Snow in the 'hoe!

It's finally here!

Photo: Johanna Tikkanen

I'm not saying you all need to thank me, but four days ago I did post this letter to Winter asking for snow and now it's here. I feel personally responsible for our change in weather.
So you're welcome.
Go out and enjoy some early season shred like these guys. I'll be stuck inside doing physical therapy for a bit longer. See you all in December.

Back in Tahoe!

The time has come! It's been real in the city, but I'm back in my lakeside paradise in the mountains.

Yesterday I moved all my stuff into my new apartment in Kings Beach. I'm living with three guys, Micah, Stavie, and Ian. So far it seems like we've got a solid little group. Ian works at Squaw, Micah works at Northstar, and Stavie works at Safeway. We pretty much have eating and riding on lock within our house. Micah studied kinesiology for a couple years so we're going to do a bunch of working out together in house and get super fit.

School starts next Monday so until then I'm just chilling on the lake every day. Not a bad life. I'm stoked to see everyone again. Jess came by the house last night and catching up with her was awesome. A lot of my friends that I ride with are transferring in this year so school should be pretty fun.

Premier season is also coming up and that'll be a great time. I love going to parties, meeting new friends and hanging out with my old ones.

That's about it. Nothing too exciting happening just yet. I really am totally stoked to be back here. Living in Tahoe is like a breath of fresh air. So beautiful and relaxing. Ahhh.... Alright, I'm off for a float on the lake.

Vail snatches up Kirkwood

New came out this morning that Kirkwood is now part of the Vail family. The $18million purchase includes the undeveloped sites at the center of the base area which are zoned for residential and commercial development, while Kirkwood will retain ownership of the remainder of the real estate development sites.


The deal will be finished within the next month, but as of today, Epic passholders can now ride at Kirkwood and Kirkwood passholders can ride Northstar and Heavenly.

I'm pretty stoked about this. Kirkwood is an awesome mountain and it'll be cool to be able to ride there with my Northstar pass. I haven't been there since last season when I hitch hiked down to the Queen of the Park competition, but I'd love to make it there again this season. If we ever get snow. Kirkwood is awesome when there's snow, but when there's not, it's not worth the 79 mile drive down.

Do I foresee Vail eventually buying out all of Tahoe? Yes. Should we all be worried about this? Probably. Am I worried right now? Nope.

Time to ride.


Official Press Release Here

First snow of the season.

October 5th. BOOM.
Snow made it all the way down to Incline Village. Getting my shred on later, but here are some pictures for this morning.

Had to check the webcam as soon as I woke up.

On the way to Reno. Saw an accident, and love tapped the car in front of us as well

Grey and still snowing

Way back from Reno. Beautiful blue skies and light, dry snow

Woodward Tahoe??

So on my interweb searching I came across news of Woodward Tahoe. I don't know what to think of it really. I'm kind of in a neutral place. Like "Oh. Well. Okay. I guess that's neat." I'm wondering how this will change Boreal and the local atmosphere. As of right now, I really can't make an assumption on whether this will positively impact the Tahoe scene or negatively impact it. But yeah. We'll see. They're set to open summer 2012. There's not even really any information on the official site so who knows what they have planned. I'm definitely excited to see the finished product though and hopefully I'll have some sort of hook up to play there for free.

The Tahood 37

So my friend Dan lives and rides up in Oregon and last night we were talking about the tricks we wanted to get this season. He said he wanted to get handplants, and I said I wanted to get a 540. He goes, let's make it a game. Whoever gets them (documented) first wins, and loser buys sushi. I go "Deal. Let's make it a whole list though." And the thing evolved. So now we have a list of 37 tricks and whoever gets the most by the end of the season is champion. We've got a youtube channel set up so you can follow our progress.

Ahhhh, The Tahood 37. A quest for dominance between an 18 year old Tahoe chickadee, and an old man from Oregon, the "ten months of snow" state. A simple "Let's see who can get a handplant and a bs5 first" evolved into a balls out championship of snowboarding might. Whoever knocks the most tricks off the list by May 15 wins. Loser buys sushi. Stakes will probably rise as the season gets underway. Game on.

Rules: No boxes the size of beds. Get it clean. If it’s questionable, it doesn’t count. Get it on video.

JUMPS

1. Nose grab
2. Tail grab
3. Method 
4. Melon
5. FS180
6. BS180
7. Half-Cab
8. Switch BS180
9. FS360
10. BS360
11. Cab
12. Switch BS360
13. FS540
14. BS540
15. Cab540
16. Switch BS540
17. Any 3 off a cornice/cliff
18. Rodeo
19. Misty
20. Backflip
21. Frontflip

JIBS & SHIT

22.Nose press

23. Tail press

24. 180-out

25. 180-on

26. 270-on

27. left hand-Handplant

28. right hand-handplant

29. fast plant

30. Stall 180

31. Stall 270

32. Front lip

33. Back lip

OTHER

34. Big air out of half pipe

35. Cartwheel

36. Tripod for at least 20 seconds

37. Full run, switch, regular front not strapped in. 

Dear Dan, You're going down. Youth conquers. 

Ps. Here's #27.

Catch up.

Not that type. I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted. I really think I typed an entry at some point and never published it. A month without a post is a little ridick. My bad. Anywayyyys. My snowboarding season is pretty much over. I found out that I have (or had) mono and that means I can't do anything "dangerous". Basically, if I have a fall, my spleen will rupture and I'll bleed to death from the inside. Fun right? Yeah, so I'm not taking that chance. I've been skateboarding almost every day though. I think I'm getting pretty good. I have a crew that I skate with and travel around with. That's pretty cool. I feel like I'm part of something and not just a high schooler trapped in this boring snowless city. I've been doing lots'o photography too.

I went to Kirkwood with Sean and his friends Duncan and Delphine two weeks ago and it was really nice. Kirkwood always serves. Bluebird once again. I've been really lucky this season. I haven't really have a bad day.

Other news, I'm visiting Sierra Nevada College in a week and a half for a few days. I'm pretty stoked on them. I also got accepted to CU Boulder, and University of Utah. Utah doesn't seem like they have anything really special going on and Boulder has issues with communication. That's what I really like about SNC. I email, they email back. I call, they call back. They do everything they can to accomadate me. Which is something a college should be doing if you're going to be paying 30k+ a year to go there.

Anywhooooo, I'm going to start searching for a ride up to Tahoe so I'll end this here. More posts real soon, scout's promise!

Dumping in Tahoe

My friend Chelsea headed up to Tahoe on Saturday and she said that the shred is siiick right now. She's got a place in Homewood and she's gonna be up there for ten days. Jealous much.

I be driving up to Kirkwood for my first trip of the season on Monday and I can't wait. It's supposed to dizzz-ump tomorrow and be all fresh pow on Tuesday. Yeaah boy. Ready to get my shred on. I have a good feeling about this winter. Things are gonna be good.

Hopefully Chels will make it out to Kirkwood on Tuesday and tear it up with me. Look out for this girl. We've got a future together in the snowboard industry.

Get me out of this city.