Scott’s Blog

…unless you really want to go snowboarding and are willing to pay the price later.

Today we went to Lake Louise. On the way from the van to the lodge, I slipped on the ice in the parking lot, fell down and dislocated my knee. I felt like an ass. Jennifer and a nice New Zealander who had seen me fall helped me back to the van, where I sat down for 10 minutes, took two super-Motrins, and stopped cursing. Then, I got my board, and Jenn, the kids and I spent the day snowboarding on the steeps at Louise.

Tonight I’m sitting in the hotel with a bottle of Motrin, a couple of bottles of beer, a big bag of ice, and a knee like a pomelo grapefruit, paying the price of my dedication to boarding.

We’re a regular snowboarding family. We like to get out most weekends to our local hill and do a bunch of runs. Both Mack and Emily started off skiing (for reasons we can’t quite recall ourselves). Emily took up snowboarding at the end of the season when she was eight. Mack is now eight, and we’ve managed to convince him to strap on a board instead of skis a couple of times. Last weekend he ventured off the bunny hill on a snowboard for the first time. He was quite proud of himself for not falling while getting off the chairlift. That’s more than I can say about my first time off the chairlift on a board years ago.

He’s already managing heel-edge side-to-side slipping, toe edge, and toe-to-heel turns. I think next year we’ll get him into a lesson or two, and hopefully by the end of next season we’ll be hitting the mountains with the four of us all on snowboards.

Today Mack and I went to Rabbit Hill together, just the two of us. We do a lot of family stuff together, with the kids sports, movie night, games, and stuff like that, but I don’t often get to go anywhere with just Mack. I really enjoyed it. We rode together for a few hours, and he showed me how he could parallel-ski, even though he rarely does it. It was fairly quiet, and we got quite a few runs in during the few hours we were there.

I’d like to do that again. I also look forward to the time when he’s a little older and we’ll be able to do more stuff together. I just wish he would try snowboarding, because it’s something I know I could teach him myself. That, and how to tie his shoes / bathing suit!

We went to Jasper Sunday afternoon and snowboarded (Mack skied) all day on Monday at Marmot Basin. There were no crowds or lines, and lots of snow. The top was very windy, and we only ventured up the upper lifts a couple of times, once up Eagle Ridge and once up the Paradise Chair. The temperature was fine at about -10, but with the strong wind up at the top were there aren’t many trees was a little much. The rest of the day we enjoyed ourselves on the runs off the Eagle Express chair. We took some good photos, some of which I may post later. It was well worth the trip and a good use of my nice little Christmas bonus.

I took the day off to go snowboarding with Jenn and the kids at Rabbit Hill today. The grade 4, 5 and 6 kids went with the school, including Emily’s class. The school doesn’t let grade 4 and 5 kids snowboard, and since Emily’s a boarder, the only way we could work it so that she could snowboard was to go ourselves and be responsible for her. That was OK with her, because then she didn’t have to have a lesson, but instead got to ride the almost empty hill numerous times while her classmates stood in lines on the bunny hill and learned how to snowplow.

Mack came too, and since he knows some of the kids in Emily’s class, once the lessons were all done he found some kids to ski with. Emily even went with him a few times, and I’m disappointed that I didn’t see them but they even rode the t-bar up together.

Jenn and I had a good time and got tons of runs in thanks to the complete absence of lines. We did a lot of switch practice, and we both even managed to link a bunch of turns riding switch. Some day when I can afford my kitewing, I’ll be ready for it!

We went out to Rabbit Hill on Sunday for our first day of snowboarding and skiing (Mack’s the skier). We are starting a few weeks earlier than last year, because we’ve had way more snow. Snow started sticking and staying this year before Halloween, as opposed to last year, which was around mid-December. It was super-busy and not all the runs were open, but it was great to get the board out and take a few runs.

I waxed all our boards right before we went out. It was my first wax-job and all three boards turned out great. We got Mack a season’s equipment pass, so he can rent skis and maybe a board if he feels like it later in the year.

Next weekend we’re hitting Marmot Basin after the company Christmas party in Jasper, so that should be awesome. A few couples from work are all going.

I wanted to go with the family to Rabbit Hill on Monday, but Emily got invited to a birtdhay party, so we did the next-best thing: We went tobogganing. It snowed a lot so the snow was packed underneath and loose on top. I did a few runs on the snowdeck while the kids rode their sliders, and I was starting to feel pretty confident on it. I could make turns back and forth all the way down the hill. Then, I slipped, as that thing likes to do, and it was just like in a cartoon when somebody steps on a banana peel. The deck shot out and I tipped 90 degrees in the air, and fell over sideways. I landed on my elbow, which pushed up my shoulder, and I heard my shoulder and neck make a whole series of cracks and crunches.

I got up and was OK for the moment, but I knew with certainty of experience that I would be half paralyzed later. Later, I was most definitely half paralyzed. I had to resort to ice and Robaxisol.

Saturday I took Mack and Emily, and Emily’s friend Kendra to “Seven Hills”, the local toboggan hill where we live. Emily brought her snowboard and did a few runs, and we all rode the snow sliders. Emily and I also had a go at the snowdeck, but the snow was soft and loose, which made for poor conditions riding the snowdeck.

Sunday I took Emily and her friend Christina to thill again, and they sledded the whole time while I worked away at figuring out the snowdeck. Someone had build a small kicker and Emily and Christina were trying to hit it with their snow sliders. There were a few other decks there, but nobody who seemed to be really good at it. I saw one guy who could ride all the way down, but he couldn’t turn much, especially heel-side, without losing it. The snow was a bit more packed down so I was able to ride a bit better, and by the end I was able to go all the way down, linking turns, and even stop at the bottom without wiping out. I’d like a longer deck, because this one, at a typical skateboard length of about 75 or 80 cm, is way to small for my weight. There’s not enough edge to hold a hard turn.

By the end we were all worn out from hiking up, but it was great fun to spend so much time with the kids over the weekend.

Emily and I entered the Easy Rider Cup on April 1 at Marmot Basin. We both participated in the “Banked Slalom” race. There was also a “Slopestyle” competition on Sunday, but neither of us is a real freestyle rider, so we gave that a miss. I would have liked to watch some of it, but we only went out for the one day at Marmot. It was the first snowboarding competition either of us had ever entered, but I expect Emily will be in more in the future.

Here’s us in our numbered bibs. We raced (sort-of) in numerical order, and our placing was supposed to be determined by the combination of both of two runs.

Emily was the second-youngest participant. One other younger girl went in, and apparently she just went down the middle of the course, happily ignoring the gates, and just thrilled to actually be in a race. Emily fell a couple of times and missed a gate in her first run, and also fell during her second run but made all the gates. Sarah Currie, who was keeping time at the bottom, told me the Burton / Easy Rider guys were impressed with Emily’s riding. She’s pretty amazing for such a new rider.

I had a good first run, making all gates and not falling at all. Then, while waiting for our turn for our second run, we snowboarded all over the mountain, so by the time we got to do our second, I was pretty tired. I’m not in shape to spend a whole day riding in the mountains and then do a race at the end. I fell a couple of times on my second run, and pretty much sucked out. My sprained knee was really hurting, but I think even if it wasn’t I would have been falling during the second run, just from being tired.

Anyways it was a riot and a memorable experience, and I only wish I could have seen more of Emily’s race. The starting area was around a curve from most of the course, and since Emily went before me, I only saw her make her first three gates before she went out of site. Also, because the times were so stretched out, Jennifer only got to see the beginning of our first runs, and missed our second ones completely. She was disappointed about that too. I think I’d do it again, especially if Emily was interested.

Here’s Emily’s practice Product Endorsement Photo for when she goes pro.

Since getting back from Brainshare there has been very little blogging going on. There are a couple of reasons.

First, I have to do a lot of mental digestion after Brainshare, which is very mentally occupying.

Second, family life has been busy. Dad is recovering nicely from his heart surgery, and Jenn’s dad is going in for his tomorrow. We’ve also been cramming in snowboarding sessions to finish off the season. We did two days at Rabbit Hill last week and finished off with the weekend in Jasper, and snowboarding at Marmot Basin.

Third, work is crazy right now, getting set up for the next phase of everything. The Bladecenter needed some re-thinking and re-design work based on stuff learned at Brainshare. We’re also in the process of completely replacing most of our WAN infrastructure from VPNs over the public Internet, to a private VPN provided by our main telephony provider. That has required re-architecting a whole bunch of security and routing infrastructure. Since I’m the “Network Architect” that stuff has required heavy involvement from me. Our developers are also ready to start hacking on financial reports for our new financial system, which means I have had to get the test-build of the financial system ready for them to hack on.

Fun, fun, and not much time for blogging. I still have some Brainshare notes to blog about, and some cool stuff to do with our snowboarding trip to add, along with photos, so I’ll get to that as soon as I can.