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Wuz Happenin'?!

スキー&スノーボード2004-2005

It's About F#$%&*g Time!

Finally, I went riding today!^^v But I never thought I'd have my hatsu-suberi down here in SoCal.

My friend and I thought about which Big Bear resort we should go to. Snow Summit definitely has more area open, but not so many freestyle items. On the other hand, by Saturday Bear Mountain got a total of 39 items up, but really has only 1 run.

In the end we decided that since it's our first outing of the season we probably should "take it easy" and just try to get our bodies used to snowboarding again. So we picked Snow Summit.

I was so excited that I woke up extra early and did stretching for over 20min at home!

But I was really worried that there would be a ton of people up there since it's opening weekend and everyone has been waiting.

We pulled into Snow Summit's parking lot about a quarter past 8 and was able to get a good parking spot right away. As we hiked toward the high speed lift, I was so relieved to see that the place wasn't crowded at all! As a matter of fact, the entire mountain stayed uncrowded the whole time we were there!:) They even had a few freestyle items (but no jumps) set up on the upper run.

It\'s About F#$%&*g Time!_f0035891_1633263.jpg

There was enough snow and the weather was beautiful

I saw the popular snow rescue golden retreiver Abbey. She was playing catch with snowballs, then jumped onto a snowmobile and took off with a ski patrol...so cute!

The thing I was most impressed with was that the snow condition was actually not bad at all, especially for early December. I remember doing hatsu-suberi here 3 years ago about the same time and the surface was super icy and hard! I got tired only after a couple of runs and my feet and ankles were killing me.=( Today's snow for the most part felt good and not bumpy or granular.

At about 11am my friend and I had enough of Snow Summit and decided to seek more action so we got on the shuttle bus and headed to Bear Mountain (only about a 10min ride). I was looking forward to checking out all the freestyle items I had heard about but I was shocked when we arrived in the parking lot.

It\'s About F#$%&*g Time!_f0035891_16391831.jpg

So this is where everybody went

Only the main course was covered in snow, and the rest of the mountain was still completely in dirt and shrubs! And there was a HUGE line for the only lift that took you up. We got smart and waited in the Single line, but even that took us about 10min.=P

But once I got on the lift and looked down, all my complaints disappeared. I saw SO MANY items on the course and they all looked very inviting. As soon as we got off the lift, I forgot all the previous talk about "taking it easy".

http://bearmountain.com/bearmountain_video.php <-- click on "Video 1" (Opening Day) and check out some sick action and major ollies!

I hit the long up box right away and even nose-tapped the big barrell on my first try!

It\'s About F#$%&*g Time!_f0035891_16593673.jpg

This one

Of course that famous little Bear Mountain hut was waiting for me and I had to go say hello.>)

It\'s About F#$%&*g Time!_f0035891_1741614.jpg

From last year

As I made my way down the mountain, I saw 2 gap kickers, rainbow boxes, gateway box and a very interesting new-for-2007 item I've never seen before. It was a wide flat box but instead of a snow ramp leading up to it, the park staff put in a mini curved fiberglass ramp (you can see it in the video posted above). I totally ate shit on the first try cuz I forgot to keep my board flat on my approach and caught an edge. But on my second try I got on smoothly and was able to do a little boardslide action on the box.:)

By our 3rd run my friend and I were both feeling pretty tired so we decided to end our hatsu-suberi on a good note. It was so much fun...I need to build up my strength again so I can go back there and shred longer!=D

Hmm...where am I going next weekend?
by snoboyaro | 2006-12-03 16:14 | Snow
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Riding down Main St in Mammoth during the 2006 New Year storm!
by snoboyaro
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