Beardness

When I started working at the beav, I knew they had a strict grooming policy.... either full grown facial hair or clean shaven, no scruff. Since I had Crystal's brother Paul's wedding to attend I chose the clean shaven route. At the beginning of January I had about a week or so off of work, and so I took the opportunity to grow out some facial hair. Having blonde hair, even with a solid base, it looks like scruff, so in an act of desparation I used a light brown eyebrown pencil (found in the makeup aisle of our local walmart) to darken my beard. It looked good and totally passed.

So after I started teaching with a nice light brown beard, I started getting awesome tips. It's freakin showbiz and we put on a show, and sometimes you gotta get into wardrobe before the big concert.

So that was all good, until I started to get sick of using that pencil every morning. Back to walmart for some Just-For-Men beard and mustache dye. Whoops. Here are some variations on my clown makeup.

early season pic - no facial hair

facial hair (natural)

light brown added to the outside

browned soul patch

just for men added.... effect minimal (hard to tell due to different lighting)

round 2 of just for men.... (i let it sit in while i was distracted at the computer... whoops, way too long)

tried to trim it up. still pretty intense.... well thatll probably mean even bigger tips.. maybe. dammit.

Time to get back in the game, Mitch Yost

Wow, really been slacking on this whole blog thing. But way to do work, Mac. It may just be a lame excuse...but we've really been busy working and stoking out here. I'm not really sure how to structure this post, so I'll just throw down my thoughts and hope they organize themselves.

The first part centers on some areas in which I've personally been slacking (the first of which being this blog, as I stated before). It's so easy to fall into the trap of "living the dream" and just get complacent with daily routines, knowing that there's bound to be some sort of stoke (without actively seeking it). The problem with the daily routine complacency thing is that it's so hard to think about the future, since things are so damn good in the present. So, just to get it out of the way, I'll list my future as another area in which I've been falling behind. I haven't really been giving too much thought to what the next step is, so I should really get on that. I'm weighing several options at the moment, including but not limited to: snowboard instructing in New Zealand; doing some type of tour gig in Europe; staying in Colorado and working at a golf course or doing landscaping; heading to Chicago to stoke out with Jon as he starts his portfolio school studies there (although I have no idea at the moment what I'd do there)...so several options. All of these are summer options, with me naturally returning to Beaver Creek (hopefully full-time) for the '10-'11 winter season. The only wrench in these summer plans is a possible trip to France with my family for almost all of July, so I still need to figure that out. (Another route would be going to grad school, but that is frankly much more of a commitment than I want right now. Plus, I'm still completely undecided on what I would study, and I'm not about to shell out all that money for something about which I'm unsure.) So those are my thoughts on my future.

Another area in which I've been letting myself go is my personal health. This is not as dire as it sounds, since snowboarding indubitably burns thousands of calories every day...but it's something I'd like to get under control. We all eat healthily enough, but we could definitely be healthier. One thing that is keeping all of us from being in tip-top health is our beer consumption. We're not alcoholics or anything (well, maybe we are...), but we could certainly cut back. I'd also like to start eating more vegetables, fruits, and other produce in general. We have a high fiber and protein diet, but we could definitely eat more of the good stuff. Also, I just worked out today for the first time since getting to Colorado. As I said, snowboarding is quite the workout, and we're fortunate to be able to do it so much. After all, it is our job. (Note: I'm pretty sure Mac, Ingo, and myself are all verging on 50 days snowboarding so far this season! 100+ days would be ideal...we're totally going to do it.) But I do enjoy lifting, doing pull-ups and push-ups, etc. so I need to start incorporating those into my routine, at least a few days per week. To sum up this section, I will set a goal for myself for the coming months: to cut back on beer, eat more produce, and work out more. I need to start getting shredded for Samantha and Sebastian's wedding in Key West in May!

Another huge area of improvement is that I need to start going to more places. We've been here for nearly two months and have yet to snowboard at any other mountains, except for Copper for our Level 1 certification. Our Vail Resorts employee passes entitle us to FREE riding at Beaver Creek, Vail, Breckenridge, Keystone, and Arapahoe Basin. We have only ridden the Beav thus far. Pathetic. (And despite our--especially Mac's--enthusiasm for night riding at Keystone after those cert days at Copper, we homunc'ed out on that.) We not only need to ride all of those other mountains and check out their local scenes; we also need to check out several other places. We've been slacking on our Las Vegas/Lake Tahoe trip planning, so we need to get on that. What would be better than a Vegas/Tahoe trip with just the BULLS? Joshua Tree in Cali is also a must, as well as Glenwood Springs (a town west of Avon with natural hot springs) and a bunch of other places. Money is definitely an issue, but we can make all of these happen; I'm certain of it. We need to stop having Avon/Beav tunnel vision and take advantage of our primo locale and branch out to other places!

There are definitely things we need to make better, some of which I listed above...but damn, it really has been "The Experience of a Lifetime" out here. First off, I can't say enough for the two clowns with whom I live. Mac and Ingo are always so stoked...two of the best mates a guy could have. Maybe this sounds lame, but there's a lot to be said for enjoying the company of those with whom one lives. We could be living with a bunch of random schmucks, which would suck ass. But we're freakin mint with our living arrangements. The social scene is awesome as well. The free concerts at Vail are fun; Trivia Night and Karaoke Night at Loaded Joe's are a blast; the "club" at Foxnut ("ClubNut") is decent most of the time (free sake...for girls); and other places are fun, too. I'm really pleased that we've hung out with so many awesome people recently. We were falling into the trap of not going out (and going to bed early due to exhaustion from the day), but we've really stepped it up. We have a great condo, so it's naturally awesome to have a bunch of people over and share it with them. We have made so many friends out here, and it's great to hang out with all of them.

Ok, I'm getting sick of typing, and this post is way too long as it is...so I'm out. Let's set some goals and stick to them!

Rob

Movitation (I)

We absolutely love our jobs. But a certain dilemma arises many mornings due to our part time status -- if we want to work, we can show up and work.... BUT, theres also the option to sleep in and freeride. While work is good, the latter is extremely enticing. It's hard to go into work when you see that. Oh wait, but then you look at your bank account.

Part of the problem, is that you know that if you go in to work, you're going to be teaching a group of awesome kids, and they're probably going to think you're the best instructor ever, and then they're going to come back the next day, and then you're going to feel bad if you don't also come back. It's a vicious cycle. Maybe we just need to start being big assholes so they don't come back.

Speaking of which... Cert 1

We went to Copper for our Cert 1's, and it was actually a pretty good time. A fair amount of freeriding between the "testing" (we were there for 3 days and each day we were tested on a different theme: instructing, movement analysis, and riding).

Unfortunately, we totally missed out on going to Woodward though. Woodward is Copper's indoor training facility, where you have the opportunity to huck yourself off monstrous fake-snow-carpet ramps into a pool of foam pieces without killing or evening hurting yourself. Add this to the need-to-do-before-the-end-of-the-season list. Also: loveland pass, sky chutes, and adult diapers while riding.

Jibfest I

Scott has this rail built from wood and pvc pipes in his backyard. We hit it up for a couple hours to celebrate the four of us earning our AASI Level 1 Certification.



Totally sketchy. He and his friend built it by eyeballing it, no measurements used (engineering is for suckers.... on a sidenote, no one died).


We were all able to at least tap the rail, but Scott was the only one masterful enough to ride it out. Check back at the end of the season... the steez in our knees is sure to increase at least several notches...

EL JIMADOR

so masterful, so disasterful... delicious like patron, cheap like jose.

MAN ARE WE MINT!

This lifestyle is amazing. We are getting paid to snowboard...'nuff said. Mac and I are incredibly fortunate to have found such an awesome roommate, Ingo. MAN IS HE MASTERFUL! It's been a month since we first settled in here, and we are already moving our way up the instructor ladder. Mac, Ingo, me, and our friend Scott got our Level 1 snowboard instructor certification at Copper Mountain, half an hour east of here. We are WAYstoked. Well, kinda weak for a first entry, but expect more stoke to come.

I'll leave you with this bit of wisdom: do NOT call Bradley "Brad", and do NOT call Dally "Bradley". Got it?

winterstoke9TEN

On Nov 30th, 2009, Mr. Roxbury and I both left our office jobs for the last time. Early the next morning we set out intrepidly westward to begin work as snowboard instructors in Colorado. Oh hellllllz yes!




(kansas)


(yea this is the town we now live in)