Skiing - My True Passion

My first thoughts upon readingng the topic for this week’s blog were “hmm do I even have a passion?” After giving it some deep thought over a glass of wine (who drank all of the beer?), I realised that I do in fact have a number of passions. At first I thought about my love of automobiles... I’ve owned a wide variety of cars, trucks, SUV’s and even a street bike. I also thought about my love for wakeboarding. There’s definitely nothing as relaxing as spending a lazy summer day out on the lake with a group of friends. Golf is another sport that consumes a fair portion of my free time. However the one activity that I truly have a passion for is skiing. It all started back when I was in elementary school. My family had planned a weekend down in Spokane, however it started snowing heavily on Friday morning, the day we were supposed to leave. So rather than risk driving through the storm, my parents decided to take my brother and I up to Apex for a weekend of skiing. At that point I was hooked. Pretty much every weekend from that point on I spent at the hill learning the art of the perfect carve, the ability to rip a zipper line of moguls, even got into (attempting) inverted airs (I’m too old to be doing that stuff now). I spent a few years in competitive skiing, however my true passion is being able to ski what I want, when I want.

Skiing is unique in a variety of ways. One of the things I love most about it is being outdoors. No motors, no concrete jungle, just snow and trees. Another aspect of skiing that is great is that it can be done either solo or in a group. Sometimes I like to take a few hours to myself and ski by myself, taking a rare opportunity to be alone and clear my head. Other times I ride with a bunch of friends, giving each other a hard time over the nasty crashes and complimenting on a perfect run.

I let others know about my passion in a variety of ways. I always love to talk skiing, whether it’s about the latest technologies available in gear or which resort just got a massive dump over the weekend. When I’m able to make free time, I also try to volunteer at my local mountain (Apex) with events, however during the last couple years it’s been pretty tough to make the time as school has been fairly demanding. Whenever a friend or colleague expresses interesting in getting into the sport, I always try to encourage them and even give them some of my old gear if it will fit. I must admit that this year I’ve been fairly busy with school and so far only managed to log about 15 ski days so far, however I plan to get in another 7 or 8 over reading break. If anyone plans on riding up at Apex at all this reading break give me a shout, as I I’ll be spending most of my time up at the hill.