Jonny Moseley’s Blog
The thing I remember about this ad was that they brought in a stunt double to ski for me. I did not use him, but that made me feel really big time. Also, notice the awesome trap door they built on top of the mountain in the first scene. The second scene is a huge refrigerator in LA built by John Hammer.
Sprint Commercial: “Is That A Sandwich?”
You tube is fantastic. Today I was on you tube and it recommended a video to me based on my user habits. The video it recommended was a stretch to keep your back out of pain. I must say my back is pretty much always sore. I had one traumatic back injury while competing which only kept me away for maybe two of competing, but it has always nagged me ever since especially when I begin exercising hard. Lately, I have been thinking it was my hamstrings that are tight and it is hurting my back. A friend suggested this to me after my back was hurting on a bike ride. So I have been stretching my hammies a little, but it was not really helping. The video I found has me stretching my hip rotators which instantly works. I can sit up straighter and my back does not hurt as much. One of the problems with skiing is that it over works your abductors, the muscles which rotate your thighs and feet out. By the middle of the season I am so duck footed it is awkward. As you pressure the ski, it tries to come across your body and the abductors prevent that. Some people do exercises to counter it but I am lazy about it these days. It is not far fetched that you tube suggested this video to me. I have been looking at different videos of Dara Torres’ training techniques. Dara is a five time Olympic swimmer, has a bunch of Golds but most recently returned to the Olympics in Bejing and took silver at 40yrs old. She is in awesome shape. She works with the Cooley method of resistance stretching which she credits for getting her in peak condition. You tube picked up on this and now they are sending me mostly videos of buff women, which is cool, and amongst those vids I got the ultimate back stretch from
I was listening to some reggae in Pandora and this music came on from Tommy McCook. I hit the option to read more about him and this is what came up:
“The leader of the legendary Skatalites, tenor saxophonist Tommy McCook was among the most innovative and influential Jamaican musicians of his generation, a prime catalyst behind the evolution and international popularity of ska and reggae. Born in 1932, McCook learned to play sax while attending Kingston’s Alpha Cottage School, an institution for wayward boys; upon exiting the school at the age of 14, he toured with the dance bands of Eric Deans and Roy Coburn, emerging as a highly skilled jazz player. Between the late ’40s and early ’50s, he also frequently collaborated with the famed Count Ossie, lending his talents alongside those of the Rastafarian hand-drummers and chanting vocalists who comprised Ossie’s group. In 1954 McCook relocated to the Bahamas to join a dance band there, and in the years to follow his mastery of jazz became increasingly pronounced.
McCook did not return return to Jamaica on a permanent basis until 1962, arriving in time to help push the developing ska sound to the next level. In 1963, he was approached by Studio One musical director Jackie Mittoo to lead a new group he was forming dubbed the Skatalites; McCook initially declined the offer, but by mid-1964 he accepted the role of bandleader, drawing on his extensive knowledge of jazz and R&B to add distinctive new dimensions to their sound.”
I found it interesting that a guy born in the 30’s was one of the most influential guys in Ska music in the 60’s. I never associate the 60’s with anything related to the thirties, but that is just ignorance. Anyway, I love saxophone and ska and had never heard of Tommy McCook.
I guess when I think of Ska I think more about The Specials. I know Ska started way before that but that is my association They call that era the “Ska revival. The Specials added the punk to the ska and rocksteady styles. I grew up on Selector and the Specials. I was too young to go to shows and everything but I loved it. My brothers were a little older so they were all about it.
Here is a little specials:
Of course I was into The English Beat as well. Thay were under the same label :”Two Tone” that The Specials formed. They had a 50 year old guy in the band that played for Desmond Dekker. So there you have that connection back to the early Ska days.
Let’s hear some Engilsh Beat
I was reading about The English beat and I found out that Ranking Roger who is the distinguishing voice in the band went on to form general public, which I knew, but I did not realize that two other guys from the band, cox and steele went on to form Fine Young Cannibals.
Let’s roll out some FYC, it has been awhile for sure.
I can’t remember what the hell I did this week. That is what happens when you stay home for a week. The days just blend.
Here is some SELECTOR
That was the first week in awhile that I have been home every night. Feels great. I just chilled with my son. We hit the park two times a day. I did have to do some work. I was in Sacramento helping Squaw slang season passes. They are “giving them away” this year which is sweet. I was posted up at an REI. I love REI. I bought a beach cabana. Unfortunately I had to miss the pond cross that I talked about so much. Here is a link to the video. JT Holmes, Cody Townshend, and Tim Dutton won with the 2 men and baby. Three people on four skis. Awesome. My favorite part was Jeremy Jones trying in skis in tribute to Shane McConkey. Funny part too was Tom Burt stacking trying to get across on a snowboard. Check it out for sure.Cushing Crossing http://www.tahoetopia.com/
Let’s go back in time to the The Slackers:
Toots and the maytals 54-46
Let’s get up into NO doubt
Let’s end it with the hives
Free running, check out this levi Meeuwenberg:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1mrVGVHZWA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1mrVGVHZWA
I thought the parkour was ok until I saw this video. This guy is ridiculous. It shows how being able to absorb landings in certain ways is the key to survival in sports where you jump off of stuff.
CHECK out The Moseley Method on Faction: Sirius 28/XM 52 Wed. 7pm EDT
Was in Squaw last weekend. On Sunday I was filming for a documentary about Squaw starting with the Washoe Indians settlement there. They guys filming were not skiers and they had this special camera called a “RED”. Some fancy camera that looks like 35 mm but it is digital is how I understand it. Conditions were very difficult. Wet snowfall from a couple days before on top of slush that was frozen at 10am in the morning. Plus since they did not ski we were limited to where we could go. I forced some stuff on KT including a 360 over the camera off of a semi-cornice dropping into East Bowl. Sketchy because when I landed my outrun was crust/ new/old snow moguls with chunk on top. After that I found a spot where I could air over this rock then ski out some bumps that had a little slush on them. After that I had them shoot rock garden as a long shot with a 300. We did not have time for much more because I was scheduled to be at the pool party up top and help emcee. I asked the guy if we were good and he said, yes, but could you do something spectacular! I started cracking up then I had top go.
Green day
Sometimes it’s hard to explain to non- ski filmers, what it takes to actually shoot good footage. In general I think people underestimate what goes into getting one good shot in a ski film. The time it takes to wait for conditions and planning the details. Not to mention the cameraman who are mostly former pros who whip in and out of lines with all the camera gear including tripods. I am always amazed when these crews try to shoot the stuff themselves instead of just hiring someone like Tom Day or Scott Gaffney.
Offspring
I spent the rest of the day at the pool up top in Squaw. They had an air guitar contest. After watching a few people go I jumped in myself. It looked too fun. I found it to be harder than it looks. When I watched the other guys I kept thinking , why did he not do this or that. I did the” on the back Ac/dc move,” I did the big facial expressions, the riffing on the neck of the guitar, I am sure there is a name for that. My favorite move was when I took both hands off the guitar as if it was playing itself. In the end, I felt like I was off the music by forcing some of the moves. And I could not remember some of the moves I wanted to do. It was hard to do well. I found out they have a world Air guitar championships. I checked it on youtube, Daonoji, the world champ, reminded that I forgot to smash the guitar of course. Awesome.
Here is a good air guitar song:
Van Halen eruption:
Of course, that was followed by a bikini contest. The girl who won was very good a working it. There was this one girl with a better body but she did a model walk like you might see in a Miss America pageant. The judges were not impressed, they wanted to see booty shakin, which was a little surprising because the judges were all girls.
Good charlotte
Not a bad weekend I guess. I camped on the couch and watched celebrity apprentice Sunday night. I watched Joan and Melissa rivers just embarrass themselves to no end. It was painful, I thought the mom was the most out of line and the most ridiculous. The whole thing was quite entertaining. Jesse James is going to win for sure. That Clint Black guy is just a weirdo.
White stripes
weezer
Blink 182
Foof fighters
Bouncing souls
Since I talked to you last wednesday I have been on the road.
I was in LA for Levis for the 3rd annual Powersliders competition. That’s right powersliders. You’ve heard of it right? Probably not but you have done though in its beginner form. Sliding on your ass down railings is what you have done. Powersliding is what you have not done. Extreme ass sliding is what powersliding is. Levi’s built a massive powersliding terrain park at the Santa Monica pier in LA. They had a full on contest. The course was pretty gnarly. Huge and difficult with regards to sliding, plus there was a brisk wind. The powersliders went for it and it was sick! Check it online. I was judging with Kendra from the “Girls Next door” and Wee Man who I am convinced is the same volume as Kendra’s boobs. The band that played was this two man, actually one woman one man band called Matt and Kim. Matt plays keyboard and Kim plays drums and smiles a lot. I like them here they are on the Faction:
Matt and Kim
She is a pretty and punky chick who is super fit and wails on a modified small drum kit . She sings at the top of her longs in sync with Matt but she does not use a mic. At one point she stood on her base drum singing and pumping up the crowd. I loved her. Matt is tall and skinny and leads the band with the singing from behind the keyboard. He keeps the crowd fired up with his music and his story telling. In this particular show he explained how he had just gotten scabies. Crude but it was entertaining especially because it embarrassed Kim. I guess they are a couple. Bottom line is I had never heard of them or seen them and I was impressed. Great live show. Here is another band along those lines, with a song you may have heard:
MGMT song called kids.
My whole trip was a celebrity fest. I hung with Wee man who I had never met and is cool as shit. In my hotel I got a picture with Rachel Hunter who I always liked as kid. She is older now but still way hot. She looked like she was just running some errands but when I got the picture with here you could tell why she is a super model. Her face pops on camera of course. Later that day I was having lunch on the third st. promenade and I got a picture with Audrina from The Hills. She was cool, and looked the same as she did on TV. She was having lunch next to us with her sister or something. Then of course I spent the rest of the day with Kendra from “The Girls Next Door” where she played one of Hef’s girlfriends. I actually watched that show a bit back in the day and I liked her the best I guess because she was sporty. She is now engaged to a football player and has left the mansion . I asked her immediately if she banged Hef, but I never really got an answer. Wee Man was super cool and entertaining and the crowd loved him. He says he is rolling out some show right now but couldn’t tell what so stay tuned I guess. And to top it off on way home to the hotel I look over and it was none other than Jason Ellis. Ellismate was having some family time at a Mexican joint on the promenade. I rushed over to get my picture. He said no at first but eventually I convinced him by telling him I had a show on Faction which he was surprised to hear.
Modest Mouse:
I did a bit of surfing in LA which was nice, even though I was smoked after a half hour. My upper body is so out of shape, and the period of waves was super tight in Venice beach but at least I got er done. I was jonesing to play golf after watching the masters last weekend. Did you see that. poor guy choke. Kenny Perry was winning that thing. But that is golf for you. It has to be one the hardest sports to compete in because as you start to get on top you want to overanalyze everything. Here is a small analogy. The other day I had a really early flight and I had to make it because had a paid gig on the other end. When I got home the night before I was going through my plan. Wake up call from the hotel at 4:20 am and the alarm on my phone. Of course I get my phone and set the alarm and double check everything. Long story short I wake up and its light out and I know I am screwed. Miss my flight and everything. I did not get a wake up call which is lame but not my fault. But with regards to the alarm on the phone, I had reset the time an hour behind somehow. The clincher here is that I had been using that phone and the alarm everyday flawlessly until that point.
Or how about the two foot put in golf? Normally an easier shot but when the pressure is on you look at the put twice as hard as normal and grip that putter and sometimes hose yourself. I think it is mainly because you want to be able to look back and say “I did everything I could”, but in the end that doesn’t really matter when you lose unless you count your mental sanity as important which you probably should.
Right, ok, here are
The strokes.
Ok, so the rest of my trip. I flew from LA to San Diego, which took twice as long as if I would have driven with all the transitions etc. I was in SD in order to host ALT games. Essentially it is the College Action Sports Championships. College kids competing in Wakeboarding, Snowboarding, Skiing, Beach Volleyball, Eating, and the signature sport Flowboarding. I have talked about Flowboarding before when I tried it back in the day and got my ass handed to me. Serious whiplash. I have never seen a sport that looks so easy that is so hard. Basically, it is a standing wave created by shooting water out of jets at a padded structure shaped like a wave. It is called a “waveloch Flowbarrel” in case you want to look it up. It is located in San Diego at an outdoor bar on mission beach called the wavehouse. It is a great spot and it was packed all weekend. Spring break and the beach was just slammed. Shoulder to shoulder. Great people watching. Of course there were all the girls in bikinis, but my favorites were bodybuilders and their chicks. Bulging out everywhere and the best part was they never sat down on the beach. I was hosting the show doing a bunch of stand-ups with my co-host Adrianna costa, so we watched these weightlifters for awhile and they never sat down. In the evening, the flowboard finals were closed out with a show by Rebelution, a reggaeish band that has a incredibly large draw. People were packed out onto the beach where they could barely see the band. The cops were freaking out about it all. San Diego is pretty rowdy. Here is that band Rebelution:
That flight that I missed earlier was supposed to get me to Squaw for a party for all the passholders. I made it somehow and it was a perfect day at the top of the mountain by the pool. Hot and sunny. At the end of the day I skied down and had some beers at the Chamois. Skiing is still great up there right now and San Diego is nice but it is hard to beat a nice warm day skiing followed by some beers. Although the other day I did have at day the beach in Bolinas, here in Northern, and that was pretty sweet. 88 degrees, Not crowded, good little waves for long boarding, great scenery, crispy cold water and did not see any sharks. I bought a beach tent like sun shade, that I highly recommend. Especially if you have a kid, its like having a cabana at the beach.
Later everyone, here is some Michael Franti:
Last Friday I flew home from a week at Wiegeles in BC for some heli-skiing. Great conditions, skied every day. The following Sunday was Shane McConkey’s memorial in Squaw. Everyone came out to honor SuperShane. Many stories were told. His mom told one about Shane as a two year old getting on the chairlift and getting tossed into a snow bank hard. They thought he was hurt bad and she was trying to get him to point out where it hurt. He had is arm straight out and so they assumed it was his hand or wrist but then they figured out that he was pointing at the stopped and swinging chair crying because he thought he had missed it. His mom showed him that he could take the next one and he stopped crying immediately.
Jt Holmes talked about how Shane was always into “the old” meaning, the old steal your money trick until you absolutely needed it. Jt spoke bluntly about Shane’s atheism and how he did not believe in any “crap” like “everything happens for a reason”. Therefore it just sucks that he died. He told the story of when he was bringing Shane’s stuff back from their tragic trip in Italy. Jt thought he had lost or had stolen his $650 dollars. Of course, he looked in Shane’s stuff and found his money. “Could it be that on the day Shane died he was playing “the old” steal your friends money until he needs it trick?” asked JT.
They all had said that they were Shane’s best friend which Scott Gaffney pointed out was kind of funny and spoke to how much love and respect they all had for Shane and how he showed them the same. The endearing part was when Shane’s wife took the podium and said in her cool, sly South African accent: “listen boys, he was my best friend”. I was really moved by their relationship, which seems incredibly genuine and powerful.
As a dad I really lost it when Shane’s dad Jim spoke. He was brief but was overcome. I cannot even imagine what it must be like to lose your son. It makes me cry right now just thinking about it. Jim was a legendary skier in his own right and of course knew the risk Shane was taking. But from my experience knowing Shane, he was a meticulous and careful person so I am sure his dad, as did all of us, never believed anything would happen to Shane.
I first met Shane in a Squaw gondola. I had not done much in the ski world yet and he was the man. He had long hair in a pony tail and Oakley blades on. Our conversation was short. It was not until after I won the Olympics and got invited to go on a Matchstick trip in Canada with Shane, Davenport and Morrison, that I got to know Shane. Killer right. Check it off the list. It was awesome. In one particular scene Shane skied a thirteen stager where he lost his ski on one of the 20 foot cliffs in the middle of this crazy line. He snapped in back on and shredded the rest. You can see it in “Ski Movie”. It was at this point that I reconsidered my thoughts of getting into the business where Shane and Seth made their name. It was humbling and great fun and an honor to ski with him. I drove the getaway car for him when he a based a building in Vancouver which was a total rush. I was already a fan of Shane’s but from that trip on I became a super fan of Shane’s and just like so many others loved being entertained by him. I did some more skiing with him over the years and spent some time with him. I was incredibly impressed when he competed in the gravity games in the big air contest with a switch back flip and a switch back full. I loved his skiing technique. I had always heard he was a former racer that was recruited by Burke Mountain Academy when he just 14. He was so crisp and over his skis all the time.
Most recently I had been getting some late night emails from Shane where he had dug up some ballet skiing and was giving a general heckle to the whole sport. Of course, he looked a little closer and found me in one of them and re-sent the link around with a note that said, “ my favorite part is 2:07” the time code where I appeared. One of last times I was at his house was to buy a pair of Spatula’s off of him. He had just moved to K2 and I wanted a pair of his signature game changing skis that he invented. I not only wanted them because they were the best things at the time to ski pow with by far, but I thought it was cool beyond belief that he had seen and responded to an issue and problem in skiing that existed for so many years and essentially solved it. I gladly paid about $450 for those skis and I have and still use them. I took an interview for my radio show during that time as well, which I will replay now.
Playlist: Van halen, Gnr ,Scorpions, nirvana
I am tired from lapping KT-22 yesterday. The coverage is amazing and the snow is awesome on the right aspects.
I missed you guys last week but I was slammed. We were filming in Tahoe for Warren Miller. Conditions were great. I had mentioned last week that we did some shooting in Squaw with Daron and Jamie but we got clouded over. The following days we hit Alpine meadows and did some early-ups on all parts of the mountain for a three days. We did some out of bounds stuff in Munchkins which was very cool. I had never been out there and was impresssed with terrain. A little sketchy but fun. When the snow socked in again we did a bunch of tight powder shots in the trees. It is really the only option when it socks in but some of the shots turned out great. Three or four pow turns here and there. When the weather cleared up we got Alpine really good. Cold powder out in Estelle bowl and we were able to ski some actual lines. After that we drove straight to Kirkwood to film in The Cirque, a rowdy part of the mountain that is permanently closed. The weather was clear and it was untracked but it was pretty boney. Lots of rocks just under the surface. I was pretty sketched out about but Daron Rahlves and Jamie sacked up and charged some big lines. As the day went on we skied more stuff around the cirque but Daron’s first line was definitely the highlight. He charged it through some sketchy sections and stuck it. I was really impressed. On the second day at the very end of the day we hike out to a place called emigrant aka California chutes. Emigrant is al arge face with probably about 1500 vertical and some good nasty features. We ran out there fast and Daron laid down another blaster. The only bummer was that about two minutes before Daron dropped in some other dude had hiked up from the other side and hit Daron’s line to a tee which sucked for filming purposes. He still diced it however and pretty much made one turn for every five of the other guy’s. D straightlined this chute that the other guy made ten turns in. I think it will still show well on camera. I skied another line but kind of slow and conservatively. The snow was money though. We did a ton of hiking over those five days and I was beat for three days. Every day I woke up fatigued. Slept well though. Rahlves has killer photos of the session on his site.
Sex pistols
I took some days off and went back down to Marin. My son and I took our skiff out every morning and cruised around the bay. He is 18 months and he loves it. He goes into the closet in the morning and brings out the life jacket and starts thrusting it towards me as he says “boat, boat”. He likes to ride up on top of the center counsel like a dog. We stop and check out all the seals and birds. Usually there are a lot of seagulls and pelicans but right now there are also some Canadian geese. I did not know they hung out here by the water. The seals look cool right now as well. They are kind of white with spots. The bay is really calm this time of year even though it is a bit damp. Jack does not seem to care if it rains or not he is still game.
I hit up Aspen for a day. I Stayed at the St Regis which is always nice. I was there skiing with the top sales people from company called Galderma. They make Cetaphil etcetera, I guess they I have a great sunblock that I am going to try. We tore up Ajax mountain even though the weather was not great. It was sleeting and foggy and miserable but the skiers put in a strong performance, skiing until the buzzer even though we soaking wet.
Blink 182
I also hit Stratton, Vermont last weekend. When I got there it was raining and starting to freeze. The parking lot at the restaurant was a double black diamond. The to car I was in got stuck on the flat a couple times. Walking was dangerous. The following day I skied with some guys who bought a day of skiing with me through a company I work with called Sentient Jet. The guys were cool and great skiers. The mountain was a lot better than I though it would be however I experienced two firsts: I had never seen a mogul run closed down because it was too dangerous due to the ice. Secondly I have never ducked a roped to get first tracks on corduroy while the cat was still grooming. I had a really good time skiing very fast. We hit some bumps and the park a bit which I was very impressed with. I was sure the park landing would break my heels but the groomers have it down to a science out there. I though it was my first time to Stratton but it turns out that I had been there before when the weather was foggy and clearly I was too back in 1998 right after the Olympics.
Wolf mother
It took me 14 hours to get home from Stratton to Tiburon and everything went smoothly. I could have gone Paris in less time. On both flights I sat in front of women that never shut up. The first flight I had t move, this woman was crazy. Even when the jet engine revved up she raised her voice to talk to the person across the aisle. I wanted to strangle her. She was in her fifties but she talked like a sixteen year old. In the second flight I had these two chicks behind me that chatted the whole time about he nothing but one of their friend’s husband and purple eyeliner. One kept giving the other one heat about how small her eyes were. I turned around to look at them and figured out that her eyes were small because her cheeks were like greatfruits due to the fact that she was carrying an extra 100 around. Travelling is a nightmare.
Green Day
