This is the second year that women are competing in the event, and I’m super excited to go and cheer them on.

Women, Pros

• Bev Vuilleumier
• Gabi Viterri
• Hana Beaman
• Jessica Kimera
• Joanna Dzierzawski
• Kimmy Fasani
• Laurie Currier
• Leanne Pelosi
• Lynn Neil
• Megan Ginter
• Megan Whiteside

Men, Pros

• Alex Cantin
• Austin Hironaka
• Austin Sweeten
• Bode Merrill
• Corey Noble
• Darrell Mathes
• Dan Brisse
• Dustin Craven
• E-Man
• Forest Bailey
• Frank April
• Ivan Marchenko
• Jason Dubois
• Jérémy Cloutier
• Johnny Lazz
• Jusso Lavisto
• Ian Thorley
• Ivan Marchenko
• Lonnie Kauk
• Lucas Magoon
• Matt Belzile
• Marc McMorris
• Mark Sollars
• Matts Kulisek
• Nash Lajeunesse
• Robbie Walker
• Sam Hulbert
• Sébastien Toutant
• Scott See
• Silas Stannard
• Tyler Flanagan
• Will Lavigne
• Yale Cousino

Here are the details:

March 12, 2010

• 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m. – Am quals
• 4 p.m.-6 p.m.- Rail Jam quals
• 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. – Rail Jam
• 9 p.m. – Shakedown after party, Hard Rock, Seattle, $10 in advance, $15 at the door (21-and-over)

March 13, 2010

• Noon-1 p.m. – Snowboarder Magazine autograph session with the pros
• 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. – Semi-finals
• 6 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. – Halftime show (pro skateboard session on the snowboard rail set up)
• 7:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. – Warm up for RIDE Shakedown finals
• 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. – RIDE Shakedown finals and awards
• 9 p.m. – Shakedown afterparty, Hard Rock, Seattle, $10 in advance, $15 at the door (21-and-over)

A couple weeks ago I was saying that I felt like I had reached a point where I wasn’t progressing. Well, riding with Mercedes at Pillow Fight and then riding with Frank (also an instructor) on Saturday changed that. Now, I can’t go down a run without my head feeling like it’s going to explode with all of the things I am trying to remember. (Really a good thing, I haven’t felt like this with snowboarding for a long time.)

Since I know you are dying to know what goes on in my brain…

When going down a run, groomed:

• turn with the front foot, then follow with the back foot
• when further into the turn, pee like a girl (heel turn)/pee like a boy (toe turn) (thanks Mercedes…that is burned into my head)
• when doing a heel turn, really bend your knees and squat low
• stay light on your feet and absorb any bumps/random snow piles

When hitting a jump:

• keep your knees soft
• on the wedge, keep your board flat and knees bent
• do a little pop off the jump to stay in control
• in the air–do a grab, do a dead man–just stay stable
• land flat with soft knees

I could keep going. But my biggest problem is doing way too many speed checks before I hit a jump. With everything else, I can just remind myself and fix when I start to turn with my back leg, or ride too straight, or whatever, but the speed checks is all mental. The thing is, is that I know that speed is my friend, but I don’t know it, really.

I’m ready to land, but look how much more I could clear if I got more speed…

I was talking to Mitch about it in the car ride home from Stevens and he suggested I work backwards in my head. He said he used to do it when he was trying to get over the fear of speeding through a turn while racing motorcycles. So, he said, where do you want to end up? I said, on the down-slope, riding away clean. So, he said, work backwards from there. How do you get to that point?

So I worked through the perfect jump in my head, backwards:

Land flat on the down-slope, riding away clean; in the air do a grab; at the apex of the jump, pop;  approach flat with knees bent; and (gulp) get enough speed approaching the jump. With the vision of a clean landing and a smooth air (no crazy window rolling or leaning to far back and landing on my tail), it started to feel a little safer to go faster.

Looking at the size of just the wedge, it’s small, right? But to me, the approach makes it seem huge!

Then he suggested that I just focus on doing one or two jump really well. Hit the other jumps, but for one or two, get really comfortable on the approach doing it right with lots of speed. Then, when I’m good with those, start focusing on doing the others right too.

Tuesday, when I’m back in the park, I think I’ll pick one or two jumps where the approaches aren’t huge and long (giving me too much time to think) and work perfecting those. Before I hit the jump, I’ll run through it backwards in my head and allowing myself only two speed checks, then one, then none.

On Saturday we also hit up the pipe a couple of times. I’m still working on smoothing out my turns, riding up the wall, bending my knees on the flat. I’ve also started trying to do a little pop at the top of the pipe, but that still feels a little weird and awkward. Just more to think about…

Having new stuff to work on and (hopefully) get better at makes a day out snowboarding so much more fun. Instead of just cruising around the groomers day after day doing the same laps, same kind of turns, upping the game makes the day a challenge. So when you do land a new trick, the stoke comes back and you remember why you started riding in the first place.

It is so great to be able to talk snowboarding over breakfast with a bunch of other women. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does it is so much fun.

After breakfast we sped over to Stevens Pass to meet up with the rest of the crew. I grabbed my Forum Sauce (which I love, it is so much fun…especially after riding a Burton Custom for so long) and met up with Mercedes and the rest of our little group for some park riding! Mercedes decided to teach park on Sunday since it had rained (boo!) the night before. The sun was starting to come out from behind the morning clouds as we headed up the Hogsback chair for a warm-up run.

Sam and Lori checking out a kicker in the progression park.

We were all pretty much beginning park riders so Mercedes started with the basics–ollies. As we rode down to the Brooks chair to get to the park we worked on popping off our tail and landing flat. Landing on an edge is what kills me when I hit jumps (I always end up eating it), so it was really good to practice landing flat on the board on a mellow run.

After ollies, Mercedes had us work on popping– jumping straight up into the air and landing flat. This was going to help us on our take-offs, when we hit the jumps in the park.

The first run through the park Mercedes had us ollie off the knuckle of the jumps. She went first, demoing, and then watched each of us from below as we hit the knuckle, telling us if we were landing on our edges or landing flat. It was so good to have her watch us, because I thought I was landing flat when I really wasn’t.

Mercedes on the sidelines reminding us to ‘bend our knees!!‘

At the middle of the run, we cut over to the pipe. We learned how to ride through the pipe, when to bend our knees in a deep squat (center of the pipe) and when to straighten a bit (walls). My first drop into the pipe I was thrown off by how fast I got going and I had so much going through my head between flexing and extending and turning my shoulders and trying not to get too freaked out by the speed. The first run was really awkward. It took time to figure out that you really don’t need to force the turn with your upper body or legs (at the top of the pipe wall), it can be a very subtle movement. One of the girls in our group looked like she was riding a bowl in a skate park–she was so fluid and flowed with the pipe instead of fighting it. It helped to watch her and try to incorporate her smooth riding.

We hiked up the pipe a couple of times and each time it all made a little more sense about how all the movements fit together than the time before.

Molly and Shayla checking out her 180? (can’t quite remember) whatever it was, it was sweet.

To take a break we rode up Brooks chair for another run in the park. We met up with Molly from Evo who was the photog/videog extraordinaire for the weekend and she caught us as we were perfecting our ollies over spines and moving onto the jumps. After every one or two jumps we would all group together and Mercedes would give us each a goal for what we needed to do next time…bending our knees, landing flat, getting more speed to hit the jump.

Getting together for a group ride down the mountain-50 ladies cruising.

After getting lunch and lots of water, we went back to the park to work more on our jumps. My biggest issue right now isn’t taking off or landing on my toe edge, it’s too much speed checking. I need to get over this fear I have of launching myself off of a jump, getting too much air, and ending up in crutches. Its all psychological, which makes me so crazy. I am pretty good about getting over mental stuff, but this one isn’t giving up easy. I really wish I would have had an instructor back when I was throwing myself off of kickers and hurting myself (one time ending up in crutches and getting a ride down in a sled). Because all that stuff that happened so long ago is coming back and I haven’t yet been able to shake it. (Do they have therapists for snowboarders?)

So, the last hit of the day Mercedes said my goal was to hit the jump without speed checking. I instantly got sweaty-nervous. I took a couple of deep breaths and she gave me a couple minutes of sitting above the jump until I was ready. I got up, pointed my board to the jump and took off. I hit the jump and cleared the landing, getting a baby grab in, landed and rode away. At the bottom, I was so happy I did an ollie off of a little feature. When I slowed down to talk to the group I realized I was shaking. But it was such a good feeling to get solid air and ride away clean–especially as the last run of the day.

The Pillow Fight crew.

Everyone was there to have fun and it made the weekend so much better. I love hanging out with people that love to have a good time and aren’t trying to one-up each other and this group was definitely that way. Coming in not really knowing anyone I was nervous, but after a weekend of solid shred I had met a lot of awesome ladies and had a bunch of new friends. I can’t wait for next year. PILLOW FIGHT!

Here is our rad instructor Mercedes telling us to pick out our line and keep our front shoulder downhill.

This was the first time I had ever had any instruction and I was really looking forward to it. I feel like I’ve kind of come to a standstill in my riding and wanted some new tips to get to the next level. I joined up with Mercedes, the instructor, and a group of women in the advanced group. I was thinking of joining up with the beginning park group, but we had gotten so much snow, I couldn’t let all that powder go to waste.

We were able to demo Burton boards too, so I grabbed the Feel Good ES –it was a 52 I think. The first run we did was underneath the chair at Hogsback. We learned how to go over rollers and be light on our feet so we rode over them and onto the next one, instead of getting shot in the air–like it was a kicker. The chute we were going down was a little tight and I found it was hard to navigate with a longer board–I am used to a 47.

After a couple of runs down in the trees at Hogsback we headed to Tye Mill. At Tye Mill there is this 15 foot cliff underneath the chairlift. I’ve always checked out the run wondering what it was like. Mercedes got the group together and we went on the run I had always looked at. We didn’t launch off of the cliff…fortunately…but we did go down it taking an easier route. It was at this point, with all of the good snow, that we just had to point the board and go. This completely freaks me out. Pointing it. But we all did it and it was so much better than falling leaf or side slipping. I learned that if you keep your knees soft and plan your line, it’s not a death wish. It was a little scary, but so much fun.

Another place I’ve always wanted to check out was Tye Bowl. I’d always see it on the lift and it looked like fun. And we ended up heading over there. It was sweet!

On 7th Heaven, Solitude

Lunchtime and I switched out the Feel Good for a Forum The Sauce. The Feel Good was just to big for what I was used to and was very stiff (which was good for charging), but in stuff that was tight it was difficult to maneuver.

The group of ladies I was with were amazing!

After lunch we decided to check out 7th Heaven. I have never been up there before. It’s double-blacks and from what I have heard, it’s only good when there is fresh snow.

Hiking up to get to Solitude

We had to hike up with our boards on, and then traversed to Solitude chute. We worked on planning our line, and turning with our front leg –I had been trying to turn with my back leg all this time–dang…using your front leg is so much easier. Being up on 7th, I realized how easy it would be to fall and then keep going down the hill–unable to stop.

We ran Solitude a couple of times and then took 7th Heaven to Tye Mill. It was a bit of traversing, but a lot of powder and super fun. From Tye, hiked up a cat track and rode down through more pow. By the end of the day the snow was really heavy and sticky, but we had deep snow all day long.

We hit almost everything on the mountain that I’ve always looked at and wanted to try out. It was so, so sweet. Plus everyone was super supportive and encouraging. Some parts of the day (like getting off of the chairlift at 7th Heaven and charging straight down some narrow chutes, I thought I was going to die), but I did it! Yeah!

Getting instruction was so good, I felt like I was learning so much faster and I knew that I wasn’t going to go off a cliff accidentally. Mercedes pushed us all just enough so that we went just beyond our comfort zone…but not too far that we got frustrated. Maybe I can get more lessons for my birthday…or Christmas…

I can’t wait for tomorrow, although I’m not sure if I’ll do the same freeride class or go over into the park. These are the kind of decisions I need to have more of.

It’s been awhile since I have driven up to Whistler, but Hwy 97 reminded me of it–large mountains jutting up from the side of the road, lots and lots of snow, evergreens. It had been snowing heavily and everything was covered in white, and the wind was blowing so hard I thought my board would rip off of the racks.

The mountains still kind of scare me. Growing up surrounded by rolling hills, mountains were exotic and unknown. Driving by myself in the snow with large peaks above me, and heavy clouds I was a little afraid. What if I crashed? What if the car died? Could I survive? It’s still so foreign.

The road leading into Leavenworth is surrounded by old and new orchards that line the road and are perched on the side of the mountain. It was getting dark and the Bavarian town was lit up. Turning left onto Icicle Road, I drove to the Sleeping Lady resort. It’s an amazing wood-cabin style resort. So gorgeous and relaxing. Little cabins are on 50 or so acres. It’s so quiet here. If you ever get a chance, stay here!

This is the Kingfisher Lodge where I went to meet all of the other ladies that were staying over Friday night. The food was so delicious and it was fun meeting everyone. We then headed over to the Grotto to have a pint, talking on our walk over about what class we planned on taking the next day–beginner, intermediate, park, freeride.

I can’t wait for tomorrow. With all of the snow and a group of almost 50 ladies it should be an amazing time.

From what I hear there are still a few spots open so if you are around the PNW there is still a chance to get in! All ability levels can sign up and if you want, you can stay overnight in Leavenworth.

I’ll be blogging as much as I can over the weekend — in between having an awesome time hanging out with a bunch of other like-minded ladies. And, this weekend I plan to focus on my park riding, I’m excited to see what I learn.

If you want more details check out the Ride Stevens Pass website.

Hyak had been taken out by a mudslide, so lifts were closed, and hiking to the quarter pipe was in order. Snow has also been sparse this year so Summit pulled its snow from all over the mountain to make the QP.

(Almost to the top.)

The hike up wasn’t so bad, it was blue sky in the Cascades and a good competition was going down. No complaints here.

A decent number of riders got pretty familiar with the backside of the quarter pipe after launching themselves over it during the competition. That was always exciting–one minute they were in the air, the next they were gone from view.

But there was lots of big airs and methods to be had.

A few skiers showed up.

Riders hiked the hill to hit the pipe for four hours. By the end, everyone seemed kind of tired and there were some breath-catching falls. Fortunately everyone walked away.

There were a few females that were competing, which was awesome. I had no clue who any of them were (since they weren’t announced). But, I did hear about Jess Kimura. She won best crash and was seriously hitting the features hard–literally and figuratively. It was pretty impressive.

I also got to meet Shay of Shayboarder.com.

The winners:

• PNW shred Austin Hironaka walked away as winner and with a half-pallet of Olympia.
• Danny Garrity Northwest Method
• Nate Farrell Berserker
• Bryce Neibuhr won best facial expression and highest air
• Sean Tedore won Hardest Charging Industry Dude
• Russell Winfield won the Russell Winfield award (the award formerly known as the Jeff Brushie)
• Jess Kimura won Best Crash/Y Chromosome
• Forest Bailey won Official Mayor of Tube City
• Jake Tomlinsin won We don’t need no stinkin’ binders
• Blair Habenicht won most creative line (Billy Goats Gruff).

Thanks Shay and  Rumorator for convincing me to go. Can’t wait for next year! Be sure to head on up if you’re in the PNW.

With reports of 8″ of snow on Monday from Stevens Pass, I headed out with my friends William, Teresa, and Lola to get some runs in. Lola is one, but she loves playing in the snow so Teresa and Lola stayed at the lodge while William and I headed out to see what we could find.

After a super fun day in the park on Saturday at the International Ladies Shred Day, I set out to work on one of my season goals-learn how to ride off groomers better.

We went right to the backside and hit up Gemini and then Borealis. Parts of Gemini had some fun snow for cruising around in, enough where it felt like we were floating and parts of Borealis did too. I’ve mentioned this before, but that loud humming from the enormous power lines on Gemini is so weird. The last section of Borealis was pretty sketch. There were waist high, snowmounds/moguls that were spaced pretty far apart with some good snow in between so I got to work on my turning.

One thing I am realizing that I do is charge and I like to be pretty aggressive with my riding. This has been screwing me over. In runs like Borealis, where some parts of the snow are hard and cut up and others are soft, and the whole area has randomly-placed large mounds of snow that are hard, I have such a hard time getting down. This is probably pretty obvious, but I found that instead of forcing the turns when I want to turn, I have to wait for the right time–like a large mound or bank to use to turn–and watch the natural formations in the snow for opportune times rather than just turning whenever I want (like what I can do on groomers). After William suggested I try this, it made the whole run so much easier. It was a bit scarier, since I felt a little more out of control (since I couldn’t do whatever I wanted), but it made it so much easier and smoother. Instead of fighting my way down, I just followed the natural flow of it.

After a few runs, we decided that instead of heading to the edges of the ski area boundary, we would go straight down the center–down between Waybacks and Corona Bowl.

I hadn’t been down in the trees since my embarrassing roll down the entire hill under the chairlift, so I was a bit apprehensive. Plus I am crazy-paranoid about tree wells, which is probably a good thing. We stuck together all of the way down, just in case something did happen and had a lot of fun! Some parts were pretty tracked out (you can see it in the picture), but others were so soft and powdery. There were a lot of tracks running through the trees so it was reassuring to know we weren’t going to end up looking off a small boulder drop or down into a creek. (There was hole in the snow in the trees and if you looked all of the way to the bottom you could see a creek, but this was marked-thanks Stevens!)

The first time down, I took what I had picked up over on Borealis about going with the flow and using banks and mounds to turn, and used it in the trees. This made a huge difference. Everything was so easy! The second time down, it all went out the window and I was fighting the snow again. I don’t know what was going on, maybe my legs were done, but it just wasn’t happening.

In all of the snow, I ended up losing my terrain park pass, so I headed down to the lodge to get a new one before it got too late. As we were pulling out of the parking lot on our way home it started snowing again-hopefully it keeps coming. I still need more deep snow practice!

I hung out on the bunny hill most of the day with a great group of ladies from Seattle who were all learning how to snowboard. It was fun to see people so excited about learning a new sport.

The entire time though I was scoping out the scene over at the beginner park right next to the bunny hill. One of my season goals was to ride a box and they had a pretty non-intimidating set-up. There was a box, a rail, and a couple of small kickers.

The snow was super soft and slushy so falling wouldn’t hurt. If I was going to do it, now was the time.

After lunch, I decided it was now or never, so I grabbed a friend to help me out and do some video work. Using the what I learned on Snow Professor’s website, I had my friend help me out by sliding me across the box so I could get a feel for the box. (Gone are the days of throwing myself off of stuff in the hopes it will work.) After, we did the first run-through, I hiked up the hill and hit it myself.

Super slow at first.

Then I realized I needed more speed so I started hiking up farther and tried to keep myself from doing too many speed checks (one of my main problems). It was so easy! Like, why was I so freaked out, easy. I hit it about ten times and landed every single time. Yeah! I was stoked!

Goal: Check.

Next goal: Style it.

I was leaving Snoqualmie stoked. It got better. At the end of the day we met up at had a raffle with a bunch of sweet gear from sponsors. And, I ended up winning a cute Sessions jacket from Sno Con. My day couldn’t have been better.

A few things:

• If you’re female and snowboard and want to have fun with other like-minded chickas check out next year’s shred day. It’s fun!
• If you’re a dude…volunteer as an instructor.
• Thanks to Sandra for putting on an awesome day.
• Check out Snow Professor for lots of great video tutorials and snowboarding techniques.

I’m glad I pushed past my nerves and tried out the box. Have you tried anything this season you were freaked about, but when you tried it wasn’t that bad?

Events are all over the US and in Germany, Canada, and China. If you are in Seattle, come on out and have fun with a bunch of other girls. You can still sign up for the event. It’s $47 for the day and there will be lessons in the morning, lunch, shred time in the afternoon, and then free stuff from sponsors.

More info is here:

• For Seattle, sign up at Meet-up or send me a message and I can get you hooked-up with Sandra, the coordinator.
• For general info check out their Facebook page and website