New pants

Action hooked it up today with some sweet Volcom pants and Van's "Spicoli" sunglasses. I'm stoked to have pants that have liners in them and don't have a huge hole in the butt. I'm gonna be looking freshhh at Copper. Yeah! The quality of my old Volcom pants was pretty low but I feel like these ones are gonna hold up a lot better. I think Volcom makes their low end gear pretty poorly, and their high end gear good, so I should be set. Anyways, just wanted to thank Fritz and Action Sports, San Carlos. You rock!

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. :]

Another year gone by

Tomorrow is my birthday. The big 1-9. My last year as a teen. I'm pretty stoked for tomorrow. I'm starting off the morning with this stretch class at the rec center that's just the ultimate in relaxation, then I have school till 5:30, I'm getting my pass for High Altitude, and then I'm going to the Videograss premier at Best Pies. Jam packed day. Just the way I like it.

It's crazy to think about how much has changed in a single year. 365 days ago I was 17, living in the dorms, kind of a mess, and didn't really know what I was doing (I thought I did though). But today I'm independent, not so lost, and have a clear view of who I am and what I want. I'm a lot happier with where I am in life right now and I'm looking forward to this next year.

I went back home this last weekend and had a little birthday dinner with my parents and grandpa. I didn't really get anything cool, except a pair of Von Zipper shades I picked out at Action this weekend. The rest of my gifts were pretty much just snacks. Still no shake weights or impact shorts (the only two things I've been asking for since last Christmas). But whatever. I honestly don't need sick gifts because I already have everything I need to be happy- pants, a jacket, a snowboard and season pass.

Goals for nineteen;
have a good winter- get upsidedown, get over my fear of spinning big jumps (and spinning onto rails), do my best in contests, do some filming
become closer with my friends
go viral on youtube (ridiculousness is on it's way, and my plan has nothing to do with snowboarding)
have way too much fun <- the most important goal
Get A's in all my classes and somehow take enough credits to be a senior next year.
Learn more about the world I live in.
Travel to some cool places

Action Sports, San Carlos

Every time I am home I make sure to stop by Action Sports in San Carlos, my local board shop. Since I was home for this entire month I really should have made a trip earlier, but it didn’t happen until yesterday. Anyways, being there reminded me of how much I love that place. 

I've been going there for I think four or five years and it's always been a great place to shop and chill. When I got my license a few years ago I'd drive over there every time I had nothing to do and just hang out. I've kept that tradition up and I pretty much go in just to hang out with Alex, who's been working there as long as the shop has been there, and Fritz the owner. Alex is one of the friendliest guys you'll ever encounter and his knowledge of products for skateboarding, wakeboarding, longboarding, and snowboarding have been life savers to a ridiculous number of clueless beginners and novices looking for more guidance. Fritz has always been very friendly with me as well. He is someone who will be genuinely interested in what's going on in your life and someone who will offer you help in any way he can. It's awesome to have such great people at my shop who can support me and make me feel like I'm part of the "home team". 

The shop has a bar area that you can get refreshments in and hang out at, a skatepark to ride indoors for free, and seasonal products like wake boards. The whole place has a really relaxed and welcoming vibe and it’s just a good place to be. If anyone is ever in the San Carlos area I’d highly recommend stopping by Action.

Also, every Wednesday night a ton of long boarders meet at Action to go ride the San Carlos hills together. Every time I've gone there's been a free BBQ afterwards so I'm pretty sure that's a regular thing as well. Call them for more details if you want to join in. Make new friends, long board some cool spots, and eat free food. What could be better?

Anyone else got a killer local shop?