A humbling day

Well today knocked me off my pedestal. I mean, I wasn't really on one to begin with, but I thought that maybe I could make it to half pipe and slope finals at least. I thought I had some skills.

After watching the girls out here during pipe practice I realized I'd be lucky to make Top 15. I got super discouraged after my first practice run. I couldn't even get to the top of the walls. I was able to air out every hit when I went to Mammoth so I kinda freaked out. Why could I not even see above the walls now? I was super bummed and rode like crap all morning.

It's hard doing a contest like Rev for the first time and not having a coach there for support. I called Austen, my mom, and Eric and talked to them all for a bit, which really really helped. They all told me the same thing "do it for you, don't think of it as competing against the other girls". We all know I'm new to this and don't have as much experience or skills as the other girls so really all I can do is my best.

After talking to them I went back out with a new attitude and my riding improved right away. Still not going as big as the other girls though. I just have to remember that snowboarding is fun, and as far as competing goes, I'm a newbie.

I hate losing. All I want to do is win. But I obviously have a couple of years of hard training until I'm there. I've gotta be tough, work hard, and not forget that I started all this because of my passion.

Colorado, I'm coming for ya

Wow, I can't believe Rev Tour is already here. My flight to Denver is tomorrow and I'm in the process of making sure I'm getting everything I need packed into my board bag.

I thought I'd feel really unprepared but I actually don't feel too bad. I'm kind of excited. I was feeling awesome on the jump line at Northstar today (btw, I got banned from Northstar today and then reallowed in the period of an hour), and now I don't feel so scared of Slopestyle. I can't wait to see what the slopestyle course is going to be- How big will the jumps be? How many? What type of rails? And of course I can't wait to ride pipe again!

I'm not expecting to place at the top, but hopefully I'll make it to finals for both events, and then maybe by the Northstar and Vermont Rev stops I'll have a shot at winning some money.

I'm just going to ride the best I can and have fun. See you tomorrow Co!

New pants

Action hooked it up today with some sweet Volcom pants and Van's "Spicoli" sunglasses. I'm stoked to have pants that have liners in them and don't have a huge hole in the butt. I'm gonna be looking freshhh at Copper. Yeah! The quality of my old Volcom pants was pretty low but I feel like these ones are gonna hold up a lot better. I think Volcom makes their low end gear pretty poorly, and their high end gear good, so I should be set. Anyways, just wanted to thank Fritz and Action Sports, San Carlos. You rock!

Good feelings

Yesterday I met up with Josh Fricke and a couple of the HEY! Crew guys at Northstar. I didn't get out there until the afternoon because of my last final, but I was still able to get two couple runs filmed. Last time Josh filmed me he got a sweet shot of me gapping an up-down box to my rib cage. This time I managed to stay on my feet.

I'm really excited about one trick I got. I'm always scared of spinning real jumps but it hit me yesterday that I'm going to have to actually spin good sized jumps at Rev Tour in Copper next week. The biggest jump at Northstar right now is only 15-20ft but on Tuesday I spun a five to the deck (wasn't even CLOSE to the knuckle) so I've been kind of worried about spinning it since then. But since Josh was filming yesterday I figured I'd go fast, try to be mellow and just three. I ended up bringing it around to 5 (because I can't control my rotations) and rode away. It was super clean and the shot looked pretty good. I was just totally stoked that it worked out because I've never 5ed something that size before. The feeling of getting something new was so awesome. Just pure joy. It was one of those "This is the reason I snowboard" moments. It just felt so good.

Getting that also helped me out a lot mentally because now I know I'm capable of spinning real jumps, I just have to trust myself enough to do it. I've been nervous about Rev but I think I've got it in me to do well. I want to ride the best I can but my mind always holds me back. I think I'll be able to get past it now though. I'm feeling good.

I'm back in the bay now but I can't wait to get back to Tahoe and ride with my new confidence. I love snowboarding. I love everything about it. I'll be holding my breath till I'm on the hill again.