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. :]