Went to Sundance last weekend

Alene's sister works for Sundance and gave us some free passes for Christmas, so we went up to have a little fun together. The snow started off a little hard/icy, but when the sun came out it softened it up actually quite nicely. It was a great day to be out.

Here are some video clips and pictures:

Utah Lake Water Skiing June 2007

April and I got to test our waterskiing skills last night at Utah Lake. It'd been a couple years for me and a few more for her, but we're still the rockin' waterskiers we grew up as. (We started skiing doubles at 11 and slalom at 14?15?). After I got a couple of good runs in I gave the wakeboard a shot. I got up on my fourth try, but biffed it on my way out of the wake. I have no idea how people do flips on those. The HB did some skiing too, but most impressive was that his dad, who's in his 60's got up on skis too! I hope I can still waterski when I'm over 60!

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World Cup Freestyle Skiing January 2006

Alene, Caiden, and I met up with April and Bill (Alene's sister) and a couple of their friends. We specifically watched the Mens freestyle jumping. These are the dudes that come barreling down the mountain, hit a huge vertical ramp, do about 50 twists and flips 50' - 60' in the air, then attempt to land. The 2nd guy we saw attempt was from Russia. He by far got the highest out of anyone during the day, but he landed flat on his back, slid down the hill, then laid there un-conscious. It was almost sick-looking. They had to get him on a stretcher and haul him off. I have no idea how he is doing now.

I wish there was as site like photobucket that would allow me to up-load video so I could show some clips of some of the jumps these dudes stuck. They were absolutely amazing.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the days events:

Me and Caiden walking up the mountain to the event



Alene and I walking up the mountain (photo taken by Caiden)



Here is a random dude jumping



This is the view from where we were at, looking down on Deer Valley (which is in Park City)



I was actually entered in the competition, but I broke one of my bangs, so I couldn't compete. I got interviewed by the press though, so that was cool. (yeah, my eyes are red, I swear I didn't make a deal with the devil....I swear!)



More airtime. This is me describing my trajectory when I broke my bangs



This is the view of the area on the way up later that night. The moguls are straight ahead and the freestyle jumping is to the right (that is the hill they land on)



Alene and I standing in front of the area where the jumpers land. It was cool because they had a HUGE TV (you can see it on the top left hand side) for everyone to see the jumpers up on the mountain before they came down. It followed them all the way to the ramp, then you could see them come flipping over it






Alene and I in front of the moguls area

Brighton snowboarding December 2005

Went with Alene, her sister April, her Brother Brian, and her Cousin Joey. It started to snow right as we arrived. I normally don't care if it's snowing when I board, but the snow was HARD and it pelted your face as you picked up speed. It made it somewhat miserable and my beard froze a few times :-). In addition to that, my board needed to be waxed badly. It was so bad that I'd get some good speed going down a hill, then it would feel like someone was literally pulling me down from behind. Not good. I got my board waxed yesterday, so hopefully that will help.

Here is Alene and April on the lift



Here is my frozen beard