While the rest of the office is enjoying hot laps up at Stowe, I’m still a month and half away from getting the doctor’s blessing that my ACL is ready to ride, and so i still distract myself with activities of the two wheeled variety. In a lazy sunday morning YouTube adventure, i stumbled on this little gem. Part sideshow performer, part stunt monkey, and all balance, all the time, this guy is pretty nuts.
Happy Black Friday Americans! Happy Friday to non-Americans! My mom went to the drug store to buy a TV at 7 am today. Now, you could get stuck on the fact that she was buying a TV at a drug store or get stuck on the fact she was doing it at 7 am…but there is something quintessentially American about that; you can almost hear the star spangled banner in the background.
Winter’s happening all over the place, so make sure you give winter gear for Christmas. I mean who couldn’t use a pair of socks or a sweater?
Monday we had yet some more fresh snow in Vermont. So I caught up and made some turns with Will. Will is one of the writers behind VTDeathrider.com along with Capt. Al. I kind of surprised him and made him do a little interview about what gear he was rockin’.
So first, give Will some credit for being the first victim and being kind of on the spot.
After the tape stopped rolling, Will also pointed out that he has a wider foot and that he has struggled for a good boot fit in the past. The updated Libertine have worked really well for him thanks to the last and the heat moldable liners. His Graft is a little more the setup for banging laps on the “stock run”, but we were riding wet heavy snow Monday. (Look for a Deathrider post about the “Stock run” )
So yet another fun day here in VT…four days on snow…four days riding fresh.
I have to say we’ve been blessed with good opening days up here the past few years.
We had 8-10″ in the last 24 hours. It was a little windy so the main open trail was a little firm and will do well with the groomer on it a few more times. They also had the rope dropped on a couple runs that they were blowing snow on. The first few runs were pretty fun as the snowmaking rollers offered some good opportunities to launch and slash.
Some of us ventured to another area for one run as well, unfortunately the natural snow was arguably too light as the conditions over there would be best described as dust on granite (as opposed to dust on crust).
So I’ll try and get back to the original goal of my posts…
So my shred today was an Anthem 59 with Shift Bindings. I liked the Anthem today because on the firm snow it had the control and power to rail confidently. The directional nose was a nice advantage in the fluffy. Paul updated the shape on the Anthem reflecting what people like in the Agent while maintaining the responsiveness that the Anthem is famous for; that new shape helped make buttering and lauching off of rollers a blast.
I’ve been riding the new Unibody bindings on my groomer set-ups since last year. I really like the feel of them; I would argue that they have a nice “skate-y” feel to them.
Pictures…
Looking down the Nose
Midway Shack
This is the first song that came on my Shuffle today as i was riding…
Sunday Update…
Well I had fun Saturday, but I really had fun Sunday. There was no question the wind was blowing both days, so you look around and say “where did the 14-18″ that they advertised go?” (storm total)
Well, I found it all…in one spot.
I can’t claim I found it first…but there was plenty for three laps.
Sunday song…
a preface: if you know me, you know i’m a fan of beer. Most any kind will do, and Budweiser, or as Sully refers to it - “The micro-brew that made it”, hits towards the top of the list most times. I’m also a fan of good design, as well as the moniker ‘if it aint broke, dont fix it’. Worlds collided for me this morning.
I must give credit where credit is due - I first learned of this on fellow girthy designer and all around good guy Mr. Aaron James Draplin blog, as he uncovers one of the saddest sights i’ve seen in a while.
The old news part of this story is that Budweiser was bought out by Belgium based InBev. The newer, sadder news is what they have done to the Anheuser-Busch logo. Gone is the heroic looking eagle perched within the dominant A of their mark. Replaced with a fleeting image of a friendly looking eagle flying away from the new, uninventive word mark. A sad day for beer drinking designers across the country.
A legacy, capped off with a turd
Catalog season is crazy around here. Its an all hands on deck affair that typically means late/all night work sessions, a disgusting amount of coffee and (until recently) cigarettes, lonely girlfriends/wives at home and a bunch of stressed out designers.
Ali came in yesterday to help out with a special project and ended up pulling a late night with me.
So the other night I drove up to Stowe and put a Zep CD in my CD player. Now, my love of Zep has been well documented in my other posts so I won’t get into here.
But a little later in the evening the Zep was still playing and a lady had joined me…I couldn’t help but think of Damone’s advice (specifically Point 5)…
In an effort to bring you true “behind-the-scenes” content on this blog, i’d like to share some photos from our recent 1/1 catalog shoot. In it’s second year, the 1/1 products are a direct collaboration between the designers here at Rome and our board and binding factories. For key products (see Agent or Targa for current 1/1 products) we have elements of the graphics hand painted at the factory, so that no two Agent’s or Targa’s are the same. We are bringing it back for the 2010 line, and for the dealer catalog that is nearing completion, we created a set out back and let the paint fly. The photos below are all shot by Super Photo Assistant™ Michael McDonald. Enjoy.
EVH prepping the set
Super LE 1/1 slip-on’s.
Lights…Camera…
ACTION!
Runke ready to pounce.
Aftermath.
Check the 2010 Dealer catalog to see how this ends up.
I saw this trailer today!
It reminded me of…
which is amazing!
thanks Lando
Saturday was crazy.
I had to go to the framers to pickup my last two pieces for the One Up show, then I met up with Captain Al at his place in Stowe and we headed to Burlington to pick up Cavin. Al skated the Burlington park for a bit while we waited for Cavin. We made one last ditch attempt at getting Paddock to join us and we headed to Magic Hat to pick up the donated beer for the show.
When we get there they have no record of the One Up Gallery.
Cavin and Al made friends with the maintenance guy real quick
After a bit of waiting they decided our cause was just and we should get our beer.
those people in the top of the frame are getting the official tour
It felt like an episode of “how its made”, we got to check out everything from the ground floor!
yeah, it was this awesome
Everyone there is super cool, we basically got to go through the factory and pick out cases of whatever we wanted.
We packed Al's car until the shocks where bottoming out.
Then we were on the road for the three hour ride to Manchester. Normally I would have been bored out of my mind but I felt like I was getting a History of Snowboarding 101 lesson. In every town we went through Cavin had filmed a handrail with someone I had never heard of, but Al knew’em and was stoked. I heard awesome stories about some blue house in Plymouth that Al and Cavin hung out at and the early day’s writing for Eastern Edge.
When we fianlly made it, there was a mad dash to get my work up and get the beer behind the bar.
Brandon and I had talked and in the end it worked out pretty good.
A few days before the show I got a phone call from the One Up Gallery explaining that they had received my work and didn’t feel comfortable showing it. I was bummed because I wanted to show, they were bummed because they wanted to show my work but due to the sensitive times we live in, they didn’t want soccer moms rioting outside the shop.
some of the offensive work in question
This is Kevin Cyr
We traded a piece for a piece, thanks man!
In the mad rush to get my work up I hardly noticed, Podium is not only a really awesome shop, it’s a fuckin museum!
old Sims deck next to a 1965 snurfer
look at the those crazy binders
Al holding an old Lib Matt Cummins
the wall was lined with old copies of Eastern Edge
old skates everywhere
Big Thanks to Al for driving, all my friends for coming out, Brandon and Nick for putting on the show, and everyone else who showed up. The whole thing was a blast.
Now that the election and the negative campaign season is over, I think some political operative is writing commercials for this company…. HERE
About 48 seconds it kicks in real good…Nothing like playing on people’s fears. They’ve played this commercial for about two years on my cable here, not sure if you seen it where you live but honestly it cracks me up.
Remember, don’t trust those strangers with their strange chemicals…