Archive

Dec 04

Casual Fridays 9

By chrasual2 Comments

Brobomb Ski Blog Casual Fridays

Karma is a bitch. I suppose it’s a sort of poetic justice that a mere week after my (ski)bum dreams died with a whimper somewhere on a lonely stretch of I-40, that an even bummier ski bum would land on my doorstep. It’s true that he gave me ample time to properly align my chakras prior to his arrival, but is anyone ever really ready for an obnoxiously tall kid with multiple pairs of skis crammed in a Honda Accord to turn up on a lazy afternoon? I sure wasn’t. He’s presently 2-3ft. away from where I type this lying in bed…mercifully, two sheets of drywall and several 2×4’s separate us.

This used to be my living room...now it’s a refugee camp.

This used to be my living room...now it’s a refugee camp.

It’s snowing outside and if I turn my head 90° to the left, I’m forced to stare at his brand new, never-skied EP Pro’s which he plans to guinea pig at MY home resort bright and early tomorrow morning. Did I mention that I’m six days out from knee surgery? Super considerate…

Continue reading this entry »

Nov 20

Casual Fridays 7

By chrasual7 Comments

Brobomb Ski Blog Casual Fridays

Jon’s Monday-Mashup got me thinking. Sure, I don’t have a camera, I can’t ski, and I’m not famous, but a quick perusal of youtube videos uploaded by 16 year old girls (by accident….honest) convinced me that none of those things are prerequisites for making a self-indulgent and questionably interesting video blog thing.

I’m still on the road, presently in Portland, and yes it’s apocalyptically gray. I like it. I’ve been here less than 24 hrs., I’ve made friends, eaten Poutine for the first time (Canucks just slid past the Dutch into 7th place of people I like the most), and seen a hip up-and-coming band play a “show.” I’d say we’re doing alright.

If you’re in any way affiliated with law enforcement, I want to assure you that despite appearances, I am in fact NOT texting, iPoding, macbooking, GPSing, rapping, and driving at the same time. Mom, I’m wearing my seatbelt.

Anyway, for those of you who couldn’t join me on this little mission, I put together a visual summary of my trip. If you loop this video for the next 15 hours, it’ll be like you were riding shotgun—in England, because my macbook mirrors everything.

There’s something extra special about 2/3rds of the way through.

 ***P.S. This is an official demand for a ski/boot/outerwear/eyewear/energy drink sponsorship for both Jon and myself. I’m serious.

Jon’s progressive riding/writing, coupled with whatever it is that I do, has gone unnoticed for far too long. We’re taste makers—trend-setters if you will. We’re willing to sellout, though.

 I have a dramatic/tragic past, felony arrests, stints in rehab, and I rap. Should I start a ski-beef? Jacob Wester is a pretentious tool. Blao. Skiing needs a Suge Knight. Which core companies are going to step up and do the right thing?


Nov 06

Casual Fridays 5

By chrasual4 Comments

CasualFridays

You’d think that one night spent playing “Dodge the Suicidal Mule Deer” on a pitch black Colorado state road would have lastingly quenched my thirst for that sort of adventure. Well, it didn’t. In the wee hours of this glorious morning, I got on my Luke Skywalker ish and swerved around a presumably brand-new herd of deer en route to Wolf Creek Ski Area, just outside of Pagosa Springs. I beat the sun there, but just barely.

sunrise

Let’s back up though. The most interesting part of this story—in my estimation—is the shenanigans that led up to this latest impulsive, ill advised road trip. Continue reading this entry »

Oct 30

Casual Fridays 4

By chrasual10 Comments

CasualFridays

Bitch, I'm ME, so who're you?

Bitch, I'm ME, so who're you

 For a sport that roughly 7.4 people care about worldwide, freeskiing is rife with controversy. Aside from the obnoxious “tight vs. baggy outerwear” and “poles vs. no poles” debates, maybe no other issue splits us more definitively than Lil‘ Wayne. For every one of us that remembers to say “the motherfucking BABY!”, another one of us groans.  I’ve invested quite a bit of time (and energy) into considering my thoughts on Lil’ Wayne.  This is undoubtedly a worthless endeavor, and I am fully aware that having done so is an inherently lame thing to have done. But, I’m obsessed with music, and I find his polarizing effect really interesting.  I’m also aware that this will be unbelievably long, and will likely be read/appreciated by very few people, and that’s ok because I’m primarily writing this for me.  I plan on saying a lot, and I’m going to supply some seemingly unnecessary details about my musical tastes so that it’s clear where I’m coming from (read: preemptive defensiveness). If you have a short attention span, or a fiercely ideological stance on/against Lil’ Wayne that will make an objective view impossible, stop reading.  If you are someone who is legitimately interested in hearing someone’s thoughts on why Lil’ Wayne is a note-worthy/important/respectable rapper, please continue and forgive the length.  Continue reading this entry »

Oct 23

Casual Fridays 3

By chrasual3 Comments

CasualFridays

When I began this little column a few weeks ago, I led you all (read: the 7 people outside of my immediate family who are reading this) to believe that I would lay out the heart-warming and touching story that was my hard fought ascendance from the hell of addiction into the splendor of ski-bummedness. While that’s fundamentally true—minus the histrionics—this column will also sometimes be a forum for me to ramble about any number of things even peripherally related to either the aforementioned hell or splendor. My hope is that these little breaks from our central narrative will act as colorful little asides that serve to let you, the reader, get a better feel for your protagonist. My other hope is that you all just bought that, and that I successfully put off delving into my past for another week. So… Continue reading this entry »

Oct 16

Casual Fridays 2

By chrasual4 Comments

CasualFridays

My dad and I have had this conversation several times, and it pretty much always goes the same way. 

Me:  “Uncle Zack taught me to ski.”

Dad:  “That’s incredulous (or whichever over the top, barely applicable word he favors at the moment)! I taught you how to ski!”

While it’s true that some overly serious guy with a shitty job (read: ski instructor at Camelback in the Poconos) spent a few hours desperately trying to hold my 6-year-old self’s attention in order to show me how to click into my bindings, but my uncle taught me how to ski.  Or rather, my uncle taught me how to point my skis downhill and how to stop.  Words fail in attempting to describe the transition from: “It’s cold, my feet hurt, and I’m tired of falling down” to, “I wonder how fast I can go on these things”.  However, Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra rings in my ears and I see the “Star-Child returns to Earth” scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey play in my head when I think on it.  Anyone who hung in there long enough knows what I’m talking about. Continue reading this entry »

Oct 09

Casual Fridays 1

By chrasual9 Comments

CasualFridays

A weekly column by Chris Casula (a real dude). 

 I wanted to be a Space Cadet. I didn’t know what the day-to-day responsibilities of a Space Cadet looked like per se, but I was pretty sure that they wore helmets and carried ray guns.  A year or so later, I was drawing pictures of myself in a wetsuit wielding a spear- gun; I wanted to be a Marine Biologist. I knew even less about what they actually did.  At first glance, these two potential career paths appear to be fairly dissimilar.  It’s taken me roughly 15 years—rife with endless soul-searching and self-help books—to understand that I haven’t ever really wanted to do anything other than wear a stylish (albeit functional) outfit while risking my life.  I suppose then that, in retrospect, my next two life-plans weren’t all that surprising.

 A happen chance late night viewing of the 1993 seminal classic Aspen Extreme on HBO changed everything.  From the first slow-mo sequence (of the roughly 476) featuring neon ski apparel, Bob Seger, and double helicopters, I knew that I’d end up in some western ski town where I’d chase around some guarded and jaded woman who wore wool headbands*.  Some of that has come to pass.  What I didn’t know then is that before I got there, I’d end up in some project alley chasing around dope.

   This is the story about how those two things bumped into one another.  This is the story about how each of those two things almost killed me.  But mostly, this is the story of how skiing saved my life.

 

 *NOTE:  This dream was momentarily eclipsed after a happen chance late night viewing of Airborne on HBO