I love getting stuff in the mail. Especially when it's something I'm really stoked on, like this new drink Chia\Vie.
Three flavors of awesomeness
A couple weeks ago I met the owners of Chia\Vie, Mark and Camille at the Women's Expo in San Mateo. They were both super cool and smart, and we chatted for a while about the role of energy drinks in sports. Mark and Camille are both athletes and understand what it takes to lead a healthy, energized life. The good thing is that it looks like most athletes are beginning to understand the importance of what they put into their bodies. Products with 12-letter ingredients that boast a couple hour energy spike are looked at with more caution. People are instead turning to drinks that promote natural ingredients with natural sustaining energy that doesn't wreck havoc on their organs. Chia\Vie is one of those good-for-you drinks and it's coming out at the right time. It isn't even distributed in Tahoe yet, so Mark was awesome and sent me a box to enjoy and share with my friends.
The main difference between Chia\Vie and other health/energy smoothies is it's use of Chia seeds. Chia seeds have been used as food since 3500 BC and were a main staple of the Aztec and Mayan diets.
Chia seeds have:
8x more Omega-3s than salmon
25% more dietary fiber than flax seed
30% more antioxidants than blueberries
15x more magnesium than broccoli
5x more calcium than whole milk
3x more iron then spinach
50% more folate content than asparagus
Chia\Vie mixes these amazing seeds with fruit to make a super-good-for-you naturally energizing drink. Seriously, there's nothing else in it. This it the ingredients list of the one I'm drinking right now: Purified water, orange juice concentrate, mango puree, apple juice concentrate, ground chia seeds, banana puree, natural flavor, gellan. That's it.
Anyways, this drink does a lot of awesome things for your brain power, metabolism, energy, and all around health. Check out more info at their website here.
Excuse the dark make-up. I'm done up for Halloween.
Last night my some of my girl friends in Truckee had a Boreal-opening-eve soiree at their place. There was awesome energy in the air because everyone was stoked to ride in the morning. Everyone called it a night around one and I curled up in my sleeping bag to pass out.
What followed next was one of the coolest dreams I ever had.
That could be me...
Basically, it was decided that the government was totally fucking up and the only way to fix things was to have a snowboard company run the nation. A committee was put together to decide how things would be set up, what company would be running stuff- all that. I was part of this group along with Terje, Gigi, and a handful of other legendy dudes and chicks. And of course, Lil Wayne was part of the committee because Weezy is so involved with the snowboarding community (and when you roll with the illuminati you do what you want.)
During one of the discussion sessions we took a break and Weezy and I went to this stream out back. He caught a salmon with his hands. I was like "Yeah man let's cut it up and eat it." and he goes "I know right?" I go "Weez you like raw fish? What type?" and he says "I usually go with Tuna or Salmon. But when I'm in Brooklyn I go with the Pink Temple." Apparently Lil Wayne has access to some secret fish called Pink Temple and it's the greatest thing ever. We totally bonded over our love for sashimi. Right when he was about to ask me if I wanted to go out and get sushi with him sometime-
The alarm clock rang.
7:20. Time to get up and go to Boreal. I am so so so bummed that's where the dream ended. I'll never get that sushi date and I won't get to see how awesome the country would be if it was run by snowboarders.
In case you're wondering, the committee decided to elect Burton as the new US Government. Congrats. Sorry Program, you guys weren't included.
I'm not saying you all need to thank me, but four days ago I did post this letter to Winter asking for snow and now it's here. I feel personally responsible for our change in weather.
So you're welcome.
Go out and enjoy some early season shred like these guys. I'll be stuck inside doing physical therapy for a bit longer. See you all in December.
Dear Winter,
Have you forgotten about us? I don't mean to use "us" to collectively refer to all snowboarders. No, you haven't forgotten about them. Those snowboarders in Oregon, Colorado, the East Coast, Minnesota, and even Bro-Cal have received your white gift. All I see on Facebook these days is kids from everywhere besides Tahoe talking about how stoked they are to be riding. Meanwhile, all my friends here can say is:
We aren't upset with you, just sad that you seem to have forgotten us. Maybe it's just because you spoiled us the past two years with snow in early October. Heck, last year "opening day" was October 5th. We haven't been taking you for granted either, Winter. The second you left us with an inch and a half, we had rails and jumps set up and cameras out. Some of the best powder riding I got all of last season was in October. What have we done for you to ignore us like this now?
Maybe you know best, Winter. So many kids have moved out to Tahoe in the last two years to take advantage of the love you have for us here in our little alpine world. Maybe you're doing this so people move away from here and when it snows those who stayed will have more to themselves. Whatever your reason is, I understand. Just please, send us a little white gift, because kids are going crazy and I'm hearing talks of people switching to rollerblading if we don't get snow soon.
This past the month I've had the opportunity to attend a couple of the premieres of Standard Film's 2112.
The first time I saw the movie was at the North American premiere in Reno. It was at this place down town called ComRow. I went with Diva, who was taking photos for Standard, and a couple other kids from school. The movie was really good, especially considering what last year's snow situation was. After the movie I had the chance to meet Kimmy Fasani and go out with her and our crews of friends to this little karaoke bar. That was rad. Kimmy is an amazing snowboarder and an inspiration to women riders everywhere. The amazing thing, is that she's incredibly humble about it all. She was just so down-to-earth. Proof that nice girls can finish first. Also, three of the girls and I did Spice Girls karaoke and we totally killed it.
The next time I saw the movie was at this action sport film festival in San Francisco the next week. That premiere was inside a yoga studio at a rock climbing gym which was a different experience. The movie was projected on a wall and I'm pretty sure at least 70% of the audience weren't snowboarders. I was stoked to see the movie again because I really did like it.
Here's the riders (in order of part) and their highlights: I took like 3 word notes for each rider so I'll attempt to remember what I meant by them.
1. Frederik Kalbermatten- "Mtn" I think this means his part was all big mountain stuff. And because I remember liking the video from the very beginning I'm gonna venture out and say his part was pretty solid.
2. Ethan Morgan- "street siiick method" So Ethan's part was almost all street and he slayed it. One shot in his part was this mega mega slow mo of a method on this sweet jump in... BC? Idk where really, but it was a beautiful method. Really.
3. Gulli Gudmundsson- "lots of hard falls" Gulli ate shit. A lot. I mean like, a four course shit eating dinner. I don't know how he took so many ridiculous falls and didn't get hurt. I guess it was worth it though because he got some amazing shots in his part as well.
4. Mathieu Crepel- "sick pow" I'd guess this meant he had a sick pow part?
5. Kimmy Fasani- "huge cornice. Double" At one point Kimmy drops this pretty big cornice. And then she does a double on a park jump. No big.
6. Tim Humphreys- "humpppppy" Huh. Well. I think this note means Tim was Tim. You can tell in his riding how much he loves what he's doing and that's awesome. Tim's a good kid.
7. Chas Guldemond- "bangers on secret nstar" Last season Northstar build some secret jumps on the backside. Chas was there to throw down on them.
8. Anne-Flore Marxer- "pretty inspiring" If I remember correctly, Anne's part was all big mountain lines that were pretty out there. I had never really taken notice of her riding before, but I guess her part was pretty inspiring.
9. Nils Ardivsin- "toes fs9 Triple!!" Well, Nils dropped the triple. Clean. He also did a notable off the toes front nine. Or that was part of the triple note. I'm not sure.
10. Victor de la Rue- "go pro of big Mtn :O " Victor got some helmet cam shots of dropping into this big line and it made me go "whoaaah." It looked absolutely terrifying from the first person perspective. The French are crazy.
11. Xavier de la Rue- "chute in dark. Ice walls. Endless field of dreams. Powder over stars." There's a shot of Xavier going into a dark chute and I was like "bro, you can't see anything. you cray." And then there were shots of him ice riding because apparently Xavier doesn't need snow to snowboard anymore and I was like "bro, that's a wall of ice. you cray." And then he got to ride these mountains that just stretched out forever like a dreamland. And then there was this cool shot of powder being sprayed that was overlayed with a beautiful shot of the stars. And then the movie ended.
I really strongly highly recommend buying this movie. There's a little bit of everything in it. The music is great. The cinematography is beautiful. Just do it. Buy it now.
