Bear was OK on Friday.

Fwiw 38 was a painless drive up, almost no traffic and no chain control.

No joke, 90% of why I wear a helmet is for protection from gapers pulling the bar down on my head.

The other ten percent is protection against gapers skiing/boarding into me.

Probably the most compelling argument for snowboarding I've heard.

I've shot some auto racing with my D610 and haven't hit buffer issues. Fwiw I generally shoot JPEG for action stuff though.

Anybody got a tip on where to go for a tune etc in the LA area? Just bought some skis at SkiDazzle and need to get them done. North/East of downtown is preferable.

Ah gotcha.

The guys are actually ok, roll bar in the car saved their asses despite rolling 10 times and ending up so far down a crane couldn't get the car out. Concussions, contusions, and...

I love Russian Standard, it's the only vodka I enjoy straight. It actually has a flavor and not one that's unpleasant.

Mammoth was looking mighty fine on the resort cams this afternoon. Wish I wasn't broke as a joke so I could head up there.

Man that's tempting as hell. Biz trip for this weekend just got cancelled too.

I have an iPad app where I pay one cheap monthly fee ($8 or something) and it has a crapton of magazines I can read. I read Ski once in a while when I've exhausted all of the better sources of stoke...

Got back from a gorgeous afternoon at the race track out in the high desert to find LA soaked. I'm hoping that some of this rain turns into usable snow but I'm not holding my breath.

Kind of a necropost, but wtf kind of ICU doesn't have power available in the rooms? I was in one the other day after some friends rolled a Miata off a cliff and I've never seen so many outlets in my...

Valley is actually where I first learned to ski when I was a little kid. Don't think I've ever been there as an adult though.

I still like Baldy the best of the LA area ski areas but as we all...

I've been hearing good things about the Howa/Weatherby Vanguard .223s or .308s and have been considering picking one up, probably with a mag conversion. Might be a good candidate for the coyote gun...

They were TE37SLs, now sold. They made sense when the car was a souped-up street car, not as much for hard track abuse. We need three or four more sets of wheels for endurance race use and we're...

I wonder what ever happened to my Kindle? I use my iPad for all that kind of stuff now, but the Kindle is great for long flights and trips since the battery lasts forever.

Bear was about what you'd expect. Pretty decent for fake snow for the first couple of hours and not obscenely crowded, but then it turned into awful chop and a game of "dodge the noob snowboarders."...

Pretty much everywhere in SoCal (Buttonwillow, Willow Springs, Auto Club Speedway etc) and this coming season we'll be running it further afield in the NASA German Touring Series championship...

Thanks. Aviation crew chief I'm guessing?

Thought you guys might think this was cool. I helped build this car and I'm its crew chief at the track.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7523/15894943725_de9ac9b2a0_c.jpgDSC_2685 by maximstensel,...

The Bear resorts open up this week (Summit tomorrow and Bear Mt. Friday) if anybody feels like braving the WROD. I might go up, it'll probably be a shitshow but some turns are better than no turns...

No joke, that's a lot better since the last time I checked.

I'm gonna be up near Sac for the weekend of the 7th (25 Hours of Thunderhill if anybody's a road racing fan) and gonna try to take a...

It just rained and it's supposed to get down to 34 tonight at my place in Universal City, hopefully that translates to some decent snow up the hill.

I've always felt the same way about focal lengths, 50 is kinda neither here nor there. I'd much rather have a 35 equivalent. Only thing my 50 gets used for is pulling super shallow depth of field...

I'd go to the range and rent a Glock if you're interested in one. Personally I think they're great guns but I just can't get along with them, something about the angle and shape of the grip really...

Where are you seeing the forecasts? I haven't found anything good since moving back from NorCal.

Yeah the PS3 is probably the best BD player on the market for the money. I tried to use the LG one at my parents' house the other day and it was a disaster in comparison, even though it cost most of...

Happened to be up Angeles Crest last night and the whole place turns from summer into this as soon as you cross the summit.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3668/10216052966_3ec916d600_z.jpg
Found...

I have a Feisol with a Photo Clam head and like the pair quite a bit for the money. Mine's a big one but I hear good things about their travel pods.

Glad to see the thread up, first season for me back in SoCal so I'm hoping this start is a good sign.

Btw are there any decent pre-season swaps/sales down here other than ski dazzle? Google isn't...

It really is crazy what's happened with editing in the last couple decades. When I was a kid my mom ran the trailer department at Universal and I remember going in there when an edit bay was a room...

I'm still waiting for a D400, I guess I'll be waiting forever now. Maybe Nikon thinks we have enough resolution to crop with the D4. I'm still using my D300s as my backup and it gets almost as much...

Using AF-ON instead of the shutter release is awesome, it took me a while to be convinced to try it, and a while longer before I got used to it, but I can't do it the normal way now. The great thing...

Yeah, I have the Rode VideoMic and it's garbage.

If you think the foam screen and solid clamp are OK for what we're doing, then maybe it makes more sense to go with the Sony like you're saying....

Nikoncafe is OK. A little bit of a culture shock coming from places like TGR (everybody's too cheerful and friendly) but it's a decently knowledgable community.

Yeah, I'm pretty well aware of the price-performance ratio with these things. That said, I'll take mediocre over nothing at all. I watched a test video with the Que and it seemed passable enough, and...

Of course this was the weekend I had to get the flu. Maybe I'll try and head to baldy or something this week if I'm up to it.

On the opposite lines, if budget ISN'T much of a concern, also check out Gura Gear. All the outdoor guys I know love them.

I'm crazy about Think Tank's gear but it's more photojourno/pro sports...

I'm in the market for a very inexpensive video shotgun mic. The mic will be used with decent HD camcorders (XH-A1) or separate field recorders that have XLRs with phantom power (Zoom H4, M-Audio...

This may be a little late, but if anybody else is in the market, check out Photo Clam. Relatively cheap and excellent quality. Very similar to a Markins, just made in China instead of Korea. I'm...

Any more input on this? I had the worst fogging of my life yesterday. Contacts aren't an option. (Combination of a crazy prescription that would mean hard glass contacts and tear duct damage that...

It's called Snow Immersion Suffocation or something like that.

I ended up in a similar situation yesterday, head wasn't under snow but it was on the snow and my skis were buried bad enough that I...

Ugh same thing driving up 50 today. Went through like 3 chain checkpoints before I hit anything that actually would've been worth using chains for. Sucks being forced to just tear the things up and...

Went to slay pow at Sierra. (It was cheap at REI.)

Got slayed by pow at Sierra. Never managed to get myself that stuck that upside down that many times. Not sure if it's more related to the fact...

It has more than enough power to do the limit, you were just stuck behind morons. Biggest problems with the CX-5 are that you can't get a manual with AWD or the nicer trim levels, same as the rest of...

The average 13 year old snowboarder must be pretty core then.

I bought those Goodyear ones a few years ago and never again. They were worse than the two year old OEM ones I'd had on the car, and I replaced them within a week. I've never had wipers that wiped so...

I've been really interested in the XA-10 myself. I've always been of the belief that for 99% of video a real video camera is the best solution, and I love the idea of a camera with manual controls...

GF guilted me out of going away on xmas eve or xmas, I guess it's not the worst thing then. I wonder if wednesday will be any good.

Yeah, I'm pretty realistic about things. I grew up in LA so I know the general score for things down there. Too bad Mammoth is so stupid expensive or I'd be planning on road tripping up there a bunch.