One hit wonder series @ Sierra-at-Tahoe

Tahoe is one of my all time favorite places. Between the snowboarding, the scenery, and the vibe, I always have a good time when I go there. So I imagined this recent trip would be no different, unfortunately things don't always work out as planned.
Dreading the long 9 hour drive to South Lake Tahoe, I hit the road a little later than I had intended, and ended up leaving around 11am. When I finally got on the road, I was relieved to finally get a little time alone and to think. The day actually flew by, and before I knew it I was meeting up with my cousin at the base of Heavenly gondola. My cousin Jenn lives in San Francisco, so she makes it up quite often. After all she is the one who taught me how to snowboard so it's nice to come back to where it all started. After a quick bite to eat at a local brewery, we were all passed out soon after arriving home.
Rising early the next morning around 8am, I stopped off for some coffee before heading up to Sierra. Upon arriving, I ran in, registered, found a parking spot, then met my cousin and her friend Christina at the base of Grandview lift. Sierra always builds amazing features, and the last contest I did there was one of the most fun contests I have ever done, so I had high expectations for the setup of the course.
My expectations were far exceeded. The course was amazing and Sierra put in a lot of hard work to make this course for us. We had about an hour and half to practice, which was plenty, considering it was a jam format.
When the event started I was ready to begin. With only two of us girls in the contest, we were both having fun pushing each other. There were so many different features to hit, I almost wished we had more time to jam, but was relieved when they told us "last lap!" I had a ton of fun riding the course, and felt good about my performance, so I was anxious to get the awards going.

After they had announced all of the men's division, and didn't even mention anything about women being there, a dark cloud overtook my good mood. I finally realized that they weren't going to say anything, so I went up and asked them what the deal was since I drove all the way from Utah to do that contest. I was informed that due to the insignificance of the ladies performance the last few years, they were not going to honor a women's division. That was not what I was expecting to hear, and I was slightly offended. But before I could get any more heated I left, and decided to go visit my grandmother outside of Sacramento.
Happy with my decision to leave, as soon as the dark clouds came they were pushed right out by my "grammy's" smiling face when I showed up at her door. The trip ended on a high note, and we spent most of the night catching up. It was a very nice visit. I woke early the next morning and took I-80 for nine hours to get back to Park City. Man that drive is painful. But nonetheless I still had a great time and Sierra and Snowboarder Mag put together an amazing course.

Monster Slopestyle Stomp!

Many contests end up falling on the same day. I guess there just aren't enough weekends in the winter. Usually when making a contest decision it comes down to where there will be a cash prize. So between competing at Canyons, or Wolf Mountain, it was a no-brainer to go to Wolf Mountain. With a $2,000 prize purse for the contest my friend Max and I drove about an hour early Saturday morning to get there. We showed up in time to register, and I was informed that they would not be paying the girls, because they consider us "amatures." That did not sit very well with me, and I was a little upset to say the least. I understand there are not as many girls as boys competing, but if you advertise a Women's Open contest and clearly state on the flyer that ALL OPEN divisions would be paid, I expect that they would follow through with that. Regardless, I was angry enough that I entered in the men's open division too.
We had about 30 minutes of practice left before the contest started, and that gave us just enough time to go through the course once and straight air everything, before putting our runs together next time through. The course was tiny, but really fun! With a boost of confidence from somewhere, I was feeling pretty good all day. I was trying to do cab 540's to backside 360's but I kept over-rotating on the five and taking it to a 720. That was fine with me! I had been trying to get past the hump of 540 for a while now, and I just accidentally thrust myself into the next level. With my mind pretty much everywhere but the contest, I spent my whole 6 runs (3 in men's open, and 3 in women's open) going for that 720. I didn't land it really clean, but I landed well enough to still finish my run and do a swith 360 on the last jump.
I had so much fun pushing myself all day, and with some helpful pointers from Max, I will have it on lock by the end of the week.
The contest seemed to end just as quickly as it started, so we decided to go ski the hardest run on Wolf Mountain. Max and I tore up some runs for about 30 minutes before we headed back over for awards. We were all ready to see the results, in the end, I got 2nd. Slightly disappointed, and confused, I happily accepted my award and congratulated Elin on getting 1st. Better luck for me next year I guess! But on a lighter note, Max got 1st place and won $500! So all was not lost and at least we didn't drive all the way to Wolf Mountain for nothing. I would like to say thanks to Monster, and Wolf Mountain for hosting this event, we had a blast.

Canyons Footy 2010-2011