The Riders Union; Team Challenge

Fellow RU members Matt, Wes and I were shredding the homemade kicker until midnight last night. In our state of inebriated hucking, we came up with a great idea for next week's The Riders Union 2010.

On Friday night after the Jib Sesh, we will divide our crew into 3 Teams through a randumb drawing of names out of a florescent beanie. Two Teams will have 3 guys and one Team will have 4. Each Team will then ride together at Squaw on Saturday and document their day with pictures and video. We will then upload and "edit" our respective content on Saturday evening when we get back and will play the results on the TV that night. The Team that looks to have had THE MOST FUN during their day will win insanely valuable prizes. All RU members will vote on the best compilation.

Don't worry, the Teams aren't going to isolate themselves in a shroud of secrecy. Teams are allowed to ride together. We will also have two absolutely mandatory meeting times throughout the day to eat food and drink beer (in case you didn't remember the plan: cars will be parked just steps from Squaw Village and will be loaded up with the goods).

You won't have to worry about not being on a cool team as all RU members are dope ass mofos. And if you still have questions about this idea think of this: how hard would it be to keep track of 10 snowboarders for an entire day? Breaking up the crew takes away this hassle and the contest will definitely push us to get creative and have fun on the hill.

So what constitues "FUN" you ask? Well, a sweat picture of Chad dropping a cornice sounds fun. So does a pic of Ryan spinning a 3 on a side hit. Matt pulling off rock bonks and on-ground butters on video would totally show that he's having fun. Video of Josh making a pow slash would be something I'd like to see. But let's not forget that you can also have fun on the chairlifts, gondolas, in the bars and throughout the village. Video of Camero losing a beer chug contest to an Arctic Cougar would be hilarious. Wes hi-fiving an old guy in the lift line sounds like good times. And if you think that your Team needs more fun-footage, feel free to rap up your compilation with some slides on the backyard corrugated pipe back at the house. I think you get the idea.

So plan on bringing your not-too-expensive digital cameras and video cameras for The Team Challenge. And if your Team happens to land someone who is a digital editing wiz with their laptop and can actually put together a slide show of pics and vid with Freebird blaring in the background, we are sure to be entertained.

Backyard Jib Sesh

I was up at the Donner Pad this weekend and had good times shredding gnar with fellow Riders Union members Jay, Ryan and Dave at Squaw on Saturday. The weather wasn't great but we did manage to drink some beers and create stoke with the mini-shred. RU member Ryan said he'd bring his miny flood light that we can set up for the Jib Sesh when the sun goes down. All night long, suckers.

I also spent some time putting together ideas for backyard jib session features that will be slayed super hard at The Riders Union this year. There are about 5 different hits and jibs that can be sculpted to create super happy good times. I thought you guys might like to get a feel for the surroundings even though these pictures are pretty shitty. Don't blame me: the light was flat and I used my damn iphone camera.


This first area in the picture above is where a few jumps will be set up. To the right out of sight is the mellow snow-covered driveway where speed can be gathered. The "bigger" jump in the foreground was a bit too steep. I hit it about 5 times and was launched much too high and didn't travel far enough. When all is complete, this hit will carry you about 10 feet to a hip landing. I also put together and sessioned a smaller bump to the right of the "big" jump that gives a small amount of pop to clear the five foot walkway gap. This was a lot easier to build and super fun.


This second snap gives a bit of perspective. On the left is the natural hill where the small hip wall will be built (landing for the "big" jump described above). On the snow horizon you'll see a few branches. This is where the hill goes down towards the lake and the descent is the perfect pitch to land on. You can't see it in the picture but there is another small bump right before the drop that I hit this weekend. This descent is also perfect to gather speed on for other features that will be put together on the lake bed. Donner Lake is drained a good amount during the winter months it's just a flat area of snow. Down there is where we will set up the corrugated pipe for jibbing adventures.

There are many other ideas as well which I've never really put together before. One that interests Matt and I (my brother who knows the lay of the land) is a run-in down the snow covered stairs to the snow packed dock and off the end where there is about an 8 foot drop to nice lakebed pow-pow (don't worry, we can build a tranny). If we can pull off this set up (manpower and snow conditions permitting) there will be many celebrations all throughout The Riders Union Jib Sesh 2010.

Corrugated Pipe!

After this year's session, hopefully we can film a vid that's good enough to post on youtube like these guys. Corrugated Pipe Rules!