For the last 3 years I’ve been documenting the constant adventure that is my life. Why? Because this is my story, my art, my message to the world, and when I die, this will be my legacy. Even though I’ve progressed in so many ways: personally, professionally, creatively, etc., I feel that this edit highlights my personality more than anything I’ve ever created. I’m a little nervous, but mostly excited to share such a personal part of myself with the world!
Enjoy some of my favorite moments, smashes, crashes, and adventures caught on film. This was my Winter 2015.
The past year has been a series of epic adventures and life changing decisions. Though I’m always striving for the next level, I created this video to remind myself of how far I’ve come already. If I die tomorrow, this is my story, my art, my message to the world. This is My Life Lately.
“Each one of us only gets to experience a small piece of forever. What will you do with yours?”
I have some incredible people by my side and I could not have done this without all of you. You know who you are…Thank you for helping me find my way to the amazing place I am today.
Sorry if this sounds cliche, but I was recently reminded of how important it is to get back up when you fall. Actually, I’m not sorry. Getting back up is important – in life, in love, in sports, in everything. Getting back up and trying again is the most important thing you can possibly do.
The other day I crashed hard on my snowboard, hit my head, and ended up with a pounding headache, a black eye, and a bruised ego. The way I see it, I’m very lucky. If I hadn’t been wearing a helmet, or crashed a different way, I could’ve been seriously injured. After taking a break to make sure I was ok, I hopped back on the chairlift and went straight for the trick again… and I nailed it. Even though I was still shaken up, I was pumped. I knew I had it all along; I just needed to show myself. Enjoy the video of my crash 🙂
On a more personal note, I recently decided to open my heart for the first since it was smashed to pieces nearly two years ago, when my relationship of 7 years ended. I’m excited that I’ve found someone who makes me want to break down the walls I’ve built to guard my emotions, but risking getting hurt again scares the hell out of me. Most of me feels like the risk will be worth the reward, part of me feels like I’m just waiting to catch and edge and fall flat on my back, again. Let’s hope not… that hurts… a lot.
What I’m saying is that some things in life are much easier and much faster to come back from than others. It doesn’t matter how fast you fall or how slow you get up. What matters is that you do, and you do it for you… no one else.
I finally got back up. This time better. This time stronger. This time ready. And even if I fall again, there is only one thing to do…. get back up and try again.
“You cannot let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.”
Yesterday was the first time I saw the sun in almost a week. Did I care? No, because it has been snowing for days and days, leaving only one thing to do. Shred pow.
My mission? Vail.
I packed my bags, stopped by the office then made my way through a blizzard over the treacherous mountain pass. I planned on riding until 2pm and then getting some work done around Vail, but that didn’t happen. I met up with some friends, turned on my GoPro and we went hunting for the deepest snow we could find. Before I knew it, it was 4pm and the mountain was closed for the day. It turned out to be one of the most incredible days I’ve ever had on my snowboard.
I put together a short edit of the day so I could re-live the glory over and over. Check it out.
It’s been a while, since I’ve written anything in my blog. Not because I’ve had nothing to share, but because I’ve been having too much fun. Excuses, excuses. Well I’m going to try to do better… Correction, I WILL do better.
My life has changed a lot in the last few months. In fact, everything has changed. But unlike last time I changed my life, now I wasn’t running away from a bad breakup, or finding “myself” or chasing after boy. I was simply following a feeling I had when I spent time in Breckenridge. Following my heart I guess you could say.
In two weeks I quit both of my jobs in Denver, signed over my lease, moved to the mountains, and found myself living an amazing life in Breckenridge. I landed a great job that supports my snowboarding habit and my need for challenge, competition, and growth. I make my own schedule, so naturally I plan my work around my snowboarding…. kidding… kinda. But I do ride a lot, and work a lot.
I’ll spare you the details of how awesome my life is, but let’s just say I couldn’t be happier. In order to keep my posts more consistent, I am going to keep them shorter and more to the point. Sometimes I like to go on tangents when I write…
Anyways, enjoy some more pictures of my life lately. #BreckLife
This weekend was one of the highlights of my season; I went to Woodward at Copper for “work”. My job has many perks, one of them being that I get to attend the events I help plan.
With the help of the amazing people at Woodward, I put on the 2013 Roxy Snow Camp, a two-day freestyle camp supervised by Copper coaches and Roxy pro Erin Comstock. I have looked up to Erin for many years. Her unique snowboard style, her relaxed attitude and her dedication to women’s freestyle snowboarding has secured her position as a legend in my eyes. This summer, while interning in Huntington Beach for the Roxy Snow Marketing department I worked on a project where I sorted through 10 years of her video footage. It took me 70 hours, but I compiled enough footage to make a career restrospective edit for Erin and her family. Little did I know it would be used in Roxy’s national marketing campaign!
Here is the finished project:
Anyways, needless to say I was psyched to have Erin at the camp I was running. She was awesome. The highlight of riding with her was when I followed her through the trees in 18″ of fresh snow. It was epic! Definitely a day I will never forget. Each morning, before we went on snow we played in the Woodward Barn. Trampolines, foam pits, synthetic snow jumps and spring floors are only a few of the goodies offered at the barn. Backflips are surprisingly easy and super fun! I must have flipped 50 times between the two days. I even learned rodeo 540, a backflip with a half spin.
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All in all, the camp was a success and I became friends with my all-time favorite athlete, Erin Comstock. She and her husband just moved to Denver, and we are going to start doing Bikram Yoga together to get ready for summer! I can’t wait.
It has been a while since I have posted to this blog. Maybe I’ve been busy, maybe I’ve had nothing to say, or maybe I just lost motivation. To be honest, I think it’s a little of each. But a recent wave on inspiration triggered by boredom from a debilitating muscle strain in my back has forced me to stop long enough to reflect on how my life is going and actually see what really matters. I decided it was time to start writing again.
The two weeks leading up to my back injury were some of the best of days of my life. I spend every possible moment in the mountains snowboarding, sunbathing, and enjoying the beautiful Rocky Mountains life. Sometimes I move so fast that it’s easy to forget how fortunate I am to live the life I love, have the friends I do, and live in such an amazing place.
As a competitive person, and even more competitive with myself since joining CrossFit, I decided it was time to get over my fears and throw down some new tricks on my snowboard. Not just any tricks, but tricks I’ve been afraid to try for years: riding boxes switch, spinning on and off boxes, and handplants. I’ve attempted handplants several times over the years but always got beat up by the massive 20 foot tall ice-wall they call a quarterpipe.
For some reason I woke up this past Monday morning determined to conquer my fear of getting inverted on the wall. After hiking the feature a few times I got one! Then two… then three. My friend Hilary and I must have hiked close to 20 times before we were so banged up and exhausted that we decided to call it quits for the day. I didn’t care. I handplanted!
I also managed to learn a few new switch tricks and stepped up my skills on boxes. I dialed in a switch 270 to front board to fakie as well as adding an extra rotation on the exit making it a 270 on 270 out. After this is it was a piece of cake to learn cab 3 (switch front 360). Next step is going bigger and adding a grab! Needless to say, I’m looking forward to being all healed up and back on the hill this weekend for the Burton US Open of Snowboarding championships.
I put together a short video of my newly aquaired skills, but unfrotunatley I am having technical trouble getting the video onto here. I will keep trying.
Fit4Snow 