The Season of Fall

Every year summer comes to an abrupt end and we are all left with this similar emptiness inside... Boats are being winterized, beaches become desolate and only absolute madmen brave the chilly surf for one last shred session. Whatever your warm weather passion may be, it gets stripped away from you before your ready to let it go. The Season of Fall is the inevitable dilemma in which we all face. For people like myself, who have a passion for wakesurfing in the summer and skiing in the winter, fall becomes a time of waiting. The autumn season is this giant void in the calendar year where nothing seems to happen. Its far to cold to be jumping in a lake, but not nearly cold enough to get dumped on. For two and a half months we are at the mercy of mother nature, and all we can do is sit around and twiddle our thumbs. 

In the downtime ski and snowboard enthusiasts find themselves talking about the latest gear, last seasons conquests and when they are planning on clicking in for the first time. These conversations are always fun and add to the anticipation of winter, but after two months your patience for discussions wears thin. Questions like: What skis are you getting this year? What mountain is opening first? What jacket looks the sickest with your new helmet? You can only debate these issues for so long, you come to a breaking point where you just need to shred something! To feel the mountain air pierce your face and feel your edges rip through those machine groomed early seasons conditions. As Old Man Winter lay dormant your ski talk becomes silent, and the fire that is skiing grows uncontrollably inside of you.

Finally the day has come! A ski mountain near you is open, and you can feel it in the air that your season starts today. You have rallied-up enough of your buddies to make the one open trail from top to bottom worth the hour-plus drive it takes to get there. Breakfast sandwiches, Starbucks for the drive, Red Bulls for later, some SkiMonster Radio and before you know it your in the ski area parking lot. You don't even care that your treading through mud in your fresh Dalbello Kryptons because your only about 100 feet away from stepping into your skis and getting in the lift line. As soon as you sit on the chair, Red Bulls are cracked and the silent treatment that you and your buddies were giving each other about gear talk is lifted. Everyone is extremely stoked on their new stuff, and overly excited to tell the person next to them how sick they think they look. You see the summit approaching so you tighten your gloves, fix your Oakley's and raise the lift bar. As your group rises to get off the chair someone lets out an obnoxiously loud SICK!... And thats when you know that your season has officially started.