I originally started this piece in the late summer of 2010, right after I started blogging, when our son was just starting 8th grade.
My teen-age son is a skiing addict. How do I know? Oh, let me count the ways…
1. Style. He wears Nike 6.0 high tops. While these are skateboarding shoes, he chooses the Nike 6.0 line because “Nike 6.0 sponsors skiing.”
2. Habitation. His bedroom walls are decorated with vintage posters from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Chamonix, and Saint-Gervais les Bains, an autographed poster of Chris Davenport, a Retallack poster signed by Tanner Hall and John Spriggs and his school art projects.
3. Computer Preferences. He spends hot summer afternoons watching YouTube video of JOSS — the Jon Olsson Super Sessions. He can quote entire sections of silly dialogue from the JOSS skits.
4. Television Habits. He has found a TV channel that shows Warren Miller movies during the day.
5. More Style. His Back-to-School shopping consists of ordering boutique ski company t-shirts online. Most recent purchase: a COREupt Skis T. Favorite shirt: Line Skis’ “I am a Skier” shirt in bright green.
6. Wish List. He asks his grandparents for a new skiing DVD for his birthday, giving them not only the name of the desired video (Every Day Is A Saturday), but also the production company (Poor Boyz Productions).
7. Free Reading Time. Outside of his school assignments, he reads only “Freeskier” and “Powder.” Or, should he care to crack a book, it will be a history of skiing in Colorado, North America, or the world.
8. Collections. He has collected ski resort maps since he began to ski. I have no idea how many maps he owns, but our friends who travel out of Colorado to ski and live in other parts of the country (or world) regularly send him maps. He studies each and every one. The maps fill a two-foot by one-foot plastic bin and are beginning to overflow.
9. Artistic Endeavors. Every drawing and painting he produced for Middle School art was of a skier, a ski mountain or, if it was a graphic assignment, included the name of a favorite ski area. He spends a lot of time on these and regularly gets an “A”.
10. Genetics. His parents and brother are addicts too. What can we say? The snowball hasn’t rolled far down the slope. And we like it that way.
What about your kids? Are they skiing addicts? Or are you? Please share some of your symptoms. I’d love to hear them.
Cheers!
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