Onboard mag – Powsurf Chronicles Teaser Write-up

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Onboard magazine showing a little love for what we’ve got going on here.

http://onboard.mpora.com/videos/powsurf-chronicles-teaser.html

The Powsurf Chronicles – Teaser is out!

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Introducing “The Powsurf Chronicles” a series of short films about powsurfing.  We will be dropping Chronicles throughout the winter season to keep the stoke running high and share with our audience the things that set Grassroots Powdersurfing (and powsurfing in general) apart from the rest of the world of snow sports.

The teaser is just the tip of the iceberg and it should give you a small glimpse of what’s in store for the future.  With so many bangers, hammers and hum-dingers to sift thru, it took a while to get this little teaser done.  We are stoked to pump out a few short videos this year that offer a little glimpse into what we have been up to over the past few years.  The good times, the bad, history, direction, evolution, potential… there are so many avenues to base these films on.. the hard part is picking one and sticking with it.

So here’s the tease… and stay tuned for more.  We will crank these out the best we can with the limited time we have.  Hopefully they will open some eyes and minds, and get people stoked to go outside, grab a Grassroots powsurfer, and go get a face full of powder.

Shot, Edited, Directed, and Produced by Jeremy Jensen.  
Other cameras: Josh Surna, Aaron Hunt, Craig Stevenson, Kanika Koh, Erik Haberstick, and Dave Smellie.

Radio Interview with The Ogden Outdoor Adventure Show

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I received an email from Brandon Long with the Ogden Outdoor Adventure show requesting a radio interview.  He wanted to talk about Grassroots Powdersurfing…. the boards, the history, and the future.

CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO HEAR THE INTERVIEW.
Jeremy Jensen interview – Grassroots Powdersurfing

Link the the blog post on Odgen Outdoor Adventure site:

Big Thanks to Brandon Long, the Ogden Outdoor Adventure show, and Jeff Young, who helped get the ball rolling on this.

Early Season Weed Wackin’

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It’s super rare to get such brilliant colors frosted in white. Beautiful drive.

The first early season tease of snow fell on October 7th 2011. We rallied up to the “sacred grove” to check the depth and were delighted to find enough pow to snowskate the campground and powsurf the upper fields.

Check the video!

These early season sessions are what motivated us to start riding bindingless over a decade ago. We were always super excited to ride some pow, but we were bored with riding the mellow grassy slopes while strapped into our snowboards. After a decade of evolution, we are having more fun than ever surfing and skating the snow up here. Ditching the bindings has made it so much more challenging and rewarding.
Here’s to another winter season!!
Bindingless, gloveless, hatless, careless, reckless, fearless, blissfulness..
Mowin’ down them weeds!!!

Kickflip on that same ol bump in the earth I hit every year around this time.

Dave Smellie and I tested out some new shapes.. Look out for the “Phish”, our newest directional shape. Super fun ride, flat swallowed tail… makes for some nice drawn out turns. (and of course it makes a really cool looking track)

Where would board sports be without the ollie? So crucial.

Looks can be deceiving.. I rolled up a couple days later to bluebird conditions, only to find the white stuff was crusted solid. Can’t wait for the next storm!


SLUG Magazine features Grassroots Powdersurfing.

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The October issue of SLUG magazine just hit the shelves and there is a nice little two page story on Grassroots Powdersurfing. Big thanks to Slug mag and Shawn Mayer for coming up to Logan and checking out what we do.

Slug magazine has been supporting the local underground and music scene since 1988, and I must say they do a damn fine job of it.
Check the article here.
http://www.slugmag.com/articles/3046/Grassroots-Powdersurfing.html

Shapes, scraps, and customs… decisions.

We have been hard at work stocking up on boards for the upcoming season.  Over the past spring and summer we’ve been playing a bit with some new shapes and styles.. . taking advantage of some of the scraps that are lying around.  We are excited to get some of these on the snow.  There are a few that we just built for fun and they probably aren’t the best everyday boards.. but they will have their days where they rip for sure.  Unfortunately we will have to wait for snow to fall to find out.

 “The Blue Bomber” is just one of a bunch of experimental shapes we’ve got brewing.  

Makeshift kick tail support for the flat backed boards.  Helps keep the feet on but we are finding that the flat tailed decks are not super playful.

We have built and tested 30+ different shapes and sizes and it’s pretty cool to discover all of the differences in the way each one rides.  Some subtle and others are very apparent.  Some ride great and some will do better hanging on a wall somewhere.  Shape is key.

A small collection of the quiver that has built up over the past 4 years.. the room wasn’t big enough for the whole quiv.

We decided to stick to a few shapes and sizes that have been tried and true for the 2011 line.  


Shaping is a blast but we had to narrow down what we were going to offer to the public for now.  There are a couple more that we may release after they have been properly tested and dialed in but this will likely be the line.

Adam in AZ is an old Winterstick rider from the 70’s.  He saw what we have been doing and liked what was amped to have a custom board made for him.  I customized this “Rocket” for him shaped for his height, weight and foot size.  I wish I could have taken a few rides on her before I sent it off.

Custom “Red Rocket” built for Adam in AZ.


 

Summer sweatshop

Production has been in high gear since the season finally came to an end. I’ve revamped and updated the website, processed hours and hours of footage and photos, and pressed as many boards as possible. I have a grip of new experimental shapes and sizes and I can’t wait to take them for a test drive.

We are involved in a bunch of new media about to hit the magazine stands, the television, and the interwebs this fall. It will be interesting to see how “the masses” react to this stuff. Maybe they love it, maybe they hate on it.. Either way, It won’t affect the amount of fun I have surfing the pow.

Grassroots Powdersurfing Sweatshop – Manville, USA
The “Red Rocket”… aka “The Bomb”
Given the MANY hours I spend building these boards, I get pretty attached to them. I have a hard time letting them go really. Hopefully they find find happy homes and live up to their full potential.

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Summer Solstice Snowskate Sesh

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I’ve been shredding so much pow this year that i just haven’t had an opportunity to get on the bi-decks as much as I used to. Our local resort has outlawed them so they rarely see much action aside from early season campground sessions and apres shred parking lots. It felt great to get out and throw some slush around.

Conditions were a bit bumpy and sticky in spots, but we had a hell of a good time.

I had an old Burton Junkyard, (from the first run of snowskates that burton did over a decade ago) a Ralston that I have been itching to give a good test ride on, and a Florida Powderskate that I traded Adam a powsurf for. The Ralston and the Florida shredded up the slush pretty nicely. The burton… well, too small, too old, needs a basegrind, ect….
Peep the vid!
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Alta is for Powsurfing

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Jeremy Jensen Powsurfing at Alta Ski Resort


Late season snowstorms and cold temps were back in full swing in late May. I was due to leave for Kauai on a surf filming mission this weekend so I decided to leave a day early in hopes of bagging some late season pow at the bird. It had been dumping hard for 3 days and snowbird was due to open up on friday with 30 new inches. I woke up stoked and I waited patiently for the road to open after the avy control had finished up. The road opened on schedule and just as I was about to race to the car the bad news hit… Snowbird was not going to open today because of too much snow! They have been running weekends only for the past few weeks so they had not kept up with their avalanche control work and they decided it was too dangerous to open that day. I was pretty pissed after driving all the way from Logan and getting my hopes up to slash 3 feet of pow in late May.
I settled down and got on the phone to everybody I knew in the area to try to find a buddy to go hike some powsurf lines with. I had brought a couple of extra powsurfers with me for friends to ride. Nobody was into it. Who could resist a waist deep pow day in late May?! So I went at it alone. Not the smartest thing to do given all the red flags of the day – snowbird choosing not to open, 3 feet of new snow in May, potential for major warming…etc. However, 20 years shredding the backcountry has taught me that safe travel is still possible if you’re smart about it.


Luckily, Alta had been running their snowcats and had been grooming throughout the week so I didn’t have to hike in waist deep snow. I marched up the groomer passing ski supremacist hippies left and right. (Alta is a “skier only” resort, snowboards are forbidden)
The groomer made the hike up a walk in the park.

I love hiking with the powsurfers becasue they are so light and minimalistic. Of course I get all the awkward looks from people muttering things like “what the hell is that?” and “how do you ride down without bindings”…. I reply with “it’s a powdersurfer” and “gravity”. Some people are intrigued and stoked at the concept and some people can’t quite fathom it (especially your average hippy at Alta). They get all sorts of confused when you blow by them on the ride down.


Balls deep at 10,000 feet

Top of Collins Chair – Strictly Forbidden area for snowboarders

Looks like I’m authorized

Visibility was pretty poor so I decided the trees beneath the Collins chair were a good bet for good pow and better vis. The wind was raging so I quickly gave praise and dropped in for a warm up run. I knew it was going to be pretty deep but I didn’t expect it to be nearly waist deep.


After a short warm up run it was on! Conditions were epic – even for mid winter. Now where to go?

Decisions decisions….

The signs were very helpful…
I ripped a bunch of lines down “sunspot” under the collins chair. Nicely spaced trees kept the pow safe from the wind and the visibility good. The snowpack was so high that I nearly hit my head on the chairs as I slashed by them.

Tree barrel

Almost hit my head on the chair

After 5 runs on the upper mountain I was spent. I headed for one of my favorite zones at Alta for my lower descent. The Wildcat zone holds some sick steep shots with tons of features to launch off of. I had to do some trailblazing in waist deep snow to get there but it was well worth the effort. The snow was pretty saturated on the lower mountain so I needed a good steep run. Although the snow was not as good down here, this was still the funnest run of the day. Super steep chutes with fun buttons left and right- all the way down to the parking lot.
Faceshots galore, fun bumps everywhere, I was in powsurf heaven. I left super stoked to get a nice deep pow day that could be the last of the season. 10 hrs later I hopped on a flight to Kauai and spent the next 10 days soaking in the sun, surfing, and chilling out in a tropical paradise. Pretty epic ender to another epic season.
Peep the footy below!


MayDaze

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It has been 5 or 6 days since the last storm so I kept my hopes low for the day. We rode strapped for the morning and I scouted for deeper pow in the afternoon. Turned out we found some pow just deep enough to surf on the highest north facing slopes.
Earning my turns

I managed to grab a few good still shots with my remote trigger as the sun fell low into the sky. Too good to put on the blog… gonna have to stay tuned for those. My battery died in my remote as the light became just perfect so I was a bit let down. I managed to get some pretty nice video instead.

Slashing above the Mt. Naomi Wilderness


Aaron and I spent the morning snowboarding/skiing. There were some lines we had been waiting all year to hit. They were finally safe enough to shred, but the pow was not quite deep enough to powsurf.


We have been looking at these lines off of Mt. Magog, waiting for the right day. It could be years before they fill in good enough to ride. Hopefully we can nail this one in the next few weeks.