Looking up Center Stage at 10:30 am, you can see the much shorter lift lines than the ones I experienced last weekend. What you can't see, are the 50-plus temps that made this one of the softest, and best snow-days I've had here this year...
I went back down to Perfect North today, on my weekly wintertime commute to snowboarding bliss. Warm weather, overcast skies, short lift lines, soft-as-shit snow that felt like sno-cone ice, a little water content, and some fresh wax on my boards all combined to make this an epic, 6-hour-long marathon-session. I must've gotten between 30-40 runs in, as my longest wait-time at the lift was only about 20 seconds or so. A far cry from last weekend...! And, super fun. Seriously: Having this much of this sort of fun feels like it should be illegal.
Today, I took as my daily-rider: My 2008 5150 Stroke 161. This is a fully bitchin' board, completely stupendous in oh-so-many ways... there just aren't enough superlatives to describe how awesome this thing is. The funny part is, I only paid $99 for it! Brand new, no less. It was a crazy one-day sale on all 5150's, and I found that price just too damn hard to pass up. I also got my Stroke 164, and my ex's Empress on the same day... like stealing candy from a baby, that was. Best snowboarding deal ever...
These days, 5150's are horrendously underrated. You can consistently find these for well under $200. That sort of pricepoint really should be criminal, for what you get out of 'em. It has a Quadratic Sidecut, which makes turning extremely precise and quick... almost to the point of feeling like your board is a direct and immediate extension of your brain. It's also got the mandatory full-length wood core, ABS sidewalls, and 4x4 hole pattern. My tech told me that it's not compatible with Burton bindings, but I set it up with '09 Burton Freestyles anyway, and it's worked just fine ever since. So much for technical bulletins, huh...?
It's not too stiff, not too flexible, and it's actually quite light. Light enough, at least, to not be yanking too hard on my feet riding up the lift all day long, day in and day out, with snow caked all over it! It's a boatload of fun, and I sold a couple dozen of these last year to my snowboard-shop customers.
"Whoa! What the hell is that...?!?!" That's what I get a lot of, when I take this beauty out for the day...
Just like last week, I brought down one of The Collection to take a few runs on. This one is a personal pride and joy of mine: A 1987 Sims 1710 Blade! This, is a real trip. Although I like to tell everyone at Perfect North that it's my first-ever snowboard... as if I actually started snowboarding in '87... the truth is, I bought this in 1997 or so, at a yard sale in Concord, NH. The asking price?! A mere 25 bucks!! You just can't beat a score like that, nosirree...!!
This board is fun, but quirky as all hell. For one thing, the base is convex- not flat. That means that edge-to-edge response either takes forever and a day, or a lot of sliding around hopelessly on the mountain before initiating a damned turn. It's a manly board, and it made real men out of an entire first-generation of snowboarders. Thank Gawd that I wasn't one of them...!
The bindings are '89 Sims. That's easy enough to discern, because of the gaudy neon pink clasps on the ratchets. Everything snowboarding in '89 was neon as hell... once again, I'm glad I wasn't part of that generation, either. The shape is straight, and straightforward: Huge, pointy nose, with minimal sidecut, ending in a short, flat (no discernable tailkick, although it does exist... barely...), angular, square tail. There's exactly one stance option available, and it's about 35 degrees front, -10 back, and set back about ten whole inches from centered...
The sidewalls are a real trip, too. Because, there aren't any! Nope: The "sandwich" construction consists of a base (with steel edges, surprisingly enough... top-of-the-line, brand-new technology in '87...), a topsheet (a two-color screenprint...), and a wood core in the middle. And, that's it! On this particular board, I painfully hand-grind the base (because it can't be put through an automatic grinder, due to the convex base) and water seal the sidewalls, every year. It's really the least I can do. It is, after all, a wonderfully preserved artifact from snowboarding's genesis years. The least I could do is take care of it, and treat it reasonably well.
Riding it is a manly challenge, as I explained above. It is far from responsive, requiring a lot of lead time between thinking of a turn, and actually forcing your way through making one. It's heavy, it's wide, and the nose and tail practically have their own damned zip codes, it's so fucking long... but, that's part of the challenge of it... and the challenge certainly doesn't lack it's fair share of good times. I've spent many a good day out on this board. And the whoops, hollers, and shakas that I get from the old-timers that recognize what it is aren't half bad, either.
