I’ve been back from New Zealand for a couple of days now. I’m not terribly jet lagged which is good. I do want to return to that fine country as soon as I can.
For now I’ll just have to make due with pictures from the trip.
Sometimes you get your wires crossed. You keep working but you feel like it could be better. For the last three weeks or so I’ve just been telling myself “red is positive, black is ground.” It’s all about keeping my head together, getting progress made on the project I’m on, and generally not screwing up until I get to go on vacation.
In a few days time I’ll be winging my way back to New Zealand for another snowboarding vacation. This time Keith and I will be joined by Cortney, Mark, and Ben. I’m looking forward to meeting Ben (he’s back at Blue Sky) and the other people on the trip. We’ll have our friend Mani as an instructor again so that should be a hoot.
I’ve put wax on the snowboard. I found the NZ power plug adapter. I’ve gotten everything I need for the trip. Now I just have to work on not exploding before I get out of here. I’m getting so excited to go because this will be a good stretch of time off and then I’ll come back and jump back into my project at work. I only wish more friends could have joined us on the trip, that would surely make the time feel like it’s going slower.
The flight is 12.5 hours or so. I’m kind of looking forward to it. Hopefully I’ll sleep most of the way and kind of use it as a decompression time. I’ll post updates if I can and for sure once I’m back. Until then you can see a smattering of the pics from our 2005 trip.
The snow levels in Tahoe this year haven’t been that great. Over President’s weekend Keith, Cortney and I went up and had a pretty good time. We got to hang out with CB & Athena, Jason, Tom, and Bjorn. The best was going on that Monday to Kirkwood. We hiked out on the backside bowl and got some good snow and tree riding in.
This last weekend Keith and I went up to Kirkwood again and had a great time. There was more snow courtesy of a big storm and we ended up hiking three times out to get good stuff and tree riding.
I was really worn out and so tired by the last run that I ended up falling a few times, but such is life. Sunday we hit Squaw early and rode hard for a half day. The snow was good but like the end of the day on Saturday it started to get a little warm and snow was getting a little squishy.
I hope I can get a few more days in this year, but I’ve really got to start training for the AIDS/LifeCycle more.
Cabin Fever
This season a group of friends and I all got a cabin in Tahoe. On
Friday we started our lease and Keith and I went up to take possession
of the place. It was there and we got in without incident. We went
to the supermarket and got a few communal items for the place and
waited for everyone else that would be up that weekend to show up.
First up was Ken, the hard-booter. Then came Ian and his guests. We
chilled out, admired the cabin, and then eventually packed it in for
the night so we could get up early and go hit the snow.
And Then There Was Snow
We got up early and tried to get to Northstar early, but we were
stymied by Caltrans as they decided to make us use chains on CA-267
between Kings Beach and Northstar. The pisser of it was that chains
were totally unnecessary. That added so much time that we got there a
little late. Keith went on up the hill and Ian and I got our season
passes. We all met up on the hill at some point, but before that I
did some ridding on my own.
For some reason I was more nervous than when I went to New Zealand
about getting on the board again after a break. This time was much
better though. I got on and rode without a problem. I had so much
better board control than I’ve ever had before and turns just seemed
to come very naturally. The lessons I got in NZ from Alain and Mani
helped so much that I was able to give pointers to others in our group
and hopefully help them get better. I was even able to hit black runs
without any trepidation. Turning on steeps is now easy for me even if
I’m not yet very fast at it. Over all it was a fantastic day
of riding and the snow was really good.
Zee Quads, Zey Burn!
Sunday found us getting to Squaw before the first lift. I was pretty
tired from the day before, but I strapped in and rode all the same.
We were there early enough and there were so few people we got about 7
or 8 long runs in the first hour. I was hitting the step sections
over at Lake Shirley all morning. At some point Keith and Ken went to
ride another area and I needed a break. I then soloed on Shirley and
Solitude runs for a while before I met up with them again. By then my
quads (thighs) were burning on the steep sections. So much so that I
was slowing down and not being as effective as I could have been. The
solution to that is to crouch lower, but that just burns it more.
After a bit Keith, Ken and I headed over to Gold Coast and just rode
the more mellow runs which were easier on the muscles until we rode
all the way down to the village. For a half day we got a lot of
riding in. It was pretty much a full day for us.
We then headed back to the cabin, cleaned, shoveled the front deck
(way more work than we wanted to do), showered and hit the road early.
I’m glad we got the cabin, I can’t wait to get up there again, but
first I have to move to my new apartment. More on that later.
Keith and I, wanting to snowboard a lot more this upcoming season,
searched out a house in the Lake Tahoe area. We found one in the
City area. It’s a nice place and so far the relator has been nice
to deal with. Now we just need to get everyone that was interested in
it before to confirm and we’re good to go.
I can’t wait for the season to start. We’ll have the house from
January through April and I know that I’ll get up there a lot more.
Not having to worry about finding or the cost of a hotel (which are
usually crappy) will be great.
At home my roommate got a
improve balance. It is a little tricky to get used to it at first (as
evidenced by two friends that have gotten on it and promptly fallen
off and onto the concrete floor in our place) and I used to put it on
a piece of carpet or a really thick towel to slow it down.
I didn’t use the board much in the last couple of months and this
weekend was the first time I got back on it since coming back from New
Zealand. I felt like my balance got better while riding in NZ but I
had nothing other than my rides on the
hold on to bolster that perception. Well, when I stepped up to the
Bongo Board this weekend on the concrete I was able to just balance on
it (centered and offset), roll it around, and keep from busting my
butt. I’m happy I have better balance now. Losing weight, a proper
stance, and more confidence on the slopes all contributed I’m sure.
Next, the
right?
Well, now some time has passed since the New Zealand trip and I
figured I should write a post wrapping up the actual snowboarding.
To say I was the most inexperienced rider in our group would be an
understatement the likes of which I’m not about to make. I was the
bottom of the barrel. Everyone else was good and confident and there
I was, the slowest one, falling coming off the lift and all. And to
think I thought I was decent going down there.
After the first
day I did feel more confident because I was doing boardslide spins
going downhill and I had ollied at least a couple of times. As the
days went on I got more comfortable with what Alain was instructing me
on and getting all that down as what I was supposed to be doing while
riding. The one thing I seemed to have a problem with was my arms.
Generally it’s a good idea to have them out and use them to balance.
Somewhere along the way I had picked up the bad habit of keeping them
at my side where they do no good. It took a couple of days, but I
finally broke myself of that habit without thinking of it.
Another bad habit I had was not bending my knees enough. I can’t
stress enough how much more control you have when your knees are bent.
Thankfully my bindings have highbacks that allow you to push them
forward so that they are pushing against the back of your boot. This
causes you to have more forward lean and thus more bend in your knees.
Dialing those in only took a day, but once I had them set I was
rocking on the bent knees.
I had never done any freestyle riding (terrain park with pipe,
kickers, boxes and rails) before and getting to do some showed me how
much more control over your board you learn by riding that way. You
begin to see how learning freestyle helps with freeriding in that you
take the natural bumps and jibs without batting an eye. On the
href=”http://danimal.org/SenorTaco/2005/08/18″>snow cat day there
were wind lips on a field as we came down. Thanks to hitting the much
bigger kickers and rollers at
href=”http://www.snowparknz.com/”>Snow Park I was totally ready
for them and did ollies off of them. I’m pretty sure I would have
just avoided them before the trip, but now I’ll be on the lookout for
things not in the park.
Speaking of park, I really want to go harder in the pipe now. After
watching myself on video in the pipe I was horrified that I barely got
to the halfway point on the wall. While I was riding I thought I was
getting pretty well on up the wall, but the video analysis later that
night shattered that myth.
I feel like the last thing to work on is my personal confidence level.
I was surprised at the steepness of slope I was hitting toward the end
of the trip and then actually quite ashamed of my performance on one
of the last days in Tahoe. We hit a steep icy slope and I did
everything wrong on getting down. I won’t be making that mistake
again thanks to Alain and Mani from
href=”http://www.accesstrips.com”>Access Trips.
So, I’ll work on my confidence and I’ll hit more park. I’ll also be
willing to try much steeper and more difficult routes now. On our
href=”http://danimal.org/SenorTaco/2005/08/19″>last day Alain and
I were sitting in the lodge and he said that he was really happy with
how far I had progressed. He also mentioned that he was surprised
that every bit of instruction he gave me I picked up on right away
(except, to me, the arms, but that was only a day or so, especially after
seeing the video of me not using them). That made me feel better and
want to push myself more. For those wanting to learn and have an
awesome time traveling I can’t recommend
href=”http://www.accesstrips.com/”>Access Trips more. The
instructors (all pro at one point) were amazing, patient, friendly,
and willing to work with you until you got it. They took questions,
they explained clearly, and they were great people both on and off the
hill. I’ll be keeping in touch with them as having them as friends is
the least that I would want.
I’ll get back to it this next season in Tahoe. For now I need to
repair my board and make sure all my gear is in good shape and then
riding will begin again in a few short months.
Well, this last weekend was my last trip for snowboarding in Tahoe
this season. I got twelve days of riding in this season starting in
January and I feel like I improved a lot. Unfortunately the last
month or so where I should have been improving the most I was plagued
by an ankle
injury that kept me from pushing too hard.
Keith and I went up on Saturday and rode at
season the backside was closed, but it was fun any way and the snow
was pretty good. We got a start on some high black runs that were
really icy and way too steep for my tastes that early in the morning.
I ended up skidding down most of it and then shakily getting down the
rest. After a few easier runs I had my confidence back. At that point
the snow also warmed up and started being less icy which was nice. At
one point I was doing well and coming down the run I
on when a skier turned right into me as I was moving away from a lift
pole. I had no choice but to turn toward the pole or collide with
him. I turned and then had trouble navigating so I didn’t hit the
pole and tweaked my ankle, again. It didn’t hurt as bad as it has in
the past and was fine by the next morning. I still got tired because
I was over-compensating with my quads for my ankle so we left a little
early and headed to South Lake Tahoe for the night.
Keith and I decided to check out a hotel that is owned and run by a
professional snowboarder, The
Block by Marc Frank Montoya. The setup was everything you’d
expect from a place that caters to snowboarders, from the music
playing in the courtyard to the DJ spinning in the lobby that night.
The rooms were equiped with board pegs, a boot/glove drier, and a
PS-2. Two things the room could have used were coat hooks either by
the board pegs or by the front door to hang our jackets on and some
way to hook an iPod (or other portable music player) to the boom box
in the room (we would have had our own speakers, but they were
non-functional when Keith got them on Friday). The Block is
definitely catering to a party crowd and on the particular night we
were there some of the other guests were up until about 4:30am. While
that normally wouldn’t bother me as I can sleep through most anything
the running around and banging on doors to get into rooms was a bit
annoying. If you want a quite place to stay (and I think they even
say this on the web site) you should go elsewhere. I think the rate
they charge for rooms is great though and I’ll be checking them out
next season. Oh yeah, and young woman working at the desk both days
was incredibly hot and very nice. Always a bonus and incentive to go
back for sure.
On Sunday we decided to go to Alpine
Meadows in North Lake Tahoe. The drive up from South Lake Tahoe
on CA-89 is amazing. I can see why the road closes easily, it’s a
winding and mountainous adventure, but well worth it for the views.
We started off the day on a lower course and while the snow was very
icy it was, as Keith put it, predictable because it was uniform. I
was pretty tentative on it because for me there is still a lot of new
snow conditions that I’ve never ridden on before and I feel not as
comfortable because I don’t want to fall (again with the tentative
nature due to injury). After that we took a chair up to the summit.
At the lift line there was a sign amongst the others that said
“Limited Visibility.” They were not kidding. We pretty much rode the
lift into a cloud and we could see maybe 50 feet out, but even then it
was really hard to make out any details. Once we were strapped in it
was hard to see where the drop off was. I took it slow again because
I really couldn’t see where I was going. By the time I got out from
the low visibility my quads were burning, but that got better as I
rode normally. We then noticed that Scott’s Chair was open and
decided to ride it up so we could get at some of the backside runs.
This is where things got sucky.
I didn’t know where I was going but I did know that parts of the
backside were closed and if I took a wrong turn I’d be hiking out.
Coming down a traverse I lost where Keith went and mis-judged my
position. I ended up biting an edge and slammed chest first into the
icy and hard lip of the traverse. As I lay there, wind knocked out of
me, I was witness to about a dozen people skiing by and not one
stopping to ask if I was okay. I eventually got moving and met up
with Keith. I wanted to keep going so we did about three more runs.
Unfortunately my confidence was shattered at that point and I kept
falling on traverses because I was being too tentative in my motion.
I fell once more getting off the lift when some dick had his ski pole
tips pointed straight at me with his back to the lift. I think that I
twisted my right knee a bit, but it didn’t really start hurting until
I got home. Keith and I made it a half-day and called an end to our
Tahoe season.
I will now rest up and then get back in the gym to prepare for
Zealand. Over all it was a great season. I learned how to
snowboard and I got a lot better than I thought I would. I feel like
I didn’t push myself enough at the end of the season, but I’d rather
have done what I did than injure myself more and not be able to go in
August. There are a lot of places I’d like to go back to in Tahoe,
green runs there,
of the more advanced runs I wasn’t able to do before, and maybe
also like to try Mammoth
next year, but we’ll have to make a long weekend out of it.
About three weeks ago I went to
first time. That was hard, falling, no visibility stuff.
Yesterday was as different as it could be. I actually got to ride a
little untracked powder right near a lift. It was about 300′ and the
only word I have for it is amazing. If I get anywhere near riding
like that on the
Zealand trip then I’ll be very happy.
The back side of Kirkwood was
closed the last two times we went up there but yesterday it opened for
the first time in a few days. The snow was great and Keith, Cortney,
and I rode some slightly tracked powder down and it was fantastic. I had
a lot of fun and only fell when I turned too hard (as if I was on a
groomed run). Doing that a couple of more times we decided it was time
to break for lunch. Cort had sprained her ankle and it was paining
her. I understood where she was coming from since my ankle was still
sore, but I decided to push on.
After lunch Martin, Keith and I went back to the backside and rode
some more powder, this time on a black. It wasn’t that steep and I
handled that aspect of it okay, but it was much more tracked up and
difficult to ride. At one point I got stuck in some deep powder
between some trees and I had to unstrap and walk out of it. Of
course, it being about knee deep sucked. I realized at that point
that I was really tired. I had hit a wall on my energy level and I
sucked at getting off the mountain, enough so I fell on some tracked
area and tweaked my ankle a bit. It started getting late in the day
(although the Daylight Saving Time extra sunlight was nice) and I
ended up calling that as my last run. Keith, Martin and I all headed
back to the front side. We got separated and I was on a run that I
didn’t realize led to a black. At that point I looked to my left and
there was a giant field of only slightly tracked powder separating me
from the blue run I had been aiming for. I rode the powder as far as
I could and then groomed down to the village. That was a fantastic
way to end the day.
All in all that was probably the best day of riding I’ve ever done. I
loved the powder and I only wish my ankle was at 100%. I’m glad that
with only ten days of riding I’ve progressed pretty far. I can now
ride with my friends (but not keep up just yet, but I think that’s
from the ankle). I look forward to seeing if we can get another day
or two in this season. With all this snow it’s certainly possible.
I forgot to mention earlier, this weekend I bought a waxing iron from
Bakoda (mostly because it was on sale
though), some wax and a scraper from
serious need of a waxing and we went ahead and did it that night. I
just followed
from snowboarding.about.com and it turned out great.
Keith said the new wax helped a lot and his board rode better. Now
I’m sure I’ll be doing this for friends from here on out. Snowboards,
skis, snowdecks, whathaveyou. Hmmm, that won’t be so bad, I’ll just
have to make them pay for or provide the wax. Next up, learning edge
tuning.
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