Challenge Aspen at Mt. Hood

Video: LINO’, an Animated Surf Flick

Check this video out...I've watched it ten times already. The music is super mellow, vibing well with the impressive stop-motion animation that makes those little Playmobil figurines look like they're just shredding some epic waves. Lino', made by Karim Rejeb of KarimRejeb-SurfArt.com, is a masterpiece fit for anyone who has played with plastic toys. His vision of the world of surfing, a...

Friends of the TatsVan: Scott McBrayer – Bull Rider

Scott McBrayer, better known on the Freeskiing World Tour as McSlayer, just rode his third bull at the Carbondale Thursday night rodeo. Known for tossing frontflips to a stomped landing off of 40 foot cliffs, it's his background as a hunting guide and cowboy that makes Scott really stand out. He didn't make eight seconds (the minimum time for a score) in this ride, but as any cowpoke knows...

Mobile Lifestyle: The Mobile Office

I have found two activities to occupy my time, each of which helping to engage the frontal lobe or get my heart pumping hard. On sunny days, the choice is easy: I grab my inflatable stand-up paddleboard (iSUP) and cruise with the bus and clients to the river put-in. I help unload the boats, ditch the deflated iSUP board and paddle, drop the bus at the bottom of the Shoshone Rapids section ...

Pingu Goes Skiing

This is a funny viral video that has hit the winter audience. Stop-motion animation is so fun! (WARNING: some adult language and themes) For those who haven't been following ski design innovation over the past few years, rocker technology is an ancient design that has found a new life in current ski brands. Ski companies are adopting the early-rise tips and tails of the old carved, wood...

Friends of the TatsVan: Leo Ahrens

This is especially true for the junior competitors, whose parents have had the foresight - and made the sacrifices - to know that these competitions are helping to groom their kids into the more well-rounded skiers which the greater skiing audience can identify with. For 17 year-old Leo Ahrens, that barrier has been broken, and he's got two shred-sticks on his feet ready to continue smashing...

Posted By: Tats on June 12, 2009 in All New Posts, TatsVan Chronicles - Comments: No Comments »

After a 20 hour, two-day drive from Aspen to Oregon, Jonathan Mika (coach), Sam Ferguson (mono athlete) and I rolled into Welches, OR to a fatty spread of a condo. After a few trips to the Portland airport to pick up the rest of the athletes the next day, our troupe of skiers were all itching to get out on the hill and get some turns. Little did I know, there is a lot of work getting these adaptive athletes to the slopes.

With a departure time of 7am, we pulled the cars around to the athletes’ condos and began to load in mono-skis, outriggers, backpacks, helmets, wheelchairs and a ton of skis. Somehow we managed to fit everyone and everything into the vehicles and were soon on our way through the thickest fog I’ve encountered in Oregon. Gwen, one of the visually-impaired skier guides, let me know that this was a common phenomenon here at Mt. Hood and that the fog was actually a cloud. She said that the biggest problem with the visibility was that it gained altitude throughout the day where it begins to cover the ski hill too. I found this out much sooner than expected.

Three hours, more gear loading (or unloading at this point), and four runs later off the top of the volcano that constitutes Timberline Ski Area on a sheet of snow/ice known more affectionately as the Palmer Glacier, we found ourselves navigating blindly through the thickest cloud I’ve ever tried to ski through. Mika even commented that he felt dizzy from a temporary bout of vertigo on one particularly fast run. Now understand, when I say blindly picking our way through the treeless glacial terrain, there is a bit of irony, as our little training group includes some visually-impaired (VI) skiers, and even they had trouble with the circumstances. Each VI skier has a guide that skis about a ski length or two in the lead and the VI skier attempts to follow the same line that the guide sets. On a bright, blue sunny day, this is already a difficult set of tasks. Add in almost zero visibility and that is a recipe for confusion; luckily these are some experienced guides and VI skiers!

Today being our first day on the hill and with only a few of the athletes having made the trip the weekend before to Arapahoe Basin, Kevin Jardine (head coach) decided on a simple sets of drills to kick off the week’s skiing activities. After sitting on the couch all off-season, it was great feeling snow under my feet, and skiing with the team was great. But more on that to follow…

Until the (very near) next time, do something cool with your time, smile at the sun, or just kick it. I’ve gotta get back to being a coach at this Challenge Aspen summer race camp, so check back for more later!