101 workout so far this year,
My target weight I am not near :(
Swimming, paddling, lifting weights...
Total pounds lose was a measly SIX!
Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts
Monday, June 20, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Kirkwood in the snow
On this Sunday, I went skiing with A at Kirkwood. It was Sierra Alavanche Center's ski day and lift ticket s were only $35 each!
The forecast called for snow on Sunday morning, and chains were required. We considered taking the ski bus, but by the time we checked, tickets for the bus were all sold out! We had no choice but to go in my car.
The drive to Kirkwood was fairly uneventful. We left Bay area at 5am, and with only a short break to put on chains, reach Kirkwood at 9:30am. After a short walk from the parking lot to the ticket office, we hit the slope at 10am.
This was A's first boarding trip in 2 years, so we decided to warm up on green slope first. Since we were in the Mountain Village area, we hit Snowkirk, on lift number 1.
After 2 quick runs, A's confidence picked up a little, and we decided to move on to blue slopes.
I suggested we go up lift number 5 and ski down lower Monte Wolfe and Lower Zachary. A agreed. The snow condition was great and on the easier slope it was lots of fun.
After a few more run on the blue slopes, we broke for an early lunch. A was getting quite comfortable on the blue slopes, so I decided we would hit Wagon Trail on Lift 11 some some black diamond action. (Note: I recalled when I first ski Kirkwood 2 years ago, Wagon Trail was a blue trail. Wonder if I remembered wrong or did Kirkwood made the trail more difficult)
A really like Wagon trail! It was enough of a challenge, but not overly scary. We would spend the rest of the afternoon skiing that trial. Short spoke was opened at about 3pm, and I was able to get a few runs in on that slightly steeper slope.
On this day, I had some difficulty getting my boots into my ski bindings. This has never happened to me before. I had thought there was something wrong with the bindings or my boots, but when I had them checked by the pro-shop, everything seemed okay. I made a mental note to have the skis and binding checked before my next trip.
It snowed the whole day we were skiing and on our way back, the road was still under chain controlled. It was a slow drive.
Given it was almost 8pm when we reached Jackson, I suggested stopping for dinner at Jackson Ranch casino.
Of all my previous trips to Kirkwood, I had never stopped here! The casino was a good 1.5 miles away from highway 88. Inside, it was decent size! There were several restaurants and a food court. A and I each ordered a satisfying bowl of Pho. The hot soup was great after spending the day in the cold. I made another mental note to stop here for dinner on future ski trips, especially if we were delayed getting off the mountain.
After dinner, most of the ski traffic were gone! It made for a fast, uneventful drive back to the Bay area for us.
The forecast called for snow on Sunday morning, and chains were required. We considered taking the ski bus, but by the time we checked, tickets for the bus were all sold out! We had no choice but to go in my car.
The drive to Kirkwood was fairly uneventful. We left Bay area at 5am, and with only a short break to put on chains, reach Kirkwood at 9:30am. After a short walk from the parking lot to the ticket office, we hit the slope at 10am.
This was A's first boarding trip in 2 years, so we decided to warm up on green slope first. Since we were in the Mountain Village area, we hit Snowkirk, on lift number 1.
After 2 quick runs, A's confidence picked up a little, and we decided to move on to blue slopes.
I suggested we go up lift number 5 and ski down lower Monte Wolfe and Lower Zachary. A agreed. The snow condition was great and on the easier slope it was lots of fun.
After a few more run on the blue slopes, we broke for an early lunch. A was getting quite comfortable on the blue slopes, so I decided we would hit Wagon Trail on Lift 11 some some black diamond action. (Note: I recalled when I first ski Kirkwood 2 years ago, Wagon Trail was a blue trail. Wonder if I remembered wrong or did Kirkwood made the trail more difficult)
A really like Wagon trail! It was enough of a challenge, but not overly scary. We would spend the rest of the afternoon skiing that trial. Short spoke was opened at about 3pm, and I was able to get a few runs in on that slightly steeper slope.
On this day, I had some difficulty getting my boots into my ski bindings. This has never happened to me before. I had thought there was something wrong with the bindings or my boots, but when I had them checked by the pro-shop, everything seemed okay. I made a mental note to have the skis and binding checked before my next trip.
It snowed the whole day we were skiing and on our way back, the road was still under chain controlled. It was a slow drive.
Given it was almost 8pm when we reached Jackson, I suggested stopping for dinner at Jackson Ranch casino.
Of all my previous trips to Kirkwood, I had never stopped here! The casino was a good 1.5 miles away from highway 88. Inside, it was decent size! There were several restaurants and a food court. A and I each ordered a satisfying bowl of Pho. The hot soup was great after spending the day in the cold. I made another mental note to stop here for dinner on future ski trips, especially if we were delayed getting off the mountain.
After dinner, most of the ski traffic were gone! It made for a fast, uneventful drive back to the Bay area for us.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Sharks vs Red Wings at "The Tank"
I have never watched an ice hockey game.
There, I have said it. Despite being a semi-serious sports fan, despite going to school at 2 traditional NCAA ice hockey powerhouse, despite spending 6 years in the midwest. I have never watched an ice hockey game on TV, let alone live.
This Tuesday evening, however, it all changed. I went to the San Jose Sharks vs Detroit Red Wings game. This was a U of M Club of Greater San Francisco event.
I drove to downtown San Jose after work, found parking at the Market and San Pedro garage. The city charges $3 per entry on game night:( From the garage, it was a short walk to HP Pavilion, affectionately know as "The Tank" to Sharks fan.
I got to my seat just after the introduction of the players, which was followed by the singing of Star Spangled Banner. Then the game began...
In the first quarter, Sharks jumped out to an early 2-0 lead. I thought both scores were sort of lucky since they came off rebounds from the Red Wings' goaltender. But the lead was short lived as the Wings scored twice to even the score later in the quarter. One was a rebound off the goaltender as well, and the other was a nice wrapped around shot.
In the second quarter, the Sharks had several good opportunities. There was a 5-6 minute segment where Sharks were constantly attacking, but resulted in no goals.
In the third quarter, Red Wings got 2 more early goals. The Sharks began to develop a sense of desperation. They were checking harder, skating faster. The Red Wings packed their defense, and despite efforts from the Sharks, there were no more goals scored.
I thought the better team won. On this night, the Red Wings seems more organized, control the puck better and passed more cleanly. I was surprised to learn later that the Sharks are actually ahead of the Red Wings in the standings.
Anyway, ice hockey is quite an exciting spectator sports because things are moving at high speed. Lots of good scoring opportunities could be created quickly, seemingly out of nowhere.
The game reviews can be read at SFGate.com and MercuryNews.com
After the game, our group met with Jed Ortmeyer. He is a fellow Michigan alumni! Jed was injured in the game and needed to see a trainer, but had committed to speaking with us. He shared with us his game day routine, which is pretty simple: wake up at 10am, meet team for breakfast, work on some drills, sleep, get dinner, work on more drills, warmed up for game. We shared about broomball event and immediately, a Shark media person joked "Are you guys trying to recruit Jed to be on your broomball team?" Everyone had a good laugh.
Overall, the ice hockey was a pretty fun experience. Now I am wondering if I should go to the Sharks game with Wisconsin alumni:)
There, I have said it. Despite being a semi-serious sports fan, despite going to school at 2 traditional NCAA ice hockey powerhouse, despite spending 6 years in the midwest. I have never watched an ice hockey game on TV, let alone live.
This Tuesday evening, however, it all changed. I went to the San Jose Sharks vs Detroit Red Wings game. This was a U of M Club of Greater San Francisco event.
I drove to downtown San Jose after work, found parking at the Market and San Pedro garage. The city charges $3 per entry on game night:( From the garage, it was a short walk to HP Pavilion, affectionately know as "The Tank" to Sharks fan.
I got to my seat just after the introduction of the players, which was followed by the singing of Star Spangled Banner. Then the game began...
In the first quarter, Sharks jumped out to an early 2-0 lead. I thought both scores were sort of lucky since they came off rebounds from the Red Wings' goaltender. But the lead was short lived as the Wings scored twice to even the score later in the quarter. One was a rebound off the goaltender as well, and the other was a nice wrapped around shot.
In the second quarter, the Sharks had several good opportunities. There was a 5-6 minute segment where Sharks were constantly attacking, but resulted in no goals.
In the third quarter, Red Wings got 2 more early goals. The Sharks began to develop a sense of desperation. They were checking harder, skating faster. The Red Wings packed their defense, and despite efforts from the Sharks, there were no more goals scored.
I thought the better team won. On this night, the Red Wings seems more organized, control the puck better and passed more cleanly. I was surprised to learn later that the Sharks are actually ahead of the Red Wings in the standings.
Anyway, ice hockey is quite an exciting spectator sports because things are moving at high speed. Lots of good scoring opportunities could be created quickly, seemingly out of nowhere.
The game reviews can be read at SFGate.com and MercuryNews.com
After the game, our group met with Jed Ortmeyer. He is a fellow Michigan alumni! Jed was injured in the game and needed to see a trainer, but had committed to speaking with us. He shared with us his game day routine, which is pretty simple: wake up at 10am, meet team for breakfast, work on some drills, sleep, get dinner, work on more drills, warmed up for game. We shared about broomball event and immediately, a Shark media person joked "Are you guys trying to recruit Jed to be on your broomball team?" Everyone had a good laugh.
Overall, the ice hockey was a pretty fun experience. Now I am wondering if I should go to the Sharks game with Wisconsin alumni:)
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Kirkwood lift No 6
The Bay area rained for 2 weeks in a row. I had plans for the first weekend, but could not ignore the siren song of powder any long. On this Saturday, I bought lift tickets to Kirkwood.
Readers of my blog would know, I had ski a lot in Kirkwood the past 2 years. I am very familiar with terrain there, so it was a good test of how much improvement I had made in the last 2 years.
I took NAC Ski bus for this trip. Due to weather conditions, the bus actually had to put on chains during the drive to Kirkwood! It was not until 10am before we were dropped off at the Timber Creek base camp.
I quickly gather my gear and headed for lift 7. From there, I crossed into the Mountain Village area and go up lift 11. The Kirkwood ski team had training runs on Short Spoke, so I skiied Wagon Trail and the lower portion of the Wall instead.
After a few runs, I was feeling pretty bored. I had done these 2 runs too often in the last 2 years! I was also feeling hungry, so decided to break for lunch early.
After lunch, I went back to lift 5 and ski on Lower Monte Wolfe and Race Course. Then it is up lift 6 for Zachary, a black diamond slope.
I did Zachary once last year. Snow condition was not great and I was not in control. While I did managed to ski down the slope, I felt very uncomfortable and did not return.
Zachary had a very steep start. I hesitated for almost 5mins at the beginning of the run, waiting for boarders to clear the area, plan the route I am going to take and gather some courage:)
I decided to make small turns. On the first few feet, my form was all wrong. I actually formed wedges with my ski! I side slide a little to below the first post of the ski lift, gather myself more and was able to parallel ski down the rest of the way. It was a thrill!
I decided to try the run again. I was not in complete control on the first few feet and side ski some again, but did parallel ski on more portions of the slope.
I this point, I started feeling tired and had a Gatorade break at the cafe below. When I went back to Zachary, I was properly skiing even more portions of that slope! Unfortunately, the boarding crowd had return from lunch and there were a lot of bumps in the snow. I fell 3 times while coming down. That was when I decided to invoke "Tao's rule".
Tao was a co-worker, a good friend, and a good skiier. He once told me whenever he falls on a slope, he would call it a day. The reason being he must be tired and any further skiing probably meant it was more easy to get injured.
Of course, Tao formulated the rule while he was living in New Hampshire, and the ski slope was 2 exits on the highway north of this house. I had to spend a lot more time and money getting to the slope and was not able to go home that early in the afternoon.
I went back to go back to Race Course and Lower Zachary and skiied on the blue slope for rest of the day.
Personally, I felt I had improved even from last season. I skiied down Zachary with much more control compare to last year. Technique wise, I felt I was not "attacking" the slope enough. I still had a tendency to lean back a little and my stance was still too wide. This caused some problem while coming down steep slopes because the inner leg got caught and caused me to fall. A lesson might be in order on my next ski trip.
I finished the day at 4pm, skiied back to the bus at Timber Lodge for the long but uneventful ride home.
Readers of my blog would know, I had ski a lot in Kirkwood the past 2 years. I am very familiar with terrain there, so it was a good test of how much improvement I had made in the last 2 years.
I took NAC Ski bus for this trip. Due to weather conditions, the bus actually had to put on chains during the drive to Kirkwood! It was not until 10am before we were dropped off at the Timber Creek base camp.
I quickly gather my gear and headed for lift 7. From there, I crossed into the Mountain Village area and go up lift 11. The Kirkwood ski team had training runs on Short Spoke, so I skiied Wagon Trail and the lower portion of the Wall instead.
After a few runs, I was feeling pretty bored. I had done these 2 runs too often in the last 2 years! I was also feeling hungry, so decided to break for lunch early.
After lunch, I went back to lift 5 and ski on Lower Monte Wolfe and Race Course. Then it is up lift 6 for Zachary, a black diamond slope.
I did Zachary once last year. Snow condition was not great and I was not in control. While I did managed to ski down the slope, I felt very uncomfortable and did not return.
Zachary had a very steep start. I hesitated for almost 5mins at the beginning of the run, waiting for boarders to clear the area, plan the route I am going to take and gather some courage:)
I decided to make small turns. On the first few feet, my form was all wrong. I actually formed wedges with my ski! I side slide a little to below the first post of the ski lift, gather myself more and was able to parallel ski down the rest of the way. It was a thrill!
I decided to try the run again. I was not in complete control on the first few feet and side ski some again, but did parallel ski on more portions of the slope.
I this point, I started feeling tired and had a Gatorade break at the cafe below. When I went back to Zachary, I was properly skiing even more portions of that slope! Unfortunately, the boarding crowd had return from lunch and there were a lot of bumps in the snow. I fell 3 times while coming down. That was when I decided to invoke "Tao's rule".
Tao was a co-worker, a good friend, and a good skiier. He once told me whenever he falls on a slope, he would call it a day. The reason being he must be tired and any further skiing probably meant it was more easy to get injured.
Of course, Tao formulated the rule while he was living in New Hampshire, and the ski slope was 2 exits on the highway north of this house. I had to spend a lot more time and money getting to the slope and was not able to go home that early in the afternoon.
I went back to go back to Race Course and Lower Zachary and skiied on the blue slope for rest of the day.
Personally, I felt I had improved even from last season. I skiied down Zachary with much more control compare to last year. Technique wise, I felt I was not "attacking" the slope enough. I still had a tendency to lean back a little and my stance was still too wide. This caused some problem while coming down steep slopes because the inner leg got caught and caused me to fall. A lesson might be in order on my next ski trip.
I finished the day at 4pm, skiied back to the bus at Timber Lodge for the long but uneventful ride home.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
First snow of 2010
The Tahoe Women's Services ski day was offering Sugar Bowl ski tickets for $25, good only on Jan 10 2010. It was such a good deal, I could not resist.
This morning, I arrived at Sugar Bowl Judah Lodge at about 9:30am. Since I had a short 2009 ski season, so I decided to start on Pioneer Trail, a green slope. While I felt I had graduated from green slopes, I also had a short 2009 ski season. It was better to bruise my ego than risk injury:)
On the flat part of the run, I had difficult finding my form. I was having a lot of difficulty sliding my inside ski, but as the slope got slightly steeper, muscle memory kicked in and I was able to ski better.
My confidence boosted by a good green run, I went up to Trail blazer, a blue run. Here I really felt I got my form back. I was able to go down this slope without stopping and felt I had really good control.
I would like to add that the snow condition was pretty good. There was a little ice, but mostly skier packed snow.
After a few more runs on trail blazer, I decided to push it further by trying a short black run. I went back on Pioneer Trail, but instead of skiing it all the way down, I turned right at Donner's Way, a black slope.
Donner's way was probably as steep as the easy black slope on Kirkwood, so I felt very comfortable. Unfortunately, it was a really short black and I had to ski through mostly green trail to get there. I went down Donner's way twice before deciding to move to village lodge ski lifts.
At village lodge, I went up Christmas Tree Express and started skiing Mistletoe and Ridge run. Both these slopes were steep enough to make things interesting for me, but gentle enough where I could work on my form and technique. I would also add at this time, the snow had melted slightly and all the iciness I was experiencing earlier was gone!
After another 4-5 runs, I took a break for lunch.
After lunch, I felt pretty good and decided to try an even more difficult slope. I headed to Disney express, with the intention of skiing one of the black slopes there.
At the lift, I asked an employee which was the easiest black slope she would recommend. She told me to try Crow's Traverse, the easiest way down, but also a blue slope. I decided to follow her advice on the first run. Crow's Traverse was a longer run, with parts of it steeper than Mistletoe and Ridge run, so that was more fun. But the snow condition here was more icy, probably because the slope was away from the sun.
I decided I did not like the snow on Disney Express and went back to Christmas Tree Express. Worked another 4-5 run when I decided to take a break. I was still having a little jet lag and did not sleep well the night before. I could use a snooze.
After an hour break, I went back on Mistletoe and found my form was messed up again! My skills were clearly not very stable. Looking at the time, I figured I would ski back at Judah lodge. On the way back to the lift, my trail merge with Pioneer Trail and I saw Donner's way. Figuring I could use a short cut, I went down that way.
Suddenly, the slope looked really difficult. I was tentative skiing down Donner's way, wondering what had changed between the morning's run and this run.
I decided to try Donner's way again, and deliberately tried to start at the same location as the last run. I felt my concerns were mostly mental. When I psyched myself up, I was able to do a fairly clean run down Donner's way.
The lifts were closing at 4:30pm and it was about 4:15pm when I got down. I decided I wanted to do one more run before calling it a day. Feeling a little tired and not wanting to risk injury, I decided to do Trail Blazer one more time.
It was a good start to the season. I was happy to get my snow legs under me and felt I had regained most of last season's form. This was going to be a busy year and I hoped I would ski a few more times before the 2010 season is over.
In case you are wondering about the trails I mentioned, Sugar Bowl trail map can be found here.
This morning, I arrived at Sugar Bowl Judah Lodge at about 9:30am. Since I had a short 2009 ski season, so I decided to start on Pioneer Trail, a green slope. While I felt I had graduated from green slopes, I also had a short 2009 ski season. It was better to bruise my ego than risk injury:)
On the flat part of the run, I had difficult finding my form. I was having a lot of difficulty sliding my inside ski, but as the slope got slightly steeper, muscle memory kicked in and I was able to ski better.
My confidence boosted by a good green run, I went up to Trail blazer, a blue run. Here I really felt I got my form back. I was able to go down this slope without stopping and felt I had really good control.
I would like to add that the snow condition was pretty good. There was a little ice, but mostly skier packed snow.
After a few more runs on trail blazer, I decided to push it further by trying a short black run. I went back on Pioneer Trail, but instead of skiing it all the way down, I turned right at Donner's Way, a black slope.
Donner's way was probably as steep as the easy black slope on Kirkwood, so I felt very comfortable. Unfortunately, it was a really short black and I had to ski through mostly green trail to get there. I went down Donner's way twice before deciding to move to village lodge ski lifts.
At village lodge, I went up Christmas Tree Express and started skiing Mistletoe and Ridge run. Both these slopes were steep enough to make things interesting for me, but gentle enough where I could work on my form and technique. I would also add at this time, the snow had melted slightly and all the iciness I was experiencing earlier was gone!
After another 4-5 runs, I took a break for lunch.
After lunch, I felt pretty good and decided to try an even more difficult slope. I headed to Disney express, with the intention of skiing one of the black slopes there.
At the lift, I asked an employee which was the easiest black slope she would recommend. She told me to try Crow's Traverse, the easiest way down, but also a blue slope. I decided to follow her advice on the first run. Crow's Traverse was a longer run, with parts of it steeper than Mistletoe and Ridge run, so that was more fun. But the snow condition here was more icy, probably because the slope was away from the sun.
I decided I did not like the snow on Disney Express and went back to Christmas Tree Express. Worked another 4-5 run when I decided to take a break. I was still having a little jet lag and did not sleep well the night before. I could use a snooze.
After an hour break, I went back on Mistletoe and found my form was messed up again! My skills were clearly not very stable. Looking at the time, I figured I would ski back at Judah lodge. On the way back to the lift, my trail merge with Pioneer Trail and I saw Donner's way. Figuring I could use a short cut, I went down that way.
Suddenly, the slope looked really difficult. I was tentative skiing down Donner's way, wondering what had changed between the morning's run and this run.
I decided to try Donner's way again, and deliberately tried to start at the same location as the last run. I felt my concerns were mostly mental. When I psyched myself up, I was able to do a fairly clean run down Donner's way.
The lifts were closing at 4:30pm and it was about 4:15pm when I got down. I decided I wanted to do one more run before calling it a day. Feeling a little tired and not wanting to risk injury, I decided to do Trail Blazer one more time.
It was a good start to the season. I was happy to get my snow legs under me and felt I had regained most of last season's form. This was going to be a busy year and I hoped I would ski a few more times before the 2010 season is over.
In case you are wondering about the trails I mentioned, Sugar Bowl trail map can be found here.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Trip to Singapore 5-Via Ferrata, Stella
A few months ago, I read on ZaoBao.com about Orchard Central latest attraction: The world's tallest indoor via ferrata.
I had done some indoor rock climbing in the past and rather enjoyed the experience. Via ferrata is not rock climbing, but is similar in the sense one has to climb up a wall:) I figured I would enjoy it too.
Also, according to my online research, via ferrata is fairly popular in Europe. I personally didn't think it would be popular in California. Californians would frown upon allowing anyone to drill permanent metal rungs into rocks for any reason. Doing it to promote touring would be unimaginable.
I reached Orchard Central at about 3pm. Took me a while to find BorderX, the company running the Via Ferrata. It was located on the 4th floor. We were to climb up to the 8th floor.
I was given a climbing harness and helmet to wear. Instead of being belayed by someone on the ground, there was a Y shaped rope attached to the harness. At the end of each rope was a carabiner. This is to be hooked on a metal cable running near the metal rungs. The cable were held to the wall via anchors drilled into the wall. If a person fall during climbing, the carabiner would be caught by the anchors. The Y shaped rope ensured at least one carabiner would always be clipped in, especially when moving carabiner from one stretch of the cable to a higher section.
A second protection was a long rope tying me and my guide together. The lead climber would secure the rope in pig tail shaped anchor drilled into the wall and I was to release them when I climbed to the appropriate height.
Finally, a quick draw with carabiner at the end was connect to the harness. This is for resting. I could connect a carabiner directly on the metal rungs, leaned back and rest while climbing.
Since this was my first trip, the guide, Zaki, was the lead climber and I followed. I had expected the climb to be a walk in the park, but it was actually quite tiring. While the hand hold and foot hold were really good compare to rock climbing, there was still some exertion. Also, the metal rungs were not always in a straight line. Sometimes, it bended according to the wall and part of the metal rungs had to be climbed with out leg hold. On the lower section of the wall, leg holds were mounted to the wall, but on high section of the wall, I had to press off directly on the wall. There were also overhang structure to make the route more interesting.
Zaki was very patient and encouraging as I started climbing. There was a lot more for the climber to do compare to rock climbing. Clipping carabiners to the next section of the protection cable, releasing rope from the pig tail pin. Sometimes I would forget and found myself tied down:(
During the climb, I learned that Zaki is actually a competition rock climber. This is his full time job, leading climbs at BorderX. Due to work, he had not have time to train, but going up the Via Ferrata was a piece of cake for him. He usually take 4-10 people as a group up on each climb. But, during the holiday season, things were slower and I was the only client.
We stopped on a ledge to catch our breath, then pushed on. At the top of the climb was a small room to rest before climbing down a straight ladder into the shopping mall.
My first climb took about 20mins. According to Zaki, he had clients taken anywhere from 10mins to 1hr 20mins on this climb. I asked if anyone had fell from the Via Ferrata and he told me it had happened. It was usually a rather traumatic experience. Compared to rock climbing with belay, a fall on via ferrata would not be caught until the anchor point. The distance between the anchor point was usually half a person's height, but at certain places was up to a person height. No wonder Zaki was advising me to clipped on the the next higher anchor point as soon as possible.
I half joking told Zaki I did not get my money's worth on one 20min climb. He told me I paid for an hour and could go again! This time, he put me on the right hand route, which was a more straight route but had more difficult overhang structure. There was also no resting ledge in the middle of the route.
I asked to be the lead climber and Zaki oblidged. The initial part of the climb was fairly easy and I got up quickly. At the overhang structure, I cheated and used the quick draw to rest between each rung. I did not check the time, but felt I made good time.
After my second climb, I was drenched. Zaki told me the air conditioning did not have good flow near the wall, but I suspected my physical conditioning was not quite up to par too. I decided to call it a day.
Overall, via ferrata was quite fun. It was a pity the BorderX facility had limited number of route. While easier than rock climbing, via ferrata was still quite physically demanding. I liked the fact I could loop my elbow over the metal rungs to "lock" myself to the metal rungs while climbing. This provided much stronger hand hold using a stronger muscle compare to hand hold in rock climbing.
More pics from my Via Ferrata climb here.
----
That night, I met for dinner with Stella at Newton Circle Food Center for fried Hokkien noodles. Most Singaporean/Malaysian restaurant in the Bay area are operated by Malaysian, which prepare a different style of Hokkien noodle. This is one dish I craved for the most when I return to Singapore.
I got to know Stella while she was working in the Bay area. She had left San Francisco for Melbourne, Australia in 2007, but for family reasons, moved back to Singapore in 2008.
We talked about how life style was different in Singapore compared to San Francisco and even Melbourne. There were a lot more things to do and places to visit. Comparatively, activities in Singapore were more limited. Part of her wanted to move to a more "westernize" society, but part of her was glad she was home with families.
We chatted about her recent travels to African Safari, and her travel plans for the new year. It was a good time.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Trip to Singapore 3-Driving range with YC and Family dinner
This morning, YC took me and Yee-Chye to Marina Bay Golf Course driving range for a little workout.
Both YC and Yee-Chye are friends of my brother, from high school and Army respectively. YC is like a family friend and visits often, while I had not met Yee-Chye for about 10 years.
En route, I found out we would be going to the driving range instead of the course. Apparently, in order to play on the course, one had to pass an exam. Both Yee-Chye and myself had never played golf, so that's not going to happen:)
Yee-Chye and myself are southpaw, while YC is not. We were using YC's clubs, so we had to adapt and swing right handed. YC handed me a 7 iron, go through the basic swing mechanics and off we go!
I had trouble with locking my back on my swing and had lots of trouble just hitting the ball straight on. When I finally locked my back and got contact with the ball, I was hitting it too low. The ball did not travel far. The furthest I could manage was hit the ball about 50m.
After we had hit 20-30 balls, YC took out his driver and asked if we wanted to give it a shot. With the bigger sweet spot, the driver was easier to hit with. I was able to hit the ball about 100m, but had a nasty slice and the ball did not travel straight.
I had always thought golf was a fairly relaxed game. But after hitting almost 50 balls, combined with the hot and humid weather of Singapore, I was completely drenched.
YC took me and my parents to lunch at Tunk Lok Classic. We had a cold spinach appetizer. This dish was very similar to a Korean spinach salad which I often prepared, but used sesame paste to further heighten the flavor. We also ordered a Chinese BBQ pork with Chinese hot mustard as appetizer.
This was followed by scallop and abalone in soy sauce. Here, I tasted a nuttyness to the sauce, and suspect it was thicken with butter. There was a steamed bamboo clamp dish, and we finished with steamed fish with wood ear mushroom. The seafood were all very fresh, and there was very creative use of sauce.
For dinner, it was a family affair at my sister's house. My cousins, who are both working in China, happened to be vacationing in Singapore and joined us. My sister planned the menu and prepared bruschetta to start, "Westernized" salt-water duck and baked salmon with dill mustard sauce for the main course. She also made a orange chiffon cake with lemon curd and mixed berries for dessert. There was also a cheese platter and Australian/New Zeland wine for the after dinner conversations.
After dinner, I went with my cousin and his girl friend to Zouk. It was fairly dead. I guess by Boxing day, most people had enough of Christmas parties and had wanted to take a break.
Both YC and Yee-Chye are friends of my brother, from high school and Army respectively. YC is like a family friend and visits often, while I had not met Yee-Chye for about 10 years.
En route, I found out we would be going to the driving range instead of the course. Apparently, in order to play on the course, one had to pass an exam. Both Yee-Chye and myself had never played golf, so that's not going to happen:)
Yee-Chye and myself are southpaw, while YC is not. We were using YC's clubs, so we had to adapt and swing right handed. YC handed me a 7 iron, go through the basic swing mechanics and off we go!
I had trouble with locking my back on my swing and had lots of trouble just hitting the ball straight on. When I finally locked my back and got contact with the ball, I was hitting it too low. The ball did not travel far. The furthest I could manage was hit the ball about 50m.
After we had hit 20-30 balls, YC took out his driver and asked if we wanted to give it a shot. With the bigger sweet spot, the driver was easier to hit with. I was able to hit the ball about 100m, but had a nasty slice and the ball did not travel straight.
I had always thought golf was a fairly relaxed game. But after hitting almost 50 balls, combined with the hot and humid weather of Singapore, I was completely drenched.
YC took me and my parents to lunch at Tunk Lok Classic. We had a cold spinach appetizer. This dish was very similar to a Korean spinach salad which I often prepared, but used sesame paste to further heighten the flavor. We also ordered a Chinese BBQ pork with Chinese hot mustard as appetizer.
This was followed by scallop and abalone in soy sauce. Here, I tasted a nuttyness to the sauce, and suspect it was thicken with butter. There was a steamed bamboo clamp dish, and we finished with steamed fish with wood ear mushroom. The seafood were all very fresh, and there was very creative use of sauce.
For dinner, it was a family affair at my sister's house. My cousins, who are both working in China, happened to be vacationing in Singapore and joined us. My sister planned the menu and prepared bruschetta to start, "Westernized" salt-water duck and baked salmon with dill mustard sauce for the main course. She also made a orange chiffon cake with lemon curd and mixed berries for dessert. There was also a cheese platter and Australian/New Zeland wine for the after dinner conversations.
After dinner, I went with my cousin and his girl friend to Zouk. It was fairly dead. I guess by Boxing day, most people had enough of Christmas parties and had wanted to take a break.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Broomball
I was having dinner with A, D and S at Sakoon when I checked the time. It was 9:20pm. I asked, "Guys, can we leave now? I have a broomball game at 10."
"What the hell is broomball?", A asked. He is from India and went to school in Arizona State. There was no chance he had heard of this game.
"It is basically ice hockey without skates." I replied. "I have never played it myself, so I don't know too much about it either."
When I was going to school in Michigan and Wisconsin, I had heard my friends talked about playing broomball. My understanding was broomball was ice hockey without equipment. The game was usually played on a slick, frozen backyard, with players wearing tennis shoes, running around hitting a tennis ball with a broom.
The Michigan Alumni Association of Silicon Valley organized a broomball game for 10pm on Saturday night at the Cupertino Ice Center. I signed up, figuring I need to play broomball at least once, so my winter experience would be complete :)
I arrived at 10pm, wearing a fleece jacket, jeans and sneaker, not knowing what to expect. The public skating session was getting over and we had the entire ring to ourselves. We were supposed to be given formal instructions, but the only orientation we got was a short plead by Matt, the association's president, telling us to keep the sticks low.
The ice center provided the broomball equipment. The "broom" used was not a real broom. Instead, a small triangle rubber attachment was inserted to one end of a broom stick. We were also given helmets, but most of the helmets were broken, and many did not have any foam protection. After running around in one of the broken helmet, I decided not to wear one, since the helmet was getting in the way.
Finally, instead of a tennis ball, we were using a rubber ball, about 5 inches in diameter. We were not given the option to rent broomball shoes.
We had 25 people who joined the event. Since we had the ice to ourselves, we were split into 2 teams. The criteria was those wearing college colors("College")and those not("not"). Since I was not wearing my Michigan attire, I was assigned to the "not".
Since there were couple of broomball "virgin" among the crowd (hmmm...I guess I was not the only one working too hard in school and did not have any broomball fun!), all of us took the ring and the same time and started a game.
I quickly found running on the ice to be rather tiring! Since we took the ice after a public skating session, the ice wasn't extremely slippery. We could run on ice. Stopping was more suspect though. I found myself running deliberately. I just didn't want to fall! The ice ring was also deceivingly big. At the start of the game, I ran from offense to defense, chasing after the ball. I was quickly winded and had to pick and choose my involvement.
With about 12 people on each side, and most of us novice. We really did not have any strategy. The ring was crowded with people, so neither side really had a chance to score. I also found I need to work on my hand-eye coordination! There was lots of "air" swipe with the broom, when I tried to swing hard at the ball, only to catch it at an angle and had the ball rolled in directions I had not intended. I was reduced to poking at the ball and sometimes kicking at it. I also found on defense, it was better to extend the reach of my broom stick by falling on my knees. It could be a really rough game, but since this was a alumni/co-ed event, everyone was careful not to hurt each other, and helped each other up if they fell. There was no body checking:)
After about 20mins of play, Matt called timeout. We were to start a real game. 6 per side, including goalie, for 5 mins. Then the players rotate. This was to be repeated until end of the session.
I took ice with the first team and was assigned to play mainly on defense. Since this was the first real game, both sides were tentative and focused more on defense. While there was some scoring chances, neither side really threaten.
After 5mins, all 6 players rotate out. As I was wiping sweat off my face, our team, "not" scored! It happened fairly quickly and I did not really saw how the scoring occurred.
"College" started playing more aggressively to score, but our defense held for the rest of the 5min session.
I got rotated back into the game and was helping out on offense when "College" had a break away. I was late getting back on defense and the player on "College" had a one on one with the goalie. He scored :(
For the rest of the session, neither team really had good scoring chances. After another 5mins, I rotated off the ice. The "not" team got a few good chances in front of our opponent's net. We were able to score again, near the end of that 5min session.
For the last 5min session, it was "all in"! Everyone on both team took the ice at once. "College" team, being down 2-1, pulled their goalie. I was playing a middle fielder type position where I was mainly playing defense, but was forward enough where I could get involve on offense.
About 3mins into play, our team had a few shot at goal, but "College" played great defense and stopped all the shots. As the ball was rolling back to center ice, I moved forward and hit what I thought was a fairly slow shot. But since "College" players were starting to move on offense and there was no goalie, I scored!
With that score, the game ended. We returned the equipment and chatted a little. Matt said if there is enough interest, he would organize a game every month, but probably at a Foster City ice ring, where they have real helmets.
We had about an hour of ice time and the game was totally fun. I will joined the game again, but next time, I would wear gloves, bring my own helmet and wear knee pads. My knees were pretty bruised from all the falling on the ice.
"What the hell is broomball?", A asked. He is from India and went to school in Arizona State. There was no chance he had heard of this game.
"It is basically ice hockey without skates." I replied. "I have never played it myself, so I don't know too much about it either."
When I was going to school in Michigan and Wisconsin, I had heard my friends talked about playing broomball. My understanding was broomball was ice hockey without equipment. The game was usually played on a slick, frozen backyard, with players wearing tennis shoes, running around hitting a tennis ball with a broom.
The Michigan Alumni Association of Silicon Valley organized a broomball game for 10pm on Saturday night at the Cupertino Ice Center. I signed up, figuring I need to play broomball at least once, so my winter experience would be complete :)
I arrived at 10pm, wearing a fleece jacket, jeans and sneaker, not knowing what to expect. The public skating session was getting over and we had the entire ring to ourselves. We were supposed to be given formal instructions, but the only orientation we got was a short plead by Matt, the association's president, telling us to keep the sticks low.
The ice center provided the broomball equipment. The "broom" used was not a real broom. Instead, a small triangle rubber attachment was inserted to one end of a broom stick. We were also given helmets, but most of the helmets were broken, and many did not have any foam protection. After running around in one of the broken helmet, I decided not to wear one, since the helmet was getting in the way.
Finally, instead of a tennis ball, we were using a rubber ball, about 5 inches in diameter. We were not given the option to rent broomball shoes.
We had 25 people who joined the event. Since we had the ice to ourselves, we were split into 2 teams. The criteria was those wearing college colors("College")and those not("not"). Since I was not wearing my Michigan attire, I was assigned to the "not".
Since there were couple of broomball "virgin" among the crowd (hmmm...I guess I was not the only one working too hard in school and did not have any broomball fun!), all of us took the ring and the same time and started a game.
I quickly found running on the ice to be rather tiring! Since we took the ice after a public skating session, the ice wasn't extremely slippery. We could run on ice. Stopping was more suspect though. I found myself running deliberately. I just didn't want to fall! The ice ring was also deceivingly big. At the start of the game, I ran from offense to defense, chasing after the ball. I was quickly winded and had to pick and choose my involvement.
With about 12 people on each side, and most of us novice. We really did not have any strategy. The ring was crowded with people, so neither side really had a chance to score. I also found I need to work on my hand-eye coordination! There was lots of "air" swipe with the broom, when I tried to swing hard at the ball, only to catch it at an angle and had the ball rolled in directions I had not intended. I was reduced to poking at the ball and sometimes kicking at it. I also found on defense, it was better to extend the reach of my broom stick by falling on my knees. It could be a really rough game, but since this was a alumni/co-ed event, everyone was careful not to hurt each other, and helped each other up if they fell. There was no body checking:)
After about 20mins of play, Matt called timeout. We were to start a real game. 6 per side, including goalie, for 5 mins. Then the players rotate. This was to be repeated until end of the session.
I took ice with the first team and was assigned to play mainly on defense. Since this was the first real game, both sides were tentative and focused more on defense. While there was some scoring chances, neither side really threaten.
After 5mins, all 6 players rotate out. As I was wiping sweat off my face, our team, "not" scored! It happened fairly quickly and I did not really saw how the scoring occurred.
"College" started playing more aggressively to score, but our defense held for the rest of the 5min session.
I got rotated back into the game and was helping out on offense when "College" had a break away. I was late getting back on defense and the player on "College" had a one on one with the goalie. He scored :(
For the rest of the session, neither team really had good scoring chances. After another 5mins, I rotated off the ice. The "not" team got a few good chances in front of our opponent's net. We were able to score again, near the end of that 5min session.
For the last 5min session, it was "all in"! Everyone on both team took the ice at once. "College" team, being down 2-1, pulled their goalie. I was playing a middle fielder type position where I was mainly playing defense, but was forward enough where I could get involve on offense.
About 3mins into play, our team had a few shot at goal, but "College" played great defense and stopped all the shots. As the ball was rolling back to center ice, I moved forward and hit what I thought was a fairly slow shot. But since "College" players were starting to move on offense and there was no goalie, I scored!
With that score, the game ended. We returned the equipment and chatted a little. Matt said if there is enough interest, he would organize a game every month, but probably at a Foster City ice ring, where they have real helmets.
We had about an hour of ice time and the game was totally fun. I will joined the game again, but next time, I would wear gloves, bring my own helmet and wear knee pads. My knees were pretty bruised from all the falling on the ice.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Santa Cruz Archery
Growing up, I loved reading stories about Robin Hood and William Tell in western folk stores. Chinese history also have its fair share of famous archer: 后羿, 李广, 花荣.
However, the only time I had shot an arrow was years ago at Formosan Aboriginal Village in Taiwan. So, when I found out there was going to be an archery lessons in Santa Cruz, I eagerly signed up.
We met at UCSC and drove to DeLaveaga Park. The route we took to the range took us through some residential neighbourhood in Santa Cruz on the east side of Highway 1, then we drove along a very narrow and winding road to the archery range. At the range, we went indoors and met with Henry and Randy. They are both members of Santa Cruz Archers, as well as our instructor for the lesson.
Since an archery range can be a dangerous place if rules are not followed, we were quickly taught three commands. "Archers to the line", when we were allowed to pick up our bows and straddled the firing line, "Clear", when we were allowed to pick arrows out from the ground quiver and start firing and finally "All Clear", when all arrows were fired and we were allowed to retrieve our arrows. There was also "Hold" command, which meant stop shooting and released the draw.
Next we learned the standard archery technique. Before he started, Henry made a point that there are excellent archers who do not follow any of the techniques we were going to learn, so all techniques he taught us were optional.
The standard stance we learned involve standing feet parallel to the firing line, then moving the fore foot a feet inches back. The left hip should be over the left ankle. The right hand holding the bow (I am left handed) with the first three fingers and the last two fingers curled and relaxed. The right arm should be slightly bend and turned away from the bow so when the string was released, it would not hit the arm.
We used aluminum arrows with plastic feather for this shoot. The arrows had a plastic cap with a notch on the back and we would slide notch into the string. There was a small bead on the string which guide where the arrow should be notched. We were using a modern recurve bow for this shoot, and there was a small notched on the right side of the bow, just above the handle where the front of the arrow rested.
As beginner, I was given a 20lb bow, which means drawing the bow open required 20lb of force. When drawing the bow, the middle three fingers were used and the string should be drawn fully until the pointer touches the mouth, and the back of the left hand fitted on the jaw. In the anchor position, the body should be relaxed, except the upper back.
The release was basically letting the string slipped forward while sliding the left hand backwards to act as a counter weight. Modern bows are fairly delicate and releasing the bow without an arrow could break the bow.
Other equipment used, besides the bow and arrow, was an arm guard to protect the fore arm from the released string and a finger guard, so that while drawing the bow, the string would not cut into the fingers.
As we were all beginners, we started with blind baling. We shot at bales of hay with no target at short distances. Randy and Henry helped correct our stance while we shot. Since there was no target, we were asked to shoot in the same manner so all the arrows landed near each other to form a grouping. I am happy to report I had decent grouping on my first few tries.
After several rounds of blind baling at short distances, Henry moved the firing line to about 20 feet and put up paper plates as targets. Turns out, due to parallax error, we needed to aim away from the target for the arrow to actually hit the target.
My first shot at the target was left and high by a large distance! I corrected my aim for my second shot and was able to hit the edge of the paper plate. But I missed again on my final shot in the first round.
We did one round of shooting at paper plates when Henry decided to make things interesting. He pulled out a bag of balloons. We were going to pop the balloons with our shots!
I went to the line and starting firing. On both rounds, I was able to pop a balloon on my second shot. However, my first shot and third shot were way off.
The lesson ended with a pop! Shooting arrows were surprisingly a lot of fun. Henry told us the range is open to public every Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4pm. Equipment rentals are only $3. In spite of the distance, I think I will come back...
However, the only time I had shot an arrow was years ago at Formosan Aboriginal Village in Taiwan. So, when I found out there was going to be an archery lessons in Santa Cruz, I eagerly signed up.
We met at UCSC and drove to DeLaveaga Park. The route we took to the range took us through some residential neighbourhood in Santa Cruz on the east side of Highway 1, then we drove along a very narrow and winding road to the archery range. At the range, we went indoors and met with Henry and Randy. They are both members of Santa Cruz Archers, as well as our instructor for the lesson.
Since an archery range can be a dangerous place if rules are not followed, we were quickly taught three commands. "Archers to the line", when we were allowed to pick up our bows and straddled the firing line, "Clear", when we were allowed to pick arrows out from the ground quiver and start firing and finally "All Clear", when all arrows were fired and we were allowed to retrieve our arrows. There was also "Hold" command, which meant stop shooting and released the draw.
Next we learned the standard archery technique. Before he started, Henry made a point that there are excellent archers who do not follow any of the techniques we were going to learn, so all techniques he taught us were optional.
The standard stance we learned involve standing feet parallel to the firing line, then moving the fore foot a feet inches back. The left hip should be over the left ankle. The right hand holding the bow (I am left handed) with the first three fingers and the last two fingers curled and relaxed. The right arm should be slightly bend and turned away from the bow so when the string was released, it would not hit the arm.
We used aluminum arrows with plastic feather for this shoot. The arrows had a plastic cap with a notch on the back and we would slide notch into the string. There was a small bead on the string which guide where the arrow should be notched. We were using a modern recurve bow for this shoot, and there was a small notched on the right side of the bow, just above the handle where the front of the arrow rested.
As beginner, I was given a 20lb bow, which means drawing the bow open required 20lb of force. When drawing the bow, the middle three fingers were used and the string should be drawn fully until the pointer touches the mouth, and the back of the left hand fitted on the jaw. In the anchor position, the body should be relaxed, except the upper back.
The release was basically letting the string slipped forward while sliding the left hand backwards to act as a counter weight. Modern bows are fairly delicate and releasing the bow without an arrow could break the bow.
Other equipment used, besides the bow and arrow, was an arm guard to protect the fore arm from the released string and a finger guard, so that while drawing the bow, the string would not cut into the fingers.
As we were all beginners, we started with blind baling. We shot at bales of hay with no target at short distances. Randy and Henry helped correct our stance while we shot. Since there was no target, we were asked to shoot in the same manner so all the arrows landed near each other to form a grouping. I am happy to report I had decent grouping on my first few tries.
After several rounds of blind baling at short distances, Henry moved the firing line to about 20 feet and put up paper plates as targets. Turns out, due to parallax error, we needed to aim away from the target for the arrow to actually hit the target.
My first shot at the target was left and high by a large distance! I corrected my aim for my second shot and was able to hit the edge of the paper plate. But I missed again on my final shot in the first round.
We did one round of shooting at paper plates when Henry decided to make things interesting. He pulled out a bag of balloons. We were going to pop the balloons with our shots!
I went to the line and starting firing. On both rounds, I was able to pop a balloon on my second shot. However, my first shot and third shot were way off.
The lesson ended with a pop! Shooting arrows were surprisingly a lot of fun. Henry told us the range is open to public every Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4pm. Equipment rentals are only $3. In spite of the distance, I think I will come back...
Friday, November 6, 2009
Golden State Warriors vs LA Clippers
On this Friday evening, A had an extra ticket to the Golden State Warriors game. The warriors haven't been very good lately, but it was a Friday evening and I had no plans. So, it's off to Oakland for "a great time out".
I met up with A at his office. Going to the game with us was his co-worker Brian. We took 237 east then 880 north. A and Brian were Warrior's season tickets holder and they had done this trip many times. They avoided traffic at the stadium off ramp by exiting at 98th street, then taking San Leandro Street to the BART parking lot.
Friday evening traffic was a little worst than we had expected, so we missed the opening tip off, but as we were getting to our seats, the Warriors were on a mini-run. There was a 3 point shot and a lay up scored by the Warriors and the score was tied. The Clipper called a timeout, and I went to get some food as I had not have dinner.
Big mistake! While I was waiting in line for food, I saw the Clipper slowly increase their lead to 10. By the time I got back to the stands, it was the beginning of the second quarter and for all practical purposes, the game was mostly over as Clippers increased their lead to about 20.
The Warriors had no answer for the Clipper's center on defense. The Clipper guards: Baron Davis and Eric Gordon played well. Offensively, the Warriors looked confused and did not have much ball movement. Ill-advised, long jump shots were taken without much setup. It was not a pretty sight. Before the game we knew the Warriors were not very good, but thought the game itself would be close since the Clippers were not very good too. Given this performance, I can only wonder what would happen when the Warriors played some of the better teams in the league.
We tried out best to enjoy the game. There was break dancing performance, Philippines dancing performance, dunking performance, pizza giveaway and a whole slew of activities to keep the time entertaining. We did not leave until the game was over.
On the way back, on KNBR, we heard coach Don Nelson called the game "embarrassing" for the Warriors. Sadly, I had to agree. With the various entertainment option the Bay area had to offer, combined with the cost and distance of attending a Warriors game, I would not be back until something changes.
Game review by SFGate.com here.
I met up with A at his office. Going to the game with us was his co-worker Brian. We took 237 east then 880 north. A and Brian were Warrior's season tickets holder and they had done this trip many times. They avoided traffic at the stadium off ramp by exiting at 98th street, then taking San Leandro Street to the BART parking lot.
Friday evening traffic was a little worst than we had expected, so we missed the opening tip off, but as we were getting to our seats, the Warriors were on a mini-run. There was a 3 point shot and a lay up scored by the Warriors and the score was tied. The Clipper called a timeout, and I went to get some food as I had not have dinner.
Big mistake! While I was waiting in line for food, I saw the Clipper slowly increase their lead to 10. By the time I got back to the stands, it was the beginning of the second quarter and for all practical purposes, the game was mostly over as Clippers increased their lead to about 20.
The Warriors had no answer for the Clipper's center on defense. The Clipper guards: Baron Davis and Eric Gordon played well. Offensively, the Warriors looked confused and did not have much ball movement. Ill-advised, long jump shots were taken without much setup. It was not a pretty sight. Before the game we knew the Warriors were not very good, but thought the game itself would be close since the Clippers were not very good too. Given this performance, I can only wonder what would happen when the Warriors played some of the better teams in the league.
We tried out best to enjoy the game. There was break dancing performance, Philippines dancing performance, dunking performance, pizza giveaway and a whole slew of activities to keep the time entertaining. We did not leave until the game was over.
On the way back, on KNBR, we heard coach Don Nelson called the game "embarrassing" for the Warriors. Sadly, I had to agree. With the various entertainment option the Bay area had to offer, combined with the cost and distance of attending a Warriors game, I would not be back until something changes.
Game review by SFGate.com here.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Gold Star Gymnastics
I ran into Nathalie at the break room at work a week ago and saw her heat up dinner at 5pm. "Wow, early dinner!" I commented.
Nathalie told me she was taking gymnastics classes at Gold Star Gymnastics that night and wanted to eat something early so she would not throw up while doing various tumbling exercise. Then she asked if I wanted to try the lessons. "The first lesson is free", she said.
I had to work late that evening, so had to decline the invitation, but promised I would try the lesson next week.
This Thursday, I reached Gold Star Gymnastics at about 7:45pm and was given a waiver to sign, then changed into workout clothes in the bathroom. At 8pm, a lady rounded up about 10-12 people to begin the class.
We started by running around a big exercise mat followed by stretching of the hamstrings. Then we practise fall. A common gymnastic injury is when a person falls, he uses his hands to balance himself. The weight on the wrist and elbow may be too much and bones can break. We learned to fall backwards, roll backwards while keeping our hands on our sides.
Warm up continued with jumping on a trampoline, followed by doing a seat drop on the trampoline. This involve jumping on the trampoline, then in mid air push the legs horizontal and keeping the hangs on the side, then drop butt first on the trampoline. With the bounce, get mid-air and stand up. There was a more advance move of doing seat drop in one direction, followed by seat drop in another direction which I was unable to do. The final warm up was inch-worm.
After warm-up, we formed lines to do forward rolls and backward rolls. My lack of arm strength quickly became obvious. Also, I was not used to being upside down. After each roll, I quickly lose orientation and needed a few seconds to gather myself.
The instructor pulled me aside to do backward roll on a decline mat. This way, I do not need to use as much force roll myself backwards as gravity helped do some of the pulling. I was able to do the skill several times, but the dizziness got worst.
The next exercise was cartwheel. I was too weak to try doing the drill. The instructor pulled over a stack of mats and had me do semi-cartwheels by putting my hands on the stack and jumping over the mats. She had the students worked on a roll followed by a handstand turn. I could not do a handstand, so I was reduced to doing a hand push up with kicks of the legs in the air.
After these exercise, the instructor pulled a big roller mattress and have the students do running flips. The students ran towards the roller, then bend down to pushed themselves onto the roller with their hands. At this point, I was feeling very sick and did not participate in any of the drills. I started watching my fellow students and found most of them were doing quite well. A few were even able to do the flip without the rollers! I later learned that many of the students were former gymnasts and just wanted to continue working out gymnastics moves. Compare to them, I was clearly out of shape.
After the running flip exercises, it was a free for all period. I saw some people worked on floor exercise moves, working on back flips with rollers. The gym also has a setup for working on jumps. I saw more than a few students ran down the running track, jumped, twisted and turned in mid air, then land into a pool of foam cubes. A fellow student saw me watching and encouraged me to try. I politely declined as I was still fighting the urge to throw up.
After 45mins of free exercise, we gathered again on the mat for conditioning exercise. There was a body crunch followed by rolling on the sides, and clapping push ups.
Nathalie came and checked with me to see how I enjoyed the class. It was fun trying something new, but clearly I am not ready for many of the exercises and definitely not ready for the rolls and flips. I would need to work on those skills before returning.
Nathalie told me she was taking gymnastics classes at Gold Star Gymnastics that night and wanted to eat something early so she would not throw up while doing various tumbling exercise. Then she asked if I wanted to try the lessons. "The first lesson is free", she said.
I had to work late that evening, so had to decline the invitation, but promised I would try the lesson next week.
This Thursday, I reached Gold Star Gymnastics at about 7:45pm and was given a waiver to sign, then changed into workout clothes in the bathroom. At 8pm, a lady rounded up about 10-12 people to begin the class.
We started by running around a big exercise mat followed by stretching of the hamstrings. Then we practise fall. A common gymnastic injury is when a person falls, he uses his hands to balance himself. The weight on the wrist and elbow may be too much and bones can break. We learned to fall backwards, roll backwards while keeping our hands on our sides.
Warm up continued with jumping on a trampoline, followed by doing a seat drop on the trampoline. This involve jumping on the trampoline, then in mid air push the legs horizontal and keeping the hangs on the side, then drop butt first on the trampoline. With the bounce, get mid-air and stand up. There was a more advance move of doing seat drop in one direction, followed by seat drop in another direction which I was unable to do. The final warm up was inch-worm.
After warm-up, we formed lines to do forward rolls and backward rolls. My lack of arm strength quickly became obvious. Also, I was not used to being upside down. After each roll, I quickly lose orientation and needed a few seconds to gather myself.
The instructor pulled me aside to do backward roll on a decline mat. This way, I do not need to use as much force roll myself backwards as gravity helped do some of the pulling. I was able to do the skill several times, but the dizziness got worst.
The next exercise was cartwheel. I was too weak to try doing the drill. The instructor pulled over a stack of mats and had me do semi-cartwheels by putting my hands on the stack and jumping over the mats. She had the students worked on a roll followed by a handstand turn. I could not do a handstand, so I was reduced to doing a hand push up with kicks of the legs in the air.
After these exercise, the instructor pulled a big roller mattress and have the students do running flips. The students ran towards the roller, then bend down to pushed themselves onto the roller with their hands. At this point, I was feeling very sick and did not participate in any of the drills. I started watching my fellow students and found most of them were doing quite well. A few were even able to do the flip without the rollers! I later learned that many of the students were former gymnasts and just wanted to continue working out gymnastics moves. Compare to them, I was clearly out of shape.
After the running flip exercises, it was a free for all period. I saw some people worked on floor exercise moves, working on back flips with rollers. The gym also has a setup for working on jumps. I saw more than a few students ran down the running track, jumped, twisted and turned in mid air, then land into a pool of foam cubes. A fellow student saw me watching and encouraged me to try. I politely declined as I was still fighting the urge to throw up.
After 45mins of free exercise, we gathered again on the mat for conditioning exercise. There was a body crunch followed by rolling on the sides, and clapping push ups.
Nathalie came and checked with me to see how I enjoyed the class. It was fun trying something new, but clearly I am not ready for many of the exercises and definitely not ready for the rolls and flips. I would need to work on those skills before returning.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Paddle for Life 2009
For the third year in a row, I am part of the Xilinx team that participated in Paddle for Life Dragon Boat Festival.
This year's race was held in Jack London Square, like last year. However, instead of Bay Area Dragons volunteers organizing the entire event, a company handled all the race planning and logistics. To the paddlers, the only visible difference was the size of the boat used in the race and the course. Instead of longer dragon boats which requires 20 paddlers, we are using shorter boats, which only requires 10 paddlers. Also, instead of the 300m course used last year, a 200m course is used.
As per last year, we were told to reach Jack London Square at 8:30am. Having done the race last year, I knew what to expect. I found a place near Heinold's First and Last Chance Saloon to park for free!
I then went to the team staging area and help set up the tents. Like last year, we were sharing tent space with Lucy's Party Boat, except, Lucy is now Marvin's wife:)
The first race was between Xilinx-Virtex, Xilinx-Spartan and Xilinx Party Boat. Since we had 20+ paddlers signed up for the race, and a smaller crew was required for each boat, Xilinx was able to field 2 teams. Marvin choose the team names, which are the names of the 2 main product line for Xilinx. Backup paddlers from Lucy's Party Boat and Xilinx formed a third boat, hence Xilinx Party Boat:)
I was assigned to Xilinx Party Boat for this first race. After the usual warm up drill, we moved to the marshalling area. The race was running behind, but not as much as last year. Paddlers were loading and unloading quickly and there wasn't a long way to paddle to the starting line or from the finishing line. The company held dragon boat race professionally and it showed.
Marvin and Nathalie were the drummers for Xilinx Virtex and Xilinx Spartan respectively. Lucy was the drummer for Xilinx Party Boat. She was pregnant so I was a little worried. The smaller boats are more "tippsy" and I certainly didn't want her in the water.
It was a fairly windy day, so lining up the boats for the start was difficult. The starting call was came very quickly. The judges even warned us of the fast starting call. I had experienced that in previous races, so was prepared. Our boat, despite having never paddled together, came in 2nd, ahead of Xilinx Spartan, but behind Xilinx Virtex. This makeshift crew paddled in time the entire race!
After the race, I joined Xilinx Virtex for the debriefing, since I would be paddling with Xilinx Virtex for the rest of the day. Marvin did not have anything negative to comment. A by-stander from another team said to Marvin, "Dude, you have a very fast boat!".
On the way back to our tents, Virtex boat members chatted among ourselves about the Spartan boat being slower. I joking said, "That's expected! Virtex runs faster than Spartan!" Virtex is the high performance product line from Xilinx and has faster speed specs than Spartan parts. The pun drew laughter from everyone.
In the second race, Xilinx Virtex competed against East Bay MUD Azul and PepsiCo NikNak PaddleWak. All the paddlers from Virtex team had participated in the last 2 Paddle for Life and it showed. When the steersman gave the command, "Take it away!" to bring us to the starting line, the entire crew responded and the boat really moved. Even the steersman was impressed.
Nathalie was our drummer for the second race. Again, we had a fast starting call. But everyone on the boat was experienced and was not taken by surprise. The boat was really moving after the first eight strokes. The wind had picked up during the race and I felt us slicing through the water. Everyone was paddling in time. Nathalie actually called the finished late and we were still in our finishing set when "Let it ride!" was called. She later explained her view of the finishing line was block by a big boat in the harbor. But we did not need a strong finish. I steal a peek at the other boats near the end of the race (I know...very bad) and knew we well ahead of other teams. Another number 1 finish for Virtex!
The dragon boat festival then broke for lunch. As we were still eating, we were suddenly informed our next race was coming up in 15mins! Everyone decided not to eat too much food. A full stomach and paddling does not mix:)
In the third race, Virtex competed against Chong Hwa Saint Tao Yuan and Kapakahi Dragons 2. Marvin was our drummer for this race. At this time, the weather had turned really rough. As we paddled to the starting point and was waiting for other boats, a strong wave hit us on the side. The dragon boat tipped dangerously low to one side and took in water. I swore we were all going into the water when the steersman yelled "Brace the boat". Amazingly, we did not flip.
We held a light brace on the boat while lining up for the start and had our paddles submerged even before the starting call. As expected the starting call came quickly and we burst out of the gate. I felt our boat sliced through the water, but the wave was really strong on this race. Several paddlers, including myself, got a taste of the bay water splashing into our mouth. We paddled in time, but during the "stretch" pieces, I did notice Marvin holding his hand to slow Ava, our lead paddler's cadence down during the race. Overall, I thought we had a strong performance, but after the race was over, I saw Kapakahi Dragon 2 was ahead of us. There was no time to rest however, since the sea was really rough and we had to brace the boat again, before paddling back to the dock.
Our time for the third race was 1 minute 13.41 seconds, good enough for 3rd place overall.
As we gathered for our debrief, we heard an announcement over the PA system. The weather condition had turned so bad that the rest of the race were cancelled. The race that was on-going was the last race. Unfortunately for us, Independence High School was in this last race. Marvin and Nathalie had commented all their paddlers are from the national team. Not surprisingly, Independence High School recorded the fastest time of the entire race and pushed Virtex from 3rd place overall to 4th place overall.
So no medals for us this year again:( Personally, I agree with the race director's decision to stop the festival. The sea was really rough and some boats are going to get flipped if we had continued.
But again, I thought we had a really good team this year and while we were probably not going to beat Independence High School, I felt we had a good chance to medal if the race had gone on.
I now look forward to next year's race. If everyone on Virtex returns, we should get a good chance at medalling next year.
Pictures of the race can be found here.
This year's race was held in Jack London Square, like last year. However, instead of Bay Area Dragons volunteers organizing the entire event, a company handled all the race planning and logistics. To the paddlers, the only visible difference was the size of the boat used in the race and the course. Instead of longer dragon boats which requires 20 paddlers, we are using shorter boats, which only requires 10 paddlers. Also, instead of the 300m course used last year, a 200m course is used.
As per last year, we were told to reach Jack London Square at 8:30am. Having done the race last year, I knew what to expect. I found a place near Heinold's First and Last Chance Saloon to park for free!
I then went to the team staging area and help set up the tents. Like last year, we were sharing tent space with Lucy's Party Boat, except, Lucy is now Marvin's wife:)
The first race was between Xilinx-Virtex, Xilinx-Spartan and Xilinx Party Boat. Since we had 20+ paddlers signed up for the race, and a smaller crew was required for each boat, Xilinx was able to field 2 teams. Marvin choose the team names, which are the names of the 2 main product line for Xilinx. Backup paddlers from Lucy's Party Boat and Xilinx formed a third boat, hence Xilinx Party Boat:)
I was assigned to Xilinx Party Boat for this first race. After the usual warm up drill, we moved to the marshalling area. The race was running behind, but not as much as last year. Paddlers were loading and unloading quickly and there wasn't a long way to paddle to the starting line or from the finishing line. The company held dragon boat race professionally and it showed.
Marvin and Nathalie were the drummers for Xilinx Virtex and Xilinx Spartan respectively. Lucy was the drummer for Xilinx Party Boat. She was pregnant so I was a little worried. The smaller boats are more "tippsy" and I certainly didn't want her in the water.
It was a fairly windy day, so lining up the boats for the start was difficult. The starting call was came very quickly. The judges even warned us of the fast starting call. I had experienced that in previous races, so was prepared. Our boat, despite having never paddled together, came in 2nd, ahead of Xilinx Spartan, but behind Xilinx Virtex. This makeshift crew paddled in time the entire race!
After the race, I joined Xilinx Virtex for the debriefing, since I would be paddling with Xilinx Virtex for the rest of the day. Marvin did not have anything negative to comment. A by-stander from another team said to Marvin, "Dude, you have a very fast boat!".
On the way back to our tents, Virtex boat members chatted among ourselves about the Spartan boat being slower. I joking said, "That's expected! Virtex runs faster than Spartan!" Virtex is the high performance product line from Xilinx and has faster speed specs than Spartan parts. The pun drew laughter from everyone.
In the second race, Xilinx Virtex competed against East Bay MUD Azul and PepsiCo NikNak PaddleWak. All the paddlers from Virtex team had participated in the last 2 Paddle for Life and it showed. When the steersman gave the command, "Take it away!" to bring us to the starting line, the entire crew responded and the boat really moved. Even the steersman was impressed.
Nathalie was our drummer for the second race. Again, we had a fast starting call. But everyone on the boat was experienced and was not taken by surprise. The boat was really moving after the first eight strokes. The wind had picked up during the race and I felt us slicing through the water. Everyone was paddling in time. Nathalie actually called the finished late and we were still in our finishing set when "Let it ride!" was called. She later explained her view of the finishing line was block by a big boat in the harbor. But we did not need a strong finish. I steal a peek at the other boats near the end of the race (I know...very bad) and knew we well ahead of other teams. Another number 1 finish for Virtex!
The dragon boat festival then broke for lunch. As we were still eating, we were suddenly informed our next race was coming up in 15mins! Everyone decided not to eat too much food. A full stomach and paddling does not mix:)
In the third race, Virtex competed against Chong Hwa Saint Tao Yuan and Kapakahi Dragons 2. Marvin was our drummer for this race. At this time, the weather had turned really rough. As we paddled to the starting point and was waiting for other boats, a strong wave hit us on the side. The dragon boat tipped dangerously low to one side and took in water. I swore we were all going into the water when the steersman yelled "Brace the boat". Amazingly, we did not flip.
We held a light brace on the boat while lining up for the start and had our paddles submerged even before the starting call. As expected the starting call came quickly and we burst out of the gate. I felt our boat sliced through the water, but the wave was really strong on this race. Several paddlers, including myself, got a taste of the bay water splashing into our mouth. We paddled in time, but during the "stretch" pieces, I did notice Marvin holding his hand to slow Ava, our lead paddler's cadence down during the race. Overall, I thought we had a strong performance, but after the race was over, I saw Kapakahi Dragon 2 was ahead of us. There was no time to rest however, since the sea was really rough and we had to brace the boat again, before paddling back to the dock.
Our time for the third race was 1 minute 13.41 seconds, good enough for 3rd place overall.
As we gathered for our debrief, we heard an announcement over the PA system. The weather condition had turned so bad that the rest of the race were cancelled. The race that was on-going was the last race. Unfortunately for us, Independence High School was in this last race. Marvin and Nathalie had commented all their paddlers are from the national team. Not surprisingly, Independence High School recorded the fastest time of the entire race and pushed Virtex from 3rd place overall to 4th place overall.
So no medals for us this year again:( Personally, I agree with the race director's decision to stop the festival. The sea was really rough and some boats are going to get flipped if we had continued.
But again, I thought we had a really good team this year and while we were probably not going to beat Independence High School, I felt we had a good chance to medal if the race had gone on.
I now look forward to next year's race. If everyone on Virtex returns, we should get a good chance at medalling next year.
Pictures of the race can be found here.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Central Coast Weekend 2-ATV, Pismo Beach, Morro Bay
On a previous trip through central coast, H and I saw many trucks hauling ATV. H commented she wanted to try riding an ATV at some time.
Turned out, Pismo beach in Central Coast was a mecca for ATV enthusiasts, which was a short drive from SLO. We got off the Pier St from 101 and went into the first ATV store we saw: Steve ATV.
It turned out to be a great decision. Steve was the only store carrying 2 seaters. We rented a 2 seater for 1 hour. We were then directed to the beach area. A shuttle bus would drive us to the dunes, where we would get a quick video introduction and pick up our rental ATV.
The most important rule in ATV riding was we need to wear out helmets at all time. The ATV could not get wet, so we were to stay away from the water at all time. Controlling the ATV was easy. On the right handle, there was knob. By pushing the knob up or down with the right thumb, we would control the speed of the ATV. Turing the handle bar controls the direction of where the ATV went, much like a bicycle.
Both H and I were not the dare devil type, so we took it slow. It was a really powerful ATV and responded to our control immediately. We rode up and down the sand dunes, taking our time approaching the dunes to stay in control and made turns slowly. This was a new experience and we were being careful. H and I took turns doing the riding, shifting our bodies forward and backwards as we go downhill and uphill respectively.
We rented the ATV for one hour and it was more than enough time to experience this sport. We took the shuttle back to our car and drove to Pismo beach down town. Here, we enjoyed fried fish, scallops, shrimp, clams and oysters at Pismo Fish and Chip. The fried seafood was not too heavily battered and tasted very fresh.
After lunch, we walked around the beach area. Since this was Labor Day weekend, the beach area was very crowded. As we walked around the beach town tourist shops, our attention was drawn to a chocolate shoppe, selling chocolate covered worms and crickets. H and I tried a chocolate covered worm. Luckily, we could only taste the chocolate and the texture of something crispy in the center of the chocolate:)
Near the end of our walk in the downtown area, we noticed a long line of people buying chowder at Splash cafe. We were definitely in culinary exploration mode and H decided to wait in line to buy the chowder, while I went to pick up our car. The chowder was thick and creamy, with lots of clams. However, we did not find it special enough to warrant the half an hour wait for takeout.
From Pismo beach, we drove to Morro Bay. We drove by a park and there was an Art Festival going on. We took a walk around the festival, but we not impressed.
From the park, it was a short drive to Morro Rock. We drove around the rock, and enjoyed the bay view. The rock itself was quite big, and the view from afar, with the rock set in the ocean was quite good.
We then walked along the water front, looking at the various shops. There was an interesting store called the Shell Shop, selling various types of sea shells. H bought a large shell to use as soap dish, then added a sea turtle made from shells glued together to give the soap some company.
We were walking along when H saw the arching windows of Morro Bay Wine Seller. It was starting to get dark and she wanted to enjoy the sunset through the window. We stopped by for some wine tasting and had a good chat with the store owner. Turned out, he used to work in restaurant in San Jose. We talked a little bit about how life's different in Silicon valley and central coast and had a great time. Before we left, we asked for restaurant recommendations.
"The Park", he said without any hesitation. "Maegen is a talented chef, you will enjoyed your meal."
With a recommendation like that, we could not resist. We drove back to San Luis Obispo and seek out the restaurant. My review of the restaurant is on Yelp. Overall, it was one of the best meal we ever had.
Turned out, Pismo beach in Central Coast was a mecca for ATV enthusiasts, which was a short drive from SLO. We got off the Pier St from 101 and went into the first ATV store we saw: Steve ATV.
It turned out to be a great decision. Steve was the only store carrying 2 seaters. We rented a 2 seater for 1 hour. We were then directed to the beach area. A shuttle bus would drive us to the dunes, where we would get a quick video introduction and pick up our rental ATV.
The most important rule in ATV riding was we need to wear out helmets at all time. The ATV could not get wet, so we were to stay away from the water at all time. Controlling the ATV was easy. On the right handle, there was knob. By pushing the knob up or down with the right thumb, we would control the speed of the ATV. Turing the handle bar controls the direction of where the ATV went, much like a bicycle.
Both H and I were not the dare devil type, so we took it slow. It was a really powerful ATV and responded to our control immediately. We rode up and down the sand dunes, taking our time approaching the dunes to stay in control and made turns slowly. This was a new experience and we were being careful. H and I took turns doing the riding, shifting our bodies forward and backwards as we go downhill and uphill respectively.
We rented the ATV for one hour and it was more than enough time to experience this sport. We took the shuttle back to our car and drove to Pismo beach down town. Here, we enjoyed fried fish, scallops, shrimp, clams and oysters at Pismo Fish and Chip. The fried seafood was not too heavily battered and tasted very fresh.
After lunch, we walked around the beach area. Since this was Labor Day weekend, the beach area was very crowded. As we walked around the beach town tourist shops, our attention was drawn to a chocolate shoppe, selling chocolate covered worms and crickets. H and I tried a chocolate covered worm. Luckily, we could only taste the chocolate and the texture of something crispy in the center of the chocolate:)
Near the end of our walk in the downtown area, we noticed a long line of people buying chowder at Splash cafe. We were definitely in culinary exploration mode and H decided to wait in line to buy the chowder, while I went to pick up our car. The chowder was thick and creamy, with lots of clams. However, we did not find it special enough to warrant the half an hour wait for takeout.
From Pismo beach, we drove to Morro Bay. We drove by a park and there was an Art Festival going on. We took a walk around the festival, but we not impressed.
From the park, it was a short drive to Morro Rock. We drove around the rock, and enjoyed the bay view. The rock itself was quite big, and the view from afar, with the rock set in the ocean was quite good.
We then walked along the water front, looking at the various shops. There was an interesting store called the Shell Shop, selling various types of sea shells. H bought a large shell to use as soap dish, then added a sea turtle made from shells glued together to give the soap some company.
We were walking along when H saw the arching windows of Morro Bay Wine Seller. It was starting to get dark and she wanted to enjoy the sunset through the window. We stopped by for some wine tasting and had a good chat with the store owner. Turned out, he used to work in restaurant in San Jose. We talked a little bit about how life's different in Silicon valley and central coast and had a great time. Before we left, we asked for restaurant recommendations.
"The Park", he said without any hesitation. "Maegen is a talented chef, you will enjoyed your meal."
With a recommendation like that, we could not resist. We drove back to San Luis Obispo and seek out the restaurant. My review of the restaurant is on Yelp. Overall, it was one of the best meal we ever had.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Cable Ski at Ski 360 Degree
One night, while looking out of the window in my parent's house, I saw the reflection of a pond. I asked Dad what's located there. He replied, "Cable ski park!"The location used to be a man made lagoon for swimming. But the lagoon gradually lose its popularity and had been closed. Recently, it had been converted to this cable ski facility.
What is cable ski? Well, it is water skiing, where the people are tow by a cable instead of boat. I had a first hand look at the facility on an after dinner stroll. The pond was about 40m long and 10m wide. An overhead cable system was been held up by four beams. The riders would pull on a pulley dragged along by this overhead cable. There were wake boarders, knee boarders and even a guy on water skis. Some were beginners, just happy with making turns, while others were doing acrobatic stunts.
I decided I wanted to try cable ski before I leave. So this morning, I went to Ski 360 Degree. An hour's session cost $36 and included life vest/knee board rental and some "basic" instruction.
Basic instruction was an understatement! The guy in charge of rental equipment was impatient and unfriendly:( After handing me a knee board, he had me kneeled on the board and showed me how to strap myself in. Then he told me the most important thing was to get out of the water and protect myself from others if I sank. I was to tug my elbow in during the start, straighten my hands once on water and placed the pulley on my left when turning left. There's no right turn in this cable ski park.
I asked about how to signal myself coming in. He impatiently told me to go between the white floats if I had finished my time on the water, or go between the pink floats if I wanted to continue.
On this morning, the pulley machines were being maintained, so I had to wait an hour before my first run. I kneeled down in my board, saw the ready signal turned green and was feeling pretty nervous. I got into position, felt a good jerk on the pulley, hung on tight and was immediately pulled onto the water!
On the water, I could really feel myself float. I relaxed a little and straighten my hand. At 58km/h, the board felt faster than what I saw on land. I held on tightly.
I was able to make it pass 3 turns. On the fourth turn, I felt the pulley slowed down significantly, then quickly sped up. This jerking motion of the pulley caught me off guard. The pulley slipped out of my hands and I sank.As I was getting out, a young Indian lady behind me had also sank. She told me this was the furthest she had gotten, so I was feeling pretty good about myself. I figured if I hung on tight enough, I would be able to make a full round.
On my second run, I was not as lucky. On the first turn, I sank. I tried holding on hard, but was unsuccessful.
On the third pass, I had gotten over the initial adrenaline rush. I was more aware of my form and controlled myself made it through the first turn. I pulled my arms in a little during the turn and that seemed to really help.
However, on the second turn, I felt the board slowed down significantly. As a result, I felt the board leaning forward. Then the pulley sped up. Since the top of the board was in water, the water resistance pulled on the body too much and despite my best effort, I was unable to hang on.
Due to prior arrangement and the fact that the start was delayed my almost an hour, I decided to call it a day. Also the mid-day sun was also shining brightly and I was a little tired.
However, water skiing was a lot of fun! I told my parents if I lived nearby, I would do it more. Cable skiing, however, may be boring after a while, since there's only turning in one direction.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Paddle for Life 2008 and A's baseball
Last year's Dragon Boat race was so much fun, I decided to do it again this year:)
Once again, Xilinx formed a team to participate in the Second Annual Paddle for Life Dragon Boat Festival. This year's race is held in Jack London Square in Oakland, and the date was chosen to coincide with the Fifth of May according to lunar calendar: the traditional date for Dragon Boat Festival(端午节).
H's interest was piqued by my talking about Dragon boat paddling for weeks leading up to the race and she joined a team to paddle as well.
We reached Jack London Square at about 8:40am. The Xilinx team had set up a 3 huge tent space, which we shared with Lucy's Party Boat. Marvin, the Xilinx team captain, is dating Lucy:)
The fist race for Xilinx was at 9:45am. We were competing for the JLAC Silicon Cup. Also in the race were IBM, Intel and Agilent...basically other hi-tech companies.
We did our warm up, and marshall for the race. But the race was delayed from the start. One problem with the Jack London Square location is the loading dock was quite small. Also, the starting line was located at a dock further inland from Jack London Square and the ending line was located at Jack London Square. Every team therefore needed to paddle the entire length of the race course just to get to the starting point.
In the first race, Xilinx came in 3rd place, beating Agilent, but behind IBM and Intel. We started strong, but our synchronization was lost during the ramp up and that was when we fell behind. Our drummer told us we responded well to the middle power pieces, but this being a short course (only 300m), we were not able to make up for loss time. It wasn't even close, as we lost by almost a boat length.
Everyone joked that we have important business relationship with IBM and Intel, and didn't want to ruin it, so we let them off easy.
Meanwhile, H was racing with the VISA team. Their first race was against Clorox, Gatorade, Shell and AT&T. I was unable to see the start, but the VISA team was last at the middle of the race and never caught up.
I went back to the tent and got an interesting news. The Xilinx team will be racing against Lucy's party boat! And Marvin was going to drum Lucy's party boat for this race. Everyone had a good time teasing Marvin about where his loyalties should lie:)
As we ate lunch and prepared for our second race, the VISA team had their second race too. I met H at the marshalling area, and she told me VISA came in last in their second race too:(
We came in 3rd again in our second race, losing to Shell and MSAC Brute Force. We started poorly this time, as some of us missed the starting call, but paddled pretty much in time all the way. Unfortunately, we still lose by almost a boat length. We did beat Lucy's Party Boa though. Some of their paddlers had a few beers during lunch and it showed:)
Soon after our de-briefing, VISA was marshalling for their final race. One of their team member had to leave early, so I volunteered to be a hired gun for the VISA team. This race was for the division 8 final.
At this time, the wave at Jack London Square had really picked up. The race was therefore shorten to 250m, and the starting call was really fast. According to H, the VISA team had not practised together before the race, but their synchronization on the last race was quite good. I was happy to report, with me in the lineup, the VISA team came in first!
As soon as I got out of the boat, it was time for Xilinx's last race. We were racing in the division 3 finals. Again, even though we had pretty good form throughout the race, we came in 3rd again! It was quite disappointing. Marvin observed the race and commented our stroke rate was too slow. But we were having synchronization problem all day, so our drummer was reluctant to increase the stroke rate.
Overall, I still had a good time. The location at Jack London Square, though, had a major flaw: the tent area was not near the race course. While resting in the tent, we were not able to watch the competition.
Pictures of the Xilnix team can be found here and here.
After the race, H and I had a quick dinner in Oakland's Chinatown and drove to the McAfee Coliseum. H had gotten free Athletics tickets from work!
We were seated in a club suite just off first base. The last time I watched a baseball game in person was back in 1998, so this is special.
Unfortunately for us, the A's were not so special:( They gave up a home run on the first pitch of the game, committed an error, didn't have very good pitching and was soon down 0-5.
We sang "Take Me out to the Ball Game" during the 7th inning stretch, then decided to call it a day. H and I were both tired from the paddling and being out in the sun, and the A's certainly was not making things interesting.
Once again, Xilinx formed a team to participate in the Second Annual Paddle for Life Dragon Boat Festival. This year's race is held in Jack London Square in Oakland, and the date was chosen to coincide with the Fifth of May according to lunar calendar: the traditional date for Dragon Boat Festival(端午节).
H's interest was piqued by my talking about Dragon boat paddling for weeks leading up to the race and she joined a team to paddle as well.
We reached Jack London Square at about 8:40am. The Xilinx team had set up a 3 huge tent space, which we shared with Lucy's Party Boat. Marvin, the Xilinx team captain, is dating Lucy:)
The fist race for Xilinx was at 9:45am. We were competing for the JLAC Silicon Cup. Also in the race were IBM, Intel and Agilent...basically other hi-tech companies.
We did our warm up, and marshall for the race. But the race was delayed from the start. One problem with the Jack London Square location is the loading dock was quite small. Also, the starting line was located at a dock further inland from Jack London Square and the ending line was located at Jack London Square. Every team therefore needed to paddle the entire length of the race course just to get to the starting point.
In the first race, Xilinx came in 3rd place, beating Agilent, but behind IBM and Intel. We started strong, but our synchronization was lost during the ramp up and that was when we fell behind. Our drummer told us we responded well to the middle power pieces, but this being a short course (only 300m), we were not able to make up for loss time. It wasn't even close, as we lost by almost a boat length.
Everyone joked that we have important business relationship with IBM and Intel, and didn't want to ruin it, so we let them off easy.
Meanwhile, H was racing with the VISA team. Their first race was against Clorox, Gatorade, Shell and AT&T. I was unable to see the start, but the VISA team was last at the middle of the race and never caught up.
I went back to the tent and got an interesting news. The Xilinx team will be racing against Lucy's party boat! And Marvin was going to drum Lucy's party boat for this race. Everyone had a good time teasing Marvin about where his loyalties should lie:)
As we ate lunch and prepared for our second race, the VISA team had their second race too. I met H at the marshalling area, and she told me VISA came in last in their second race too:(
We came in 3rd again in our second race, losing to Shell and MSAC Brute Force. We started poorly this time, as some of us missed the starting call, but paddled pretty much in time all the way. Unfortunately, we still lose by almost a boat length. We did beat Lucy's Party Boa though. Some of their paddlers had a few beers during lunch and it showed:)
Soon after our de-briefing, VISA was marshalling for their final race. One of their team member had to leave early, so I volunteered to be a hired gun for the VISA team. This race was for the division 8 final.
At this time, the wave at Jack London Square had really picked up. The race was therefore shorten to 250m, and the starting call was really fast. According to H, the VISA team had not practised together before the race, but their synchronization on the last race was quite good. I was happy to report, with me in the lineup, the VISA team came in first!
As soon as I got out of the boat, it was time for Xilinx's last race. We were racing in the division 3 finals. Again, even though we had pretty good form throughout the race, we came in 3rd again! It was quite disappointing. Marvin observed the race and commented our stroke rate was too slow. But we were having synchronization problem all day, so our drummer was reluctant to increase the stroke rate.
Overall, I still had a good time. The location at Jack London Square, though, had a major flaw: the tent area was not near the race course. While resting in the tent, we were not able to watch the competition.
Pictures of the Xilnix team can be found here and here.
After the race, H and I had a quick dinner in Oakland's Chinatown and drove to the McAfee Coliseum. H had gotten free Athletics tickets from work!
We were seated in a club suite just off first base. The last time I watched a baseball game in person was back in 1998, so this is special.
Unfortunately for us, the A's were not so special:( They gave up a home run on the first pitch of the game, committed an error, didn't have very good pitching and was soon down 0-5.
We sang "Take Me out to the Ball Game" during the 7th inning stretch, then decided to call it a day. H and I were both tired from the paddling and being out in the sun, and the A's certainly was not making things interesting.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Wind, Flower, Snow, Moon (风花雪月) 2-Skiing at Kirkwood, last trip of the season
H and I left Bay area at 5:30am for what turned out to be the last ski trip of the 2007-2008 season. The cold spell that we experienced at Antelope Valley was affecting Kirkwood too. We were dressed more for winter skiing than spring skiing:(
I rented ski boots from Kirkwood and borrowed a set of high performance skis from H, since the Ski Renter closed early on Friday. Then, we followed our usual routine of heading up chair #5 and doing a warm up run on Mokelumme. The snow felt a little icy in the morning, probably from melting snow freezing overnight. I was also getting used to a different set of skis. I did not get the usual carving of snow and the first run felt out of control.
I encouraged H to go up chair #6 while I got used to the snow and the new skis. I went back to skiing on lower Monte Wolfe and found that the high performance skis actually carved better, but do required a little more flexing compared to the rental skis. I did lower Monte Wolfe a few more times when H caught up with me and ask if I was ready for chair #11. She had been skiing chair #6 and felt that snow condition on black trail was actually better.
I was feeling better, so decided to joined her on chair #11. We went down Comestoga and I did feel the weather had warmed up slightly and snow condition on black trails was indeed better. H suggested skiing Wagon Trail, since it was a longer but less steep slope where I would have a chance to work on narrowing my stance. The wind was blowing hard enough that chair #5, the infamous "Wall", was not opened, so Wagon Trail was relatively desserted.
H alternate between chair #6 and chair #11, while I alternate between Wagon Trail and Comestoga, either working on technique or trying to get a little thrill:)
We broke for lunch at about 12:30pm, and resumed skiing at about 1:30pm. Sensing the day and maybe the season was coming to a close, we became very careful as both of us wanted to end the season without injuries. We skiied mostly on Wagon Trail.
H did one more run on chair #6 and joined me at 3:40p for our last run. She told me to ski freely and not worried about working on technique and I was given full authority on which trail to take. I was tempted to do Comestoga, but opted for Wagon Trail. It had been a long weekend, and I decided pushing myself on the last run of the season did not make sense.
On our ride up chair #5, we saw beginner skiers trying a wedge stop on Comestoga. Big mistake! He fell badly and was unable to stop himself even after falling for a good 10-15 feet. We were determine to avoid that fate:)
We came down Wagon Trail safely, just as the life closed sign was posted. No injuries for the season!
On our way back to the Bay area, H and I talked about the weekend. We had covered half the length of California, going from Bay area to Antelope Valley and back up North to Kirkwood. That's when H commented, "Wow, we saw wind, flower, snow and moon, all in one weekend!"
Wind, flower, snow and moon (风花雪月) is often used to describe romantic times together, which we did share, but we also enjoyed these four natural scenery. A nice word play that summed up the weekend perfectly.
I rented ski boots from Kirkwood and borrowed a set of high performance skis from H, since the Ski Renter closed early on Friday. Then, we followed our usual routine of heading up chair #5 and doing a warm up run on Mokelumme. The snow felt a little icy in the morning, probably from melting snow freezing overnight. I was also getting used to a different set of skis. I did not get the usual carving of snow and the first run felt out of control.
I encouraged H to go up chair #6 while I got used to the snow and the new skis. I went back to skiing on lower Monte Wolfe and found that the high performance skis actually carved better, but do required a little more flexing compared to the rental skis. I did lower Monte Wolfe a few more times when H caught up with me and ask if I was ready for chair #11. She had been skiing chair #6 and felt that snow condition on black trail was actually better.
I was feeling better, so decided to joined her on chair #11. We went down Comestoga and I did feel the weather had warmed up slightly and snow condition on black trails was indeed better. H suggested skiing Wagon Trail, since it was a longer but less steep slope where I would have a chance to work on narrowing my stance. The wind was blowing hard enough that chair #5, the infamous "Wall", was not opened, so Wagon Trail was relatively desserted.
H alternate between chair #6 and chair #11, while I alternate between Wagon Trail and Comestoga, either working on technique or trying to get a little thrill:)
We broke for lunch at about 12:30pm, and resumed skiing at about 1:30pm. Sensing the day and maybe the season was coming to a close, we became very careful as both of us wanted to end the season without injuries. We skiied mostly on Wagon Trail.
H did one more run on chair #6 and joined me at 3:40p for our last run. She told me to ski freely and not worried about working on technique and I was given full authority on which trail to take. I was tempted to do Comestoga, but opted for Wagon Trail. It had been a long weekend, and I decided pushing myself on the last run of the season did not make sense.
On our ride up chair #5, we saw beginner skiers trying a wedge stop on Comestoga. Big mistake! He fell badly and was unable to stop himself even after falling for a good 10-15 feet. We were determine to avoid that fate:)
We came down Wagon Trail safely, just as the life closed sign was posted. No injuries for the season!
On our way back to the Bay area, H and I talked about the weekend. We had covered half the length of California, going from Bay area to Antelope Valley and back up North to Kirkwood. That's when H commented, "Wow, we saw wind, flower, snow and moon, all in one weekend!"
Wind, flower, snow and moon (风花雪月) is often used to describe romantic times together, which we did share, but we also enjoyed these four natural scenery. A nice word play that summed up the weekend perfectly.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
First Black Diamond!
We woke up at 7:30am, again trying to arrive at Kirkwood for powder before the wet stuff forms:)
With stops for gas and breakfast, we arrived at 9:05am. H and I warmed up on Mokelumme off chair #5 again. Sensing my comfort level, she suggested trying chair #11. There are 2 runs off that chair: Short Spoke and Comestoga. They share a common trail at the beginning. Then the trail splits. On the left is Short spoke, blue slope slightly steeper and longer than Mokelumme. To the right is Comestoga, an easy black. In fact, according to H, Comestoga was classified as a blue slope until this season, when it was upgraded to black.
We did Short spoke on our first run and since the snow was decent, H asked if I wanted to try the black slope when snow condition was still good. I agreed.
As usual, H led the way and I followed. I was focusing on my turns and made a series of wider curve down a particular steep portion of the slope when H stopped me.
"I don't understand why, but you skied better on black than on blue." she commented.
"What black slope?" I asked, thinking we were still on the common portion of the trail.
"We just took the trail to the right," she replied, "You mean you didn't know you are on a black slope?"
"Actually, no...I was just following you...I was wondering to myself why the same slope felt steeper than on the previous run." I answered.
I had unconsciously skied on a black slope and apparently did quite well. But, having known I was on a black slope, however, made me overly cautious and started skiing slower. Without speed, I was not getting the same carving I had achieved before.
H was clearly disappointed. "I shouldn't have told you!" she exclaimed. "You were doing so well!"
We tried Comestoga again, and again I was very cautious coming down the black portion of the slope. H gave up. "Congrats on your first black," she said. "Now, if only you can stop being conscious about this being a black slope..."
The snow condition got worse quickly and I began to feel tired, so we stopped for lunch. We shared an Asian Bowl and soup in Monte Wolfe bistro. Probably due to the excitement that I had just skied my first black diamond slope, I ate a lot.
I went up Comestoga 2 more times. However, snow condition had deteriorated much fast on Sunday compare to Saturday and by 3pm, I felt like I was skiing on a sticky mash. The heavy lunch also made me felt bloated. I was totally spent and decided to call it a day. H did another run and not wanting to risk injury, call it quits too.
We left Kirkwood at 3:15pm and reached Bay area about 6:45pm, ending our 2 day tiring but fun spring ski trip.
With stops for gas and breakfast, we arrived at 9:05am. H and I warmed up on Mokelumme off chair #5 again. Sensing my comfort level, she suggested trying chair #11. There are 2 runs off that chair: Short Spoke and Comestoga. They share a common trail at the beginning. Then the trail splits. On the left is Short spoke, blue slope slightly steeper and longer than Mokelumme. To the right is Comestoga, an easy black. In fact, according to H, Comestoga was classified as a blue slope until this season, when it was upgraded to black.
We did Short spoke on our first run and since the snow was decent, H asked if I wanted to try the black slope when snow condition was still good. I agreed.
As usual, H led the way and I followed. I was focusing on my turns and made a series of wider curve down a particular steep portion of the slope when H stopped me.
"I don't understand why, but you skied better on black than on blue." she commented.
"What black slope?" I asked, thinking we were still on the common portion of the trail.
"We just took the trail to the right," she replied, "You mean you didn't know you are on a black slope?"
"Actually, no...I was just following you...I was wondering to myself why the same slope felt steeper than on the previous run." I answered.
I had unconsciously skied on a black slope and apparently did quite well. But, having known I was on a black slope, however, made me overly cautious and started skiing slower. Without speed, I was not getting the same carving I had achieved before.
H was clearly disappointed. "I shouldn't have told you!" she exclaimed. "You were doing so well!"
We tried Comestoga again, and again I was very cautious coming down the black portion of the slope. H gave up. "Congrats on your first black," she said. "Now, if only you can stop being conscious about this being a black slope..."
The snow condition got worse quickly and I began to feel tired, so we stopped for lunch. We shared an Asian Bowl and soup in Monte Wolfe bistro. Probably due to the excitement that I had just skied my first black diamond slope, I ate a lot.
I went up Comestoga 2 more times. However, snow condition had deteriorated much fast on Sunday compare to Saturday and by 3pm, I felt like I was skiing on a sticky mash. The heavy lunch also made me felt bloated. I was totally spent and decided to call it a day. H did another run and not wanting to risk injury, call it quits too.
We left Kirkwood at 3:15pm and reached Bay area about 6:45pm, ending our 2 day tiring but fun spring ski trip.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Graduation from green; D'vine Wine Bar
Spring skiing continued...
H and I left Bay Area at 5:30am since weather had been unusually warm, and we wanted to hit the slope early and end early to ski in the best possible snow condition.
We reach Kirkwood at about 9am, just as the lifts were opening. H suggested warming up on Mokelumme off chair #5, a blue slope I skied 2 weeks ago. This time though, she suggested using a narrower stance to improve carving.
Snow condition at 9am was surprisingly good. Unlike our previous trip, it was not icy, probably because of the warmer weather. However, it was still cold enough for the snow not to melt into mash.
Mokelumme is still a little too steep for me to work on technique, so I practised mostly on Lower Monte Wolfe. I was slowly gaining confidence and by my third or fourth run down Lower Monte Wolfe, I skied down the entire slope without stopping. The downside to gaining all this speed was my pole timing was all messed up. I was not initiating my turns with my poles, instead was sticking them out after my turns had started.
Snow condition gradually turned bad as the morning worn on. The snow became wetter and lumps of snow began to form. My inside foot was sometimes trapped by the lumps of snow during turns and made me fell down several times. Conscious of the wet, lumpy snow, I tired lifting my inside leg higher to avoid the lumps. While this helped enforced better carving, but also made each run more tiring.
I broke for lunch at about noon and had a pull pork sandwich with slaw. There was a band playing in the Kirkwood Mountain Village square, so I had live music to enjoy with food. Hit the slope again at 1pm and continued skiing on the 2 blue slopes. Due to the wet snow condition, I was unable to work on my stance as much as I prefer, but was feeling very comfortable going down both blue slopes. H jokingly commented I had graduated from the green slopes.
We had planned to stop skiing at 3pm, but H caught a second wind and we did not stop until 4pm when the lift closed.
We checked into City Center Motel in Carson City. After a quick shower, we took a stroll inside the Carson Nugget casino. Compare to Vegas, casino in Carson city are tiny. Since neither H nor I gamble, and I was bothered by the smoking, we left the premise after a quick look around.
Dinner was at D'vine wine bar and bistro. This is a fairly new establishment and I was unable to find any review about it on the web. But we were glad we came.
The exterior of the wine bar looked a little run down and cold, but the interior was new and warm. There was also live music. We ordered the roasted salmon and the raspberry pistachios salad. Shared a lovely flight of 5 wines. Finished the evening with a mixed berry cobbler with ice cream. For more on D'vine Wine Bar, please read my review on Yelp!
H and I had a wonderful evening and would come back to D'vine wine bar on future ski trips.
H and I left Bay Area at 5:30am since weather had been unusually warm, and we wanted to hit the slope early and end early to ski in the best possible snow condition.
We reach Kirkwood at about 9am, just as the lifts were opening. H suggested warming up on Mokelumme off chair #5, a blue slope I skied 2 weeks ago. This time though, she suggested using a narrower stance to improve carving.
Snow condition at 9am was surprisingly good. Unlike our previous trip, it was not icy, probably because of the warmer weather. However, it was still cold enough for the snow not to melt into mash.
Mokelumme is still a little too steep for me to work on technique, so I practised mostly on Lower Monte Wolfe. I was slowly gaining confidence and by my third or fourth run down Lower Monte Wolfe, I skied down the entire slope without stopping. The downside to gaining all this speed was my pole timing was all messed up. I was not initiating my turns with my poles, instead was sticking them out after my turns had started.
Snow condition gradually turned bad as the morning worn on. The snow became wetter and lumps of snow began to form. My inside foot was sometimes trapped by the lumps of snow during turns and made me fell down several times. Conscious of the wet, lumpy snow, I tired lifting my inside leg higher to avoid the lumps. While this helped enforced better carving, but also made each run more tiring.
I broke for lunch at about noon and had a pull pork sandwich with slaw. There was a band playing in the Kirkwood Mountain Village square, so I had live music to enjoy with food. Hit the slope again at 1pm and continued skiing on the 2 blue slopes. Due to the wet snow condition, I was unable to work on my stance as much as I prefer, but was feeling very comfortable going down both blue slopes. H jokingly commented I had graduated from the green slopes.
We had planned to stop skiing at 3pm, but H caught a second wind and we did not stop until 4pm when the lift closed.
We checked into City Center Motel in Carson City. After a quick shower, we took a stroll inside the Carson Nugget casino. Compare to Vegas, casino in Carson city are tiny. Since neither H nor I gamble, and I was bothered by the smoking, we left the premise after a quick look around.
Dinner was at D'vine wine bar and bistro. This is a fairly new establishment and I was unable to find any review about it on the web. But we were glad we came.
The exterior of the wine bar looked a little run down and cold, but the interior was new and warm. There was also live music. We ordered the roasted salmon and the raspberry pistachios salad. Shared a lovely flight of 5 wines. Finished the evening with a mixed berry cobbler with ice cream. For more on D'vine Wine Bar, please read my review on Yelp!
H and I had a wonderful evening and would come back to D'vine wine bar on future ski trips.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Ski Kirkwood, Day 2
Woke up a 6:45am because I wanted to experience skiing on freshly groomed snow. The drive from the hotel to Kirkwood took about an hour, but surprisingly, there were already cars in the parking lot when we arrived!
We quickly got ready and waited by the lifts. But, the lift operator that stopped us. "Lift opens at 9am!" he shouted. Since that was 15 more minutes of waiting, we went into the cafe to sit it out.
At 9am sharp, we hit the slope again. I went back to lift #9 and hit those three green slopes. Freshly groom snow was not what it was made up to be:( It was warm enough on Saturday that some surface snow had melted and froze overnight. The slope was icy and the only Funny Bunny had some powder on it.
H came to check on me right before lunch. She mentioned my turns were perfectly parallel now, but the inner ski was forced by conscious leg motion. I was not letting my turns developed enough because I didn't want too much speed. But, more speed was actually the key to finding the edge!
We had a quick lunch and I went back to the green slopes to continue practising with my new found knowledge. I gained a little confidence and went back on Squirrel Ridge to try out my new found skills. But on the initial steep section, my right turn involuntarily revert back to wedge:(
Feeling frustrated, I did a few more runs on Funny Bunny. This pattern continued for the rest of the afternoon.
It was a rather cold day for spring skiing. In fact, light snow flurries fell most of the afternoon. The slope was really icy and the new layer of snow was too light to hide the ice.
We stopped skiing at about 4pm when the lift stopped operation and headed back to the Bay area.
My skiing skills are slowly improving and I can begin to appreciate why some people are addicted to skiing.
We quickly got ready and waited by the lifts. But, the lift operator that stopped us. "Lift opens at 9am!" he shouted. Since that was 15 more minutes of waiting, we went into the cafe to sit it out.
At 9am sharp, we hit the slope again. I went back to lift #9 and hit those three green slopes. Freshly groom snow was not what it was made up to be:( It was warm enough on Saturday that some surface snow had melted and froze overnight. The slope was icy and the only Funny Bunny had some powder on it.
H came to check on me right before lunch. She mentioned my turns were perfectly parallel now, but the inner ski was forced by conscious leg motion. I was not letting my turns developed enough because I didn't want too much speed. But, more speed was actually the key to finding the edge!
We had a quick lunch and I went back to the green slopes to continue practising with my new found knowledge. I gained a little confidence and went back on Squirrel Ridge to try out my new found skills. But on the initial steep section, my right turn involuntarily revert back to wedge:(
Feeling frustrated, I did a few more runs on Funny Bunny. This pattern continued for the rest of the afternoon.
It was a rather cold day for spring skiing. In fact, light snow flurries fell most of the afternoon. The slope was really icy and the new layer of snow was too light to hide the ice.
We stopped skiing at about 4pm when the lift stopped operation and headed back to the Bay area.
My skiing skills are slowly improving and I can begin to appreciate why some people are addicted to skiing.
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