Devil's Peak

Yes I said I would limit my solo boarding, but c’mon. I’m from Texas and when else am I gonna be in close proximity to slopes without the cost of a flight? I had some time, so I decided to give it one more go. This day I hopped in the car for an hr drive to Devil’s Peak. This was a 500 ft mountain, so the slopes were way better for practicing carving. I wasn’t down within 10 seconds like Tyrol Basin. They had a small park though, so I really should have switched around my carving day vs my park day. Oh well. I hit some blacks and blues, didn’t get any better and stopped for some food.

After that I was back on the board, looking at the map to decide which run to take and a little depressed like the day before from being alone. Then someone walks up to me and asks “deciding where to go?” He explains to me the idea of the mountain layout and asks what I wanted to do. Turns out he’s a snowboard instructor there. His name was David and he didn’t have any lessons, so he was just looking to go up and play around. He asked if I was there by myself. I said yes and he said well then let’s go board. Yay new friend! We hit the park and he gave me some pointers on how to hit the boxes. Fell. Then we tried a small jump. Hit it, but fell on my ass. Then we did half pipe. Was wobbly, but turning on the walls is pretty easy. The height and jumps are a whole other ball game. Then he took me to the bunny hill where they teach kids to jump off a 2 ft peak. I hit it about 6 times. Ate it every freakin time. Bah! He was really nice for giving me pointers and teaching me new things like the Ollie and the duck walk. He also explained to me the correct way to carve. Apparently I was doing it in an unstable fashion and after I tried his advice I was feeling much better and in more control. It wasn’t like a lesson where he was paying close attention and telling me what to do, but like a buddy who was helping me get better. While I was practicing down the slopes he would do goofy stuff like circles and Ollie all over the place. 18 years of snowboarding makes you really good apparently.

I got to meet more of the other instructors and we slid down the slopes together a few times before I had to go. David invited me back and even offered a free pass, but the 1 hr drive was kind of far and the rest of the week was busy. If I had more time and there was less snow on the roads I would have driven up. I love when you get to meet fun and interesting people. It really gives you more hope in life when you meet someone kind.

Tyrol Basin

In the midst of work travel I got to go to the land of cheese for a week. Luckily there was a ski park about 30 mins away, so after work I got to play. This little 300 ft mountain had only about 12 runs open but a massive park with a big tall half pipe and plenty of rails, boxes and huge jumps. I spent most of my time on the blacks workin’ on my carving. I tried to tell myself faster, faster, but that courage would only last a few feet before I got scared and slowed down. I need to pass the mental barrier that is “fear of getting hurt”. I had just bought some knee and wrist guards too, but those did not really build my confidence. After a couple of hours I decided to change it up and give the park a try because going up and down was just getting monotonous and I wasn’t really improving.

Fortunately they had a kiddie park where little kids on skis were just flying through with no poles. I was like. Damn. I can’t let them show me up! So I headed for a box, got scared, slowed too much and stopped in the middle…then fell over. Two more tries and two more falls. Damn you box.

I have to say; I don’t mind being alone. I travel alone for work. I usually workout by myself. I could sit in my room for a whole day without talking to anyone. But being out on the slopes alone was kind of depressing. Maybe cause I was doing a fun/challenging thing and there was no one there to laugh at me or comment on my success points. By the end of that day I was ready to leave early and decided to minimize my solo boarding as much as possible.

Liberty Mountain

So the whole fam met up in DC for some quality time together over Xmas. Since we were heading for the cold, I decided to bring my board and take the brothers for some pow pow time. Our Jersey friend was joining us, so we headed for the closets mountain between us, Liberty. I think it was somewhere between 400 and 600 ft tall with about 10 open runs and a small park. Most of the time was spend teaching the youngest sibling to heel and toe properly. He eventually got to a toe to heel turn, but by then it was the end of the day and weariness was taking over. Simultaneously I was try to get the oldest sibling to master the heel to toe turn.

Eventually I got to steal a few runs with Jersey friend Dan who was better than all of us combined and went to the park to try some boxes and jumps. Needless to say it was Box: 1, Mink: 0. No attempts jumps yet.

Past Month Update?

Life has been busy. Went snowboarding for 4 days. FOUR! In Denver this past weekend. It was a great time and some friends really helped me learn how to carve. It got hard to keep my endurance up. I think at times I just got really frustrated with how hard it was to carve and that drained me even more. I eventually got it and now I just need to work on tight S shapes.

Oh I didn't mention my new gear! I got a Ride Rapture board, K2 Bliss bindings, Solomon boots, Smith goggles, and Holt helmet. Also a K2 snowboard bag, since I have to travel to meet snow. I just went to a store and walked out down a pretty penny. Haha. It was great. The store's people knew everything there is to know, had great advice, and even let me watch as they waxed and buffed my board. Knowledge is power man. I love learning about maintenance on my gear.

This whole experience was great to just get out of my work mode and into some different scenery. It really is making me contemplate moving to a place that is closer to mountains or at least a bike friendly city. I hate having to plan to get up early to bike to avoid heat or traffic. I wish I could just get on my bike and ride a dozen trails or routes. I wish I could meet other cyclists and make friends with the people who do what I love most. But looks like wishing isn't going to get me shit.

I have to make a move.

Olympic Snowboarding...Here I Come

So watching the 2010 Winter Olympics has been pretty inspiring. All those athletes who are so amazing at what they do. All the skill and technical aspects of the sports. Made me envious and wanting of what they have. So I made up my mind that if in the next year I have the opportunity, I will start training on the snowboard pretty seriously and make it to the 2014 Winter Olympics! Snowboard Cross! Halfpipe...MAYBE! Parallel Slalom! Wish me luck! Haha!

Back! And not that sore!

So this year I joined Andy and friends on their yearly snowboarding trip. It was awesome. It definitely solidified my interest in the snow sport, and I'm glad I have something other than cycling and running.

We flew ourselves to Denver and spent 4 nights and 3 days on Copper Mountain. There was snow the first day and then it snowed again that night, so the next day was still good. The third day started to show some ice, but by then I was much better, so it was less of an issue. I have to say Copper Mountain was really great. There were 3 little villages full of shops and food, we started on Thurs and it progressively got crowded on the lift lines, but the mountain rides themselves weren't crowded at all. We had ample room to practice, even on Saturday.

When we first got there, I was taking a look at jackets and such, cause I'm not too crazy about the Obermeyer I bought last week, and I found this. And I loved it, and so it was mine.


I'll take the Obermeyer back this week since the tags are still on. So glad I found that one. It has everything I wanted - vents, lots of pockets, no lining, and looks cool.

I hadn't snowboarded since...winter of 2008? And that was only one day. I successfully leafed down the short short mtn only once. This time I picked up the leafing again, Andy helped me with my leafing - look where you go, put your weight into it, etc. And Kasia taught me how to carve! Which is great. If you are a beginner like me, and you don't know how to get done a mtn without stopping, well carving is your trick. You probably know how to "heel", which is just taking the mountain down in a zig zag fashion while facing forward and digging your heel into the mountain. Well when you combine that with "toe" which is the opposite - you zig zag facing the mountain - you get "carving". Toeing uses the opposite muscles on your legs so that you can give your quads a rest and alternating between those gives you a carving motion. Kasia and I worked on this for 3 days and by the last day we could get down the mountain in 1/3 the time it would take use on day one. Pretty awesome. I was proud of us. =D

BTW. The mountains were so pretty. I'm so jealous of Denver.


Now don't get me wrong, after the first day I was in major pain from snowboarding for about 5+ straight hours. But as the days went on I got a little less and less sore. Today I feel pretty ok and in the next few days I should be fully recovered and back to running. I do have to say, being sore was awesome. I never push myself that hard, so it was refreshing.

Yay! I can't wait to go again and carve down the mtn faster than ever.

Getting Ready to Board!

Yesterday I took a trip to Sun & Ski and then REI to look for a ski/snowboarding jacket. I haven't done a good job. Partly because I didn't want to spend the money...but of course that bites me in the ass because I had to buy the jacket full price. Luckily, Sajida has a pair of goggles that I can borrow, so I can still keep my eye out for my own pair and save my money for one next time.

Here's there new addition to my closet:

It's the Obermeyer Paris Jacket. I would have liked it with more white, but they didn't have it at the store. Also, I bet more white would just mean more dirty. So I try to avoid white technical clothes.

I also bought the Salomon Helix Midlayer cause it was sooo light and warm, but the color is "wine", which I'm not too crazy about. I'll prob return that and spend my money on something I really love.