The Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss

By Kevin “Spag” Eddy, PSIA-AASI RM Freestyle Committee Member, Alpine Examiner

 

As I stare down the sunset of my freestyle career, I’m flooded with memories of great days in the park, learning new tricks, going bigger and faster as both skill and adrenaline pushed me towards and beyond my potential.  And there’s a LOT of that. I’ve been involved in PSIA-AASI’s Freestyle Community since the early 2000’s, and maybe the late 90’s if you count David Oliver and I ripping around in Angel Fire, NM… so I can safely say that I’ve had hands in it since we were chiseling Exam results on a wall in a cave.

 

 

That said, with 20+ years of not everything going as planned, my body is feeling the results of impacts and crashes.  Surgeries (some major), age, and weight are all becoming factors that affect my days in the park.  I often favor carving or powder days lately, yet my love for the expressiveness of the park isn’t diminished at all… but I have to be much smarter now.  So, my musings here will come in two parts:  

 

“Old Dog, Old Tricks”

 

As of late, I’m maybe a little old and broken to be pushing myself into adding 180’s to spins or boosting further out of the pipe.  So, I still enjoy my park days with my Old Reliables.  I’m still fully capable of creating all sorts of variances with grabs and maneuvers in a simple 360 or 180, and those will ALWAYS be fun! Even straight airs with a solid Critical Grab can look and feel good!  Sliding on low-consequence boxes and rails is still groovy!  Skiing switch and playing around on flatland with some old school ballet tricks is still a gas!  I’ve still got all those moves in my pocket, so why go to the park and hurt myself, or scare myself, by putting myself in rowdy situations? That, my friends, was for young and spry Kevin…  and that guy is long gone!

 

If you’re like me, it’s tempting to just hang it and simply stop going to the park.  It’s easy to rationalize that it’s not worth getting hurt at this stage… and you’re not wrong…  But I’m here to tell you that if Freestyle has been a part of your skiing upbringing, it can still be satisfying and fun.  Just use that elderly wisdom to discipline yourself and do the things YOU KNOW HOW TO DO.  You’ll still have fun, and you’ll likely stay injury free. And that brings me to Part 2:

 

“You’re Not Stupid, But Your Brain Is”

 

We as human beings are generally designed to create neural connections to our feet and lower legs mostly just to ambulate and walk around.  Our “Fast Twitch” muscle reactions tend to manifest themselves in bigger muscle groups as part of a very well-established reaction to stress or danger (Fight or Flight Syndrome, which I lovingly refer to as “Slip in the Shower Syndrome”). Seeing as how some situations in the park can be anxiety-forming, our nervous system does what it does and can restrict much needed recovery movements or muscle contractions in the feet and legs.  It’s not your fault… Your brain’s connection to your nervous system is just stupid.

 

The nice thing about all this, is that there is hope.  You can spend the summer and winter mornings off snow, bypassing that neural connection.  You can establish another strong relationship with an entirely different set of muscles that are more capable of reacting in a positive way to stressors and imbalances that often occur on man-made features.  Standing on one foot on a wobbly surface for even a couple minutes a day can improve not only your ability to send messages to your lower extremities… it improves the speed at which it happens.

 

For Freestyle in particular, I find myself working out my lower leg and ankle A LOT.  I stand on BOSU Balls, slack lines, my Gib Board, and foam blocks.  And I do it at some point in probably 90% of my workouts.  Things like standing on one foot on a BOSU Ball and rowing with a weighted bar benefits me greatly, as I create stability in my lower leg, and instability up higher.  It mimics the ever-changing forces working on or against me when skiing, jumping and sliding.  

 

 

 

(Check out www.skimag.com and use the search option and type in “BOSU” for some really good ideas on how to effectively use a BOSU Ball, and www.giboardus.com and open the “Training” segment.)

 

 

So as we age, yes, it can be a challenge to have fun on skis or snowboards in the same ways we could in the glory days.  I’m not here to refute that, but we don’t have to deny ourselves the fun and challenge of being in the park just because we aren’t what we used to be.  When our younger pals head to the park, we don’t have to excuse ourselves and miss out on their company!  Just go into the season prepared and stay in your wheelhouse.  

 

And if you’re ever in Breck on a nice day head to the park and look for me….

 

… I’ll be the Older Gentleman.

 

Spag