Time to Hit the Slopes: Getting in Shape for Ski & Snowboard Season!

Snow skiing & snowboard season is officially upon us!  It’s time to tune and sharpen your boards as well as your fitness, if you want maximize your potential for fun while minimizing your risk for injury.  Make no mistake: downhill alpine riding is very high-intensity and very demanding physically, and will test every measure of your fitness.  Trust me, you don’t want to roll up to the slopes on day one of the season totally out of shape and collapse into oxygen debt just getting all your gear on, suffer from low-back spasms on the morning of day two, or worse yet, rupture a knee ligament on your “last run” of the day.  So take precaution and action now!  Pay your dues in these next few weeks leading up to your first trip to the slopes and not only will you avoid injury but you’ll actually be fit enough to enjoy riding the mountain, instead of just suffering through a half day on the slopes, just to make it to the lodge and start downing beers by lunch.  Fellas we indeed have to earn that post-ski beer and it will taste so much better!  And even if you are in good shape right now with a respectable fitness level, it still will make your mountain experience more rewarding if you add some sport-specific exercises into your routine that mimic the movements and intensity level of riding the bumps, carving the groomers, or hucking your favorite cliff.

This article was originally written by me and published in the NOV '13 issue of Four EL magazine

Maui Family Vacation:) A surf trip sorta!..

     For the record you can never technically call a family vacation a 'Surf Trip' - and I've known this! Even if the whole family surfs, eventually the wife and kids will demand a break from the constant search...from all the gear...from all the risks taken to score an empty surf break chasing 3rd hand information.  And even IF you score that empty, firing break it still comes with all the unknowns:  Why isn't anybody else out?  Is it sharky?  Is it shallow reef?  Crazy currents?  Private access with ornery locals?  Surfers understand and appreciate that it's not just scoring waves, but it's also the excitement of the search and the cumulative reward of all the small discoveries along the journey...

Coconut palms patch found on the backside of Honolua Bay, Maui's NW corner

   

Salt of the Earth

Despite dabbling with (inherently vain & narcissistic) modeling for the past 12 years, I've always had a innate repulsion to pretentious, elitist, flashy people.  Hence I never was willing to move to Hollywood, never willing to give up my (Blue-Collar) occupation as an airline pilot to pursue the talent industry full time and still drive an old, dirty Toyota pick-up littered with dog hair.  So I had an absolute blast producing this 'Salt-of'-the-Earth' series of photos.  I'm not claiming to be so humble or down to Earth, but it is a characteristic that I've always been drawn too.  If nothing else it was a fun, family project and got us out exploring off-the-beaten-path shot-locations.  And yes, I make fun of people who drive BMWs or Range-Rovers too haha!