Chris Tierney be Rippin'

We had another great training week at Mt Snow. They continue to set up new features at Carinthia, fueling progression and creativity. I have had the pleasure of riding closely with Chris Tierney this week and have been impressed with his level of riding. I challenged four of my best riders to land all four 720s in one run on wednesday and Chris was the only one to pull it off (the others came close). Its one thing to be able to land all four, but in one run? Nice job Chris. He then proceeded to blast the biggest straight air of the day off of the 50ft Dew Tour jump (see photo below).




Kevin Mattice got some extra film/photo time at Carinthia yesterday and he made the most of it. Check his videos on vimeo.com (search Kevin Mattice). He is riding solid too, check his railing stall photo at top.
This weekend is the last usasa events. Buses will leave SMS at 7:30 each day. The end of the year party will be at Snow Barn after Sunday's pipe event. Expect a strong finish out of our crew. Final photo is of Connor Hudson who is making quite a comeback and has been sooo fun to ride with.

Switch Backside

Today we split the crews between Mt Snow and Stratton. I hear Stratton was a blast, but I did the Mt Snow thing and have to comment on what I was blown away by. What was that, you ask? Well it was Shelby Simpson. Anyone who is paying any attention to our team knows that she is on a tear right now. In Boreal she decided to step it up and has been doing so ever since. Case in point, today she was spinning switch backside in pipe and slope. The pipe work is crazy, she drops in to a switch backside three, gets two in a run (with grabs) and then was attempting switch back 5s at the end of the pipe. She only really tried 2 or 3 fives, but if she had two more runs she would have landed one. For those who don't know, switch backside spins are the most unspun tricks in our sport. They are not much harder than the other spins, but people have been slow to master them so they stand out in comps (see Torah Bright and Danny Davis). Well Shelb is getting them down. In slope she is throwing switch back 180s and as you can see in today's photo, she is starting to grab them.
So big ups to Shelby Simpson. First place Open Women's pipe at Okemo this weekend, an invite to last week's World Cup, and riding in finals in the last Rev Tour. Keep it up Shelb, you are setting a great example and getting us all stoked to try new things!
I wanted to pump up Shelb today, but of course we have lots of other ripping going on. More on that later, but check out the Tierney/Wood doubles shot. The old over-under!
Ian

Okemo

Weather was stormy this morning but we made the trip over Terrible Mt to Okemo. Training was crowded and fast paced, lots of park and pipe laps. Dave Redden's back rodeo clinic yesterday was priceless. Cesar, Austin and Mike have joined Eric, Hunter, and Randall in the rodeo club and will be throwing them in this weekend's comp.
I got to spend some time with Phoebe and Makayla and was impressed with thier slope skills. Makayla was trying front 5s, and Phoebe is now grabbing her back 3s. See photo for proof.
Gonna be a good show this weekend. Bus leaves SMS at 7:10 and I hope we have a good turnout of family to cheer us on.
Also, I put up the footage of Eric's front 1080. It should be just to the left of this text.
Ian

Stratton Training, day 2

You know what they say about pictures and words, well today the pictures will do most of the speaking. Basically, Phoebe is out of her tree, even before we get to the hill. Alex Bayer is choosing switch backside spins while others decline that choice. India does not care what it takes to get a trick down. She slammed 3 times before front boarding this down box. This shot was the make.
From what I heard Cesar learned back rodeos with Redden, he will have to tell you bout that. Look out Okemo, here we come.
Ian

Christmas Comes for Eric B

So today was killer, like all days at Mt Snow this season. Tikos and Hunter are landing back 900s in the Dew Tour Park. Abay is out of retirement and shredding slope (check photo in last entry). India (now a Pro/Am, congrats girl) is tough on herself, but on her last run she landed a half-cab, a back 3 and a front 3. She sat down on the last Dew Tour jump and was pissed, but she is shredding and belongs with us Pro/Ams.
Joe Mensch quietly throws down all day long and is looking strong going into the spring with 5s 7s and 9s. Slays-the-Gnar has been tagging along with the Pro/Ams and is impressing the heck out of me. Back 7s and large front 5s.
BUT, the highlight of the day was Eric Beauchemin's frontside 1080 off the largest jump on the hill. He decided today was the day and stomped it in 3 tries. This kid loves riding, and I have never seen him so excited. He had a good audience which added to the stoke. The kid called his dad as soon as he unbuckled. Yeah Eric! I just put the clip up on Youtube, go check it out. Its under "Eric Beauchemin front 1080".
Photos are Slays-the-Gnar crail and Dr Redden Head Style Coach.
Ian

These are today's. Below is from Yesterday.

SMS Snowboarding Has Been and Will Be Doing the Following...

• 

We trained tuesday and wednesday at Carinthia Park and the jumps were outstanding, the jibs good, the pipe needed cutting yesterday and today could have used another pass up the riders right wall. The park crew has committed to not rebuild that pipe before 2/28 contest weekend so they don't want to dig too deep in a given night lest it all get too wide...hightlights and photos to follow but first....

• The Dev crew, The Race Crew and Two pro-ams raced Boardercross at Bromley today.
• Shelby, Jin and Indrik are going with Rick to The Stoneham, Canada World Cup Event tomorrow. Congratulations.
• We are planning on going to Okemo tommorrow and friday to train and then compete there saturday the 21st and sunday the 22nd. Contest mornings the vans will depart SMS @7:10. Training day vans will depart SMS @ 8:00. Wax swix CH 7 for the next 4 days please.

But here's the thing: it has started snowing at my house and we are expecting 4-8 inches. If it snows 4 or more we will ride Stratton. Tomorrow only. There you have that. I love weather.

• Next week will be Carinthia heavy and we will be competing there at Mount Snow on saturday the 28th and sunday the 1st (of March!). That weekend is The Series Finals. There is a banquet Party at the Snowbarn that we will all attend Sunday the 1st after the contest. Parents please come on up or down if you can attend. Vans will depart SMS @ 7:30 for mount snow both days. Wax is pending. Bring some extra shoes and sock for sunday.

Hope to see a nice turnout of SMS community and cameraderie, because honestly these kids are riding great. You should see em. I'll tell you about some tricks we've been seeing and show some photos. At one point today I stood on a knuckle and filmed ten people in a row all spin grab and land one after another. Mostly fives. All our kids. I saw Alex Bayer riding slope. Out there and re-engaging his riding on the open jump lines. Chris and Eric ended the day with a back to back nollie front flip train. Chris is landing switch back five all over and front seven looks like a breakfast spin. Eric landed front ten on film. Hunter landed every bs rodeo he tried, stomping 4 out of 5. Hunter landed back 9 on film and has a switch back five that fifty five feet if its an inch. Kevins jibs are off the hook and his back is looking like its feeling better over jumps than yesterday. He is a slayer. India is spinning every other jump in the nitro line. Joe gets more pop per jump than a bullfrog when everybody else has to hop and tuck just to clear. Austin is spinning a grabbing in a cast. Tikos is spinning huge and Randall's shifty is kung foo. It's precisely orchestrated madness out there and Then there is the suprise of the season... Cesar Slays-the-Gnar Reversade all the way from les Alps learning all his fives and some sev's already. These kids are a high flying celebration of life on snow and inspiring every day.