Seattlest is lamenting the surging Canadian dollar. Whistler is packed with Americans who make the drive from Washington or Oregon, and it looks like their dollar won't be going as far as it used to...  as of today, the Canadian dollar is on par with the American dollar.

I suppose this would be a good time to plan a trip to Colorado.

It snowed about an inch at Mammoth Mountain last night. According to Whistler's website, it snowed a bit there too. Woot!

I picked up the October issue of Transworld Snowboarding this week, and the issue is chock full of write-ups and photos about one-footers. For those not in the know (like me until I picked up this issue), a 'one-footer' is when a rider does a trick, like fly off a lip, with one foot out of their binding. It was an awakening of sorts, and I felt like I've missed out on the Next Big Thing; kind of like the time I realized everyone was wearing bandanas while snowboarding.

Is this something I want to try? Not really. Astute readers of this blog know that tricks and backcountry, er, aren't really my forte. Furthermore, I'm pretty sure most of the folks like yourself who stop by aren't necessarily obsessed with pro riders and tricks.  Personally,  when I wanna get my trick fix I head over to Gavin's place.

I'm watching the Redskins-Eagles game and I can't believe Donovan McNabb is playing his second NFL game since tearing his ACL a mere ten months ago! I cringe every time he gets hit. But at the same time... I'm impressed.

Found this via Skipressworld.com: Apparently there's a new-ish site out there, Nossatv.com, that's got all sorts of ski and snowboarding movie trailers and full-length features... free of charge! The site promises "free full-length DVD quality action sports videos from the best independent filmmakers," and it looks like they've worked out deals with filmmakers to do just that. Cool stuff.

A few tidbits of interest today:

• Despite the shitty weather, 2006-2007 was the sixth best season on record for ski area visits in the United States, according to the National Ski Areas Association.
• Burly Sports has officially launched, a sports vlog that's from the brains behind Heavy.com. Their boards channel features several skate and snow videos.
• Ever wanted to know how fast you're going down a hill? Check out this ski/snowboard spedometer on Gizmodo.

Linky goodness!

Once a year, for the past three years, I've repeated the following ritual:

• With some friends, I get on a bus close to midnight on a Thursday night.
• I travel overnight to a ski resort. Usually Jay Peak.
• Upon arriving bleary-eyed at about eight in the morning, I get changed and snowboard... all day.
• I vow never ever to repeat this again, telling myself that although the value is great, it's not worth losing a night of sleep for.
• I invariably repeat this process the next year, ignorning my own vows to never repeat.

Of course, I'm repeating this ritual once again in mid-December. The destination of choice: Mont Tremblant. If you've been around the blog for a while, you've probably seen my Mont Tremblant review from last year.I've only been to Tremblant once, and the conditions were garbage. That said, it wasn't the hill's fault: I went in mid-December 2006, which was famously terrible for ski resorts, as it didn't snow. Despite the lousy weather, I was really excited to return to Tremblant; the facilities were top-notch, and the mountain was a phenomenal size for the east coast. I'm looking forward to going back; I just hope the weather is a little more co-operative. I haven't experienced about half of the mountain yet!

Local news for the Ontario riders: Mount St. Louis Moonstone has made some big improvements for the 2007-2008 season. Gone are the creaky Timberline and Stretcher chairs, replaced with a high-speed "Summit Six Express" lift. The Stretcher run has also been widened and re-graded, and they now have the "largest beginner terrain in the area" following the expansion of the beginners' area.

I'll have to check Moonstone out this year! Though I always do...

My physiotherapist handed me a chart today that detailed the life of an ACL graft, and provided some very interesting nuggets of information:

• The graft strength early in day one is still 100%. That's before the graft goes, "oh shit, I've been taken out of the hamstring and put in the knee."
• The graft is apparently most vulnerable to injury between weeks 6 and 12.
• By week 20, the graft has been completely revascularized. It's fully come back to life!
• By week 24 the ACL has reached the "collagen mature" stage, which means all the tissue and other good stuff has re-formed. This is about where I am now.
• The ACL is 50% functional by week 31 or so, which is a hell of a lot better than where I was snowboarding with a torn ACL last year.

I also received my Donjoy knee brace today, which coincided with my last physiotherapy session. During the session, I told my physiotherapist I was running on a treadmill despite not getting clearance from anyone but it didn't seem to be a big deal. In fact, he told me to run as much as I want at this point; so, I'm going to start working on my stamina and hopefully I can hit 5k and then 10k in the next few weeks. I also really need to start hitting my quads hard. My left quad is still not ready for snowboarding yet.

My last physiotherapy session! It was so sad; I kind of felt like me and my physiotherapist were breaking up.

Earlier this year, I went on a business trip with some colleagues, one of whom showed up at the airport on the way home totally ecstatic. She'd got a great deal on a pair of Skullcandy headphones, and sat in the lounge tearing apart the packaging, giddy to try them out. Then she put them on, and she was all but removed from everyone else for the rest of the trip as she rocked out with her near gear.

I hadn't heard of Skullcandy to that point, but dug around a bit and found out the company manufactured a pretty cool line of audio products and accessories aimed at the skate/surf/ski/snowboard crowd.

Well recently, I got my hands on a some pretty sweet Skullcandy Marc Frank Montoya 1GB headphones, and had a chance to check out the Skullcandy experience for myself.

Upon unpacking these headphones, one immediately gets the impression they arrived directly from Park City, where Montoya trains. Before even turning them on, it's obvious a lot of thought has gone into the question, "what would a snowboarder want in a set of headphones for riding?"

The Marc Frank Montoya model features a 1GB MP3 player that plugs directly into the headphone, so no cords are required; it also means songs can be browsed hands-free. But it's the litany of 'small things' that make these headphones great:

• A super-fuzzy custom toque is included, complete with hooks for the earphones ensures your head stays warm while you ride.
• There's artwork everywhere - even below the removable ear cushions (so you can clip them into your toque, of course).
• 1GB worth of space on the easy-to-use USB drive means space for hundreds of songs.
• A cord and adapter are included that let you use the MP3 player separate of the headphones.
• 10 hours of battery time means they'll last a full day on the hill.
• The phones feature a DJ-style 90-degree swivel.

The sound is pretty solid, too. A 40mm power driver made the new Chemical Brothers album and some various DJ sets sound pretty darn good.

The only downside, really, is the fact that I'm a helmet dude. These puppies aren't designed for my Bad Lieutenant helmet, so I'd have to ride helmet-free. I'm not sure I'm really ready to do that on a permanent basis, but I can't wait to take these on the hill this winter regardless. A lot of thought has been put into these haedphones, and it shows.

When I get 'em on the hill I'll follow up with another post on the experience.

Every September I start to get the ball rolling on planning our big winter snowboarding trip. For the past two years, we've gone to Whistler; this year, we're thinking of going to the Banff area. The hills are a bit farther in the Banff area, but the scenery is spectacular (the Rockies and Coastal Mountain ranges look very different) and there are several world-class resorts to choose from.

As the organizer of these trips. I have found that by far the biggest challenge in planning them is accomodation. We're usually a group of five to seven people, and we rent a house instead of getting hotel rooms; it's cheaper, and lets you drink/cook in the comfort of a house every once in a while. For the last two years I've used a nifty site called rentalo.com to find a suitable house for these trips, and have been pleased with the results both times. (I have mentioned this site previously.) I just put in a request for Banff vacation properties, and honestly expect several by the time I go to bed last night. They tend to be personalized emails from property owners offering me their vacation homes for my specified period. It's pretty neat. And did I mention it's free? Really, if you're looking for any sort of rental vacation worldwide it's worth checking out. Worst-case scenario: you don't pick any. I've done that too.

I won't get it for another week or two, but I'm getting a yellow and black DonJoy Defiance knee brace to help me through the next two years of sports and snowboarding. Someone came over and fitted me for one last week. I'm apparently getting a "short calf" version that doesn't run up and down the leg so much because I'm pretty big into snowboarding.

If you play sports at all, you've probably seen the DonJoy Defiance. It seems to be the brace of choice for most folks who have knee injuries (including Carson Palmer... who knew?)  and looks like it gives users the support and confidence they need to return to regular sports. The last brace I had didn't really cut it, but I'm hoping this one will.

Interestingly, DonJoy has a "knee guarantee" policy that pays $1000 towards surgery required if a user ruptures their ACL while wearing a DonJoy brace. I never ever want to be in a situation where I might be able to take them up on that.

Or so their website says. Let the countdown begin!

EDIT: Sunshine Village plans to open way earlier: November 8.

Okay, so.

On August 27 it will be five months since I had my ACL tear repaired. At this point, I feel like I'm totally recovered. Of course, that's not the case. The ACL isn't even close to ready for the "hard stuff" - hockey, basketball, ultimate frisbee and the like - and my knee still isn't ready for snowboarding either. Furthermore, my left quad is still smaller than my right quad, meaning it's still a bit weak. I've been working hard on that quad recently, though, because it's going to have to be strong in order to bear the impact of running, snowboarding and so on.

Anyway, all that said, I have a confession to make.

The last time I saw the surgeon he said I could start running "at around six months". Same for the physiotherapist - he mentioned that come September we'd start working on the treadmill with a bit of walking, followed by a minute or so of running, followed by a minute of walking.

Now, I've been doing a fair bit of research lately, and have come to realize that a) lots of folks who have had this surgery are running by now and b) my recovery seems to have been pretty rapid thanks to a bit of aggressive physio, both at the hospital and by myself. So I performed a bit of self-diagnosis this week (I said to myself, "Adam, you're looking goooooood!") and decided I was okay to start running. So I bought a new pair of running shoes (I had been holding out until I could start running again) and I hit the gym. So far, everything looks good. Some speedy walking, followed by a minute and a half or so of running, followed by more walking. Repeat.

It feels great.

On Monday I'm getting fitted for my knee brace. Then I'm visitng both the physiotherapist and surgeon in September. By the end of next month, I hope to be booting it down the street, listening to my iPod while I run five or ten clicks.