Well, its been awhile since my last post, but I’m back and at least for the first part of the winter will be posting weekly updates. Its been a pretty hectic month getting ready for the season. I think this is the most prepared I have ever been before the lifts have started. The new shop has been great and it has afforded me the luxury of a curing booth for the decks and subs. After pressing they all go into this 70 degree room for another 5 days to insure the epoxy cures completely.
Although the recycled graphics from the last few years was fun I’m glad to be rid of someone else’s logo on my stuff. This season we’re looking at white, with some soon to be added stickers.
The sliding truck plates are black but other then that I’m pretty much sticking with the same design. Three hole locations and two height options with a quick release pin.
Black and green grip for the tops, with a built up tail option available too.
The subs from last season worked great but there is always a tweak that can push them even further. I reworked both the 145 and 135 forms for the better. I most excited about the 135 with the slightly longer base and lower sweeps to the nose and tail. Always looking for that short board that will float deep pow. The new subs are in white.
One great thing about the Chiller shop is that there is a great testing zone in the back. Just need a bit more snow to soften those landings.
The shop is clicking right along but the website is badly in need of a product page and that is next on the agenda. Expect more pics and prices next week.
CHILLERdecks
Steamboat’s Record Season—was it really that good? Uhh…..Yea man, It was!
In a short-lived MTV sketch comedy show called “The State,” there lived a kooky, re-occurring, energetic character named Louie. He was the smashing hit of the party everywhere he went for wildly wielding two ping-pong balls and the timely catch phrase “I wanna Dip My Balls In It.”
Good Morning Colorado powder Day!
With that attitude, I headed out Steamboat Colorado for the 2008 season. Yes, I wanted to dip my balls in the legendary Steamboat Champagne powder. (Figuratively of course, otherwise it would have been cold, troublesome, and possibly life threatening.)
Growing up in the eastern United Sates coast, I had long heard all the snow stories of the great western resorts. In particular, the tales told of the Rocky Mountain western town where ranchers and hippies coexist-Steamboat Springs. I had seen the famous montage of Warren Miller’s snorkel clad powder hounds blasting through waist deep POW with grins like Cheshire cats. I had seen the pictures featuring the surreal shadows of aspen trees staked through deep, dry, choking powder. These iconic, haunting, cornerstone images have hallmarked the “Champagne Powder” trademarked reputation the resort has come to enjoy and the one I wanted to get to know intimately.
The Chron-dola
My snow bum story started much like the rest. At the time, I was coming off a shakey, 2007 season that posted such buzz-kill as a 63-degree, warm, rainy New Year’s Day prompting the addition of “the snow bunny” to the New England endangered species list. I was struggling with the haunting decision of graduate school, as such my western dreams of powder were saddled on the east coast realism of post-grad poverty, weighted with student loans. I figured if I was going to be working my ass off and still had a pair good knee’s, heck, I might as well spend the winter driving them through some sick powder and figure the rest out from there. Bedside’s, grad school wasn’t going anywhere, and neither was Steamboat Springs, but the latter was well known as the territory that first introduced snow bunnies into the wild.
With barely enough money to cover two weeks of groceries and loaded with redemption, I touched down in Colorado mid-November ready to instruct, ride, and to dip my balls in a few glasses of that frozen crystal champagne. Well, the season stood me up on our first date and I wondered if somehow it had gotten word of my dubious intentions. Opening day was pushed back and pushed back again. With no ski lessons to make the “cashish”, it wasn’t a promising start. It turned out as with all things great, it was just biding its time to arrive fashionably late. At the exact moment when my last dollar went to a bag of enriched white rice and I had desperately convinced myself to do a “smash and grab” job on the local jewelry store to cover rent, it finally showed. It was like I had fallen through the wardrobe into Narnia, with my balls leading the way. Yes, the stingy Colorado fall slinked out the door and in came Father winter, flipping the endless mountain sunshine switch “off”, pulling the blanket of dark grey clouds overhead and instantly making everything that stands, chandeliers of diamond powder.
Ned Cremin Cutting Down Trees
The season passed like the flash of a powdery face shot. My balls got dipped and they got dipped deep. So deep in fact, it was more like they got soaked. Steamboat received a record 490 inches over the next four months with three 100 plus months of snow in a row. It was like I was living inside a giant snow globe that never needed shaking or as if I was living in a dream version of Groundhog Day. Daily, I staggered home up my walkway, dragging my feet through shin-high freshly fallen snow. My face reverse raccoon eyed, my hair statically charged like Einstein, legs wobbly as yogurt I would collapse on the couch. Immediately I would raise a chapped, triumphant fist into the air like Bob Marley and declare, “Today was the greatest day of My Life“. A sweet routine indeed.
The 2008 season surpassed everything my balls or I, could have asked for. Buried in the powder all season, they didn’t make it out until April 6th…. when the mountain disappointingly closed despite over two feet in the final week and a 70-inch base. I packed up to return home. I was at a loss for words when I tried to describe the season to friends and family. Ironically, the only phrase that somehow fit right was confessing that I indeed “dipped my balls in it”.
Tomas Hansen “Feeling The Freedom”
Another summer of edging, mowing, and hedge trimming followed and I finally gathered the time to reflect on the winter high I had been riding. What happened between those sacred four months in 2008 will always be remembered as a spiritually heightened experience. (Shared with nature and…a few lucky snow bunnies as well) It was a four month long climax from sweet, tender turns of love with the snow gods. As the mercury drops low here in 2010, I’m prepared this season to head back for my much-anticipated return. Hopes are high and my balls even stronger. But this season, my expectations are greater, and I’m setting the bar higher, and deeper, at the same time. This season, I’m taking on a whole new mantra for 2011—“I wanna dip My Nipple’s in it!
Tomas Hansen Burying The Knees
Ned Cremin currently lives in Steamboat Springs, Co. and is a certified ski and snowboard instructor.
Photos and words by Ned Cremin.
Homeboy Ski Blog
So yesterday as some of you knew (if you follow our twitter), I went out and snowskated my driveway. I made a makeshift box (the top not nailed on) and did some slides and shove-outs. This was my first time actually riding at home this season and the snow was pretty nice. We only got about 2 inches up here but it’s been nice and cold so the snow is super fast. I made a short video edit towards the end of the session. Waiting so long to film with my old digital camera wasn’t such a good idea as lighting wasn’t so awesome in the driveway later in the day. The footage isn’t anything amazing but I had tons of fun with this little box and plan to cut it up and actually nail it to the 2×4′s for next sesh. Video to follow, hope you guys are getting out there if you can! Happy Holidays to you all as well!
iSnowskate.com
It is May and the ski season 2009-2010 is pretty much over for the HBS team.
There is still some good snow to be had in the northern part of Scandinavia and of course e.g. in Chamonix people are skiing big lines until the early summer. However, we are starting to take it a bit easier with the site and the post frequency will be slower during the summer months. We have also some totally new things coming on for the next season and those require some technical updates, which will be done during the summer months too.
Here is a compilation of some of the best HBS articles/posts in 2009-2010 in our opinion. There will be a second part – just because there was so much of good content! The second part is coming soon too…Enjoy!
Season overview
For the season 2009-2010 we didn’t actually get a “super hit” like the 2008-2009 article about Fred Syversen’s accidental world record cliff jump. Fred’s unbelievable flight and almost miraculous survive created a lot of buzz and we wanted to hear his personal opinion on all this too. So, Marko discussed with Fred in this interview:
http://homeboyski.com/2009/01/23/fred-syversen-interview-the-skier-who-survived-107-meters-drop/
Fred Syversen in Chamonix, photo by Petri Kovalainen
Talking about the traffic, while we did not get those super high traffic peaks this winter, the everyday visitor figures were on the steady rise. And today we are actually not that far from total one million page uploads. Yes, that’s a small number in the Internet but pretty good for an independent Finnish ski site, what do you think?
October 2009
The good news for the start of the season was that our writer/contributor Ville Eskonen got his picture published in Dutch White Freeride ski magazine.
The actual ski season got a pretty good start too. Lorenzo reported about six days of skiing powder in October, in Tyrol, Austria. Here at our “headquarters” in Helsinki, Finland we were really jealous, not knowing yet that the upcoming season would be exceptionally snowy for us flatlanders too (and I personally couldn’t figure out that the season would give the most ski days in about seven or eight years…)
Another October stand-outs were the following articles:
Petri Kovalainen – My Life Behind the Camera – check out the awesome work of photographer Petri Kovalainen.
Mountain guide Ode Siivonen, photo Petri Kovalainen
“It’s all about the feelings”
Our buddy and contributor Jarkko Henttonen told us about riding the North Face of l’Aiguille du Midi via Mallory-Porter couloir. Read the article if you are interested on serious big mountain lines and how to prepare yourself for them.
November 2009
In the beginning of the month Lorenzo wrote another great post – a Krippenstein resort review. Plenty of good pics and detailed information about the unique, small ski resort.
Another highlight from November is Marko’s excellent interview of Kimmo “Skipe” Oivo - Life Matters! (the second part of the Skipe interview was published in December but check it out too, really cool stuff). Skipe is one of the first “ski bums” in Finland, and at the age of 43 he is still going strong!
December 2009 – Seth Morrison Interview
In the early December we got a real jackpot! It is funny how small the world have become. Marko asked his Sethness himself for an online interview. Seth didn’t write us complicated long answers but you gotta respect the man’s work ethic – Seth replied to us in less than 24 hours, and offered some really well thought straight to the point answers – pretty much telling us nerds to shut up and go to ski and train more! “Go skiing every day, be in shape, and ski on rockered skis.”
Thank you Seth for the interview & story - http://homeboyski.com/2009/12/02/seth-morrison-interview/
Thanks also to Adam Clark, Black Diamond and Oakley for the photos.
Seth Morrison, front flip in Alaska, photo by Adam Clark
In December Juho also started his all season ski trip to the United States and Canada, and reported with a nice review from Lost Trail Powder Mountain in the border of Montana and Idaho. Gotta love those local, small scale resorts where the powder stays untouched for days…
January 2010
In January we managed to score a couple of more interesting interviews.
Marko translated an article from Slovakian site snowmagazin.sk (with the help of the Snowmagazin guys of course because we dont know much Slovakian!) – The Interview of the best slalom skier ever lived, Ingemar Stenmark. If you are old enough to remember the late seventies/early eightties you can’t forget Ingemar, still a classic icon of technique and elegant skiing style.
I did a long interview of Joonas Karhumaa, arguably one of the best telemark skiers of the world. Joonas has proved his skills again this season, placing e.g. second on the FWT Qualifications in Monte Rosa, among some 60 alpine guys!
Personally, I think Joonas interview is one of my best posts so far – pretty much because of the interesting and intelligent interviewee and superb photos by Tero Repo!
In January Juho also continued his trip in Canada:
Touring in Kootenay Pass
Some more touring in Rogers Pass and Whitewater backcountry
- If you are into touring these reports should make you drool and dream about the next season (that is, if your season is already over…)
Ville also started his EPIC Japan trip and gave us something that could be labeled as true skiporn:
Japan – Endless Powder
What you can say…? Another day at the office for Ville I guess?
To be continued with the best posts of February, March and April…
Homeboy Ski Blog
Yesterday Mammoth Mountain announced the continuation of their MVP season pass program for next year. Unlike the current MVP season pass, which they released in April 2009 for only the first 10,000 buyers whether you were an existing pass holder or not, next year’s program is closed to the general public and is only good for existing pass holders.
This is an interesting strategy – maybe Mammoth actually lost money on the 09-10 season pass offer and current attendance trends indicate they will make a better margin on keeping the MVP exclusive to current participants? They did announce they’re raising prices next year to /day – what the hell… is this Vail?
I for one will be buying my MVP for sure… at those lift ticket prices, you get your money’s worth after just 7 days on the hill. Check out the e-mail announcement I received:
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