www.snowboard-women.com

One of the fun things about blogging about something you love doing is that you will meet other people who love the same thing!  Recently, through this blog and Twitter, I’ve gotten to know Sara, a local snowboarding instructor from Mt. High.   She also pens her own snowboarding blog at Gurlryder.com.  Although we’ve yet to ride together, I thought it would be interesting to have her answer a few questions about snowboarding, her experiences as a female instructor, and life on the hill in general.  Take it away Sara!

Name: Sara C.
Hometown: Orange County
Current Location: Rancho Cucamonga, CA
Alter Ego: Office Manager
Home Resort: Mountain High
Years Riding: 4-5 seasons
Years Instructing: 2 seasons
Certifications: PSIA-AASI Level 1 Snowboard Instructor Certification, Level 1 Children’s Specialist, currently working on Level 2 Certification
Current Ride: Forum Craft 146cm, Ride Sigma Bindings
Other Gear: I’m a total gear whore, i have at LEAST two of everything, what girl rider doesnt, right? I just got a new Bern Muse Priscilla Levac helmet that I absolutely LOVE!
Where I see myself in 5 years: Have an impact in the snow sports industry as an Instructor having earned the highest certification available and spreading my wings into different aspects of snowboarding.

QUESTIONS:

What’s your own personal style of riding? (or what’s your favorite terrain- freeriding, parks, halfpipe…)
my personal style is the fun style! i enjoy them all =)

What do you like most about snowboarding?
it’s a sport. a sport that takes you from place to place and meeting new people. it takes you away from the stresses of the real world. its my zen.

What skill level of students do you teach?
i teach mostly beginner to intermediate riders. i’m just learning tricks myself but i do have my lil’ bag of tricks i like to use that keeps the learning experience fun for my students

How are your classes set up - do you do private lessons or groups?
i teach both group lessons and private lessons.

Who usually attends your classes - girls or guys?
i get a pretty good mix of both girls and guys

Have you ever had a situation where someone was intimidated or gave you attitude because you’re a female instructor?
surprisingly, i have not had any issues with that! i think most of the students respect you regardless of gender because they know that there’s a reason why you’re the instructor and they’re the student. even the teenage boys show me respect.

How are your coworkers’ attitudes when it comes to being a female instructor - I assume you work with instructors of both genders, do you notice any differences in how people interact w/ you?
honestly, i work with an awesome group of instructors. when i started working as an instructor, i was the one who had the misperception that you had to be in your early to mid 20’s and riding for 10+ years and doing tricks off features to be an instructor. but i was soooo wrong! good instructors come in all ages, sizes, ethnicity, levels, and lots of different personalities!

What is the #1 pointer you give your students who are brand new learners?
BEND YOUR KNEES!

What’s the biggest mistake you have to correct?
back leg steering. a lot of people don’t know that the most efficient and correct way to turn is to pivot with their front foot.

I usually tell people give themselves at least 2 days of getting beat up on the hill when they’re learning before they will feel really confident and ready to venture off the bunny hills. In your experience, what’s the average learning curve of new riders to get to that level and how can they accelerate that time if at all?
there’s really no “time frame” that you can give to any beginning rider for them to be able to ride down any level of terrain because some students are quick learners, and there are those who take much longer. as an instructor, we are trained to identify what and how we deliver the lessons but we can’t control how they use the information we give them. i always tell my students snowboarding is not easy but its also not hard if you just apply what you learn in the lessons in how you ride. there are riders who have been snowboarding for years who are still learning. i remind them of my three P’s: Practice, Patience, and Play! Practice what you learn, have Patience and never give up, and lastly….Play and have fun!

I also suggest new riders absolutely take a lesson first to get the basics.   Do you agree or do you think some people can just “pick it up” without any initial tips? Why or why not?
absolutely, there are people out there who are just naturally athletic and can pick up a sport quickly without lessons.  but even instructors take educational clinics to get better season after season. do you think shaun white goes out there and trains by himself with no one’s help because he’s a multiple gold medalist? athletes of all levels need some type of direction.

What are some of the perks you get from being employed at a resort?
season pass (of course) and super discount for dependent passes too.

What are some insider tips you’d give to Mt High visitors?
parking - get there early, it gets packed early! lift tix - get the 6 pack or point passes for best value. check out the east resort for wide open runs and big jumps (when we get tons of snow). your lift tickets are good at both east and west resorts, use the free shuttle. we have one of the BEST Winter Sports School, so take lessons! =)

Which of the other SoCal “local” mountains do you go to?
bear mountain

What’s your favorite part of the job?
i get paid to snowboard!

What’s the process for becoming a snowboard instructor? What tips do you have for anyone who wants to do this job?
apply early and don’t just expect a free pass for the season, it’s still a job and you still have responsibilities!

And just for fun, what would be your Jersey Shore nickname?
S-Pow

Thanks Sara!

Check out Sara’s snowboarding blog at www.Gurlryder.com, where she blogs about women’s snowboarding news, reviews and everything in between!  You can also follow her tweets at @Gurlryder. 

If you’re in the SoCal area and available the morning of Saturday, 1/16/10, hit up Bear Mtn at 8:30am to check out the Burton 2010 gear and try it out.   This is also a stop for the Burton Am Series which will let amateurs compete for a spot in the US Open pre qualifiers.

Get details or RSVP for the Super Demo tour here (it’s a Facebook link so you may be asked to log in).  Here’s info about the Am Series.

Well hello!  After a LONG delay since my last post near the end of the 08-09 snowboarding season (at the end of which I made a final trip to mammoth but didn’t even write about it, how lazy!)  at long  last I am back.

It’s been a long slow summer and I was feeling not really enthused about boarding this winter even though I have a Mammoth Mountain season pass so my riding days are basically paid for.  This is because I’m currently inbetween jobs and so trying to plan trips is kinda sketchy with the money situation.  But, I still wanna get out there and enjoy life regardless, because in the end, all you really take with you are your memories and life experiences. 

OK enough philosophizing!

Taking advantage of my current status of “funemployment,” on Monday, Dec.  14, 2009 my good friend Tone and I made a day-trip up to Snow Summit.  We bought cheap tickets from someone on Craigslist and made it up there in 2 hours.  The conditions were great since on Sat/Sun the entire SoCal area had big winter storms - rain in LA and of course nice snow in the higher elevations.

It was completely empty because it was Monday, people weren’t off for the holidays just yet, and of course the ever-present “economic situation” has definitely affected people’s disposable income.

We did get to the mountain a little bit later than was planned, but we still squeezed in about 10 runs apiece.  Tone was a good fast skier - after all he did grow up in Colorado!  There was good coverage everywhere and we went down almost all the different runs available (although we did not hit the park.)  It got warmer and a little slow/melty later in the day - I learned my board definitely needs waxing before I head up to Mammoth in two weeks.

All in all it was a good warmup day and I’m looking forward to our 3 days in Mammoth starting on 1/15/10 (which is my birthday!) 

It was cold enough that they were blowing snow on a few of the runs and had them closed.

As always, Big Bear Lake is beautiful and scenic!

As my injured calf continues to heal (2 more weeks says my physical therapist!)  I am getting itchy to ride again.  I haven’t been since December due to this injury and it is killing me with the amount of new snow Mammoth has had!

Sometimes getting to the mountain on your own isn’t practical, or none of your usual snowboarding buddies are available.  What to do?  It’s simple: find a fun group to go with.  The internet makes it super easy to find like-minded local friends to go snowboarding with, among many other things!

Here in Southern California, getting to a really great mountain (Mammoth) is a long drive away.  The same is true in other major Western US cities like Denver, Salt Lake, San Francisco, etc.  I’ve found a number of fun snowboard and ski related groups here in LA that regularly organize group trips up to the mountains.  Usually accommodations and transportation is included, plus you get to meet new people!  A group trip is actually how Jessie and I first met 2 years ago!

If you’re looking to meet some fun new people to hit Mammoth with, check out these groups in LA for upcoming trips:

• SoCal Outdoor Adventurers
• The Time Outdoors
• West LA Ski & Snowboard Group
• Slope Surfers

If you’re not in LA, you can easily find your own snowboarding group trip organizers by looking on Meetup.com or Yahoo Groups.  Happy hunting!

Just in time for the weekend, two of our local mountains are opening today.  They’ve been blowing snow like crazy, and both mountains will have 4 lifts open and a handful of runs.  You can use your lift ticket on both to transfer between hills.

I heard today on the news that there is an 8-12″ base at Snow Summit (and here I was making fun of Park City for having 18″.)

Lift ticket pricing is “early season” thru Sunday 12/14 so it’s still a little cheaper to go…

• All Day, Adult $35.00
• Yg Adult $28.00
• Child $15.00
• Half-Day Adult $30.00
• Yg Adult $23.00
• Child $10.00

I’m pleased to see Summit stepping in to the mobile age - text message snow alerts are now available - just text SNOW to 52406 to subscribe.

Anyone who goes, let me know how it is!  Oh, and I have one of those $19 vouchers from last season which expires on 12/19, so if you want it to use this weekend or anytime before then I will GIVE it to you as I don’t have a chance to use it before expiration.  Email me!  (erica at snowboard-women.com)

Countdown!  With the weather in Southern California finally cooling down, my thoughts once again turned to snowboarding.  Especially after I got an email letting me know Mammoth Mountain opens on November 13!  (and Woolly is going to be there!)

Here’s some heads-ups on some other opening days at snowboard and ski resorts that we love:

• Vail:  Nov. 21 (ps, as of today they still are selling season passes for $579 - what a steal!!)
• Whistler:  Nov. 27
• Heavenly:  Nov. 21 (holy crap, their season passes are just $379, get one!)

Opening days at our local snowboarding resorts (Snow Summit and Bear Mountain) are not posted - they say “We will begin snowmaking operations as soon as the weather remains cold and dry. We will announce our expected open date when we begin snowmaking.”  Well, continue to hang tight, because today their site says the temp is 72!!!

Another trip is in the works too - I was invited as a VIP attendee to a marketing conference at Deer Valley (in Park City, UT) and so I am getting free airfare and lodging there. Sweet!  Bummer is, that is a ski-only resort… argh!  Looks like I’ll be hitting up one of the two other resorts in the town.  I went to Park City Mountain Resort a few years ago and it wasn’t the greatest conditions, but we’ll see how it looks in the beginning of December.

So it’s October - those opening days are not far off!  Are you in shape for the season yet?  Get those legs ready to snowboard, and let’s hope for a snowy winter in 2008-2009.

On Monday Liz and I both had off work so with her free Snow Valley tickets from a Ralphs promotion we drove up for the day. The cool thing about Snow Valley is that it’s on the way to Big Bear, but is about 30 minutes less drive time each way through those winding mountain roads. It’s promoted as being “140 turns closer to skiing!”

You can actually see Big Bear Lake from the chairlift, it was beautiful in the distance:

The day was gorgeous - blue skies with no clouds, and a temp around mid 40’s. And it was a Monday, so there was NOBODY on the mountain! I think there were maybe 30 cars in the entire parking lot.

Snow Valley was actually a pleasant surprise - I have driven past it countless times en route to Snow Summit, and I always thought it was some rinky-dink tubing/sledding resort. Not so! There’s actually 14 different chairs, and at the very top (~7800 ft. elevation) there are some black diamond runs. The resort even has a varied and large terrain park, with features including little kickers, tabletops, giant tires to jump over, and tons of rails & fun boxes. (No halfpipe though.) Here I am on the approach:

Here’s Liz going off the edge of the rainbow rail:

They had just gotten 6 inches of snow on Sunday, but there were high winds creating a lot of icy conditions in spite of the runs being groomed. It really didn’t soften up until after 1:30pm, with the sun beating down.

Because it was Monday, and it was so empty, Snow Valley only opened Chair 1. So unfortunately we didn’t experience the full mountain, only about 3-4 of the runs available. We couldn’t get to the back/top runs that almost looked like they were in a little bowl.

We got a lot of runs in though, and were the second-to-last people off the hill at the end of the day! (We were dawdling around in the park taking pictures of each other on the little jumps.) For free tickets, even though we had limited run/chairlift access, it was totally worth it. I got in one more day this season, and got to practice hitting the tabletops without a ton of people in the park.

Liz and I both really enjoyed the day - we want to go back another time when it’s fully open. Lift tickets are only $52 (weekends) and you can usually find some discounts through one of the resort’s promotional partners. Check them out sometime!

It’s been very spring-like here in LA the past two weeks, so it’s been somewhat discouraging in terms of making plans to go snowboarding. However, the forecast for this weekend is for cooler temps and rain in LA county, with snow levels in our local mountains coming down to 4000 feet on Sunday. Yay!

As such, Liz and I are planning to hit Snow Valley on Monday since we both have off work. I’ve never been to that resort but I am looking forward to some fresh snow and exploring a new mountain! It’s on highway 18, on the way up to Big Bear. Elevations are a little lower, but the peak is over 7800′ and the base around 6800. There look to be a lot of trails that are blacks, so hopefully it will be a pleasant surprise.

Afterwards, maybe we’ll even make it back to LA for a few green beers since Mon is St. Patrick’s Day. Will report back with pictures early next week!

Weather forecast for Snow Valley

Headed up to Mount Baldy yesterday - it’s a local Southern Cal. mountain only about 1 hour outside of Los Angeles. They received over 18″ of new snow in last week’s storms, and there was already a 3-4′ base, so conditions were great!

(it’s been a long time since the local mountains have looked like this! The view as we drove north to baldy from the freeway)

Saturday morning dawned bright, clear, and crisp. I figured it would be a perfect bluebird day after all that show! Plus, the roads would be clear. I drove up in Leila’s car with Jessie and Liz. We left LA about 8am, thinking we’d be on the mountain by 9:45 once we parked, dressed, and bought our lift tickets. How wrong we were… it seemed that everybody else in the Southern California region had the same idea. We sat in traffic for almost 2 hours just to get to the Mt. Baldy parking area.

Once we finally bought our lift tickets and got on the mountain though, it was all worth it. The snow was in fabulous condition, and there was TONS of it (for local mountains of course.) It was cold, but not cold enough to cause icy conditions - just cold enough to keep the snow from becoming slushy.

(heading up the chairlift from the Mt. Baldy parking lot - look at all the snow in the trees!)

Mt. Baldy itself really is “one of LA’s undiscovered gems…” once we got past the traffic jam, that is. There are only 4 chairs - only 2 of which go up to runs. But once you get up to the top of the chair lifts, there are quite a few runs to choose from (trail map says 26 trails.)

The elevation at the very top chair (chair 3) is 8600′ so you get some good altitude gain and somewhat lengthy runs. Sure, it’s no Mammoth, but great for a day-trip of snowboarding. It’s hard to believe it’s only an hour’s drive from downtown Los Angeles. Check this out - hard to tell from this pic, but looking west/southwest you can see the ocean from the lodge vista point!

Chair 3 stays open till 4:15pm so if you get up there early enough you can definitely get a good, full day of riding in. We liked chair 3 better because there were more tree runs and a big bowl that some guys showed us how to get to. Speaking of which, ladies, there are definitely a lot of cool local guys at this mountain.

By the mid-afternoon, the fog had rolled in and storm clouds were thickening. We took a brief break in the teeny Mt. Baldy lodge, and took a few more runs before the chairs closed.

For our final run, we strapped back in and headed down the run that goes down to the parking lot. Since it was our first time at Mt. Baldy, we weren’t exactly sure of the best route to take to avoid all the rocks, gravel, and dirt that was still exposed in some areas, so we ended up hitting those very rocks, gravel and dirt! (Thank god I bought brown snowboarding pants…) But we crab-walked through the worst of it, and then found our way down the trail to the parking lot again with relative ease. The snow was still great, but the sun was down and it was twilight, so it was bad lighting and some sketchy riding!

When we left the mountain to walk back down to our car, the rain had begun (bummer!) It was pouring when we finally started the downhill drive. And unfortunately, we sat in traffic again for almost 1 1/2 hours before we really started moving.

We did enjoy the day, though, and for future trips to Mt. Baldy for snowboarding, we’ll follow this advice:

• Leave Los Angeles early. Get on the freeway by 7am or earlier to beat all the other cars who are sure to be heading up if there’s been recent snow.
• Park as close to the bottom chair as you can. This way, you won’t have to walk as far to get to the chairlift, AND you can ride down to your car at mid-day to have a lunch break at your car! Bring a cooler, save yourself money!
• Leave the mountain early. If you get there early, you’ll still get a good many runs in. And you’ll beat everyone else down the hill, again, avoiding traffic.
• Buy a 10-ticket pack to save money. I saw the 10-ticket packs online at their Web site for just $325. If you plan on going often, you’ll save as much as $27 per ticket (full-day, peak weekend tix are regularly $59.) I was thinking you could also split the 10-pack with friends, and each would save the money that way (don’t think the tickets are non transferable, but have to check it out.)
• Make friends and talk to some regulars who can show you the best runs. We had fun off Chair 3 with the dudes we met in the lift line. I do wish we had some guidance on that final run though! Ah well!

Yay Baldy - closer than Snow Summit, and just as fun. And a little less crowded!

Leaving work today at about 3:45pm (Hurrah for New Years weekend, early release!) I happened to look over to the east from where I was in Pasadena. When what to my wondering eyes did appear, snow on the higher elevation mountains in what I think are the eastern San Gabriels! It’s cool, because at that time of day the sun is beginning to set to the west and is casting really nice horizontally-slanted beams as it goes down, which highlighted the snow on the west-facing hills I was looking at.

We got a ton of rain late last week and I guess I just didn’t make the connection to getting snow locally. I believe I was looking at Mt. Baldy or at least some of the surrounding mountains (Baldy is a local resort just east of San Gabriel Valley/Claremont that I haven’t been to yet because of last year’s horrible dry winter. I understand it goes off when we get lots of snow in a season, fingers crossed!)

Here’s a picture I attempted to snap with my Blackberry - apparently it doesn’t do so well with distance shots But it is nice to be in Los Angeles and still have a nearby reminder of snow, snow, snow!