Westbound Boarder

An interview with me on Women Talk Sports.  All the background you’ll ever need on Westbound Boarder and competitive snowboarding!  Maaan I need to be media trained! (And maybe I should have showered, first? )

Interview with Andrea Nowack from Women Talk Sports on Vimeo.

Great news!  For all you old media gurus, we have finally created a way for you to continue to receive and enjoy Westbound Boarder content every day, with out having to visit our site.  To put it another way - you can get Westbound Boarder delivered directly to your e-mail inbox!  If you look at the righthand sidebar on our site, you will notice a new box that says “Subscribe via E-mail,” where you can enter your e-mail address.  You will be directed to an external feedburner site, where it will ask you to verify, then it will send you an e-mail confirmation that you will also have to confirm.  Feedburner will send you a daily digest of all our newly published content each afternoon.

Over the next couple of months, you’ll begin to see some significant site enhancements and improvements as we continue to evolve the site based on reader feedback and suggestions.  Enjoy, and thanks for subscribing!

Monday as I drove to work after a blissful 4 day vacation, I blasted the song “Manic Monday” on my way in… OK, not really, but I thought about it! (Come on guys, I’m hip). The first week in 2010 is always a time for reflection (ie. How you are really going to stick to your workout routine this year because this year is “different from the rest!” Hm, ask me in December of next year?) and in good suit I suppose this week on Westbound Boarder has somewhat been dedicated to reflection as well.  But it’s time to quit looking back and start looking ahead, instead.

While chatting with a group of my girlfriends the other day, we stumbled upon the topic of our 2010 resolutions.  And it got me thinking, “Hm, what are my resolutions?”  Well, after thinking about it, pretty much every bullet on my list had something to do with snowboarding, in some way, shape or form.  So, I scrapped my usual “get fit” resolutions in favor of a couple of shredolutions.  Here’s my list!

• Visit and review at least two resorts I have never been to (I already have plans to check this one off the list over the next couple of days in Colorado!)  Also high on the list - Mammoth and Park City.  Should I shoot for a lofty goal of four?
• Stop shopping and save more money … (this is, of course, somewhat of an addendum to the above-mentioned goal).
• Land a big air 360 … without breaking any bones in the process.
• Learn some cool stuff in the pipe (really, anything other than a straight air or indie/method will do!)
• Take a run with Shaun White (wait, shredolutions are supposed to be attainable?  Oh, I see…)
• Take more action photos (and learn how to use the fancy settings on my new camera).
• In case goal 3 didn’t specify … no more broken bones!

So, enough about me, what about you?  What are your 2010 shredolutions?

Wow.  It’s hard to believe that it has been more than a year since we published our first post on Westbound Boarder.  My how time flies!  2009 was an extremely busy, but great year, and we’d like to thank all of you for stopping by our blog.  We hope you’ve enjoyed reading!

In case you’re new to our blog, or simply just want to refresh your memory, here is a list of our most popular posts from 2009:

• Spotlight Female: Kimi Werner, National Spearfishing Champion
• Skimboarding, The ‘Shore’ Kind of Fun
• Windells - The Funnest Place on Earth!
• Get Those Ladies Off Yo’ Board!
• Westbound’s Guide To Sk8board Tricks
• Surfing: Longboard vs. Shortboard
• Resort Review: Vail, CO
• Saturday Shop Review - Val Surf
• Featured Female: Chanel aka CC
• Snowboard Buyer’s Guide: First Things First
• Safety First!
• ‘SUP With Your Board?

We’re excited to bring you more in 2010 and beyond!

(Note: If you would like to be a guest blogger or contributor, we welcome any and all female voices in the action sports industry!  Contact us at westboundboarder@gmail.com)

Last weekend when I was home in Portland for Thanksgiving, Danielle and I packed our bags and hit the hill for the my season opener.  (In fact, I do believe it was both of our first days up).  It was such an amazing day - several inches of new, fresh pow, a perfect blue-bird day, and of course, great company.  Danielle’s hubby is teaching lessons at Timberline this season, so we opted for T-line as opposed to our usual Meadows.  I haven’t been to T-line in years (I think the last time I went was for my high school snowboard team’s state championship meet - yes, that was a long time ago!) so it was a nice change of pace from the crowds and lines that characterize Mt. Hood Meadows.  (Now I’m not saying I don’t love Meadows - it has been and will always be my #1!)

Anyway, after arriving to the mountain (and spending a whopping $59 on lift tickets) we were ready to ride.  We got a lot of riding in for the maybe 5 or 6 hours we were on the slopes, namely because there were very short lift lines.  Most of the time we were able to just hop right on!  We spent most the day on the Mile, because from what I hear a nice day up top is pretty hard to come by.  There was a park with some pretty nice tables and jibs, but after a few first-day-up spills we decided to ditch the park and freeride.

We finished out the day with the Alpine Trail, a “top secret” trail that only locals know about (OK, maybe that’s a bit of stretch) that takes riders along a 2.5 mile trail from Timberline to Government Camp.  We started from the top of Magic Mile and made our way down to (and through) the Alpine Trail - 3.5 miles in all.  Man were we spent!

Thanks, Timberline, for a great first day up, and I’m so looking forward to more just like it!

Morning everyone; We have some exciting news to announce!  This week, Westbound Boarder was invited to join the Women Talk Sports blog network, an online network that connects the very best blogs, experts and fans to women’s sports with the goal of promoting and empowering female athleticism. (”Very Best” in their words, not ours, though we like to think our site is the very best ) If you look at our sidebar you’ll notice the network button we’ve added; definitely take a moment to check out the WTS network because it has some great content and neat blogs covering everything from running to BMX tied to the initiative.

And along with great news comes big changes, and Danielle and I have decided to take a step back from writing for a while (oh don’t worry, we’ll still keep your minds fresh with fab new content) but we’ll also be focusing more on site redesign and business development so we can be sure Westbound Boarder is in tip top shape as we head into the 09/10 ski/snowboard season.  With that, you’ll begin to notice over the next couple of weeks some significant design changes, hopefully to make the site easier to navigate and more fun to read.  We have many great ideas up our sleeves, so stay tuned and keep checking back for the latest and greatest!  We’d love to hear from you, either in the comments below or at westboundboarder@gmail.com with any suggestions you might have.

Hey fellas - Just wanted to send out a quick note and let you know that we just created a MySpace account!  So now, instead of just reading our blog each day, you can connect with us on MySpace too!  Oh, and on Twitter, and Facebook, and…  Anyway, go check out our new page and let us know what you think!  And friend us, because we need some love  Lates!

Hey westbound boarders;

A quick note to our readers - As promised, Danielle and I created an events calendar highlighting various boardsports competitions and events around the west coast.  While the calendar is still in its infancy (we plan to spend the next few days updating) it is now live here (or click on our events tab to access).  Our goal in creating this calendar is to provide information about cool events from all over in one central, easy-to-find location.  We hope you find it useful!

If you’ve heard of any events that aren’t already highlighted in the calendar, feel free to shoot us an e-mail and we’ll add.  Hopefully you have the chance to make it to at least one of these events this year!

-The girls of Westbound Boarder

So the time of year is upon us yet again - it’s time to make (and hopefully keep) our 2009 New Years resolutions. As I am one who has quite the large bucket list, I always enjoy updating my goals and deciding what exactly the year will bring my way. What’s on the top of my list? Although I have a variety of goals in many areas of my life, I will share some of the highlights:

• Each snowboard season I make it my goal to ride on a new Mountain AND snowboard at a new resort - this year it’s Vail - and next week with Andrea, to be exact!!
• I also add new tricks to my snowboard list and attempt to master them throughout the season. This year it’s both frontside and backside 360s and a backside boardslide on the C rail - wish me luck
• I want to pass the CPA Exam (only one more test to go) - wish me some more luck!
• Work out 4-6 times per week; gotta get (and stay) in shape for snowboarding!
• I also have a goal to visit a United State every year that I have never been to (this year I am double dipping with Vail, Colorado, and hopefully more).
• Keep my job (Dang this recession).

So there you have it; a taste of what 2009 is going to bring for me! Go ahead, make your own list - I dare you. If you don’t want to, at least make some goals on the mountain, and check out this Snowboard Tricks site for some help along the way. Let us know what tricks you have mastered this season by shooting us an email at www.westboundboarder.com; we would love to hear about it! Happy New Year  and THINK SNOW!