http://www.vimeo.com/21179644

It’s been a few weeks now, but there is no expiration date on embarrassment…

During the hiring process prior to joining SOAR, I did what any good job-hunter does. I Google-stalked the people who were interviewing me.

Along with twitter feeds, press releases and official website bios, I found a gem: Our intrepid leader, Chip, caught in full YouTube glory going over the bars in Fruita, Colo.

Let me say this…Aside from the single endo incident, Chip is insanely fast through Fruita’s technical terrain. He is also, as I found out over the President’s Day holiday, a very good skier.

SOAR staff headed up the hill to Deer Valley Resort as a belated reward following January’s Outdoor Retailer Winter Market. The snow was excellent, the crowds thinned as the day went on and the sun even managed to poke through a few times.

However, Chip and I had chosen the day to test out some GoPro Hero cameras. My pitiful level of midwinter fitness was sure to trip me up, and as the day went on and my legs turned to noodles, the inevitable embarrassing wipeout occurred.

So in an effort to cancel out the bad karma I earned chuckling at Chip’s misfortune, here for the internet’s viewing pleasure is a crash of my own.

Photo credit: Steve Griffin, Salt Lake Tribune

The SOAR Blog didn’t give Real Salt Lake due attention and praise when the team won the Major League Soccer championship in the spring, but that doesn’t mean SOAR isn’t incredibly proud of its home team for bringing the State of Utah a professional sports championship title for the first time in 40 years.

It seems fitting that the influence of professional soccer in Utah, and in the United States, was recognized today by President Barak Obama in a brief ceremony honoring Real Salt Lake team at the White House. Joe Biden wasn’t there- he is heading up the contingency representing the U.S. at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa which is now less than a week away. One of Real Salt Lake’s players, Robbie Findley, will play with the U.S. team, which is a contender against Algeria, England and Slovenia.

Professional soccer is too often overlooked by North American spectators. World Cup engenders even more global enthusiasm than the Olympics in some regard- except in the United States. There are books, classes, experts, lectures galore on the global significance of “footy,” so I won’t belabor the topic here. We’re glad that with all of the other matters our presidency has to attend to that it would recognize the athletic power coming out of Salt Lake City and the importance of the World Cup.

Any chance Obama will vie for World Cup 2018 to be in the U.S. like he did for the Olympics? (2014 is already scheduled to be in Brazil).

See the Salt Lake Tribune article here