Riding Shotgun

Season is over. The mountain is closed. And my short career as a snow bum has come to a premature end. But what a way to finish! The last two days of Heavenly say the snowboarding gods smile brightly in one final ironic snow dump over the mountain. Apparently these past two weeks has been some of the best riding conditions the guys here had seen in a while, I guess bringing that British weather with me was a good thing on this occassion.

I've loved every minute of snowboarding with Sam and his housemates Stan, Renick and Tim. All have helped improved my riding skills immeasurably over the last week to the point where I was following closely behind on the black diamond runs through the woods in fairly deep powder. What a rush. Sam heads back to New Zealand to chase the Southern Hemisphere's winter and I'm sorely tempted to follow him there. I always new I'd love snowboarding, I just had no idea how addictive I would find it to be.







Every night I'd go to bed with new injuries and general bodily exhaustion telling myself that I'd take the day off tomorrow. Of course the following morning I would drag my moaning, creaking body out of bed, stick the kettle on and start immediately thinking about what I wanted to achieve on the snowboard that day. Pretty much every day I've learned or done something new, whether that be new runs or pulling 50-50's on the boxes in the terain park - but it's not been nearly enough to quench the desire for more and to be better than the previous day. I know these kind of thoughts come from skateboarding. But this has allows be the attraction to me of these kind of creative sports. It's the challenges you set yourself, moment to moment, trick to trick, run to run and day to day.







But it's over for now, but not goodbye for good. I'll figure something out, but I plan to be riding again somewhere before the year is out. In the mean time I'm going to supplement my thirst by mountain biking over summer and learning some kayaking skills. Girls love guys with skills.

Speaking of which, mine and Sam's long standing apocalypse training continued the day after Heavenly closed after our day of firearms training with Stan. I've never handled a gun before. Not at all. I've never wanted to, although the curiosity was certainly there. But in the aftermath of the shootings in Virginia I must say I was more compelled to understand guns better than I was further entrenched in my dislike of them. To explain, I wanted to experience what it felt like to have a gun in your hands. I wanted to know more about why people feel the need to own guns. I don't think I'm explaining this as well as I thought about it before hand. For sure I had second thoughts about it after what had happened - an event so inevitable that while shocking all of us, probably surprised few of us - but somehow it also seemed like the timeliest of moments to learn more about this historical piece of American culture.







A big part of the reason for taking this opportunity was the fact that it was Stan who was willing to take myself, Sam and Jason (another new Australian friend) out into the Nevada desert to fire an array of weapons. Stan is a snowboarding instructor at Heavenly, one of the most interesting people I've met in the US, certainly one of the nicest, and also a former Captain in the US Army who served in Afghanistan. If I was going to learn how to handle a gun than I could think of no better person. So it was with that we drove to Stan's home town of Yerington (a tiny mid-west town), over the mountains from South Lake Tahoe sat down for tea and sandwichs with Stan's mum before loading up his jeep with a revolver, a 9mm pistol, a repeat action shotgun and a world famous Kalashnikov assault rifle - the AK-74 (not the 47, this is the modernised model). No doubt this was all very surreal.

Ready for action we swung by Junior's Gun Shop to pick up ammo, which is amazingly cheap. Junior and his buddy were leaning over the counter smoking cigerettes and taking to the local sheriff as we four snow bums ("snow bums eh? Well you guys are alright") entered the shop. As friends of Stan's we're welcomed, especially as he announces this is to be our first day shooting guns. Somewhat mesmerized and scared by the contents of the shop I couldn't bring myself to take any photos inside. Needless to say you could write an essay just on the contents of this local gun shop by itself. An array of rifles and shotguns adorn the wall behind the counter accompanied by a history of posters, news clippings and artifacts. Then there are pictures of local boys who are in the US armed forces dotted around the shop alongside messages of 'support for our troops'. Other posters are about gun ownership rights, one with a picture of Hitler, suggesting that taking this right away is akin to fascism (to be clear not a Nazi supporting poster). Talk during this time inevitably sways to Iraq, I-ran, Syria, A-rabs etc. This is returned with silent nodding on our parts while Stan looked for the ammo needed. I don't know what to tell you about Junior, I guess he's just a guy who wants 'the boys' to come home safe and on a basic level I can see his point of view cos it's these nations that are involved, one way or another in the deaths of American soldiers. The very fact of them being there is an altogether different political conversation that I wasn't about to get into.







The jeep now loaded up we headed off into the desert to a range that Stan and, judging but the spent cartridges everywhere, everyone else in town likes to use. Taking matters on weapon by weapon, Stan was careful to explain the workings of each gun and its safe handling. More generally than this, he discussed important basic safe handling techniques to consider at all times - muzzle control, firing-range protocol, safety buttons, checking and clearing the chamber. No doubt about it, Stan is a excellent teacher and each of us, though very nervous, felt totally comfortable and at ease with him. Having talked about the weapon before hand, its range, effectiveness (Stan is, like any good America, a veritable fountain of knowledge), we then took turns under Stan's watchful eye, at firing. As an added bonus Stan also took us through some soldier soldier turning and firing techniques. Seriously, I can't tell you how odd the experience was, and when you watch the video bellow and see me behaving extremely seriously, please remember this was something you could behave no other way in possession of.





First up was the AK, probably my favourite gun to fire both for ease, accuracy and utility. From here we then moved onto the handguns. Unfortunately Stan's CZ75 9mm semiautomatic handgun jammed, but we were able to each take several turns on the revolver, probably the scariest gun each of us handled. The sheer power and brute force was quite shocking, though nothing we couldn't manage. We used three different types of rounds in the revolver, 44 special, 44 magnum, and 44 magnum extra heavy load. The kick from the last type of ammo hurt like hell and really sent our hands recoiling from the force of the discharge. I would add here that I took the prize of the day, hitting a beer bottle from 50 yards using the regular magnum rounds. That said I don't honesty think I knew much about it, I took my aim, but once I was firing the gun all I could think about was squeezing the trigger, holding on as tight as possible and praying the gun didn't kick back and hit me in the face.





Last up was the shotgun, again which we used two different types on rounds, one of which kicked much more. It's got to be said, Sam was a demon with the shotgun (similarly Jason with the AK), pumping it and firing rounds like he'd done it a hundreds times before. I myself was much more of a scaredy cat, firing a round, spending what seemed like an eternity preparing myself for the next and praying it was the last.





What did I learn form the experience? It's hard to say. I certainly solidified my fearful (and healthy) respect for guns and I definitely now know a lot more about their capabilities. When myself and Sam got back to employee housing in Tahoe we were asked if we'd had fun. Neither of us knew quite how to answer the question, though we both agreed that while we had enjoyed learning how to use the guns we didn't consider it to have been a 'fun' experience. It was a jump in logic that was somewhat beyond Sam and I, but marked the difference between our two cultures. But perhaps the most important thing I gained from the day was the ability to defend myself in the event of a Zombie invasion. In all seriousness though, I remain unsure as to the point of owning such weapons. I understand the attraction to many people, and that for others they are simply a tool. However, I don't know if I can get myself around the fact that ultimately they are designed for one purpose, killing. And that is something I don't ever want to forget.

Next up a road trip with Sam down from South Lake Tahoe to Indio in South California for Coachella where I will meet up with Joel, Travis and Chris. I can't wait to see Joel, it's only been a couple of months, but I've missed my partner in carnage. Only one weekend to make up for the lost time...what will we do???