Grab!

It's been typical Tahoe weather, in all its radness. Stormy like the end of the world one day, blue-bird pow day the next. Yesterday was the storm day. I decided to sample some of the goodness and went for a walk late last night through the 'hood. I think the whole town was sleeping to be fresh and ready for the powder day today. It was kinda cool walking the silent, unplowed streets, knee deep in light dry snow, and bundled in my winter gear. That is until I started freaking myself out with thoughts of bears and mountain lions.

Today, I think I rekindled my love affair with jumps. Any jump, so long as the take off is soft, and the landing is softer. Preferably fresh pow pow. I hated jumps after March 13, 2004 when I blew out 2 discs in my back hitting park kickers. Since then, it's been pretty much strictly rails and boxes for me. I'd hit a jump if my back felt really good, the snow was perfect, and the planets were aligned. So basically never. But today, I found an often overlooked roller at my local resort, and popped off a half dozen backside 180's, and (my new favorite) frontside 360's off of it, into fresh powder landings. The roller was already down hill, and the transition to a steep grade made a nice lip to pop off of. On the last jump I was getting cocky, hit the lip full blast, and ended up over-shooting the landing. The result was a nice back compression, and ended my day's worth of jumps right there. Even so, I'm still thinking about how awesome jumping is. It's even more awesome with untracked pow, and a fs 3. I just gotta figure out how to work in a grab. Board grab, you sickos.

Selling season for 06/07 snow crap is upon us, and this is a small write up featured in a trade magazine. I hope it sells boards. The pictured board is called the Seek & Destroy, and the visuals were done by Chad Carothers. It's pretty much gonna be the most bad ass snowboard of next season, without question.