Chamonix bound

En route to France today for the next 10 days where we got our international sales meeting going down. 110 clowns gathered from around the globe in the birthplace of Glen Plake-like eXtreme skiing. Stoked to go here. Got my Euro travel attire packed, along with a thong for the sauna and pool. Charlie is in the board bag ready for a couple days of battle in the mountains while a club is in the back pack ready for bar battle with TOSHI. Bring it.

Skull Mountain opening day

All the locals came out to help build and shred Washingtons newest shred hill. Ari, Schaffer, Billy, Milo and I were there to celebrate.

Run with scissors, you're bound to get stabbed

Like other hard-charging celebrities, Irons didn't necessarily see himself growing old. "He wanted to die young," surfer Koby Abberton recently told Australia's Stab magazine. "He knew it. Everyone knew it."

Skull Mountain Open Through Sunday

Thanks to La Nina’s recent offerings (37” and counting in the past four days!) along with Wade the plow guy pushing in a drop in ramp, Skull Mountain is now open. Discounted lift tickets will also be offered through the weekend, costing $0 on Friday, November 26th and $0 on Saturday and Sunday, November 27th and 28th.

More snow is predicted for the weekend, so we’re optimistic that more jib lines, jumps and drop in zones will be opening soon. Skull Mountain WOULD have a rail garden, but some crack head from the meth lab trailer park behind us must of sold it for some rock so at the moment, no rails.

While "some" area's feel that there isn't sufficient snow for an opening weekend, us Skull Mountainers are ready to get the season going.

NW 96th St Session

Seeing how our local hill has put the kabosh on opening day till next Tuesday, (thanks guys, I'll be on a plane) the boys took matters into their own hands and built Skull Mountain 2, Seattle version.
Roll in to pumper down to the drive way gap of death into the 1080 plastic rollerblade jump to skate rail. Top Phlite park dudes better take notice.

WINNER

See, people ACTUALLY do win shit. Last year I axed for help on ideas for this years Super Pro Binder and well...Ben was the inspiration. Enjoy the Force Teams. Thanks dude.

From: Ben Burwell
Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 2009 1:05 PM
To: Johan Malkoski
Subject: RE: Union SuperPro Form Bindings Question

I’m thinkin a colab similar to what you did with Airblaster in that each binding is different that the next. So each pair is a mix / match of colors (ladders, ratchets, straps, highbacks etc..) Here’s a link to something I saw on ebay so give an idea.
http://cgi.ebay.com/2009-2010-Union-Force-Custom-Bindings_W0QQitemZ250508141275QQcmdZViewItemQQptZSnowboarding?hash=item3a5372e2db
I’d like to see a cyan colorway in that line up as well. I’m pretty stoked on the force as the model to run this on but the SL high back on it is pretty legit too. Also the more colors you can mix the better this ebay example is pretty dope but incorporating more colors in the set up would be better. Celsius boots ran this idea in their cirrus line as a limited edition aka way to use leftovers to make boots and they turned out pretty well. And I’ve seen some franken binders on c3 that are sick too. Maybe just take it from there. Thanks for asking for input and for making the greatest bindings on the planet, my homies and I are so stoked you guys are around!
Ben

COAL-AB

WISH

Pollack Bronco 2

So after a hard worked weekend doing shit at the cabin, kids and I drive out of there Monday morning at 8am to roll into Seattle so I can go to work. 30min into the drive, I realize my computer is still at the cabin. A hour and 15 minute commute instantly turns into a 3 hour commute. Great way to start the weak.
Then end up working late last night as we got a Sales Meeting next week in Chamonix. So eye got shits to finish and phones ringing off the hook with questions from first year shops asking to shut down existing stores down the road because their not core enough are eating up my day. Oh and these "core" shops that are doing the complaining sell kites and snowbikes??? WTF? Anyway, roll out of C3 late, to a iced over parking lot full of snow and start the ole Donkey 2. Get it all hot and shit for that 4 mile drive home. Go out to scrape the windows and what do I hear? CLICK. Yep, locked the fuck out, car running, 10PM, and roads all over Seattle are shut down due to the snow. "Uh yea hon? Uh, oh your in bed, and the kids are in bed too? Uh well would you drive down and bring the spare key so I can get in the vehicle and come home to eat some dinner? Thanks."

Cabin Fee-Var

Wiener "Dad, I think I want to ride my snowboard today instead of skiing." "You sure, it's yoru first day." "Yea, I'm sure."

Drive up the Pass. A little white.
"Dad, check out my slash."
Avy conditions

Weekend project of putting carpet and trim up in the place of the cabin I never venture. The Loft. Shits finished and pretty homey. Sleeps 5.
Full cleaning of this joint. Mop, shop vac'd and shit. Amazing all the stuff hanging from the heads.

Working, not jerkin

Specially to these two. Jesus. Booze makes people do stupid shit eh? Curious to see what the Stabbin Cabin looks like seeing how we ain't been up there since Jew Lie. Wonder if these two are still bumping uglies outside our bedroom window? Cute puppy though. C'mere boy, get a treat.
Headed up tonight to do some winter cleaning, stocking and put a couple finishing touches on the place as it's that time of year to do the weekly commute to the hills. Crystal opened today, Baker opens tomorrow and there's a shit pile of snow at Stevens. Word is that Stevens will open on....

Anyway, boys and I will be playing around up there this weekend. Looking forward to it.

The Romany Rye

Blue sent out an invite the other day: "Hey... just sayin' I have a good excuse to hang in Ballard and drink on Thursday night, I'd love it if you wanted to join up and support a good friend. Luke MacMaster was one of the very first CAPiTA riders back in the day. Ripping skater and snowboarder with a bright future, blew his knee out, and started playing music. He ended up signing a major label deal with his old band "The Colour," recording sessions with The Strokes and Kings of Leon...etc. The Colour imploded for typical rock reasons (drugs, ego, and the fact that his old singer stole bob dylan's guitar) and so.....he's in a new band now called The Romany Rye. Kinda southern, kinda rocky, pretty mellow style, and real real good. It's basically his project as he's the singer, songwriter, guitar player."

I was a FAN of the Colour, even though they sounded like a modern poppy Cure. Regardless they were dope. And last night, watching Luke take the helm, damn. First question I asked him coming off stage was "how much pussy do you get???!!!" The Tractor was musty as hell last night during thier set is all I'm saying. Chicks were standing there in swampy pantys. As far as the dudes go, lets just say that thank God Sean Tedore was there, so I could get my huggin on.
If you get a chance to see these cats, do so. Good shit.

Tenny Mountain

Dude...Burdon Curls like this USED to go DOWN on this hill back from 1985 - 1988. THIS was the hill we went to and were pretty much the only cats wiggling down the ice on our Elite 140's. Sparky, Bud, Buzzard, Stick, Chicko, Mally, Luna, Zip...names like that were synonymous with owning that place. Now it's up for sale? Shit, who wants to go in with me and own a east coast hill?

"Who wants to buy it? NH ski resort to go on auction block November 18, 2010
PLYMOUTH, N.H.—A New Hampshire ski area that owes the town of Plymouth $170,000 in back taxes is going on the auction block. The Tenney Mountain ski area in Plymouth and Groton includes 445 acres of ski resort, 385 acres of vacant land and almost 40 acres of an undeveloped subdivision. The New Hampshire Union Leader says the ski area operated in six of the past seven winters on an increasingly bare-bones basis. The paper published an ad for the sale on Wednesday. Plymouth Tax Collector Linda Buffington says she has not received official notice of the sale."

Steve

While the entire Northwest is at Baker this weekend standing in lift lines, this will be pretty tasty Option.

Save The Date

More details to come....But, just letting you know with a month advance that we're doing our official hometown "10 Years of CAPiTA Snowboarding" party in Seattle, Washington Friday December 17th.

Seriously

If you have to ask, you should get a chop to the throat. Car porn right here.

GNAR

Eye mean GWAR!

Eastern Binder

Available next week in Leominster, Worcester, Nashua, Natick and Danvers. 48 pairs made. Show some EAST pride.

Yes their hear, leave me alone already...

Union Channel M6 Conversion Disc Kit Compatible with The Channel boards from Burton. $15.00 Jesus. Enough.

COALMS

Timeless trucker done right with updated fit and throwback style by Coal Headwear. Unique cording over brim with inset woven label and screen-print inside and Realms Stencil under the brim. Sold individually by color. Buy NOW.

Pay it 4-ward

Cruising the Easy Loungin forums the other day and run across THIS post: "The MOST INCREDIBLE thing in the world just happened to me......I really cant even believe it..... So its opening day today @ my resort (snowbird) and I see a guy rocking last years Charlie Slasher at my window.....So I ask him about it and we chat for a bit....He swings back by when I am on the phone with a customer, this time with the bindings taken off the board.....He asks me if I want to come out and chat for a minute, so I shut down my window and go out for a chat. Turns out, the guy already has his new charlie for this season....and he's GIVING ME his old Charlie. It's in pretty good shape, I cant believe my good luck! Thank you so much Chris, wherever you are! Christmas came early for me this year, so stoked right now.....just gotta find some forces to throw on it."
Turns out it's one of Blue's SnowBird bro's: "Blue did hook me a new Charlie (hence the deal we had to hand it down to someone in need) and a new pair of Forces.. i had my eye out for a good candidate and this kid was perfect. rode it all day today on opening day at the bird.. pow day..
on my way to another tram in the morning he yelled through his ticket window/money slot like "yooo charlie slasher! how is that thing" asked me a bunch of questions.. said he had been tryin to find a decent deal on an 09/10 online etc etc... i told him if he was able, to definitely get one...
later in the day after i finished.. went and took my bindings off.. went back up to the window and said if he came outside and got it.. it was his. kid was SO hyped...... he couldnt believe it. haha.. "dude, i'm gonna shred this thing all OVER this mountain.. you can count on that!"

Love storys like that. Much better that the shit you read in the news.

Denvah!

You ever see that Seinfeld episode where Jerry throws the $20 bill out the window, then a couple of minutes later he finds one in his coat? I think he called it even Steven or something like that cause he felt like he couldn't loose. Well this trip to Coloradical for the WWSRA demo felt like that for me. Things started out good, and kept getting better. WE couldn't loose. And by WE, I mean Milo and I.
It was Monday night and I hear the Wiener ask Mom if he could have a sleep over on Wednesday cause it was Vets day on Thurs, meaning no school. And for years I told Graves that I wanted to bring Milo to the first demo of the season. A quick call on Tuesday to him confirmed that it would be cool to have son in tow and with 55,000 miles donated to Alaska Airlines (the amount to go to Mexico) the lil fucker was sitting shot gun with dad on Wednesday mornings flight leaving Seattle at 7a.m. arriving in Denver at 11. Shred time before scholar was the motto here.

Rise and shine kid.

50 min D.I.A. to Loveland drive.

We grabbed bags, jumped in the car and was riding the chairlift for our first runs of the season at 1pm with ole shop arch enemy Chris Smith from Power Pursuits. If you would of told me 22 years ago that I would be stoked to be riding with the enemy (think 90's shop rivalry's - big ones) on opening day, I think I probably would of put a gun in my mouth to prevent it. Regardless, Chris still rides like he did 22 years ago and we had a blast. Tons of old Colorado heads were running around too. Scott Graham, Pat O'Toole, Hoyal, Hulick, Gags, Fox, Carrigan, Mike D, BERN...the list goes on.

Chris Smith, Milo and I...first chair.

WWSRA demo madness

Mike D is more of a kid than Milo is. That's a good thing.

Philip and Mi walking by some dudes letting their Flow go.

We wake up Thursday morning in Denver to snowfall and it was back to day 2 of the demo. All the off season cardio classes made the body feel like it was finally working at acceptable non excuse levels too. Weather was sunny, nice cold temps, great snow...shit was perfect. So perfect in fact that Milo grinned me into missing our flight home in order to join Graves and the Emage boys to watch the Nuggets beat the undefeated Lakers in an unbelievable game of team sports from row 15! The action on the sidelines was good as the shit on the courts. 2 fights in the stands was part of the entertainment. As well as all the people watching. See there's two types of people at the games. Dudes who come out to watch the game, and babes that go to the games to be watched. Seriously, it was probably a 50/50 ratio of these people too.

Nuggets stadium grizzly action

Shawn from Emage endured an entire first half of the game with question after question about the game from Milo. Thank god the beers were free, huh?

15th row, $115 seats...gratis. Thanks EMAGE!

114 to 110, Lakers SUCK but Vail still loves you Kobe!

Unfortunately we couldn't get on an early flight out of Denver on Friday morning (ahem) so after a little early morning computer work we headed back to the hill to meet Branden from Emage for a mid morning shred session. After he handed us our complimentary tickets, we followed him around his home mountain for a couple of hours. Hi 5's and a hug later he was out of there and it was finally some quality father son time. "You want to get a hot chocolate then get back after it for a hour before we got to head to the airport son?" "Sure." In the lodge we walk and hello Warble family. Next Gen Banked Slalom winner Cody Warble was sitting at the table eating lunch with dad and mom. Back at it the posse was tight when Pat Millberry joined the crew, keeping us on the hill until 3, when we were supposed to depart at 2.

Millberry, Warble and Mi

Stressed, undressed and in the car we blazed past the big horned sheep and thru dirty ole Denver to D.I.A. Walking thru security, on the train and right on the plane. Making it stress free and in time to catch the last soccer game of the season, on Saturday...which wasn't stress free.

So I had some spaghetti, meatballs and a sausage for dinner. Mmmmmm.

This was trip 100 or so to Denver since I moved away in 97, and it was surely the funnest, as well as being pretty damn productive. Grassy ass Graves family, Philip, Chrissy, Emage boys, Sushi Sa Sa, Johnny, Mike D, Loveland Pass, Warbles, Millberry and Milo for keeping things rad.

Retro Snow pieces

Retro Snow put together a little "vintage" shred stick collection display down at evo. Maxx and Dave knew I had some 'quirky' shit in my basement so they asked if I wanted to show it. Sure, why not. Spent an evening in the basement staring up at the rafters at my 40 or so decks that mean nothing to anyone but me and pulled em down. They asked for a little 'story' about the shit too. If your a reader of the Box, then for the most part you've read most of this before. But fuck it, I'll bore you fuckers that didn't make it down for the free beer with what I had one more time. Enjoy.

Snurfer, Supersport Racing Model, 1964
Item Description - Sherman Poppin INVENTED snowboarding. He also lived in Steamboat. At a Transworld Industry conference in Vail he asked me to teach him how to ride the “bumps.” Later that year he rolled into the snowboard shop with this deck as a sign of apprecation. I asked him how many of those he had in his basement and he said “12, no wait, now 11.” This had the wrappers on it and all. He signed it to the shop I was at and it left with me when I left. Skeeter, 1980
Item Description - Back when I couldn’t afford a snowboard, my Mom brought this shit show home this to me. I’d take it to the New Bedford Golf Course and straight line it down the hill till I balled up into a mess at the bottom. This…is what started me shredding back in 1983.

Winterstick, 1982
Item Description - When I was a young BMX racer I always saw snowboarding in the mags. And this surf shop in Rhode Island, Redney's On the Beach, was the only place that carried shred sticks. I used to drool over the Wintersticks whenever I went in there but could never afford one. In 1997 I moved to Seattle and the first day I was here, saw this gem at a yard sale. Dude wanted me to pay $50 for it because “you could still ride this at the hills if you wanted.” I called bullshit and offered him $5. We settled on $7, and these decks are going for about $2,500 on E-Bay right now. The only place I’m riding this stick is right to the bank!

Burton, Performer Elite 140 Model, 1985
Item Description - After seeing 4 years of advertisements in my BMX Plus magazines for this new winter sport called snowboarding, I borrowed an unregistered, uninsured 1983 Cadillac Eldorado with a faulty fuel injector from a Boston Mafia Bosses daughter and in October of 1985 drove from Salem MA to Manchester VT and purchased my first snowboard with my room mate Sparky. We bought a couple of Elite 140’s for $120. We wanted the 150’s but they were like $20 more and we chose to buy booze instead. We’d bounce our asses on our dorm room beds doing donkey kicks hoping the chicks would dig us. They didn’t and thought we were gay. Our local hill was Tenny Mountain in NH and you had to get certified before they’d let you shred. I still have that card. And I still snowboard, 26 seasons later.

Avalanche, Accel 180, 1984
Item Description - I got this deck and another matching one with bindings back in 1994 when I worked at snowboard shop in Steamboat. We wanted them for decoration at our new brew pub that was in town. Chris Sanders, the owner of Avalanche sent me these two boards on the condition that “if” he ever needed them back, I would deliver them to him. As a bonus, he had his brother, Damian, sign this one. Damian was the original rock star of snowboarding. Please don’t tell Chris I still got this stick.


Rad Air, Reto Lamm Pro Model, 1994
Item Description - When I lived in Steamboat and worked for the snowboard shop, I also moonlighted as the USA Snowboard Liaison for a euro snowboard company called Radical Airlines. My job was to give feedback on what was going on in the USA market. One summer I was reading the articles in Playboy magazine and ran across a picture of a young lady bent over. I drew the photo the best I could on a traced out snowboard, and FAXED it to Europe. Reto Lamm was the first dude to ever win the Air and Style contest and saw the roughly sketched fax and had a real artist transform it into his pro model base graphic for that next year. Reto is Europe’s Craig Kelly by the way. Still involved in snowboarding too, running the TTR snowboard contest series.

A-Snowboards, Royal 164 Model, 2003
Item Description - Regis Rolland is the for father of European snowboarding. If you ever get a chance to see the Apocalypse Snow movies, do so. You’ll see this crazy ass Euro booting down Mountains in Moon boots, strapped to a snowboard with bungee cords. Dude road gaps shit too with that set up. Dude, happens to be Regis. He’s like 50 now, still crazy as fuck and still shredding mountains. We worked together for a while and I got this from him signed to my kids.


F2, Revo Model, 2006
Item Description - We did a St. Anton Austria shred trip back in 2006. A bunch of Americans riding some real American branded stuff too. We stuck out like sore thumbs. One thing I noticed over there was a heap of F2 snowboards. And this one in particular caught my attention. It has two tubes in the core that you pump up with a bike pump to change the flex on the snowboard. Freestyling? Minimal air. Hard charging eXtreme guy? Pump up the volume. Only in Europe.


Morrow, Freepro 179, 1994
Item Description - When I lived in Steamboat, Morrow Snowboards did a travelling pro tour to snowboard shops around the country. Matt Goodwill was one of the pro’s who showed up to Steamboat and allowed us to show him around the hill. It was this experience of watching him destroy our terrain that let my group of friends and me know that we would NEVER be pro snowboarders. EVER. Years later I end up having my home mountain be his old stomping grounds. I get a little shit hole cabin in the host town of Skykomish and hand over some used bindings to one of the locals to pass around to who ever could use em. In return he brings me this. The actual snowboard that Matt Goodwill won the Alaska King of the Hill snowboard contest on. What comes around, goes around.

Steepwater, Steve Klassen Model, 2006
Item Description - Wave Rave Mammoth is arguably one of the corest snowboard shops in the states. It’s been operating for 20 or so years and is owned by 3 time world extreme snowboard champion Steve Klassen. Steve is a quirky dude too. In business and in his riding utensils. He only rides in them old ass Burton Freestyle boots (96) with the rubber bottoms, as well as only using the first generation Burton full carbon bindings. His board that he rides has zero camber, minimal side cut and a slight taper. In business, he only deals with snowboard companies. No ski brands and no publicly held companies. My business meeting with Steve always happened at the on snow demo in Mammoth. He’d roll down vender row, point at me and say “lets go, tell your boys you’ll be back in a couple of hours.” Then go out and give me a guided tour of all of Mammoths hot spots. I asked him for one of his ridden decks once, because the dude is SO SNOWBOARDING. I’m stoked to have this part of my collection. Thanks Steve.

Farmer Snowboards, Gargle My Balls, 2006
Item Description - This is actually my SECOND Farmer snowboard. Shawn’s tag line was “Don’t be a pussy, ride a Farmer.” I was at Snowbird riding some epic pow and we ran into Shawn and his business partner Rocket Reeves. Farm gave my buddy Benny a board to ride at the tram station then walked off and proceeded to drink beers instead of shred pow. Ben looked at me and handed me the board saying “I’m not going to ride this thing, they’ll be out of business next year. Here you collect this shit.” This second Farmer Snowboard was a birthday present from my friends at Porter’s Tahoe. Enablers of sorts for Farmer. They had Shawn write me a little note to personalize it too. “Gargle my balls!” Classic Farmer.


O-Matic, Todd Richards Awesome Pro Model, 2008
Item Description - Todd Richards does not age. The dude is like 40 years old and still throws down with the best of them. I met Todd on Cape Cod in the early 90’s at a bike shop I was working at. He was riding for Sims back then. Later on in the Colorado days, I was lucky enough to shoot photos of him for a few companies. One of the photos I actually sold of him was to a glove company called Kombi. They ran the photo with the tag line “Grip it, Grip it Good.” Todd quit on the spot as soon as he saw it. A couple of years ago he asked if he could “buy” some of the photos I took of him skating. I told him I wanted HIS shred stick instead. And here it is, AWESOME.

CAPiTA, Charlie Schlosser, 2011

Item Description - TB3, you seen it? Todd Schlosser is one of the dudes that PUT the NW on the map. Todd and Blue are good buds and since Todd retired from the pro game, Blue's been taking care of his bro. Retired or not, Todd is still out there mauling shit. Kinda Todd Richards style. Well a year ago Blue gave Todd a Charlie Slasher, and it changed his life. So he says. It's he only thing he rips on. Holy Oly quarter pipe? On a Charlie. Park booters? Charles. Backcountry pow pow. C'mon. So being the guy that he is, Blue took shit to the next level and got a little something something made for the hometown ripper. A Charlie Schlosser. Todd got 1 for the wall, and two to destroy, while we got 9 of them for dudes that want something a little different than the average Charlie. On top of that, Todd numbered and signed em. Look for them on the c3-Shop soon. Actually, theres only 8 of em, I'm keeping one.