Shredding Breck With TJ and Shay

Well, this will definitely go down as one of the best opening days I've ever had in my illustrious snowboarding career. I've been fiending to get on the mountains for a few weeks now and despite the temptation to take advantage of the awesome weather in Fort Collins and skate, I finally got my shit together and made it up there. There were however, some ulterior motives involved...

If you remember the second episode of The Snowboard Realms, (which you all should have watched) TJ mentioned that he was going to be in Breckenridge this week and that people should come out and ride with him. I was a little on the fence about whether or not to go since it hasn't snowed much up there and I figured it would be a complete zoo and I'd have to wait in the lift lines all day. Plus, I didn't really know if I would be able to meet up with TJ. That all changed on Wednesday night when Shay from Shayboarder hit me up on Gmail chat and asked me if I was going up. She said she had talked to TJ and was going to meet up with him and basically told me to get my ass up there. Ehhhhh, okay geez, twist my arm I'll go... Ha! After talking with Shay I was super stoked to go meet up with her and TJ and get my shred on. Plus, my best friend Grizzly Adams was up in that area fishing and we made plans to meet up.

I made the drive from Fort Collins in a little over 2 hours and was very pleased at the lack of traffic on the way up. Weekends are usually a shit show in the mountains but I think the lack of snow is keeping people away. I pulled into town, got my shit together, and met up with Shay, TJ, and the rest of the crew for the day at the gondola on Peak 8. I did an interview with TJ a while back and I've only talked to him and Shay through email so it was so awesome to finally meet both of them. We rode up, strapped in, and my 08/09 season was finally underway!

TJ and Shay


Guerrilla marketing, Snow Realms stickers everywhere

Like I said before, this was one of the best opening days I've ever had. The weather was awesome, blue bird and sunny, and the snow was a lot better than I thought it would be. I was expecting a concrete-like slab of ice but contrary to my assumptions, the snow was soft and fast. The only places that were icy were the areas the sun wasn't shining. Other than that, the hybrid real/made snow was awesome for this early in the season. I was expecting to be a little rusty and worried that I would fall getting off the lift (A-hem, Shay? Haha!) or scorpion down the mountain and embarrass myself in front of everyone, but I was on point from the first run and felt like I never stopped riding. Before the first run of the day however, as we were strapping in at the top of the lift, the toe strap on my right binding broke completely off and I had to ride the whole day toe strap-less. I thought I was screwed but it really wasn't a big deal. I could hardly tell a difference riding without the toe strap. I took it to Broadcast Board Shop when we were done riding and the hommies there jimmy-rigged me a new strap out of a Rome binding part. Nice.

Now, the main reason this was such an epic opening day for me, obviously, was being able to ride with TJ. He's one of my favorite pros and it was super fun hangin out with him all day. We rode the chair up together a handful of times and talked about a variety of things, including the Snow Realms, traveling, shredding, the Oakley incident, how cool methods are, and a bunch of other shit. He was also singing the song Cry Me A River, by Justin Timberlake the whole morning, (you'll find out soon enough why) which consequently was stuck in my head the rest of the day. It was very interesting talking with him and getting some insight into his life. The coolest thing about TJ though, is he's just a regular dude who happens to be really good at snowboarding. He didn't have some big entourage with him, or act like he was better than everyone else. He was very genuinely stoked to be on the mountain riding with all of us and was just out there having fun. Snowboarding is fun, no matter what level of riding you're on. Such a cool guy.


TJ, Shay, and me on the chair

Although I must say, the dude can rip. There wasn't all that much to ride other then a little park with a couple jib lines, a wall ride, and a log jib/hip, but you can tell just by watching him ride how good he is. He's got a super smooth, effortless style with just the right amount of sketch. There were these pretty steep rollers he was launching off and he aired this gap in the park that was pretty rad.

TJ and crew were in Keystone before Breck filming for the latest episode of The Snowboard Realms and he told me they got enough footy so they didn't film when we rode together. I was so close to making it on the realms! Hahaha. I could've pulled a tasty method out of bag O' tricks...


TJ Stomping a landing


The Breck park... Wait what's going on here?

Let's zoom in a little....


TJ rad air


TJ gaping a human - Photo: Shayboarder


The crew


Sneak attack

After about 20 laps it was time to call it a day, almost. TJ said he was taking off so we all hugged it out, he bounced and Shay and I took a couple more runs. Such an awesome day of riding.


So stoked!!

After riding, we decided to go to Mi Casa for some happy hour food and drinks. $1 tacos and PBR? You can't beat that anywhere. I met up with with Zach and we were on our way.


Zac(h) attack. Yeah, and Grizzly Adams had a beard....


Shay and ....?

We ate, we drank beer, we had a great time. We hit the town for a little while but I'd been up since 5am and was super tired. We all parted ways and Zach and I went to our hotel room. And by hotel room, I mean the back of his Ford Ranger. We posted up in the City Market parking lot and were fast asleep until a security guard came pounding on the windows at about 2:30am and told us we had to move. We ended up in the free skier parking lot behind Breck Terrace and passed back out. I've never slept so close to another man....

By this time the camera battery was dead so I couldn't get a good photo of our plush accommodations. But here's his truck/apartment from another photo...

The Ford Seasons

We woke up and crawled out of the truck to the surprised and confused looks of all the people in the parking lot getting ready to hit the mountain. Zach took of for home and I took off to Daylight Doughnuts, the best place in town for breakfast. While I was waiting for my #5 with ham and drinking my coffee, I did a little mental recap of the previous day and was still so stoked. It really was such a good day of riding with awesome people. A definite sign of an epic season to come!