Action Tuesdays 3: Closing day

Northstar closed this last weekend so I spent closing day filming Action Tuesdays #3.
It was kind of an anti-climatic day. Not that many people were actually out riding, and there wasn't really anything that fun set up in the park. Basically the same thing it was all season. Stoked to go to Mammoth next weekend. Northstar is done.

Action Tuesdays #2

Second installment. A little shorter. A lot more hablo Espanol.

First Competition is Tomorrow!

Well here goes nothing.

Surprisingly, I don't feel nervous for tomorrow morning at all. I think I'm just in a good mental state.

I know I don't have a serious chance of fighting for a top spot in the half pipe contest tomorrow- I still see myself as being in recovery mode. Until four days ago, I was still just making turns. Now I'm slowly building my confidence back up in pipe, but I don't feel like I'm ready to throw a five first hit or go for a seven. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm just doing straight air runs tomorrow.

I feel very relaxed though. I'm going into this thinking the only person I'm competing against is myself. As long as I ride better tomorrow than I did today, I've won. I think that's how I should go about this whole season- strive to progress every single day and treat each day that happens as a victory.

I'm not concerned with what any of the other girls do in their runs. I probably won't even watch them. I don't want to ride better than someone else, I just want to ride the best that I can for myself.

Louie Vito was recently asked in an interview something like "Does Shaun White being here today affect the run you're going to do?" He responded something like "No, because I don't want to beat Shaun White. If he comes in 19th, that means beating him could mean 18th place. I want to beat everyone. It doesn't matter if Shaun is here or not." This is kind of the same thing for me I guess- it doesn't matter who I'm competing against or what they do in their runs; I'm going to ride my best no matter what. My only concern is myself.

When you stop worrying about other people, your mind can find ease. (I'd like to attribute that to Buddha, but I made it up :/ )

Burton Mountain Festival

The last three days have been the Burton Mountain Festival at Northstar. This year they cut out the Pro-Test contest so it was just a couple days of demos and contests that didn’t exist or something (the Know-Buddy contest was going on- apparently prizes were being handed out randomly in the park for tricks.)

I tried out a bunch of different set ups during the weekend and I’ll be posting reviews on them soon.

Forget Lick The Cat, Sage Kotsenburg, it's all
about Lick The Sheep.

I also hung out with the guys (and girls) who travel with the tour and they were super awesome. We rode, hung out, blah blah blah, whatever. They were all super cool and it was neat to learn about their jobs traveling around to all the mountains. Hopefully I’ll see some of my new friends again before next year!

Grant and the Babe Wagon

The Burton Store in the village also held a contest throughout the weekend. There was a thirteen item scavenger hunt and each item had to be photographed and emailed to the store.

Josh Fricke supplying the "Slash shot" I needed for the hunt.

I ended up winning it with a little help from my friends and got a sweet prize pack from the store.

Ignore all the junk behind the RED hats. I haven't learned how
to clean my room yet.

Probably the best part of the weekend was getting to see my old friend James again. We had awesome times together back at Mt. Hood two summers ago but I hadn’t seen him since. Catching up with him, partying, and playing on our snowboards was a rad surprise.

Me and Mr. James Fleege- Never ask Danny Toumarkine to take
a picture for you. You'll end up with 40 blurry rapid-fire photos.

The Burton Mountain Festival was another incredible reminder of how fortunate I am to do what I do. Some people come to Tahoe one week a year for a vacation. I get to live people’s vacations every day. Too many good times, and too many friends.

First Days Riding

I finally got cleared to snowboard! (kind of)

First run of the season!

I saw my physical therapist on the 21st of this month and she said snowboarding wasn't a good idea because I was still "at high risk" for reinjury. However, she also said I'm still gonna be at high risk until June, and I've done everything I can personally do to prepare myself to ride so if I want to ride it's my personal choice (but she and my surgeon would prefer it if I waited longer.) So I took that to mean I was cleared.

Couldn't be Happier

I rode by myself for my first two days. Honestly, I was terrified before going up the magic carpet for my first run. Since I wasn't exactly given the green light, I wasn't sure what to expect from my knee. What if my ACL ripped out the second I made my first turn? The one thing I really shouldn't do right now is fall, and I did that twice during my first run. Luckily I was moving slow enough that my falls were basically me just sitting down. I definitely looked like I was just learning to ride because I had beginner stance my first couple runs- you know, all weight on the back leg with knee super bent, and front leg completely straight out. It was bad. I kept in on the magic carpet and The Big Easy for those first two days, and only got like 5 runs in each day before my knee started feeling sore.

Me, my Mom, and my Dad at the top of Zephyr

Then my parents came up on Christmas eve. After spending two hours getting their rentals in the village, we got on the chair to mid-mountain. My first chair to an actual run! Taking real runs instead of just the bunny hill was kind of scary. I ventured up to the summit with them, and took it real slow the whole way down. I think I got seven chairs in on that day, but my knee was definitely sore right away. It only actually felt ok when I was riding switch, which really surprised me. I was also surprised to find out I don't know how to carve switch. Maybe I just couldn't turn because I was babying my knee. Who knows. Once my knee was really feeling done, I told my parents to ski some more without me and I went and chilled by a fire.

I took Christmas day off to rest my knee and my parents headed back home. Once they left Tahoe I realized I left my knee brace in my dad's car, so now I can't ride until that gets back up here in the mail. It should come in tomorrow and then I can go make some turns at Boreal while my Northstar pass is blacked out.

Making turns like a BOSS.

My surgeon had worried that I'd try sending it as soon as I got back on my board and get reinjured, but that won't happen. I'm so happy to just make turns that I don't feel the need to even go into the park yet. My main priority is still strengthening my knee and not pushing it too soon. I have my first competitions coming up in mid-January but I'm gonna wait it out on "training." If those contests come up and I still don't feel ready to get in the pipe or jump, I'll drop out. I have big plans for next season and I'm not going to throw away a huge opportunity for a Rev Tour stop or USCSA event.

For now, just strapping in is enough to be thankful for.

My mom and dad are rad, btw.

Vail snatches up Kirkwood

New came out this morning that Kirkwood is now part of the Vail family. The $18million purchase includes the undeveloped sites at the center of the base area which are zoned for residential and commercial development, while Kirkwood will retain ownership of the remainder of the real estate development sites.


The deal will be finished within the next month, but as of today, Epic passholders can now ride at Kirkwood and Kirkwood passholders can ride Northstar and Heavenly.

I'm pretty stoked about this. Kirkwood is an awesome mountain and it'll be cool to be able to ride there with my Northstar pass. I haven't been there since last season when I hitch hiked down to the Queen of the Park competition, but I'd love to make it there again this season. If we ever get snow. Kirkwood is awesome when there's snow, but when there's not, it's not worth the 79 mile drive down.

Do I foresee Vail eventually buying out all of Tahoe? Yes. Should we all be worried about this? Probably. Am I worried right now? Nope.

Time to ride.


Official Press Release Here

Northstar Rev Tour Wrap up

Competing is teaching me that you can't always be happy with the judges scoring, so it's better to let your happiness be dependent on if you're happy with yourself.

I watched a girl in the beginning of my slopestyle heat do lipslide (down box), 50-50 (flat down box) and then straight air the two big jumps with different grabs, and scored at 51 on that run. My first run was lipslide to fakie (down box), cab 1 on (flat down box), and then back three melon to front five stalefish on the small jumps. I scored a 37. I couldn't figure out how more technical jib tricks and then two different spins could score so much lower than straight airs. I realize that the big jumps are scored higher, but to have two straight airs be worth more than two spins? I had been airing the big side of the jumps all week but then spun the small side in the contest on the advice of my coaches and multiple other people, who all felt spinning would be better than airing. The second odd thing I noticed was that a guy on my team had cab 7 to switch back 9 on the big side (clean, no hand drags or anything) and scored lower than guys who were doing regular 7 to 5 combos. Something was funny with the scoring at Rev for sure, but there's nothing that can be done about it now.

 I landed my run that I wanted, and I'm happy with that. I hadn't been able to pull off that whole run together until the contest, so at least I got it clean. All I can do is just work to make a better run for my next competition (USASA this weekend). I'm also making the decision to not hit the small side of anything in contests anymore. I don't want to have to deal with another straight-air-worth-more-than-spin issue. Straight airs are easier and less nerve racking. I'll gladly do those instead. Of course, by Nationals I do want to be spinning the big sides.

Half Pipe. That was interesting. I got my first run of straight air, straight, front three, cab three, front five, straight air, straight air, and then somehow fell riding out of the pipe, like five feet before the finish line. I wanted to die when that happened. I couldn't believe it. So for my second run I came around and did the same exact combination instead of putting my back 3 and switch back 3 in. I got it clean, but have a feeling my first run would have scored higher than the second had I not fallen. In this event I also felt I should have scored a couple points higher, but I'm happy I got my run, and I'll just have to work harder to get my airs higher for my next contest (USASA this weekend).

I don't blame the judges for "giving" me low scores. It's like school, your teachers don't give grades, you have to earn them. If I was scored the way I felt I should have been, I would have been a couple places higher in each event, but that's not a significant change. I'm going to have to really improve so I can earn higher scores and legitimately deserve a place in the top pack.

In the end I placed 18th in pipe, and 23rd in slope. I'd really like to place top 10 at Vermont's Rev Tour stop, so hopefully I can step it up and make that happen.

Northstar Rev Tour;; the night before.

I'm about to force sleep upon myself but I figured I'd post here really quickly.

Rev Tour is starting tomorrow at Northstar, and once again I'm competing in both Half Pipe and Slopestyle. I'm definitely less anxious about this one than I was about Copper (still not in the "confidence zone" though). I do feel a little more prepared this time, and I'll have both Austen and Spencer coaching me. I rode pipe with Austen today, and slope with Spencer yesterday, and having them there for me as coaches made me feel better about what I'd be doing in my contest runs.

I don't really have high hopes on making it to the Finals of either event, but who knows what will happen. Everything could somehow work out perfectly in my runs and I could make it in the top 6. I guess in these things you never know what the results will be until it happens.

My goal is to just ride my best, have clean runs, and be able to set my sights higher for my next slope and pipe contests.

I have to wake up at 7am tomorrow (EEEK!) so I'm out. Peace. Later. Night. Catch you on the flipside, internet world.

New Year, New (clever title here)

Ahkay. So I gotz a bit of catch up to play since the last time I posted.

Copper Rev: Well I went out there, and all I could do was give'r. Did my best, placed 22nd in Slopestyle and 32nd in Halfpipe. Would have liked to do better, but it was definitely a learning experience.

After coming back from Colorado I really started pushing myself at Northstar to try to get to the place where I wanted to be for Northstar's Rev Tour stop. I'm feeling pretty good. I've definitely improved since Colorado and I believe I'll place much higher this next week. Some things I'm happy about is that I was comfortably spinning 5s on the biggest jump at Northstar (until today- they just pushed the Rev jumps so the largest is slightly bigger but I think I can spin it in the competition), and I got my front 5 a little bit out of the pipe (airing, and spinning in the air puts me in a much better place than where I was at Copper).

Tomorrow I'm going to the Volcom Peanut Butter Rail Jam at Sierra-at-Tahoe and I think it'll be pretty fun. I'm not going there to win, just to have a good time, and who knows where that will get me. I just want to have some fun with my friends and eat free food.

Here's to 2012. I do believe this will be a good one. If it ever snows, that is.

Colorado, I'm coming for ya

Wow, I can't believe Rev Tour is already here. My flight to Denver is tomorrow and I'm in the process of making sure I'm getting everything I need packed into my board bag.

I thought I'd feel really unprepared but I actually don't feel too bad. I'm kind of excited. I was feeling awesome on the jump line at Northstar today (btw, I got banned from Northstar today and then reallowed in the period of an hour), and now I don't feel so scared of Slopestyle. I can't wait to see what the slopestyle course is going to be- How big will the jumps be? How many? What type of rails? And of course I can't wait to ride pipe again!

I'm not expecting to place at the top, but hopefully I'll make it to finals for both events, and then maybe by the Northstar and Vermont Rev stops I'll have a shot at winning some money.

I'm just going to ride the best I can and have fun. See you tomorrow Co!

Good feelings

Yesterday I met up with Josh Fricke and a couple of the HEY! Crew guys at Northstar. I didn't get out there until the afternoon because of my last final, but I was still able to get two couple runs filmed. Last time Josh filmed me he got a sweet shot of me gapping an up-down box to my rib cage. This time I managed to stay on my feet.

I'm really excited about one trick I got. I'm always scared of spinning real jumps but it hit me yesterday that I'm going to have to actually spin good sized jumps at Rev Tour in Copper next week. The biggest jump at Northstar right now is only 15-20ft but on Tuesday I spun a five to the deck (wasn't even CLOSE to the knuckle) so I've been kind of worried about spinning it since then. But since Josh was filming yesterday I figured I'd go fast, try to be mellow and just three. I ended up bringing it around to 5 (because I can't control my rotations) and rode away. It was super clean and the shot looked pretty good. I was just totally stoked that it worked out because I've never 5ed something that size before. The feeling of getting something new was so awesome. Just pure joy. It was one of those "This is the reason I snowboard" moments. It just felt so good.

Getting that also helped me out a lot mentally because now I know I'm capable of spinning real jumps, I just have to trust myself enough to do it. I've been nervous about Rev but I think I've got it in me to do well. I want to ride the best I can but my mind always holds me back. I think I'll be able to get past it now though. I'm feeling good.

I'm back in the bay now but I can't wait to get back to Tahoe and ride with my new confidence. I love snowboarding. I love everything about it. I'll be holding my breath till I'm on the hill again.

Novembrrrrrr cont.

A couple posts ago I said "This month has been pretty fucking awesome so far." I'm following that statement up with "This month is still fucking awesome."

I just had another incredible weekend and its starting to seem like the month of November can do no wrong.

Jaegs Mckegs and I in dirty Reno

On Wednesday Mitch came up to Reno to pick up his car and brought Jaeger and Spiegel with him. I was riding Boreal that night but once they closed, I headed out to Reno to meet the guys. I first went into some random club inside the Circus Circus/El Dorado/Silver Legacy complex while I waited for the guys. Some random dudes in the bar bought me drinks, I gave out fake numbers and then left as soon as Jaeger called me. The rest of the night disappeared in a blur of alcohol and bright lights. A small portion of the night was preserved when Nicola started video messaging me and Jaeger and I sent videos back. I think around 2am we made it to the Nugget and split an Awful Awful. Soo good. I think from there we went back to the hotel, partied more, and went to sleep when the sun started coming back out.

Stocking up for the year.

I planned on stopping at Boreal the next morning on the way home to ride a bit but that didn't happen. I was physically incapable of getting out of bed so I didn't leave Reno until around noon. I headed straight to San Francisco and made it to my aunt's house in time for Thanksgiving Dinner. Dinner was awesome. I ate until I thought I was going to puke. Then I went to Walmart with my mom for their 10pm Black Friday event. That was ridiculous. I'm never going there for Black Friday again. The line went around the entire building in a maze pattern. My mom and I were just going to leave but apparently I'm Walmart VIP and one of the security guards asked me if I wanted to go into the store and then let me through the metal gates and in the store without having to wait in the line. Inside Walmart was frightening. There were people running, pushing, and climbing over each other. You know those end of the world movies were people are running around and raiding stores? It was like that. Oh and if there was a fire in that building EVERY SINGLE PERSON WOULD HAVE FUCKING DIED. We ended up leaving without buying anything because it was so ridiculous in there.

First face bleeding sesh of the season. Nice.

Friday morning my mom woke me up at 5:30 to go Black Friday shopping with her. I was so tired but I ended up getting a couple cute things. I left around 1 to drive back to Tahoe. I made it to Boreal around 5:15 and was about to ride when I lost my keys somewhere between my car and the lodge. I had to wait an hour for AAA to come open my car so I could get my stuff. While I waited some gapers parked next to me gave me beer and food so that was nice. I finally made it onto the hill at like 6:45 and was having a pretty good time riding. Then a skier snaked me a couple feet before a rail but I still wanted to hit it so I did. He was so close that I would have landed on his skis so I while I planned to just 50-50 (my only rail trick), I had to front board the rail. I held it for most of the rail until I fell off and landed on my face. That was a bummer. I bled a lot but kept riding. A couple hours later I was starting to feel nauseous so I called it a night.

I woke up at 5am on Saturday morning and drove down to Mammoth. I had the worst time ever trying to park. I ended up 2 miles away. When I finally got off the chair for my first run I found out that I was missing my toe strap and my binding was barely attached. So I did a pipe run with my back foot not really even secured to my board. That was cool. Not. I went and bought a new strap and went back out. I met up with Jaeger, Mitch, and a couple of the other Bataleon guys and rode with them for a while. They dipped and I stayed until like 3. Finally my body started hurting so I went back to town and picked Jaeger up. We found a hotel and the owner made us promise we weren't going to throw a party. We went over to some guy's house for dinner and then brought everyone back to the hotel to party. Duh. We played fun games, got drunk, and then got the owner of the hotel pissed. Party broken, I crashed.

Mmmmm Sushi and sake bombs. <3

5am Sunday morning I'm up. I meant to leave Mammoth at 5:30 but couldn't get out of cuddle mode until 6:30. Give a girl a break. When I finally got out of the hotel, I pointed back to Incline. I made it back home at like 9:15 and then left for Northstar with Nicola. I had an awesome time riding there. I met up with Shannon and rode with her and a couple dudes for a little while. They had to leave around midday but I stayed to ride more. That evening Nicola and I went to sushi with a fun group for Dave's birthday. I think after 7 sake bombs we went back to his house and partied there. The night drowned in beer pong and celebration shots and at some point we went to sleep.

Nicola and I did the 7am wake up and dip-out maneuver, sent it back to Incline, and then went back to the real world. School for me, snowboarding for her. It was a solid weekend I think. Here's to next weekend!

Novembrrrr

Getting right to the point- This month has been pretty fucking awesome so far.

Nicola and I killing it in Truckee

1. Nicola Barry moved into my house. She's the best.  Nicola is so awesome to live with and its fun to not be alone in my house for the month. We make pretty awesome dinners and go snowboarding almost every day together. Which brings me to awesome point 2.

Classic "Girls on Chair lift" photo

Front 3. © 2011 Ben Birk, All Rights Reserved

2. Boreal is open 7 days a week now. I've gotten 6 days there so far (school is sooo in the way of me having fun). I've learned some cool tricks that I'm pretty stoked about and finally have a picture of myself, thanks to Mr. Ben Birk. I've also discovered I really like gaping boxes. And doing MJs. Another discovery is that I ride 8x better when I listen to Gucci Mane radio. It's funny riding Boreal right now because it makes me think back to this time last year when there were only like two features I'd hit in the whole park run. I'm so happy and grateful that I'm at the point now where I'm not scared of hitting any of the features they have. It makes snowboarding even more fun, if that is even possible.

3. I entered Rome's Magic Shred Contest and won myself a new board. My new Detail Rocker should be arriving any day now and I'm so stoked to get on that baby. You can see the contest here. I'm a little nervous about riding a rocker board but I'm down to try anything once I guess. It's coming just in time too because my Roxy is about to be no bueno. I got the edge drag going on and it's really harshing my mellow.

A little more snow please?

We're the three best friends that anyone could have.

4. Mammoth BWKO was the sickest fucking weekend ever. Ever. I headed down there after my thursday night soccer game (I scored my first goal!!!) and made it down to Mammoth just in time for some afterpartying at the Hyde Lounge. I met new people, saw some old friends, and drank a healthy amount of alcohol. I went with some guys to a party at someone's house and then crashed in some random hotel room. I made it out at 7am to go up to the mountain and get my ticket. I was told that the school was only going to buy me a one day ticket but it turned out to be a three day ticket, which made my weekend so much better. The weather on Friday was ridiculous, but I met some guys who taught me how to Miller Flip so the weather didn't even matter. I was so stoked to learn a new trick. Liz and Nicola came down with Armeen and two skier kids that night. We partied more at Lakanuki's and then went to Hyde Lounge where we were treated to even more free drinks. I met up with Jaeger at some point and gave him my wristband so he could get into Lakanuki's with us. We partied there until I don't know when, and then went up to the Bataleon condo right there in the village. I dipped out fairly early the next morning and rode with Nicola and Liz for the rest of the day. That night we met up with some guys we met while riding for drinks at Gomez's. Turns out our margaritas were paid for there as well, by Binky from Smokin (Thank you <3). We headed back to Lakanuki with the boys and Cody gave us free drink wristbands (Thanks to which ever company paid for our 50 red bull vodkas). Cha-ching. The rest of the night is a blur, with lots of details that I remember but would never share on the internet. Sorry ;]. Basically, we had a good time. Lots of drinking, lots of playing. I stayed in the Bataleon condo again that night and then next morning I set up my bindings up on Jaeger's old Disaster- luckily Jaeger rides the same size as me. We went out riding together and had an awesome time. I kept the board because I can't handle the edge drag I have on my Roxy right now. The Bataleon board rides super differently but it'll work out until my new Rome board shows up. Nicola, Liz, and I sent it back to Tahoe at 1:30, only making the mandatory In-N-Out stop. Liz had to go back home but Nicola and I went out to Boreal and rode there until the lifts stopped. Such a good weekend, with amazing memories, and amazing friends.

5. Northstar is opening in a couple days and I'll be there with Nicola, destroying the park like we always do. Haha. We locked our penguin slides in at Boreal on Sunday night so look out for our mad steeze. Jaeger is also going to come up and stay at my house for the weekend so that'll be fun.

This winter is already topping last years 100 fold. I can't wait for the rest of the season. So happy to be here. So happy to be snowboarding.

22' pipe at northstar

Shaun White is making Northstar his new "home mountain". This means there's going to be a 22 footer at Northstar this year and I'm SO stoked. I became such a pipe jock this summer its not even funny. Really, I wanted to hit rails and jumps, but I'd find myself hiking the pipe for three hours straight without stopping. I love it. I love it. Pipe is so much fun. I could ride it all day and not be bored. I can't wait to hit this new pipe up. You can bet I'll be there every morning before class. :]

Open class, and open for improvements.

I don't know what I was thinking Friday night and set my alarm clock for 6am, thinking it'd give me an hour to get ready before I had to meet Jake and go to Sierra. I woke up at 6 to a text message saying "Hey I'm at Safeway" and almost crapped. I was supposed to meet him at 6am at Safeway! I flew out of my apartment like a bat out of hell and had this horrible feeling that I wouldn't be able to get in the event because of my own dumb move.

Well we got to Sierra at 7:30, and I was the first to get on the wait list. I was also able to register for the Superpipe event the next day. I didn't feel too worried about the course; it was pretty average. Flat box, down-flat-down box, and then a two jump line with different options for the jump size. I saw the other girls throwing threes off the big side but most of the time they weren't landing them. I figured I'd play it safe  and do a line I knew I could land in case the other girls didn't have clean runs. My first run I did a 50-50 to nose slide on the first box, 50ed the down flat of the kinked box and then slid off, did a sloppy front 180 on the first jump and then went for a tail grab on the second but couldn't find my tail. Yuck. I was planning on doing a front 3-revert-cab 3 for my second run but since my safety didn't go the way I wanted I thought I should do the same run again. Second run I only 50ed half of the flat box tail grabbed over the knuckle, 50ed the whole kinked box did a clean-er 180 and got my tail grab on the second jump. Playing it safe didn't work out though because the other girls were able to pull off their runs and score higher than me. I placed 6 out of 7 and I was only 3 points behind the girl ahead of me, so if I had done the run I wanted or at least did a cab 1 on the second jump instead of a tail grab I could have grabbed fifth.

Superpipe day. I felt good about pipe. I like pipe and think I'm fairly decent in the stunt ditch. Well the four girls I was up against were good, not fairly decent. During my practice I was getting above the lip just slightly and these other girls were a few feet above the lip. I rode the best I could and ended up fifth. It would have been nice to at least beat one person but I didn't really mind too much. I've only been riding pipe for a month and the girl who placed above me told me this was her sixth season riding that semi circle. I looked up my four competitors and they've all been riding big contests and placing high for a while. This was my first non-USASA event.

Even though I didn't place the way I would have liked, I had fun and learned a lot. I learned that if I keep practicing more I can hold up in open class. I learned that competition isn't the place to hold back and play it safe. And I learned that I need to step it up because the girls I'm going to be competing against in the future are more experienced and are pretty solid riders.

The DC park at Northstar is open today so I'm going to head out there to ride the big boy park.
Until next time,
CKOS

Spoke too soon.

Well I guess I'm doing Free Flow now.

I went to Northstar today to practice pipe stuff and my coach told me half way through the day that some lady who has stuff to do with Free Flow told him there's already been a few girls who have dropped out of slopestyle. Meaning, if I got to Sierra by 7am and got on the wait list I'd probably get a spot.

So now I'm competing in slopestyle.

Did I practice slopestyle at all today? Of course not.

I did nothing but jumping Monday-Wednesday this week so I don't feel too worried about that. I mean, I should be fine on the jumps as long as I don't psych myself out. My mind messes with me so much when I ride. There's so much that I know I could do if I let myself. But I get psyched and hold myself back. Can't let that happen tomorrow though. I think the jumps are going to be a little bigger than what I've ever hit. But it'll be okay. If I put my mind in the right place I should have no problem with a straight air- front 1 line. Should be easy...

My concern today was half pipe. I really want to do my best in pipe, which would be airing out and doing 3s and switch 3s above the lip. Today started out real bad in the pipe. I kept quitting after my first two hits. No bueno. During lunch though I changed my stance up and tried to put my head back in place. When I went back to the pipe everything felt better. I started getting higher. Then I started airing out. Jeeze. Getting air the the pipe is such a weird feeling. It's different than anything I've felt before. It scares me. But I like it. So anyways, I did that all day.

One of the ski coaches is picking me up tomorrow to bring me to Sierra, which is apparently farther away than I thought. I would really like to be at Sierra when registration starts at 7am, but Jake isn't picking me up until 6am. Mapquest says it will take an hour and a half to get there. I'm really hoping it doesn't take that long. Or if it does, I hope there's not a bunch of other girls already there on the wait list. Tell me again why there's only ten women's spots? It'll suck big time if I get there and can't compete. :/

So I'm crossing my fingers that it takes less than an hour to travel 57 miles, or that there're more spaces open than there are girls on the wait list. All of this would be a lot easier if I had just made up my mind earlier and registered when it was open. Ugh. Okay, gotta pack my overnight bag now. I'm going to either stay in a hotel or at a friend's house in south lake so Sunday isn't as difficult as this.

Indecisiveness strikes again

I decided to compete in the Gatorade Free Flow tour at Sierra.
The Stash Gathering at Northstar is the same day.
I decided to compete in the Stash Gathering.
No. Free Flow.
Nah I don't stand a chance in Free Flow. Stash Gathering.
Thursday Morning: Okay okay. I'm doing Free Flow. It'll be a good experience and maybe I actually do stand a chance now that I'm getting more comfortable on the bigger jumps.
Oh. Wait. Registration closed last night. Wow. Really? Yup. 8 hours ago.
Maybe I'll do same day registration. Oh. There's only 10 spots available for girls. They must be full anyways.
Guess I'm doing the Stash.

That's pretty much how it all went. I really need to make decisions earlier and then commit to them. Kind of like in snowboarding how I get screwed over when I make decisions about the trick I'm doing when I'm already in the process of doing it or how I only commit half way to tricks and then wreck myself. I spent so much time thinking I wasn't good enough for Free Flow that by the time I got stoked on it it was too late.

It's not like I'm totally missing out on anything though. I'm just gonna do the Stash Gathering and hopefully pick up some swag. It's also the Burton Demo Tour at Northstar this weekend so I'll be able to check out some of their gear and maybe find out about getting some (crossing my fingers with this part).

Nicola registered for Free Flow slopestyle and half pipe ages ago. I talked to her today and she said she's not going to do pipe anymore and I can take her place. Since I can't just "take her place" I have to show up at Sierra at 7am (or earlier) and make sure I'm first on the wait list. Now the problem of not having a car comes up. But if I can figure that out I can compete in a real competition and see how I hold up against other girls (since I haven't gotten to really asses my skill with the USASA comps).

My history has proven that things just kind of work out over time so I'm going to assume I have a way of getting to Sierra-at-Tahoe and practice for pipe. I haven't ridden pipe much in the past couple of weeks and I usually use my no-edge park board. However, I'm determined to ride my pipe board and actually get air on Sunday so I guess I'll just be lapping pipe all day tomorrow. The x-games got me all stoked on pipe and I really want to push myself to at least do half of what all those girls were doing.

Wish I was doing slopestyle, but I'm going to go into the Stash Gathering and Half-Pipe and do the best I can. I love snowboarding so much and just being able to do it everyday is the best thing in the world, even if I suck at making decisions.

Competitions, face injuries, and friends (Or "This month in pictures")

So not having internet kind of makes it difficult to make posts so I'm going to do an overview of the month with photos I've taken because a lot has happened and I don't want to make boring paragraphs of text.

Northstar, 1-1-11. Riding the Zephyr with the Sal, Jordan, and Ralph. First day of the new year, first day riding my new board, and first day taking this awesome hidden tree run I never knew existed.

Lunch. I feel like this is a significant step into my snowboard-bum future: not being able to afford resort food (apparently $2.93 doesn't get anything at the day lodge) and having to get creative with the condiment section. It wasn't so bad. Crackers and spicy mustard with parmesan cheese is actually pretty good. Crackers with salsa get old though. After I ate this I found a ten year old who was about to throw away half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I swooped in. It was crunchy peanut butter. It was delicious.

Catching the amazing view from a backside chair. I can't believe I live in this beautiful place.

About to take my first White Rabbit adventure, feeling like I'm on top of the world. Alex took this picture. I love dipping into the trees on the edge of the resort with one or two people. It seems like there's no one else in the world.

Nicola rides on the Northstar team with me. She's my first girl friend that I ride with regularly now. Trail markers make awesome poles to push through flat spots with, as well as awesome jousting swords.

Getting beat up at Boreal. I finally found the confidence to hit 35ft jumps (and also had the pressure that I'd be competing on them the next day) and once I got comfortable on them I decided to try spinning. Well. Turns out I didn't have the confidence to do that, cut too much speed out and managed to slam my head into the knuckle. This is the day after I did that. Within a few days my eye bruised up quite nicely. One week later it's starting to fade back out. The chin? Went back to just doing grabs off the jumps, waxed my board, and completely cleared the landing. Next time I speed checked, knuckled and hit my knee to my chin. This is right after it happened. I keep picking the scab off. My B.

These are the first two jumps in the competition line. For some reason I had major issues that day and had the worst time stomping anything at all. But since there was no one against me I got 1st for my two slopestyle events. The next day I had halfpipe and actually did really well. I think. There was no one against me so I don't know if my half pipe firsts were actually deserved or just defaulted. I need competition!

Waiting for results with Nicola and Richard at Boreal...

There was this big ski school employee party at Gar Woods with free food and drink. Alpine and Homewood employees were there too. This is me with some of the Argentineans from Alpine or Homewood. South Americans are crazy. That's all I have to say about that.

 My room mate Dana and I at Heavenly today. We didn't last there for very long. It was raining a bunch and half of the mountain was impossible to get to. Thought we could just lap the park. Nope. The only park we could find that was open had awesome features but was so flat it was ridiculous to try to get enough speed to hit anything.

One view from Heavenly.

And another. It's a beautiful place that I'd love to ride on a sunny day.

Well that was my unexciting post about what's been up. There's plenty that I'm leaving out but that's what happens when I go weeks without posting. Hopefully I'll be getting internet soon so I can keep up with this more. Overall though I've been having an amazing time. I'm so so so glad I made the decision to move here and follow my heart. There's nothing more I want in the world than to snowboard every day and live with my amazing friends.
Till next time,
Jenise.

Stuff about life.

It's been a little while since I last posted so I figured I'd make an update with everything going on. Like I figured, everything worked out (as far as the housing ordeal) when I gave it time. I got a call from Sawmill Heights at Northstar and I was approved for an apartment there. My brother is driving up from San Francisco in two days to help me move my stuff. I have no idea of who I'm going to be living with yet, but I'm not too worried about that. It'll be a surprise and I'm sure that situation will work out as well. I'm just excited to finally move to Northstar. Some people have warned me that it will get boring living there but being bored is for boring people. I'll find things to do.
As far as snowboarding goes, I'm pretty stoked. I went to my friends house a few nights ago and he had a whole park set up in his back yard including this huge a-frame rail. I've honestly never even done too much with regular rails but all my buddies were hitting it so after a while I worked up the nerve to hit it. After a few tries I was able to stay on for the whole thing which was a pretty big step for me. The next day I went to Northstar and with the left-over confidence in my system I went for their larger jumps and features that I hadn't touched before like the DC roller coaster box. Apparently snowboarding isn't very difficult when you just commit to things. Who would have guessed? Anyways, I'm excited and can't wait till I ride again, whenever that is.
The last little piece of what I've been occupying myself with is school. I've got one more final on Thursday and then I'm done with this semester. No more classes until next August. Say WHAT? I'm taking my first break from school in something like 13 or 14 years so this is a new deal. I can't remember life without going to school everyday. I may actually feel like an adult... Or not. Yeah, probably not. But whatever. That's it with that.
Oh, and I finally start work soon! I'm going back home with my brother on Friday, taking a greyhound back to Truckee on Saturday and then I have 7 days of training for ski instructing starting on Sunday. That means I'll be on the mountain on skis for an entire week. Oh. Jeeze. Maybe somehow it will make me better at snowboarding? Who knows? Even if it doesn't, I'd rather have a day on the snow on skis than a day stuck in the Bay just staring at a snowboarding magazine.
That's pretty much it. I really don't have a way to end this. Maybe I'll post something interesting soon? With a lot less words? haha. GOOD NIGHT SNOW WARRIORS.

NO-rthstar

Today's word of the day is "NO-rthstar": This is when you want to go to Northstar for opening day and they say "No. No No-rthstar for you."

So, I made that post about how excited I was to go to Northstar today for opening and how I was going to make a post about opening day and such. WELL, I got all ready to go and was about to find a ride when someone goes "Are you going to Northstar? Well you can't." Apparently my friend Lloyd went up this morning and they wouldn't let him ride. They told him that employees were blacked out for the first couple of days. I called bullshit on that and called HR. Here's the conversation:

Me: Hi. So I was about to head out to Northstar to ride but I heard something about employees not being able to ride today.

HR lady: Yes that's correct.

Me: So... I can't ride today?

HR lady: Employees are blacked out until further notice.

Me: Oh. Bye.

BLACKED OUT TIL FURTHER NOTICE? WHAT? We got an e-mail from the ski school just four days ago saying "Please feel free to ski/ride on the hill prior to your start date." And then they didn't say anything about not being able to ride on opening. I guess a few people got an email this morning, but I sure didn't. Nothing sucks more than living right here and not being able to ride.


And now people are starting to come back to campus with their gear saying "Northstar was sick!" GRARRRRR! I've had a few people tell me that this is how Vail works. My RA worked for Vail for 3 years said that that's just how they are and I'll have to deal with "corporate madness". I hope he's wrong and it's not going to be like this all season. If it is, I'll completely understand all the kids who were pissed off about the Vail takeover. But I hope it's not. I have faith in Vail and am really excited to see what happens. Apparently the park is going to be off the chain this year (yes I just used that phrase) and I'm excited to work at a resort for the first time. I'll just have to wait until next week to ride there... 


I guess I'm done ranting. I'm going to try to get to Boreal or Rose today instead. Probably won't find a ride though. That's how things work around here. I'm not stuck in the city anymore, but I'm still not on the mountain. If anyone wants to give me a car that'd be cool. Let me know. Until then, I'm just watching the snow fall outside my window, wasting my days away. 


[[BTW, if you've been living under a rock and don't know about the Vail takeover read this.]]