Rome Snowboard Design Syndicate

A few days ago, the SDS held council to shred the ending of what has been a great season here in VT. While some parts of the world got caked with snow, some were left fairly dry. At Stowe, however, we had enough powder days to help ease the suckfest that is….SUMMER. Sun was high in the sky all day, we had enough brats and burgers to feed a small country and the beers tasted glorious. Here are a few pictures to recap incase you missed it:

Waldert workin' those burgers! Nice form buddy!

Whenever you write into Rome, this guy responds to you. This is a great picture that really captures what he's all about - look at that lurk hand and this purple ski-fogey running away from him!

In no way was lifty Dave bummed that he had to direct chairlift traffic instead of shred the sunshine. KIDDING - he was super bummed. Better luck next year Dave!

Here at Rome, we like to kick ass and take names. Also we like to ride REALLY REALLY fast when we get into a group. After all, you don't want to be last gettin' down to the bottom, or else you'll get pants'd. Look at these monsters!

The best part about photos is that whenever the image is captured - that's what happened. You can't even tell that Sean slipped off the rail immediately after I took this...so....I'll send it to Transworld as a SICK! tailpress to....front 360 out? Sure!

So I watched everyone straight air this jump, until KyleTern dropped this hammer. *This is a great time to explain that the way we choose interns around here is your method - so if you've ever applied at the SDS and didn't get the position...get back to practicin' your grassers, n00b!

Look at Justin gettin' so...wait a minute - he's racing a baby girl on ski's!?!?! He's clearly out of control and endangering lives...I tell you, the snowboarders are really to blame.

Turbocristal? What the hell is that? Sounds like something I want to stick a paperclip into!

Yep - that's Rome's product manager and bassist of legendary metal band Spit jack doin' a full on Pennsyltucky Wheelie with a full Budweiser in his hand. George later ripped some trees down with his bare hands, picked a fight with the Macho Man Randy Savage, and drove a black Camaro off a cliff.

This is Paddock, he makes all the pictures on your boards, boots and bindings. He's also a pretty good cook and all those years of shit talkin the Yankee's have left him with a bum knee. He pulled it all together, however, for this one glory shot.

So there it is - Cheers to a great season! Thanks to global warming for melting enough icebergs to give us more snow here in Vermont! Things to look forward to this summer: Babes, Bikini's, Beers and Brats. Oh and skateboarding, and...river floating! And fishing! And uh...convertibles! Cool. Keep checkin' back for more content - and more updates from THE SHRED REMAINS!

A few months ago and about 2 weeks after I got hired at Rome, George (one of our product managers) asked me play drums for his “famous metal band”. When I showed up expecting a full mic’d up drum kit, monitors and pro-sound (as any famous band would have for their practice space), I was confused as to how they were so “famous” with a $125 dollar drumset and a 60 watt guitar amp…

It turns out George and our guitarist Tom had meet on Craigslist, replying to the ad that simply read “Bassist lookin’ for a band to jam with, what I lack in talent I make up for in attitude and thirst for cheap beer”. Sounded like a match made in heaven. While these two had been sharing beers and chords, they managed to write a few tasty licks that were starting to resemble songs. The same night I showed up, George had also invited VT’s local bar star and “vocalist” Mike Toohey (check his Locals Only section on the Rome site) who is the manager of one of the best shops on the east coast, Darkside Snowboards. My first impression of this rag-tag group of musicians was underwhelming to say the least – but as soon as they started playing the Ramones’ Blitzkrieg Bop, I knew it was going to work out. Toohey (who had also never played with these guys before) instantly jumped up on the coffee table, grabbed his junk and went for it. George and Tom both dropped into a power stance and played those 3 notes like an encore at 69′ Woodstock. Spit Jack was forged in the fires of hell, learned at the school of rock, and polished in a small living room in Sugarbush, Vermont.

Since we began about 6 months ago, we’ve played about 10-12 gigs, cut a weekend demo, got kicked out of bars, asked to stop playing because it was too loud, and played 3 states. Decent resume for a computer programmer, 2 Rome employees and skate-shop manager. It would be cheesy to say, but the truth is, with 2 guys from the immediately family and 2 close relatives of Rome SDS, ain’t no shame in saying we’ve become the house band of the SDS. With that being said, take a look at these pictures by ANOTHER one of our talented employees, Doc Fung, to see the madness that has become Rome SDS’s Spit Jack.

This was one of our first shows, and after playing "Bullet" by the Misfits, LNP became our biggest fan instantly. Also, our sales manager Sully rips on the harp, who said Rome SDS wasn't the most rock n' roll brand in snowboarding?

We get banned from bars all the time for shit like this...and it's AWESOME.

Here's a shot from earlier in December, that's 3 SDS employee's and a mess of our reps spitting beer and getting tossed in the pit.

Back to Denver, after we had a good crowd, we decided to smash our gear - because it's awesome. Here is one of the owners of Rome getting his Joe Strummer on. He played guitar with us on "My Generation" before taking this axe to wood.

Crowd surfing at the bar. This was after our crowd lit fireworks off inside the bar. Keep your martini's and peacoats at home, Spit Jack will toss your ass out.

Probably my favorite photo of the night. Stoke factor was off the charts.

That’s enough for now, hope you enjoyed these photos. If you’re lookin’ for more, head on over to Facebook.com/SpitJack and add us as a friend – come to our next show, a hangover and a bruise are waiting for you!

What does one do when in Phili for the first time? Hit up the best Phili Cheese Steak joint possible! Sully took us to Jim’s Steak where I popped my Phili cheese steak cherry. The damn sandwiches were so good we all considered staying for more, but we had a mission on hand. First shop: Buckmans King of Prussia store. There, we met Joe and Dave in the snowboard department and chatted about fit and camber styles. From there, we went to Buckmans Ardmore where Paul told us about the unique market trends in their area.

Yuenglings and cheese steaks at 10:30am help pave the way for Yuenglings later on. And yes, that's my chocolate milk.

Sully with Joe at Buckmans KOP

After figuring out our bearings with a half charged TomTom, we headed toward Jersey, home of Danzeisen & Quigley, aka D&Q. Here, we met with a pretty big team in the snowboard dept, run by John. John, Greg, Brian and the rest of the team talked tech and sales with us with enthusiasm for a while. By the time we were done, it was almost closing time. We agreed to meet up at a place called P.J. Whelihan’s and place was dope. You know you’re in the right place when it has been picketed for having waitresses that are too hot. But girls have fun there too, we learned. We hung with John and his growing posse until we started merging with a bacheleorette party happening beside us. George got roped into spinning the wheel on the lucky girl’s shirt. It ended with her showing us “why she’s getting married”, which I still can’t fully understand but certainly can’t disagree with. Her sister kept asking me what I thought of Jersey girls and honestly, I think they are nice girls who happen to know how to party. Sully was into the band that was performing and we later discovered that the lead singer also had a small part in an Adam Sandler movie. As things started to cool down at P.J’s we moved onto the next bar. As John explained “Whatever happens at night, you have to show up at D&Q the next morning. If you show up, we’ll take care of you, but if you don’t, you’re in deep trouble.” A man with a work/party ethic I can definitely admire. And while I can’t remember how we ended the night, I know we ended it well.

Graceful moves... I compare that to a triple luxe that Meryl Davis would execute.

Michele in I Now Pronouce You Chuck and Larry

George with Michele. It'd be wrong if I didn't mentioned that Michele has a new album.

Day Two we started off at Sartorius Sports in Avon, CT. I also learned that Sully is a man who doesn’t need to eat or rid himself of biological waste. I guess those two things make sense when you put them together, but surprising to me since he’s one of the hardest chargers on the mountain and on his bike. He charged through it all driving entire days without stopping this trip. Paul the owner at Sartorius, and the brothers Steve and Pete showed us their full service family sports store and talked shop. Afterward, we hit Cutting Edge in Berlin, CT and saw a completely different type of shop that specializes in action sports. Craig runs the show with a solid team: Adam, Cody, Chris and Marie. We then proceeded to Action Sports in Brandford, CT where Dan and Victor were super stoked to talk tech. After this, Sully got us all the way to NY to pick Paddock up, and drove straight into Phili in the middle of the night and went directly to bed. I’m definitely bringing Oreos next time.

In front of Satorius: Shameless plug by George.

The shoe wall at Cutting Edge

Laying it all out at Action Sports

As I laid my head down on the pillow at 3:30am last Tuesday, I was trying to figure out how we ended up on the first day of our road trip.

As Paddock eluded to a few posts back. Sully, George, Paddock and I hit the road last week to visit some dealers in the NE and to seek out some shop wisdom and good times. First stop was right in our backyard with the boys at Slopeside in Montpelier, VT where Gordy, Ian and Sam showed us their brand new store. We hit Killington right after that to see our old friends Bill, Will and Aaron at the Darkside and also Merch at their brother-store (I just hate the term sister-anything) Darkside Okemo. John at Mountain Riders in Rutland was also great to talk to. We made it to Northampton, MA by nightfall and hit a shop called Fat Trax. Tim was the manager there and we talked some board, boot, binding tech. That was sweet, but what we needed by then was a good brew. We drove by this bar call the Ye-Ol’ Watering Hole earlier and going there with Tim was definitely the best decision of the night. They had easily thousands of beer cans on the wall. If we were to play 500 cans of beer on the wall, we’d be there for a week. I also wouldn’t want to mess up the vintage girlie cans they had in the corner, though I sure wouldn’t mind touching them.

Nice cans inside.

Tim, George and Sully check out the glorious history of cirrhosis

The fair maidens of yesteryear. Sandra was my fav.

The new Rome SDS tee shirts are coming off of the presses and we’ll be shipping them soon. They’ll be available at your local shop by July 1. Click on the link in the top right of this page to find the shred shop closest to you.

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We have a guy in our office whose lady friend slept with every member of Motley Crue before she graduated high school… Granted, this was back in the mid eighties and I cannot include all the details I just heard… but it was a good enough story let the Crue have their turn on Rock and Roll Tuesday!

Note that playing drums in leopard print underwear with suspenders will never go out of style.

Also, if you get the chance pick up Nikki Sixx’s book ‘The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band’ its a good read and will make you want to put the song “kickstart my heart” onto your playlist. Keep on rockin!

Yep, this weeks selection for Rock and Roll Tuesday is Ice Cube. I know his music is not classified as Rock and Roll, but his attitude sure as hell screams Rock and Roll! If you have to deal with the cops this week (like I had to today), blast some Ice Cube to get a smile back on your face.

Ice Cube – Check Yo Self
Uploaded by quaresma69. – News videos from around the world.
No video but here is Ice Cube’s classic diss of Easy E (and the rest of NWA) for your enjoyment.

Rock and Roll!

Conditions are about as good as they get in Vermont right now. So there was pretty much no question that I was headed to the mountain this morning.

I started getting my gear on around 6 am to head to the mountain. A benefit to living in Waterbury is that you are close to the mountain, so most of us will get fully kitted out at home: boots and all.   Dr. Fung has been having me test his latest creation: The PureFlex Libertine.

The snow we are getting is pretty wet and heavy and has really been wrecking havoc in the towns.    So of course I lose power right before I need to put my boots on.

(In case you needed a photo for reference)

I can attest the Pureflex boots passed the test and were simple to put on in the dark.  Nothing could stop me from getting to the mountain today.

If you haven’t seen the video on how the boots work, check it out…

(As Ian describes in his piece the orange lace goes in to the internal cuff so it is tightening the internal ankle cuff, as well)

Rock and Roll Tuesday has been on haitus for a while but hopefully today’s selection makes up for it! First off, big ups to fellow shred Scotty Lago for keeping it real after winning the bronze, rock and roll Scotty! Anyway, I’ve been reading the book ‘Hammer of the Gods’ so I dusted off a bunch of my old Zeppelin albums and have been diggin on them alot more than usual lately.. Enjoy these two classics from one of the greatest bands of all time!

I don’t think I’ve ever heard this song performed by Zeppelin before, and I feel like we’ve all heard everything they’ve done at least 5 times… but check this out live performance from Australia in 1972..

Keep on rockin my fellow shredders…