Snowboarder Magazine brings together all the talented ladies once a year to shred a park specifically designed for us. This year it was held at Snow Summit, CA. Located right next to the famous Bear Mountain in the quiet little town of Big Bear Lake, a couple hours from Los Angeles. Every year my team goes there, but I've always missed out, so I was super stoked to finally get to go there. Funny enough, the canadian girls, Marie and Joanie, that I roomed with at the Billabong Flaunt It were also making the journey from Quebec to L.A. I didn't have a place to stay yet, and they hadn't rented a car yet, so we teamed up and I rented a PT Cruiser for all of us, and they let me sleep in their hotel room on a roll-away bed. (I ended up owing them $5)
Before we drove up to Big Bear, we wanted to check out Venice Beach since we were right there. Finding parking was so frustrating seeing how it was Sunday evening and everyone and their dog was out for a beach walk. After about an hour, we finally found a place not too far of a walk to the beach. There were vendors lined up to take tourist's money for their artwork, little restaurants with tables extending out into the sidewalk and many bikers and rollerbladers, and walkers crowding the sidewalk. We found a little restaurant that looked good and finally got to get some dinner. The sun was setting and the palm trees silhouette against the orange sky. It was beautiful. But time to go because we had quite the journey ahead of us.
I followed the GPS while the girls dosed off and we finally made it up the winding road and found our hotel late into the night.
We slept in, tired from traveling and adjusting to the 3 hour time difference. Today was a free day...we didn't have to be at Snow Summit until Tuesday. It was a gorgeous day, and I didn't want to pass up my chance to finally ride at Bear Mtn. We got up there for half day and rode the park top to bottom. They had so many different options it was hard to decide what to do every run. We saw girls we knew who were also there for Ms. Superpark. It was fun but short-lived. We were anxious to see the set up for the week, so we drove over to Summit to register and check it out. Nothing could be seen from the bottom and the lifts had already closed, so we would have to wait till tomorrow to see.
The next couple days brought some good weather, some wind and clouds, and a little bit of snow. But standing out no matter what was important because this was an opportunity of a lifetime. Anyone who knows about Superpark knows that what Pat Bridges thinks is crucial to you becoming pro. He is the senior editor of Snowboarder Mag and he is "The Eye" in snowboarding. He will take you from the bottom to the top if he sees potential in you. One night, when no one came back to get shots in the dark, Joanie, Mary Rand and I rolled up to the pole jam to wall ride set up where Jess Kimura was getting done with her shoot. She was over it, but we had just begun. It was the scariest thing I've ever hit, but I did it with confidence and started to get comfortable. We were there for probably 4 hours and finally, at 10pm, the photographer and I both accomplished our goals. It was a sick shot, and after about 50 times hitting it, a couple falls, and a lot of snowmobile rides back up to the top, it all worked out and I got the shot. (G.T.S.) How good of a shot, I'm not sure, but Bridges told me it could be cover worthy. Could be. I was tired, but my mind kept me up that night, thinking about how much fun my first photo shoot was. It had been 3 long days of trying to impress everyone, and now it was back to Montreal for the Shakedown. The season was coming to a close and only a few more events until a long break. I was excited but sad at the same time. It had been a long and successful year with bumps along the way...
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