Winter.

It’s that time of year again everything seems to slow down to a staggered pace as the mercury slowly falls, the ground begins to freeze and the precipitation begins to fall in the always welcoming and beautiful white powder. Which also means this is the first ski season in over 3 years that I both Tracy and I will be working full time. Meaning not only will we have the means to go to the hills (not a cheap sport at all) but I will not be bogged down and distracted with home work every weekend.

I have always loved the sport ever since the first time(s) that I went with my father to those times that I went with friends. The new changes to the sport, which I have mentioned in my previous blog, are yet another incentive to get out there and do more and attempt to get better each year.

This change has also affected the films that are created on skiing today -also mentioned in the previous blog. Pro ski videos have always had that ‘extreme’ sport style and why wouldn’t they? There is no way that you are going to purchase a film filled with footage of average skiers going to your local ski hill to head up the chairlift, snow plow down that nasty ramp at the end, and then proceed to ski down blue square runs and then enjoy a cup of cocoa in the chalet.

Nope, since ski movies began it has been to see men and women at the top of the sport taking huge cliff jumps, skiing down ski slopes that are so steep that once they make their decent most of the snow follows them as an avalanche begins directly behind them. Or to see places that the average skier will not go to ski, Nepal, Alaska, Patagonia, Africa and so on.

But I have always loved skate, snowboard and mountain bike videos b/c they each have a culture that comes with it. All of the talented action scenes are intertwined with each sport’s specific styles of music, attitude, humorous pranks, partying atmosphere and camaraderie within the sport. Now ski videos and the sport have caught up and share the same content as other extreme sports. It was always there but with free-style skiing taking over classic, it is much more exciting.

Although many are younger then I am some of the best are around my age and I look up to these guys. Guys and girls like Seth Morrison, Jeremy Jones, Victoria Jealouse, Sage Cattabriga-alosa, and many others. There are No time clocks. No teammates. No Rules. No signing bonus. These are my sport heroes. I hope to get a hold of a few of the Teton videos as the one showcased above which is their latest: Lost and Found.

So too all those that embrace winter for whatever reason get out and enjoy it. And if winter isn’t necessarily your favorite brand of vodka try to get out and enjoy it any way you can -in the very least it will maybe make it go by a little faster for you.