OMIGOD, we have had a pretty insane week here in Laax and seeing as how I have self-promoted this here blog on the webcast a few hundred times and I have yet to update it in the past few days I figured I should write a little something about my European Vacation. Although the cheese at every meal and the living in a constant wall of second hand smoke has made me a little sluggish, I will try to recap the awesomeness with all it’s original enthusiasm and splendor. Woo! How’s that for stoke?

Okay, first things first.......Kelly Clark was at the bar last night and that alone is worth a Woo!. Anyone who knows Kelly will know that this is BIG deal, no no, she wasn’t drinking or smoking for that matter which makes her a standout in last nights crowd of European smoke stacks and sixteen year old bar rats. But she was out.....and I can tell you that in the last five or so years I have not seen Kelly in a bar until last night, so yeah it’s like a Yeti sighting....pretty much unbelievable. Of course it was also the one night in the past five years that I didn’t have my camera with me so I didn’t capture it on film which also makes it like a yeti sighting; just a story that people will say “yeah, yeah right your saw Kelly at a smoky bar in Europe”. Anyway it was pretty amazing and so was her riding this week, massive airs, huge 9’s, and I guess what you would expect from Kelly but just a little bigger and a bit more confident.

It was different for me this week to not be in the contest, I wasn’t bummed and I wasn’t relieved, I think that just means I have a little more in me. It was so rad to be able to be at a contest and see it from a different angle, instead of just as a competitor. As competitors, we get so caught up in our riding that you can begin to judge your self worth on your skills and how well you do them, and even though you know better it’s hard not to be judgmental and feel like you suck if you can’t land your run and stupid self loathing shit like that. Watching also totally stoked me out and inspired me, sometimes we are so close to what we are doing that we forget to watch what everyone else is bringing to the table and our heads are so far up our own asses that it makes it hard to see whatever ones is doing. Okay side tangent, but seriously this is the first contest in 19 years that I have been at and have not entered so it was a new phase for me and I am feeling all philosophical as I sit here waiting for my crew to wake up and shred. I can’t wait to ride, nothing like being at a snowboard contest for a week and taking ten runs, four of which were in pitch black because we didn’t get off the hill until 5 everyday......anyway, yeah the stoke.

Things that stoked me out this week,

Jaime Anderson – she is pretty much awesome, funny, cool and always herself, love her candor

Women’s Snowboarding- So stoked to see the girls killing it in both slope and pipe, torah has so many insane tricks, aka cab 9 and is always looking to progress the sport and seems to do it effortlessly, Kelly’s amplitude. Jenny, Jamie and Silvia also held it down in Slope.

Kevin Pearce-Love this kid and so stoked that he is killing it and wins with gratitude and respect.
Cappuccinos- so delicious, looking forward to coffee time today.

And of course our favorite Native American, Chief Lippy, along with our on air flight attendants Dave Mailman and Nelson Wermstead and the other drunks who rolled through the go211 studio.

The Crew.....me, greeny, and Jeremy Edits