Vail, Colorado – Bob Goddard, one of my favorite fellow rehabbers, was in dire need of a coach so I jumped at the opportunity.  Bob – at the tender age of 57 – is battling serious nerve damage to his hips due originally to a mountaineering accident 18 months ago.  Since his accident, he has undergone surgery on bi-lateral sports hernias and bi-lateral labral tears.   Since October and his first labral surgery, he has seen huge improvements.  Only 5 months ago, one of his doctor told him he needed to completely limit his walking to only exercise in a pool.  After hearing that in Atlanta, Georgia, he uprooted his life as a real estate executive to completely focus all of his effort on recovering in Vail, Colorado at Howard Head.  Bob needed a coach/secretary for his interval spin workout so I was psyched to give this sarcastic, kind, and gentle friend a little beat down.  Bob is pretty awesome.   It’s not just his endless generosity, smile, or classic entertaining banter so visible on the surface; it’s his observant, perceptive competitiveness that fires us up.

Mike getting Bob ready for me.

There are a number of people at Howard Head with similar stories of uprooting their lives to make sure their rehab is most effective.  After spending a couple days here, it is clear Howard Head is not your average physical therapy center where you’re given a few exercises, pushed out the back door, with regular work hours.   Howard Head is open 12 hours a day everyday.  Bob and I are among the luckiest ones to have Mike Wahoff as our peerless lead therapist.  Mike like almost everyone at Howard Head is pretty kickass.  He’s constantly seeing as many patients as possible and completely willing to help and educate anyone with a keen eye.  I owe much of my rehab success to Mike and so does Bob.  But it is Mike that has created a unique social support team for fellow rehabbers to unite, persevere, and conquer.  It’s his unwavering commitment that makes all of us work together to help each other persevere our former glory.  I have to say it’s a lot easier to be battling along side comrades as the rehabilitation road is often fraught with unexpected obstacles.  A support team is crucial to success.

Mike and his sidekick Topper Hagerman, who owns Howard Head, weren’t able to administer Bob’s grueling 34 minute workout so – like any proper teammate – I jumped at the opportunity to help my fellow comrade rather than just hammering through my workout.

Game Time!

It was 10:20 AM and game time for Bob.  He just finished stretching and confidently strolled to his stationary bike, set the seat height, and slowly tossed his right leg over the seat – something he could barely accomplish 3 months ago.  It was time for battle and his eyes filled with determination demonstrating how prepared he was for this fray.  Bob started with a slow warm up, before I took over as his coach to tell him exactly how long to spin at a certain level and RPM.  During first two sets he was struggling a little from an ongoing cold that plagued him – one that is circulating the Vail Valley and especially Howard Head – but he soon hit his stride.

Time to turn down the suck and turn up the good!

In the end – during his final push – Bob went for 2 full minutes at level 7, at 120-130 RPM before his heart rate peaked at 173 beats per minutes (at age 57 an average max heart rate is 163).  It was an impressive final push.  For many of you that haven’t had nerve damage it’s hard to comprehend the magnitude of this accomplishment.  It is a very painful, slow process that takes a small step back before each step forward.  I felt the glory of his victory as his competitive nature and commitment to getting back on the mountain are as strong as ever.   Bob, your charge to fight back is starting to show your deserved rewards.

Spinning it out.

Bob’s interval summary.

Bob’s excitement is obvious.  Too bad our overly paid photographer can’t get a focused shot.  Good times at Howard Head.

Just before my great buddy and roommate Charles Christianson left for Europe he said, “I’m putting my keys right here, if you need to use my car” with a look in his eyes that said please don’t destroy my car.   Over the last two weeks, I have certainly used his car.  Just so you know, Charles,  there are an extra 1200 miles on your rig.  Thanks.  I really don’t remember driving it that much, but the odometer doesn’t lie.

When I first started driving his 2003 Passat Wagon, I felt like it was on the verge of a serious, catastrophic disaster.  The exhaust was quite loud and the car just wasn’t running all that well.  Every time I turned it on, I was pretty bummed I was driving it, but as time when on, I just kept doing it.  It felt like I was a smoker knowing it was a terrible habit, but I just keep doing because it’s so easy.  I was taking great care of the car.  I cleaned it out, washed it, and was driving like granny.

However, the damn car just kept getting louder.   Charles arrives back here on Saturday and I offered to pick him up at DIA; but instead, I’ll be in Aspen cheering on some friends at X Games so I had to get his car to Denver.  Telling him to take a shuttle service was out of the question so I planned an easy round trip to drop it off and pick up a rental car for my last two weeks in Colorado.  At 4:00 PM, Roger, Ian’s dog, and I took off to Denver and she was running really poorly.  But Roger was pretty satisfied laying on my arm.  His head is really heavy. 

That all changed as we were driving over Vail Pass.   It went from loud to ridiculously, painfully loud.  Literally, I cranked Leif’s hot Euro beats CD to 100 percent volume, but it still sounded like I was sitting inside one of the cylinders.  I needed to find someone to fix this ASAP.  There was no way I could give Charles his car back in this condition.  At 4:45 PM I approached Idaho Springs and thought there must be a welder around here somewhere so I pulled in.   I found two welding shops.

And both of them were about to close.  Bummed with two ears ready to explode I drove on.  I really wanted to find a podunk auto or welding shop that could help me without totally sticking it to me.  A few exits later, after driving up a hill and the piercing cacophony was at an all time high, I swerved toward the exit, at the end of the off ramp I turned right, and realized there weren’t any shops in this town so blew through a stop sign because a damn tourist was going so slow I couldn’t handle it.   I quickly was mirroring I-70 looking for a place to get back on.  Roger wouldn’t sit still anymore.   He was just standing up then sitting down again and again.  My head was pounding and I was really hungry as I missed lunch – not the best combination for good decision making.

Seeing a No Outlet sign was pretty dreadful since there was a hill and I couldn’t stand stepping on the gas because the car was so loud.  I could take it, but Roger was pretty bummed out.

Turns out when I blew through that stop sign and saw the I-70 sign it also said, NO ACCESS.   Maybe I should have been paying a little more attention haha.

At this point, I was demoralized as my ears were ringing.  I felt pretty bad for Roger and just wanted to get out of the car.  It was 5:30 PM and right as we got off our exit in Denver, I saw a Midas and drove in.  They seemed pretty nice and said they were open at 7 AM the next morning and could check out the exhaust leak so at least I had one place willing to help.  I had a nice dinner with Dave Dodge, the founder and lead engineer for Dodge Boots, at the SIA show in Denver and went to bed exhausted.   I got up bright and earlier to rip over to Midas as their doors opened.  They put Charles rig up on the lift and we saw this:

Which I saw and was back to being demoralized.   Matt the welder also explained how once one flex pipe goes, there is a lot of pressure on the other one.   Either way, we had a serious issue.  2 flex pipes were rusted out and the whole assembly was four catalytic converters one on either side of each flex pipe.  Damn it.  They priced out a full fix of around 1400 dollars.  Matt, super welder, figured he could cut off the welds of the flex pipes, order 2 new ones and weld it all back together, hopefully without taking the entire thing apart.  I assured him he could definitely do it (I just read Steve Jobs by Walter Issacsson and Jobs would always say things like that to motivate his employees) so I felt pretty confident.

8:30 AM the 2 flex pipes arrived and Matt started welding.  After three hours of labor, he finally finished it and she sounded like a dream.

Here’s Matt pretty pumped to be done.

Driving away, Charles, I have to say your car is running better than it ever has (at least since I started driving her in December).  It was a huge chore to go thru all this, but there was no way I was going to drop it off at the Holiday Inn Express sounding like a crapped out Harley.  So you’re welcome!

You only owe me $374.16.  No big deal, you can pay me in cash when you get back.

See ya soon buddy!

And by the way, I’m pretty sure there are some camera’s at red lights in Denver cause a couple went off when I drove through them on my way to Leif’s house after dinner the other night.  But, don’t worry I think we’ll be fine since I’m from New Hampshire and you’re from Alaska.

The skiing icon Sarah Burke died today after a dramatic crash just over a week ago.  Sarah’s publicists released this:

“Groundbreaking Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke passed away at 9:22AM January 19, 2012 at the University of Utah Hospital from injuries sustained in an accident on the Eagle Superpipe at Park City Mountain Resort on Tuesday, January 10, 2012. She was training for upcoming winter events.

As the result of Sarah’s fall, she suffered a ruptured vertebral artery, one of the four major arteries supplying blood to the brain. The rupture of this artery led to a severe intracranial hemorrhage, which caused Sarah to go into cardiac arrest on the scene. Emergency personnel responded and CPR was administered on the scene during which time she remained without a pulse or spontaneous breathing. Studies in the University of Utah Hospital Emergency Department indicated that she retained brainstem function. She was placed on life support and a protocol of therapeutic hypothermia was initiated to protect her brain. An angiogram indicated the site of arterial bleeding, and on Wednesday, January 11 the injured artery was successfully repaired.

After the operation, numerous neurological examinations, electrodiagnostic tests and imaging studies revealed that Sarah sustained severe irreversible damage to her brain due to lack of oxygen and blood after cardiac arrest, resulting in hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy.

Sarah passed away peacefully surrounded by those she loved. In accordance with Sarah’s wishes, her organs and tissues were donated to save the lives of others.

While early reports in the media stated that Sarah’s injury was a traumatic brain injury, it is important to note that Sarah’s condition was the result of a lack of oxygen to the brain during cardiac arrest.

The family wishes to express their deep gratitude to Sarah’s dear friends for their love and support, and for traveling to Salt Lake City to comfort the family.

They would also like to thank the University of Utah Hospital and her physicians and care team in the Neuro Critical Care Unit for their incredible care and compassion.

The family was moved by the sincere and heartfelt sympathy expressed by people inspired by Sarah from all around the world. They have received a substantial number of inquiries from those who would like to make a contribution on behalf of Sarah. For more information, please go to www.giveforward.com/sarahburke.”

I’ve never met Sarah so I don’t have any good personal stories about how kickass she was, but it’s just so sad to see a rockstar of our sport go so early.  Here a little clip of her for you all:

On a lighter note, the ski racing community is losing Didier Cuche next year.   He’s probably throwing in the towel because he knows he’ll have to ski on 35 meter GS skis next season.   Here is a video showing how he crushed the Hahnenkamm last year.  He has had an incredible career and wish him the best in the future.

Best Wishes,

w

A friend of mine Kuske Fahlgen just put together a sick short of the epic year of 2011.   I first met Kuske before we boarded a helicopter for our 3 hour flight from Are, Sweden to Folgefonna, Norway where he was a bit hungover and a little nervous about the flight haha.

We made it without any issues and had 3 glorious weeks ripping up the mountain and being mighty bored on rainy days in Jondal, Norway.  Here is his epic edit:  Jon and I are in there a couple times haha!

Watching those sweet clips reminded me of our sick trip so here are some more sweet shots!!!  As you might imagine, this trip was pretty fun!!  Thanks Jon.  And thanks to the Vågen family for epic accommodations and hospitality.

Last place to refuel in Sweden.

Lost and running out of gas hahaa.

Folgefonna Glacier before they groomed it for us.

Walking to our new home.

Burrito time after some skiing.

Kuske himself getting some shots.

Off to get some therapy, but checking out those pics just totally made my day!!!

w

We have a pretty die hard crew of Braun Bay loyalist for America’s Birthday.   John Whalley is undoubtedly the most diehard.  He is our Commander-in-Cheif, the Captain, and the Director of Awesomeness all brought into one for America’s Birthday.  He sends out emails like this leading up to the glorious event.  This one was sent out on March 25, 2010:

ICE OUT! 100 DAYS TILL BB2K10

This is a no bullshit email- no rambling or over glorifying what we already know is fucking awesome. 

The ice went out on the lake March 24th which was the earliest ice out on record…ever!  Braun Bay is now only 100 days away (as of tomorrow). 

Basically what I’m telling you is its time to prep. 

I’ve enclosed a list of what I think is the best way to get ready:

1. FAKE and BAKE

You don’t want to go to BB looking like shit and you don’t want to come home looking like a lobster.

2. POUND TWISTED TEAS

If you want to build up a tolerance, you need to start now.

Its like running a marathon-you don’t decide one day to run a marathon the next, unless your Guy Nickerson (ask him all about it).

3. HYDRATE

If you wanna be a hero at BB, you gotta make it through the entire show. 

No puking over the side of a boat, not even mine. Just my uncles if your going to do it at all.

4. PRACTICE PEEING IN FRONT OF AN AUDIENCE

Have you ever had that dream your naked on a stage in front of people you know?…just like that only your peeing your pants?

From now on practice peeing in the shower, down on one knee- that’s my best advice.

5. WIPE YOUR BUTT

If you’re going to do keg stands, the chance of having your bathing suit around your ankles is high….you wanna look your best.

6. A RIDE IN/A RIDE OUT

Enclosed in this email is the one method of getting to BB2K10 not recommended…SEA PLANE!

You take your life into your own hands.

7. CORRECT WARDROBE

BB2K10 is not a guarantee for sun. Rain, hail, snow, water spout, tsunamis are all possible.

Also if you wanna flash the goods, you gotta think…whats the best bikini top to dump ‘em out!

8. GAS MONEY

In these tough economic times you need to make sacrifices now for a good time later. 

Boats run on gas…not Thank You’s!

9. SLEEP 

The best way to kick off any summer is to sleep with somebody.

10. PUNCTUALITY

BB2K10 vol 1.0 is only as long as the sun is up. Prompt departure is essential for a successful day

Captin John Whalley

When John sent me a text about going out on the water with his wife Mia I was sooo pumped.  I specifically decided not to bring my swim trunks because I wasn’t all the fired up to be in the water.  Not a great plan haha I should have know better.  I didn’t realize we were going straight to Braun Bay.  Here are some shots from today!  It was pretty cold, but super pleasant.  It was 50 degrees and sunny not exactly what you’d expect in New Hampshire on January 1st.  Mia brought had an extra BB shirts – I felt honored to rock her shirt.

Too fun.  Thanks to John, Mia, and my dad for a sweet couple hours on the water!  Here’s a shot from Braun Bay on the 86er from two years ago! 

Happy New Year!

Warner

Airports are always a place to meet random people, but meeting Megan, a 17 year old girl (she specified she was 17 and a half), on her way to “meet her sugar daddy” was abundantly painful.   Seriously, that’s what she calls him, “her sugar daddy.”  Megan lives in Phoenix and was flying to San Francisco to see Kyle her sugar daddy that is “deep in his thirties.”  Before I go into detail, here are some pics from my Tour of America.

12:31 PM Boston, the start of what turned out to be more than 23 hours of travel.

13:45 PM Boston See ya!

5:30 PM Houston, Texas.

8:30 PM Phoenix, Arizona:  This is where I met Megan on her way to see Kyle, her sugardaddy.   Our flight was delayed for about an hour so I ended up asking her a ton of questions because I just couldn’t quite wrap my head around the idea of her being a call girl.   Megan dropped out of high school two years ago and is planning on getting her GED and eventually going to college.  She learned about www.seekingarrangement.com (SA) on TV.  It’s a website that connects sugar daddies with sugar babies.  SA is “the #1 Sugar Daddy Dating Sight for Those Seeking,” it’s a place for people with money to find “young attractive, intelligent, ambitious, and goal oriented sugar babies to mentor, sponsor or be a benefactor.”

The part of the TV program that made her sign up was that some of these guys are willing to pay for their “sugar babies” college educations.  But I have to say, I just can’t see that happening.  Her sugar daddy, Kyle, flew to Phoenix to meet her, he took her shopping, bought some expensive clothing, and now she’s on her second trip to see Kyle  in San Francisco.  She was grappling with the idea by constantly asking or explaining, “it’s totally ok to do this, right?” “It’s not that bad, is it?”  “I really want to go to college and I certainly can’t pay for it”  “It would be like getting a full ride to college.” All I could say, “Yeah if you genuinely like the guy.”  But all I could think is if not, you’re just a call girl.  All she could say was, “He’s nice.”  She went on to explain how much money he was spending on her and how he is a CEO of a company.  Megan lives with her mother, claims she met Kyle on facebook, and claims he’s 29 years old.  When I asked she said she didn’t do it on the first date, but admitted they had.  I can’t believe this type of website exists.   It’s almost 2012 so I guess it’s not too surprising it exists, but holy fuck this is sooo wrong and sickening I don’t know what to say.  What do you all think???

The rest of my trip was a daze as I was exhausted and constantly hoping Megan gets a chance to make it in life.

10:45 PM San Francisco, California: the door was closed, but the plane was still there. Damn it, especially since I was upgraded to first class on that one. I was rebooked leaving an hour later thru Dulles.

11:30 PM San Francisco, California: exhausted.

Dulles, Washington DC: almost made it.

10:30 AM Boston, MA and 23 hours later.  Food looks way better than it was haha.

Sorry for the pathetically sad blog, but I just had to write about it.

Happy New Year to all! I’ll give a proper update on the back soon.  As you might imagine since I did this tour of American I’m not off to Europe for the World Cup GS in Adelboden, Switzerland.   Off to Denver after the New Year.

BOS-IAH-PHX-SFO-BOS for $454.80 and 19 hours of my life is probably the dumbest smart thing I’ve ever done.  For those of you that don’t travel too much I’m flying from Boston to Houston, Phoenix, San Francisco, and back to Boston leaving this afternoon and return tomorrow morning.

After searching for a couple days, I settled on these flights.  I’m paying 13 cents per mile and I will be able to travel next year with three 70 pound bags, plus a boot bag which will save me far more than the $454.80.   However, those 19 hours I’ll never get them back!

I hope this is my seat!

Absolutely retarded, right??  Who in their right mine would ever do this?

Below is a list of charges per extra bag traveling internationally and you will quickly understand why I’m doing this.  After two international flights with all my ski equipment, I’ll be ahead of the game.   But this trip is still ridiculous!!

I kinda want to check a bag so that when I’m asked, “What’s your final destination?”  I can say, “Boston, Massachusetts.” while I’m in Boston Massachusetts.

Off to Boston after PT and some traction!

/Warner

To see his picture click on the link below, but this is what he wrote.

Charles Christianson’s  response:

In the sport of ski racing you are constantly relying on instinct. Successfully navigating a race course involves one critical split-second decision after the next. Make the wrong one and there are consequences.

The same applies to loaning your car to someone. Enter my good racing bud and fellow road warrior Warner Nickerson.

After the Beaver Creek WC, Warner needed to stay in the Vail valley to continue therapy on his back and he was essentially homeless. Ian Lochhead, my landlord and SSCV Supercoach, took him in and let him to crash at his house, putting us all under the same roof before I took off for Panorama. Shortly before I left, W and I were in his car driving to dinner when he asked in his innocent/totally not innocent way, “So Dude, what are you doing with your car while you’re gone?”

For starters, ski racers are pretty aggressive drivers. All we do is try to make a turn as fast as possible. Combine that with the false confidence that these skills are directly applicable to asphalt and you’ve got yourself one dangerous amateur rally car driver. Needless to say, I was a little concerned about loaning my car out to another ski racer for an extended period of time, especially one who wasn’t able to get on the slopes at the moment and probably needed an outlet for his frustration. My apprehension was confirmed when, as he was asking me about my car, he rammed his rental Chevy Cobalt over a curb in Vail to complete a U-turn instead of putting it in a reverse and staying on the street. “Don’t worry man, it’s a rental!” he tried to assure me when he saw the look on my face. All I could think about was the low clearance on my car and how expensive that little move would have been in my Passat.

I was very happy to learn before I left that W had lined up Leif’s Viking1, meaning I was off the hook. I ended up leaving a key at the airport parking lot (Holiday Inn Express, much cheaper than anything else around DIA) anyway and told him that my car was available in case of emergencies, but didn’t think he’d need it. Of course, about the time I got to AK for the holidays I got a text from W asking where I left the car, and if he could use it for a couple of days. The same fear crept back into my head, but I figured what the hell, it’s the holidays and it’s only for a couple of days. What’s the worst that could happen?

I awoke yesterday to a text message from Warner asking me to call him so he could explain where he left the car. Hmmm, that’s funny, I told him exactly where to leave it. I then checked my email and saw that he had tagged me in a post. Uh oh. After reading his blog post titled “it wasn’t my fault!” I was in full I-told-myslef-so mode. A phone call to him put me a little more at ease, but only a little.

This morning on the shuttle ride from DIA to the hotel I prepped myself by asking the driver if there were a lot of cars that were parked illegally at the hotel, and if they were towing them. “Yeah it’s a shitshow out there right now, but unless you parked in a really bad spot you should be okay.” Please God, let Warner have found a non-really bad spot. Sure enough, there were cars parked everywhere around the hotel in illegal spots. On the grass and on snowbanks, it was indeed a shitshow. My car wasn’t anywhere too outstanding so that was a relief, and the car turned over (barely) so I didn’t even have to jump it. I was very happy.

True to his word Warner left me a signed autograph card of him shredding a turn and some money for a car wash that he meant to get. All was good. That’s when I noticed the knob on the bass control was missing, which I am guessing had something to do with the thumping music from Warner’s burned CD titled “Beatport Top 10 progressive mix” left in my CD player. The front seat was moved way back like a ganster whip, allowing me to imagine exactly how Warner put on 500 miles on my car in 4 days.

The money went to an oil change that I got this morning, and other than the fact that the mechanic informed me that he couldn’t add extra zip ties to my skid plate because it is missing (the mechanic also told me he would be a good skier because just last year when he was in jail he could squat 525lbs) things are good. Warner is a good friend and I was happy to help him out. I’m sure he handled my car with kid gloves, and without friends helping each other out the sport of ski racing would be a much more expensive and lonely sport. I can’t wait to borrow his car some day, cheers Warner!