The Bone...Spot?

The Bone Zone full movie is live, you best get to watchin’ it before the end of the world happens. Although, I’m pretty sure we’ll all have a chance to watch it after tomorrow…call it a hunch. What I got from the Bone Zone movie, besides solid snowboarding, is a bunch of friends doing what they love and having ridiculous amounts of fun in the process. While I enjoyed the flick, I couldn’t help but think that, for better or worse, we never would have seen a “The Spot” full movie. I just don’t see JP, JJ and that crew taking their pre season warm ups and making a full production out of it. For them, The Spot just isn’t where they want their parts filmed. Now, isn’t that the great thing about individuality, innovation and progression? It took a new generation and a fresh look at what a “pre season spot” can be. Snowboarding is at its best when people are pushing and getting creative with it. I loved seeing photos and clips from The Spot crew in years past, and I love seeing the Bone Zone evolve into what it is today. So, many thanks to those who help break trail like Jeremy Jones and JP Walker, and many thanks to those who are keeping that trail fresh and interesting such as Ted Borland and all those who make the Bone Zone what it is.

Watch the movie here

It's On!

Happy opening day to all of you who get to shred Brighton today! Don't worry about me, I got some yesterday. Here's a small sample of what to look forward to on this November 13th opener....

Have fun!!!

Snow Perspective

2011-2012 Utah Backcountry Review from Trent Meisenheimer on Vimeo.

This video frames, what I will call, Snow Perspective very well. The very substance that inspires everything from floater-dreams in July to white-room-face-shots in February, can be the same substance that will snuff the life out of you in mere minutes. 

Many will head out this weekend for those coveted first turns of the season. Before you go out, catalog the reasons why you need to educate yourself and make quality decisions. Just seven weeks ago I was blessed with the greatest gift I could ever have been given... A healthy baby boy named Jamison. My boy, my wife, my parents, my sisters, my brother and many others are reasons that I made the choice to educate and prepare myself for backcountry winter shredding. What are your reasons? Don't have a baby? What about a spouse... Don't have a spouse? What about parents/siblings... That either? How about other family... How about a significant other... How about letting all the time/money/resources of avalanche forecasters go to waste... How about placing search and rescue crews in unnecessary danger because of your ignorance......

Wow, that got kinda heavy for a second; but then, it is a heavy topic. My point is, that you need to be careful out there no matter what. I don't care if you "have no one" that will miss you if you get carried through a bunch of pines then over an eighty foot cliff to your death.

Your decisions in the backcountry affect people. 

All that being said. get after it this season! Go snowboarding and have fun. Build a gnarly kicker, hit that trophy line or simply go meadow skipping. Just do a little research first. Go to an avalanche clinic, read a book... AT LEAST make a visit to utahavalanchecenter.org part of your winter morning routine.

I'm predicting an average Utah snow season, and I can't wait to slay every last one of those five hundred inches this year. 

Day One, 12/13

Four days before Halloween was day one for the 12/13 season. There was even decent snow. I spent the first hour hiking about halfway up Great Western at Brighton. I had some decent powder there, but towards the bottom found some rocks with my deck, and a stump with my shin. Worth it. 

Stoked.

BurritosAndSnow met me and we proceeded to session a small snow maker pile thing. I had my new camera with me and tried getting some photos. It was a GREAT day!

My first turns of the season. Sloppy, ha ha!

Soon Mount Millicent...soon.

Burrito Press (looked better than the photo appears) Priceless face 

Hope some of you were able to take advantage of this early season snow! 

Winter is Here

Utah's winter has begun... I had just enough time to get to the snow line in Big Cottonwood Canyon and snap a picture.The good stuff, however, is a steady flow shots on the interwebs from Utah locals like the Provo brothers, Kyle Fischer and many more, shows this winter is off to a good start. Though I’m not holding my breath for another stellar winter like 10/11, I am optimistic about having a very average year. That is by no means disappointing after the lack of fluffy stuff in 2012. It’s actually not disappointing after any season, really, especially when you look at how hard the snow industry was hit by the dry 11/12 winter. I’m not going to pretend I have insider info about the industry or anything like that, but the news about Burton aborting Forum, Special Blend and FourSquare is a sobering reminder of the fragility of our beloved industry. If you’re a snowboarder, I know you get this rammed down your throat all that time, but it’s still not often enough; Buy local. If you’re as lucky as me and have awesome shops in your ‘hood, like Milo and Salty Peaks, shop at those places!

Anyhow, I can’t wait to get on the snow this season! I hope you’re getting the goods while, at least for today, I play cubicle jockey… 

Motivation

I just had a moderately deep conversation with one of my best friends; we'll call him Tom Jones. Anyhow, we just finished playing some of the lamest pick up basketball I've been involved with for a long time. There were a couple of kids there who are a lot younger and faster than us and they were douching out on levels difficult for human comprehension. They weren't even playing ball. Just grab-assing up and down the court like inbred cousins or something. That's kind of besides the point, but a little bit relevant as it led to Tom expressing that he should quit playing basketball. Now, I know this statement from Tom was 70% joking, but there was a look from Mr Jones I hadn't seen before. He really didn't want to be on the court at that moment.

That is a terrible yet magical place to be.

Where you realize you used to have something special that is now slipping away, and unless you make a change, you're gonna lose it completely. This is terrible because it sucks realizing that you, at one point in time, were invincible. The magic is when you use that gut-dropping feeling of shame, remorse, embarrassment or whatever the bad feeling is, to fuel your fire for change.

Tom Jones... I implore you; use the douches to motivate a change. Every time you want to do something that isn't going to propel you closer to where/what you want to be, remember the moment you experienced at basketball tonight. Use it to better yourself.

I've had several Tom Jones moments in my lifetime; some I wasted, some I took advantage of and leveraged change from them.

So I guess the moral of the story is: haters gonna hate... or something.

Since it's a snowboarding blog...

Why I Love Snowboarding

Almost 5 months since the last post... guess that's the nature of a snowboard blog. Anyhow, no fancy title for this one; I'm just going to explain why (at least I think why) I have so much passion for snowboarding. This post blew up into some sort of journal entry/weird blog-therapy session for me... ha ha. So now, real quickly I will explain why I love snowboarding; and over the next few weeks I will post the background on the experiences that granted me such passion for it.

Snowboarding is one of the first things that I stuck with. It didn't come naturally to me. I had to truly work my ass of to even learn how to link turns. I didn't get into it from watching 'Subjekt Haakonsen', or any other one of those films that premier each fall. I never really learned to skateboard. Maybe that means I'm not "core" or whatever, but I guarantee I have more fun on the mountain than a lot of those "core" riders. It was the first time I had started something that was outside of my comfort zone and followed it through to the point of I-don't-suck-at-it-anymore. The bruises, sweat, tears and frustration I poured into teaching myself have made me cherish every cliff drop, pow slash and park sesh I have the joy of experiencing. People call me crazy for going back the the sport that put me in the hospital for three days... they don't understand. As long as I can stand up, I'll be shredding.

Just Snowboard

At times, it seems like doing something won't be worth it. Getting yourself out of bed, going the extra mile at work and maybe getting to that "awesome" social event. Say you do pull yourself out of bed, sadly, chances are that extra mile at work gets overlooked and that social event turns out to be a total tool-fest. However, when it comes to snowboarding, it's almost always gonna be worth it.

I actually had two days last week where I almost didn't go riding; that would have been a shame. The first day was actually a night. Forecast showed freezing rain for the night, which is absolutely miserable. Luckily it snowed, stayed pretty warm and I got to shred with some good friends. Second day came with a forecast of "high winds"  that nearly derailed a super fun day. I decided just to go anyway, brave the winds and procrastinate homework for another day. As it turns out, it wasn't really windy at all, just a classic Utah spring slush day.

I guess the moral of this whole thing is that snowboarding is awesome... but we already knew that.

Good Reminder

My first thought upon watching this was how frail all that steel looks when being hit by a bunch of snow. Nature's been really generous lately with handing out reminders of how small and feeble humans and our contraptions are.

Good Odds

I like them odds...

Tron Shred

My friend Wren just put this little diddy together. I don't share this to brag about skills I have or anything. Mainly this is a cool song and a good job of editing by Wren. You should see his other stuff over at Wasatch Attack. Maybe someday we'll be a fraction of what the supernaturals are... ha ha!

Supernatural Beings

Via TranswoldSnow: Gigi frontside 360 nose tap on his way to second place. PHOTO: Chris Wellhausen

The Red Bull Supernatural contest has been tagged as a game changer, setting the standard for future snowboarding competitions and many other well deserved accolades (I'm of course saying that having seen nothing but a few pics, and reading articles like the one attached, but I think it's a pretty solid statement). The fact that this, a snowboarding only event, is being broadcast on network television indeed shows how far snowboarding has come. I mean, it definitely doesn't hurt when you have a guy with as crazy an imagination and vision as Travis Rice and the financial backing of Red Bull to pull it off. With BrainFarm having filmed this, you know we are in for some of the best snowboarding footage to date.

All that stuff and really, I'm just excited to watch these guys flow that mountain side. The lineup of riders includes many an "all time favorite" for countless fans and pro's alike. I can't choose just one favorite of the group, but I really like Jake Blauvelt. You can see why here. Although, with any of these guys you're guaranteed an unmatched display of taking what they are given and turning it from snow, wood and ramps into art. From Nico and Terje's unmatched tweaked out grabs and buttery style to the raw power and precision of riders like T.Rice and John Jackson. With this event, you get the best of snowboarding.

Check out what we know so far about the contest at Transworld Snow.

(Not So...) Crappy Day

I was having a pretty crappy morning today, kinda feeling bad for myself. After thinking about the fact that I got two pow days in a winter that has been been drier than a cow pie on mars and watching this video, I realized that things really aren't that bad... oh and that hunger was playing a major role in how my day started off. Burrito time nomnomnom!


Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.