Paddle Fever

From board and bindings to bathing
suit and boat. It's kayak season!
I will soon return with news on my excursion to the Atlantic coast but first there's the annual Paddle Fest across the Lake in the beautiful Adirondacks of New York (see photo). No, I don't have to paddle across the lake to get there.... So stay tuned for more Travel Rider adventures.

And watch out for my newest sport windsurfing. My Czech friend says it's very dangerous and you can get up to speeds of 50 - 60 miles per hr. So this will make it two new extreme sports learned in one year!! So perhaps it is not so much
the sport that is extreme than my desire to ........

Stratton: Day 2

By day two, my group's riding skills had improved so much that we were considered good enough to ride with the cream of the Burton crop! We rode two hours with Donna Carpenter, co-owner of Burton snowboards. Well, I admit, maybe it wasn't really our skill level that afforded us this rare opportunity but it sure was good public relations on her part, and she gave me great tips on the snowboards I should demo. She's a lovely, laid-back woman, originally from the South, with great stories about this year's olympics in Italy, about travelling and riding in New Zealand and the bad pick up line that Jake used on her in the bar where they met. Donna is peddaling the pink -- expect to see a lot of it in next year's line of Burton women's apparel. Our group actually included a New Zealander named Peta (now a New Yorker, shown here resting). Peta was good at riding her board what our instructor called "la la style" – like a surfboard – something Peta does in her other life, but Maryanne put a stop to that bad habit right away. Like I said, we all have our bad habits.

Stratton: Day 1

Snowboarding is a sport that one can advance in very quickly once past the psychological setbacks of a wrenched wrist, spinal shock or deadly whiplash slash and burn. After four times out on the board at local Bolton, Vermont, it was time to get serious. So I gave my supervisor notice, packed up my borrowed boots and board (thanks Tiff); also my recently purchased "discounted" $80 helmet; and new music by the Dresdon Dolls and Reverend Glasseye and embarked upon my first adventure in travel riding. I enrolled in the Burton Women's Snowboard Camp at Stratton Mountain in southern, Vermont. Not exactly exotic or erotic or far away, but it included free food, free Burton Women's equipment and free guys modeling next year's line of Burton women's clothing....hmm. Here's Maryanne – snowboarding diva instructor extraordinare. She's also co-author (along with husband) of The American Association of Snowboard Instructors (AASI) Freestyle Accreditation program. She also helped design and build the features at this year's U.S. Open at Stratton.

Within the first 10 minutes at Stratton, I decided I didn't particularly like ski resort chic. It wreaks of exploitation of the local worker economy. Except for the unending enthusiasm from the expert instructors in the Women's program and the positive vibe from the Burton Retail employees that fitted me out, I was greeted by everyone else with something other than what I call "customer service".
Does any customer ever enjoy the attitude of a low-waged, disgruntled, seasonal service worker whose greatest benefit (though nothing to frown at, and worth my consideration) is a free ride between two day jobs and a half-priced clinic with a 2006 Olympic champion?
Well, despite my cynicism, here's a little photo of the resort anyway, and of Bromley Mt. beyond--looking a bit more stoic in the distance than Stratton's Village Tower nestled at the base in the foreground.

Here's Hillary at the Burton Demo Tent, setting up the women's Troop board for me.
I unknowingly rode an entire run with the bindings set up backwards, thinking it was a great ride. I couldn't give her any shit though, as she was distracted with the task of recruiting what looked to be a lack of male models for the fashion show that night.

Flying Creatures of the Night

In snowboarding, I've had much to learn and much to unlearn. This is a very good example of my worst bad habit — leaning back off the front leg on the heelside turn and subsequently falling... time after time after time. The upside with learning to ride at night, however, is that no one seems to notice! I am simply just another shadowy mass lying splayed in three directions, disregarded by those who sweep past me through the air in exhilaration. Oh, how I long to be one of those flying creatures of the night!

Pun Intended

My Life-long dream job #2: being paid to travel to remote and exotic locations around the world and write travel tips and reviews on food, music and culture.

After recently taking up snowboarding, I can finally realize my dream and be a travel rider...but without the pay. Oh well, who needs it when you're having this much fun!