With the lack of snow in Vermont right now, we’ve had plenty of time to focus on building boards, reflect on the past year & set new goals for 2012. One thing we’ve caught ourselves doing more often lately though is the great American past-time of mind surfing. Whether we’re in the shop applying a coat of bio-resin, taking our dogs for a walk in the woods, or driving to the grocery store; we find ourselves thinking about lines we rode or new mountains we want to ride. A quick ollie off a small pillow, the anticipation of making turns through an un-touched field of powder, the sound of our buddies hollering as we fly down a river bed and slash beside some un-suspecting spruce… our minds are there. We’ve been riding for over half our lives & the ritual of visualizing the opportunities that snow and our boards produce is just as strong as when we started riding.

So, we wait and wonder when the next storm will hit. We wonder if the snow will stay & if we’ll be able to put our thoughts into action. We stand at the workbench sanding boards and watch the particles of wood flying through the air and falling to the floor. We keep checking the snow report & hope that the meteorologist will be wrong.

It looks pretty bare outside the shop right now & we’re talking about what mountains do have snow. There are six new boards stacked by the press ready to be shipped out. The feelings of restlessness are growing. Then it happens again. Our minds start drifting off to thoughts of deep powder and mountains we want to ride. The lines we rode last winter are no longer visible, but we know that they existed (until the next storm covered them up). Or, at least we’re pretty sure they did. Maybe it’s time to check the weather again.