This is Anya, my new board. I got it a couple of months ago and now she is a part of me. On Friday, instead of the usual local mountains, Chad and I went riding at beautiful Whistler-Blackcomb, our amazing world-class ski resort just 1.5 hours drive north of Vancouver. I've been skiing this mountain sporadically since 1998, but earlier this year I decided to commit the whole 2012 season to snowboarding to get a taste of it, and fell hopelessly in love with the sport! Having been strapped into a board, skis just no longer feel the same way to me. I've been guiltlessly cheating on them with Anya.

It was a sensory abundant, physically challenging and an intensely gratifying day. Nothing to think about but the sky above me, the snow below me and the wind all around me.

Today I'm back at the studio, making Echos. Anya beckons to me from her wall mount, but I force my eyes away and bend over my desk, thinking to myself: "Soon, my darling, soon".

Probably tomorrow.