webbdawg99

@Horton, if you "hear about events with alleged snake driving", I'd suggest doing more than being embarrassed for the sport. The cheaters are the ones that need to be embarrassed....and eradicated.

If people are running "bogus" Class C tournaments....they need to be called out! There's no reason or excuse that would ever make it acceptable!

I skied the A1 for several seasons. I got one of the early release A3's and couldn't run back to back passes on it. After wrestling with it for weeks, I sold it and went to the Quest. For those of you that read my "Nationals Nightmare" thread, I pulled the old A1 out of the closet to use until my new Quest 45 arrives. I had just started running 38 a couple times before Nationals. After pulling out the old A1, I ran 38 after only a handful of sets. I still think it's one of the best skis I've ever been on!

We have some conflicting problems here. I think most of us agree that we want to grow the sport. Most of us also agree that Nationals doesn't have the prestige that it used to. Why do we have to have Nationals as an avenue to grow the sport? Its Nationals! It should be exclusive! Having hundreds or thousands of skiers qualify doesn't grow the sport as much as dilute the accomplishments of others. If you wanna grow the sport, INVITE PEOPLE TO COME SKI WITH YOU!!!!! I gotta tell you, I thought the whole "Pass the Handle" campaign was a great idea. @OB brought up one of his buddies and his kids for a day on the lake. His buddy sat in the boat as I started to pull OB into the course. The first words out of his mouth were HOLY $#!+!!! I don't care who you are. If you've never seen someone run a slalom course from the boat, that is IMPRESSIVE and COOL! That's how you get people interested. You gotta share your passion!

I was gonna take a new Quest 45 home with me from Nationals.....but I told Paul to ship it! I'm not sure I'll EVER carry a ski on a plane again!

OB4 and Mapple Torque were the 2 biggest "innovations" I saw at Nationals

@MAD11 You had a sweet setup at Nationals and you're spot on about @fizer. Thanks for the cold beer....I needed it after my "nationals nightmare". Cheers!

Update: After arriving back to Atlanta, I personally went in the baggage office to discuss my experience. Airline policy is that all domestic claims must be filed within 24 hours of the travel time. I thought I was dead in the water right there. The local baggage office is only allowed to approve claims of $500. Anything over that has to go to corporate for handling. Despite me being out of the 24 hour window, the local agent approved for me to replace my SportTube with a new one. I think remaining calm, patient, and friendly probably helped. It also didnt hurt that I had an 8x10 (posted above) of me crashing at Nationals b/c of my broken ski. I think it made it a little more real for them. I'm glad they made an exception to the 24 hour rule. It will be another 2-4 weeks before corporate makes a decision regarding the reimbursement for the ski. Needless to say, I don't think they are in any hurry to be sending out checks. I'm hoping that the local approval is a good sign. In my eyes it is at least an early acknowledgement that they have some responsibility here. Fingers remain crossed.

I don't disagree. Soft knees and ankles are important.....and so is being balanced on the ski

@skinut When you keep your knees soft, you arent pushing on the ski as much. When you push on the ski, you are forcing it out of the natural arc that its designed to make. With soft knees, you allow the ski to turn as it is intended. Pushing on the ski causes big problems!

@Ilivetoski, did you just suggest to @MattP to keep his knees bent and soft in the turn? That sounds like great advice. But I get the feeling that he's heard that advice over and over and over and.......well, you get the point. SOFT KNEES MATT!!!!

@Chef23 I'm not sure that the moderators know who every person is.....

@Ghibli Since you are an anonymous poster, what type of work do you do that requires this type of agreement?

@Horton When things cool off a little....I'd like to hear that story. Of course, names will be changed to protect the innocent....or guilty

@Horton Like I said before, I'm not referring to people being "out of line". But when someone takes a hard line on one side of an issue, especially when it is a minority opinion, you sometimes wonder if there's more to it than meets the eye. What if someone got on here raving about how great XYZ ski is.....would it be a conflict of interest if that person was actually an employee of the ski manufacturer? This is just an example of a situation that wouldn't be "abusive"......but there's not any accountability. I know it's your "sandbox". But if it were up to me, your name would have to be in your profile in order to participate in the threads. We have pro skiers, business owners, dea agents, and all kinds of other people using their real info. If they can do it, I dont understand why everyone can't.

@Horton So from my interpretation, you seem to be more in favor of accountability as opposed to anonymity. I guess I haven't seen anyone go WAY over the line....but there have certainly been many occasions (several today actually) where I can't help but think "who the heck is this guy??" You say, "best part is I rarely moderate b/c the site is not anonymous". It certainly seems anonymous to me. Someone may use the same screen name over and over....but that gives them little accountability, if any.

Although I dont always agree with everything that's said, I can certainly respect someone's opinion much more when they own it. I appreciate guys like @MarcusBrown not hiding their opinions behind a screen name.

I know of another forum that has a policy regarding anonymity. Their policy reads: "(The forum administrator) states that posters who voice strong opinions and don't use their name will be banned from the forum".

Usually the people with the most meaningful thing to say have the most to lose by saying it. So anonymity allows for some level of honesty. Anonymity also may bring more malicious commentary when one knows they won't be held accountable for what they say. So is anonymity a good or bad thing on the web?

It's not clear from that photo @ob. However, watching the video, it's pretty easy to see flashing headlights as Dave is going into 3 ball

@David Miller I get it. Trust me....I get it. And if I were a betting man, I'd bet that Jeff wishes he could take it back. And I also bet that we will never see such an incident again. And maybe the judge made the wrong call....but its a "judgement" call. Sometimes judgement decisions are bad.....but that's not the point here. The point is that ego, more than anything, ruined the event. If it was me in the heat of the moment, I MAY have reacted the same way. But don't sit here and feed us the line that its about the spectators. Its about you. You ski for you. I ski for me. And thats it. At no point was the show or the spectators of concern to anyone.....especially you.

@David Miller You say, "Its the Big Dawg and it a show for the spectators it aint about us." I have to throw a MASSIVE BS flag on that statement right there. Sure, that sounds all well and good in theory. And yes, it is a show and the spectators certainly benefit from it. But that statement is so absurd its laughable. If that were the case, then the "protest" that happened wouldn't have happened at the EXPENSE of the spectators. I was on the shoreline where you got out of the water after Jeff got 1.5@41, advancing him to the finals. The words that you spoke to several others on the shore had nothing to do with "spectators" or "the show", but only about yourself and how you clearly thought you got screwed. And honestly, I don't blame you because you're a competitor. The majority of Ballers are competitors. But you will never convince me that the reason that you or anyone else does it is for the spectators.

Gotta have a sense of humor to keep from crying!

Well I didn't expect that the photographer got any pics of me skiing....but I was wrong. This is what they had.....

My Quest was inside a Performance neoprene sock with a Firkin Fin on the outside. It was then inside a Dakine soft bag with another ski and stuffed with towels. That soft bag was then placed in the SportTube. Not sure what else I could've done to minimize the chance of my ski getting damaged