Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Trips North

In early December I went to Mount Snow for a three day clinic and it really jump started my season to ride to a higher level and set some goals I wanted to cover. Since then I've been picking away at all those goals. Specifically I wanna be killer with pressure tricks. I don't need to rely on terrain to enjoy snowboarding. Like having a killer park, which won't happen unless the park guys rally. Or steeps or trees or moguls. Ya good ole WaWa does not have any of that really. But I can definitely play around the trail no matter whats going on.

As far as trips up North. I've taken quite a few with a few in the hole. After Mount Snow it was mostly spending a ton of time at WaWa trying to clinic and teach. Then school Groups started up and I was nearly trapped with no chance of parole and then In late January I went up and rode at Mount Sunapee. It's like a bigger WaWa from what I heard. It was alright. We didn't catch it with the greatest conditions. Very Cold and hard snow. The terrain didn't have much that appealed to me. It all seemed pretty much the same. The trails to me had very little character. They were just cut straight down. I love the twist and turn in trails opposed to the straight down kinda look. But on the bright side they had a great Quarter Pipe. Where I did my first 540. Basically I went up for a 3 and kept rotating. I didn't even realize it until I was riding out regular and wondered why.


The Next trip was Stratton in the begining of Febuary and It was a blast I got to try all the new Flow stuff for next year and meet some really cool peoples. I enjoyed the parks at Stratton. They were so well made. Got me to love Rhythm sections more than I used to. I rode with Kevin Addy this guy was so fast compared to the pace I'm used to riding. The funniest thing from that entire trip was that when I looked across the way from the Flow tent there was Burton set up blaring their music and being obnoxious but right next to them was Lib Tech. who doesn't even hide their disdain for Burton.

Then at the end of Feb I went to Pat's Peak and it was of course aweful. Someone I was with got pretty seriously injured and I felt like giving up snowboarding for a few days. I'm in no rush to go back there. The other thing that got me upset was that their boxes and rails were better than WaWa's. Everything else was worse though.

Now with one section of the season left I gotta update on stowe, the upcoming trip to Jay and the very possible trip to tuckerman's. It could end up being a very epic season.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Early Season


This winter has been ridiculously good. Especially for WaWa. The market may be down but we have had more snow storms and consistently good weather than many years past. My riding is so much better than it was last year! I've taken more pictures and video than last year and even nailed the tricks I wanted to for the year plus some that I didn't plan on. But I gotta include the massive Ice Storm that hit us early in december and closed down schools and took peoples power away for weeks. But besides that, it has been a superb winter.

I even got up to Mount Snow in early December for three intensive days that really jump started my season. Even though I was fighting some weird headaches. The first day was so ridiculously cold and I was just getting the worst headaches I had to eventually call it quits for the day right after lunch cause my head was pounding. Every day after that was similar but just not as bad. I'm not if it was from the extreme weather changes or the fact I kept going head over heels into the soft stuff.

Doesn't really matter it's all over now. I gotta look forward and get a few more trips in.

Monday, October 27, 2008

To Vote or Not...

It is clearly an election year. SNL is really cranking out the political comedy, and celebrities are telling me to vote because my vote matters. This is the third election that I have actually paid attention to and it seems like our country does need change.

Let me first say that I live in Massachusetts. Probably one of the strongest Democrat states around. There is no chance that this state will end up voting Republican. Secondly let me say that I am not impressed with either canidate. I was rooting for John Edwards, he lost. Now let me express my frustration. If I wanted to vote Republican it would not happen because this state is far to Democratic to allow that to happen. If I wanted to vote Democratic I think the state will take care of itself. And there is not a strong third party nominee so that option is out. I am at a place where I actually do feel like my vote is pointless. Not because we live in a democracy. Because if you paid attention in 7th grade Government, you would know that we don't live in a Democracy. We live in a Constitutional Republic, hence the electoral college. Although the Country was founded by brilliant men there were plenty of ignorant people around for them not to trust a true democracy.

But we need change right? Here is my suggestion. And this is my suggestion becuse of how frustrated I am with the entire circus that happens every four years. Two years if you count them starting to rally support. We don't need to add anything to the process that is so much a zoo. But instead I want us to subtract from it. Now you must be thinking the electoral college. Nope I want to keep that. What I want to eliminate are two kinds of people.

1. Speech Writers. I want these guys to write their own speeches. Let them articulate their own ideas and desires for office by themselves. I didn't get someone else to write all my reports in college. Why should they? Especially considering that the President is the guy who deals with treaties abroad and declares war. Shouldn't he be able to to tell us why? Can't write a speech to a foreign diplomat, they would get maaad if you read from notes.

2. The Handlers. Now many people may not even realize that this person exists. The handler is the person who runs the election campaign and when spouses or canidates say something or do something that the speech writer didn't write. Well they help hush up that very real and natural reaction from the canidate. They sort of get them to act in a way that won't look bad when we are going to vote. They also get the canidate to act a certain way even if that isn't what the canidate is convicted to do. If you look back at the two bush campaigns you can notice something. When it was Gore, towards the end of the campaign in the debates him and Bush started to have the same opinions they wouldn't really disagree on different subjects and a similar thing happened with Kerry. Where they were once very opposing it seemed that they weren't that much different. The handler is also the person who at the very least comes up with campaign strategy "obama for change" Everyone who gets in the white house wants to change something. Noone wants to keep things the same because they want to leave their "mark". Kerry's thing that blew way out of proportion was how he served in Vietnam, and they jumped on Bush for not. Of course Kerry was kind of subject because someone forgot he threw his medals away. I don't think Kerry was the one that forgot. The smearng doesn't come from the canidates. do you think they come up with all those slogans? McCain didn't want to have a smear campaign when he started. I trust him and believe he is a man of his word. But it seems he has a slight smear campaign going on. I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt. Handlers are bad. We need to see how "human" the president will be. If they have a wife that has never been a proud american. Or they dodged service in a war. Whatever it is we need to see how they truly act before we ellect them and find out after the honeymoon is over that they are really an abusive drunk or a womanizing intern chaser. I still like Clinton regardless of that last remark.

I am not a Democrat or a Republican. I live in the middle. Each side has things I love and hate. This is just something both sides have that I hate.

Vote or Don't because you know that the people who want you to vote really have a canidate in mind that they imply you voting for. "barak the vote" *ahem*

Don't listen to the hype. Pay attention, research your canidate! please. If you have no idea who to vote for or you haven't been paying attention then don't vote. You have a Right to Vote not an obligation. Being an educated voter is much better than being an ignorant one. If every one was an educated voter then the right person for office would make it in. Im not saying that we would all vote the same. Far from it. We all have different things that are important. But then at least a bunch of ignorant people wouldn't put to waste all the time people put into checking the facts and numbers that canidates spew in their speeches.

I'm young and already Jaded by the system. I would love to vote but not before we lose the Speech writers and the handlers.

What will You do?