Tag Archives: natural

Feb 28 2014
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Snow

Learning Curve: The Road Less Traveled.

Wizard's Gulch

Full disclosure: I have been skiing for a long, long time. Well, I’m 28 and I’ve been skiing since I was 3. Okay, here comes the disclosure part. I’m still not that good at it. I mean, I suppose “good” is all relative, but I can’t ski the way a lot of my friends do, flying between moguls or dropping cliffs with seemingly small effort.

I grew up skiing the East Coast, exclusively, where groomers rule and rules abound. My parents also happen to be strictly on-pisters. Last year, I skied New Zealand, which is what I like to call a lawless land.

Deterrents. Cardrona.
Deterrents. Cardrona.

While it may not truly be “lawless,” New Zealanders are definitely a lot more blasé about what actually constitute boundaries and who may ski within (or outside of) them. Continue reading →

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Jun 01 2010
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Tech

Wax Nostalgic, Prophetic, Organic

He races below the lip, gathering speed.  A quick backside turn.  A vertical ascent.  Jordy Smith goes airborne.  He crouches and grabs both rails, fins to the sky.  A complete rotation finds him back on the lip, right at home, though facing the wrong direction.  An easy 180-degree spin and he’s back in.  Smith’s rodeo flip, the rodeo flip, caused quite a ruckus.  Befuddled surfers the world-over watched that clip, and thought, I want what he’s having.  In terms of wax, of course.  Didn’t they?  Well, they should have, because the maneuver wouldn’t have been possible without wax.

At 10 million bars a year, surfboard wax may be the sport’s most underappreciated essential.  Though often lauded for its olfactory magnificence, wax is rarely the topic of enlivened conversation — or any conversation at all, for that matter.

Continue reading →

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