A humbling day

Well today knocked me off my pedestal. I mean, I wasn't really on one to begin with, but I thought that maybe I could make it to half pipe and slope finals at least. I thought I had some skills.

After watching the girls out here during pipe practice I realized I'd be lucky to make Top 15. I got super discouraged after my first practice run. I couldn't even get to the top of the walls. I was able to air out every hit when I went to Mammoth so I kinda freaked out. Why could I not even see above the walls now? I was super bummed and rode like crap all morning.

It's hard doing a contest like Rev for the first time and not having a coach there for support. I called Austen, my mom, and Eric and talked to them all for a bit, which really really helped. They all told me the same thing "do it for you, don't think of it as competing against the other girls". We all know I'm new to this and don't have as much experience or skills as the other girls so really all I can do is my best.

After talking to them I went back out with a new attitude and my riding improved right away. Still not going as big as the other girls though. I just have to remember that snowboarding is fun, and as far as competing goes, I'm a newbie.

I hate losing. All I want to do is win. But I obviously have a couple of years of hard training until I'm there. I've gotta be tough, work hard, and not forget that I started all this because of my passion.

Colorado, I'm coming for ya

Wow, I can't believe Rev Tour is already here. My flight to Denver is tomorrow and I'm in the process of making sure I'm getting everything I need packed into my board bag.

I thought I'd feel really unprepared but I actually don't feel too bad. I'm kind of excited. I was feeling awesome on the jump line at Northstar today (btw, I got banned from Northstar today and then reallowed in the period of an hour), and now I don't feel so scared of Slopestyle. I can't wait to see what the slopestyle course is going to be- How big will the jumps be? How many? What type of rails? And of course I can't wait to ride pipe again!

I'm not expecting to place at the top, but hopefully I'll make it to finals for both events, and then maybe by the Northstar and Vermont Rev stops I'll have a shot at winning some money.

I'm just going to ride the best I can and have fun. See you tomorrow Co!

New pants

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

Good feelings

Yesterday I met up with Josh Fricke and a couple of the HEY! Crew guys at Northstar. I didn't get out there until the afternoon because of my last final, but I was still able to get two couple runs filmed. Last time Josh filmed me he got a sweet shot of me gapping an up-down box to my rib cage. This time I managed to stay on my feet.

I'm really excited about one trick I got. I'm always scared of spinning real jumps but it hit me yesterday that I'm going to have to actually spin good sized jumps at Rev Tour in Copper next week. The biggest jump at Northstar right now is only 15-20ft but on Tuesday I spun a five to the deck (wasn't even CLOSE to the knuckle) so I've been kind of worried about spinning it since then. But since Josh was filming yesterday I figured I'd go fast, try to be mellow and just three. I ended up bringing it around to 5 (because I can't control my rotations) and rode away. It was super clean and the shot looked pretty good. I was just totally stoked that it worked out because I've never 5ed something that size before. The feeling of getting something new was so awesome. Just pure joy. It was one of those "This is the reason I snowboard" moments. It just felt so good.

Getting that also helped me out a lot mentally because now I know I'm capable of spinning real jumps, I just have to trust myself enough to do it. I've been nervous about Rev but I think I've got it in me to do well. I want to ride the best I can but my mind always holds me back. I think I'll be able to get past it now though. I'm feeling good.

I'm back in the bay now but I can't wait to get back to Tahoe and ride with my new confidence. I love snowboarding. I love everything about it. I'll be holding my breath till I'm on the hill again.

Novembrrrrrr cont.

A couple posts ago I said "This month has been pretty fucking awesome so far." I'm following that statement up with "This month is still fucking awesome."

I just had another incredible weekend and its starting to seem like the month of November can do no wrong.

Jaegs Mckegs and I in dirty Reno

On Wednesday Mitch came up to Reno to pick up his car and brought Jaeger and Spiegel with him. I was riding Boreal that night but once they closed, I headed out to Reno to meet the guys. I first went into some random club inside the Circus Circus/El Dorado/Silver Legacy complex while I waited for the guys. Some random dudes in the bar bought me drinks, I gave out fake numbers and then left as soon as Jaeger called me. The rest of the night disappeared in a blur of alcohol and bright lights. A small portion of the night was preserved when Nicola started video messaging me and Jaeger and I sent videos back. I think around 2am we made it to the Nugget and split an Awful Awful. Soo good. I think from there we went back to the hotel, partied more, and went to sleep when the sun started coming back out.

Stocking up for the year.

I planned on stopping at Boreal the next morning on the way home to ride a bit but that didn't happen. I was physically incapable of getting out of bed so I didn't leave Reno until around noon. I headed straight to San Francisco and made it to my aunt's house in time for Thanksgiving Dinner. Dinner was awesome. I ate until I thought I was going to puke. Then I went to Walmart with my mom for their 10pm Black Friday event. That was ridiculous. I'm never going there for Black Friday again. The line went around the entire building in a maze pattern. My mom and I were just going to leave but apparently I'm Walmart VIP and one of the security guards asked me if I wanted to go into the store and then let me through the metal gates and in the store without having to wait in the line. Inside Walmart was frightening. There were people running, pushing, and climbing over each other. You know those end of the world movies were people are running around and raiding stores? It was like that. Oh and if there was a fire in that building EVERY SINGLE PERSON WOULD HAVE FUCKING DIED. We ended up leaving without buying anything because it was so ridiculous in there.

First face bleeding sesh of the season. Nice.

Friday morning my mom woke me up at 5:30 to go Black Friday shopping with her. I was so tired but I ended up getting a couple cute things. I left around 1 to drive back to Tahoe. I made it to Boreal around 5:15 and was about to ride when I lost my keys somewhere between my car and the lodge. I had to wait an hour for AAA to come open my car so I could get my stuff. While I waited some gapers parked next to me gave me beer and food so that was nice. I finally made it onto the hill at like 6:45 and was having a pretty good time riding. Then a skier snaked me a couple feet before a rail but I still wanted to hit it so I did. He was so close that I would have landed on his skis so I while I planned to just 50-50 (my only rail trick), I had to front board the rail. I held it for most of the rail until I fell off and landed on my face. That was a bummer. I bled a lot but kept riding. A couple hours later I was starting to feel nauseous so I called it a night.

I woke up at 5am on Saturday morning and drove down to Mammoth. I had the worst time ever trying to park. I ended up 2 miles away. When I finally got off the chair for my first run I found out that I was missing my toe strap and my binding was barely attached. So I did a pipe run with my back foot not really even secured to my board. That was cool. Not. I went and bought a new strap and went back out. I met up with Jaeger, Mitch, and a couple of the other Bataleon guys and rode with them for a while. They dipped and I stayed until like 3. Finally my body started hurting so I went back to town and picked Jaeger up. We found a hotel and the owner made us promise we weren't going to throw a party. We went over to some guy's house for dinner and then brought everyone back to the hotel to party. Duh. We played fun games, got drunk, and then got the owner of the hotel pissed. Party broken, I crashed.

Mmmmm Sushi and sake bombs. <3

5am Sunday morning I'm up. I meant to leave Mammoth at 5:30 but couldn't get out of cuddle mode until 6:30. Give a girl a break. When I finally got out of the hotel, I pointed back to Incline. I made it back home at like 9:15 and then left for Northstar with Nicola. I had an awesome time riding there. I met up with Shannon and rode with her and a couple dudes for a little while. They had to leave around midday but I stayed to ride more. That evening Nicola and I went to sushi with a fun group for Dave's birthday. I think after 7 sake bombs we went back to his house and partied there. The night drowned in beer pong and celebration shots and at some point we went to sleep.

Nicola and I did the 7am wake up and dip-out maneuver, sent it back to Incline, and then went back to the real world. School for me, snowboarding for her. It was a solid weekend I think. Here's to next weekend!