HAPPY ST. PATRICKS DAY!!!!

ok, so it was a few days ago, but whatever. it's the second best day of the year (second to halloween of course) and I hope that everyone had a drunken good time filled with skiing and green beer.

I woke up early to get to the hill for registration. There was a slopestyle comp in the park and it was warm so the park would (finally) be soft today after a few days of cold icy conditions. Unfortunatly there were dark clouds over the mountains with the forcast calling for rain. With a quick stop off at the cold beer and wine store, which happens to be right beside the hitching post, it was off to the hill. No way a little bad weather was going to ruin my St. Patties Day!

Once at the hill I headed up to the park and started doing laps and seeing who wasn't lazy and actually got out of bed in the morning. The actual turnout was very sad to say the least. The younger kids were all out in force which was good to see, but for the 18+ category there was me and this Andre guy who was actually a snowboarder but was was just one skis for the day. The snowboarding side wasn't any better with only two competitors on their side as well. The truly sad part of the whole thing is that almost all of the skiers and boarders who should have been in the comp are my friends and dont' work or do anything other then ski and board - so the fact that they weren't there was kinda disapointing.

So with only one other person to compete against and that person being a snowboarder I took a very 'lax aproach to my runs doing fun stuff like 360 point at judged and say "yo", and switch rail runs with 180's gapping over stuff... did an underflip for some stoke, and succesfully had the funnest time ever in a competition. as for the younger guys, they showed that most of them are infact better then basicly all of us older dudes (is it wrong to refer to a bunch of 18 - 22 year olds as "older dudes"?) with Alex (sorry I don't know the last name) winning with a switch 9 in his last run after doing switch 5 and 7 in his first two into stuff on the rails (i could only see the top of the course), colesten came in second with some nice trickery and i actually don't remember who came in third but i'm sure he did a solid run.

Now as for the judging of the older dudes division, for some stupid reason they decided to judge the two skiers and two boarders togeather, which is very stupid on it's own, but becomes even more stupid when you forget to mention that to the competitors. So apparently I got 2nd place, with the Andre guy getting 3rd and Tros getting first with a board on his feet. Now, I'm not being cocky or saying that Tros didn't do good runs, but I feel as though he won because he's a snowboarder and the judged don't know shit about what is what on skis. This problem with proper judging showed itself earlier in the year at the Rossvegas Railjam in town when the person who should have won didn't even podium (I am of course talking about Elvis).

Another problem I had with how the comp was run was the prizes. I know I will probably get a lot of hate from this but I'm going to say it anyways.

1st place for the guys won a pair of goggles, 1st for the girls won a snowboard. 2nd for the guys won a shitty Karbon windbreaker, the girls: a pair of bindings. Now, I'm not saying that girls don't desirve good prizes or anything, but they should not get better prizes then the guys. I don't care what you say - we are better then you, so we should not get a worse prize.

But aside from all of that, Marc got the most screwed. Marc was the second snowboarder, and because they put the two sports togeather he didn't get anything even though he should have got 2nd. So overall the actual competition part of the competition was awsome, the vibe was super chill and fun, everyone was having a good time even if the threat of rain was always looming above us, but sadly the comp as a comp was ruined due to shitty judging and orginization. At last chair my friends and I went up to the top of the mountain to ski down to the cabins down on Long Squaw for some apres-ski like it's St. Patricks Day. It was quite warm out during the day and it has snowed a few cm's the day before so the snow was very sticky and my friend Gary hit a tree and ended up breaking the top of his Tibia. He's still in the hospital, but he's fine.

The season is basicly done here at Red. only 13 or so days left till the hill is closed, but it's suposed to be sunny and warm, so it should be fun. I'll leave you with some pictures from the last sunny day at the hill. My gf Karyn got a new camra, it's fancy.

180 tail grab

360 japan

slashy slashy

so pictures have the tendency to not work for me, if this is the case with the above then I apoligise.