Breckenridge Sesh --- Gaper Sprays

The sun was shining, the birds were singing, snow bunnies were a plenty, and the 17 inches of fresh in the last 3 days was just waiting to be destroyed. The tourists were out in full force, but I had a fresh wax on the board and was stoked for an epic blue bird day in the hill. Fellow shred partner Brian Heimerdinger and I decided to go jacket less and opt for the hoddy steez in lieu of the clear skies and bright sun. We arrive at the Quicksilver Super Chair only to be greeted by an absolute zoo of people. Instead of waiting for 20 minutes with a million little ski & ride school kids, we decided to hike the 200 yards up the mountain to Beaver Run which proved to be a wise choice. We jumped on the chair and the shred-straganza was finally underway. After a couple runs we met up with fellow crew member Jon "The Gonz" Gallegos and his buddy Kyle. About this time, the storm that wasn’t supposed to hit until the evening rolled in and the sun disappeared behind the clouds for the rest of the day, making the decision to go with the hoody a little less appealing. But honestly the only shitty part of the sun peaceing out was the ride up the lift… The cold and wind bites you up there. Once off the lift, everything was cool. Despite the mostly gray day, it was still super fun. Our runs were filled with rides through the trees, pow slashes, booters, back and front side 1’s and 3’s, half cabs, boned out methods, steezy shifty tail grabs, tail taps, bonks and ollies off every standing obstacle (including humans), and tons of other sick maneuvers.

As fun as all that was, by far the highlight of the day was the multiple gaper sprays that were executed. The pure joy of showering an unsuspecting skier stopped on the mountain with snow can’t really be explained. It’s comparable to Christmas morning. Let me break down the “gaper spray” for you, step by step. The first step is to locate the gaper downhill from you. Some things that will help you locate a gaper are: Day passes attached to jacket, brightly colored neon outer wear from the 70’s, fanny packs, ridiculous looking spike beanies or cowboy hats or no hat with styled hair, a Texas or southern accent, jeans… Especially overall jeans, puffy jackets with ones favorite sports team on it, ski blades (don’t even get me started on those), chicks wearing designer purses while skiing, someone taking huge, slow, pizza turns and the biggest gaper indicator? The group of skiers stopped on the best lip to air off of reading a trail map.

After you’ve locked on to your target, you’re going to want to bomb down the hill at top speed toward them. Carrying a lot of speed into the spray is very important… You want to make sure to get the biggest snow wall spray possible. When you’re about 8 – 10 feet from the sprayee, slam on the breaks, heal or toe side, whichever you’re most comfortable with, and let the snow fly! In my spraying experience, I find toe side produces the biggest spray. Make sure you look back as you ride by to capture the look of confusion/ anger/ utter contempt for all those ass-hole snowboarders on your victim’s face. The best situation, and what happened today more than a few times, is when the whole crew rides by, one by one, and white washes unsuspecting gapers. After they get sprayed they look back to see what happened and what do they get? Three more facials of snow! Like I said before, gaper sprays are a complete joy and are sure to brighten everyone’s day…. Well maybe not everyone’s… Check out this video clip from the Absinthe film Optimstic? of Marc Frank Montoya layin down some epic sprays about 45 seconds in. MFM is a Denver native and a super sick rider so check out the whole clip. If you haven't seen Optimistic? you definately need to, it's the best of they year in my opinion.

We’re heading to Vail tomorrow and hopefully this storm dumps enough fresh pow for some cliff drops and deep slashes. The week of snowboarding awesomeness is off to a great start and can only get better. More updates to come, until next time… Go snowboard!