A documentary film about the history, contemporary and future of true binding-free powdersurfing.
A story on bindingless riding just dropped in Canada’s finest snowboard magazine and we were kindly included in the run down of various board options. We are hyped that Snowboard Canada would be willing to work with us and spend a few days in the backcountry gathering images and memories. We had a blast up there and can’t wait to get back up there for more.
The article gave a run-down of a few board options that exist out there and stated a few characteristics of each brand. As with any media, things often get confused or missed in communication. We were labelled as the “skate – style” company which we suppose was fair because we make sure that our boards are the least restrictive and are designed to allow the rider to fully take advantage of not having the board attached. They also ollie better and are more agile and controllable than anything out there and that goes a long way. What was not mentioned is how they handled any and all conditions we threw at them. When all the other boards were either unrideable in the conditions or forcing the rider to grab that dreadful rope for control, our boards were still ruling those conditions. Fully hands free and truly binding free. And that certainly deserved mention. They also produce a unique ride and feel that is much different from your typical snowboard.. much more surf-like (more so than Skate-like) and very agile.. something we are very proud of and something that has taken years of R&D to accomplish. We were a little bummed to be labeled as just the “skater dudes” here, as that is just a small part of what we are about.. but stoked to be included and honored to go powsurfing with Canadian legends that I spent my childhood idolizing. Watch the video below that was made from the first 4 days of our trip.. and see what our boards are all about!
The Powsurf Chronicles Ep 6 – Canada! from Grassroots Powdersurfing on Vimeo.
Scott Gaffney sending it on his Grassroots Slasher
I hate to be picky.. but the quote used in the article was very misleading.. It was taken from two quotes, and mixed together out of context, missing the entire point I was trying to get across. I spoke about how I originally started by just taking the bindings off of snowboards to see if it was possible to ride without bindings. What they left out were my words about how snowboards don’t make good bindingless boards! and they don’t perform well unless it is knee deep blower pow! (this is why so many noboarders use the rope) This is the whole reason why we started shaping my own and also the reason that our boards look and ride nothing like traditional snowboards. We wanted something that had precision control in varying conditions and allowed the freedom to ollie, spin and flip the board, and have really good control in a variety of conditions. Snowboard shape and construction did not allow for this and that is why Grassroots powsurfers are built and designed the way they are.
We pride ourselves in offering a variety of shapes to accomodate riders of any size and style. They are so incredibly “surfy” and fun.. much different than a snowboard feel. We have spent years perfecting them so it’s a bummer when we get labelled so narrowly as simply “the skate style” guys in the article. All you have to do is watch any of our films and see the boards in action and it’s clear that skate-style riding is only a fraction of what our boards excel at. But on that same note.. skateboarding is the most technically difficult sport on the planet and has progressed leaps and bounds beyond anyone’s wildest expectations.. We hope to do the same for powsurfing.
CHECK THE LINK TO THE STORY ON SNOWBOARD CANADA HERE
Snowboard Canada deserves a HUGE thanks for the article and efforts. Jeff Patterson and Rob Stevens were instrumental in bringing all these riders together and making these 4 days some of the best days of the season. Cheers amigos!! See you again soon.
Our trip to Canada was a blast.. one of the funnest trips of my life. The film in this article is just 4 days of riding and there is so much more to see! We will release more footage as time permits from the rest of the trip.
Jeremy Jensen – Mid pillow line.
It seems we had to wait longer than ever before to get a taste of powder this year but as always it’s well worth the wait. It was mid November when finally a couple of feet blanketed our special zone that we have re-visited for the past 25 years. I learned to snowboard here nearly 25 years, I learned to powsurf here 14 years ago and it just never gets old. So many nooks and crannies that hold special memories and continue to dish out great memories on every visit. Welcome winter!!
Whippin’ through head high weeds!
Even 5 inches on dirt is enough to surf when you get the type of floatation that a Grassroots Powsurfer provides. Weed Wackin’!
RC and I made multiple laps this day, making shallow slalom skateboard-like turns so we didn’t scrape bottom. So fun watching weeds explode before our eyes and challenging to control speed without taking any speed scrub turns.
Riding 5″ on dirt was a bit of a tease but fun nonetheless. 2 weeks later we got a real dump with 2 new feet to fill things in so we could really slash the pow. Still a bit thin for coverage but it’s amazing how much fun you can squeeze out of just a little bit of snow. That’s part of the magic of powsurfing.
Brandon and Jeremy soaking in the sun and taking in the familiar view.
14 years ago Brandon Saunders and I brought up an old Winterstick Round Tail plus to this very zone for some of our first big binding free runs. We were amazed that it was possible to link turns and so full of stoke and thoughts about the future and how we could make a board that would work even better. It was great to re-unite with Brandon and get him back on snow again. This time on powsurfers designed and shaped for this very thing.. Brandon was so hyped and amazed with riding boards that were designed for this very purpose. Welcome back Brandon!
This was Brandon’s first binding free powturn in 14 years. Welcome back brother.
Brandon getting pitted in the woods!
Dodging stumps, fallen trees, logs and rocks in the tight woods..scary but so much fun! That smile says it all.
What would an early season at the “sacred grove” be without a little fun in the campground? We finished off hot pow laps with some pole jammin for desert.
Pole Jam on the Grassroots Phish Swallow tail.
Pole Jam Shuvit
Pole Jam kickflip.
Many of these babies were actually handcrafted over a year ago and they were just too beautiful to let go. I am a bit of a hoarder when it comes to powsurfers, my house and walls are littered with them. It drives my wife absolutely crazy. Fortunately she sees the long hours and sleepless nights that I pour into this passion and she recognizes the unstoppable drive I have to get outside and rip as much pow as humanly possible. It obviously makes me happy and it is part of who I am so she puts up with it.
Sometimes I feel that I get carried away with designing and building things to be as functional as possible; ptex bases, fully gripped topsheets with deep concave, shapes based on performance rather than just aesthetics, etc. I want the boards I make to ride as good as possible, or else the experience is compromised. I feel the experience is really what it is all about, more so than how “cool” the board looks. I work to blend the two, but often times my mind chooses function over fashion.
So I decided to take a break from my normal attitude and focus on making something beautiful as priority one, but still make it ride great so as not to disappoint the rider. They may not be as fast and as durable as our ptex based boards but they are gorgeous.. so much so that you may not even want to ride them for fear of scratching them. Whether they end up on your wall or under your feet, these boards will certainly turn heads and put smiles on faces.
Check out whats available on the Grassroots Wooden Classics Page. Each of these are one-of-a-kind, personally handcrafted and signed. I hope the lucky few who pick these up enjoy them as much as I have. (wiping tears)
Designed and handcrafted in Logan, Utah by Jeremy Jensen
If you haven’t checked out Kronicle backcountry snowboard magazine yet then you are missing out. This is a great magazine, packed full of mouth watering photography, backcountry gear reviews and great stories. This mag is geared towards people who love exploring the backcountry and riding fresh pow. We highly recommend buying a copy or two of their print material and following them online. Last week Jeremy Jensen, owner/creator of Grassroots Powdersurfing sat down with Kronicle Magazine to talk about the history of Grassroots and what the future holds for binding-free riding. Click the link below to check it out, and don’t forget to subscribe to their feed, their facebook page and their print mag. You will be glad you did.
http://www.kroniclemag.com/kronicled-jeremy-jensen/
Exploring the mountains of Alaska has been a life-long dream for me and this season I am doing everything I can to make that dream come true. When I saw that Snowboarder Magazine and Tailgate Alaska were giving away $5000 towards a trip to the Tailgate AK event my hopes were raised. I’ve been trying to bag as much footy as possible this season, despite it being the driest Utah winter in recorded history. So I threw some of it together and put my hat in the ring.
While I’m not a fan of facebook popularity contests, I figured it was worth a try. If nothing else it is another platform for more people to be exposed to the possibilities of ripping down mountains without the help of the old training wheels. While it was one of the favorites, the edit didn’t win the contest. So I will be making my Alaska dream come true the Grassroots way.. through hard work and personal sacrifice. One way or another I will make it to Alaska to surf the biggest mountains in the world this year.
Here’s a look at my submission. Thanks to my homies for helping me get shots!
Snowboard Magazine’s Ticket to Tailgate: Jeremy Jensen from Grassroots Powsurf on Vimeo.
Reading the title of this article I was a little estranged. “Local business owner creates extreme sport” seemed like a pretty big claim. It’s a stretch to put a finger on who “created” powsurfing, or the act of sliding sideways down mountains on boards free from bindings and ropes. It’s kind of like saying someone invented playing catch, or was the first person to run or skip. The concept and practice of binding-free snow sliding dates back centuries at the least. What we at Grassroots have done is create a tool (or toy) to encourage and enable riders to take this form of snow sliding to new levels, incorporating contemporary skate style and more of a true surf style than what we had seen in the past. We felt that if you were going to ride a bindingless board then it should be a board designed specifically for that task (rather than throwing a pad on a snowboard that is designed and built to be ridden with bindings) and you may as well be able to take full advantage of not having a board strapped onto your feet. Spin it, flip it, ollie it,.. make the most out of your ride to the bottom. If that’s what constitutes the creation of a new extreme sport then I guess we’ll wear that hat with pride.
Here’s a link to the article. http://www.usustatesman.com/local-business-owner-creates-extreme-sport-1.2808749#.USaN5Y5EAso
Super hyped on getting the call from The Globe & Mail; Canada’s National newspaper. They had seen the films and heard of this thing called “powsurfing”, and they wanted to know more. So we dished the beta and donated some photos for the cause. The article included a couple of other companies perspectives and quotes. (powsurfing is sooo hot right now! (sarcasm…well sort of)) Interesting to see how many people are quickly hopping on the bandwagon. It serves as a testament to how much fun this powsurfing thing really is. It was funny to see some people comment on the article and say “that’s just noboarding”, while others could see the clear distinction and difference. The people who get it, obviously get it.. and those who don’t probably never will.
Nice article and an awesome opportunity to give the masses a glimpse into what it is we love to do. Pretty rad that it came out on the winter solstice as well!
Below is the link to the article online:
Check it POWDER PLAY – GLOBE AND MAIL December 21st 2012
Boom! Grassroots on the front page of Canada’s National Newspaper
Out of nowhere came an email from the Canadian National Television station wanting to do a story on Powsurfing. They said they couldn’t send a cameraman down to Utah and needed someone in the Whistler area to do the interview. As luck(?) would have it, Scotty Arnold and I just happened to be in the Whistler area at the time! I’ve only been to Canada twice in my life and this was a pretty crazy coincidence. I knew it had to be done so we set aside a day of our trip to do some PR work.
Bob Nixon, Scotty Arnold, and Simon ready for action
Avalanche conditions were high with a fresh couple of feet on top of a deep layer of surface hoar. We weren’t about to take a TV crew deep into the backcountry and put them and ourselves at risk. We had to settle for some very low angle slopes completely out of harms way. All the obvious signs of fresh wind slabs breaking everywhere, cracking, collapsing, etc confirmed our decision. On the approach to a relatively small but steep slope we remotely triggered numerous fresh slides that were a few inches deep, two steps later while crossing a creek the snow cracked loudly, breaking 4 feet deep and sending me into the creek bed below. One knee and one arm plunged into knee deep icy water. That sealed the deal and we relocated to another zone, very low angle and out of the way of any hang-fire.
The TV crew interviewed myself and Scotty Arnold about the history, the how, and the why. Really good interviews that kind of ended up butchered in the end, but so goes the mainstream tv world. The action shots were very mellow due to the sketchy conditions that day. We hiked a couple of short low angle lines and jumped off some small drops for their cameras and called it a day. Not the most epic day by any means but good for the PR machine. We were just stoked on the opportunity to spread the word about what we love to do and help Grassroots continue to grow.
Luckily we found a couple of little drops out of harms way for the TV crew
Watch the Interview and check the story below:
Interview with Jeremy Jensen about the freedom of powdersurfing:
http://www.cbc.ca/video/watch/News/Canada/BC/ID=2324239337
English Channel Story : “Powder-surfing pioneers seek freedom in a new sport”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/01/09/bc-powder-surfing.html
We are stoked to have the support of more and more shops around the world. Salty Peaks has been a leading retailer in the industry for decades and we are proud to have our products on the shelves and in the museum. Check the Salty Peaks interview with Jeremy Jensen (founder/owner) of Grassroots Powdersurfing, pics and videos here!
http://www.saltypeaks.com/blog/2012/12/grassroots-powdersurfing-freeriding-never-felt-so-free.html
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