Cross-Training, the Snowboarder Way, with the Jibberish Crew

When I was a kid I trained for my school sports - running and lifting weights and spending hours throwing or kicking balls to become a better lacrosse or soccer player. But never one to fully accept higher authority, much less the rigidness and politics of competitive team athletics, I never really saw it as anything more than a necessary evil (even, to a certain extent, playing such sports I saw as a necessary evil) and it wasn't until I moved to Steamboat and really got into snowboarding that I started training whole-heartedly. That is to say, not only did I work out harder than ever before but I also spent hours practicing for my sports and, even more, savored these training sessions. Though there's a difference, admittedly. Spending 3 hours on a muggy Baltimore summer afternoon kicking a soccer ball into a goal or throwing a lacrosse ball against a wall gets pretty old and miserable pretty fast. But my discovery of the Steamboat Springs skatepark opened up a new world of cross-training I'd never knew existed. That is, I'd spend hours skating, literally until I was completely drenched in sweat, bare-chested and sucking wind and quads and calves on fire and still I wanted to continue on until the darkness of dusk sent me home.

Such would revolutionize my conditioning as I transitioned from training for standard teamsports to training for boardsports. I started skateboarding more, even though at my prime at best I could drop a few steps, slide a few rails, and simply rocker to fakie to 50-50 a halfpipe. Still, hours spent in parking lots or, when motivated and with a couple bucks in my pocket at parks (since only in the mountains are community parks free) made me into a better skater which made me into a much better snowboarder, especially when it came to technical tricks, which was what I was after. That, combined with sports like mountain biking and, eventually, with Indo boarding turned training from a boring act of repetition to a more fulfilling and more applicable exercise of physical improvement. Not to say I didn't use traditional weights anymore; they were simply no longer the heart of my exercise.

Recently, as I now mostly just train to supplement surf, snowboard, and now hiking trips I've been keeping my eye on other extreme sports athletes and, as these evolve from bros pounding beer and fucking around to legititimate multi-million dollar careers, so too does the importance of fitness and training. Last week I showed how the Walsh brothers live their lives centered around the big waves they charge and how, in turn, they train for such extreme punishment with super-dynamic cross-training. As such, here's a little something about how snowboarders deal with the summer.

Some have the luxury and the hunger to go south for the snowless northern months, to place like Las Lenas Argentina, Portillo Chile, and of course New Zealand. Others go to camps on glaciers in the Cascades or just go to BC for some summer glacial shred. But there's another strategy, one that not only is less costly but also helps prevent the burnout that follows 300+ days of snowboarding interrupted solely by the arduous hassle of travel. Shaun White famously explained he needs his cross-over to skateboarding to help not only rejuvenate his love of snowboarding but also to teach him new tricks he can then apply to the snow. As such, his summer X vert golds no doubt have transferred to his Olympic and winter X domination.

As such, it's amazing to see what these snowslayers do during their time off. Not only are these cross-training activities tenfold more interesting and fun than the standard athlete running in a field with a tire around his waist, these guys are also much better at these simple "training sports" than most people who pursue these activities. Simon Camberlain just fucking around throws down skate parts that could be in a junior kid's sponsor me video. And JP Walker's not only a decent skater but surfs and does it pretty damn well. While not blowing the doors off any contests, he's got a nice flow and his skills on the stand-up paddle are certainly beyond the average such I see trying to long-oar it into the beachbreak in Redondo.

So anyway, check out this video of Simon and JP showing what they do to keep themselves fulfilled, strong, and on their toes when the snow's not falling.

And enjoy the dying hours of summer. Because soon it'll start getting cold and rainy and, maybe, if we're lucky, we'll finally get some snow this winter. But either way, as always happens, at some point you'll look outside at the dying light or the cold ocean and realize you wished you'd spent more time getting out there in the sun. Hard to imagine right now in this heat wave but it's true.

Happy Friday.

- Ryan