Weekend Update

Started the weekend off with some pond skimming and wallriding. Pond skimming ended bad for me, twice. 

Ian continues to impress with his multi dimensioned sense of style.

Sessioned a natural quarterpipe up at arctic valley on saturday. Lots of failed handplants went down. There was some good spectating to be had at this obstacle.

We went up to the old military buildings. A little barbwire can't stop us.

Photo op.

Marking our territory.

The most fun was had on a mini step up/step down manual pad. Ian filling the backflip quota of the day.

Keepin it clean.

Tagged.

Today, B$ and I went to arctic valley and got hippie. We hiked, mediated on the cliffs, then made turns. 

Turnagain Soft Core

Hose and I went up to Turnagain a couple weeks ago and got a chance to enjoy the sunshine. We shot up the mountain and got after it for a couple hours, taking advantage of the April pow before it settled into spring. It was a perfect chance to capture some images of Hose man in pure form... loving life.

Hoser Pre-shred stoking


Hoser pow turning



Hose and his mountain art




Keepin hydrated

arctic valley

Yesterday we went up to Arctic Valley for the annual dirt jump drop air we often frequent in the spring time. When we first got there it was blue bird and at least 75 degrees. It was awesome. The day gradually got a little cloudier, but that didnt stop the good times.

Jump #1

Method tweak, no grab. Pure progression in our crew.

Ladies, this man is single.

Brendans snowboarding skills are very refreshing. Not many, if any, can match his backflip wizardry.

After the double line, we went and explored the military buildings up on the hill. It was fun, but we didn't find any missing top secret documents that explain JFK's assassination, or did we? No we didn't. We just took picture of each other and peaced out.  

family photo

Butt slide

March Sunshine

This time of year in Alaska the sun starts coming out more consistently and hovering above the horizon longer and longer. During winter you tend to forget how much the sun fuels your motivation and allows you to shred, dance, rock and grab boards later into the night.

March 1st: 10 hours 26 minutes 50 seconds of sunlight

March 31st: 13 hours 19 minutes 26 seconds of sunlight

That is 2 hours 53 minutes 36 seconds of more time to be tweakin tindys and spinin twirlybirds. During March I spent most of this time meeting/chilin with rad new people, shredding with my friends, poppin backies, filming, snowcycling (similar to snow motorcycle), exploring, motorhoming, and enjoying life like there will be no tomorrow. March was one of those months that makes living in Alaska and dealing with ultra extreme conditions and darkness worth it.

For most of the adventures I had my camera with me but was having so much fun I left it in the bag most of the day. I did get some nice shots but not the rad action that Ram has been capturing in the last posts.

Many of my shred mornings start by rolling over to the House and connecting with the rest of the crew.

Ram and I spent an afternoon trecking through the woods in the Hills of Anchorage. Right before sessioned this spot a majestic family of elusive Lynx passed us.

Me practicing lumber jacking

Ram tucking through a birch

The first weekend of the month I cruised out to Valdez to explore and shred an area I had only seen in the summer. Ian and a rowdy crew from the AK Shred Club rolled out in an RV for spring break and we all shredded like crazy for 4 days. My pics don't do the fun any justice but believe it was awesome.

Ian waking up on Thompson pass holding a sword.



Valdez Harbor in the evening after a long day of shredding.

The next weekend Ian and I went riding at Alyeska with some friends and met a rad new possie fo shredders. Apre' consisted of the Sitz and taking over the Brown Bear. The night ended with some fantastic hot tubbin.

Threw up a doom/love dollar and got mounted...

The last weekend in March Ryan Cal and I headed out to Valdez to meet up with the new fun possie (Jess/Jen/Cage) and see what the Valdez Kite festival was like. We loaded up the sleds and rallied out last minute on Thursday and woke up to sunshine and RVs just south of Thompson pass.

Re-visited a spot I shredded a few weeks earlier. Ryan and I almost fell off a 30 ft ledge into open water... Good thing my spider senses told me to stop.

The weather rolled in on Saturday and I had the opportunity to get on a trainer kite and scoot around. Shredding on a kite is difficult with the added complexities, props to guys that are flying hundreds of feet tweaking a sick method.



Met Tom, Eric, Betsy, and a cool crew of peeps that love get down in the mountains and kill it.

More pics from last weekend to come.

a weekend in whittier

Saturday

Explored the old military building for a good portion of the day.

There is very little destruction left to be had in this building. 

Step up

Step down

Found this gem from two years ago when chang and i camped out for a night and played with spray paint. 

Retreated to some mini cliff lines at the end of the day.

Ian missed the sun on the last shot of the day by a minute both days. Still sick.

Sunday

Ian had a vision. It came to life.

Most epic back drop ever.

Ian given'r

Brendan trying to prove he is the alpha male by dropping the biggest cliff of the day.

Ian tryed to rebate this double line. You can kinda see his track from try one.  It was even worse on try two.

Ender for the day.

Ian getting all artsy at sunset.

Me getting all artsy at sunset.

Yesterday we went over to a gravel pit that I used to frequent quite oftenly as a wee little boy. As everyone knows, gravel pits are the best place to get rad when your a little kid. From making bike jumps to jumping off big dirt piles to making sweet sledding trails, it has all you could ask for. We went back yesterday to relive all that awesomeness.

B$ took a few minutes to do some arts and crafts

BRT getting air

We shredded for a little while, and then we were confronted by a rival gang of kids. We were scared that we might be on there turf and that they were going to muscle us out of the gravel pit. All they wanted was a hammer. Unfortunately, I left mine at home yesterday. Bummer, what are the chances. The rival gang was made up of Nina and Raymond. They were really cool. They brought us over to their treefort and gave us a tour. Their fort was all time awesome.

B$ crossing the bridge that connects to adjacent forts

Double level with a rope swing, great views and nice wooded lot

We gave it the official doom/love sanction

Heres Nina and Raymond, the coolest kids in town

After hanging out in the treefort for a while, we decided to do some more boarding. B$ gave snowboard lessons to the kids and Brendan and I hit the culvert jump.

Melon tweak

I bought B$ new glasses yesterday

Finished the day with some culvert slide training