Zero to Hero

Never Summer

2011-05-18T18:04:00.001-07:00

Everyone loves a good ol' fasion photo essay. Sadly, budget cut backs due to the poor economic times have forced me to lay off my personal photographer capturing my hidden stomps....and getting my little brother to do it, just isnt cool, so these photos will have to due. enjoy.

Cheeky the Traveling Squirrel arrives in Calgary for the week!

Canada Olympic Park!

Cheeky had a front row seat all week @ the FIS World Cup Slopestyle and Superpipe events.

Since this feature was part of the FIS World Cup course, therefore restricted...the story behind this picture is funny. I grabbed the first semi-capable looking person to ride the chairlift up with and recruite into this mission. I managed to pick the only guy on the mountain to have never used a digital camera before, but regardless he was willing...after a crash course, a quick trip to the 'location' where he would stand on the outisde of the safety fence and where point the camera for the shot(I actually made and X where he would stand and also laid a branch in the directing for him to aim the camera and shoot). We went back to the chair lift and road back up to 'location' of the photoshoot...

Knowing I only had 1, maybe 2 attempts at getting this picture before ski-patrol chased me down, I nervously re-explained how to operate the camera to my photographer, who we will just refer to as "rain man".

Attempt #1. Fail. Rain Man pushed the capture button to early. no big deal. back down to the chair for another ride up and another re-explaination on how to take the picture.

Attempt #2. Success! A couple of high fives later and we parted ways.

Whats not to love about fresh air, fresh sushi and fresh snow?

I spent a week in North Van for some Bromance with my Cousin Jesse who recently moved here from Nova Scotia.

greasin' a little view of Van City while gettin' my board slide on @ Grouse Mountain.

If Squamish isnt "picturesque" I dont know what is ...

Cheeky Arrives in Whistler. A view from his digs for the week.

My first day of "real snowboarding".

Incredible hosting and mountain guiding from a six year local made these some of the best days of snowboarding I have ever had.

What do Charlie Sheen and I have in common? we both love white powder.
Three straight days of the finest lines of BC's drug of choice. SNOW!

Im putting this poor quality photo in for two reasons.

#1. its a XXL wall ride that I was greasing/transfering 98% perfect all season long and I love bragging about it. and #2. I like telling people about the one time I got hung up on the top of it while doing a stall/transfer and ate shit, providing the entire chair lift and line up with a story to tell their friends.

When we first heard about the phantom hip-jump, It was easy to call it a sham...There was over 20mm of rain in only a few days not to mention the days in between were hovering temperatures of +10 to +14. As we pulled into the parking lot, it was out first sighting of snow on the hill, but there was still skepticism in the air if in fact, there was a ride able feature up there...it was a very silent hike to the top of the hill.

The Spring Spine.
...until we saw it! These are the remains of a poached Salmon Ski photo shoot!

Last Call.

2011-05-17T18:13:00.000-07:00

I suppose its about time for me to say something about how the training at the Peak Centre went for the last few months. Well, ill save you a lot of reading and i'll save myself a lot of typic...it was painfull! It was still everything I wanted it to be, but I have to admit, It was grueling at times. Now I fully appriciate what true athletes endure season after season!

Threshold Testing; The best way to precisely identify weaknesses as well as moniter training progress

VO2 max (also; maximal oxygen consumption, maximal oxygen uptake, peak oxygen uptake or aerobic capacity) is the maximum capacity of an individual's body to transport and use oxygen during incremental excersise, which reflect the physical fitness of the subject.

The name is derived from V-volume, O2- oxygen , max-maximum. VO2 max is typically expressed as an absolute rate in Litres of Oxygen per Minute (L/Min)

After wrapping up my last max test at the Peak Centre in December, I would essentially know where I would stand with regards to my maximum athletic endurance/performance for my body composition. I still dont know how I really feel about my results, but the good news is, my Sports Physiologist said if I keep up with a similar training program for another 6-12 months, I may possibly increase my max threshold...or the quicker alternative offered, intervals of Altitude Training. weird science! I think I need to go back to The GoodLife, ha.

My maximum V02 after 8 months of training was 49.9.

(below are some VO2 max results from select Elite Athletes..It's freakishly scary to compare to the chart above .

Spring Action

2010-09-28T17:54:00.001-07:00

My bummed toe (sounds ridiculous, but it fully put me out of commission from doing anything relevent to my training for like four weeks) is almost as good as new.

The biggest beneficiaries of my "potentially career ending injury" were the 12 year old school girls who usually occupy the Spring Action facility, but despite the numerous complaints about the un-shaven creepy man who uses foul language on a regular basis, I will be back up in the heezy next week!

The Air awareness classes are one hour long sessions (whenever I have some funds). But it is by far the raddest part of my whole program and is a relatively inexpensive and an extremely safe alternative to train your body's equilobrioception.... if you want to prevent yourself from taking a dreaded ski-patrol escorted toboggan ride down the hill, then dont be a dummy, practice on a tramp first!

Look easy enough for a school girl? well, the little girls schooled me when I showed up...next time im wearing a Justin Beiber t-shirt in hopes of them welcoming me into their wolfpack.

2010-09-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

A separated toe (I actually limped around for almost 3 full days until I stubbed it on a set of stairs and put it back into place. All blood flow and circulation came back within 24 hrs), the concussion and a gnarly haematoma on my thigh slowed me down a lot in the last few weeks and had me gimping around like an 80 yr old man...

one of my lil' piggies went to the market ...

(this was day 2... it got a bit more disgusting but ill avoid you vomming your lunch on your keyboard and not post it)

PEAK Season

2010-08-12T16:57:00.000-07:00

May 1st, 2010;
Step 1. Hired the Peak Centre for Human Performance for an individualized sport training program, monitoring and testing.

Program;
May 1st 2010 - December 1st 2011;
(Bi-monthly Blood/lactate threshold re-testing & Quarterly Vo2 max threshold re-testing)

Mon-Thursday;
2.5 hr sessions ( 1 hr strength/conditioning + 1 ½ hr Aerobic/Cardio)

As I write this, I’m nearly four months into the program and to be honest the only things I don’t look forward to are, the threshold re-tests! Co-incidentally I have one coming up next week that is going to be alot of fun...

Typically when there is no "after" photo, something went wrong...possibly even death.

After strapping you in, poking you with needles and progressively increasing difficulty until you’re on the brink of spewing up muscle milk over their lab. They give you a nice stack of papers consisting of a bunch of graphs, charts and weird science jargon which one can only assume was written by Dr.Bill Nye…essentially decoding how your body performs and for how long at certain levels (zones). Re-testing is on Thursday August 19th. Awesome.

While spending this extended period of time training at the Peak Centre, I see it as a tremendous opportunity for me to participate first hand and fully grasp what elite athletes need to maintain on a daily basis. I will see why athletes simply perform a lot better than you …and for a lot longer!

The Peak Centre trains and tests 3 NHL teams, the Canadian World Junior hockey team and numerous individual players from over 4 other NHL teams. They also work with 8 Canadian National sporting programs and have trained over 30 Olympic medalists..... THEY ARE LEGIT!

Birthday Resolutions

2010-07-12T18:46:00.000-07:00

Now to the point of this whole blog site I guess... The normal thing to do every January 1st is make a "new year resolution", well, I boycotted that played out nonsense and starting a new trend, "birthday resolution"...it's still the same concept where you have a specific date as a reference point from when you started etc.....But you do it on your birthday as a gift to yourself.

My birthday resolution this year was to allow myself more of the freedom of snowboarding.

Im rekindling an old relationship (with snowboarding) that I let fizzle out because I was busy being enticed by something every little boy dreams of... something that goes real fast, makes a lot of noise, jumps real high, and impresses the girls in class.

This whole thing started on May 12th, 2010. Which means throwing down double-corks in the X-games is more than a few birthday resolutions away, but everything has to start somewhere. In the mean time, I will try to maintain a positive environment to stay focused in and ultimately enhance my quality of life....all while getting stoked on snowboarding!

13 yrs old.Circa 1997.

Weightless

2010-06-27T17:19:00.000-07:00

If someone had told me when I was a kid that only 10% of people would grow up and only 5% of them would succeed at it, it would of probably had more of an appeal to me. But instead I was told the opposite, that everyone had to grow up and that everyone will essentially be doing the same thing with their lives once they hit certain ages. To me, there is nothing appealing about playing “follow the leader” and growing up.

I won’t deny all that nonsense about growing up is still a really hard thing to do, and it definately comes with a bag of heavy burdens that sit directly on our shoulders. But let me explain to you the power of getting stoked!…have you ever tried lifting a 50 pound weight on dry land? Then tried lifting the same weight under water? Even though it’s mass never changes, there is an incredible difference in the resistance making it easy to lift. That's what happens when you get stoked, a typical heavy burden in life, becomes weightless.

Between the sports psychology, social dynamics and general mental health books I’ve read over the years, there is one statement that stood out from all of the Dr. Phil mumbo jumbo.

“Don't be re-active, be pro-active”.

Hello, my name is Jason...and im an addict.

2010-06-21T19:26:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, growing up, all I wanted to do was golf...I was obsessed with it. Every day during the summer, my parents would drop me off at the course on their way to work, then pick me up on their way home. This went on for about five or six years...until I was introduced to a hormonal drug, called Epinephrine...aka.Adrenaline.

All of a sudden I noticed all the people I played golf with were my grandparents age, they would mysteriously disappear into the shadows of the clubhouse if the temperature went even 1 degree over 20, and the daily Groundhog Day'esqe conversations with senior citizens even started to make me feel like I was the one losing my marbles...the only explanation for my sudden mood swing with golf (no pun intended), was that I wanted more Epinephrine!

"you can't get hurt playing the guitar, thats why im not a rockstar!"

- Jason Ellis

The Search

2010-06-17T19:16:00.000-07:00

I spent the better part of the last fifteen years chasing dreams and accomplishing goals I had set out for myself in motocross. Most of which I managed to cross off my list in one way or another...albiet, I didn't set the world on fire and win the countless National Championships I imagined I would when I was kid bicycling around the neighbourhood with hockey cards in my spokes, but I did manage to maintain a healthy love for the sport I grew up with and was even able to make a decent living at it. So I guess at the end of the day that's all that mattered, my life revolved around dirtbikes, I didn't have to grow up and I didn't have to wear a suit to work.

I guess the easiest way to metaphorically describe my transition out of motocross, is like falling out of love with a girlfriend. You can keep her around, clinging to the memories of the good times you once had and convincing yourself they aren't as distant as you want to think. Or you can move on. Search for something new to love, to learn and to teach you new things about yourself and the game of life that we all have to play.

Im lucky in way...my roots are so deeply planted in the motocross, I always know in the back of my heart that it will always be there for a fling whenever I need it. Maybe that's why im not scared to go on "the search".

note:what appears to be an errection.Clearly it was love at first sight.

The Racer X Canada Family; (from L to R) Brett Dailey-General Manager, Dan O'shea -Creative Director, Danny Brault-Assistant Editor, Me -Advertising Sales/Marketing Communications, JTG -Editor/Photographer, Jolene Van Vugt-Graphic Designer, Dawn McClintock -Art Director, Allison Kennedy-Editor/Photographer