Road to Ironman

I think the smartest thing I did at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort was to take a lesson. I felt I was ready to move on to the next level and knew there were some things that I was consistently doing wrong. For my sake and anyone who'll find this useful, I'm going to share the main points of my lesson.

1. Relax! The shoulders and upper body should be relaxed and not tense. This will make everything that follows much easier.
2. Balanced Stance. Bent at the knees, weight equally distributed over the center of the board, and upper body relaxed.
3. Watch Where You're Going. Look over the nose of your board, not down the mountain. Doing this helps with control and balance. It also helps with confidence on the steeps.
4. Control Your Board! Turn with your feet, not with your arms. Many people are out of control out there. The only way they know how to turn is by swinging their arms around to skid the tail of the board around in turns. In essence, the board determines where it wants to go and they are along for the ride. You should know how to ride in control and use the edges to turn.

• Step 1. To stop flailing into turns put your arms into a natural position, where you will not have to move them. Place the back of your rear hand on the back of your waist above your butt cheek. Place your front hand on your front upper thigh. If you tend to really open up, you can exaggerate this so your front hand crosses your body as if you were going to bow.
• Step 2. Initiate turns with your front toes. Your board is flexible. If you ride in a balanced stance the movement of your toes will affect the length of the cutout of your board, and therefore the direction you're going. Try this on the flats.
  For front side turns, initiate the turn with your knee (toes - ankle - knee) and look across your board to where you want to turn. Follow through and complete your turn.
  For backside turns, lower your center of gravity by sitting or squatting into the turn as if you were getting on a chair-lift. Look over the nose of your board and really follow through to keep your edge.
  

Other Tips...

• If you find yourself sketching out look up and in the direction you're going. Complete your turns to hold your edge. This is important on steeps and ice.
• When carving while facing up the mountain, push your hips forward and lean into the turn. Conversely, you can squat lower into your opposite turns.
• Ride with your weight forward. Really lean on the front outside edge of your foot and binding.
• Confidence. It's not as steep as you think it is. Build confidence by learning the lay of the land. Find a run that you enjoy and master it.
• You will not catch an edge on steeps as you do on flats. The angle of your board is too great. You'll more likely fall from sketching out or getting air unexpectedly.
• On bumps, feel each knee moving independently to keep your edge in contact with the ground. Keep your balance and stay on your board. Don't bail.
• Jumps. Take off balanced to help you land balanced. Start small. Squat and execute a balanced take off.

That's all you need to go out and get gnar dude! Go shred. Get sick!

Labels: snowboarding

Holy cripes! I've had a couple of amazing days here at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. All this rock is incredibly intimidating. It's steep and massive. The past few days (Mon & Tue) have been warm(er) and sunny. I've gotten a crazy goggle tan. The prime time for snow conditions were been between 10 AM and 2 PM. After that the lower slopes were thawing a bit and I was worried the next day would be too icy. Wed was finally overcast and the good conditions lasted all afternoon. And today our prayers were answered with snow.

It snowed all day making for some great powder riding in spots. My riding has taken a quantum leap forward and my confidence on steep terrain is high. Today Steve took me on a few "tree" runs as we made fresh tracks in the powder. There were points when the cloud cover in certain valleys was so dense if you didn't know your way around it would not have been fun. You could not see more than 10 meters in front of you, and when you're moving with some speed that's just crazy. Then you'd get on a lift and be in the clear, looking down on the fog. It was a crazy weather day. The top of the mountain was cold and windy. Toward the end of the day mostly sleet and not snow fell. The lower slopes were again getting mushy as the afternoon sun made it's appearance after the lifts closed (4 PM).

Labels: Jackson Hole, snowboarding, vacation

I took a lesson today here at Jackson Hole. I learned a ton. I'm so wiped out. Love this place.

Labels: Jackson Hole, snowboarding, vacation

Here's a nice photo stitch from last week at Heavenly. Click for detail.

Labels: Heavenly, snowboarding, vacation

Here's a nice pic of a deep bruise I earned on my last vacation. (Like my hairy legs? You can tell it's not Triathlon season, although I've never been a big fan of manscaping.) I had a few nice days to snowboard at Heavenly in South Lake Tahoe as a warm up for my trip next week to Jackson, WY.

I'm really glad that I got a nice warm up for Jackson Hole. It had been a while since I had a few days of boarding back to back. For as little natural snow as Tahoe has had to this point the resort did a good job of making snow and grooming what was there.

Snowboarding in California is always an awesome experience with bright sun shine making even cold days and poor snow conditions much more tolerable. Add to that breath taking views of Lake Tahoe itself... it is so choice. I feel truly blessed and privileged to be able to enjoy such amazing outdoor adventures. For roughly 12 years starting around the age of 11 I went camping on average five or six times a year due to my involvement with Boy Scouts & Sea Explorers. Sometimes I forget how much I love the experiences of being outdoors. Being self reliant, the sense of stewardship over land/water, adapting to conditions, planning ahead, enjoying the moment, observing nature, leaving no trace, feeling the weather, the cold, the sun, the rain, and coming home. Long bike rides, triathlon, sailing, camping... will definitely be seeing more of you soon.

Labels: snowboarding, vacation