Intro to Summer

Wow where has this past month gone?! Lots has happened since my last post. Went snowboarding up at Eaglecrest a few times, all of which were great. Work at Allen Marine has been amazing as always. I'm stoked on my crew this season. I also got to go HELI boarding again! :) Our friend Bill informed us about the Sheep Mountain trip, and of course we couldn't pass it up! It was so much fun!

Here is a short vid I made from the trip footage.
Sheep Mountain Heli Trip 2014 from Jessica Davis on Vimeo.


Here are a few photos from the trip.

Sunday Shreddin'

Our instructor training got cancelled yesterday, so we decided to go shredding anyways! Dustin, Niles, Susan, and Lisa joined me for a stroll up Eaglecrest to get some good turns in. This was the second time using my Burton Spliff splitboard, and man oh man is that thing fun! I was worried about the float, since it's short for a split, but I guess Burton's 'nug reduction' technology works pretty well afterall. Although the fresh layer wasn't that deep, only a few inches, I could tell it will float just fine through the waist deep shred days ahead of me this season. It's getting easier going uphill in split mode. I've conquered some pretty steep pitches without my Sparks skins failing me. Only one tumble so far, but that was my bad technique at fault. I can't wait for the shred adventures this winter! I really wish Dustin had one too. If Santa is anywhere reading this post, then you know what I want most for Christmas... a split for my man! :) Oh, and lots of snow if you can make that happen too :)

I GoPro'd the ride down, but I was just holding it in my hand so pretty much all the footage is worthless for a video. My goal today is to hopefully get a few decent still shots out of it. I lost my one and only attachment clip for my GoPro, so I can't attach it to my telescoping pole I use most often.

I got a few photos to share though!

Street Skinnin'

So yesterday we had these big plans of meeting some friends at Eaglecrest, hiking, and getting some awesome face shots from all the fresh, fluffy snow that was dumping on us. We were in the car, ready to roll, pulled out of the driveway (that we had to shovel 30 min just go get the car to move) and what happened? We went nowhere. We sat and spun, slid, and slung snow everywhere just trying to get more than 15 ft away from the house. Usually I have no problem in the snow with my car, but my tires aren't the greatest this season, and they hadn't plowed the road yet and the snow was above the bumper, so essentially I was plowing the road. Once we managed to 'slide' the car back in the driveway and realized we were going nowhere fast, it was time for beers. Oh wait, we didn't have any beers! :(

This is where the next plan of action was born. Why don't I just split to the beer store? Yeah, why not?! So I did. It was interesting. I had people waving and yelling with excitement as they passed. I guess they were stoked SOMEbody was enjoying the snow lol. I also managed to capture on my GoPro an Evergreen taxi van going way too fast on the snowy road, then pulling a 180 and slamming into a concrete retaining wall. By the time they hit the wall, they weren't going very fast at all and it was really only a light 'tap'. Just enough to know nobody was hurt and it was ok to laugh. They were obviously going WAY too fast for the turn they were making.

When I finally got to the Breeze In, about 2 miles one-way, this guy from the Juneau Empire just so happened to be hanging out taking snowy photos and asked what I was doing and if he could take my photo. Sure, why not?! So he did. He said it would be in the newspaper tomorrow (today) but I haven't gotten one yet to check. It was on the Juneau Empire website though. My 15 minutes of fame...

And for the record, I was skinning, not skiing. And I bought beers. Plural. Not a beer. Think I would go all that way for a SINGLE beer? Does a bear shit in the woods?

Dustin took this one of me as I was leaving the house...

Overall it was a fun adventure. I love my split, even though I've only used it in split form. I'm sure it rides like a dream though when in snowboard form! It took me a few minutes to get the hang of skinning. It's a weird feeling, like I have to drag my toes almost. And man, was it a workout! By the time I got back to the house (with a heavy backpack full of beer) my legs and feet were on fire. Definitely one hell of a workout! And I like it! :) 

I can't wait to go on a REAL splitboard adventure!

My Usual Long Overdue Blog Post :)

The past month has been AHHHMAZING! I love my job. I love being out on the water every day and seeing such beautiful creatures in their natural state. SeaWorld can suck a big one! I've gotten a few decent photos that I want to share with you guys. Before I start with the photos, I want to share this amazing experience that we are lucky enough to hear on occasion. On our boat we have a hydrophone we can drop in the water to hear the whales and orcas. The resident orca pods are usually pretty talkative and we've been able to hear them a few times. Humpbacks are a little more tricky, since they really only make vocalizations in Alaskan waters when they are bubble net feeding. And that was just what they were doing yesterday! We were on our way back from Excursion Inlet when we stopped at a group of bubble net feeding humpback whales that were a little south of Shelter Island. We dropped the hydrophone and this is what we heard!!

The sound you just heard is the call the whales make as they bubble net feed. In a nutshell, bubble net feeding is when a group of whales swim in a circle creating a 'net' of bubbles around a school of fish, then a whale (or whales) dive underneath and make that sound to sorta stun the fish, which drives them to the surface. Once they are at the surface, still trapped in that net of bubbles, the whales swim up and lunge out of the water eating all those little fish. Pretty cool huh?! And to top off all that, as we were leaving we saw four, yes FOUR different humpbacks whales breach one right after the other! Seeing a single whale breach is kinda rare around here, but FOUR?! I was speechless. Well, I take that back... I was yelling OMG, HOLY SHIT the whole time! Haha. It was the most amazing experience I've had all summer with these whales.

Now to the photos... 

Orcas in Stephens Passage

Humpback calf breaching

Silly sea lions!

Something spooked them and they jumped in the water

Humpback calf tail lobbing. Photo cred goes to Katie Harms!

This whale is nicknamed 'Spot'. Can you guess why? haha

Sea lions on a bouy. One guy is a climber.

Bubblenetters!

Humpbacks

Humpbacks

Humpback fluke

Now some non-wildlife photos. A few days ago my friend Alex and I hiked up Eaglecrest and out Pittman's Ridge a little ways. It's so crazy seeing the slopes with no snow. Most of the blacks that we ride on a daily basis are huge, jagged rock cliffs in the summer. A few trails I looked up at and thought, "how in the hell did I ride this on my snowboard?!" haha. 

Mt. Ben Stewart looking mighty fine :)

Looking off the east side.

Looking west towards Stephens Passage and Admiralty Island

Mountaintop ponds :)

Pittman's Ridge

Had to take a selfie :) haha

Looking towards Juneau.

A few snow patches were still hanging around.

One last thing, the thing that has me so stoked for this winter and has gotten my snowboarding withdrawals at an all time high is this thing...

 

Yes, Dustin got me a SPLITBOARD! Woohoo! I'm so excited! It's the Burton Spliff 148. I know that sounds short for a split, but it has 'Nug Reduction' tech which is supposed to make it ride like a 158. Now I can explore all kinds of new backcountry spots this winter. I still need to get the hardware, bindings, and skins, but I have plenty of time until the first snowflake falls. I have the best boyfriend in the world! He's so thoughtful :)