Westbound Boarder

Just wanted to remind everyone that we are giving away a plethora of snowboard socks to all the ladies and gentlemen out there. We have received many desperate pleas, pics of ratty socks and great stories as to why we should give you a new pair of snowboard socks. Thank you all for your entries and lets keep them coming! You have until tomorrow night (Monday at 8pm Pacific Time) to enter the contest. Do It.

My Open Letter to Burton:

While embarking on my journey to Vail and Breckenrigde, I stopped by the local Burton store to check out the goods. I picked up a copy of the latest film, “The B“. The cover indicates that it is a movie of epic proportions, and after spending the 30 dollars on the purple retro style VHS tape box, I returned home to watch it. However, after watching it I have decided that this a movie of epic disappointments. The filming style and the footage of riders and their parts was exceptional, yes, although it was what I consider, extremely short.

The film did not come without its perks, however. Jeremy Jones laid down the best part of his Career, and the outro of the team ripping all of the Giant B that was configured into a park was impressive as well. Well filmed, with great angles and tricks, just short. Plain ol’ short.

I’m not narrow minded. I have spent my fair share of money on videos, I own most of Mack dawgs films, the people movies, Absinthe’s handy work, the list goes on. All of these films have a lower price tag and more raw footage. With all of the money and resources the Burton family harbors I expect a movie of supposedly “epic proportions” should be longer than a half hour (32 min.). Not to mention the largest team hands down, with absurd amounts of talent - Jeremy, Nico Muller, Jussi, Kevin Pearce, Tadashi Fuse, to name a few - the movie should have been 50 minutes at a minimum. They are the corporation of The Industry and the fact that the end result is the over priced, over packaged (green mtn project..Eh?) under-lengthy production is just disappointing. I still love their products, I still ride a Burton Troop with Escapde bindings, I just expected a longer more team oriented movie. Also, with all of the phenomenal female ripper talent they have, there isn’t a single part for one of their many girl riders.

I think I saw a couple of the ladies do a trick a piece in the outro. Just that alone could have added more bang for my buck. I just think that the biggest and richest company could provide me with more than a dollar a minute for their 30 dollar commercial, I mean film. Maybe next year Brad Cramer will school the production and make a worthy flick. Or they B family should just spend less dough on catalogs and more on their should be, could be Banger.

Sincerely,
Disappointed Burton Consumer, Supporter & Indulger

Tim Windell, Creator of Windells Camp

I’m a huge fan of Tim Windell and recently had the rare opportunity to catch up with him. I say rare as the dude is constantly on the move especially with the Winter Olympics coming up and the wrap up of the Winter X-Games. Tim is the proud owner/operator of Windells Camp - The Funnest Place on Earth.

Windell’s operation is located on the western slopes of Mt. Hood Oregon. Ideally located between Sandy and Welches, Windells Camp occupies a former motel complex, and sits on 53 acres which include Oregon’s largest indoor skate park, a sick assortment of concrete skate features, a foam pit, an Olympic-size trampoline, an outdoor BMX/Freeride dirt circuit complete with the largest assortment of ramps, jumps, rails you name it! The place is constantly evolving and while I was there, the crew had a cement mixer on site and was busy building new features that will undoubtedly prove to be nothing short of incredible.

Tim began skiing at the ripe old age of 3 back in Colorado. As a boy, he enjoyed such places such as Breckinridge, Vail, Steamboat and Winter Park. During Tim’s teenage years, his skiing improved so much that he literally hit a plateau. He felt as though he wasn’t getting much better at it and he began to look for other snow sport opportunities. This is when snowboarding first emerged on the scene. Tim found this new sport to be both challenging and exhilarating. Needless to say, Tim rocked the snowboard world and took countless titles.

However, as Tim explained to me, he began to notice that the younger guys were catching up and he found it difficult to both compete and train at the same time. So, with this in mind, Tim opened up his first training camp in Whistler BC and then finally in Oregon around 1987.

Foam Practice Pit

One of the key ingredients to Tim’s success is the location. One of the greatest things Wendells has to offer is Mt. Hood’s year round snow. There are several companies that offer similar type programs but Windells is unique as it is sequestered away by itself and really is sort of an island unto itself. Yeah, an island of fun! Tim has taken great strides in keeping his campers safe and secure. His is a multidimensional approach that takes into account the physical, mental maybe even spiritual well being of each and every camper. I guess when you churn out as many world champions as Tim Windell has over the years, (16 USA Olympic Medalists, 137 X Games Medalists, top 10 men & 8 of the top 10 women on the Dew Tour) you see this method as the only one in which to employ.

One of the most fascinating things to me was the school that is located on the campus. I think a common misconception is that Windell’s is all fun and games. It is the Funnest Place on Earth to be sure but it also has a serious side as well. Many of the young folks that come to Windell’s come with the need for an alternative education program. The academy students are enrolled in a fully accredited program that will allow the student-athletes to go to college and pursue professional careers. They work at their own pace in a very low key, comfortable environment… I’m a fan.

Snowboards, anyone?

When asked how women have progressed in the snow sports, Tim responded with an enthusiastic, “exponentially”! Women he said “have really stepped up their games. Gold medalist Kelly Clark for example is now un-reachable.” He went on to say the women have much more accessibility then they once had, they’re legit and getting better all the time.” Recently during a Holiday training camp, most if not all were women! He went on to say that there is more camaraderie with women; they’re great ambassadors of the sport and very supportive to one another.

So, in summation, what a great privilege it was to spend a little time with Tim Windell. Truly a visionary and all around great guy. If you ever get the opportunity to enroll in one of his amazing camp sessions, do it! Because, in the words of Warren Miller, “If you don’t do it this year, you’ll only be one year older when you do.”

I’m sure you’ve been at the mountain and found yourself thinking at one point or another, “holy cow, that 10 year old is showing me up!”  Yes, you probably encountered the mini shred, an awesome, young snowboarder who totally rips.  “Woah, did you see that mini shred hit that 40 foot table?!  She’ll be pro in no time!”

The Winter X Games is one of the largest annual contests of the year and is notorious for pushing its competitors to the next level and raising industry standards year after year.  This year was no exception, especially since the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver B.C. are right around the corner. The X Games are a great opportunity for women snowboarders to showcase their skills, while raising the bar for womens snowboarding. There were three female snowboard competitions during this past weekend’s event.  Snowboard Cross, a treacherous, windy, and super fast, five person race, the Slopestyle park comp, and of course the 22′ Super Pipe. The super pipe contest was awesome this year, and the U.S. girls ripped it up. In fact, the girls who podiumed where all on the U.S. woman’s Olympic team. First place went to Gretchen Bleiler, a Colorado local, second was Kelly Clark, and third was Hannah Teeter. Kelly was the only girl to do a 900 and absolutely popped the highest out of the pipe, but it was Gretchen Bleiler who had her trademarked crippler 720, which is sort of like a rodeo, but more inverted and stylish. Hannah Teeter had a great bag of tricks with perfect 540’s as well. Unfortunately, one of my favorite riders, Elena Hight, didn’t medal, though she did kill the Dew tour stop at Snow Basin (Ogden, UT), getting first in the woman’s Super Pipe.

Slopestyle was impressive this year, with a few different riders than the Super Pipe and plenty of tricks to go with them. The slopestyle course was made up of a rail garden and three giant jumps, stretching from 50′ to almost 70′ to finish off the run. Jenny Jones from Great Brittan won the Gold, Jamie Anderson won the Silver, and Janna Meyen-Weatherby won Bronze. Janna has been tearing up contests for years - she’s 32 years old and making it look effortless over the jumps. She was also the only girl to stick a 900. Jamie Anderson was great on the rails, doing a 360 nose bonk, and she killed it on the jumps with clean 7’s all around. It was Jones, though, with her perfect run with big air and style over all of the jumps pulling the consecutive 540’s with no sketchy landings, who conquered. Also have to give credit to Eero Ettala for the mens, stomping the best run I’ve ever seen in a contest. His first slopestyle run consisted of the double cork 1080, double backside rodeo 900, and then a double back flip. I knew this guy was good, but wow, taking a safe gold with no one even coming close to his score.

During my many years of shredding, I have followed countless traditions here on Mt. Hood, and even made up my own along the way … Silent Rock, Shell gas station stop in Sandy, Mtn Moka, and Harley (more to come on these at a later date!) are a few of my personal faves. So during my visit to Breckenridge, I learned about a valuable tradition with a beaded necklace (mardi-gras style) I aquired locally. Here’s how it goes: Throwing beads into trees from the chair lift, or other offerings like your bra, underware, googles, or whatever you choose, is a form of making a sacrifice to the “snow gods” for good luck, for additional snow fall for the winter and the set up for a stellar spring. An appropriate gesture of “giving back to the community” for some extra powder, in my opinion. Lose some to win some… SNOW is well worth it in my opinion!

It is some of these fun small details that make the entire culture and lifestyle of snowboarding unique. It also adds never-ending drive to explore the mountains and resorts of the world, fueling the fire of my passion for the sport.

Just when we thought that we had seen it all in the Vail Village we were introduced to the Steve Meyer show this year, and thank goodness we were! It takes place at ‘The Club’ (as we mentioned in our Vail review last year, this bar is on Bridge Street and is our favorite bar in the village and worry not because this place is the farthest thing from a ‘club’- rather a club mockery) and if you are lucky enough to be in the Vail Village on a Wednesday or Saturday night during the winter season you can witness the insanity that is Steve Meyer.

Before I start though I should admit that I don’t traditionally care for comedy shows and am easily bored by them. So I really was not especially excited about attending the Steve Meyer ‘Comedy Show’ as I had my opinion about what a comedy show is and what it was going to be like. The Steve Meyer Show doesn’t feel like a comedy show per se- rather a gathering of friends shooting the s#it - it is intimate and personal and such a great time.

"The Good Times Man"

With all of that said, I am not exactly sure if words can do the ‘good times man’ justice. Steve Meyer is an experienced musician who has turned his plethora of original songs and cover pieces into a 2.5 hour comedy show.  He picks his own victims out of the crowd and spares no one in the process. If you are a women with perky ‘tickets’ or a man in a fedora, consider yourself fresh meat and expect to be incorporated into the show. Don’t fret about it though - Steve will break the ice by challenging you to a drink race (you take the tequila and Steve will chug the beer and somehow he finishes first, this guy is not only a professional musician…). He finds the rowdy ones and invites them on the stage, he finds the rich ones and has them buy the bar a round and he finds the ones hiding behind their friends and challenges them to a shot on stage.

Andrea and I with "Big Tickets" lady

If the excessive drinking is not enough for you, well, then good…because his jokes are vulgar, offensive, inappropriate and all around hilarious. He is nonstop action between the shots (which he shares), the spotlight he puts you under (literally) and the mockery he makes out of each person in the audience. The Steve Meyer show really is such a good time, do not go all the way to Vail, CO without fitting him in. I promise you, you will NOT regret it (although maybe your pride will - see for your self check out our full album on flickr).

Andrea taking shots with Steve

Shots with a stranger, thanks to Steve

Once again, our favorite “must reads” from around the Web.  Make sure you check out the ESPN X Games going on right now and through the weekend in Aspen!  Oh, and if you haven’t already entered our socks giveaway, make sure you do so!

• 15-Year-Old Snowboarder Named to Austrailian Olympic Team: I love seeing and meeting young shredders, but this is unreal!  In Austrailia, a 15-year-old snowboarder was named to the Aussie Olympic Team.  Rad!
• Teter for Haiti: We all know Hannah Teter is an awesome snowboarder, but she’s also an awesome person.  She typically donates all of her prize money to a clean water charity, however, this year she donated her winnings from the US Snowboarding Grand Prix to Haiti.
• Preparation is key to ski trip success: Great advice from the New York Times on taking family ski trips.  Key theme?  Efficiency!
• Snowboarding Postage Stamp Revealed: Wow.  You know snowboarding has made an impact when they release a postage stamp with a snowboarder on the face.  Very cool!  Bummer that it is only available at Park City post office locations, though.
• Will Bright be the First Female to Crack The Double Cork Code? Well, I can’t exactly answer that question, but she sure does hope so!  FYI, love her training schedule - eat, sleep, and snowboard.

When Bud Valian moved from British Columbia to Oregon in 1954, things were a little different on the mountain. Timberline, where he taught skiing, had only one lift - the Magic Mile. In those days, “The Mile” was in a different location. It was actually east of the lodge and went all the way up to Silcox Hut. Bud said the lift tickets were only $4.00/each back then…ahh those were the days!

From all accounts, Bud was a bit of a wild man in his younger days and would often climb up to the top of Mt.Hood and ski down. When asked what his scariest moment was, Bud scratched his head for a moment and said that one morning he had just made it to the top of the mountain as was looking around when suddenly, KABOOM! Two fighter jets came screaming right at him, circled the mountain and then waved goodbye. This is of course just one of the many stories the man offered up. I have it on good authority from others that Bud is credited with straight lining the upper bowl at Ski Bowl more than once. For any of you who have ridden the upper bowl, you can only imagine just how fast you’d get rippin’ going straight down!

Bud and his wife Betsy have been together now for 26 years. They are the perfect mix of yin and yang to run their business. Betsy is the stylish one. She has that magic touch when it comes to decorating the shop and merchandising everything in the most effective way. Bud is the mad scientist behind the curtain. He has developed his own equipment which is nothing short of brilliant ingenuity. Going into Valian’s is almost like stepping into a time warp when ski shops were the only place to find goggles, hats gloves and get your skis tuned. “Betz” on the other hand really has an extraordinary flair for combining the old and the new. As you shuffle around the shop, you will see clippings from old Life magazines, newspaper articles, and the products that were popular back in the day. It takes you back to the days of yore and gives you that warm fuzzy feeling that all is right with the world. However, all of it too is mixed with the very latest gear to help you get your shred on.

I asked Bud how the culture of the mountain has changed and he gave me a reply that I had long suspected. He basically said that these days, everybody is in such a hurry to get up there and then get back down to their everyday lives. He went on to say that it used to be that everyone was much more laid back and personal but the sport itself was in many ways much more difficult. (think lace up boots and bear trap bindings!)

Responding to the question of whether or not he still skis, he said absolutely! However, at 76 he picks his days usually in the spring where he can “wear his sunglasses”. He went on to say that he had enough days teaching in crappy weather.

So, there you have it. Valian’s ski shop in good old Government Camp. One of the classics that I hope will endure in this world of Dick’s, Sport’s Authority and Big 5. A place where you can get real advice from a real pro who’s been there/done that and knows what’s best without the BS.

There is good reason that the Beaver Creek Resort in Avon, CO boasts, “Not Exactly Roughing It” as their slogan. From a quaint and exciting village, to world renowned skiing/snowboarding, Beaver Creek offers something for everyone, which is why Andrea , Rochelle and I had such an awesome time during our latest visit to the Rockies. We ventured to Denver, drove out to Avon and were able to shred Vail, Beaver Creek and we even made our way over to Breckenridge.  So I am just going to cut to the chase here and start out by telling you all how great the shredding is at Beaver Creek (then I’ll tell you how to get there, where to stay and what the must do’s are in the Beaver Creek Village).

We all make our way to the Rocky Mountains for one reason and one reason only. To shred like we never have before! And at Beaver Creek you will have no problem doing so. Let me disclaim my Beaver Creek experience here by letting you all know that the snow conditions we experienced were rare and less than desirable. No new snow in the previous week and a measly base of 30-40 inches didn’t give us the best surface conditions (which is an understatement).  However we were just stoked to experience the new mountains and weren’t too concerned.

If I could describe Beaver Creek in one word it would be STEEP! When we arrived to the base of the hill we hoped on the Chair Six, the Centennial Express, and we were on our way. We were all instantly impressed by the grade of the runs. Everywhere we looked we saw steep, steep trails and we could not wait to get our day started.

We spent the first half of our day on lifts 9, 10 and 11 where we were on a mission to find whatever soft packed snow we could, as it was a rarity this trip. Despite the poor snow conditions, we were able to do just that on the tree runs off of Lift 11, which was a blast. The bowls were steep, the trees had some powder stashes and to top it off, it was empty so we had the mountain all to ourselves! Our next stop on this side of the mountain was the Birds of Prey lift, which is a must see if you are visiting Beaver Creek. The run is ridiculously STEEP and in 1999 it was home to the World Alpine Ski Championships (do you finally believe that this resort is steep?!) We cruised over to this run and were in awe of what we were looking down at (and how we were at the edge of the world about to fall off!!) We could not believe it when we heard that this race course is actually doused with water before races to make it slicker and icier so racers can achieve maximum speed. Talk about a death trap. Either way, a must see and a must ride when touring Beaver Creek. We had a great, albeit out of control, run down this race course, and I highly recommend it  J.

After a couple of hours of searching for the powder, and finding the steepest runs on the hill, we decided it was time to find and conquer the terrain parks. We found the smaller terrain park, Park 101, underneath Chair 8, Cinch Express, and we had a great time goofing off there. With wide based box rails and smaller jumps (perfect for practicing your latest feat on, whether it be straight airs, 1’s or 3’s…), these jumps were great for hucking as the lips were small, which means you were never falling very far if you didn’t land! We also made it over to Lumber Yard and the Zoom Room, both which offered diverse and interesting features (tires, tree logs etc…) and was a lot of fun. Insider Tip: Looking for something else out of a terrain park? Well, with Beaver Creek’s 5 terrain parks (including the pipe), you are bound to find what you are looking for.  Take a look at the Beaver Creek Extreme Terrain interactive website where the Beaver Creek Progressive park system is detailed so you can map your route before you ride so you can really get yourself comfortable and pumped up for your day!

We took a lunch at the top of Chair Six and were loving life. We easily found a few lounge chairs and ate our lunch as we basked in the sun. I highly recommend a mid-afternoon break as you take in the view.

There was the entire Rose Bowl side of the mountain that we didn’t have time to ride, however, what we did see of Beaver Creek was very impressive. I look forward to going back again when there is more snow as the steepness of the resort would be absolutely epic on a powder day (which typically, the area is well-known for!!) Insider Tip: To top off a perfect day at Beaver Creek, try to make it down to the Base of Chair 6, Centennial Chair lift, by 3pm for free, hot and fresh chocolate chip cookies!

Our Beaver Creek adventure did not end on the slopes - we received a private tour of the village (from our best friend and Avon, CO local) and he suggested a few hot spots as far as the night life in Beaver Creek is concerned. After a long day riding he suggested a few chill destinations that we really enjoyed. The Coyote Café and the Dusty Boot are two hotspots that are snowboarder friendly too. At the Café enjoy a large and strong margarita or pick up a dollar PBR at the Dusty Boot (if you time their specials right). Either way, you can’t go wrong, as smack in the middle of these bars is Blue Moose Pizza Restaurant (which is a popular destination in the Vail Village as well).

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So now that you know where to ride and dine, I am going to back up now. If you are not staying in the Beaver Creek village you can get there a number of ways. (1) Hope on the local city bus (ECO Transit) from wherever you are staying along I-70 (near Vail and Beaver Creek) it is an easy $4 bucks each way and it stops right in front of the Beaver Creek parking lot for easy access to their free shuttle.  (2) Depending on where you are staying there is a Beaver Creek complimentary door-to-door shuttle - call village transportation at 970.949.1938 to see if they service your hotel. (3) Pay for parking in the lot at the base of Beaver Creek and take the free shuttle all the way to the top.

With so many close resorts in the Vail Village vicinity, if you are planning a trip to Beaver Creek, I would check the conditions first.  With fresh powder, this resort would be magnificent!  However, if the resort hasn’t seen snow in a few days/weeks, I would opt for another resort in the area, such as Vail or Breck, which both contain better terrain to ride on days where the snow is not there.

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