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.

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.

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!

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?