or take in the view of the mountains and relax. I have learned a thing or to this past winter about toning it down and re-focusing. Case in point would be my busted collar bone. I was really bummed that I could not go flying off of jumps like the one in the picture below. This particular jump looks super fun in that with a moderate amount of speed one can be flung into the air about 10 feet up and have a horizontal traveling distance of about 30 feet or so. Awesome!
However, after surgery and rehabilitation exercises I now look at jumps with a new perspective. I ask myself "if I screw up the landing and come down hard, will it knock the screws out of my bone and dislodge my titanium plate?" "Also, would it hurt like no other pain I have had in my life?" After asking myself such questions and calculating the probability of an unfavorable result, I find myself passing features like this one up. I struggled a lot with this because I am a thrill junky. I don't need drugs, fast cars or fast women to get my thrills. However I do have an affinity for seeing how fast, how far, and how high I can get on a snowboard. Alas, I think those days are over and I need to "tone it down" a bit. Instead of trying to push the limits I have started to get back to just carving up the groomed runs and enjoying the mountain views (Colorado winter version of "smelling the roses").
