Join the ISSA 25 cone series. One cyber race every second month!

Regular sessions allow newbies to join our community and discover slalom racing.

Andy Bittner

It's good to hear that Danny is okay, but I'd like to take this opportunity to speak against the very casual manner in which so many of us are willing to latch onto moving cars. I know that 99.9% of the time there seems to be very little danger, and it is certainly convenient compared to walking up ...

Andy Bittner

Nice video, Dave. I think it kind of summed things up nicely. The gray skies, the snow on the ground and two, full-on, charging racers in a pretty hot heat. I'd like to see some of the footage being shot by the cameraman riding down the center of the course. Is that Anthony? It's a subtle thing abou...

Andy Bittner

No... I wouldn't exactly call the Brookland/Catholic University area "ghetto". There are areas around there that can get a little rough, but the closer one gets to the campus the more things seem to improve. Even the "rough" areas aren't all that rough. I think the population cross-section in that a...

Andy Bittner

fyi, that Basilica is much better known to most as The Shrine Of The Immaculate Conception, on the campus of Catholic University.

Andy Bittner

Major props to Guillaume for giving the absolutely correct response to my statement about the U.S. bailing out France in WW2. If I'd been on the French side of this discussion, I would've replied with something like, "Yeah, and all of you over there would be singing "God Save The Queen", if it weren...

Andy Bittner

Since everyone in my immediate family have what "experts" call "genius-level" or "high-funtioning genius-level" IQs, we must have plenty of brains to spare. Why, etienne? Is there a shortage of brains in France? Haven't we helped you French enough?

Andy Bittner

etienne, No need for a brain donor, I'm quite happy with my IQ, which is quite high. Perhaps you are having problems with English. I did not actually intend to "accuse" you of anything in the first or second post, other than being a loud mouth, over-reacting person, stating as fact information he co...

Andy Bittner

Actually, Mike, I'm curious about the story of the Englishwoman that you've referenced. Any links or additional data you could provide would be appreciated. I don't like blatant injustice any more than the next guy and would be curious to know just how similar the two situations were. --------------...

Andy Bittner

Yeah... actually, that IS funny.

Andy Bittner

In the first place, I am not one of the people who shut themselves in during the Washington D.C. sniper incident, even though the first five shots taken in the sniper spree were in the neighborhood where I was raised and at places where I can be found with considerable frequency. However, that's not...

Andy Bittner

To all my snowboarding friends here at SlalomSkateboarder.com, I have placed a small, but interesting piece of snowboarding history up for bid on EBay. It's not some incredibly rare treasure, but is a nice, well kept 'blast from the past'. Right now this classic copy of Transworld Snowboarding is se...

Andy Bittner

etienne de Bary wrote: if there was a bomb, he wouldn't tell, efficient terrorists, like efficient customs agents, avoid all kind of show off. Now I think maybe Etienne should stay in France. Exactly how does he know what "efficient terrorists" do or do not avoid? Either he's been attending terroris...

Andy Bittner

For the benefit of those who have not been informed or found out otherwise, I currently have a 70kg Quicksilver (among other things) up for auction at EBay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... gory=16263

Andy Bittner

I'll check and let you know. I don't have high hopes. Based on the condition of my parking lot and the grocery parking lot I visited today, there's still probably a lot of sand, salt, ice and probably even some snow.

Andy Bittner

Danny, You'll see what is special about the Gaithersburg Park and Race when you get there. Frankly, there's no one thing big or amazing about it. There are just so many things about it that are good that they all add up to a really great slalom venue. It is conveniently located for most, with ample ...

Andy Bittner

Y'know... it's funny. The Baltimore-Washington area looks like it had a sand/salt storm last night. I heard a couple of Baltimore newspeople referring to it as a 2" accumulation of salt on top of a trace of snow. Last week's traffic mess was a relatively rare fluke where a trace of snow hit warm pav...

Andy Bittner

For entirely selfish and personal reasons, I'm voting P&R this time. Of course, P&R is totally convenient for me and, as usual, I'm driving a car that is on its' last legs. If we race at P&R, I'd take the day off from other responsibilities to race. If the trip included dragging my sorry vehicle dow...

Andy Bittner

Adam... Show up at a Gathering with a full pack of cigarettes and having a smoke with GBJ is like a foregone conclusion. All the smokers reading this just nodded in agreement too. I've bummed from the best of 'em. In fact, with very few exceptions (mostly at races), I haven't been smoking since May ...

Andy Bittner

Leo, No worries. As much as I have enjoyed hosting the first two Ncdsa.com Cyber Slalom Cup events, it only makes sense that it should move around a bit. Frankly, a race as important as the Cyber Slalom Cup was always a bit contrary to the stated purposes of The Gatherings, but I considered being as...

Andy Bittner

To everyone who is offering to help me collect prizes and swag for The 4th Gathering, thank you, BUT... as usual, The 4th Gathering will be presenting free burritos from Chipotle Mexican Grills as race prizes. Besides, The Gathering is really not about titles or prizes anyway. Period. The real prize...

Andy Bittner

Isn't it funny how different people interpret differently? Let's take Skateboard Bowling as an example. I think we can all envision the ten cones, set up in a ten-pin triangle, but Jack sees the game as riding or sliding through them, while I envisioned something completely different. As soon as I s...

Andy Bittner

Holy smokes!!! That has got to be THE ultimate slalom skateboarding collectible! Awesome. Bravo, Anthony. I mean... I've got some pretty serious slalom collectibles (hand-sanded test castings of the original Gullwings hangers and some other pre-production Gullwing experiments among other things), bu...

Andy Bittner

Cliff Coleman was riding for Hobie during the mid-60s and probably has some recollection of the state of slalom skateboarding during that decade. The people who should comment on 70s slalom, in my opinion, are Hester, Skoldberg, Hutson and/or any of the Badlands racers, i.e. Ransom, Evans, or Kimbel...

Andy Bittner

Can't help you out much here, but can tell you that Beau Brown is still actively involved in the slalom community. I believe that he is now something like National Sales Director for Etnies Shoes or something like that. He definitely shows up from time to time/

Andy Bittner

1977 custom Ick Stick (produced for Randy Smith for the ARA Series but never delivered), '77 Tracker Mids (wedged in front) 1990 custom Turner cutaway (built to my personal tastes by Bobby Turner), Tracker Fulltracks (narrow pivot) 1977 Sims/Powell 90kg Quicksilver, (original) Gullwing trucks. All s...

Andy Bittner

Jeff, most roller rinks (and dry ice skating rinks, for that matter) are actually quite small. I think most ice rinks (and roller rinks, for some odd reason) are the size of a regulation NHL hockey rink, which I believe to be 200' long x 85' wide w/ rounded corners. A full cyber slalom would leave a...

Andy Bittner

Once upon a time, my brother had a storage bin at an indoor rental storage place that was essentially two warehouses long with an interior, 8' wide, basically level, seamless concrete walkway down the center. It was a self-service, 24 hour facility, so I used to borrow my brother's passcard and go o...

Andy Bittner

Anthony, For detail, read the really long post that I posted further up the page. In the meanwhile, I'll give you the abridged version. The whole thing began with my "discovering" a venue that was just begging for a slalom event. That was in the summer of 2000. The next spring, things were really be...

Andy Bittner

For the record... I push mongo, believe it offers more power when limited to a single push/lunge start, and also footbrake mongo, although I am not as adept or quick to brake with my leading foot as Chaput is.

Andy Bittner

Active quiver or total quiver, including museum pieces? [editted: never mind, looking at your list, Adam, it must be active.]

Andy Bittner

Most of you have probably heard the story, but I'll tell it again here anyway. In July of 1967, my father was given a clay wheeled Hobie for his birthday. The gift was from the guys he skied with each winter and was offered as a non-snow alternative. At the time we were a family with small kids, liv...

Andy Bittner

I haven't got the whole agenda worked out for the Saturday morning junior and rookie programs yet, but it's safe to say that the check-in will open at 8:00 with the first organized events at either 9:00 or 9:30. If we were to start our organized events at 9:30, it's possible we could use 9:00-9:30 t...

Andy Bittner

Wow! Great commentary all around. As long as there is such an open discussion going on about The Gatherings, I am going to take this opportunity to, for the first time, offer my feelings about last spring's event. At The 3rd Gathering: Slalom, Slalom and More Slalom we may have finally hit an attend...

Andy Bittner

Fair points, Slappy, although I'm not sure all the information is in yet. Last year, I had a gameplan for the whole weekend that included racing for all levels, including some significantly challenging advanced racing. Unfortunately, I did a very poor job of sticking to that plan, allowing incidents...

Andy Bittner

Gentlemen, I'd like to begin by apologizing for the angered tone of my last post. I regret the fact that I didn't delay or temper my reply (Wes, it took me about 3 and a half minutes to write... why do you ask?), because now, the fact that I can be a real jerk will become the issue rather than the o...

Andy Bittner

Wes, I can appreciate what you're addressing, but the Friday events before The Gatherings are not part of The Gathering, and I don't want people to start thinking they should book flights so as to be present for a Friday event that I have no plans of providing. Just because people have fun at someon...

Andy Bittner

Correcting bad information just provided by WesE...

The 4th Gathering: Peace, Love and Pavement is on Saturday, May 1 and Sunday, May 2, 2004, not on April 30. I guess Wes just decided to add a day.

Andy Bittner

So as to NOT perpetuate an error on the contest listing page, by cutting and pasting it here... To be clear... there will be NO slalom-cross at The 4th Gathering, nor will there be a Super G. Anyone who has been to the gathering site knows we don't have a hill big enough to accomodate any of the maj...

Andy Bittner

Jani, Could you please remove the line in the listing for The 4th Gathering: Peace, Love and Pavement that says, "Slalom cross + maybe a GS or Super G". This is not something I put in, but something that somehow got transposed over from Jack's listing. To be clear... there will be NO slalom-cross at...

Andy Bittner

...actually, the line is "living in LA with my EX-old best friend Ray".

I'm glad to hear that someone has found Jim and would be very curious to hear more of the story. Jack, give me that call you were talking about and maybe you can treat me to some JK tidbits.

Andy Bittner

The U.S. Slalom Skateboarding Federation is pleased to announce... The 4th Gathering: Peace, Love and Pavement Saturday and Sunday May 1 and 2, 2004 Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA Since the Spring of 2001, these special, early season, race-for-fun Gatherings have attracted some of the top slalom skateb...

Andy Bittner

Pending confirmation from the park, I expect to hold The 4th Gathering on the weekend of May 1 and 2, 2004. More news soon.

Andy Bittner

Anthony, I've left you phone messages and sent e-mails, but I'm guessing you didn't receive them or something. Could you please contact me asap at gbjphotoworksAThotmail.com. Thanks.

Andy Bittner

Of all the advice I've heard yet, most of it quite intellectual in nature, Troy's is the best of all. There is no substitute for experience. This is racing, and racing is about what works, not what looks good. With repetition and focus on getting faster, your body will find its' own best position.

Andy Bittner

All have made very excellent points. Chris' point is something most slalom skiers learn very early on. Personally, I visualize it as follows: I consider the space between cones as being a doorway, through which I must ride, and I always try to ride through just below the uphill doorjamb/cone. Obviou...

Andy Bittner

In which case, I guess I should avoid paying my debts. Sorry.

(btw, new job)

Andy Bittner

Probably be better for me to avoid any bagging on people who probably already would rather see me dead. In all seriousness, I think I'll just continue to abuse my friends. Besides, Mr. Chapeau, you're such an easy mark. I'll even give you permission to attack my tendancy toward severe, pre-race inju...

Andy Bittner

Jack, You're in Gaithersburg, aren't you? Got room for another for that Lansdowne trip? I'm in G-burg too, but my car's on its' last leg. I probably haven't been to Lansdowne in about ten years, but I do love that place.

Andy Bittner

Gentlemen, Welcome to the world of slalom skateboarding, where there are almost as many stances as there are slalom skaters. It seems that the most popular variation (we'll call it the average-stance) is a stance where the feet are closer together than a trick skater's, with the toes angled (roughly...

Andy Bittner

OMG!!! I've been away for a few days (new job, again, woohoo!), and I don't think I've laughed this hard in a long time. This and the other 'Avatar' topic are truly amusing. This is better than The Dark Side, by a long shot. Bravo, Slappy. I'm still shedding a tear over the last time I read a post t...

Join the ISSA 25 cone series. One cyber race every second month!

Regular sessions allow newbies to join our community and discover slalom racing.

Search found 392 matches

Towing From Cars

Video

Ghetto?

better known as...

Bravo! Well said!

Brains

All jokes aside

Examples

A Little Snowboard History For Sale

Terrorist warning

70kg Quicksilver

P&R Condition Report

Gaithersburg Park and Race

Accumulations

Whether or weather or whatever?

A Smoke With GBJ

Alternatives

Prizes at The Gatherings

Interpretations...

Whoa!!!

Roller rinks and storage bins

Indoor practice

Mongo-Lloyd

Which Quiver?

Starting In The Stone Age

The 4th Gathering... Saturday morning

The Once and Future Gatherings

Heavy Doody

Granted

Bad Information Stopper

correction

Correction

Jim Croce lyrics

The 4th Gathering: Peace, Love and Pavement

The 4th Gathering... tentative

Calling Anthony Smallwood

Better Safe Than Sorry