Rant on Empowering Women

Call me crazy, but I believe women should be empowered and lifted up more often. We need to support other women daily and encourage the growth we see within them, no matter how small. A little compliment and reassurance goes a long way. I am so tired of seeing women tear each other down with slander and gossip, although I know I myself am not completely innocent 100% of the time.  I believe we as women, have it hard enough with societal pressures, media imposed standards of beauty and unreal ideals that surround us daily. I know that the women in my life all work very hard to be the best version of their selves and deserve to be told regularly that their strength, beauty, commitment and determination is admirable – because it is. 

Paper thin model sizes perpetuate the pressures many women feel to fit into the media's standard of beauty

Societal pressures plague more American women every year fearing they are not thin enough

If only every woman in the world could make a consistent effort to bring up their fellow woman rather   than tear them down, I believe that the individual growth of many women would soar. Of course, we live in the real world and things will continue the way they currently are. Women will continue to badmouth, gossip and make snide comments about one another… wouldn’t it be great if future generations didn’t have to experience that woman on woman aggression? Wouldn’t it be great to feel as if you could trust other women more readily and not live in fear that they will stab you in the back the first chance they get?

Together we can create change

Post Snowboard Yoga Moves

As we wind up for the upcoming snowboard season its important to start building strength, endurance and flexibility to be able to ride long hours several days straight. This week I am refreshing on my strength training, cardio and yoga poses which add considerable flexibility which translates well to both pre ride and post ride. These are tested and tried Yoga Poses which can help with your upcoming snow season to prevent any injuries and give you the best results and growth all winter season long.

Several poses can help considerably after a day on the mountain to stretch tight muscles and decompress joints that get worn and torn when you’re shredding the gnar. I have listed a few of my favorites that you too can adapt to your post shred regimen.

Pose #1: Mountain Pose
Start: Stand up tall with your abdominal muscles lightly contracted and feet shoulder width apart.

Lift up all your toes and root your feet and calves into the floor. Engage your quadriceps, relax your shoulders and arms at your sides and point your tailbone toward the ground. Exhale and lengthen from the feet up to the crown of the head. Take several deep breaths through the nose.

This is a good foundation or starting pose, where you are rooted, centered and balanced before beginning an activity. Feet are hip-width apart when snowboarding, creating a stable base for the body.

Mountain Pose

Pose #2: Chair Pose
Start: In Mountain Pose
Take a deep breath through the nose and exhale as you sit back, bend your knees and drop the tailbone back. Lift your chest and reach your arms forward and up alongside ears. Press into the feet, extend through the hips and knees, then rise back up to Pose. Repeat 10 – 15 times. On the last chair, remain “seated” for at least six deep breaths.

Chair Pose keeps the ankles, hips and shoulders in alignment with the knees over the toes, which, when snowboarding, is the correct centered and balanced position. Engages core muscles in your abdomen and spine

Here is a great example of the form of Chair Pose

Pose #3: Downward-Facing Dog

Lengthens the spine and stretches calves, hamstrings, and back muscles, which tighten at the end of a day on the board. Imagine breathing space between your spinal disks while melting muscle tension in the back body. Stay in this pose anywhere from 1 to 3 minutes. Then bend your knees to the floor with an exhalation and rest in Child’s Pose.

Hanna Teter, pro snowboarder, demonstrates the downward facing dog position.

Pose #4: Child's Pose
Move from downward facing dog, directly into Child's Pose. Begin sitting on your heels, torso folded forward gently over your thighs. If you head doesn’t easily touch the floor, place a folded blanket under your forehead. Align your intention for practicing, and take a few deep, cleansing breaths.

Child's Pose

Pose #5: Pigeon Pose
This is an intense hip opener, which is perfect for snowboarders and most athletes with tight hip flexors, IT bands, and glutes. Pigeon Pose can get uncomfortable but just keep breathing through it and you’re body will relax into it. I like to spend some time on each side really letting my hips open up.  This pose loosens tight hip muscles, like the gluteus maximus, that bring power to virtually all snowboarding moves. Breathe deeply, as if inflating your hips, for up to one minute before repeating the pose on the other side.

Hanna Teter demonstrating the Pigeon Pose

Hope these poses have been helpful to you and hoping we have a big and early winter this season!

El Nino is upon us... or is it? What does this mean for the snowbord season?

Good morning Californianites!

As the south lands of Cali have been pummeled with rain today, many people are speculating about the upcoming snow season ahead. Many believe this year could be the rainfall we need to help us recover a little from the drought we have been having, others believe it wont even make a dent in our needs. The truth is, until we see for sure if El Nino will be here to stay for the winter, we won't really know!

What does this mean for the upcoming 2015-2016 snow season? Well ideally, with El Nino coming in with a cold front, this could be a winter for the record books. Over the past few decades we see trends of seasons coming in with record breaking numbers just following years with record lows preceding. The last four years of drought have depleted our water reserves to such an extreme point that there may not be enough rain in the forecast this year to really make a difference in the deficit.

This image shows snowfall for Mammoth Mountain from 1969 -2010 years. In the past 5 years, we have had many depressing and record low seasons. Will 2015 be the year of redemption?

Pacific Ocean temperatures are predicted to be so warm that although we will get rain, we may not get the snow we desperately need. Why is snow so important? Well other than the obvious, my passion for snowboarding, we really need the cold snow pack in the mountains since our reservoirs are kept full by the trickled down after seasons of melt. Over the past few years we have gotten less and less snow in the mountains which has changed a lot for many snow towns in Cali.

Big Bear Mountain and Snow Summit were purchased last season by Mammoth Mountain after many record low years. The lake in Big Bear has also reached a record low which has a severely affected the community which has largely been driven by tourists both in the summer season and winter season. The snow blowing procedure which Big Bear heavily relies on due to their low snow fall annually, is costly, ridiculously hard to upkeep and drove the mountain to sell to the highest bidder.


Mammoth Mountain did win big time with this move by capitalizing on the largest season pass sale season of all time by marketing their new Cali4nia pass. Now California skiiers and riders can buy one season pass to hit both Bear mountains and both Mammoth mountains for one low cost. Who suffered in this purchase? The residents of Big Bear who lost many of their perks and discounts to the new owners revamped rules.

4 Mountains - One price!

The only way to truly know how this season will turn out is to wait and see if we get the long awaited snowfall we truly need to refill our reservoirs and restore the balance of our systems once more.What I do know is that it will surely take more than one year for us to bounce back from the dry and dismal drought we have been in over the last few years.