As spring sets in at Whaleback and the signs of rebirth and new life are all around, it naturally makes me think of new life in myself. Needless to say winter is a very intense season for me and the entire Whaleback Crew as is evident from the lack of posts on this Blog. So part of my spring rebirth is to reflect, write, and think about the potential of the warmer months and what I want to accomplish in what in ski area terms is called the off season. What I think about is wanting to change that with roller sports.
For me, summer has always meant play and specifically playing on wheels in some sort of roller sport. I learned to ride a bike at age 3, when my cousin Amy would push me down the driveway on a bike until I learned to ride. From then on, I have spent each summer on some sort of wheeled apparatus and thus was my introduction to roller sports and a larger world of Sole Sports. (I prefer saying “sole sports” instead of “action sports” or “extreme sports” but this is my own name invented from a dislike of the names given to individual alternative sports like skiing, biking, skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, rock climbing and the list goes on…)
It wasn’t until I turned 7 and got into snow sports, specifically downhill skiing, that my Sole Sport career took a significant turn. I thoroughly enjoyed skiing, I was good at it, and it was readily available to me living in VT. For the past 29 years, I have spent each winter season on snow enjoying skiing all the way to the Olympics and then here to Whaleback. However winter ends snow melts and it is time to pull out the wheels and get rolling.
It is this passion that led to the partnership with Zero Gravity who has shared the same blend of summer and winter passions and has been actively running summer programs, operating summer roller sport facilities, and even building roller sports parks for everyone to enjoy for the past 17 years. This is the whole reason that we are in existence here at Whaleback to bring these sports together in one location with a common goal of sustaining our passion with the passion of others for winter and summer sole sports.
While some roller sports are considered “fringe” sports, specifically skateboarding, some are sports that are considered a right of passage, like riding a bike. More people bike in the US than ski, play golf, and play tennis combined. I believe that they have a lot more in common and that they are the closest siblings to the winter sports of skiing and snowboarding.
So as summer approaches and the snow melts, I am excited for the start of the new season and the start of new opportunities for self growth. Summer means continuing to participate in sole sports with my friends and my community. It means trips to the skate park for me and my children and passing along the joy of learning and growing as a person. It means new challenges and new tricks, and I hope to see you all enjoying summer with me at Zero Gravity Whaleback.
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