"Two shorten the road."

"Yes, and 8 jackass snowboards make it unbearably long," I thought when I glanced up at the Irish proverb on a sign at a restaurant we ate at near Denver airport, after the chaos of the trip.


Two delayed and re-routed checked bags, one misplaced snowboard bag, one lost (or stolen) snowboard bag with about $2,000 of equipment, two arguments with coaches, 10 squished and uncomfortable car rides, 2 frenzied drives to the races and course inspections, and much bickering over trivial things (like where to watch practice video) later, I come home from Revolution Tour stop #2, Copper Mountain, Colorado.


This was the most uncomfortable and irritating trip I have been on with the team. It was the twilight zone of snowboard bags, things lost and misplaced and still not found. Bummer to lose equipment. I didn't lose anything, except the race.


As for that, 42 girls did a time trial each. The top 16 go to finals to get a chance to compete with one another, and win a spot at the Grand Prix in Idaho next month. But, you guessed it, I got 17th. Yuck. I ran a 52.12 second race, the girl in 16th was at 51.55. Jeeez. Okay, I'm riding better, I love these courses, my knee feels great, and a two year hiatus from boardercross is long, but I won't be at peace until I place well. I was so frustrated I didn't watch much of the finals, snowboarded off to ride pipe at the mountain, and didn't really say much to the rest of the team.

I cruised back to watch our fruitcake coaches place 3rd and 4th. I stood about halfway down the course with 5 other people, riders and officials. Riders crashed and flew off course here and there, and after each race the officials had to confirm their section of the course was ready. I listened to the walkie-talkies "Finish: Clear," "Section 5: Clear," all the way to section 1 and "Start: Clear." Then a woman's voice with an Australian accent would announce, "Riders on course." 4 riders would sail over the first jump 5 seconds later, then through the 8 or 9 bank turns that snaked down to the finish. I thought of the conversation the night before, about the fact that the best racers have been around for a long time, and have miles of race courses under their belt. Even younger kids who are 17 and killing it, have been racing since they were 10 years old. Boardercross is a style of riding that takes some time to learn, like pipe and slopestyle. To me it's beautiful because it's fluid, exciting, and unpredictable. I listened to one rider who stood next to me after he was knocked out call it "lotto-cross." The best rider might be clipped by another guy and someone else advances.

At this point I was okay with not making finals, but of course not satisfied. It might take a little more time, more races, but I've improved a lot since I began. I want to be back where I was, and go further than before.

Back to Copper Mt. on Monday for two races for the SBX NorAm: http://www.ussa.org/magnoliaPublic/ussa/en/events/snowboarding/competitions/sbxnoram.html

Happy and excited for that one.


Meanwhile the USASA series begins at Alpine on Saturday. It's good to be home for the moment.