Used Burton Custom

I've got a used Burton Custom snow board from a colleague of mine so I can test ride it to see if I want to buy it. It does have marks of usage on it but it doesn't look too bad. I'm looking forward to give it a try. Maybe next weekend in Iso-Syöte.

Snowmobiling season started

So I went snowmobiling with couple of friends on Saturday more than a week ago. We took the sledges to Puolanka (~130 km from Oulu) on a trailer. The load on the trailer was way too much on the front, which made driving interesting. But there was no way to load these three snowmobiles any differently on that trailer. And in the end my CR-V managed the task quite ok.

We drove the sledges from Puolanka to Paljakka ski resort and back. It wasn't too long trip for the seasons first one, 95 km all together, but the trail was in quite bad shape. Especially when the trail after 15 km leaves the pretty straight power line and you turn towards Paljakka.
I was totally beaten after the trip. My back muscles and thighs were absolutely finished. It took until Wednesday before I was fully re-covered from the trip (what comes to muscle pains). I also got influenza after the trip. I don't know if the disease kicking in is partly the reason I got so sore or whether the exhausting trip made way for the disease to get hold of me.

I must say that I haven't seen anyone treat touring snowmobile as my friend did with his Yamaha RS Venture TF. It's a very heavy touring sledge with 4-stroke engine and he drove it like it was a light sports model. I must say I didn't think that snowmobile can take that kind of beating.

Some comments about the new snowmobile gear I bought before the trip. The cloves felt very good in the beginning. Very tight grip and good feel with the break and throttle. But after 30 km jumping up and down on the worn out bumpy track
my left hand palm started to feel bad. By the time we got back from driving, I had 5 huge blisters in my left hand and one on the right hand. So these cloves were a bit of disappointment.
The boots on the other hand were very good. They are relatively light and support the ankle very well while also giving good cover for heel and toes against shocks.

New boots and claws

I bought myself a new pair of snow mobile boots and claws yesterday. Now all that's missing is enough snow for driving :(

The boots I bought are Dragon by MP-asu. They feel very firm and support ankle very well. The whole feet is pretty well protected and their not too heavy either. Looking forward to put them to real test.

The claws are Track Neopren from the same brand. I've never had neoprene claws before but everyone has been telling me how good they are for sporty driving. They do feel very good in your hand and the grip is very good. With these I shouldn't have that big problems with blisters and hands shouldn't get tired as soon because I don't need to hold on so tight to stay on the saddle :)

I'll write a short review after I've used the boots and claws.

New Year's resolutions

Many people make resolutions for the New Year on New Year's eve. I've never done that before but maybe I will do it this time. And to make them harder to break I will write them down on my blog. So here we go.
I promise to
- finish my eMBA thesis by end of April
- get my MSc. degree by end of May (only one course missing)
- learn to cast flies better than before
- break my "fly salmon" record
- not to drink or eat more than my share

Waiting for the summer

I've seen dreams of fishing in two nights during the latest week. The winter isn't here yet (no snow in Oulu) and I'm already dreaming of summer and fishing...it's going to be a loooong winter.
Right now I'm wondering what fishing equipment to acquire for next summer. A two hand rod would be nice now that I've learned how to cast with it (or at least I know how it should be done) But I still have some learning to do with the one hand rod and shooting line I bought last summer. So I think I'm only going to get couple of more shooting heads, one intermediate and one sinking. I also need to buy a handful of new flies as I still haven't started tying 'em myself. I think I have to ask my body Jaakko if he could tie me couple of red butts (sizes 12 and 10). His flies look so delicious you almost eat them yourself.

Snowmobiling and greenhouse effect

It seems like there's going to be a second snowless Christmas (at least Christmas Eve) in a row in Oulu. Last year it happened the first time in 30 years. I have no doubt that the greenhouse effect is true and actually happening right here right now. There's no denying global warming.

This raises an important question: is it ethical to drive around for fun on a snowmobile burning oil and causing CO2 emissions? I'm sure all the "tree huggers" think it definitely is not ethical and should be banned all together. And then there are the sledheads and all other motor crazy people that don't ever even stop to think about this. Most of the people, such as I, are somewhere between these two extremes. Personally, I think this is not an insignificant question at all. So far I have been driving my snowmobile with a mad grin in my face having a lot of fun. But I have to admit I do think about the environmental effects of snowmobiling and in recent couple of years more and more. Although I only drive 1200-1500 km/year this concerns me.

I know the emissions caused by my motoring even including commuting to work by a car are so small it doesn't affect anything. This makes it a bit easier for me to enjoy my hobby. But surely if everyone thought this way, no one would do anything to cut down CO2 emissions. So this still doesn't get me off the hook.

I also know that CO2 emissions caused by all the traffic on earth represent only a very very small fraction of all the CO2 emissions. Now it's getting a bit easier to breath but still I'm not quite sure if I can sleep and still keep snowmobiling.

I've also learned that this is not the first time the global warming is taking over. Actually our beloved Tellus has "lately" seen warmer periods in about every 100 000 years. Now it is almost 100 000 years from the latest temperature peak and we are getting close to the temperatures back then. So I believe that even if man never inhabited the earth, it would be about as warm now. But surely the emissions caused by us do have an effect but how big it actually is, I don't know. As far as I see no one can really say if what we have done so far has affected the global average temp by 0.5 Celsius degrees or 3 Celsius degrees. Phew, what a relief.

So I will still keep on snowmobiling but I'm not at all sure for how long. Will I stop when there is enough evidence to show that what man do actually has a great effect in the global warming? Probably. Will I stop if the great public opinion becomes hostile against it? Likely. Will I stop if my wife says so? For sure.
At latest I'll stop when there's no more snow, but will I start a new hobby with equally bad environmental effects like replace the sled with an ATV? I hope not.

Merry Christmas!!!

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten,
and children listen
To hear scooters roar and moan

U.D.O. + Primal Fear

November 21, 2007

Way earlier I wrote about my problem of choosing which gigs to go and see this autumn. Well, the first one I chose to go and see was U.D.O. (+ Primal Fear as supporting act). I missed Eppu Normaali because of calendar issues and Nightwish I will miss because I wasn't fast enough to get tickets.

So the U.D.O. + Primal Fear gig was yesterday. It really wasn't a big success if you consider the size of the audience. There was probably only around 200 people if even that. But neither of the bands let that get to them and they played good gigs. I can't compare this to their other gigs as this was the first time I saw these bands play live. But if especially U.D.O. can rock even harder...no, that's not possible. They did kick ass last night. One of the high points was when Igor came down from the stage during his guitar solo to play among the audience. I'm sure that wouldn't have happened if the place was too packed. Old Accept songs Balls to the Wall and Metal Heart were guaranteed crowd pleasers. Man and the Machine and Thunderball rocked real hard as well.

Now I have to buy the Best of U.D.O. coming out on Nov 30. Check the videos from the gig below. I also have some pics in my Flickr feed.

Primal Fear:


U.D.O. vid 1:


U.D.O. vid 2: