The Current

In this week's edition:

• The Crosswind Tour is here!
• The Upline Cut: Season Wrap Up and Shout Out's
• Oh Yes She Did! Weekly Highlight Clip
• Announcements

The Crosswind Tour is HERE!!!!!!!!

After much anticipation, we are excited to present our first events of The Crosswind Tour! We'll be releasing more events over the next few weeks - so stay tuned! Join your city's Facebook Group to find out first about events near you!

January 4: Vancouver StorySlam

January 5: Vancouver Womyn's Mixer and Community Party

January 6: Seattle Play Safe, Party Safe

January 7: Seattle's Got Talent: TEDx Edition

January 15: Los Angeles Mini Conference on Pro Sports & the AUDL

Limited tickets available so be sure to buy yours today!

The Upline Cut: Signing Off Season 1
Letters from the hosts: Luke Johnson & Laurel Oldershaw

With the end of the first season upon us, I'd be remiss if I didn't talk out how blessed I feel to have been a part of this project. This spring when Laurel and I decided to make a podcast I had no idea that it would lead to meeting so many incredible people. I've learned a lot of lessons this year, been proven wrong a bunch, and will be proven wrong some more next year. But, I can't wait to learn and grow as a person and try to help the community grow as well as help to make the push for equity! Next year we'll have more guests, more life lessons, and more fun!

Before I go into hibernation for the winter, I'd like to give out a bunch of shoutouts to people who I want to thank for inspiring me: Rena Kawabata & Chip Chang, thanks for being killer members of the Upwind board and for being people who I could just walk up to and talk to without ever meeting before! Bex Forth, thanks for being the best first guest a podcast could ask for and for leading the way with the wonderful Euro Stars tour. Jenna Weiner, thank you so much for your bravery and just for being an all around champion. Hannah Leathers and Elliott Erickson, thanks for being the GOAT fighting-for-equity power-couple. Georgia Bosscher, Miranda Roth Knowles, Manisha Daryani, Jordan Taylor, Jackie Wang, Carolyn Normile, Anna Thompson, and Jeff Babbitt, thank you for being amazing guests that I could learn from and I hope we can get you on the pod again! Lili Gu & Brittany Kaplan, thanks for coming on the show and for making a film, The Sky Is Red, that is much needed by not just this community but by much of the world. Mish Phillips, thank you for being a conqueror of the ultimate world, for being so eloquent and intelligent with everything you have to say, for being a great guest, and for being a great friend. I wanna shoutout the other Luke Johnson, the real Luke Johnson, for helping to push for equity and doing tremendous work with Fulcrum. I wanna shout out the crew that Upwind brought to Nationals, Tori Spofford, Julia Johnson, Topher Davis, Vic McCann, Kaitlin Brunik, and Chris Strub! You all did awesome work and helped make Sarasota incredible. I also wanna thank my mom for being the best mom with her sense of humor and incredible courage. I also wanna thank my cat, Dwight, for being a good boy.

Last but not least, I want to thank my co-host and the founder of Upwind Ultimate, Laurel Oldershaw. I love you bundles and have had so much fun this past year. Thank you so much for doing so much work to help women in the sport and to drive conversations that have to be had. I also want to thank you for not only dealing with my bs but for calling me on it when I say or do something dumb. ILY, Laurel. You're gonna take the world by storm.

Thank you all for a great 2017, I can't wait for 2018.

Xoxo,

Luke Johnson

Wow, it’s crazy to think we’ve reached the end of a season of our first podcast! If you told me a year ago this is what I would be doing with my life, I wouldn’t believe you. And yet, here we are, 10 episodes, 2 live episodes, and 1 season of The Upline Cut completed. As we go into the holiday season and I move into coordinating The Crosswind Tour, The Upline Cut will be taking its own break and coming back in a different form in January. It’ll be same, same, but different, and if there’s anything I have learned from this experience, it’s that change is challenging, necessary, and rewarding all at the same time.

As Luke mentioned above, shoutout to all of our guests we’ve had on the show. Thank you for your courage, your lessons, and your trust in this platform. Thank you for answering our questions, asking us your own, and inspiring new ones. Thank you for challenging the current systems we exist in simply by speaking out, sharing your stories, and helping us fill the radio air-waves with your passion for this sport and community.

A special shout out goes to our entire crew at Nationals. Thank you for being guinea pigs in this journey and for all of your honest feedback to make Upwind and Nationals even better next year. I feel so grateful to learn from you as coworkers and friends. 

And thank you Luke, who paid for hosting the season on Soundcloud without telling me, who edited our audio without complaining, and for always being willing to assess your cis, straight, white male privilege and how you can use that privilege for good. It’s an honor to learn with you and Upwind is lucky to have you as an advocate. I love you man!

Keep up the great work everyone! 2018, we got this.

Much love,

Laurel Oldershaw

OH YES SHE DID!
Highlight of the Week

Get lost in the incredible clips Fulcrum has been putting up from USAU Nationals! Unreal throws, insane lay outs, and incredible skies! (Fulcrum Pro Media)

Announcements

• If you won a jersey in the Jersey Auction Fundraiser for The Sky Is Red, and have not received your jersey yet, please follow up here. 
• For those who ordered something from our online store, our Sales Department got slammed with orders and so we are behind in our distribution. Thank you for your patience. We are overhauling our systems to serve you better on The Crosswind Tour!

Questions? Comments? Email us at upwindultimate@gmail.com. 
Want to be the first to receive The Current? Sign up here.