1. Navigate to calendar.google.com and set up your own calendar.
2. When you are on your calendar page in Google Calendar, click Settings under My Calendars on the left sidebar.
3. Click the name of the Calendar you want to embed on your site.
4. A little ways down the page, there is a Embed Calendar section. It gives you the code here, but to fit on the MSP page, you'll want to customize it a little bit. Click Customize the color, etc. link.
5. I unchecked all the boxes except for "Navigation Buttons" and "Date".
6. This is important for MSP: make your size 520 pixels wide. I also made the height 400 pixels, which accomodates two rows of events on each day.
7. Select the code at the top and copy it, by highlighting the text and right-clicking and selecting Copy, or use Ctrl-C to copy the code.
8. To paste the code into a Page in MSP, open or create the Page, and click the far right "A" at the top of the editing screen to open "HTML Mode." This is important too - you must paste the code in to the page using HTML Mode, or your site will only display the code, not the actual calendar.
9. Save your Page.
   

Alpine Skiing PSIA Level 3 Certified<br />
Breckenridge, Colorado<br />

With the use of feeds!

Feeds let you get a reminder only when there's new content on the site. So you'll be able to check if there's anything new just by looking at your homepage or your browser toolbar. Following is a summary about feeds from the makers of our blogging software, Six Apart.

You'll see that on every page of every blog in MySnowPro.com, there's a section on the right called "Subscription Options." You can use any of those links to "subscribe" to the freed for that particular blog, whether it's MySnowPro.com itself, or an MSP Author's blog. If you click one of the buttons, it's likely your browser will recognize the feed and know what to do with it. Or, if you use My Yahoo! or Google's homepage or another of the "Feed Readers" out there, you can click the appropriate button for you.

Read below for more about Feeds, and subscribe to the sites you want to keep track of. It'll save you time!

from Six Apart's website:

Many websites have links labeled "XML" or "RSS" or "Atom". All of these are ways of saying that you can find out about updates to that site without having to visit the site in your web browser.

This feature is referred to as "syndication" or "aggregation". Sometimes it's just called subscribing. And these days, instead of one of these words, lots of sites will use a little orange button. The standard one looks like this: It's also common to see buttons that say "RSS" or "XML", which looks like this:

All these links and buttons mean the same thing: The site you're viewing has a feed available.

We've provided a little bit of information here on how you can get easily get started reading feeds for free.

Who Publishes Feeds?

Anyone that publishes on the web can publish a feed. Blogs (or weblogs) were one of the first types of sites to offer feeds, and since that's what we do at Six Apart, we're glad they're so popular. But most major newspapers and news websites, hobbyist sites, and even stores like Amazon.com all offer feeds, too.

What Do I Need?

Just like when you want to watch a video clip or listen to music on the web, you need a "player" of some kind to subscribe to feeds. Good news: Most of these tools are free, and there are many to choose from, so you can find the one that best suits you.

The "player" for a feed is called a feed reader. This tool lets you subscribe to any feeds you want, checks automatically to see when they're updated, and then displays the updates for you as they arrive.

Feed readers can run on your computer or you can sign up to use a feed-reader that runs on the web. If you use one of the web-based readers, you can access your feeds from anywhere you go, just by signing into the website that manages your feeds. If you use a feed reading program that installs on your computer, your feeds can be stored for you even if you're not connected to the Internet.

What Feed Reader Should I Use?

Here's a list some of the most popular tools for reading feeds people like.

On the web:

On your computer:

If you want a separate program to read feeds, you can use FeedDemon or NewsGator for Microsoft Outlook or Attensa for Outlook if you're on Microsoft Windows. Both tools let you switch between these programs and the web-based reader at any time. If you're on a Macintosh running OS X, the most popular feed reader is NetNewsWire, which can also connect to the web-based services.

for mySnowPro.com

Just take advantage of the ability to keep track of the information you want to follow. Save time by using a feed-reader if you're not already. Thanks for reading!

Your founding SnowPros,

Jon Lawson
Gregg Davis

Click to Enlarge

The Drop-in

Drop in with a straight run parallel to the lip of the pipe and a simple hopturn with minimal air to conserve speed and avoid a hard impact. There are two distinct advantages to practicing this proper drop-in technique. First, riders learn to immediately point the nose of their snowboard in the direction they want to be travelling once they enter the pipe, (i.e. toward the opposite wall). This eliminates the need to make a speed-eating turn on the flat runway leading up to the pipe entrance (the bottom of the deck). Second, it enables the rider to manage their speed and control the forces associated with it.

Even beginning pipe riders should use this drop-in technique so that as they improve and increase their speed coming into the pipe and the height from which they drop in, they'll perform it consistently every time. The accompanying photo sequence illustrates the technique.

Carving on my toe edge, I'm already starting to lean in to align with the pipe wall. Notice that I'm heading almost parallel to the lip of the pipe as I ride onto the deck. In the next photo, I'm still carving, But I'm beginning to lean in further and extend slightly to help unweight the board for the drop-in. This extension provides room for my legs to retract, as shown in the next image in the sequence.

As I approach the lip, I'm retracting my legs and unweighting the board while simultaneously dropping my fromt shoulder into the pipe and picking the board up off the snow. Once airborne, I point the board in the direction I'll be moving when I touch down. My shoulders arealigned with the slope of the pipe wall, and the board is carving on the toe edge at a slight angle across the slope of the halfpipe wall. In the last photo, I extend to pump the transition and weight the board to continue the toe-edge carve. Having used this drop-in technique, I've set myself up for a successful run in the pipe.

Getting an Early Edge on Pipe Riding

Click the Photo to Enlarge

Students who are first learning to harness their sped and perform air maneuvers might be a little on edge. And that's a good thing...as long as they're on edge at the right times.

In the halfpipe, riders travel from one wall to another across the fall line of the hill in order to use the vertical walls to propel themselves into the air. Edging skills are crucial when moving across the flat bottom of the pipe and when going up and down the walls.

Many riders make the mistake of maintaining a high edge angle as they rise up the wall and approach the vertical, but this causes their boards to skid - scrubbing speed, momentum, and most importantly, directional control. Before going into the pipe, practice carving on groomed terrain to ensure you can engage and disengage a high edge angle quickly during carved turns and traverses.

In the halfpipe, play with engaging a high edge angle to move across the flat, and then flatten the board as you go up the wall and approach the vertical in preparation to catch air (click the photo sequence above). If you don't begin to release the edge by flattening the board before you jump, the hard wall - combined with an increase in pressure - will make the board slip. This will cause an imprecise take-off and throw you off balance during the maneuver in the air.

If the wall is truly vertical, you just need to ride the board into the air without significant extension. Speed alone propels riders into the air. In pipes with an undercut lip, an over-vert part of the wall, or a wall that doesn't quite get to vertical, riders must adjust their "pop," or extension as they leave the lip. The less vertical the wall, the more they need to "pop" to stay in the pipe.

The frontside air uses a small upper-body turn down the pipe for the return back into the pipe. In the photo sequence and video coaching session, I could have rotated my arms and shoulders a little more but instead I had to resort to another rotation to realign the board just before landing. During a spin the rider's leg extension at the lip doesn't affect rotation; riders just add more rotary input at take-off to spin further. After pulling off the trick, they'll need to land on a flat board, engage the opposite edge as they approach the flat, and use the new edge for the next sequence of flat-to-wall riding.

Carving on edge will help riders take an optimum angle across the bottom of the pipe and towards the opposite wall. But again, this is where the subtleties of proper edge angagement come into play. Even though you may stay on that same edge all the way up the wall, you need to decrease the edge angle as you approach the vertical. To avoid a skid and maintain speed and balance, you need to keep the board pointing in the direction it's moving (or carving) at all times.

By studying the accompanying photo sequence, you can pinpoint the edge-play that accounts fro a well-executed run in the pipe. The sequence outlines the steps for a frontside air, but the rules for early edge engagement also apply to practically any maneuver in the pipe, even a simple turn performed on the wall.

Here's what's going on in the photo:

Starting with a flat board as I drop into the pipe, notice how I suddenly increase my toeside edge angle as I approach the flat. I've bent my knees and ankles to allow for this; if I'm too extended, I won't be able to create enough edge angle to maintain my momentum across the pipe, and I could end up picking up too much speed by taking a steeper angle down the fall-line, and have to speed-check or ride low and fast down the pipe wall.

As I finish crossing the flat, I begin to flatten the board by moving my body over the center of it, moving slightly from toe to heel, and down the pipe. This keeps my lower body soft for absorbtion, and allows the board to keep carving but with reduced pressure as I head for the pipe wall. This also prevents the board from skidding as I rise up the wall.

There are many ways to perform a frontside air. Here I've combined two movements: edge release from the ankles and the movement of my whole body down the fall-line. Just as if I were carving across the fall-line on a groomed slope and wanted to engage a new edge early in the next turn, I let my upper body begin to fall down the hill, reducing edge angle from the previous turn. This turning tactic works as well in the pipe as it does on the groomed slope, with the only difference being that the edge change happens in the air.

Just before landing I turn my upper body to align the board with the direction I plan to travel once I've touched down. A timely counter-rotation move - in which I rotate my arms and shoulders to the left so that the board will keep rotating to the right - helps me finish the turn and put the board in proper landing mode: flat and aimed in the direction I want to travel down the wall. Once I'm gliding on the snow again I can realign my upper body with the board.

Next, I let the board glide down the wall with almost no edge angle, i.e., maintaining a nearly flat board. Then I flex my lower body to tilt the board up quickly to a high edge angle early in the flat bottom of the pipe, just as I did when riding toeside in the first set of photos.

To ride the pipe well, engage your edge as soon as possible after landing and gliding down the pipe wall. The sooner you can make the carved turn, the sooner you'll be heading across the fall line in preparation to flatten the board as you rise up the wall. This will make for an easier and more fluid run in the pipe.

Check out the Video Coaching Session above and watch Shaun White win the US Open at Stratton, Vermont in 2006! I talk about what he's doing to ride so consistently in the pipe, and how you can take your own pipe riding to a higher level.

In the video I will attempt to demonstrate and explain a few patterns in the bumps in which this is particularly appropriate. As well as the visual, technical, tactical, and mental approaches.
I may use this tactic when I am a little aft prior to takeoff, as well as when the bump line is chopped up and jagged.

We have been there, you know that the bump after the current one has a steep face, and the impact will jolt you. Rather than taking the hit, what if you looked to the top or backside of the upcoming steeply-faced bump. You could elevate over the sharp, high-impact line and land in a smoother path.

What differentiates the Air Carve from functional air type turns is that there is a smooth transition of edges in the air. There is minimal leg rotation from takeoff to landing. I want to emphasis Minimal, there is some steering adjustment that takes place in the air, but not a strong twist. Too much turn in the air will have you landing across your line of travel and can interrupt your flow. There is also a tipping movement from one set of edges to the other, as well as a "pedaling" movement from leg to leg. i.e. On a turn to the left, a lengthening of the right leg and a flexing of the left leg (joints).

Some get into trouble while air carving because they look at the "trouble" (trough or face of the bump they are landing into). I prefer looking at the landing point to the Apex of the turn (the outermost point of the turn). This approach helps me in starting to shape the turn from above the gravity line, rather than at the bottom of the turn (below the gravity line).

And the skier may do as many air carves as they want to on a run, but I find putting a few here and there adds to the fun and spontaneity.

I look forward to hearing of your experiments in Air Carving.

to your sliding success,
Jonathan Lawson

Brad Farmer from Future Snowboarding rips a toeside powder wheelie at high speed. Brad rode with us, and posted stories and some great photos at the Future Snowboard Magazine website.
Future Snowboarding: Baldface Adventure, Part 1
Future Snowboarding: Baldface Adventure, Part 2
Future Snowboarding: Baldface Adventure, Part 3

I'm taking the first few clients who want to join me for the Burton Learn to Ride Powder program, at Baldface Lodge next winter. If you want to get in on it next year, you better talk to me soon.

February 3-4, 2007. We flew in from our various locations from around the country to Spokane, Washington. Three rental vans staggered at intervals drove north through the border to Canada, and into Nelson, British Columbia. We stayed in Nelson and were scheduled to fly via helicopter up to the Baldface Lodge, about 3000 feet higher into the mountains, isolated from any roads and any access except for heli and snowcat.

We arrived at the lodge and met the amazing staff and moved into our beautiful chalets. Shaun and Burton have really lined us up with a great trip, we're realizing. if you come up to Baldface, pay the extra money to stay in a brand-new chalet - it's much nicer than staying in the main lodge.

February 5, 2007, our first riding day. We woke up to high clouds, warm temps and delicious food in the lodge. We did a quick avalanche safety, and beacon practice session before heading out in the snowcat for our first experience with our guides.

Mark Stuart was our main guide, with Yuske from Japan taking up the rear. Graham joined us in our cat for our first day, to photograph us for the lodge. At the end of each day, he presents a slide show before dinner in the lodge for everyone. The daily shots are always fun to see, especially if they're of your group!

We were all amazed and humbled by the mountains, the views, and the terrain. The ridges let us access some STEEP terrain! We were all very excited about the bottomless powder and steep runs, of course. The photos tell the story most accurately.

February 6, 2007. Our second day of riding we had become comfortable with the terrain, our guides, and the system of loading and unloading the cat. Our goal was to get as many runs as possible, and we did. We were on a mission when unloading and loading the cat. Our guides noticed a big difference from the day before: we would help load and unload the boards, heckle each other if we were holding up the group, and were always shouting about hurrying up and getting more runs.

Mark told us at the end of the day that we had done more runs in a day that any other group this season. Yes! We did 15 runs. Beautiful powder and jumping off lots of things in to the deep snow. You really have to come up here and do this if you have any desire. Do it at least once!

February 7, 2007. Riding day 3. Self explanatory.

After the day, though, we had planned a short hike up to a ridge above Baldface Lodge where there's a cross and a memorial view for Craig Kelly. Every snowboarder's hero if you're older than 30, Craig was a long-time Burton rider who was probably the single most influantial person in snowboarding for more than twenty years. He died a few years ago in an avalanche close to here, but not at Baldface. He was a friend of Baldface and loved the lodge and the terrain as much as all of us. We brought some appropriate toasting drinks (Patron) and had a moment of silence for Craig. May you rest in peace in the big powder field in the sky.

February 8, 2007. Our last day of riding we had some great powder that morning because it had snowed about 10 cm (6 inches or so) and blew in light and fluffy on top of what had been a bit wetter and heavier in most places.

We jumped off a cliff band into a gully from several places - our largest cliff find of the trip. One of the best moments of the trip for me was sliding over a snow bridge between the cliff top and a large tree next to the cliff holding a huge snow pillow on top. I dropped about 25 feet off the top of the tree to the fluffy slope below. Outstanding.

The cloud lifted just far enough for the heli to come get us in the afternoon to get back down to Nelson. If it had not, we would have had a few hours of snowcat ride and boat across the lake to get us back to Nelson. That's me in the last photo in the front seat of the helicopter. What a ride.

I called him a few years later, April 10, 1995 to be specific. I was a fully certified instructor by that time. There was so much I loved about skiing, and in particular ski instruction. I love the feeling of minimal resistance, endorphins, wind, sun, and snow. The freedom of skiing from a mountain top, has only been equaled by surfing the north shore of Oahu. Exhilaration that cannot be found in most walks of life. Something everyone should realized when skiing is that the same rush can be experienced skiing or riding a green run, as others may feel from a mountain top. The SAME RUSH (with slightly different scenery).

Now what if I could share those feelings with people who meet me on a random winter Tuesday? What if over the course of a few days or years we become friends and get to share the passion of this sport and lifetime "moments" to remember each other. I have been blessed to do so with many individuals and families. Some of which I see every year, and some I have not seen or heard from in many years. It is a shame really. But I do remember nearly everyone who enjoyed a breakthrough in my company.

What if there was an easier way to keep in touch? Email certainly brought that to many. Now physical letters are a novelty. They are still fun to send, and highly recommended as well. However, with a quick calculation I figure I have skied with approximately 7000 students in the past 15 years. And as much as I would love to keep in contact with them, it would be an impossible task.

In 1995 I called my friend Matt, we created Skipros.com. The idea was unique. Indeed, the first of its kind. A way for a student to choose his/her instructor prior to taking a lesson. Don't let the ski school randomly select an instructor for you, especially during a peak holiday period. Skipros.com allowed the lesson taking student make an educated decision. That was important. It also allowed top instructors to showcase their talent. The problem. The information was fixed. A few brief blurbs, some bio information,but static. Good, but not great. It wasn't interactive. I would tell instructors and ski school directors, "There's this thing called the internet..." They would say, "We are instructors" or "We teach skiing, we don't program computers." However, a few instructors understood the idea. More students understood the idea, as they tended to use the internet (at least at work).

Payment systems were cumbersome. I turned into a programmer, accountant, bill collector, etc. None of which are my strong suits. I loved skiing, teaching, and helping. I wanted to assist others improve: instructors and students. So after a few years, I let Skipros.com go. SP.com is on the Island of lost toys. Playing with the Jack in the Box. A good idea that never matured.

However, a few months back I was talking with a friend, Gregg Davis, a former AASI National Team Member (one of the elite 6 for snowboard instruction in the country). He told me he had been working with Moveable Type. A blogging software that could be managed as easily as using email. Add pictures, movies, articles, thoughts, etc in just a few minutes. The wheels started turning again. Several websites were using this type of technology in other fields. I enjoy using www.realmoney.com .

I started asking questions. Gregg mentioned, anything is possible with enough time and money. (He's good like that). We started asking the questions from the perspective of: How would I like to communicate with ALL of my students? How can I keep a relationship with them throughout the year through newsletters and timely postings? And as importantly, How could my students easily and quickly see what is happening in the location of their next ski destination? What is the weather really like? Where are the best restaurants? Where is the best snow? What are some technical ideas for skiing? And what is going on with my pro?

Hmmm, the search may never fully end.

I believe most SnowPros want to give their students a great experience. I watched this video after I started MySnowPro, and realized this is what I hope to achieve.

So, how does MySnowPro.com help create this experience?

The instructor can add articles, individual pictures or entire galleries of a student/family's stay, fully customizable blog categories, automatic archives of all posts, video, automatic monthly e-newsletters sent to all registered students (no charge to register). And the student can subscribe to the instructor's RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed right from their browser, or receive emails alerting them to a new post. Whew, that's alot..

We are packing as much in as we can. And we continually ask, what do we want as working professional instructors? How can we offer our students more?
And the cost to any instructor, less than a small gratuity. That is it. What is it worth? Use it for a year and find out.

This is my dream site for a working Ski and Ride professional and with those who they share the love of the sport.

Use it and enjoy it.

To your success,
Jon L.

I've been asked, "What do I get for spending the time to write in a mysnowpro.com blog of my own?

Before I list a few reasons, I have been actually amazed at how MSP is now shared from my students to their friends and relatives. At first I thought, pictures, movies, and lesson recaps could be happily reviewed by my students. What happened was surprising. My student immediately emailed ALL of her family and over 50 friends with the photos, lesson, review, and brief movie I put together. In the first 61 days, MSP had received over 130,000 page views. Gregg and I were the only ones writing. In the first 61 days, I receive 3 extra days of private bookings, increased tips, and more return business from frequent skiers. So with that said, here are a few reasons why you might want to be part of the MSP network:

1. Your students will thank you. MSP is the easiest way to keep in touch with your past students and give them more than they expected. Why would I want to do that, you ask? You may want to increase your repeat business, better form your relationships with your customers, and have an easy way to show your students, friends and family pictures from your lessons, and even from other parts of your life. As instructors, what we are finding is that your when students become much more than students or friends, they will go out of their way to share their experience with others. And the ability to have a website to send their friends and family to see, simply reinforces their experience with you.

2. MySnowPro.com will stay in touch with your past students automatically, without you having to do anything at all. If you subscribe them for the monthly newsletter from your own site, your students will receive great content that they look forward to, and it will be because of you. What does that mean? Increased requests, return business for you, and an even better relationship with you. And we will never sell their information to others.

3. Your website will be a connection between you and your potential students. Your site will be listed with the search engines, and findable on the internet. That means new clients for you, skiers and riders that want what you can offer.

4. It's fun! Using MySnowPro.com is just as easy as sending an email. We have created audio/visual tutorials for the different uses of MSP. And they are color coded Green Circle for Easiest, Blue Diamond for Intermediate, and Black Diamond for advanced. So far, we have just found Green and Blue. Goto the top of the page and click tutorials to see how we help.

5. Easy to keep your students notified of what you are doing. When you post a new entry, you can notify your clients, and readers of your site can sign up to be automatically emailed or updated via an RSS feed when you post a new article. You'll find lots of uses for the website. Not only can you post pictures, videos, and articles to read for your students, but you can even create a section for your own personal stuff, too. You may want to show your family your latest photos, and of course your students are interested in what you're doing over the summer, which brings us to the next point.

6. A great time for you to update your site and keep in touch with your past students is over the summer. Get them to make their plans for skiing or riding with you next year! Even if you don't update your website that often, MSP will still be sending the free monthly report to your students on your behalf.

MySnowPro.com is the best customer service tool for instructors that you can get! And it's an incredible thank you to your students.

To your sliding success,
Jonathan Lawson