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Articles from Homeboy's Skiing Blog

Funny Experiences of Monoskiing in the Alps During 1980’s 2008-01-05 15:14:11 Today’s HomeboySki.Com guest blogger is Jouni Aro, an enthusiastic skier from Finland. As we are both software developers, I met Jouni while I was working in Switzerland. Now Jouni is one of our frequent readers with whom we have lately discussed via comments. Jouni read my yesterday’s article (World of Skiing in 1980’s - The Awesome Monoskiing) and wanted say few words about his experiences with monoskiing. Read below more about Jouni’s experiences with monoskiing in the Alps in 1980’s. Hey Marko, funny that you now wrote about monoskiing - I seem to have something to say to all your stories. I tried monoskiing in Kitzbühel, Austria on my first skiing trip to the Alps - in 1988. We rented those with another guy at the same traveling group for one day while the others kept their own skis. The beginning was hard: the binding was set for >100kg while I was <70kg - additionally it was stuck and could not be adjusted. So if I fell the bindings never opened ...

World of Skiing in 1980’s - The Awesome Monoskiing 2008-01-04 16:38:04 Sometimes it is good to go back in time and think about the glorious days of skiing in 1980’s. Today I saw few photos of monoskiing and the skiing clothing in the 80’s. Man, it was so funny.. I started to surf in the Internet looking for stories of skiing in the 80’s. Then I figured out that this is actually a pretty good topic for few articles. So, here we go.. I was born in 1974 and I started skiing when I was about six years old. I cannot remember that well, but anyhow it was in the early 1980’s. I was very keen on skiing and I went skiing every single weekend, year after year. It was a skiing boom on those days. Alpine skiing became very popular in Europe and United States. I was one of those kids skiing like crazy and wearing funny clothes. I grew up in northern Finland, in Lapland. I went skiing in Finland on local hills with other rednecks 2-4 times a week. I am not sure what the year when we discovered a monoski was, but I guess it was 1985 or 1986. We u ...

December 2007 Poll Results - Volkl Skis Most Preferred 2008-01-03 11:53:53 December 2007 poll is over and it is time to look at the results. The question in December was “The Best Skis Are..” and the choices were many from major brands (such as Volkl, Atomic and Fischer) to not well-known skis, such as Visu and Zag. It is interesting to see which skis people prefer. I prefer Atomic and K2 skis, Atomic on pistes and K2 on off-pistes. Now it is time to see which skis our visitors prefer. The poll received 42 votes in total and there was about one month time to answer (December). Top three skis According to the poll, Volkl skis are the best ones. Volkl skis received 13 votes out of 42 votes. Are you suprised? Now, it is important to notice that this blog includes gear reviews, and so far we have reviewed only Volkl skis. We get a number of visitors from search engines because of those Volkl review articles, such as Völkl 07/08 Ski Review Series - Part I: Völkl Katana and Völkl 07/08 Ski Review Series - Part III: Völkl Tigershark 10 FT Power Switc ...

Learn To Ski - Skiing Beginners Tips For Skiing, Part III 2008-01-02 08:02:16 Previously in my article series of Learn To Ski - Skiing Beginners Tips For Skiing, I have discussed about motivation and the basis of skiing as well as finding a balanced position and sliding the first meters with skis. This third article in my six articles series of skiing beginners tips will teach you how to make the very first turn with skis. Before making your first turns I also tell you how to get on and off a chair lift. Before entering pistes, remember to protect your skin from sun and cold! Use plenty of sun cream, preferably some well-known and high quality sun cream. There are lot more ultraviolet radiation up in the mountains, so you can easily burn your skin badly in one day. Use also goggles or sunglasses to protect your eyes. Now that you have learned how to slide with your skis, it is time to get on a lift and go to the top of the piste. Start with beginners or family pistes; do not go directly to advanced skier’s piste. All pistes are marked with color coders as ...

Snowboarding Movie Review - First Descent (Widescreen Edition) 2008-01-01 06:00:44 During the holidays I watched the snowboarding movie First Descent in which five snowboarding icons go riding the big mountains of Alaska. The movie is not just big mountain riding, but also an epic story of the history of snowboarding. This article is my review of this movie. You might remember that I have mentioned this movie earlier in a clip of Terje’s first descent of 7601, but not reviewed before this moment. Who are those icons in this movie? According to the marketing text of the movie they are Shaun White, Hannah Teter, Terje Haakonsen, Shawn Farmer, Nick Perata. Well, I would say only White, Haakonsen and Farmer are icons. They have done something that makes them icons. These five riders are brought to Alaska to ride big mountains. As always in American ski movies filmed in Alaska, you will see good riding, dangerous situtations and dramatic crashes. Movie can be understood so that Farmer and Perata are there to figure out if they are still able to ride big mountains, w ...

HomeboySki.Com and Year 2007 - a Quick Review 2007-12-28 06:00:29 It has been an interesting year 2007. A couple of days more and it is history. Year 2008 is going to begin bringing new challenges. This has been an interesting year because I returned home from Switzerland after working there two years. I started a new interesting job in Finland and I am able to spend more time with my family. One reason for year 2007 being interesting is that I launched HomeboySki.Com in September. Since then I have been writing articles almost on daily basis. My articles have covered topics I am interested in. Soon after I started Janne joined and started writing his articles. Janne’s gear reviews have been popular and they form an important part of the incoming traffic. The most interesting articles have been 1. Völkl 07/08 Ski Review Series - Part I: Völkl Katana 2. Völkl 07/08 Ski Review Series - Part III: Völkl Tigershark 10 FT Power Switch 3. Völkl 07/08 Ski Review Series - Part II: Völkl Mantra It is pretty clear that people are interested in ge ...

Taking It Relaxed - Few Articles from the Past 2007-12-26 06:00:58 It is Christmas time and I am having a vacation with my family. I am not going to write much anymore in this year, but as soon as January starts, I will be back with good articles. Meanwhile I provide you three good articles from the past. If you are new to this blog, those might be interesting for you. If you have read them already, please be patient. There will be lots of good stuff after the vacation. Janne’s gear reviews have been the most popular articles in this blog. Check out what Janne says about Volkl Katana skis. Resort reviews are a category we like a lot. Check out our resort articles, such as top 10 ski resorts. Because we have been skiing since the Stone Age, we know a thing and another about skiing. We also write tips and tricks for learning to ski. Check out those articles. More you can find just by surfing around in this blog. Oh, and remember to drop your comments! It would be nice to hear your opinnions. ... Articles

Merry Christmas From Homeboyski.Com 2007-12-24 06:00:12 Finally it is here, the long waited Christmas. This is the best time of the year which I share with my family. Instead of going to work I spend time with my children and my wife. We play music together, we sing Christmas songs, we play games and we go out a couple of times a day. We eat good food together and we read books. No, we do not go skiing because there is no snow here in Finland. It has been a strange December. Anyhow, now it is Christmas and the most important day for children. It is important because they are waiting for Santa Claus, the magic old man who brings lots of presents. It is time to settle down and enjoy the Christmas. I am going to spend next two hours in my sauna, which is really the best room in my house. Heh.. we Finns really love sauna, especially on winter time. After sauna we are going to have a Christmas dinner. I know I will eat too much, again.. it is the same every year.. I hope you are taking it relaxed as well, even though you are at home, in a ski re ...

Awesome Places to Ski - Skiing in Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia 2007-12-22 06:00:31 I have a friend living and working in Zurich in Switzerland. He is an enthusiastic skier, and he told me a couple of days ago that he is planning to go skiing in Kamchatka peninsula deep in Russia. This is not his first time skiing in very exotic places. Previously he has conquered Kyrgystan and Mount McKinley in Alaska. He is an experienced backcountry skier and climber, and is now looking for new challenges. Oh, and guess what? This is his business trip with which he is going to combine some skiing. He seems to have a nice job right now. Skiing in Kamchatka, how would it be? Have you ever considered it or have you even heard about Kamchatka? Let us first find out where it is located. Kamchatka is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, lieing between the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk. It belongs to the Russian Federation and it has about 400 000 inhabitants. Kamchatka is deep in the wilderness, surrounded by a beautiful nature with rich flora and fauna. The area is known from the ...

Cross Blog Promotion - Irish Skiing Holidays Advices by Skiing.ie 2007-12-21 06:00:53 Paul from Skiing.ie sent me email some time ago and asked if I could inform the readers of homeboyski.com about his blog. Sure, that is exactly the point in blogging. I went to see Paul’s site and decided to write a short review of it. So, keep on reading to know more about Skiing.ie.. Let us start from the overall design. Shortly said, the design is really cool. I prefer white background in blogs with which Paul has combined blue and green pretty well. Logo nice and medium sized, links and text have nice fonts and good font sizes. The blog is organized so that there is a featured article first, and below the featured article you can find almost 10 recent articles and more links to the site and forum. On the right side of the blog you can find the recent posts and comments as well as a skiing video of the week. Yeah, looks good! I really like the design, may be because our upcoming facelift will have some similarities What I would have done different is that I would add one bi ...

War Ski Movie - Poor Boyz Productions Declares War in Ski Slopes 2007-12-20 04:29:54 War is absolutely yet another great ski movie from Poor Boyz Productions. Just check out the clip below. It includes many great scenes, such as the record size 37′ air on the largest hip ever built, a record height 23.5′ tree jib and unmatched urban rail assaults. Some very experienced skiers, such as Seth Morrison, Pep Fujas and JP Auclair, show up in the movie. I can say I am a fan of Seth Morrison and I prefer skiing the old-school way and watching old-school big mountain riding, but I also must say that the new-school stuff in this movie is really impressive. In fact, I am a bit jealous that I cannot jump and ride parks like these in the movie. What I really like in this video are those huuuuge jumps and big mountain skiing in Alaska. See Seth Morrison and other dudes riding steep powder fields in big mountains, making backflips and huge jumps with high speed. Avalanche-triggering big mountain lines and backcountry skiing forms the best part of this DVD for old farts li ...

Who Is Kalle Palander? - A Short Bio Of Alpine Skier Kalle Palander 2007-12-19 09:33:36 Kalle Palander won the giant slalom race in Alta Badia in last weekend. This was not the first victory for Palander who has already won the world cup of slalom in 1999. Palander has won several races and had been in the top of alpine skiing for many years. Now, who is Kalle Palander? Well, many of you might know already, but let me tell provide you a brief introduction to alpine skier Kalle Palander. Kalle Markus Palander was born in 1997 in Tornio in Finland, which is located in the middle of Finland. Kalle Palander is the most successful Finnish alpine skier ever and is a very well known person in Finland. Kalle’s father Jouni Palander works and has always worked as Kalle’s personal coach. Kalle Palander is married to Riina-Maija Palander with whom he has a daughter, Oda-Sofia (born in 2007). Additionally Palander has a daughter, Mathilde, born in 1999 in Norway. Kalle Palander showed his skills in 1997 by taking 16th position in slalom in Sestriere. In Nagano’s ...

Three Ski Resorts I Would Love to Go in 2008 2007-12-18 07:28:37 Year 2007 is soon over and 2008 is beginning. Next year I will go skiing in some ski resorts, but I have not decided which ones I will visit. There are numerous ski resorts I would like to experience, such as Whistler, Silverton, Lake Tahoe, Cortina, Mt. Ruapehu, Elbrus, Kamtsatka.. Some time ago I wrote about the top 10 ski resorts, but those are not all ski resorts I would like to visit. There are ski resorts that truly rock in Europe, but I would love to go especially to the following resorts next year, even though some of them are not new to me. Ski resort 1: Megeve in France Just like Megeve-Mike who works in Megeve, I would like to go skiing in Megeve in France.  As a family man I go skiing with my kids, and therefore Megeve would be a great place to ski. There are a number of lifts and slopes from which my kids could pick up the most interesting ones. I would enjoy sunshine and after ski beer with my wife and take it relaxed. Megeve is a great ski resort for families and there ...

Five More Christmas Present Ideas For Skiers and Snowboarders 2007-12-17 08:43:28 Yep, it is soon Christmas and you and I do not need to work. Great! I will stay at home, read books and go skiing and snowboarding few times. I will have a long vacation, almost two weeks. It is about one week for Christmas and I have not found all the presents. I have discovered different products in Amazon and in our local stores but I am not done yet. I found many interesting present ideas and I decided to share those with you, because you might be in a similar situation. Looking for the last minute presents. Oh, remember to check out also my previous Christmas present recommendations! Present Idea #1: Warren Miller’s Storm DVD Every skier and snowboarder loves to watch DVD’s. Warren Miller’s DVD’s are great and this one definitely rocks. It is freeride movie that brings some of the best mountain sport athletes to awesome places, such as British Columbia and Antarctica. Storm is a DVD that for sure would not be a disappointing present. Present Idea #2: Snowb ...

Alpine Skiing World Cup - Kalle Palander Victorious in Alta Badia 2007-12-16 17:30:04 It was a great alpine skiing world cup weekend for us here in Finland. Our own alpine skiing star, Kalle Palander, won Giant Slalom in Alta Badia in Italy. This was the third victory for Palander in Alta Badia. Although Alta Badia’s race is one of the most difficult alpine skiing races in the alpine skiing world cup, Palander has no clue what makes him victorious in this particular race. First time Kalle Palander won in Alta Badia was in 2003 and then next one was in 2006. The most successful skier in Alta Badia is Alberto Tomba who has won this difficult race four times (1987, 1990, 1991, 194). The second one in Alta Badia was Austrian Benjamin Raich, 0.42 seconds behind Palander, and the third one was Swiss Marc Berthod, 0.45 seconds behind Palander. For Kalle Palander this was 14th victory in the world cup, from which four are from Giant Slalom races. Kalle Palander was truly amazed with his victory. He repeated word “unbelievable” often and was very surprised with ...