Got a jump on the season Thursday. Pretty sketchy conditions but really fun. 10-14 inches over small rocks. More snow is forecast for Sunday.
Pretty soon this spot will be very busy.
This is my sixth season blogging about snowskating and building snowskates. I have no idea what the year holds but I’m looking forward to getting on with this winter. I should be posting every Fri or Sat. I will be getting a product page with pricing up soon. In the meantime feel free to shoot me an email and let me know your thoughts on the blog/snowskates/riding/whatever > chillersnowskates@gmail.com
Snow in the mountains means its time to fire up the blog for the coming season. Here’s some snowless shots of the backyard set up.
This is the new dirt mound. There should be lots of ways to hit this thing.
Scored a couple of rail from a skate shop that went under.
Backyard riding is one of the reasons I got into snowskating, lets hope this winter brings some snow accumulation down low!!!
I am working hard in the shop on decks and subs. Will have some shop pics soon as well as a product page. But until then you can enjoy a short video of last seasons highlights.
Jeff from Boise called me a few weeks ago with the heads up about this little event called Maidenboise. Its a memorial to a good friend of theirs that passed away several years ago. The usually head up to a place called snowbank and build a huge quarter pipe, camp and hang out with friends. This year though the authorities said no way and the event was quickly moved to Brundage mountain resort. They just kinda showed up in mass and pleaded with the resort manager to let them camp and hike the snow fields. Amazingly enough the manager said ok.
The snow was pretty damm good for memorial weekend and while it had rained in the parking lot we wanted to head up to the top to look for fresh snow.
About three quarters of the way up we found a pile of snow. With a bit of work it kinda resembled a quarter pipe with a big gapping hole in it.
Big John goes over.
Jeff gives it a try.
Clarke makes it around.
We hiked to the top and got some pretty fun turns in the slushy 1″ that fell the night before. By the time we got back down to the event site they had constructed a little quarter pipe. Clarke put together a couple of nice tricks on it.
Clarke hit a bunch of great lines and in the end won the event, which made the five or so snowskaters pretty damm proud. Thanks to Cory, Mac and all the other sponsers for inviting us down and putting on a great jam.
Last weekend we headed down to Anthony Lakes, a small resort in eastern Oregon. There’s only one chair and a smattering of runs but the top of the mountain is at 8000 ft so the snow is usually deep and light. Another great thing is they have free electrical hookups for rv’s. While the van isn’t exactly an rv we do have a small space heater and an electrical cord so we were able to squeeze in between a couple of bigger rigs.
We arrived late Thursday night and the storm started gaining speed around midnight with really viscous winds. The resort is only open Saturday and Sunday so the plan was to hike friday. The weather was a bit crazy but the pow was amazing. On Friday I pretty much just rode my new circuit powder surf which absolutely killed it as long as I stayed in the powder. They had groomed a couple of the runs and with the new snow it was hard to tell where the groom track was. Flying down, ripping off turns then slamming when I hit the groom track sucked so I learned pretty quickly where not to go. I’ll admit I wasn’t so sure about the powder single. It seems like I’m always needing a powskate that can handle both powder and groom plus how much different would it feel. I wasn’t exactly looking to learn a new sport. Well it feels exactly the same to me except there is never a question of float. Your always ripping the pow no matter how deep it is. I’m sure others will disagree but to me, everything I love about riding strapless, the freedom under foot and the pressure you apply to the skate, all those things have a very similar feel. I know that with more rides you could explore some areas that are unique to the powder surf and I’m looking forward to checking those out. The only thing I miss is concave and the bend in the tail. I find that on a bideck I always know where to put my feet, on the powder surf you have to play around a bit to find the sweet spot but it really wasn’t that big of deal.
On Saturday I rode my FPS151. With all the snow they had gotten during the week we were riding some pretty deep conditions. In the trees it was waist deep and really light. I’ve missed that this season. It seems like we have mostly received small amounts of heavier snow. People kinda tripped out on the skate but there was no issues with the lift. They allow snowbikes there so its not much of a stretch for snowskates. In front of the camp we built a little gap. My kids were hitting it with the help of our bungee. I saved my spine by just hiking up the hill a bit. My son Teig is resting in the gap.
Being a small ski hill things are pretty low key. As we were hitting the jump after the lifts shut down the mountain manager was warming up the cat for a trip to the top. He asked if I wanted a ride up. Having never riden in the cab of a cat it was hard to refuse. I got a ride to the top and a tour of the major backcountry peeks that are all accessible from the area. It is a pretty amazing spot and the locals know what they have. We didn’t explore any of the backcountry terrain since the inbounds stuff was so sick but hopefully there will be another trip to Anthony Lakes next season.
When a trip goes really good….its hard to put it into words but I’ll try. This was the fifth season heading out west. I’ve seen bluebird, monsoon and blower pow so I know that anything can happen and usually does. Landing at Starfish headquarters Thur evening to 38 degree temps and a steady downpour didn’t make the next day seem all that promising. But waking up and seeing 4″ on the tops of cars meant things were heading in the right direction. Somehow we ended up getting to the chair before they started running and the day at Alpental was amazing, deep untracked snow from top to bottom. The first run alone made it worth the price of the ticket and all the others were just icing on the cake. Elkins got some pictures but my cameras stayed in the rig so no pics to share. We had some driving to do so around lunch time we loaded up and headed for the ferry. Adam, Paul, Tim, Graham and E2 filled out the van roster for the trip and there were three other car loads in the line up. We caught the ferry to Bainbridge island and headed to the skatepark. It had rained a bit and there were plenty of puddles. We fashioned some homemade squeegees from cardboard and plastic bags and began the clean up. It took about an hour but it was dry when we were done. The session was great except for the little kid whose board found its way to Dane and resulted in a wrist wrenching slam for him, SUCKED!! We hit the road again and landed in Port Angeles around 9 and got a room for 7 people. Well the room was for 3 but we fit 7. Woke up to a blue bird day and the hopes of more powder like at Alpental. We reached Hurricane before the rope tow started and hiked for the road shot off the back side.
I took a few shots and used the helmet cam to capture the day. You always wish you could have gotten more pics but you take what you get. Here’s the video spliced together like a third grader’s class project.
The course was sick and there were a ton of riders and old friends. It was a great comp with Jake taking the slope style and Alan coming in a close second. Clarke won the powder downhill. Brenden got first in the slalom with Jake coming in second and me in third. Jess ruled the girls division on a CD complete and won a Libtech snowskate. It was suppose to be a two day event but with the forcast of 80 mph winds for sunday they decided to cram the whole thing into one day, which worked great. I got to do my very first board toss to the crowd, something I’ve wanted to do for awhile. Tomoki was in the right spot.
Tired and hungry we headed down the mountain to eat dinner. The nights festivities included the snowskate rock band; T-bagging bandits with Clarke on the keyboards, big John on drums and Pete on the guitar along with a base player and a lead guitarist who skis. It was a table crushing, glass breaking, tooth busting mosh pit with the Port Angeles locals watching in horror. The T-bagging bandits play the summit a lot but snowskaters have to keep it under raps so as not to get banned from their home bar, that wasn’t the case in PA. I’m just glad I was there, that’s all I can say.
With the Sunday event canceled we headed to Franks shop to pic up surf gear for those going for the snow, skate wave three pack.
Adam, Paul, Brenden and Jake pulled it off.
One more skate at Hendo‘s mini ramp and we headed back to the summit and more rain. Hoping that Monday would produce enough snow to hike for we hit the sack. I slept like crap, my first night on the floor, which got me out of bed and to the coffee shop early enough to see that the snow was building up. I headed back to Starfish headquarters with an extra coffee in hopes of getting someone to go out hiking with me. E2 was just getting up and scored the joe and was stoked for a recon of the conditions. We pulled into the parking lot just as it started to unleash some big flakes. It was just us two and the decision was made to start hiking.
I called Levitt with the snow report, and within minutes, Alan, Jordan, Katie, Graham and Tim joined us. The snow was piling up as we hiked and the upper section was unreal. Maybe the deepest snow of the season for me and it was making it a great end to an amazing trip. I’ve heard that the summits snow can be a bit sticky and I got to see its adhesion properties for myself.
Got 5 runs in and two of those were on my new Powder single that Jordan made for me. I’m not sure how those things handle in questionable conditions but on that day at Alpental it was absolutely amazing, thanks Jordan!!!!
The scene around snowskating just keeps getting better and better. With great events in unique locations with solid prize money it just can’t help but go up. Like everything in snowskating its up to the riders to create their own reality and from what I can tell there are plenty willing to share the load. A big thanks goes out to all the Port Angeles crew who put in a ton of work and to everyone who helped us on our trip, it really was a group effort.
Got a lot of pictures and video to go through. It was a huge weekend with lots of powder and concrete and its going to take a bit of time to go through. I promise to have it up before I take off on Thursday so I guess that means I better get it done on Wed night. Probably the best snowskate jam to date.
Tomorrow morning I load up and head out west. The van will be pretty full by the time we arrive on Friday. So far the roster includes, E2, Graham, Leavitt, FPS Adam, and Jake. We’ll be meeting up with Jordan, Katie and Allan at Snoqualmie then heading to Port Angeles on Fri via a couple of skatepark stops along the way, (as long as the weather cooperates.) Last year this trip worked out so perfectly it would be silly to expect the same this time around but who knows. The weather for Hurricane Ridge is forecast to snow 4-7 on Fri which is a pretty good start. I don’t think we’ll be getting the bluebird with the freshies like last time but that’s ok, just as long as it doesn’t rain like the year before. I’ll be demoing some of my stuff for next season. There will be three set ups of the 42 both with the 36″ top deck and 38″. Also I’m bringing a set up that I just pulled out of the press on fri. Its a brand new sub from a brand new form and I’ve only had a few days on it. I’m having a hard time describing it since it falls in between a snowskate sub and a powder sub. For the time being I’m calling it a mountain skate.
The mountain skate is a direct descendant of the 42″. It has the same side cut and taper although the width is about 3/8 wider. The insert locations and the deck mounting with respect to the tail are the same as is the sweep of the nose and tail. The goal was to make a sub that would handle just like the 42 but with a larger nose for off piste riding. It comes in at 51″ long, 8 1/4″ nose, 5″ waist and 6″ tail. This is not intended to be a powder skate but instead a snowskate that can handle powder, and most importantly steep terrain. One thing I’ve found though is it doesn’t really matter what you want a sub to do, it will ride how IT wants to ride. Last Saturday was my first test ride and that was just on groomers which it handled great, especially steep stuff. Its very easy to turn and the extra edge in front really digs into the carve. Yesterday though we got to test it out in some fresh pow.
Now with a length of 51″ and a narrow 5″ waist I didn’t expect it to slay the lower angle deep stuff but it did a pretty good job. The area that I was most interested in was steep tight terrain and in those spots it handled great. A smaller sub in steep terrain is a great match. You take a bit of the speed off which slows things down just enough to make good turns with out the feeling that your right on the edge.
All in all it was a great day and I learned a bunch about the set up. Its definitely still in the experimental stage but I’m excited about the direction that I’m headed in. This deck will be free to demo at Hurricane along with the 42″s so if your up there give it a try and tell me what you think.
We did get some footage of its maiden powder voyage, check out how low it rides in the snow, it almost seems like the top deck is throwing out a spray too!!
I saw an epoxy stirrer like this in a manufactuers shop and wondered why they didn’t clean it. Then after using epoxy I realized it was just a lot easier to let the excess drip off into a cup. It grows a little bit bigger with each press.
A modest sized stack of boards. It makes me feel productive when I see the almost ready decks but then I think back on how much time it takes and the productivity feeling kinda goes away.
Of course getting out in the pow makes you forget about everything…
Speaking about forgetting, I know I said there might be a Product page coming soon. I feel like I’ve just about got next years product dialed in and I want to post up all that I will be offering for next season. So expect something in the not to distant future and of course I will be bringing it all to Hurricane with demos to ride so you can always catch it there.
Today was the first Thursday where we did not go into the backcountry. With the warm temps and rain yesterday, things were looking a bit on the crappy side as far as powder goes. Oh well, it was a good day to stay in bounds and goof around. Neither Cole nor I can ollie very well, but that didn’t stop us from trying. There is this flat spot at the top of the mountain that is on a hump. Most skiers and snowboarders never go up there cause its a little bit of a hike but the groomers pass through and its always buffed. There is a nice mellow incline for riding flatground and big long manuals. We built a little bump and practiced ollieing off it. I guess you could call it the snow version of a jump ramp.
A snowmobile came by and I got a tow into this snow mound.
We are planning a Snowskater cross for the 11th of April. It will be loads of fun and I’ll be posting more on it as the time gets closer. Also I’m just finishing up the last batch of boards for the season. I’ve got a bit of everything, FPS completes 151 and 152 and three of the new Morning wood’s as well as unmounted finished decks. I’ll post up a full list with prices first of the week… heck I might even put it on the Product page, wouldn’t that be nice?
