Good news, there’s fresh snow on the ground. The recent dip in temperatures have resulted in a frosting on all the locals. Much needed frosting, to say the least. Let’s hope the temperatures stay low and the base starts to build up so the park crew can get more going in the Quiksilver park. Not to say what they’ve provided us with given the conditions isn’t absolutely phenomenal. You guys kill it! Anyways, that’s all I really wanted to say. Also, if you really want to know what my unfiltered thoughts are on snowboarding, the Olympics and life in general, feel free to get on Twitter and follow my useless banter or get in touch with me. Or don’t. Your call, really.
PS: I miss riding with Jordan Johnstone and Max Buchanan. If you’re reading this, go riding more.
Here are some more pictures from the Oakley Night Jam, taked by one of our latest additions to Grousepark.com, Hamish Baxter. Our bloggers kill it!
So, if you haven’t heard, Whistler is AMAZING right now. To take advantage of this fact, Frodo, Kyle Jasper, Matt Whelan and I headed up there yesterday and oh ya, it was perfect! Started off with some park laps and found that every jump was absolutely perfect so we sessioned them for most of the day. Since we were having so much fun, I didn’t even bring the camera out till about the 6th lap and only managed to get a couple decent shots before heading in for lunch. After lunch we went up the peak to shred some pow. It had been almost a week since the last storm and there was still plenty of fluffy white powder to float on. We were all pretty tired, so we decided to head down on a good note. All in all, the day was sick and everyone reading this should head up to Whistler before the huge crowds arrive because it’s prime right now. Here are the few shots I got this weekend and hopefully I’ll be able to shoot some deep pow slashes up Grouse soon!
Matt Whelan stoked on the park (and life) after the first lap
For the third year in a row, the Red Bull Cold Rush went off in a way that no other competition can. With more fresh snow than the average person sees in their lifetime, this past week at Retallak Lodge proved to be the ideal location for the top freeskiers in the world to gather and throw down. And throw down they did.
Kye gettin pillowed. Source: newschoolers.com
Although the three day event was first and foremost a competition, most riders acknowledged it felt more like a big session with friends and filmers. At the end of it all, Kye Petersen of Whistler BC was awarded the top spot, proving that the youngins out there are hungry and ready to show the old timers what they can do.
Flipping his way into second place was veteran freeskier and newschool legend, JP Auclair. JP showed the world that he is far from finished and still a strong force to be reckoned with. Rounding out the podium with a solid performance was none other than back-country heavy hitter, Sage Cattabriga-Alosa.
Fellow blogger Dan Jonas and I were able to get out paws on some 2010 Ride gear to take to Grouse mountain. With the help of Rodrigo Caula, proprietor of Choice Apparel, and two femmes from Grouse’s local J-Crew, Alice Gorton and Sydney Schram, we were able to test the Crush, Machete and DH on the men’s side, and the Canvas and Compact on the women’s side as well as a bunch of bindings and those crazy light boots. Keep your eyes peeled for product reviews coming soon.
Speaking of Choice Apparel, the new product was shipped out last Wednesday and the line is officially launched as of March 11th. If you haven’t already done so, hit up the site and get your orders in via email at choiceapparel@hotmail.com!
Some more Choice news. Grouse Mountain pro team rider, Jenelle Pritchard is the first girl on the Choice team. Yay!
It’s been flaking kittens for the past week and that good ol’ west coast snow is covering the mountains. It’s wet, it’s heavy, and it’s so much fun. Get out and play in the trees, but don’t slow down or get stuck.
Is it just me or is that quarter pipe amazingly fun? Good job, park crew.
I currently have no park board due to base delamination. Lucky for me, it’s been pow so I’ve been able to get my 159 out of retirement. Anyone wanna help me out with something a little/a lot smaller?
I’m going to be sitting down with the founder of Spacecraft Clothing, Stefan Hofmann, for an interactive interview this weekend. For those that haven’t heard, Spacecraft is an art project using clothing as a medium. Go and check it out. The product is sick and the art is even better. They’re currently based out of Bali and keep a grassroots feel to everything they do. Pacific Boarder will be carrying the spring line, so make sure you go and take a look. I’ll have more on Spacecraft in the next couple days.
Three years ago the face of skiing was forever changed by a group of skiers and a little movie called Idea. Eric Pollard, Andy Mahre and Pep Fujas opened people’s minds to what was possible on a pair of skis in powder snow. Nimbus Independent was born.
Pollard and crew stepped up their game the next season and produced Hunting Yeti, a 5 part web series followed by a DVD compiling the highlights. This year the Nimbus crew is at it again with their third release, En Route. So far the crew have pow-slashed their way through Japan and Austria. Check the website for their latest webisodes.
Warning: Extreme Pow Shreddage Ahead! If nothing done by Nimbus gets you stoked then please do not read on.
If you don’t know…now you know. Montage Inc is here to stay. Based out of California, these guys are really showing the big boys at Nimbus that they know a thing or two about shredding pow. They just dropped their new website with a couple of sick videos, so check it out. The following clip is some of the best backcountry jumping that has ever gone down. Just see for yourself:
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.
Ramp
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.
Merry Christmas! I hope Santa was good to everyone. For those of us who wished for snow, we most definitely got it.
The best Christmas present ever!
Grouse Mountain is getting PUKED on! My brother, cousin, and I went up for a Boxing Day shred today. There are still a few small trees and branches sticking out here and there, but knee deep pow makes up for that.
Make sure you come up and get some while the gettin is good! Here’s a few shots of the good stuff. Would have taken more but there was gnar in desperate need of a good shredding.
Tram pow!
Getting ready for a day of shred.
Jesse shredding, CJ missing the shot.
Snow!
Actually come to think of it, no, there’s no snow. Don’t bother heading to Grouse Mountain. Its far too snowy, fun, deep, average…
