Jorg's Brain Log

Excellent weekend! Just how I like them. Filled with interesting, fun and productive hours. Meeting people, enjoying conversations, writing some stuff, do some sports. Nice!

Friday was my mothers birthday and she took the family to a Mongolian restaurant. It was an all inclusive price, so unlimited meat, fish and drinks. I’m still full. It was fun to see my son Rody prepare his own meat on the grill and eat like there was no tomorrow. The 2,5 hour eating window was too much for my daughter Indy, so after around 45 minutes at the table she had enough and went exploring. The owner brought a big bag of toys, paper and pencils to play with and even emptied a restaurant table for her to sit at. Great restaurant, great service!

Saturday morning it was skateboarding time. My son, who is now completely hooked on snowboarding, is just not satisfied with 1 or 2 weekly visits to the slope. He wants to be on a board everyday of the week. While it is impossible for me to drive him to the snow everyday, it is possible to step on the next best thing: a skateboard. We have a great skate-park 100 meters from our house and an very big indoor skate-park called Area 51, a mere 5k away, where they also teach skateboarding in a very chilled manner. So he had his first lesson and is stoked and already wants to go again.

Saturday afternoon and evening was spend with my girlfriend and we had some tapas in a restaurant and watched the movie ‘Chloe’, which I give a 6,5. It was a nice evening out. These days I leave my celllphone at home at such occasions, and it gives a lot more rest. No checking emails or news, just enjoying the moment! Good times.

Sunday morning was snowboarding time. My son is busy with his final (gold) course, so I could do some snowboarding by myself with some friends. After Rody his course we stayed an hour longer and had some fun on the slopes. The completely redid the slope, jumps and boxes last week, so we enjoyed ourselves a lot.

As Helle, my girlfriend, was away this day and the kids with their mothers for till Monday I had a few hours of private time in the afternoon. Did some much needed reading, because I’ve read just a few books this year. Read ‘the monk and the riddle‘ in one sitting. Great book on setting priorities in life and going for it. Recommend it!

Helle returned at the beginning of the evening and it was time for food. I prepared my first mussel meal for this year and it was great food. I really enjoy a good meal that takes a long time to eat. In the evening we relaxed some more by some writing and reading. The end of a very good weekend!

Yesterday I took up the promise to take my son to the snowy mountains. We decided to go to Winterberg so that he could do some snowboarding on real snow for the first time.

We left pretty early in the morning at 5:45 and we arrived 278 kilometers later in Winterberg (Germany) at around 8:30. Pretty uneventful ride and only snow on the road in the last 5 kilometers or so.

It almost appeared that we still were in the Netherlands. There were more dutch cars then German on the road here. So after a quick McDonald’s breakfast we changed into our gear and headed to the first ski-lift.

My son was pertty excited to see ‘mountains’ with snow like this for the first time when we went up the hill. Arrived at the top it was clear the snow was not in its best condition anymore, after all the melting during day time and light freezing at night.

Still we managed to make the best of it and after 3 hours of  snowboarding my son really had enough of it. It was fun to be  together with this trip and to see him enjoy the few real snowy downhills and struggle with the icy downhills for the rest. I guess he learned a lot, and maybe next year it is time to introduce him to the famous alps!

Yikes! That hurt! Did a big jump today on my snowboard. Fault was that I didn’t check the ramp first and just hit it full speed, presuming it was still the same angle as the day before. I was wrong…

The photo shows what happens when 125 kilos lands on a left shoulder and a head.

Tricky thing was that I have never used a helmet before and this was actually the first time I used my new helmet. Thanks Casco for saving my head! (Can I now get a new helmet from you guys? )

Once again I’m a proud dad. Today my son got  hit silver snowboarding certification and after some struggling in the last lessons with his s-turns, he’s now able to do them with no problem anymore. Furthermore he’s able to jump and do some grinding over boxes.

I promised that when he could make these s-turns we would do a small snowboarding trip again. Hopefully there is still some snow in Winterberg in the coming weeks.

Snowboarding has really got me and my son addicted in the last months. The weekly sessions on the slope are fun and make it a good body workout as well. It’s fun to try new tricks and not being scared to fall on your face a couple of times.

All in all in feels good to be flowing in the snow. Gets me in a real zen-state when a trick works out. Maybe that’s the reason why so many freedivers are also into snowboarding?

Imagine this; getting out of bed at 5:30 in the morning. Packing your snowboard stuff and getting in the car at 6. Driving 300 kilometers and arriving on location at Winterberg, Germany at 9 in the morning. Buy a 1-day ticket and snowboard for 6 hours straight with only a 15 minute wurst-break. Get back in the card at 3pm and drive back to home and arrive at 5:30 pm. Take a shower and get at the diner table at 6pm.

Sanne, Marieke and I just did that! And  I must say it felt like we had a long weekend-vacation with this trip. Amazing to go from the clear flatland of the Netherlands to the small mountains of Winterberg and have a whole day of snowboarding.

Okay, it was not Solden in Austria, but it still beat the hell out of the indoor terrains here in the Netherlands. Great stuff! And for sure something we have to more often.

Today my son got his first snowboarding certificate! After 7 weeks of intense training in the snow he has now earned his first level in his snowboarding education. That means that there are now two people in the Jansen family who want to go on Wintersport vacation! Only 1 to go and we are in majority!

As a birthday present from me to him he can continue his snowboarding education in January with the follow-up course to the one he just finished. This way we can go a few days to Winterberg or something like that around in the near future.

As you can see in the picture Rody is just as crazy in the snow as I am.