Solstice Powsurf Session 2012

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Jeremy Jensen Ollies his Grassroots Powsurfer in the Utah Backcountry.

While some of the world hunkered down to prepare for armageddon, the Grassroots crew headed into the hills to celebrate the solstice the best we know how, by enjoying life to the fullest.  A fresh couple of feet had fallen over the past couple of days and the skies turned blue for us.  The shortest day of the year brings seriously epic light on a bluebird day.. long shadows and cold smoke conditions made this one extra special.

The new Powsurf Compatible Cheetah Racks are absolutely bomber. So hyped on this setup!

Mike Lane, a good friend from back in the day was in town from Santa Cruz.  Lane has been surfing non-stop out there for a few years now and he was back to test his skills on the snow.  Lane slayed the steeps and threw in a few good ollies in the process.

Clack! Mike Lane popping ollies in the Utah duff.

 

Lane with a pow-eating grin.

Powsurf Slash

Lane only had a couple of powsurfing days under his belt but he ripped it like a veteran.  There was no second guessing or hesitation when we hit the steeper slopes, just fearless charging and big smiles at the bottom.  While the snowpack was relatively shallow, there is no complaining about fresh cold smoke on a bluebird day.  We seized the day and made the most of what we had to work with, slashing every slash in sight, and popping every fun button.  We milked every last bit of sunlight and left stoked.   So hyped on a new season of exploring possibilities and celebrating a new take on a familiar past time. Happy Solstice!

Jeremy Jensen lining up a couple of ollies.

Powder 8’s on the sled are always fun.

The Future of Powsurfing and Binding-free Riding – Jeremy Jensen Inteview with Buoloco

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Grassroots founder and creator sits down with Ed from Buoloco.com to talk about the future of powsurfing and binding-free riding.

Read the article here  –  http://www.buoloco.com/web6/content/powsurfing-jeremy-jensen

 

Best Powsurfing Day Ever….

The ride up
I ripped 6 backsides at the beav today on my powsurf. It was nothing short of epic. The foot and a half of pow made for nearly ideal conditions. Big thanks to Travis and Nick for catering to my needs and letting me ride the lift. Bindingless boards of any kind are strictly forbidden on the front side of the beav- but they let me have my way with the backcountry.

I shot a couple of runs POV style (if you think riding without bindings is tough try filming yourself riding without bindings) and they actually came out pretty sick. I get alot of weird looks and strange comments – “what the hell is that thing?” is a pretty common one. Pretty much anyone picking me up on the hitch hike back up thought I was nuts.
Make no mistake- this powsurfing stuff is for real. I cannot believe how much fun I had. No desire to even ride my snowboard in this type of terrain. I can’t wait for next time.
chillin at the backside tree about to drop in.
Buzz helped me out and did a little filming for a run – this made the riding much better for me without a backpack and a camera in my hand. I will post the footy asap.

Best Powsurfing Day Ever….

The ride up
I ripped 6 backsides at the beav today on my powsurf. It was nothing short of epic. The foot and a half of pow made for nearly ideal conditions. Big thanks to Travis and Nick for catering to my needs and letting me ride the lift. Bindingless boards of any kind are strictly forbidden on the front side of the beav- but they let me have my way with the backcountry.

I shot a couple of runs POV style (if you think riding without bindings is tough try filming yourself riding without bindings) and they actually came out pretty sick. I get alot of weird looks and strange comments – “what the hell is that thing?” is a pretty common one. Pretty much anyone picking me up on the hitch hike back up thought I was nuts.
Make no mistake- this powsurfing stuff is for real. I cannot believe how much fun I had. No desire to even ride my snowboard in this type of terrain. I can’t wait for next time.
chillin at the backside tree about to drop in.
Buzz helped me out and did a little filming for a run – this made the riding much better for me without a backpack and a camera in my hand. I will post the footy asap.

Mini-golf Powsurf Session


The day wouldn’t be complete without taking some powsurf runs. I tested the new foam decks out here and they passed the test. A little weird in the air but they carved like a hot knife thru butter.
Slashing on the powdersurf boards will never get old.

High speed bindingless Ollie….scary.

Moonlight Powdersurfing at the Beavis!

Beaver Mountain – First Descent – Powdersurfing in the moonlight


I nailed the first descent down the backside of the beavis on a powdersurf last night under the almost full moon. Pretty epic conditions and super fun. I was up night riding with all the Jensen boys (my dad, brothers, and nephews) at beaver mountain and we were milking cotton tail (in the dark) for pow slashers and butters. It was pretty fun- my nephews are getting really good at shredding and they kept up well. I was able to milk a backside run before it got totally dark. I walked out the spring road and dropped the mini pillow sector. It was hella good- The beavis is at the stage where there are still features to jump off of due to a low tide. It was surprisingly good although it took me a while to hitch hike back.

At the end of the night I milked one more lap and dropped the same run on my powsurf. Definitely worth the 10 dollar ticket.
The Jensen gang- we will crush you.
Left to right: Jeremy, Brennan, Matt, Jordan, Jake, Dennis, Ben, and Christian.
My dad rips. He has been shredding longer than I have (and longer than you too). He hasn’t touched his skis in 20+ years.


As far as I know, I nailed the first descent of the Beav on a snowskate (10 or so years ago), first descent of Beaver’s backside on a snowskate, first bindingless (noboard) descent of the backside (11 years ago), first descent of the Beav’s frontside on a powdersurf board and first backside on the powsurf. ..not bad considering bindingless boards are not allowed on the mountain. Hopefully one day they will reconsider.

Moonlight Powdersurfing at the Beavis!

Beaver Mountain – First Descent – Powdersurfing in the moonlight


I nailed the first descent down the backside of the beavis on a powdersurf last night under the almost full moon. Pretty epic conditions and super fun. I was up night riding with all the Jensen boys (my dad, brothers, and nephews) at beaver mountain and we were milking cotton tail (in the dark) for pow slashers and butters. It was pretty fun- my nephews are getting really good at shredding and they kept up well. I was able to milk a backside run before it got totally dark. I walked out the spring road and dropped the mini pillow sector. It was hella good- The beavis is at the stage where there are still features to jump off of due to a low tide. It was surprisingly good although it took me a while to hitch hike back.

At the end of the night I milked one more lap and dropped the same run on my powsurf. Definitely worth the 10 dollar ticket.
The Jensen gang- we will crush you.
Left to right: Jeremy, Brennan, Matt, Jordan, Jake, Dennis, Ben, and Christian.
My dad rips. He has been shredding longer than I have (and longer than you too). He hasn’t touched his skis in 20+ years.


As far as I know, I nailed the first descent of the Beav on a snowskate (10 or so years ago), first descent of Beaver’s backside on a snowskate, first bindingless (noboard) descent of the backside (11 years ago), first descent of the Beav’s frontside on a powdersurf board and first backside on the powsurf. ..not bad considering bindingless boards are not allowed on the mountain. Hopefully one day they will reconsider.

7 feet in 7 days….

I finally dropped in on the Season Pass to Snowbird. I think I already got my money’s worth these past 3 days.

Smellie and I showed up saturday morning to 2 feet or more of the super light and dry Utah pow. Such a sick day. Met up with a bunch of the ol homies …. it felt like the first day of school- seeing all the familiar faces in their new gear…. cute.
Dave and I tore it up for a couple runs before meeting up with some friends from Jackson. Willie McMillon, Mark Carter, Nic Drago, John Makens, Kurt Wastell, Travis Rice, Circe Wallace……. and more. It was pretty ill riding with such a sick crew of snowboard legends. We sprocked our way from the “house” to Daltons hitting every booter and drop in sight. It’s not always rad being the 1oth dude off of a hit but it was worth it riding with these dudes. We spun a couple laps with those guys and decided to move on to a smaller crew of 2 or 3 to maximize pow slashing. Before that Travis hopped on the lift with us to talk “powdersurf”. I was a little thrown off guard sitting on the lift next to the greatest shredder on earth but I managed to not just drool all over myself and I got his contact info to get him some boards. I hooked up with him 2 days later after the comp was over and well…. lets just say Travis Rice is on the Grassroots Powdersurf R&D team… how $#@&ing sick is that?
Saturday was epic- so sunday was next. It dumped all night (another 2 feet) and the canyon road was closed due to a couple of avalanches that hit the road. Ham and I waited in line for an hour or so as the line finally started moving. We were about 30 cars back when they shut it down again. Soooooo bummed. An avalanche had caught and carried 3 Alta patrollers so they shut the canyon down again. Rather than sit in our car for another 2 hours we scoped some areas to ride powdersurfs up above the mansions in the lower canyon.
This was Ham’s first time on the powsurf and the conditions were pretty much 5 inches of dust on bumpy crust. Needless to say Ham kind of struggled and so did I- but it was pretty damn fun anyways. We shredded til we saw the road open back up and away we rolled.

Hamgod with Powdersurf – ready to get some.
Check the Video at the bottom of the post for some weak action!

7 feet in 7 days….

I finally dropped in on the Season Pass to Snowbird. I think I already got my money’s worth these past 3 days.

Smellie and I showed up saturday morning to 2 feet or more of the super light and dry Utah pow. Such a sick day. Met up with a bunch of the ol homies …. it felt like the first day of school- seeing all the familiar faces in their new gear…. cute.
Dave and I tore it up for a couple runs before meeting up with some friends from Jackson. Willie McMillon, Mark Carter, Nic Drago, John Makens, Kurt Wastell, Travis Rice, Circe Wallace……. and more. It was pretty ill riding with such a sick crew of snowboard legends. We sprocked our way from the “house” to Daltons hitting every booter and drop in sight. It’s not always rad being the 1oth dude off of a hit but it was worth it riding with these dudes. We spun a couple laps with those guys and decided to move on to a smaller crew of 2 or 3 to maximize pow slashing. Before that Travis hopped on the lift with us to talk “powdersurf”. I was a little thrown off guard sitting on the lift next to the greatest shredder on earth but I managed to not just drool all over myself and I got his contact info to get him some boards. I hooked up with him 2 days later after the comp was over and well…. lets just say Travis Rice is on the Grassroots Powdersurf R&D team… how $#@&ing sick is that?
Saturday was epic- so sunday was next. It dumped all night (another 2 feet) and the canyon road was closed due to a couple of avalanches that hit the road. Ham and I waited in line for an hour or so as the line finally started moving. We were about 30 cars back when they shut it down again. Soooooo bummed. An avalanche had caught and carried 3 Alta patrollers so they shut the canyon down again. Rather than sit in our car for another 2 hours we scoped some areas to ride powdersurfs up above the mansions in the lower canyon.
This was Ham’s first time on the powsurf and the conditions were pretty much 5 inches of dust on bumpy crust. Needless to say Ham kind of struggled and so did I- but it was pretty damn fun anyways. We shredded til we saw the road open back up and away we rolled.

Hamgod with Powdersurf – ready to get some.
Check the Video at the bottom of the post for some weak action!

Milking it in January – Getting out of the toxic depression cloud

It hasn’t snowed for weeks- the resort here has about a 25 inch base and our backcountry zones are sitting at about 45 inches of base- pretty poor for the middle of January. I have been getting out as often as I would otherwise and milking what snow we do have. Just getting out of the giant shit cloud created by pollution and inversion is worth the trip. It has actually been really fun. The powsurfing has been epic and opens up a whole new world of possibilities.

This weekend I tested out my ptex deck. It lasted a few drops and 360 shovit attempts and finally blew up on a kickflip. The bond between the ink and the mylar failed and the whole sheet came flying off. I was bummed – but the ink tranfered itself onto the ptex and was left mostly intact. So I am putting back on the deck and it should actually work out fine in the long run. I have to figure out a different solution for the base graphics.
I tested out 4 new powdersurf boards this weekend with pretty good results. The foamy was pretty good but the snow was a little variable so it was tough to make a good judgement on performance. The “fillet” handled pretty sweet. The flex made it carve like a snowboard and the skinnier shape actually worked great in the variable snow conditions. The 4ply skate deck was bomber but a little heavier than I would prefer. I stomped a few bs180s and kickflips on it that made my day. We ran some mini-golf lines and got some goods above the campground that were fun. The next day I did a solo trip and stuck some good surf shots on jumps, drops and picnic tables.