A look back at my 2009-2010 season so far

Here’s a look back at this incredible season that was my 2009-2010 for myself and this blog.  I spent most of the winter in Colorado but was able to travel to many events this year and it was definitely the most fun progressing year for me in the park. I’m still blown away by the love and appreciation that many of you have for this blog, it’s been quite the experience to share with you! I feel so incredibly lucky to have snowboarding in my life and happy that I’ve found something I’m so passionate about that every year just gets better!

I hope your 2009-2010 season was great and here’s to an upcoming 2010-2011 season that’s rapidly approaching.  I’m still unsure where I’ll end up but I have an optimistic feeling that it’ll be somewhere rad!

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My favorite photo:  Vancity Allie

My stats:

• First day of the season was October 17, 2009 at Loveland in Colorado. It was one of the best opening days that I can remember, good people on a great mountain with barely any lines!
• This will be my fullest season of riding since I’m out at Mt Hood for the summer working for Windells Camp.  I get to ride each session, interview campers and post updates to the Windells blog and shayboarder.com.  My riding days will be the most I’ve ever had in my years snowboarding.
• My current total is 122 days on snow for 8 months of riding so far.
• This season I lived in a resort town, worked a Monday-Friday 8-5 job and now living at Mt Hood for the summer.

Places I rode this year:

• Colorado: Steamboat, Copper, Winter Park, Breckenridge, Keystone, Loveland, A-Basin, Vail, Beaver Creek, Durango, Silverton.
• Washington: Stevens Pass, Snoqualmie Pass (Central, West, East)
• Oregon:  Timberline
• Utah: Snowbird, Brighton, Park City
• Canada: Whistler, Blackcomb

Most Memorable Days:

• YES BBQ: Normally a BBQ wouldn’t be a memorable day but when you are at a BBQ at DCP’s house it becomes very memorable.  It was my first time meeting DCP, Justin Hostynek and Dan Brisse with a variety of other local industry people before seeing the Absinthe Neverland premiere.
• Silverton 12/26/10: I went through a hard breakup this year and by Christmas I wasn’t really in the spirit at all.  I didn’t have family coming out and someone I cared about really hurt me so when I left town to spend Christmas in southern Colorado it was mostly to get away.  I ended up getting away to Silverton where the mtn is tough but great.  It made my year being able to ride out there and I can’t wait to go back.
• Steamboat with Philip: I spent a lot of this winter with Philip getting our days in on the mountain from early season to late season around Colorado.  He was my snowboard buddy and just good friend to get to know before I left Steamboat.  2/25 was a powder day together and just fun so it was the most memorable of many.
• Bruizzapalooza in Steamboat: The sierrasnowboard members decided to have bruizzapalooza in Steamboat this year and I joined along for the meetup since I live there and occasionally frequent sierrasnowboard.com.  Steamboat delivered with some new snow so everyone got a deep powder day and somewhere out there is a video of me riding the aspen trees just enjoying it before realizing someone was following me with a gopro cam.
• Buffalo Pass 1/9/10: I got the call from Trent Bush that he was coming out to Steamboat to meet up with Marty Carrigan and a bunch of the Zumiez employees before they went to the 100K event in Keystone.  We ended up going out on Buff Pass to ride sleds, get powder days and just shred.  I got to ride with Mike West from 686 and so many other rad people that the day was a win, the fresh tracks also helped!
• Park City 3/2/10: I went to Utah to re-check it out and wanted to try other mountains to see how I liked Utah as a possible location in the future.  The decision to ride Park City came down to the last moment and it was on the last day of my trip but my buddy Steph and I just lapped park and worked on our riding.  Somedays are just meant to be progression and this was one of them.
• Vail 3/28/10: I finally got the chance to ride Beaver Creek and Vail for the weekend which ended up being a great decision but the day at Vail was the most fun since I was welcomed into a new crew on the mountain.  We charged, lapped park and rode our hearts out.  The guys had mustaches which I love so it was a win-win kind of day.
• Breckenridge 4/11/10: It was Steamboat’s closing day and I knew my last closing day at Steamboat since I’d soon be moving away.  However the mtn decided to close early and I wanted to spend the day riding (not partying) so with Breckenridge having a on-snow demo by BSG I made my way down to actually use the day to ride.  Best decision ever, got to ride with friends and try out more gear that you guys wanted more of. I wasn’t bummed to miss out on Steamboat but felt it was time to not be there anymore.
• Whistler 4/24/10: It happened to be my 100th day on snow as I got to ride Whistler one last day.  I was able to ride with my friend Carrie who houses me every Telus Festival and meet up with Vancity Allie who is truly amazing in real life as she is on her blog.  We met people who knew shayboarder.com in the gondola and by the time we got laps with Allie I was beat from the fun in Whistler but still having a blast.
• Timberline & Windells Camp 6/12/10: I’ve never snowboarded on my birthday since it’s a June birthday but this year my birthday fell right on a camp day.  I ended up hitting the bag jump, lapping boxes and overall just having a fun Birthday.

Best Events:

• SIA Tradeshow in Denver, CO: What a blur of fun.  The Tradeshow moved from Las Vegas to Denver and I definitely enjoyed the move more than expected.  Every night there were parties/events and during the day it was time to check out the latest products that give me content for months.  It’s also when I get to network and see people that I only see once or twice a year.  SIA is the event I look forward to the most and it’s just so much fun.
• Holy Oly at Summit at Snoqualmie: I first attended the Holy Oly last year when the mudslide moved it to Summit West but now it’s back in the original location at Summit East (Hyak).  The best part about the Holy Oly is the vibe, the people and the fun.  It’s my favorite event to attend because in true NW form, riders cheer each other on and it’s all about having fun while going big on a massive quarterpipe.  This year was no exception and worth flying out to WA just in time to attend.  At the end of the day I even tried my hand at the QP without getting the big airs but definitely tried!
• Ride Shakedown at Summit at Snoqualmie: I wasn’t expected to attend the Shakedown but when the timing worked out that I could drive out to WA and arrive just in time for it…I knew I would be there.  The day was spent lapping Snoqualmie, my old stomping grounds and just seeing familiar faces which is always fun.  The contest was fun to watch and can’t wait to see them make it like the canadian contest.
• Love for the Ladies Rail Jam: Whenever there is a contest that is about the ladies and benefitting breast cancer, it’s a must to attend.  The love for the ladies was at Beaver Creek so I was stoked to finally ride there, the contest was a fun format with costumes and the end result was some dough for breast cancer.
• Dew Tour at Breckenridge: It was my first Dew Tour that I attended and definitely the corporate event of the event with all the crazy name brand sponsors but it was such a fun day on the slopestyle event to just ride with Leslie from Fuse and watch everything go down on the mountain.
• Grand Prix at Copper: It was THE event this year since it was an Olympic year and the riders needed to be there to get into the Olympics.  I love standing next to the superpipe at Copper, watching riders like Shaun, Louie, Greg fly over head.
• Backyard Bang in Denver: It was my first time going to Denver to watch a snowboard contest go down but Bonfire/Salomon definitely threw out it down for local riders to get in and kept it a fun event to attend.

Blog:

• I started this blog in August 2007.  I’ve had 1,672,048 total views since then.  Since last year when I put up the number, it’s almost 1 million more since then.
• For 2010 so far the busiest month was February with a total of 108,970 page views, 53,279 unique visitors and 13,838 returning visitors.
• I made the Westword Magazine’s Best Of List for Best Snowboard Blog! Still stoked on that one!
• I have 685 fans on the shayboarder facebook page and a good way to keep informed/in communication with me since I use facebook to giveaway some goodies every now and then.
• I’ve stayed in contact with twitter/shayboarder.com which everyone should sign up for, so far 1625 followers on twitter.
• I’ve created shayboarder.com die-cuts and have mailed them around the world
• Every single day that I went snowboarding I wrote about it and took photos.

Favorite Posts:

• Industry Profile Interviews: This year I condensed the interviews since I knew that they were long in the past and that my summer would be busy.  Each time I get in an interview, I’m stoked to see the varying opinions from different industry people.  It’s been fun to continue up the interviews and I love everyone who has been involved with them.
• Goodbye Steamboat, hello Mt Hood: I had known for some time that this winter was probably my last in Steamboat.  I needed change and when I spoke with Tim Windell about coming out for the entire summer it was an opportunity that I couldn’t resist.
• The no-back experience: How often does a snowboarder take off their highbacks and ride without them, just to try it out?  For me it was twice this year to experiment with the no-back experience.  The second time was doing it on camera to show that you can still snowboard like that.
• Stagnant Snowboarder: I started my progression into park at Windells last summer and this year continued that progression.  I didn’t want my riding to become stagnant and while some friends thought I was nuts, I enjoyed this season in the park.
• A decade of Capita: Capita made it 10 years of bringing snowboards and a truly great 10 year journey it has been for them.  I still have my first Capita from 02-03 season and continue to love the company.
• Stepping up to the Plate: With my venture into the park, I finally decided to start wearing a helmet on the mountain.  Now as I’m at Hood everyday the helmet is always on.
• Gore Tex Experience: I never would have imagined that Gore Tex would invite me to come visit them but they did earlier this season.  They invited a handful of bloggers from outdoors to ski/snowboard to come tour the factory/offices and get a feel for the products that Gore Tex has their hand in.

You:

I met some amazing readers this season, rode with a couple of you and I really owe everyone that reads this blog a huge THANKS for such a wonderful season!