Season starts or Fear and Carving @ Snowhoe & Wintergreen

So it was off to Snowshoe for opening day 12/08. Snowy,windy cold and terriffic. That place is sick. Straight lappin all day til they run you off at 4:30. However there was a bar open. With cheap expensive Tequila and bar-food. Heaven. Thurs was blubird and beautiful. Lappin all day protien bars and Skittles on the lift for lunch. Their idea of Black Diamond and Wintergreens are different but Im no expert. While there I met Chuch Ball of Snowshooter. A professional photog snappin pics of people at Snowshoe. What a deal. Have him shoot your pics. Hese better than you at it. Plus you can get you and your wife, buddy etc. in the same pic. Check him out at Snowshooter.com or Facebook.com/Snowshooter. The dude is legit, talented and a nice guy. Got up fri. at 5:00 am and flew to get to Wintergreen by 9:00. Made it but somehow wasnt first chair.?$%#@. Not all of WG open. But dont complain there is plenty to keep you busy. Good to see all of WG's regulars and old hands. If every business had employees as helpful, polite and just good people, the world would be a different place. Sat was the day Ive been waiting for for months the New Instructor Candidate On Snow Orientation. We were split into groups I was proud to be put with Gifford Childs. What a nice guy. We had a blast ripping up and down the mountain. Tommy, Miles,Jason, Matt sorry spaced the names of the other 2 dudes. Ill get them later. Tommy TwoTone is bad-ass. Slices and dices like the experienced shredder he is. It was a long, fun day. Ended with paperwork. And being told to wait yet again for the e-mail saying we made it. AARRRGGGHHH. I got my Top-Secret clearance in the USCG quicker. Oh well, they want the best instructors and I dont blame them.

Snowshoe Open Big Air @ LMSnowflex

Less than two weeks to Snowshoe opening. I hope. Headed to Liberty Mountain Snowflex Sat. for the Snowshoe Open Big Air. Should be fun. Will ride til contest then assume spectator role. Last weekends Wintergreen Employees Orientation was a blast. Fun to be around like minded people. Outstanding Management. Easy to see why the folks at Wintergreen are so good at what they do. Incredible commitment to kids skiing/snowboarding. Must be certified to teach children. New cert. needed to teach at the terrain park too. Good idea. Also a good idea is a big push for brain buckets. Its a no-brainer(sorry). I would like to see wrist-guards pushed more for beginners, but thats just me. Meanwhile feast your eyes on me working out to get ready for the season. Who knew jumping 4 in. could be so tiring.

Snowshoe Opening Day

Road Trip Alert: Looking for crew to hit Snowshoe on opening day. Wed 11/24, would like to stay (in cheap hotel) and shred 11/25. I will drive and pay for gas. Lift ticket $59. next day $54.Lemme know if there any out there who can actually live: First Chair,Last Call!

Retraction Alert: I have only been invited to try out for a job @ Wintergreen Snow School. Two days orientation then a snow day on 12/11. See if I can snowboard. Makes sense. Not everyone is aware of my massive on hill skill. Actually Im the only one. Updates as they occur. Im still massively stoked to event have a chance to work there.

Freestyle Has Wintervention.

Freestyle Ski & Board shop, as a core shop as ever was, had a Wintervention for a hard core group of powder addicts. Those wanting to get a fix of snow to get them through 'til the season starts , in this area. Loveland, CO opened yesterday a day after Sunday River in Maine ( a state apparently). Wintergreen is shooting for Dec 10. Wintervention is the latest movie from Warren Miller, to ski/snowboarders he needs no introduction. Skiing in Antarctica was the highlight. Music from the Gorillaz and, by now mandatory, Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros almost made up for the seemingly endless talking. But thats just me. Snowboard movies have less talking and more riding. See Forums F**K IT to see how its done. Don and his crew did a great job, piles of giveaways. The amount of prizes surprised even me. And Im unflappable. So go by Freestyle in Charlottesville and tell them you liked the movie and the swag. We need to support the core shops and this is one of the good ones.

Wintergreen Resort

I am so stoked to announce I will be teaching Snowboarding at Wintergreen this season. This is something I have wanted to do since I first set eyes on the place. I look forward to teach men and women of a certain age. I feel I will be able to address concerns and attitudes of your older class(age being relative) with a little more understanding than a younger instructor may bring. Don't misunderstand me. I am a product of the Guaranteed Learn to Ski/Snowboard program and highly recommend it. The instructors are excellent. It is just a little intimidating for a grown man to look like a dork in front of blond, babe instructor( there are several) who is probably younger than my socks. So maybe a Geez With Steez can bring something to the table. This is a fun place with knowledgeable,unfailingly polite staff. I look forward to a fun winter. Look me up!

Liberty Mountain Snowflex Recon

First trip to LMSnowflex was outstanding. Its inexpensive,fun and close. The snowflex is obviously not snow. But that is what makes it good. It is unforgiving in the corners so if you were cheating on your turns( as I was) it will make you want to turn correct. Or you'll get wet. No slush but it has little sprinklers to lube the snowflex. Couple nice jumps which I lack the chones to try. And some low jibs ,piece of cake for most. Only drawback is the nutcracker that drags, and I mean drags, you up the hill. They say theres a magic carpet on the way. That will make the place perfect. Except for the lack of apres'. But there is all the usual suspects, (insert phony Irish name here), that you'll find in every town in America, very close by. At $7.00/hr it is bargain. It aint Whistler but it is Snowboarding. In Virginia.In Sept.

Liberty Mountain Snowflex Recon

Off tomorrow to check out Snowflex in Lynchburg. See whats up. I hope its a good place to get warmed up for winter. I will report back with the truth. Being a fundamentalist school there is no apres. So I will do the hard work of finding close partay. More dispatches to follow.

Word O' The Day: Beastie: n; gnarly,wicked. ie, That was a beastie face-plant.

Word O'The Day: Bolts- a good thing, solid,tight. orig.-a skater wants to land on the truck bolts so he doesnt bust his ass or his board. How your new Stepchild Jibstick? Bolts!

Just so you know this is what we're (the studiously hip people) are listening to.

Kandi Coded (Jamie Lynn,snowboarder,artist) and Jack Endino of Nirvana fame.

The Drums

Ghostland Observatory

Best Coast

Broken Bells

and The Gorillaz Plastic Beach is the SH*T!!

This is what I used to do for fun. Pardon me if Im not worried about being hurt snowboarding.

This is me at Freestyle WG with crazy ass extreme skier Tyson Buldoc. Nice guy, quite insane, but nice guy.

Now that its almost winter. You can look to this blog for resort, travel , event and loads of other 411 on whats up with being down with Snowboarding. With a particular slat towads the population that saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. I hope to be working at a local Core Shop on C'Ville, so that should help all of us. Will be organizing "off da' hook" small group trips to points North,(VT,NY,NJ) and points West ( you know),Stay tuned were jsut getting started.

With any luck I'll be instructing at WG this season, check me out.

Geez With Steez

As the hundreds of followers of my other blog know, it is very political. This one will be dedicated to the snowboarding lifestyle. As seen from the eyes of a old phart .With a little skate and surf thrown in.