Storm Chasing and Other Nonsense

Craig Kelly

2012-01-20T13:46:00.000-08:00

Here's one of my favorite photos. My brother took it years ago. A huge blow up of this shot hung in his living room (well, Don's living room) in Whistler for years. Nine years ago we lost one of snowboarding's greats. Maybe the greatest. Cheers Craig!

Dano Pendygrasse photo.

“Nothing beats snowboarding at a mountain that offers the right lines. Whether it’s hopping rocks, jumping cliffs, board-sliding the nearest strip of metal or wood, simply carving a nice bank or popping an air over a small knoll, freeriding is where it’s at. Whenever the conditions allow, my snowboarding objective is to use the mountain to its fullest potential.” –Craig Kelly

Greg Todds

2012-01-14T10:57:00.000-08:00

Happy GT Day!

fIREHOSE!

2012-01-14T10:52:00.000-08:00

Check it out: fIREHOSE are getting back together and playing shows in April! Missed seeing them back in the day. Never thought I'd get another chance. This is the best news I've had all year! See you in BHam!

fIREHOSE 2012 Tour Dates:
04/05 – Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s
04/06 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir
04/07 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos
04/09 – Bellingham, WA @ Wild Buffalo House of Music
04/10 – Eugene, OR @ WOW Hall
04/11 – San Francisco, CA @ Slim’s
04/12 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Historic Coconut Grove Ballroom *
04/13 – Fresno, CA @ Fulton 55
04/14 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
04/17 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom *
04/18 – Flagstaff, AZ @ Orpheum Theatre *
04/19 – Tucson, AZ @ Plush
04/20 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival

* = w/ M. Ward

Patagonian Adventure

2011-12-24T11:23:00.000-08:00

This video from Kepa Acero via VSTR.com has been catching some attention on the webs lately. I can see why. It's pretty much the reason we go on missions like this one. Treasure! Nice work Kepa.

Joe

2011-12-22T09:43:00.000-08:00

Eric Rife photo

We miss ya Joe.

The Denali Experiment

2011-11-22T12:09:00.000-08:00

Check this video of Lucas Debari & Sage Cattabriga-Alosa summitting Denali last spring during a North Face expedition.

11

2011-11-02T16:18:00.000-07:00

Kelly Slater clinches his 11th World Title at the Rip Curl event in San Francisco. Has any athlete ever dominated a sport like this?

Here it comes...

2011-10-28T15:07:00.000-07:00

I'm not really ready for winter yet. Looks like it's coming early ready or not.

Check out the Duffey today:

Surftember

2011-09-22T19:40:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day of summer. Seems like it barely got going and then it was done. I managed to get back to the Island at the beginning of the month for a few days of camping on the beach. The weather was perfect. Pretty much sunny and warm the entire time. Oh - and waves too. Thank you Surftember.

Ready for the hike to the beach.

Beach camp.

Mid morning beach walk.

The locals were around, but we never met.

Oh ya - waves too!

Beautiful and empty.

Five days later.

Duff!

2011-08-18T10:53:00.000-07:00

Last but not least of the Living Legends from Push.ca - Dufficy!

Dew Bowl

2011-07-26T20:46:00.000-07:00

Check out the bowl the Dew Tour has this year.

Holy shite! Skating is radder than ever!

The tour will be in Portland in August. Good excuse for a summer road trip.

Cool Pool Vid

2011-07-23T09:40:00.000-07:00

Check out this pool party:

Kale Stephens

2011-06-28T16:32:00.000-07:00

The Living Legends series continues over at Push.ca with Kale Stephens. Check it right here or over there.

WTF?!!

2011-06-15T23:25:00.000-07:00

I love hockey games. I love Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. What the hell do these people have to do with hockey? So absolutely disappointing. Not only do we miss a glorious opportunity, but the morons of the lower mainland decide to give us another black eye. Thanks for coming out you idiots.

Chilean Volcano Goes Off

2011-06-08T09:58:00.000-07:00

Surreal pic from the volcanic eruption going on in Chile over the last few days. This is the same volcano Shin, Lucas, Xavier, DCP and crew tackled last summer with splitboards.

There's a good collection of eruption pics here.

P.A. postscript

2011-06-04T16:57:00.000-07:00

After the Goat Trip I hung out in P.A. for a couple days. Here's a couple shots from a beautiful evening in the Strait.

Goat Tour Pt 3

2011-06-03T11:53:00.000-07:00

The weather changed overnight. Even with ear plugs in I could hear the dreaded drops hitting the tent. We all slowly rose from our warm dry bags to assess the wet day in front of us. The clouds were hanging low and there was a constant drizzle. After getting some coffee and food into us we made our way to the old Tubal Cain mine just above our camp. Four of us went in for a look see. There's dark and then there's absolute dark. We found the later. A little bit creepy would be an understatement.

Forrest and friend.


Yoshida considering the entrance.


I think I just saw Gollum!

We all made it out of the mine without waking any cave demons. It was totally Lord of the Rings in there. The day was drab and gray but we decided to session a patch of snow with a tree jib before we packed it up and moved down the trail.

Temple checks a line. The little guys were always close by.

Lester's puppy Laska.

Let's make it interesting. In run by Blair & Forrest.

Forrest halfway there.

Blair in the air.

After a successful final session it was time to load up and head out. Going downhill should be easier. The goats practically dragged me down the trail. They wanted to get home more than anyone. Except for one of them. One of the bigger goats (Hencho) decided he'd had enough about 2/3's of the way down and went on strike. He almost had the rest of the goats convinced to do the same, but we got them moving again before a mass revolt ensued. After unloading Hencho and securing him to a tasty salal bush we continued down the trail minus one goat. By the time we'd reached the truck, unloaded and gone back up the trail to help Les get Hencho down it was dark. Even after a good rest and being unloaded this goat was not into it. He refused to walk. Blair & Les had got him down the trail as far as they could. Mike and I joined the group and the four of us shouldered the beast and packed him out the rest of the way. That's right - we packed out the pack animal. I swear he was smiling the whole way.

How often do you get to hang with a blue goat?

About halfway down the trail before Hencho's revolt.

Hencho and Les at the end of the trail. I think Les is wondering how H would taste with a nice Shiraz.

What a mission! We were all relieved to be down off the mountain safe and sound. And just like that my snow season was over. Another day of sun would have been nice, but getting 2 in a row this year seems lucky. What a winter!

Goat Tour Pt 2

2011-06-02T11:24:00.000-07:00

So... we woke up to dry skies and got our train headed up the valley to the zone we'd scoped the day before. No goats today. Oh - I forgot to mention we took a couple of the goats into the alpine on Day 1 just for the hell of it. Well, for photos actually. Mountains, goats, snow shredding... you get the picture. Well you will when Yoshida's pics come out next year in the mag. Oh, and we dyed a goat blue too. He was pissed at first but I think he got into it after a while.

Smoky morning.

Break on the trail for...

...gypsy snacks from Forrest.

Blair & Sammy head up. Pic from Temple.

As does Forrest. Pic from Temple.

The mountains are green out here.

Forrest on his ridge. Pic from Temple.

The day went pretty well. The boys all got to tackle a line or two in pretty decent corn snow. The clouds held off. The views were amazing. Everybody came down smiling. Forrest even did a little pond skimming on the way out. We all made our way back to camp to find Pos & Stantech had made their way up the trail. We'd been to the Mervin Factory before we came in and they'd said they were going to try and meet us up there. "Yeah, cool" we said. "Yeah, right" we thought. But there they were - ready for anything. Well not really. It started raining that night and they were gone before we woke up the next morning. Good effort guys.

Yeah, it was a little weird. Pic from Temple.

Check back soon for Day 3.

Goat Tour Part 1

2011-05-31T16:19:00.000-07:00

Last week I went down to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington to finish up my winter season. Blair Habenicht had corralled a crew of WA bros for a spring splitboard tour into the mountains near Port Angeles for a Snowboarder Magazine story. Travis at Standard Films figured I'd be the guy to send to try and video the whole thing. Always up for a challenge, I signed on. The twist was we were going to use goats to help pack our gear into and out of our camp. Lester West had the goats, Mervin had the splits, Mike Yoshida & I had the cameras and Blair, Temple, Forrest B & Sammy had the time. We watched the roller coaster weather forecasts until a little window opened up last week. After a day in P.A. getting last minute supplies we were off to the trail head. It was a 3 mile walk to the camp site mostly on dirt and patches of snow. After setting up camp in the dark, we all hit the sack. The next morning we awoke to Lester's alarm of gunshots. Nothing like getting your point across! Time to get up and check out our surroundings. After a not so quick breakfast we were off. The valley we were camped in was steep. Steep enough that it was easier to bootpack up the snow and dirt/rocky patches than to try and skin up. Finally we were able to put the skins on and tour up the last 3rd of the climb. We reached the top of the ridge and looked across the valley to see the terrain we were after. The side we had climbed had a few interesting riding opportunities, but better things were on offer across the valley. The access looked a little more splitboard friendly too. We milked it until the sun started disappearing and headed down to camp. A quick dinner of freeze dried goodness and it was straight into the evening's most important activity - trying to dry boots.

Night Goat.

Going up on Day 1.

View north to the San Juans...

... with Mt. Baker in the background.

Looking across to Day 2 possibilities.

Blair & Sammy.

Boot Camp.

The hazards of drying by fire.

More to come...

Living Legend - Martin Gallant

2011-05-31T14:43:00.000-07:00

During the first few weeks of May I helped interview a bunch of old dogs for the Living Legends series at Push.ca. Everyone had something to say about Martin Gallant. His edit just went up today. Check it out below or here. Classic.

Lights, camera...

The Godfather

Pascal and Bubba.

Martin & his stick from back in the day.

Back to work in the Squamish Valley.

Red Fang

2011-05-25T16:17:00.000-07:00

Red Fang make videos that are worth making. I love this.

Living Legends

2011-05-22T14:44:00.000-07:00

Push.ca has been posting a series of videos they call Living Legends. Each video takes a look at a snowboarder or skateboarder from back in the day who's still in the game somehow today. I've been helping them out with interviews lately. Dennis Bannock was the first to get posted a while back. Check out the latest edit with Shin:

Keep checking Push.ca for new posts every couple of weeks. Or maybe check back here. Gawd that site's hard to get around.

April Wrap

2011-05-07T12:42:00.000-07:00

April has come and gone. Lots of time in the mountains as usual this time of year. No AK this time. All B.C. (and one day at Baker). Winter stuck around and delivered lots of late season pow. Two weeks in the Golden area was a welcome change of scenery. Got to return to Chatter Creek with BJ after 6 years. That place is amazing. Thanks Isabelle.

Can't stop winter at Mt Baker.

Leland McNamara spent most of the month up in B.C. filming for the Rome movie. Check out Debari's custom paint job on his new Cat.

Justin Baun in his zone near Golden.

Baun's new cabin and a shootin' session.

Jane loves to shoot. Her pockets are always full of shells.

Baun, BJ & Jeff P.

Truck crust.

Bubbly goodness at Chatter.

Sweet lines at Chatter.

Line review.

BJ atop some more goodness at Chatter.

Ronald McDonald rides again! It was strange going back to a snowmobile to access the backcountry. Old Ronald did pretty well though (after Rome put in a new motor).

Sullivan Fault. This view never gets old.

End of season wack steez.

Chatter Lodge. The biggest log building I know of. Good food too.

Sunsets and moonrises.

Bones Brigade

2011-04-05T10:36:00.000-07:00

Caballero 2011. Photo by Friedman.

Check out Glen E. Friedman's posts on Peralta's latest documentary. Looks amazing. Can't wait to see it.

"In case you haven't heard, Stacy Peralta (former Z-Boy and more recently award winning film maker) has begun his latest documentary, looking back on the crew that got him to pick up the video camera for the first time. A film that is going to take a look at the years and lives of the original "Bones Brigade" that he so masterfully put together in the late 70's and the through the 80's, as well as the time and the sport itself, what it went through and how it survived a complete commercial breakdown and then flourished."

Caballero early 80's. Photo by Friedman.

Utah

2011-04-04T08:40:00.000-07:00

The weather was crappy at home last week but the forecast looked promising in Utah. I booked a last minute flight and did a quick trip with Lucas & BJ. The first day was stellar. New snow and clear skies. We made our way out the back of Brighton and got a few. Day 2 was a weather day, but we soldiered on and made a few things happen in the conditions. On the 3rd day the skies partially cleared so we went out into the alpine again hoping for the best. Conditions were less than stellar so we cut out early and were back home that night. Thanks to Kristen & BJ for the hospitality (again).

New splitty from Rome!

Gotta get up...

...anyway you can.

Lines for the boys.

BJ & Lucas topping out.

First turns on the new Rome splitty. I like it.

Debari getting mountain urban on Day 2.

Lucas took over the Leines kitchen one night.

Milano's comes to Salt Lake City.

BJ making it happen on the weather day.

Uggghh.

Slightly Obsessed

2011-03-24T09:24:00.000-07:00

I spent some time in this zone off the Duffey last year. This little nugget has been in the back of my mind ever since. I went out a few days back to see what the snow was like without any huge expectations. The snow was all time. This alley has me slightly obsessed.

Off The Map

2011-03-08T13:15:00.000-08:00

We took a chance on a relatively unknown zone last week. The terrain in the area is all mellow except for this one north facing bowl. It has all sorts of terrain. Everything from fun mellow wide open runs to mini golf to super gnar. Weather was a challenge, but the sun finally lit up the zone on our last day. We'll be back...

Snowpack.

Lucas' new ride.

Lucas & Marie check it from above...

...and below.

Ouch!

At least Ashley's laughing.

Dr. Debari helps out.

This pooch loves pow more than any I've ever met.

The sunshine finally shows us the details.

There are many details.

Spooky afternoon glow.

End of the day.

Powdogs - Mark & Coconut.

Best Socks Ever

2011-03-02T07:16:00.000-08:00

Oh yeah, these things. Picked these up at the Baker Banked Slalom a little while ago. A collaboration between Volcom and Jimbo Phillips. These are pretty much the best things on my feet right now. Thank you.

One more from Feb.

2011-03-01T13:12:00.000-08:00

I did a couple laps above Joffre Lakes yesterday in the afternoon. I had been there 2 days prior and found some pretty firm snow on the top half. Well that's now covered with up to a foot of blower pow. Forgot my goggles (?!) and lost my sunnies. Ouch - my eyeball!

This looked promising

If you've ever been to the 2nd Lake you'll recognize this little porker.

A river runs...

A little bit of light had me hurrying without goggles.

This looked like...


...this 2 days before.

Run #1 from below.

Run #1 drop in.

That was fun - better get another.

It started nuking on the way back up.


Run #2 looked like...

...this 2 days before.

It's been nice to drop back into touring for a second.

Feb Recap

2011-02-28T06:34:00.000-08:00

February is done. What a blur. Here's how some of it looked.

Dave Short is always a welcome addition.

Lucas Debari about to drop in on the North Sister on a negative tide.

Rainy day in Glacier? Tequila Monopoly!

Will Jackways with a stout warm up drop.

Lots of these this month.

Blair H. is part snow monkey.

Thumb whorl in an old tree.

MFR in the goods.

Blair gets amongst it.

Lucas gets a little deeper.

Ahh, the joys of wrenching in the cold.

What do wolverines eat in the winter?

MFR's sweet line.

Good snow is good.

Mt. Currie catches the last light above Pemby.

Coastal cool.

Lucas likes what he sees.

Somebody's watching.

Marie checks out a natural ramp.

Patterson moving some snow.

Wind results.

I finally got off the sled for a second. Haven't had time to make Jones' old board mine yet.

An old standby. Firm up top, soft down below.

There's a full reset in effect as I type this. Bring it on March!

Burn Units

2011-02-09T20:28:00.000-08:00

Gigi and bros lighting up the night. Dig it.

North Sister

2011-02-08T20:02:00.000-08:00

I did a daytrip up to the North Sister near Mt. Baker last week with some of the WA crew. The snow wasn't great but the views were pretty amazing. I've dreamed of going up there for years. Thanks to Lucas for making it happen. Let's go back when there's some more snow!

The view that starts the wondering.

The ascent had everything (except soft snow.)

Once we finally got up top the views were pretty awesome.

Blair hangin above the Sound.

Lucas and the South Sister.

Me with Baker in the back.

This sums up the descent.

A little firm.

It ain't over...

...til it's over.

Had to leave one truck overnight with the trolls

We didn't really ride any good snow but nobody seemed to mind. It turned into a cool recon trip that we'll cash in on later.

Xavier & Lucas in Japan

2011-02-08T18:26:00.000-08:00

Check out this recent Time Line trip to Japan with De Le Rue & Debari. Looks like they scored. From what I'm hearing, everyone is scoring over there this year.

Koots

2011-01-29T15:41:00.000-08:00

Winter is rolling along. Just got back from a week in the Kootenays (and Revelstoke). I was shooting motion for the Rome movie that will drop in September. Along for the ride were Lucas Debari and Bjorn Leines. Jeff Patterson was taking stills. Conditions were... deep. All the raindrops that fell on the coast were chilled nicely into flakes where we were. We even had a little sunshine. Avy conditions were high so we kept off the big lines. Hooked up with Joey V. in Revy and Penner & Shandy down south. Snuck in a few laps on the Noboard with Cholo too. Good times.

Debari reviews.

Fractures like this kept us on the smaller stuff.

Ronald on his 238th hole of the day.

Patterson's into it.

Begbie Bars make my day.


Traffic in T.L.

The Hash Bros.

BJ on a fat stack.

Penner


Firewood.

One sled down means someone's riding out. Shandy, not too bummed.

Boot Tobogganing with Mr. Burns.

Beauty, eh?

Orca Surf

2010-12-18T13:37:00.000-08:00

I know, I know. It's almost Christmas, I should be posting about snow and all my plans for the season. But I'm not. I didn't get over to Vancouver Island this fall for my surf pilgrimage so I've been fairly obsessed with waves lately. Last month these pics of orcas surfing in NZ got uploaded to the interwebs.

Photos by Michael Cunningham. More pics here.

They reminded me that I had some video from an NZ trip of an orca doing the same. Well not quite the same. This recent session had much better waves. I had been meaning to dig out that old miniDV tape and digitize it for a while. So here it is.

Hope you're all getting some waves (frozen or otherwise) wherever you are.

Ranquet

2010-11-10T09:22:00.000-08:00

Ranquet breaking down "organic" riding.

Mike Ranquet talks Lack of Personalities in Snowboarding Part two from BuoLoco on Vimeo.

Doug

2010-11-02T09:04:00.000-07:00

This is a goat named Doug I recently met at the top of a mountain.

Snow on the Duffey

2010-11-01T09:31:00.000-07:00

It's starting...

Push.ca

2010-10-27T10:06:00.000-07:00

Push.ca just posted a guest column by Brian Hockenstein on Deeper with some pics of mine. Check it out here.

Sierra Mag

2010-10-18T14:28:00.000-07:00

Sierra Magazine's Nov/Dec issue has Melissa Larsen's story about our Tantalus trip from last season. Dan Milner's shot of the boys hiking made the cover.

Too bad the trip didn't make the final cut of Deeper. Look for it in the dvd extras?

See you in Whistler at Millenium Place Friday night.

Perfect Beer Commercial

2010-10-05T10:30:00.000-07:00

Mexican waves & beers. I think Taylor Steele just made the perfect beer commercial.

This one's for Tom.

Canadian Surf Film Fest

2010-09-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

Happening out in Halifax.

Poster by Tyler Warren.

Bali Strickland

2010-09-10T07:14:00.000-07:00

Some eye candy from Aussie Bali Srickland.