iRide
Zaskoda’s Snowboarding Journal

I’m writing this post while sick. I think I pushed myself a little too hard. Day 35 was pretty tough on me. The following day (Sunday) I tried to recover. Near the end of the day, I noticed my throat was a tad sore. Hoping for the best, I still joined my coworkers for a Monday on Copper Mountain. I have to admit, the conditions were near epic. I would have hated myself for having missed it. We had 10+ inches of fresh snow and it snowed most of the day. The front of the mountain was fairly tracked out; but the back bowls were still amazing.

I felt the burn after the first run of the day. I knew I wasn’t up to par before we even started riding. Still, we took several runs down the front before heading to the back. Kris and Jason were eager to hike up over the ridge so Travis and I followed. As Travis filmed Kris and Jason dropping into the back bowl, I laid face first on the snow gasping for my life.

We broke for lunch and I had trouble getting warmed back up. I used the blow driers in the bathroom to help warm up. After some food and coffee, I was able to head out with Travis for one more run.

Once I got home, I squeezed in a hot bath and went straight to bed. I headed to work the next morning (yesterday) and tried my best to be productive. I didn’t feel all that bad and hoped the worst was behind me. This morning, I was hurting. I had a fever off and on all night. My eyes ached. My nose and throat felt raw and inflamed. I couldn’t stand for very long without getting light headed. I didn’t make it into the office today.

I’m feeling much better this evening - I hope I feel even better tomorrow morning. My 36th day was hard earned and I’m still paying. Still, it marks a very special base goal!!! I have officially doubled the total number of days I’ve gone snowboarding. My next goal is to hit 100 days total. My ultimate goal, as always, is 100 days this season. But right now, my goal is to get over being sick.

64 days left…

I signed up for a snow trip drawing last time I was over at Lodos Bar and Grill. It was only after I dropped my name in the little box that I noticed it was a middle of the week trip and that you had to be present to win. I thought for sure it was all over. Early this week I got an email. Turns out, there were a few slots left on the bus. Woo hoo! I won… sorta. That still left the problem of it being a Wednesday. But, then I managed to get the required time off. Game on!

The prize was for me and a guest. My friend Sui was able to come with me. This worked out great, as I needed a lift to Lodos! Once we got there, we were greated by all kinds of awesome shwag. The event was sponsored by Sweet Leaf Tea, so there was much tea on hand. It’s a great product. It’s made from sugar cane, not corn syrup. It also proudly boasts an “organic” label on the side. Major kudos there. Best of all, it tastes damn good.

We had some other nifty items including discounts for lift tickets, cans of Red Bull, a huge Lodos chocolate brownie (and it was awesome!), a Lodos trucker hat, and Tuaca branded cap and shirt. Later in the day they handed out some Tuaca branded lip gloss - after I volunteered about 30 minutes to untangle the rat’s nest that the attached strings had become (boring story, really).

Beth (a snowboarder from Lodo’s) and Diana (a skier from Sweet Leaf) were awesome hosts for our trip. I also can’t express just how awesome our bus driver was. A pickup truck flipped in front of us, but our driver was able to maneuver around it swiftly and safely. There were plenty of folks stopping to give aid and that big bus had no business stopping there on the pass. He was so rock’n that we all pitched in for an extra tip at the end of the day.

Sui and I ran all over Winter Park. We played a bit in the park. We made our way back to Mary Jane and then to Parson’s bowl. I’ve tried to ride the bowl every single time I’ve been to Winter Park - and I finally got a chance. The tree runs back there are primo. We also got in some mogul runs. It was a full day. The conditions weren’t the best, with hard packed snow in most places. However, the weather was wonderful - we couldn’t have asked for better.

The ride home was pretty wild. What do you expect from a bunch of skiers and snowboarders who actually have a Wednesday off. At the end of the day, Beth and Diana hooked us up with some more of that delicious Sweet Leaf Tea, which I’ve been sharing at the office. Thanks again ladies, my coworkers are getting hooked. All in all, day 34 was a much welcomed surprise!

66 days left…

I’m behind schedule but still pushing towards my goals. Today I’m 1/3 of the way towards my supreme goal of 100 days this season. I’m also a mere 3 days away from my base goal of doubling my total days spent riding. Things are rolling along nicely.

Today I headed up to Breckenridge with Laura and met up for a little while with Russ. During the morning, Laura and I made our way to the Imperial lift - the highest lift at Breckenridge and the highest chair in North America. After the lift dropped us off at 12,840 feet - we continued to hike another few hundred feet to the very top of the peak. We dropped in from over 13,000 feet and rode all the way to base camp at the bottom of Peak 9. The drop at the top was very steep and full of fresh powder. The powder didn’t last very long, but it felt amazing.

In the attached photo, I was attempting to flex my arm (my “gun” show). My hands were frozen completely numb at that point and my glove wasn’t even all the way on. When my fingers finally did start to thaw, they hurt for a while. They still feel kind of funky. While the view was amazing from the top, I sure was happy to make my way down!

Later that afternoon, we met up with Russ and played a while in the park. We wanted to catch some jumps on film, but the weather wasn’t cooperating. When the sun would shine, it was perfect. However, for the better part of the day, the sun insisted on hiding behind clouds leaving the terrain looking flat and featureless. It also left us feeling considerably colder. I did manage to get a small grab in on one of the jumps. Honestly, it was more like a tap. Still, it’s a sign of my slow but steady park progression!

67 days left…

My surf teacher, as I like to call her here, came up to visit me for a couple of weeks. This past weekend we drove up to Dillon and stayed with Jayne and Jason during their last weekend here.

Saturday, we went for a snowmobile ride at High Country Tours. Our tour guide, Mike, was just plain awesome. He was all about safety - but later he started showing off on the sled and took us on some really neat runs. We had a blast. Ya know, it really doesn’t take much to get those things up on one ski!

Saturday evening we hit Keystone for some night riding. As Velzy got up on her board for the first time in more than a year, I was well prepared to carefully watch and instruct her. I’d mustered up all my patience and wanted to show her what a wonderful teacher I could be. I had nothing to offer - she rode like a frack’n champ.

Sunday we headed out to Breckenridge and rode the day away. It was a bit crowded at the main lifts, but we wandered over to peak 7 and found a relatively empty lift servicing a wide variety of mostly blue runs. Once again, I was impressed with Velzy’s riding ability. She said she felt something click in her head during her Costa Rica surf trip. I think all the Yoga she’s been doing lately helped too! I know it helps me.

Finally, on Monday we headed back up to Keystone for the day. We spent a long time in the park playing on jumps and the pipe. I did some more 180’s both on the flat ground and coming off of little lips. Velzy was playing on all kinds of little kickers and finally hit some of the larger jumps in the Incubator park. She also took some runs down the half pipe carving up on the walls. I was shocked to say the least. Later in the day on one of our last runs - maybe it was the very last run - I decide to bomb a hill flat out. At the bottom of the run I spun around getting ready to wait on everyone to catch up. Sure enough, right behind me was Velzy.

My favorite thing, hands down, was seeing the stoke in that little girl’s eyes. Just priceless!

I just had a fantastic weekend. One of my first snowboarding buddies, Russ, flew up from Austin for the weekend. Tina and Laura (from here in Denver) came out to Dillon with us and we stayed with Jay and Jayne. Tina and Laura rode with Russ and I all day Saturday at Keystone. We rode tree runs, moguls, fast flats, and spent some time in the park. Everyone had a blast. Kudos to Tina for enduring the knee bust on the park box.

So, today (Sunday), Russ and I rode together at Keystone again. We spent the better part of the day just playing in the park. Russ also finally had a chance to break out his $4,000 Sony DV cam. He shot some footage of me warming up on some runs and we caught a little bit of footage of each other playing in the park.

We were in a smaller terrain park playing on some rollers near the end of the day. Russ was clearing the jumps smoothly and tossing in some methods and a nose grab. I just wasn’t getting enough snap to clear the backside of the jumps. I was consistently landing just half a board length shy of the downside and was getting a bit frustrated.

On my last jump on film, I once again failed to completely clear the table top. Frustrated, I started carving to the right off of the upside of the next jump. I bailed off the lip and - without even thinking about it - hopped a 180. I landed switch clean with no shake or chatter.

This is a big deal to me! I’ve been *thinking* about a 180 for a while now. In fact, I thought about it on the way up the lift several times today; but I had no intention of trying one. Sure, I only had about a foot of vert, which is not a big deal… but I’ve never successfully landed a 180 - until today - making this my very first one. I was super stoked!.

71 days left…

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…