Grassroots came up big in the latest issue of Starfish Snowskate Magazine with the cover, a full page ad, and an 8 page interview with Jeremy Jensen – Founder/Owner/Designer/Shaper/Builder/Cinematographer/Photographer/Web Designer/PR Guy/etc.. of Grassroots Powdersurfing. Jeremy is obviously a very busy man (which would explain the lack of blog posts this year) but he (I) found some time to sit down and answer a few questions about surfing powder, videography, photography, and Grassroots Powsurfers.
The local paper here in Cache Valley caught wind of the recent publicity we have been getting and jumped on for a ride. A quick interview and photo shoot produced a pretty nice article. Thanks to the Herald Journal for giving us a full page of love in sunday’s paper.
Read the article here. http://pioneer.olivesoftware.com/Repository/getFiles.asp?Style=OliveXLib:LowLevelEntityToSaveGifMSIE_HERALDJA&Type=text/html&Locale=english-skin-custom&Path=THJ/2012/01/08&ChunkNum=-1&ID=Ar01704&PageLabel=C1
https://www.powsurf.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/grassroots-powdersurfing-logo.svg00Jeremy Jensenhttps://www.powsurf.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/grassroots-powdersurfing-logo.svgJeremy Jensen2012-01-10 06:27:002013-08-31 20:08:55“Surfing Powder” – Herald Journal Story about Grassroots Powsurfing
We were super stoked when the writers for ESPN.com contacted us for a story. We provided them with a grip of unseen photos and some very detailed answers to a list of questions about what we are about and why we do what we do. They decided to start the new year off proper by running our story on the first day of 2012.
While the photos did not make it into the story (??) and many details were left out of the responses, we were pumped to have a story ran on such a major media outlet. Editing is necessary… especially when someone like me is rambling on and on about this obscure activity that is foreign to most people (powsurfing)… but it’s a bummer when points get missed or lines are used out of context. Journalism is a double edged sword.. Things can get pretty twisted around and the readers of these stories don’t realize this.
The response to our product, the films, and powsurfing in general has been overwhelmingly positive and it feels good to know that we are spreading stoke and opening minds in the world of snow sports. The few negative reactions we have seen are mostly due to misunderstandings. Dealing with the media is a funny thing.
https://www.powsurf.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/grassroots-powdersurfing-logo.svg00Jeremy Jensenhttps://www.powsurf.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/grassroots-powdersurfing-logo.svgJeremy Jensen2012-01-03 06:18:002013-08-31 20:14:46Grassroots Powsurfing on ESPN!
The solstice usually comes on the 21st of December but this year it fell on the 22nd. I was delighted by this news because I had to work the day of the 21st and I wanted to celebrate properly. Mother nature dropped 7 inches of the lightest and driest cold smoke she had to offer and served that up sunny skies and cold temps. Perfect timing for an epic celebration.
We keep getting holiday e-cards sent to me from anyone and everyone… so we hopped on the bandwagon and made a quick little e-card from today’s session.
It has been nearly a month since a significant snowfall and this seems to be the case across much of the US. So the conditions are still low tide and the spots with good coverage and no old tracks are difficult to find but luckily we know just where to find them.
The attitude across the country seems pretty bummed on the conditions but honestly I have been enjoying the hell out of it. Logged at least 20 good powder days so far and I have only felt the need to strap in once. Until the big lines fill in.. I just don’t see any reason to snowboard.
These early season conditions are a big part of what spawned Powdersurfing in the first place. Being able to take advantage of the smaller features and maximizing the fun and the challenge keeps things interesting and fresh. This is just one of the many advantages of Powdersurfing. If you are not enjoying the season so far, you should probably consider investing in a Grassroots Powdersurfer. It will change your life.
One hell of a good write up on the biglines.com homepage today!
Big thanks to the fellas up north for tracking me down and doing the leg work on this story. Really well written and spot on. I was sold at the first paragraph:
“Ok, picture this: you’re surfing a pow line, slashing turns and letting the sunshine light up your roostertails. Out of the corner of your eye, you peep a poppy little pillow and you know the landings perfect. You line it up, adjust your feet and BAM.
Kickflip.
Your feet catch the board and your face catches an updraft of pow as you stomp your landing and set up for your next turn…
Sounds impossible, right?
For Jeremy Jensen, it’s anything but.”
That updraft of powder in your face is what makes powsurfing (or any type of powder riding) truly awesome. The guys at biglines.com obviously know whats up.
https://www.powsurf.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/grassroots-powdersurfing-logo.svg00Jeremy Jensenhttps://www.powsurf.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/grassroots-powdersurfing-logo.svgJeremy Jensen2011-12-19 23:20:002013-08-31 20:18:19One Man Machine and his Powsurfing Dream – Biglines.com Story
November dealt us quite a few storms early on, and then things dried out for a few weeks. We had 3 feet or so come quick but with little to no base this still made for low tide conditions. This time of year is rad because there are so many little features and bumps that normally just get covered up. There is an extra challenge knowing that if you slam there isn’t much cushion in between you and the rocks, dirt and stumps under the shallow snow. This just adds to the excitement.
Wackin’ weeds in early november.
The first couple of rideable days this year we had about a foot to ride on. 12 inches of snow is pushing it for a base especially in light and dry snow, but the width of a powsurfer takes advantage of all 12 of those inches and makes for a pretty sick ride. The snowboards were carving down into the dirt, the bi-deck snowskates and powderskates were sinking to the bottom like rocks in the light deep pow, scraping the dirt and rocks,s but the float of the powsurfer made these early days awesome.
Hiking in the stoney grove
One of the things I dig most about early November pow is that it is usually super cold and dry, and the angle of the sun gives very interesting light and long shadows… it makes for some cool shots.
Milking the slivers of late light
Backside 180 over the sliver of light
We’ve been hitting up the classic early season spots… the hits in the “stash park” have been hitting, the tree weaving has been a blast, and the mellow grassy fields are always rad for ripping switch and trying tricks. The steep shots have been dealing up early season face shots! Now is the time for getting into those because the snowpack doesn’t really have slab layers yet. It’s just rotten “loud powder” all the way to the ground. Love that stuff, it rides really well and sounds rad when you slash it.
Jeremy – Kickflip in the powsurf “stash park”
KICKFLIPS!
Zach Shepherd poppin’ ollies
360 shuvit – Zach Shepherd
The upper fields are always holding
shooting tubes of cold smoke and rad light
Bobbing and weaving the tight trees is another familiar early season past time. These pines are so thick that the snow stays super good and a layer of pine needles softens the ground and makes it possible to rip thru them in super shallow snowpack. It’s rad how playful and agile the powsurf rides, you can weave trees like never before.. even without bindings I can get thru spots that my snowboard would get hung up on. There are a couple of chutes/ditches running thru these groves of trees that really get the heart pumping. Fallen logs, shallow snow, tight walls and no exits make for a wild ride.
Zach shooting out the end of the gauntlet
Flying out the upper gauntlet – the blur in the shot tells the story.. a fast and wild ride!
MID NOVEMBER
The snow finally stacked up enough to close down the road so at this point the sled season begins, at least for the approach. It’s not quite deep enough to climb anywhere on the sleds so a 7 mile road ride gets us to the base where the hiking begins. 30 minutes later we are on the top of some mellow grassy slopes, perfect for early season slashing.
Rolling up to the base camp packing a small quiver of powsurfs
A few minutes later we summit on foot, take a few minutes for our heads to adjust and the slashing begins
Roosting thru the upper fields
Another positive aspect of low snowpack is the amount of features that exist. Under deep coverage these natural jumps and drops would just be buried, so now is prime time for hitting up all the features that will soon disappear. The landings can be a bit sketchy cause there is just a couple of feet to cover the dirt and rocks beneath but that is just more motivation to land on your feet and ride away.
Cliff drop/Bush Ollie bottom angle
Top Angle
FS air
Slashing in the November light
LATE NOVEMBER
Late november arrived and it still hadn’t really snowed for weeks. We were basically shredding the same pow for 3 weeks and it was becoming harder to find good snow. It had stayed cold so most aspects were still holding powder but with only 3 feet of coverage the options were pretty slim. We became so desperate that we decided to brave the poor coverage and creep around on our sleds. All it takes is one big rock to do serious damage to the suspension on our snowmobiles so we crept around treading as lightly as possible. We managed to find some good fields to test out some of our new shapes and some fun features to bag some hammers on.
Creepin’ with with a quiver. One on my back and 3 on the sled.
The Phish shapes I had designed over the summer were riding pretty cool, not my favorite ride but interesting nonetheless. I shaped a diamond tail, a square tail, and a couple of swallow tails, all with a variety of different waist widths. The diamond tail 130 (pictured above) rode fast and straight. It is a relatively narrow board with a flat tail so it was responsive but still seemed to turn more like a snowboard than I would prefer, not as agile and playful as some of my favorite shapes. But it rode fast and had it’s own benefits in certain conditions. The swallows were interesting but again, not what I’m really after… they would probably sell good to people who didn’t know any better… because they look cool. The more testing we do the more we realize how much snowboarding has confused people when it comes to what makes a good shape for a powsurfer. People think that a long board with a giant nose and a long swallow tail is going to be the ultimate powsurf shape.. this is so NOT the case! It’s cool to have a board with a unique shape, but function always outweighs fashion if you want a good ride. I’m not saying the swallow tail boards don’t perform, they just perform differently and the ride you get is much more snowboard-like feel and not very “surfy” if that makes any sense. As far as Grassroots Powdersurfing is concerned, we are not trying to imitate snowboarding. We are bringing something new to the game of snow-sliding and that is what keeps things fresh for us. If we wanted a snowboard feel, we would ride a snowboard (with or without the bindings). We want to make boards that offer a new and unique feel, without factors that limit the way you can ride and the tricks you can do. That is what powdersurfing is all about.
Having a snowmobile doesn’t mean you don’t ever have to hike to get to the goods.
Almost there…
From the top we rally some open pow fields on the way down to some features we found to play on. Slashing the fields is rad but we always want a challenge so we try to get freestyle on the way down. Kicktails! I don’t know why you wouldn’t want one. Crusing pow is great and all but who likes to be glued to the ground the whole time? The ability to ollie is a priority in the design of our boards adding agility to the overall ride, allowing the rider to ride backwards and putting some pop under your feet. Even on flat slopes you can get some air time without the help of a bump or jump.
FS air on the 120 “Slasher”
Pop shuvit over a hippie track on the 140 Twin Powder Skate
Hard to tell what the hell is going on here. I’ll give you a hint, its deep, sunny, and the pow is some high quality shit!
We arrive at our features and it’s game on. Slam a few times, stomp a few times.. its all fun. If you’re not slamming you’re probably not learning so there is no shame in eating shit once in a while… or a lot. I really wanted to bag some good kickflips on both stills and video so I sought out some drops with good takeoffs and got to it.
I’d been wanting the nose angle of a kickflip for a while, makes for a sick shot on video as the world spins around and the rider stays upright… trip out… (see video below)
Ollies… the root of all freestyle
One last kickflip to cap off another fun day
November was great despite the lack of snowfall late in the month. We had lots of sunny cold days in some unique and interesting terrain. Although our options grew smaller every day, this just meant we had to get creative, and creativity always leads to progression.
https://www.powsurf.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/03.jpg360480Jeremy Jensenhttps://www.powsurf.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/grassroots-powdersurfing-logo.svgJeremy Jensen2011-11-26 17:35:002023-09-15 19:06:21November 2011 in a nutshell – MEGA POST
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.
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.
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!
https://www.powsurf.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/05.jpg360480Jeremy Jensenhttps://www.powsurf.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/grassroots-powdersurfing-logo.svgJeremy Jensen2011-10-09 19:28:002015-09-26 18:58:26Early Season Weed Wackin’
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.
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….
Grassroots Powdersurfing
