Ahh, so here we are: member blogs. Wow.

*shivers*

Whodathunkit, that way back when this site was made by the master Harvey, that one day members would have their own little forums, their own little blogs to say whatever the heck they want to say? we've come a long way, that's for sure.

But this is in no way to say that i have been here the whole trip. Oh no, far from it. see the member number: 53318. Joined: january 2nd, 2005. Posts: close to 8000. That last useless figure will tell you what you can tell from seeing me int he forums: i am a crzy fool, with no life outside of the world that is NS. How did it come to be so? How could i have wasted countless days of my existence on a trivial internet message board?

Let us travel back in time, to a place long, long ago. Stockholm, Sweden on the first day of the new year that was 2005. Sitting indoors, looking at the rain, i am bored, depressed and oh so completly emo (read: wallowing in self pity). I have been in sweden for a little over 5 months now, and have yet to go skiing. Oh, how i longed for days long since gone, where i lived in the beautiful mountain town of Annecy, France, where one could expect easily a month out of the year on the slopes. From a month, to a week. Yep, stockholm is not 20 minutes from a mountain, it's 9 hours from anything decent. My only ski trip of the year is 2 months away, and im decidedly melancolic.

I had heard a rumor somewhere that Candide, my skiing idol of the time, had moved on from salomon to rossi. having nothing better to do, i googled (oh my, is that even in the dictionnary yet?) it, and i landed on a website entitles newschoolers.com. The article was interesting, and something like 50 poele had responded to the original interview.

#wow, this site is alive and kickin'" i thought to myself. Seeing as i had quit a message board called officialnewyork.com because it was too full of flaming and because i had goofed up my christian witness bigtime, i decided NS was the new forum i would adhere to.

So i went to the front page, decided to join over 53300 members, and arrived at the registering page. i glanced over the rules, too exited to actually read the blasted thing. "meh, ill learn the rops as i go..." i thought. Then came the hard choice of a username... I am in no way exceptional at skiing, so i thought a bit of self-deprication was the way to go. I signed up as slam_monster. I then travelled to the NSG, thent he pics, then the SG. i made a few posts, chose an avatar from GhostDragon's bank, life was good.

I then realized something: my name was lame, man. I had just bought an almost skateboard, and i really liked their whoe "almostaswebsite" theme. So i chose to become almostaskiier:

almost for the board

almost a skier because i was but a noob at the whole jumpy flippy thingymabobber that is new school skiing,

and skiier because i can't spell.

I then had my first interaction with the admins. Mr Doug Bishop was so kind with me and my request, even though i was but a 2 day old noob, and he direct me to the man, the myth, NoPoles Paul, who fixed my name for me right away. They were pleasant, and psyched on me being a new member. You could tell they loved the place.

As time went on, people started popping out at me from the forums: the mods, with their wisdom infinite (not you ryan, the REAL mods :P), and then the members of the PPP and of the DL. They were über chill, intelligent and respectful, and i knew i could learn a lot about skiing and other things from them. To name a few, Quinny, Lanks, JD and Apple were immediately on my friends list.

During the first few months, i was impulsive, territorial, stupid. i wanted to "win" all the talks i got into, establish myself amongst the "cool" guys of the site. But as my time has gone on, i realized that i was so immature in the beginning, like mosy new members. It wa only through talks (read: destructions by) with the veterans that i progressively understood what the community was about.

Then came my first taste of the foul side of the skiing scene. as i nailed my first 360, i felt compelled to post it. i had no idea how much hate people can have on a beginner, to boost their own ego and rpide. but i was there, int heir position, trying to make myself look better and get e-respect. looking back, i was so mad at the whole bashing i went through, and i contemplated quitting the site. "who needs a bunch of haters?" i thought.

But again, as time went on, i realized i just couldn't leave the site. I had met a lot of guys that i befriended and who befriended me, and i was on a site where people could share their wisdom about one of my great passions in life: skiing.

I realized that THIS is what it was all about: not status, not post count, not e-friiging-respect: it was about a community, friends and a good time.

After i was rejected by the PPP because of problems with Mattman, a pioneer of the site, i was devastated, ebcause i had been denied a spot amongst the community that i wished to bepoart of, as i could hardly have considered the NSG a loving family. Then, with the help of stowebum and seanpistol, i founded the Black Watch cult. There, we try to get the community feel that you get in the DL and the PPP, and to make sure that there are beacons to the newbies ont he site to guide them along the path to shibbiness, the key of which is held by the illustruous PhattTim.

Sometimes i womder: why do i care about all these people i will never meet? why do i keep coming back to this site? how can i justify typing this blog for complete strangers?

i must say the complete answer eludes me. but the family we have in skiing, fueled by the same force in the love that we have for our two planks, is what keeps me here. I have met so many cool guys on here, so many people i thank the Lord there are of, that this all makes sense: the coomunity we have in newschool skiing is one of the coolest bunch o' peoples out there. For example, i am now a pen pal with a kick butt chick in fireunderwater, i can discuss the ski industry with the likes of dandoy, i can get phylosophycal BS from JD, and incredible pictures from out very own FilmingBitch.

The reaosn i am still here, and still have no life, is because you can feel the love we all have for each other and skiing. And while there will always be the random idiot, i don't think much of anyhting can spoil that for me.

Thank you all for making NS what it is. Thank you mods, admins, BW, PPP, DL and everyone i have had the pleasure of talking to.

Ride or die, let the powdah fly.

peace,

patty von webster.