epic-ness

So while I was in steamboat, I acquired quite a love for longboarding. It is almost my summer equivalent to skiing in the winter. It is so sick, I love it, I would just go out and hike for hours and then cruise down hills. But that was steamboat, I got over that shit, and now I'm back in Breck. Well I found out that skating on the streets is illegal in breck, which is a horse load of poop. You get yelled at and get a $50 fine. Bunch of honkey stuff if you ask me. But as I'm down at the liquor store, as I am now on every sunday since colorado recognized the 21st century, the clerk there points out the front page of the paper. It revealed to me, nothing but pure awesome-ness. http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20080726/NEWS/280237797/1055 -Thats about it. Stoked to see this finally happening. I don't know too much about other skaters, but I keep to my own zone and dont hog the road, like some POS road bikers who ride in the middle of the lane pretending to be a tour de france contender. This is awesome news. Already road my board today like a rebel down to the beer store. It will be that much more awesome when I can do it and not be worried about getting fined.

6am, hungover, ramblings

So its 6am. I'm hungover. Can't really sleep to well when im like this, so I figured I might as well yap about some crap. Quite honestly, the most fascinating thing that happened was, I went to a keg party with a friend of mine, played miserably at beer pong, but thats besides the biggest fact. It was at this a-frame house here in breck.....and the house..........had..............an................elevator! It was insanely sick. I felt so compelled to drink beer just so I could take the elevator to go to the bathroom, then take it back to return to the party. I somehow managed to royally eat shit walking back, even without my longboard. And through out all the mess, I only scratched / cut up one finger. WTF. How the hell was it just one finger and not my entire arm.....I am baffled. Tonight is not going to be any better. I've got two friends comin into town and they only have one thing on their mind, and it sure as hell aint havin tea and tellin stories. Or maybe it is, whatever. I just wish I could sleep right now....cause its going to be 1110x times worse tonight.

some wheat evolution

I am awakened on this friday of July a little bit earlier than I am used to. Apparently some fruitcake thought it would be cool to practice his saxophone at 7am in the lobby. Maybe if something was actually played instead of a bunch of random practice notes I wouldnt be so pissed. So thats it, I'm awake now, might as well go eat some breakfast. My favorite as of late has been

Not just your ordinary frosted mini-wheats, but with a nice flavor of maple & brown sugar. Its a nice thing to have first thing in the morning. Ever since I've gotten back to breck, I've been on a health binge for some reason too. Of course that's short lived cause I have friends coming into town this weekend and that will of course involve copious amounts of drinking. So much for staying healthy. I'm even drinking v8 for christs sake......ok fine its that new vfusion stuff....but it tastes damn good.....and is good for you! Chowin down salads as well, trying to straighten out after a winter/summer of eating the all american crap diet of burgers, brats, etc....and not a single veggie.

So as I'm sitin there eating my maple & brown sugar frosted mini-wheats.....I'm thinking...Ok. these are mini-wheats. The mini always have to come after the regular. It's not like midgets evolved first, then man...or was it? Anyway, I did some digging on shredded wheat evolution.
In a rather nasty photo (looks like this one is taking a shit) I find the original shredded wheat. Something the size of hand.....obviously you cant eat it how it is, so you have to crumble it up into the bowl first, then eat it. I sit here wondering who the hell even eats this stuff anymore. I can barely get the cereal into the bowl let alone be worried about having to crush stuff up just to eat it. And what the hell...no frosting? Plain shredded wheat would taste like you're eating sandpaper.....or a non-flavored triscuit. That shit's nasty. I am more than satisfied with my maple & brown sugar frosted mini-wheats. Thank goodness for the evolution of shredded wheat. Without it, I would probably still be eating crap like pizza or lucky charms.

the epic journey

Time for a real story. Not some garbage emotional crap or some self-analytical bullshit. Here's how its all played out to this day. Lets zap back to the summer of 2002. I'm done with high school and think I found a college that would be suitable for me. Was just going to be in school, so I decided not to haul the car 2000 miles. August came around, and it was time to fly out to Steamboat Springs, where I could attend Colorado Mountain College.


The first year was pretty mundane. Just taking the usual array of classes, Intro to business, Ski & Snowboard Product & Design, Sales & Marketing, and all that sort of stuff. I really didnt know a single soul in the dorms, because I was one of the few people from my class to go to a school that was across the country. The closest person I knew was a classmate Trent, who was going to CU.

Academics aside, the dorms were just that.....dorms. I heard plenty of times how ours were nicer than most universities, since each dorm room had its own bathroom. I also managed to pick up a shady roommate which made things pretty shady as well. As time went on, I managed to escape and get myself a single room. Although nice to have, I didnt like sitting around much, so I would hang out in the rooms of the new friends I was starting to know. Most of those turned out to become really good friends. Those characters were Joe, Jarod, and Ted.
It's easy to understand how we got along so well. None of us were quite your usual characters. We all of course had a sense of humor that was bigger than an obese elephant. Aside from going to our different classes, it was the usual college hangout of watching tv/movies, playing video games, and drinking way too much. Don't forget skating in the rooms too. Once the mountain had opened, every single second not spent in the classroom was on the mountain of course, getting in as many turns as possible. This was before I really even had discovered terrain parks, since back east it was a "snowboarder-only" type of thing. I would look for the steepest gnarliest terrain that steamboat had to offer and promptly conquer it. The fun in skiing for me was the challenge of the terrain...the steeper the better. With most of the season a blur, (because it was the same ski or class all day, then drink all night) some of the best times were in the spring, when the season was winding down. It was around that time that I met some more characters who loved skiing as much as I. Those few were Kyle and John.














Once I had finally gotten into park skiing, I would see these guys on an almost daily bases. Both of them were out there trying to stomp the next rotation up the ladder, often way ahead of me. It gave me motivation and a new challenge to take on with my skiing. Flying and spinning through the air was much more fun than creeping down steeps. Towards the end of the season, I managed to put something together from the various clips I could snag from other peoples' video cameras. The result was quite astounding.

It all went by so fast once it became so much fun. The mountain closed, but it wasn't over yet. Some friends and I decided to make a journey down to Breckenridge, for some late season spring skiing. Once we got there, I was in complete awe. Everything was kept to absolute perfection and the jumps were massive. The layout was insane with rail after rail after rail. Three huge jumps all in a row....I felt like I was in heaven. However, at the time, I was still a complete rookie...and was almost intimidated by how huge everything was. Once we were finally leaving, I had only one thought in my head; I want to live here and ski this every single day......some day.....

The semester was over, and everyone went back their seperate ways to wherever they came from. Some looked forward to seeing each other again the next year, and some took off with other plans. The second year came around and it was mostly the same friends hanging out, hittin up the mountain, and having a good time outside of class. Sometimes class was missed, but it was all worth it. Nothing too great came of the second year, other than the fact that I finally was progressing my skiing to levels I originally thought impossible.














I had the 3s clean, then moved up to the 5s. After throwing about 5,000,000 3s and 5s, I figured, hey why not go for a seven, and lets get a bit off axis. I was so comfortable with hitting the same jump over and over....that it didnt really phase me to drop a shoulder, and see what the outcome was. With enough balls and air awareness, I had some pretty sweet 7s under my belt before I even knew it. I was having an absolute blast. As most people know, the feeling when you stomp something new is awesome. The feeling of knowing that new trick, and being able to repeat it over and over is even better. It probably didn't help my addiction too much getting hired onto the Steamboat Park Crew, but oh well. I soon became one of the few people in the park at Steamboat that was out hucking my carcass as much as possible, provided the chairlift was still open. Surely enough, I noticed there were a few other people who were doing the same. One of them was this guy.

He was Andrew "The Monkey" Koblitz. The first few times I had seen him in the park, he had long black hair at the time. Combined with his helmet and the oakley wisdom goggles he had, I somehow found it reminiscent of....


I'm not exactly sure how, but for some reason that image always comes up when I think about it.

Anyways, school once again had come to a close, and many would stay behind to stick out the summer. I tried to make it happen....through whatever job I could manage, whether it was tossing salads and washing dishes, or night auditing. I just wasnt feeling it and soon enough, bailed back to the east coast. Surprisingly enough, even after 2 years at a "2 year college" I had opted for the 3 year program. So after a boring summer on the east coast, it was back to Steamboat Springs to finish what I had started. I still had my sweet job in the winter to look forward too, and loads more skiing, with minimal classes to finish. Since I was coming out in the spring semester, the likelihood of finding housing off-campus wasnt so great. So unfortunately I was stuck in the dorms again. It wasn't so bad though, because I managed to pickup my good friend Ted as a roommate. In my final and last semester there, I met some of the most diverse characters out of my entire time in Steamboat. Jay, Mento, Joel, John, Mark, Bart, Emily, Monte, Bob, Drew, Jimbo, Jesse, and many others.

School again came to an end, I finally graduated. Once again, I tried to make the summer happen, but it just wasnt coming together. I had a place to live, and my rent paid off for the summer, but nothing to do with my time. Once again, I retreated back to the east....swearing to come back in the fall, for I still had my sweet job in the park. Summer was the usual mow the lawn, play some video games, watch tv, etc. This summer was a little special cause I was finally turning 21. It was a cool thing, since I never really drank until I was 18, and after that it was something only in the dorm room or out at a party. Well needless to say, my actual birthday wasnt that great. It was myself and three of my best friends just going to the store, getting some tequila and beer, sneaking it up to my bedroom because my parents would flip if they knew I had alcohol in the house, and then promptly consuming it while playing several games of goldeneye. The rest of the summer flew by and fall once again arrived. There really wasnt anything I wanted to do in the east....it was so boring and mundane to me.

I counted down the days until I would finally drive back out to Steamboat, ski every day, and get paid for it. Before I knew it, I was already on the road for the 2k mile journey. Once I arrived, I had no where to live! So began my training as a couch surfer. I eventually found a place, moved in, got fed up with it, moved back and had a room where I was couch surfing. Through all of this mess, I had another awesome season stomping new stuff, having way too much fun, and drinking too much as well. Things were different this time around though. I had my car, and I was able to snag a job working for the mountain during the summer time. The job title: Trail Crew. It was only two weeks after the mountain had closed for the season and we were already back to work on the Beetle Kill project. After a few months of cutting down trees trying to save the forest, the job shifted to brush cutting the trails, to keep all those pesky bushes low so that trails could be groomed and opened sooner.

At some point in between all that, I managed to drink a bit too much before gettin behind that wheel. After some pretty red and blue lights and uncomfortable seating, I was now a Steamboat local. It wasn't that big of a deal, since I cooperated, and it was a first offense. All of that shaz is long in the past by now.


So work and the summer trekked on, including an 1100 jello shot party. Then I managed to get kicked out, and had to go crash at another buddy's place. For some reason, my friend Ryan had a 2bd/2ba condo, when he was the only one living there. He didnt mind saving some cash, so myself and Jay moved in to occupy the space. It was still the same daily work routine, and then out to the bars for drinks with friends on the weekends. Surely enough, the birthday had arrived again. This was probably the most memorable pic from the whole occasion. I got a keg, wanted to party, and decided a gangster theme would be fitting, with it being the current trend n all.......whatever...it was a lot of fun.


Fast forward to the fall again, where we would all count the days until the mountain opened. Once the summer was over, I managed to get a place with my good buddy Daniel. We had a pretty sweet pad right behind City Market, where many good times were had. As the winter went on, he left to live with his mom and pay back some court fees, and had this character Shon to take his place. It was more and more good times. Then for whatever reasons and god knows what happened, we were getting evicted. With only a week or two to act, I just tried to cover my own ass. Jimbo was kind enough to let me surf his couch for a bit while I tried to find a new place to crash at. I finally did, but it wasnt really my cup of tea.

As the spring trekked on, I soon learned that the Monkey had not only purchased the condo he was living in, but also had a spare room for rent. Yippie! I thought, as I anxiously moved all my stuff in. Many, many, many, many, and more good times were had this summer. The typical work week would play itself out, then every weekend would just be crazier than the last. With several days spent out training at the water ramps, I was able to really refine my air awareness skills, and I looked forward towards the winter to throw down a whole new array of stuff.

I had some friends that I knew back east coming out to finish their final year at the same college I went to. I looked at them as if they were me when I was first out here, and wanted to try and make things that much better for them, so they didnt have to deal with all the silly dorms and whatever crap I did. Turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes of my life. After a bunch of fights and dealing with delinquents, I got the hell out of there and moved in with the two Kevins, more properly known as K and K squared.

The fall played out, and winter was here once again. I was really stoked for my work this year, because I was finally the Terrain Park supervisor. I had made a crap load of plans and drawings over the summer and wanted to make the park better than it had ever been. As the days went on and we got more snow, I was able to slowly piece this epic design together. We were finally about to complete one of the best and longest slopestyle courses Steamboat would have in the little bashor mini-bowl. But as with all things, someone always has to get too nosy and fuck things up. We were set on building our own park until the Steamboat Ski & Ride school and several other desk jockeys decided to interfere. Our hopes and dreams were crushed, and we were basically told we could not have anything more advanced than a "intermediate" feature. This was a huge blow to the entire crew, and many of the locals as well. In the previous years, we managed to make the jumps not only bigger each year, but safer as well. Out planned line this year would have been one of the safest and most progressive for Steamboat. But since we didnt spend our entire day at a desk, we apparently knew nothing about park progression or safety. I had only one thought to sum up the whole situation. Complete utter bullshit.

"Fuck This!" I said. After being sick of having old conservative farts try and enforce their agenda of what they want "their" mountain to be, I started to look elsewhere. After combing the web, I had only found two openings for my line of work. They were at Mammoth and Breckenridge. Zoom! The resume was sent out, and not three days later, I was already off to nowhere. I had received an email from Mammoth. "Sorry but the position has been filled" Man, I was pretty bummed. Then out of the blue, I get a phone call the next day. I look at my phone and wonder who the hell this number was. I answer...........and nothing but happyness was to follow. It was Breckenridge, and they were calling to set up an interview.

God, I am so gd tired of typing. Time to initiate flux capacitor blogging. So I got the interview, cruised down to Breck, had some car issues on the way, but made it there on time. Had a stellar interview and was told I would get a call later in the day if I got the job. On the way back to the boat, I got the call, and I got the job. I could barely sit still for the rest of the ride back because I was so excited. The place that I dreamed about almost 5 years ago was going to become a reality. I put in my last days at Steamboat looking forward to my first epic day at Breck. I felt like an ass, because I was bailing on the best crew Steamboat had ever had of Bart, Lex, Erika, and Tom, who were all just as bummed about the Steamboat bullshit as I was....except I found a sweet way out.

There was a bit of a kink in all of this though. I had a sweet job to look forward to in Breckenridge, but nowhere to live! After one crazy stupid weekend of trying to ski at copper, crashing at andrew's parents place, my car dying completely, some crazy shit happening in a ten below zero broken down car outside of the tunnel with monkey, and a retarded competition at echo leaving the monkey bummed about skiing......I was able to catch a ride up to my buddy's place in frisco where I would end up couch surfing once again while working/skiing in Breck. After about two months of that, I finally found a place in Breckenridge. I was super stoked, cause it was downtown at a real nice condo complex, and the roommates were super chill. The same time I went to look at it, I dropped the bucks and secured it. Mid-season moving is a bitch, and if theres something good, you gotta snag it asap before someone else does.

I made it! I finally made it to Breckenridge, the place I had dreamed about when I first visited it almost 5 years ago. It was everything I had hoped for. The town is awesome, the people are awesome, and the skiing is beyond epic. Proof in the pictures:





Mad thanks to Brian and all the Park Crew at Breck who made it such an awesome season. Mad props to Jake, Marko, and Conner for putting up with my bullshit while I was surfing your couch. Thanks to Shannon for helping me out with the auto troubles while my car was under surgery in Denver (with a nice $2200 bill). Thanks again Jarod for helping me move all my shit into my new place. All the private park sessions, the sweet sunny days, the hell powder days, its all been so awesome. Without all you guys, I never would have been able to have this dream come true.

So then the season ended, and I find myself in the same spot I was in Steamboat several spring seasons ago. I had a place to live, but nothing to really do with my spare time, or a job. I tried to tough it out with some shitty job in Breck cleaning, but that DEFINITELY wasnt my cup of tea. I found myself back in steamboat once again working on trail crew. It was fun for the first month, but it soon turned into the same bullshit of the previous summer. We weren't working on trails, but just a bunch of bullshit pipeline and construction projects. Although I had picked up longboarding as a fun new hobby, I was really getting sick and tired of paying for a place I couldn't enjoy, and staring at the same ditch day in and day out. After a fun birthday....the clock was ticking in my head...I had to get back home. My life was going nowhere in steamboat...in fact... it felt like it was going backwards.

After one last night out partying with some of my friends from work, the switch had flipped. I had to go back, no matter what. That very night, I left the Boat for the last time. Good god, I was so happy to be back in Breck. Like I said before, to have my own bed and all my toys and gadgets. Place to live? No problem. Job? Here we go again. I methodically read over the paper each morning looking for jobs. Within just one day, I spotted a fresh listing online! Retail for a Ski Shop! Hey! This is something I can handle and would be pretty good at too! I chased after it as I do with most opportunities....relentless until I accomplish the goal. Just 4 days after having moved back, I had secured the job! It turns out its a bit more warehouse work than originally stated, but I'm keen with that, since I get to push around all the new gear for the 08/09 season. Finally, a summer gig down here in summit I can get along with. I can finally just plug away the days, maybe get some sweet discounts on gear, and prepare for the upcoming season. Still many new friends I have to hang with more down here, and all of which have been wondering where I've been all summer.

Thanks for all the good times Boat. Thanks for all the awesome people, and thanks to all the awesome people up there. (No thanks to the management) But it's time for me to move on for the summer as well. With no real departure in sight, Breck is where I need to make my roots now.

Feel free to stop by and ski some real park. :)

home

Back at last. Finally back home where I can enjoy my own room, awesome location, great gadgets and toys, and many new friends as well. I tried to make steamboat work, but soon learned that after I had absolutely no plans to be there year round anymore, my advancement oppurtunites at work were basically crushed. Along with all of that, I was starting to get a bit sick and tired of paying for rent down in breck, and not even seeing anything for it.

It was kind of a quick decision, but usually the ones I make on instinct instead of planning turn out better anyway. I already feel totally at home again. The weather is much nicer, where im living is alot better, and I have all my goodies. The only negative is that I need to find a job to hold me over until the winter season gets here. No major worries, since I have paid some of my rent forward. I have a good amount of time to find something, and dont necessarily work at 7-eleven. With the time till fall / snow being that much shorter now, I'm sure I could put up with a job that isnt exactly my cup of tea.

It's good to be back.

Doing the right thing?

I sit here on my weekend in the early afternoon just wasting time away. Been bored out of my mind lately, as I am with most summers because I lose my favorite way of life; Skiing all day every day. Staring at the calender, just counting the days until the snow falls once again. As I count through the days, I realize that my birthday is only 17 days away.

The past couple birthdays have been the usual debauchery of going out and drinking my ass off. With that being the same, I am sure I know what this one will have in store. All those fun things aside, I cant help but look at the numbers, of turning 24. Twenty-four years that I have been on this planet. I recall my previous years of high school, hating going, glad to get out and finally having the first real choice of my life besides what cereal and cookies I want to eat. What did I want to do with my life?

Once arriving at the college that looked fun, things still seemed pretty directionless just like high school. It became the routine of going to class, doing homework, going to parties, and thats about it. Really didnt feel any sense of what I wanted to really do in the world. Surely enough, one of my favorite recreational activities would lead me to the work I love so much today.

To most people, skiing is something they do on a vacation. Its a once or twice a year deal, where they plan ahead of time all the things they are going to do, spend too much money doing it, and then its over. It used to be fun and games for me till I saw all the aspects of it. Picked up a job that looked fun and then it turned out to be exactly that. Building and working on your own playground while you work, and the getting to play on it with your days off.

So after 3 years of doing what I love, can’t help but have the broad image of things come into play. Is this really where I want to be? Working for a piss-poor hourly wage that lets you live paycheck to paycheck in places with insane costs of living? I don’t really know. What I do know is that there really isnt anything else I’d rather be doing right now. Going back to school to “upgrade” to a desk job is not what I’m after. I know that for a fact.

This past season, I was offered a new job. Still in the same area of parks, but with improved pay. For the first month or two of spring, I thought I would never want to leave my job of being around during the day, cause it all seemed so much fun. Thinking about it all summer however, has changed my mind. It is the right thing to do, because it is a step up in the industry I love so much. Finally getting some decent pay for the years of experience that are under my belt, and being able to start affording things, like a new car.. (current is almost 220k miles) Finally being able to save money, taking my work and skiing seriously, and spending much less on going out. (Summer is a diffferent story, for now) I’ve been able to regain some of my sanity for the summer months by picking up an activity thats about as much fun as skiing; longboarding. I eagerly await when I will be able to order my new deck and just spend the days hiking and bombing.

All of this leaves me looking forward to next season with great optimism. A new job and the resort I believe is paradise, better pay, and hopefully a new place to live. Although 24 is not a very exciting number, I look at it as another stage in my life. The past year has been pretty turbulent, but I managed to survive it.

Most people make their new-years resolutions for what they hope to accomplish the following year. I make mine on my birthday, Its another year that I have lived, and soon another to be lived (hopefully!!!). So its time to step it up and make it that much better than the last, in every way possible.