This Christmas Sommer put together an amazing present for me. The Rice and King families pitched in and got me a new snowboard and new bindings! Our camera is charging so I'll put up a couple shots from my phone. I was a little worried at first when I kinda pieced together the mystery of what I was getting for my birthday and Christmas (thanks to Mom spilling the beans that it was a snowboard) that Sommer had picked a board without me being directly involved. Over the last couple months I had been teetering between which two boards I liked. My favorite changed every time I looked at snowboards but was consistent between two boards:
The Burton Custom (left) and The Burton Supermodel X (right)
Looking back at it I feel like a little boy in the candy isle that can't make up his mind, but I figure a 500 dollar investment is one of those things where it's still ok to have that outlook with. Anyway, I was back and forth between these two boards but it was only day dreaming. I wasn't planning on getting either this season even though these two boards are from last season. We even found the supermodel x new in a shop from last season and it was 50% off, I admit I druled a little.
NOTICE: If you don't care about snowboard technology you can skip this next paragraph.
Snowboards have progressed since I got mine. The way a board is made is generally the same, but some of the nicer things from when I got the board I've been riding for the past 8 years, minus 2 because of serving a mission, but still 8 chronologically, but still some of those features have become standards in boards. The board I have had was a Burton Code. Its a nice board but doesnt have full sidewalls. It is a mixture of sidewall and a capped top sheet. Basically my board doesn't hold up when I go very fast and carve, it gives a little too much and tends to slop out. I've become accustomed to that and have learned how to deal with it, but it's been inconvenient throughout the years.
So anyhoot, Christmas + Birthday on December 17th = New Snowboard. Not just any snowboard...not even one of the ones I had been druling over for the last year and a half. Sommer went way above my expectations and subtle hints and got one of Burton's nicest boards (with good reason but I won't go into it since I already rambled on about snowboard tech in this post). I ended up with the Burton Custom X. There is an X at the end with good reason. Anything with an X added on to it automatically means Xtreme. I'd put a couple pics of the board in here now but I already packed it up for the day and I started blogging because it's New Years and Sommer is asleep on the couch next to me.Lame, right?
So here's a pic of when I got the board and bindings at the Rice's. I also got my new favorite Burton Hat from Steven.
One funny thing is, since Sommer and I met the topic of birthday and Christmas presents getting combined has come up a couple times. I've always responded "No it hasn't happened to me and No I wouldn't like it if that happened, I like getting presents twice so close together." Well I guess my opinion on that one has changed because this new snowboard setup I have is absolutely incredible.
We went snowboarding today so that I could finally try this new board out. I knew all the reasons the Custom X was far superior than my last board (the Burton Code, or for those who skipped that paragraph the red board up there). I knew the reasons why but I had never ridden something like it to give a meaning to what I knew. I just hadn't experienced it so I didn't know. So we went to Grand Targhee with a camera on low battery and we had a lot of fun!
I will make a list of all the cool things we did:
Cool Thing Number 1
My board rocked. Seriously, it was a complete overhaul of my snowboard experience. I tore up the mountain and had so much fun. I felt like I was in complete control 98% of the time. Which is pretty good. There were a couple times when I was getting tired that I was getting sloppy but we had a blast! I love my new snowboard and am so grateful for my wife and my families!
Cool Thing Number 2
I did a front flip. Funny story about this too! At the Rice's for Christmas Steven and I were talking about my new board and he was telling me that whenever you get a new board your snowboarding skill goes way up, like it shoots through the roof! He was saying I'd be doing front flips and back flips all over. So today I figured, Hey...lets put this to test. So I did a front flip.
Not so Cool Thing Number 1
It was DANG COLD! It ended up around -4 Fahrenheit at the base and who knows how cold it was at the summit but we were super cold. I have this bad habit of losing hats. I lost my beanie a long time ago and had since been using Sommer's. She had 2 beanies when we got married (along with other knitted hats, but I won't touch those...not my style). After losing my beanie I hijacked one of hers. I lost it. I then hijacked the second one and guess what, lost it but recently! So here we are at Targhee and she has an old beanie that we found, luckily and all i had was my helmet which did an ok job keeping me warm but i was hurting and Sommer didn't like her old one. We ended up getting her a nice one with a 10% discount since we are season pass holders (which doesn't mean much up at the ski resort), but she really likes this new hat so win/win. I got a hat and she got a cute one!
Cool Thing Number 3
Have you ever had the feeling of finding money in your winter coat that you had forgot about from the year before. That's the best. We got lucky and Sommer found a wad of cash in her coat pocket from probably the last year. So we got her that hat and a hot chocolate at the resort. It was a nice surprise and present to us.
Clarification concerning the front flip.
I put this a little bit later so you would all think that Steven was right and that a new board actually gave me super snowboard skills and also that I am way super cool and did a front flip. I did do a front flip today and Grand Targhee but it was not on my snowboard. A picture is worth a thousand words and sadly the camera was dead so you get to endure reading my novel. Anyway, at the bottom of one of the lifts at Targhee (Blackfoot lift to be precise) there is a little bridge taking you to the spot where you get on the lift. On the left side before that bridge there is a fairly steep hill that is roped off with the "THIS IS THE BOUNDARY" signs all over it. Down that slope there was an incredible amount of powder calling out to me. So what I did was unstrap from my snowboard and walk over to the sign that had the resort map on it (which was 10 feet or so from that rope and Sommer who was standing next to the rope and very confused at how I was reacting). I then took one more look at Sommer and the low-to-the-ground rope and I sprinted at it. At the rope I jumped and did a front flip and had enough speed that I flew a good 10 feet out and 20 feet down. Landing in that deep of powder felt serene. I was completely sunk and the trip up hill was definitely a trial. Sommer was awestruck and I felt on top of the world, especially since some people were all "ooh-inh and aah-ing". That emotional high was soon dampened when the lift operator came and let me know that I shouldn't have done that. I hope I clarified that.
Here is the only real pic we got today of snowboarding. We didnt have our camera charged when we took it up to Targhee today and this was at the beginning of the day as I tweaked my bindings to get the right fit. I guess I could have done it at home in the warmth but I was too excited to get out on the mountain!
Here is the last breath of our camera. I guess you couldn't have a worse time for it to die...right as you hit a jump. It wasn't that big but it was fun popping off it.
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