Freddy Adu

In case you don't know him, let me introduce you to Freddy Adu, the future of American soccer. When I learned that the 17 year old phenom would be playing for the local MLS team (Real Salt Lake), I new I had to see at least one game. Tonight was my lucky night. Sadly it wasn't all that great. As you can see from the picture, soccer isn't exactly a big draw in Salt Lake. I think there were about 500 people in the stands (which makes me wonder why the city of Salt Lake agreed to pay $15 million dollars to build a new stadium for the team).

Also contributing to the small turnout was the incoming snowstorm. Now that the mountain has closed, Mother Nature has decided it's time to bring the snow. This is our second storm in a week and we're looking at 10 to 18 inches of snow overnight! And here I though I was going to be outside enjoying the sun this time of year. Oh well. It certainly made for an interesting night of spectating, especially since the game went into overtime. They actually had a double header tonight, with the Real Salt Lake reserve team hosting the Fiji national team. Sadly I was frozen solid and decided against hanging around for the second game. However it was a ton of fun to watch the Fiji team run through their warm up drills wearing some sort of parka jump suit. Needless to say, they didn't seem prepared for the 33 degree weather.

The other highlight from the evening was slightly reinjuring my dislocated finger. How did I pull this off? I came face to face (or shell to finger, I suppose) with a very tough shelled peanut. As I attempted to pry the nut into submission, I felt a little something give and now my finger is sore again. Awesome.

And before I go I should mention that Thursday is National High Five Day! Need a little high five'n inspiration? Glad you asked.

Coming Clean

Since my original post about my new toy there have been a few questions about the picture of the board. Why the weird photo? Was there something special about the wheels? Was I going for an artistic shot? Well yes, actually, there is a story behind the picture. Sadly, it's more a story of shame (for me at least).

Buying a new skateboard is pretty fun. You get to pick a bunch of new pieces, put them together and make your own, one-of-a-kind ride. The first step is picking the deck (the piece of wood you actually stand on). Most skateboards are aimed at the teenage market, so they designs on the deck are not quite my taste (skulls, crossbones, graffiti text, all that good stuff). I finally found one that I kind of liked, with a cool yellow and black star pattern on the bottom. Going along with the theme of bright colors I went with some sharp red wheels. Everything looked good together and I was happy. Did I feel kind of weird, basing my choices on aesthetic value? Not really, I know that looking good is like nine-tenths of skateboarding.

Anyway, the guy at the shop is putting the board together for me. The final step is to stick some grip tape onto the top of the deck. Grip tape is basically like sandpaper, it helps keep your feet stuck on the board. The standard color is black. You can get other colors, but you have to pay extra. I felt that my yellow, red and black pattern was loud enough; a solid black top was really my only option. However, they were out of black tape! "Lucky you," the dude says, "I can upgrade you to a different color for free!" That sounds great in theory, but the only tape they had was camouflage. Camouflage! Could that go any worse with the rest of the board? I think not. I've spent the last two days trying to convince myself that the camouflage tape somehow looks good, but it's a losing battle. I'm not happy with it and at some point it'll have to be replaced.

But for now I'll make do with what I've got. Two days of boarding so far and only one fall (one fall down at least, I've fallen off a ton). As a professional instructor do I feel like I should be wearing some protective gear? Absolutely. But as a beginner trying to look cool I know that an oversized helmet and ungainly body armor just looks lame. And I won't be looking lame.

By The Numbers

With the season nearly over, I think it's time to break things down by the numbers. Yes, there are a lot more numbers I could have picked, but these are the first 10 I thought of. And I think it's long enough as it is so, without further ado:

One: Dislocated finger! My first ever dislocated joint, too! Sadly, it didn't happen while snowboarding. I put my arm out to block a pass during a basketball game and the ball caught the tips of my fingers. I looked down at my hand and the last joint of my index finger was pointing straight backwards. I freaked out and quickly popped it back in place (I can still hear the little *click* sound it made when I popped it back in). The x-rays say that everything is in the right place (which is obviously good), but it's still pretty sore two weeks later. My students were the most disappointed, though. Showing up in the mornings with a big splint on my finger immediately prompted questions like, "Did you hurt yourself doing a backflip!?" Next time I'll just lie.

One: Student lost. I still haven't forgotten the first week of the year, when I managed to lose a student and break a girl's arm on her first run ever. Fortunately, I haven't lost anyone since. Unfortunately, more bones have been broken...

Two: Clients' wrists broken. But only two total, which really isn't that bad (or at least that's what I keep telling myself). I've already talked about this before, but the obvious truth is that snowboarding is dangerous. The not-as-obvious truth is that learning to snowboard at the end of the season is very dangerous. The snow turns to ice (especially in the morning when beginners are first getting on the snow!) and any fall can easily lead to a broken bone. Every time a student falls I cringe and hope that everything is okay (and people fall a lot when the learn to snowboard, so I've been doing a lot of cringing).

2.5: Pounds of chocolate I've eaten since Easter. Maybe it's just me, but why does every winter holiday seem to involve gluttony? It starts with Halloween (candy) and Thanksgiving (no explanation needed), continues through Christmas (chocolate advent calendar, anyone?) and New Years, and finishes strong with Valentine's Day and Easter. I mean, I was sitting alone in Park City for Valentine's Day, yet somehow I still ended up with sweethearts and chocolate.

Three: Working days left! There are so many reasons why I'm ready for the season to be over. Don't get me wrong, there are still reasons why it's still fun to teach, but they're overshadowed by my overwhelming desire to not be teaching right now. More than anything else, I'm hoping I can survive three more days without anyone getting hurt. I keep saying this, but you have no idea how easy it is for someone to go down right now. One the plus side, five inches of slush make it pretty much impossible to get any speed at all, so it's hard for anyone to get out of control.

Four: Days worked in the rain. Two points here. First of all, four days out of an entire season is pretty good. Compare this to say Seattle, where four days of rain in the mountains is just a bad week. So I won't complain about working in the rain one day a month. And secondly, it's actually kind of fun. Well, at first it sucks. But after 30 minutes or so everyone is soaking and it's not too cold (or else it would be snowing). At that point there's really nothing you can do but laugh at the situation. I guess more than anything else it's just a break from the norm. It gives us instructors something to else to think about and new ways to torture each other (for example, trying to dump water on other instructors while you're on the chairlift).

Six: Days left! The ski season ends next Sunday and I'm still not convinced that we're going to make it. Out of the 13 chairlifts on the mountain, 4 are currently running. And each trail is half-way closed right now. That is, the snow has all been pushed to one side of every trail so that there's enough to ride on. The main trail down to the first time chair lift now has a small stream running through that must be navigated across as well. This is a stark contrast to last Thursday, where at least the whole trail was open. It'll be interesting to see what this place looks like come Sunday. I promise I'll get my camera out there one of these days.

1 - 9: Park City Mountain Resort's basketball record. A few of us joined a local basketball league and we've been getting our destroyed pretty much every week. But we've all had a great time (aside from the game that we had to forfeit because one guy on our team kept insulting the refs -- good times!). The playoffs start on Thursday, I think we're going to be a dark horse.

92: Days I spent on the snow, according to my seasons pass. Sadly, with only six days left I don't think I'll be breaking the century mark this season. But I'll get close. And I think I can count the number of free ride days I had on two hands. That's really been the biggest problem for me this year: working full time as a snowboard instructor is physically and mentally exhausting. So after working 5 or 6 days in a row, the last thing I wanted to do is spend my day off on the mountain. All I really wanted to do was sit in bed and vegitate. If that means I'm not very hardcore, well so be it. Next year I'd like to work maybe 3 to 4 days a week and have some more time to enjoy snowboarding. C'est la vie!

200: Days until opening day next season. Even though I'm totally ready for a break from snowboarding, I'd love to spend another winter in the snow. This is the first winter I've ever spent completely surrounded by snow, and I love it. Speaking from experience I can safely say that it's way, way better than a winter of rain.

Alright, that'll do for now. I'm sure that in the next couple of days I'll think of a million other 'by the numbers' stats that I wish I had used here. Maybe I'll do a second post later this week. But for now, I'm off to enjoy my last three days as a professional snowboarder.

A New Toy







With the snow all but gone I've decided it's time to learn a new board sport. Well I guess it's not entirely new to me, I skateboarded a few times when I was a kid. But "skateboarding" didn't involve all that much standing on the board; instead it consisted of attaching a child's car seat (with bungee cords!) to the board and cruising around on my butt. I was a cool kid.

But I'm ready to try again. So this morning I got myself a board and gave it a go. Being a snowboarder (a professional snowboarder, none-the-less), skateboarding should be easy. Sadly, it's not. I stumbled all over the place and felt like an idiot. But the good kind of idiot. Tomorrow I'm going to head over to Park City's skate park where I should really have a chance to hurt myself.

Happy Easter!






Just wanted to take a second out of my busy Sunday to wish everyone a Happy Easter! It's only 11:00am but I've already re-learned a bunch of things, like trying to run errands is always a bad idea on Easter Sunday. That doesn't mean I won't keep trying, though!

Next Sunday is closing day at Park City. It's always seemed like the season would be over "soon," but now that the day is actually coming I'm not sure that I'm ready for it. I've made all these abstract plans for what I'm going to do next, but now it's time to start making them official. Well, I guess I've still got a week to get it all figured out.

Alright, I'm off to enjoy the sun. Hope everyone is having a great Easter weekend.

On Tap

So yes, the season is in fact almost over. The mountain is shutting down April 15th, which leaves me with 14 more days of snowboarding. More importantly, my lease expires April 30th, making this is my last month in Utah. So what's up next? Not surprisingly, I'm not entirely sure, but the current plan looks something like this:

1. Enjoy Utah: I've got a place to stay and nothing to do from April 16th through April 30th. I want to get the most out of Utah during that time. Everyone (and I mean everyone) keeps telling how beautiful southern Utah is and how great the hiking, biking, and exploring is down there. So I've got half a month to find out for myself. And I'm already excited about it. As much as I enjoy the snow, I'm ready to spend some time outside climbing around in the sun.
   


2. Road Trip #1: My lease ends May 1, I've got a car, and I plan on using it. Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona is my target area. Do you have any ideas on things I need to see while I'm out there? Let me know! I've got 16 days of traveling because on May 17th I need to be in Las Vegas...
   


3. Vegas, Baby: The weekend of May 18 should (and will) be great. A good friend from San Francisco is getting married and my best friend in the world is having a bachelor party! This weekend will probably be the highlight of my trip.
   


4. Road Trip #2: After Vegas I've got 10 days to get back to Seattle. That means a trek through Nevada, California, Oregon and Washington. By this point I'll probably be sick of my car and might end up making a beeline for Seattle because...
   


5. Wedding #2: Ten days had better be enough time to recover from Las Vegas, because it's time for the wedding. I'll be seeing friends that I haven't seen since high school, it should be another great weekend.
   


6. ???: After June 1st it's all question marks. I have no idea where I'm going to go, what I'm going to do, or how I'm going to do it. But it will get done. Am I little scared? Yeah. But I've lasted nearly a year living on the edge, I don't see any reason to stop now.
   

Pond Skimming!







One of the most anticipated events of the season took place last weekend: Pond Skimming. It's a yearly event at The Canyons and the premise is fairly simple. Step 1: Get dolled up in your costume of choice; Step 2: attempted to ski or ride across a 100 foot long pool! Out of the 85 contestants, only 5 or so actually made it across. But getting across isn't really the goal, showing off and having a good time are paramount. Fortunately it was sunny, warm, and a great day to hang around the pool. I took a few pictures, and even captured a couple of contestants in motion: Wile E. Coyote, Pac Man, and Disco Stu.

I've added it to my list of things to do next year. I would have gone this year, but I have my excuses! Most important, though is that getting my boots soaking wet would suck. I didn't really feel like spending the next two weeks in wet boots. Next year, though, I'll be ready.

End of Season Woes

Teaching the last few weeks has been much harder than it should. It's like a perfect storm of bad things coming together. First and foremost is the weather. While I don't have anything against snowboarding in sunny, 60 degree weather, it's absolutely horrible on the snow. Last week we had slush that was over four inches thick! It's like trying to snowboard in the sand. And underneath the layer of slush is rock solid ice. Which makes falling very, very painful. The slush is so thick and heavy that it literally throws lighter snowboarders around. Instead of gliding though heavy patches of snow, kids and small women are unexpectedly bounced around the slope.

Unfortunately, two weeks ago this led to my second broken wrist of the season (for a student). She was a good rider and was on easy terrain. She just got knocked sideways by the slush, fell onto the sheet of ice and snapped her wrist. It's just as distressing for me now as it was at the beginning of the season. I've spent a lot of time playing the "what if" game to see if there was anything I could have done to prevent the accident. But aside from taking her board off and telling her not to snowboard, there wasn't much I could have done.

That day I was the second instructor to take someone in with a broken wrist. The school had five broken bones the day before. And that's just in the ski and snowboard school, where we take a lot of precautions to help minimize the risk of injury. During the last two weeks there have been a steady stream of snowmobiles riding back and forth from the Ski Patrol HQ. Pretty much any fall has a strong chance of ending unhappily. For this reason, more than anything else, I'm looking forward to the end of the season. It's dangerous out there right now and I don't want to get hurt in the last two weeks.

Vacation Time!

For the first time since the end of January I had three days off this week. What to do with all that down time? How about a trip to San Francisco? I will always consider Kirkland, Washington as home, but there's no place I'd rather spend a random weekend than in the San Francisco bay area. Between the gorgeous weather, delicious food, and (of course) great friends, a weekend there always makes me happy.

Last week also brought in a surprising end-of-season storm to Park City. Well, surprising for me, at least. After nearly a month of 50 to 60 degree weather, the season was over in my mind. In fact, I was already missing snowboarding, which was a little strange considering I was still snowboarding at the time. Four inches of snow Tuesday and eight more on Wednesday weren't quite enough to completely hide the sheet of hardpack below it, but it was wonderfully refreshing to glide through some fresh snow. Wednesday and Thursday ended up being a couple of my favorite days of the season. And it was a great way for Mother Nature to end the season.

Sadly, the season is winding down in a hurry. I was greeted in Park City this evening by a steady drizzle. Word around the street is that it's been raining all day. If that's true tomorrow is going to a dreadful day on the mountain. But I've only got eight days of work left this season! I think I can power though for two more weeks.

Melting Away

The 2007 ski season is very rapidly coming to an end. The weather for the last week? Highs in the mid to upper 60s. 60s! How hot is that? Today I had a class with clients from Texas, Florida, and Tennessee. They all commented that it's hotter here than it was at home. Fantastic. (A quick aside: I met one guy who was attending college at MTSU (Middle Tennessee State University). A name like begs for a little more research and, sure enough, MTSU is located in Murfreesboro, TN — smack in the middle of Tennessee).

Oh, and 60 degrees is really, really hot when you're wearing snow gear. We're required to wear our jackets to help maintain our professional image, which means we get hot and sweat. A lot. Right now my outfit consists of shorts, a t-shirt, my snowboard jacket and pants. Pretty much everyone else is riding sans jacket. We've even had a few bikini sightings already. :)

So back to Park City. Skiing is strictly limited to the main runs now and even that's not a sure thing; patches of grass, dirt, and rocks are popping up everywhere. And the slush is something else. You basically can't ride after 1:00pm or so because the snow is so wet and so slushy that your board (or skis) get completely stuck. I learned this the hard way by attempting a few jumps in the terrain park in the afternoon a couple of days ago. I landed the jump cleanly but my board hit the ground and didn't move. Sadly I still had forward momentum and continued head first over the board.

It's also a little hard to stay motivated this time of year. Aside from wanting to improve a killer raccoon tan, most instructors are ready to be off the mountain. As one of my friends said, "You know when you're driving on the freeway and you realize you're sick of driving so you hit cruise control, kick back, and tune out? I hit cruise control a few days ago."

But the big question is how long can we stay open? No one really knows the answer, but we're all pretty sure it's not going to be April 18th (as originally planned). So we're all anxiously checking the forecast and watching as the snow continues to disappear.

Shaun White







Park City is home to the world's largest superpipe, which is great for a lot of reasons. Aside from the obvious benefits like attempting to survive a 22 foot drop in one piece (successful so far!), it also means we get to host events like the World Superpipe Championships. Today the best snowboarders from around the world were on hand. I've seen a million halfpipe competitions on TV, but it doesn't come close to capturing the experience. Standing 5 feet from the lip of the pipe as snowboarders uncork huge spins 10 feet above your head is pretty awesome.

Of course, pictures don't can't do the experience justice either. I took a bunch, though. Shaun White (who may be the world's best snowboarder) ended up winning, and deservedly so. He jumped way higher than anyone else, spun more times than I could count, and just looked plain smooth. You can see most riders make small adjustments (especially after they land), getting themselves ready for the next jump. But Shaun lands his tricks so cleanly that he's in perfect position for the next move. I never though a halfpipe rider would be graceful, but he definitely is.

The Bird







I finally made it over to Snowbird today (after calling ahead to make sure the pass was open...). The west side of the Wasatch mountains (where Snowbird is) is surprisingly different compared to the east side. They're steeper, more jagged, and kind of remind me of the Alps (well would remind me of the Alps, if I had been snowboarding in the Alps before...). The resort is divided into three huge bowls and, like The Canyons, insists on trying to service each bowl with as few chairlifts as possible. Which means if you want to go anywhere than right underneath the chair you have to traverse over to it. Not exactly the snowboarder's dream resort it had been made out to be.

It doesn't have some pretty unique features, though. Most notably is the tram that takes you directly from the base to the peak. It was my first time on a tram and I'll admit that it was not the most relaxing trip. For starters, they really pack you in there (max capacity of about 130 people), so you get to become extremely familiar with the people in your immediate proximity. Secondly, you know how a chairlift rocks around a little bit? Well when an enormous people-mover/death-box starts swaying around, things get decidedly uncomfortable. And did I mention we're a few hundred feet in the air? All in all, I was happy that I managed the 8 minute ride without screaming once (out loud, at least).

A short hike from the top of the resort opens up some pretty impressive terrain. I certainly thought twice before dropping in to a couple of the snugger chutes. It wasn't that I didn't feel confident, it was just the realization that if something went wrong I would be falling for a long time. Fortunately I managed to keep my feet under me when it matter. Unfortunately, two days of sun and warm weather have turned 3+ feet of fresh powder into 3+ feet of the thickest, most viscous snow I've ever seen. My leg and foot muscles have never been so sore in my entire life. At one point I had to stop in the middle of the slope and take my boots off so my feet could stretch. It was a bit too intense.

I've been to three resorts in Utah now and I'm still pretty happy that I'm working at Park City Mountain Resort. But I'll give Snowbird a second chance, just as soon as that concrete they're passing off as snow subsides a bit (and when I work up the courage to tackle the tram again...).

Oh, so this is why I'm here







Remember my last post, when I complained that I just missed out on the best powder day ever? Well it turns out that last Tuesday wasn't even the best day of the week. In fact, it's probably the 4th or 5th best day of the week. Let's recap the days since:

Wednesday: The storm on Tuesday lasted well into the night, leaving lots of untracked runs available Wednesday morning. Even better, the sun was out, making everyone happy. I was schedule to work Wednesday but managed to get the morning off. After a few runs I decided that there was almost too much fresh snow (about 11 inches), as I kept getting stuck on any run that wasn't a black or double black. Checking back for work in the afternoon, I got to teach an advanced lesson, which meant the afternoon was pretty much just like the morning. I came home and thought, "That was the best day of riding I've ever had."

Thursday: However, the best day ever was soon replaced. Another storm came in Wednesday night and by Thursday morning we already had 10 more inches of fresh snow. Again, I was scheduled to work but managed to sweet-talk my way out of it. With the entire day off I was free to hang out near Jupiter Peak, way at the top of the mountain. Jupiter Peak is about a 20 minute hike up from the highest chairlift and is always slow to open after a big storm (ski patrol needs to dynamite the area to kill the avalanches). After a couple of fantastic runs down McConkey's Bowl, I saw the gate to the top was finally opened. And I was the first person up it! The downside to being the first person up was that I got to break trail in two feet of fresh powder. The hike up was the longest 30 minutes I've had in a long time, but it was worth every second as I was one of the first down Jupiter Peak. Fresh tracks down a double black diamond really can't be described, but rest assured it was awesome. I was able to get 3 or 4 runs in up there without hitting anyone else's tracks. I think at one point I was yelling incoherently on the way down; I was just so happy. Heading back down the mountain at the end of the day I though (again), "Wow, that was the best day I've ever had."

To top it off, I ran in to my boss (Adrianne -- the best boss ever) and she finally processed my change of schedule request. My new schedule has me working Monday through Thursday instead of Wednesday through Sunday. To transition to the new schedule she suggested giving me Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off. I had to think about it for a second (actually that's a lie) and decided to accept her proposal. Which leads me to...

Friday: The storm from Thursday kept up through the night, dropping another 8 inches of snow. That's over 30 inches in the last three days! And I wasn't working! So I headed over to the Canyons, a resort about 3 miles from Park City. It was my first time there and overall I was impressed. The resort is absolutely enormous (in fact, it's the largest resort in Utah). It's also quite beautiful. The lifts are spread out so each area you're in feels very secluded (compared to say Park City, where everything is fairly close together). However, there is a very large down side to a huge, spacious, resort: there is a lot of flat terrain. In fact, every single run ends with a flat cat-track to get back to the lift. Some of them even go back uphill! It's truly a terrible, terrible layout.

But with feet upon feet of fresh snow, everything is perfect. I managed to get stuck a couple of times in snow over my waist and had to take a couple of pictures (yes, I'm actually standing up in those pictures). After the main runs were skied out, it was time to head backcountry. The access gates to the backcountry terrain were a little ominous, but the available terrain was just too tempting.

By the end of the day, I could barely stand on my board. My legs were (and still are) completely spent, a sure sign of a great day. The forecast for tomorrow is more sun and I think it might be time to reattempt a trek down to Snowbird. So for now it's time to sit back, relax, and get my legs ready to do it all over again tomorrow.

I'm an Idiot





Today was supposed to be the perfect day. I had the day off and we've had several storms make an appearance in the last week. It turns out the biggest storm came in last night and this morning. I woke up to see everything covered in half a foot of snow, with more coming down hard. The original plan was to drive out to Snowbird, another resort about 40 minutes away. But looking out the window, I started wondering if I should just stay in Park City. First of all, the mountain was report 12 inches of new snow at the peak! Secondly, Park City was essentially snowed in, so the resort would be more or less empty. And finally, being snowed in meant it would be an interesting trip out of Park City as well.

In the end I went against my better judgment and, with a couple of coworkers, drove out into the blizzard. Driving 20 miles per hour on the freeway with visibility of about 40 feet I again realized that I probably should have just stayed home. But the adventure was underway, it was too late to turn back (in my mind at least).

So we continued on. In the end, a 40 minute drive took over two hours. Even better, as we approached our exit, we were greeted by a friendly police officer informing us that road up Snowbird was closed for the foreseeable future. Fan-tast-ic! So it's now 11:00am on the best snow day of the year and we're looking at another two hour drive back to the mountains.

But wait! We quickly discover not only is the road to Snowbird closed, but the road back to Park City has since been shut down too! It's now 11:30am, there is snow everywhere, and we're stuck in Salt Lake City. So what do you do when you're stuck in Salt Lake City? There's really only one thing to do, hang out at Mormon HQ, Temple Square (in the snow!).

We didn't get back to Park City until 3:00pm; completely missing the best snow day of the year. :(

Forehead Cleavage

One of the great things about Park City is hanging out with people from all over the world. Who knew that Utah would end up being one of the most diverse places I've visited? And one thing I love about hanging out with foreigners is picking up foreign vocabulary.

The phrase of the year (so far) has to be forehead cleavage. Forehead cleavage refers to an unnecessarily large gap between the top of snowboarder's goggles and his helmet (or tuque). Good snowboarding style dictates that the goggles and the helmet should form a nice seal along the forehead. And it's not just an issues of aesthetics, either. Forehead cleavage leaves the forehead exposed, which can lead to a brain freeze if you spend a couple hours outside.

But forehead cleavage does happen. Whether it's the result of bad equipment (say a pair of hand-me-down goggles that are way too small) or just plain ignorance it's always worth a laugh. Sadly I don't have any pictures yet, but it's become one of my goals this year.

Hanging with the Kids





Teaching kids can be hard. I've already mentioned that a day with five kids is one-part instruction, one-part daycare (with a strong emphasis on daycare — obviously kids aren't going to do much if they're not happy). And rumor has it that kids here in America are even more out of control than your average youngster. As one of my Japanese friends puts it, "American children are completely out of control!" A lot of foreign instructors choose to teach adults over kids simply because they can't stand trying maintain control of American children.

I've certainly had plenty of interesting days with kids, but in general I seem to relate to them pretty well. I recently realized that my strong connection is probably due to the fact that I still have mental capacity of juvenile. Today, for example, I got into an in depth discussion with two ten-year-olds about the best candy in the world. And I felt validated that everyone agreed the Nerd Rope (see picture above) is indeed a very underrated creation.

Of course, having the mindset of a ten-year-old isn't always a good thing. At the end of the day one of the kids in my class saw a big hill near the kids' corral (where we drop everyone off at the end of the day) and said, "Hey can we slide down that on our butts?!" Looking at it I thought, "Wow that looks awesome!" and all three of us slid down it. Of course, after dropping the kids off my boss walked by and casually informed me that maybe we shouldn't be sliding all over the mountain on our butts. Apparently it doesn't present a professional image for the ski school.

That's a Wrap

Well things are finally calming down a little here. Sundance ended last week and the town is slowly recovering: pulling down posters, removing temporary theaters, and (sadly) returning buses to their slow, inconsistent schedule. Ah well, it's nice to be able to go out at night again. Life on the mountain is starting to pick up again, I worked every day last week (not a full day of work, but work none the less). A few other random bits that have been going on:

• The 2007 Deaflympics started this weekend at Park City Mountain Resort. It makes sitting on the chair lifts a little more enjoyable; you get to watch slalom races, half-pipe competitions, etc as you ride back up the mountain. But the entire event is (predictably, I suppose) extremely quiet. As a skier races down the mountain you'll see a crowd of 50 fans throwing their hands in the air, waving flags and jumping all over the place. But they don't make a sound. It's kind of cool to watch, actually; they're much more animated when they cheer. Also, ski and snowboarding terms in sign language are very self explanatory, it's cool to see two deaf snowboarders talk about a ride they just took through the half-pipe.


• Our cold snap has officially ended; we're now suffering though the warmest weather of the season. 45 degree weather and a low snow base don't go well together. It feels like spring skiing, except it's the beginning of February. I'm starting to get worried that they'll have to end the season early this year.


• I've had a couple of friends in from Seattle for the last couple of weeks. It's been great to have some company around here, but three guys sharing a hotel room make for some cramped living conditions. After much debate, I ended up sharing my bed with Mike (with a solid blanket and pillow divider between us, of course). Unfortunately, I also discovered that Mike is a pretty strong snorer. Many nights turned into a struggle of wills between his snores and my ability to shut him up with well placed pillows. I woke up one morning and saw the results of a long night. Sadly he was still asleep and still snoring. I'm not sure how he pulled it off.

The Language of Teaching

When you spend six to eight hours a day talking you're bound to say some strange things. Recently, though, I've noticed a couple of common phrases things that a lot of instructors use that they really shouldn't be. First, there are entirely way too many older (say 40+) male instructors who seem to think it's okay to scream, "You go, girl!" when one of their female students does something right. There's really no correct response so the student is left staring awkwardly at the instructor. Are the instructors trying to connect with a younger generation? Has the phrase has become so main stream that they feel it's okay for them to say it? I don't know, but it's just weird and it needs to stop.

Secondly, instructors have a strange tendency to use "that" and "those" instead of "your." I've heard several instructors describe a turn like this: "Take that knee and push it down toward those toes. And point that arm where you want to go." As the student takes off you'll then hear them scream, "Push down on those toes, push down on those toes!" I've caught myself doing this a few times and I don't know why we just don't say "Take your knee and push it down toward your toes." I'm currently making a conscious effort to use "your" over "those" but I'm just not sure where the habit started.

Padre Nuestro

Yesterday was my big Sundance day, with tickets to three films. I can't say I was expecting too much; the fact that I got tickets meant that the films weren't too highly sought after. But I was still excited; I could be in the same room as some celebrities! :) And, to help fill another New Years resolution (start learning Spanish), two of the films were in Spanish (with English subtitles, of course).

The first film, Padre Nuestro was my favorite. In a nutshell it follows a teenager from Mexico as he's smuggled into America and attempts survive in NYC. I haven't seen a non-Hollywood movie in a long time and it was nice to see a movie that (a) actually makes me think and (b) doesn't finish up all nice and perfectly. It gets two thumbs way up from me.

The second movie, Longford, is an English show about two of its most notorious convicted criminals and whether or not any human is incapable of being forgiven. It was originally a TV show in England (I think) so it ran a somewhat short 88 minutes. But it still felt like it was about 20 minutes too long. Maybe I'm just a product of today's fast-paced world, but Longford was just a little slow. But it was still interesting and (again) I always enjoy a film where I actually get to think.

Finally, I stayed up for a midnight showing of Summer Rain, directed by Antonio Banderas. The highlight of this film was having Antonio Bandares himself come out and introduce the movie (my first celebrity sighting!). He was a little long winded, but his speech helped set the tone for the movie. The point he made was that the movie is more like a poem; ideas are suggested, not necessarily shown. Without his set up I probably wouldn't have liked the movie at all. But after hearing his description I feel like he did a good job capturing what he wanted to. Sadly, I still wasn't very impressed with it. But I was 20 feet from Antonio Banderas!

Skiboot Shuffle







It's Saturday at 4:30pm. The sun has dropped behind the mountains and the temperature is 10 degrees and falling. For the first time in weeks clouds have moved in and it has started to snow. On stage Ozomatli is in full swing. Some guys are wearing ski goggles to keep the snow out of their eyes. Others are grabbing hand warmers between songs so they can keep their fingers warm enough to hold onto their instruments. For a minute I step back and think, "What in the world am I doing out here? It's snowing, windy, and I'm starting to lose feeling in my fingers." But I look around and it's hard not to be happy. People are jumping around and dancing everywhere; partly with the music, but also just to keep warm. But everyone is smiling, laughing, and enjoying the music. There's really nothing to do but join in. I can thaw my fingers out later.

Ozomatli put a great show. It was shortened a little due to the weather (they're from LA and not quite used to performing when it's 5 degrees out), but they still managed to rock the ski resort. The crowd was small, so I was able to get pretty close. And to help keep the kids warm they had a few join them on stage. Oh, and I got a very short video of them coming into the crowd and playing with everyone.