Hi all, sorry for the lack of posts lately. We are upgrading our site with a new host site and re-vamping the design. More stories are coming soon, but in the meantime be patient and keep sending us your tales to post. If you have someone to nominate as a “Jumper,” let us know that, too! E-mail vanessa@shejumps.org. Thanks!!
Michelle Parker is one of the best freestyle skiers in the world, but her biggest jump came from letting her âwalls downâ in a relationship. Hereâs her story. For more on Michelle, go to her blog at www.michelle-parker.com.
I SUPPOSE that my lifestyle hasnât promoted having normal relationships with many people. Iâm rarely home, and when I am I prefer using my free time to catch up with my family. When Iâm on the road Iâm constantly meeting amazing people, but often times our relationship doesnât span much farther than the few days or weeks Iâm visiting for. I feel like relationships are fragile and deserve time and energy to grow. Those who are close to me understand this and thatâs why we are still close. Having little time to be with the people I love prevented me from thinking about being in love, falling in love, or just having a boyfriend. The thought hadnât really crossed my mind until a couple of years ago when I decided to let my wall down and give it a try.
At the time, I wasnât good at this. I had little practice, but figured I could learn a thing or two from this person. I went for it, I hung my heart out and let it be vulnerable for the first time in a long time. It felt amazing. I was free of a burden that I imposed on myself of not allowing my heart to be at risk. And then it ended. The time and energy that I put into this relationship seemed silly at that moment in my life, but I grew from it. I grew up and I became much stronger in the end. Now I know that it wasnât silly at all, it was an amazing learning experience for me. I learned that time heals and forgiveness heals and now I donât have any walls up preventing me from this incredible experience. Thatâs the biggest risk that Iâve taken in the past few years.
SheJumps and Girls Day Out teamed up to find out whose colors shine brightest. Here is winner Karley Denoon’s response to the question, “How do you stay true to your passion?”
This is a question we all ask ourselves on a regular basis and continue to re-evaluate when we fall off the wagon, and for many of us alleged “ski bums,” as the bank account empties and the seasons change.
The journalist and author Thomas Friedman once proposed a formula that I feel helps explain the importance of passion and its driving force to action.
He proposed that CQ + PQ > IQ (Curiosity Quotient plus Passion Quotient “is greater than” Intelligence Quotient). According to Friedman, curiosity and passion are key components for education and movement in a world where information is readily available to everyone, and where global markets reward those who learn efficiently and who are furthermore self-motivated to learn and act. Regarding staying true to my passion, even though the consensus of society is that “ski bumming” is a phase only prosperous in one’s youth, I have the passion and curiosity to pursue it with dedication. This surely exceeds any success that society’s standardized IQ test-type expectations would suppose for me.
The dictionary tells us passion is the sufferings of Christ between the night of the Last Supper and his death, the emotions as distinguished from reason and intense emotion compelling action. None of this seems easy to me, and nor do I find staying true to my passion easy either. What I do find is that there is nothing more rewarding than feeding your fire. In trying to fuel my passion’s great fire, I’d like to be able to say I do so with great ease, clarity and focus to the point of tenacious determination, but that would be a lie that I couldnât even convince myself of. Honestly, most of the time I feel like I am chasing my passions like they are the last bus of the night out of a sketchy neighborhood.
In attempting to decipher what my actual passions are I think between looking at my quiver of surf boards and pairs of skis and my transient ways from the interior to the island, it would be easy to say that I am passionate about skiing and surfing and have managed to dial a sweet life that allows me to be living the dream with a bit of cash in my pocket now and again. Perfect, right?
I donât believe itâs as easy as loading up your wagon while the seasons change and driving the open road with Jack Kerouac justifying your journey. I think the passion for skiing and surfing is rooted deeper than the adrenaline addiction that I know I have. I think it finds its way into an existential human craving to feel alive. In such a world as we live in today with food, clothes, shelter and tampons all in the same aisle in the grocery store, sometimes we need to make a bit more of an effort to get that live feeling.
To stay true to your passion I have found that you need to involve a delicious mixed pot of compromise with yourself and situations, acceptance and consciousness. I believe that to ski over a hundred days in a winter, and also for winters to come, you sometimes have to re-evaluate your objectives for that day and accept that the Ron Jeremyâs will be there tomorrow and the day after, but arenât there for you today. Or that perhaps even though itâs the 30th pow day in a row, you may need to hit up a yoga class rather than make first chair. When you wake up with the beats from the night before still pounding in your head, perhaps skiing faster than a car in a playground zone just isnât for you, but man dancing the night before sure felt good on the soul!
In trying to stay true to my passion I believe it is important to help support people making smart, brave moves in the industry that you are passionate about and be brave yourself. It is involving yourself in your community and hollering for that guy who throws down a sick spread eagle under the chair. Taking the time to smile and say hello to your neighbor sitting next to you for the 10 minute ride up the Timber chair also goes a long way (they may be that person who sits at a desk all week staring at a computer so you donât have to). We are all in the same place for a reason, cultivate that.
The short conclusion of all this babble is really that the only way that I have found so far to stay true to your passion is through balance. Adjusting a little bit to the right after youâve gone way too far to the left and not giving yourself too hard of a time about it. Accepting yourself and accepting that passion explodes once and awhile (trust me Iâm well experienced with this), and that is half of the excitement. By definition a passion is not sustainable, but attempting to combine it with balance seems like the only way I have figured out to make it last, even if it is only for tomorrow, because Iâm thinking that there might be a lot of snowy tomorrows to come.
Grete Eliassen is an anomaly. Not only is she a rad athlete, sheâs a rad person. Greteâs won two X Games gold medals and silver in halfpipe and has a signature HEAD ski, but you wonât hear a word about it. She isnât âGrete the X Games gold winnerâ or âGrete the Norwegian.â Grete is Grete. She doesnât like labels. When it comes to skiing, she lets her actions speak louder than her words. Not only can she send it in the pipe but also on snowmobile-accessed steeps.
Sheâs not about image as much as substance. Grete is an ambassador to all female athletes as a spokesperson for the Womenâs Sports Foundation. She doesnât just take from the earth in recognition or fame, she gives back by being a devoted citizen. As a University of Utah student, she constantly wants to learn how she can help save the world one step at a time: She writes letters to her senators about stopping the Darfur genocide and rides her bike as much as possible to be earth friendly. Grete has math friends, ski friends, journalist friends, family friends, but there are no labels for her people. They are just friends. Grete is an anomaly, and sheâs rad.
For more on Grete, check out www.greteeliassen.com.
Claire Smallwood, SheJumps exec director, recently had a pleasant surprise. âYou know how you have numbers in your phone that you NEVER call? she says. âWell I was one of those numbers for this girl, and she accidentally dialed me! In our quick 3 minutes convo I told her about SheJumps and hereâs what I got back ⊠immediately!â
Hey Claire,
I wanted to let you know that that random call was great and that I really appreciate the work you are doing with shejumps.org. I am going to start work on my own jump asap. I liked one of the quotes on the website so much that I have added it to my e-mail!
I also wanted to say that I met you in Crested Butte and that we connected because of West Africa and French. If you are interested in African Dance still check out www.wontanaraproductions.com. Alseny of Guinea teaches the class and Andrea, his partner, is also an amazing dancer and definitely a potential jumper. Thank you for helping us all reach our potential, sometimes all we need is a little back-up to push us into action.
Jessica
P.S. Here’s the quote: The only way to truly evolve into our potential is to give, participate in something greater than ourselves. We need to stop feeling less than and be what it is we wish to see or have or be in the world. What random acts of kindness do you practice in everyday life, when no one else it watching? Check out www.shejumps.org
“You’ve got to do a Pinwheel,” says Olympic silver medalist Shannon Bahrke as she overhears Roxy Pop Drop coach Caroline Gleich and I pondering our next trick at the Olympic Park splash pool in Park City, Utah.
“A Pinwheel, oh yeah,” says Gleich. “So all you have to do is a back flip and I’ll do a front flip.” No big deal. Except, we had to do it together. From the top of the “single” ramp at the splash pool, Gleich and I held hands. “Let go, let go, let go,” she says as we pick up speed and are about to hit the tranny. No big deal.
Shannon’s smiling and Gleich and I can’t stop laughing as our heads emerge from the bubbles in the 750,000-gallon pool. That was the type of fun girls ages 7 to 30 had at the Roxy Pop Drop presented by Axis Freeride and SheJumps on June 26-28.
Not everyone’s goal was to do a Pinwheel, but just about all 19 girls were able to challenge themselves, whether it was learning a 180 or a front flip. Park City’s Sicily Romano (9), was petrified to go off the “mini” jump on the first day, but she finally dropped in with the help from her friend Delaney Flynn (8) and the coaches.
“I’m really proud, because I wanted to do something perfect for my dad and I did a perfect spread eagle, and my first 180 around, I did a really good one,” says Sicicly on the last day of camp. “I came to this camp because I love skiing. My favorite thing is to ski. I do farm team and I really wanted to get into a camp that will let us ski all year. This camp is a lot funner because you jump into pools.”
Squaw Valley’s Presley Doyle, 12, came to camp to learn a front flip. By the end of the weekend, she was sending textbook flips off the single jump, which is about a 15-foot drop into the pool. Not only did she get help from the Roxy coaches â Gleich, Olivia Akerly, Elise Borelli and MC Waryas â but also family-friend Barhke, who told her to “keep my head up and look out.”
“They are really awesome,” says Presley about her coaches. “It definitely pushes me to do stuff. I’ll definitely come back and hope to bring this to the snow.”
Getting girls to explore freestyle skiing among a male-dominated Oly Park pool has been Gleich’s goal over the past two summers with the Roxy Pop Drop camp. “Over the past four seasons of coaching here for Axis Freeride, I’ve seen a lot of female skiers and snowboarders, a lot of great athletes of all ages and all abilities,” Gleich says. “But in the past it’s been male dominated on our junior teams so I wanted to give girls a way to get together and jump together in a way that they won’t be afraid and won’t hold back. Even from last year to this year, we’ve had a huge increase in the amount of females signed up for our year-round and summer-long programs.” Gleich says that having Roxy involved is another way to get more girls out that may not have known about the local Oly Park programs. “Making skiing cute, young, and fun â that is a powerful thing about having Roxy involved,” she says.
Throughout the three days of training, big-mountain skiers Lynsey Dyer and Claire Smallwood played camp counselors to the girls and jumped right alongside them working on front flips and misty and cork 7s. They helped one of the girls from Dyer’s hometown, Sun Valley, over come her fear of the single jump. The next day, the camper was sending it off the single during the Roxy Jam Session prior to the Flying Ace All-Star show (i.e. in front of a thousand or so onlookers awaiting the U.S. Ski Team, freeride stars and Olympians perform on the aerial ramps). And the youngest camper of all, Liv Annika Stevenson (7) from San Diego made her way to the single on the last day, too, hucking a huge spread eagle to cheers from the crowd.
“The level of progression we’ve seen over the past three days is huge,” Gleich says. “We’ve had girls that maybe had never hit a jump on skis getting pretty big size jumps â 12, 15 feet of air. We’ve seen front flips, 360s, 540s, and just huge spread eagles. Getting that air awareness under their belt is only going to help as they take these tricks to the snow.”
Special thanks to Flybar, Cole Sports, and ScullCandy for donating prizes to the campers. For more information about the Roxy Pop Drop, visit www.axisfreeride.com. Photos by Lynsey Dyer.
Doesn’t this photo make you want to giggle? SheJumps Co-Founder Lynsey Dyer took this shot of U.S. Ski Teamer Marco Sullivan a few weeks ago. He’s a giggle monster. Take a minute today to giggle. Smile, it’s healthy and contagious.
Lauren Whaley recently took a jump â traveling in Vietnam by herself. Along the way she has learned a lot about herself. Here are some ramblings to friends in an email.
Hi everyone!
I’m in Saigon, Vietnam right now writing from my air conditioned room in Madam Cuc’s guesthouse. Today was my first day of traveler’s diarrhoea, so I didn’t go to the Pagoda to hear the monks chanting or see the “Reunification Palace” where the Vietnam war officially ended when a Communist tank crashed through its gates. Nor did I go to the bank to get some American dollars out for the rest of my travels.
But, until now, wow. I’ve had an amazing time. And cheap, too. I’ve been eating beautiful noodle soup and coffee for $1.50 and staying at air conditioned guesthouses for about $6/night. Much cheaper than JH, but just a teeny bit warmer.
I just wanted to write to let you know that I’m thinking about you. That I’m so grateful for this opportunity to learn how to have a little more patience with myself, a little more flexibility with plans and a little distance from the dramatic webs I weave. I’m also a bit lonely here traveling alone, but it’s an amazing time to think and also to learn not to think, but be content listening to the honking motorbikes, the playing children and the constant “Hello, how are you?” from street vendors.
If you want to read some of my updates, visit the blog I started to keep my family updated. It’s nothing official, like TheSnaz or JHUnderground or even TetonAT, it’s just Lauren’s personal stuff. It’s called www.pleasehappy.com. My dad prefers the other name I started called “dancinground.com.” So, I’m still trying to pick a good name. As it’s only for friends and family, it doesn’t actually matter THAT MUCH; just another thing to think about! Some things from my trip I’ll tell you about in detail some day: Learning to meditate â breathing in and breathing out -, taking a motorbike taxi, visiting with tribes in the mountains, going to a Catholic service in a remote mountain village, sitting on an 8-hour bus ride for 21 hours, getting kissed by a drunk 80-year-old, drinking mountain moonshine at 9 a.m. … I’ve had a good mix of totally off the beaten track â being the only woman, the only white person and the only English speaker for days at a time - and then reemerging to find myself in “backpacker districts” where I meet other travelers every five seconds!
This trip has been truly incredible for so many reasons. I’ve been spending less than $10 a day and have learned to breathe in and out and smile! Ah ha. So simple, but so easy to forget (like when things like this morning happen!) Two months is definitely not long enough to explore Southeast Asia. A lifetime would be better!
I’ve been really taking my time to get to know Vietnam and it’s been super sweaty and intimate and lonely. I’m ready to move a bit faster now â as in, see more places â so I’m making some plans. Today, I fly to an island off the coast for some quiet Lauren time for two days before returning to the hills with a friend of my fathers who works with some disadvantaged “ethnic minorities.” After that, I think I will say goodbye to Vietnam and explore Cambodia for a few days. Not sure my plans after that. I’d love to get into Myanmar to see if there is anything I can do to help the situation, but I also don’t want my camera to be confiscated and, more importantly, I don’t want to be a liability to the rescue efforts. But, we’ll see.
I fly back to the states on July 15 and will be back in Jackson Hole around July 20 or so. I have babysitting jobs and writing assignments lined up, not to mention the bike race, so I’ll definitely be back! Plus, I miss my amazing community and mountains!!
Thank you to everyone for supporting me and listening to all my ups and downs. There will be a billion more where those came from, but I’m hoping to be a little less captured by my emotions. I think it’s working. What a slow slow process this whole calming down business is!
From the land of smiles, war remnants, honking horns, juicy mangoes, beaches, shacks, stinky fish, incense, badminton and old ladies doing aerobics every morning at 4 a.m. …
I love you.
Love, Lauren
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience Las Leñas, Argentina, SheJumps style! As an EXPLORATORY seven day camp adventure to one of the biggest BADDEST mountains on the planet!! SHEJUMPS is partnering with Expedition Kirkwood and Rossignol to bring six women to some of the BEST terrain in the world. Depending on the CONDITIONS, we will be skiing powder, 2,000 feet of untouched corn snow or ski touring in the wild Andes Mountains over the week of Aug. 30 through Sept. 6.
LAS LENAS HAS ALREADY SEEN OVER 8 FEET OF SNOW AND ANTICIPATES A HUGE WINTER!
We will fly into Buenos Aires, spend the night, and then travel to Las Leñaâs via a charter flight, for a week of skiing and or touring in the Andes. Our minimum cost of $3,749 per person includes three star accommodations, COACHING, lift tickets and transportation once you arrive.
Our time is RUNNING out and participation makes all the difference. As this is our exploratory first CAMP, costs will never be this low again. Weâre checking things out and INVITING you along!
SIGN-UPS will end July 10. CONTACT lynsey@shejumps.org for more INFORMATION on the camp, additional lodging options and all other logistics!
Donâtâ miss the ADVENTURE of a lifetime! (Pictured above: Lynsey Dyer, pro skier and SheJumps co-founder, will be a camp coach in Las Leñas. Photo by Gabe Rogel.)
Alex George, 16, decided she wanted to learn Spanish and then decided to venture across the world to do so. Knowing no one, she hopped on a plane to take a month-long immersion class. Here’s her story …
My desire to learn Spanish drove me to travel to Spain for a month to study not only the language, but the culture and art as well. Iâm 16 years old and this is probably the most intimidating, yet most thrilling experience of my life. I have only been here for about two weeks, but everyone continues to tell me that it is a liberating journey and will get easier as time goes on.
The first day that I arrived in MĂĄlaga, I jumped in a taxi and it was all that I could do not to burst into tears and tell the poor man about how much I wanted just to go back to the comfort of Jackson Hole. As we drove through the city to my host familyâs house, he pointed out all of the cityâs landmarks and historical references, but I just nodded and looked out the window, throwing in a âah siâ every now and then, hoping to at least pretend like I was engaged. Once I arrived at my house for the next month, things got even worse. My host mother asked me a hundred questions in Spanish, and she spoke a million miles per hour. I just nodded and smiled and went off of every third word, because that was all that I could pick up from her. She showed me to my room and the second that she closed the door I burst into tears. I laid down on my bed and cried myself to sleep. I know that you are not supposed to sleep until everyone else does in order to prevent jetlag and adjust better, but as soon as I hit the bed, I was out.
The next few days grew increasingly better. I am going to an International School with people from all over the world. Most students are in their 20s, but some are even older. I am the baby by far at only 16. Everyone has helped me to find my place and adjust to the lifestyle here. The people you meet along the way that share the same sense of wonder become people that inspire you the most.
MĂĄlaga is known for its sweet wine and delicious tapas, so eating over here has been a dream. MĂĄlaga is also the hometown of Pablo Picasso and as I’m sure you can guess, the art is pretty inspiring. The architecture could have a whole article for itself, but something about the castles and old buildings gives the city a different feel than anything that I have ever witnessed before. Pictures can’t really capture the essence.
The first weeks have been difficult due to obvious culture shocks and missing home, but it truly does get better each day. I jumped head first into a culture that I basically know nothing about. Though I miss my family and friends, this experience has forced me to find out a lot about myself and really reach outside of my comfort zone, as cliché as it sounds. I would encourage everyone to immerse themselves in something new and exciting as it has taught me so much!!!