How They Train: Snowboard Cross

It would be so sick to have the money to train here! Maybe one of these days....

But for now I will be heading to the gym for the duration of time I still have a pass (until December 15th) -- going there with my coach, Stephen, tomorrow!!

On another note, we need snow! It was a nice bluebird day when I went skiing (yes, skiing! I actually haven't fallen yet on the skis other than taking them off and putting them on haha!) on Sunday but I'm super ready for pow!!

I'm hoping to somehow squeeze in a hut trip in the spring...doubt I will have a split board by then but I may perhaps have some tele skis...

I love the snow! Soooooo glad that winter is approaching! It's kinda weird that it's snowing in Tennessee/Georgia right now and it's pretty warm here...I'm hoping for a snowy Christmas with a lot of pow -- especially because my family is coming out the week before! I love family time :) Can't wait to ski/ride with them, have great food/wine, and play my favourite game, spades! "It's not a game, it's SPADES!!!" <3

As far as work goes this winter I am working as:

• an EpicMix photographer at Keystone (since earlier this month)
• an office assistant/photographer for High Country Tours Snowmobiling (since January)
• doing promotions for different kinds of liquor through Premier Image Agency (since January)
• doing promotions for Three Olives Vodka (since October)
• at Fiske Planetarium as a Starlab presenter (since February 2007)

I've gotta pay the comp fees somehow!! I'm a busy woman but I (somehow) still find time to ride, spend time with friends, play video games, and sleep :)

I'm out for now, have to be at work in 7 hours!!

XOXOX Summ

Summer Glitter's Videoblog #2

Video Blog #1

Here's my first attempt at a video blog. Kind of weird talking to a camera, haha! It took me about 10 takes or so and then I still messed up! I hope you enjoy it, please leave comments on either my blogger site or directly on my YouTube video so I can hear your thoughts and if you have any questions you want me to answer than I can do that in my next post :)

If you watch the video you will notice I had a brainfart on the tour names (I think that's partly because the Hole Shot Tour used to be the Nor Am Tour and the Revolution Tour used to be sponsored by Chevy haha. The USSA comps that I am doing this year are:

o      Hole Shot Tour

§       January 21-22: Copper, CO

§       March 6-8: Killington, VT

§       March 24-25: Mt. Hood – Meadows, OR

o      Revolution Tour

§       January 8-9: Northstar at Tahoe, CA

§       January 29-30: Otsego Resort, MI 

The Freeride Tours that I plan to compete in are:

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·      Salomon Extreme Freeride Championships @ Taos

o      March 1-3

·      Weekend Warrior @ Winter Park

o      Schedule Not Yet Posted

·      Aspen/Snowmass Freeride World Tour

o      February 17-19

Here's the direct link to my Phresheez page, please check it out! If you ski and/or snowboard (or do other outdoorsy stuff like hiking, dirt-biking, etc.) than I highly suggest that you download this App on your smart phone!!!

Here are some pictures from the first day of riding (September 15th) with Charlie! We went up Webster Pass about 3 miles past Montezuma:

I hope y'all are doing well and that you enjoyed my posts!!!

XOXOX Summer "Glitter"

Snow Season is Upon Us!!

Well it's just a dusting, but Arapahoe Basin did receive a dusting of snow last night :)

It's officially "snow porn season" as I call it...the time when we are being teased by the snow either by small dustings like these or by premieres of skiing and snowboarding films that are played in theatres or other venues around Colorado (and I'm sure elsewhere). I'm sure that those of you in Colorado are like "duh!" when reading this description, but this culture is not something that my friends from back home (Atlanta, GA) are used to.

It's almost time for the 2nd annual SNOWBOARD ON THE ROCKS!!! This event is put on by mu buddy Adam from Snowboard Colorado, a sweet magazine (printed on recycled paper among other things) that is all about well what it sounds like, snowboarding here in Colorado! You can find a FREE copy of the magazine at their website: http://www.snowboard-colorado.com/

The event is going to be held at Red Rocks Amphitheater  on Friday, September 16th. You will want to be there!! Not only will there be 3 snowboard film premieres, but there will also be live performances from sick artists including:

RJD2

Doomtree

Michal Menert

The 3 snowboard films that are being played are:

Standard Films' TB20

FODT & MFM's Familia 2

(teaser can be seen on their site)

Videograss' Shoot The Moon

(teaser can be seen on their site)

This is going to be an awesome event that you won't want to miss! Tickets are only $25 plus fees -- which can be avoided by buying at your local skate shop (in Summit: Big Hit in Breck or in Eagle: One Track Mind in Vail and many shops on the front range) -- tickets are going fast so buy one today!!

The other awesome stuff you get from coming to the show include:

• A FREE LIFT PASS to Echo Mountain
• 2 for 1 lift passes to Copper, Sol Vista, Ski Cooper, & Woodward @ Copper's One Hit Wonders
• Discount tickets to Silverton Mountain
• FREE SUBSCRIPTION to TRANSWORLD SNOWBOARDING

Hope to see lots of y'all there, it's gonna be a ton of fun :)

SNOW PORN SEASON IS HERE!!!

XOXOX SUMMER

Most girls want to DO Jeremy Jones, I just wish I WAS Jeremy Jones...

Deeper is thus far my favourite snowboarding film that I have ever seen, but it is just the first in an epic trilogy. Further and Higher are the other two films (not yet out) and I am soooo excited to see these premieres! Here's an article that has me wishing it were winter again...or that I had that money and resources to do what Jeremy does, on of these days...

http://snowboardmag.com/stories/going-further-june-jeremy-jones

Mmmmmmm, tasty!!

Workout Blog

So there won't be many more entries in the snow blog until the fall but I have started a workout blog: http://motivatemesummer.blogspot.com/

I am trying to stay in shape this summer, it's been really fun being more active than I have been any summer since high school :) This is somewhat of a challenge for me, but I am very excited to do this!! I always say that I hate summers (ironic, I know) but living in the mountains has already started to change my mind there :)

To a great summer!!

xoxox Summ

Summertime Snow

Last night I went to bed to a lightening storm and when I woke up, 6" of fresh pow had fallen up at A Basin!! I was planning on taking a sunrise hike but didn't have any company so bailed on that idea for safety reasons...heard that Eamon was going up to the pass a little later on (around 9am) so I got my gear together, grabbed a rock board and was out the door!

It was such a rush of excitement to see everything covered in snow this morning (even though I expected it), and driving up the pass was super exciting too!! Herman was happy to see snow during the summer time, and this much of it!?! Soooooo happy!!! I'm hoping to ride at least one more day this season (July 4th perhaps) and then I'll be content :)

Snow Banks are still taller than Herman!!

So beautiful :)

We were the first ones up there...I was shocked about that! We parked one car at the bottom and headed back up to the top where we met a kid from Boulder (Kevin) and he joined our crew for the day. There were 4 of us (Eamon, Chris, Kevin, & myself) and we had fresh tracks all the way down for the first two runs! The snow was pretty awesome (especially for late June) and the 3 laps we took were a nice morning workout...having 3 cars was great for a day when pass traffic is minimal :)

Scouting out the First Run

Overjoyed and taking Pics (Kevin)

Soooo Happy (Eamon)

Look at all the snow!! (Chris)

Hiking for our second run :)

Probably my favourite run (2nd run) :)

As for the rest of the summer, I decided to get a 6 month gym pass to the Silverthorne Rec Center and I started up with a nice easy 40 lap swim before work on Saturday morning :) I'm also playing on a soccer team and we play every Wednesday evening on different fields around Summit County, working on getting back in shape! I started playing volleyball (for fun) up at Carter Park in Breck whenever I have free time during the day and I'm really enjoying it :) I'm going to buy a hula hoop for exercising at home (I hear they are just $5) and I would like to get into doing yoga at least once a week. If anybody wants to do yoga with me let me know, that's something I'd rather not do alone :)

Relaxing for a bit and then contemplating a swim later on today!

COLORADO, I LOVE YOU!!! Atlanta summers are gross, hot, and sweaty!! The one thing that I miss about Atlanta (other than my friends and family) would be all of the outdoor pools!! We have great weather (though sometimes schizophrenic) here along with an amazing music scene! And in Summit County we have a gang of festivals...next weekend: Blue Ribbon Bacon Tour

Life is good :)

xoxox Summ

My Snowboarding Wishlist

I just got my awesome new backpack that's perfect for day hikes and side-country riding!! Planning on doing a lot more of side-country riding from now on :)

But there are so many snowboard-related-ish things I want sooooo bad!! Here's my dream wish-list in no particular order (eventually I'll have everything):

• Beacon
• Probe & Shovel
• Split Board
• Woodward @ Copper Pass (going to finally learn to be better in the park to help with my all mountain riding and thus I'll hopefully do better in Freeride comps!!)

• Freebord

• Team KickAss Costume (I actually NEED a new jacket...mine finally bit the dust after 3 or so years)
• HaberVision Highline Goggles (my goggles aren't dark enough on sunny days)

• New Mittens (but I'm going to use Duct Tape as long as I can because I've never found mittens as awesome as the ones I rock before or since I got the ones I have been using for years!!)
• More Smart Wool socks (you an never have too many)
• Bindings (If I find good ones on sale...I have to switch mine too often with all of my decks!!)
• Tele Setup (would love to learn eventually!!)

That's all for now...I'm set with my boards once Stephen, my "slash", gets my new race board ready to rock & roll after I try it out!! Oh what an expensive hobby I have...

xoxox Summ

Mini recaps of my day since 3.18.11:

Well it just keeps snowing!! Looks like the seasons will change directly from Winter to Summer this year, Spring is being skipped!! Hahaha! Enjoying my last days of powder before my first beautiful summer in Summit County :)


March 18, Beaver Creek: Awesome pow run first thing and by noon it was all slush but it was a beautiful sunny hot day :) high quota today so a bit stressful but awesome day overall


March 20, Beaver Creek: Fun day of work at the Beav...sunny day, felt like surfing! Band at Red Tail Camp was good :)


March 24, Beaver Creek: Bluebird morning riding solo, work at 11.15, lunch with Kim & Scott at Red Tail, ran into JP & George there, after lunch it was pretty much blizzarding for a whle -- near whiteout conditions! Free champagne & then free beer with Lindsey, promo in Eagle with Jen...damn good day if you ask me :)


March 25, Beaver Creek: Day 100 on the hill!! Fun day working :) lunch with Joel & Kim, Happy Hour with Derek, Sean, & new friends :)


March 27, Beaver Creek: Great Sunday at work :) need to wax my Lib though!!!


March 28, Keystone: Faceshots, trees, & pow past my knees!! Fun morning pre-work workout on the UnInc :)


March 29, Keystone: Mouse Trap trees, Starfire with awesome pow past my knees, and even more fresh tracks with Ray :) Great morning before work!!


March 30, Beaver Creek: Fun day shredding with Rick, Cody, & Derek from other Marketing Research departments :) Stone Creek, Royal Elk Glade, trees, both parks (even did some 180s), cruisers.... all-together a good time and a much needed day off after working 23 days in a row!!!


March 31, Beaver Creek: Work


April 1, Beaver Creek & A Basin: Work at the Beav in the morning and an awesome Gaper Day at the Basin :) Lindsey up for the night and hung with Pete, Justin, Mike, Michael, Matt & company :) played some pool, met the 11-day-old boxer pups, etc. Great day, great night :)


April 2, Copper: Nationals practice day...love the course and feel pretty confident about it, but ran into a major issue, my boot broke!! Damn you, Boa system!!! Got my boot fixed and testing it out at work tomorrow...


April 3, Beaver Creek: My last day working at the Beav and a very weird yet awesome day weather wise! The highway from Dillon to Vail was horribly slushy and I was driving so slow because of hydroplaning!! It was raining in the morning and then it started snowing hard (I'm guessing corn snow) pellets and it was so windy during my milk run that I couldn't wait to get inside! Thunder came next and all of the lifts at the Beav were closed for about an hour!! Then the soft dry snow began accumulating quickly (~8" in 2 hours) which made for an awesome afternoon shredding at the Beav!!!


April 4, Copper: Tiring race day...got 1st at Nationals though :) I'm so happy I had so many great friends come and support me :) Thanks so much to everybody!


April 10, Keystone: Slush Cup (Jake won!!!), Shot Skis, BSG friends, Breck friends, Avon friends, park fun, Kickapoo, Dos Locos -- Great closing day at Key!!


April 13, Vail: Beautiful bluebird day with Amanda, Aaron W, & Brian! Theme of the day: JUST POINT IT!!


April 15, A Basin: Awesome powder day riding A Basin with Esteban and Erica Morgan! Palli chair, East Wall, avalanche blasting, Warren Miller film being shot, Bacon Bloody....ahhhh, schizophrenic April :)


April 18, Beaver Creek: Employee party day at the Beav


April 19, Copper: Copper with Autumn in the afternoon after work :) Heavy pow!!


April 20, A Basin & Copper: 2 laps at A Basin, a few hours of work at HCT, interview for SNG, rode Copper with Stephen, watched Nuggets lose :'( ladies' night at Johnny's with Amanda Montana, Erica Morgan, & Stephen....weather too bad for moonlight ride :( next month!!!


April 23, A Basin: Fun pow morning before work :) Kahlua promotion in the afternoon, gave away Kahlua Never Summer :)


April 24, Copper & Vail: Fun in the trees this morning at Copper!! Off to Vail closing day 10" at Copper (snow was best) and 12" at Vail and sunny is more than I could have hoped for!! Rode for a while and then hung out up at the top of Chair 4 before 4 because I wanted to see the pond skim...watched the pond skim at Vail (Jake made it to finals!) with Smiley, Pete, Mitch, Jen, etc. and saw Boomhower!! Rode with/Partied with: Anthony, his bro, George, Derek, Chase, (afforementioned), etc! Great closing day!!


May 1, Loveland: Awesome powder day with Curtis at Loveland!! Awesome resort, idk how I've never experienced it before (except a pre-season day) when I live so close!! Hit my first ever rainbow box and did some seemingly unnecessary hiking because we ended up on the wrong side of the tunnel...pretty sure it was a good mile...hahaha


May 11: A Basin: It felt awesome to ride this morning :) Of course there was a little crust underneath in some places but so much powder, face shots all morning!! Rode with Amanda Montana and Lisa :)


May 12, A Basin: Phenomenal morning at the Basin :) Zuma Bowl, cornice, and trees were great, definately doesn't feel like May with all this fresh pow!! Rode with new friends, Mick & Stu :)


May 13, A Basin: Great Friday the 13th!! Skiied half the morning and rode once I'd realized they opened up East Wall :) My riding buddies were my new friend, Levi, Mick, and his roomie (Pat?) Fun day, beautiful day!!!


May 18, A Basin: Fun day riding with my new friend Mac :) Found some good pow but definitely some dust on crust in areas. Snowed hard all day long! Was very wet snow though so I was soaked by the end of the day! The onesie is definitely not waterproof anymore, not even close!!


May 19, A Basin: 8" fresh snow in May!! Had an awesome day shredding with my girls! Rode with Miranda in the morning and with Erica Morgan in the afternoon :) Popped Erica's cornice cherry too! Rode my old (2004) Burton Custom today, nice little change-up :) I'm stoked for a powder day on my birthday tomorrow!!!


Day count this season:

A Basin: 18


A Basin/Copper: 1

Beaver Creek: 38


Beaver Creek/A Basin: 1

Breck/A Basin: 1

Copper: 18

Copper/Key: 1


Copper/Vail: 1

Key: 22

Loveland: 2

Loveland Pass: 1

Snowmass:2

Steamboat: 2

Taos: 3

Vail: 10

Winter Park: 2

Total Days: 123

I WANT TO DO THIS!!!

Video: Ski BASE Jumping + A Class 5 Avalanche + A GoPro = #Winning - France, Teton Gravity Research Blog post

STRAIGHT UP AWESOME!!! AHHHHHH!!! :)

USASA Nationals @ Copper

Saturday was the practice day for Nationals at Copper. I registered and then met up with Stephen to check out the course. We looked at all of the different features and discussed the best way to hit everything:

 

I was pretty confident about the course and I was stoked to hit it...I met up with Christine and Rascha (2 rad girls from Boston that were in town for the comp) and Charles and Papa Joe and we took a few runs together :) By the time 2pm rolled around I was sooooo ready to hit the course!! I hit the course and had an issue with the Wu-Tang at the beginning and I didn't know why...then I realized my boot was loose which made riding the course difficult even though it was just practice! When I got to the bottom of the course, I realized that my boot wasn't just loose, my Boa system was completely broken!! What great timing...

 

Needless to say the next practice run didn't go too well and I was left very frustrated....thank goodness for meeting up with AJ & Ryan & company to party that night because my day was not fun!!

Sunday was an awesome powder day (after 11am) at Beaver Creek and my last day of work there...bittersweet! Vail pass was closed for a while so I chilled with Clay for a while and then headed home to pass out :)

Monday was the big day, very exciting!! I got up to the course and inspected the course on my LibTech (I race on my UnInc) and I felt super comfortable on the Lib...which was strange because when I practiced on the Steamboat course on my Lib it was waaaayyyyy too poppy but it just seemed right for some reason for the Copper course?! I called Stephen and told him I was feelin' the Lib but that I wasn't sure...I mean he waxed the UnInc the night before to get it ready and the Lib hadn't been waxed for a few days...and not with racing wax...Stephen told me to take a run on the UnInc and then decide. I took a practice run on the UnInc and decided that the LibTec was the one! Stephen crayoned on some of the White Gold Hertel wax ($100/oz) that AJE Promotions hooked me up with, corked it in, brushed it, scraped it, and I was ready to ride!!

 

Team Kick Ass...ready to rock and ride!! I am so happy to have so many people show up to support our team!!

 

Me hugging Papa Joe before the race

 

Me & Acker

 

Denise (on crutches), Dave & Acker

My awesome "slash" :)

Our team is small but mighty!! We have 1 "slash" as I like to call Stephen because he's our coach slash wax tech slash photographer and we have 5 riders (as far as I know) : Autumn, Charles, Denise (injured), Skyler (injured), & me. I met all of the girls in my comp group and we waited around until they were ready for our group (a lot of groups were ahead of us) to do our time trials :) The way they set up our comp groups' bracket was that all 6 of us were going to race (6 at a time) 3 times. 1st place got 1 point, 2nd place 2 points, 3rd place...you get the picture. To figure out the winner they would add our scores from all 3 races and the one with the lowest points wins and so forth. We lined up for time trials and Justine started feeling sick so she peaced out (despite our best efforts to get her to race) and we were down to 5 competitors...

 

Elaine, Me, Ale, Ali, & Katy

Time trials went pretty well...I got a time of 76.99 which was the top seed, the girl behind (Ali) me was close with a 78.66. Getting the top seed in time trials means that you get first pick for gate choice. Some people are very particular on which gate they want but I generally just prefer an inside gate in general. I picked the 3rd hole (3rd gate from right out of 6) for the race. Here are some pics from the first of the 3 races at the top of the course (thanks to Acker):

 

Waiting...

 

In the start gates...

 

I really need to work on my starts...arm work outs during the off season it is!!

 

Rocked my ass over the Wu-Tang this time and really reached (thanks to Stephen's great coaching) to get over this feature in 2nd place...

I got 1st place in the first race and watched Autumn come in 1st in her only race...she knew she had the Gold right away...as for me, 2 more races...

 

"Champion Sandwich" as Acker called it :P

I managed to take 1st in all 3 races so I went home with the Gold, pretty sweet, huh? Oh yeah, then it was Pizza Carlo time to begin the celebration of course!! After Carlo's was the ceremony where I got my sweet medal (and of course got a bit overwhelmed and went up on the podium from the wrong side, forgot to take my goggs off, etc. lmao 

 

Sick, medal, right?!

From the moment I stepped up onto the podium it was like woah, paparazzi!! I got off and got on another photo op podium and then made it back to my friends where I thought the pictures were due to subside...uh, negative. Flash, flash, flash!

The Turneys (family friends I went to church with when I was growing up) were out on vacation from Atlana and though they didn't get to see my race they did make it to the awards and took me out for a beer after, it was great to catch up :)

Went to Storm King for sushi with Tony, Alex, and ?Tyler? and as soon as I walked in the rest of the crew (Dave, Autumn, Denise, Brad, Acker, Charles, Papa Joe, Stephen, Olivia, etc.) left for Incline so I joined them after a bit :) Great day it was!!

 

"Hello, can't you see I need a beer?!?"

 

Little Boomhower!!! <3

 

Friendsssssss!!!

Well that's all she wrote for today...I'm headed out to Boulder to see some old friends, since I've been so busy competing and working 3 jobs I haven't been to the front range in I'm guessing 2 months!! Have a good night, y'all :)

xoxox Summer

Photos from Taos :)

Ok...I suck, I promised a post about Taos by Wednesday night and...epic fail!!! I blame it on Mr. Jim Beam!! I was planning on having a PBR and then the keg was blown -- Buck's went through 5 kegs in 4 nights (damn you bro brah spring breakers!!!) -- so Jim and that was early in the night...I'm riding tomorrow morning (yay!!) at the Beav before I have to work (day 18 in a row -- and 9 of those 18 nights on top of the days!) in the "afternoon" at 11.15am :) Double black moguls here I come!! Oh yes, there is a shirt I really wanted from Taos (that I didn't end up getting) that said "Black Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" -- love it!! Ullr, pleassse bless us with more snow again!! Looking forward to shredding the gnar, seeing Kim at Red Tail Camp for lunch, and just being at the Beav in general :) So no real post from me as I'm gonna go back to sleep for another hour or so but I did take time to get pics up!!! Enjoy my pics from Taos and a real post is coming soon :) The bruise pic you see in the lot is before the bruise fully developed so be looking forward to the story and here's the picture of my bruise and of part of my board (before the wonderful Stephen fixed it) to keep you on your toes!!

Accident happened on Saturday, this pic is from Sunday...

 

And this pic was taken Monday... 

 

And here's the core shot...

 

Oh yes, Herman really enjoyed coming along! <3 ya, buddy :)

 

And here's a pic of the first sunrise I saw in Taos:

Ta-ta for now and enjoy the albulm of pics I posted!!!

xoxox Summer