Back-in-the-City Kid: Dew Tour/FTC

Made it back to San Francisco in time for Dew Tour (because I like to party and I always find a way). This year was even more fun than last year, mainly because I didn't get my phone and wallet stolen this time. Going to Dew Tour with my best friend Summer is my new favorite tradition. It really shouldn't even be allowed to have as much fun as we do. I'm not gonna say too much more. Here's a bunch of photos and vaguely related captions.

Brown SoCal glow, pre-Dew with Martin at EPR

my entry for some contest. I love pizza so much

Summer's entry. She loves doughnuts

Only posting for the Kevin Romar photobomb

Half of them didn't speak English, half we wished didn't speak English

Vip seats that we got just for being babes. no joke.

Mobbin deep before the Common show

uncommonly close to Common

Vague memory of double fisting with Taylor Bingaman.

Street course was pretty sweet. Thanks #teamBinky for the passes

Really, thanks #teamBinky.

David Gravette bout to go ham

da babe Shecks

classic best friends photo with Nicola and Summer

Javelle, me, and Tyrone day before FTC I think?

Javelle shreds everywhere. style points for the afro pick

I guess I deleted all my photos from FTC? So here's me. haha

Back home/ Down Town Throw Down SF

When I left San Francisco last year it was so I could be in the snow and be surrounded by the snowboard community. This past weekend however, I traveled back home to go to the first ever San Francisco stop of Down Town Throw Down. Here's the recap:


On Thursday I finished school at 5:15 and started my journey down to the city. I was supposed to play in a soccer game in Incline at 8, but Lucas had called me earlier in the day to see if I was going to be at the Absinthe premier. I had planned on only going to the after party but I wanted to see the movie and see Lucas again so I bailed on the game and went straight to SF. (Sorry Team)

The Victoria Theater

I made it to San Francisco a little after 9pm and found a parking spot around the corner of the Victoria Theater. There was a "no parking from 6am-8am" sign posted so I made the mental note to get up and move my car in the morning. I already knew that there would be no way I would be able to drive my car that night. I walked to the Victoria and there was a pretty big line outside to get tickets. While I was in line, Lucas walked by and told me I was on the guest list. Stoked. Finally made it to the ticket window, got my free ticket and went inside.

Inside Lucas showed me where everyone was sitting and introduced me to David, JP, and Romain. We hung out and drank beer until the Absinthe movie started. Of course we yelled ridiculously loud for Lucas, and every other person who was there. At some point Romain, who was sitting behind me, pulled my hair back and put a beer in my mouth. He didn't stop when it started overflowing so naturally when he let go of me I turned around and spit all the beer back at him. That was probably the highlight of my night. Then came the product toss. One of the guys chucked a dvd at me. It hurt a little but hey, I got a movie. Then the YES movie played. Again, more screaming obscenities, drinking, and other activities went down. Both movies were super awesome. I'm not normally into the big mountain stuff, but the shots in these movies were legit and made me want to ride so badly. After YES there was a push up contest to win a board. I was the only girl in it. I made it to 50 push ups before my arms stopped working. Some guy made it to 69, pretty much cheating the whole time so I still consider myself the winner. Everyone left the theater except us and I picked up a box of stuff they never tossed. I only wanted a couple of the items but I figured I could give out all the rest on this website in another giveaway.

Lucas and I, classy as always

I went back to my car with Lucas and considered driving it to the after party at Delirium. We ended up just sitting in my car talking for a while before deciding to walk over to the party. I think by the time we got to Delirium I was fairly drunk. I don't remember too much besides a lot of sitting around and talking to people. At one point David and I went down the street and got some pizza. I'm not exactly sure when we left Delirium and went back to the hotel that the guys were staying at.

David, me, and Romain. Three drunk fucks in an elevator.

I think we stayed up at the hotel partying for a little bit longer. Don't know too much about that though. I do know I slept on the floor between JP and a wall. Living life in luxury. My alarm woke me up at 7am and I was like "shit! Taxi to the car time!" I convinced Romain, who was still drunk and 80% asleep to come with me. I was so worried about my car the entire time. When I set my alarm clock for 7 the night before I figured they wouldn't go around towing or giving tickets for the first hour. I was wrong. We got to the car and it had a $55 ticket in the window. Damn. Drove back to the hotel, paid to put my car in a garage and then went back to sleep. By the time we left the hotel and I picked my car up for the second time I had a $14 garage fee. The city is so fucking expensive.

Climbing stuff and causing trouble. Pretty Average.

I got out of the city and went to Mercy High School in Burlingame. By this point I had absolutely no voice, but I spent two hours or so visiting teachers and friends. The first thing almost every teacher (and some students) commented on was that my face looked normal again. The last time I had visited the school I had raccoon eyes from hell. Also, I apparently didn't have a voice last time I visited either so now everyone thinks I just loose my voice all the time. Which is so not true. After Mercy I went to San Carlos to Action so I could send my shop time. I always have to spend time in Action when I'm home. For one, I love Alex, my friend who works there, and I only see him when I go to Action. Secondly, the let me climb on things and wreck havoc throughout the shop. I like places that embrace my inner tsunami so Action is a good place for me. The next couple of hours were full of me skating around the shop, climbing stuff, rearranging merchandise, and pretending I worked there when customers were around. I left Action around dinner time and went home- 20 hours in the bay and I finally got to my house. That night I went to Mercy-Notre Dame- Serra's production of To Kill a Mockingbird.  And then it was bed time.

The champion of the day, Dylan Juggalito

The next morning I drove back to San Francisco for the Down Town Throw Down. I parked in front of a meter but all the change I had on me only got me an hour of parking. I ended up moving my car to a random little alley and gave the homeless sitting next to my car some food. DTTD was pretty cool. I ended up taking over 300 pictures of the action (which were a total bitch to go through). Dylan Alito shocked everyone with his juggalo costume, and wielded a battle axe the entire contest, earning him the nick-name Juggalito. Eventually he incorporated the axe into his tricks, like passing it from hand to hand around his body as he frontboarded the kink of the DFD box. My favorite trick I saw all day though was Ryan Paul's Frontboard to back rodeo off the pole jam. What?? That kid is nuts. Anyways, Dylan Alito won and the crowd dispersed. I spent the next couple hours wandering around the city with some Tahoe friends.

Rooftop of the Haight Party

Night rolled around and it was time for the after partying. I was at the party at the Jim Collins (or something) Club with everyone for a little while. I ended up in the green room and found some face paint. Sometime later Del the Funky Homosapian came in and I offered to paint his face. He wouldn't let me and I got bummed so I went back into the club. I ran into Sean a bit later and he swooped me off to a house party in lower Haight. The party was super weird. People had to buy tickets on livenation to get in, and there was a huge line outside the house that went down the block. There was security at the door that carded everyone too. Inside was probably at least 400 hipster kids. It was really weird. I wandered around for a while telling people how much I hated everyone there and then finally collected a couple bucks, a Swedish guy, and took a cab back to the DTTD party. I found my Tahoe friends, we ditched the Swed and did some more city wandering. A couple fights with strangers broke out to keep things interesting. I finally called it at some point and went back to my car to sleep.

The rest of the weekend is boring. I drove back home in the morning, went to Redwood City Ice Rink to watch my mom's production team in a competition, went back home, watched a TLC series about Gypsy weddings, and then went to dinner at the Cheese Cake Factory with my parents. Then I headed up to Truckee for some more partying. I left Truckee at 11:30, tried to drive to Incline but was way too tired. I slept in my car in the CBC parking lot until 1am, and finished the journey. Annnd that's pretty much it. Good full weekend. I love going back to the city, but I've gotten my fill for a while. It's snow season and I'm perfectly happy in my Incline abode for now.


Hope everyone else had a fun weekend. :]

Winner of Giveaway/ Goodbye City

The winner of the first City Kid on Shred giveaway is Nate from Blue Mountain, Pa. Yay. I wish I could have given stuff to everybody. In my next contest I will, but you'll just have to wait and see what I have up my sleeves.

Anyways. This blog is really about my life- something I find myself drifting away from but I'm trying to get back to. Here's whats happening. I went out to San Francisco tonight with Rebecca so I could dance and be ridiculous on my last night in town. We went to the spot where my friend Martin was DJing since he had put me on the guest list. Well, we never went into the club because the guest list line was the same as the regular line and I was too ehhhh to wait. I thought we could find something else going on in the city but because Rebecca has no identification to back up any claims of being 21+, there really wasn't much to do. We found one club where the security let us skip the line, but then they told us is was "Asian night" and was $25 to get in. No thanks. I picked up my pay check at Sajj, ate some pita and hummus with Reebs, and then brought her back home. I almost headed out to Redwood City to see some other friends before I left but just went home instead.

I almost finished packing and now I'm typing this. I'll be leaving for Oregon in four hours so I'm going to pass out and then spring back up to finish packing. I'm really excited for tomorrow, I just wish it hadn't come so quickly. I'm not prepared to move. And as much as I'm stoked for a summer of shredding, the uncertainty of everything has me feeling a little anxious. Don't know where I'm living. Don't know people there (except a few old contacts). Don't know where I'm working. Don't know if I can manage to pull something like I did at Northstar this season and end up with amazing coaching. Things will work out, I'm sure, but I've got some last night butterflies catching up with me...

I think the only thing that will help is if I get as much sleep as I can. So I'm out. Good night, happy dream-shredding, I'll post again when I survive my first week in Oregon.

Week till Mt. Hood!

I can't believe how quickly this has come up. I had the month of May to relax at home, hang out with friends, and get myself back in shape before I spend the summer on Mt. Hood. I had lots of plans for what I needed to do this month:

• Go to physical therapy to make sure my knees don't crap out over the summer.
• Unpack all my stuff and reorganize my possessions before having to pack up again.
• Lay out at the pool to get tan before the summer starts.
• Finish my edit
• Do yoga
• Get a six pack (or just get toned)
• Find a place to live in Oregon
• Find someone to drive to Oregon with me
• Skateboard a lot.

I didn't accomplish much. Didn't do physical therapy. Still have a hurricane disaster in my bedroom (see here). Only laid out twice (got lobster red the second time). I'm still trying to track down some of the shots I got this season. Haven't done yoga once. Still don't have toned abs (and this has been a goal of mine for like 3 years now).  Don't know where I'm ending up once I get to Oregon. Haven't found anyone who wants a ride up there either. Skateboarded for like 4 minutes.

So I'm looking at the calendar that says it's May 21 and I'm wondering where this whole month went. I mean, I have been doing stuff, just not the things I planned on getting done. I went to a concert with Rebecca, and Vivian and got invited to the after party. I've made new friends. I've gone out to play in SF. And I've discovered a handful of tv shows that I really like. Inbetweeners? HOLLA. Workaholics? HELL YEAH. So whatever. Things will work out.

I can't wait to spend that summer up in Oregon. I'm going to try and see if there are any last minute openings at Windells or High Cascade and if not I'll see if I can get on Dig-to-Ride at High Cascade. I know things will work out somehow and my riding is going to improve a ton over the summer. I'm figuring I'll be able to get some shots with the Crack Grease guys, and I became friends with Marie Hucal at the end of the season and she told me she'll be out there and I should meet up with her and the Peep Show gals to get shots. Which would be awesome.

Sitting at home is killing me. I've started having the dreams about snowboarding every night again. I just have to remind myself I'll be on the snow again in a week. I can't wait!

Anyone else going up to Hood or elsewhere for summer riding?

Hello again, dear city.

I find myself in San Francisco once again. The reason I'm here isn't so pleasant (my grandma passed away and I'm here for the funeral), but being in the city is. I do wish I was snowboarding right now, but it's kind of nice doing something different for two days. I've ridden every day for the past 48 days and now I'm figuring out what people do all day long when they're not on the hill.

Spending time with my family is nice, even if it's because of the funeral. Breathing the city air again is nice, even though I've sworn by how wonderful the fresh taho air is. Walking around and seeing all sorts of different people again is nice, even though they're not people I know. I like the hustle and bustle of the city, the tall buildings, the dirtiness, and the vibe. I guess I forgot what it was like to be home. There's so much more life here.

I'm leaving the city tonight and greyhounding back to Truckee in the morning. I'm stoked. All I want to do is snowboard. But I'll keep thid memory of San Francisco wrapped up in a corner of my mind and hold on to it until I come back here in May. I'm going to go wild with all my old city friends that month and it will be exciting, incredible, and awakening. In June it will be back to snowboarding for me, but that month I spend in the city will be the best. I guess once you're a city kid you're always a city kid. Why can't SF be covered in snow???

An unexpected trip home.

I didn't think I'd be sending it back to the Bay again until May but a death in the family brought me back this morning. The funeral will be on Wednesday so I'm stuck here again for an entire week just w a i t i n g.
I was scheduled to teach snowboard lessons for the next three days which I was totally stoked about and then I was going to keep practicing for my first weekend of competitions and start training with the Northstar team. All that changed. Now I'll get back and have something like 7 days to learn how to ride pipe and build up the confidence to hit the big jumps. I guess I'll just deal with it. I believe it will all work out.
I feel totally at home being in San Francisco again, but also completely stir crazy. Just like an animal pacing around, waiting to get out. If I bus it back next Thursday maybe I can ride Boreal that night? And in the mean time I can skate. Kinda like the old days again: holding this date in my hands of when I get to be at peace in the mountains, and just burning time skating until then.
Ugh. I really have nothing else to say. My grandpa's death still doesn't feel real at all so all I can still think about is snowboarding, why I'm not currently doing it, and what I'll do once I'm doing it again. I'm not cold hearted- I swear. My grandpa was the most amazing and inspiring man I have ever known and everything is going to be weird without him. His death was a condition of love and it's unbelievable to me that he's gone. Death just makes everything change shape and become unreal... And because of that, all I can hold on to right now is snowboarding... as usual.

The worst time of the year.

This guy was not right.
This is not "the most wonderful timmmmme of the year".
This is the worst.
For city kids that is.
Correction, for snow junkie city kids it is.

Here's why;

It's getting colder and colder and Bobby Shredder wakes up every morning thinking "OH BOY! It's time to get my shred stick out and shred the gnar!" As soon as he leaves his house however, his smile fades away. Poor Bobby has remembered that he lives in San Fransisco where one can pray for snow all they want but it will never happen. Poor Bobby wakes up every day to a dull gray landscape dotted with bright colors of tourists. There will never be a snow day in Bobby's personal world. So Bobby leaves his beloved Rome Snowboard in the trunk of his car and heads off to school, hoping something will take his mind of the lack of shred in his life.

Bobby Shredder goes into his first class and tries to focus. He only last five minutes. Out comes a sheet of binder paper and the doodling begins. The paper has soon become a master piece of tail grabs, boardslides, and 360s. He smiles at his work and then goes to his next class, super excited for what he has in mind to step it up another notch. During this class he draws a birds eye view version of a park and then draws the front side of himself on another paper. He cuts it out and draws the back side. He bends mini-Bobby's knees and butt and then sets them up at the top of the park. Mini-Bobby is guided down the slope and does some phat tricks with the help of big Bobby. Now Bobby doesn't just have to imagine hitting the slopes, he gets to watch it. "Hey! Check out this tail tap 270!" Bobby whispers to his neighbor, who doesn't really care at all. By 3:00pm Bobby is feeling pretty stoked for winter, even though he won't be able to actually go snowboarding for a while. There is hope for Bobby. There is a glimmer of light in Bobby's heart, telling him that it is possible for him to survive the next couple of shredless months.

Bobby Shredder goes home and logs onto his facebook to do some chit-chatting. His spirit is crushed however when he notices that his friends in Oregon and Colorado have added tons of pictures of them tearing shit up. He desperatly searches through their pictures, like an addict on the hunt for coke. He can't get enough. He begins to stalk his friends, feeding off every new picture they post. Bobby joins sites like shredunion.com where he can discuss snowboarding all day long with other members. Bobby is in a bad place; he wakes up in the morning, checks his friends profiles for new shreddage, logs onto Shred Union between his classes and straps on his board in his living room, just so he can imagine he's boarding. Every morning Bobby wakes up with an unsatiable craving for pow. Every morning Bobby wakes up to gray snowlessness. Every morning Bobby's friends get more and more annoyed with his endless talk of snowboarding. Bobby is scared. He isn't sure if he can make it. His future is looking bleak. Theres a big circle around December 26th, the day he flys out to Oregon to go boarding. All he can do until then is watch snowboarding videos, harass his mountain friends, and make believe with pieces of paper. "This is the worst time of the year." Bobby mutters, finally closing facebook, hoping that ignoring all the fun his buddies are having will lessen the pain in his soul. Poor Bobby.

Photo credits: Brie Tiffany (Oregon) & Matthew Steinquist (Colorado). fucking lucky asses.