Yesterday, I was in Maroubra, Australia, sitting on Koby Abberton’s balcony and staring out at the most beautiful beach in Sydney. (I had a plane to catch, so I stayed out of the water, but I had the opportunity to surf Dunny Bowl with the Boys the day before.) It was about 85 degrees out when I headed to the airport. It was also much, much too soon.

Today, I am in Breckenridge, Colorado, where I am reporting a story on snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler. I landed in Denver last night and was met by a snow storm that ended about two hours ago. It was 9 degrees out when I came back from dinner this evening.

Gotta love the miracle of travel.

Tomorrow, work begins. (If you consider a 7am wakeup call to ride Vail with Gretchen and the Oakley crew work.) But today I took such a fun break.

The strangest thing about my job is that although I get to meet and spend time with some of the most interesting, ambitious, inspiring people in the sports world, and often find true friends in the process, the majority of folks I write about are essentially spending time with me because someone told them they have to. Today, because of some fortunate coincidences, I got to spend the day snowboarding with four of my friends who happened to be in Denver on my day off.

It was nice to spend my Saturday with people who weren’t hanging out with me because their PR agent told them it was a good idea. Because of the storm, it took us three hours to drive what should have been an hour-and-a-half distance, and because my friends Kim, Timm, Bernie and Tom, had to be back in Denver this evening, we only got about three hours to ride together. But damn, they were three fun hours.

YESTERDAY (surfing in Maroubra) …

TODAY (riding at Breck) …