Well I finished my writing final this morning, so now I have three more finals before spring break! I have a Political Science final in two hours, and a Business final from noon to eight. Thursday I have an Italian final from six to eight at night, and after that I'm driving home for the Jackson Hole Freeskiing open. You can check out the competition here: http://www.usfreeskiing.com/. Hopefully I can get registered. Wish me luck!

Posted by Sam Mead at 09:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today is Monday. A very nice Monday at that, and I'm feeling extremely lazy. I have finals throughout this week, and a freeskiing competition back home on friday. Next Monday I take off for the Bahamas for spring break, for some much needed R&R before spring quarter. Spring skiing has always been something I look forward to and at the same time hate. I long for the days when it is sunny and warm, those days when the snow is like butter. Everyone is having a blast and the jumps are so forgiving. Who doesn't love a nice spring day at the mountain? Unfortunately, I'm starting to feel the pain of this season's flat-landings, crashes, and knuckle-finder episodes. I don't mean to sound like an old man, but it's tough to ski a whole day near the end. I have some wonderful shin splints right now, and my back has been bothering me. Too bad none of that will stop me from having a blast! I'm going to ski as hard as possible this weekend, and hopefully take home a top 3 finish at my home mountain. Then I have a WHOLE WEEK to rest in the relaxing waters of the Gulf. The season is drawing to an end, and I plan on finishing strong.

P.S. Marshall Miller, Jon Sexauer and I just finished a short edit from a weekend at Keystone. I will upload it soon. Also, sorry there aren't any pictures on this one. It's really boring. I'll make up for it next time.

Posted by Sam Mead at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Main line at Keystone-Perfection:

I woke up this morning to another cloudless, warm day. Skiing time! I met my friend Marshall Miller, world class photographer/videographer/skier, at Keystone at 11. The snow was just beginning to soften up and we started filming after we had both warmed up. The gapers (people who can't ski well) were out in force this afternoon and this resulted in the lift stopping quite often. This, combined with the hispanic music blaring from Keystone's speakers was enough make me want to jump off the lift headfirst. Luckily, Marshall told me to chill and work on my goggle tan. So i did.

Me working on my two best defenses against women: Facial hair and a goggle tan.

A few runs later, Marshall had to leave to pick up his sister at the airport. This was good news for me, because I had been crashing like it was my job. We both crashed hard during a follow-cam on the last run, so we decided to call it a day. I will be very sore tomorrow.

All in all, a great day. We got a bunch of good shots and had fun. See you next time.

Posted by Sam Mead at 02:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

To kick things off, I would like to welcome you to my new blog and tell you a few things about myself.

My name is Sam Mead, and I grew up in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I started skiing when I was two years old, and loved it ever since. My parents put me in a racing program when I was in fourth grade. I liked it for a year or two, but the rigorous training and schedule eventually burned me out. The fact that I was pretty bad at racing probably had something to do with it as well. Anyway, I dropped out of the racing program and started freesking with my friends. This was around the time when freeskiing was really taking off, circa '99 or '2000. We all had a blast doing it. I started competing a few years later. I didn't place in most of the early competitions, but I practiced hard and eventually started winning. One thing led to another, and last year I found myself on top of the USASA Nationals podium for Halfpipe skiing. I graduated from high school that spring, and was accepted into Denver University where I currently attend college.

I'm currently 'training' for Collegiate Nationals, and I will update this blog as much as possible.

Posted by Sam Mead at 01:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)