Tag Archive for: snowskate

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

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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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.


Shape Shack


I’ve been cranking em out as fast as I can. Somehow I find enjoyment working in a tiny garage in sub zero temperatures.

So many conditions…. so many boards

You can come close but when it comes down to it, there is no perfect all around shape and size that will dominate every condition out there. You must have a quiver if you want to slay it all.

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.



Powder-Day Saints – “The Second Coming”

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A huge chunk of the last year of my life has been put into the filming, editing and production of my latest snowboard/powsurfing film.

“Powder-Day Saints – The Second Coming” will premier next week in Logan Utah with a couple more Utah screenings hopefully in the near future. I made this film on a $0 budget… it took countless hours of time in the edit room aside from the time and effort taken to shoot it all. My resources are limited, so unfortunately it may not get seen much anywhere else outside of our small scene… we’ll see what happens I guess.

All expenses came directly out of my pocket… I would hate to even add it up… especially counting the hours of work I have poured into it. I would be in the hole tens of thousands of $. (I hope my wife doesn’t read this) Funny what you find yourself doing when you follow your passion. I set a personal goal to get this completed this year so I can move on to the next project. Maybe it will pay off some day.. if not, I have priceless experiences and good times along the way to show for it.. along with a nice video journal of the past couple of seasons of riding snowboards and powsurfers. If you haven’t checked out the film, peep the teaser here…….


The video basically consists of my friends from Northern Utah and I hucking booters, dropping cliffs, punching lines and just loving it in the powder… Riding snowboards, skis, sleds, and powdersurf boards.

The majority of the film is snowboarding as I am holding onto a lot of material for the release of a full length powsurfing film.. something I have been working on for a few years now but have lacked the time to complete. Next fall will bring to light some really cool stuff.
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Christmas Eve Test Runs on the 140cm Powsurfs

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Utah is having a stellar winter so far. 150% of Normal snowpack and it doesn’t seem to be letting up. Grings and I got out for a beautiful day on Christmas Eve to test out the new shape and size I’ve been working on.

Here’s a look at a run on the new big mountain Grassroots Powsurfer..

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..