Stowe2

So the cliff hanger to what happened on the second day of the trip.

Well this is probably one of my favorite stories to tell in person so I'll give a totally lame recap. Basically we went out on the second day very very sore. So much so we couldn't drag ourselves out of bed to get an all day lift ticket. Instead we got there around mid day and got a half day ticket. Got on the snow and instead of it being bulletproof like the day before it was mushy and fun for trail riding. In the woods it was like wet cement. Not great condition for the woods. So we took a few laps through the park. It was fun, hit the half pipe, a couple well built jumps that I wasn't worried about because it wasn't Wachusett. On top of it we got some good pics.

Chris of course being such a tree monkey wanted to quickly get back in the trees. He had convinced us to hike the Chin which involved a 40 minute hike up to the summit. From there we were supposed to find a chute and make our way down. To some road and walk back to the car.

What happened was Chris getting lost on top of the Mtn. and Jarod taking over the leading portion of the hike. which I didn't know because I was at the back of the line. What I did know however is that Jarod had never been to Stowe, he had told me about a dozen times how excited he was to come on the four hour ride up. Now I was a bit dismayed and as we began our descent off the north face to find a better place to put our boards on I slipped on the hard snow and began sliding chest first towards a cliff with my trusty board in hand. I let go of my board and barehanded clawed my way towards the only charlie brown tree I could see. I grabbed hold of it and it whipped me around. I'm told that my board flew off the cliff quite well. It took quite a cliff drop.

I got up and my hands were mangled with nails bent back and blood starting to pour someone suggested I put my gloves on. From there on, after getting Jarod to find my board we made it down to the bottom. Not by jumping back on the trail but sticking to the woods as was our plan. I emerged around 5 30 with plenty of sweat pouring from my body. The near death experience didn't faze my friends, they still made fun of me fifteen minutes after the fact. Asking if I felt closer to God, or if my life had flashed before my eyes. None of us were fazed apparently. Once we got back to the car I grabbed my xtreme team medal that hangs from my mirror and put it on, proudly proclaiming "I earned this today".

We finished off the night with some killer sushi.

Summer Gone...

The summer has already gone without much notice. So far we had about a week or two of warm weather for the entire thing. Which isn't bad for me since I love winter. We also had nearly a month of rain everyday. Which is bad for me because I 1. want that to be snow, and 2. rain totally cause me to be unmotivated. Not sure what it is but it happens that way.

I personally had a great summer.

Took two classes at the college down the street. One was great and the other I won't mention much. America in the 60's it was a fascinating and eye opening. Got to read see and hear about the various counter culture groups through the era. As well as hear the mainstream conservatives who seemed absolutely nutty. One Presidential candidate wanted to Nuke Vietnam and take the war into China and win all of asia for 'democracy'. Regan wanted the national guard to beat up student protestors. To top off the class we had to give a 10 minute oral presentation on something that happened during the 60's.

Well the snurfer was invented in '65.

My Prof nearly spit her coffee out her nose when I announced my subject.

There was always a few weeks off here and there but soon I was off for two straight weeks at camp. First Boys camp and then a wedding (at camp) then Sr High. The two weeks were great I got to spend some quality time with the youth that I care about and make some new friendships. I was amazed at how two weeks at the same place were so different. Except for the water front. It stayed the same, always as fun as the week before. I managed to perfect 'the flying squirrel' and my front flip as well as invent a new move I like to call 360 cannonball. It's fun and easy.

The speakers were great and the Sr high band was fantastic. My cabin was nearly not even work. For a get-to-know-you exercise we ran over to cabin 1 and threw small rocks on their metal roof for a few minutes. Once we were all warmed up it made things much easier to get along.

After a two week break, with plenty of youth group prep work swirled in. I was back at camp for another week. There were 6 speakers for one week of camp. It was off the chain! An amazing week for sure. No comparison as far as planning and speaking.

Now I sit in my room thinking of the Summer that is gone. With camps, classes, and beach days in the mix. I wonder how in the world I got pneumonia?! Which has slowed me down just enough to write on this blog once more.

Stowked Day 1

Reflecting back on probably what was one of the most epic two days of snowboarding I've had yet.

I went up there with maybe one or two days in the trees ever. And we spent the entire time in the glades/trees. It was epic and I spent most of the time playing catch up to Jarod and Chris.

Chris was a great guide the first day. The snow was sorta mashed potatoes in the woods, and bulletproof on the trails. We were way better off in the woods. I couldn't even tell you what the trails are like there if I wanted to. We hit up the 'kitchen wall' a few times. It ended up being pretty familar by the end of it all.

The knife edge was probably my favorite of the kitchen wall area. (and forgive me for not knowing all the glades names I was trying to keep up most of the time). There was this great section of bank turns towards the bottom that I really started to catch my rhythm in. We also found this great little area with a killer pillow tree. We all took a few runs off that, not that it was a great run off because it wasn't. It did make for great pictures!

We seemed to continually end up at the bottom hitting this nice progression park. Which was a great place to just play and not worry. There was this massive butter box at the very end which on a particular run through I ended up falling chest down on it right in the middle. It was big enough and flat enough that I wasn't sliding off and couldn't reach a side to pull myself off so i ended up doing this spinning seal maneuver that I could hardly not laugh over.

By far the favorite glade of the first day was Angel Cake. Up until going in there they had been narrow paths we were following in the woods. Either we were in a valley or on a knife edge, fun but you only have so many choices. Angel Cake was wide open and untouched, It was simply a blast. Constantly on our way down we were looking for things to jib. And found plenty too.

It was humid through the day and I ended up soaking all my clothes but especially my gloves. Which were still wet when we went back to MA so it was great when we stopped by the Burton factory and picked up some great deals. Specifically some dry gloves. By the end of the day we were so happy with Chris taking us around we were about to give him a trophy for it. By the end of day 2 I would of taken the trophy back.

Winter's End

I seem to always have mixed feelings about the end. This year especially. On one hand I was getting tired of teaching and the snow was crap, but on the other I had some of my best days at the end. But in New England it seems like the end is always on life support. I write this at the end of May and I hear that Mammoth is still open. WaWa closed at the beg. of April. We have such short seasons in comparison.

So in the 3 weeks of snowboarding I did in March I did 2 days at Stowe, Ride 'um and Rank 'um, 2 days at Jay, and one day at Okemo. It was a busy 3 weeks. But epic.


Final Count: 93 days of snowboarding and i ended march 21st

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.

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.

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?