SantaCruz

We've been getting a lot of snow the past week here in Washington state, several feet at least. I went riding with some friends on Wednesday and a friend got stuck in a tree well. Fortunately he went in feet first so he wasn't in any danger of suffocating or asphyxiation. He unstrapped one leg and was pushing against the tree trunk as hard as he could but his board didn’t budge. Eventually we were able to dig out his other foot, unstrap it and then finally dig out his board. It took such a long time and was exhausting. Granted we didn’t have shovels with us. I knew that it’s a pain in the ass

I took my Hovercraft 160 out for it's inaugural spin yuesterday as the mountains around Seattle have been getting dumped on. Well dumped on by our standards anyways. I'm a big guy, 6'5 220lbs and the Hovercraft worked well for me. I had good float nad significantly less back leg burn in powder compared to my Rider's Choice BTX. And there's sitll room to make this better as I didn't have my bindings moved all the way back.

+1 on that. Around here in the Seattle area, and NW North America in general, the snow can be pretty wet and heavy. But people still refer to it as powder. Drives me crazy! Not all new snow is powder.

Thanks for sending stickers SJ! Mine have arrived in Seattle. The new stickers look great. I'll post the flyers around the local ski resorts.

Ungroomed checks out. I would usually say off piste or off trail. Def not piste off though

My.Baker and all the local Settle hills will be opening this weekend. I think Baker will be a full opening, but the local ones will only be limited operations. Still I'm hoping to get some turns in

I did a solo trip to Japan a few seasons ago and it went well. I flew into Tokyo and did a few days there and then flew to Sapporo and bus to Niseko. Since you're also staying in Tokyo for a few days before hitting the snow I'd recommend sending your snow boarding gear ahead so you don't have to deal with it in Tokyo. Japan has a door to door luggage forwarding service which I think is generically called "takkyubin". Assuming that you fly into Narita, there's several places in the airport there which can do this for you. I did this when I fly into Japan but not on the way back. And let me tel

Snowing in the Pacific Northwest (in the States that is). There's a chance for Seattle local mountains to open this weekend, keeping my fingers crossed

Sorry to hear about your buddy passing Mitch. Glad to hear that you're ok.

That's awesome. I was at Mt. Hood and Timberline last NY and didn't see anything about the Skiway bus thing, totally curious about it now. It'd be cool if they had the bus sitting around somewhere to check out. Very cool about Timberline being the exterior for The Shining hotel as well, didn't know that!

Tripler, I tried to PM you with more info and a price but it said you weren't set up to receive PMs.

Indeed Tex, you were the one that convinced me to go Flagship! And a good point about the price as well, it's very reasonable for what you're getting. I've got the Hovercraft on order, supposedly shipping out sometime in the middle of this month. So I'll now have 4 boards. The plan is * sell my oldest one (Nitro Magnum 168) * use my Rider's Chooice 165W as the early/late season board when conditions are sketchy * Flagship 168W will be the go to board once the season has started and the coverage is good * Hovercraft for the deep days. Honestly the Hovercraft was a bi

Very nice

The Sweetgrass guys (makers of Signatures) are currently touring showing their new movie, Solitaire. Coincidentally they're in Seattle and someone was able to get them to do a screening on the Microsoft campus for the charity campaign that the company does every October (MS matches all employee donations). It's a great movie with a different feel compared to most others I've seen. I really like how all their stuff is, as they say, human powered. Meaning they hike for all they're shots and lines in the movie. I also picked up a copy of Signatures from them, really looking forward to finally see

Nice, was just looking through the Evo catalog last night and saw the Powder Snake, a good looking board. I've got a Jones Hovercraft 160 on order. But I'm like you, haven't had the chance to get out there and use one yet.

I've got a Jones 160 Hovercraft on order, which is much shorter than the 165-168 that I usually ride. According to the specs it should handle a bigger guy like me. I'll report back once I've gotten it onto some proper powder.

Was at one the my local REI's the other day and they had a few Flagships and Mountain Twins in stock:

XEROX invented the GUI and the mouse. XEROX showed it to Steve Jobs and he thought it was brilliant and made the Mac. Microsoft then made Windows and Apple sued them but lost. In software and computers everything is a copy of something else, that's nothing new.

Welcome to the SJ Calibrator. I'm curious, what's the closest place to SB to go skiing?

I pre-ordered one from The House a few months ago. The last update I heard from them was that it was due to ship in Nov. They also said that they sold out their Hovercraft allotment in pre-order. I think you best bet is to see if any websites still have them available. If not then keep your eyes peeled come Nov, I'd imagine places with physical stores would carry them.

My Flagship arrived a few days ago. Really stoked I'll try and get some photos up soon. Now we all gotta play the waiting game for the snow to fall...

Very nice GN!

D'oh! Thanks SJ-David!

Btw, when looking at the map does it show your own location? I'm not seeing anything from Seattle, where I'm at.

Sweet, glad you got a good deal TB!