Dirty Nails, Dirty Wheels

Twenty bucks at a yard sale! A bit dinged up, but it’s a good length for my height, and according to the guy I bought it from—who was really helpful and responsive to my questions, so I trust him (and plus my buddy backed up his claim)—its problems are all solvable by a twenty- or thirty-dollar tune-up at a shop. Now I need bindings, boots… and a pass for the mountain.

Perhaps this winter I’ll learn to turn!

A tad bit earlier today, I had a great moment:  it hurt to stand up, and I was like Why am I sore today?  Which is to say being sore was no surprise, but I didn’t immediately remember what I’d done yesterday that made me sore.  Over the past few weeks, I’ve played grownup dodgeball at full blast for two hours, leaving me fuckin’ wrecked for the subsequent couple days; gone snowboarding for the first time (“like paying somebody forty dollars to kick your ass”); been to a moshy concert (Flogging Molly); and I think some other stuff too, maybe.  Last night was a three (or maybe more) hour skateventure with this guy where we explored the river and the nasty-rich Pearl district, traveling approximately six and three quarters miles by my estimate (with lots of good breaks to look at the river and stuff).

I’m doing things I like so often that I wasn’t surprised to be sore, I just wondered what caused it.  Nice.

On Saturday, I went snowboarding for the first time in my life, after wanting to for like six and a half or sevenish years.  It was harder than I expected; there’s less crossover from skating than I’d hoped.  I’m super-sore everywhere:  my arms, my neck, my sides, my chest, my butt, my legs, my shoulders.  I haven’t learned how to turn yet; my current style is bombing straight down the hill (what feels like) really fast, doing whatever the snowboarding term is for a toeside standing slide to either reduce speed or stop, then changing direction and resuming my bomb.  Occasionally punctuated by thumping, tumbling, powdery falls.  I only had one that hurt, and it wasn’t bad:  I could hear my cervical vertebrae crinkling around as I spun upside down through the snow, I sat up with a tweaked neck, hung out there for a minute looking at the empty hill above me and catching my breath, then humped myself back onto my feet and continued my run.

The whole thing was at times intimidating and frustrating, but it was really good.  I finished much more comfortable and capable than I started, I did runs that felt pretty scary when I first saw them but that I was eager to repeat by the time we left, and I went really fast.  A great night!

Next step:  learn to turn.

Update:  I was talkin’ to this dude living on the street today, and he said in his experience, every time he’s snowboarded (or perhaps he’d skied?) it was “like paying somebody forty dollars to kick your ass.”  I can get behind that assessment.

I just saw an ad for Red Bull in which the company pushes itself as a meaningful motivating force for:  skaters, snowboarders, surfers, breakdancers, djs, wingsuit jumpers, motocross riders, cliff divers, and probably a few other groups too.  Thrilling music soared, athletes talked about their passions in voiceover, high fps shots played in slow motion.  It’s the kind of thing that can really get me going, and in some contexts, I love it.  But here?

Get that garbage the fuck out of my face.

You know what motivates people who do this stuff?  The fact that it makes us feel wonderful, excited, fulfilled, scared, bonded, like family, powerful, alive.  Yeah, it’s hard to make a living on these things, and I can see how corporate sponsorship could look tempting.  But I think we do a disservice to our arts when we make them a marketing tool for people who want to sell us chemicals that make us think we’re healthy so we don’t really have to be (‘cause what the fuck else is an energy drink?).  If we really do these things for the freedom they bring us, we’re walking backward every time we align ourselves with corporate profit.

Red Bull is bullshit.  Keep your hi-def slow motion; me and my skateboard will be out crushing capitalism.