Almost there...

Last month when I went back to Redwood City to see my Physical Therapist, Brandy, I didn't get good news. I might have been slacking on working out a little bit and Brandy pretty much said "If you want me to clear you to ride this season, you need to get on it." Read that again. "This Season." Meaning, I wasn't just at risk of having an extra month without riding, but a whole season.

That woke me up and I starting hitting the gym every day and really putting energy into strengthening my knee and leg again. It got even more real for me when it started snowing and all my friends were out having fun. Over the course of the month I felt like my knee was improving by leaps and bounds.

This past week I went home to see Brandy. She agreed I was doing ridiculously better since the last time she saw me. I'm back on the road to riding in December now. The one thing she said she was concerned about is that if she clears me, it's only to make turns. No going into the park. No going fast. Just baby runs, going slow, and keeping my board on the snow. I swore to her that that's all I would do. I don't care if I can't go to the park yet. I don't want to reinjure my knee. All I want to do is be on my board and be happy again.

I'll find out December 7th if I get to ride again. Fingers crossed. Friday will mark 6 months since surgery. Busting my ass in the gym now to get cleared for December.

Commitment to Myself

I think something big is about to happen.

It started with a simple suggestion from a guy on my school's ski team but it got me thinking. And thinking. And now I'm pursuing. And it's quite possible that in a year from now my life is going to be very very different.

It's almost a shame that I have a bunch of readers on here because I feel like it can't quite be my diary like it used to be. Back when I thought I was the only one that read this I was comfortable saying just about anything but now I need to hold back a little bit.

So I can't say exactly what it is I'm working on right now, but I can say I'm making big life changes as of tonight. Being as fit as possible is now my number 1 priority. An hour minimum of gym time every day. All organic, good foods- no processed junk. No alcohol or substances. And a big effort to make my mental game as strong as possible.

What I knew I was marching towards is apparently a lot closer than I could have imagined. I don't believe in living with regrets so here's my 100% commitment to achieving my goals and never quitting.

Hopefully I'll be posting again next fall with good news regarding this.

Thrive Snowboards

Thrive Snowboards has just launched a blog on the community part of their website and I've been asked to be a featured blogger. Every so often I'll be posting some exclusive content over there so stop by and check it out.
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Also, if you decide you want to buy anything from them, shoot me a message on my contact form. I've got a special code just for my readers for up to 40% off on all Thrive products.

Check out the message boards at Thrive too to chat with other riders about basically everything.
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Mammoth Opening Weekend

This past weekend was Mammoth's Opening Weekend, and because I've been into torturing myself by going to the openings of all the mountains around Tahoe, even though I can't ride yet, I made the send to Mammoth.

On Thursday it started snowing while I was in school so I left as soon as class got out,  unsure of how bad the storm might get. I arrived in the Mammoth Village a little after 7pm and realized I had no idea of what I was doing for the night. My phone was stolen a couple weeks ago so communication is basically impossible. The only way I can find my friends is by just guessing where they'll be and going there. My first stop was Sushi Rei for the Volcom VIP Reception. I ran into friends there so I hung out a drank for a while. I ended up meeting a ton more people too and we eventually all made our way over to Lakanuki to party more. Sometime around two our little gang rolled up to our friend's condo up the street and crashed there.

Friday morning started off slow but eventually everyone got their stuff together and went out to ride. Lucky me got to stay inside the condo all day and watch Real Housewives of Atlanta/attempt to do homework. When everyone came back from riding we hot tubed and then went down to the village. I watched a couple minutes of the Horgasm: A Love Story premiere but Lakanuki was too crowded for my taste so I left to find something else to do. I ended up running into some of the Yobeat guys outside Gomez's and hung out with them. Together we ventured over to Corey Smith's Spring Break Snowboards art show. There were some amazing photographs there, as well as the craziest boards I've ever seen. After the show we went up to this amazing huge suite (I think it was Transworld's) and did some party preparation. Then it was back to Lakanuki for some madness. Back in the spring when I blew my knee out I had emailed Cale Zima, who was about 3 months ahead of me in recovery, and chatted with him about knee stuff. I met him for the first time in real life at Lakanuki and did some more knee talk/shot drinking. Super cool guy. At the end up the night I somehow was convinced by a couple friends to drive up to their spot at the mountain. There we got into some shenanigans (asbestos was definitely involved) and then passed out.

On Saturday all the guys in the house went out pretty early to ride and because I was already at the mountain I figured I'd go out and take some pictures. I spent the day chugging Monsters and hiking the park in my jeans and tennis shoes. Meanwhile, Matty Mo kept the tunes fresh in the lodge all day. After quitting my photog endeavor I went back to the Mammoth Inn where I had spent the previous night. The rest of the evening involved watching Skeleton Crew's new video Media Offline, playing a multi-story game of Hot Lava with Ethan Deiss, discussing how wonderful riding pipe long and hard is, and drinking Monster-Vodkas. Eventually our gang made it out to Sushi Rei for dinner and stuffed ourselves with the good stuff. I felt kind of bad that Monster payed the tab and I probably shouldn't have been covered, but my one roll and a Soppora probably won't dent the company's financials. We were at the restaraunt for a while because different friends kept sitting down and kicking it, but at some point we got out of there and went up to the 32 condo. There was a girl there- it was so exciting. haha I finally got to hang out with another female for the first time that weekend. Our huge group loaded up a bus and ventured up to the lodge for the RZA concert. I managed to walk into the Vestal VIP lounge with the rest of the group, despite being non-very-important, and enjoyed the free vodka drinks and foam-glow-stick battles for the two hours we had until the show started. RZA was ok, but I couldn't understand a word he was saying so I just talked to friends for most of the show. The last stop on Saturday night was to Mason Aguirre's house for his birthday party. That was pretty fun and low key. Really awesome way to end the night- surrounded by friends, good energy, stale McDonald's french fries, and more vodka.

I had never decided what day I would leave Mammoth on, but when I woke up Sunday morning I felt like it was time to go. It had been a full weekend and I was ready to get home, sleep in my bed and do a major party detox. I'm glad I went to Mammoth because it definitely motivated me to kick some physical therapy butt so I can get on the snow again. I'm pumped for the season and I can't wait for more good times with friends.

Here's a couple photos I took, before I got lazy and stopped pretending to be a photographer.

Mammoth Opening Weekend 2012, a set on Flickr.

And Here's a video of the weekend that I didn't make: