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

USASA BX @ WINTER PARK: PHOTOS!!

BX photos from Winter Park!!

Enjoy, closure of Taos update to come before tomorrow night (I promise!) :)

xoxox Summer

So excitied for USASA Nationals!!!

Just got my USASA BX Nationals invitation, going to the website to register now!!

If you're interested in coming to watch, the event is held at Copper and the dates for my comp group (Senior Women BX) are:

Practice Day: Saturday, April 2nd

Competition Day: Monday, April 4th

Winter Park USASA BX Day 2: Saturday 2.27

Sorry it's taken so long, life has been crazy!! Today is day 9 in a row of work and my next day "off" is April 2nd which is practice for BX nationals!!

Just a few pics from Day 1:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the last paragraph of my 2nd to last post (Winter Park BX Day 1) and the recap of the 2nd day of competition:

As the next morning arrived all too soon I found out that Autumn's knee and lower leg were in immense pain. We all had waffles for breakfast (and yours truly of course made a huge mess and ruckus -- though I didn't burn my waffles!!) and then Stephen and I left for the mountain.

Stephen and I managed to go down the wrong run once we got there -- which meant I was too late to do an inspection run. I talked to the other competitors and the main thing I heard about the course is that it was faster than Saturday, which made sense since there was less snow overnight.

Stephen waxed my board and had me do some stretching before time trials. I slept on my hip and shoulder funny the previous weekend and the hot tub seemed to have (finally) made my hip feel better. As for my shoulder it was hurting when pulling out of the gates and even just while I was racing...ugh! Anyways...I was amped about time trials and then as I headed down course I realized that the lighting was sooooooo flat!! I was doing a lot of speed checking this time because seriously I couldn't hardly see the snow; rollers were popping out of nowhere!! I made it down the course alright until the very end where I washed out on the very last roller and slid to the finish line on my ass. I was really worried about the flat light...as awesome as my goggles are, I still couldn't see the snow!! They really needed to spray more blue on the turns, burms, and rollers and I don't know why they didn't!?!

 

 

 

 

Hung out in the lodge with the crew until race time and then headed to the top of the course. Thankfully they not only added blue to mark the snow but the sun came out enough so that we could see the course. The race was intense...at the bottom of the first hill Denise and I crashed, here's the sequence:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took a nice "ass-ripper" as we call it (self explanatory) and even ripped my favourite PJ pants (bottom layer) ;(

Not to mention that my ass hurt for...well...until my next fall (stay tuned). Denise bumped her head pretty hard and we had to get back up and on course which was tough because we crashed in a relatively flat spot. The rest of the race I was in front but I had no idea by how much, I always assume the people are right on my ass. Pushing the pain aside I charged on and then when I got to the finish line I realized Denise wasn't directly behind me and I didn't know why she wasn't right behind me...turns out where I'd fallen in time trials is just about where she fell...Tib Fib....and instead of getting pow turns at the end of the day DH went down in a sled and I spent the afternoon in the clinic with her :\ She got surgery about a week ago and has something like 3 plates and mad screws in her ankle! So sad we won't be racing each other at nationals ;(

 

 

 

 

  

Time to have a good night...work tomorrow at 8am...long crazy days working in a ski town over spring break!!


xoxox Summ

Mini Recaps of My Days Since 1.28.11

January 28, Beaver Creek: Work day :P

January 29, Keystone: A few night laps at Key with some new friends in-between promotions :)

January 30, Beaver Creek: Workity work work work

January 31, Keystone: 2.2 miles on morning Courdoroy...top speed 59.4 mph, not a bad way to get ready for work :)

February 3, Beaver Creek: Working in the cold...witnessed a 56 y/o Aussie woman crash hard and had to help her...sled and all...I hope her arm is OK!!!

February 4, Beaver Creek: work. Top speed of 59.1?!? Felt like I was relaxing today...

February 5, A Basin: Palli day full of faceshots with Struebs, Brad, Kim, & Becca :) Ran into Michael Abel too :) Oh and a famous Bacon Bloody!!!

February 6, Beaver Creek: Worked in the am and then took tree and (shocker) park laps with Ryan, AJ, & Justin :) the pipe at the Beav is so tiny and cute!! (but scary cause you'll shoot right out!) I wanna get a trick there this season!!! Powder is the best thing in the world <3

February 7, A Basin: Another epic pow day at the Basin :) Strueber, Brad, Doug, Peter, Bill, Becca, and new friends :)

February 10, Snowmass: GPS turned off for a bit but had an epic day at the Mass with J Fish :) hiked two epic runs and rode some sick trees...super soft pow, no people around :) And made a new friend, Chris after I lost J in Hanging Valley lol Great day, Umphrey's tonight at Belly Up!!!

February 11, Vail: Half-day after drive back from Aspen. I rode with all new friends who I met on the lifts and I took one run with Peter after he got un-lost, great tree pow!!

February 15, Keystone: 6 runs, 11.3 downhill miles, 55.3 mph max speed

February 16, Keystone: Good morning ripping Courdoroy...4.3 miles in before work, top speed 63.8 mph

February 18, Beaver Creek: Work and then 2 fun runs at the end of the day :)

February 19, A Basin: Fun day backcountry off A Basin...until Struebs got hurt...time for some burgers and hot tub :) Too many gapers today anyway...

February 20, Beaver Creek: Blues for work...

February 21, A Basin: Awesome day riding mainly double blacks with DH (Denise)...we got some sweet pics and then hit up Dos Locos :)

February 24, Beaver Creek: Errands this morning, one fun run and then work this afternoon :)

February 25, Beaver Creek: work at the Beav

February 26, Winter Park: Race day at WP (1st)

February 27, Winter Park: Race Day at WP (1st) Collision today, ass ripper (even ripped my pants!)...as little painful but not a biggie...should heal soon. DH in the ER for a fall that happened after the collision near the end of the course ;(

March 3, Taos: Freeride comp day 1, met some awesome new friends...then Bloodys with Carlos and Autumn :)

March 4, Taos: Freeride comp day 2, great run!! Intense hour long hike (Kachina Peak) and some great turns with Autumn, Greg, and Mateo :) great apres and hot tub after :)

March 5, Taos: Finals day (Kachina Peak)...another good hour long hike...met a lot of new friends and had a stellar time even though I ended up falling hard in the finals!!!! Coming back next year for sure :)

March 10, Beaver Creek: Fun morning with trees, moguls, and a top speed of 56.7 mph :) great morning and a fun afternoon working for a total of 22 downhill miles and it was warm enough that I didn't even wear a jacket!

March 11, Beaver Creek: Good day at work :) another warm one, felt like surfing by the end of the day!!

March 12, Beaver Creek: Workin'

March 13, Beaver Creek: Another day at my beautiful outdoor office :) Powder day!!! Nice workout :)

Day count this season:

A Basin: 11

Beaver Creek: 29

Breck/A Basin: 1

Copper: 15

Copper/Key: 1

Key: 19

Loveland: 1

Loveland Pass: 1

Snowmass:2

Steamboat: 2

Taos: 3

Vail: 9

Winter Park: 2

Total Days: 96

Taos Freeride World Tour: Part 1

Autumn and I got to Taos on Wednesday evening around 5.15pm…we thought we were late for the riders’ meeting but turns out it was at 6pm so we were actually early J We were stoked to find out that they had a pasta dinner ready for all of us when we got there! Everybody that we met seemed really nice and we could not wait for the competition the next day. A lot of my friends (and even my parents) seemed confused about the logistics of this event…this event was NOT a race, but it was a freeride competition (part of the FWT -- Freeride World Tour) and this was the first time that either Autumn or I have competed in a freeride competition. Freeride competitions aren’t brand new but they are new to letting boarders ride and this is only the 2^nd year that this particular freeride event had any women snowboarders. Grassroots, baby!

That being said, this is what the FWT has to say about the nature of a freeride comp:

“By definition, the term freeride is contradictory to the word competition. Some riders refuse to enter contests because of this definitional clash or simply would prefer to not be judged. Though for some riders, freeride and competition fit together. They wish to compare themselves to other riders from time to time and have someone decide who produces the best show.

Therefore, we need judges. When it comes to freeriding, we all know that there is different terrain and different ways to express oneself within this terrain. The goal of this judging system is to allow any style of riding to win on any given day. Whether a rider’s strength is steep terrain, big airs, technical tricks or speed, each style should be able to win if on that day, the rider simply showed the most impressive run utilizing his own strengths. Riders shouldn’t have to adapt their riding to a system; the system should be adaptable to the riding.

So how can we create a judging system that is both fair and not restrictive? Freeriding encounters the same dilemma as other disciplines such as surfing, skateboarding or freestyle skiing/snowboarding have. These respective sports have all gone through their own distinct experiences and it is interesting to see that they all ended up with similar judging systems. Systems with overall impression scores, given mostly by former riders respected by the new active generation, based essentially on emotions rather than mechanical descriptions. This handbook is a work in progress; it will evolve and change to better accommodate the sport and the riders.”

The FWT has a very long handbook in which they explain the judging criteria, but here is the overall summary (for more info on judging please refer to the website and download the judging method packet):

“There are 5 main categories for which the judges have to pay special attention to and for which they will have to answer many questions:

1. Line: Is the line original, easy, steep, has big jumps, well thought out or with much criss-crossing around?

2. Fluidity: Is the rider going fast compared to where he is in the face? Is the rider following his line without hesitations? Does he slow down too much or takes unnecessary stops before jumps? Is he lost and searching for his way?

3. Control: Is the rider in control at all times? Is he in control in the air? Did he control his landings? Did he manage to link turns in steep narrow places or did he slide down?

4. Jumps: How big was the jump? How did the rider enter the jump? What happened in the air? How good did he stick his landing?

5. Crashes: Crashes have to be looked at in an overall impression as well.”

After a great spaghetti dinner, we met up with our Couchsurfing host, Kind, and his son and friend north of town. After a long 6+ hour drive and stress from credit card issues (that were not my fault!) I was exhausted and passed out almost instantly.

Thursday morning rolled around quickly and I headed to the mountain with Autumn. Got breakie from the cafeteria…hash brown plate made by the awesome grill man, Tommy J After eating we headed to get on the lift and realized that our credentials card was not an actual ticket and we had to pretty much run to get tickets on time! The stress of the getting to the site on time really made me miss having Stephen there with us more than I was already missing having him with us!! Didn’t realize that we still had to buy tickets for each day, more credit card issues (that still weren’t my fault…), took the wrong lift, etc. I really don’t get very nervous during competitions (maybe a tad, but nothing major) but I get super nervous and stressed in the morning before getting to the comp sites, even when nothing goes wrong!!

When we got to the top of the correct lift, we heard that we had only 10 minutes to get our inspection run in! We hiked up the short hike to the top of the West Basin Ridge and checked out the mountain…really weird snow. I’ve ridden at many mountains in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Austria, North Carolina, Vermont, etc. and I still had never felt snow this strange…the snow was kind of like Colorado’s spring snow but more dry than spring snow and also smaller icy crystals than our spring snow. Hard to explain, but it was weird to us for sure.

We decided that we didn’t like the run that we’d inspected and borrowed some binoculars to scout our line. We chose to ride St. Bernard (the run furthest lookers’ right that was in bounds for day one) because it reminded us of Palli chair at A Basin.

The event was run much more smoothly than USASA events are with a short time in-between riders/skiers. Thus buy the time Autumn and I made it back up to the starting area it was time for her to go already! We hadn’t yet made it to St. Bernard and Autumn hurriedly decided to take the run we were at when she heard the announcer calling her name from the bottom. I debated taking that run but decided that since I was the last woman rider that I should try to make it over to St. Bernard. When I got a good distance hike down the ridge I freaked out because I wasn’t sure if I’d gone too far over and I didn’t want to DQ on my first freeride run ever so I hiked back up to where the starter was. Extremely out of breath, I found out that I was not next but that I was on-deck. The starter asked if I was taking the run we were at the top of (the run Autumn took) and I said that it wasn’t my original plan but that I guessed so because of the aforementioned reasons. The starter told me I had time to make it to the other run if I strapped in and he sent me with a radio-equipped guy over to St. Bernard.

By the time I made it to the top of the run I was already so out of breath!! I took a minute to strap in and then jumped over the cornice. I had some good carves on the steep but I unfortunately had a hand plant on one of my turns. I felt good about my run but not amazing. Getting to the bottom of the run it felt wrong not seeing Stephen there after his awesome coaching last weekend!

I watched for a bit at the site and then I took a run with new friends Smiley, Jake, Pete, & George. I then met Autumn at the bottom for a bloody and we decided to just stay at the Martini Tree bar and socialize instead of tiring ourselves out by riding hard the rest of the day. Met Carlos (the bartender), who became a good friend over the weekend, and some other cool dudes who were also in the competition J

Went to Crossroads pizza joint for dinner because they have PBR there (I love the Martini Tree but they didn’t serve my beer!) and enjoyed some slices with some fellow competitors before seeing the results from day one (they take an annoyingly long time to post them). There was one girl with a bye (which means she was pre-qualified for the competition) and there were five other girls competing. Autumn took 3^rd on day one and I took 4^th. Headed back to Kind’s spot and passed out early (7pm-ish) on the couch while watching Semi-Pro. Woke up rejuvenated around midnight to everybody passed out cold and started playing Angry Birds. Decided I needed to do something instead of playing that silly (but fun and addicting!) game for hours so I went to hang out with my new friend Carlos for a while.

The next morning we headed to the mountain, got our ticket (still credit card issues…), got another hash brown plate from Tommy J and then made our way to the course (and took the right lift!) in much better time than the day before. For day two, they opened up more runs on the West Basin Ridge (in addition to the runs that were already open for day one). Did inspection run with Autumn on a run called Waterfall. Had the snow conditions been better this would have been a sweet run but we seriously felt like we were going down a frozen waterfall at the top and couldn’t even make a safe turn until we were about a third of the way down! Took some jump turns and got to the lower third of the run that was more open but the snow at the bottom was super sun-baked and thus had a crispy layer on top…not fun to maneuver through…

Part 2 to come (including pictures) as well as Part 2 of Winter Park!! Just too tired to do it right now...

xoxox Summer

Winter Park USASA BX Day 1: Saturday 2.26

It was an eventful weekend to say the least! I've made some really awesome racing friends this year (Olivia, Meredith, Kim, Amanda, Charles, Joe, Denise, Alex, Stephen, Cameron, etc.)  and I've had the chance to reconnect with some old friends (Tim, Wade, Autumn, etc.) as well :)

Going to WP for the race brought back fond memories from when I was on the CU Snowboard Team...we practiced at WP the first year I was on the team, that's the park where I hit my first line of bigger jumps and where I learned how to hit the half pipe. College wouldn't have been what it was for me without CUST friends, CUST trips, or without Pat A -- my coach during college.

Friday was training day but I wasn't able to make it because of lack of funds and because I had to work at the Beav. Autumn said the course was awesome, but I was too worn out from my week to stay awake and ask any questions about the course so I went to sleep (before 10 as I tend to do quite often these days) so I was rested for the next day.

Earlier in the week, Stephen had offered to come along as Autumn's and my wax tech. As I soon found out, Stephen would be tripling as our coach and photographer!!


Saturday morning seemed to come quite quickly....I saw 5.30 on my alarm clock and decided to snooze it until 6am. Stephen was at my place before 6.30 and we were out the door around that time. We got to Winter Park around 7.45am and were at the course no later than 9.15.

I went on the course for inspection with Olivia (who had been at training the day before) and checked it out. The course had an old-school downhill start, had a tiny jump at the top and then went into a good roller section before the first turn which slowed you down a lot because it was on such a flat area! After the first turn there was a good sized roller that brought you over the next one quite quickly (and abruptly!) and then the course went downhill and turned left into an area of some more rollers and then took a sharp U-Turn to the right where you could either hit this really intense hip or stay high and go around it. After the sharp U-Turn there was a step-down and then the course curved to the left and went down hill. Olivia and I pulled over here and moved to the side of the course to talk about the hip. Denise rolled up and the three of us sat and watched a few people -- including a guy (who was one of many) that was flung from the hip and into the orange netting on the side!! The three of us and Autumn decided to go around the hip for safety reasons. Moving on, after the course curved to the left and went down hill, there was another sharp (~90 degree) left turn that went into a section of four rollers and then there was an even sharper right turn, a slight downhill, two large rollers, a fast but flat section, and then a big roller and two smaller rollers and then the finish line!! This is definitely an absorption course. Stephen told me that I needed to absorb pretty much every feature and that I needed to pump my arms in the newly coined (thanks to Autumn) "monkey summer" way to get all I could from each roller. I took a practice run (or two?) through the course, and then it was time for time trials.

There was a lot of waiting around as there always is on race day, but WP did a good job of organizing things and trying to keep things moving. Unfortunately one of the course holds was because of my friend Cameron's crash which kept him from racing this weekend...but the good news is that his wrist isn't broken, just some torn ligaments. The bad news...his board broke in the crash.

Meredith wasn't able to race this weekend because of a knee injury (~2 or so weeks ago) but the good news is that she just had sprained ligaments and she said she'd be back in the gym this week :)

My race with Denise was a very intense and close race with a lot of lead changes (at least 4) throughout the race. We're quite a good match on the race course!! I ended up taking 1st but it was a close race for sure!! Other firsts for Saturday include Olivia, Kim, & Autumn :)

Saturday night we stayed at the Pinnacle Lodge in Fraser (just past WP) and we had a crew (Dave, Autumn, Charles, Joe, Stephen, Denise, & myself) at Azteca (great Mexican restaurant in Fraser) and celebrated the evening with awesome food, margs, and then took a dip in the hot tub!! All before I passed out at 9pm...

As the next morning arrived all too soon I found out that Autumn's knee and lower leg were in immense pain. We all had waffles for breakfast (and yours truly of course made a huge mess and ruckus -- though I didn't burn my waffles!!) and then left for the mountain.

This is going to have to be continued though (with pics and details on Sunday) as I need to get Herman ready to go to Taos, New Mexico for the Salomon Extreme Freeride Championships!! Autumn and I need to be at a rider meeting tonight at 6pm!!

xoxox Summer

New Sponsor: Skins!!

As of last night I am now sponsored by Skins™, which is body-moulded gradient compression performance equipment with built-in BioAcceleration Technology™ which will enhance your performance in training, competition and recovery. The future of technical wear is engineered gradient compression. When compression is engineered to apply a balanced and accurate surface pressure over specific body parts, it triggers an acceleration of blood flow. This increases oxygen delivery to working muscles to enhance their performance. The circulation improvements also help the body to eliminate lactic acid and other metabolic wastes. The combination of these effects allows you to work at a higher rate for longer. The improved oxygenation is most marked in recovery from exercise. As a result, muscle repair is accelerated, with a greater effect if your Skins™ are worn for longer, The best effects on delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), which can last for more than 48 hours, are seen after 8 hours during which time pain, muscle weakness and alertness are dramatically improved.

I decided on the new A400 series which is a newer series and the world’s first compression equipment designed specifically for the human body in motion. Using archaic and outdated measurement devices, most compression manufacturers take compression readings on their subjects in the passive state, and publish these readings in millimeters of mercury – or mmHg. These measurements present an obvious – yet previously unresolved – problem when applied to the body; athletes don’t stand still. In the dynamic state, the human body works in ways many (if not all) compression manufacturers disregard; limbs change diameter with blood flow, muscles get larger and smaller with contraction and extension, and joints operate in 3 dimensional planes with both linear and rotational movements. Through the use of our proprietary warp-knit microfiber material, a feature in ALL SKINS compression equipment, in addition to a wide array of revolutionary fabric technologies and product innovations, SKINS 400 Series is the world’s first compression equipment designed specifically to provide engineered gradient compression to the moving body.

Here are the tights I chose :)

Excited to wear my Skins for the freeride competition this weekend!!

xoxox Summer