Familia 2 and stuff.

Another fun weekend. I'm going three for three now with these Reno trips.

My mom came up for Sierra Nevada College's parent's weekend and was planning on staying at my place until Sunday. On Saturday there was a whole slew of activities at the Freight House District in Reno and I convinced my mom that she had to come with me to see what snowboard life is like.

The set up. Photo By Boreal

The first event at the Freight House was Boreal's rail jam. I thought I'd be able to do a bunch of tricks and get some gear but I was wrong. They didn't have enough snow so they had to take the box out. This left the flat bar rail. It would have been fun and I could have still done some cool tricks but I just couldn't get enough speed. Even a lot of the guys were having trouble making it to the end. The funnest thing I did was stall on the rail, rock back down the lip, ride up the drop in ramp and 180. I didn't make it across the whole rail once. Not like it mattered because they didn't have any girl prizes anyways. It was fun to ride with my friends though. And how can I complain about riding a rail in Reno on October 15?

After the jam were the festivities inside the Freight House. The guy at the door knew me and let me and my mom in without the $15 tickets, making this the first premier I haven't had to pay for this year (I have no idea who the guy was and even after a ten minute conversation with him I was still bluffing my way through our relationship). The only thing going on inside was the autograph signing. I don't usually participate in those but since there wasn't anything else to do I got some magazines signed. I talked with Sean for a couple minutes and he was like "I need a picture with Dylan Thompson and a bunch of girls" so we got a group of girls together, took a couple pictures and then we went to the bar and Sean bought each of us a couple of drinks. I had a good time talking to him. He was super nice and I was stoked to meet someone new. I love meeting people.

Screen on the field. (Photo: Josh Parker)

The first movie started and I honestly can't even tell you what it was. I went to the back of the Freight House and sat in the seats facing the screen above the baseball field with Sean. We ended up talking most of the movie and I was under the influence enough that I could watch the movie screen and not be able to process a single shot. Finally I was like "Oh shoot my mom is sitting alone. I'm gonna tell her to come back here." I brought her back to where I had been sitting and watched the rest of the movie with her.

Then came the product toss. Having two people doubles your chances of catching stuff so that was awesome. Ended up with a couple of things. None of which I would ever wear, but my giveaway collection is growing so I should be able to have another one of those soon.

Finally Familia started. I'm not writing a review of the movie here, so all I'm going to say is that is was good and you should watch it. I tried narrating what all the tricks were to my mom. Before I brought her to the event I was like "I want you to see what snowboarding is about" and she replied "I know about snowboarding. I watch the Olympics." I attempted to help her understand the video the best I could so that she could see that people snowboard outside the Olympics.

After Familia 2 was the raffle, for which I had no tickets. Then was the win a date with Brewer auction. I was ready to put $10 down for a date, but some older blonde lady put down $75 and I was beat. I didn't think anyone would pay more than $15 for that guy but I was wrong. Ha

"White boy wasted" (Photo: Josh Parker)

Then the music started and my mom went back to our hotel room at the Circus Circus to sleep. She had no desire to see Kreayshawn. Shame. The show started with a bunch of random DJ rap group things. I was maybe a bit tipsy and didn't know who was playing at all. I was on stage for most of the sets until too many people ended up on stage and security kicked everyone off. I stayed up there and finally security was like "You need to get off." And I was like "No way. I'm PR for Technine. This is my job to be up here. Do you know who I am? I've been here all night. Do you know who I am??" It didn't work. I had to get off the stage. Haha. I thought it was funny to try though. Then before Kreayshawn started I went back onto the stage and was standing by the back with Jay, Eric, and Brewer. Security once again came to kick us off, Jay did some sweet talking, something about being a photographer, and the rest of us just stayed up there.

The DJ was playing tracks. Everyone was just moving around pretending to do stuff.

Kreayshawn started and while I don't know any of her songs besides Gucci Gucci (come on, can anyone name ONE other Kreayshawn song? Didn't think so), her music was actually pretty catchy. She started with no shoes on and threw her socks into the crowd while she was singing and did the rest of her set barefoot. Security came up a few more times to kick randoms off the stage, and while I could probably win the random-person-of-the-year award, I managed to not get kicked off by just staying at the back of the stage. By the end of the show Eric, Brewer, Johnny, and I were all dancing towards the front of the stage, just having a good time. When they finished performing I hugged Kreayshawn's sister, high fived Kreayshawn, and then they were gone. And so were we. (Later friends of mine questioned how I was on stage the whole time. I have no idea how it worked out, really, but cool things seem to happen to me when I'm drunk.)

Paul in the zone. (Photo: Alana Vaccaro)

First stop after the show was Lincoln Lounge. Which was the best place ever. They played a bunch of classic rock songs and I danced my little heart out. Who did I dance with?? I'm pretty sure I had a few different dance partners, but I don't remember all too well. I know Skeetiter showed up and I danced with him. And then Keeks came out of nowhere too. Oh and Seanderson, Sierra, Marina, Alana, Woj, and Stickupthebutt were with us as well (Looking at photos I realize there were a lot more people than I remembered, so I'm not even going to try listing everyone). At some point a food truck showed up outside the Lounge and I thought it was the delicious Taco Truck so I grabbed Sierra and we ran out to get tacos. Turns out it was the Italian Truck so she bought us some chicken parm, spaghetti, and lasagna. We went back inside to eat and I couldn't finish my stuff so Johnny, Woj, Skeetiter and some others were able to feast as well.

America. Fuck Yeah. (Photo: Alana Vaccaro)

Next stop was Wurk. It took us pretty long to get there. I think we went the wrong way. At some point we ran into a singing cowboy who wasn't very good. We hung out with him for a little while. Finally our ragtag pack made it to Wurk. We found out it was a $10 cover and not many of us wanted to pay that. So there we are, standing in front of the building, figuring out how we're going to sneak in. A couple kids tried to just rush the side door but security was on top of it and checked them for stamps. I had two stamps on top of my hands from the earlier events so I thought about trying to pretend one of those was the Wurk stamp until I realized the security guards were checking underneath the wrists for a stamp. I remembered I had eyeliner in my purse so I did a quick sketch of a stamp on my wrist and went to the side door. I walked in with Johnny who had just walked out so it would look like I had been with him. They still checked my wrist, but somehow my scheme worked and I made it in.

Some good Old Fashioned Reno Planking. (Photo: Alana Vaccaro)

Wurk was Wurk. Not much to say about it. More drinks, I think Brewer bought me a couple, I don't remember really. Lots of standing around talking. Kinda dancing. Trancing out in front of the speakers. All that. Finally around 4:30 I called it. I wanted to stay and I was down to party until the sun's out, which has been my Reno tradition I've kept up the past couple of weekends, but I had a hotel room and plans for the morning. The first time I tried leaving Jay grabbed me and was like "No. You aren't leaving." And brought me back in. I stayed for a couple more minutes, said my goodbyes to everyone, and then dipped out before anybody could stop me.

Finding Circus Circus was no problem, but finding the Hotel Tower was. I wandered around the casino for a while before I could find the actual hotel. I finally made it to my room and got in bed. Jay noticed I was gone at this point and started doing the "Where did you go? Come back!" drunk texts, which I found amusing. But it wasn't happening.

I woke back up at 8 and sent it back to Incline with my mom. I had to do some work at Diamond Peak at ten, and was thankfully done with it in like an hour. I came back home just as my mom was leaving. I hugged her good-bye and then passed the fuck out. I slept for the entire day, in my typical day-after-Reno tradition. I had such a good time last night and it was awesome to have my mom there with me for it. I think she enjoyed it too.

Can't wait for Sacramento sending next weekend!
Thanks for taking so many photos Josh & Alana! Many lost memories have been pieced together through these gems.

Rome The Shred Remains premiere

Friday night was the The Shred Remains premier at the Freight House in Reno and let me tell you- it was probably the most epic night of partying I ever had. Here's the story. (Please excuse my constant shifting from past to present tense. My brain is only half working today)

I'm hanging out around campus on Friday trying to find a ride to Reno. Two weekends ago I drove to SF, and last weekend I drove to Bear. I was not down with driving more. Just completely over it. 6pm rolls around and it's looking like everyone has a full car. My issue was that I wanted to drink and have fun, but Mt. Rose highway is so gnarly that I wouldn't drive it after having anything to drink. If I only have to drive a mile through Bear, or Incline, or Govy after drinking I feel ok about it. But Mt. Rose is another story. I finally decide "Fuck it. I'm driving myself and just staying there for the night." I throw my sleeping bag in my car, get ready and head out.

I make it to Reno around 7:30 and run into people I know in like 3 seconds upon arrival. First it was little Lewis from my team at Northstar, and then I run into Ryan who I met riding Mt. Rose Summit last year and have been friends with since. I paid $3 for a PBR (ridiculous), and then wandered about chatting with my various friends there. My friend Jay has a free-drink wristband so of course I'm like "Nice wristband." which he responds with "Play your cards right and I might get you a drink later." So I immediately start laying the lines out real thick: "You look really nice tonight." "That jacket gives you a real nice shape. All rectanguler and manly." "Your eyes are sparkling". ch-ching. More beer for me.

It must have been 8 at this point, but the movie was like an hour late. Which I didn't mind because I was enjoying the company. I had ran into Marie briefly earlier and was super stoked to see her. She's an amazingly nice girl and always fun to be around. I want to find her again to spend more time catching up but I don't see her so I go to LNP who is unsurprisingly easy to find and ask him if he's seen her. One of my friends (I forget who) was standing near him and introduces me to LNP and a couple other Rome guys standing around. I had met Laurent last spring skating Truckee and then riding Boreal the next day with Marie and Victor and I guess he remembered because he goes "Ohhh yeah! I remember you!" and the game of catch-up begins with him. I end up talking to him until the movie starts, primarily about the nasty stuff that goes on inside the Rome van on the road. Laurent is such a nice guy and super easy to talk to. A+ quality human.

The movie finally starts, maybe at 9 or later, I wasn't really checking my phone for the time. It's a great movie and got me super stoked to ride. I liked the music all the way through. It was pretty balanced between jibbing, and powder which surprised me. I'm not into the big mountain stuff (pretty much because I can't do it) but they definitely had some cool shots. Here's the teaser if you haven't seen it yet.

Keeping it real. (Photo: Alana Vaccaro)

After the movie there was the product toss (Marie passed me a t-shirt, and I rock-paper-scissored for a banner) and then a party right there at the Freight House. If you haven't been there, it's a really cool venue. There's the indoor bar/restaurant, the outdoor bar, and then a dance club with bar. There was a random rock band playing outside on the stage where the movie was, so I danced with my friends, the group of us pretty much owning the dance floor. We eventually moved over to the club area and go crazy. I was throwing out dance moves like it was going out of style. I dipped out to the bar for a bit to take a break and end up exchanging some words with Lucas. We got to talking and totally clicked with each other. You know someone's ill when you can drop a Harry Potter reference and they get it right away. He treated me to a whiskey-coke and we spent a good amount of time at the bar just talking about everything. Together we went back to the club to dance.

Some Shout action at the Lincoln Lounge (Photo: Alana Vaccaro)

At this point I decide to really send it and have fun. And how do I go about doing that? Spitting my drink in the air of course. I did this a couple time but some girls started getting mad so I dipped off the floor and made my move to a chick with a cake in the lounge area. It's her birthday and she offers me a slice. I take a slice, duh, and wish her happy birthday. I start eating some and when I'm over it I start tossing pieces of cake onto the dance floor. I was in destructo mode, what can I say? Then I start climbing the furniture and dancing on that.  Lucas and I eventually dip out with a couple other people to this place down the street called the Lincoln Lounge. We dance there for a while and eat some awesome tacos from a food truck parked on the road. The vibe at LL was sick because they played a ton of classics.

After a while our whole mob moves down the street to Würk. As soon as we go in some drunk guy projectile vomits and I'm in the cross fire. That was shitty. I went to the bathroom to wash up and met RenoGirl. RenoGirl and I go back out to the club together, and she gives me the boost I need to walk around the club in just a bra and jeans. I had to ditch my shirt behind a couch because it was wet and gross. The plus side is that immediately upon getting to the bar some guy bought RenoGirl and I drinks. Jay sees me, takes pity on me and I end up wearing his jacket for the rest of the night. Besides the puke incident Wurk is fun, and a ton of people I know are there. I stay with Lucas almost the entire time, with RenoGirl by my side like a faithful companion.

I had my spy-cam out the whole time of course.

As we're leaving we get cornered by this crazy Mexican kid. It's me, Thomas, Jay, and Lucas standing against a wall around the corner of the club with this kid venting "I'm about to fucking lose it! I'm going to fucking lose it! My mind is going fucking crazy. I need someone to talk to before I go away. I will seriously beat the shit out of anybody right now." At one point I whisper something to Lucas that makes me giggle, and CrazyMexican, who had bat powers or something heard and started flipping out thinking I was laughing at him. I shifted to the side slightly and he freaked out about me trying to leave, saying something about smashing my face into the floor. This kid had just been in juvie for nine years and now he was totally losing it. Finally Jay bolted back to the club, and CrazyMexican chased after him. Jay manages to make it out without CrazyMexican and we dash across the street to the casinos. Crazy Mexican is on our trail though and we're dipping between rows of slot machines with the gangster kid that looks like he wants to kill us close behind. After some cat-and-mouse we manage to lose him and continue on with our partying (which included me losing money playing blackjack- very disappointing.)

When the sun comes back up I finally call it a night and go back to the Freight House parking lot to sleep in my car. I dozed for two hours but my car turned into an oven so I hit the road. I had planned on "sight-seeing" in Reno before going back to Incline but I was totally beat. And I had no money because I lost my last $5 on the black jack table. I made it to the bottom of Mt. Rose and pulled off into a neighborhood to nap for another hour before trekking over the mountain. I made it back to my place around 11am and have been laying in bed ever since. I don't see myself getting out of bed until tomorrow morning when I have to go paintballing for snowboard team bonding day. I'm exhausted, I can barely move, and I'm completely 100% stoked on how the night turned out. Hopefully I'll be sending it as hard for Capita's premier next week.

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!

Winner of Giveaway/ Goodbye City

The winner of the first City Kid on Shred giveaway is Nate from Blue Mountain, Pa. Yay. I wish I could have given stuff to everybody. In my next contest I will, but you'll just have to wait and see what I have up my sleeves.

Anyways. This blog is really about my life- something I find myself drifting away from but I'm trying to get back to. Here's whats happening. I went out to San Francisco tonight with Rebecca so I could dance and be ridiculous on my last night in town. We went to the spot where my friend Martin was DJing since he had put me on the guest list. Well, we never went into the club because the guest list line was the same as the regular line and I was too ehhhh to wait. I thought we could find something else going on in the city but because Rebecca has no identification to back up any claims of being 21+, there really wasn't much to do. We found one club where the security let us skip the line, but then they told us is was "Asian night" and was $25 to get in. No thanks. I picked up my pay check at Sajj, ate some pita and hummus with Reebs, and then brought her back home. I almost headed out to Redwood City to see some other friends before I left but just went home instead.

I almost finished packing and now I'm typing this. I'll be leaving for Oregon in four hours so I'm going to pass out and then spring back up to finish packing. I'm really excited for tomorrow, I just wish it hadn't come so quickly. I'm not prepared to move. And as much as I'm stoked for a summer of shredding, the uncertainty of everything has me feeling a little anxious. Don't know where I'm living. Don't know people there (except a few old contacts). Don't know where I'm working. Don't know if I can manage to pull something like I did at Northstar this season and end up with amazing coaching. Things will work out, I'm sure, but I've got some last night butterflies catching up with me...

I think the only thing that will help is if I get as much sleep as I can. So I'm out. Good night, happy dream-shredding, I'll post again when I survive my first week in Oregon.

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?

Queen of the Park weekend part 2.

So here I am sitting in the Kirkwood Village, actually not too worried about what's going to happen to me. Things usually ending up working out with time so I wasn't going to stress. Sure enough a liftie, Jared came up to me and said "Hey what's up." I told him that I wasn't going to be able to stay where I thought I was because I couldn't get a hold of my Uncle to use his cabin because he was fighting fire. Jared was such a chill dude and was all "You can come over to my place. I live right down the road and you're more than welcome to stay on my couch for the weekend." Sweet. I knew things would work out.

I headed over to Jared's place and met his room mates (who's names I forget :/). I hung out there for a while and then a couple of his girl friends, Mary and Michelle came by. It was pretty fun. I was at this mountain that I didn't know anyone at and all of a sudden it was like I was hanging out with my crew. We had some drinks, got to know each other and then I got a call from my uncle. Turns out that one of my uncle's buddies had gone up to the cabin and I could stay there for the weekend. I was on the move again, this time to my uncle's cabin.

So I go off to the cabin and blah blah blah hang out with his friend Brian, and then eventually go to bed. The next morning I got up and got ready for my contest. Before I left the house I decided to put my gloves on top of the fire-stove thingy to warm them up.

Well. Turns out that that was a bad idea. I turned my head for 40 seconds and when I looked back my gloves were smoking so I pulled them off of the fire and threw them on the snow outside. Apparently (surprise to me) gloves will melt when you place them on hot metal. Cool. Good start to the morning. I like my gloves extra crispy. I spent some time picking the hardened chunks off my gloves and cleaning the melted plastic off the fireplace and then headed back to the village.

Once in the village I found the demo shop and approached Adam. Before I even said anything he went "Hey, let me go get that ticket for you." Success. So Adam slipped off and then came back with a "friend of Adam Palmer" ticket and I was off on my merry way. My first stop was the main park at Kirkwood so I could warm up for the jam. I got there and it was closed off already because it was the park that was going to be used for the contest. I was able to get a sneak peak at the set up though and I was relieved when I saw that the four features involved were ones that I felt like I could hit. There was a flat box, a battle ship box, an up drop to down box, and a jump. I was expecting rails and a bigger variety of features but these mellow boxes and jumps were fine by me.

I wandered around the mountain in search of Kirkwood's other terrain parks so I could try to learn some tricks other than nose-slides before the competition and after a while found the progression park. Oh jee. This park was itty bitty with itty bitty jumps and an itty bitty pipe. The boxes were ride on and four inches above the snow on either side at most so they didn't help much. The pipe was about six feet tall, with only like one foot of tranny. I dropped in, almost died, and then rode straight down and out of it, over that pipe in a single hit. How about those itty bitty jumps? I hit the first one (which looked to be about three feet) with no speed and didn't pop and knuckled. Really? Knuckling a three footer?? So I charged into the next one, popped real hard and flewwwwwwwww past the landing. Sorry knees. Yeah. I was over the progression park real quick.

At this point I figured I might as well just go to the village, sign up for the contest, and then hang out until the practice on the actual course started. I went to the sign up tent, gave the nice girls running sign ups my $$ and then got a tee shirt, stickers, and the girl powder bandana I had to wear during the contest. I met Zippy, this super cool chick who runs the South Lake USASA series and together we applied a sweet Girl Powder die cut to my board. And then I ate a delicious sandwich. It was really good. I really enjoyed it. While I was enjoying it a girl approached me and went "Hey are you the girl that was asking for a ride on facebook? Did you actually hitch hike here?!" I said yes and we became friends. Her name was Liz and she was there with her friend Jenna. Liz, Jenna and I ended up going out riding together until practice started.

When practice began and girls started showing their stuff I got real nervous. Everyone was doing all sorts of spins everywhere and I was never one to spin onto or off or on top of a feature. But once the contest started I just kind of went for it and I guess I did some cool tricks because I ended up coming in second. I really didn't expect second (I thought for sure Liz had second and I was battling with Jenna for third) so I was totally stoked when then called my name. I'm really glad I just kind of hucked myself because I realized that there were a lot of things I could do that I didn't think I could. One of my favorite things I did in the contest was on the up-step down down box. I mobbed into the up, popped and then flew like twenty feet to a fairly flat landing, gapping the down. That was really fun. I wanted to spin over it but got too nervous to try. I did my last run one footed and I think that might be what got me the second.

After the contest I went riding with Julianne and a few of the other girls for the rest of the day.

That night I just hung out with Brian and had dinner at the cabin. I passed out pretty early and then the next morning I went out riding with him. The weather was pretty gnarly on Sunday but Jared hooked me up with a "Friend of Jared Heizer" ticket so I went out to ride anyways. I was riding with Brian, who was into the all mountain go big and charge it stuff. I was just like "eh" and after about two hours I took a dry-off-and-play-angry-birds-break in the lodge. Then I went back out to the park, set my camera up in a tree and hiked the park for a bit to try and get a shot or two. My Uncle Greg showed up shortly after and commented on his surprise that I was actually good at snowboarding and could do tricks.

That night Greg, his girl friend Laurie and I went out to sushi and they had a really cool fish tank with really cool fish in it. Then we headed up to Tahoe City. They dropped me off at Lakeside and I met this guy Matt from couchsurfing. We hung out with some other couchsurfers and played pool.  After getting some late night grub Matt drove me back to my apartment. Pretty mellow night, except for the part when Matt's car slid off the road and we almost get wrecked. No big.

But that's it. That was my weekend in like a million words. If you got this far in the reading, WOW. I can't believe it. Post a comment here with a $ in it and your email address and I'll send you something cool. Jeeze I write too much.

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.

Canadian friends!

So, I mentioned my friend Jodie in an entry once before (here) and now I'm gonna do it again. She's living up there in America's baseball cap with my other bud Deja and they've put a number of pretty sick videos together of their numerous adventures. Think of them as Canadians on Shred. Jodie and Deja are both ultra raw and I hope I can film with them at some point... and not have the back of my head humped by a redhead. Go search for them on youtube by typing in "Jodiesg".  If you like snowboarding and people with funny accents that say "American" like "UhMURicun" check their videos out.

College is coming!

I'm getting so stoked to go to Sierra Nevada. It's definitely the coolest school and this year is going to be awesome. So here's everything happening up until I move in.

Tonight: Skate in a competition at Skatechurch. It will either be raw or a disaster. My skating is hot and cold these days. I figure I'll collect some free stuff though. Which will help because all my clothes are already packed away. haha

Tomorrow: Fly to Massachusetts. I'll be there for an ice skating competition which I won't be skating in. I kind of wish I signed up for an event or two. It probably would have been my last competition with that for a while. I guess I'll hang around Boston and Salem causing trouble. Oh, I need to write about my fight with this mall cop at some point. Anyways, I'll bring my board and try to find some places to skate. My BFFL Alanna lives in New York so I'm going to try to meet up with her one day and destroy some shit. The only problem is that she lives in UPstate NY (basically Canada) so we'll still be four hours apart. But I'm four hours away from Tahoe and I still made it happen all winter. I think it'll work out. I haven't seen her since Windells last August and I LOVE her. She's going to Windells again for sesh 7 and I was supposed to go too but it's just way too much money. I have a tenative plan to drive up to Oregon during the sesh and chill at camp and tear up Tline. But IDK if it's happening because it'll be like a week before I leave for college and I'll probably have a lot to do still. 

Oh and sometime while I'm in Boston I need to finish all my work for Tahoe Community College. I'm taking two classes to get some credits out of the way. Digital Imaging is cool and isn't too much work because I know how to use photoshop already. Abnormal Psychology is killing me though. We have to write soooo much and my book never came so I have no idea of what I'm talking about. :X I'm going to try to finish the majority of my class stuff today because it'll suck to have to be on my lap top the whole time I'm in MA.

August 1: Fly home from MA. Pack my stuff for the move. I have soooo much stuff. I don't know how I'm going to get rid off it all. I've been accumulating items for 17 years and now I have to part with them all. And I have to make sure I dispose of anything I don't want my parents to find. That's the main part.

August 6: MAYBE drive to Oregon with my old girl scout troop. I really hope this happens but it's not looking too good.

August 13: Driving up to Tahoe and starting my Wilderness Orientation. I'm excited but they still haven't told me who my roomate is and I'm really curious. We need to plan out who's bringing what and it's getting close...

So thats it. Oh and if you're not a member of stillnotsponsored.com sign up and vote for my video so I can win a hoodie and stuff. It was just supposed to be 30 seconds so I used a few shots from Shredfest at Boreal. They said they don't want to see crazy tricks but just want to see kids having fun. That's pretty much what my video is. Drunken drug fueled fun. But I never said that.

Teaser time!

We've got a new preview from the ladies at Peepshow. I watched it. I liked it. It got me stoked on snowboarding. You should watch it too. I love watching other girls rip it up because it makes me think that I can be like that one day. One day it'll be me in those videos. But for now, I'm at home just lurking the peepshow website and watching their videos.

And now I present,
Let's Make Better Mistakes Tomorrow

Featuring Terra Michilot, Laura Hadar, Marie Hucal, Robin Van Gyn, Desiree Melancon, Esthera Preda, Colleen Quigley, Jess Kimura, June Bhongjan, Nicki Slechta, Laurie Gauvin and friends. Filmed by Pat Barraza, Colin D. Watt, June Bhongjan, and Matt Charland. Edited by Esthera Preda

MPORA Action Sports >>

Okay, I've been lagging again.

It's been almost a whole month two months since my last post. My appologies. I've been doing that dumb thing called high school. But in a week its over! Whoop! Anyways, I've got three things to cover in this post. ( I know, not much for a month without posts. I be slippin'.)

1. I told my buddy Johnny Tsunami that I'd post this for him so here it is

Nice little edit. Watch it. Support the Tsunami. Yadda dadda. 

2. I sent my deposit in to Sierra Nevada so I will be definitely going there. I'm also going to take 15 credits this summer at Lake Tahoe Community College so I can go in with transfer status and get extra scholarship moniez.

3. Eh. It's not that important. I'll post it later.

Niiiiight snowbabes.

My little secret: Sierra Summit.

Sierra Summit Sierra Summit Sierra Summit Sierra Summit Sierra Summit
Okay, don't laugh at me, Sierra Summit is my new favorite resort. I get major hate whenever I mention this little spot out of Fresno but it really deserves more credit. Most people I know automatically think less of it because it's not in Tahoe but really, who gives a shit. Tahoe is the bomb. We all know that. But the magic can be found in the places that we don't all know about. I went to Sierra Summit last Sunday with some doubts in my mind. I figured it'd be a little crappy but I didn't care because I was going to get to snowboard. My mind was blown when I got there. A few factors played into incredible day.

1. PERFECT BLUEBIRD CONDITIONS. Ah. It was awesome. I ditched two layers and was still pretty warm. The sky was bright and blue. There was a foot of fresh pow covering the mountain. It was also what the locals called "busy" but what any Tahoe kid would call empty. No lift lines or anything. No one getting in my line as I boarded (except one skier who guerrilla attacked my jump line). The runs were also very open. There weren't really any paths that we had to stick to. It was easy as pie to cross from one run to another whenever we felt like.

2. Sundays are $20 ticket days for 6th-12th graders. Cha-chinggg.

3. I went with my old friend Gina. This was my first time boarding with just another girl in years, besides camp. I'm always going up to the mountains with guys are by myself so this was a new experience. I've been friends with Gina since babyhood but we haven't hung out recently. It was cool getting back together with her. It was also cool because she is basically the same level as me. I'm a bit more advanced but that made it super cool. I didn't feel pressured to go faster than I wanted so I could take my time and just have fun. I was also able to teach Gina some tricks. I love teaching people. I get super stoked when I learn something new and when I teach someone else something new I get super stoked FOR them. Side note; I met this little kid who was just learning to board and I helped her with turns for a while. I had a ball. Anyways, Gina was super fun to board with and we were able to push each other. Good stuff.

4. This place is an intermediate boarder's paradise. Most of the runs are intermediate and the parks are too. Usually I have issues with parks at other resorts. The beginner parks are supppper beginner, with boxes that are like a max of 3 inches above the snow and jumps that are like four feet high. And then the next level parks are too advanced for a medium level rider to comfortably attempt anything. This is not the case with Sierra Summit. The parks were a perfect medium. I felt like I could safely attempt the rails and such but I was still challenged and forced to progress my riding. It was sick. Another cool thing was that almost all of the snowboarders/skiers on the mountain were lower levels so I felt like I was one of the better riders on the mountain. There was definitely no intimidation factor there to affect my confidence.

So yeah. I was pleasantly surprised by this place. I'm trying to convince my friends to go to Sierra Summit with me on Sundays now but it's hard work. People just don't believe that there's good boarding in that area....

Bluebird at Sierra photo cred: this guy

Chick Flicks

A snowstorm hit Portland and left me stranded in a car for over 7 hours. In this excessive amount of time I was able to view multiple snowboarding videos on Danny's iPod. Two that I hadn't seen were "Asthetica" and "That's it, That's All". I must say I was disappointed. I mean, it was good snowboarding but hellllloooo? Where were the chicks?!?! I mean, come on? Either girls need to step up their game or the guys need to take some notice. I prefer to think of the latter. So yeah, absolutely no girls in That's it, and Priscilla Levac repsresented the entire female shredder population for Asthetica. Let's get some more girlies up in this place.

I was talking about this with my homie Jodie Gordon who's out there with her shred stick in Canada and she suggested a few movies to me. The first was See What I See, Runway Film's 2008 video. I must say, those girls tear it up. I'm so glad I went out to Zumiez and bought it. I love watching girls shred. Seriously, it's cool watching guys but when its girls it just hits home, ya dig? The second video (series) she suggested to me was Peep Show. I've only watched the first video but this is pretty sick as well. If you want to watch some girls tear it up, get these videos.

See What I See trailer
Peep Show channel

Snurfer anyone?

So basically, my uncle has THE COOLEST collection of old boards. Have a look.

Click on them for a larger view. Some of those babies date back to the 60s. Included in his collection are Snufers, Sims, Wintersticks, and Burtons. A few of the Burtons are even signed by the man, the myth, the legend, Jake Burton, who used to sign every board he made in red pen after finishing them. How about a little snowboard history lesson? Stolen straight from http://www.sbhistory.de/;

"In 1965, Sherman Poppen, a chemical gases engineer in Muskegon, invented "The Snurfer" (his wife came up with the name) as a toy for his daughter. He made the Snurfer by bounding two skis together and putting a rope at the nose, so the rider could hold it and keep it more stable. Many of his daughters friends wanted one of those new Snurfers, and soon Poppen lincensed his new idea to a manufacturer. The Snurfer was sold over half a million times in 1966, but was only seen as a toy for kids, even though Poppen organized competitions with this new board.

Jake Burton took part in those competitions and became really interested in the snurfer. For him it was a cool thing to do, not having the oppurtunity to go surfing (his parents would not buy him a board). But Burton was really seriuos about skiing. After breaking his collarbone in a car accident, he was not able to take part in skiing competitions anymore.

While Burton was into riding the Snurfer, Dimitrije Milovich started making snowboards in 1969. After sliding down some hills on a cafeteria plate in College, he came up with the idea. His boards were based on surfboards combined with the way skiis work. In 1972 Milovich started a new company called "Winterstick". He produced several boards, and even got articles in the "Newsweek", "Playboy" and "Powder" which helped to make snowboarding better known. Even though Milovich left the snowboarding business in 1980, he is still recognized as a very important pioneer of the sport.

In 1977 Jake Burton, who now finished NYU, moved to Londonderry, Vermont to make some money by building different versions of the Snurfer, which he still remembered. His first boards were made of laminated hardwood. Burton shocked all the Snurfer riders by winning a Snurfer competition with his own board, which had the first binding. This first binding made a big difference fro handling the board, and thus made it easier for him to beat the other riders. After that, in 1979, Poppen stopped producing the Snurfer and went back to his old profession. He was out of the business, and never came back.

Parallel to Burton, Tom Sims produced his first snowboards in 1977. Being obsessed with skateboarding, Sims tried to go out in the snow and slide down the hill with a "snowboard" he built in a junior high shop-class. He just glued some carpet to the top of a piece of wood, and put an aluminum sheeting on the bottom. After he focused on producing skateboards in his garage, with the help of his friend and employee Chuck Barfoot, he started making snowboards in 1977. Barfoot, who actually made the snowboards, came up with the "Flying Yellow Banana". It was just a skateboard deck on top of a plastic shell with skegs.

Officially the first real ski technology for snowboards was introduced by Burton 1980 (it is said Winterstick already used a P-Tex base in 1974). The new prototype had a P-tex base and combined more of the ski technology into snowboards with that. In the same year Sims signed a skate- and snowboarding deal with a big mainstream company (Vision Sports), which helped him solving his financial problems. Barfoot was left out, and tried to built his own firm. He did not succeed against the big competitors Sims and Burton."

Powder day at Kirkwood!

Favorite shot of the day. Taken on my iphone in colorcross mode.

Woke up to this sight. Fresh powder right outside my uncle's cabin in Kirkwood.

Took the lift up to Kirkwood's famous Wall Ride with Tim. He told me it was basically a blue and the Experts Only warning signs were just a trick. See the big rock in the middle of the photo? It's directly on the right of the rock. Google "Kirkwood Wall" to see a better shot. It was so windy at the top that I had to crouch down and push myself with my hands to get onto the actual run.

Me at the top of the Wall. They had one of those signs at the bottom of the lift as well so no one got on it by mistake. The skull and cross bones may be a little extreme. I mean, its not a run for the groms, but still... Whatever. I wanted to back out so badly but I'm glad I didn't. It was one of the sickest runs I've ever done and a major adrenaline kicker.

My little cousin Luke at lunch. He's on skis for now but he'll start boarding when he's a bit older. I guess three year olds don't snowboard? He's hilarious. All he wanted to do was jump and go straight down the hill. No slowing this little guy down. With the middle name Burton, this kid will be unstoppable.

Tim Rice, my uncle's friend that I was shredding with, shot this after lunch. Just a nice view of the barely tracked powder.

My board stowed away at the end of the day. Tim's kids Vance and Shannon are on the other side of the truck. Vance rides and Shannons about ready to do the ski>snowboard transfer as well.

The mountain as we left.

First track to last chair, talk about a complete day. I had one bad fall jumping over a stump. My board got caught on the wood and I went flying. I ended up being a quarter of a rotation off from landing an accidental front flip. Other than that it was a perfect day. It snowed a bit during lunch so we basically had fresh powder all day. We also found a bunch of kickers hidden between trees and stuff. Kirkwood is theb no doubt.