Addictions
Hello again,
Second Post of the day.
I was thinking, the other night, of my morning rituals with my friends and how they have changed.
At this time, mid-1980’s and I was in my early twenties, I worked at Cinema Air Jet Center (CA), a Fixed Base Operator (FBO) at a local airport. I had just returned from the Air Force’s aircraft maintenance school and was continuing my education in the civilian aviation world as a Lineman. I will have to tell you about CA, in another post. The only thing I will say now is; if you watch movies about aviation, you have seen us. Anyway, we would wake in the morning and decide as a group to the events of the day. The FBO was located in Carlsbad which is very central to most of our preferred events. On winter mornings, we had the choice of surfing or snow skiing. Our plan usually worked well. As we would wake, and nobody felt the mood to “get wet”-surf, we would decide to hit the slopes- "get sloped". Working at an airport brings many perks. One of the guys, “M”, lived in nearby Encinitas and could reach the airport in a manor of minutes. “M” would say, “Meet me at the airport and I will have the airplane ready”. We would collectively gather our equipment and off we would go. Proving extremely beneficial, we had a number of pilots in the group and we worked well as a team.
As we arrived to the airplane, it was in a launch position and the preflight in progress. Back then, we would always park our vehicles in the aircraft’s tie down spot. With a couple of guys loading our equipment into the plane, the others would finish the preflight and prepare to go. This whole process went by with ease and we could be in our seats within a matter of minutes. We are going skiing!
Landing at Big Bear California was the coolest thing ever. The short runway, by comparison to what we have become accustomed, surrounded by the lake, always increased my adrenaline levels with anticipation of the unfolding events. We are going skiing!
After hitching a ride to the resort, we would take care of the lift tickets and equipment and then off to the lift. Please do not let me mislead you, I have only skied a couple dozen times, in my life. I am, by no means, an experienced skier as these times were my only chances to practice this sport. I would make it to the top of the mountain and select a trail, I was not too intimidated by black diamonds and such. Then, I would head down and stop at the next intersection of trails. I could not continue from one trail to the next.
“M”, on the other hand, learned as a child from his father’s friend, a down hill world champion. He had a very graceful style as he tracked down the mountain with his own fluid motion. As he was teaching us about down hill speed and down hill jumps, there were these four gentlemen screaming by us. On the slopes, the "general" skiers tend to maintain a certain speed. There are those who are faster, and those who are slower than the steady flow of skiers. I remained at the same pace with the flow. I remember “M”, as he was teaching “J” the art of aerial body form at these speeds and there flying by us were these four guys. Wow, were they moving! I did not have the courage to begin a thought of attempting such “tricks”- speed and jumping.
“M” finally said, “T, you need to lose your fear”, by following him down the trail. He said, “I want you to follow me, keep up and stay in my tracks”. Oh, and by the way, “We are going to ski from the top to the bottom, repeatedly”. The first time, was OK, as there were no referencing skiers and I had no idea of the speed I was attaining. The second time, with my legs burning, “M” crossed an intersecting trail and I focused on his tracks, as he had said. Then, from nowhere came these four individuals, who I was completely impressed by their speeds. As they fell in behind “M”, I quickly noticed my gaining speed to these people. I was overtaking them! Holly 5hit!!!!! I could not imagine, as I had earlier sat on the side and watch these people ski, how anybody could carelessly move at such a momentum down this mountain!
Now, I am exceeding their achievement of force!
I survived that little adventure with very sore leg muscles; however, it became an addiction. “M” was forced to pull me off of that mountain, as everybody else in the group was ready to depart.
“Hello, my name is Reach and I am an addict”!
Second Post of the day.
I was thinking, the other night, of my morning rituals with my friends and how they have changed.
At this time, mid-1980’s and I was in my early twenties, I worked at Cinema Air Jet Center (CA), a Fixed Base Operator (FBO) at a local airport. I had just returned from the Air Force’s aircraft maintenance school and was continuing my education in the civilian aviation world as a Lineman. I will have to tell you about CA, in another post. The only thing I will say now is; if you watch movies about aviation, you have seen us. Anyway, we would wake in the morning and decide as a group to the events of the day. The FBO was located in Carlsbad which is very central to most of our preferred events. On winter mornings, we had the choice of surfing or snow skiing. Our plan usually worked well. As we would wake, and nobody felt the mood to “get wet”-surf, we would decide to hit the slopes- "get sloped". Working at an airport brings many perks. One of the guys, “M”, lived in nearby Encinitas and could reach the airport in a manor of minutes. “M” would say, “Meet me at the airport and I will have the airplane ready”. We would collectively gather our equipment and off we would go. Proving extremely beneficial, we had a number of pilots in the group and we worked well as a team.
As we arrived to the airplane, it was in a launch position and the preflight in progress. Back then, we would always park our vehicles in the aircraft’s tie down spot. With a couple of guys loading our equipment into the plane, the others would finish the preflight and prepare to go. This whole process went by with ease and we could be in our seats within a matter of minutes. We are going skiing!
Landing at Big Bear California was the coolest thing ever. The short runway, by comparison to what we have become accustomed, surrounded by the lake, always increased my adrenaline levels with anticipation of the unfolding events. We are going skiing!
After hitching a ride to the resort, we would take care of the lift tickets and equipment and then off to the lift. Please do not let me mislead you, I have only skied a couple dozen times, in my life. I am, by no means, an experienced skier as these times were my only chances to practice this sport. I would make it to the top of the mountain and select a trail, I was not too intimidated by black diamonds and such. Then, I would head down and stop at the next intersection of trails. I could not continue from one trail to the next.
“M”, on the other hand, learned as a child from his father’s friend, a down hill world champion. He had a very graceful style as he tracked down the mountain with his own fluid motion. As he was teaching us about down hill speed and down hill jumps, there were these four gentlemen screaming by us. On the slopes, the "general" skiers tend to maintain a certain speed. There are those who are faster, and those who are slower than the steady flow of skiers. I remained at the same pace with the flow. I remember “M”, as he was teaching “J” the art of aerial body form at these speeds and there flying by us were these four guys. Wow, were they moving! I did not have the courage to begin a thought of attempting such “tricks”- speed and jumping.
“M” finally said, “T, you need to lose your fear”, by following him down the trail. He said, “I want you to follow me, keep up and stay in my tracks”. Oh, and by the way, “We are going to ski from the top to the bottom, repeatedly”. The first time, was OK, as there were no referencing skiers and I had no idea of the speed I was attaining. The second time, with my legs burning, “M” crossed an intersecting trail and I focused on his tracks, as he had said. Then, from nowhere came these four individuals, who I was completely impressed by their speeds. As they fell in behind “M”, I quickly noticed my gaining speed to these people. I was overtaking them! Holly 5hit!!!!! I could not imagine, as I had earlier sat on the side and watch these people ski, how anybody could carelessly move at such a momentum down this mountain!
Now, I am exceeding their achievement of force!
I survived that little adventure with very sore leg muscles; however, it became an addiction. “M” was forced to pull me off of that mountain, as everybody else in the group was ready to depart.
“Hello, my name is Reach and I am an addict”!
posted by Reach | 8:18 AM
5 Comments:
Awesome, makes me want to go skiing again. (I was never really good, couldn't get out of the sno-plow).
I found much depended on the people I was skiing with; I was forced to rise to the occasion.
Reach
Thank you, I shall return and check out the "chin-ball" effect.
T.H. has tried to help me with the whole adding a link to my page, yet I am still having difficulty in getting the effect that I desire. It will come. Hey, I just learned to do the basics...LOL
Reach
Yeah, you're a speed addict. heehee
We used to have a tiny little cabin caddy corner to a ski resort up in Big Bear.
What you described sounds both frightening & thrilling at the same time. Talk about flying by the seat of your pants! It's great you & your buddies had such fun together.
I noticed you are in Aviation, I was in Naval Aviation for ten years. I lived in South Florida for many years after I left the military in 1990 and we have an air show also that is coming up on the 1st weekend in May. It draws about 2 million to the beaches during that weekend. I also have several family members who fly for sport, i emailed this post to one of them, I think he would enjoy it.
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