Hey there everyone out there in snowboard-internet-land, hope everyone is off to a great start with their winter. Just in case you were interested, my winter has been awesome so far so I figured I’d tell you what’s been happenin’. Started off great here in Utah with some early season powder at Brighton. Things actually filled in pretty quickly and we were able to get some excellent early season slashes in. I got a chance to go up there a few times and ride with Mouse and the rest of the park crew. Those guys know what’s up outside the parks as well, and they can show you some of the best early season powder spots around the mountain
Tranny finders, little cliffs, tree rides, and backflip jumps everywhere. Pretty quickly Brighton was 100 percent open – something thats pretty crazy to happen in early december. I tried to get my powder fix as much as possible, but when it snows all over the place it tends to get busy. Luckily the nightboardin’ was just as awesome as the daytime riding, so I could mix in some city boardin’ a couple days before heading back up the mountain. Its pretty crazy to have snow in the cities in December as well, so we decided to hit the streets while we could and try and get started filming for the year. Within about a week’s time it felt like mid season again, with every different crew running amock around Salt Lake City scrambling for rail shots. We did what we could before the snow melted, and then hit up the infamous Rail Gardens for a few days just to settle down a little bit.
Rail Gardens Edit stay tuned for Rail Gardens “The Movie” later this winter!
Just as we thought the early season rail scramble was over, it dumped again. 2 feet of fresh snow back in the streets, so the Club Boya Training Facility was born. Front yard halfpipe sessions ensued. However, instead of continuing the mad dash for December rail shots, a few of us in the Club Boya household started the 12 hour (turned into 16 with weather) drive to Summit at Snoqualmie for a Think Thank shoot. We arrived early the next morning and awoke to a fresh few feet of powder, a bunch of old and new friends, and a welcome from the man with the plan, Jesse Burtner. The next few days were filled with all kinds of activities – lots of new snow, a fun jib setup from Krush to keep us occupied, Ices everywhere you looked, crazy snowboarding ideas, and non-stop entertainment from everyone involved. Good times for sure.
Another 14 hour drive back to Salt Lake City, and it was resort time. No more snow in the city meant time to settle down a little bit and hit the slopes. Brighton continued to be awesome, with a fun park and small powder stashes if you know where to look. Park City was also amazing – they had what looked like a mid-winter park. Jumps and jibs everywhere; that place seems like it’ll be pretty incredible this year. I was pretty psyched to get a couple resort days under my belt in the midst of all the filming and traveling, because shortly after came another overnight drive to Copper Mtn in CO for a contest. Got to ride a nice day of powder at Copper before getting ready for the Grand Prix rail jam later that night. Great to see lots of friends that I don’t normally see and ride a pretty fun setup. Met up with Tucker Andrews (thanks for the helmet Tuck!), who was there riding some powder as well and checking out the contest. Forest Bailey was also there for the jam. I’m sure you already know this, but Forest rips and easily took third place in the contest with things like Bs 360 to 5050, fs 360s over the jump, and (no jump)back lips through the closeout.
From Colorado I took a couple buses, a plane, and a couple more buses to Washington, where I met up with Burtner, Sean Genovese, and the Think Thank media crew. We met up in the middle of nowhere in northern WA and then hopped over the border into Canada. Being new to Canada, I was pretty excited to try some poutine, see some new sights, and ride some new spots. Can’t spare too many details of the trip, but it was awesome and be sure to check out the new Think Thank vid to check out what went down. Jesse’s Weakly Report will also help tell the tales of the trip. Now its time to head back home for the holidays, then on to the next adventure around New Years. Hope everyone has a great holiday season!