Impressing the little guy at any cost!

Chairlift Talk while riding over the board park:

“Wow did you see that Dad?”

“Yeah pretty cool.”

“Whoa Dad did you see that boardslide?”

“Yeap, that was sweet.”

“Oh my heck, Did you see that jump Dad?”

“I can go bigger than that Rig.”

“You can?” Tone of disbelief.

Just about a month ago Rig told me he didn’t think I could beat up his seventy year old Karate instructor at the YMCA. I was already feeling an intense desire to start reliving some of the glory days in the park, throw in the fact that Rigdon was starting to see me as something less than superhuman and I was ready to commit to a gap jump.

So on our next run I chose the smallest one in the park and went for it. It felt pretty good. I hit a couple more and it just started to feel better and better. I finally hit a big one and it was exhilarating. I couldn’t resist a euphoric scream.

“Did you see that Rig?”

“See what?”

Other than myself, Rigdon is the least observant person I know.

"That jump I just hit!”

“You did that big jump?” Same tone of disbelief.

On our next run I was golden. My park mojo was thriving. I was hitting all the jumps with confidence. I stopped to see if Rigdon was taking in any of my skills. He wasn’t. I decided I would have him get the big jump I had already done on film this time. Then he couldn’t miss it.

After some careful instructions of how to use the camera, Rig was ready to go. Rig was to record me on a medium jump and then the big one.

I took off and smoothly landed the smaller jump and confidently pointed my board towards the jump that just last run had been so exhilarating. I remember thinking to myself, “Am I going too fast? Nah, the last one felt great plus I’ve got the same color hair as Shaun White.”

The take off was perfect. I left the ramp as straight as I ever had. Then I remember thinking “I should be going down by now.”

I saw the landing come and go underneath me and my next thought was “ Holy crap, I am going to break bones.”

If only I had been so lucky.

This is the one that got my knee. It doesn't look like this guy is making it to the landing. Better to under shoot it than over shoot it as I learned. I landed over towards the left edge of the picture.

I was not waiting around for pity. I unstrapped my board, jumped up after the wreck and made a self assesment. My knee got wrenched really good but everything else seemed to be in tack. Although I knew immediately knee injury was the second worse senario only to back injury. I walked over to Rigdon expecting a “Dang are you all right?” or a “That was huge Dad!”

There was no such reaction.

“I think I have to go home Rig.”

“What? Why?”

“I think I hurt my knee in that wreck.”

“You wrecked?”

Turns out I was wrong about Rigdon he is even less observant than me.

Bet you can guess how the footage of the wreck came out. Here it is below.

The only proof that anyone even witnessed my wreck is if you turn the volume up you can hear some guy say "He way overshot it!"

Why I don't own a motorcycle

I had a season lift pass to The Canyons over a decade ago. During that winter I worked up to doing all the biggest jumps they had in the park. I didn’t do them with much style. I couldn’t do a single technical trick, not even a 180. That stuff didn’t interest me, but I could go big, and I liked it. I liked it a lot.

In my one season as a pass holder, I sufffered one wreck that resulted in a broken wrist, which to this day is still broken. Then while recovering from the wrist injury, on a day with spectators gathered in the park, I was going pretty big and getting some love from the crowd. Eager to impress further, I decided to save all my speed for the biggest jump where the crowd was gathered. It was going to be awesome.

Upon take-off my arms instantly began flapping violently and the awesomeness was underway. It was obvious to all that I was going to over shoot the landing by a good margin. The only question was weather the arm flapping would keep my board under me. It didn’t. I might as well had not even had on a snowboard because it was the last thing to hit the snow on impact. I had impressed them all right. After that jump, I had a whole group of them tending to me. You know it is a good wreck, when the first thing people ask is “Can you still move your legs?” That wreck did not result in broken bones, but once I was sure my legs still worked I elected to walk down the mountain. The next day my backside turned black and blue and swelled up like I had a football trapped under my skin. I was left wearing sweat pants for weeks. Lesson learned? Maybe not.

This is not my wreck. This was just the wreck most reminiscent of mine on youtube. To better imagine my wreck, put me on a snow board add more arm flapping and more spectators and imagine the cursing in english rather than french, and you have it.

On Rigdon’s birthday I took him snowboarding for the first time. He totally impressed me. We had a blast. I had the bright idea that we would both buy season passes next year and ride together as often as possible.

Then a couple of weeks ago, I saw a special to buy your season pass for next year now, and get the rest of this season free. I figured we could get in at least 5 more days this season. I decided to go for it and last Saturday morning I threw down the 358 bucks for mine and Rig’s passes. We were thouroghly enjoying our first day as season pass holders. I usually let Rig dictate what part of the mountain we ride, like his old man, he is drawn to the park.

Being in the park is not good for me. I get there and I am like a recovering alcoholic. I see the big gap jumps and the guys hitting them and my palms sweat and my stomach aches. I can’t wait to join them.

As of that morning I was now a season pass holder again and would have plenty of time to prudently work back up to some big hits. More on that thought in my next post I have to get back to conference.