Welcome to Mexico,
We are buried under 12 feet of snow in some parts of Mexico. Hard to believe? Check out the pic. We are telling the truth. We drove through Mexico the other day on our Nation Wide Snowboard Shop and resort tour. When we heard Mexico had recieved over 12 feet of snow in one week we had to check it out. Hey whats a couple hours out of the way to witness the unbelievable. In some areas houses were just completely buried.

Oh, we should mention it is Mexico New York, just 1o miles from Oswego New York where they recieved over 12 feet of snow in one week. This is a large piece of machinery, about the height of a double wide trailer home, just buried. Wish we made a session there but nothin went down in Mexico. Hey its not Cabo, but could make a sick spring break location for a core snowboarder.

Killington Vermont was sick! There were a bunch of upcoming rippers tearing up the rails they had set up. We spent a while filming one kid Ryan Thomas, he had mad style and just dominated the rails. All of the footage we got of him doing a trick tip of a “true back tail ” was eaten. We are super bummed and are going back to Killington to get this done right.

The Killington Vermont park staff is getting it done right! They have a perfect halfpipe and the rails setup is dope. There park is well maintaned, well designed and their crew is filled with rippers. Killington and there park is sick. The mountain had a bunch of moguls, but the park is a great place to spend your day. Make sure you go there if you make it to Vermont.

Also if you head to Vermont, go to Darkside Snowboard Shop for your gear. The place is filled with core snowboarders, tons of gear, and an all around good vibe. Check out Darkside in the Snowboard Shop Blog.

Ahhh, Vermont under three feet of snow is so peaceful. We woke up in Burlington VT and left the college scene behind. Burlington has five colleges in the city and I have never seen so many college kids. It is a very cool place. We left in the morning and headed to SMUGGS. Smugglers Notch is a resort in Vermont that is so sick for freeriding, the place had some of the best woods runs I have ever ridden on the East Coast. If you make it to Northern Vermont (Which you should do) check out Burlington, and Smugglers Notch.

Our direct next stop was the closest snowboard shop to Smuggs called “No School Snowboard Shop”. It is a very cool shop and they carry more t shirts than any other shop I have been to on the East. Now I know where kids get there tee’s. I was very stoked to see that. I gave them some cloud stickers, media kits, and shopping bags. The owners were very cool and you could tell this place was legit. If you ever make it to Smuggs, your first stop in and out should be No School Snowboard Shop.

We left the Northern end of Vermont and drove a couple hours to Killington. The back roads of Vermont are tough to drive after a long day of shredding at Smuggs. When we arrived in Killington we realized that not having prior accomodation arrangements are a mistake on Presidents Weekend. We drove 45 minutes out of town to stay and drove back early this morning for some dump shredding. Dump shredding is the riding you do when there is three inches of snow dropping while you ride. We got a chance to see their park and the sick rail setup they have. It was enough to make us stay one more night. So here we are currently about to hit the sac and wake up early to make a video about shredding Killington rails. Check back tommorrow for some more info about whats happening in Vermont.

Early Morning wake up in Albany. We took off at 7:30 am to head to Gore Mountain. My car had the shakes!!! You know when the wheel shakes at like 70. Mine was shaking at 50! I think it was from all the rallying in Albany I was doing in my car. I gotta be more careful with it. So we got to Gore and rode the resort untill it closed. Conditions for New York were epic thanks to the 30 new inches that fell overnight.

On the way out of Gore Mountain driving upstate to Vermont I noticed this sunset and snapped this shot while driving. No editing involved “thanks Canon”.

Burlington Vermont has just recorded their largest single storm snowfall record.  The last record was over a century ago.  This storm brought over 30 inches in one day to Burlington and surrounding areas. Conditions are EPIC! We are in Burlington now and are heading to Smugglers Notch first thing to ride the mountain for the first time. Stoked to be in Vermont right now!

The entire state of New York was recently pounded with over two feet of snow. We were stuck in the city of Albany yesterday and thought it would be sick if we went out and found some handrails. The entire city is burried in snow and this all happened overnight. Its hard to believe that snow can fall like this. We are here and about to hit up some Northern resorts and see what kind of snow they recieved. Look at these two cars, completely buried.

We just got a new camera and damn it is tough to film in super snowy weather. I am hoping to get out when the weather has settled a little and get some awesome shots. I need a tripod! Eric learning how to use the camera.

Yesterday, we went to the state college and met up with a few local rippers. They were sessioning this ledge that has been seen in numerous snowboard videos. It was a killer session and the local riders were killing it. Heres the ledge.

We also stopped by Capital Board Shop and kicked it for well over an hour.  if you live in Albany make sure you check this shop out.  You can get all your gear here.

ALL ABOUT THE CLOUD!

We woke up in the morning and went back for a session at FDR. After a like a half hour I started skating in my tshirt cuz I was so hot. It was like 20 degrees and the locals thought I was nuts. The locals were stoked that we were finding the lines the allowed us to flow all the way through the park and didnt believe it was our first time skating there. A bunch of rippers showed up toward the end of our three hour session, we hooked everyone in the park up with Skate Rev clouds and they were stoked. Philly and FDR is a badass place.

We knew we had to get out of there if we wanted to ride Mountain Creek, New Jersey. We drove a few hours and arrived at Mountain Creek. The place reminds me of the Big Bear for New Yorkers. It was sick. Next we arrived at the top of the park chair only to find that a park pass was required to ride their park. A written test and an extra five bucks was required to get the pass. Of course I aced the thing. I had my pass walked past the park ranger and hit up the park. It was fun and all the park staff were stoked on the cloud stickers. They put them up on the rails and a big row of them in the window of the booth every park rider has to walk through to ride the park. Its on! We rode untill late and jumped back into the car to arrive in Albany, where we currently at. Our next stop is Mexico, New York. They got like 12 feet of snow in one week.

Love Park, FDR, and Nocturnal skate shop

We left NYC southbound to check out Philadelphia. Home of LOVE park, FDR park and Kerry Getz skate shop “Nocturnal”. This place is really sick. Our first stop in Philly was Nocturnal skate shop. Good looks to Robert for hooking us up with some office supplies “skateboards”. Next we skated the city over to Love park and skated there for like a half hour, no bust. Then we jumped in the car and drove with no directions to FDR park. We lit up the park with the lights of the car, sprayed some stencil clouds and skated for like an hour. This skate park is insane, if you love to skate tranny check it out. Love park was the best. There is so much skate history there, I could feel it. I skated the best I have skated in a long time and I have to believe it was the Love that brought it out of me. Ne way, Philly is sick, check out all these spots and you will be stoked on your efforts.

Union Square, New York City was host to one of the largest rail jams I have ever seen on February 8th called The Union Square Street Sessions. I have competed in other rail jam like this. The Vegas High Roller Rail Jam, The West Coast Invitational and those were great contests, but this one had some different elements that made it the best rail jam to date.

It was in downtown Manhattan NYC, At Union Square. The area is a megamopolis and a very touristy area, so the foot traffic was insane. The Crowd was huge last night! Never of all my rail jam experience have I seen a crowd turnout like this one. I have also never seen so many New Yorkers this stoked on Snowboarding. It was the perfect location.

The media was all over this contest. Luckily only limited media was able to access the event. For example, If you looked like a snowboarder you were in. If you looked like a subway lifer, you were out. No offense to the City Dwellers on that. I guess the point I’m trying to make is when a rider does a “boardslide 450 out like Lucas Magoon did), He is not just doing a 360 and stuff in the air. Their is technical terms that only the core snowboard community can understand. For that reason only certain media members could get inside the gate. I promise this contest is going to get blown away by the media soon enough. You will see.

The level of riding was INSANE! Damn, 25 riders, $15,000, even if you split that purse evenly it would be a session to see. The case was that only one rider could win this event and with a line up they had you couldn’t even expect anything less. RIDERS LIST: Danny Kass, Charles Reid, Pat Moore, Scotty Lago, Scotty Arnold, Aaron Biitner, Sketchy D, Zak Hale, Chris Rotax, Lucas Magoon, Eddie Wall, Yale Cousino, Jonas Milichot, Jed Anderson, MFM, Louie Vito and Jeremy Cloutie. Each rider threw down some insane tricks but it really came down to the top 6 finalists when the heat kicked in. This shit went off and some highlights were… Lucas Magoon did a 270 on 450 off the jeep rail, and a nollie back tailslide 270 out on the middle rail. Eddie Wall did a backside 270 onto the middle rail and stayed consistent all night. Yale Cousino did a 270 on the hard way, 270 out. Charles Reid did a frontside 360 to 50-50 on the middle rail that was INSANE!

The people who made this happen were Snowboarder Magazine, Lat34, Killington Vermont, Mountain Creek, and Jeep and I am not sure who else but I know one thing for sure. This contest was so bad ass that New York City officially deemed February 8th “Union Square Street Sessions Day” and on that note we will see you next year!

-John Centi

-Photos Steve Olson

The Union Square Urban Rail Jam kicked off today in Downtown NYC. At 7 am we showed up to the “Demo” for media. A couple riders showed up at that time. This thing is right in downtown NY, Im guessing you will see some, riders in the subway with their boards shots. The contest begins at 2 o clock with an amateur jib off for Mountain Creek riders that want to try and compete against the big dogs. Lucas Magoon is here, Chris Rotax, Louie Vito and Zak Hale were around this morning throwing down. We got some sick footage and will have plenty more to come when this thing actually starts. Look out for some inanse photo galleries, stories, and videos. Thanks to Joe Prebich from Snowboarder Magazine for helping us with our media access.

The setup: From right to left

1. A flat down bar mounted on top of the roof of a jeep, perfect for gaps.

2. Down box

3. Down bar with stairs

4. Down box with ledge

5. Up flat down rail at the bottom of the setup.

-Photos Steve Olson

We made it to NYC!

This morning we woke up in Albany, and went to spend the day with the park crew at Windham Mountain. The mountain is pretty dope, man made snow, similar to Big Bear, a nice halfpipe and a dedicated park staff headed by Erich Knabbe. The staff was in the process of building their park and was not quite complete. We got to hit some park rails and hits (BETA style) and we are heading back to Windham on Monday to hit the finished product up. Should be sick because these guys know what their doing. We arrived in NYC at about 9:45 pm and drove directly into Times Square. I have one thing to say about this place. HOLY SHIT! It is so amazing, its hard to believe it took me this long to get here. We arrived to stay with friends Dave Drayer and Leslie Foti. They are helping alot with the travel situation. Thanks to them we now have a rough idea about how to get to the Union Square Street Sessions at 7AM this morning. Now we can get there to cover this event for you guys(viewers). Check back tommorrow for full coverage of the event. We may be the first to have it, Ill try!

I love the Catskill Mountains, and go ride Windham Mountain if you make it to New York. Its sick.

-Photos Steve Olson