Adventures in Nordic Skiing: 2010-2013

 This years ski season is a a bust for me because of my ACL reconstruction. So despite one of the better snow seasons....maybe in a decade...I am left only with nostalgia to satisfy myself.

The following are some pictures and links to previous ski related postings from the last few years of Fun Til Death.

Ski

Ski boot Review

Late February Ski

Wipe out at Markin Glen

Blizzard of 2011

 

Thickeneering

Checker Mountain video

/kalamazoo-first-tracks-of-2011

DIY Curling Stones: backyard curling 2013

Earlier FTD DIY curling post

more FTD DIY Curling

Even more DIY Curling

With the Winter Olympics coming up curling will once again be showcased.  My brother is really into the sport ( as much as you can be with out paying for ice time ) and each year that the weather is favorable he creates a sheet on the back pond at our folks house in Dexter, Michigan. 

So far this season the sheet has been kinda rough and the curling favored brute force over finesse. There was still a good amount of laughter, merriment, and it was a good excuse to get out of the house and do something out side.

The Stones are still the salad bowl, concrete, and galvanized pipe DIY jobs from a few years ago and they are certainly starting to show some signs of wear and tear, this may be their last season.

The House is painted on the ice with food coloring, the button is a bottle cap, traditionally from the first bottled beer consumed while creating the sheet.

I was awaiting my ACL surgery when these games were played, so I stayed in the photographer role. Ice and unstable knees don't mix very well.

As cold as it has been I would expect that there will be  more curling to come in 2014. These games will be fueled with inspiration from the Olympics and Papst Blue Ribbon.

The Worst 20 minute bike ride....ever.

   

The Worst 20 minute bike ride...ever.

  A quick bicycle ride becomes a 12 month ordeal.  

Why did i crash? who ever knows? i have been the victim of speed wobbles, pot holes, faulty crank arms, lack of skill, and lack of focus. Every serious climbing fall has been a lack of focus. Skateboarding crashes generally seem like a lack of skill...bicycles have been both lack of focus and faulty equipment...

I am chocking this one up to lack of focus. I had been putting alot of miles on a Shogun touring bike, and what was intended to be a short intense ride on the fixe, was only about 15 minutes long...including the limp home after the crash. I figure i got about 4 minutes of ride...5 minutes of crash and gathering of wits, and then 6 minutes of limping home with a broken bike, a blown out knee and a jacked up shoulder. 

Paying for radness, putting blood into the game.

  So....as you can see from the pictures that this training ride for ski season, ended my ski season before it started.  What you see above is a shredded ACL.  Below the massive bruise on my shoulder.

 And...the condition of the bike.  The wheel is twisted and cracked. I have not had the heart to give the forks a good check.  I think that in 2014 I will filp this over to single speed free wheel, give myself a little more margin for operator error.

Mason Skate Park- first stop of the Kalamazoo Church of Skatin

Sunday

 6am- Meet in abandoned Burger King Parking Lot

 Drive to Mason, Michigan

 7:40 am Arrive in Mason. Before park opens

 8:00am  Skate park given a "peoples opening"...no one from Mason Parks showed up so we jumped the fence.

9:40 am  Drive to Charlotte

10:15 am Arrive in Charlotte with all the Frisbee golfers

11:00 Leave Charlotte and drive  back to Kalamazoo

noon- back in kalamazoo.

Lake Michigan sailing: fun til death outta South Haven

Sporting a " Fun Til Death" sticker on a sailing vessel is a questionable decision.

Andys mini

Fun til death stickers!

Stickers available. Message me your address.