When will it end?

Since opening day on December 12th 2009, we have 24 days of boarding in this season. 24 days of riding snow in all its conditions, REAL powder at -5 below zero, rain soaked slush at 40 above and everything in between (Colorado doesn't count, as that was a solo trip). My body is starting to feel it and I'm wondering where all the weekends have gone but its still going to be a shock when it all ends with the inevitable spring thaw. Last years abrupt ending sucked, one of the instructors I work with remarked "the slopes closed on my birthday, I lost my hobby, hanging with my friends and my job all on the same day". Great present. God knows last years early closure depressed the hell out of me too, I guess I'm just gonna have to get back on the bike and ride it out of my system. The Beach boys wanted an "endless summer", I,m thinking endless winter.

Un-Bike related ponderings

Gotta love the Winter Olympics, and more importantly Snow sports in general, and even more specifically, Snow Boarding. I can almost identify with the singlespeed 29er crowd in mountain biking, as boarding always seemed to me, to be the "fringe" outcasts doing their own thing and re-inventing how to ride the snow. Big pants, big coats, big risks, hiding behind gangsta bandanas and the obligatory Oakley's, throwing themselves off cliffs just for the flight time and basically living large. As boarding becomes "mainstream" (forgive me for using that term because I'm employed to do just that every weekend) theres a part of me that would like to hold on to its origins. A little childish I know, but seeing boarders in tight sponsor laden spandex is akin to watching a NASCAR driver change hats six times during the victory interview *YUCK* Case in point is Lindsay Jacobellis, I'll let you google that one cause the first thing you're gonna read is how she showboated herself out of a gold medal in '06 while heading to the finish line. If you saw her DQ last night out of the medal round, I couldn't help but feel extremely sad for her cause the first thing thrown in her face is the 06 fiasco. I'll make a bet that some of her most vehement critics have NEVER ratcheted a set of bindings to their boot and made one F***KING turn on a board let alone raced one against the best in the world. I would have jumped from the couch in tears of joy had she won, styled it with a grab and given the media two fist fulls of middle finger while sliding across the line. A small and not too subtle reminder that just because boarding has made it all the way to the Olympics does NOT mean its nearly as civilized and tame as its apres ski cousins sipping a 1996 Bordeaux bistro style slopeside. Maybe 2014 for Lindsay, maybe never, maybe it really doesn't matter. She'll still be riding while all the couch surfing potato's sneer at what they'll never understand. Its not about them.

Trippin

Welcome to Copper Mountain Colorado, we'll be cruising at an altitude of 12,000 feet this afternoon down to 8,000 feet by this evening. Todays weather is perfect sunshine, no wind and fresh powder from last nights 4 inches. Your quads will scream bloody murder as the runs are 20 times longer and steeper than you've experienced so far this year. I highly recommend trying the double black runs down the Union bowl, how in the hell can moguls get made on a 45 degree slope? Why in the hell would you want to try and snowboard down them? Why not? This is the view from the top of Coppers 22 foot tall "SUPERPIPE". I told myself I am not in the least interested in this feature. Why should I risk it? Hell I'm still nursing a couple of cracked ribs from 4 weeks ago. I don't have a helmet either. My skilz don't qualify. My right rotator cuff may be damaged beyond repair. Missus Brakeville strongly suggested I DO NOT ATTEMPT!!!! So I didn't do it (at least not the FIRST day) By the second day the overwhelming urge to add to my list of injuries was TOO great. First run down was sweet, I noticed that TV does NOT do justice to just how HARD the surface is (note to self, make sure your edges are tuned BEFORE you try this again). A couple of lame 180's is all I could throw, but I was unscathed and grinning. Now lets hit it with some AMPLITUDE, needless to say most of the swelling in my left wrist is gone already! I did recover my hat, glasses, goggles and camera after the dizzy spell went away. I'm sure the onlookers were entertained and the results of my second run may have persuaded those contemplating a go at the pipe to avoid injury as well, so it was kind of a public safety visual aid that may have saved lives. Hmmm, I wonder if Snowstar will let me build a mini-pipe there :)