After a short ride to Boulder, I met up with my good buddy Mike McCabe while he was still at work over at Folsom Custom Skis in North Boulder.  I arrived just in time to watch him lay up and press a pair of sweet looking freeride skis.  The soon-to-be owner of the custom pair of skis was there too, six pack of wheat beer in hand.  It is such a cool experience to watch the ski building process in action; the smell of the epoxy and the sound of the pneumatic press as it drops down on all the laminates fills the room, mixing in with the anticipation of the what the final product will look like.  I have to say, for a small, two-man operation, Folsom Customs is a legit place, and I encourage anyone in the Boulder/Denver area to stop by and say hi.  Bringing beer always helps!

Today, I woke up and headed on over to the Warren Miller Entertainment headquarters to tie up some loose ends from the tour, and to say hi to some of the folks working there.  It’s always sweet walking in their building, because SKI and SKIING magazines are made there too, so there is all kinds of cool stuff up on the walls.  WME is already busy lining up athletes and scheduling film shoots for next year’s film, and I picked up some much needed insider knowledge about how everything comes together.  Thanks to the personal introduction by Kim Schneider (editor of WM films), I had the chance to meet Josh Haskins (line producer) and Max Bervy (director).  It’s always great to meet the people behind the scenes of the skiing industry; the ones that bring each year’s ski stoke to audiences worldwide.  These guys have been in the business a long time, and they’ve seen everything that happens in the sport, so it was nice of them to give me a little guidance on making this whole skiing thing happen.

Since I was already in the neighborhood after leaving WME’s parking lot, I decided I would swing by the Freeskier Magazine office to say thanks for the sweet profile they printed in this year’s Photo Annual.  ‘Digi’ Dave Amirault greeted me at the door and his wave of energy hit me at once; I can see how he manages to handle the multitude of tasks they throw at him, including running Freeskier’s website and writing online features.  He introduced me to Chris Jerard and Jay Michelfelder, long time members of the staff at the magazine, as well as some of the interns.  It was really cool to walk into that office and have them all know who I was, even if I’m just another ski bum.  After tossing me some swag, including a new DISCRETE/Freeskier Mag beanie , I said my goodbyes to Digi and the rest of the crew and headed out into the heart of Boulder, ten copies of the Photo Annual in tow.

The TatsVan is acting up again, probably because she feels left out on all the adventures I’ve had for the past two months.  Since she quit on me in the Chipotle parking lot and won’t start up again, I found myself flung right back into the swing of ski bummin’ at its finest: killing time creatively.  So, I’m sitting here at my buddies’ house poaching their internet and writing this update after skateboarding around Boulder for a few hours, taking advantage of the last dry streets I’ll see for a while.  I can’t believe I’ll be on snow tomorrow for the first time of the 08/09 season; I hope my legs are up for it!

My schedule for the next few weeks will be hectic, and I hope to steal enough time online to keep posting, but if you are in the Aspen, SLC, or Sun Valley areas through the end of the month, look for me!  Hopefully the TatsVan and I will be over our little tiff, and she’ll be ready for some ski bummin’ road-trip style.