Fuzzy Bear

Some of you (okay, more like 3 people who reads this blog) probably noticed that I haven't been updating... that's because on Tuesday, Nov 20th, my boyfriend and I were getting ready to go snowboarding. He was outside putting the boards on the rack and I was inside locking up the house. Our dog, a Husky named Fuzz aka Fuzzy Bear, was in the fenced front yard. I don't know how it happened but somehow he escaped. Whenever Fuzz runs away, he usually heads straight for the dog park but it is scary because he has to cross 2 busy streets to get there. He's always gotten lucky and has gotten there unharmed but on that day, his luck ran out. :(

We ran down the street to get him, a black woman was waving and yelling at us (she knew Fuzz was ours) and pointing at some Mexicans in a car who had pulled over (yeah, they didn't run... surprising). Fuzz was limping and he was all bunched up and crying and drooling a lot. It broke my heart to see him like that and I just broke down. His front left leg looked like jello.

We took him to an animal hospital and it was $400 just for the x-rays. His leg was broken and he had an open fracture. An open fracture is when your bone sticks out of your skin and he needed to get surgery to fix his leg. Needless to say, we didn't go snowboard that day. We stayed at the vet's for like 3 hours while they x-rayed then prepped Fuzzy Bear for surgery.

We had to leave because they needed to perform the surgery and they assured us they would call when done and that we could see him that night. We were hoping to take him back home but they said he had to stay overnight and some of the next day. :(

His surgery went really well and it was sad to see him after the operation. He was so drugged up, he just laid there. We petted him for a while and kissed him then we went home for the night.

The next day, we were able to take him home. We were given 4 different medicines to give to Fuzz and we were told he has to have strict confinement to his cage for TWO MONTHS. He's only allowed out to go to the bathroom :( This really sucks because, one, he's a husky, he LOVES to run. Two, he's only a puppy. He's not even a year old! He doesn't seem to mind the cage though, he's been really good about staying in there. He comes out to pee, then he walks straight back to his cage and lays down. We leave the door open all day and he just stays there, resting his poor little broken leg. He has two pins in there holding his bones in place. The pins will eventually be removed.

The vet also gave us the bill... OH FUCKING GOD. $3,500 TOTAL. FUCK. Luckily we got approved for a monthly payment plan, but it's gonna take us 6 years to pay it off. I'm going to make another blog to keep everyone updated with Fuzzy Bear's recovery.

Some pictures of our baby:


Fuzzy chewing on his favorite bone


Chilling like a villian in his favorite spot in the house


Fuzz after he got hit by a car :( That's not an actual cast; it's a bandage to cover the pins.




It makes me really sad to see him in this state but he is getting better every day so that's something to smile about. He'll be 100% recovered in no time, hopefully. He's a tough boy!

Shredbetties Video shoot

I rode with the lovely ladies of Shredbetties back on Nov 2nd for a video shoot and to meet everyone. I wrote an entry about that day, it's under the Bataleon Distortia. Anyways, Kelly put up the video and I wanted to share it. I got a part, yesssssss. Hahaha.



Shred Betties - Under the Radar - Part 3 from Shred Betties on Vimeo.

Capita Saturnia 143

My boyfriend was off work on Sunday, so we decided to hit up Copper. We figured it wouldn't be busy since most people had season passes to Vail resorts but I forgot it was a demo day. And it was still packed either way. Shit.

I took this opportunity to try out the Capita Saturnia 143. I wanted to try the Qween but I found it way too stiff. It would be ideal for the half pipe but the pipe wasn't cut yet.

I also had the guys at the Capita tent throw on Union Milan bindings, and god, they sucked. My boyfriend tried out the Scaremaster with different Union bindings, not sure what model they were but they were red. He loved the bindings, but he hated the board.

My boyfriend thought it was icy at the top but I didn't think so, I thought it was more choppy than icy. There were also lots of little bumps to ollie off. It was a lot of fun taking the Saturnia there. Lots of pop and also really quick edge to edge. It's so effortless to turn because it's just so quick, really nice for approaching rails. When I was riding quicker, there was minimal chatter. Not bad enough to affect the ride.

When I was jibbing, I wasn't sure if I liked the Saturnia for that. There was nothing special about it on rails and boxes. I liked my K2 Duchess better for that, and it's supposed to be an all mountain board.

The Saturnia is also easy to press and butter; I buttered it on the last box in the Copper park and down the run.

Overall, I thought it was more fun for fucking around with on the runs than on the actual rails even though it's meant for that. It was just so much fun to ollie off bumps and rollers and I loved how it was quick edge to edge.

Now, the Union Milan bindings. These have got to be beginner bindings, god, they sucked so much. I was riding hard and turning hard, doing a lot of airs, and these bindings hurt the bottom of my feet really bad. I never had that issue before. They were pretty soft too, you could even flex the highbacks. I really liked the toe strap however, I just wish that the guys at Capita gave me better ones to try out.

My Gaper Days

God, look at what a gaper I was.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. This a boardercross back at my home resort in Shitsouri. I won 1st.. yay! I think I was... 14? Definitely my first season. I love how I'm wearing a t-shirt over my base layer and check out those sweet hand-me-down tight snow pants I got on.

I wasn't alone, another competitor also had the same get up, minus the base layer.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.

This was what I was rocking! K2 Satellite with step ins! Booyah!



Of course, not much has changed, I'm still a gaper. Ssshhhhh.

K2 Duchess 144

My warranty-replaced K2 Duchess 144 finally came yesterday!!!! First of all, Porters at Tahoe are LIARS, LIARS I SAY. They told me it would be here Saturday or Monday... well, those days came and went, it was Tuesday and I kept saying, "Well, it's fucking Tuesday, where the hell is my board?"

No more wondering where it is, for it has finally arrived!!!!!!!!


GIGGITY!!!!!!!! I'll be getting too gnarly for my own good this Monday on my new new new board... yaaaaaay I can't wait!! I'm SO happy to finally retire my Atomic Fallen Angel for the second time, haha... hopefully it'll stay retired for good. Seriously the nose on the Atomic is ridicoulusly soft because I broke it back in Tahoe. Oopsie poopsie! Made pressing on it fun though, but don't press too much or I'd go over the handles hahaha. I'll write up something about how fun the new Duchess is later this week. :D Happy shreddings!

Breckenridge, Keystone, & Copper are OPEN!!!

Yesterday, Nov. 7th, was opening day for all 3 resorts. My boyfriend and I hit up Keystone first and we were like the 10th in line or something (we got on the 3rd gondola). The opening at Keystone sucked, people kept fucking around and I was like, "AHHHHHHH JUST LET US ON!!!!!!!!" The employees were trying to tie a red ribbon around the new gondola's chair and they just kept fucking up. They finally got it on, ribbon was finally cut, but my god, they just don't stop talking. Blah blah blah. I'm deaf, who cares. My boyfriend who can hear just told me they were just rambling on about nothing important. Brand new gondola for this year, yes, I got it. God, if I were them, I'd just be like, "Hey everyone. See that? Brand new gondola for this year. ALRIGHT LET'S START THAT BITCH UP AND GET THESE PEOPLE UP THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I wish more people would be like me, I just don't fuck around.

ANYWAYS....

KEYSTONE

The new gondola is pretty sweet, really roomy inside. You can't hit your head on the ceiling if you tried. The little sign inside said it can fit 8 people but it's more like 6. A 7th person jumped in our gondola right before the doors shut and fucking lucky me, he sat by me so there were 4 people in my row. It was pretty tight.



We got to the top and I did a leap of joy as we ran to strap in. It was also nice outside; sunny and not that cold although I did have my puffy on. We didn't ride for long when we saw the park on the left side. THE PARK IS SO FUN! The only thing that sucked was everything was close together and scattered... so I was like, "Oh I wanna hit that.... and that too, way the fuck over there.... fuck, I gotta take another lap to hit that one way the fuck over there..." I loved this one red rail they had... it's hard to describe, but it looks like a half-rainbow with a drop at the end. The culvert pipe was super fun too. There was also a really fun propane tank; those are my favorite features. I hit my first propane tank at Kingvale in spring '08 and I never stopped hitting it, seriously, those things are so damn fun. I don't think there were 30 features in the park but there was definitely a lot of stuff. I'd say 20 features.

The run was really fun, there was only one run open but it was long and really wide. It only went to the mid-point for the gondola, but I think it won't be long till they open the bottom half of the run. There were lots of rollers to ollie off and the snow was pretty good. A bit icy but then again we rode right when they opened. It also didn't stay sunny for long; the clouds rolled in after 15 minutes and stayed cloudy. It also didn't take long for the line to form at the mid-point gondola to go back to the top.



I don't know if the pic is too small to see but at first glance, it doesn't look so bad, looks like the line just starts at the big sign... but if you look carefully, there's a small shack thing behind the big ass sign. Yeah. That's where you get on the gondola. Needless to say, we didn't ride at Keystone for long and we left to go to Copper.

COPPER
We decided to head out there because of my amazing deafness, I can get us free lift tickets. So why not? We got there, and it was really easy to get the tickets. We didn't need to call them in advance or provide my audiogram or anything like that to prove I'm deaf. We just went up to the ticket window and pretty much said, "Hey, I'm deaf." Boom, 2 free tickets. Thanks, Copper!

It was cloudy when we got there and started to snow a little bit. Just a little bit. Like Keystone, they also had one big, wide, long run open. Their park is located right when you get off the chair. I liked the park; it was really mellow compared to Keystone (sidenote: I liked Keystone's park better) but it was still fun. The snow was good at the top half, but really choppy at the bottom.

We bumped into a Nike rep and talked to him about the boots. The Nike rep himself said that the Nike boots were shitty... what a fantastic rep! At least he's honest, hahaha.

We left Copper and headed out to Breckenridge.


See you later, Copper!

BRECKEN-RAGE!



Adrian and I stopped at a restaurant in Breck to meet up with friends and eat lunch with them. I think the restaurant's name was Motherload or Motherlode? It was near Downstairs at Eric's. Adrian and I split a cheeseburger and I MURDERED my half... it was so good! Our friend we ate with had just came back from riding Breck and he said that it was cold, windy, and there was nothing set up. We decided to go check it out for ourselves so we went to that gondola that connects the town to the mountain. I never rode that gondola before and it was pretty cool, haha.

We got off and we were at the base. It was sunny and rather warm so I thought, hmm, maybe this won't be so bad. We bumped into another friend of mine, Jenny. She was about to leave and then she decided she would take some runs with us. YAAAY. She told me, "Yeah, it's not bad here but when you get to the top, it's pretty cold and windy." Damn, was she ever right.



As soon as we reached almost to the top to unload the chairlift, the weather changed quickly. I was holding my puffy up to my ears to keep the wind from blowing on my neck. I had never seen Breckenridge this windy before; I only came out there for trips before I moved here and I guess I got lucky every time I traveled there. The top was sooo sketchy, it was almost solid ice and it was super windy. I have no edges, haha... it was so sketchy! I only slid out once so it wasn't bad. When we got halfway down, it was much better. A lot of fun, really. It sucked that there was nothing set up but we still buttered down the run and hit little jumps on the sides. Right when we left, the sky started getting dark and evil looking.. haha... we headed home after a long day of riding.

Out of all 3 resorts, I liked Keystone the best. They were all fun, but Keystone was the funnest!!!!

Arapahoe Basin

TOMORROW.... Brecken-RAGE!, Keystone, and Copper will be OPEN! My boyfriend and I plan to hit up all 3 mountains tomorrow for opening day, haha. I am super excited about Keystone, yay! I heard that they will be opening with over 30 features.... I hope it's true!! I'm never getting bored there!

In other news, it was snowing yesterday at Arapahoe Basin!


I rode there and while it was fun, it kinda sucked at the same time too... there were some icy spots, especially at the landing area after the C-Box in the park. To quote my friend, "That landing is all FUCKED UP!!!!!!!!!!" Haha. Yeah. Sad face. I made an oopsie and fell and smashed my knee on the ice... no fun. When I got to the car, I pulled my pants down and noticed a ridge on top of my knee. I'm just sitting there and I'm like, "What the fuck is that? That's not normal." Hahahaha.... It looked like a bone sticking out or something. I just kept it elevated and now the ridge is gone and it's just a bruise... I'll be fine to ride tomorrow, just hope that I don't hit my knee on anything!!

Arapahoe Basin

On Monday, Nov. 3rd, Adrian and I headed up to Arapahoe Basin to do that snowboarding thing. It turned out to be another beautiful warm day so we just rode around and tried to enjoy it as much as we could because you never know, it might be the last day we get to enjoy the warmth while riding because it was supposed to start snowing soon. We ran into our friends, Cliff and Jason, so we rode together and drank a little. Okay, so the boys drank a lot and I only had one bloody mary. With like 8 olives in it. HAHA. I LOVE OLIVES. Some pictures from that day:

Jason (red pants) sneaking beer into the line for the boys



Adrian drinking beer Jason gave him and smoking a ciggy
"Look at me, this is so white trash" HAHAHA



Under messages: "John. I got the results. IT'S YOURS"
OK, this shit was funny. I bet you there were like 20 Johns in the line going, "Shit... am I the baby's daddy?" Nothing ruins a day of snowboarding faster than that, I bet!

We didn't ride for long, only rode till around noon (Adrian and I got there at 9am) and we headed to the beach to grill up some hamburgers and enjoy the sun.

All of us at the beach; me in the red chair

Everyone just enjoyed some yummy hamburgers (thanks Chef Jason, they were really good!) and drank... when everyone got nice and buzzed, someone had the brilliant idea to go take one lap... pretty much everyone ate shit, it was so funny, hahaha. Afterwards we went to Cliff's house to play beer pong (sadly, I didn't play cuz 1. I had to drive, and 2. I suck at beer pong) and Rock Band... YEAH I LOVE ROCK BAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Adrian got so plastered and I had to bribe him with buttsecks (knowing he would forget, he was so drunk) so he would come to the car and I could drive us home. Hahaha. Good times, good times.

Shredbetties and Bataleon Distortia

I rode with Shredbetties on Sunday, Nov. 2nd at Loveland Ski Resort for a video shoot and to meet some other girls. I figured since I moved to Colorado, this might be a great opportunity to make some more friends. I was right... it was SO MUCH FUN! I loved riding with the girls and everyone were so nice. I was worried that they might think I'm a bitch or something because I'm deaf; I don't hear people when they try to talk to me when I can't see them, so people think I'm ignoring them and go, "What a bitch!!" haha... but everyone was really nice and took their time talking to me, so that was really cool. They didn't mind looking at me and talking slow, things like that. I really enjoyed my time with the girls, we just rode around and had fun, nothing too serious. It was also a BEAUTIFUL day. Sunny and really warm, I just wore a hoodie all day long. It got cloudy and cold when I left but I heard it passed and warmed up again.

Kelly, the owner of Shredbetties, lent me a board to test out for the company after I mentioned that my board was broken. I rode a Bataleon Distortia 143 for the day.


My first thoughts when I was holding the board was, "Oh my GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE THE TOPSHEET!!!!!!!!" hahahahhaa... seriously, how cool is that? OK so the diamond is a little gay but the snow leopard is just awesome. Almost reeks of '80s.

I had never rode a Bataleon before so I didn't know what to expect from the TBT (triple base technology). I noticed that turning was a little different on this board, but I liked it. It tickled my fancy. The board also flexes pretty well, it's not soft like my Atomic Fallen Angel, (it's REALLY soft, I rode it for 2 seasons and it's also broken) but I bet if you rode this board enough, it'd become really soft. When I rode this board, it was brand new so it definitely needed some breaking in.

I took it jibbing, and I liked it on the boxes and rails. It spun effortlessly on the flat wide box, but I didn't try pressing it on the boxes so I can't speak for that. However, I did butter down the run and it was fun for that. Lots of pop as well, I ollied over a big ass snowball with no problem, and it was fun to take off little jumps on the side of the runs.

The snow that day was slushy and choppy but the board was stable, even at high speeds. I really liked it a lot and didn't want to give it back to Kelly, hahaha. It was fun but it didn't make me exactly go, "OH MY GOD, THIS BOARD IS SOO SO SO SO FUNNNNNNN" but I did like it a lot!

I didn't really do much on the boxes that day I rode with Shredbetties because they just wanted to show that early season riding can be fun, and they just wanted to focus on the fun part... I did have a lot of fun, but I didn't ride as hard as I would had liked so you might see me doing a lot of the same thing in the video... boardslide, boardslide, boardslide... cough.. haha.

Girls, if you ever get the opportunity to ride with shredbetties, I say DO IT! It's so much fun and everyone is really nice! I can't wait to ride with all the girls again!

On another note, I'm thinking of buying the Omatic Super 146.... mmmhmm.... so someone please buy my Nitro board and Rome bindings I'm selling so I can get money for it!