Wednesday, February 27, 2008

A Little Bit About the Oregon Stop of the Revolution Tour

This picture is from the Oregon stop of the Revolution Tour last weekend. Much to talk about, now that my computer is up and running and I've gotten my pictures organized again. The riders below are shaving down the lip of the 2nd feature. You see, you pull out of gates, go down and up over a jump, then there was a quarterpipe, which we were supposed to clear and go over, but which really sent almost all the riders way into the back seat and flipping over the thing. This was, most definitely, the funniest boardercross course I've ever been on. They way we all rode it kept cracking me up. I was lucky not to reinjure my shoulder, which is feeling much better now. I rode conservatively, made it to finals anyway, and placed 10th out of 25. Okay for not really charging. Mostly I had fun.

I will post video through Youtube when I get a moment. Enjoy these for now.















Funny enough, the feature I was most nervous about ended up being my favorite. After the quarter pipe, a big bank turn to a road/gap drop off. The drop off was pretty fun.



How can anyone not love Boardercross?

Video to come.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Missing the Blogging

Computer blew up, on the road and back from Oregon, still no internet, trying to get better mobile service - I miss blogging everyday. I have much to say and we'll have to backtrack. Must reload picture downloading/viewing program first.

Standby.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Valentine's Day Pillow Fight

I had a joyous Valentine's Day last year. This was my experience:



San Francisco, Justin Herman Plaza, 2,500 + single people in a pillow fight. Waves of feathers floated through the air for hours afterward. Be sure to check out the guy near the end of the video wailing on people with two pillows.


I know there's nothing like that up here in Tahoe, but if you're in SF, check it:


Sunday, February 10, 2008

We Need More Body Armor

This year I've suffered a few more injuries than I'm used to, but today, I realized it's okay. I also realized that last night. I have a bruised rib from a boardercross race yesterday (1st place points for USASA Nationals in Colorado in April - auh yeah), and I still have this shoulder problem. My coach cracked two ribs at the Jeep King of the Mountain, and Rob, my teammate, hurt his ribecage as well. Let's all take a moment to breathe now.

Brady, another kid on the team, broke his arm in boardercross yesterday after being run over by another guy on his snowboard in the course. Lauren, an old teammate, separated her shoulder at the Jeep King of the Mountain final kicker. We're riddled with injuries, but to me, it only means I'm getting my feet back under me, and charging hard again. Last night at the River Ranch, Seth the bartender asked me what was wrong, since I was walking around holding my rib cage. Hurt again, I told him. Three people looked at me as I passed and one girl said, "Now, is it all worth it?"

Without hesitation I answered stoutly and with a smile, "Absolutely." I love this stuff. A few people nodded in agreement. I mean, this is Tahoe. We ride and fall, and some people never get to ride at all. Injury forces you to do better, if you can come back stronger.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Jeep King of the Mountain . . .

. . . is making me climb up the walls. I hate missing events. Man I wish I could race in this one. The course looks absolutely too fun and I'm getting my boards dialed in. Next year, next year, next year. I want me some Jeep.

I'm trying my best to take it easy and heal this shoulder, but it's hard - taking it easy I mean.

The view from the Siberia Chair. Looks like Pick-Up-Sticks, the game of physical and mental skill in which sticks have to be removed from a pile without disturbing the remaining ones. I failed at this because I'm on the one-arm-program with my bad shoulder and hold it close to my body; I walked through this a few moments later, and nearly tripped over three boards. Graceful.
Darn, I need this shoulder back for balance.



Dashing in a picture of Shawn Palmer, because . . . um, well, he exists. Standing next to him makes me feel fast, and young.













Monday, February 4, 2008

Mountain Folk for Pheasadent

Snow banks are high, this one about 12 ft. maybe, in Truckee.

What would be great is if some guy peed Hilary's name right next to this. Or Barack's.

I'd supply the beer, because we'll need a lot of fuel.

- Back to the mountain.

Friday, February 1, 2008

The Clam Bank Turn

SBX NorAM, Colorado. On this most recent and tricky little course, one feature schnagled our whole team. It was about 1/3 of the way down the course, a "Clam Bank Turn", as Rob liked to call it, because it resembled a clam shell. Two rollers on top of a bank turn, then a small curb/drop-off to flat, and a kicker/roller all smashed into about 15 curved yards. The problem was, if you lost any control, were just a hair slow, or your timing was off, you ended up bouncing off the rollers/clam grooves, or didn't clear the jump and knuckled. I knuckled, as did most of the girls, 2nd run, 1st day. Something is wrong with my rotator cuff on my right shoulder now, but I'm not worried. I didn't have enough speed when I thought I did, bounced right off the knuckle before the transition, and landed on my right shoulder. Two days later Lauren would fracture/bruise her hip on the same spot. Rob fell on it too, and the Yac Yam http://onemountain.blogspot.com/2008/02/patricia-sacrificial-lamb.html lost a first place spot in a fumble there.

We ended up calling it the Claim Bank Turn, because it claimed our team.

It's hard to find anyone to photograph or film me racing because everyone is in the process of preparing their boards or in line to race too. The above is me just before the race, relaxed and bundled in a lot of body armour gear.

PS:
This is funny, if you're looking for something more to watch. I didn't know Sarah Silverman dated Jimmy Kimmel. If anyone wants to continue telling me I am similar to her, that's fine for now because this is a good one.



I'd f*%% Matt Damon and date Jimmy Kimmel. That'd be entertaining.

Patricia, The Sacrificial Lamb

First off, I want to thank Evil from Potreto Hill for this: http://www.brackmedia.com/screenclean/ Please go there. It's nice.

Just back from Copper Mountain, Colorado. It was there we picked up P. Holland, brother of Nate Holland, who just won X Games Gold in Boardercross for the 3rd time. Okay, great, cool. P. Holland was in X Boardercross too, but he fell in the quarterfinals, or semis, and ended up taking out another guy in the same race his brother was in. The announcer jovially called him the "Sacrificial Lamb." During this trip we took to the title given him. Every time P. left the room, was at the back of the van, on the race course, we'd say things like, "Where's the Sacrificial Lamb?" "Is the Sacrificial Lamb done tying down the snowboards?" "How did the Sacrificial Lamb do in time trials?"

Bless that EXPN announcer. Sacrificial Lamb. That just kills me.

By Thursday night, Little Lauren doped up on vicotin for her bruised/fractured hip, and me enjoying beer and loopy exhaustion, started mixing P's for R's and starting words with Y's - so he became "Ratricia, The Yacrificial Yam."

We hacked in and changed a few things on the Yac Yam's myspace site as well. Yeah, P. Holland commands a lot of respect and adoration in our crew.

This kind of stuff is fun for me now.