Easter Weekend Offerings – Day 2

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So much powder to slash – so little time

Day 2 of Easter weekend greeted us with blue skies and nice cool temps again. We rallied up to a familiar zone and bagged a few long north facing lines to start off the morning. Slashed a few lips, popped some ollies, shredded some ditches and dropped some rocks. So much fun. RC had to bail out early but I decided to stick around and grab a few shots I had been thinking about.

whip slash in the middle of “ditch fest” – one of my favorite low consequence powsurf runs


I sessioned this little wall hit for a few airs before moving on to a new zone. Good for a few ollies and a backside 180.


This area is well known for its numerous caves and sink holes. There are 3 huge sink holes and a big cave near this area. I got brave and didn’t bother to wear a leash or anything for a few jumps.. This resulted in the near loss (forever) of one of my boards. I slammed, the board went flying down the mountain and literally rode the wall of a bottomless sink hole a few hundred feet down the mountain. Note to self… wear your leash.

My runaway board literally rode the bowl around this sink hole. You can see it’s track at the bottom of the pic. I threw some stuff down this hole and I could not hear it hit the bottom… I was super lucky not to lose my board for good.

The weather warmed up a bit so I moved on to another zone a few miles away and a bit higher up to find some colder snow to ride. The light was fading fast so my options were pretty limited but I found this hump that was begging to be slashed. Notice the gloveless right hand – I snapped this with a remote shutter controller.

I took a nice break on the upper peaks, looking around for some features and making some plans for the late afternoon light. This is one of my favorite spots in the world to chill. I’ve been coming to this spot for over 20 years and it never gets old. It really makes me appreciate the beautiful area I am so lucky to live in.


As golden hour approached pieces of sunshine became more difficult to find. I managed to find a decent NW facing slope where I could ghostride my sled down and make some late evening turns.

High powered slash


 Head plant… from trying to slash too hard.

The sun got even lower until I was limited to the very tops of the ridges for sunlight. I set up a few shots hoping to catch some golden light. (these are NOT the shots) these are frame grabs from the video I was shooting…. of me shooting the shots – if that makes sense. The light didn’t pop much in these frame grabs.

Here’s a shot of me getting a shot of me
As the sun dropped farther into the western skyline I scrambled to find a zone where the “golden light” would be shining. My options were limited this late in the evening but I managed to find a few features that were surfable before the sun set. It was a dark and cold trip home, I was pretty beat down from the 12+ hour powsurf session.

Easter Weekend Offerings – Day 1

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Fresh snow and cooler temps kept the powdersurfing conditions epic throughout the Easter weekend. We actually had 3 bluebird days in a row! I think that is a first for this season. (it’s been snowy as hell this winter)

A few powsurf first descents went down on friday on some bigger and more exposed lines. “The Knob” was our first zone to kick off the weekend. “Check your pants” and one of the “Triplets” were my choice of lines to start off the day. 1500 vertical foot runs of deep cold smoke… it doesn’t get much better than this.
Behold “The Knob”
Lines from Left to right : “Check your pants”, “The Lawn Mower”, “The Triplets”, “The Flux”, and “The Skinny”


Choking on pow turns on the upper section of “Check Your Pants”.

Poppin ollies over trees
After checking my pants I moved over to the first of the “Triplets” and gutted it proper from the top. There was some old slide debris in the chute that made things pretty challenging but there was just enough fresh on top to make it doable.


Power slash in the hanging snow field just above the choke in #1 of “The Triplets”


I feel funny complaining this time of year that the snow is too deep… but this was the case today. 16-18 inches made blazing trail on the sleds pretty difficult, so we had to change our plans up a bit. As soon as we arrived to our zone my sled decided to die… the key quit working and I was pretty much stranded. We made do with just one sled for the day and managed to score pretty well considering our situation.
Chalk up another epic day of powsurfing in the Utah Backcountry

Spring Waves

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This season just keeps dishing up the goods and of course we keep on slashing away at them.

April has brought us a steady flow of fresh powder with very few breaks in the clouds. This means less bluebird days but at least the quality of powder remains light and dry. We have been forced into the thicker woods for visibility’s sake but I have no complaints. The goods are in the woods.
I apologize for all the GoPro shots in advance… The snowy weather has kept my nicer cameras in their bags for much of the season. I try to at least mix it up with some unseen angles.
Laying out some g-turns on the powsurf


Catching a breath in between facefulls of pow


Getting barreled

I love spring time in Northern Utah. Most resorts are closed and the masses have moved on to riding bikes and golfing. The storms keep rolling thru, raining in the valley and dumping snow in the mountains, leaving tons of fresh pow for me and my homies to track up.

Powsurfing the “Secret Bowl”

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“Secret Bowl” – One of my all time favorite zones.

The view from the top

The view from the bottom

Today was the perfect day for a first decsent of the northeast face of “Secret Bowl”. I powsurfed the north face of the bowl a couple of years ago as well as last year and finally the conditions were ripe to get the NE face.
The drop in of the run is usually the toughest part due to wind and sun damage. You kind of just have to point it thru that stuff and catch yourself with a turn as soon as the snow turns good. That really gets the heart pumping…. I felt like Danny Way dropping into the mega-ramp up there.
The first turn
The first turn was a good one! Thank God- or I would have been starfishing down the mountain uncontrollably. Now I have 1200 vertical of fresh pow ahead of me to slash before reaching the bottom. 20 turns and 10 or so faceshots later, I was at the bottom with a shit eating grin on my face. That was one of the funnest powsurf runs I have ever had.
Getting Barreled

Two perfect windlips awaited me near the bottom – begging me to slash them.


crushing the lip

The first run got me so stoked, especially after slashing two deep windlips near the bottom. I had to get me some more of that. So we charged back to the top for another.
Round 2!

Threading the needle – High speed ollie

Another perfect windlip waited for me near the bottom


We only had time for a half day today so we unwillingly packed up our gear and headed for home. We had scored much better conditions than we bargained for and it was really hard to leave so much sick terrain and untouched pow behind. I hope I can make it back before the season is up. Fingers crossed.


120cm Powder Skate – Slaying the deep pow.

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I keep getting requests from people for longer boards… trust me, you don’t need the giant board that you think you might want! Our boards are designed to be much shorter than snowboards for a number of reasons and as you can see even the shortest board we make dominates the deep & light pow.

Here’s a quick peep of the 120cm slaying some April pow pow.

Playgrounds

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I’m loving how powsurfing has opened up so much new terrain to play in and on. Features that we would normally disregard have become the source of all sorts of good times. It really makes you look at the mountain differently and opens up new worlds of possibilities.

I’ve been driving by this feature for years on my snowmobile. I finally took a closer look at it and this cave/couloir made for a perfect gap jump.


We threw together this quick kicker to see what we could do off it. If you could make it past the insane run it at extremely high speeds then you got to boost off it. Made for some pretty cool footage… either you would slam super hard on the in run, or you would get a nice boost into a perfect landing.

I’ve always wanted to kickflip off of a cliff, so we made it happen one fine day. It was great fun until my board shot out and hit the snowmobile, exploding on impact.
Kickflip rock drop…scary.



Pop shovit in the pow!

A simple pow slash always puts a smile on my face. There has been no shortage of these this season. In fact, my face is sore from smiling so much.

Non-stop powduh

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The powder has been stacking up deep this year… the big boards have been seeing quite a bit of action.

This winter has been relentless. A constant flow of storms has kept us riding fresh pow every time we get out. Sunny days have been few and far between but the quality of snow has kept powsurfing conditions epic to say the least. Bigger airs, faster lines…. powsurfing just keeps getting more and more fun and the possibilities reveal themselves every day.

Boosting a natural hip under milky skies.





Full Steam

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The latest round of boards, hot off the press. – The “powder skate”, “slasher”, “slasher 140” and “Powder Shark 140”


The recent lack of posts on the blog is certainly not a reflection of a lack of riding this season. Footage and photos are stacking up so fast I can hardly keep up. R&D on some longer boards and new shapes has been super fun and the progression of riding is moving ahead faster than ever. Bigger cliffs, steeper lines, and technical tricks are an everyday occurrence. More and more riders are catching wind of powsurfing and realizing the potential. People all over the world are testing the boards and I have had nothing but positive feedback and intense stoke on riding the boards. Once they step on one of these they are instantly sold.

Warming up with a little drop which sends you straight for a little hip jump (pic below)

Kickflip in the pow pow

360 shov on the mini hip

If all your interested in doing is making turns, you may be missing half of the point of bindingless riding. – 360 Kickflip in the Utah Backcountry.


One glory slash is worth a hundred turns!


Here I am talking shit about turning… Seriously though, here’s my philosophy, “Turns are what you do to control your speed and guide you to the next feature that you plan on dropping, launching or powerslashing”… you can quote me on that.



New Shape Test in the Mashed Potatoes

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We snowmobiled for a few miles before we finally hit the snow line. It was sopping wet and it was raining/snowing. We were lucky enough to find a tree filled zone with rideable snow. A wicked rime crust had formed above 8700 feet and the rain line was at around 8000 ft. Our zone was right in the sweet spot in between.

A mix of wind crust and coastal mashed potato powder was on the menu for the day. We managed to have a great time and the new shape I just designed cut thru that shit like a hot knife thru butter.

Winter is upon us. Surf’s up!

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Crackin an ollie in the forest.

Winter came quick and with a vengeance in Utah this year. Before I knew it there was nearly two feet of pow in my yard and 40-50 inches up in our nearby mountains. I should stay home and keep working on this snowboard/powdersurf film that’s been in the works for a couple of years now, but it is just too difficult when I know there is pow to be slashed.
The usual early season zones were in full effect so I made some time to get some powdersurfing in. A couple of quick sessions with my dog was all I needed to get me in the right mood. I came home inspired to finish up this film… so I can move on to the next project. Which will likely be a longer powsurfing documentary of sorts.
I learned to snowboard in this zone 21 years ago… I have visited this place for early season riding every year for the past 21 years. Damn, that makes me feel like an old timer.

Happy Anniversary… 21 years!

Kickflip


FS air


360 Shovit

Storm-dog looking for critters to harass.



When the sun and warm weather comes out and kills the snow quality there is still some fun to be had. We packed out a little kicker and proceeded to get our skate on.

We used to joke about one day being able to do a 360 kickflip on a powsurfer… well, today was the day I guess.
Rider: Jeremy Jensen Photo: Josh Serna
Ever year a small rail garden grows down in the campground. Kids bring up new rails and logs every year and when the road is no longer passable the rails become buried for the winter and are confiscated after the snow melts in the spring. Some how the garden re-grows every year near the same spot. This years garden was quite nice and I was able to jib and bonk a few things on the powsurfer before it got buried.
Tubular.

Fresh Beaver!

The solid early snowpack caught our local ski resort by surprise so we were able to get quite a few preseason days at the resort in. Bindinless boards are forbidden within the resort boundaries here during the season so this was our window to get some powsurfing in. Sorry to all the people who showed up opening day to an already tracked out mountain… :)
I assure you we had a great time cutting it up.
Dec 4, 2010
The ‘Beav is now opened up to the public so now I am forced into the side-country runs- which is fine with me. That is where the goods are at anyways. Dave and I made it up there for some backside runs… super fun as usual, especially in the low snowpack. Baby pillows galore!
Dave blasting down the backside..