Today is March 5, 2010. I began the journey for this new season in mid December with a trip to Colorado. Everything was new, fresh and exciting. Travel is a lot of fun, especially when snowboarding is involved. Free passes, travel paid and with some clever angles, free food is in the mix. I had a lot of energy and numerous reasons to be really excited, from a snowboarding and business perspective.

I have a huge passion for what I do. I never realized it until the drive home, somewhere between Hope, BC and Susanville, CA. When the Olympics come around, there is a sense of urgency to get snowboarding to shine on that world stage. No matter what preparations are made, nothing seems to get you ready to react at the big show. And what a show it is……Shaun White goes into and comes out of Vancouver as “the” snowboarder. Sure, there is plenty of attention sent towards Torah Bright, Hannah Teter, Kelly Clark, Scotty Lago and even those boardercrossers……who doesn’t love Seth Wescott and Nate Holland? But let’s not pretend here. Shaun White is all you need to know and NBC loves it that way.

In the fourth grade I played Charlie Brown in a Christmas play. I fell in love with acting. In the seventh grade I played Tom Sawyer and it was the most incredible experience I have ever had. To be the focus of an audience for over an hour is so uplifting, it has an intoxicating effect. After the play ran for 2 weeks, I spent a night in my bedroom crying. Tom Sawyer was my identity, my passion, my being. Just like that, all of it was gone. Who was I now that Tom Sawyer was gone? I’d have to rely on the person I really am. The insecure and fragile kid who likes to talk shit, covering up all of his internal and external shortcomings.

You would think I could share my Olympic experiences with you through my pictures and stories. I can and probably will at some point, but there just aren’t many pictures to share. The stories are uneventful and even less interesting. I could tie it all into snowboarding and what snowboarding means to me. I could relate my life experiences to sliding down snow covered mountains. But that would cheat you from the truth. The truth that everything isn’t always OK with me. Sometimes it doesn’t matter what you are doing, where you are going or who you are with. Sometimes the pain is too strong to ignore. How could this be? I’ve got everything going for me, nothing working against me. I get all the free shit I need and then some. I get to travel under the premise of serious business. I get to snowboard for free. I have an awesome family. Sometimes that’s not enough to carry me through.

People lie all the time. It’s the way the world is. If I lie and nobody suffers, is it still a lie? I’ve had people in this business lying to me for the past 15 years, at least. But that’s expected because my “adversaries” are just trying to pay less and it makes sense they will say and do anything to achieve that goal. I’ve had clients lie to me because they were afraid of how I might handle the situation. They never seem to understand the fiduciary duty I have with them. So they lie. Or stop short of telling the truth. People at companies always want to say they did what they were supposed to do. They sent the product when they didn’t. They sent the payment when they didn’t. They claimed they left a message when they didn’t. If the people at companies lie to me, the clients and I usually are on the same page, knowing we are being fed a line. But that gets turned around when the client is put into a position of not really knowing who is telling the truth. They still don’t know or understand what a fiduciary duty is. I never really worried too much about liars, I always thought they would get theirs as things catch up to them. But the liars seem to have a way of positioning themselves for success. I don’t understand. Read the rest of this entry »

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My newest entry was supposed to be about how I almost made the Legendary Banked Slalom not legendary and not a banked slalom. But that’s going to need to wait. My experiences on and off a snowboard aren’t important right now. How much money or fame someone has achieved isn’t really important right now. Also what isn’t really important, but going on right now is a discussion about how far can pros take it is my focus.

As we all know, a brother in shred has gone down. It’s quite interesting to see mainstream media churning out stories on a daily basis about Kevin Pearce’s injury and subsequent treatment. There are stories mentioning the outpouring of support and how his family is amazed with all of the support and love for their son and brother. I was one of the first one to two hundred people to join the “Well Wishes To Our Frend Kevin Pearce” Facebook page and I watched the membership grow at a clip of about 2,500 people each day. Today it has over 15,000 members. Read the rest of this entry »

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In my last blog, I wrote about passion and how it relates to the current state of snowboarding, as well as how I believe it drives the culture. I’d like to back track a bit.
 
The opportunity to voice my opinion, tell stories, provoke thought, argument and insight is a dream for me. If I think about my passion for snowboarding, I wonder why I have such strong feelings and the desire to express those feelings. I used to be in a much different place. I used to view the outside world far different than I currently view it.
 
My life has been a fortunate one. My family is loving and supportive, my parents always encouraged independence and freedom. They also were very generous and financially supported their kid’s activities. I’m the third child of four and the youngest boy. Early on, I figured out a way to manipulate my parents, brothers and sister. I had a temper and if I didn’t get to go to McDonald’s when the rest of the family wanted to go to LaBarbara’s, I’d sit in the car protesting and sulking. My parents always said the same thing: “you’ll cut off your nose to spite your face”. I never really understood what that meant. It’s pretty clear to me now. I was more than willing to stand my ground, even knowing I was suffering because of my stubborn attitude. I was a white, spoiled kid living in Brentwood. My parents didn’t pay for everything because they felt guilty or to keep us busy. They both came from poor families and in my mom’s case, her childhood was not so nice. There was abuse and violence and alcohol and all that bad crap. Read the rest of this entry »

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