Rome Snowboard Design Syndicate

This is from a real fortune cookie and it’s really creepy. Thanks Erin.

This week’s Metal Monday is approved by Laurent. He’s here in the office for a few days with the rest of the team working on some super important stuff. He also knows a thing or two about metal, so I figured I’d get some input from him.

Here is an insightful quote from the man himself explaining why Black Sabbath is awesome and the obvious choice for this week’s post.

“They are the Godfather of heavy metal. Straight up. Come on.” – Larry

Thanks Larry.

Ahh, summer camp. When thinking back upon my fonder days of youth spent hanging out in the woods, getting eaten alive by mosquitos, failed attempts at learning various swimming strokes, and being forced to do arts and crafts, it seems like perhaps a pretty miserable experience.

Not at Windells. I’ve heard a lot of BS tag lines before, but perhaps the most legitimate one I’ve heard thus far is that it’s the “funnest” place on Earth. Nothing could be closer to the truth, as I found out upon my first visit to camp. This place is any shredder’s dream come true. As much as I wanted to skate around the seemingly endless array of concrete skate features or go play paintball, there was work to be done.

First up was to give the Rome Van a brand new sticker job. If you see this thing ripping around Oregon, don’t get too close, I installed a flame thrower in the tailpipe. Not exactly “street legal.”

Next we overhauled the Rome house, aka Road House, with some new wall art. Man, back in my day we slept in canvas tents. These kids have it good.

The demo fleet was looking pristine, thanks to Jenny and Andy over at the demo center. Definitely head over there and demo some of the new 2012 product.

Big thanks to the Rome SDS North West crew for the whirlwind tour of the area and NJ Peterson for the killer photos. See you all next year.

This week’s Metal Monday is brought to you from the West coast, so I thought it would be fitting to showcase a band from the West coast. 3 Inches of Blood are from Vancouver, and they are pretty much the best. I’d advise you to crank your volume all the way up before listening.

Out at Superpark this year, our Western Canada rep Derek shot over a photo of one of his regional riders Jordan Phillips going ungodly huge on the 7-Springs hip. I had never met Jordan, but got his contact info from Derek, and invited him over for a BBQ at the Rome condo.

One of the nicest kids you could meet, Jordan was super polite, humble and passionate about snowboarding. Being such an avid rider, shred video watcher, and re-watcher, I’m sure he’d be the first to admit cruising into a condo when he didn’t know who would be there, and having Bjorn Leines serve him up a brat and a beer, can make for a pretty damn memorable night.

We had a shoot coming up at Boreal with the team, and we were all talking amongst ourselves about the possibility of getting him to come along. Just so happened I was taking the lift up the next day at Superpark, when Jordan stomped a pretty damn clean and big front 10 off the jump right underneath me…he can definitely ride, would be a great fit for the trip, so we had him come along.

After guinea pigging a couple of the bigger jumps I’ve seen on a mountain Jordan proceeded to crush. Jordan charged the whole trip. Came up short on around 80 feet to knuckle, to what we thought was an ender, he jumped up, walked up the hill and to “Oh my god, are you ok?”, he casually replies, “Oh yeah…”, pretty much dropping all of our jaws.
On the biggest jump of the trip, Jordan started off strong as usual. After a quick warm up, it was time to get to work, dropping front and back 10’s no problem. After a couple washed run-ins to a cab 9, Jordan went for it, and didn’t have enough speed.

What proceeded to go down, was one of the scariest events I’ve ever been a part of in snowboarding. It could also be a 10 page story, so I’ll condense it into a couple sentences.

Jordan snapped his femur. From the lip to where he rested was around 210 feet. The crew at Boreal is about the best there is, and through their fast actions, clarity of mind, and the help of the ambulance crew, Jordan got to the hospital, went into surgery, and is now recovering with a titanium rod in his leg (contrary to his request for adamantium).
One of the toughest kids I’ve ever met.

Look for Jordan grabbing some shots in The Shred Remains, and for more in the future once he’s all healed up.

Yes, I realize it’s Tuesday, but I was busy being celebrating the best parts of America all weekend. Sorry I’m not sorry.

This week’s installment of Metal Mondays is brought to you by a better time. A time when music videos weren’t absolute garbage and when a guy with a beard could drive through a wall on a motorcycle and scoop up a smokin’ babe. Those were the days.

I’m going to utilize a little journalistic privilege and qualify this video as metal. Why? Just watch it.

Self explanatory.

Also on a somewhat unrelated note,
this is probably one of the greatest websites ever.

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!