Backflips in Bariloche

Sarah Laird from SASS brings us another report from Bariloche, Argentina, where I heard it's been dumping.  I'm jealous.

 I did it!  I did it! I did it!  I can’t believe it!  I landed my first back flip! Well, not perfectly but I did land and I did ride away.  So, in my mind it’s legit. 

I’ve never been a big park rider due to the intimidating hard landings guaranteeing  a broken arm or leg if I don’t land correctly. Not to mention the fifty bros in tall tees at Breck eagerly awaiting my screw up.  But down here in Bariloche with SASS, the tough landings are replaced with soft powder fields, and the eager bro brahs are replaced by supportive and attractive coaches, giving me the confidence to really send it.  

The longer we spent building the jump and the more blocks we added to the take-off, the more intimidated I got.  It kept getting bigger and the talk of the tricks people were thinking about throwing escalated as we started to smooth out the in-run.  But I calmed myself by saying anyone can talk.  But sure enough, they lived up to their claims, double flips started to get thrown, and I was back to being a nervous wreck.  

After everyone started throwing double corks and backside rodeos I felt as if I really needed to step it up.  Another camper, Tucker Norred, and I decided that we were going to try a back flip.  Being the polite (read: cowardly) one, I let him try first, and after three times he stomped it perfectly and returned with some brilliant advice: "just commit!"

With those wise words and the promise of a free drink after dinner if I was able to land it in less then three tries, I had found my motivation.  I guess I was really feeling that financial deficit from all my previous fernet and cokes and needed a free one because I landed it on my first try! It wasn’t as graceful as my friends but it was my first one ever and I rode away with only a minimal scraping of snow on my pants.  I’ve never felt like more of a baller in my entire snowboard career than I did at that moment.  Thank you Tucker! Thank you fernet! And most importantly thank you SASS!!