New Room:

I had a decent amount of free time when I moved up to Whistler a month ago, and put some good energy in to my room. I found a big old brass coat hook and decided to go with a distressed brass theme for all the hardware. I'm coping with a twin mattress, but with my monk-like lifestyle, it seems to work. Everything else is white, and I've got a huge window with the best view in the house. The room is small and lacks a desk but it's my sanctuary and I love waking up early to a blast of natural sunlight and an instant conditions report.

I like to keep my daily carry (keys, I pod, wallet) on a plate. 

The utility wall w/ a ton of hooks + attachments for therapy bands

Dreamers corner. That is is a Ferrari F-40 and a '65 Mustang.

Wake up to this EVERYDAY

I found this patch or whatever it is walking home at 3 am one night. It was in a ditch. No joke. Why did I grab a wet rag out of a ditch? It was red and that's my favourite colour. 

Lately:

On September 10th I broke my ankle rollerblading. I was 30 tries deep on a trick off a short flat rail. Headphones blasting and going for broke. Eventually I slipped out before leaving the rail, under rotated and landed on my left foot with the rest of my body looking like a starfish. My skate collapsed when the cuff bolt broke and my ankle folded inwards like a god damn calzone. Initially I thought I sprained it, but when pain persisted the next say, I got an X-ray and found out I had a broken talus bone. Over a series of CT's scans, MRI's and physio assessments following I found out the extent of the injuries. I broke the talus and likely in the same incident, damaged the ankle cartilage so that joint fluid had penetrated the fracture and was preventing it from healing. I also partially tore my meniscus. I've never been down this long.

There was a while after the injury that was a very low point for me. Before the injury some very bad things happened. Big hits that almost destroyed me and my family. I may elaborate another time. It's important that this blog is personal, and real. 

Immediately following the fracture I hobbled around the house for weeks, depressed and angry. Soon after I got to make a trip out to Haida Gwaii with by Dad and brother. There I managed to dip in the ocean, looking out to Alaska with no wetsuit, read a few books and even do a little bodyboarding with a decent wave cycle. I look forward to my return. After going home I limped around the garage and did a bunch of repairs to my truck. New shocks, fixed the whole 4x4 system, and installed some powerful lights. I got a gym membership and did upper body workouts, moving between sets on crutches. 

On November 3rd I was allowed to walk. This was a catalyst for me. Since that day I've been in the gym at least 4 hours a day, six days a week since that point. I've spent so much time there that I now know all the personal trainers and a lot of the gym rats. Most of the people there a lot are bodybuilders. I used to judge that scene however their work ethic and knowledge is undeniable and warrants respect. I started lifting heavy weights two weeks ago and found out my body is an asymmetrical mess. Training is frustrating almost all of the time however punctuated by brief and small victories. 

Since my symptoms are slowly going away the surgeon has chosen not to operate. If there's a measure out there to improve my odds of recovering, I've likely partaken in it. Bone supplements, dieting, cutting down on caffiene, braces, taping, physio, swimming and the spin bike. My ankle is almost recovered but there are few high impact movements that hurt and I'm not going back on skis until I'm 100%. I also have to strengthen from 2 months of not using my lower left side. 

I'm trying really hard to be positive, however I can't deny that life has been hard lately. All I can do is keep pushing on and wait for things to get better, as they likely will.  

I will be skiing in 2-3 weeks and hopefully get some filming done in the end of December. Myself, Peter Wentz, and Conor Macdonald are working on a webisode series together. I'm really psyched for it and have a big list of tricks/lines to get on film. Things are rough right now but there's still light on the horizon and life could always be a hell of a lot worse. 

Season Edit

I'm pretty damn psyched on this one. I think it's my best yet. After all the time I've spent obsessively tinkering with it though, I have no perspective on how good it is anymore. I had a shoulder surgery August 2015 and started filming for 2016 season mid February with Jon Grierson on a Kootenay trip. This followed by two days filming for Intersection with Seth Gillis and then in April three days Filming in Brandywine zone with various buds. I snuck in two shots from the 2015 season (shhh) and boom, I had just enough for a 3 minute edit. So considering it's no more than a weeks worth of filming from a half season that I managed to also fit a few comps into, I'm satisfied. 

I'm not going to lie, I'm not happy with the view count on the video so far. I've sent it out to eight blogs and no ones gotten back yet. It's been only a day, but damn. This kind of hurts. There's a lot of negative stuff I'd like to say. I want to shit all over other guys edits. There's a lot to be said for not giving a fuck about public opinion but I'm neck deep playing a game of it. So, if my video isn't good enough then I've got to try harder. 

I'm seven seasons deep into the ski game and I don't consider myself successful. I often wonder what the hell came out of the last six years. I have had a few tangible high points, but feel anxiety in that I could be doing a lot of other things. All it takes is a good run to turn that perspective around. To realize that I've skied 8-900+ days in those six years and that regardless of whether I've "made it", I can hold my own on skis. Like every season, the setup for this one looks better than the last. It's a slow progression, but I haven't had a year in Whistler in which my situation didn't improve. Each year, something good enough happened that I kept going. 

I've met some really great people throughout these years and I want to clarify that I have no doubts about the folks I've met along the way. S/O to human beings.

So, it's a battle. I've got to let the self loathing, perfectionist hate drive me (see - Jon Olsson) to go get shots but also be present and enjoy skiing to keep happy.

Without further ado here is my season edit reflecting times past and my trick list prefacing times to come.  

Jacob Boyd 2015-16 from Jacob Boyd on Vimeo.

Song - Iron Maiden - Fear of the Dark - A compilation of my favourite shots from the last season. My approach to editing is heavily influenced by skate videos. I used (almost) no slow motion or filler and no go pro footage. No Bullshit. Big thanks to everyone who filmed and helped me dig my sled out. Thanks to Iron Maiden for your music not only in the context of this edit, but also for giving me focus on skis all winter. Thanks to TMC, Lange and Faction for keeping me rolling. Thanks to Mom and Dad and K for unwavering support. See you on the hill.

insta: @jacob_boyd

http://underwhiteskies.ca

Season Edit Teaser

        

SEASON EDIT DROPPING OCTOBER 31ST/ HALLOWEEN . 🎵: @ironmaiden - Dance of death. @factionskis #forthefew @tmcproshop

A video posted by Ski or Die (@jacob_boyd) on Oct 19, 2016 at 9:50am PDT

Wrangle The Chute Qualifier Run

Wrangle the Chute 4* FWQ Qualifier Run from Jacob Boyd on Vimeo.

I've wanted to spin both ways in a comp run for a minute. Done and done. 

Skier- Jacob Boyd
Filmer - Dylan Siggers
Song - Rich Kidd - Can I Get A (Bom Bom)

SEASON EDIT COMING SOON....

Yesterday's Line

I like to scope lines by myself. If I'm in a group I get hyped about skiing well and trying new tricks because everyone else is, but the group situation rarely leads to weird little gullies and zones no one has been to. So on my lonesome the other day I got deep in the woods enough to find a pillow line I hadn't seen in years. I gave it a go the next day on camera but I straight lined off the side of it and the shot didn't work out. I hope I get a second chance at it.

This is a frame of me dropping in. It was a long way down if I slid off that first pillow.

Lately:

Today was so great. Waking up, I definitely wasn't feeling 100%. I hadn't gone to sleep until late and I was getting over a cold so my whole body ached. I showed up at the gondola at 7:30, a good 45 minutes before opening. After two deep laps lower on the mountain our group (the most core ski bums I know) went to peak chair to get first tracks in the alpine. Two and a half hours later, Peak chair cracked. A patroller had broken his leg triggering a slide and created a delay. This was a small inconvenience when thinking about what he was going through. We were on the third chair up, so when we approached the top nothing else mattered.

Our first descent was down the run the patroller had triggered the slide on. Nerves were high but after getting down to the tree line I had the deepest run of my life. The centre of each turn brought the snow up to my chest. If there were one feeling I wish I could recreate on demand, that might be it. After one deep run my mind switched back to the first thought I had waking up, which was to land a particular cliff.

My next run up peak was the beginning of a battle to land a drop called bomb tram. I've never not landed bomb tram and I've even landed a spin off of it. My first and second airs I went to fast and even though I landed centered I couldn't handle the compression and exploded into a tumble. After losing my shit and seeing stars after my second hit I briefly questioned my decision making. For whatever reason I went for a third, crept off the edge and cleaned it.

I let myself relax after that. I found a few fresh lines and puttered down home in the warm sun. I didn't get any shots or photos and no one may have seen me on my biggest line, but none of that matters because I landed the biggest cliff today and I'm the best skier on the mountain.

RIP Shane