iRide
Zaskoda’s Snowboarding Journal

I went to pick up the Custom from the shop this afternoon - which I will have to post about soon - and noticed the clothing store next door had gone out of business and was selling off all of their furnishings. I dropped in and, sure enough, they had a good piece of hardware to use as a snowboard rack. I’ve been trying to find something for a while. I’ve even considered building something from scratch. I’m rather handy, I just don’t have a lot of tools available. Anyway, I think this will do nicely. It’s not as space saving as I had hoped for, but the shiny chrome sure looks snazzy. (not really, I hate chrome, but whatever, I’m content)

I have enough hardware to hang a total of 6 boards and I currently own 4. In the photo, I only have 5 shelves setup. I’ll probably slide everything a bit closer together when I put the last shelf bar on. So, the quiver, from top to bottom:

• 2001 Kemper Storm 156 w/Kemper bindings
• 2005 Burton Custom 162 w/Burton Cartel bindings (not shown)
• 2007 Arbor Mystic 154 w/Burton Cartel bindings
• 2008 Forum Seeker Pro Devun Walsh w/Burton Mission bindings (impulse buy, I’ll have to post an explanation later)

I intended to check out Echo Mountain Park yesterday, but I didn’t make it until today. The park is very small and focused just on park style terrain. The snow seemed mostly man made and rather hard packed. The jumps were nicely groomed and the view was spectacular.

I only tried one box in the park and busted my shins pretty hard. I’ve got a bit of a knot on the left one. I’m thinking of ordering some impact shorts soon. I worked a couple of jumps and managed to build up some height and confidence - but I never felt comfortable enough to go for the 180. I’m still struggling with posture. I tend to lean over instead of compressing my knees. I found on the jumps where I focused on good knee compression, the landings were amazingly soft and sweet. A couple of times I got sloppy and stiff legged it - those were so soft and sweet.

I didn’t ride at all yesterday. It was a day full of errands and such. I dropped the damaged Burton Custom off at the shop. They say they can patch it up for $20. We’ll see what I get back on Wednesday. I’ll post before/after photos along with some story details.

73 days left…

I kept hearing great things about Copper Mountain, especially from my friend Adam. I finally got a chance to check it out yesterday with a few folks from DS (Lynn, Ray, and Jeff). The mountain is indeed awesome. In the course of one day we played in the children’s terrain park (small rails and boxes), the medium terrain park (intermediate jumps), their full sized park (holy crap), and their super pipe. For the first time, I rode up the walls of a pipe and kinda started to get a feel for it. The pipe puzzles me. Anyway, we also explored some very fine trees and spend a lot of time playing in a “double black diamon extreme” area on the back side of the mountain. I rode down a chute that was too narrow to carve at the top - that was a rush. I managed to wreck my powder board by trying to kick off of a snow covered rock. Turns out, the snow wasn’t so well packed and my nose bored right into the side of the rock - sending me into a full mid-air cart wheel. They said it looked amazing. We also found a nice drop off of a rock ledge that was probably around 8 foot high.

I’m trying to get dressed and out the door today to go play at Echo Mountain Park. It’s supposed to be much closer to me than the resorts I frequent; however, it’s also supposed to be nothing but a terrain park. I’d like to go check it out and see for myself. I really need to work on some ground tricks and get better and compressing my landings off of jumps.

74 days left…

This past weekend I took off with Tina and Laura and met up with a big group of friends in Dillon. Saturday evening, we went night riding at Keystone for a few hours, giving me my 24th day. Then, on Sunday, nine of us headed up to Breck. As the day progressed, we split into smaller and smaller groups until I was riding with my friend Jeff. We’re close to the same level and we both like to explore so we tend to push each other. I have to admit, Sunday was the hardest riding day I’ve had so far this season. When I woke up Monday morning, I was feeling wonderfully used up.

Sunday was also the first time I’ve played in a park this season. I toyed around on a 1/4 pipe and really didn’t get a feel for it. I also hit some smaller rollers a few times through the park. Not having jumped anything of significance, I expected to wipe out immediately. I landed 8 jumps without fail. I think I need to step up to some larger jumps next time out… or start working on some rotations.

Sunday night we waited for a couple of hours to eat. The football game was on so people weren’t leaving their tables when they were done. Frustrated, we left and found another place to dine. We had our choice between cooking our own steaks on their massive public grill or getting all-you-can-eat prime rib. I went for the pre-cooked option as I was starving by the time we got there. My dinner included one run at the salad bar followed by nothing but meat. I only got a single serving, and I wasn’t able to finish that off. I shot of my plate is here on flickr. I tasted every bit as good as it looks. If only I had four stomaches.

I’m not sure how I’m going to get in the rest of my days this season; but hopefully I’ll squeeze three more out this weekend. Wish me luck!

75 days left…

What a great day! My friends Scott, Dana, Ross, and Jojo flew up from Dallas to go snowboarding at Winter Park for 3 days. Unfortunately, because of work, I was only able to ride with them for one day. That one day was one of the best days of the season so far. There was a lot of powder and extremely good weather. I had a blast ripping down some of the less groomed runs on the back side of Marry Jane. I also really enjoyed seeing my friends. I haven’t seen Scott and Dana in at least a year. Scott got back on the snowboard this trip and was picking it back up very quickly. Ross finally got a chance to try out his brand new set of K2 skis. The last time I saw Dana ski was before I started snowboarding! And Jojo had her first ever ski experience. I think the most fun we had OFF of the mountain had to be the “build your own 6-pack” experience at total beverage. They were like kids in a candy store.

Here it is, already 9 days into January and I’m not getting my riding days in. This was my first and only day on the slopes this year. This does not make me happy. We’re crunching hard at work, trying to finish up the next revision of Gaia.com. The next iteration is going to be significant and - in theory - it will be online next week. Hopefully, once this revision rolls out the door, I’ll see some more significant time on the slopes.

77 days left…

Our weather patterns in the US are all kinds of crazy right now. There are 3 separate storms blowing in off of the west coast. We just had a front move through that brought freezing temperatures all the way to Florida. It sounds like the west cost is in for a pounding this weekend. We’re expecting more snow through the weekend and into the middle of next week. I love the snow; but I’m hoping it doesn’t get as bitter cold as it was a week ago.

The craziest thing is the current temperature distribution. It’s warmer here in Denver,CO than it is down in Houston, TX. It’s really nice here right now. I suppose that makes up for the -26 wind chill (in the mountains) I just went through. Anyway, I’m going to be up boarding this weekend and it looks like the temps are going to hold in the 30’s. I think it might make for some nice weather.