This past weekend I went down to Mammoth for Roxy Ride Days. I didn't know what to expect because they've never done this event here in the states before, but I figured it would be worth it to take a year off from Flaunt It and check out what Roxy would put together.
I'm so glad I went. The weekend ended up being really fun. Here's the weekend in pictures.
I drove down to Mammoth on Friday. Pretty uneventful drive. I stopped at 3 Flags Trading Post and bought a prickly pear sucker at one point.
I got to Mammoth at 6:05, just missing Happy Hour which ended at 6. I was going to be staying at Danika's but she hadn't told me where her house was so I killed time by getting a margarita anyways. A gaper from Hollywood was sitting next to me at the bar and I endured some painful conversation while I waited for Danika to call me.
I finally got to Danika's house. Her whole family was there- two cousins, two aunts, Mom, and Dad. Her family was really rad and super nice. I felt like I was part of the Duffy clan for the night. In a crazy small world coincidence, it turns out our moms used to compete against each other in ice skating.
Also, Danika has the sweetest dogs ever.
Saturday morning started with registration and a free hot breakfast. I was put into Danika's coaching group with the other Advanced riders.
I didn't realize we were getting breakfast so I had already eaten. I grabbed an orange juice and breakfast burrito to put into my Roxy swag bag for later.
I just now realized the burrito is still in my bag. Think it's still good after sitting out for 36 hours??
After a quick group yoga session, we jumped in the gondola to take a warm up lap from the top of the mountain. This was the group I was in for the day. From left to right is Matilda (Sweden), Skittles (Tahoe), Nora (Sweden), and me.
We met Kelly Clark at the top of the mountain. She was super nice and it was rad to chat with her. Seriously, amazing, down to earth girl. Stoked to have the chance to hang out with her for a couple minutes
We sessioned the forest park jumps and jibs for a couple hours and then went in for lunch. Roxy hooked us up with meal vouchers so I got a badass edamame salad, gluten free strawberry cupcake, and green juice. Eating healthy feels so good!
When we went back out it was time for the game of ROXY. It was basically just skate and Erin Comstock called out tricks for us to do on the down box. I started out bad, getting a R on a poor boardslide, but then breezed through the lipslide, back 50-50 front 180 out, and half cab-on rounds. I got my second letter (O) on a bummer front board. I kept it together for a 5-0, but then picked up an X when I dropped the ball on my stock nose press. By this point it was just me and Skittles (RO) left. Time was running out so Erin called front blunt to regs. My first ever attempt at a front blunt wasn't so bad but I sat down as I rode out so I took a Y and Skittles took the game.
We were short on time for the jump contest so instead of ROXY style we played a game where the first person to do five tricks won. If you didn't land a trick you had to keep hiking and trying it until you landed it. The five tricks we had to do in order were back 180, front 180, switch back 180, front 360, and back 360. I was already tired from hiking for the rail jam, but I wanted a win and knew I could do the tricks so I power-hiked my heart out and put the tricks down one by one (with sweet grabs, might I add.) I ended up winning the contest and got this crazy Paul Mitchell blow dryer and hair straightener as a prize. It was an amazing feeling to win a contest- I'm pretty sure this was the first time it happened for me. I'm really pumped now too because I spun jumps for the first time this season and my knee didn't hate me for it!
Roxy gave out some more prizes for a couple dance offs. I got in a conversation with someone and when I looked back a leg wrestling match was going down. Awk.
My phone died so I had to stop taking pictures but the rest of the day was rad too. I went out with Danika and her boy for Happy Hour at Lakanuki, and we ended up staying there for a couple hours. Then we went back to her place and I hunted for my car keys which had gone missing. They never turned up so I took a nice little run down town around 11:30 to go to the after party at the newly opened Underground Lounge.
Roxy had a table and it was awesome to party it up with all the girls I had met that day. I saw a lot of other familiar faces around too because a lot of guys had come to town for Nike's Snakes & Hammers contest. A dance contest went down during the party and I walked away with a $100 Roxy gift card. Score! I made it back to a friends house around 4am, we hot tubbed, and passed out at 5am. I got a ride back to Tahoe at 11ish and had my landlord come unlock my house because my missing keys are all together somewhere.
I'll be heading back down to Mammoth on Wednesday with Danika and my spare car key, and then driving my car right back up (not looking forward to that so much.)
I'm really stoked on this weekend. I met amazing people, tried some new tricks, and learned I'm capable of more than I've been giving myself credit for. I'm so looking forward to the rest of the season, and then this summer at Hood where I'll see some of my new friends again.
Weeeeeeee. Dangerously Stoked right now.