[ Board Log ]  [ Rock Log ]  [ Urban Log ]  [ Mountain Log ]  [ Road Log ]  [ Tandem Log ] Pages: « 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 » Date Location Time Comments 03/19/10 Blue Mountain 0930 - 1600 So much for being a “champion” snowboarder. I can’t even do a simple board-slide. I kinda hate all of the obstacle things in the terrain parks but every once in a while I decide to try to do a board-slide on one of those box-rail things that they have at Blue. Normally I try to do it on the shortest one that I can find. They had a short one set up this year but it was closer to the other side of the mountain where I normally don’t ride. So I decided to try one of the longer ones that were set up on “my” side of the mountain. That kinda sucked. Halfway through the slide my board slipped off the box and I blasted both shins on the edge of the box. That’s kinda like having someone whack you in the shins with a lead pipe… for fun. It didn’t feel good. I got right up and pulled off to the side of the trail. I took my board off and waited for the pain to stop so that I could asses the damages. Both shins were bleeding and starting to swell but it didn’t seem like I needed stitches so that was a good thing. Once the pain stopped I got up and walked around. I felt pretty good then. Got back on the board and “played through the pain”. This was about halfway through our day up there and I didn’t wanna go home. I was a bit cautious once I started riding again but I eventually got back up to speed and even started hitting jumps again and stuff. We (Jake was with me) took a lunch break and then boarded some more. I guess I harnessed some adrenaline to enable me to keep boarding like that because once I got home I felt sore just walking. I washed off the blood and iced both shins all night. I couldn’t imagine getting back on a board then. Anyway, It was a really nice “Spring” day. Record-high temperatures for March. It was like 70 degrees. You could see the snow melting as the day progressed. This was our last trip up to Blue Mountain. They will be closing after this weekend. I think I’m gonna get shin guards for next year. Now, let’s see if I can injure myself on a bike. I’m sure I can swing it once I heal up. 03/11/10 Blue Mountain 1600 - 2200 I kicked it all off with a BK double stacker. Jake and I wanna try to use all of our passes this season. We have 2 more to use after this session. I almost didn't even use a pass today because it wasn't scanning at the gate and the dudes just let me through anyway. But it finally did scan after we ate “lunch”. So that'll count as one used pass. We plan to go at least one more time next week. Possibly during the day next Friday and MAYBE Thursday night, but I don't know if that's gonna happen. We'll get at least one more session in. Tonight was great. We got about a thousand runs in due to the fact that there were like only 30 other people there. No lines to wait in, no people to navigate around on the trails. Lots of speed. We were hittin' jumps and stuff. I even tried a couple rails. The trails were sort of slushy but it was still fun. We got a bit wet when we fell. We took a lunch break somewhere in the middle. I called my Mom to tell her that I'd be home to take out the garbage, sent a disturbing text message to Matt, and had a little talk with DD. She told me to say hi to Jake for her even though she knows that I don't do greeting relays. I did it anyway and it lead to me learning that one of Jake's teachers is a dude that I grew up with named Doug Schmidt. Jake was supposed to tell me that he said hi but he never did. So that was kinda cool. I always kinda wondered what ever happened to Doug. Now I know that he teachers science and coaches wrestling. After “lunch” we got about another 500 runs in before they kicked us out for the night. The CHECK ENGINE light came on in the van. I think that comes on after a certain batch of miles and then goes out eventually. I'll be gettin' that thing inspected for April anyway. I heard While My Guitar Gently Weeps tonight while we were getting on the lift. There's some awesome guitar solos in that song. I should learn that number. 02/12/10 Blue Mountain 0900 - 1500 Me and Jake took an early morning drive up to the mountain. We figured that it would be a good day since 2 feet of snow dropped on the area in the past week. Of course, we weren’t the only ones who had this idea. The first lift ride that we took was the only time that we didn’t hafta wait in a line. And the lines just got longer and longer as the day rolled on. We had to wait in line for about an average of 15 minutes for each run. Not too bad, but it got old as the afternoon dragged on. It was worth the wait though, because the snow was so nice. Most of the trails were well-groomed when we first got there and, after everyone ripped through it all morning, it got nice an’ powdery. We took an early lunch around 1100 and got right back on the slopes. We decided to stick to Lazy Mile for the rest of the afternoon because it’s the longest run and it has the dopest stuff on it. We wanted to make the most of each run since we had to wait so long to get up the lift. I actually got to rip through about 6 inches of untouched snow on the one trail that we went down earlier in the day. That was pretty sweet. The one time that we were waiting in line for the lift, we had these 2 older women behind us who were the most annoying and impatient people that I’ve ever been in a lift line with. They were telling us to move and the one actually pushed me on the back. I decided to let her get in front of me because getting to the lift seemed way more important to her than it did to me. It took us almost an hour to complete the last lift ride/trail run so we decided to break out a little earlier than we had planned. 02/05/10 Blue Mountain 0930 - 1630 Me and Deutschland Weiser met up at Blue. It was a good day. Not too cold. The surface was hard packed but not icy. There wasn’t alota people there. They had the 6-man and the quad running so we didn’t hafta wait in any lines. We did many runs. Weiser was yelling a lot. It was great. He kept up with me pretty well for an old man. He was on skis so he was able to go faster than he would have gone on a board. I had to ride goofy most of the day because I ride slower when I ride switch and I’d fall behind. We took a short lunch break and got right back out on the slopes, so it was constant activity. Perhaps we’ll do it again next week. Jake is most likely gonna go so it’ll be an evening session. I was talkin’ with Weiser about the visibility at night compared to the day time. I think that the visibility is actually better at night due to the artificial light source being on the ground as opposed to the sun overhead. You get more shadows at night and it allows you to read the terrain better. During the day, all of the white snow just blends together and you can’t tell where the bumps are and stuff as well. MARCH OR DIE! 01/05/10 Blue Mountain 1630 - 2200 Jake and I went up for our first boarding session at Blue. My sister heard stories about it being extremely icy up there and that people were breaking limbs and stuff. That caused me no concern but I assured her that I would take care of her son. If you reference my last entry (which comes right before this one since I didn’t skateboard ONCE since then) you’ll see that Jake suffered a season ending injury last year. I didn’t want him to injure himself again on the first day of the season. I told Jake, “do us both a favor and don’t do anything stupid tonight”. Fortunately, he didn’t really have an opportunity to hurt himself since all of the obstacle parks were either closed or not set up yet. There were only a couple of lame ramp jumps on the one trail. And not only were the conditions NOT icy, but they were excellent. The best conditions that I’ve experienced in at least two seasons. Maybe more. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the woods in between the trails covered with snow. I think it’s because it’s been below freezing almost every day this winter. The constant, cold air keeps the snow around. I’m really excited about this season now. We might actually have some good snowboarding this year. What’s cool is that the sides of the trails are all powdery and there’s nice “gutters” along the sides to drop into and out of. There’s little jumps everywhere that you can hit by dropping off the side of the trail. The jumps shoot you back into the trail then. Very cool. There’s also lots of little “back country” trails (Steve and I always liked to explore off the main trails into what we called “back country” trails). Jake is getting better at board control. He’s nowhere near the confidence level that he needs to keep up with my speed but I think that after this season he’ll get there. I predict that he’s gonna become more of a terrain park rider though. He’s very interested in the ramps and rails. I’ve never been into that stuff. I just like speed. That’s my favorite part. I do like the little jumps that are here and there that you can hit as you’re humming along. But I have no desire to sit and wait 5 minutes to hit some rail or ramp jump. That’s the scenario in the terrain parks. Those dudes just sit around and hit jumps over and over. And there are always packs of dudes waiting. So, what will probably happen eventually is I’ll “drop” Jake off at the terrain park for part of the night so that he can have some fun doing that stuff (I’ll check on him once in a while) and then I can go do my speed runs while he’s doing that. Then we can meet up again. It’s too bad the old crew didn’t stick with the snowboarding. Like Steve, Nick, Brandon, and the Sitler boys. We coulda had a nice crew by now. And some of those other dudes were into the terrain park stuff. We would have a diversified crew that could kick it all over the mountain now. But, that’s life. Sometimes I feel as though I’m the only constant in anything. But, Jake is the beginning of my new crew. And he’s pretty tough. I just gotta get him comfortable with a little speed. I forgot two items tonight; my phone and my kneepads. I like the kneepads for extra protection. I noticed that I had forgot them the first time that I dropped to my knees. I was like, “ouch”. I’ll have them for next time. 03/12/09 Blue Mountain 1100 - 1600 So Jake ended up with a season-ending injury. Some kinda slight tear in a shoulder ligament or something. And apparently Steve quit snowboarding so I'm on my own now for the rest of this season. The Valley lodge was closed. It woulda been nice if they had a sign indicating that at the "top" lodge so that maybe it would save people the trip down there. I had to turn around and head back up the mountain then. My pass wouldn't scan at the gate again so the dude just let me through. And I never went through the gate again all day so that means that I should still have 3 passes left. I never stopped for a break. I just boarded nonstop. Since Jake wasn't there I didn't have to slow down for him or wait for him to strap in after riding the lift so I got like 500 runs in or something (exaggeration). The conditions were good for speed. It was a little icy in the morning and then it became a bit of a slush machine by the afternoon but for the most part it was all flat terrain to rip down. It seems like the season is gonna end early this year though. It's melting away. 02/26/09 Blue Mountain 1600 - 2200 Jake joined me again today. One of the laces on my boots was frayed and it snapped when I was lacing it up. I had to tie it in a not to make it work. I remembered my lunch but ironically I never got hungry for it. So I never ate it. It's back in the fridge. It was like 45 degrees out there and it had rained. The trails weren't slushy though. A little icy in spots actually. Not bad. Not too many folks out there. Jake ate it off this double hump box slide. He got some sorta rotator cuff injury. He sucked it up and road the whole night with that pain though. He was even still hitting all of the obstacles. I'm gettin' better at hitting the obstacles. I can do the short rail and the rainbow rail now. Those things are long enough for me for now. I'm not gonna try any of the longer ones. I hit the bus a couple times in the upper park. I'm rockin' the switch riding really well. It feels as normal as riding goofy now. Hopefully Jake heals up and we can go again in a couple weeks. I hope to go 3 more times. 02/12/09 Blue Mountain 1600 - 2200 Very windy. There were times when the wind was actually pushing me backwards. Jake and I had a good time though. There wasn't many people there. I guess the weather kept them away. That worked out good for us. No lines. And the trails were pretty empty most of the time. I'm almost at the point where riding switch feels as natural as riding goofy. Since Jake is kinda slow yet I've been working on riding switch a lot more. I go slower when I'm riding switch. That way Jake can keep up. But I'm gettin' better at it now. That has always been a goal of mine, to ride both ways and to feel comfortable doing it. I forgot my lunch again. Fortunately Julie made me a sandwich when I picked Jake up. It was a really good sandwich too. 01/13/09 Blue Mountain 1600 - 2200 I picked Jake up and we headed up to the mountain. Right before we got there I remembered that I never called Steve to see if he wanted to go. I'll hafta remember to call him next time. This was a bit of a last minute plan. My pass scanned at the gate every time tonight. I took it outta that plastic sleeve that I had it in before. I just kept it in my coat pocket so it would be somewhat protected. Jake met up with a couple of his school buddies one of whom rode with us for the rest of the night until he had to leave. It actually snowed for 15 minutes or so while we were there. That was kinda nice. It added a thin coating of fresh snow on the trails which were already in pretty good shape. No ice tonight. After Jake's buddy split we had lunch and then got in a few more runs afterwards. We got like one extra run in than usual at the end there. They usually start kicking you out around 2130. But it was almost 2200 by the time we were done with our last run. Jake got me to hit one of the rails in the park. I don't normally do that kinda stuff 'cause I don't feel like waiting around in lines to hit one rail. I just wanna speed. But by the end of the night there wasn't many boarders around so I hit the one rail on both of our last two runs. It was kinda cool. What wasn't cool is that the Fox ran outta gas before I got home. I'm good at the whole running out of gas routine though. I've done it plenty of times in my life. The reason this happens is 'cause I have two cars and I don't drive very often. So by the time either one of them needs gas a couple months or so have gone by. So it's like I forget about needing to get gas. So I ended up walking about a mile to the nearest gas station, buying a gas can for 5 bucks, filling it, walking back to the Fox to put that gas in the tank and then I drove to the gas station to fill it all the way up. Then I drove home. Added about 30 minutes to my commute home. I should be good on gas for another couple months or so now. Happy Birthday, Lis! 12/30/08 Blue Mountain 0900 - 1330 Jake and I headed out for an early morning board outing. I remembered everything except for my lunch. I had a sandwich, cookies and a banana lined up but I forgot it all. Ended up paying 10 bucks for 2 hot dogs, 4 pierogies and a large iced tea. Not too bad, I guess. Anyway, when we first got there I ran out to the gate to see if my flex pass would scan. I wasn't sure if the pass was usable during the “holidays” or if they were still considering this week as part of the “holidays” or whatever. The restrictions on these passes seem to be different every year. So the pass scanned successfully at the gate and I even asked the dude to verify that it did scan okay and he said that it did. So I figured that I didn't need to buy a lift ticket for the day. So I just waited for Jake to get one for himself. It was a long lineup. But then we headed out to start boarding. I had my pass in this plastic armband thing and they had trouble scanning it at the gate but they just let me though anyway. The conditions weren't bad. Kinda powdery and slushy for the most part. We boarded for about 4 hours. Got 6 runs in and Jake got hungry. We rolled in for our expensive lunch. After lunch that older guy named Walt was at the gate. That dude's pretty thorough. He wouldn't just let me slide through. He asked me to take the pass outta the plastic thing so that he could scan it. So I did. And when he scanned it he said that it was restricted. So I rolled into the office and found out that my pass is good any day of the week and any time except during any holidays which include the 2 weeks during Christmas and New Years. So apparently I wasn't supposed to be boarding today. I think that I got a free day outta this. I guess we'll see if I get 7 days instead of 6 this season. I hope that I get out there that many times this year. I told Jake that he could continue boarding if he wanted to but he said that he was a little tired and his butt hurt. So we split. Pages: « 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 »

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