Grays On Trays

The Midwest has plenty of good qualities, but great snowboarding terrain is not one of them. Even so, the region develops plenty of skiers and riders, as the Chicago Tribune describes (“Midwest resorts excel in ski lessons,” January 20, 2008)

It mentions that there are “more than 100” ski resorts in the region. You can, by the way, see the web site of all of them through GraysOnTrays: see the Great Lakes page for Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, and the Midwest page for Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and the Dakotas.

According to one official of Vail Resorts (which owns Vail, Breckenridge, Keystone, Heavenly and Beaver Creek resorts), Chicago is once again the second city—this time in providing the most number of customers to the company.

The Tribune article describes regional ski areas, including Wilmot (Wisconsin), Grand Geneva (Wisconsin), Shanty Creek (Michigan) and others.

If you’re interested in a long-weekend getaway to introduce your children to skiing or snowboarding, the article is especially useful, because it describes the children’s programs at various resorts.

Did you ever wonder how the number of snowboard instructors compares with that of ski instructors? Wilmot has 240 instructors, of whom 60 are snowboarders. Assuming that nobody among the 240 teachers both skiing and snowboarding (most likely an invalid assumption, but close enough to the truth), that’s a ratio of 3 ski instructors to every 1 snowboard instructor. That sounds similar to industry averages for the customer base, but I digress.

Are you ready for a magic carpet ride? The director of the snowsports school at Grand Geneva says they “have really revolutionized the learning process” for helping students—especially children—spend more time trying to make turns and less time grappling with the rope. I certainly would have benefited from a carpet too, as it took me quite a while to handle a rope tow during my early days on a board.

In the Sierra Sun (February 13), Max (Margaret) Shu Teasdale offers 5 tips for beginning snowboarders. Depending on where you live, you can probably do two of them in your back yard or at a local park. No lift required.

They are:

• Practice your stance.
• Practice skating
• Try some J-turns%3
  

Do a Google search for the words “progressive” and “snowboarding,” and you’ll find over 250,000 hits.

You may be wondering “What in the world does this mean?”

I’ve recently created a new page at GraysonTrays.com to answer that question.

Be sure to check out the related topic of riding levels, which is more related to taking lessons than anything else.

There are many ways to stand on a snowboard. Some people, mostly those in extreme carving, stand with both feet pointing nearly downhill. Many freestyle (trick) riders like having their feet pointing across the hill. That’s called a “zero-zero” stance, and it has the advantage of making it easier for either end of your snowboard to lead the way. That’s useful when you’re doing jumps and spins–something not suitable for many adults, especially novices and beginners.

Lately I’ve been going to parties, family gatherings and other events and looking at people’s feet. Well, not their feet as much as where place them in relationship to each other, and how they stand.

You know what “pigeon toed” means? As you stand, your big toes are pointing to each other.

What I’ve noticed, as I look at how people stand, is that most people use what snowboarding instructors call a “duck” stance.

Quack!

A duck stance is the opposite of a pigeon toed-stance. If you picture that you’re standing on a clock, your toes, in a duck stance, are standing on the numbers 10 and 2.

I don’t know enough about biomechanics to explain why we do this, but apparently it’s a very comfortable, stable stance to have.

Snowboarding is all about maintaining some stability (or balance) as the terrain changes and where you are on the hill changes.

If you’re just starting out snowboarding–or if you’ve been at it a while and a feeling a bit shaky–try standing like a duck. In technical terms, ride with an angle of +12 degrees in the front and -9 in the back. Maybe you’ll find that you’re a duck, too!

In addition to writing about snowboarding and simply riding around, I also teach snowboarding. Being an adult snowboarder it in itself somewhat of a novelty, at least in the Midwest. Being an adult snowboard instructor is also fairly unusual.

The instructor corps of the snowsports school where I teach leans towards the older side on skiing, and on the younger side on snowboarding.

Most of the lessons I give are to late elementary or middle-school students. I take special delight in teaching adults, but when you’re in a service business, you respond to the market.

And of the lessons I give, most are basic lessons, to people just starting out. (For one thing, I’m in no way ready to perform most freestyle tricks, let alone teach someone how to do them.) The lessons are typically 90 minutes long, though I often take a big longer.

On this weekend last, I was given a private lesson to teach. It was scheduled for 2 hours, but went on for a third when the customer and his mother decided on a third hour.

It took a good chunk out of the day–and the best time for riding–but there’s nothing to challenge your understanding of something like trying to teach it to someone else.

Yesterday was the end of my teaching season.

What, you say. Hasn’t it has been over for weeks?

Well yes it has. The last lesson I gave was sometime in late March. But the hill where I teach went on for another week or two. And last night, we remembered the season.

If you’ve never thought of it, you might be surprised at the number of people required to keep a ski area open.

There are, customers aside, at least six important groups of people who make a day area work: owners, office staff, lodge staff (kitchen, primarily), hill and other maintenance (groomers, snow makers, lift operators), ski patrol, and instructors.

Last night our little area had its “Annual Instructor & Patrol Spring Banquet.” Though instructors got the top billing, the event was really more a celebration of ski patrollers than anything else. After the meal, there were awards for best rookie patroller, most spirited patroller, and so forth. No such awards for instructors.

Then again, I don’t begrudge the patrol for any commendations they receive or wish to bestow on its members. At a recruiting open house, I learned that ski patrollers have to undergo OEC (Outdoor Education Care) before the season starts, and do dryland training. as well. Something about walking up the hill on Saturday mornings. In ski boots.

One curious thing that I noted about the evening: a large portion of the crowd seemed to be north of 40 years old. This is similar to my observations about snowsports journalists, and of ski club memberships. Perhaps younger folks do participate, but have very young children who keep them at home during the evening. I’m not sure. It did seem, from my limited observations, that many people knew each other for quite a while.

The evening ended with a long video that showed different parts of the season, from the snow-making operations to mid-season skiing and riding to bumps skiing to freestyle tricks. To be truthful, most of the soundtrack did not appeal to me. It would have been nice to see more snowboarding and less skiing. But overall, the video was a great reminder of the season.

Snowboarding with poles? What could be sillier than that? After all, in snowboarding, you rock back and forth between heel and toe, while on skis you rock from one side of the foot to the other.

I have read, on occasion, a recommendation for novices to try snowboarding with poles. But while at Crested Butte, I saw something I had never seen before: someone navigating an expert pitch while on a snowboard, and using skis.

Riding up the Paradise lift, you’ll see some steep glades to your east. They’re double diamonds. And who did I see coming through those glades, but a snowboarder with ski poles. It was an odd sight.

What gives? Perhaps the poles were for flatter sections–after all, you don’t come out of terrain like that at a great speed. Perhaps they somehow assisted in making tight turns, though at the moment I can’t figure out how that would happen.

Any thoughts? Leave a comment.

I’ve never liked surface lifts, whether I was on skis or on a snowboard. And for a snowboarder, face it, surface lifts were designed with skiers in mind.

But can a snowboarder make peace with surface lifts?

I struggled a long time to master tow ropes, but that’s as far as I got in using surface lifts. Until now.

I spent the day touring the mountain, from edge to edge, with some other participants in the conference. By mid-afternoon, someone suggested we head up to an area that required using a t-bar. I was hesitant, but decided to take the effort.

First we went up the High Lift, and then, the North Face lift. Both lifts served diamond or double diamond terrain.

I did manage to make it up the two lifts. Here are some things that worked for me along the way. They may work for you. Though a t-bar can take two people uphill, it’s best for you to go up solo.

1. Slide into place, on one side or the other of where the line will be. Your uphill foot should be in the binding; your downhill foot should not be in its binding. Note that you will also have an uphill hand and a downhill hand.

2. When the bar comes around, put your uphill hand on the line. With your downhill hand, push the bar into place. This means placing a butt cheek against the bar.

3. As you go up, you may be tempted to let your uphill arm do all the work, by grasping the line. That’s a mistake; you’ll tire out very quickly. Successfully using a t-bar requires letting the line do the work, through the bar, not you doing the work through holding the line in a death grip with your uphill arm.

4. You may find a tendency for the bar to slip away from you. That’s not good news. To counteract this tendency, rest your downhill hand on the opposite side of the bar (where someone else would be standing), and periodically shove the bar closer to you.

5. As you ascend, maintain a slight bend in your knees. That way you can absorb small changes in the terrain.

6. Will your back foot slip off the board if it’s not in a binding? Probably. The most important thing is to not panic. The second thing is to not over correct. Simply put your foot back on the board; don’t stomp.

7. Note that the terrain may become more steep as you get towards the end of the ride. Stick with it and you’ll be rewarded with new terrain.

I gave a lesson today, to a young guy I’ll call Robert. He told me that he has taken a snowboard out “in my backyard” a few times, though I wasn’t sure what that went.

We went through the preliminary stuff, and then moved over to the bunny hill. He had a natural inclination to make toeside turns. But heelside turns? Those were another matter. I gave him some ideas on how to initiative and stick with a heelside turn, but he just couldn’t do it.

That’s not unusual; many new riders favor toeside turns. For one thing, you can see where you are going more easily. And it’s more like the natural motion of walking forward, in a circle. Going heelside can feel like walking backwards.

Sometime after his lesson, another instructor came up to me and said “Did you have the kid in the blue jacket this morning?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Well you should up to the top of the bunny hill. He’s doing some great jumps!”

And sure enough, he was doing jumps. Some boys had built a small kicker, and a lot of riders (all under 15, I would guess) took turns “getting air,” anywhere from 2 inches to 4 feet.

“Hey, I hear you’re doing some great stuff up here,” I said to Robert after I arrived in the area.

“Should I do a 180 or a nose grab?,” he asked.

“How about a 180? I like the way those look,” I said.

He did a tail grab instead. Oh well, it was still enjoyable to watch.

I ended up making a few jumps too. Nothing major, but enough to participate.

I was glad that Robert was able to get in some enjoyment from making those jumps. Now if he could just get those heelside turns worked out.

His experience made me wonder: is it possible to become a serious (enough for a small ski hill) freestyle rider without being able to link turns?

A lot of experienced snowboarders have bad things to say about step-in bindings.

I’m going to be a contrarian and say that there ought to be more rather than fewer step-ins. I think they would help grow the sport.

Consider, for example, the cross-over skier. Someone’s been a skier for a while, sees a lot of riders, and wants to give snowboarding a try. What’s he used to in bindings? Step-ins. Toe, heel, click, and off he skis.

He then goes to the rental shop to get snowboarding gear. Straps? More work:
- Bending over for a prolonged time OR sitting down and then standing up with both feet in (neither are easy)
- Fidgeting with threading one piece of plastic through another (often requiring removing one’s gloves–brrr!)
- Not stepping on a flopping rear strap while doing skating exercises.

I recently taught a very good skier how to ride. We did sessions at two different ski areas. One had step-ins; one had straps. The verdict? “Damn straps!”

I must say that step-ins don’t always live up to their promise. More than once I have had to point out to one of my students the need to clear snow away from the binding on the board, the metal bar on the boot, or both. When I tried step-ins (admittedly, four years ago), I always had a hard time knowing whether I was “in” or not.

Count me in the “love ‘em” camp of Flows. Adjust your settings on the dry land, slap that back lever into place on the mountain, and slide away. But even here, there are some problems, notably, a beginner getting into them on uneven ground. (One solution: enter toeside and then do a ground roll if a heelside ride-off is desired.)

In short, I think there’s plenty of room for someone to come up with a newbie-friendly binding system that will work in a variety of conditions. Learning how to ride is difficult enough, especially if you’re older than, say, 21. It’s too bad that the equipment makes that more difficult than it otherwise could be.