iRide
Zaskoda’s Snowboarding Journal

Sometimes I realize that I live a rather fortunate life. This weekend is a shining example of exactly that. Velzy invited me up to a cabin near Vail and Beaver Creek for the weekend. I really had no idea what to expect. I was blown away by this absolutely amazing three story cabin. The master bedroom is more than half the upstairs with an unobstructed view of the creek, mountains, and forest. The entire west wall of the bedroom is really one big window! The rest of the cabin is breath taking, but I won’t drone on about it.

Today we went up to check out Beaver Creek. We had about 6 fresh inches of snow fall. The conditions were great. The day ranged between 30 and 40 degrees F with very little wind. I wore the least amount of gear thus far this season. Velzy continues to impress me with her quick progression for having spent so few days on the mountain. She did compliment me on my development as a rider; however, with as many days as I’ve gotten in this season, I better be improving a little bit!

At the very top of the mountain, we found a snow carving of old man winter, so we had to stop for some quick photos. We probably only explored a tiny fraction of the mountain. I didn’t spend much time looking at maps. The one thing that did trip me out about Beaver Creek was the escalators. This is the first resort I’ve been to with escalators. We’re supposed to hit Vail tomorrow. I hear it’s fairly upscale; so after riding escalators today, I can’t imagine what Vail is going to be like. Here’s hoping we get a little more snow tonight!

54 days left…

I decided that I needed to make today a work day. I’m starting a new company and I need to get a whole lot done. I woke up this morning only to find snow out my window. I checked the Keystone snow report - 4 fresh inches. The radio is saying that all of the passes are closed up into the mountains. It must still be coming down up there. After riding hard pack yesterday, this is killing me. I should have worked yesterday so I could ride today! Either way, my snowboarding clothing is all in the wash so I’m not going anywhere for the next hour or three. I have a 5:00 appointment this evening but I’m thinking of trying to sneak off to Echo for a few slides. Oh, the unfairness of it all!

After hitting Echo and playing on pure park terrain on Monday, I wanted to take some nice long runs. So, I went up to Keystone for the day. The conditions were suck. There was slush at the base and hard packed, nearly ice on much of the runs. I still had a lot of fun. I took a few of the jumps in the incubator park. Previously, I had trouble clearing the tops and kept knuckling them. This time around, I managed to completely clear them.

I also took a dive off into what I expected to be a tree run. After a few turns, it dumped out into a narrow run under a lift. The run was nothing but deeply carved moguls. I was able to do a fair job of riding through all but one small part. The steepest section gave me some trouble. Near the end, there was a pretty good lip that I caught some air off of. I went for the front side grab, but couldn’t get to it in time. So close!

The gondola was closed, so I stuck to the quad most of the time. A couple of kids sparked a one hitter on the lift and didn’t even bother to offer me any. So rude. Anyway, they told me that this is the last weekend for Keystone. It’s really sad, there’s still a ton of snow on the ground. We were talking about how hard it’s going to be for mountain biking season because the snow will take so long to melt this year.

55 days left…

I went up to the “terrain park with a lift” that is Echo Mountain Park today. I was treated to about 5 inches of fresh snow. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen Echo with fresh snow on the ground. To make things even better, no one was there! There couldn’t have been 20 cars in the parking lot and it seemed like less than a dozen other people on the mountain. After a warm up run, I knew it was going to be a good day.

The landings were nice and soft, so I got brave. I took bigger and steeper jumps - ones I’d never had the guts to hit before. I crashed a few times while I was trying to adjust my center. By the end of the day, I was landing every jump I took - most of them very clean and smooth. On my last full run, I went for the rotation and landed switch fairly clean. It was my most profound 180 thus far. I was a little sketchy, but I stayed up and never so much as touched the snow with my hands.

I forgot the camera, so I tried to snap a quick shot on my phone on the drive up. I went up before the plows ran, so it was an adventure getting there. A few areas had fog sitting in the forest. I wish I’d had my camera as I’ve never seen fog and snow before…

56 days left…

I’m trapped in the airport in Austin. I came down for a mix of business and pleasure. I had a wonderful time; but my flight home was delayed by 4 hours due to mechanical failures. Way to go United! Ug!

One of the many highlights of my trip was a wakeboarding rail competition in the middle of town called The Grind. In addition to the main event, there was a wake skate compo and a skateboarding compo. Watching everyone play got my blood pumping. All I could think about was getting back on the mountain and riding.

On the up side of things, I have had a recent change in my career that will give me a small window of free time. Thus, I’m going to start hitting the mountain hard over the next couple of weeks. We’ll see how many days I can make up.

So, while watching the rail show, I was reminded of one down side of snowboarding. When we go surf the mountain, we typical wear a whole lot of gear. Other board sports like wakeboarding and surfing can be very different. Today I watched cute girls stroll by in string bikinis while I absorbed a fair amount of sun myself. It’s not just the eye candy, but a feeling of being comfortable and free. It’s a different state of mind. While I enjoy feeling like I’m wearing a suit of armor when I snowboard - I think I might prefer being comfortable wearing little more than a pair of trunks.

Maybe I’ll multipurpose my blog and spend a couple of years surfing and blogging about it. :)

Today was the last day for Cynthia, Roger, and Erin. The day started off with about 5 inches of freshies on the ground. The first half of the day was bright and sunny. Then another storm moved over and continued to dump inches of snow. We couldn’t have asked for a better riding day.

I was really impressed with how well Erin picked up snowboarding. She was cleanly carving down blues on her third day after having been beaten to death by hard pack on the previous two days. It was as if the universe was testing her and finally rewarded her resolve with a day of near perfect conditions.

We spent some time playing in one of the little parks. The fresh powder made the approaches slower and more difficult, but the landings where much softer and easier. Today’s picture is a still frame from one of the videos. It’s hard to see my brown and black clothing in front of the trees. I’m starting to grab the board a little in my jumps now. In this particular shot, it was more like a slap. However, earlier in the day, I got a good grip on the board.

I’ve also spent some time working on some rotations. I can do little 180s on flat surface or small kickers. I tried a 180 off of one of the park jumps, but didn’t get a clean landing. Cynthia started doing some jumping and spinning herself. I better watch out, she’s going to be catching up with me soon.

To finish off the trip, I took everyone to my favorite Pho place around the corner. We talked of our adventures, debated world politics, sipped hot tea, and enjoyed some wonderful soup. Then it was time to head home and get everything ready for the early flight home.

It was a great three days… I’ll miss waking up to Roger in the kitchen cooking breakfast. It was wonderful having the crew up from Dallas.

57 days left…