Sick Day

Is it winter? Is it not January? Where is all the snow in such a hurry to get to, that it's disappearing from Tahoe so fast? I certainly hope someone out there is getting some to make up for what we're not.
All this hot and cold business is making everyone sick, including my whole household, and now me.
So I'm staying home today, watching SNATCH and any other thing that seems more fun than a barrel of rats, and trying not to eat myself into a coma.
The Shred Dudelander night camps at Boreal are taking shape, so I'm going to spend any spare time I get today working on marketing them and hopefully drumming up a few rich, shred-obsessed punters that will actually commit to paying the meager price of admission and showing up.
See you all on Wednesday.

Desperation

Things are getting good.
Dirt, rocks, stumps, logs, bushes; everything but snow, everywhere!
Finding the motivation to work on fundamentals drills, mechanics, tricks, basically anything but jibbing has become nearly impossible.
I foresee broken kids... YAY!!


(We all really hope this one doesn't break, though... He's so cute!)

Broken

We need snow... bad.
Real bad.
We've resorted to jibbing everything on the hill, since there are so may unmarked obstacles everywhere that we figure the best way to avoid hitting them on accident is to hit them on purpose.
In fact, it was in the practice of this philosophy that I found myself snapping the core of my Hero.
Sometimes jibbing everything costs a bit more than one might anticipate.
Aggressive riding at it's best.

Please, Loki, Ullr, God, send some snow our way.
Thanks.

Socially Retarded

I've often mused that when I want friends and social interaction, nobody seems to be around, and when I want to be left to myself, I'm surrounded with people and high energy situations. I find it amusing to know that when my social skills are unnecessary, my wit is on point and my charm bubbles over; and when I'm called on to entertain others or fit into a group dynamic or interact in social scenes, I find myself tongue-tied, feeling less confident, and unable to carry on a worthy conversation.

A funny example of this dynamic comes in the form of my 9 month old daughter. Sometimes late at night or really early in the morning she wakes up in a good mood, and quietly mumbles to herself incoherently while playing with her blankets. And sometimes when I hear this I'm moved by how adorable she is to pick her up and hold her and see if she has anything to say. One such time, when I laid her in bed between my wife and I and listened to her mumbling hoping she would say something to me, she turned to me, smiled, opened her mouth as if to speak, and spewed about half s gallon of formula all over my chest. I couldn't find words to reply, and that was that.

Another example, less funny but more immediate, came to me today while riding the park at Northstar. I got there early, did some warm-up laps and took some pictures to check out some angles and get some ideas, and the park was perfect... and empty. Later on, when people showed up and a social scene was developing, the clouds moved in, the temp dropped, and the conditions went to hell. All of my ideas to shoot people and personalities were nullified by the abysmal lighting and the dismal mood the conditions were leaving everyone in, and my motivation to interact and be creative was sapped by the imminence of rainfall and the fact that I was freezing my ass off.


So perhaps what they say is true: The road to hell is paved with the best intentions, and the road to heaven is paved with shit, by a disgruntled government employee carrying a large shovel and wearing a scowl that would melt the foundation off of Tammy Faye Baker's glistening golden cheeks.

In California...

So I find myself in a strange, unfamiliar position since deciding to do this blog project; foreign feelings are popping up and bubbling to the surface and I'm thinking about and seeing things in whole new ways...

I guess I'm just really excited to have something fun and productive to work on that isn't limited by my lack of athleticism or by how out of shape and stiff I am.
And so I got up this morning, all jazzed to get the camera ready and go take some pictures, do some writing, be creative, and then I woke to find the weather has decided not to cooperate.

Cloudy, overcast, wet, possibly pissing heavy, sticky, freezing, soaking snow! YAY! What a shitshow this promises to be...

The great thing about creative, independent ventures, like this blog, is that there are little in the way of outside forces that can actually stop the creative process. Once the juices are flowing, the parts are lubed and put in motion, universal forces are aligned, even images of fat women naked can't kill the urge.

So I'm heading out into the not-so-California weather, camera in hand, wit fully loaded, cynicism at max capacity, fully prepared to do battle with this chip on my shoulder...

Thanks for Dropping By!

Welcome to our new blog experiment, thanks for taking a look.
Here's what to expect from your journey with us here at Droppings:

Droppings is a photojournalism experiment designed to explore the people, places and events that we in the snowboard world have come to take for granted, overlook, or even sometimes find to be a nuisance.

What we plan to do is document drop-ins, the people who line up in them, the places where they develop, and the moments, experiences and memories that are possible and often missed in these unique and strange occurrences.

Expect to find humor, wit, characters, criticism, cynicism, optimism, and probably no insight whatsoever in the posts to follow.

Please feel free to leave your comments and check back daily, as we plan to update every day.
See you on the hill!