from L to R: B-Dub; Jana, & Mikey V makes 3 (or Family on a chair)!
So I haven't been skiing in more than a decade - ever since I took up snow-boarding back in '96, to be precise. Snowboarding was nothing that radical or new by then, and I've never been one to adopt a fad from the very start, but I sure loved that hip-rocking back-and-forth motion you made while carving turns on the slopes WAY more than I ever liked bounding side-to-side on a pair of skis.
But this past weekend Jana and I piled ourselves and a metric shit-ton of winter gear into her car and drove to Mammoth from Vegas via Amboy (about a 6 hour detour down near Joshua Tree in order for Jana to scout out a shoot location) in order to do just that - GO SKIING!
And you know what? I had an absolutely BITCHIN' time! Jana doesn't snowboard and I'd never tried those new 'parabolic' shaped skis that they have out so I thought I'd stick with Jana for the day and give those a shot. And, to be honest, I think I did pretty good. For not having been on a pair of skis for so long, it sure didn't take much for me to get back into it. As much fun as it was, I did miss snowboarding and am really looking forward to going back to Mammoth to do just that!
But it wasn't just the time on the mountain that I enjoyed. The boyfriend of one of Jana's friends, Eric, booked a house right on the ski resort slopes for everyone and we all (24 of us!) fit into this nice little condo with a hot tub (yeah, yeah!). We arrived and Jana went straight to work fixin up Spaghetti for everyone who would be there for Friday dinner. It was good! Big, heaping plates of garlic bread (Mmmmmmm, I looooooooooooooove garlic bread) and pots and pots of pasta and sauce. The best part about bringing all of our crap in from outside while Jana cooked was the smell of garlic and olive oil cooking on the stove. Just simply delicious.
And it wasn't just the condo and the food - the real prize of the weekend goes to Jana's Hermosa Beach friend group. It is a pretty rare event that you can enjoy such a varied and large group of people down to the last person. And it's one of the things that attracted me so much to J to begin with: she doesn't hang out with douche-bags! Hey, it may sound stupid, but it's important.
One shining moment of wonderful companionship that I won't soon forget was on one of the first runs of the day when I got a little overly confident a little too early and hit a small jump on the skis. I went airbound and my feet went airbound even more behind me. So I tucked my head and did a digger into the fresh powder. I stuck a perfect landing right in front of EVERYBODY - and, of course, they all clapped and laughed - what're friends for? But lo and behold, just a couple seconds later here comes B-Dub and he does the SAME STUPID THING! So I did what anyone would do - I told him to pose while I snapped a portrait of him there in the snow. Its the first image on the left, above. And that's what I mean about the quality of this particular group of people: I only met B-Dub the night before at the house - I already knew most of the other folks from HB, and I didn't really even spend that much time with him Friday night because I was getting drunk with Mikey V and being camera nerdy. So really... HOW COOL IS THAT?
Mammoth Mountain is an amazingly huge area and I'm looking very forward to going back there to snowboard it with Jana. I would feel lucky if the HB crew were to come along on that trip, as well.
Jana gets a point for dragging me along.
A~
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Hi Ya, I wanted to chime in here... first of all I wanted to take a second to honor and love my man!!! He's the sweetest most amazing man in the world. That post was so beautiful A.
Now, MAMMOTH kicked some serious ass this year. We had so much fun! Aeon is a really great skiier, I was impressed with his pick up and go ability. Since he hadn't been on skies in over 12 years. It was a treat to bring Aeon around the HB crew. These are the people that have become family to me over the years. It was so great to see everyone, even better everyone loved Aeon (after all who doesn't),
We're looking forward to going again next year!!! Next year I'll take some snowboard lessons and snowboard alongside my sweetie.
~ J
__________________________________________________________________
Hi Ya, I wanted to chime in here... first of all I wanted to take a second to honor and love my man!!! He's the sweetest most amazing man in the world. That post was so beautiful A.
Now, MAMMOTH kicked some serious ass this year. We had so much fun! Aeon is a really great skiier, I was impressed with his pick up and go ability. Since he hadn't been on skies in over 12 years. It was a treat to bring Aeon around the HB crew. These are the people that have become family to me over the years. It was so great to see everyone, even better everyone loved Aeon (after all who doesn't),
We're looking forward to going again next year!!! Next year I'll take some snowboard lessons and snowboard alongside my sweetie.
~ J
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