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.]]

snow-close!

It's snow close to opening day! Er, I mean, so close. The opening day I've been waiting for is coming up on Friday: NORTHSTAR's. Not only am I excited to ride there everyday this season, I'm working there too. I'm not scheduled to work until December 12 so until then I just get to ride and have fun. Yeee! It's a bummer that I still don't have a positive cashflow, but I'm just so excited to ride Northstar that I don't mind too much.

I went to Northstar yesterday morning with my friend Maddy so we could finish our paper work and get our passes. We were walking around the village and I was starting to get really stoked. The village at Northstar is just so awesome. It really adds to the resort. I've been looking for places to live but I think I'm going to put in an application for the employee housing at the village because it would just be so cool to live there. They've got the ice rink, stores, restaurants, entertainment and so much life. I think it'd be sweet to live right there in all of that. Never a boring time! So that's my plug. Come to Northstar, hang out in the village, and have a good time.

I don't have much more to say for now, but I'll definitely make a full post on Northstar's opening day this weekend. And if you're in Tahoe right now, I'm sure you'll be there for opening too. So in that case, I'll see you there! Let's take a run!

Beers and Spliffs at Mt. Rose

Some buddies of mine made this awesome edit the other day and you should check it out. These guys are all really awesome, and fun. This is real Tahoe. The kids living here and starting their seasons in October. Lots of more edits from them to come. I think this was November 12th?



Peter Hodgins, Ian J. Daly, Keenan Cawley, Stephen Wojciechowski, Tyler Arthur, Garret Creetin, and Spencer Reeves

Like an ass's behind.

Uhm, I don't know what the title of this post means really, as it is five in the morning and I'm not all sane at this hour, but it has the word behind in it. Pretty much, I've somehow managed to slip up on these posts again. A lot of stuff has been going on and my blog has just taken the back burner. I've been riding a lot though and I'm really excited about all that. I went to Boreal's opening day and then a few days after that. I've been up at Mt. Rose too quite a bit. I'd write more about everything going on up here being it's all very exciting and I'd love to share it, BUT- I'm leaving for Mammoth (opening day is today) in fifteen minutes and I'm still in bed. So I need to get a move on pronto.
I do have time for two things before I get off. One: I'm actually progressing and that makes me really happy. When I first came up here all there was to hit was PVC pipes and I couldn't even hold a 50-50 for more than a moment on it. In the past few days though I've just been getting them so I moved on to boardslides. Just yesterday I started locking in boardslides. Last night I had my first ever just fucking STOMPED boardslide. It was awesome! I also did a few where I shifted to 50-50 while on the rail and then rode away fakie. I felt so good about them. I was starting to get bummed that I couldn't do anything but now I'm back in the game.
Secondly, I need to move in less than a month now and I still don't have a place to live. I responded to a few craigslist ads last night so I'll see how that works out. It's fairly important that I get a house so I hope one of the ads I responded to works out. One of the houses is 3 guys who are working at Northstar and are looking for someone chill to live with. The thing with them is that I'll have to share a room with a dude. :/ Which is fine but whatever. The other is two dudes and a girl so that would probably work out better for me. But I don't know because I like guys better than girls anyways so I don't think it matters. The only thing is that they're both looking for someone to move in immediately and I still have 20 days before I want to move.
It'll work out though. I'll find a place to go.... I hope.
ALL RIGHT! MAMMOTH Time. Slaterrrrr!

Snowboarders are so COOL

What's with everyone trying to be so cool these days? It's like everyone is trying to call everyone else out for "trying to be cool" just so they can look cool. How does that even make sense. "I look cool because I'm acting like it's not cool to be cool by calling someone else out for trying to look cool/ not being cool enough"

What has stemmed this rant?

On Saturday we got some fresh snow up on Mt. Rose and I wanted to go up to the summit to ride a bit. Well, everyone was too hungover to drive (or so they claimed) so around 2pm I started hitch hiking my way up the mountain. I eventually got up there and there weren't too many other people up there. It was pretty much me, my friend Ryan from Reno and a few of his friends. I needed to get to Reno that night to go to the Forum F-It premier and I figured it'd be easier to go straight there than find a ride back to Incline and then to Reno. So I got a ride with Ryan and went out to the Forum BBQ. After that we went back to his house to drink/hot tub/ etc. and then left for the premier.

My plan was to find a ride back to Incline from the premier, and I knew that'd be possible because a bunch of kids from school were going to the movie. But, because I wasn't going to be going back with Ryan I had to carry my board and boots with me. And I was still wearing my snow pants. I knew I'd get crap for carrying my board at the premier but I didn't think it'd be that big of a deal. If someone said something I'd be like "I was just riding, I haven't been home" and it'd be over. But no, these kids were too cool for that. I got SOO much shit from so many people. Mostly guys. Guys I didn't know, and even guys I was friends with. It's funny how quickly a friend will sell you out to look cool in front of their "pro" friends. I got so many "Why do you have your board with you?"s and even more "Ohhh you have your board and boots at a snowboard premier. You're SO COOL"s. I had to tell the story of how I was just hitch hiking all day a million times. And then some of the guys at the bar thought it'd be funny to pick my board up and pump it in the air. There were so many various nasty comments sent my way it almost killed my night. Why is there so much hate?

I mean, I'm not butt hurt on all this, I just think it's really dumb. Just let people be themselves and just live. Everyone complains about people being fake and trying to be cool but when you call people out to look cool it's just encouraging this fake broish behavior.

I don't know where I'm going with this and I'm just kinda over the whole situation. I think I'm just gonna ignore it all from now on. I just hope people stop being so obsessed with trying to call other people out. It's becoming cliche how much I've been saying this recently but JUST LIVE. Let people be. Have fun. Stop the hate.