My name is Jake Malenick and I'm from St. Anthony Village, Minnesota, a small suburb right outside of my favorite city in the world, Minneapolis. I came out to Colorado Mountain College Alpine Campus in Steamboat Springs for the Ski and Snowboard Business program. I hope to one day start my own snowboard company and to keep snowboarding for as long as possible.
Every year, there is a month where men everywhere partake in an event that tests the grizzly skills of the olden days when people were rocking rich, full beards. I am talking of course, about No Shave November.
Unfortunately for me, I am severely lacking in the facial hair growing abilities. There were, however, many people who came out the end of November with some gnarly beards. The RA's even put on a contest to see who could grow the best beard. The stipulations were that you had to be completely shaven to the bottom of your ear by the first of November. After the month long contest, one the RA's Mitch ended up winning. Afterward he ended up shaving his beard into some Sabertooth looking hair from X-Men.
The following pictures are of my disgusting, awful attempt at growing a beard and mustache. I kind of really wish I would have shaved before Thanksgiving like I did last so I didn't look like this while meeting a bunch of new people, but I thought I should try to stick it out this. And as I'm sure you can tell by these pictures, I regret it:
Hopefully this inspired some of you to make an attempt at this great time of the year, but if you're facial hair resembles mine at any way, I wouldn't recommend it. Peace.
This morning was another morning spent on the mountain. While riding, I ran into my friend Matt, the one I went with to San Diego, who told me of a ridiculous deal that went down tonight at the 8th Street Steakhouse. According to Matt, the deal was steak for $2.99, so naturally, we had to check this out.
After an afternoon spent between The Office and working on my final business plan for my Entrepreneurial Operations, Tyler came and picked up Bacon and I and headed down to 8th St. We probably should have seen this coming, but it was packed. We put our names in and were told it was a 40 minute wait. Thankfully for us, tonight was the last night for free coffee or tea at the Steaming Bean just a couple blocks from the Steakhouse. On the way, we stopped in Urbane, a super sick clothing store here in town. Unfortunately, it's a really expensive store, so none of picked up anything.
So after getting our tea and hanging out with a few other CMCers, we rolled back to the Steakhouse and got our table and soon found out the deal was even better than we thought. I waitress informed us that not only was there a $2.99 steak deal, but we could get the all-you-can-eat salad bar for an extra $1.99, so needless to say, we all got salad and steak. They also had some shrimp and fish you could get for $2.99 as well.
The best part about 8th Street Steakhouse is the fact that you cook your own steak. When you get your table, they give you your ticket that you take to the meat counter to pick out your meal. You can also order some sides at the meat counter like delicious garlic potatoes or sweet potato fries. From there, you head across the restaurant to the grill and throw your meat on. At the grill they have a ton of seasoning including garlic, seasoning salt, regular salt and pepper, and lemon pepper, along with Worshtershire (or however you spell it) and teriyaki sauce. There's also bread for Texas Toast by the grill so you can have a delicious snack/appetizer while grilling.
So we grubbed out as much as we could, going back for seconds on the salad and Texas toast, and ended up only having to pay about $5.50. I'm not sure if this is a reoccurring event or not, but you can be sure we'll be back if it happens again. Peace.
While I was away on my Park City adventure, Steamboat opened to the good people, local and visitors, of Routt County. Today was my first day riding there and I have to admit, I definitely missed it.
I woke up nice and early around 7:40am to get ready before Tyler got to the dorms at 8. We went down to the cafeteria to get some quick breakfast where we ran into Steve who needed a ride, so we hooked him up with one. On the ride there, Tyler and I traded memories of riding at Steamboat last year, which definitely got me more excited to ride.
When we got there; however, I realized I had forgotten my boots. Lucky for me, Bacon had forgotten his boots since he was there for ski race training, so when he made it back to the room to grab his, he saw mine and snagged them for me. So after meeting up with him and getting all set to go ride, I realized I had forgotten my pass. I'm sure you can clearly tell this was the first time I had ridden at Steamboat in awhile.
Lucky for me, season pass holders get one free day pass for forgotten passes, but unluckily for me, I had to use it up on my very first day there. But after all that shenanigans, I finally made my way to the pass of the mountain where I met up with Tyler and Corey who had taken a lap or two through the park already. As we rode up the lift, I was getting more and more stoked to ride. One, because the park was empty, but two because the park looked awesome. Last year Steamboat really didn't have a very good park, but this year they hired a new park manager who had built features for the Olympics and other big events, so I have very high hopes for the parks to come.
I unfortunately did not grab a camera, so I'll do my best to paint a picture for you. Down the left side of the park, there was a pretty long flat box, followed by a rainbow box, then a battleship box, then about a 15 ft. jump, and an up rail. Down the right side of the park was the smaller features. It started with a tiny rainbow box, then a short flat box followed by a slightly longer flat box, then a mellow C box, then an urban style down rail, and then a dance floor box. Then at the very end of the park in the middle was a sideways mailbox rail set up like a skate spine with two logs sticking straight up on either side for bonking. Hopefully that gives you an idea of the fun to be had in the park.
Our day was spent taking lap after lap of the park, trying to get some tricks back from last year. After a few solid hours, we peaced out, grabbed some Taco Bell, then Tyler dropped me back off at the dorms so I could make my class at 1pm. Needless to say, it was an awesome day of riding and I'm super happy to riding at Mt. Werner once again. I'm sure there will be many blogs about riding The Boat in the future, so be sure to keep checking back. Peace.
As I promised in my blog "Open Gym", here are some pictures Vince took of our shenanigans at Excel Gymnastics. Enjoy.
Bacon doing what he does on the balance beam:Myself learning Misty flips into the foam pit off a spring board:Myself after struggling out of the foam pit: Vince hucking some sort of corked flip into the foam pit:Vince liked to hang out in the foam pit:Like I said, open gym at Excel is every Monday and Thursday from 7pm-9pm, but unfortunately for me, I have class 6-9 both those nights, but I for sure plan on going way more next semester, and if you're going to be out here, I suggest you do to. Peace.
Today was our last day in Utah and it was spent driving. We planned to leave around 7am to try to get back around 12:30pm and ride Steamboat for a couple hours, but once again, sleep got the best of us. We got up around 9:30am, had some quick breakfast, said goodbye and thank you to my aunt and uncle for the awesome time and letting us stay at their place.
So we hit the road around 10, stopping briefly for gas and once so Bacon could get energy drinks, but besides that, the trip back was less eventful since we were ready to get back. We rolled into The Boat around 3pm, unpacked all out stuff, and chilled until dinner. So now we have to get the room back in order, clean out Tyler's car, fill it up with gas, and get it back to him.
The trip was a great time and I was happy to be able to spend it with friends and family. It's always fun snowboarding in Utah too, so hopefully I'll get to do that again sooner than later. And as I promised, once we got back I'd throw some pictures up so here is a glimpse of the trip visually.
Rolling into Utah: The first ridiculous dinosaur statue in Dinosaur, UT: Me trying to make it look like the dinosaur was dropping me:Outside Skeeter's Cafe, where the dinosaur was with my No Shave November neard looking particularly awful: The giant pink Vernal dinosaur, Vernal, UT:Me with the pink dino: Ridiculous Indian statue at some trading post in Vernal: A couple pictures of an awesome lake we passed between Vernal and Park City: The crazy packed parking lot at the outlet malls at midnight on black Friday: So now we are back in colorful Colorado and trying to get some homework done, since the end of the semester is approaching fast. Hopefully everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving as well. Peace.
Day four of the trip started off around 10:30am when we headed out the door to cruise into Park City to check out another thrift store my aunt and uncle told us about. Unfortunately, when we got there, the building it was supposed to be in was being renovated, so that plan didn't quite pan out.
We already had all our gear with us since we were going to head to Brighton from the thrift store, so upon seeing it was closed, we headed off for Brighton. The drive took about 45 minutes and took us just outside of Salt Lake City. Thankfully, the drive through the canyon to get the Brighton had perfectly fine road conditions and provided for some cool scenery, so it made the last stretch of the drive go smoothly.
When we got to Brighton, Bacon had to talk to Human Resources to get a pass since he worked for a Boyne retail shop in Michigan, and Boyne owns Brighton. So lucky for him, he ended up getting a free day pass while I had to pay $32 for a half day ticket, but it was definitely worth it. However, I unfortunately didn't do any filming of this day of riding because I was too busy having mad fun in their little jib park. Some features they had were a double mail box rail, a couple down boxes, a triangle box and two flat boxes next to each other.
It was so much fun, we ended up riding all the way until last chair. From the mountain, we headed into Cottonwood Heights, which is the town at the bottom of the canyon where Brighton is. The reason we stopped there was to head to Causwell, a really sick ski shop that sells Surface Skis, a local Utah brand that Bacon rocks. Bacon is going to live in Salt Lake City next year, so he talked to the manager about working their next year, as well as interning for Surface at SIA, since the shop is owned by Surface. When he talked to the manager, it sounded pretty positive, so hopefully we'll both be heading to Denver for SIA.
From there we headed to 7-11, snagged some Pina Colada slushies, and made the drive back to my aunt and uncles. After dropping out snow gear and cleaning up a bit, we went to Bacon's families' place to catch the end of the University of Utah vs. BYU game. His family is HUGE U of U fans, so much so that I had to keep my reddish jacket on until the game was over (since U of U is red and white). Unfortunately, BYU won, so needless to say his family was most upset. While watching the game, we feasted on some spaghetti, and finished up with some amazing cheesecake and apple pie.
After catching the end of another game, we all played quite a few games of euchre. Unfortunately for me, his family is really big into euchre, and I had just learned how to play about a week ago, so I was definitely a beginner among pros. The game was fun nonetheless, and I had a great time hanging out with the McClellands.
When we got back to my aunt and uncles for the night, we were both pretty exhausted, but we sucked it up and packed all our stuff so we could leave for The Boat in the morning. Peace.
Day 3: Park City. After staying up until 4:30am, we ended up waking up at about noon, even though we wanted to ride much earlier, it just wasn't happening.
After rolling out of bed and some quick breakfast, we rolled into the heart of Park City around 1pm. Luckily for us, a dad and his son hooked us up with their lift tickets since they were done for the day and the mountain was only open for a couple more hours.
Even though it was getting late in the day, there was still a massive lift line for the main chairlift. However, once you did finally get up to the top, the run that was open was at least nice and long, so that made it pretty worthwhile. On top of that, the park was kind of unimpressive unfortunately. They had some nice down rails and the jumps were built really well, but the rest of their lower part was pretty haggard and beat up with sketchy lips, sticky boxes, and bomb holes in the landings. Now I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, because it was still fun to get out and ride, but we definitely had higher expectations.
After showering and all that after a day of riding, we headed back to the outlet mall so we could return the Half Cabs to the Vans store, and then headed back into Salt Lake City to hit up Blindside's Black Friday sale which was buy any time, get a second item half off. I knew I was going to buy a pair of the new seafoam green Vans Chukka Lows, but it was just a question of what I wanted to get for half-off. I ended up going with a little different plan than I thought.
I ended up getting the new Ashbury Kaliedoscope Tea Stain goggles and then the shoes were my half off item. Lucky for me, I got a free Blindside t-shirt with the shoes, the Ashbury's came with two free extra lenses, and to top it all off, my mom said the goggles and shoes could be any early Christmas present, so needless to say, I was pretty stoked leaving the shop. I do want to go ahead and give mad props to Blindside for being a super legit shop that treats their customers really well and carries some super cool brands. If you ever find yourself in the Salt Lake area, be sure to check it out.
After that little adventure, the rest of the night was nice and chill. We had a delicious enchilada dinner with my family, followed by some poker, followed by trying to figure out how to play a movie, to just passing out so we could get up and ride at Brighton the next day, which I will surely right about shortly. Peace.
