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For one thing, I am finally getting to be more daring on my bike.  I have been trying new runs in the Bike park, and getting faster on my cross-country runs. I am conquering little fears and am feeling a lot more comfortable on my bike.. thanks largely to Owen's amazing teaching skills, Bexx's ability to push me to go faster and further, and Ben being there for me to try to chase down the hill.  Plus living in whistler doesn't hurt... a few times when i'm coming down the slopes and someome faster catched up (which always happens) i usually shout back that I'll move left at the next stretch to tlet them pass.... i usually get a no worries, and a 'bend your knees more' 'softer elbows' etc.   It's amazing how helpful everyone is! yesterday as I was stuck, yet again, on a ladder, i said sorry for being in the way  as i tried to get me and my bike out of some guys way, and he was like, we all learn sometime, keep it up and have fun with it.  Why doesn't every sport have this sort of encouragement and friendship from strangers? Plus the fact that it is super exciting and a huge rush, I am totally hooked. Great, another expensive sport.

I am however looking forward to taking some of my new found courage and taking it to my snowboarding. I cannot wait to hit some pow and try some new things.  It had been a while since I challenged myself, and this is what i needed. Sure some days i come home hurt, bruised and bashed up, but crazy as it sounds, i feel more alive after it.

so, i guess it's time to start the snow dance.  And Mother Nature, if you want to skip fall and head straight to winter, I think i'm okay with that!  just wait until the 13th when the bike park closes ;)

I find posting once every two years is best. One it takes me that long to be creative enough to entertain you monkies (I mean that lovingly) and two... I'm lazy.

 

Anyway, so the day starts off balls ass cold. What is balls ass cold you ask? Well, balls ass cold is somewhere below "Holy Jewish Christ it's cold!" and just slightly above "Dude, I can't feel my nuts!". Tim and Dan can fill you in more on how cold it was, since they decided to sleep in their car... on the mountain... at 5am... with the heat off. Yeah, them Maryland boys ain't all there.

So as I was saying, it was balls ass cold, and we decide to warm up with a nice easy run. Now this run, had this stuff called packed powder on it. I'm not sure what it really was because it was light and fluffy and responsive and easy to ride. Where I'm from, packed powder is the frozen painfull shi*t you get the day after all the man made snow froze. I have to say, I like Vermont's version a lot better. Anyway, we're on this run, and there's this little roller of a jump at the start. Now, everyone is hitting this thing and landing with ease. I says to myself "SELF! that looks fun and easy so I'm gonna try it!". Sadly, what my mind failed to take into account was that the ones who went over it where Dan, Tim, and a few others who have been riding a hell of a lot longer than me and therefore, can actually ride really well. So just because they make something look easy, it may not actually be so... easy. Apparently, I left this part of my brain back in VA. So I tuck and make a straight line for this thing hit the top and leap. It's at this point that I realize I have no earthly clue what in the blue flying catholic %$&* to do whilst airborne. This becomes even more obvious when I land with all the grace of a drowned bubonic rat. But this isn't Liberty, so the landing area wasn't made of rock. Unfazed, I get up and ride down.

From there we wait and get on the tram. The tram by the way is the slowest means known to man to get people up a mountain. Seriously. Anyway, we get to the top of this beast and I'm looking around at the kind of terrain I've never ever ridden before. I can't wait to ride down this bitch! So I strap and and get ready to roll. It's at this point that I realize one of the straps on my binding has snapped in half making my foot wobble around in my binding like a drunken irishman on st patty's day. Getting down is going to be a bit of a challenge. The only thing I can do at this point is ride down and pray for a repair at the base. So Carmen and I take off for the base.

I will point out that the ride down was pretty awesome. Especially for a mid atlantic rider. Lots of terrain, snow, and no ice. Again, NO ICE. Hah! Anyway, I'm almost all the way down I start to get cocky again. Yes I know, not exactly a bright move when im working with half a binding on my back foot. Like I said, I left that part of my brain at home. There are these nice rollers/hills/whatever the hell you call them, that were just screaming for me to get some speed and jump at the top. Soo, I jump em. And amazingly, I land the first one. Excited, I tuck and get ready for the next one. Up I go and again I land without bailing. At this point I'm flying down the hill and there's one more coming. I figure go for 3!! Haha, yeah bad idea. I tuck and throw everything I have into my legs to jump the last one sending me into a low orbit. I try to land but my balance is off and I come crashing down right on my head. That's when the lights go out. But only for a second or two. Thank god for brain buckets. But this has certainly put my ego in check for the rest of the trip... Kinda

Finally at the bottom, a little woozy, I go into the shop in the hopes that they sell flows. In the middle of burton country (yeah). They don't in fact, no one does... anywhere. I'm stuck buying the only large size bindings they have. a $70 pair of Burton Freestyles aka $70 of pure unholy suck. But whatever, I meet up with everyone and again head up the tram. We're headed for something called the ugly tree. I don't know which of the 80 billion trees was the ugly one but I'll get to that shortly. So we're riding to this thing and I'm trying to get used to the new bindings. I'm kind of getting the hang of it and let myself get some decent speed on the way to this glade run. That's when I catch an edge and come down on what is becoming my prefered landing cushion... my head. Honestly, I'm pretty sure there's some important SQL knowledge that i've forever lost up that hill somewhere. I can still tie my own shoes though so I'm good. However, I've managed to shatter my goggle lenses in this fall. Yeah I don't know how I managed that either. See below for pics

Now for the trees. Keep in mind that I've never even really been on a black before. Sure I rode a handfull of them at 7 springs for one day ut those are about as challenging as picking my nose. This is a run through trees n shi*t... TREES! But I'm with a bunch of people who know what they're doing so I'll be all right... Kinda. They head on through these trees and in a matter of 3.4 seconds, I've lost all of them. I can't see them, I can't hear them, they're just gone lol. Now these new bindings aren't responding very well to my "oh shi*t turn now!" commands. So I'm spending most of my time on my ass, and my back, etc etc. It takes a retarded amount of time to finally work my way out of the trees. Once I do, I find that I'm all kinds of alone. So I spend the rest of the day exploring this huge mountain. Next time, I'll bring a radio that works!

Friday was a different day. After some inventive binding "repair", I'm back on my flows. And I brought some spare lenses for my goggles so I'm back to working condition again. Time to make another run through some trees!

I've learned a few lessons about riding through trees with this group. 1) Never follow rob because he loves his superman impression. But unlike superman, he doesn't stay airborne. 2) Follow Zach (cifex), because he takes lines through trees that people can actually survive. 3) Never ever ever follow Tim through the trees, unless you brought your golf clubs, and a shovel, oh and a tent. More on that below At this point I'm doing a decent job keeping up with these folks. Again they've been doing this a hell of a lot longer than me and I sure as hell would never attempt these runs on my own. This is one of the things I liked best about this trip. Hitting terrain that i never thought I could do and pushing myself damn hard to keep up.

Anyway, I follow Zach as best I can through these trees. I gotta admit, riding through trees is a huge rush. I've never done anything like it before. It's better than snorting blow off a hooker's ass! After a few hundred falls, and crashes into trees, I pop out onto the trail where everyone is waiting. Somehow, I've managed to beat Tim out of the woods. Which is odd because it took me just under a decade to get out. Then I found out why.

Apparently, Tim decided he wanted to go golfing. f*ck this riding shiz, boy wanted to break out his clubs and hit the back nine! Soo, he headed for the golf course. Which is obviously well out of boundes. For some reason Tim thinks this is a really good idea anyway. Even though he didn't bring his gold clubs... and there's snow on the ground. It's the little details that count. By the time he figures this out, he's waist deep in powder in the middle of a ravine on the opposite side of Vermont. So while we wait for the gallant golfer to carry his lanky ass back to the rest of us, we decide to keep ourselves entertained.

Dan works on his backflip (not quite as funny as Andrea's backflip but with much less ankle twistage).

Waiting for Tim

Several others play jump the tree stump.. thingy.

All the while shouting for Tim so he could get a bead on where vermont was again. (I think he cried). Dan was a bit upset that he was the only one shouting but that was because we were all laughing too god damn hard and the filth flowing from his pie hole like a raunchy poet. If Danimal was a religion, I'd f*cking worship it. Apologies to all the random folk riding by that heard what was said. But it was epic funny!

I'd write more but I think this post if long enough already. Needless to say I had the time of my life. I broke bindings, a helmet, goggle lenses, my ass, bought 2 pairs of bindings, got a horrid chest cold (btw, you can get a great buzz off of 5 advil, 3 strong swigs of robotussin, a cup of thera flu, and 4 sudafed caplets.), bit out a chunk of my mouth, spit blood in front of some random skier (that was pretty funny) and was molested by more than one tree (It wasn't gay because I didn't push back) But at least I didn't slip getting out of the hottub and bust my ass like a certain porch flying canadian

Recently I have been trying to figure out why God put me on this forsaken planet. Reason being, a Police department came to me and offered me a job. Previously to this, I was going to start school in May to follow my long roots and become a Bicycle Guru. Sometimes you get so caught up in "life" that you forget what matters most to you and makes you happy.  

 

Last night I put in a movie called "Roam." It is a sequel to the movie "The Collective." It is a mountain biking film with Pros doing insane stunts and riding fast singletrack and even Ryan Leech on his Trials bike. The great thing about these movies is that they give me an adrenaline rush right there on the couch. And even though these riders are jumping HUGE road gaps and stunts, I still find a way to relax and fall asleep. I may be sick in the head, or I may just find comfort in acts of defying death and physics. I don't know.

 

Before I started to snooze, I was watching this wicked fast single track section and realized my love for mountain biking. I sometimes look at what I have invested in my arsenal of bicycles and think, "I could have like 2 motorcycles with all this." Sadly its true. But last night it dawned on me, as it does from time to time. I love riding motorcycles. They're so free, man and machine. But a bicycle takes it that much further. Many people Say, "its not about the Destination, but about the Journey." When you finish the journey and look back and think, I did that all myself. No engine, no gasoline, just me, my bike and a burrito or two. You go so much deeper on a mountain bike than on a motorcycle. Your breathing as it sets the pace. Heartrate pounding in your ears as you make your way up ascents that would scare sherpas. The Rush when you let go of the bars to trick as you fly over gorge's. The exhilaration when you crest a mountain to watch the sun settle into the horizon for its slumber. All this under your own power. You, two pedals, a chain, some gears, maybe suspension and a frame.  This is when the Spritual aspect comes into effect that puts it way ahead of throttle twisting. It's surreal when you look at the terrain you just tackled and you get an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment.

 

Riding is not just subject to us in the Northern hemisphere either. I have seen many films where riders are in 3rd world countries. The faces of the locals light up, as well as the riders, in a way of euphoria that words cannot describe. Bicycles are a Culture and Language of their own, spoken through out the world without saying a word. One day I will ride my way across the globe. Bringing inspiring smiles to children and adults alike in far away lands and my own town of residence. Then I will have a journey of my own to tell. This.........all this, is what makes me happy.

   I'd like to start off by saying, Will Smith is the shi*t! I Am Legend kicked total ass! The mutants, the way he lived..... Wait, I watched that the weekend after the trip. Ok, I got up at 7:00 on the 27th of December. I was up and dressed and running out the door with enough gear for the five day adventure I was about to go on. O yes, Powderking, Western Canada's best place to get that feeling of peaceful mellow shred and a friendly wave from everyone you meet. ( A great f*cking mountain! May it never close!) Not to mention crazy snowfall all season long! ( Thus the name Powderking. Duh! 61 feet last year, what more evidence does anyone need?) So we leave the yard by 8:00, our little convoy, made up of an F-150, a Mini-van, and an Envoy are off  on the 5 hour trek to P.K. As we pass Baytree a town not on any maps except the U.F.A Cardlock location map.... Weird.... As we get passed the little town we hit smoke, lots of smoke, smoke so thick that we're stuck at a 50 km/h crawl for 20 mins. I really wanted to get to P.K. for a half-day of shred, and by 1:00 we are there and it is snowing big flakes. So I get my lift ticket, and up the triple-chair I go. On my way down I run into a group of skiers and snowboarders building a jump on the side of the run. I say hi, we talk about the snow, gear, and the condition of the jump, and before you know it we're shreddin' together and jumpin' off trees into 4-5 feet of powder. (Fastplants and front flips for everyone!) A fine half-day. So we drive to Mackenzie, we check in at The Willingston Lake Lodge. We unpack and unwind with a few beers, some pizza, and Guitar Hero till about 11:00, than lights out.

   The next day I go straight for the top, up the T and hikin' towards the bowl. As I get to the boundaries I can't find no trail, broken up into the bowl to speak of. So I start breakin' trail in balls deep powder, ( Its one of the toughest parts of snowboarding, having to hike for some shred but it the end its always worth it.) I get half way up the bowl when I look over to the left and I see two guys with snowshoes a little lower down heading up an already broke trail, I broke trail for nothing! So I start leftward and I meet up with the two guys, we start chatting about the conditions, and I find out there name are Matt and J (Jason) from Wembley and Grande Praire . "Dope, I'm from around a place called Falher." "Frenchtown!" they both say laughing, obviously they've been there before. So we get to the top and sit down for a break, than we strap in. Its still snowing as we head down, the first 20 feet is hard-packed than... BANG! We cut into 3 feet of untouched powder! Straight Champagain! We're cuttin' it hard and every hell slash is a wave of powder to choke on. Beautiful, just beautiful. So we ride on down into the trees, and sweet jesus. Slash and burn, kill and turn, we throw it off anything and everything. A total powder play dream! I'm so stoked on the snow I smile all the way down to the parking lot. Matt and J are staying at the hill in campers in the parking lot with a third member of there group, Dano. We get there and they invite me over for a brew. How can I say no? ( And every run ends that way for the rest of the trip. Those guys we're totally wicked!) So us 4 ride the far left trees up by the 84's and the two creek valley for the rest of the day. The day ends, I tell the guys I'll meet up with them the next day.

   Day 3 rools in, and I meet them at there Campers and we head up the mountain. Its snowing, again. We reach the top, and I set up my camera, I want to get and Artsy, Sceneic shot, success. Another piece for EtchaSketch. (Our shred video coming out the summer of 08') Thats all I film that day. Than I pack back up and this time the spot we drop in on is a steep slope with snow sculpted behind and between small trees by the wind, thus making steps that are flat out to about 6 feet and drop down to about 10-12 feet. So we head down popin' off one step, and gaping to the next. One of the funnest abd best rushes of the trip. We keep the fun-fest  up until we hit the tree-line. Than it was Heaven, just like the days before.  I just ride the pow, never giving a second thought of getting any shots for the rest of the day.

   The final shred day, day 4. It comes in with sun-light and blue skies. The first of the trip. (We got 8 inches of fresh while we were there.) So this day I ride with my goggle-cam on to catch any wicked shred that goes down. So we ride out into the backcountry and run into a man in his 50's at least, with a Prior split board and the dopest gear I had ever scene. We talked to the guy about the part of the backcountry we were in, and about his gear. He turns out to be the coolest guy I've ever met, truly a snowboarder, a man pure in the sport, he was what snowboarding truly should be. There for the ride and nothing elsa, no sponsors, no attitudes, just the need to shred and have fun. We say our good-byes and good-shreds as we rip down the slope, we never did get his name.... I want to be just like him if I reach 50. On our second last run we come upon an abandoned road on the side of the mountain, it goes through an open spot and is cut slightly into the slope to give the high side a cliff look. Perfect! We all get the idea, road-gap. So we build the jump in the line we want to hit it on. Matt and J hike up to hit it. Its a 30 feet from lip to landing. Matt drops in, lands square on the landing and rides away. We all cheer and the session starts right up. J's up, than Dano, than Matt again, than I hit it with my goggle-cam, as I air over, I hit the landing and get bucked forward onto my face. I get up, not hurting one bit. (Except for my pride.) I hike up again, this time I do a frontside fakie with a Stalefish in the mix, by the the time I stop tumbling, I'm looking up-hill at my feet. Damn, not getting it  but still having fun. (The only person to stick the damn thing was Matt, lucky prick!) So we ride down to the highway and start walking back to P.K. I wave to every vehicle, and got nothing but funny looks, I didn't care, it was one of the best riding days of my life! We're half way back when the owner of P.K. stops with his truck and trailer half loaded with garbage. "Wanna lift? Jump in the trailer!" We all jump in laughing, we keep on laughing all the way to the parking lot. (Thanks for the lift! It smelt bad, but damn did it save my legs.) What a wicked 3 and a half days of riding, awesome snow, awesome crew. I can't wait till I go back.

 

   I'm forever hooked on the P.K. white!!

 

P.S. On the way back we stopped at the A&W in Chetwyne. They have the hottest group of ladies working at a fast-food joint I have ever seen. Go Chetwyne!!!!!

I have been riding as much as possible lately.  I have come up with the following list of random thoughts and experiences during the long chair rides, the ripping runs and the frequent conversations with my friends and family.

 

1.  Snowboards and bumps do not really get along.  Add steeps, trees and moguls together and you will quickly find the limits of your ability. (PS hitting trees HURTS!)

 

2.  Ripping through the same trees when there is 8 inches (20 cm) or more of fresh snow, however, completely erases the previous memory.  Hitting trees, however, still HURTS.

 

3.  Ramen, at the Sushimon Noodle House on Mt Washington, is the closest thing to a perfect mountain meal I have ever tasted.  The sourdough bowl chili at Mt Baker is a distant second.

 

4.  Hot chocalate topped with whipping cream is a splendid after baording concoction.

 

5.  A pair of cut off fleece pants (aka fleece shorts) are a great thing to wear over longies and under boarding pants.

 

6.  Pointing the nose of your board staight down and hanging on until you get to the bottom is still a huge rush.

 

7.  I really hate the smell of dope on the chair lift.  It seems to really stink these days and I can't figure out why.  I just don't like it.

 

8.  Meeting boarders on the mountain really is fun.

 

9.  New boots make a lot os difference, however, putting the liners in the opposite boots can make for a diabolical foot ache.

 

10.  Following someone who skis a pair of Seth Vicious's can lead you into truble (see #1 above).

 

11.  Happy New Year everyone!

 Babecakes lets be RANDOM
I just feel... feel like:

-Changing everything ??
-Having everything go perfectly ?
-Sharing my newly updated secrets with u ?
- i'll leave that up to u to fill out this one
-making u come back to me ???

              <3  [nope]

 

 

 

 

My tears are steady falling, I can't stop make em' stop.
I keep falling deeper baby.
I ain't been the same since ya left with my heart.

 

 

 

              damn i must be trippin ?       ----    >        : ' (

 

must of my blog titles are song titles just thought id let u know [this in my fav]

 

xoxo- brianne

 

 

 

But anyway lets stop all this nonsense that im talking about above i was really going to make this blog totally good i thought about it all week trying to make it good for you and icouldnt think of a damn thing yeah not like the rest of them ...Love me thats all i ask of you i have to stop totally stop talking about love maybe its  a waist of time i mean ...idk you drive me insane i mean you really do ........... In a couple of yrs i will  be someones wife thats pretty damn crazy , i was thinking this mornng around 6:15am that i felt like going swimming even though i didnt .Hmm why do I see you lookin at me everytime I close my eyes.Have u ever felt like someone has been in your room but it wasnt you and it wasnt ur mom or dad i had that feeling last night  but early that day i had a friend come and search my whole room even my bathroom  in my room but no one was there  but i just couldnt have that chance cause i was gonna be alone yesterday (thurdsay) anyway so s i slept down stars with my big baby malibu .I had a panic attack isnt that great when i was driving to work i only get them once in a while but mostly all this week actually it suxs it really does ..I guess in the end you start thinking back to the beginning......yeah know ?

 

Urban Rush is Vancouver's daily entertainment television talk show featuring guests from the genres of film, television, sports, music and pop culture.

well it's getting to be summer and i haven't posted in here in forever and i pretty much haven't used snowboard.com for much of anything in a year or two. but i'm back for now and i'm gunna re-do my profile and crap so it'll be sweet. pretty much....... this past season was amazing. i rode a ton, met a lot of awesome people, rode with a lot of awesome people, learned a ton, and became part of something that's pushing my riding even further. i'm bummed that the season is over and i'm bummed that i'm not going back to snowboard camp this summer. but i'm ok with it... through my trip there last summer, i learned that i can actually do a Lot of stuff on my board that i never thought i could do, if i just suck it up and try it... i also learned that riding with other people helps me out a TON with learning everything... so yes. it was a good season, besides being out a bunch of random weeks from a ton of random injuries.

 

this summer i'm gunna go crazy wanting to ride and i still haven't quite figured out what i'm gunna do about it this year. paintball is always a huge adrenaline rush for me but i can't do it nearly as often as i snowboard... i want to get those friggen ollies down while moving and learn to skate bowls this summer. i also want to get some freeline skates. if i had the money i would buy a kite for my wakeboard so i could go kiteboarding.... but those are crazy expensive. i just wanna have a lot of fun this summer and try a bunch of new things to push my limits.

 

unfortunately it's really hard for me to find ANYTHING that compares to snowboarding. i'm addicted to the adrenaline and oddly, getting hurt makes me want to go at it again and really nail the trick. i do alot of things during the summer that are really fun, but most lack the whole adrenaline thing. there's a little adrenaline with freebording.. it's mostly just fun though. street surfing doesn't create any adrenaline except for the 5 seconds before riding over the railroad tracks. skimboarding.... meh. it's not challenging anymore. fun, yes. but i don't feed off any part of it. aggressive skating... i could get into that again if i lived closer than 2 hours from a skatepark. skating around the street by myself got really old a few years ago. paintball creates crazy adrenaline... but it's not something that you create yourself like when snowboarding. unless you go rambo running out in the open shooting everyone you see and trying to dodge everyone's paintballs. i guess i tend to do that a lot though... i can't wakeboard anymore cause we don't have the board anymore. i'd like to get into rockclimbing.... i dunno i guess skating is the only thing that would keep me good till winter but i'd rather start off with that in a skatepark. and again, it's far away. so yeah this is my dillema. i'm addicted to snowboarding and i'm addicted  to adrenaline and there's usually quite a lack of both during the off season. and it's crappy!

 

next season i'm planning on  bumping everything up a notch. i've learned all the basics of everything so hopefully i'll get myself to take em to bigger things. should be interesting..

 

anyway buy this film www.iheartsnowproductions.com bye bye