Elite Crew Photo Grabs

Feast your eyes upon the sunny oasis that is Summit County. Sunscreen and shades are a must, as is a light ninja mask. The featured hotspots are Breck and Keystone. If you are a fan of this blog you will know the identities of the pictured riders by their styles alone. Challenge yourselves to name them all! Biba arrived a bit late for this blog, but has some tricks up her sleeves tomorrow. Short sleeves if the forecast is correct!

The Pipe Is Super and the Kids Are Kryptonite!

Peter D. Method, Proper. Study it.

 Yesterday am here at Copper Mtn. The pipe building crew unleashed their sculpture. Under the pressure of a reported 20 National Teams plus another 10 groups like ourselves these guys were welding broken equipment and overcoming numerous mechanical challenges to get this  beast unveiled. Lack of natural snow has been no issue here and are training has been great.
Brandon Bischoff's hometown hero and SMS superstar Louis Vito is looking forward to seeing BB ride and Louie is looking good already in the season. Alum Ellery Hollingsworth is also back in the allstar lineup along with Jenn Cohen and Joe Mensch who are all repping SMS alumni skills In Full! It's a great privilege to be training in such great facilities alongside some of  the best riders in Snowboarding and our Athletes are taking full advantage.

Maverick Shaw Boosting Big and Smoothe Back Tail.

Tanner B with a wicked Slob. (Air That is.)

SNoelle Edwards Is Back In HP with a BackSide Air!

Tomorrow is a rest day for many of us. The elite squad will be back on snow at Breck and the
Colorado Crew will come train Halfpipe. Expect a full update out of this day off. Camp is going great!

Thomas O'Hara Frontside Tail

2012 Fall Camp Hits the Ground Running In Colorado

     Every season is work but this past fall in dryland training was perhaps the most complicated and challenging beginning I can remember as a coach. We are moving on and have made it through to the time of year we all come together for...SNOWBOARD SEASON! The trip out was long as usual and not without a hitch but we made it through that long day as well. We are fully housed and comfortable in the Telemark Lodge at Copper Mountain and loaded up with our various seasons passes....(some have Epic, some Summit local and Copper while many just have Copper and everybody has their Woodward pass thanks so much to our most faithful supporters!)
    Ian's Crew rode Keystone today where the famous triple line opened up. The Am Crews, Development, Speed and Style Crews all rode Copper. The halfpipe almost made it open today but not quite which is just fine because we had a great tune up on the Copper Slopestyle course and the acreage of hardpack. Real Winter Snow, some fun jibs and a near perfect 25-30 foot table top kicker to get the season rolling. Each group had their own similar but different approach. My crew ran pretty focused on the jump for most of the morning and I was impressed with how they adapted, for example...

Noelle tweak o' the nose. Ladies first!

Thomas O Cab 9

Thomas O'hara had a head start by riding Park City all week over break and took full advantage. Nasty and near flawless cab-nines to prove it.
Tanner Barrett was held off snow for shoulder and hip rehab last winter and he is savoring every opportunity as well getting right back after his backside rodeos, front sev's and even a nine. Peter Dimitriou is a rail demon and working the front and backside spins to bring his jump skills up to the same level.

Peter D back three.

Noelle Edwards is walking the fine line of pushing the limits of a back to snow protocol from ACL surgery. Awesome work using a long warm up to get herself clearing the table to tranny landing first try. We wrapped up the snow day with a brief but full carving progression on on sharper halfpipe boards in prep for tomorrow and the season ahead....I saw a nasty method out of Evan Werner and detailed edging work going on with Jay's crew...The Speed and Stylers were training that kicker like it was january behind Ross and Scotty tells me Taiaroa Tait's Method tweak is folding around like doubled! Elite crew skated Silverthorne after Keystone...Ross' gang already went to woodward....Dwaine has just led the entire crew off to study hall and I'll meet them at woodward fot he six-oclock sesh. So it goes. Enjoy the photos! DT is sending me more for a second edition to be updated later and of course there is tomorrow and...Thanks again.

The view from the left- cab nine

Wrap Up

Tag zusammen! A busy contest week has come to a close and with one day left in Austria it’s time to reflect. After two days of powder riding at Planai we reported for duty at Dachstein. Graduates Hunter Wood, Eric Beauchemin, and Phoebe Novello joined Biba, Ezra and Serena to complete an aggressive squad. The contest set-up was a two-jump line into a rail option. The jumps were sizeable and took a slight toll on the minds and bodies of a crew pushing hard to get tricks back on lock. With only one day of practice before qualifiers there was some inevitable pressure to perform. 180s, 360’s, 5s, 7s and 9s were landed, regular and switch. Eric has been in Austria riding for the past month and was clearly ahead of the game. This would become glaringly evident by the end of the weekend. Qualifiers went smashingly with Hunter Wood and Serena Shaw both qualifying second into Semis. Top 3 qualifiers received cash prizes which is always nice on an international mission. Serena landed a switch 180, backside 360 combo on the jumps and Hunter went back 7, double backflip. Biba landed her first run of the year which included a backside 360 on jump 2.

The next day brought the forecasted high winds. The start time was pushed back and semi’s were changed to finals. Serena landed her first run which landed her in a respectable 7th. Hunter’s first run was an easy top 5 but he went a bit to big on jump 2. Eric Beauchemin took top spot by 3 points with his first run, a rodeo 7, front 7, 270 on and off the rainbow rail. The winds had held the riders off the big side of jump 2 and as run 1 drew to a close there was talk of calling the event. A brief break in the wind led them to start dropping the men for run 2 and Hunter was ready to put himself in contention. Three men dropped before gale-force winds forced a submission. The call was bittersweet as Hunter didn’t get to shine but Eric walked with an easy victory. He became the first American to win the Pleasurejam in its 10 year history.

The wind swapped out for rain for our last two days, making those original pow days seem like some strange dream. Schladming keeps us busy with shopping and food until our departure tomorrow. It was a great trip filled with new and old friends. This trip has become a tradition and Austria is becoming familiar to us all. Our German is improving and it gets harder to get on that plane home each year. Board the plane we will though, and the thought of Thanksgiving in the states has us all eager to rejoin American loved ones.

More of the Same

Another day of powder. What a great way to start the season! I feel like most years our first runs are through a park, not the best way to start the season (albeit fun). Long runs through pow of all manifestations really set the tone for the year. Our legs have been tested and the powder muscles seem to have been developed already (Redden may have a roll in this).

Contest prep starts tomorrow and I am so glad to have a few days of stress-free riding under our belts. On a side note, Hunter Wood has been a pleasure to reunite with. Eric Beauchemin arrives any moment, which will be another treat. Now if we could just run into India!

Alps Mit Powder

As you can see from Serena's photo above, we arrived to some sparse conditions here in Austria but we went for it anyways. Grass gives a great basegrind and our outerwear looked way too new anyways. Its hard to travel so far, with so much excitement to ride again, only to get core shots .

The kids handled the situation well but I could tell that they were hoping for some early season powder...

Or some small backflip jumps...... Or perhaps even some street-style rail to session...

OH WELL, PERHAPS TOMORROW! Loving this crew.

Another Day of Turning Barriers into Features

  Very refreshing visit to the Wreck for the self appointed "gym guy" and part time third back up soccer coach, on weds.
The team has been through four weeks of tough and tactically planned stressing of their bodies in the weight room, while skating and playing soccer every day, one week of surfing skating and working out on the beach, another week of readjusting to hard work while concurrently being forced to reflect on what's important, what is fragile and what lasts and now one more week back into significantly focused work in the gyms and on their decks...all while keeping up with the steady dose of college prep education that separates SMS from other elite snowboard programs...LOng sentance? Yes but much longer time put in and it was a great refreshment to see these guys and girls doing what they do best and loving it.

 Minutes after Evan did that sweet fifty fifty across the coping of the ramp he was doing a double back flip on the tramp...Ezra is dropping from the street section to the mini ramp for that front three over the pool cope...Tairoia is wearing his skate helmet during that cork over so you know what he was doing five minutes before...
We travel the globe in search of the perfect setups and follow the pipelines to national teams, colleges and the next level shred but the bottom line on what our so called sport is all about is getting after IT on what ever's in front of you on any given day. These kids never get tired of the Wreck and are always finding a new line and learning a new trick in here. That is what I love about snowboarders, skaters, freeskiers and anyone else who is willing to just keep getting after IT day after day in their back yard, front yard, ramps, mats, gyms, curbs, rails, barriers. Especially barriers. Think about what that means...the playful mind turning barriers into features...Parent's weekend is here, remember to thank your kids and enjoy the weekend.

Jack G. ATF

If were lucky, there's a little captain in all of us!