Earning my turns

They say that when you work hard for something you appreciate what you get much more- the berry is that much sweeter. Well, what they say it true. I found out about that first hand this summer, while taking part in the dig-to-ride program at High Cascade.

I never thought that I had any sort of physical strength, and in the past I have always made excuses or just plain quit when I thought that things were too tough for my body to handle. But that wasn't an option in dig-to-ride. If I quit, I didn't get to ride. So I pushed myself. And I was quite surprised at the results.

I'll admit, at the start of this summer I was pretty weak. I set up a great training program through, and followed it for a couple of weeks.

• Day 1: 2 hour hike through the forest. Don't follow paths. Hike over trees, through fields, over the rivers  
• Day 2: 1 mile jog, 100 lunges on each side, 50 squats, 50 1 legged squats on my bad knee. 
• Day 3: 35-40 minutes on a stationary bike, plus some core stuff, and hamstring curls if the machine is set up.

However, as soon as I started dig-to-ride, I realized working out extra was completely unnecessary. 
Every morning of dig-to-ride I got up to the HCSC park between 7:30 and 7:45 and started making trips up and down through the park carrying banners to set up. I usually finished the hiking and set up stuff around 10am, and then began to lap the pipe. We had to meet back up for noon rake (which consisted of hiking up to the top of the mini pipe and raking the walls all the way down, and then doing the same to the super pipe) at 11:45am, and that would end between 12:30 and 1pm, depending on if we were raking the super pipe. Then I got to ride again until 2:30, at which point I had to tear down the banners and put them back away. Most people would think that four hours of work in exchange for three hours of riding wasn't worth it, but I disagreed. Having the opportunity to ride High Cascade all summer was worth the hard work and sacrifice.

Plus, digging became a free gym membership. I think I got more physically fit this summer than I ever have been. I'm completely surprised at my own strength. When the summer started, carrying two banners at a time was exhausting, and I thought that setting up 8 banners in the morning was an accomplishment. By the middle of the summer I felt comfortable carrying four banners at once and had set up 21 banners in the morning before any other dig-to-rides had even shown up. I also learned how to get pretty good with a rake (I'm far from the best, but I can at least build a decent lip). Most important, I think I finally rehabilitated my knee.

I'm fully aware of how lame it is that I'm nerding out on digging to ride, but I honestly don't care. I learned how to push myself physically and mentally, and found myself taking pride in the work I was doing. The summer didn't go as planned with me being able to get a camp job, but I'm glad I experienced dig-to-ride. I can now fully appreciate how much work diggers put in to keep the park in shape for campers. I now also know that I can push myself a lot harder than I thought I ever could. Earning my turns wasn't as kush as it would have been if I had a sponsor pass or paid for a pass to just ride, but I think the whole experience I went through is a lot more valuable to my personal development.

RIP Collin

It's incredible how quickly a life can end. 

Just a couple days ago my housemate Casey was telling us about how earlier that day he was hiking through a tunnel in one of the crevasses off Palmer when the ice gave way under him. He jumped, clinging to the wall of the tunnel as the ground all around him crumbled down into the dark depths of the crevasse. We marveled about how he barely made it out of that situation. It was much too close of a call. 

Then today, my other housemate asked if I had heard about what had happened yesterday. Our friend was hiking down through the tunnels with some other guys scoping out a place to shoot some photos or something. The ice above them began to fall. Two of the guys got buried chest deep and one of them was smothered. They tried to get him out but it was impossible to dig through. My housemate relaying the story to me didn't know who it was that got killed so I jumped online to see if there was more to the story. 

My heart stopped when the google results came up. The guy who died turned out to be Collin Backowski. I couldn't believe it (and still can't.) Collin had been one of the nicest guys to me at camp this summer and we had hung out a number of times. Just a couple nights ago he had walked me home from the bar. How could I have even imagined that would be the last time I would ever see him?

I'm still in shock. His death doesn't even seem real. How could he be taken so unexpectedly? So quickly? They say our sport is dangerous, but you wouldn't expect someone out just scouting a spot to be taken by Mother Nature like that. 

More than anything I wish I could have told him how much he meant to me this summer. I wish I could have hugged him one last time. Seen his smile one last time. 

I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with this. I can't change what happened. All I can change is how I'll treat the future. From now on I need to appreciate every moment I have with the people I care about- and let those people know how much I care. Any moment can be anyone's last. 

And none of it ever seems very fair. 

Summer o' Shred

Funny how quickly time goes by. I had planned on writing throughout the summer, but now I find myself at it's tail end without a single post.

It's been a pretty good adventure, and I don't really know where to start. Maybe I'll just jump around the highlights?

This night takes the cake for the best of the summer.

I spent the first six weeks of the summer living in my car. It wasn't too bad, and it was nice having my home go wherever I went. I spent most of my time off the hill just hanging out in town and being social, which was definitely a positive. I also went out almost every night during that time period so I could spend as much time not in my car as possible. My party-animal ways changed once I got a house. My amateur-hour mistake was not bringing a pillow. Sleeping on something hard and not having neck support for that long really messed with my back and neck.

While other people were soaking up the sun and sand, I was hanging out on top of the clouds.

I rode every single day in June, which might be a personal best. I don't know if I've ever done every single day of a month before. I maxed out at 32 days before taking a break to go celebrate 4th of July in Bend. For the beginning of the summer I lapped public park all day. Then I started riding Mt. Hood Summer Ski Camp. When High Cascade sessions started I jumped on the dig-to-ride program and rode there for the rest of the summer (I'll discuss my digging to ride experience in the next post). Annnd every once in a while I jumped over to Windells and played there.

Beer. Flag. Roof-top. 'Murica. 

4th of July in Bend. Wow. First excursion out of Government Camp for the summer. We started off by floating the river, and then hung out in the park with all the "freedom-riders." After that we went to a party at a kid who works at Windells' house. It was crazy. At one point probably around 100 people were posted up on his roof to watch the fireworks show. It seemed like everyone from Hood relocated to Bend for those couple days. I'd say a good majority of the High Cascade and Windells work force joined together for the party.

Me and Mom outside Bellagio. I stole her hat. Sorry.

For one of the in-betweens I dipped out to Vegas for two nights. I blew it when I partied at the Ark the night before my flight and missed my 6am departure. I was supposed to leave for the airport at 4am so I tried to stay awake until then, but crashed around 3. I had to spend an extra $250 for another ticket, but it was worth it to see my mom. I met up with my mom at the Vegas airport and then we went out to the strip. We had a pretty good time seeing Cirque du Soleil, eating awesome food, and checking out all the themed hotels. It was nice to get completely away from snowboarding and the same old crowd for a little bit.

You wouldn't believe how many people squeezed into the van.

Speaking of Ark parties, yeah that happened. I mean an Ark party is basically just standing outside the buildings drinking, but it's nice to be around a different crowd for a bit. Seeing old friends, and making new ones. The night/morning I missed my flight was probably the sweetest Ark party I went to this summer. We canoed out to an island behind the Ark, made a giant bonfire, and then raged inside a van. Yeah, Michael Wick has the coolest rape-van ever. Carpet on the walls and ceiling, strobe/colored lights, intense sound system. Add 15 people into the mix and you have an out of control van rager.

The Drink Water Rat Race went down at Hood mid-July. It was 90% invite, so I didn't think I'd win, but I figured I'd give it a shot and have fun since the $35 entry fee went to a really good cause. It ended up being a really fun day, and I surpassed what I thought I was capable of. I'm glad I entered. Afterwards was a BBQ at Clear Lake where lots of food was consumed, and the awards were given. I ended up not doing so badly- I placed 6th behind some pro chicks, so I'm pretty satisfied with that. Leanne Pelosi's pro model Dakine gloves were one of the first pairs of gloves I owned, so I'm not bummed about her having a faster time than me at all.

I pipe jocked out for most of the summer. I spent all but 2 of my High Cascade days just riding the super pipe all day. I spent the first couple of sessions just getting as comfortable as I could with airing. Then after talking with one of the Canadian coaches, and former Olympian, Crispin Lipscomb, I decided to commit to "training." I worked with him and a girl he coaches, Katie, for the last eight days and had crazy progression. I got so much more comfortable moving in the pipe, tried back 5s for the first time (and locked them in- my new best and favorite trick), worked on getting my front 5s consistent again, and started trying cab 5s (land them every time, but they aren't very pretty or clean just yet.) He also helped me sort through the madness which I first alluded to in this post. I still can't say exactly what it's about, but hopefully I can reveal that soon. I'm really excited about whats going on with that whole situation and I can't wait until things are confirmed and I can officially announce what I'm up to.

Annnd now we're caught up to today- last day on hill for High Cascade. There's one more session but I'm cutting my summer early to head back home and see my physical therapist/doctor. I need to get some things checked out before I possibly travel to New Zealand for the World Cup/Winter Games. I'm really happy with this summer. Even though I still couldn't get a job at camp, I was basically part of it. I was on hill for every day of every session, and helped with some of the off-hill activities at camp. I'm stoked that I was fortunate enough to be able to snowboard all summer, but I'm also stoked to get back home and hang up the ol' shred stick for a week and then two months.

Hope everyone out there in the webosphere had an awesome summer. Take it easy this fall. Get pumped for the winter. :D

Till the Bowling balls,
CKOS.

Hello Oregon!

Well I'm finally here. It's been two Long years since I've been to Govy but I'm finally back.

Yesterday my mom and I left our house at 4:20ish AM. The sun was just kind of coming up as we headed through SF. 

We went straight with no stops except for gas until we got to Portland. One we got into the city the first destination was VooDoo Donuts. 

 Then we walked over to the river where the city fair was going on. Back home we have petting zoos with llamas. In Portland they bring out the tigers, lynxes, and panthers. It was awesome. For $20 you could spend 5 minutes playing with the baby tiger. Our meter was about to expire though so I missed out on what might have been the coolest experience of my life.

I stayed at a hotel with my mom by the airport for the night. She took off in the morning and I headed to the library to print off a new cover letter and resume set for Windells and High Cascade. Then I picked up $110 of dried fruits, nuts, crackers, and ramen to hopefully keep me from starving for the next month or so. I stopped by Windells to pass off my paperwork and let them know I was in town and could come in on short notice to work. Finally I made it to Government Camp, where my first task was to drop off my stuff at HCSC and let them know I could fill any opening as well. After doing that I realized I had the whole day free and it was only 3pm so I decided to go wander in the woods. I made it pretty far down a hiking trail before I hit snow and had to turn back. 

checking out some nature

Walking back through town, I ran into my friend from my first Hood summer, James Fleege. I jumped into his car and headed out to Trillium with him and his cousin Zack. 

  

We hung out there for a while and then went over to the air strip for a skate session. I sat out because my ankle is still swollen and tender from rolling it on Memorial Day at Action. A small crew assembled and some sketchy tricks went down. We finally dipped out a little after 9.

I think at this point I'm going to go to bed. The summer pass for Timberline starts tomorrow so I'll be riding in the morning. Might as well rest up. I'm so stoked to get back on my board!! This is going to be an awesome summer.

5 days of October shreddage

By some fortunate act of God, a storm rolled by last week and dropped a beautiful two feet of snow. I could talk about how awesome is was to be riding with friends again, or the cool stuff we had set up, but I'm just going to leave a couple videos for you to watch instead.

First is bHappy's edit. Always a fun time with them. Nicest guys you'll meet and they're so stoked on riding and having fun that you can't but to have fun either, even if you've spent four whole days trying to get the same trick and eating shit every time. I've got a fun little cameo in the beginning.

bHappy at Rose from bHappyFilms on Vimeo.



This next edit was made by Peter Rispoli, and features a bunch of kids from Sierra Nevada College. There are a ton of talented Freshmen this year. I have one shot in this one too. And it's me eating shit. Hopefully one-shot-of-Jenise-getting-wrecked in every edit doesn't become a trend this season. I do land some of my tricks too...


Mt Rose. October 2011 from Peter Rispoli on Vimeo.

Summer's end

Well summer is almost over and my time in Oregon has ended. The summer on Hood didn't turn out to be quite what I expected but overall I had a good experience. I expected to learn a ton of tricks and get loads of pictures and video to back it up with. That didn't really happen. But what did happen was good in a different way. I learned some things, met a ton of people, and had an extraordinary summer. Here's what happened since my last post.

My friends from Canada, Jodie and Deja came and stayed out my house for a week. We rode and filmed a little bit. It was cool seeing them again for the first time since Windells two years ago.

I had one of the most fun nights of my life. Between sessions the Windells crew gets together for summer fun and I tagged along to this camping trip in the middle of the forrest. There were like seven campfires scattered around this river, and everyone was just so stoked to hang out and have a good time.

I finally sent Nathan's prize pack out to him. Proof to the trusnow forum that I'm not a scammer. haha. Thanks for trusting me enough to give me your address Nate.

I had more shenanigan filled nights at the Burton House. I'm so glad I spent as much time there as I did because I would have turned into a wreck if I was constantly surrounded by the Govydrunks. Instead of becoming a Shoeless Bonfire-of-Broken-Dreams-er (you wouldn't believe how depressing bonfires with this crowd are), I got to be a part of Burton Summer Camp, which was a lot more constructive to my mental state. Thank you so much for letting me hang.

The Burton summer sales meeting came by and I met a ton of people from around the country who work for Burton. Everyone was really awesome and it made me so stoked on Burton. And I ended up with a couple of really good friends. Now I have a reason to travel to other places this winter!

I finally did something other than snowboarding/hanging out in Govy, and went to the Hood River County fair with Riley, Lemi, Blake, and Kendel. Riley and I were just drunk messes that night, but we had a fantastic time. Fast rides, excessive amounts of food, and too many Mexicans definitely made this one of the best nights of my summer.

The one day I took off from riding to do something else this summer was awesome. I would have liked to be snowboarding, but the day of rest at Punch Bowls Falls wasn't a bad substitute. I had never been cliff jumping before so this was a new experience. It scared the crap out of me. But in a good way. I opted out of the 60' and 80' cliffs because the water was too cold for me to handle, but the one I jumped a couple times was 45' which I guess is a good size for a first timer.

I started doing boot testing for Burton which is really cool because I get to rock pairs of 2013 boots and give the company feedback. The two boots I tested this summer were the Supremes and Sapphires, which ended up being really awesome boots. I'd be stoked to rock either of them for a whole season.

I went to the Ark for the first time. The Ark is the employee housing for Windells and it's a very interesting place. I hung out in the skate house mainly with a friend of mine who's a skate coach there. I melted my brains out and vowed that I would have to hang out at the Ark more.

My Rome finally crapped out. I kept getting caught on the boxes and when I finally took my board off to see what was up I was more than bummed.

The thing that I was stoked on the most this summer is that Kyre Malkemes from Roxy replied to an email I had sent her in the beginning of the summer. I had wanted to know if there was any way I could get on Roxy's rider list for High Cascade or Windells. A day before High Cascade's last session she got back to me letting me know I'd be on the rider list for the session. I was so so incredibly thankful that that happened. I had a great week at High Cascade. I started spinning jumps again (something I hadn't really done since my concussion) and just had a fun time all around. I was so exhausted at the end of everyday! But I'd still find energy to skate the High Cascade skatepark or jump on their trampolines anyways. That session ended up being the photo session as well so I'm hoping to get some photos of me in the next week that I can send to Roxy.

I drove home after the High Cascade session ended. I didn't want to wait for public park to be moved and I got 65 days of riding in so I was ready to be in the city again. I did the whole 11.5 hour drive in one day and made it home for dinner.

My mom and I went to Santa Cruz together yesterday. It was awesome to spend a day with her, go on rides, eat too much food, and play in the ocean. I love love love the beach. I became friends with younger brother of one of the skate coaches at Windells, and since he lives in Santa Cruz I hit him up to hang out. It was awesome to see Alex and then we had the best 30 minutes ever taking the sky tram thing and talking shit about the people below us. Ha.

That's about it for my summer adventures. Today I'm packing my stuff again and then moving to Tahoe tomorrow. I'll try to post more frequently so I don't have to do this horrible long posts anymore. Hope your summer was as crazy and fun as mine!

Hood Update

Living the Govy life is still good fun.

Since the last post I've been working at the Ram's Head and I've also moved into a real place. Once I told my parents how excited I was about living in an abandoned cabin they freaked out. Apparently abandoned cabins are good places to get "killed by drug dealers". They insisted I live somewhere safe and they'd pay rent if it meant I wouldn't get killed by drug dealers, so I moved into the Scummits, I mean Summits. The day I moved out Dakota filmed this video for Yobeat that definitely blew the cabin up. Two days after the video came out I told someone in conversation that I had been living in an abandoned cabin and they replied "Oh the one in the video online?". It's not good to have a ton of people know there's a cabin full of unprotected shit out there in the open so I'm glad I got my stuff out. The Summits are pretty cool. I'm stoked to have electricity, running water, a kitchen, and the ability to use the bathroom whenever I want. I miss how in my car I could live wherever I wanted but it's okay.

Blah blahblah. Here are some pictures of my adventures so far so I don't have to write.

Dakota left a message on the fridge of the BDH. Apparently we didn't party hard enough.

I learned the game of stump. It's exciting and dangerous. I only got hit in the head with the hammer once though.

Eric "Minishred" Sundblad. He's a cool kid who works in the demo center. He's pretty much the guru of Burton knowledge.

I went to camp at Trillium lake with Kory and some other kids. We tried to catch fish for dinner but didn't get a single one.

Camp fire at Trillium.

 Yellow Curry from Thai Home. I've been to that place so many times. I love it.

 I brought home a box of puzzles. Here's Pat with one we finished.

 Luke Haddock made a new friend in the lodge before riding the other day.

 Random kid sending it at my house. No idea who it is.

 Dave Tafur of CAKED. lighting of some pre-4th of July fireworks.

Today: A beautiful white day on Mt. Hood.

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?