Winter is Here

Utah's winter has begun... I had just enough time to get to the snow line in Big Cottonwood Canyon and snap a picture.The good stuff, however, is a steady flow shots on the interwebs from Utah locals like the Provo brothers, Kyle Fischer and many more, shows this winter is off to a good start. Though I’m not holding my breath for another stellar winter like 10/11, I am optimistic about having a very average year. That is by no means disappointing after the lack of fluffy stuff in 2012. It’s actually not disappointing after any season, really, especially when you look at how hard the snow industry was hit by the dry 11/12 winter. I’m not going to pretend I have insider info about the industry or anything like that, but the news about Burton aborting Forum, Special Blend and FourSquare is a sobering reminder of the fragility of our beloved industry. If you’re a snowboarder, I know you get this rammed down your throat all that time, but it’s still not often enough; Buy local. If you’re as lucky as me and have awesome shops in your ‘hood, like Milo and Salty Peaks, shop at those places!

Anyhow, I can’t wait to get on the snow this season! I hope you’re getting the goods while, at least for today, I play cubicle jockey… 

Motivation

I just had a moderately deep conversation with one of my best friends; we'll call him Tom Jones. Anyhow, we just finished playing some of the lamest pick up basketball I've been involved with for a long time. There were a couple of kids there who are a lot younger and faster than us and they were douching out on levels difficult for human comprehension. They weren't even playing ball. Just grab-assing up and down the court like inbred cousins or something. That's kind of besides the point, but a little bit relevant as it led to Tom expressing that he should quit playing basketball. Now, I know this statement from Tom was 70% joking, but there was a look from Mr Jones I hadn't seen before. He really didn't want to be on the court at that moment.

That is a terrible yet magical place to be.

Where you realize you used to have something special that is now slipping away, and unless you make a change, you're gonna lose it completely. This is terrible because it sucks realizing that you, at one point in time, were invincible. The magic is when you use that gut-dropping feeling of shame, remorse, embarrassment or whatever the bad feeling is, to fuel your fire for change.

Tom Jones... I implore you; use the douches to motivate a change. Every time you want to do something that isn't going to propel you closer to where/what you want to be, remember the moment you experienced at basketball tonight. Use it to better yourself.

I've had several Tom Jones moments in my lifetime; some I wasted, some I took advantage of and leveraged change from them.

So I guess the moral of the story is: haters gonna hate... or something.

Since it's a snowboarding blog...

Why I Love Snowboarding

Almost 5 months since the last post... guess that's the nature of a snowboard blog. Anyhow, no fancy title for this one; I'm just going to explain why (at least I think why) I have so much passion for snowboarding. This post blew up into some sort of journal entry/weird blog-therapy session for me... ha ha. So now, real quickly I will explain why I love snowboarding; and over the next few weeks I will post the background on the experiences that granted me such passion for it.

Snowboarding is one of the first things that I stuck with. It didn't come naturally to me. I had to truly work my ass of to even learn how to link turns. I didn't get into it from watching 'Subjekt Haakonsen', or any other one of those films that premier each fall. I never really learned to skateboard. Maybe that means I'm not "core" or whatever, but I guarantee I have more fun on the mountain than a lot of those "core" riders. It was the first time I had started something that was outside of my comfort zone and followed it through to the point of I-don't-suck-at-it-anymore. The bruises, sweat, tears and frustration I poured into teaching myself have made me cherish every cliff drop, pow slash and park sesh I have the joy of experiencing. People call me crazy for going back the the sport that put me in the hospital for three days... they don't understand. As long as I can stand up, I'll be shredding.