what the fuck. just like that you adults are living the dream again.

congrats and respect on your unemployment status.

No wonder the banking world is fucked! You guys never work!

This is making me grimace for all kinds of reasons. But mainly that first picture.

Argentina or Chile mid~late August. You know it makes sense.

Well this was news! And when exactly are you coming to Europe?

Being employed is highly overrated anyways. Keep up the good life guys. Looking forward to the rest of this thread.

awesome dudez. looking forward to the updates!

Short work contracts at a high rate of pay...Hmmm I need that gig?
Maybe I should start a pondzi fund opps I mean hedge fund.

Nice pics jealous sitting at work blah blah blah!

Well at least you aren't bitter FT

Anyway, time and unemployment goes on. We had intermittent weather the last couple of days which made the ski portion of the journey a bit trickier but this morning I witnessed this from about 1500m

Things were looking even better as we went higher and, to my surprise instead of hitting the park as is the usual MO at park camp, we did a couple pow laps down 7th Heaven and there was a couple inches of fresh!

I was at free ride camp so I had to run some of it switch, just to keep it real...

ForestBro hittin the fresh

But, the day warmed up and it was back to the park, starting with rails as things were sticky

and then on to the jumps as things sped up (you aren't really allowed to throw inverts unless you have proven you can at the water ramps but if you are really old they assume you must have either done them some time in the past or you don't have much longer to live so who cares if die now. I am the second oldest in camp second only to ForrestBro)

And it was a sunny ride home to some tunes!

Fresh snow in the NH? wow, sounds like a great day. How are the inverts coming, are you wearing body armor?

here is vid from whis. just want to make sure you guys are riding the lines correctly http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivxsicnRaH8&feature=player_embedded

Oh im bitter. but what the fuck can a guy with 3 kids do other than be bitter and jealous Etc etc etc?

Way to go dudez!

I'm slaving at the office too - but I actually sort of a like my job - or atleast the project is interesting.
Maybe it's a sympton of mentall illness...

Not that I wouldn't rather be skiing - or riding a track on my bike.

Like a said we had some intermittent days and today was one of them, heavy wet snow made the vis pretty bad and I was feeling the last few days of double doubles wear on my aging joints. There was a slopestyle comp in the sleety snow and, despite having won last year's over 18 category (it is a pretty weak field, believe me) I opted out and came down early. Weak ski days aren't necessarily weak bike days, though; indeed Daryl has said that mud is the powder of MTBing. In fact, ForrestBro and I found out that one of the camp councilors, Stephanie, is a pro MTB instructor and races on the circuit! She took Forrest and I up one day and I improved so much from the tips she gave that I was beginning to get more stoked on the biking than the skiing (biking is an easier, faster progression sport- more like snowboarding than skiing) .

Stephanie and I at the top of Fitzsimmons Express

Jumping the tables on the famous A-Line

Pinky stylin' it in the Heart of Darkness

ForestBro gapping a creek on Dirt Merchant

Getting a woody on Freight Train

Droppin' out.

Hopefully the sun comes out and we can get back to some ski shots soon. HH, I am not really working on straight over inverts just seriously trying to flip out mistys etc. I am moving to corked back spins next week, I don't wear body armour in the park anymore as it makes my ass look fat when shots are taken from behind in rails

I am happy as hell I wore a pressure suit when biking though. I went down HARD two days ago and I bruised my arm and shoulder despite wearing armor. The unemployment
chronicles would have been morphine induced ramblings from then on had I not had it on, methinks.

thanks for the friday morning stoke!

Keep those Whistler stoke up. You are right about wearing butt padding. You just can't handle it for vanity sake.

Bring those MTB course here!

Yeahhh guys!!! Way to go. Wish I was in Whistler to hang out with you. Looking forward to be unemployed summer 2011

If this is the "Tee" I am thinking of, why aren't you in Whistler?

hey is this a casio or forestbro?

http://www.poachninja.com/files/images/2010-06-27%20Momentum_3128-Edit.j...

Forrest bro took the shot with a Casio so both. He spliced it together himself. I have been playing with the auto sequence but haven't managed to frame a good shot yet. There is too much milling about in the fore and background at park camp. The ones I took at Okatadami of the local pros on the kickers were great but then I lost my camera (d'oh)

I'm not a big fan of the in camera sequence combining, so I combined the photos in Photoshop. I like using Photoshop because you don't have to worry about having the camera on a tripod. I also like having more control in dealing with the way a person overlaps.

The hardest part about combining a sequence of action photos into one photo is getting the photos lined up correctly. But I do have a trick that makes it easier. In Photoshop CS4 there's a Photomerge feature that's designed for creating panoramas, but it also works great for lining up an action sequence. The Photomerge creates a Photoshop file where each photo is on it's own layer with everything lined up. It's then pretty easy to go in a erase part of each layer to reveal the person on each layer.

I haven't been taking many photos because, at first the weather was bad and when it wasn't these past few days I have been sick as a dog. I did use the casio sequence just to show a kid in my group:

Not great but more the photographer and the light are largely to blame

Here you see the problem with the auto sequence, mainly fore and aft movement in the frame

ANyway, I will get more shots in the coming week. Today Michael Douglas showed up on the lane to take a few hits and d'oh, my camera ran out of batteries. Typical

if you see him shredding with an f-stop bag please take few snaps for me.

for a Pandshoot both of those are pretty sweet.

Shit, I should have taken a look at the pack he brought up. now one will be shredding with a pack though, it is a terrain park. I am not sure he didn't make a one off appearance though. he was with Eric Hjorwhatever. Anyway, to brighten your day, here is a pic of me "shredding" (read barely standing) on adult sized wheelie shoes owned by my bad influence at camp, Colby West.

And here are some bear shots, taken by ForrestBro. There are dozens of the fukkers under the lift line.

nice shoes.

the reason I asked was cuase I have seen an shot of him hitting rails with it on. random but worth a shot.

just saw this... http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1518991820678

i think his bags red...

Fuck that is a lot of bears!

one day on a double-double i saw nine different bears. not a day went by where i didn't see a bear. yellowstone, however, was pretty lame in terms of animals. a big letdown after i watched some Yellowstone documentary a few months ago that had tons of the fukkers.

More beers in Whistler as well, I imagine. Pinky, you missed an awesome week of bluebird. Unfortunately I kinda did too with illness and injury. I have been going up but not 100%, that is for sure and no double doubles.

MIKE D! Looks cross between a ninja and a green storm trooper, he rips.

The double double - sounds tough! Almost as tough as sitting here all day and night. how long you sticking around whistler for?

Sorry for the slowdown in pics but with ForrestBro gone I just am not taking as much. I have a compilation of shots from the pro photog working the camp but I will put them together later. I also plan to go biking with one of Daryl's buds tomorrow so I hope to get some SICK shots in the bike park. I have been doing the double double for a few days now as well as trampoline and water ramp training such that I almost feel like an athlete rather than a broken down investment banker trying to prolong his youth, almost...

Dont worry Ninjaman you will always be a (athlete rather than a broken down investment banker trying to prolong his youth) to us!

Sorry it has been a while since I updated the chronicles but, like I said, with ForrestBro gone, and me the only adult camper these past two weeks (I am a legend on newschoolers though) I have had limited opportunity to take pictures. I was a bit sick in week II as well, which didn't help. This past week has been all fun in the sun, however, and I am back on the double double. As such, I decided to "steal" some of the shots taken by the camp photog at random.

Actually, I will start with a photo from week II. It was a dreary day but Rory Bushfield came out with his own home made portable bbq an made our group some hot dogs! The lebanese kids, who insist on wearing full faces at all time had a harder time stuffing them down than I did.

This pro photog really does a good job of getting my unnatural pensive.

Tweaked mute, my signature grab

But who doesn't like going for a little tail?

Spinning and desperately reaching for double safety. I really should do the stretches in the morning...

Jibbin' the side of the A-Frame jump

This whale tail gives a good pop at the end. This week I hope to try my new pretzel skills to spin out of it. I can't quite get it on boxes though, it is easier on rails

I was hitting the side of the now much larger airbag jump, which is shaped to resemble a quaterpipe hit, with Sarah Burke. I am told over and over again that I have the "flatspin 5 alleoupe" down but there is now quarter pipe here to try and I know I will loose my nerve by the next time I find a pipe hit. Oh well

These low angle rail shots are teh shit

Anyway, it is sunny and after spending early afternoon at the beach, I am off to the bike park. Happy Monday in Japan!

I wish I could go to camp Thanks for keeping the stoke up during the summer. See you in a few weeks

hey. just saw this yesterday up at Kashimayari... is this old news or what?

2000en a day.

New news to me! Aibags hurt less than water ramps. I partially collapsed a lung in week 2 (which slowed down the TR) due to water ramps. All the airbag has given me is wicked friction burns but also an amazing sense of confidence. I actually almost got around a double rodeo today (and have video proof that I will try and get). 3 years ago you would win the fukking x-games with that trick. The problem with a dry airbag with a water ramp type in run is the inrun and take off. On a snow jump, which our air bag is, I can carve into my off axis spins and flips, on water ramps you have to pop straight. I am coming to the conclusion that the water ramps are only good for straight over inverts- front and back flips. That said, the water ramps teach the discipline to pop. If you don't pop perfect on a water ramp spin you are going off-axis. If you can do straight spins on water, you can EASILY do them on snow.

3 years ago you would have been the shit!

there is no snow on the airbag here, i assume its a similar lip to a water ramp.

looks like fun in the sun regardless.

Skiing is done and I have a shitpile of pics to vet for the chronicles but in the mean time I thought I would throw in the least likely of pics, me golfing. Well not me golfing as there is no action shots but me at a hole named for my family in honor of my passed mother. I couldn't NOT golf given that incentive. I did shoot 2 double bogeys. The rest were in the trees.

Well the chronicles are over and I am back in Tokyo earlier than planned and with no SA trip as planned. 3 pairs of skis, a set of bindings, and a few cracks on the body later, am back with my body in one piece but of two minds of my decision to return so quickly. Instead of a souther hemisphere TR, all I have is a few pics from the last week, where things were sunny and the gnar bar was turned up one more notch. Actually, aside from some pics, some broken equipment and a somewhat broken body, I have come away with a bit more. A month at park camp gives the time to progress and not just progress but, I hope, truly remember what I learned. I can now throw clean back flips, flatspins, other off axis stuff, 270 onto boxes and out of rails and all other kind of things a 35 year old office worker of deteriorating fitness should not be able to do. Mostly though, I know now what it is like to be in the middle of the youthful exuberance of skiing and live amongst as a part of it, not just as a visitor.

Duct tape steeze

It wasn't all park, I had a few runs in the moguls

These Atomics, which I had to buy off of a coach after destroying my Armadas I soon found out were amongst next year's most sought after ski. All the kiddies thought I was sponsored until they saw me ski.

I have the shot when I pull the mute from this 3 but I guess I missed it in the upload. Oh well, I will look for it later

A good box gets me spinning

At 75 feet, this was the biggest table of the camp. I have some video of spinning on it. It was also the location of my biggest crash. Sorry no footage of that

Err, that's all folks, until the next economic dip!

You make all of us proud NM. Id love to work 8 months outta the year and be a bum for four, yet your ability to do that exceeds it on all levels pulling it off for a year or even two... Magic son magic. Will these shenanigans be continued throughout the winter? Will the valley become the next Roppongi hills? Will the debauchery bar be raised? Time will tell...

Nice pics

Nice one Ninjaman.
I think the Poachninja hedge fund needs to be started so that your wisdom can all help us achive the goal of freedom!

Makes me happy to here tales of the freestyle from [cough] 'professional' [\cough] types like yourself.

But you must have put on some weight again, because that handrail seems to have sunken into the snow.

Ninjaman wrote:

in case there was any abiguity about which country Ninjaman hails from...

Thats business formal in canada, eh

Sorry to see the chronicles drawing to a close. I'll have to start looking for someone else to live vicariously through till winter rolls around. Luckily though it's trailer season.

Nice thread.

For the past couple years or so I did full TRs of my park camp experience. This year, constrained by only having a week off and not having the best weather for shooting photographs I am left with little material for a TR. I am still the oldest kid in camp and old-man injuries (a pinched nerve in the c-6) did, for the first time, make me feel my physical limits of age directly, as opposed to the indirect limitations of age such as a beer gut and a hangover.

Still, I powered through and even bought a full XL outfit off a coach (Gore-tex performance shell and the same colors as Tom Walish, apparently) who was approximately half my weight but the outfit was still baggy enough to fully clothe my mid life crisis!

you're red & blue this year? weird. I wonder what KOM will come up with