I am so stoked - happy - proud- excited! My friend HACK [ we were hanging out a bunch last year, strictly platonic though… never ever happened ] from Tannersville is opening his own bar called THE BOARDING HOUSE and the first SNOWBOARDERS HOTEL out East!

Last Winter, while making turns @ Hunter Mountain, we talked about our passions, taking chances and lots of other things. He told me he admires my courage to ’start’ businesses and that he’d love to do something himself. We kind of stopped talking for a while because I went out West for the rest of Winter [ I am a sucker for Tahoe] and he stayed in T’Ville.

A couple of weeks ago I saw this status update on his myspace account [ yeah, I love myspace ] and I asked him about it. He told me what he had been up to and I just had to do a little dance! Yes! I am THAT excited!

Go Hack! You’re killin’ it and I’ll be your personal cheerleader!

oh yeah, the rail jam + party stats:

first ON snow rail jam of the season! Come on out, show us what you’ve got and head overto the bar of Tannerville’s latest spot THE BOARDING HOUSE BAR to party like it is was 1980 HA! I mean, to celebrate Halloween with all the cute boys and girls in costumes.

Bar is 21+ with valid ID. NO COVER! What a deal!

Rail Jam is for USASA members only.

WHAT?? YOU ARE NOT A USASA MEMBER YET??
Don’t worry! you can register at www.usasa.org and then call HACK [at 5185897746] to pre register!

for more info go to www.theboardinghousebar.com

Just about an hour south of Charlottesville sits Lynchburg, Virginia, home to 20,000 evangelical students and now, a YEAR ROUND SNOWLESS SKI SLOPE.

 

Ever dreamed of skiing or snowboarding in the summer? Now you can! Liberty University presents an attraction sure to revolutionize your winter sports action. Coming soon to Lynchburg, Va., the Liberty Mountain Snowflex Center features the most innovative technology in the snow sports industry, SNOWFLEX®. Originating in Europe, Snowflex will debut on U.S. soil with the completion of the artificial incline.  The Discovery Channel is documenting this historic event, filming portions of the construction to air on a future episode of “Daily Planet.”

Invented by Brian Thomas of Briton Engineering, Snowflex is a multi-layer, synthetic material that simulates the effects of snow, allowing maximum speed and edge control for making turns. With the help of small misting devices, Snowflex stays moist, giving it the slip and grip of real snow. Snowflex’s extra padding and support enhances the most extreme maneuvers and stunts, culminating in the ultimate adventure.

 Although mountain ski resorts are only accessible during cold weather months, the Liberty Mountain Snowflex Center will be available year-round, day and night.

While on LU’s campus, prospective students, current students, alumni and their families can spend quality time together, taking full advantage of everything the slope offers, including skiing, snowboarding and tubing.

Monster jumps, killer quarter pipes, slick rails and a high-speed tube chute are just some of the highlights of this snow-free ski slope. Thanks to Snowflex’s advanced technology, these features will never melt or change shape.

  check out www.snowflex.com for more info!

  Opening Reception 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Music Provided by
Prince Paul
Ricky Powell aka The Funky Uncle
Smoke L.E.S.
Trouble Andrew
&
The Good Life! After Party
Santo’s Party House
100 Lafayette, NYC
10:00pm – 4:00am

 PRESS RSVP: kwiseman@pitchcontrolpr.com GENERAL RSVP: craigwetherby@pitchcontrolpr.com

 Event Information:
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
7:00 PM - 10:00 PM
21+
cover: FREE

 Venue Information:
Milk Gallery

450 West 15th St.
New York, NY

there are days that I just don’t feel like I am up to par with the rest of the world…

*sigh*

I hope it’ll be better tomorrow.

On the other hand…

This weekend will be fun again: [T]RAMP CAMP will be on again and I can’t wait to be snowboarding in NYC in Summer!

I am always on-line, messing around with different websites, signing up… seeing what they are all about etc. So one day I came across RidersVoice.com [ a site for snowboarders to rate/ review the boards they own/ ride ] and I created a profile and started rating my boards. A couple of days later I got a ‘thank you’ email from some dude from RidersVoice, I wrote back and we found out that we are practically neighbors. he lives about an eight minute walk from my place. I thought that was extremely random.

His nickname will be.. uh… Neighbor.

So yeah, Neighbor and I have been communicating, but seeing the fact that it was Winter and Winters are meant to be spent somewhere on a mountain and NOT in the City, we never met up until a couple of weeks ago. He’s cool. Italian, has two female roommates, works and is is into some of the same things I am really into. Basically… I am stoked to have a friend in my neighborhood that is of legal drinking age hahaha.

Last week he was planning on going to Mountain Creek, Vernon NJ to go downhill biking. He’d been asking me if I wanted to come along and I said “sure… no problem! I am Dutch and biking is in my blood”. I really did not foresee a lot of problems. I mean, I have been biking since I could walk besides, how hard could it really be to go DOWN hill? haha… In all fairness, I was expecting a nice leisurely nature bike ride.

WRONG!!

My first clue was when I saw what came with the bike rental: 

• a huge helmet, you know, covering the chin and all
• knee/ shin protection
• elbow/ arm guards
• gloves with the the knuckles covered in Teflon
• a plastic shield/ body armor covering my back / chest and shoulders.

Another dead giveaway: the place wasn’t called Mountain Creek for the Summer, no: it changed it’s name to DIABLO. Now… I don’t speak Spanish but I do know what Diablo means…

Still not too concerned I peddled around on the property and we decided to go up the lift. The same one I used to ride in Winter…  with my snowboard under my arm and a smile on my face. I don’t know what happened but I got scared shit-less! Seriously… I started to sweat and Neighbor became seriously worried that I was gonna choke up and cry.

We got off the lift and took the wrong trail. It has the same color/ shape coding as in the Winter. We ended up on a nice black one. All I saw were tree stumps, rocks, pebbles and stones, gravel and I just prayed to God and the Queen in Holland that I would survive.

I made it down and I sucked bad. I mean I seriously feared for my life. However, I was determined to get it down. After the 4th run I felt confident and was actually getting a bit braver, faster and secure in my riding/ braking and what not. I was smiling and thought I was the shit.

Last run: Neighbor thought it would be fun to take some ‘action shots’. For some reason I had this vision of me crashing on this part that consisted of just rock. I got so scared. I told myself to snap out of it and be confident. ‘It’s all in your mind girl’ I told myself. I passed that specific part of the run down and I was happy as the hippo. Next was the swirly park part and I felt like I could do it.. no problem…

Long story short. I crashed royally. Twice. Of course on the last run. On the Rocks… just like how I enjoy my drinks… I can tell from experience that that protection I wore… the body shield etc. really works! Neighbor looked so scared, I mean it must have looked pretty bad and truthfully… it hurt and I got super scared and I wanted to cry, but I knew that I had to get right back on that bike cuz otherwise I would never do it again… so that’s what I did.

I was stoked. I mean, I was scared, I got hurt and I didn’t let it stop me from trying something new.

Lesson: you are scared, you fall, you get up, you have fun, you fall, you are scared, you get back up and just do it again… with a smile, looking fabulous [not really haha] but feeling like a million dollars.

Winter is over. I managed to get 62 days ON SNOW, meaning, I have been on a chairlift/ gondola on 62 different days this season. I realized that I’ll most likely won’t go pro any day soon. hehehe…. I did South Shore Soldiers for both sessions and it was a sad show. I just can’t seem to catch air and the times that I do… well… I blank out. I probably keep my eyes closed and think of the Queen of Holland. No air awareness whatsoever. I suck… it was the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over… expecting a different result.

Besides the fact that I got sick with the flu twice [first time at SIA and the second time right after Soldiers] I can consider myself pretty fortunate that my only ’snowboard related’ injuries consisted of :

• 2 mild concussions [Killington + Stratton]
• a deviated tailbone [got a lefty now]
• a whiplash ??

So now that Winter is officially over in my book… what will be the plan of action for Summer??

I got invited for TRAMP CAMP, starting June. Tramp Camp is done by some of the guys of the NYSG and consists of a huge trampoline, lots of beers, a grill and a couple of boxes/ fake snow. This will be a good way to get some well needed air awareness… the beers will def. help!

I also want to pick up skating again, as I pretty much haven’t touched it for the whole Winter. I mean, why would I risk getting injured on concrete while I can get injured on snow?? It’s time to whip out Mr. Dan Mc.Farlane’s ‘Skateboarding Explained’ DVD again.

I started my diet/ work out regime again and I am proud to say that I am at 124 pounds now and I intend to eat healthy and visit my gym on a daily basis. I want to get fit, lean and mean hehehe.

Oh, today I am meeting with my ‘4 hour workweek’ support group. I am pretty happy to say that I have been applying most of what the books says for the last year, I am just ready to find a way to actually do something in those four hours that will generate some income to fund my rest of the week activities!

Oh, been surfing for the first time ever!

I went to Vegas last week, to go see what gear I’ll be riding/ sporting next season. The show is called SIA  [ I still have no idea what those letters stand for ]. My ‘wife’ tagged along and we were staying with  C+ S + Uncle Dave [SouthShore Soldiers].

It was fun, wasn’t it for the sad fact that I got super sick on Tuesday night and was hallucinating on the plane, popping mucinex and anti flu pills like they were m&m’s.

I bruised my tailbone on Monday when my new craigslist friend T told me that I should just ‘bomb’ that jump. Hahaha, that’s what I did and I landed it on my ass… and head. The helmet broke and my taibone bruised. It hurt.

Anyway, am in South Lake Tahoe since Friday and I have been riding every day. The more I ride, the more I realize that I really suck. Things are different out East.

 

+

 

 

=

 

my new set up! Woohoo! It’s sick!

Been soooo busy. Doing nothing but thinking about where to go this Winter. Talking about snowboarding, dreaming and thus not doing shit.

Oh, joined Facebook, am on Myspace, aSmallWorld and God knows what other sites… this internet is seriously wasting my time. Yuck. I haven’t seen or made any new friends, except for the ‘virtual’ ones on those social networking sites…

I have to get motivated. I keep on procrastinating. My company?? Launch?? Huh?? I need a kick up my ass.

At least I left the house today, only to find it way too hot to be outside. I did laundry, groceries and I think that I might go look for the gym…

I am still on the ALLI, I just haven’t been drinking my lemonade so I will have to squeeze some more lemons and just do it. I did lose some weight… but have no idea what from but am not complaining.

I got my new headphones: SkullCandy, I really like ‘m so I might try ‘m at the gym… once I have found the place.

I need to be stronger.

   + 

I dreamt about my longboard, Gianni Versace, a gold short dress and lots of sequins…

It was the weirdest thing: I arrived at this amazing place… on my longboard, wearing a super short golden Versace dress with tons of golden sparkly sequins and sexy high heels. I was greeted by my date for the evening. A very goodlooking man, around 42 I would say. We walked into the restaurant/ lounge and this man pulls me aside, asking me to follow him as he wants to show my dress to his partner. He complimented my date on my style and I walked with him to his partner. It turned out to be Gianni Versace himself. He was very pleased to see me wearing his design.

I thanked him and walked back to my table. My date was there and we had a very nice time. All we could think about was sex, so we left before the end of dinner. We had crazy sex and I wanted more but also felt that I had to go.

Soooo, I think it was a couple of hours later that I realized that I forgot my sector 9 board at the restaurant. I probably left it under the table. I went back to ask for it, but the maitre d didn’t want to talk to me or look for my board. I called the place and they said that they hadn’t found it. I was so upset. I called the man that had taken me there and told him the story, he said he was sorry and that he would call.

Fast forward.. I am on the beach and all of a sudden this big wave comes and we all have to run. I hurry back to the hotel and meet this guy. We have this attraction and we ended up kissing. I am still upset about the loss of my longboard and leave. Not knowing what to do, I go back to the hotel and go up to this room with all these celebs/ rockstars. Everyone wants to go there so we have to fight to go up the stairs…

I get to their room and all of sudden I have my longboard in my hands again. I was so surprised and didn’t understand where it came from. Also, the logo on it changed. It had pictures of me and my friends on it, the front truck came off, and I wiped the board clean to see all the pics. With wiping clean, I mean that black grip that’s on top of it. This boy next to me wanted to take my board so I beat him up and made a run for some guy, explaining what happened….

Then I woke up. It was a weird dream…