Back From Winter Park: iRide Cap In Hand

iRide HatSo we had a fantastic time in Winter Park. The snow conditions weren’t the best – we had a lot of dust on crust. However, more of the mountain was open this year than when I went two years ago. I didn’t perform as well as I had hoped. I wanted to try a 180 on the jumps, but I wasn’t able to figure it out. In fact, I really wasn’t even close. However, falling twice made me realize just how much I am going to have to exaggerate my body movements. After crashing on both 180 attempts, I crashed on the same simple straight jump I had landed time after time. It was the end of the third day, and frankly I was trashed.

Halfway through the trip, I did find something interesting to play with in the future. I’d been thinking about this thing they call butter. Something to the effect of riding up on the nose and spinning around such that you land switch. I leaned forward on the board while I was thinking about it and felt the board start to come up and around real smooth. Suddenly I realized I was starting to do it when I didn’t intend to and tried to straighten back out. It was too late, and my hesitation made me wipe out. However, I was surprised and how naturally it was starting to happen.

So the bus ride to Winter Park was hell. The condo was laid out great, but was falling apart. I had to rebuild the shower door and later Roger was hanging the handle back on the stove. When we locked our keys inside, Cyn was able to pop the door open using her driver’s license. I can’t complain much, the place had a kitchen and we ate good. We even had a turkey on Thanksgiving day. I must say, the group I was with was great. Everyone was all over things like cooking and cleaning up dishes. I also met lots of other neat folks including a rider from Dallas who got started at 36 and has been riding for 5 years. He was really comfortable on the board and impressed the group time and again.

So, finally, about the iRide cap mentioned in the title of this post. Cyn noticed a cap in one of the ski shops that she had to point out. How about that, someone else snagged the name “iRide” and put it on a cap with a snowboarder! Granted, the iPod-esque logo was predictable… however, Ride does not really imply snowboarding any more than a mountain bike or rollerblades. I have to wonder if someone visited my website before creating these hats? Oh, and for the record, iPod didn’t inspire my journal name – that was actually a fluke. Anyway, check out the cap in the photo for a grin.