My job is usually really fun -- and it should be -- but meeting a lot of top snowboarders has been a great experience. These folks are as laid back and casual as surfers on a tropical beach.
Right now, the television in Crystal's main lodge is showing Olympic snowboarding highlights, and a bunch of competitors are grooving to the big moves and a montage of post-Olympic magazine covers.
There is just no star attitude here at all. Rosey Fletcher, a three-time Olympian who just won bronze in the parallel giant slalom at Torino, has been sitting around talking with her friends -- and Crystal skiers and boarders who happen to be hanging around.
Other snowboarders are eating pizza, tinkering with their boards or just talking to the little kids who want to feel a little stardust.
Truth is, these boarders act like regular people that you'd meet drinking coffee in downtown Olympia.
I like that a lot.
Fletcher told me snowboarding culture is strong, and it's all about having fun and enjoying the journey.
"This is my last race," she said. "I'm enjoying every moment. "A lot of people in the media don't understand that it's not all about winning in snowboarding. We're all friends, and that is what snowboarding is all about."
Well, I'm going to slip out of here and make a few turns on my snowboard. It's snowing....
