Get ready to shred, because it’s already time to get prepared for snow sports this season. Perusing the campus and asking people what they ride is an interesting topic, whether someone skis, snowboards, or has never been to the snow. Hopefully, this will get you excited for the upcoming snow season.
Senior Bruin Nave is a snowboarder here at Arcata High School. He has been snowboarding for ten years, but would only classify himself as intermediate.
“I can go down on black diamonds, but I’m not doing jumps or anything,” Nave said.
His best memory on the mountain was when he went up to Mt. Bachelor and it was snowing an inch and a half every hour. “There was so much powder out there, and not that many people were there because it was the first day of break, so that was just great white-out conditions,” Nave said.
Senior Jatoba Burchill, is a very seasoned boarder, consistently honing his craft on the mountain for the past 13 years.
“I’m not like an expert, but I’d say I’m pretty up there. I’m learning how to do a backflip,”
His best and worst memory on the mountain was with his father. One day they decided to go off the back side of the mountain and had a very long and exciting run.
“It lasted like half an hour, but then we had to hike like five miles back to the ski lifts,” Burchill said.
Although snowboarding is definitely popular, some people choose to stick to the classics. Senior Jack Gavin is a skier who picks up the sport every few seasons. Last year, Gavin went to Northstar and taught himself how to hit the slopes again. Gavin had gotten into snow sports the same way as many others, through his parents. Gavin sustained a fairly significant injury last season. Describing his experience, Gavin said, “I was going down this really steep hill and I was just going too fast. I went to you know… carve, and slow down to get off to the side, but my skis caught sideways, and I flew over the top of them.” Jack wasn’t able to walk for a day, but he made sure to finish strong and end off on a good time, albeit sore and bruised.
