Me and my girlfriend lead pretty hectic lives. Between my job as a professional snowboarder and hers as Justin Timberlake’s personal assistant it’s rare that we get to take trips together. But a couple summers ago it all came together for a trip to Europe. Not your average vacation. I figured I could take off two weeks from the ranch and tag along on this work trip she was going on with Justin. Not your average vacation.

First off she traded her first class ticket for two business class ones to get over there. Little did I  know that after that it would be private jets all the way… yeah dude.

Previous to this trip I hadn’t hung out with Justin too much so this was the first chance I had to actually chill and get to know him. So after a quick couple day in Paris we all boarded a private jet and made our way to London where the real action happened.

The highlight of the trip may have been getting invited to Elton John’s annual White Tie and Tierra Ball, a benefit for Aids that he puts on every year. I wish I could talk more about it but it’s kind of off limits. They made us sign this confidentiality agreement stating that we wouldn’t talk about his estate and what we saw.

But basically anybody who was anybody in the music business or Hollywood was there along with a bunch of socialites. So it was weird seeing all of these famous people. I mean you recognize them so at first you kind of think you know them because you have seen pictures of them for so long. Your like, wait I know you. Then you realize it’s Keith Richards. It was insane! We are on an estate by the Queen in Windsor. I don’t even understand. Seeing Elton live was pretty sick… especially side stage. If I had never met the guy I would probably be like, whatever, but after hanging out with him and seeing how generous and well meaning he is, the guy is fucking solid.

Then a few nights later we ended up with Guy Ritchie, the guy who made Snatch and all those movies, he was married to Madonna… that guy. I wasn’t too familiar with him or his work but boy did that change. He had a pub not far from our hotel and invited us over. I ended up getting along really well with Guy and we talked about real shit like ranching. I stayed at this pub until three in the  morning getting pretty loose off cider, singing along with this Irish folk band he had playing  there. At one point I think I was playing the spoons, Justin was playing something and Guy was singing. That was pretty cool, more my style because the rest of the trip was so foreign to me,  going places with Justin and all.

Simply put, I have never seen fame like this. I mean I see it in snowboarding a little bit with Travis and some guys but it really is NOTHING compared to Timberlake. International fame is a whole different beast. That guy gets recognized EVERYWERE! He could have a facemask on with sunglasses and people would recognize his nose. It’s like a virus when you see it hit too. You can see it spread through the crowd. Then everybody is trying to get up on his shit. At the same time I have never seen him loose it; he is pretty respectful to his fans and will always take the time for a picture or autograph. At one point we had a bunch of paparazzi trailing us on vespas all over the place. Talk about rude motherfuckers. It’s crazy how he has to deal with this.

Finally we ended up at Wimbleton watching guys like Roger Federor and Andy Roddick. I have never done tennis before but those guys get it. They’re serving like 140 miles an hour. Pretty mind blowing. Compared to everything else it was  probably the least eventful. But on the way there I saw some guy get slammed by a car on his bike, which was crazy, until he got up and was trying to fight this mom and her family. I tried to tell our driver to stop so I could jump out and beat his ass but they weren’t having it.

I really can’t even put into words what a once in a lifetime kind of experience this was. Not a lot of people get to do that kind of stuff and whether something like this come up again, who knows, but I feel pretty lucky to have to experience a kind of life that not everyone gets to see. Holy shit.

—Mark Carter