And yes, OMG I want to do that. Makes me wish we got more than .5″ of snow in town here!

Scott Slalom Shin Guards

It’s been a long time since my high school alpine ski racing days, but it seems like I get a chance to bash some gates every now and then. I always regret it though when my shins/knees get bruised up, and my snow pants get torn sometimes. This past Friday, I found a pair of “like new” Scott shin guards at Value Village on Centennial Blvd.. Only cost me $5! They aren’t brand new, show some signs of being packed around or possibly worn, but they don’t look like they’ve hit a gate yet.

Can’t wait to get the chance to break them in… I love bashing slalom gates!

• competed in a city league ski racing league, and our team won the whole season
• had the worst Christmas ever #christmasfail08
• been [positively] excited about a presidential inauguration
• played a UO officially sanctioned flip cup tournament with the club sports olympics, and we WON
• broke a slalom ski
• went from 5 down to 2 e-mail accounts, and one of those may be going a way soon
• met a girl, her name is Angela, many of you have even met her by now
• graduated from college!!!!!!!!!
• successfully survived a road trip with Angela through 9 states
  • Yellowstone, Ren Faire, Badlands, Wall Drug, SLC, etc…
• partaken in a few dancing lessons (ssssh! don’t tell anyone!)
• somehow convinced Angela to buy a Mac
• dealt with 2 flat tires in 2 different states I don’t live in, and neither one on my personal vehicle
• turned 27
• competed in 9 waterski tournaments in 6 different states, and waterskied in a 7th state
  • including Collegiate National All-Stars for slalom+trick, and AWSA Western Regionals for 3-event (and qualified for but didn’t go to AWSA Nationals)!
• upgraded my wordpress blog, twice, without posting anything
• volunteered with a church group on a construction project
• bought a Playstation 2 from a thrift store for $12.50 and repaired it myself
• sold my old DSLR and bought a spiffy new one, and taken thousands of photos with it
• attended a number of concerts
• given up on my football team, due to some unFavreable circumstances
• finally started getting my online portfolio and résumé up-to-date

…and some other stuff too, I assure you. But now that you’re updated on my life, maybe now I can get this site fully back on track again?

I’ve skied at Mint a few times, but only at the Emerald Valley’s Northwest Championships tournament. This was the first one where our club wasn’t as required to do the work. I still helped out with scoring and judging, it helps to practice at a variety of locations, learn the quirks of the computers and whatnot.

22nd ANNUAL MINT LAKE OPEN
TourID: 08W133C
Yacolt, WA
7/12/2008 to 7/13/2008

Slalom Rd 1: 4 @ 58k, 23m
Tricks: 810 pts (personal best!)
Jump: 64 ft (personal best!)
Slalom Rd 2: 2H @ 58k, 16m (personal best!)

I also took some photos from the site (click image above for gallery):

Since I’ve taken to the hobby of photography, I thought I might take another photography class (the last one I took was in 2002). I also thought I might start posting the photos here on my blog. To liven things up a bit, I’ll post some highlights of one roll of film at a time.

Click the larger image to the right to see the album, or the square thumbnails to see a larger version of that photograph.

This first roll was taken at “the pond” where we waterski here in Eugene.

What with my truck and bike being out of commission, I haven’t skied since the 4th. Hopefully this weekend I’ll get a chance…

June 30-July 1, Emerald Valley hosted the Emerald Valley Open at Warman Lake in Vancouver, WA. In the first round I went out the front over the wakes after 3-ball. Only 2.5 points, boo (should have been 3, but I didn’t care to argue that). Round 2 I did better, making my opener, and rounding another 4 at 34mph. 64pts. I borrowed a trick ski for the Trick round. Managed to get both sideslides, and a back for 140pts. Fun weekend!

Also at the Davis Opener, I bought $15 worth of raffle tickets. Close to the end of the raffle, Marcus Brown randomly threw in a Monza. I won it, but the Monza was too small for me, so he gave me a System-8 that had never been used.

On the water, I’ve been struggling to get back into my 36mph (58kph) form. My goal for last year was to start cutting line, but with an early season clinic, and not much practice, I kind of fell apart last year. Still striving to find my rhythm on a regular basis this spring. I’ve been pretty consistent at 30mph, but I fall way behind when I reach 34. It’s way frustrating, but now that we can practice regularly, I can have a boatload of fun working on it.

Clickety click: http://www.waterskimag.com/article.jsp?ID=44137

And I think I’ve come down with a case of senior-itis. 6 years into college will probably do that to a person. Granted I haven’t taken much of a full course load (averaging probably 10-11 credits a term). But I feel more apathetic towards my academics now than I normally do 8 weeks into Spring term. What can I say? Blah.

I applied for the Digital Arts program again earlier this month. If I don’t get in this time, I don’t know what I’ll do. I can’t recall how long the review process was last year. I just want to know now (and I want a positive response this time).

I blame my sweetie for my lack of blogging this last YEAR. I tried getting her to blog more, and that spurred I think one post on her decrepit LiveJournal(tm). On the brighter side, I love her more than anything, and she has been most helpful inspiring me to stay in this color theory class and actually doing some of the projects with me. I’ve got something like 5 paintings to get done for tomorrow though, so…. oh yea.. BLAH.

I’m not sure what else to say other than “blah.”

Last weekend Erin and I went our second skiing adventure. First going to Mt Hood Ski Bowl, and then meeting bits of my family and friends at Anthony Lakes for 2 days. This trip was a ton of fun, and also my nephew got to go skiing for his first time. Check the Pictures page for photos.

About a month ago I went on a solo skibum adventure to Mt Hood (Ski Bowl and Cooper Spur), and one of my tire chains broke.

A few weeks ago I went skiing with a friend to Mt Bachelor and got a flat tire on our way back to town (his fault, but I’m not one to point fingers).

The next Friday, I went to Les Schwab and they set me up with a replacement tire and new set of chains for no cost.

Tuesday morning I found ants in my room in THREE places, this set me back about an hour.

Then yesterday I got a flat tire on my bicycle.

I’ve also been finding myself sleeping in and/or falling asleep in class lately.

And to top it all off, Erin and I both walked away from NRQ’s Pray for Snow Party with some free ski apparel last night again.

So blah.