I have such a deep respect for professional athletes. I am actually writing this blog at the breakfast table here in Aspen with revered Olympic field hockey player, Taeka Takema. My friend, who I will be headed down the mountain with today, won the silver medal for Holland in the Athens Olympics, and is on break before the world championships begin. We are trading war stories from the road and realizing the similarities and the differences in what we do.

I write this one to you from Aspen, Colorado, where I am celebrating life and the New Year. I started snowboarding when I was about 14. Up until then, I was skiing since I was very young, but made the transition when the sport was still quite new. I remember being looked down upon on the mountains. It was like a mountain racism towards this new sport that the old-school did not quite approve of or understand. Since then, we have seen it become very much an equal and it is even an event in the Olympics.