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This past weekend at Mount Snow was the 2nd stop of the Dew Tour. The next and last stop is at Northstar at Tahoe in Truckee, CA in February. Tons and tons of snowboarding and skiing fanatics came out to watch the pros throw down, party with the pros, try to score VIP bracelets and ride Mt. Snow. The "festival village" they set up also had the Flobots playing along with Boys like Girls, lots of vendor booths and food and more Mountain Dew then a teenage boy could dream of. Everyone was super amped up on the caffeine and psyched for all the free give a ways.
Men's slopestyle finals was an amazing event to watch. With rails at the top, one rail in the middle and two big jumps at the bottom made for a serious course. Coming in first place from Norway was Torstein Horgmo, 92.67. Second place was Olympic Gold medalist, Shaun White with a final score of 92.33. And in third place was Andreas Wiig, also from Norway with a final score of 88.00.
On Sunday was the superpipe finals with Shaun White coming in first and totally killing it in the pipe. Steve Fisher in second and Kevin Pearce in Third place. There was a approximately of 24,800 fans that came out to witness snowboarding and skiing at its finest. It was crazy! Check out www.allisports.com for full coverage of the weekend!
Since I was younger, I've always been jealous of the people who lived in the mountain towns and worked on the hill, at the restaurants, the shops, etc. I figured they were riding all of the time, knew the sickest secret spots, super relaxed and basically, living the dream. Boy, was I wrong.
I lived in a mountain town, Truckee, CA. I worked at Northstar. I even worked on the snow. You would think I was riding more then anyone else? Well, I was riding before AND after anyone else but no one gets ultimate full days of riding in while living in the mountain town... With some exceptions.
Liftees- Work on the snow all day, in their snow gear. Pro: They get 1st tracks and get ride breaks all throughout the day. Con: they have to watch you and all of the other joeys ride around all day and tell you what you're missing out on. Duh.
Retail Jobs- You'll have the same tourist problem. Pro: working in a snowboard retail shop is you should get plenty of riding time in with sweet deals on gear. Con: selling product to tourists who have no idea what they're doing and working during peak hours
Restaurant jobs- Definitely pay well with tips. Pro: you get to ride all day and work nights. Con: your social life will suffer from working nights and riding all day. With little sleep to be had.
Night Park Crew or Groomers: You pretty much get to ride all day, every day. Pro: you'll get first chair and last chair any day you'd like. Con: Working till 7:30am for 1st chair at 8am will leave you sleep deprived and set your body clock off.... alot
Ski/Snowboard Instructors: You get to ride all day. Which is awesome. Pro: you'll probably get some big tips from those brat's parents after you had to deal with them during their week vacation. Con: you have to deal with brats riding all day. On green runs.
There are so many other jobs, these are just ones I was very familiar with. No matter what, you move to a mountain town to ride. So make sure you find a job that will allow you to do so without letting your social life or sleep schedule suffer. After all, riding all day and enjoying what the mountain has to offer isn't as fun unless you have friends and an active social life to share it with.
For a snowboarder on a budget, buying lift tickets is painful. Some places charge you almost a hundred bucks. That's a lot of money for a rider on a budget who doesn't make that much. It's awesome if you can clip tickets or find a hookup but sometimes poaching a mountain can get you in trouble (legal fees are not fun). So if you are looking to travel to a mountain where you aren't "in" with the locals, check out Liftopia. It's a website that finds you the best deals and resorts to help you save anywhere from 15% to 48%! It's sort of like expedia.com or one of those cheap airline ticket websites, but for lift tickets. Way awesome.
So, check it out. www.liftopia.com. Find some deals. Don't use being broke as an excuse as to why you couldn't get out on the mountain because there are plenty of ways to get around paying full-price. This website being one of them! Get your shred on.
Everybody start gearin' up. EuroSIMA and the World Snowboard Federation present the third edition of the World Snowboard Day on Sunday, December 21st 2008. At participating mountains you could enjoy a whole variety of snowboarding activities for FREE. Includes environmental awareness, product testing, demos, contests to win sweet stuff, concerts, parties and whatever else that specific mountain has lined up for you and your knuckle dragging friends. Here are some participating mountains in the United States .... Check out www.burton.com or www.world-snowboard-day.com for some more information and a list of other mountains from all over the world!-Kirkwood is offering $55 tickets and deals on demos 12/21-Tamarack is offering 2 for 1 lift tickets with an on-line coupon 12/21-Gore -Camelback -Mountain Creek -Winter Park -Seven Springs
Boarding for Breast Cancer (B4BC) is a non-profit, youth-focused education, awareness, and fundraising foundation. They are advocates of breast-cancer awareness, the importance of early detection, and the value of an active lifestyle. Many snowboard companies including Burton, Volcom, Vans, Roxy, Sessions, Electric, Nixon, Skull Candy and more have developed products that donate part of the profits to B4BC. Not only is it for an awesome cause but the products are pretty fresh too. So from now on, when you are out shopping be sure to keep an eye out for the B4BC logo! Check out www.b4bc.org for lots more information and how to get involved and donate or shop! 
On February 5th, 2009 head down to New York City to watch 16 of the world's best snowboarders (including Shaun White, Travis Rice and Pat Moore) compete on the banks of the East River. This will be the largest snowboarding contest held in an urban setting in North America with a $100,000 prize purse! This also includes top music acts (they have yet to announce them) and a spectator village.Snowboard-mag.com has this to say about the set up of the contest, "For the first-time ever, Red Bull will create an amazing 90-foot state-of-the-art structure for top riders to own the iconic Manhattan skyline. The athlete’s will drop in from a nine-story building before flying off the specially constructed kicker toward an immense 80-foot long hip. The innovative hip built by world-renowned designers Frank Wells and Mike Bettera of Snow Park Technology allows riders multiple angles of trajectory— frontside or backside, landing on either the right or left side of the massive 45-degree spine."Holy cow. This is going to be intense and awesome to be a part of. And yours truly has media passes coming her way so please believe I will post all of the pictures and awesomeness from this event! Make plans to head to the big apple, you don't want to miss this!For more information please visit RedBullSnowscrapers.com. or ttrworldtour.com
Yesterday, I was reading the New York Times and they had articles about ski resorts, hotels and spas, new lifts and gondolas, resort food, events and most of all, the airline fees and prices to get you to these fabulous vacation spots. As if planning a ski or snowboarding trip wasn't expensive enough, now the airlines are charging even more for an extra bag or any bag over a certain weight. Last winter, when I was traveling from Tahoe to Vermont regularly, I was not charged for my bulky snowboard bag that I would stuff my boots, stinky socks and outerwear into. This winter, things have changed!American, Continental, Frontier, Northwest, United and US Airways have started charging coach passengers $15 to check the 1st bag one way and then an additional $25 for the 2nd bag! What! It would be a dream if one going on a ski vacation could pack everything into one bag but alas, no dice. Think of all the layering pieces, the gloves, the outerwear, the socks, the toiletries, the cute apres outfit every ski bunny needs PLUS footwear! This will all add up to a hefty pound amount that you could get charged even more for. Some resorts understand this will turn away potential customers so they are offering deals. The New York Times says, "Kimpton Hotels, including the Sky Hotel in Aspen, Colo., and the Hotel Monaco in Salt Lake City, is offering up to $25 in credit to guests with proof of payment for a second checked bag. Crested Butte Mountain Resort is offering up to $30 in baggage credit to travelers who book a ski vacation at www.skicb.com. And Vail Resorts, which operates the Vail and Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone Resorts in Colorado and Heavenly in the Lake Tahoe area of California and Nevada, is offering unlimited ski or snowboard rentals for the season for $359 a person."So, don't pack a bag that's over 50lbs because it can cost you an additional $50 charge. Be smart. Look on-line for deals and try to pack light. If you come across any sweet deals please send 'em this way! With the economy already bringing us down, a ski vacation seems like an awesome getaway until you look at all of the additional rip offs the airlines have. Let's start shipping out luggage to where we are going to vacation! And you'll see me carrying my boots around the airport with me if it'll make my bag that much lighter and give me the possibility to fit it all into one... Okay, maybe I'm dreaming on only bringing one bag. But I still feel bad for you if you have to sit next to me with my snowboarding boots, they're what we call 'funky'. That'll show the airlines!
We were lucky enough to have a day off to head up to Mount Snow to shred some. We were also lucky enough to have a beautiful sunny day that kept it above freezing temps. I wanted to check out the re-designed Carinthia mountain face that is entirely dedicated to freestyle terrain parks. Once the snow really starts falling they will have 125 different features scattered about 12 full terrain parks. It's every jibber and jumpers dream. But meanwhile, the place was still covered in features! It was awesome. Jumps, rails, boxes, rails and barrels. They had enough for beginners to test their courage out and for the "experts" to take off on the big kickers. Every trail we went on had some feature to play around on and since it was the middle of the week it was pretty mellow with people. That gave me room to embarass myself as I tried the bigger features! Making Carinthia an entire freestyle park was a smart move. In my opinion, freestyle skiers and snowboarders are one of the largest groups and growing. It's exciting to have this giant park on the east coast and now along with The Stash at Killington, you won't have to go out West to find the sickest parks.Trail map:
As always, Burton is changing up the game. The 2008/2009 Ronin line will be the last and in its place, they are working on a new line called Burton Restricted that will be available to select Burton dealers. This new line of pants and jackets will be focused and designed for the "die-hard" rider, aged somewhere in between 16 and 25. Burton's vice president of softgoods, John Lacy, had this to say about the new line, "This Burton Restricted Collection is a small offering of jackets and pants with very competitive prices. We wanted to be able to offer our riders and retailers something very similar in price to our main Burton line, but with a younger progressive edge. I think customers will be stoked on the value of these products."Burton's always ahead of the curve! Definitely watch out for this new line and watch out for riders; Mason, Keegan, Kazu, Yale, Luke Mitrani, and Jack Mitrani who have all been working with Burton to help design the new line. Check out http://business.transworld.net/ for more info and an interview with John Lacy.
It's almost Thanksgiving. It's almost black Friday. Stuffs going to be crazy down here! And pretty much anywhere in the retail business... but enclave is ready for you folks. We are fully stocked in boards, boots and bindings, outerwear, first layer, sunglasses (Oakley and Anon), goggles, women's denim (roxy, Quik and Lucky), cute Matix dresses, dress coats, etc, etc, etc....And on top of that, we have a few women's items on sale. Along with men's footwear that incluses Gravis, Es, Emerica, DVS, DC, and Nike. Men's tees, denim by Matix and Volcom, collared shirts for that Thanksgiving dinner are also on sale.! Come by and check it out. Price as marked, you'll see the bright orange sticker starin' at ya. Get excited. The prices are unbeatable.And for those of you who made it out to any opening day in New England, props to you. We hit up Stowe and it was awesome. Then Saturday night they got a few inches so we had freshies on Sunday. Let us know where you're going, send us pictures of you getting epic. We want it all!
Hello Internet world. I was poking around on some websites, checking out all of the new '08-'09 gear and realized just how many on-line shops there are out there AND how many shops carry every single brand. I could locate a shop that had the board I was looking at just about anywhere in the United States. OR the on-line shop would ship it to me, and also give me advice on eight other items I should buy because it'll make my kit that much more awesome.
Well, what if I don't want a computer telling me what else I need in my kit. Why do I need that extra scarf steeze? Will that honestly improve my riding? Why do I need that Burton tee shirt? Buying your kit for the season should be a personal experience and one that fits exactly to your riding style. How is a computer going to offer me purple and pink snow pants to go with my black men's jacket I was going to buy?
Local shops (aka enclave) are what breathe life into the sport of snowboarding and skating. The people that work in the local shops have developed such a passion for the sport and want to share it with the customers. When you come in for your 1st board, I want to help you find one that will fit to what you want to do, what you like to ride and also give you options on what bindings and boots will work best to give you the ultimate ride. A computer can show you the options but can't explain to you why this will work best for you.
Or you can walk into one of the giant mall stores that sell shred materials and come over over-whelmed and with a kit that doesn't suit you. Cause half the time those kids don't know or don't care. I don't think myself or any of the kids I ride with would be where they were without the support of local shops to help get us into the contests, give us free samples or product, help us with tips on tricks...
Basically this whole rant has one theme, support local. We're here cause we love the sport! And want you to love it too! That's why enclave picked up the best of the best for the upcoming winter.
