Elliot

So id just like to know if anyone has done a season anywhere? Yep, St. Anton in Austria, Whistler in Canada, Perisher in Australia and currently in Val d'Isere in France how did you go about it? for the European stuff I sent out my cv to all the uk tour operators I could find and picked the job/resort I liked the most. Helps if you have some kind of hospitality experience before hand. wheres the best place to look for jobs? Internet. Most uk tour operators will have a website with a recruitment/jobs section. Hit up as many of those as you can. The large Canadian resorts will also have recruitment fairs in London, and Canada is epic, I want to immigrate there at some point! best place to buy kit? or can i get cheap kit with a job? Most jobs will let you have rental gear for free. For the most part it is shite but if you are learning it does not make much of a difference. The Canada resorts tend to have staff sales so you can pick up gear cheap, but the European resorts are expensive so I hit up ebay. best place to do a season? Whistler in Canada has been my favorite, wicked tree runs, steep and deep, plus a proper party town. I worked as a lifty there and would absolutely recommend it! My next season is going to be Niseko in Japan which is supposed to have some of the best snow in the world.

Hey man! In whistler as I type and worked outside in -25 today as a lifty so standing around not doing much! I wore 2 pairs of long johns, ski socks, outershell pants, base layer top, midlayer top, fleece, softshell, outershell top, glove liners, gloves, hat, and neck warmer! I was toasty provided that I kept working, basically digging holes and moving snow around for no apparent reason! In terms of clothes you want to not be wearing anything cotton; cotton will soak up your sweat and after you stop sweating you will be in wet clothes and f'ng freezing! You want to start with some wicking baselayers, wicking (and excuse me if I'm dumbing down too much!) means that your sweat will be pulled away from your skin meaning that when you stop sweating you wont freeze. The best of the best is Merino wool and the best merino is Icebreaker. Smartwool is also good merino, and there are some synthetic materials that work nearly as well, shit like bamboo based material I have found good. The good thing about Icebreaker and Smartwool and other Merino (and some treated synthetics) is that they are ant-bacterial and do not smell regardless of how long you wear them for so you do not need so many pairs! If I were you I would get on ebay and pick up 2 pairs of top and bottom base layers, at least one of which Merino. I would buy a decent midlayer and 2 good fleeces. Think about your gloves, if they are decent then just get some liners made of powerstretch, which you can also pick up off ebay. Also get some Merino ski socks if you have not got some already. If you have a particularly cool mum like me, you may be able to do what I did and buy some polartech fleece material off ebay and persuade your mum to line your boarding pants with them, best idea in the whole world! All this would be minimum worn altogether under the ski jacket and pants I'm presuming you have. You will have an epic time, but do buy the clothes for it; you dont want to find yourself not wanting to go out because its too cold! That said if you do not have all the gear they will sell it there, and once you won it you sorted for whenever you need it. Buy off ebay too, I did, its cheaper and once its washed its clean! My internet is a bit sketchy (i.e. stolen!) but drop me a pm if you have any other questions dude! Good luck! Edit: search these items on ebay: 170417757169 170417756025 140365192628 220297916140

Thats pretty unlikely. Most twin-tips and free-style skiis in general really arent that bad at all to use as general knock about skiis, the instructors are using them cos they like em. Sure they cant go uber fast (although they can go fast enough to scare the shite out of me!) sure they not that hot in deep powder but they will do the job, and they will perform properly in park and when you want to mess around on piste. My skiis are free-style but I use them everywhere and the only thing I don't like about them is that they arent great in powder. But then you need to buy backcountry skiis (long and wide to float on powder) to really enjoy the powder, which to be honest generally wont be worth it in europe as there is not that much powder about most of the time. Those seem to me a split between backcountry and park skiis. Will you be using them in the powder much? If not then dont bother, as the extra weight from the extra width makes them heavier and harder to move around and spin (or so I have found). They seem more what I would go for, and I can image them being fine for the rest of the mountain, but always have a google around for reviews dude. From looking at the Rossignol website, the S3s seem mostly for the back country. So mostly designed for deep powder meaning longer and wider, so not as great for park and piste as thinner and lighter skiis. The s4s are more the other way, predominantly park skiis they may be a little too flexy to be your only skiis. What you really need to do is decide what you want the skiis for. I went for skiis that were twin tip shape, but not so park and jib specific that they were pants on the piste. I found which ones I wanted by trawling ebay and reading as many reviews as I could. Cant say I know a massive amount about bindings, but I would advise not to skimp on them too much! They are what stop you from breaking your legs when you screw something up so I would stay away from uber cheap and probably go with the advice of the sales assistant! With boots the best idea is to go to the shop and chat to the people there. Explain your needs and ask to try on a few boots in a few different sizes based on their recommendations. Then make a note of what you like and bugger off to another shop and repeat the process. Do this until you feel you have advice you trust and a pair of boots that you feel you can spend 8 hours in. I hope there is some help in all this random text. Its been a few years since I have really know whats on the market and whats best to go for. But your buying gear that should last you, so speak to people and do as much research as you can, and if you want my opinion (as uninformed as it is!) feel free to drop me a pm. ps I ski and board so ner downhill_rob!

Hey I am in vancouver as we speak, going to be heading up to Whistler to start a season as a liftee on sunday! Anyway, enough of my gloating. You have £200+ to spend? Do yo have your own boots? If not thats the place to start. Make sure you try on at least 6 or 7 pairs and primarily go with those that fit the best. I picked up a pair of skis on ebay and they turned out to be corkers! They are old (2004?) but as they have been looked after, come with bindings and where £120! There are a lot of people out there that buy skis, use them one or two weeks and then decide that they want to flog them (the same with boards as it goes). This means that there are some bargains to be had. Just make sure you read plenty of reviews, you ask how many weeks they have been used and if they have any scratches/repairs (and whether they are to the core of the skis). As to learning, I would be tempted to learn out there. If your friend is handy, I would suggest finding a nice spot just a little way off piste and building yourself a kicker. Make sure it makes good use of the lay of the land and that there is plenty of powder for the landing. Me and a couple of mates went to Meribel in Feb and did exactly this and t'was great fun. The advantage is that screwing up a landing is fine if you land in powder. The only downside is that if you are off-piste and injure yourself you have to make it back onto the piste or you wont be covered for insurance, but that is why you dont go too far off. Edit: for example

Sorry dude, there well gone! I wont have anything to do with the mini lites too, as I've sold the car.

I can understand not wanting to let them have free advertising, but I think closing the thread is a bit harsh. I always particularly liked that thread as it gave such a good insight into a trials manufacturing company, that you dont really get elsewhere. I think it was one of the best threads in news, and one of the threads I regularly head over to.

Maybe man, but its luck I worked hard at making. Edit: Man I sound like a smug twat. Marvelous!

Did a season in St Anton in Austria about 7-8 years ago working in a hotel as pot wash, then went uni finished that and started the career bollox. Except I have now quit and as of tuesday next week I fly out to Canada to start a 6 month season as a lift host at Whistler. Once that finishes I am off to the snowy mountains in Oz for another season, then Colorado and maybe Breakenridge for another season, then if the cash holds out another season in NZ. 4 winter seasons in 2 years, get the f**k in! In other words, do it.

I'm pretty sure the company shut up shop in 2003 so it'll be getting on for 6 years old. If its been taken care of thats not really a problem though, just give it a ride around man, at the end of the day its unlikely to be any worse than a hire board, and it might turn out to be a whole lot better!

Soz, random double post!

A-industries? I cant say I have heard of them, sure you dont mean A.Snowboards? There will be a logo that kind of looks like: A. I know A.Snowboards made a blink back in 02/03 season. Good company, though they dont exist anymore, were bought out by rossignol (I think), but the original owner Regus Roland went on to start APO who make quality boards. I used to own an A.Snowboard, think they were mostly glass fiber cores. If I am right the board you are talking about is going to be a fair few years old if it is indeed an A.Snowboards board. Mine was a lovely ride and great for intermediate rider. You'll need to make sure there is no scratches to the core on the base, that there are no cracks in the board and and that the rails are vaguely sharp. If it is a free board I'd say go for it, but consider taking it down to a dry slop to try it out first as it will give you a better idea of the flex and how the board rides. Edit the A.Snowboards blink looks like:

What is the make and model of the board? What bindings does it come with, and do you already own your own boots? With the hooning around you will be more after a freeride board than a freestyle board. Freerides are stiffer and generally longer compared to freestyle which are shorter and have more flex and let you get away better with f**ked up landings! Then you have even shorter jib boards specfically for rinding the rails. With freeride boards though, the stiffer they are the harder to ride because they are less forgiving. The length of board you are talking about sounds fine (my free ride board is that length) but it really is down to the type of board and how much you weigh. Have a butchers on http://www.goneboarding.co.uk/ which has a great review section. It is also worth checking out what bindings are on the board too, and if I am honest its not really worth buying a board or bindings at all unless you have your own boots; if you end up with your own board and bindings and hired boots the board will feel balls. So buy boots, then buy bindings and spend the left over on board.

Thats true, there is a set of polished rs001s on ebay at the mo that someone wants 2k for! Cheers for the info though dude, it all goes towards helping me sell all my gear and getting the hell out of this country for a while! Still does mean I have to sell my mk1 golf which is what I originally got these wheels for.

quite like to know what they originally came on? and why do you think they are over priced?

Hey all, Anyone know anything about rs001 bbs wheels? I have a set of 15x7s that I have just finished re-furbing and now unfortunalty it looks like I have to flog them. I think they are either 25 or 35mm offset, and I think they came off either a mk2 golf or mk3 polo g40, and I know they are pretty rare, but I would really like to know more! here is a pic:

The most straight forward way is to water bleed your brakes in a bucket or sink. This will take out the mineral oil and change it for water. The brake might not last quite as long as with mineral oil, but we are still talking years! I bled mine with water in 06 and its still absolutely fine and gives a nicer fee. Take the brake off of the bike and submerse the master cylinder (the lever) and the slave cylinders. Undo the bleed bolt on the lever, and one of the bleed bolts on one of the slave cylinders. While everything is still under water put your finger over the bleed hole in the lever and pull the brake lever, then take the finger off of the bleed hole and let go of the brake lever. Repeat this process until you have flushed out all of the oil and replaced it with water. Now do up the slave cylinder bleed bolt, and undo the slave cylinder bleed bolt on the other slave cylinder as you run a splitter. Repeat the process, then put the bleed bolt back in that cylinder and remove the bleed bolt from the other cylinder and repeat again. Do this a couple of times so that you are sure that all of the oil is out. Then do all of the bleed bolts back up and your done. Just make sure that the bucket or sink is nice and full and everything stays underwater. Good luck dude!

you will be able to tell if chain wrap is the problem if you get an old mech whack it on and lock it to the right position. If the chain no longer jumps over the sprocket then you will need to buy a double wheel tensioner (or just keep using the mech) or use a larger sprocket. If you find the chain still slips then the problem is most likely going to the the chain. It will either be stretched or you have not taken enough links out of the chain.

I have put a 4-jeri on once with up tension, I flipped the spring and then used whichever parts of the tensioner worked for the spring placement. Sorry I cant be more specific but I did it about a year ago. I do remember just using the underside of the arm of the tensioner as one end of the spring placement. I didn't use it like it because it made bugger all difference to my chain skipping. For me it turned out that I was trying to run too small a sprocket on the hub. Once you get to below 14t you really need a double jockey wheel to achieve decent wrap arond the sprocket.

Don't know how cheap it would be (grand ish?), but my brother used to have a polo g40 that was great fun. All stripped out, smaller pully and a re-map and it was pretty quick too.

APPARENTLY its not illegal. I mentioned a similar question to a girl I was seeing a little while ago, and she told me that the News of the World had an article on it, after Kate Moss was photographed driving without shoes. According to the article its legal. I'm pretty sure that I believe her. All of the rock solid tf evidence you will ever need right there!

My ET:

Yep. ride the bike around for a while and pick which gear you like the best. Count how many teeth are on that gear and order one from tarty or selectbikes, make sure you get a wide based sprocket or there is a danger it will dig into the freehub. To go with the sprocket you will also need some spacers which go either side of the sprocket to take up the space that was used by the cassette. You will also need a tensioner. You can use the derailurer off your bike as is (provided you lock it out) or you can buy a tensioner. I would suggest you give the guys at tarty or selectbikes a call, either would be happy to talk you through, and advise you on what best to purchase. spose I better get back to work now!

Hey all, looking to re-furb my bbs rs001 splits. Anyone got any ideas where I can pick up some new bolts for them? Or anyone know any good refurb place for the rims in a reasonable distance from London? Ta!

I have an et24 with 2 gears on. I don't use a mech, but this tensioner. When I want to change gears I have to move the jockey wheel in the tensioner over by loosening the bolt that attaches the jockey wheel to the body of the tensioner. You will have to use some kind of tensioner, either what I have used or a mech, and to be honest it would be quite easy to use a mech with a v. short bit of cable, and just use the barrel adjuster to change gear. The only problem is that if your anything like me you'll f**k something up and rip the barrel adjuster off in about 2 minutes! Edit- just thought, beware going anything smaller than 14 tooth with the tensioner I have used. If you do go smaller you'll need a double jockey wheel tensioner or the chain'll just slip over the teeth of the gear

That was cool and I think its great for DM and trials, but I kinda get the impression that there is some fat cat executive sitting in the background wondering how much more money he'll make out of crow baring the latest internet sensation into the music video of a band signed to him.