Pan Admun Republic of Western Blog

Monday night session
- It's icy condition! So, we works on edging.
- Edge is created by inclination and angulation
- One tactics is for student paired up, holding hands and pull against each other, then try to incline and angulate on edges
- problem: My toe side has not enough inclination to create angle on toe edge. I think I need to increase my cowboy stance to allow more pressure on edge

Saturday
- Benoit runs a session on exploring terrain. We got some fresh powder so we go hit Skyline for some deep powder.
- Tips riding on powder: 1) laying backward to keep head above snow 2) easy edging, let the board flow on snow (there wasn't really much edge on powder, anyway) 3) slow pivoting

Sunday
- ezio runs a session with us on craving
- tips on craving is to have a right shape, size against the slope
- bend your knee!!
- constant flex and extension to compress and turn smoothly
- anticipation play big part, tactic is to do hand-touch-inside-knee on toe turn and hand-touch-on-butt on heel turn. This enforce the antipication

Read some good analysis on Aberdeen about why blogging didn't catch on in Hong Kong (as compared to China/Taiwan/Everywhere else) as most people still treat blog as a daily.

Of course a blog is not just a daily, it should/can be much more. But since it's a fad, all just jump on the wagon for "fun". The thing is, not everyone has the real motive to use blog as a communication tool for their opinion and such. Therefore, most people blogging just trying hard to find idea to put on their blog. Guess what, most such idea just conveniently come right out of our live (ie oh, wake up at 10 and it's such a shitty night when I go to bed @ 3am). The people that participate define our blogsphere. It is the same way back when everyone have their "Hello, world!" webpage, and it's the same right now.

A similar thing happen to the media; They see a pop cuture "Phenomenon" and catch on to put up a story to attach reader. That's just their job.... I guess they have that "instance" what is in..... and of course the reporting will be just on the surface when it's been treat as a fad.

To me, my blog is a technical platform for me to try out all technologies behind the blog (Ajax, PHP, Webapp dev). I admit that don't have much to say, besides maybe using it as a journal for snowboarding technical information for myself.

The week starts with the first Monday night training session. There was a lot of snow on the hill and moguls.

The session is on advanced sliding turn, mogul terrain, and down un-weight turn.
- advanced sliding turn, focus on pivoting at 12 o'clock, so snow is spreading to the side of the hill or even up the hill.
- anticipation and steering play a big part in advanced sliding turn. It helps a snowboarder turn more aggressively.
- independent feet allow absorbing the bumps
- For moguls, one way to ride it is to turn on the base

There was no weekend sessions... it was just too cold and crazy with the wind and dropping temperature. We can actually seeing the snow turn into ice while we are making runs down the hill.

So, it's a new year and I am back on snow here on Camp Fortune after my annual trip out West. I had relative fun boarding up at Taheo and Whistler.



This year, I got a Friday night and Sunday afternoon adult program. One of them intermediate and the other beginner program. So, I got to apply a lot of what I learned on various types of students.

As for the weekend sessions, this week is on stance and balance. As a more advanced snowboarder, we should be always align ourselves in the middle of the board to ensure equal pressure on the edge. Also to make sure our back is straight to stay on top on the working edge. This is particularly important when in icy condition.

Some tactics we done in the sessions:
- switch riding
- motorboat turn (this is more on the pivoting)
- toe-to-toe/heel-to-hell turn (independent feet pressure control as we shift balance from back-to-front and front-to-back feet)
- hockey stop (isolate turn to stop, then hop up (or down) hill three times)

Some new change this year; We are only to do chicken turn on a narrower corridor, instead of across the hill as before which is dangerous as on-coming traffic will hit students.

Continue from Part II

After fighting the elements and back to the hotel, supper was done in Hilton at Reno. It's just another buffet place, nothing to write home about.

Monday morning we wake up, packed, check out, and hit the road. It's raining and all the snow has melt.

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Continue from Part I...

After a lot of food (almost too much, hehehe), we walk around for a bit to take some pictures. Reno is much smaller than Las Vagas, there are a lot of light on the street, but no where as grant. It really the biggest small city in the world.... small city.

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I am sure Yin didn't invent this, but I called it Yin's anyway since she show me how to made them. Ok, Yin's claims she invents it.

Ingredients:
- ground beef (~500g)
- onion (1/2)
- black pepper
- salt
- Chinese cooking wine
- soy sauce

Steps:
1 ) blend the gound beef in a large bowl
2 ) dice the onion into small pieces
3 ) add the onion into ground beef, about 40/60 proportion
4 ) add 1/2 tea spoon of salt
5 ) add a splash of (~3 tea spoon) cooking wine and another splash of soy sauce
6 ) add appropriate amount of black pepper
7 ) mix up all ingredients
8 ) fire up a pan with oil
9 ) put some onion into the pan
10) scoop out chunk of beef and put it in the pan after roll it into a ball shape
11) roll and cook meatballs until it's done





If desired, we can make some sause using catchup, vinegar, and suger, or other pre-made sause.

I usally went up to Lake Tahoe for snowboarding with my brother and his friends each time I come to San Francisco, there is no exception this year. Unfortunately, none of my brother's friends can make it this year. So, we decided to make it a long weekend and stay at Reno for a weekend with my parents coming along. They are hitting the casino floor while we are coming down the skihill.

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