Kicking it off in New Zealand
Ah, New Zealand. This is always the first kick off trip of the year for me. This year was especially exciting. Since I had my wrist surgery in May, this was the first chance i had to really snowboard all summer. So as you can imagine, I did not hold back. My first day, Treble Cone (local resort of Wanaka) got about two feet of fresh snow! What a way to start a shred trip. I had snowboarded a little in Mt. Hood this summer, but had to take it easy. So now it was time to unleash the fury, as i like to say…. but not really. The snow was amazing, and the mountain was great. not too crowded at all. So that was the first day. Then I rode at Snow Park for the rest of the time i was there. It was about 10 days total. So i just wanted to make sure i was riding the same way i was at the end of the year, before my surgery. And after the first day I was pretty confident that i was right where i needed to be…. in riding that is.
I pretty much landed all of my tricks on the first two days. So i was pretty pumped to be riding that way after such a long break. I wasn’t just happy with my riding in the half pipe either, i was hitting jumps and rails and anything they had at Snow Park, and was loving it. It was so much fun getting to ride with all of my friends again.Now, the fun stuff. After our NZ trip, we decided it would be fun this year to take an extended layover in Fiji! This was the coolest place i’ve ever been! Crystal clear water, warm sunny days, and the people were so nice! We stayed at a resort called Funky Fish, and it was such a great place to be. There were only a few other people staying there so we pretty much dominated the island! ha. The first night, we may have had too much rum, so Gretchen and all the other chicks thought it’d be a great idea to blow fire. Yeah you heard right, BLOW FIRE! Gretchen knows this little trick to blow fire with a shot of 151, so she taught all the other ladies in the crew how to do it. And to my surprise….. no one was injured! They even got the bar tender to do it with them. Good times! Great first day/ night right. The next day, we all went to a reef break to surf. The waves were amazing, though a little scary being in such shallow waters. We all had a great time. But I definitely had a scare…..
so a pretty massive set was coming in, and about to break on everyone, so i paddled out to get past the set. well, being that my right arm wasn’t as strong since my surgery, i was a little slower than i used to be. So as i paddled to what i thought was over the crest of the wave, was not! i got pitched over, backwards and upside down through the barrel of the wave! ha. let’s just say that ended my surfing extravaganza for that day a little early. The rest of the time on the island, which was about 4 days, we did everything we could. We went fishing, snorkeling, hiking, coconut husking, and had a cava ceremony. Now what’s CAVA you ask? Well it’s the Fijian ceremonial beverage for all the villages on all the islands. Cava is ground root from a native tree. The cava is similar to alcohol, but very different. The cava, is similar to a pain killer in the type of feeling you get when you drink it. The coconut husking was pretty awesome too. One of the guys who worked at the resort taught us how to survive on a remote island with coconuts. He taught us which ones to pick and how to open them. Over all it was one of the best trips/ vacations i’ve ever been on. I just wish my girlfriend was able to come with me.