting would be better value for money

got new boots (2 mondo sizes smaller) fitted 4 years after the first pair

properly fitted boots are more important than skis. Skis are just planks, it’s the boots that give you the control

Think i’ll leave the skis for a while yet. I’m hoping well fitted boots will help improve control as well as comfort. My feet were wrecked at the end of my last holiday.

about 3rd year for the boots (naff ones), replaced with properly fitted ones in about 11th year. skis the year after, mainly cos I could never decided which ones I wanted. was kind of an impulse buy in the end, and not having to pay for ski carriage for 3-4 trips per year it made sense.

edit: and yes, properly fitted boots make a big difference.

Andy – Assuming all Oakley goggles share a similar system, they are very easy to change, they just snap into the frame and out. Its a bit fiddly but easy enough to do. I usually take a couple lenses with me and change it in the morning depending on the weather.

Not got skis yet, not sure I will, think I’m on about 9-10th trip. As nbt says, for only 2 weeks skiing a year it’s not worth me getting any with carriage costs being so high. If we drove more for hols or did more than a couple of weeks we probably would have our own skis.

The OH used to have some, but this was when she was when she used to go 4+ weeks a season. The last pair she had were dead straight Head Cybers, she took them on my first ski week and dumped them after everyone was laughing at them!

Tried getting boots for 2nd trip, but was advised not to as I have narrow feet and there weren’t really any suitable for beginners that would fit (according to solutions for feet). went back before last season and they fitted me up with some Lange boots.

I bought boots after my first holiday but that was because I knew I was going again (and again etc) but also because everyone laughed at my hire boots. I could more or less walk in them normally they were so soft, in fairness they were probably for someone about 10 yrs old! I have very small feet….
Skis were bought when I started going multiple times a year and had got to a level where I could tell a difference between skis.

Just booked for 14th January in Tignes, anyone else here going to be in the neighbourhood then?

Just paid up today for our trip.

90 days till Val Despair, doo-dah, doo-dah
90 days till Val Despair, doo-da-doo-dah-day

nice.

35 days to Tignes 🙂
98 days to Arabba 🙂

and it’s snowing outside \o/

For me.. 11 days til Zermatt 😀 .

62 days (I think) til Champagny 😀 .

Anyone here know Champagny well? I know the pistes well enough but don’t know any of the good off-piste areas there yet.

How long were you lot skiing before you got your own skis?

Probably 3rd year, so about 5 weeks on snow.

Didn’t get really good boots though for about 11 years, which I really regret wasting all that time.

33 days until St. Anton 😀

Got carried away, so far pre-season bought:

2 pairs of skis (with bindings),
Poles,
Jacket,
Ski pants,
Gloves,
Helmet,
Goggles,
Sunnies,
Dakine Heli Pro backpack.

Eyeing up a Go Pro and ski bag currently 🙄

Top shopping!

Right. Where does one buy one some boots?