The upper fields are always holding

shooting tubes of cold smoke and rad light

Zach shooting out the end of the gauntlet

Flying out the upper gauntlet – the blur in the shot tells the story.. a fast and wild ride!

Rolling up to the base camp packing a small quiver of powsurfs

A few minutes later we summit on foot, take a few minutes for our heads to adjust and the slashing begins

Cliff drop/Bush Ollie bottom angle

Top Angle

FS air

Slashing in the November light

Creepin’ with with a quiver.  One on my back and 3 on the sled.

The Phish shapes I had designed over the summer were riding pretty cool, not my favorite ride but interesting nonetheless.  I shaped a diamond tail, a square tail, and a couple of swallow tails, all with a variety of different waist widths.  The diamond tail 130 (pictured above) rode fast and straight.  It is a relatively narrow board with a flat tail so it was responsive but still seemed to turn more like a snowboard than I would prefer, not as agile and playful as some of my favorite shapes.  But it rode fast and had it’s own benefits in certain conditions.  The swallows were interesting but again, not what I’m really after… they would probably sell good to people who didn’t know any better… because they look cool.
The more testing we do the more we realize how much snowboarding has confused people when it comes to what makes a good shape for a powsurfer.  People think that a long board with a giant nose and a long swallow tail is going to be the ultimate powsurf shape.. this is so NOT the case!  It’s cool to have a board with a unique shape, but function always outweighs fashion if you want a good ride.  I’m not saying the swallow tail boards don’t perform, they just perform differently and the ride you get is much more snowboard-like feel and not very “surfy” if that makes any sense.  As far as Grassroots Powdersurfing is concerned, we are not trying to imitate snowboarding.  We are bringing something new to the game of snow-sliding and that is what keeps things fresh for us.  If we wanted a snowboard feel, we would ride a snowboard (with or without the bindings).  We want to make boards that offer a new and unique feel, without factors that limit the way you can ride and the tricks you can do.  That is what powdersurfing is all about.

Having a snowmobile doesn’t mean you don’t ever have to hike to get to the goods.

Almost there…

From the top we rally some open pow fields on the way down to some features we found to play on. Slashing the fields is rad but we always want a challenge so we try to get freestyle on the way down.  Kicktails!  I don’t know why you wouldn’t want one.  Crusing pow is great and all but who likes to be glued to the ground the whole time?  The ability to ollie is a priority in the design of our boards adding agility to the overall ride, allowing the rider to ride backwards and putting some pop under your feet.  Even on flat slopes you can get some air time without the help of a bump or jump.

Pop shuvit over a hippie track on the 140 Twin Powder Skate

Hard to tell what the hell is going on here. I’ll give you a hint, its deep, sunny, and the pow is some high quality shit!

I’d been wanting the nose angle of a kickflip for a while, makes for a sick shot on video as the world spins around and the rider stays upright… trip out… (see video below)

Ollies… the root of all freestyle

One last kickflip to cap off another fun day

November was great despite the lack of snowfall late in the month.  We had lots of sunny cold days in some unique and interesting terrain.  Although our options grew smaller every day, this just meant we had to get creative, and creativity always leads to progression.