It All Started with a Movie
March 10, 2019 Uncategorized 6 comments meaton19
Ever since I was a baby I have been riding on a snowmobile, whether it was with my parents or by myself when I was old enough. We have a camp up in Freeman Township where we go and ride right from the front door to the trails. When I first started riding it was just on the trails and I was always trying to make my riding faster and better, but I was mostly just having fun. Then one day at camp my cousin Nick brought up this snowmobile movie called Crash Man Down, and this absolutely lit the fire in me for back country riding. At this time I was riding a short track Arctic Cat Z570 and I called her the Z. My cousin Brent, my best friend Garret, and I all went out to find some off trail riding. Brent was riding the old Sabercat that was running on one cylinder and Garret was riding a beat up 94 340 Jag. Ripping down the trail at about 60 all jacked up on mountain dew and extremely pumped on what we were going to be able to find.
After riding about 20 miles we ended up at the spot where we planned to ride. We were on the backside of Sugarloaf in Carrabasset Valley. We had ridden through here before and have seen all of the fresh cutting’s out there. With all three of us riding short track sleds we didn’t know what was about to happen. We all got stuck about 30 feet from the trail and this was what the day consisted of. But I fell in love with back country riding and it fueled a fire that will never go out. After that I got right on YouTube and was watching every single back country snowmobiling video out there. I was taking notes on what other riders were doing and then once I got on my sled, I was trying what they were doing. I was also using my knowledge from riding dirtbikes which I got my first one when I was six. By using this knowledge I applied it to riding the sled and also the new techniques I learned from watching videos. I never could get it right, but one day I was watching videos when I came across one about Chris Burandt. He was teaching different back country riding skills and that was when I was able to put the concept in action. I was always behind my cousin Brent and Garrets skill level they were older than me and stronger then me so they could muscle the sled on to its side while I still couldn’t. That is where watching the technique that other riders were using came into play. They were initiating a sidehill by first countersteering in the opposite direction, then hitting the throttle and pulling at the same time, It was all in one movement. This took some getting used to and trying to figure out how to do it in one movement was definitely hard. Once when I got the hang of it the sidehill was extremely easy. While Brent and Garret were still muscling their sleds over I was doing it effortlessly. By this time I had sold that sled to my friend Reid and bought an F5. This sled had more power and not to mention it had a loud can. With this sled, I was able to progress even more. My first time riding and actual mountain sled was when I was 13, it was an M6 and I absolutely fell in love with it.
Time went by and when I was 15 I sold my F5 and saved up money from working all summer and bought a 2006 Arctic Cat M7. The sled has a 2 1/4 inch Powerclaw paddle track that is 153 inches long. The sled rips and does things that might seem unimaginable to some people. The only problems with having an older mountain sled is that they are still pretty wide and the running boards make the rear washout trying to go uphill during a sidehill and this usually causes me to get stuck. Other than that, the sled is an all around back country weapon if you know the sled and how to ride it. When I first got the sled it took a little while for me to get used to the geometry of the sled and how it handled. Once when I got his down I was able to master the sled. Still watching videos everyday, I was gaining even more knowledge and applying it to my riding. To this day I am still using videos to progress my riding techniques, and it all started when I first watched Crash Man Down, and it lit a fire that will never burn out.
Photo by gosko on Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND
6 Comments
I love the storyline and how you wrote it, It was very easy to go along with and how you upgrade through the stages. I also love how you mention the z570 that is amazing and that really pulled me in. This was a very interesting story and I feel like many others and me it’s very entertaining to read.
Matt great job on this one! I really like how you kept the reader interested all throughout the story. Im glad your passion for snowmobiling hasn’t changed a bit. It’s crazy how a fire can get lit inside of you in different situations. But in your situation I believe you were almost destined to ride snowmobiles. Keep grinding with your passion man. Oh and great job on the essay.
I love your story, it is very interesting. i thought it was funny that your ¨fire was lit¨ from watching a movie, but it was cool. I like how detailed your story was. starting from when you were young to now.you wrote this very well, and im glad to hear about how much you love riding!
I completely relate to that same feeling of the adrenaline that comes behind the thrill of back country riding! I loved the story of your transition throughout sleds and riding limits. It’s neat to see the come up. I respect your use of descriptive words. You presented “that fire” as exactly how I see it should be. In the end it worked out nice coming back to the idea of the movie at the end, I guess I’ll have to watch it. Overall great work I enjoyed the story!
This was a great story, showing how you gain more knowledge about snowmobiles and how videos from one person on Youtube helped you understand more. I like how you showed how you gained more knowledge through videos you watched and you still tried to do everything like the videos. Perfect understanding of the story through the skill gaining process.
I relate to this greatly on trying to improve skills and using many different strategies to improve these skills. I like how you talk about gaining more confidence in riding as you became more knowledgeable and skilled on riding snowmobiles. You go into great depth on your understanding of riding and how important it is to you. I would love to hear more about your riding story and how it turned you into the person you are today. Overall this was a great story and keeps the reader excited and interested the entire time! Great Job!