Homage to Ull
There was a time when Rick and I were our own seperate entities, lives far from touching, but were still bound by one common love; snow. Because Rick has a few more years on me (jab, jab) he was what I would consider one of the pioneers of snowboarding. Well okay, that may be a little bit of stretch but he did help in a small way to anchor the sport. He was at one time a sponsored rider and he could totally "shred a rad thrash" with the best of them - which he did. We have a few dusty photo albums that hold pictures of Rick hanging out with the actual grandfathers of riding. When we first met Rick explained nonchalantly about his past "pro" life and I was skeptical, so you can imagine my surprise when he had photgraphic evidence to prove it.
I pulled out just a couple of samples today because Thursday was our first day of snow. Overnight we got a foot of fresh stuff which sent us into a state of euphoria. You see, this year we were blessed with season passes to our local ski hill (which will now explain the fantasmo header up there), and this snowfall is just the official kick off that we eagerly anticipated. Thank you pow!
Mr. Fancypants above and to the right was quite a showman, and I hope to learn a few things about catching air from him this winter. Because as you can see down below my skills are a little on the rough side.
My landing wasn't a perfect 10, but on a day when they close the mountain because of too much snow you have to throw down with your friends even if you do suck. Getting up there was never the problem - it was what to do while up there.
Lack of grace never stopped me though, because there wasn't much of the mountain that was left unturned. It was a time in my life where my job as an instructor was almost soley for the free skiing. But I will say that I haven't had any other past jobs that were more fun or had more life lessons than there in Tahoe.
One of those lessons being: Always have health insurance before going waaaaay "hella" BIG. And by golly, Rick and I have some awesome coverage for probably the first time in our adult lives, so let us just say That It's On Now!
And for those of you scratching your heads, (no, not about Rick's embarassing choice of pants - nuclear yellow was hot back then!) Ull is the norse god of snow. Let us all bow our heads and thank him now for the killer season we will hopefully have. Mange tak Ull!
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