9/25/20
Relaxing, mellow session this morning. More yoga beforehand, too.
The sun is shining yet again, and temps were not crawl-back-in-bed-with-your-tail-between-your-legs cold. It was cool and in the 60s, pleasant. Back to the New Britain bowl I went. Before dropping in, I worked on some 50-50 stalls. This was on the mini-quarter pipe. I watched a YouTube video where the guy gave this tip of staying “light on your feet” at the top of the ramp.
I made that my intention and felt a difference. I was able to get more straight up and down on the coping, instead of perpendicular to the ramp like before. No makes, but I did feel some progress. I didn’t spend too much time there either, the sun is coming up later and later so I didn’t have as much time as a few months ago.
I dropped into the bowl with the plan of just pumping around. I guess I’m getting pretty decent at it because I’m running into situations now where I’m getting up to the coping. A few times my front truck slid on the coping, the loss of grip in the wheels freaked me out and I ejected. After that I thought, bring that “light on your feet” intention over here, too.
Not to try to lock into the coping, but just at the top of my pumps. I focused on shifting my body and CG around so that I was putting almost no pressure on the deck at the peak of my carves. I didn’t necessarily go for the coping, so I’m not sure if this helped yet… but I did notice something else:
I was more effectively building speed. I felt like I was working with the ramp, not against it. That was cool.
With this newfound pumping nuance, I tried something else. Instead of dropping in, I tried building speed from the bottom of the bowl. I just gave myself a few pushes and then started carving around, pumping along the way.
This was a hell of a leg burner, and it worked! After like 3 loops around the bowl I was at the speed I’d be if I just dropped in. That was pretty fun, and I want to keep doing it, great leg workout.
I’m getting kinda bummed about the reduced daylight. This will pose a challenge to my goal of 365 days on board this winter… so we’ll see how that goes. I did just order a split-board though, which I’m amped about. If I can find a line up at Talcott mountain that could be a daily pre-dawn hike and shred…. assuming there is snow. That’s a BIG if.
Also been considering a monthly Airbnb in Vermont near Killington, combined with a season pass. Shred for an hour every morning and then log in to work from the cabin…
Another idea is a season pass to Mount Southington here in Connecticut. If the winter is cold enough and they can get enough snow made, this might be the easiest option. Especially because they have night skiing.
There might also be Shrednesday so I’ll see if I can get in on that and do some indoor mini-ramp skating.
And as always, I’ll be keeping an eye on the Atlantic throughout the winter.
There are a lot of options, some more expensive than others. Some risk not having any snow. I need to consider all of them and come up with a plan.
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