It's no lie that I love cars and speed. Formula 1 and I have been in Austin just about the same amount of time. I make it a regular stop on my calendar of events to hit. This year the scene has changed a little, the noise was less and the total number of teams down due to financial reasons but the cars were still fast and the racing action was great.
In other news the boxes have started flowing in, and in them are some great new products! This season I will be a US Ambassador for Douchebags as well as representing Union Bindings out on tour. Be sure to visit the Friends and Support page to view their full respective lines.
Westbound and Down
We finally headed out of Texas for a week. Our destination, Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon. I’ve always driven through both areas so many times but never really had the chance to explore. It was a great trip, good friends, great scenery, some good food and a bunch of great hikes. It just feels great to get back into the mountains I so dearly love. The one thing I will say is that if you are a super active person who likes to experience a bunch of different things the Grand Canyon is not really for you, we were all a little disappointed after spending 3 days in Zion then heading there.
Death of an Era
The car has been my hobby since I was in high school. At that point I could barely change my own oil, by 2010 I had torn down a 2003 Evo to the ground and completely rebuilt it, turning it into a track star which met it's demise to a hit and run in Amarillo.
The STI I currently own has been a pretty good car, but it's always been high mileage. Turning wrenched to fix it's problems has slowly annoyed me and I've never really been attached to this Subie like the one I had graduating college. At this point it's creeping closer to 1/4 million miles by the day, and with it will come to close the chapter of the boy racer and open the next of Vehicular adulthood.
Knowing I need a daily that still supports my mountainous passion it looks like an Audi A3 quattro S-line wagon is the perfect choice to hold me over until the next high end sports car enters my life.
The switch
Fall is upon us all over the Northern Hemisphere, leaves are changing, cooler temps are here and it has already started snowing in some of the high elevations. Here is Austin not much of a change has happened. I always tell people Austin is my "Summer" home. Summer down here never really ends, it's nice, then it's hot, then it's nice again, winter consists of a little rain and some cooler days but nothing like being in the mountains.
With the never ending summer though comes allergies, and mine have been dreadful the past 2 days. Knocking me off my feet and making work a very long day. Other changes have happened as well.
My grandfather's beloved cadillac has finally had it's last day, racking up a repair bill twice the value of the car. Well, me being a car crazed lunatic I found him an upgrade within a few days. Moving out of a 1999 Cadillac and into a 2005 Mercedes CLK 320.
Burning the Candle at both ends
This week I knew was going to be a killer. Lining everything out on Friday of last week I saw at least 6 estimates at that time, 4 bids, 2 installs, and 2 measurement trips. Well, somehow that number has almost doubled.
On the snowboard side of things the gym work continues. Wrapped up the last workout plan and headed into final pre-season prep. Coach Jb at Peak Performance Personal Training has me working hard getting my body ready to endure another physically challenging winter. I know I can feel it in my workouts and proper planning needs to be made to make my work and training schedules fit together.
Lastly, Le Mans is in town. Despite wanting to go and even knowing people at the track I'm just not seeing it happen. Hopefully next year but I'll definitely be out there for F1.
New Beginnings
Well, It's been a while and a lot has changed. It's now the summer of 2014 and when the last website was running it was basically 3 years ago. I have been updating a facebook page but not nearly as often as I wanted or needed, plus it has never really caught on. Sure it has it's core following of friends and such, most likely those who feel obligated to like it and never really check on it again. That's not what I wanted, I wanted a place where people could come and check on what is going on, see some pictures, check out some videos and just pop in every once and a while. This is the new beginning, and with that I'll start with a story.
I left Tahoe in November of 2011. Life had taken a turn and a long story all in itself, it put me out on the road in search of a new start, heading to Texas to visit family and wrap up some training. All went well, was offered a job remodeling a house for my uncle, got into the stone business with my cousin, and after a year of scraping to barely make ends meet went out on my own and have found some success. You might be asking yourself,"But Nick, what does this have to do with snowboarding?" Well, snowboarding is a huge financial undertaking, especially to ride at the professional level, travel, train, and do things correctly. Budgets from sponsors are not the same in the new era of snowboarding, less product, even less money and more talent to go around. You have to work hard and at the end of the day it's not about the money, it's about your passions and your mind being in a place where nothing else can take you.
My love of cars still hasn't wavered. The Evo 8 I built came to a poor sad end in Amarillo TX after a drunk or illegal ran a red light, took out the front of the car, and then took off. Needless to say my insurance wasn't too kind on the matter and the extra $11k I had invested to track prep the car wasn't seen as worthy of even being included in my loss. Now I have a 2004 Subaru STI, plasti-dipped and probably will be changing colors....again. It's not an awe inspiring vehicle at this point and time, and this car I dont really see taking it to that point. It's old, it needs some love, but it's a subaru and it gets me into the mountains and back to the hot flat south.
I have some new ideas coming for cars, snowboarding, and the works. This upcoming winter looks to be a blast, but at the same time a lot is still up in the air. The upcoming weeks will bring a lot of changes, especially as the snow starts to come in and I prepare to head back West.
