On the one hand, it snowed a lot which is good. But I didn’t find this season the be one of my best in terms of being able to use the snow for my purposes. As soon as the storm cycle relented at the end of March, it got super warm and messed up the snow. Literally the first sunny clear day, the snow got baked by that very afternoon. I was hoping to put something good together for Sugar Bowl’s video contest (like interesting powder riding with a lot of creative and freestyle stuff on natural terrain features, or at the very least that kind of riding on fast spring snow) — and I did try but I did not succeed, I wasn’t able to capture what I can really do. In retrospect I don’t really like it much and the conditions I had to work with were utter crap so I am not super enthusiastic about posting my video here. Maybe I will change my mind, I don’t know. It is on youtube, you can go find it. I was riding slow sludge or dust on jagged ice crust most of the shots, it was so bad. As someone said to me on the chair lift one too hot and slow snow day, “this snowpack is such a tease”. It was such a tease.
I want to get good shots, I was so badly to annihilate all preconceptions and misconceptions people seem to have about where the level of women’s riding is in this “genre” of snowboarding. Putting myself through those logistical machinations of trying to make things happen in such “not good” conditions this spring gave me invaluable experience that will be very relevant to what I am trying to do. I’ve been taking it kind of easy since Boreal closed (had some good pipe sessions there at the end of April and early May). I went and took some runs at Donner Ski Ranch last weekend. I don’t really want to financially drain myself in pursuit of N. Hemi summer riding. I don’t know if I will be able to pull off any S. Hemi trips before fall but if I can and if conditions in NZ look okay, I may try to get down there for a couple of weeks.
I had several good days of lake surfing but now the weather pattern has changed to summer and there aren’t going to be waves for awhile.
It has been a season of much questioning and thinking. When I decided to stay here in the Tahoe area for another winter I wasn’t sure I even wanted to be snowboarding. I was writing a lot of strange things. I was wondering if it was time to go, to leave the snow behind and flee to the coast. it hasn’t been easy, trying to progress as a snowboarder and trying to find a niche. It is a harsh insular little society if you are not one of the chosen ones…and I have never been. Some people have done some really negative things to me to try to hurt me and tear me down. It was pretty dark, and it was hard to feel like there was a bright happy future in snowboarding for me when it seemed like I was unwanted and the way I ride or think or create art is not conforming to the standards of the machine.
But ultimately in life, I will do what I want and follow my instincts and my heart. If I wanted to be painting and that was my medium I would find a way to paint and to get my paintings into galleries and sold. When I have no money and all of my gear has 500 days on it and is beat to death and no one wants to ride with me and I don’t have any of the perks of those snowboarders who have money and gear and things and peer groups to film with and all of that…well, I just go out and ride anyway. I just go out and film anyway.
I am focusing on the creative natural terrain riding and the “freestyle in natural terrain type riding” that has been what I have most enjoyed since I started snowboarding. I am going to film what I am doing whether I find people to do that with or have to do everything myself. That is where my heart wants to go. I wanted to run away and go surfing forever because I thought I could find that kind of freedom of expression in the ocean. But when it came time to decide and commit to moving to the ocean I realized that I didn’t want to leave the mountains. I like what I am doing. It is fun. I’ve started to film some of my riding and I see what I can do and I really believe in myself that I can do this. I am doing this. Everything is real now and I have a purpose.
Here is a little storm edit from the first big snowstorm event since New Years. It is a weather video with a little bit of snowboarding in it. Nothing really interesting in terms of riding, but good to see what I can do with the camera with limited help filming my own riding. A new big, cold snowstorm has arrived tonight.
Pattern Change by Cortney Harrington on Vimeo