Clear?

After skiing pow all morning at Snowbird on the legendary 21st of December 2010 we decided to get spinny flippy in the afternoon. Overall it was an awesome time. This is a clip of a very close call. Some kids told me the landing was clear so I went ahead. They were wrong. I basically landed on the kids skis who was in the LZ. If it looked that close with a GoPro you can imagine how close it was. We had a quick discussion about proper spotting/safety right after this.

Snowbird Powder with Scott Markewitz

On Monday night I got a call from the biggest name is Outdoor Sports Photography to come shoot at Snowbird the next day. I was excited to say the least. The day dawned blue. We had 6 inches of fresh overnight and the mountain gave us early access to get out there to get some good shots.

If I had to give one reason why I've pursued this "professional skier" path I would have to say the experiences. The gear is awesome and definitely enhances the experience, but it all comes down to moments like Tuesday morning when you have an entire ski area all to yourself to ski powder under blue skies.

Hopefully some photos get published from the day. It felt really productive. We had great light, snow and access. Below is a photo taken by Jared Ishkanian of one of the airs of the day:

Mouseketeer and Thetans going through the typical woes of puberty.

Markers, paint and stain on the front of the glass. Paint and pages from a 60's maturation text book on the back side of the glass.

What Can Rocker 2 Do For You?

I think this pretty much speaks for itself and requires no further explanation.

And you may ask yourself... why is there a coffee table on this blog?

Well, I guess it's on here because I built it. There was a time when we bought our first home (just married and putting my wife through college) that we were so poor we couldn't really afford furniture. We didn't even really have the money to buy lumber so I'd go get the broken palettes from dumpsters behind local stores. I'd then build all kinds of furniture out of the scrap wood found in these dumpsters. I've always been fond of the pieces, but my wife has been happy to slowly replace them over the years. Anywho, this is one of those pieces. I just recently refinished it to match the new house.

Floating guy with teeth. Oh, and trees on his back.

It just sort of rolls off the tongue. This is one of my most recent paintings. As I start this blog I figure I should have a little content going before sending it out to anyone. This painting was done with pencils, inks, and paint on a board I found at a property. It may be somewhat of a self-portrait... metaphorically (although not done intentionally). I usually don't know what a painting is about until I'm done with it. I like painting from the subconscious. If I set out with a theme in mind the piece will seem forced and a cliche when done (to me anyway).

The new Salomon Rocker2

These just came in. Super cool looking ski both in terms of dimensions and graphics. The tip and tail are really unique. It actually doesn't have any metal edge for probably 8-10 inches in the tip and tail. I guess it's actually honeycombed in the tip and tail reduce swing weight as well. The portions of the metal edge just before and after the gap are heavily de-tuned. Flex feels really lively in both tip and tail, but super solid under foot. I think it would be just about impossible to hook an edge on these things. I'm beyond stoked to take these out for a spin.

Big Cliff. Small Skier.

Shot by my brother Michael R. Allen.

Dirty Filthy Robots and Their Genital Abnormalities

You may not want to watch these in church: