Queen of the Park weekend part 1.

What an adventure of a weekend!

Girl Powder was putting on an all girl rail jam at Kirkwood on Saturday called Queen of the Park. I really wanted to go so I spent all week trying to find a ride. I asked people I knew, I asked craigslist, and I asked the Girl Powder Facebook page to see if anyone was driving down from North Lake. No dice. So Friday after a few runs at Northstar I headed to my apartment, threw some clothes in my snowboard bag and jumped on a TART bus. I bused it all the way to Incline and then began to hitch hike. I was a little nervous. The most I had ever hitch hiked was like 12 miles and I only did that once.

I figured it would take me at least three hours to make the 72 mile journey but within four minutes of standing by the side of Tahoe Boulevard holding my janky "So. Lake" sign I was picked up by a guy who was coming from Reno and heading all the way down to the South Lake Y. He ended up being a pretty funny dude. One of the first things he said to me was "So... Do you get picked up often when you do this?" I replied with "Oh I've never done this before." His shoulders softened and he seemed to get a lot more comfortable immediately, responding with "I've never picked up a hitch hiker before!" He laughed and explained how he never thought hitch hikers were going where he was going but he saw my sign and reversed back to me because he was going to South Lake. "Now I can cross picking up a hitch hiker off my bucket list!" He said at one point. We had a fun ride to the Y talking the whole way. At the end of the journey he thanked me for the company (apparently having someone to talk to made the boring drive a whole lot shorter). This guy, I forget his name, ends up being the Regional Manager (or something like that) of Round Table and when he let me off at the Round Table he had been heading to he gave me a coupon for a free large pizza. NICE! He also warned me about how there were a lot of cops in the area and I should be careful with my sign, which I had updated to say "89 s."

Sure enough, as soon as I went back to the side of the road and held my sign up a sheriff SUV came towards me. I stuck the sign behind my back and put my phone up to my ear. I didn't know what the law is about hitch hiking or sign holding so I took the better-safe-than-sorry route. Two minutes later another cop drove by me, just staring as he passed. This was obviously not going to work. I began walking down the highway in the direction I needed to go and came across a gas station. Perfect! I could just ask people getting gas if anyone was going my way. I went up to a nice looking young man in a truck and asked if he was going down 89. He was, but then crossing over to 50. Well, anything helps so I got in his truck and he offered me some hospitality. I ended up talking to this guy the whole drive and it was a hoot. He had driven across the country from Wisconsin and had the THICKEST Wisconsin accent I've ever heard. It was great listening to this guy talk. He let me go where 89 crosses 50 and I ran across the highway to 89 and started walking again.

According to my GPS the road I was on offered no alternatives to a destination other than Kirkwood except at one point where the highway split and went to 88 the other direction. This meant I had a 50% of making it to Kirkwood with my next ride. Not too many cars were going this way so I figured it would take a little longer to get picked up. After maybe five minutes someone drove by slowly and looked at me. I yelled "Kirkwood" and he pulled over. When I got to his car he informed me he was going to Mammoth and would be taking 88 but he could at least get me to the split so I got it. Anything to get me closer to Kirkwood would help. I had a nice time with this guy. He was a little older, maybe in his 40s or 50s but he was an avid shredder and we had lots of snow talk on the way. He gave me trail mix. It was awesome. Once we got to the 88/89 split I wished him happy shredding and was on my way.

Now I was on the last stretch of 89 where the only option was to go to Kirkwood. I was almost there. Seeing the 14 mile sign stoked me out. I was so proud of how far I had made it. And it had only been two hours! Three cars passed before someone pulled over. This guy's name was Adam and he ran the demo shop at Kirkwood. I told him that I was staying at my uncle's cabin in Kirkwood and my uncle was trying to get me a ticket, or at least a discounted one. Adam, this wonderful guy, says "Well if something happens and that doesn't work out I've got like 7 extra tickets left this season that I won't use so come see me if you need one." Score! This guy gives me a ride and offers me a lift ticket. I lucked out on this trip. Every person who gave me a ride hooked it up in some other way as well.

Adam dropped me off in the village and I was elated. I had actually made it to Kirkwood!! I sat down in their village and called my uncle. I didn't know where the cabin was and that hadn't really been a top priority that day. My uncle didn't answer his phone though. I sat in the village and hung out for a while. Finally my mom called and told me that my uncle, who's a fire fighter, had been called in to duty and wouldn't be coming up. Uh-oh. There goes the cabin. Well. I'm good at figuring things out, I wouldn't be stuck outside. I had made it this far and now I just had to wait for something else to come my way....

Coming soon: Queen of the park weekend part 2. and coverage of the competition.

Yuck.

Played it safe in the competition.
Wrecked myself on the ride down to the lodge.
Messed my groin up so much worse.
Shouldn't ride for two weeks.
Taking three days off and calling it good.
Hope I don't make myself worse.
I just can't stand not riding.
BLAHHHHH.

Pulled groin. What a groan.

It's one pm on a beautiful bluebird day. So why am I not snowboarding? Can you say, groin annihilation?

I pulled my groin (don't know how) on Tuesday but I've been riding it all week because it didn't really bother me too much. Yeah, it was hard to lift my leg up and hurt when I pulled tail grabs but still, it didn't get in the way of riding. Yesterday (Friday) was looking like it was going to be the best day of my season. Actually, it was the best day. Weather was perfect, I was hitting new rail features without getting too nervous, I was spinning threes all over, trying things I hadn't ever tried, and was feeling really solid in the air on the big jumps. And I was riding with some really good friends. A couple hours into the day I spun a front three on the first pinball jump (which I had been doing fine all day) but finished the rotation a little later than usual and felt a slight pull in my groin. I straight aired the next jump and then went in for the three jump line in pinball. Besides landing the first jump in that line pretty deep multiple times, I had been feeling awesome on it and felt confident about hitting it. This time however I got a little tail heavy in the air. I knew I was going to land the jump but it was just going to be a tail first land rather than a stomp. From the moment my tail touched the landing to when my board was fully contacting the snow I felt this horrible super pull in my groin, like my leg was just ripping off of my body. I got off to the side of the jumps and started cursing up a storm because I knew that was the end of my day. It hurt so so bad to just ride down to the bottom of the run. Then I spent twenty minutes walking over to the Burton Academy, a walk that usually takes 3 or 4 minutes because I had to stop every fifteen feet. After an hour of laying on a couch and trying to stretch my leg I figured I could test my groin out. If I could walk back to my board without having to stop too many times I would take a run. If I could ride through the park without too much pain I would keep riding. Well I made it to my board and then took a lap through the progression park. I was fine in the progression park on the ride on features and baby jumps so I cut over to pinball for the last few rails in that park. Ollie on to the Oakley pyramid rail and kabow; there's the pull again. Once again I barely made it down the rest of the run and then went straight for the clinic. I didn't want to pay for a hospital bill so I just talked to the nurse and asked if there was anything I could do for my groin. Nope. No stretches. No exercises. Just rest.

So here I am. In bed on this beautiful day. This is the first day that I've been here and haven't ridden. It sucks. Walking hurts a little less today so I might go over to this rail park we set up by the apartment complex and see if I can ride at all. Injury sucks. Especially when you get taken out on the best day of your season. ARG. I don't want to wait to ride. I'm going now. I can't sit around on a perfect day. Hopefully I don't make myself worse. I guess this is my lesson about how I should stretch everyday...

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???

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