Still pictures make us look like we actually know what we’re doing. Like this one where I look like a complete badass.
snowboarding
Hey Everybody! Lets Go Snowboarding!
Life, RandomnessThis is about that time of year where I start to think non-stop about getting back on the slopes. I really have some things I want to try this year and places I want to go. Then I saw this video…
Avalanche Skier POV Helmet Cam Burial & Rescue in Haines, Alaska from Chappy on Vimeo.
Good luck with not dieing!
Snow-Fizzle my Nizzle
Interests, LifeLots of stuff has been going on in the last few weeks, I “ran” a Thanksgiving 5K race at 6:30am, I’ve been snowboarding twice, and I’ve been strangley motivated to get things done… just not this blog.
My thoughts on snowboarding in the Washington DC area.
Sometimes it’s not all that bad. I’ve been going consistently for about 3 seasons now and haven’t had any problems with the mountains close to the area. Whitetail, Roundtop, Liberty. But I think I’ve finally hit the wall, it’s not so much that the mountains are too small… because I get tired after about 40 seconds anyway. Its the value, we started out the season by going to Seven Springs, PA for the opening day. It’s about 3.5 hours away so a day trip is an adventure to say the least, but the prices are so much better (37 and 43) and almost the whole mountain was open already. Last weekend we went to Whitetail in MD and the prices sucked (53 and 56) and there were only 5 runs open, none of them black. Maybe I’ve just been spoiled now that I’ve seen real mountains and real snow out on the west coast. But I’ll have to say that I don’t think I’m going to go back to the smaller mountains this year, it just seems like wasted money. I am going to Wisp this weekend for the Wisp Days, $7 lift tickets! So we’ll see how well I can deal with the crowds of other frugal boarders.
Another thing I’ve noticed is that I ride much faster and enjoy it more with a soundtrack. My new helmet has those speakers in the earflaps. I thought it was a little distracting last year but something is different now. It could be the choice of music. Nothing gets me down the mountain like Notorious B.I.G’s Greatest hits album.
and yes parents, that’s that “Gangster Rap”
and because I can, here’s a video of a kid taking a wicked header on the beach.
Dogboarding
Interests, LifeSo after realizing that the last post accidentally stayed in draft form for over a week. I decided it’s time to pick up the pace with writing these things down. So this weekend even though we didn’t go anywhere we did get some snowboarding in. Let me introduce something I like to call DogBoarding. We have a unique deck at the house, I think it used to have an above ground pool because the highest part of it has a swinging gate. So we took a lot of the snow from around the yard and on top of the cars and made a roll-in to the backyard and then a ramp out in the middle. We originally thought that this would be enough to get speed, but we ended up making a second roll-in on top of the deck. So this run turned out to be a four foot ramp, 10 feet of flat, into a second 4 foot roll-in across the yard and onto a 2 foot ramp. It was pretty difficult but really fun on a snowboard and Jesse was out there to get some sweet pictures. It’s good to have the paparazzi around! Later the girls used it for sledding, which also made for some interesting pictures. here are a couple of them.
Presidents Demand Snowboard Action
Life, TripsSo this weekend was another chance for me to prove that it was a wise investment to buy my own snowboard this season. I know I’ve at least saved 150 bucks in rental fees… by spending a couple hundred going snowboarding. Well you gotta spend money to make save money!
So after the weeks of emails planning the trip I can say that it was totally worth it. The cabin was just what I expected, just a couple rooms and a bathroom. It was run by an older couple, the wife looked nice enough, but she kept asking for a $5 deposit on pretty much everything I asked for. The husband looked like I might be seeing him hovering over my bed at night holding an axe. But since that didn’t end up happening I can say that he was an alright guy.
The mountain was great, It was the first time I’d been to a resort that wasn’t snowmaking. They had gotten 5 inches of snow earlier in the week so they had enough to go around. I think they had about 35 trails open, enough variety that you didn’t get bored. I think my skills are really progressing, I’ve gone this year from just barely being able to carve to landing sweet mute grabs out of little moguls. I know they don’t look too impressive to other people but it feels really awesome to fly out and stomp the landing. I might have a few clips I can put together from Wade’s “Heady McCamera”.
This was probably the best boarding that I’ve done all year, it really makes me want to get back to Vermont with Ben and Bonnie. Too bad they can’t move their wedding back so that we can get some boarding in! Other highlights of the trip were getting a picture taken with Cap’n Morgan, winning a beanie in the ring toss, playing with Will’s Wii!, and of course landing a killer mute grab in front of those teenagers and hearing them say “ohh cool!”
Look out flying tomato, Big Guy is coming right at you… no seriously… I can’t turn that fast.
Later!
I’ll post the links to the videos as soon as I get them…
*UPDATE*