Hello,

I had competed in snowboarding when I was in high school, but that was a couple years ago and really haven’t been serious since then, only going 2 or 3 times a year since.

Last spring (2012) I had a great inspiration from watching the X-Games. From Shawn White in the half pipe to the triple corkscrews in the big air, it was very inspirational. I decided I wanted to land a double back flip myself. I had done single back flips with no problem, but had never even thought about a double until that day.

I would visualize, sometimes intentionally sometimes unintentionally, doing the trick in my head. I would get butterflies sometimes thinking about it, I was very nervous of course. I play it over and over in my head exactly how I would do it. After a while the butterflies started to turn into excitement. Regardless, I was still nervous because I could really injure myself trying something like this, lets face it it’s dangerous!

So one day this year (2013) I show up to the regular hill where I ride, Raging Buffalo in Algonquin, IL. They had an outside company come in and set-up a giant airbag as one of the landings for one their biggest jumps. I couldn’t believe it, I could try to flip twice with no consequences. Sure enough I learned how to “pop” off the jump correctly and back flip twice. This took a couple tries, I did land on my face a couple times. But it was no biggie landing in the airbag!

I felt comfortable with it and decided to take it seriously now. I went to another place called Chestnut Mountain. They have huge jumps where I can throw the double flip with no problems. Raging Buffalo’s jumps were WAY too small. I went two weekends in a row and failed miserably. I am glad I invested in a helmet. Then last weekend I went to another place called Tyrol Basin, they are know for their freestyle terrain. I show up and find the biggest jump they have. It was about 40 degrees, sunny and gorgeous, the conditions were perfect. This jump was the biggest jump I have ever gone off of, even when I used to compete. I was scared the first couple of times going off, but then became very comfortable.

I had my girlfriend video record it from her phone when I started to go big and do single flips. Then I started to try the double again. With a couple of attempts, I landed my first double back flip on a snowboard! I was so excited I did it twice in a row! Here is the Youtube link to see for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEDJzH2HfVA

When I visualized in my head I developed confidence in my head which like I said changed from butterflies to excitement. But when I started to actually double flip on real jumps, I had no confidence and I was very nervous. The day I landed it, I felt very comfortable all around. I felt like I had such control over the trick, like when visualizing, that I did it twice to prove to myself it was real. The second flip is also on YouTube uploaded from the same person if you would like to see for yourself.

I learned visualization is very real and powerful. When you are doing the same thing in life as to what is in your head, it needs to be the exact same. I realized trying the flips earlier I was forcing myself to do something I did not feel comfortable with, and the universe said this is not the time to do this. When you are aligned correctly, it feels unstoppable. I felt as excited when I landed it the first time as I did visualizing it.

Visualize, then become a magnet and become aligned.