Around the world in 30 days
It seems like just yesterday I was in Aspen with my fam, riding powder, and playing with puppies and presents. But A LOT has happened since then. I launched my my new website www.gretchenbleiler.com (GO CHECK IT OUT AND DON’T FORGET TO SIGN UP FOR NEWS AND UPDATES ON THE BOTTOM LEFT HAND SIDE OF THE HOME PAGE). I was on the cover of ESPN The Magazine (such an honor and a TRIP!), I won the XGames halfpipe!, went to the snow sports trade show in Vegas to help sell my new line with Oakley, “The Gretchen Bleiler Collection”, went to California to finalize the new drawing designs for Fall 2009 line…..and have recently spent the past three weeks in Japan. And no, it wasn’t for a foreign exchange program.
This winter I’m filming for Oakley’s all-girl video project and Japan was our first trip. We spent two weeks on the North Island of Hokkaido, riding neck deep powder off the side of the roads (hiking in powder that deep is not easy my friend….at one point I thought we might drown) and on the resorts of Furano and Asahidake. After about 10 days of riding, we headed to Tokyo to experience Shibuya (for it’s shopping and famous cross walk), Harajuku (for more shopping and serious style), and Asakusa (for it’s temples).
Then everyone headed back home to the US and I……stayed in Japan for my third week; seriously turning Japanese at this point and quite honestly going a little crazy because of the brain washing repetition of some of the noises and sounds of this country….check out my go211.com profile for the videos to prove it.
The Nippon Open was next on my list of things to do and I was really looking forward to a new environment (Alts Bandai resort on the main island) with some of my great friends and a familiar contest routine. Filming in Hokkaido, and I believe filming in general, is a totally different head game then what I’m used to; it’s hard to get shots, it’s a lot more hiking and building and driving then actual snowboarding, and group dynamics can be wearing. So I welcomed this week with open arms! After a few days of every kind of weather you could ever imagine, the sun came out and the pipe shaped up for finals. I had a really fun day of riding and ended up in second place. I love warm, sunny, spring time days like these, they get me so excited to learn new tricks and just RIDE!
And here I am now on an airplane from Narita Japan to Moscow, Russia…..once again while all of my friends head home to the US, I carry on deeper and deeper into what’s totally unexpected and foreign to meet up with another group! This is where the title of this blog comes into play. This is my first official trip around the world and I am doing it in about 30 days! Aspen to Idaho to Japan to Russia to Miami to Vermont back to Aspen…..all one trip…..one very long, exciting trip in every sense of the word!