Style and flow.

[raisingarizona]

Skiing, mountain biking, playing music… I have been in the flow state golfing & playing video games, too. Sometimes it’s better if you’re a little stoned, sometimes it’s not.

It’s just really cool to be completely in the moment, where your skills match the challenge presented and you just feel like you are nailing every [turn/berm/lick/shot/etc.]. Skiing trees & flowy mtb trails are particularly awesome for me.

I think it’s cool when you can combine the flow state with your job, but I haven’t done it. Some people have:
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I get into a pretty heavy zone building bike specific flow trail. I love it.

 

[Low Angle Life]

I think it’s cool when you can combine the flow state with your job, but I haven’t done it. Some people have:

Sometimes I start sweating and black out in the middle of a work presentation, does that count as flow state?

Jokes aside there is something to gravity fueled sports and flow state, submit to the natural forces of gravity and surrender yourself to the flow. Dodging trees at high speeds on MTB or snowboard, little room for error, no time for a wandering mind. Body in motion seems to be a key component for me, I can achieve flow state practicing yoga but still meditation is near impossible.

Sinking into a heel-side turn in powder and popping in and out of a well built berm on an MTB provide near identical physical sensations, I strive for that feeling. Sometimes after a long day of riding fresh powder I experience that same bobbing sensation while sleeping, its pretty cool.

 

[gorgonzola]

My spiel on why I love skiing and MTB is that at any given point the only thing that matters is the next 50 yards...
The quest for flow and steeze right now is all about the feel the turn, finding that rail and the rebound, the rythm or surfiness of it.
Much closer on a 3D surface vs. flat. Found it for a turn or two ditch surfing gunpow this weekend
It used to be more about the speed, not so much lately.

 

[Campgottagopee]

Flow, yes. Style, no

Word

 

[Ripitz]

Flow, yes. Style, no

I say there is a shit ton of style in scouring Craigslist for gear and running the old school boards at the Indys.

 

[Brownski]

I say there is a shit ton of style in scouring Craigslist for gear and running the old school boards at the Indys.

Thanks. I like to think my helmet sticker game is very strong also.

 

[Ripitz]

Great article. I wish I had style. I have had an out-of-body "flow" experience once. While skiing the Beaver Pond trail an Prospect Mountain, I was transported outta my body. An unconscious state. In only lasted a few seconds, until I had to choose a line for a cranking' downhill. Magical.

I had an out of body experience once while skiing. The guys I was with experienced something similar. One of them who was a devout atheist became an instant believer in a higher power. John Gill who was an OG boulderer talks about weaving in and out of the mountain during some of his climbs, not perceiving any difference between the stone, body and sky. Experiences like that are rare and are very different than simply being connected or finding a rhythm. Swimming, foraging and gardening are other activities where I’ve found some flow. Fishing too, dry fly-fishing specifically. Go with the flow.

 

[raisingarizona]

When I used to ski backcountry steep steeps with exposure and big airs I would often be very, very scared. Before a line while doing media work I’d send a message through a radio or yell really loud that I was dropping in ten. As long as I decided that I could do it and I was committed I’d turn a switch at that 10 second mark. For that ten seconds I’d stare up at the sky and focus on breathing and have no thoughts at all. I would become numb, get butterflies throughout my body and then it was like blacking out. Sometimes, I’d barely remember the line, especially when it went perfect. I think that was sort of like an out of body experience. I used to call it the silence.

I get the same sort of buzz while dad skiing today when I’m skiing fast doing hot laps on more public friendly terrain but there was something about going from 0 to 100 and forcing myself directly into that place. I found it mentally and physically taxing, much more than the actual skiing or climbing to get out there and up on a line.

Today I’m stoked on skiing smooth and fast. 10 milligrams, soft snow and roll on loads on a fast chair can throw me right back into that place. It’s why I can’t stop being a skier I guess. That buzz is unreal and addicting and there’s a whole lot worse things to be addicted to.

 

[Harvey]

 

[tirolski]

... Experiences like that are rare and are very different than simply being connected or finding a rhythm. Swimming, foraging and gardening are other activities where I’ve found some flow...

Ya can find flow picking buckets of blueberries on a nice day. Helps when the skeeters aren’t out.