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.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Open Gym Pictures.
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.
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.Thanksgiving In Park City: Day 5/Pictures
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.
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.
Thanksgiving In Park City: Day 4
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.
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.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Thanksgiving In Park City: Day 3
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.
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.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Thanksgiving In Park City: Day 2
Day two of our Utah adventure was Thanksgiving Day. It stared around 11am when we got up, snagged some breakfast, and headed to the store so I could pick up some cranberry sauce and apple juice for the meal. After that, Bacon dropped me off and headed to his family's since they were having a early afternoon Thanksgiving.
From there, the afternoon was spent setting up the house since they had about 20 people coming. The guests started arriving around 3pm, all of them my aunt and uncles friends from work and around town, so I got to meet some awesome people. A great thing about Thanksgiving here is how everyone brings a different dish, whether it's an appetizer or part of the main course.
And speaking of the food, it was phenomenal for the second year in a row. My uncle cooked a massive, delicious turkey, along with some great bacon stuffing. Some of their friends brought green bean casserole, mash potatoes, and some delicious pies for desert.
After dinner, everyone hung out and talked for awhile, then wrapped up the night at 9pm. After a little cleaning, my aunt, uncle, cousins and me played a solid game of poker (which I won), and then I just chilled for awhile until Bacon got back from his family's. However, when he got back, out night was not even close to over.
He proceeded to tell me about how the outlet malls near here opened at midnight for Black Friday, so naturally we had to check it out. We took off from here around 12:15 since we knew it would be crazy busy, and we were right. The exit for the mall was backed up at least 20 cars onto the freeway, and the entrance to the mall was backed up to the exit. It was ridiculous.
We ended up parking a couple blocks up the street and walking down to the madness that was the parking lot. I actually took a picture of it but once again, we don't have the cord so I'll upload it when I can.
We went around to some great outlet shops like Journey's, Levi's, Nike, Pacsun, Zumiez, and Vans, where we got some Half Cabs on their buy one get one half off sale (although we ended up returning them the next day, we had less money than we thought). We ended up not buying a couple things because the lines were so long for check-out it would've taken an hour just to get a shirt. We ended up hanging out there until 4:30am and the stores were still packed when we left. Needless to say, we passed right out when we got back.
The next day we planned to ride at Park City, so we probably shouldn't have stayed up so late, but it was good times at the mall and some great times at dinner, so it was all worth it. Stay tuned for the next blog about riding and some more Black Friday shenanigans. Peace.
From there, the afternoon was spent setting up the house since they had about 20 people coming. The guests started arriving around 3pm, all of them my aunt and uncles friends from work and around town, so I got to meet some awesome people. A great thing about Thanksgiving here is how everyone brings a different dish, whether it's an appetizer or part of the main course.
And speaking of the food, it was phenomenal for the second year in a row. My uncle cooked a massive, delicious turkey, along with some great bacon stuffing. Some of their friends brought green bean casserole, mash potatoes, and some delicious pies for desert.
After dinner, everyone hung out and talked for awhile, then wrapped up the night at 9pm. After a little cleaning, my aunt, uncle, cousins and me played a solid game of poker (which I won), and then I just chilled for awhile until Bacon got back from his family's. However, when he got back, out night was not even close to over.
He proceeded to tell me about how the outlet malls near here opened at midnight for Black Friday, so naturally we had to check it out. We took off from here around 12:15 since we knew it would be crazy busy, and we were right. The exit for the mall was backed up at least 20 cars onto the freeway, and the entrance to the mall was backed up to the exit. It was ridiculous.
We ended up parking a couple blocks up the street and walking down to the madness that was the parking lot. I actually took a picture of it but once again, we don't have the cord so I'll upload it when I can.
We went around to some great outlet shops like Journey's, Levi's, Nike, Pacsun, Zumiez, and Vans, where we got some Half Cabs on their buy one get one half off sale (although we ended up returning them the next day, we had less money than we thought). We ended up not buying a couple things because the lines were so long for check-out it would've taken an hour just to get a shirt. We ended up hanging out there until 4:30am and the stores were still packed when we left. Needless to say, we passed right out when we got back.
The next day we planned to ride at Park City, so we probably shouldn't have stayed up so late, but it was good times at the mall and some great times at dinner, so it was all worth it. Stay tuned for the next blog about riding and some more Black Friday shenanigans. Peace.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Thanksgiving In Park City: Day 1
This is the second year in a row I have gotten the chance to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousins here in Park City, UT, so I thought I'd share the experience with you.
The original plan was to leave yesterday around 2 after my roommate got back from riding at Copper in the morning, but unfortunately, getting back took longer than expected so we decided to leave this morning at 7am and ride at Park City when we got here around noon. Once again, the plan did not go well. We ended up sleeping until about 9:30am and decided that we would get there too late and only have about an hour to ride Park City. Thankfully the day ended up being awesome anyway since we took our time on the drive stopping at a few cool spots.
So we ended up leaving The Boat around 10am, making our first stop not on purpose thanks to a police officer. For those of you who read my blog from last Thanksgiving, you'll be happy to know that this police encounter went a lot smoother and without a full search of the car for meth. But Bacon unfortunately still got a $170 speeding ticket, but we were back on the road in no time.
The next was intentional, at the Dinosaur National Monument just outside of Dinosaur, CO. One thing I realized on this trip was the ridiculous amount of towns based on dinosaurs. Vernal, UT is supposedly "Utah's Dinosaur Land" as well as Dinosaur, CO which is pretty self explanatory. I can't remember the town between those two, but they had some dinosaur statues as well.
Before I go on, I will say that I have pictures from the trip but we forgot the cord to plug the camera into the computer, so I'll upload all of them when I get back. I do however have a little video of the awesome view from the top of Dinosaur National Monument and a little glimpse of Vernal with some super cheesy travel music I found on my cameras editing program, so enjoy.
After that adventure, the rest of the drive only had a few more stops for some gas and of course, pictures with dinosaurs. We started rolling into the Park City area around 4ish and decided to head to Salt Lake City for a bit to try to find some cool big city thrift stores that we have been missing in The Boat. And we found a great one.
After a little while of searching around the Salt Lake City campus of the University of Utah, I called my aunt and uncle and my aunt pointed us toward Deseret Industries, a huge Mormon run thrift store off of 1100 E and 2100 S (for those of you who know Salt Lake City). We were initially shocked by the shear size of it, since neither of us had seen a three story thrift store. After making our way upstairs to the men's section, we spent the rest of our time there checking out the four full racks of perfectly organized t-shirt racks, which was another thing that was so awesome about this thrift store; the t-shirts were all sized and in color order, which once again, neither of us have seen.
So after purchasing some gems from Deseret, we crossed the street and walked up a block to Blindside Skateshop to check out what the shred seen was like in downtown Salt Lake, and let me tell you, it's awesome. Blindside carries a number of my favorite brands from Ashbury, to Airblaster, to Comune, not to mention they had a really cool layout with all their boards and bindings on a balcony overlooking the whole store. However, after spending $3 on some awesome t-shirts, we just couldn't bring ourselves to spend any money on the brand name stuff, so we decided it was time to head to my aunt and uncles.
After a quick call for directions and about a 10 minute drive, we arrived at their awesome log cabin style house. We were a little late for dinner but they were kind enough to wait for us we all sat down and caught up over some delicious Wisconsin beer-cheese soup.
So after an intense hula-hoop lesson from my cousin (who is really good at it), I'm currently chillin in their newly refurbished basement before we play some good ol' family games and I pass out from the long day on the road. Hopefully I get to ride tomorrow, but either way it's going to be a great Thanksgiving. Peace.
The original plan was to leave yesterday around 2 after my roommate got back from riding at Copper in the morning, but unfortunately, getting back took longer than expected so we decided to leave this morning at 7am and ride at Park City when we got here around noon. Once again, the plan did not go well. We ended up sleeping until about 9:30am and decided that we would get there too late and only have about an hour to ride Park City. Thankfully the day ended up being awesome anyway since we took our time on the drive stopping at a few cool spots.
So we ended up leaving The Boat around 10am, making our first stop not on purpose thanks to a police officer. For those of you who read my blog from last Thanksgiving, you'll be happy to know that this police encounter went a lot smoother and without a full search of the car for meth. But Bacon unfortunately still got a $170 speeding ticket, but we were back on the road in no time.
The next was intentional, at the Dinosaur National Monument just outside of Dinosaur, CO. One thing I realized on this trip was the ridiculous amount of towns based on dinosaurs. Vernal, UT is supposedly "Utah's Dinosaur Land" as well as Dinosaur, CO which is pretty self explanatory. I can't remember the town between those two, but they had some dinosaur statues as well.
Before I go on, I will say that I have pictures from the trip but we forgot the cord to plug the camera into the computer, so I'll upload all of them when I get back. I do however have a little video of the awesome view from the top of Dinosaur National Monument and a little glimpse of Vernal with some super cheesy travel music I found on my cameras editing program, so enjoy.
After that adventure, the rest of the drive only had a few more stops for some gas and of course, pictures with dinosaurs. We started rolling into the Park City area around 4ish and decided to head to Salt Lake City for a bit to try to find some cool big city thrift stores that we have been missing in The Boat. And we found a great one.
After a little while of searching around the Salt Lake City campus of the University of Utah, I called my aunt and uncle and my aunt pointed us toward Deseret Industries, a huge Mormon run thrift store off of 1100 E and 2100 S (for those of you who know Salt Lake City). We were initially shocked by the shear size of it, since neither of us had seen a three story thrift store. After making our way upstairs to the men's section, we spent the rest of our time there checking out the four full racks of perfectly organized t-shirt racks, which was another thing that was so awesome about this thrift store; the t-shirts were all sized and in color order, which once again, neither of us have seen.
So after purchasing some gems from Deseret, we crossed the street and walked up a block to Blindside Skateshop to check out what the shred seen was like in downtown Salt Lake, and let me tell you, it's awesome. Blindside carries a number of my favorite brands from Ashbury, to Airblaster, to Comune, not to mention they had a really cool layout with all their boards and bindings on a balcony overlooking the whole store. However, after spending $3 on some awesome t-shirts, we just couldn't bring ourselves to spend any money on the brand name stuff, so we decided it was time to head to my aunt and uncles.
After a quick call for directions and about a 10 minute drive, we arrived at their awesome log cabin style house. We were a little late for dinner but they were kind enough to wait for us we all sat down and caught up over some delicious Wisconsin beer-cheese soup.
So after an intense hula-hoop lesson from my cousin (who is really good at it), I'm currently chillin in their newly refurbished basement before we play some good ol' family games and I pass out from the long day on the road. Hopefully I get to ride tomorrow, but either way it's going to be a great Thanksgiving. Peace.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Open Gym.
Last night I was finally able to participate in open gym at Excel Gymnastics in Riverside Plaza hear in Steamboat and it was awesome!
Excel has open gym every Monday and Thursday from 7pm until I think 9, but as my schedule worked out, I have class every Monday and Thursday night at 6pm. Lucky for me, my Monday night teacher was out of town for Thanksgiving, so I couldn't pass up this opportunity to go.
The night actually started with a little board tuning in the room, which I do not recommend because as we found out the hard way, it is quite frowned upon to wax your board or skis in your room. So after that was some quick dinner, then our friend Vince picked Bacon and I up at the dorms and the three of us along with Vince's friend from back home were off to Excel.
After a rough stop at Taco Bell where they messed up the order, we arrived at Excel a little after 7pm. They give you the option of paying for an hour or hour and a half session, and being that non of us were gymnasts and assumed we'd either get exhausted or hurt, we went with the hour. For students with a valid student ID, it is only $12 for an hour, or $18 for an hour and a half (I think it is $15 and $21 if you don't have a student ID).
Just so you know Vince did take some pictures so I will be posting those when I can but I don't have them just yet.
But anyway, the gym is awesome. They what I imagine is every gymnastics feature you could want, and a few of each for that matter. They have a long narrow trampoline that ends in a foam pit for practicing floor routines, as well as a spring board and a small square trampoline, both ending in a safe foam pit. We spent most of our time playing around on the tramp and spring board, doing handplants off the practice pommel horses and myself learning misty spins.
In addition to all that fun, we played around on the big floor trampoline for a little bit before it started crowding up. Open gym really wasn't crowded overall, but the majority of people were on the big trampoline.
After our hour was up I was definitely tired, but it was so much fun that I think I could for sure stay for the full hour and a half. Unfortunately, I have class again every Monday and Thursday, so I probably won't get to go again until next semester, but I guess it will just be something else to look forward too.
But now I have to finish packing for my adventure to Park City, Utah to visit some relatives for Thanksgiving, so be sure to check back soon to hear about the trip. Peace.
Excel has open gym every Monday and Thursday from 7pm until I think 9, but as my schedule worked out, I have class every Monday and Thursday night at 6pm. Lucky for me, my Monday night teacher was out of town for Thanksgiving, so I couldn't pass up this opportunity to go.
The night actually started with a little board tuning in the room, which I do not recommend because as we found out the hard way, it is quite frowned upon to wax your board or skis in your room. So after that was some quick dinner, then our friend Vince picked Bacon and I up at the dorms and the three of us along with Vince's friend from back home were off to Excel.
After a rough stop at Taco Bell where they messed up the order, we arrived at Excel a little after 7pm. They give you the option of paying for an hour or hour and a half session, and being that non of us were gymnasts and assumed we'd either get exhausted or hurt, we went with the hour. For students with a valid student ID, it is only $12 for an hour, or $18 for an hour and a half (I think it is $15 and $21 if you don't have a student ID).
Just so you know Vince did take some pictures so I will be posting those when I can but I don't have them just yet.
But anyway, the gym is awesome. They what I imagine is every gymnastics feature you could want, and a few of each for that matter. They have a long narrow trampoline that ends in a foam pit for practicing floor routines, as well as a spring board and a small square trampoline, both ending in a safe foam pit. We spent most of our time playing around on the tramp and spring board, doing handplants off the practice pommel horses and myself learning misty spins.
In addition to all that fun, we played around on the big floor trampoline for a little bit before it started crowding up. Open gym really wasn't crowded overall, but the majority of people were on the big trampoline.
After our hour was up I was definitely tired, but it was so much fun that I think I could for sure stay for the full hour and a half. Unfortunately, I have class again every Monday and Thursday, so I probably won't get to go again until next semester, but I guess it will just be something else to look forward too.
But now I have to finish packing for my adventure to Park City, Utah to visit some relatives for Thanksgiving, so be sure to check back soon to hear about the trip. Peace.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Summit County Shred.
Sorry for the lack of blogs recently but school hasn't been treating me too well time-wise, but I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you about the magic that's been happening in Summit County, CO. Over the past couple of weeks, some friends and I have been riding in Summit, so I thought I'd give you the low down on some adventures some of us here at the Alpine Campus have been having.
Adventure #1:
The first time I got to ride in Summit this year was last Wednesday when Tyler, Eli, and I decided it was time that I got my Summit Pass and that we rode some early season park. We began the day bright and early (and I actually mean bright and early, not just early for me) at 6:30am when Eli and I struggled to get ready in the dorms for Tyler to pick us up at 7. After arranging the boards in the front seat and cramming Eli and I into the back of Tyler's little Honda, we set off to ride.
The drive went very smoothly with a quick stop at McDonald's for some grub. Once we got there, I prepared myself for the huge hit to my bank account I was about to take. Even though $420 is a crazy good deal for getting unlimited riding at Keystone, Breckenridge, and A-Basin, I still don't enjoy spending that much money at one... but it's definitely worth it.
It felt great to finally be able to take a gondola up and take some actually long runs at a mountain again, not to mention Keystone has arguably the best park in Colorado. Unfortunately for us, the high schools in the area had this particular Wednesday off of school for Veteran's Day, so the mountain quickly became very, very crowded. After realizing just how many people were pouring into the lift line, we debated for a bit on what to do, and decided to go ride at A-Basin, which is only a few miles down the rode from Keystone and is covered by our Summit Passes.
This proved to be a very good idea. As we pulled in to the parking lot with a clear view of the lift, we could instantly tell we made the right choice just by the barely existent lift line. I will admit, A-Basin's park is very small, but still has some fun features that we lapped all day, and most definitely got more runs in than if we stayed at Keystone. So after an awesome day, we called it quits, grubbed at Burger King, and headed back to the Boat so Tyler could go to class and Eli could go to work.
Adventure #2:
The following Friday was our round 2 on Summit County, with high hopes it would be as fun as Wednesday... and it was. This time it was just Tyler and I who went since Eli was already in Summit with some friends of his, and thankfully we did not start out quite as early as the time before. Also, we had Tyler's Subaru this time, so needless to say we had a bit more room in the car.
The original plan was ride Keystone, since we figured a ton of people would still be in school and at work on a Friday, but unfortunately the parking was almost as full as Veterans Day. Upon seeing this, and remembering how much fun we had a A-Basin, we decided to head there again, and once again we were not disappointed to see short lift lines.
On this trip to A-Bay, we decided to head to the top, since they have a two chair lift open so people can take a run all the way down. This ended up being a very poor idea. The day was already pretty cold, and as soon as we started up the lift, the wind increased heavily and it felt like the temperature immediately dropped. Below is a little video intro we recorded while we were at the top to give you a better idea of the cold.
And as I said in the video, I did a little filming a Tyler riding as well as him filming me so here's a couple quick videos of us buttering our way down to the park.
Despite the cold the day ended up great, and the craziest part ended up being the drive home. Towards the end of the day, it started snowing pretty heavily, so needless to say the roads weren't the greatest for the drive. On the way, we saw a car go flying off the road, over a ditch, and through a barbwire fence, another car whose back-end was pretty much completely gone, and on top of that, we had a deer jump out in front of us, slip all over the ice and flop around for a bit, and end up taking off to the other side of the road. Thankfully for us and the deer, we saw them early so Tyler was driving very slowly and didn't end up hitting it. After that the drive was smooth until we got to Rabbit Ears Pass when we realized the roads were one solid sheet of ice. We ended up in a line of cars going at most 20 mph following a semi, but we had no problem with that since it was better than sliding off the road. So we eventually made it back to The Boat, ready for another adventure to Summit.
Adventure #3:
Just yesterday was my most recent adventure into Summit County for some shred. This time, Tyler, Eli, and I went with my roommate Bacon and his friend from back home Adrian. Adrian is on his way to Big Sky to work for Boyne Sports, so he made a weekend stop in Steamboat to hang out with Bacon and ride some Colorado mountains.
It all kicked off with some breakfast at the cafeteria and then cramming into Adrian's Forester for the drive. I slept for pretty much the whole ride so I assume it went smoothly. When we arrived, there was not a cloud in the sky, so we all geared up, getting more excited to ride. We saw a couple friends from CMC on the bus from the parking to the mountain which was pretty cool, and when we got to the base, we were stoked to see virtually no lift lines, so we could tell it was going to be a good day.
After a few laps through the park and down the long run they have open at Copper, we ended up having a rail session with some other students from CMC. Needless to say, a ton of students who are jonzing to ride at Steamboat spend their weekends riding somewhere in Summit County.
So after a long but really fun day in the park, we packed up the car once again, and headed out. On the way back, we stopped at a thrift store for ski and snowboard gear called Recycled Ski and Sport that Bacon had been telling us about for weeks, and it ended up being as awesome as he said it was. I bought a $200 Cappel jacket for only $50 because it had a couple rips and stains on it, so I was super stoked. After that, we grubbed out at the Safeway next door, and made the drive back to Steamboat. Once again, I slept the whole ride, but we made it back in one piece so I assume it went smoothly.
And there you have it, hopefully this gave you a little glimpse of the fun to be had all over Colorado and that it made you want to come to school out here even more. Peace.
Adventure #1:
The first time I got to ride in Summit this year was last Wednesday when Tyler, Eli, and I decided it was time that I got my Summit Pass and that we rode some early season park. We began the day bright and early (and I actually mean bright and early, not just early for me) at 6:30am when Eli and I struggled to get ready in the dorms for Tyler to pick us up at 7. After arranging the boards in the front seat and cramming Eli and I into the back of Tyler's little Honda, we set off to ride.
The drive went very smoothly with a quick stop at McDonald's for some grub. Once we got there, I prepared myself for the huge hit to my bank account I was about to take. Even though $420 is a crazy good deal for getting unlimited riding at Keystone, Breckenridge, and A-Basin, I still don't enjoy spending that much money at one... but it's definitely worth it.
It felt great to finally be able to take a gondola up and take some actually long runs at a mountain again, not to mention Keystone has arguably the best park in Colorado. Unfortunately for us, the high schools in the area had this particular Wednesday off of school for Veteran's Day, so the mountain quickly became very, very crowded. After realizing just how many people were pouring into the lift line, we debated for a bit on what to do, and decided to go ride at A-Basin, which is only a few miles down the rode from Keystone and is covered by our Summit Passes.
This proved to be a very good idea. As we pulled in to the parking lot with a clear view of the lift, we could instantly tell we made the right choice just by the barely existent lift line. I will admit, A-Basin's park is very small, but still has some fun features that we lapped all day, and most definitely got more runs in than if we stayed at Keystone. So after an awesome day, we called it quits, grubbed at Burger King, and headed back to the Boat so Tyler could go to class and Eli could go to work.
Adventure #2:
The following Friday was our round 2 on Summit County, with high hopes it would be as fun as Wednesday... and it was. This time it was just Tyler and I who went since Eli was already in Summit with some friends of his, and thankfully we did not start out quite as early as the time before. Also, we had Tyler's Subaru this time, so needless to say we had a bit more room in the car.
The original plan was ride Keystone, since we figured a ton of people would still be in school and at work on a Friday, but unfortunately the parking was almost as full as Veterans Day. Upon seeing this, and remembering how much fun we had a A-Basin, we decided to head there again, and once again we were not disappointed to see short lift lines.
On this trip to A-Bay, we decided to head to the top, since they have a two chair lift open so people can take a run all the way down. This ended up being a very poor idea. The day was already pretty cold, and as soon as we started up the lift, the wind increased heavily and it felt like the temperature immediately dropped. Below is a little video intro we recorded while we were at the top to give you a better idea of the cold.
And as I said in the video, I did a little filming a Tyler riding as well as him filming me so here's a couple quick videos of us buttering our way down to the park.
Despite the cold the day ended up great, and the craziest part ended up being the drive home. Towards the end of the day, it started snowing pretty heavily, so needless to say the roads weren't the greatest for the drive. On the way, we saw a car go flying off the road, over a ditch, and through a barbwire fence, another car whose back-end was pretty much completely gone, and on top of that, we had a deer jump out in front of us, slip all over the ice and flop around for a bit, and end up taking off to the other side of the road. Thankfully for us and the deer, we saw them early so Tyler was driving very slowly and didn't end up hitting it. After that the drive was smooth until we got to Rabbit Ears Pass when we realized the roads were one solid sheet of ice. We ended up in a line of cars going at most 20 mph following a semi, but we had no problem with that since it was better than sliding off the road. So we eventually made it back to The Boat, ready for another adventure to Summit.
Adventure #3:
Just yesterday was my most recent adventure into Summit County for some shred. This time, Tyler, Eli, and I went with my roommate Bacon and his friend from back home Adrian. Adrian is on his way to Big Sky to work for Boyne Sports, so he made a weekend stop in Steamboat to hang out with Bacon and ride some Colorado mountains.
It all kicked off with some breakfast at the cafeteria and then cramming into Adrian's Forester for the drive. I slept for pretty much the whole ride so I assume it went smoothly. When we arrived, there was not a cloud in the sky, so we all geared up, getting more excited to ride. We saw a couple friends from CMC on the bus from the parking to the mountain which was pretty cool, and when we got to the base, we were stoked to see virtually no lift lines, so we could tell it was going to be a good day.
After a few laps through the park and down the long run they have open at Copper, we ended up having a rail session with some other students from CMC. Needless to say, a ton of students who are jonzing to ride at Steamboat spend their weekends riding somewhere in Summit County.
So after a long but really fun day in the park, we packed up the car once again, and headed out. On the way back, we stopped at a thrift store for ski and snowboard gear called Recycled Ski and Sport that Bacon had been telling us about for weeks, and it ended up being as awesome as he said it was. I bought a $200 Cappel jacket for only $50 because it had a couple rips and stains on it, so I was super stoked. After that, we grubbed out at the Safeway next door, and made the drive back to Steamboat. Once again, I slept the whole ride, but we made it back in one piece so I assume it went smoothly.
And there you have it, hopefully this gave you a little glimpse of the fun to be had all over Colorado and that it made you want to come to school out here even more. Peace.
A Weekend of Boot Fitting.
Here at Colorado Mountain College, there are a lot of courses, many in the Ski and Snowboard Business Program, that include a weekend lab once during the semester along with the weekly lectures. This past weekend was my lab for Accelerated Boot Fitting. I would have written about this earlier but this week has been pretty hectic with homework, tests, and a trip to Keystone on Wednesday (which I will definitely be blogging about shortly).
Day 1: Insoles
The lab started bright and early at 9am Friday morning. During the lecture times on Mondays from 1-3, we have begun making our custom insoles using various materials and techniques. Each student had at least one pair of insoles started going into the lab, so a lot of the first day was spent working on those, and starting new ones. On top of that, Tim had a couple brief lectures refreshing us on how to use some of the machines as well as the techniques for getting the foot in the best position for riding. We got a break for lunch from 12-1, and even though we were scheduled to be in the lab until 5:50pm, we were done with what we were working on by 4:30.
Day 2: Liner Alterations
A huge part of boot, bigger than making your customers custom insoles, is making adjustments to their ski or snowboard boot so that they are as comfortable as possible. On day 2, we learned a number of ways to make the liners of ski boots fit all different shapes and sizes of feet. Through heating and using a small hydraulic press, we were able to stretch certain areas of the liner to fit wide feet or longer toes, as well as remove material or add material to accommodate the foot sizes. Between projects we were also able to keep working on our insoles, since we will each have three pairs by the end of the semester.
Day 3: Shell Alterations/Alignment
Sunday, the final day of the lab, consisted of quite a few different projects. Some people finished up working on liners from the day before, while others began doing similar alterations to the shell of ski boots. On top of stretching the plastic like in the liners, we had to remove material using dremel tools to grind it away, cut V's into the inner plastic to increase the flex of the boot as well as add rivets to stiffen the boot, and also remove and replace buckles, which turned out to be the hardest part. The shell adjustments took quite awhile, so at the end of the day, we touched on how to properly align a skier in the boot, and what to do to correct bad alignments, and then called it day.
I only ended up finishing two of my insoles by the end of the lab, but I have the rest of the semester to finish up the last one so there's plenty of time. It was definitely an overall fun and interesting weekend lab, and especially worthwhile if you're looking to work in a shop that does boot fitting. This Monday, we plan on visiting Surefoot where Tim used to work to check out the machines and techniques they use, as well as hear from professionals what its like working in a custom boot fitting shop, so it should be a pretty fun class on Monday. Peace.
Day 1: Insoles
The lab started bright and early at 9am Friday morning. During the lecture times on Mondays from 1-3, we have begun making our custom insoles using various materials and techniques. Each student had at least one pair of insoles started going into the lab, so a lot of the first day was spent working on those, and starting new ones. On top of that, Tim had a couple brief lectures refreshing us on how to use some of the machines as well as the techniques for getting the foot in the best position for riding. We got a break for lunch from 12-1, and even though we were scheduled to be in the lab until 5:50pm, we were done with what we were working on by 4:30.
Day 2: Liner Alterations
A huge part of boot, bigger than making your customers custom insoles, is making adjustments to their ski or snowboard boot so that they are as comfortable as possible. On day 2, we learned a number of ways to make the liners of ski boots fit all different shapes and sizes of feet. Through heating and using a small hydraulic press, we were able to stretch certain areas of the liner to fit wide feet or longer toes, as well as remove material or add material to accommodate the foot sizes. Between projects we were also able to keep working on our insoles, since we will each have three pairs by the end of the semester.
Day 3: Shell Alterations/Alignment
Sunday, the final day of the lab, consisted of quite a few different projects. Some people finished up working on liners from the day before, while others began doing similar alterations to the shell of ski boots. On top of stretching the plastic like in the liners, we had to remove material using dremel tools to grind it away, cut V's into the inner plastic to increase the flex of the boot as well as add rivets to stiffen the boot, and also remove and replace buckles, which turned out to be the hardest part. The shell adjustments took quite awhile, so at the end of the day, we touched on how to properly align a skier in the boot, and what to do to correct bad alignments, and then called it day.
I only ended up finishing two of my insoles by the end of the lab, but I have the rest of the semester to finish up the last one so there's plenty of time. It was definitely an overall fun and interesting weekend lab, and especially worthwhile if you're looking to work in a shop that does boot fitting. This Monday, we plan on visiting Surefoot where Tim used to work to check out the machines and techniques they use, as well as hear from professionals what its like working in a custom boot fitting shop, so it should be a pretty fun class on Monday. Peace.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Poach Session.
Don't worry I don't mean poach as in poaching animals, I mean it the going on the mountain at night to take a run way.
Steamboat mountain has been blowing snow around the base of the mountain for quite some time now, but since we all were going up to Buff Pass, none of us had the idea to ride Steamboat yet. Since Buff is now inaccessible because of tons of snow and apparently a fallen tree (I haven't seen it for myself), some of us have been wanting to keep riding without having to drive two hours and pay $40. This is where the idea came from.
My friend Tyler and I both purchased skis and boots for $10 total (skis $1, boots $9) at the Ski Swap that was held at the Steamboat Elementary school about a month ago. Needless to say, we have been jonezing to ride them. Then yesterday, as we were taking in Bristol Hall with an epic view of the mountain out the window next to us, Tyler came out of nowhere with, "Let's go ski Steamboat tonight." Our friend Vince who was also with us thought this was a hilarious idea and said he would love to come with. After that I headed up to the library where I ran into fellow blogger Bobbie Jo and told her of our planned adventure and she was in too. Our crew was set.
After a day full of homework and resume finalizing to mail out to some back-up companies for SIA, I was more than ready to ride when the time rolled around. Tyler picked me up around 11:30pm to head to his place and get this adventure started. As a side note, we ended up going to the Meadows parking lot near the mountain where Tyler tried to teach my how to drive stick. It went pretty well but I have a long ways to go.
Anyway, after that, we met up with Bobbie Jo and Vince at one of the hotel parking lots up in Ski Time Square to get all our gear on and figure out the hike up to the snow. First, hiking in ski boots is awful, just awful. On top of that, we realized there is a dirt road we could have driven all the way up to the snow but we failed to realize this until we were a ways into the hike so we weren't about to turn around.
I have ridden man-made snow plenty of times in Minnesota, but not at midnight. This snow was wicked icy, lumpy, and full of weird trenches. Needless to say, being the inexperienced skiers that Tyler and I are, it was a bit tricky. We got it down pretty well, and I even hit a small kicker we found on one of the many rollers.
After we finally made it all the way down (which took about an hour), we had to make the trek back to the car. Thankfully the hike back was way easier, although it was still pretty rough in ski boots. By the time we made it back to the car, we were all exhausted and getting off the ski boots proved to be almost harder than hiking in them. So we drove off, feeling completely accomplished and stoked on what we just did.
I took a couple videos of this endeavor but unfortunately it was very dark so you might not be able to see to much but nonetheless, try to enjoy.
This first one is when we were at the start of our run looking down the icy slope.
This next video a glimpse at Tyler's first attempts at skiing in his life.
This final video is Vince throwing a 180 off one of the kickers we found.
So there you have it, hopefully you can kind of see these videos but that is a taste of some of the shenanigans you can enjoy when living near a mountain. Peace.
Steamboat mountain has been blowing snow around the base of the mountain for quite some time now, but since we all were going up to Buff Pass, none of us had the idea to ride Steamboat yet. Since Buff is now inaccessible because of tons of snow and apparently a fallen tree (I haven't seen it for myself), some of us have been wanting to keep riding without having to drive two hours and pay $40. This is where the idea came from.
My friend Tyler and I both purchased skis and boots for $10 total (skis $1, boots $9) at the Ski Swap that was held at the Steamboat Elementary school about a month ago. Needless to say, we have been jonezing to ride them. Then yesterday, as we were taking in Bristol Hall with an epic view of the mountain out the window next to us, Tyler came out of nowhere with, "Let's go ski Steamboat tonight." Our friend Vince who was also with us thought this was a hilarious idea and said he would love to come with. After that I headed up to the library where I ran into fellow blogger Bobbie Jo and told her of our planned adventure and she was in too. Our crew was set.
After a day full of homework and resume finalizing to mail out to some back-up companies for SIA, I was more than ready to ride when the time rolled around. Tyler picked me up around 11:30pm to head to his place and get this adventure started. As a side note, we ended up going to the Meadows parking lot near the mountain where Tyler tried to teach my how to drive stick. It went pretty well but I have a long ways to go.
Anyway, after that, we met up with Bobbie Jo and Vince at one of the hotel parking lots up in Ski Time Square to get all our gear on and figure out the hike up to the snow. First, hiking in ski boots is awful, just awful. On top of that, we realized there is a dirt road we could have driven all the way up to the snow but we failed to realize this until we were a ways into the hike so we weren't about to turn around.
I have ridden man-made snow plenty of times in Minnesota, but not at midnight. This snow was wicked icy, lumpy, and full of weird trenches. Needless to say, being the inexperienced skiers that Tyler and I are, it was a bit tricky. We got it down pretty well, and I even hit a small kicker we found on one of the many rollers.
After we finally made it all the way down (which took about an hour), we had to make the trek back to the car. Thankfully the hike back was way easier, although it was still pretty rough in ski boots. By the time we made it back to the car, we were all exhausted and getting off the ski boots proved to be almost harder than hiking in them. So we drove off, feeling completely accomplished and stoked on what we just did.
I took a couple videos of this endeavor but unfortunately it was very dark so you might not be able to see to much but nonetheless, try to enjoy.
This first one is when we were at the start of our run looking down the icy slope.
This next video a glimpse at Tyler's first attempts at skiing in his life.
This final video is Vince throwing a 180 off one of the kickers we found.
So there you have it, hopefully you can kind of see these videos but that is a taste of some of the shenanigans you can enjoy when living near a mountain. Peace.
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