Aw Man, I Hate Clip Shows

So I'd call this a winter recap but I haven't really written anything this winter to summarize. Sorry. If I have devoted fans who were just dying for an update, I've let you down. If I don't have devoted fans, oh well. Anyways, here's what went down this winter in terms of sledding.

Early February:

During break I went to Friar (sp?) Park in Troy for some sledding with the AP crew. I'd heard a lot about how nice of a spot it was so I was pretty disappointed when I got there. It was nice for casual sledding but it did not receive The Sled Baron's Seal Of Approval. The highlight was an ok jump made out of a sand trap. I threw a pretty sketchy 180 and busted my knees a few times, then I left.

Valentines Day:

So after months of being a total tease Winter finally stopped being such a damn prude. As it turns out this winter was a total closet freak, give her some time and she'll just dump 3 feet on you. Daaaaaaamn. Ok, enough of this weird metaphor. Upstate New York got rocked with a storm on V-day. Classes were cancelled but did I sleep in? Hell no! I was out sledding by 7:30 at the latest. I tried dropping one of the cliffs behind New Res but decked out. I would have ridden off but I got caught on a rock. Shale sucks. I grabbed some food then went for a little backcountry. I did a few runs up by the top of the hill and ended up back behind New Res again. I should have learned my lesson the first time, but I went for it again. I dropped a different section of cliffs this time but I still decked out. This time was a lot worse though. It was about a four or five foot drop onto another rock. The sled stopped, I got ejected, my helmet went flying and I blew the emergency pads I glued on earlier right off. My sled got a real nasty gash on the underside. It was up by the front though so I doesn't interfere with performance at all. I've heard that someone has a picture of the cliff drop and/or the aftermath, if anyone knows who that is let me know because I really want to see that picture. Anyways, that sucked. I spent the rest of the day out and about showing casual sledders up and whatnot.

The Night Of The Living Sled:

Sometime shortly after the V-day storm, me and some friends (The Shred Poets Society? I think that's a pretty good name) threw some snow on the sidewalk that I discussed a few posts down and turned the snowbanks on it into kickers. They were on boards or skis so they boosted pretty good into frisbee field, like 10-15 foot airs. Once the track got packed down I was getting maybe 5 or 6 feet up, so not bad. The snow was pretty amazing, all fluffy and whatnot. In terms of sledding a few 180's were thrown, I started experimenting rolling off the top of the jump and from there trying to misty flip. Safe to say, I didn't land it. We hit that up for a good two hours then called it a night. Here's some pictures.

The Rest Of February:

The rest of the month had sledding on and off. Nothing as spectacular as The Night Of The Living Sled but we did hit up the snowbank a few more times. A pretty wonky attempt at a 360 led to my sled coming up and hitting me in the face. It wasn't fun but its always nice to have something to show for your efforts. As a friend of mine would say "chicks dig a black eye". Actually, I don't think she'd say "chicks dig" anything, but she still thinks its cute when a guy gets hurt. That's kind of fucked up isn't it? I suppose its better than the people who like to laugh at guys getting hit in the nuts though. I actually didn't have a black eye, but it was red and a little bruised. Close enough, ok? Anyways, after the spinning mishap I took a break for a few minutes. I tried a few mistys but I kept on loosing my tuck about halfway through and landing on my back. Of course my sled then hit me in the chest, but you know, whatevs. I decided to call it quits after catching a little too much of the landing towards my head. I was glad I had my helmet, but The Sled Baron left that jump a little defeated. I think there may have been a few solo sessions on that jump after that, nothing too exciting. I tried jibbing a little bit on a wooden 12 stair or so but was having problems with my jump and couldn't get up on it. Well, the jump and the fact I was being a wuss and didn't want to totally commit just so I didn't fuck up and end up in between a railing or something like that.

The next, and possibly last, real good session I had this winter was hitting up the gap in front of the commons. The best part about the gap is that frisbee field had a ring of snowbanks around the outskirts that made for an excellent quarter pipe after hitting the gap. I was knuckling out on the landing a little bit due to some snow pokiness but the quarter was consistently dope. By the end of the sess I was spinning threes off it. I don't know how much the sled was off the ground but I still kind of spun a three, so I at least half satisfied one of the goals I had for this year. As usual, showmanship was abound. The Sled Baron impressed many Commons-bound students with his daring aerial prowess. I also hit that jump up again during the Winter Carnival. The snow was pretty slow and I was decking out pretty good so I left after an hour or so. All in all, February was a pretty good month for The Sled Baron.

March:

I haven't sledded at all this month. Sorry. I might try to scrap together a jump tomorrow. I'll be home this weekend so maybe I'll have a homecoming session there. I'll keep you updated. Well, actually, don't count on it, but maybe I won't dick around and write something after I go sledding next.

PS: I added a link for my youtube page. Its not very impressive, camera phone and all that.

PPS: If anyone is interested in being The Sled Baron's personal photographer let me know.

PPPS: Isn't this a sweet photo? Props to Tasia!