The Winter Break Blog.

I don’t really know where to start about winter break except that it was awesome and I love Minnesota. I’m excited to be back in Steamboat Springs to try out this powder riding I’ve heard so much about, but I just love the bitter cold and the butter run fun the Midwest offers.

I started writing this blog in the Denver airport, worked on it on the shuttle to Steamboat from Denver, and am finishing it up in room back here in the Boat. I starting my semester off with quite a long day which consisted of a 2 hour flight, 3 hours waiting around at the airport, and 4 hours on a shuttle. I’ve been watching my fill of the Office (which, if you haven’t seen it, is the greatest show ever), as well as jammed to the new Jack’s Mannequin CD while writing this. It was great to be able to have a day of riding on Sunday before classes started up today.

My winter break started with a much needed, relaxing night with my good friends from back home, followed by probably the funnest day of riding I’ve ever had with my friend Ryan, who I like to refer to as Dub D, Dirty Dizzle, DFB, Ocean D himself! Together over winter break we learned tailblocks and tail tap rewinds, not to mention we built a mini snow quarter pipe to jib on.

As far the rest of my snowboarding adventures of break, I spent my time at Welch Village, which is near Hastings, MN. Besides the awesome times had there riding with friends, the highlight/lowlight of my winter break was the trip to White Cap. Eight of my closest friends and myself went to White Cap, WI, on the edge of the U.P., MI for 4 days and 3 nights of snowboarding and bro time. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite turn out the way we had planned. For starters, on the way up there, Ryan hit a deer. He, as well as myself and my friends Scotty K. who were both in the car, were very lucky at how it turned out. The deer had just jumped out in front of the truck, so Ryan’s headlight hit the deer right in the head, which was way better than if the deer had been entirely in front of the truck. However, the body did slam into the driver side door, denting it in, keeping it from opening and the window from rolling down.

So after that incident, which happened very early in the morning, we got to White Cap for our first day of riding. It was pretty crazy warm out, so the snow was really slushy, but as it would turn out, this would be our most fun day of riding. After exploring the mountain, we headed back to the house for the night to hang out.

The next day we wished we had the slush back. It had frozen solid overnight and the day itself was freezing cold. Towards the end of the riding day, we did find some fun on a trap box and a cliff jump that my ridiculous friend Joe hit quite a few times.

The third day wasn’t as bad ice-wise, but the last was insanely icy, cold and windy. However, my friends Ryan and PJ did not get to experience these conditions because of the final ridiculous incident of the trip. My friends Joe and Jimmy B. had to leave early the last morning, however, the night before, Joe had borrowed PJ’s keys and yes, forgot to give them back. They were about 3 hours away when we called and Joe realized he had them, so Jim dropped the keys off at a cheese store on the border of Minnesota, forcing Ryan and PJ to spend the day driving to get them, making them miss a day of riding. This is the third year we’ve all gone on a snowboard trip and I gotta say, as fun as some of the times were, this was probably the worst one. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures from this ridiculous adventure, but Joe had a video camera with him so I’m sure a fantastic video will be hitting YouTube in the near future.

Besides friends and snowboarding, it was great to see my family again and hang out at home. Christmas was super fun seeing all the cousins and extended family, not to mention I got some great gifts. We did the usual Christmas tradition of brunch and presents at my grandparents’ house with my mom’s side of the family, then dinner and presents at my house with my dad’s side of the family. It’s a pretty crazy day since I’m the second oldest grandchild on my mom’s side of the family right after my brother, but I’m the youngest grandchild on my dad’s side of the family so that definitely keeps it interesting.

I also unfortunately had to go back to work at Pacsun in Rosedale Mall near my house. I work with some cool people but I would definitely rather have not had to work, but I suppose at times like these I should be grateful I had a job to come back too. Plus it was for sure nice to get a bit of money before I go back to spending way to much of it.

An awesome thing for me that happened over break was I made my first order of t-shirts for the snowboard company I’m going to school at Colorado Mountain College to try to start. That being said, I gotta take this opportunity to make a shameless pitch. If anyone would like one, they could be yours for the low, low price of $15 a shirt! Just send me an email at jake3613@comcast.net with where to send it, and I’ll send you an email back of where to send the money. I have sizes medium, large, and extra large left so act now!

Now that my dignity’s gone, I’ll leave you with this: winter break was awesome even though I had a sinus infection for most of it and still kind of do. I wish break was a little longer but I’m excited to be back in The Boat and ready to ride some epic runs now that the whole mountain is open. I hope everyone else’s break was awesome and I look forward to writing more throughout the semester. Peace.