It is so great to be able to talk snowboarding over breakfast with a bunch of other women. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does it is so much fun.

After breakfast we sped over to Stevens Pass to meet up with the rest of the crew. I grabbed my Forum Sauce (which I love, it is so much fun…especially after riding a Burton Custom for so long) and met up with Mercedes and the rest of our little group for some park riding! Mercedes decided to teach park on Sunday since it had rained (boo!) the night before. The sun was starting to come out from behind the morning clouds as we headed up the Hogsback chair for a warm-up run.

Sam and Lori checking out a kicker in the progression park.

We were all pretty much beginning park riders so Mercedes started with the basics–ollies. As we rode down to the Brooks chair to get to the park we worked on popping off our tail and landing flat. Landing on an edge is what kills me when I hit jumps (I always end up eating it), so it was really good to practice landing flat on the board on a mellow run.

After ollies, Mercedes had us work on popping– jumping straight up into the air and landing flat. This was going to help us on our take-offs, when we hit the jumps in the park.

The first run through the park Mercedes had us ollie off the knuckle of the jumps. She went first, demoing, and then watched each of us from below as we hit the knuckle, telling us if we were landing on our edges or landing flat. It was so good to have her watch us, because I thought I was landing flat when I really wasn’t.

Mercedes on the sidelines reminding us to ‘bend our knees!!‘

At the middle of the run, we cut over to the pipe. We learned how to ride through the pipe, when to bend our knees in a deep squat (center of the pipe) and when to straighten a bit (walls). My first drop into the pipe I was thrown off by how fast I got going and I had so much going through my head between flexing and extending and turning my shoulders and trying not to get too freaked out by the speed. The first run was really awkward. It took time to figure out that you really don’t need to force the turn with your upper body or legs (at the top of the pipe wall), it can be a very subtle movement. One of the girls in our group looked like she was riding a bowl in a skate park–she was so fluid and flowed with the pipe instead of fighting it. It helped to watch her and try to incorporate her smooth riding.

We hiked up the pipe a couple of times and each time it all made a little more sense about how all the movements fit together than the time before.

Molly and Shayla checking out her 180? (can’t quite remember) whatever it was, it was sweet.

To take a break we rode up Brooks chair for another run in the park. We met up with Molly from Evo who was the photog/videog extraordinaire for the weekend and she caught us as we were perfecting our ollies over spines and moving onto the jumps. After every one or two jumps we would all group together and Mercedes would give us each a goal for what we needed to do next time…bending our knees, landing flat, getting more speed to hit the jump.

Getting together for a group ride down the mountain-50 ladies cruising.

After getting lunch and lots of water, we went back to the park to work more on our jumps. My biggest issue right now isn’t taking off or landing on my toe edge, it’s too much speed checking. I need to get over this fear I have of launching myself off of a jump, getting too much air, and ending up in crutches. Its all psychological, which makes me so crazy. I am pretty good about getting over mental stuff, but this one isn’t giving up easy. I really wish I would have had an instructor back when I was throwing myself off of kickers and hurting myself (one time ending up in crutches and getting a ride down in a sled). Because all that stuff that happened so long ago is coming back and I haven’t yet been able to shake it. (Do they have therapists for snowboarders?)

So, the last hit of the day Mercedes said my goal was to hit the jump without speed checking. I instantly got sweaty-nervous. I took a couple of deep breaths and she gave me a couple minutes of sitting above the jump until I was ready. I got up, pointed my board to the jump and took off. I hit the jump and cleared the landing, getting a baby grab in, landed and rode away. At the bottom, I was so happy I did an ollie off of a little feature. When I slowed down to talk to the group I realized I was shaking. But it was such a good feeling to get solid air and ride away clean–especially as the last run of the day.

The Pillow Fight crew.

Everyone was there to have fun and it made the weekend so much better. I love hanging out with people that love to have a good time and aren’t trying to one-up each other and this group was definitely that way. Coming in not really knowing anyone I was nervous, but after a weekend of solid shred I had met a lot of awesome ladies and had a bunch of new friends. I can’t wait for next year. PILLOW FIGHT!

I hung out on the bunny hill most of the day with a great group of ladies from Seattle who were all learning how to snowboard. It was fun to see people so excited about learning a new sport.

The entire time though I was scoping out the scene over at the beginner park right next to the bunny hill. One of my season goals was to ride a box and they had a pretty non-intimidating set-up. There was a box, a rail, and a couple of small kickers.

The snow was super soft and slushy so falling wouldn’t hurt. If I was going to do it, now was the time.

After lunch, I decided it was now or never, so I grabbed a friend to help me out and do some video work. Using the what I learned on Snow Professor‘s website, I had my friend help me out by sliding me across the box so I could get a feel for the box. (Gone are the days of throwing myself off of stuff in the hopes it will work.) After, we did the first run-through, I hiked up the hill and hit it myself.

Super slow at first.

Then I realized I needed more speed so I started hiking up farther and tried to keep myself from doing too many speed checks (one of my main problems). It was so easy! Like, why was I so freaked out, easy. I hit it about ten times and landed every single time. Yeah! I was stoked!

[vimeo vimeo.com/9108454]

Goal: Check.

Next goal: Style it.

I was leaving Snoqualmie stoked. It got better. At the end of the day we met up at had a raffle with a bunch of sweet gear from sponsors. And, I ended up winning a cute Sessions jacket from Sno Con. My day couldn’t have been better.

A few things:

• If you’re female and snowboard and want to have fun with other like-minded chickas check out next year’s shred day. It’s fun!
• If you’re a dude…volunteer as an instructor.
• Thanks to Sandra for putting on an awesome day.
• Check out Snow Professor for lots of great video tutorials and snowboarding techniques.

I’m glad I pushed past my nerves and tried out the box. Have you tried anything this season you were freaked about, but when you tried it wasn’t that bad?

Alright, so I’m going to do this right. This year is the year I decided to get back into the snow for real, so I might as well get all serious and write up a list of my goals…come spring I can look back and hopefully each one will have a check-mark sitting next to it. I’m not sure how I feel about this since its publicly proclaiming everything I suck at–but whatever–its just my pride. Here goes..

THE PARK
Boxes–I definitely want to get my confidence back in the park. Rail slides were killed for me when attempted to rail slide a log, the board slid out from under me and my tail bone landed right in the center of the log. I broke up with rail slides that day. But now, I’m back. But I want to do it right this time. So, I’m taking it slow at first.

Here’s my plan…find the least intimidating box in the park (hopefully one with too much of an audience) and start out with 50-50s. Hike. Repeat until its solid. Then I’ll move onto boardslides. If I can get these down for this season, I’ll be happy. But if I can nail them, I’ll want to add more to this list.

Jumps–Same story here too. Staying over my board while in the air has always been my issue. The nose of my board likes to shoot forward and my bum likes to fall back. The only way I can get decent control and keep from doing a back plant in the snow is by doing a grab. I want to start on smaller jumps, get some air, and stomp the landing.

Grabs makes everything better.

Another one of my biggest problems is doing way too many speed checks–this royally screwed me when I was attempting a gap over a cat track. I am going to focus on centering my weight over my board and maintaining speed.

Spins–I’m also going to work on 180s and 360s. First on flats and then off of jumps and boxes. Right now, I can’t get my body around enough and I catch edge. I think I need more speed, more height in my ollies, and more shoulder rotation. Three more things to add to the list.

THE POW
I’ve talked about everything I suck at, and I just want to say that I can rock it on the ice. Yeah, ice. One thing Minnesota snow can teach you is how to use your edges and weight so you don’t fall when the entire hill is one giant sheet of shiny ice. The stakes are high, falling on ice hurts. A lot. So you learn fast in the Midwest.

Riding on ice isn’t very cool. Besides, out west if its icy everyone is inside having a beer. But people are out on the slopes if there is fresh, fresh pow. Ahh. I’ve been able to stay upright in less than a foot of pow and caught a glimmer of that incredible floating feeling. But I want to ride deeper powder without doing lots and lots of cartwheels down the mountain.

I’ll need to learn to keep the nose of my board up higher and to navigate more with my back leg, than my front. I also want to try out a longer board. Right now I ride a 148 and am thinking I might want something bigger.

This season I’m ready to look dumb, fall a lot, and generally suck. Because its easy to do what I’m already good at. But its boring. And I’d rather be learning something new than doing the same old thing. Bring it!

If you have any tips, let me know. What are your goals for the season?