Zaskoda

I’m behind schedule but still pushing towards my goals. Today I’m 1/3 of the way towards my supreme goal of 100 days this season. I’m also a mere 3 days away from my base goal of doubling my total days spent riding. Things are rolling along nicely.

Today I headed up to Breckenridge with Laura and met up for a little while with Russ. During the morning, Laura and I made our way to the Imperial lift – the highest lift at Breckenridge and the highest chair in North America. After the lift dropped us off at 12,840 feet – we continued to hike another few hundred feet to the very top of the peak. We dropped in from over 13,000 feet and rode all the way to base camp at the bottom of Peak 9. The drop at the top was very steep and full of fresh powder. The powder didn’t last very long, but it felt amazing.

In the attached photo, I was attempting to flex my arm (my “gun” show). My hands were frozen completely numb at that point and my glove wasn’t even all the way on. When my fingers finally did start to thaw, they hurt for a while. They still feel kind of funky. While the view was amazing from the top, I sure was happy to make my way down!

Later that afternoon, we met up with Russ and played a while in the park. We wanted to catch some jumps on film, but the weather wasn’t cooperating. When the sun would shine, it was perfect. However, for the better part of the day, the sun insisted on hiding behind clouds leaving the terrain looking flat and featureless. It also left us feeling considerably colder. I did manage to get a small grab in on one of the jumps. Honestly, it was more like a tap. Still, it’s a sign of my slow but steady park progression!

67 days left…

56 Days in 07/08

My surf teacher, as I like to call her here, came up to visit me for a couple of weeks. This past weekend we drove up to Dillon and stayed with Jayne and Jason during their last weekend here.

Saturday, we went for a snowmobile ride at High Country Tours. Our tour guide, Mike, was just plain awesome. He was all about safety – but later he started showing off on the sled and took us on some really neat runs. We had a blast. Ya know, it really doesn’t take much to get those things up on one ski!

Saturday evening we hit Keystone for some night riding. As Velzy got up on her board for the first time in more than a year, I was well prepared to carefully watch and instruct her. I’d mustered up all my patience and wanted to show her what a wonderful teacher I could be. I had nothing to offer – she rode like a frack’n champ.

Sunday we headed out to Breckenridge and rode the day away. It was a bit crowded at the main lifts, but we wandered over to peak 7 and found a relatively empty lift servicing a wide variety of mostly blue runs. Once again, I was impressed with Velzy’s riding ability. She said she felt something click in her head during her Costa Rica surf trip. I think all the Yoga she’s been doing lately helped too! I know it helps me.

Finally, on Monday we headed back up to Keystone for the day. We spent a long time in the park playing on jumps and the pipe. I did some more 180′s both on the flat ground and coming off of little lips. Velzy was playing on all kinds of little kickers and finally hit some of the larger jumps in the Incubator park. She also took some runs down the half pipe carving up on the walls. I was shocked to say the least. Later in the day on one of our last runs – maybe it was the very last run – I decide to bomb a hill flat out. At the bottom of the run I spun around getting ready to wait on everyone to catch up. Sure enough, right behind me was Velzy.

My favorite thing, hands down, was seeing the stoke in that little girl’s eyes. Just priceless!

56 Days in 07/08

I just had a fantastic weekend. One of my first snowboarding buddies, Russ, flew up from Austin for the weekend. Tina and Laura (from here in Denver) came out to Dillon with us and we stayed with Jay and Jayne. Tina and Laura rode with Russ and I all day Saturday at Keystone. We rode tree runs, moguls, fast flats, and spent some time in the park. Everyone had a blast. Kudos to Tina for enduring the knee bust on the park box.

So, today (Sunday), Russ and I rode together at Keystone again. We spent the better part of the day just playing in the park. Russ also finally had a chance to break out his $4,000 Sony DV cam. He shot some footage of me warming up on some runs and we caught a little bit of footage of each other playing in the park.

We were in a smaller terrain park playing on some rollers near the end of the day. Russ was clearing the jumps smoothly and tossing in some methods and a nose grab. I just wasn’t getting enough snap to clear the backside of the jumps. I was consistently landing just half a board length shy of the downside and was getting a bit frustrated.

On my last jump on film, I once again failed to completely clear the table top. Frustrated, I started carving to the right off of the upside of the next jump. I bailed off the lip and – without even thinking about it – hopped a 180. I landed switch clean with no shake or chatter.

This is a big deal to me! I’ve been *thinking* about a 180 for a while now. In fact, I thought about it on the way up the lift several times today; but I had no intention of trying one. Sure, I only had about a foot of vert, which is not a big deal… but I’ve never successfully landed a 180 – until today – making this my very first one. I was super stoked!.

71 days left…

56 Days in 07/08

I intended to check out Echo Mountain Park yesterday, but I didn’t make it until today. The park is very small and focused just on park style terrain. The snow seemed mostly man made and rather hard packed. The jumps were nicely groomed and the view was spectacular.

I only tried one box in the park and busted my shins pretty hard. I’ve got a bit of a knot on the left one. I’m thinking of ordering some impact shorts soon. I worked a couple of jumps and managed to build up some height and confidence – but I never felt comfortable enough to go for the 180. I’m still struggling with posture. I tend to lean over instead of compressing my knees. I found on the jumps where I focused on good knee compression, the landings were amazingly soft and sweet. A couple of times I got sloppy and stiff legged it – those were so soft and sweet.

I didn’t ride at all yesterday. It was a day full of errands and such. I dropped the damaged Burton Custom off at the shop. They say they can patch it up for $20. We’ll see what I get back on Wednesday. I’ll post before/after photos along with some story details.

73 days left…

56 Days in 07/08

I kept hearing great things about Copper Mountain, especially from my friend Adam. I finally got a chance to check it out yesterday with a few folks from DS (Lynn, Ray, and Jeff). The mountain is indeed awesome. In the course of one day we played in the children’s terrain park (small rails and boxes), the medium terrain park (intermediate jumps), their full sized park (holy crap), and their super pipe. For the first time, I rode up the walls of a pipe and kinda started to get a feel for it. The pipe puzzles me. Anyway, we also explored some very fine trees and spend a lot of time playing in a “double black diamon extreme” area on the back side of the mountain. I rode down a chute that was too narrow to carve at the top – that was a rush. I managed to wreck my powder board by trying to kick off of a snow covered rock. Turns out, the snow wasn’t so well packed and my nose bored right into the side of the rock – sending me into a full mid-air cart wheel. They said it looked amazing. We also found a nice drop off of a rock ledge that was probably around 8 foot high.

I’m trying to get dressed and out the door today to go play at Echo Mountain Park. It’s supposed to be much closer to me than the resorts I frequent; however, it’s also supposed to be nothing but a terrain park. I’d like to go check it out and see for myself. I really need to work on some ground tricks and get better and compressing my landings off of jumps.

74 days left…

56 Days in 07/08

This past weekend I took off with Tina and Laura and met up with a big group of friends in Dillon. Saturday evening, we went night riding at Keystone for a few hours, giving me my 24th day. Then, on Sunday, nine of us headed up to Breck. As the day progressed, we split into smaller and smaller groups until I was riding with my friend Jeff. We’re close to the same level and we both like to explore so we tend to push each other. I have to admit, Sunday was the hardest riding day I’ve had so far this season. When I woke up Monday morning, I was feeling wonderfully used up.

Sunday was also the first time I’ve played in a park this season. I toyed around on a 1/4 pipe and really didn’t get a feel for it. I also hit some smaller rollers a few times through the park. Not having jumped anything of significance, I expected to wipe out immediately. I landed 8 jumps without fail. I think I need to step up to some larger jumps next time out… or start working on some rotations.

Sunday night we waited for a couple of hours to eat. The football game was on so people weren’t leaving their tables when they were done. Frustrated, we left and found another place to dine. We had our choice between cooking our own steaks on their massive public grill or getting all-you-can-eat prime rib. I went for the pre-cooked option as I was starving by the time we got there. My dinner included one run at the salad bar followed by nothing but meat. I only got a single serving, and I wasn’t able to finish that off. I shot of my plate is here on flickr. I tasted every bit as good as it looks. If only I had four stomaches.

I’m not sure how I’m going to get in the rest of my days this season; but hopefully I’ll squeeze three more out this weekend. Wish me luck!

75 days left…

56 Days in 07/08

What a great day! My friends Scott, Dana, Ross, and Jojo flew up from Dallas to go snowboarding at Winter Park for 3 days. Unfortunately, because of work, I was only able to ride with them for one day. That one day was one of the best days of the season so far. There was a lot of powder and extremely good weather. I had a blast ripping down some of the less groomed runs on the back side of Marry Jane. I also really enjoyed seeing my friends. I haven’t seen Scott and Dana in at least a year. Scott got back on the snowboard this trip and was picking it back up very quickly. Ross finally got a chance to try out his brand new set of K2 skis. The last time I saw Dana ski was before I started snowboarding! And Jojo had her first ever ski experience. I think the most fun we had OFF of the mountain had to be the “build your own 6-pack” experience at total beverage. They were like kids in a candy store.

Here it is, already 9 days into January and I’m not getting my riding days in. This was my first and only day on the slopes this year. This does not make me happy. We’re crunching hard at work, trying to finish up the next revision of Gaia.com. The next iteration is going to be significant and – in theory – it will be online next week. Hopefully, once this revision rolls out the door, I’ll see some more significant time on the slopes.

77 days left…

56 Days in 07/08

Before I get into my day, let me say that I’ve got about half a bottle of wine in me. So, today wasn’t such a good day. To be completely honest, nothing happened today that will have significant negative repercussions on the future (that I know of). Still it was a rather taxing and not a significantly rewarding day.

It started off good. On the way up to the mountain, I happened to pass through the George Town area as they were having their ice races. When the lake freezes over, a group congregates with 4×4 vehicles and they race on the ice. I snapped a quick picture on the way by. I got a message from Julie, a new member of Dallas Snowboarders. She and her friend Abe were up at Breckenridge – so I decided to join them for the day. That’s when things started to grind.

Mostly, it was traffic. I thought I was never going to make it to Breck. I didn’t make it to town until after noon. I got a run in before meeting up with Julie and Abe. A couple of runs later I realized I was ill prepared for the temperature. I was literally shivering on the lift. I’ve never shivered on a lift! I was SO cold. I left them to head back to my truck to put on an extra layer of clothing. That’s when I realized what time it was. The mountain closes at either 4 or 4:30 (not sure which) and it was almost 3. I’d only been riding for just over 2 hours, but I knew that traffic would be bad considering it is a holiday weekend. I decided to go ahead and head back home.

On top of holiday traffic, a storm set in. To make a long (very long) story short, it took me nearly 5 hours to get home. Traffic was insane and I-70 sucks! (had to say it) It was so bad, they shut down ALL west bound traffic and made everyone return to Denver – which meant even more delays for my direction. It was a miserable drive.

And that, for the most part, was my entire day. I had a lot of things I wanted to get done this evening. I guess those things will have to wait. I did get the apartment straightened up a little bit. I even ran the vacuum in the living room. However, clothes need to be washed, dishes need to be put away, paperwork needs to be sorted, and so much more. Being a bachelor is tough, lemme tell ya! On top of all that, I was hoping to pick up some items for my New Years Eve party costume. Hrmph…

Still, it was a day that included snowboarding, so how can I really complain? The snow was really good and Julie & Abe are really fun to ride with. I look forward to meeting up with them again on new years day. Tomorrow being new years eve, it looks like the count for the 07 part of the season will rest at 22. I’m pleased enough. 100 days still seems so very far away, but much of the season still remains.

78 days left…

56 Days in 07/08

I hit A-Basin today. It was cold. It’s been cold all week, but today it was windy too. Right now, according to weather.com, it’s 1 degree F and it ‘feels like’ -20. It was cold enough that I was comfortable wearing my helmet today. I even shut the vents on it. I hit some black mogul runs that I’d previously been avoiding. All in all, it was a good day. I would have stayed longer, but freezing wind just isn’t my thing. It’s supposed to warm up tomorrow – hooray!

As a random side note, I sure am looking forward to next year!

79 days left…

56 Days in 07/08

I was dressed and ready for work this morning. Ironically, I was looking forward to going it. Then I got a phone call. I should have noticed that my balcony was covered in snow and it looked like a blizzard outside. My boss told me the office was closed for the day! So, I swapped out my clothing and headed up to the mountain.

I just happened to catch Julie from DallasSnowboarders.com and her friend Abe at Keystone near the end of the day. It was fun to meet some new folks and I hope to get to ride with them this weekend. With all the snow coming down in Denver, the conditions at Keystone weren’t worth writing home about. However, any day snowboarding is a good day. Best of all, today marks day number 20, bringing me to the 1/5 complete mark. Woo hoo!

80 days left…

56 Days in 07/08