John Winsor

Easy Riding

 
 

Just before the holidays Buddy Ketchner and the good folks at Sterling-Rice gave us this sweet Captain America helmet. What a great gift. Thanks, guys. It's great to be in the same town with such kindred spirits.

Attack!

My son, Charile, 9, found a Tailless Whipped Scorpion (the local name for them is Concla) in our surfboard bodega. Not to fear. It was dead. But, being 9 and interested in all things creepy and crawly meant that Charlie wanted to play around with it. It's still scary.

The Right Place

John Winsor in the East Vail Chutes from Michael Alkaitis on Vimeo.

The day after our New Year's epic, we found the right line and had a low stress day.

In Deep

Last night I had a chance to go to the In Deep World Premier at the Boulder Theater. It had been awhile since I'd been to a ski movie at a theater. And, this was the first time that Charlie and Harry have been old enough to come. The boys at MSP did a great job capturing big mountain skiing at it's finest. And, the tribute to Shane McConkey was wonderful.

In Deep reminded me, it's all about soul. I'm stoked.

LEGO is the Coolest Toy Ever

If you ever had any doubts at all that LEGO was the coolest toy ever this video will rock your mind. Talk about some late night grinding. It took 1500 hours to make the LEGO creations for this video.

(Thanks to the tip from Ben Malbon at BBH-Labs)

Dangerous Play

Gever Tulley's talk on 5 dangerous things for kids is one of my favorites from TED. So much of our world has been sanatized for kids. There's been so much focus on safety that kids are rarely allowed to be kids anymore. As a father of two 7 year old boys, I am constantly trying to allow the them to explore their world within boundaries. Among other things, they've learned how to rock climb and surf. These sports have taught them so much, from overcoming fear to understanding safe limits and making good judgments. Now, I just wish Gever's Tinkering School was closer to Boulder. I'd enroll them.

The Nose Knows

A couple of weeks ago, when I was surfing with Lars, a nice swell came in. Being a bit amped, I decided to surf my 10 ft. Takayama Double Ender without a leash. That morning a big black streak filled the sky as a set rolled in. I was stoked, to take off on another big wave. Paddling in was perfect, the ride was amazing, getting closer to the nose than I usually do. And, the kick out, well that's were it all began. After such a great ride I got a little cocky, kicking the board up to catch it while flipping it over the wave. The only problem was my left hand missed the rail causing my board to tomahawk right into my nose. Man, it rung my bell and moved my nose to the right a few centimeters. When I got to shore the gang was waiting with towels in hand to help stop the bleeding. It was ugly. I even had to move my nose back in place. At the time I thought I did a good job. But, as you can see, it was pretty bad.

The real trouble came when I went to the doctor back in Boulder. I should have known. The Doc gave me a choice, either have it rebroken in the office then, right before I had to give speeches in Denver and New York on the two next days or wait a week and have it fixed in the operating room. As you might imagine, I went for the former. David Morrissey, the doctor and a good friend, shot me up with a little novacaine and rebroke the nose. To keep it in place, he created a splint. Knowing I was heading on the road, Fellow CPBer, Dave Clemens, created a little design for me.

Well, put a cast on your nose and you'll learn a lot about a culture. In Denver, people asked me about the break. It was all of the usual questions; how did i do it? Where? When? New York was a whole different experience. No one asked me about it. I did, however, have four people ask me if my nose cast was some kind of new jewelry.

The more we think places are the same the more they're different.

CP+B's Thanks-o-matic

Alex and the crew created this site to thank everyone at CP+B for a great year. Managers were asked to write a few notes thanking each of their team members. Those were then posted. The video then locks so that you can order your present. It's pretty cool technology. If you want to check it out, use my password, 699ERTY.

Mitt Romney is Uncool

When does something become uncool? It usually coincides when a politician adopts a word or, in this case, a gesture. I've been doing the "fist" greeting for a few months now. I'm not sure why I started. It's just one of those viral things. Well, after seeing Romney adopt it, I'm gonna stop. It just looks so uncool.

Photo of the Day

Sometimes the most difficult thing in marketing is picking a good name. It seems like Goin' Postal might want to reconsider theirs.