Do you feel like you are getting old?

please tell me those kids got caught and charged for what they did...

I'm trying to digest all this.  I'm 45 and started skiing whenI turned 25.  I think maybe because I started so late I never took it for granted.  My son rips at age 8 (got him on boards when he was only 4) and I wonder sometimes, will he be all burned out by the time he reaches the ripe old age of 25?  Hard to imagine.  The thing that keeps it all freh to me is that there isn't just one thing that I love about skiing.  There are like 500 things.  And one day what makes me smile and feel orgamsmic inside will be something totally different from the next day.  Take a moment to appreciate just the way your feet feel when you carve a perfect turn.  BTW, have you ever carved a PERFECT turn?  I bet you haven't.  If you think you have, then maybe I understand why you feel like the thrill is gone.  But for me, the perfect carved turn is like a unicorn - I get glimpses of it but I can never truly possess it. But that's really o.k.  It's the journey that makes you grow, not the destination.  But then on another day it will just be the way the trees look, all frosted with snow and feeling the sun on my face and knowing how lucky I am to be alive and free at that moment, when I could be rotting in some cell in Guatamala or living in Gaza or sitting in a Humvee in Bhagdad.  The other thing is to never stop challenging yourself to learn something new.  I turn 46 in April.  This season I decided to devote myself to learning how to telemark.  You think it hurts to fall at 24, try it when you are 45 and have fused vertebra in your neck and a knee cap that was shattered into 3 pieces just 2 seasons ago from glade skiing in the wrong place after a little too much 420 (cough, cough...)  But the pain let's me know I am alive and I will never surrender to it.  Mastering it, like chasing after the perfect carved turn or just being able to stick a 180 daffy (which is the best trick I'll ever do), and being o.k. with being humbled by a spectacular fall at least once every time you ski, and laughing about it and getting back up (more slowly perhaps than before, but where is the rush?), that's the shit that keeps you young and keeps me coming back.  Sorry about the crap grammer and lack of paragraphs, but I am out of here - time to hit some night skiing, east coast packed-powder style :)

that was awesome man, especially this part '(more slowly perhaps than before, but where is the rush?),'.

I guess its like what warren miller used to say 'if you don't do [insert ski trick here] this year, you'll be one year older when you do...'.

and sorry, but for the kids who say that you are in your prime when your 24, I swear I said the same thing until I was there. I think for some sports it is definitely true, like football or hockey or something, but in park skiing, your prime is much more like 16-19.

WORD!

I'm 25 and I've had injuries that limit my ability to spin the 900 like Tony Hawk, but I'm having a blast learning new tech variations and just trying to reimagine each park feature and trick. Park skiing is a pretty young movement within our sport, if you look to snowboarding there are tons of dudes around 30 who are finding creative ways to play with a park.

Also eat lots of bananas. POTASSIUM!

ha you guys are crazy, if your in your 20's  your not old, look at skateboarding, half the pro's are over 30 and killing it, look at tod richards, he's like 40 and he still kills it.

there are some people who's body's just cant take hits as hard as others.  but if your one of those people, who care's? you dont need to be all technical, do comps and ski like its the superbowl, just chill and fuck around.  im probably somebody who is blessed with a good body that can take hard hits, but i still dont give a shit about being better than others, impressing people, or progressing like crazy, if im not smiling then i quit what im doing. ill try new stuff all the time but i spend most my time just cruising around and fucking around on stuff. its really nice when you have no desire or anything to turn pro or get a ton of sponsors or whatever, cause you really can just ski how ever the hell you want.

im 20, and i can take more abuse than 5 years ago, probably cause im in better shape, stronger, and more ballsy.  so i havent really felt any effects of growing older yet.

there are some people i know who couldnt run half a mile or ski a day without complaining about their knees hurting or their back being sore or whatever when they were 13.  and theres people i know who are in their mid 30's that do other sports and have no problem taking huge crashes and getting back up like its nothing. 

it just depends on if your in shape, and it depends on the individual, alot more than age i think.