Our Journey

Check out this short video of us training for the Vancouver Games!

First, let me start be reiterating what Josh said about how privileged AST is to be training at Mt. Hood right now. The crew at Timberline, especially our trusty ski patroller and snowmobile driver Chris, has been nothing but accommodating. Everyday has thrown us different conditions with a different set problems but they’ve rallied each day and helped us pull off the best summer training we’ve ever had.

Aside from the killer training on-hill, Ian and I discovered the primo mountain biking Hood River has to offer. We got a tip from our friend Justin at ShredAlert here in town on how to find our way up to Post Canyon, where there is an extensive network of trails. There’s anything and everything you could ever want in Post Canyon, crazy downhill sections, ladders, bridges, jumps…lots of uphill (which we found with Josh by accident today after Erica was nice enough to shuttle us up to the top for a couple of runs)…you name it.

It’s crazy how many activities you can fit in, in a day around here! If you’re not careful it can actually stress you out…it’s a real condition called Recreational Stress Syndrome or RSS for short. It can be debilitating and has been linked to depression, hypertension, indecision and watching hours of bad daytime TV. So watch out.

That’s it, that’s all for now. Be sure to check back tomorrow.

Most jobs are from 9am to 5pm…lately, ours has been from 6am to 10pm. By the time we get off the hill, ride our road bikes to the Mt. Hood General Store for lunch, do video analysis with Rob, go to the high school for dryland training and tune our snowboards there’s barely enough time to eat, shower and answer a few emails before bed. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, states that you don’t become and expert at something until you do it for 10,000 hours. I think we’re about there! I will say that this has been, by far, the best training I’ve ever had at Mt. Hood. This week, the snow has been great for getting consistent runs all day and the weather has been perfect to boot. Today, we had chance to run by

(ShredAlert) to meet with Justin and Heather to go over our choices for hats, beanies and T-shirts for the team. ShredAlert has been based out of Hood River for 20 years and they’re AST’s newest sponsor! We’re all pumped to be working with them and get some new AST swag to wear on and off the hill.

www.shredalert.com

Hey Everyone,
I’m stoked to see the new America’s Snowboard Team site up and running…the team at BCF did an amazing job!  It’s been a lot of hard work this summer for all of us, organizing the team, hiring the best coaches, getting training equipment, putting a travel schedule together and securing funding, but it’s all been worth it.  It’s an incredible feeling to see your dreams materialize right in front of you.  America’s Snowboard Team has gone from just a concept, an idealistic one at that, to a real tangible team in just a few short months.  I’m so proud and honored to be working with everyone who’s been a part of this.  Anyway, enough of my sentimental babble…I hope you all enjoy the website and will follow us this season on our quest for Olympic gold!