Napa Valley it is

It is going to be a great party!



Just like this one was:

making turns, 29er, SSWC08

FINALLY got to get out on the snow and make some turns. Rode Stratton today. Temps in the upper 30s and the snow was perfect. 2nd day in my new boots and the footbeds are garbage. My arches were flat all day. It hurt like no other but I mustered on. By mid-day it felt as if I was just out snowboarding yesterday.

Finally perfected my backside 180s to compliment my frontside 180s. Got props for my switch riding. Its as fluent as regular now. Gotta work on my switch ollies now and bigger ollies into my 180s mid-trail and off natural rollers.

Saw this quarterpipe box from the lift in one of the parks. Probably 6ft tall. I thought of nose-pressing up the transition to a stall (nose) on the coping. Then ollie and ride down the backside (snow pack). Somehow I managed to do it all in one swift act. My buddies said it looked super clean and I was stoked to be able to accomplish it and lay in a huge nose-press.

Great first day on the snow!


In bike related news...

29er Motivator SS is coming back together. Got some new stuff in the works (XTR cranks and mission control from Seven). My secret weapon is still top secret. Need to do some more research to make sure it'll work.


SSWC08 registration has been submitted. Just awaiting my fate like everyone else out there. It is what it is.

there are many ways to go fast

Had a good holiday break from work. Relaxed in New Jersey and did pretty much nothing. It was great to continue to rest.

I still have yet to go snowboarding this winter. Strange for I've historically had many days on the snow prior to January 1st. Guess life is different when you have to pay for a lift ticket as oppose to holding a season pass like in years past. Hopefully I'll get out this weekend. Its either go snowboarding or work on the house. Hmm...


Prior to the holidays I did help a friend of mine get his lift installed in his garage. Here's a shot of my car on the lift. Life just got so much easier to work on my car.



While resting in New Jersey, the AVant went through its big go-fast transformation. Off came the stock turbocharger and such. On went a much bigger turbocharger and free flowing exhaust. Stock power was rated at 100awhp (all wheel horsepower) which seemed kind of low. I was expecting 130awhp knowing its 170hp at the crank and the all-wheel-drive system has shown around 22-28% power loss to the wheels. Currently we're at 240awhp which is reading low. On the street it feels much more powerful than that. Going back to the shop on the 26th for some more software tweaking and more dyno time. That 240 number will only go up from here :)