BayAreaSkiBus.com

Skull Candy iPhone App: Sweet or Sour?

pineapplr — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:10:32 +0000

today we have a guest column from our former marketing assistant chris:

Anytime I come across an iPhone application that I’m vaguely interested AND is free, I download it. So when Skull Candy – the brand known for obnoxiously colorful, but admittedly stylish headphones – came out with a free app last month that promised free music, videos and “up-to-the minute” snow, skate and surf conditions, I was all about it. After playing around with the Skull Candy app, though, I found my cranium a bit sore and my pallet a touch too bitter.

The app's wallpapers feature is a cool add-on. Just don't expect anything without a Skull Candy logo on it.

In theory, the app is genius: Reach out to a young, emerging generation of snowboarders, skaters and surfers by offering a one-stop app that includes an extreme-sports blog, free videos, a music player and a system that generates the conditions, directions and forecasts of places they can shred at. Unfortunately, the majority of music is terrible, the videos aren’t worth wadding through and the app is one giant Skull Candy ad after the next. If the snow section worked correctly I could probably find some redemption in the app, but this is where things truly go sour.

Conditions for most Tahoe resorts are updated about every morning.

All of the snow conditions are powered by onthesnow.com, but they are far from up-to-the minute. Most Tahoe resorts appear to be updated once every day or less, and sometimes it’s even tough to get conditions this fresh. For each resort you choose, the app shows the “current” weather and temperature, amount of snow-fall over the last 24 hours, a six-day forecast, the mountain’s snow-base level and the number of lifts and trails open. While all these functions are great, they’re almost never as up-to-date as the conditions that can be found on each of the resort’s websites. Yuck.

Six-day forecasts are provided for every resort, but are not always up-to-date.

The search engine for finding places to ski and snowboard is one of the few bright spots that works as it should – and it includes over 2000 international resorts. You can search by different US regions and states, as well as various countries throughout Canada, Europe and the Southern Hemisphere. Another cool feature is that you can pinpoint search areas by radii ranging from 5 miles to 500.

Be wary of the “map it” button, though, which sometimes shoots you way off course from the resort you’re trying to reach. When I tried to map Heavenly, for example, it gave me directions to the Eldorado National Forest, more than 30 miles southwest of the resort. Even stranger (not to mention frustrating) is that every time you map a resort, the app transfers coordinates – instead of a normal address – to the iPhone’s maps application. It’s head-scratching lags like this that ruin the potential of this app. Skull Candy had some great plans in mind, but in the end, an app that could have made a positive mark on the snow, just left a big yellow one. Tasty.

sugarbowl: free lessons and rentals for the rest of the season

pineapplr — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:20:56 +0000

you read correctly, ladies and gents, sugarbowl is giving out free lessons and rentals at their resort for the rest of the year. that means if you take the ski bus to sugarbowl for the rest of the season you will pay only $105 for bus ride, lift ticket, rentals and lessons. that is ridiculous.

notes from their site:

Lesson details for General Admission are:

We call our group lessons “Progression Sessions” because they are designed to help you grow from a beginner to an all-mountain enthusiast.
GA lessons are only available at our Mt. Judah Portal.
GA lessons start promptly at 10AM and 1PM. Please plan ahead.
GA lessons are 2 hours in duration.
Ski GA lessons are available for ages 4 and up.
Snowboard GA lessons are available for ages 7 and up.
Signature Children’s Lessons are available at regular rates.
Private Lessons are available at regular rates.

Rental details for General Admission are:

Standard ski or snowboard equipment is available at our Mt. Judah or Village rental locations.
$20 upgrade to high performance skis is available.
Customers must complete a rental form each day they take out our rental equipment.
Children age 17 and under must have a rental form that is signed by their parent or guardian.
Pass holders may bypass our customer sign-in stations and proceed directly to a cashier station to complete their registration. Please present your pass for the fastest service.

google introduces ‘street view snowmobile’ ..srsly

pineapplr — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:08:37 +0000

just in time for the 2010 winter olympics in BC, google has announced their new addition to ‘street view’ … street view snowmobile. take a second and check out the video, then take two seconds to freak the frak out. can’t wait to test out all the new google maps of resorts.

snowboarding in dc ‘i love the cops!’

pineapplr — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:00:55 +0000

i love this video, reminds me of being bored back home in the mountainless midwest. watch the whole thing cause the cops being cool at the end is the best part.

an overview of northstar@tahoe

pineapplr — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:24:37 +0000

great video put out by the folks up at northstar.

skitripper’s got new skis that are legen..wait for it..dary!

pineapplr — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 07:59:36 +0000

I rode my new Dynastar Exclusive Legend Edens (152) for the first time last weekend. The widest skis in the Dynastar women’s lineup, they simply glided atop the fresh powder at Sierra at Tahoe.

The Legend Edens are pretty skis, and, well, because I am a girl, that’s important to me. I immediately received a compliment from one of the female lifties.

Besides looks, I also wanted skis that could handle the whole mountain with ease, transitioning from powder to groomers and from wide, loopy turns to tight turns in a pinch. At 85 cm under foot (or at the “waist” as it’s called), they’re wider than any skies I’d ever used. The extra surface area, especially at the tips (126 cm) and tails (110), buoyed me to the top of the fresh snow off-trail. I felt like the skis wanted to go with the flow, and all I needed to do was steer them around the obstacles (i.e., trees). When skiing on bumpy snow beaten up by countless other skiers, my skis punched through almost anything.

At the end of the day, the Legend Edens were lightweight and easy to transport to the parking lot with their special anti-slip grips–another plus! Other little extras that I like are the steel guards on the tips (because, I inevitably bump into things) and the women specific design. The Legend Eden is the re-made Exclusive Legend Powder from years past.

Ski.Net gave the Legend Eden a 3.29/5 in its review.

Most reviews/product info. say the Legend Edens are for advanced to expert skiers who ski aggressively. I’m looking forward to taking the skis out much more and seeing all of their–and my–capabilities!

I rode my new Dynastar Exclusive Legend Edens (152) for the first time last weekend. The widest skis in the Dynastar women’s lineup, they simply glided atop the fresh powder at Sierra at Tahoe.

First of all, I must admit that I am not used to skiing on planks this nice. I’ve rented gear for the last two seasons, and most of the rental skis are in need of a good wax at best and at worst, long overdue for replacement. So, I felt like I was floating on a cloud skiing on my brand new factory waxed and tuned skis.
The Legend Edens are pretty skis, and, well, because I am a girl, that’s important to me. I immediately received a compliment from one of the female lifties.
Besides looks, I also wanted skis that could handle the whole mountain with ease, transitioning from powder to groomers and from wide, loopy turns to tight turns in a pinch. At 85 cm under foot (or at the “waist” as it’s called), they’re wider than any skies I’d ever used. The extra surface area, especially at the tips (126 cm) and tails (110), buoyed me to the top of the fresh snow off-trail. I felt like the skis wanted to go with the flow, and all I needed to do was steer them around the obstacles (i.e., trees). When skiing on bumpy snow beaten up by countless other skiers, my skis punched through almost anything.
At the end of the day, the Legend Edens were lightweight and easy to transport to the parking lot with their special anti-slip grips–another plus! Other little extras that I like are the steel guards on the tips (because, I inevitably bump into things) and the women specific design. The Legend Eden is the re-made Exclusive Legend Powder from years past.
Ski.Net gave the Legend Eden a 3.29/5 in its review.
Most reviews/product info. say the Legend Edens are for advanced to expert skiers who ski aggressively. I’m looking forward to taking the skis out much more and seeing all of their–and my–capabilities!

first time in powder for the season…and i eat it

pineapplr — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:23:20 +0000

special thanks to walter for taking this video of me eating powder something-fierce a few weeks back. this is proof that i practice what i preach! in snowboarding: first you fall, then you fall in love. (…and then you keep fallin’)

great ski bus video from rider elena!!!

pineapplr — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:14:01 +0000

big thanks to rider elena for submitting this video to our weekly photo contest. though it didn’t win, i wanted to share it with everyone. elena shot this with her flip video camera, i think it turned out really well!

roam freely with the nixon nomadic headphones

pineapplr — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 08:53:36 +0000

as i mentioned in an earlier post, my original intention for going to the burton sample sale was, of course, to buy a new board. it turned out that even at those low low sample sale prices, the boards were still out of my price range.

this meant that i focused on getting accessories, which leads us to today’s post. i needed a new pair of headphones since my old skullcandy lowriders decided to kick it about three months ago, but i wasn’t sure which brand to get. as i stood in the forever line to check out, i noticed boxes of headphones sitting on a table by the register. upon further inspection i saw that they were the new nixon nomadic headphones ($100). (nixon is the accessory line at burton and you’ll be happy to hear that the burton quality didn’t change with the name.)

as i write this my new nixon nomadic headphones are flowing inspiration in the form of the new royksopp album to my audio holes. the over the ear speakers feel snug against my head, it’s amazing how comfy an inch of bright green foam can feel. (true story: i’ve started to wear these in place of a hat in the morning like musical ear muffs.)

in fact, since these were made by nixon, they are meant to be used whilst being active. they come with a great hardshell case that fits them when they are scrunched and folded in for space saving. but active people will love the volume control built into the right ear most. the metal ring that surrounds the right earphone also doubles as a volume control. (clockwise means louder, counter-clock means softer) this feature comes in mega-handy when on the slopes. (no more reaching into your pocket for your ipod before you can hear your friend tell you something!)

even while changing the volume, the metallic backing to the speakers becomes a focal point for my hand as the tiny circular grooves mimic those on vinyl. it’s not a functional attribute. but it’s worth mentioning.

the music is ported between the computer and my ears by a skinny cord surrounded in a bright green knitted fabric that helps prevent the cord from freezing in cold climates. (this was always a pet peeve of mine when going to undergrad in wisconsin. i’m looking at you apple.) speaking of apple, the nomadics have a second cord option for $20 bucks more which allows them to be used with the iphone. (this is my next purchase.)

“okay, we get it, the headphones are hot as shit, but how do they sound?”

as my old skullcandys can attest, often some headphones can be all form and no function, but luckily for us, the new nomadics do a great job of finding a middle ground. an audio purist might notice the missing bass in some of their favorites, or a lack of a clarity in the treble. these are all things that are easily forgotten, especially once you’re on the slope. to be honest, if you are on the chairlift and are thinking about that stuff: you’re doing it wrong.

bottom line: when paired with a hat and a new boarding playlist, these are perfect for bluebird days. (on colder days i’m more likely to wear my helmet which does not mesh well with these badboys.) these headphones are a perfect marriage of form and function for those into listening to music while being active, especially the ones who like to look good while listening to music while being active. all in all i’d give them four stars out of five.

contest winners for the last week of 2009!!!

pineapplr — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 06:36:36 +0000

here we have ‘em. the winner’s from last week’s photo contest!!!

first up we have third place winner:

third placer: adar schneider

next up in second we have:

second placer: quynh dang lu

finally we have last week’s second placer coming in first:

first placer: steven parlow!!!