Giving thanks.

Ah, Thanksgiving: The American holiday of being thankful for what you or others have/had. For everyone else around the world, there may not be a holiday, but that's no reason to not be thankful. Almost every day something comes to my mind that makes me think "wow, I'm so thankful for that". And now as I watch the Charlie Brown thanksgiving special with my parents in a hotel room somewhere in Truckee, all the different things I'm thankful for are coming to mind. I figured I'd share them and see what everyone else is thankful for as well.

Things I'm thankful for...

That I’ve reached a point in my life where I can roll with the punches and not sweat the small stuff.

That I can wake up in the morning with a positive outlook and look at the day as an adventure.

That I live in beautiful Lake Tahoe

(View from Mt. Rose, early November 2010)

That I have parents who are healthy, and love and support me.

(Mom's birthday, 2010)

That I was born healthy and have managed to remain that way.

That I’m able to snowboard.

(Half cab, SNC, November 2010)

That I have never gone hungry or homeless

That there is music in the world.

That doors keep opening for me to charge through

That there are good people in the world.

That I feel no need to hate.

That I’ve been able to travel and see incredible lives around the world.

(Mazatlan, 2010)

The beauty of sunshine and glitter on dew drops

That I go Sierra Nevada College and I can get an education while doing what I love.

For the opportunities I’ve had growing up

(Inauguration, DC, 2009)

Nature, because the energy in living things is amazing.

That no one can prevent me from finding happiness in life.

For the innocent joy of children.

(Cousin Hailey at her birthday lunch, 2010)

For warm clothes.

For the ability to love.

And last but not least, for the friends that have become family, and family that become my backbone.

(Hunter & I, Six Flags, 2010)

What are you thankful for?

This is what snowboarding is all about.

I wasn't so thrilled when some yelling and screaming outside my window woke me up at 1am, but I was psyched when I saw what was going on. 5 or 6 kids were all outside still hitting the box and messing around. I grabbed my camera but the distance/darkness/snow falling freaked it out and by the time I had found my phone there were walking back in.

But still, this is what snowboarding is about: hanging out with friends, doing what you love, and just having a good time and enjoying life... even if it's one in the morning.
Snowboarding isn't about trash talking, judging, trying to look cool or bashing on people who want to enjoy life. This sport doesn't need hate. Let's have a good time and keep the fire in our souls dancing.
Keep the shred alive.

Chip off the old board.

I got back from Truckee yesterday afternoon to find that campus was completely covered by a beautiful white blanket. And that kids had taken advantage of that blanket and set a box up on the hill right outside my window. So naturally I threw on my gear and headed out. I had a great time hitting the box. I was able to get 4 new tricks I had never tried before and that totally stoked me out. After a while I went digging through the snow covered shrubbery to find a rail that I had acquired and hidden a while back. I set it up as a pole jam over a large boulder-like rock and hit it a few times while some guys I was with built a booter. The pole jam sketched me out a bit so as soon as the booter was done I switched over to that. It ended up being pretty sick. I was throwing really clean front 1s off it which doesn't sound that awesome but I've never done regular front 1s before. I used to feel weird spinning that way so I'd only do back sides. Anyways, I had an awesome day and it was all good.
Until I went back out at night and noticed this when I went to strap in.

Well. Huh. This is the first time that's really happened to me. And I have no idea how that happened either. It's a bummer for sure because my I know my board's RIP-date is going to be closer than I thought. I was hoping she could pull through until mid-spring. I mean, I can still ride her, but I don't know if that's going to mess me up or get bigger at all. This happened to me about a month ago and my buddy Alex tried hammering it out but it's still not back to normal.

So now my baby has two wounds. I don't know if it's weird how I call my board my baby, but we have a very close relationship so I don't care. This is my fourth season with her and I have taken such good care of her over the years. She didn't have a single scratch on her base or edges until summer of 09. And the two months I've been riding her since I've been at school I've just completely thrashed her up. I remember back when I was 15 or 16 just sitting on my bed for hours waxing her by hand. Now I just hand her over to a shop employee and let someone else take care of her. I wonder if she feels abused? Probably not. I think boards are meant to be used and thrashed. I know when I finally retire her I won't get rid of her. I'm starting to think I'm going to be getting new boards fairly often (in comparison to 1 board for four years) now that I'm riding every day. I guess my plan is to save all my boards and do something neat with them.
But anyways, my poor board isn't going to make it much longer but I'm going to push through until she's completely unridable. But Rome, I just want to know, why do you make boards with copper edges when copper is such a soft metal? Save me the pain and make a board who's edges won't get bent at the single slam of a rail. :/

NO-rthstar

Today's word of the day is "NO-rthstar": This is when you want to go to Northstar for opening day and they say "No. No No-rthstar for you."

So, I made that post about how excited I was to go to Northstar today for opening and how I was going to make a post about opening day and such. WELL, I got all ready to go and was about to find a ride when someone goes "Are you going to Northstar? Well you can't." Apparently my friend Lloyd went up this morning and they wouldn't let him ride. They told him that employees were blacked out for the first couple of days. I called bullshit on that and called HR. Here's the conversation:

Me: Hi. So I was about to head out to Northstar to ride but I heard something about employees not being able to ride today.

HR lady: Yes that's correct.

Me: So... I can't ride today?

HR lady: Employees are blacked out until further notice.

Me: Oh. Bye.

BLACKED OUT TIL FURTHER NOTICE? WHAT? We got an e-mail from the ski school just four days ago saying "Please feel free to ski/ride on the hill prior to your start date." And then they didn't say anything about not being able to ride on opening. I guess a few people got an email this morning, but I sure didn't. Nothing sucks more than living right here and not being able to ride.


And now people are starting to come back to campus with their gear saying "Northstar was sick!" GRARRRRR! I've had a few people tell me that this is how Vail works. My RA worked for Vail for 3 years said that that's just how they are and I'll have to deal with "corporate madness". I hope he's wrong and it's not going to be like this all season. If it is, I'll completely understand all the kids who were pissed off about the Vail takeover. But I hope it's not. I have faith in Vail and am really excited to see what happens. Apparently the park is going to be off the chain this year (yes I just used that phrase) and I'm excited to work at a resort for the first time. I'll just have to wait until next week to ride there... 


I guess I'm done ranting. I'm going to try to get to Boreal or Rose today instead. Probably won't find a ride though. That's how things work around here. I'm not stuck in the city anymore, but I'm still not on the mountain. If anyone wants to give me a car that'd be cool. Let me know. Until then, I'm just watching the snow fall outside my window, wasting my days away. 


[[BTW, if you've been living under a rock and don't know about the Vail takeover read this.]]

snow-close!

It's snow close to opening day! Er, I mean, so close. The opening day I've been waiting for is coming up on Friday: NORTHSTAR's. Not only am I excited to ride there everyday this season, I'm working there too. I'm not scheduled to work until December 12 so until then I just get to ride and have fun. Yeee! It's a bummer that I still don't have a positive cashflow, but I'm just so excited to ride Northstar that I don't mind too much.

I went to Northstar yesterday morning with my friend Maddy so we could finish our paper work and get our passes. We were walking around the village and I was starting to get really stoked. The village at Northstar is just so awesome. It really adds to the resort. I've been looking for places to live but I think I'm going to put in an application for the employee housing at the village because it would just be so cool to live there. They've got the ice rink, stores, restaurants, entertainment and so much life. I think it'd be sweet to live right there in all of that. Never a boring time! So that's my plug. Come to Northstar, hang out in the village, and have a good time.

I don't have much more to say for now, but I'll definitely make a full post on Northstar's opening day this weekend. And if you're in Tahoe right now, I'm sure you'll be there for opening too. So in that case, I'll see you there! Let's take a run!

Beers and Spliffs at Mt. Rose

Some buddies of mine made this awesome edit the other day and you should check it out. These guys are all really awesome, and fun. This is real Tahoe. The kids living here and starting their seasons in October. Lots of more edits from them to come. I think this was November 12th?



Peter Hodgins, Ian J. Daly, Keenan Cawley, Stephen Wojciechowski, Tyler Arthur, Garret Creetin, and Spencer Reeves

Like an ass's behind.

Uhm, I don't know what the title of this post means really, as it is five in the morning and I'm not all sane at this hour, but it has the word behind in it. Pretty much, I've somehow managed to slip up on these posts again. A lot of stuff has been going on and my blog has just taken the back burner. I've been riding a lot though and I'm really excited about all that. I went to Boreal's opening day and then a few days after that. I've been up at Mt. Rose too quite a bit. I'd write more about everything going on up here being it's all very exciting and I'd love to share it, BUT- I'm leaving for Mammoth (opening day is today) in fifteen minutes and I'm still in bed. So I need to get a move on pronto.
I do have time for two things before I get off. One: I'm actually progressing and that makes me really happy. When I first came up here all there was to hit was PVC pipes and I couldn't even hold a 50-50 for more than a moment on it. In the past few days though I've just been getting them so I moved on to boardslides. Just yesterday I started locking in boardslides. Last night I had my first ever just fucking STOMPED boardslide. It was awesome! I also did a few where I shifted to 50-50 while on the rail and then rode away fakie. I felt so good about them. I was starting to get bummed that I couldn't do anything but now I'm back in the game.
Secondly, I need to move in less than a month now and I still don't have a place to live. I responded to a few craigslist ads last night so I'll see how that works out. It's fairly important that I get a house so I hope one of the ads I responded to works out. One of the houses is 3 guys who are working at Northstar and are looking for someone chill to live with. The thing with them is that I'll have to share a room with a dude. :/ Which is fine but whatever. The other is two dudes and a girl so that would probably work out better for me. But I don't know because I like guys better than girls anyways so I don't think it matters. The only thing is that they're both looking for someone to move in immediately and I still have 20 days before I want to move.
It'll work out though. I'll find a place to go.... I hope.
ALL RIGHT! MAMMOTH Time. Slaterrrrr!