Mt. Snow

On March 24th I finally went on my first mountain in Vermont, particularly Mount Snow. After major snowfall few days prior, there was so much snow! I've never experienced the slopes in this way, moguls covered entirely in snow, powder in many places, no ice at all. The mountain was fantastic. Cartinthia Parks were superb (although I wish they've had couple of smaller jumps), there are plenty of trails, and many glades.

Ah glades. Riding snowy terrain in between trees was a great experience. Surprisingly, it was extremely tiring, it's like a workout on a gym. I enjoyed this really much and rode it many times. During the last run of the day, naturally I went for the glades. I was going down making swift turns, avoiding trees. All of a sudden, very unexpectedly I fell. There was a relatively large root sticking out of the ground that was covered in light powder that was almost invisible. I accidentally shifted my entire weight on my left ankle and twisted it outwards.

At first I thought that I was okay, so I continued to ride. After 20 minutes, when the trip was over and we had to walk back to the bus, I started to feel pain in my left foot. But as anyone else would do, I sucked it up, packed my board, and sat in the bus. After 5 long hours of riding to NYC, we were finally home. I tried getting out of the bus, in extreme pain. My friend helped me get my equipment out of bus cargo and we went for the car. I couldn't walk. I was driven home, and dropped off right at my front door.

I bandaged my foot, as it started to swell up, and in pain, I went to bed. The next morning it didn't look any better and it was in severe pain, just as it was last night. So I decided to go to a doctor. The next day, at the clinic, they did couple of x-rays and checked my foot. According to them, nothing has been broken (whew, what a relief), but I was still in the pain. There was some administrative mistake I didn't see podiatric doctor at all. So this regular Joe just told me to do RICE. Rest Ice Compression and Elevation.

It's been few days now, and this is still swollen. I can hardly walk. If it wasn't for my mother's crutches, that she saved after she broke her leg, I would have been immobile. Luckily my follow up is scheduled soon and hopefully my foot will get better.

This is a bad way to end the season I guess, and a bad way to screw up my spring break. What can you do.

Stay safe, and keep shredding.    

East Coast Heaven

Well, who would have thought that winter would come back with such an impact. East coast snowboarders and skiers are having a blast on the slopes as the snow still falls and has been falling for over few days now. Catskill resorts report 10" and 12" in Belleayre and Windham respectively. Vermont resorts have even more snow! 14" and above.

This is just glorious. It looks like spring shredding won't be as disappointing as it was ought to be. Strangely enough, with the warm weather throughout winter time, this snowstorm brought the most snow this season on entire east coast!

What are we waiting for? Well, I guess we're all stuck at work and school (or whatever your occupation might be). Looks like this year's spring break will be awesome though. I cannot wait till Sunday; that's when I'm going out for some Vermont snowboarding at Mt.Snow =)

I'll see you on the slopes.

Where are we headed with snowboarding?

The longer we snowboard the better we get. That's a general rule of thumb and it is definitely true when it comes to progression in snowboarding. I know that when X-Games comes, every professional snowboarder throws insane tricks to win the competition and gain respect, and every year new, better and faster tricks come to daylight.

When I think about it, it wasn't too long ago when snowboarders were mind-blown, when someone pulled off a 1080. Progressing past that point seemed totally impossible! but as years passed better and better tricks eventually came up. Let's me present you with a short video of this Norwegian 13-year old snowboarder.

A Triple Cork done by a 13-year old. WHAT?!?!? How is this even possible. In 2008 Travis Rice was the first man on earth to perform a double cork, and that seemed like the peak of progression. Then in 2011 Torstein Horgmo did a Triple Cork. It spins so many times so fast, that my I get dizzy just from watching it. Now in 2013 this 13-year old fellow does the same trick as Torstein, who was in his mid 20s when performed the trick (as well as Travis) . Keep in mind that this isn't a small jump, but a massive 75 foot kicker that sends you flying into heavens.

Since now we have youngsters doing tricks like that, who can predict what will come next and how far will the progression go? Imagine this man in 6 years and the things he'll be doing then. I guess we'll have to wait to find out.

Anyways, keep it safe, keep progressing and keep on shredding.

Windham Mountain trip!

Guess what? We made it to Windham last weekend and it was ... well, read to find out.

I'll have to say, at first I was a little skeptical about this trip. On Feb. 12th (Lincoln's Birthday) we went to Windham and the conditions were absolutely horrid. There wasn't enough snow, you could see grass on the trails and the rest was covered in ice. I guess that the rest of the Catskill mountains weren't in their best shape either since it was getting warmer and warmer, which was eating into the base of the trails. Back then, I wasn't too satisfied with our trip.

On Sunday, March 3rd however, much has changed. Late season started. I expected the conditions to be somewhat like last time. I thought I'd give Windham another shot, seeing as my friends wanted to ride Windham before season ends. And I have to say, I'M GLAD I WENT! The conditions were absolutely amazing! So much snow and powder! Many trails have been groomed and many had a natural snow. The terrain parks were well maintained and there was no ice at all! It was snowing for most of the day, and it was a little cloudy, but later the sun came up and it was wonderful. For March weather, it was amazing.

This was also the first time I've gotten mode hang time in air, on jumps. The day was great and I was excited to hit a medium size jump for the very first time. It was a little frightening at first, especially the part when I was approaching the kicker and I couldn't see the landing. Even though I crashed many times I think I learnt a thing or two about jumping and landing. Actually, here's a video of my fall:

I didn't have enough speed, so I partially landed on the knuckle (even though it was pretty flat) which threw me off balance. I hurt my bottom throughout the day, but it was worth it. After all, if you won't fall, you'll never learn.

In the end, I had a great time. I found courage to hit a medium size jump and had great time with my friends. All of this combined with great weather conditions, made me change my mind about Windham! I'd be glad to go there again.

This Sunday maybe I'll visit Mt. Snow in Vermont, let's hope that everything goes as planned.

Also I'd like to thank my friend Jarek for shooting some videos from our trip.

Keep on shredding.

Maintenance time

It's been 3 years since I started snowboarding. Some seasons I'd go five times on the slopes, some two, but this year it's been quite a run. After eighth trip this season I decided to finally work a little on the edges of my board. After all, my 158 Ride Machete hadn't been tuned/detuned yet.

After me and my friend waxed our gear last night (to get ready for our weekend trip to Windham!), I've noticed some burrs on the edges of my board. So today, in the early morning, I grabbed a file and a sharpening stone, and finally took care of this imperfection. While at it, I also detuned contact points of the board, so I can finally try doing some "butters" without easily catching an edge! Since I live on east coast, which is known to have icy conditions on trails, I sharpened the sides just a little bit. Hopefully that'll keep me in control over icy patches on the slopes.

I also took care of the chipped top coating. I didn't have an epoxy, so instead I used p-tex  (maybe it'll do the trick). I think I messed up a little bit. The p-tex burned a little and instead of becoming clear on the surface, it turned slightly dark, a brownish burned color if you will. That shouldn't be any problem however, since it's only top coating, and as long as the board handles well, aesthetics don't matter as much. I guess it was all a rookie mistake, besides, it was my first time using that thing.

Anyways, after some maintenance my board is finally ready to do some major shredding! All we need now is great weather for the weekend and we're set. Sunday, here we come!

And as always, keep on shredding.