Up at CMH right now shooting a segment for Warren Miller. Been snowy so been skiing a lot of pow in the trees. This is a shot of Andy Mahre in front of the heli and the fire that our pilot Roger builds for us everyday during lunch. Yes, this place is awesome. Be here til Sunday then headed straight to Vancouver for the Olympics to commentate on Freestyle for NBC. Bummed that Daron Rahlves got hurt at X games. Have not heard the final prognosis.
I ran into the legendary Franz Klammer during the world cup at Beaver Creek. I love watching his Olympic run from 1976 in Innsbruck when he won the Olympics. Check out the ruts in the course and minimal fencing in the video below.
I always liked “Loveline” when it was on MTV. Dr. Drew was cool and provides a great service to people. It was very hard to try to be entertaining while dealing with peoples’ messed up situations. I learned a lot. I could ask Dr. Drew questions all day. He skis so we will get him out there one of these days. Here is a link to a small clip of us on the show: Loveline
My favorite paper, the Wall Street Journal, interviewed me for an article on Shaun White. I guess he had mentioned my 02 “Dinner Roll” performance when talking about his plans to unveil new tricks in Vancouver at the Olympics. Most of what I have to say about the subject is in the video which I embedded. The written part is very brief and my quote is little out of context. Of course, I do have some moments of bitterness when thinking back on my 4th place result but I don’t mean to disparage my competitors. In general, my performance there has been a highlight in some ways equal in satisfaction to my gold in 98, X silver in 99 etc. although it has taken me awhile to realize that. It has been a great part of my whole career. I love hearing people recounting the 02 games. There was no hesitation for me. Had I known ahead of time that I would not be able to win, I can’t say that I would have done the same thing but I felt strongly about presenting the myself and the sport in its most advanced stage on the worlds biggest stage, the Olympics. I am flattered that my performance pops into Shaun’s sphere when he is thinking about his strategy, even if it is as a “don’t.” I remember what I did as do others and my performance contributed to the evolution of a sport that I love. In the end, I was true to the spirit of Freestyle competition and I can live with that.
Video portion:
Check out this pic of a bench in front of “The Grove” cafe in SF Marina District. Billy Kidd still being represented with a pair of his signature Hart skis. Billy Kidd and Jimmie Huega (son of lift op in Squaw Valley) were the first American men to win medals in the Olympics in skiing (1964). Four years after the first televised games in Squaw Valley which celebrates the 50yr anniversary of those games this year. Ski history is cool. Read “Skiing Heritage” my favorite ski mag. You can check in out on Google books.
Sailing with World Champion Paul Cayard and Knarr owner Sean Svenson. Paul got us on top of the podium. Thanks, Paul, you are man.
Got back into Olympic style weight lifting. Used to do it when I competed, but stopped for awhile. This video of Pocket Hercules is awesome.
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
