Ian M

Yup! Dress warm :D

^ Those are all great clinic ideas, Eric, thank you for posting! I'd be interested in attending an off-snow gear session, especially if it focuses on boots. As you firm up which clinics you'll offer and when, just update this thread please. Let's aim for dates and times by next week? Thanks again for offering your time and experience!

MORE great news, everyone - another experienced teacher has expressed interest in offering clinics at this year's ECES! Eric Beckman is an experienced instructor from Sugarloaf, and I've heard great things about his riding and teaching. I'll let Eric fill in the details about his style and clinic offering. Thanks very much Eric :D

Zing!

No, what was on it?

Great news, everyone... Dan Lambert is also interested in offering clinics based on Joerg's PureBoarding style! Dan is a great rider and teacher, and represents the PureBoarding style very well. I'll leave it to Dan to fill in the details such as days, times, etc, so stay tuned :D

Of course we want to skip work, but can we? :( Soon, yes!

Yes, sir! Sounds like a plan. Looks like we get a break our first time on the steep side, it's going to be a lot softer this week than last :D

^ Good good! Who's up for a day trip to Mont Blanc this weekend to ride with the Pureboarding gang? Joerg (one of the best riders and people you'll ever get a chance to ride with) is there doing clinics on Saturday, and possibly Sunday. There's a nice dinner planned for 6:30pm Saturday also. I'd like to go, and Saturday sounds better, but I'm flexible.

Absolutely. You guys are ready for this now, and Cascades has a great pitch to work on. This Tuesday, snow conditions permitting, we'll play on the steeps! One reminder; learning to carve on steeper terrain is a bit like learning to carve all over again, so be patient with yourselves. Results will be mixed at first, even with help from me it will take practice to get the faster timing down. On the bright side, I can show you strategies that will allow you to be really comfortable as you take on steeper terrain, and these will maximize your success. I'm looking forward to this! :D

Glad you're getting out, Chris! I have plans tonight that involve a sauna. Mmnn.... warmth....

AWESOME, Ben!! Much lower, and you'll be rubbing your armpit. Great video, too!

Thanks so much, guys! I really appreciate the feedback, as well as the opportunity to share ideas and inspiration with you!! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

^ Yeah, we were joking about that last night; if we only rode when it was nice out, we'd never ride!!

Thank you Michelle for the wonderful compliments! Regarding your quote above, I would say that most of the current awesomeness in my life has come from really embracing who I am; a spiritual and sensitive person. For a long time, I tried to act more macho, more like 'the other guys', and I only realized recently how deeply that hurt me. We can't reject part of ourselves like that without harming ourselves emotionally. If I could encourage all of my friends to do only ONE thing in their lives, it would be to learn to fully accept every part of themselves; especially the parts they are not fond of. I can't describe with words how liberating and empowering this is... In other news, our Ottawa group was wishing we were in Colorado tonight. It was -24 Celsius during our night session, and my eyes and nostrils kept freezing together when I breathed and blinked . On the bright side, the groom was epic, and the place was deserted!

Thanks wavechaser! Definitely, in my experience, one of the largest wedges that pry apart relationships is a difference in spiritual growth. Deal-breaker extraordinaire :P I know what you mean... I felt so odd relative to everyone around me for... well, all of my life except the last 9 months. As soon as I found a similar bunch of spiritual people, though... all of a sudden I fit in! Surely, there's a place for everyone in the world to fit in. We just have to find it :)

Great night, everyone! What a treat; having the hill to ourselves and such great snow conditions. We were five dedicated riders out there tonight, and all of you were making carving look easy and fun :D Thanks for an awesome session!

^ Thanks for the supportive words, floBoot! Cheeky is good; so is challenging people's preconceptions ;) Yes, I really do get the spiritual stuff. I've always been spiritual in nature, but over the last year I've really explored it more, and have found so much more of myself and of life than I could have imagined! Hence, the different perspective. I am now becoming a teacher in my local spiritual group; we do Reiki and other forms of energy work in addition to meditation. Discussing spirituality and helping people navigate it is something I really love doing, so please ask if there is something you're curious about! I may have experience or insight to offer. Or, maybe you'll teach me something! If your current life is peaceful, and you feel no reason to change it... then don't! The only thing that matters is that your life reflects your values and desires. Cheers!

I recently met a soul-mate, hardcore. Does that count? :) It's a crazy crazy story. The short version is, after devoting the summer to my own inner work and spiritual growth, I felt ready for a new relationship. After a month or two, an intense connection 'just happened' between me and a woman in my spiritual group. It was surprising because I had known her for 6 months or so, and while I admired her a lot for her skills, knowledge, and appearance, I wasn't particularly attracted to her. Then, BAM!! and she's it, she's my everything. Since then, we've experienced bags full of amazing and strange things. We deeply feel that we've known each other in other lifetimes, and that we really really missed each other until we reconnected. Because she and I are so similar, we have a long list of shared interests and preferences that make life together awesome. In general, this relationship has expanded my understanding of love 100-fold... I really had no idea that it was possible to love someone so much, so completely, without any desire to change or fix anything. Most of my usual emotional walls simply don't apply to her, and our relationship has moved at total light speed. On the flip side, because we're SO similar, we actually mirror a lot of each other's issues, which creates a fair bit of friction. If we're up to it, this is a great opportunity to work on our own issues as they arise, rather than to just map out and tiptoe around the other's. This is something we're up to, and have agreed to set this dynamic for the relationship. Really guys and gals, I had lost faith in finding someone that I connected with this well. I'm here to tell you: it is possible, just have faith, and maybe work on some of your own baggage to get ready for the awesomeness to come... :D May you all be showered with love, just for being you. Not because of what you've done or expressed, just because you choose to love yourself in this way first. :1luvu: :1luvu: :1luvu:

Quick note to say that tomorrow's carving session (Jan 21st) is still ON, despite the week of cold temperatures. I'll be out there, dressed warm, having fun :D Come play! 7pm, at the base of waterslide-side quad.

It was great riding last night with Ryan and Ben! The conditions were pretty challenging still, but it felt like we all helped each other to step up to the gnarliness :D Remember, think about -5 and beautiful firm groom for next week!

^ Sorry to hear that, Peter! I'm glad the conditions were rideable, hopefully tonight will be less rock-like with a bit of grooming and snow. If you'd like a better heads-up about session changes, please do send me your email address. We'll be back to Tuesday nights next week, hopefully for the rest of the season. Hope you can make lots of the Tuesdays! Ian :)

Good stuff! No worries about the list; it's getting larger rather than smaller :)

^ Glad you can make it, Ben! I'm updating my email list, and should be able to give everyone a heads-up by email in the future if there's a change to the Tuesday session :)

We're not hearing much feedback about days other than Tabby and Ryan (thank you!), so it's executive decision time. I think that safety and space to play are paramount, so let's do tomorrow (Wednesday the 15th) for our first session. Same start time; 7pm on snow! We'll return to our regular Tuesday nights next week, when we'll enjoy -5 temperatures and amazing, firm groom... right? :D Looking forward to riding with y'all! Ian :D