Pan Admun Republic of Western Blog

Burton was having a demo day at Camp Fortune last Sunday, I took the opportunity to try out some of their boards.

I've been shopping a bit since last year for a stiffer board and the board on the top of the list is Ride's Timeless. My friend Nelson and Janus is riding one and it looks like a good board. In fact, I almost bought one last year in San Francisco when I saw a 152 for $250US... oh well, I should have bought it!

So, I asked for a stiff deck to try. They suggest Shaun White, one of the Pro models. They put a mission binding on and hand it over to me. When I first hold it in my hand, the first impression was: wow, it's light! I think it's at least 50% lighter than my GNU Carbon Highbeam w/ K2 V8 binding.

So, I strap on and go up for a ride. However, I then realize that the binding is a bit too big. Anyway, I go for a ride! The next thing I notice is the board is quite fast, maybe because it is new. The ride feels very smooth, turn after turn the board is very precise and lively. The pivoting is very quick in response and pop nicely from edge to edge. The deck I was on is a 152cm, which is longer than my GNU Carbon High-beam 150cm. But to my surprise, the board spins around very fast and effortless. It almost feel like I am on a 143 deck. Another thing I noticed is this board is very stable on snow that it feels like I am riding on water, there was very little chatter.

I ride it for a few runs, the only problem I had is that somehow I lost my heel edge every time when I turn really hard on heel side. I didn't realized at first what cause it and why. So, I assumed it's my riding skill that cause such an issue.... until someone suggests that there might be a heel drag. I go back to the demo tent and they change the binding angle, the problem reduces after the change.

Overall, this is a very fun board to ride and I am now trying to find one if it's cheaper than the suggested $700+ here in Canada..... I just can't shake it out of my mind.

Since I tried SW, I did some reseach on other boards. It looks like Custom/CustomX (even T6) is a more expensive fit for SW, and Air is a cheaper fit if I can't affort SW. I also check out Ride's No4 and Prophet. They also looks like good board to get.

Monday night session
- It's icy condition! So, we works on edging.
- Edge is created by inclination and angulation
- One tactics is for student paired up, holding hands and pull against each other, then try to incline and angulate on edges
- problem: My toe side has not enough inclination to create angle on toe edge. I think I need to increase my cowboy stance to allow more pressure on edge

Saturday
- Benoit runs a session on exploring terrain. We got some fresh powder so we go hit Skyline for some deep powder.
- Tips riding on powder: 1) laying backward to keep head above snow 2) easy edging, let the board flow on snow (there wasn't really much edge on powder, anyway) 3) slow pivoting

Sunday
- ezio runs a session with us on craving
- tips on craving is to have a right shape, size against the slope
- bend your knee!!
- constant flex and extension to compress and turn smoothly
- anticipation play big part, tactic is to do hand-touch-inside-knee on toe turn and hand-touch-on-butt on heel turn. This enforce the antipication

Read some good analysis on Aberdeen about why blogging didn't catch on in Hong Kong (as compared to China/Taiwan/Everywhere else) as most people still treat blog as a daily.

Of course a blog is not just a daily, it should/can be much more. But since it's a fad, all just jump on the wagon for "fun". The thing is, not everyone has the real motive to use blog as a communication tool for their opinion and such. Therefore, most people blogging just trying hard to find idea to put on their blog. Guess what, most such idea just conveniently come right out of our live (ie oh, wake up at 10 and it's such a shitty night when I go to bed @ 3am). The people that participate define our blogsphere. It is the same way back when everyone have their "Hello, world!" webpage, and it's the same right now.

A similar thing happen to the media; They see a pop cuture "Phenomenon" and catch on to put up a story to attach reader. That's just their job.... I guess they have that "instance" what is in..... and of course the reporting will be just on the surface when it's been treat as a fad.

To me, my blog is a technical platform for me to try out all technologies behind the blog (Ajax, PHP, Webapp dev). I admit that don't have much to say, besides maybe using it as a journal for snowboarding technical information for myself.

The week starts with the first Monday night training session. There was a lot of snow on the hill and moguls.

The session is on advanced sliding turn, mogul terrain, and down un-weight turn.
- advanced sliding turn, focus on pivoting at 12 o'clock, so snow is spreading to the side of the hill or even up the hill.
- anticipation and steering play a big part in advanced sliding turn. It helps a snowboarder turn more aggressively.
- independent feet allow absorbing the bumps
- For moguls, one way to ride it is to turn on the base

There was no weekend sessions... it was just too cold and crazy with the wind and dropping temperature. We can actually seeing the snow turn into ice while we are making runs down the hill.

So, it's a new year and I am back on snow here on Camp Fortune after my annual trip out West. I had relative fun boarding up at Taheo and Whistler.



This year, I got a Friday night and Sunday afternoon adult program. One of them intermediate and the other beginner program. So, I got to apply a lot of what I learned on various types of students.

As for the weekend sessions, this week is on stance and balance. As a more advanced snowboarder, we should be always align ourselves in the middle of the board to ensure equal pressure on the edge. Also to make sure our back is straight to stay on top on the working edge. This is particularly important when in icy condition.

Some tactics we done in the sessions:
- switch riding
- motorboat turn (this is more on the pivoting)
- toe-to-toe/heel-to-hell turn (independent feet pressure control as we shift balance from back-to-front and front-to-back feet)
- hockey stop (isolate turn to stop, then hop up (or down) hill three times)

Some new change this year; We are only to do chicken turn on a narrower corridor, instead of across the hill as before which is dangerous as on-coming traffic will hit students.