Per Cent Age

I want to take only a moment to explain why life seems to go faster as you get older. It was once pointed out to me that it's like a roll of toilet paper, seemingly going faster at the end. It's a percentage thing. For example, when you are two and your mom tells you to wait until next year, well that's half a lifetime. At fifty, next year is a couple of adventures away. As a kid every day is full of hundreds of adventures. Waiting one fiftieth of a life is nothing compared with half a lifetime. To be younger means to be able to put aside adult necessities and have more adventures. No wonder it's so hard to get young again. Life burdens us with so many responsibilites. I'm convinced that stress makes you older. We stress most over things we care most about, family, friends & finances. Eliminate those cares fro your life and you will stay a lot younger. Somehow it doesn't sound like a fair trade. Carefree is a two way street. It really doesn't matter if you die. It's if you lived that counts.

Up in the Air

The off season is a good time to get on the motorcycle and work the upper body. Get it off the ground if you can. Soon enough the backcountry will be clear enough to get the downhill bike up in the air and you'l lwant to be in good shape. Mud season=MotoX season.

The Weakest Link

If you are packing for a trip and you can't decide whether or not to pack a raincoat, look to see if your partner has one. If he doesn't and it rains, you screwed up packing one because you are going back because he doesn't have a raincoat.
If you are riding alone in the backcountry, the idea of the weakest link is more literal. Keep your chain lubed and carry some tools and water. Jah might protect the innocent and the ignorant, but don't press your luck. It's funny how your enthusiasm can change once you've got your second wind. You might have set out from the house meaning to take a mellow ride and some kids pass you going up some hill and the next thing you know you're in the next county. Pack enough to get you home. Have Fun!/

By a Nose

The single thing I can do to improve my life is to work on my breathing. In through the nose filling the lungs from the bottom to the top and out through the mouth releasing the air from the top of the lungs first. Learn to do that at all times without thinking about it and life will improve.

A Little Dab Will Do Ya

Try to ride clean. That is, without putting your foot down even for a moment or a 'dab'. A step is worth two demerits. Riding clean takes complete concentration. It requires thinking ahead. Once you have two feet planted on the ground again can you lower your guard. Mental strength is the component that is hardest to train for. Those of you who train in a gym have more than I can often muster. Tunes help, but there is little replacement for scenery. Ride clean!

Get Your Mind Right

It flashed to me that all the conflict in the history is between right-brained and left-brained people in the world. I think everyone should realize which they are and learn to be aware of it. It makes me question my whole childhood. Should I have been taught to bat lefty? If I had developed both sides better, wouldn't it have made me twice as valuable? If my left side worked as well as my right, wouldn't I be twice the person? I can sweep a broom either way, shovel to either side, I'm okay with a hockey stick in either hand, and I'm learning to drum equally with either side. Why start something with bad habits or limitations?
On that note, I have to hand it to switch riders. Duck foot stance and ability to ride switch has distinct advantages. That is a reversal from my previous position that anything that I don't do sucks. Kidding aside, I know a smart thing wherever I see it and I should learn to be more flexible in my mind. I can skid across the kitchen floor in my stocking feet with either foot forward. I feel like I could slalom water ski equally well with either foot forward. Still with all the goofy-footed skateboarding I've done all my life it still feels weird going backwards/regular. I've surfed and feel okay either way but I do have a bias.
So why do I feel so much better with my left foot forward on the bicycle? I want to go off every jump left foot forward or there could be an issue. I coast lefty forward. I bunny hop lefty forward.
Brain scientists tell us that if we practice our weak side, the other side improves even without practice. So practice your 360s to both sides and take off with both feet. Get in touch with the right side of your brain.

Sitting Still

I rented an old Dennis Miller DVD from Netflix and I thought it curious that Dennis said that life is moving. So in an effort to keep from dying or at least just living I took a spin toward Leverich Canyon on my Santa Cruz Mountain Bike with the studded snow tires mounted. I got past the Suburu that was high-centered but mostly it was a shake-out tide to check the bike but mostly me. I broke a good sweat, the goal, then treated myself to a motorcycle ride. Also a good shake-out trip. Note to self: replace rear turn signal.

Up, Up & Away

I got one of those phone calls that only people who live spontaneously get. I had five minutes to get myself and a camera together before the sun set too low. Thanks to Shannon at Apex Helicopter Flights!

Footwear

In addition to the pictured gear, My boot allow me to step into my ascending Vert Snowshoes, crampons, teleboards, straight alpine skis w/a Marker Griffon or Jester binding or just Noboard, Snoskate or Snurf. Pictured are my Volkl Selecta Snowboard w/Catek bindings, my Rossignol Phantom SC87 skis w/Marker Duke Alpine Touring Bindings, my Stockli StormRider XLs with Rottafella plates to accept the NTN binding currently mounted on my Stockli Scot Schmidt Pro Model StormRiders. All based around my Garmont Prophet NTN Boots. photo by Pam Bussi

Friar Jaque

I chalk it up to low levels of stress. Others chalk up the fact that I look younger than my chronological age to the fact that I get more sleep than other people my age. I get nearly as much as I want. Don't underestimate the power of a good night's sleep, in a quiet, dark place. I prefer to do most of my rehydration before bedtime and bathe my cells while my battery recharges.

Last Day

Today was the last day of our lift-served season. Lackluster would best describe it. Nonetheless, you have to make the best of every day and every season. Tune up the bike but don't put away the skis yet. Snowbird will be open into May.

Tryouts

Spring training may be over for Baseball but biking season is upon us. While you still can't get up the singletrack in the mountains you can still get down the slopes, on skis. Some of the best training for biking is skiing. I had the pleasure today of testing the 2011 Volkl AC50. It behaves much like the 2010 AC50. It truly is an all-condition ski. I had it in all conditions and it performed admirably everywhere. So many skis are great this season. For the cost of skis these days, it makes a lot of sense to try as many as possible before taking the financial plunge. You certainly don't want to have any reservations about equipment you trust your fun and life to. Get something you are so happy with that you will never question the decision to buy them. Have unimpeded fun!

Loyalty

Loyalty seems so under-appreciated these days. A loyal customer in these tough economic times is a beautiful thing. They deserve extra special treatment. If someone goes out of their way to return for your service, you should extend your generosity and the cycle will grow. Everyone wins. Start off being nice. You can always get mean later.

Free as the Wind Blows

Born free. To live free requires that you live honestly. Since you sign every act with the quality of your touch, you more than admit your words and actions, you proclaim them. To live with no regrets may not be possible but it is closer if you live honestly. The truth will set you free. Do and say only things you will not regret, truth. Most people regret things they have done or said. Lies must be kept up and hurtful actions cannot easily be undone. The harder regrets are of those things not done or said. Love and live honestly and you will have no regrets.

Double Up on the Hydrogen

Like the clouds rain water onto the land that drains into rivers that flow to the sea and cycles back into clouds again, you should drink clean water and sweat it out. Like water in a stagnant pond, if you don't exchange your water (~77% or your body) you too will be a stagnant pool. If you had to wait for every cell to rid itself of its waste through the urinary system, you would clog up first. Let the water take a short cut and sweat it out. Avoid drinking water with heavy metals or a pH that is far from 7 or delivered in plastic containers. Drink way more than you do now and you will begin to feel way better. Salud!

Good to the Last Drop

These are the days you trained all year for. You skied on days that were less than great just for the practice if nothing more. Now you are strong enough to ski all day making lots of high speed turns through deep snow on steep slopes with limited visibility, snow in your face and barely able to get a breath for laughing so hard. The snow is here. Check the reports. Drop in!

Stand Up

Okay. I admit it. I was wrong about it snowing many feet of snow this week. We'll have to settle for a couple. As penalty, I will never try to predict the weather again. We'll all be glad of that.

Time is Sunny

April is a month of snow and sunshine. Timing is everything. Make sure you take advantage of new snow by getting after it before it turns to cement by noon. As I earn my fiftieth year I seem to wax philosophical about time. How many good winters do you get? How many are good snow years and how many of those do you get to take advantage of? Even if you are around, are you off duty? How many deep days will you get in a lifetime? How many x-factor Grateful Dead shows did you catch before Jerry passed? Were you there when it went down or did you just read about it in the paper? Get outside. Yes, stop reading this and get outside! It won't get done if you don't do it!

Silence of the Trams

Everybody is closing just as it is starting. I just did my taxes and have secured my financing for the early Whistler Bike Park trip. Take a hint. Grab some morning powder and start getting in shape for bike season!

A Light Year

It's really been a light year locally in terms of snowfall. I'll be lucky to break 80 days for the season. Under one hundred is unusual. I figure I've gotten in about 1,800 days in my lifetime. That's about ten percent. It turns out that you haven't lived half a million years until you've passed your 57th birthday. That's a very finite number. You'd be lucky to live a million hours. Value every one.