Rome Snowboard Design Syndicate

When they bring in the front loader to truck the snow banks on your street away.

Alright, I’m on a plane today to Europe for two weeks; I will try to give you an update from the ISPO show in Munich.

Red Bull threw a pretty fun little contest the other night here in Stowe.

The Butter Cup had a unique layout. Basically it was a big half-pipe on the flats with box features in the middle. It was easily lit and super convenient right in front of the lodge. All in all a simple but neat idea.

Rome and Oakley helped out with prizes. Unfortunately, the Rome crew was in light attendance due to setting up for the Vegas show.

Fortunately I got myself out of that so I decided I was due for a night out in Stowe. The event was at the new Spruce Peak village so it was good to get inside some of the buildings I had not been in yet over there.

The event was pretty cool. Pun intended; I think it was like 10 below with gusts out of the South. More power to the kids that came out and brought the heat; they were also probably Tivo’ing the X-Games. Why sit at home in the warmth when you can get out there and give’r?

Some pics of the event…

Awards inside the warm Day Lodge…

After-party at Piecasso. Sorry no Saturday night Karaoke (I don’t think I even saw Danger!) …

You have to love it when the after-party is at your regular Sat. hangout.

Butter Cup events are happening up and down the East Coast. Check out the Red Bull site here for upcoming dates and locations.

Props to all the people who worked the event that I will forget to name. Again it was super cold so they get those props heavy.

If you care who won Mary will probably have a story on Snowboardermag.com or something….

Got in my studio this weekend and screenprinted two sets of posters with lifetime members of the Alt Art crew from a local highschool here in VT.  Jordan and Chelsea have been working on these pieces for a while and we could not be happier with the outcome. Both posters where printed in editions of twenty. A big thanks to Unbound for putting the class together.

First, Here is Jordan’s piece, a two color stencil with a screen hit perfectly registered.

 

Here is Chelsea’s piece, a three color gradient stencil hit with again, perfect registration!

 Ya, so we basically killed it this weekend! Nice work for the college portfolio’s and an awesome time.

Sometimes just to try is to succeed.

I decided to use my split-board to head off the property on Sunday and find some turns. It worked out…I didn’t cross another track all day (whether riding or skinning)…including the first line off the hill…

Now instead of taking the trail all the way to the bar, I decided to pick up a side trail and get another descent under my belt.

As I ascended i saw all sorts of possibilities but I decided to stick to the marked trails (most of which I had been on before in one shape or form).

My original goal was to make my way around the Ranch Valley (just under the ridgeline) and then grab a descent on the far side, but I’ll be the first to admit I misjudged the time to get there. The tube of my Camelbak had also frozen a second time when I hit the Dishpan; I got it to defrost in my coat early in the trek but when it froze the second time it didn’t want to come back, no matter what tricks I had up my sleeve. So that set me up to call it earlier (distance-wise) than I wanted.

So I hit another junction and headed down. Now I’ll also admit that what I headed down was flatter than I expected, but I was riding untouched snow so it was still fun. Unfortunately due to the lack of pitch I eventually had to switch back to “travel” mode and get back to the Nordic center. In no time, I was back at the Tollhouse and back on the resort.

So didn’t quite make it around to the the line I wanted, but still had a fun day.

(Stowe is littered with trails cut by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the Great Depression. Some have become an integral part of the resort; others are outside the boundary and frequented by tele skiers. Please research your trip when heading out. There’s lot’s of resources so make sure you use them. Also, please make responsible decisions regarding what you ride and when to call it a day.)

PS- sorry for the lousy pics, apparently the batteries I was putting into the camera should’ve been thrown out, so you got some more phone pics

I got in super early this morning. Not quite sure why, but i was here before the lifts were turning at Stowe. Maybe it’s because i still have 1 week before the doctor clears my knee to ride, and it was another epic day on the hill. Who knows? Anyway, i started in on the days business, and i hit play on “Wiggle” by Screeching Weasel.

When that ended, I hit up BoogadaBoogadaBoogada, and thus started the “All Weasel, All Day” playlist. I ran through everything i have by them – 5 albums worth. Just hit repeat and let it go. 

I’m alot older now than when i got my first SW CD, but man, this is one awesome band. top 3 groups from my youth for sure. 

This patch has been sewn onto no less than 3 bags since i got it in High School. Now it’s on my wall. History, kids, history.

 

Cavan has been listening to Fifteen all day. Not a bad choice i must say. There’s always Monday.

Since you are reading this, on the internet, you have no doubt see the posters that Shepard Fairey designed for Obama’s campaign. If you haven’t, let me introduce you to google. Today, the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian announced that it has added an original piece Shepard did for the DNC in Denver last fall to it’s collection. This is the first official portrait of the president-elect acquired by the NPG.  It will go on display, when else, January 20th.

 

President-elect also got Shepard on board to design the official Inauguration Day poster. Whoa.

 

Regardless of how you feel about his current work or his Obey clothing line (puke), you gotta tip a glass to this guy. In the 80’s he was producing home-made stickers and slapping them up everywhere around the RISD campus, touting the ‘posse’ of wrestler in spandex. Now his work is in the Smithsonian. Pretty damn amazing. 

Here’s another piece he made for display at the DNC. Classic Shepard.

Oh man… check out that wallride. So sick. Go Mack Dawg

Sick Boys 1988 from Bryce Kanights on Vimeo

Sick Boys to Men – 20 Years Later from Bryce Kanights on Vimeo

Did I mention you can buy the DVD?

Oh wait, nobody did ask, anyways here’s some video I recorded after my other video fail …Basically I’m just holding the camera in my front hand…I slash a few times and whiteout the camera…Video is four parts of the run. Three coming down to the road and one riding the road back to Stowe. The lens is fogged up at the start of the second part as I was trying to clean the lense of snow. A little Jethro Tull as a soundtrack.

Shredding the Backside… from Waldert on Vimeo.

Taken from http://www.thesmokinggun.com

This dork give new meaning to the term “blue balls”

Skier Suffers Exposure
Man left dangling upside down, pantsless after Vail lift mishap
JANUARY 6–In a bizarre incident that will surely lead to litigation (or an out-of-court settlement), a skier at Colorado’s ritzy Vail resort was left dangling upside down and pantsless from a chairlift last Friday morning. The January 2 mishap apparently occurred after the male skier and a child boarded a high-speed lift in Vail’s Blue Sky Basin. It appears that the chairlift’s fold-down seat was somehow not in the lowered position, which caused the man to partially fall through the resulting gap. His right ski got jammed in the ascending chairlift, and that kept him upended since his boot never dislodged from its binding. As seen in the photos on the following pages (which were snapped by fellow skiers), the Skyline Express lift was stopped shortly after the pair’s botched 10:30 AM boarding resulted in the man dangling from the lift. The exposed skier was stuck for about 15 minutes before Vail personnel backed the lift up and successfully dislodged the unidentified man from the four-seat chair.

A friend sent me

which reminded me of

solid gold.