Novembrrrr

Getting right to the point- This month has been pretty fucking awesome so far.

Nicola and I killing it in Truckee

1. Nicola Barry moved into my house. She's the best.  Nicola is so awesome to live with and its fun to not be alone in my house for the month. We make pretty awesome dinners and go snowboarding almost every day together. Which brings me to awesome point 2.

Classic "Girls on Chair lift" photo

Front 3. © 2011 Ben Birk, All Rights Reserved

2. Boreal is open 7 days a week now. I've gotten 6 days there so far (school is sooo in the way of me having fun). I've learned some cool tricks that I'm pretty stoked about and finally have a picture of myself, thanks to Mr. Ben Birk. I've also discovered I really like gaping boxes. And doing MJs. Another discovery is that I ride 8x better when I listen to Gucci Mane radio. It's funny riding Boreal right now because it makes me think back to this time last year when there were only like two features I'd hit in the whole park run. I'm so happy and grateful that I'm at the point now where I'm not scared of hitting any of the features they have. It makes snowboarding even more fun, if that is even possible.

3. I entered Rome's Magic Shred Contest and won myself a new board. My new Detail Rocker should be arriving any day now and I'm so stoked to get on that baby. You can see the contest here. I'm a little nervous about riding a rocker board but I'm down to try anything once I guess. It's coming just in time too because my Roxy is about to be no bueno. I got the edge drag going on and it's really harshing my mellow.

A little more snow please?

We're the three best friends that anyone could have.

4. Mammoth BWKO was the sickest fucking weekend ever. Ever. I headed down there after my thursday night soccer game (I scored my first goal!!!) and made it down to Mammoth just in time for some afterpartying at the Hyde Lounge. I met new people, saw some old friends, and drank a healthy amount of alcohol. I went with some guys to a party at someone's house and then crashed in some random hotel room. I made it out at 7am to go up to the mountain and get my ticket. I was told that the school was only going to buy me a one day ticket but it turned out to be a three day ticket, which made my weekend so much better. The weather on Friday was ridiculous, but I met some guys who taught me how to Miller Flip so the weather didn't even matter. I was so stoked to learn a new trick. Liz and Nicola came down with Armeen and two skier kids that night. We partied more at Lakanuki's and then went to Hyde Lounge where we were treated to even more free drinks. I met up with Jaeger at some point and gave him my wristband so he could get into Lakanuki's with us. We partied there until I don't know when, and then went up to the Bataleon condo right there in the village. I dipped out fairly early the next morning and rode with Nicola and Liz for the rest of the day. That night we met up with some guys we met while riding for drinks at Gomez's. Turns out our margaritas were paid for there as well, by Binky from Smokin (Thank you <3). We headed back to Lakanuki with the boys and Cody gave us free drink wristbands (Thanks to which ever company paid for our 50 red bull vodkas). Cha-ching. The rest of the night is a blur, with lots of details that I remember but would never share on the internet. Sorry ;]. Basically, we had a good time. Lots of drinking, lots of playing. I stayed in the Bataleon condo again that night and then next morning I set up my bindings up on Jaeger's old Disaster- luckily Jaeger rides the same size as me. We went out riding together and had an awesome time. I kept the board because I can't handle the edge drag I have on my Roxy right now. The Bataleon board rides super differently but it'll work out until my new Rome board shows up. Nicola, Liz, and I sent it back to Tahoe at 1:30, only making the mandatory In-N-Out stop. Liz had to go back home but Nicola and I went out to Boreal and rode there until the lifts stopped. Such a good weekend, with amazing memories, and amazing friends.

5. Northstar is opening in a couple days and I'll be there with Nicola, destroying the park like we always do. Haha. We locked our penguin slides in at Boreal on Sunday night so look out for our mad steeze. Jaeger is also going to come up and stay at my house for the weekend so that'll be fun.

This winter is already topping last years 100 fold. I can't wait for the rest of the season. So happy to be here. So happy to be snowboarding.

Woodward Tahoe??

So on my interweb searching I came across news of Woodward Tahoe. I don't know what to think of it really. I'm kind of in a neutral place. Like "Oh. Well. Okay. I guess that's neat." I'm wondering how this will change Boreal and the local atmosphere. As of right now, I really can't make an assumption on whether this will positively impact the Tahoe scene or negatively impact it. But yeah. We'll see. They're set to open summer 2012. There's not even really any information on the official site so who knows what they have planned. I'm definitely excited to see the finished product though and hopefully I'll have some sort of hook up to play there for free.

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.

So much room for activities!

So I talked to my parents and they're letting me take next semester off! Annnd they'll pay for my rent too. Nice. The only thing though is that I told my parents I could find rent for like $300 a month and I'm having trouble actually doing that. I've been looking in Kings Beach and Truckee, but no cigar. Half of the searches result in "vacation leases" that are like $200 a night. As if.
Since I can live wherever I'm trying to find somewhere close to Northstar and that means I have no reason to buy a Diamond Peak pass. So now I'm just gonna get Northstar and Boreal. I mean, I could actually move to Oregon or Utah or Colorado really, but I like the kids around here too much. Tahoe is the place to be you know?
But anyways, it will all work out. I'll find a place to live and I'll be on the snow every single day. And it will be amazing.
Oh, and applying for a job working at the ski school at Northstar, which I think I may have a chance at getting because I could instruct skiing too. And if I don't get that job I'm applying at Boreal for their ski school. So yeah. This winter/spring will rock, whatever happens.
STOKED STOKED STOKED

Season Pass Time

It's about that time to start buying passes. Which is super new for me because up until this past season I rode two days at most a year. I'm definitely getting Diamond Peak because it's less than a mile from campus. People have told me that they don't buy DP because we know everyone who works there but whatever. I'll play it safe and just get a pass there because I'm planning on being there something like five days a week. Then I'm going to get the Northstar pass even though it's $$$. I'm going to get the hella limited restricted one because I'm only going to go there when other people go and for filming and stuff. I don't have a car so I'm stuck tagging along with friends. I'm going to try to get a job there (maybe) so I may get reimbursed. Which would be sick. Lastly, I thinnnnk I'm going to get the Boreal pass. It's a little ridiculous for me to have three season passes but Boreal opens first, closes last, and has night boarding. And I can get a Monday-Friday pass for $99.

I'm so excited for all this riding. You'd think the snow has already started to fall.... Well actually it has. A few times. At a couple thousand feet higher than me. But that means it's on it's way for sure.

My parents are coming up this weekend because my birthday is on Monday and I'm going to have to have a hard talk with them about not going to school in the Spring. I'm already a semester ahead so I need to take one off at some point. I couldn't get on the snowboard team this year because I haven't competed before but I'm going to start competing this winter so I can make it on the team next year. Once I'm on the team I need to be here year round so I won't be able to take a semester off. I hope this argument makes sense to my parents. I'm way looking forward to couch surfing and boarding every day. THIS SEASON IS GOING TO BLOW MY MIND. as long as I don't do something dumb and fuck myself up.

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.

July Snow

Wow. What a weekend. The one run was tiny but it was still fun to be boarding. It got majorly slushy out there in the afternoon but the first few hours of each morning were pretty good.

Summary of happenings:

• Met boy who became boyfriend. (How did that happen??)

• Got too drunk. (Look up Pass Out. It's the greatest game ever)

• Got totally stoked on moving up to Tahoe. (Kid won't be stuck in the city for much longer)
• Destroyed a 7-11 slushie.

• Pulled some bs180s out of nowhere. (I had never tried but guess I can do them.)
• Attempted bs360s. (Ended up as 320s because the jumps were so small/sticky)
• Slashed up my shin on a rail. (both are now fairly bruised and swollen)
• Went back to that rail and did a clean 50-50 shifty.
• Got nasty boot bruises

So yeah. That was it. I'm so in love with snowboarding AHHHH I want to snowboard again now. Those two days were such a tease. Oregon in August? Hopefully...

Shred Fest

So, Boreal is opening back up for two days. July 10-11 from 10-2. Tickets are $20. I am most definitely going. I'll take any summer boarding opportunity that comes my way.

Yeah. That's it. I really don't have much to say. It's summer.

I think the main reason I'm not going totally crazy is skateboarding. I've got my buddies that I travel around a bit with and they're all super sick skaters. It takes my mind off the snow. I was actually starting to think I loved skating more, but I sat down with an old issue of transworld snowboarding and was reminded of how crazy I am for the snow. As soon as I started flipping through the pages I was reminded that while I love skateboarding, it doesn't even come close to snowboarding. Some of the guys I skate with hate on snowboarding hard and I don't get that. I thought we were cousins. I don't know any snowboarders that hate on skateboarding... Why is that?