We are a Snowboarding Family

My name is Brian, I’m the husband of Chrystal (whose blog you’re reading)… you may know me from some of the posts I’ve done on here over the years. You may not know who I am, and that’s okay too.

If you’ve followed Happy Mothering for any time at all, you know we have 2 amazing little girls Zoë (9) and Kaylee (7)… if you didn’t know, now you do.

I love snowboarding as it’s pretty much about one of my favorite things to do. Not only is it one of my favorite things to do, it’s one of Zoë’s and Kaylee’s favorite things to do too.

Both Zoë and Kaylee have been riding since they were 3 years old (respectively). Though they did have to take 1 season off because I had to recover from a broken leg/ ankle injury thing, my bad. But they typically ride around 50-70 days a season.

Chrystal snowboards as well, primarily because we like to and so she can come out and watch the girls do some awesome things. If it wasn’t for us, I don’t think Chrystal would ride at all. But she’s a great sport and she actually rides pretty well.

Tip: Don’t teach your significant other how to snowboard… get them lessons from a certified snowboard instructor. One of my friends taught Chrystal how to ride. I’ve taught my friends’ girlfriends and spouses how to ride. Save a relationship and get them a lesson.

We are in a unique position. Not only do we live in the resort community of Big Bear Lake here in Southern California where we have 2 small but great mountains – Bear Mountain and Snow Summit (known as Big Bear Mountain Resort). Both girls are on Team Bear, Bear Mountain’s Freestyle Snowboard Team and I’m also lucky to be a Snowboard Coach on Team Bear Freestyle too. I’m literally “Coach Daddy.”

Zoë and Kaylee don’t just ride once every week or so, we ride 5 to 6 days a week in the season. We also homeschool, which works great for our family. Our girls are way ahead of their in-school counterparts and we have ample time to do tons of super fun stuff like Girl Scouts, Sewing Classes, Art Classes, Museums, traveling and, of course, snowboarding.

We’re at a point where Zoë and Kaylee are progressing, gaining confidence and really enjoying every aspect of riding. This season they’re both excited to start competing in USASA events (United States of America Snowboard and Freeski Association). Though because of warm temperatures and lack of snow, every USASA Event in our region has been cancelled so far. No worries though, that just gives us more time to practice before our 1st competition, which will hopefully be in the near future.

We just got our 1st snowfall of the season 3 days ago on January 9. The weatherman said we’d be getting 5” to 8” and maybe up to a foot. We got maybe 4” of super wet snow; which is better than no snow, so we’re super stoked!!! That said, with the temps unusually high in the 50s and 60s, most of it has already melted off. We do a “snow dance” daily hoping for cold weather and new snow.

Fun Fact: Here at Bear Mountain and Snow Summit we have the one of the world’s best, if not the world’s most advanced, snow making system. Couple that with our skilled, dedicated snow making, grooming and park crews, and 90% of the runs on our mountains are open. We don’t need natural snow to open and ride though we sure do appreciate natural snow and a good pow day.

I figure it will be cool to document all of Zoë’s and Kaylee’s progression here on Happy Mothering under my little tab. In the future, we’re going to be able to look back and be like “Wow… you girls have come so far.”

We hope you all enjoy following our family snowboarding adventures this season.

You can follow us on Instagram @crazydadspeaks and watch for the occasional video and photo on @happymothering.