For the last 4 seasons I’ve been riding a Nitro Storm 166cm. This board is great! It was significantly longer than my previous board, that was 156cm. I noticed the difference in the faster speeds I could achieve and the stability in powder (specifically tested at Vail last season). The Nitro is a high quality board. It took a beating in the glades on Edge at Tremblant and barely showed any signs of damage. So why get a new board?

Last season I realized that I’ve been boarding for quite a while now (9 years) and haven’t really pushed myself to improve my skills beyond what is necessary to survive on the double blacks at Tremblant. It’s time for me to improve. Otherwise I may as well just jump on the greens and have a nice relaxing cruise down the hill and sip some cocoa when I reach the bottom.

There are a few things I need to improve. The main part of my riding that I’d like to improve is my ability to ride switch. Switch is simply riding down the hill backwards, which in boarding terms means facing the direction that you’re least comfortable with. Currently I can ride greens and some blues, but not that fast. It really is like learning to snowboard all over again. Perhaps with the additional difficulty of forcing your brain to not switch back to your normal direction all the time.

The other area of my riding I’d like to improve on is the type of riding I do. Up until now, most of my riding has been freeriding. I’m still going to mostly do freeriding, but I’d like to get into freestyle riding this season as well. Therefore, I decided to pick up a freestyle board. What this means is a lighter, more flexible board and also a shorter board. I picked up a Burton Custom Wide 162cm (see pic below). This board is shorter and lighter than the Nitro Storm, so I should be able to do tricks a lot easier. I got the wide to eliminate any possible toe drag. My boots are size 11.5, which means they’re at the cusp of needing a wider board (26cm at the waist). The Burton Custom comes in wide and standard versions.

I can’t wait to try this new board out and compare it to the Nitro Storm. The season is just beginning, so it won’t be long!

I finally got the wedding pictures into the gallery and on facebook. It only took me a few months to accomplish …

The wedding photos can be seen in the gallery or on facebook.

If anyone would like copies of any of the photos, just let me know and we can send you the original copies. The gallery and facebook are not as good as the originals.

Some of my favorite pics: