2010 Preview!

Its 2009, but already, previews of next year’s line ups are already popping up on tons of forums, blogs and websites.

Here is a preview of:

Thanks to the guys at Snowbroader.eu!!

-Dan



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Sandwiched on the Hill with Choice

Hey everyone!! An amazing week of riding in ‘June’-uary (teehee thanks Tan) has everyone stoked to ride some spring slush in the middle of January! From shooting with my best buds Liam and Scott to cruisin the park with the locks flowin in the breeze, the hills are the place to be!

Here’s a quick edit with Choice Apparel, Rod Caula, Sean Dieno, Jenelle Pritchard and myself last Friday afternoon!!


Its your choice!

-Dan


An update

Hey guys and girls, here is another update!

Currently there is an inversion in Metro Vancouver, so in short, the weather in the city is pretty bunk, but the hills are BEAUTIFUL!

Here are a couple of my favourite videos at the moment.

 Jake Olson Elm

http://snowboarding.transworld.net/2009/01/12/monday-montage-jake-olson-elm-full-part/

Torstein Horgmo Hot Laps

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjLlYPyT1fw]
[video]

Get out there and ride, park is pretty fun and can only get funner!

-Dan


Late Release Capita HORRORSCOPE Flat Kick

The Horrorscope is Capita’s reverse camber/rocker board for this year. It was a mid season release so these boards were shipped even later than the already late Capita line to stores. These were a very limited run as only 500 were made. I managed to snag one of the first ones without having to pay! Props to Capita for their handling the warrantee on last years Capita Stairmaster, which some of you may or may not know that they had problems with using the wrong epoxy and delaminating topsheets were used as ice breakers around the world.

Now, to get started, I would classify myself as an above average(not professional by any means) rider. I have ridden all sorts of terrain including groomers, park, deep pow, choppy crud, slush, rocks and hit runs at both Grouse Mountain and Whistler Blackcomb. I have taken it off 20+ foot cliffs and a couple park jumps, but that is because of the lack of tables in the early season, but with the coming jump lines being finalized the horrorscope will soon see its fair share of jumps.

I am riding Union Forces and Vans dk5 boots with this board.

The first thing I would like to say is that Capita’s rocker/reverse camber technology is called FLAT KICK technology where there is zero camber (flat) between the inserts, and then kicks up, much like a skateboard.

flat-kick

I found the Horrorscope to ride true to its size or even a little smaller. One issue that has risen with all reverse camber boards, is its ability to hold an edge.

What camber does is it allows you to ‘pop’ out of your carves, and it applies pressure to hold an edge. with reverse camber there is no pressure on the edge, becuase when you stand on a regular camber board, it pushes flat and when you step off, it returns to its original position. This is what gives you ‘pop’ out of your carve. Libtech’s solution to this was magnatraction which give the edge seven edges instead of one.

I found the horrorscope to hold an edge quite well, but definately noticed that it was not as good as regular camber boards. I find myself washing out but not enough to deter me from wanting to ride the board. It is something you get used to over time.

Regular camber also gives a board its pop, using the same principle when you apply pressure to the board, when you let go it will want to return to its original position, the faster/more powerful it does this, the more pop it has. Now, this board has ALOT of pop, I find it very very fun, and can load the tail or nose and (n)ollie to the moon. Love this board.

grab-tindy

grab TINDY!

The flex of this board is very similar to that of a stairmaster. The reason it rides like a really soft board is because of the flat kick. The flat kick turns the board in a very soft board, pressing it is like cheating.

Took it into the pow a whole bunch when it was dumping that week before Christmas. The board is soft, but it handles the pow all right. The flat kick lets the board float with ease, but felt really squirrely goin fast in choppy conditions. I would not want this for a pow specific board at all, it can ride pow for sure, but is a tad soft. It is fine if you want to ride some pow on the side if you are not way past the weight range. I’m 13olbs and on a 148, so for me, it rides like a regular sized snowboard, not a jib board.

 This is a pure park/jib board but is still tons of fun when you take it out. It destroys rails, jibs, bonks, ledges, walls, and bamboo poles.

Another thing I would like to add is the skate style influence this board has on the rider. With the flat kicks, it is very easy to loop out and landing on the “trucks”/inserts is a must or you will be on your ass alot.

This is a very fun board and will be a jib board for many people because of its soft flex similar to that of a k2 www, rome artifact or ride kink. Good luck finding some, refer to Sam’s Boards, Boards, Boards! post if you are still looking for one. From what I have heard, the 48 and 56′s sold out in a heartbeat.

capita-horrorscope

I love this board, its a great fit for me because I am a small guy, and this board I can take anywhere. For others, pure jib/park specific. This is a very fun, playful and forgiving board. Great for playing around on, not so great for pow or bumps.

Next review will be for the Bataleon Airobic and TRIPLE BASE TECHNOLOGY! YEAH FOR IT!

Shout out to grouse local Rodrigo Caula and his fast expanding company: Choice Clothing; get them quick! they are selling out fast!

CHOICE CHOICE CHOICE

Another note to add is a friend of mine, Matt Munn from Alberta is putting out webisodes of his snowboarding antics where ever he goes. Check it out, MEAT MAGIC!! check it out!! lots of sick sick riding.

-Dan Jonas


Christmas Holiday at Grouse Mountain

Hey everyone, haven’t been able to post an update in a while to do the hectic holidays. I have ridden quite a bit through these holidays, but not quite as much I would have liked due to how busy Grouse gets during this time of year.

Some highlights were Dec 24, Christmas eve, Grouse got DUMPED on and no one could make it to the hill (Thanks for driving Jay) so this resulted in an epic pow day full of drop, lines, pillows and hit run laps all day long. No pictures to show for it because it was just too good.

Lots of night riding has been had, once again to avoid the holiday line ups on CUT and OLYMPIC. Park has been pretty non existant due to the large amounts of snow falling, which buries already standing features, and makes the already buried features long gone… time to go probing.

As Scott mentioned, we got alot of our friends out for some good times on Monday night. Snow was soft, skies were clear, and no lineups. Hit run laps all night!!

The park is slowly making progress, Shaw has been in the cat as much as he can pushing snow and decking rails, one jump is up, and a couple more should be on the way. With lots of snow in the forecast, the park should be bangin in the next couple weeks.

With the snow in the city, and in our own yards, some of you may have been hard at work shoveling driveways or making your very own parks in your yard or both!

My brother Nathan and I have been hard at work buildin our extensive snow mini ramp when we arent riding at Grouse Mountain. Our setup has been a drop in to hip into the mini ramp with a roller in the middle. Also have a drop into 2 options: Flatbar or hip. Also have a six pack of jumps down the side of our house. Its pretty sick and learning to ride these tight transitions help in all sorts of situations.

backyard-terrain-park

Ramp

Drop in to the hip into the mini ramp is to the left out of the picture

Drop in to the hip into the mini ramp is to the left out of the picture

The new year arrived with a bang! I decided to throw a party for all my friends to come enjoy. Some of the infamous GROUSE PARK CREW came to party. Near the end some people decided to jump into the freezing cold pool… I also just saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I liked it. You should go see it.


Grouse Mountain on a Sunny Christmas Holiday

Breakfast, lunch, dinner

Breakfast, lunch, dinner

Hey guys, got back last week from a trip to Whistler, but dont be jealous, you didn’t miss much. Temperatures varied from -20 to -38 degrees, it was bitter cold, and did not do much riding. Our time was spent equally in the pool, hot tub and steam room.

cheese whiz and microwaved pizza

cheese whiz and pizza

 

 

 

 

 

 Monday night, me and some close friends set up 2 spots, one was a wall stall/qp, Scott Titterington shot it, and as you have probably seen, Liam Casey was gettin inverted. Remember this name, Liam Casey is HUNGRY this year, prepare to be amazed.

Second spot was a 45 foot capped down rail. Liam chopped his skis pretty hard on it, and after about 30 tries, I managed to 50-50 the whole thing. Pics will hopefully be posted in the near future.

Zavier Vaillancourt

Zavier Vaillancourt

I decided to go on a solo mission [to Grouse Mountain] Saturday afternoon. The weather was SICK, was about -5 the whole day, which felt like spring compared to last weeks cold snap. One of the worst things that comes along with a late start, is the amount of people on a sub 200cm base. The reason why an early start is better, is it allows the snow base to grow and accumalate for about a month so when the crowds come over the holiday, the coverage will stay promising as all the families come to ride.

Andrew Pires

Andrew Pires

Ran into frequent grouse skiers; Zavier Vaillancourt and Andrew Pires. Zavier was rocking his massive 191 ON3P Caylors not expecting the tracked out terrain haha.

Went to hike the park because the cut lineup was massive… [Note: No lines at Greenway Quad or Olympic Quad]

Ran into my little friends Ethan and Kevin. Kevin is one sick little kid, rockin L1 Thunder pants, this years www rocker and some sick flannels. You’ll be seeing alot of this guy in the future, hes only 11! Gave him some pointers on the second downbar and taught him nose presses on the flat box! Here are some pics:

Ethan and Kevin

Ethan and Kevin

Kevin Dzah 5050

Kevin Dzah 5050

And Park Crew Andrew Nicoletti shootin’ for the stars while settin up the new banked wall.

Andrew Nicoletti

Andrew Nicoletti

My next post will include a follow up of Sams post on rockered boards with my view on rockered snowboards and skis.

Here are a couple sick websites if you haven’t heard of them before:

www.reelcomp.com   (snowboard video uploader site)

www.snowboard.com  (Sub par forum in my opinion but there is some good info to be had)

www.burton.com Community (I know its BURTON, but nonetheless a very active forum with good information to be had…and some bad)

more links next week!

see you on the hill! smile!


YO im Dan Jonas

YO im Dan Jonas, and im a grouse blogospondent!!  add me on FACEBOOK and we can have a little chit chat, talk about some snow.

Spring park in Whistler

Spring park in Whistler

I’m 19,  2nd year university student at SFU studying geography and urban planning, I ride grouse almost daily, and my schedule for next semester allows me to go riding almost every day. I try to ride in the day for the most part, but ill be there at night quite a bit this season.

I’ve been riding grouse the past 8 years, so i know the place like the back of my hand, and some of my posts may or may not include some of those locals only spots. I love riding park, but if theres pow, im there.

i love to snowboard, i think about it day and night, if i am having a bad day, goin to grouse makes me feel better 100% of the time.

Scott Titterington

Slash on Grouse Mountain. Photo: Scott Titterington

i love every type of riding. Whether it be groomers, park, handrails, hiking, pow; but..lesson be learned, too much of a good thing isn’t healthy, unless its POW. Pow is always good. Earn those turns kids, don’t take those chairs for granted.

Down flat down

Down flat down

The majority of my posts will be about my days up grouse, including the park, local riders, and just lounging around in the chalet. I will also be posting news from the snowboard industry such as some of the new tech that is being progressed such as reverse camber/rocker, the impact of the recession on the snow industry and I will be posting lots of pics and vids for everyone.

Grouse mountain Pole Jam 2006/2007

Grouse mountain Pole Jam 2006/2007

So if you guys ever see me around, come and take a chair with me, take a few laps, or come chat.

See you guys on the hill! Smile!