My Resolution To Myself

Dear Self,

I am committed to being slightly less reckless with you for the rest of the snowboard season. I'm sorry about the knees, ankle, back, and now your broken face. I don't mean you harm, but it seems apparent at this point that we have differing perceptions of what is or isn't within our realm of possibility. Let's work together to preserve what health we have left for the coming months and get ready for bike season. As a token of my appreciation and contrition, I present to you this bottle of Mederma anti-scar lotion for your face. It will help keep you from getting any less attractive.

Love,

Chris

Blower Blubird Pow Day

Epic day today. After our 30+ inch storm this weekend, I awoke to flawless blubird conditions (blubird: adj./ used to describe sunny conditions at a ski resort. Associated with "epic", "gnarly", and "today we're gonna get some rad shots") and waxed my board up for the feast. I was out early enough, got some good cliffs, and caught rope drop on the Hot Rocks face. Probably one of the 3 best runs of my life. I stepped up to all of my trash talking and jumped off of House Rock today - she's a burly beast for sure. Such a good day - blower pow and good friends. That's the recipe, for sure.

I've realized that I'm obsessed with cycling, and this bike season in Seattle is going to be crazy fun. I've signed up for a bunch of good rides and races, and am excited to train on a new set of routes this summer. It's going to be good.

Speaking of training, it's time.

Be careful: the path is dark. - Eric Chrabot

Photos From This Weekend's Storm

I'll have more on the week's events in a blog later tonight - these are going up now so that my loving mother can look at them before her bedtime. Love you Mom.

Fat Tuesday

Fat Tuesday makes me laugh. A very significant portion of the population celebrating copiously for reasons that have ZERO relevance to their lives. Did you know that Mardi Gras was originally a Christian festival offering a final indulgence in rich, fatty foods before the start of the Lenten season? I didn't. Somehow our nation has taken that idea and turned it into a bead-laden belligerent party that throws the notion that it is less than advisable to binge drink on a weekday out the window. We strong-willed Americans. It's nice to know that by conviction alone the bulk of our population can rationalize getting hammered before noon on a Tuesday.

That being said, I had an excellent Fat Tuesday. I worked on mountain safety patrol (and my back feels much better), I got a good workout in, and enjoyed a night out with friends. I haven't gone out much since January (the CB3 debacle wore my drinking shoes out, and I've been training so hard that it just hasn't been in the cards to burn the candle on both ends), and it was a fun celebration. I saw a whole bunch of my friends out my chance (the Crested Butte Effect: with one street of bars within a 30 mile radius, you tend to run into people often), and saw a great punk show. Guttermouth (yes, Guttermouth) played the Eldo last night, and seeing a band I last saw when I was 15 was awesome. All of the elements of a good punk show were there: I lost at least 2 beers to the mosh pit, broke a pair of sunglasses, and got clocked in the face by a fiesty lass and received a good old-fashioned bloody nose. I wouldn't have it any other way. Back to the office today - I have some clients, some work to do for the bike tour (name brainstorming for the NPO and mission statement drafts), and my own workout training. It's on.

I Need 7 Friends or Family Members

I know there are 7 of you that are into this... let's get on it.

www.skitosea.com

You know it would be epic.

Good news, bad news

Good news: After waking up with a sharp pain in my spine this morning, I (terrified) carried myself to the doctor's (Happy Valentine's Day, Mom - I went because you'd want me to) again for a followup. They took some more X-rays and confirmed that I DO NOT HAVE A FRACTURED SPINE. Excellent, excellent news.

Bad news: They took all of my X-rays from me, so you the readers miss out on the photographic evidence. Or lack thereof, I suppose.

Gonna be taking it easy for a bit - it's a long snow season yet, there's my cycling-heavy summer, and - oh, yeah - the rest of my life. Patience is a virtue. I'm going to become better acquainted with my work and books for a bit. And the sauna/massage/hot tub combo. Here's to that.

Ouch.

I forgot to mention something with all of my high and mighty "self-preservation is the death of snowboarding" talk - if you throw self preservation out the window, you tend to not preserve yourself very long. I was motivated by a number of things (my friend Eric stomped a back barrel roll, my friend Jamie stomping a rodeo on the Showtime jump and a front flip off of a ridiculous cliff, my health insurance agent calling me to congratulate me on being approved, etc.) to give an underflip a genuine attempt yesterday. I don't now what the "real" snowboard world calls it, but since everyone has a different name for every trick anyway, that's what I'm calling it. It was supposed to be a sort of personalized Misty Flip, but it's pretty irrelevant now that I landed on my face. Thank you, Bern helmets. I wrote them a letter about it. I'm pretty sure that lawndarting 30+ feet off of a jump onto my head would've been less pleasant had I not been wearing my helmet.

Funny side note to that point: When I stopped into the clinic today for X-rays, my patrol supervisor was the one to respond to my walk in. Hilarious. When we got the part of the form about helmets, he checked "No", and I said, "I was wearing a helmet, Marko. I always wear a helmet. Except for when I'm working on safety patrol." He found the irony about one- fifth as funny as I do.

Back on track - it's pretty weird that I would hurt my lower back after landing on my head, but the snow gods have a sense of humor about them. Fortunately, my hours and hours of core training every week paid off, and my back muscles saved my spine (except for the possible hairline fracture - I'll post the X-Ray when I can). My doctor actually told me that my core strength may have prevented a serious spinal injury. I take two things from this: perhaps I should reevaluate my approach to inverted aerial maneuvers, and I should get a signed note stating this from my doctor and use it to convince my core/flex students they should pay me more money.

So I'm down and out for a few days, which is cool with me since it's the holiday weekend and I really don't want to go out Griswald-dodging all weekend. I'll take the next few days to get some work done, sit in a hot tub, get a few massages (girls, there is a signup sheet on my condo front door - shifts are going fast but we can probably work something out if you act fast), and hopefully heal up.

Lesson learned: Always have somebody filming your park runs.

Currently listening to: Red Garland - My Romance

Currently reading: The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

A Rundown Of This Weekend's Events

1. I watched the Freeskiing World Tour Stop in Telluride, Colorado. My friend Louise finished 2nd. Epic.

2. I competed in a mildly serious arm wrestling competition. And did well.

3. Got abused by Guthrie, a local 7th grader, in chess. Star Wars chess.

4. Did a lot of tail butters to fakie.

5. Envied my parents and their epic snowstorm.

6. Played music with Lila, and got some fairly respectful live recordings. Hopefully I can edit them and post them sooner than later.

7. Got to spend a weekend in Telluride for the first time ever (pictures are included in this post). Sweet town. Flatter than expected mountain. CB still pwns.

8. Gondi parties. Plural.

9. Night snowboarding under the lights!!!!!!

10. Stoke was amped for this week in CB. Lots of work to do - on the mountain and off.

A Letter From My Knees to Myself

Dear Chris,

We feel that the situation has come to a head, and we felt it of the utmost importance for us to speak up at this juncture. We're a little upset with your complete disregard for our well being - after all, we've been through so much. Remember when we learned to walk together? Between your hours and hours spent at the gym, your nasty cycling habit, and your obsession with placing air between your snowboard and the ground (the ground is a good friend of ours, and he shares our displeasure), we feel as though we're being abused. The wrists and shoulders get together and make fun of us, and our egos can only take so much. We understand your infatuation with athletics, and would never dream of asking you to stop. But please consider a rest day from time to time. Or a rest week. We'll return the favor by stopping our constant harangue of aches and pains. Have you considered pursuing a career in sitting? We'll stick with you through the thick and thin, but at least consider our plea. We look forward to many good years ahead, hopefully not in a wheelchair (other chairs would be great, though).

Your good friends,

The Knees

On a serious note (sorry, Knees), I joined the Cascade Bike Club today and signed up for the Flying Wheels Century ride in June, the Seattle to Portland Ride in July, and am working an angle to still ride the sold-out Ride from Seattle to Vancouver and Party in August. I couldn't be more excited about this. Wait, I could: Dad, Eric (both of you), Rob, Steve, Matt, or any of my cycling buddies I missed - you want to ride with me?