East Trip Complete.

It was to be expected- What I planned got twisted and turned and I went on an unforeseen adventure.

USCSA Nationals happened, blah blah blah. I'm too lazy to actually describe everything that went on that week.

They almost got my name right after I spelled it out loud...

 
Here's the short list:

My team getting our 1st for team Slope

• I placed highest on the women's team in Giant Slalom with an 8th place finish. Who knows how that happened. I'm terrified of going fast. That's why I always knuckle jumps. Maybe I was born for gates. Ew.
• The pipe was about 12 feet tall, under vert, and wasn't straight for more than ten feet at a time.
• The Slopestyle course was pretty mellow. One rail and three jumps. The only strange thing was that it was like a fifteen second cruise between the second and third jumps. I hate having that much time to think.
• USCSA didn't have money for real judges or something and had the park crew guys judging the freestyle events. Not a fan of that decision. Always great when someone does a sketchy back 5 and you can hear the judge say "Oh a McTwist" because it was crooked.
• I placed 2nd in slopestyle, 5th in pipe
• They wanted people to die on the boarder cross course. I mean, probably not, but it was retardedly gnarly at the start. I didn't make it into the event because during my time trial I flew over a birm in the first 7 seconds of the course, tumbled through the fencing and was stuck hanging upside down by my board (I had my elbow in the snow, the rest of my body was above ground) until ski patrol came and unstrapped me. On the day of the guy's BDX contest, they were proud that only 6 guys got sledded off and only 3 had to go to the hospital.
• Our women's team took 2nd place overall, and I finished 5th overall 

Brady getting interviewed after his 1st in Big Air at Sunday River

So that was Nationals in a nutshell. My mom flew out to watch so I was pretty stoked to see her. After Nationals we drove to Vermont for Rev Tour. Sierra Nevada College was nice enough to get us a condo for that week as well, and also buy our food, tickets, and entry fees. Thanks so much! Our condo was an awesome 5 minute drive from Carinthia, Mt. Snow. The slope set up at Rev was really awesome. It was the most fun course out of the three stops I did. The jumps were awesome. I started off the line with a cab 1 mute, which I'm super super stoked on, because while the jump wasn't poppy, it was lonnng (I think 50'), and it was my first time ever jumping switch. Really proud of myself for that accomplishment. I didn't place as high as I wanted in pipe or slope, but a lot of my competitors came from US Open so I was up against really good girls. I landed my first Mctwist in pipe, but almost immediately caught my toes and scorpioned down the wall. Improvement! I ended up placing 11th in pipe, and 12th in slope, the best I've done at a Rev so far. And Carinthia had the sickest park set up I might have ever ridden. I'm so stoked on Carinthia. I couldn't play on it as much as I wanted because I had hurt my ankle at Sunday River and was trying to save myself for the Rev events. Their park went top of the chair to the bottom- and was an endless line of rail-rail-box-jump-jump-rail-jump-box-box-jump-jump-etc. You could just flow from the top to the bottom. It rocked!

Nash and I got an awesome Indian lunch

St. Patrick's Day Elvis

After Rev I was supposed to meet my friend Eric in Burlington, chill there for a couple days and then he was going to drive me to Waterville Valley for Flaunt It. Well, things came up, he couldn't bring me, and I couldn't get to Burlington. So I went to Boston with the rest of my team, they flew out Saturday morning, and my flight wasn't scheduled until Monday. So, I did was I always do, and met some strangers. I guess it worked out in the end. John, this guy with a cat named Mango that he brought everywhere with him, met me the first day and gave me a tour of Boston. Then that night we went to the bars and I met other couch surfer hosts. Partied at some random hispster dude's house, and crashed there. The next day I met up with one of the random guys I met, Nash, and went to the Boston St. Patrick's day parade with him. Got fairly day drunk, and then went out for the night. We ended up at the Hard Rock Cafe for this Battle of the Bands and watched a couple of really awesome bands compete. I stayed at Nash's that night and he drove me to the airport in the morning. So, it wasn't exactly hanging out with Eric and going to Flaunt It, like I planned, but I still had a pretty good time. Life unexpected can be an adventure.

Anyways, it felt so good to be back home. There's nothing better than sleeping in your own bed after being gone for 15 nights. Doing Billabong Flaunt It next week, and then I get to have fuuuuuun for the rest of the season. :]

Big Trip East

Wow, I can't believe it's here already! Today I leave for the East Coast on the longest trip I've gone on since I went to Norway in 2007. I'm so stoked. It's gonna be an adventure. Here's the plan:


Today: Meet at school at 11am and drive to Reno with some members of the ski and snowboard teams. We fly out at 2:25, and after some plane changes arrive in Boston at 12:05 Monday morning.

Monday: We meet up with the rest of the teams and drive to Sunday River, Maine, together.

Tuesday: Giant Slalom competition. Forgot to get a speed suit. Gonna be like 2 seconds slower now. Bummer.

Wednesday: Guys are doing BDX qualifiers, so I'll be in the pipe all day, trying to lock down McTwists. I only got to try them like 6 times last Friday and I was pretty much just coming up 90 degrees short each time, so hopefully I can fix that. My mom is arriving on Wednesday night too. I can't wait to see her!

Thursday: Boardercross contest day. Finals are going to be at night under the lights. I'm excited to see the course. All of our other bdx contests were at Mammoth on a super mellow course. I hope this one has jumps and stuff.

Friday: Slopestyle. I hope I can put a clean run together. With a cork back five in it. I've never done one off a jump, but I did a really nice one in the pipe last week so you never know... I spent yesterday doing switch straight airs on like 5 foot jumps so maybe I'll decide to send it switch off a big jump? Whatever. It'll come together.

Saturday: HALF PIPE! So stoked!!! I love pipe and they've all been closed this last week so I can't wait to get back in the ditch. I'm a PJ. Hate if you must. I don't care. I'll ride pipe all day erryday. If I can do a clean run I think I've got a shot at 1st in pipe. And hopefully I'll land that McTwist. I'd be so happy if I got that like, out of the pipe. AHHHH dhfohfownefksdni

2nd Sunday: "Travel Day." I have no idea where the team is traveling to. This part of my trip is a mystery to me still. Maybe we're going to Vermont? I have no idea. Everyone except for the people doing Rev Tour will be flying back to Reno.

2nd Tuesday/Wednesday: Rev Tour at Mt. Snow, Vermont. I'm pretty stoked for this Rev stop. I think I'll place higher than I did at the other stops. My goal is to make it to finals in either event, or at least make top 10 in both. That'd be awesome.

2nd Thursday: Hopefully I'll be in Burlington on Thursday. I'm staying with Eric (pumped. we're gonna get reckless), but so far I don't know how I'm getting from Mt. Snow to Burlington. I'm going to try to connect with someone from Burlington at Rev and get a ride back with them.

2nd Friday: Chill real hard in Burlington with Eric. I've never been to Burlington before. I love going to new places. Yay!

2nd Saturday: Drive to Waterville Valley in New Hampshire with Eric, and compete in Billabong Flaunt it. I did finals last year, so it'll be fun to do a qualifying stop before doing finals again this year. Flaunt It has awesome prizes and goody bags. Hopefully I'll be on the podium with a check in my hand at the end of the day!

3rd Sunday: PARTAYYYY. Finally done with the competitions so it'll be time to kick back and go cray-cray. YOLO.

3rd Monday: Take a Greyhound from Burlington to Boston at 2:15 am. Goal is to sleep for most of the trip. I'll get to Boston at 7:05 and then I'll have until 1:30 to figure out how to get to the airport and get to my terminal for my flight back home.


I'm so so so excited for this trip. It's going to be my first time traveling with a team since traveling with my ice skating team over five years ago. And that was totally different. We had to wear matching outfits and had our entire days scheduled with group activities. This is going to be way more fun, I think. I'm also excited that my mom is coming to watch Nationals. The only time she's ever seen me ride was at Flaunt It last year and I've progressed a bunch since then. She's never seen me ride pipe, so hopefully I'll be able to make her proud.

Ok, I need to go wash dishes so I don't have mold growing in my house for two weeks. I'll try to update while I'm at out East!

Cholula Review

This was going to be an awesome video review. I recorded over twenty minutes of footage of me eating various Cholula covered foods. However, life caught up with me and I won't have a chance to edit the video for a while so instead I'm just doing a written review with some screen captures of the video. So much for being creative.

Anyways, Cholula is good. We all know this. If you don't, you obviously need to actually try some Cholula. I put it on toast, bagels with cream cheese, vegetables, popcorn, chicken- pretty much anything that could use some zest is good with Cholula.

Cholula was nice enough to send me their four pack which contains Original, Chipotle, Chili Lime, and Chili Garlic, so I was able to do some experimentation. And who doesn't love some good experimentation?

Advanced Cholula Tip #1: Original Cholula+Chicken Tenders= Buffalo Chicken Tenders.

Original: The original. Hot and zesty. I think this one has the most heat to it out of the four. Awesome on French fries.

Dripping with Chipotle Cholula

Chipotle: Very different from Original. It's more of a smokey-BBQ, and less of a spicy flavor. There is a spice kick but it comes a little later. Tastes bold. My favorite with chicken tenders out of the four.

Oh hey, Chili Lime. Wazzup.

Chili Lime: I could definitely taste a citrus-kick in this flavor. I really liked that extra zest. Tastes fresh. I didn't try it, but this one would probably be really good on some grilled chicken breast (saucing up mid-grill for best results.)

Poured Lime, Garlic, and Chipotle in the bag. It became a zesty adventure of Cholula Corn.

Chili Garlic: I love garlic so this was very enjoyable for me. So good. I was hungry the other day and just ate some of this plain. It was really good. Pretty good on popcorn too.

Just eat it.

The four flavors are distinct, each having it's own unique taste. I enjoyed all four on everything I tried them with. Cholula is one of my favorite food toppings. It's seriously good on like everything.

Go buy some Cholula and remember to enter your winter action sports photos in Cholula's hot shot contest. Just post your shots to twitter and tag them #CholulaHotShot for a chance to win gopros and other awesome prizes.