I've heard this saying over and over again: "If you ride with someone of your skill level, you won't see much improvement, but if you you roll with someone better than you, your skills will improve" and I can promise you that you will improve, for example, I haven't been very big in the park, just an average jump hitter and This winter I did a session on a local hill called Garrison 15 minutes from my hometown, Rochester, NH, all day I was just throwing kickers, throwing grabs and other miscellaneous things and the Next thing I know, a newspaper article from Foster's Daily Democrat came in, asked me a few questions and took a few pictures, and then he was on his way. Next thing I knew, the next day I was on my way. woke up to someone tweeting a photo of me from one of the biggest newspapers in my area It was so sick, if I had been riding with people I didn't also admire, I wouldn't. I probably wouldn't have been there doing it as hard as I was trying to impress people with my progress. Overall, my snowboarding days were some of the best of my life, where I can truly say I was happy and satisfied simply because of something I wanted to choose.