The Powder of Dreams

It’s almost the time of year when Judy Dadurka’s winter fantasies become reality.

“I dream about skiing all year long and last night I actually had a snow dream,” said Dadurka, a massage therapist and ski instructor who splits time between Huntington Beach and Big Bear. “It was a real good one too. A lot of snow was coming down, and David Bowie was performing up in Big Bear at a little club.

“I don’t know why he came into it.”

The subconscious works in mysterious ways, but there’s nothing puzzling about Dadurka’s level of excitement. Talk to any Southland skier or snowboarder and you will hear a similar refrain: Winter can’t get here quick enough.

“We’re just praying for snow,” Dadurka said on a balmy day last week. “I was a little bummed this morning when I saw the clear sky.”

Mammoth Mountain in the southern Sierras and Heavenly Valley in Lake Tahoe opened with limited natural and man-made snow last Thursday. Resorts in the San Bernardino Mountains are hoping to open by Thanksgiving weekend.

The time is right to start preparing for the first downhill runs of the 1999-2000 season. So we checked in with a handful of local enthusiasts to get their thoughts on how to best get ready.

First and foremost, they said, you have to get your equipment together. Skiing and snowboarding are nothing if not gear-intensive.

“It’s always an Easter-egg hunt to find all my winter stuff,” said Ken Fujimura, a ski company sales representative who lives in Trabuco Canyon. “There’s a pretty long checklist of stuff you need and it’s a bit of a hassle to pull it all together.”

There’s polypropylene long underwear, socks, gloves, sunglasses, goggles, sunscreen, ski pants, hat, sweater, parka . . . are we forgetting anything?

Uh, how about skis, snowboards, boots, poles . . .

If you own skis or a snowboard, it’s important to get an equipment tuneup before your first trip. You can do it yourself if you have that expertise, or you can pay to get it done at a ski shop or sporting goods store. “You’re going to have a lot more fun if you have a well-tuned ski,” said Scott Gaerte, a salesman at REI in Santa Ana.

Consumers planning to buy equipment, Gaerte said, should be aware that many retailers are planning sales in the first part of December.

One wise purchase would be a helmet, a piece of equipment that has come increasingly into use since the deaths of Michael Kennedy and Sonny Bono in ski accidents two years ago. Helmets cost $75 and up, a small price to pay considering there were 39 skier/snowboarder fatalities nationally in 1998-99. Already this year, a skier died of a head injury at Keystone in Colorado. “Most people,” Gaerte said, “wouldn’t ride their bikes without a helmet nowadays, and on skis figure you are traveling across the hard snow at 35 miles an hour.”

After you are geared up, it’s time to face your physical limitations. Ideally, you have been working out regularly.

Cardiovascular fitness is important when you’re sucking thin air at 10,000 feet. Many skiers ride bicycles to keep in shape. Mountain biking, requiring short bursts of energy and the balance to avoid obstacles without crashing, is an especially beneficial activity. Inline skating is also helpful for fitness and balance and uses many of the same leg muscles as skiing.

In the gym, lunges and squats build up those lower-body muscles. “Any kind of explosive exercise is good,” said Gaerte, 24. “Something as simple as jumping up and down the stairs outside your house for a half hour would give you the fitness level you need for a day of skiing.”

Jay Sweeney, a 37-year-old snowboarder who is president of the Huntington Beach Ski Club, said most ski clubs organize athletic activities for members during the off-season. For a time, Sweeney was in a group that met regularly to ride bikes or skate.

“But that faded out,” Sweeney said. “We kind of traded our roller-blades in for beer mugs.

“Every year I get out there and start hiking up the back of these mountains and I wish that I did more working out.”

Joining a ski club is a good idea, and not just for finding workout partners. “I joined to meet others who have common interests,” Sweeney said, “and to get as many snowboarding days in as possible for as cheap as possible.”

The Huntington Beach club, for example, takes a trip to Mammoth once a month, charging about $135 for transportation and lodging “in a really nice condo,” Dadurka said. “It’s also good to belong to a club because you get informed of other deals.”

Or local skiing events, such as one tried-and-true way to get into the skiing mind-set: seeing a Warren Miller movie. Miller’s film “Fifty” is playing Dec. 2 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa and Dec. 5 at Laguna Beach High.

“It’s all deep powder,” said George Kish, president of the Fullerton-based Snowbounders Ski Club, “and crazy people jumping off of things they shouldn’t be.”

In other words, just the thing to get you revved up for the season.

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Ski Clubbing

Nearly 3,000 people are members of clubs that belong to the Orange Council of Ski Clubs, according to OCSC President Bea Van Sickle. The clubs hold meetings at least once a month during ski season and sponsor trips more often than that.

* Balboa Ski & Sports Club

(949) 721-9315

https://www.balboaskiandsports.com

* Fountain Valley Ski Club

(714) 962-0240

https://www.ocnow.com/community/groups/fvsc

* Huntington Beach Ski Club

(714) 841-8622

* Orange County Ski & Snowboard Club

(714) 957-8686

https://www.ocskiclub.com

* Snowbounders Ski Club

(714) 956-0800

* Snowfliers Ski Club

(562) 592-2716