Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone has a great Christmas and doesn't end up puking from drinking too much! Oh, and go snowboarding! Lots of super radical posts on the way...  Dig it!

Snow Realms Episode 2-5

TJ finally gets to ride some pow and do some slashes, fun! Then he blasts a huuuuuge air and wipes out pretty bad, gnar city. Hope you're alright dude! Peep the new episode and then head on over to Thesnowboardrealms.com for lots of cool shit.


The Snowboard Realms 2-5 from tj schneider SNOWBOARD REALMS VI on Vimeo.

Epicly Later'd MIke Carroll - Episodes 4 & 5

Carroll, Koston, and Jonze talk about how Girl Skateboards was born way back in 1993 in these two episodes. Great old footy of Carroll. Dig it.

Episode 4


Episode 5

Hybrid Sessions Happenings and Update

Well, there was no snow shredding for me this weekend, some of my really good friends from Chicago came into town for a quick visit and there was a show Saturday night I've been waiting to see for a long time. I found myself bumming a little about not riding, especially since the skies have been projectile vomiting snow here in Colorado. But none the less I was stoked to hang with my friends and the show I went to was so rad.

What show you're all surely wondering? Suicidal Tendencies mutha fucka!! Oh man this was a good show. As you will soon come to learn in much greater detail, old punk music is my absolute favorite and these So Cal punk thrashers have been at it since the early 80's. I haven't been to a good punk show like this for a while and it felt so good to throw my body around and rattle my brain a little. My neck is still sore from all the head banging. The lead singer, Mike Muir, who is the younger brother of one of the original Dogtown Z-Boy members, Jim Muir, was a mad man on stage. He had so much energy it was infectious. The legendary Aggie Theater in Fort Collins was packed and ST played a great set. They're coming out with a new album soon also which is so rad. I didn't bring the camera for fear of it getting destroyed, and my instincts were spot on. The mosh pits got a little rowdy and I went down a couple times, so I'm glad I didn't bring it. The opening acts were great also, with deep south punks Whole Wheat Bread and another band I really like, Death By Stereo. epic show.

So anyway, the reason for this post is to give all of you out there who actually read this blog a little update on the upcoming happenings of Hybrid Sessions, aka, the Zac Bryson and friends super star spectical.

You've probably noticed my posts have been few and far between as of late, and there's a fairly reasonable explination for that: I'm about to graduate from college. Yes, my tenure at Colorado State University will officially be over on Thurday at about 7:3o pm, after I complete my last final exam. I'm so emotion-- blah blah blah, I've been ready to be done for about a year and a half now. It's been a hectic past couple weeks though with various projects I've had to work on for class. My degree will be in Construction Management, which pretty much guarantees me a job in that industry, but I don't have any plans to pursue a career in that field. Working in the skate or snow industry, or doing something with music or art is what I really want to do, since those are my passions in life. I have some things in the works so we'll see... I did make a pretty epic graduation announcement though, here's the cover.

I'm also heading home to Reno this Friday for Christmas for a week or two and I've been trying to get all my shit together and move out of my pad. I'm super stoked to go home and see all family and friends and to shred Tahoe! It's finally snowing there, and it's not supposed to stop all week. I'll be riding Heavenly, (included with Epic pass) Northstar, MT. Rose, hopefully Squaw, and night sessions at Boreal. If there's anyone in Tahoe who reads this, hit me up and lets ride!

When I get back from Reno, I'll be making the move up to the Rocky Mountains. I will finally be able to ride everyday like I've wanted to for so long. I'm not exactally sure what town I'll be living in yet, maybe a new one every couple weeks.... How you may ask? This is how. Boo ya. Not that exact one, but very similiar. More on this in the days to come...

I'm also growing my Mu-Stache again... Quite possibly for the entire snowboard season.

As far as Hybrid Sessions goes, I have some really cool ideas and features for the site coming up. Since the snow season is officially upon us, the content is going to shift towards snowboarding. I will still be discussing all things skating but not as heavily. Also, music is going to become a huge part of the site in the near future. I've been wanting to incorporate my vast musical knowledge and influence for a while now but I wanted to wait until I established a good following of readers before I did so. I feel I've reached that point, so music will be coming up soon. I'm going to continue featuring artists and amazing art and I have a couple really good interviews in the works. Also, I introduced HS Sick Photos the other day and that's something I want to keep doing.

A big part of the site is going to be dedicated to the HS snowboard crew's shred-ventures. The crew is currently myself, The Gonz, Brian, and Tom, but we're taking applications and actively seeking new members. Brian purchased a sick camcorder this summer so we're planning on using the shit out of it and making a bunch of videos.

The Gonz


Brian


Tom

There's going to be a bunch of DIY features coming up, some product testing and reviews, some company profiles, lots more opinions, and a bunch of other shit. I'm also going to be working hard on turning HS into a legit website and stepping away from the blogger format, but that's probably a ways down the road.

So that's what going on in the Hybrid Sessions world. I'd really like for you, the reader, to get more involed in the site also. Make comments, give your opinions, email me cool or funny shit you find, whatever. This is a platform for you to say anything you want, positive or negative, about anything, god knows I do. So get your ass involved!

As soon as this week is over and I'm done with school, I will be back to posting everyday and keeping everyone stoked in general. Dig it.

A Pony Tale, Will Get You Tail...

Ooo Weee! The shred film, Pony Tale, from Actionhorse Films is an absolute treat of a video to watch, and it's free! Featuring the likes of Hampus Mosesson, Jakob Wilhelmson, Knut Eliassen, Markku Koski, Eero Ettala, Gulli Gudmundson, Mikkel Bang, Pat Moore, Austin Smith and a few others, this film has everything you need for a good time. Rail slaying for the jibbsters? Got it. Park booters for the park rats? Oh yeah. Back country trickery, face shots, and slaaaaashes for the snow surfers? You know it. Super groovey tunes to shake to? These hips don't lie... Such a rad film.

Watch it right now or you're going to scorpion next time you go riding. High Def.

Pony Tale from Actionhorse Films on Vimeo.

Oh you want the music? Well, you can watch the end credits or peep the tunes below. I was too lazy to pause the credits to get the songs so I just got em from my hommies over at Badboysodas. Dig it.

Never Meant Any Harm by the Golden Dogs
This Boy's In Love by the Presets
I Told Her on Alderaan by Neon Neon
Bigtime by the Soundtrack of our Lives
Ready For the Floor by Hot Chip
Patent Pending by Heavens
Det Snurrar I Min Skalle by Familjen
Helmdalsgate like a Promethean Curse by Of Montreal

Throwback Thursday Jamie Lynn

The latest Throwback Thursday video from Transworld Snowboarding features snowboarding's most stylish rider ever, my favorite, and in my opinion the best that ever was or will be, Jamie Lynn. I was so stoked to see Jamie on the Throwback Thursday video. He was my inspiration to start snowboarding and still inspires me today. Plus he has the sickest graphics on his pro model Lib Techs. Oh, and he does the absolute best methods, period. I plan on doing a post on my favorite riders so I'll go more into his awesomeness then.

For all you young shredders out there, you need to watch this video... then watch it again, and take notes. This is style. Oh, you think can throw methods like Jamie?? Ha! Now try doing it without gloves...

Epicly Blowing it

Well, I'm about 3 weeks behind on Epicly Later'd Lakai videos, lame I know. There's been a bunch so I'm not going to post em all here but can click these orange words and get caught up all the episodes.

O'Dell broke away from the Fully Flared behind the scenes and featured some of Lakai's/Girl's riders, such as Mike Mo, Alex Olson, Koston, and recently, Mike Carroll. They are all awesome episodes, especially the Koston ones. Dude is hilarious. I'll be back to posting these every Friday-ish next week.

Oh, and season 1 of Epicly Later'd is available for purchase right here. It's amazing and you should all buy it.

Me, Myself and I: The Todd Richards Story

Me, Myself and I from Snowboard TV on Vimeo.

This looks like it will be awesome. Todd is one of snowboarding's pioneers and is very funny. He's been riding since the year I was born and I'm sure his story is very interesting and humorous.

HS Sick Photos - Vol. 1

Here's a new little feature for the blog I've been wanting to do for a while. I see multitudes of super rad photos all the time on the internet, whether they be professional or amateur, and I have this folder on my computer filled with about 200 photos that I've saved because I'm so stoked on them. I don't actively search for these photos, I just come across them during my web lurking sessions. Some are even mine that I have taken. The majority of them are skate and snow photos, but I also have a bunch of music, art, life, whatever else I think is cool, photos.

So, what I wanted to do, is every once in a while post up a couple photos I'm especially hyped on and talk a little about why I like them. I love photography and have been trying to get more into it so that's what inspired this I guess. If anyone has any awesome photos, please send them to me. I would love to see them.

Hybrid Sessions Sick Photos - Vol. 1

The first photo is the cover shot from the latest issue of the super rad CO based shred mag, All US. If you haven't heard about this mag, I highly recommend you check em out, especially if you live in CO. Anyway, this photo is amazing for quite obvious reasons. The vast landscape surrounding the rider was captured brilliantly. Sunsets create some of the absolute best lighting for photos and this is no exception. I love the sun also. I really like the isolated vibe and calm feeling this photo presents. I picture it in my mind like there wasn't a single sound when this was taken. Almost like no one was there except the rider. This was taken in Iceland where I have to believe isolation and quietness are fairly prominent. Overall it's really just an incredible photo.

Rider: Col Mitton

Photo by: Vernon Deck

The next photo comes from my new blogging friend, Allie, from Vancityallie.com. She takes some top notch photos has such a rad site that all of you need to go peep... right after reading this. I'll probably be heisting many a photo from her, so thanks in advance Allie! This image of an old man playing the guitar was taken on the streets in Rome, Italy. This photo struck me because I think it represents how music is such a powerful force and no matter how old you are, it can still be a huge part of your life. I'm an absolute music fiend and maybe that's why this had an impact on me. I mean, dude is playing his Spanish style guitar in the streets of Rome, probably shredding it, probably not making any money, but probably loving it. Also, it's perfect in black and white.

Photo By: Allie

Well that's it for now, I have to go to class. I hope you all like this new feature!

Terrible Album Covers - A True Gem

If there's anyone out there who's been reading HS for a while, you'll remember I did a couple pretty funny terrible album covers posts a while back. Well, HS reader David Bartolotta and I apparently share the same twisted, distorted sense of humor, because he emailed me with this absolute gem of a terrible album cover. Behold, The Handless Organist!!

Holly shit I could not stop laughing when I opened my email and saw this. It reminded me of one of those Scary Movie, movies where the dude has the jacked up arm and hand... So funny. David explains the essence of this terrible album cover the best.

"What struck me most about this album cover is the sense of Rapture she presents, even though she won’t be playing The Flight of The Bumble Bee. She may be an ideal performer for 20th century cluster chords in avant-garde compositions."

Could not have said it any better myself, nice work David. If anyone else comes across a terrible album cover, PLEASE, email it to me and I'll post it up. I love seeing these things.

Hybridsessions1@gmail.com

Snow Realms Episode 2-4

TJ dropped this new episode of The Realms a few days ago and it just goes to show how much fun snowboarding can be, even if you're not on the mountain. For more Realms happenings, peep Thesnowboardrealms.com. Dig it.

The Snowboard Realms 2-4 from tj schneider SNOWBOARD REALMS VI on Vimeo.

Breck-Fest

All this past week I was pondering where I was going to shred this weekend and who I was going to ride with. My usual shred partners, Juan "The Gonz" and Brian were booked, so I hit up my skate buddy Tom and locked in plans to ride Breck. I was bumming hard all week that I still have to go to college and work because Summit County was shit on last weekend, receiving something like 50+ inches of snow. Plus, on Friday I had to drive to Steamboat for work and there is so much snow up there it's unreal. I wanted to quit my job on the spot and go ride. All of this, only shredding on the weekends nonsense will end very soon when I make my permanent move to the mountains.

On to the shred-venture...

Breck 12/6/08 & 12/7/08

Tom and I stayed in one of his buddies plush condos on Friday night and woke up early and ready to rip. We started to walk to the mountain and came to a nice little hill covered with some freshies and faced the decision to walk down and around or strap in and slay some condo pow. Obviously we strapped in and rode 10 seconds down this little hill that dropped us super close to the Quicksilver chair. Great way to start out the day. We grabbed a boarders breakfast at The Maggie, slammed that down, and hit the lift.


Myself and Tom

Breck is about 50% open now because of the huge storm last week so it was awesome to be able to access other parts of the mountain besides peak 8, where EVERYONE rides. We lapped peak 9 nine quite a few times and found some sick pow staches left over from the dumpage. This one section under the Mercury chair was so much fun. We bombed through a slow zone, ducked a rope and were treated to some knee deep euphoria. Tom and I slayed this pow side by side, criss-crossing though the snow, barely missing each other a couple times. There were a bunch of little lips built up that we aired, only to land right back into the powdery transitions. I was giggling like a little school girl riding through this and we must have been looking good because we got some yells and whistles from the peeps riding the chair directly above. We hit this twice before everyone else found it and tracked it out. Neither of us wanted to stop and take photos so you'll have to use your imagination. Something not quite like this...

Those two runs were really the high point of the weekend for me. I am a powder fiend and any day riding some fresh is a good day to me. Well actually, there was another epic moment but we'll get to that in a bit. Saturday afternoon the infamous Brecken-wind started to howl and that made the ride up the lift a bit nippy... and by a bit nippy I mean fucking freezing. Luckily I wore my jacket but Tom on the other hand went with the flannel steez and was struggling. Sunday the weather was so nice, blue bird and warm. At the bottom of the runs I had to de-glove and unzip to cool off.

This was such a fun couple days of shredding. We rode peak 8 and 9 and the snow was really good for the most part. A few icy patches in the shade but nice and soft and fast everywhere else. The runs are full of lips and bumps to air and there were a couple super tasty little booters carved out that we hit. Back 1's, 3's, poked stalefishies, tails, and methods were the tricks of choice for these jumps. Tom actually spun a b/s 5 off one of em coming out of the trees, sick!

Zboy b/s 1


Hold that grab!

The theme for this weekend of riding was Tom getting snaked. In the park, in the lifts, riding up to air shit, while in the air.. He was snaked in every possible way. There were more than a few times when he was approaching a jump only to have some idiot ride right in front of him. On one occasion, he was about to hit an air and this dude was riding besides him and I thought the dude saw that Tom was about to get radical on the jump but apparently he didn't have a fucking clue and as Tom was in mid air the dude rides right in front of him and it was almost a train wreck, decapitation by snowboard. Tom was getting pretty mad about being snaked every which way and I was mostly just getting a good laugh out of it.


Tom gettin his goggle sag on

Another, Tom getting fucked moment, that had me laughing hysterically was when he was just cruising along, stoked on life, catches an edge and wipes out sooooo bad. I'm talking full on scorpion, catching your body with your face, head first slide 50 feet down the mountain. Ho-lly shit. I almost shit my pants I was laughing so hard. He was about to hit a jump so I was watching him the whole way. I rode down to him and he is just covered in snow, face is bright red, and he has no clue what just happened. "I feel like I just took about 10 punches to the face!" He says. Need less to say he was pulling snow out of his ass crack the rest of the way down. Epic.


Steve, and Tom after riding his face down the hill


Steve with the butt slide under the slow sign

The last awesome thing before we get to some rad photos was this dude. A Breck liftie with the sickest, steeziest, most babe slaying Mu-stache I've ever seen. On top of that, dude was wearing a Reno hat, holla!


Better mustache then mine

The above photo doesn't do justice to this curled up stache...



Much better.

When we were on peak 8 we hit up the little terrain park Breck has and got some pretty sick photos. Tom was killing it both days on the rails and boxes, 270's onto everything, front boards, some presses, looking super smooth. I'm not all that much into the jib scene but I got down on a couple board slides one of the boxes. Jibbing is something I definitely want to work on this year.


Tom board slide


Smooooth Tom


Tom front board


ZB board slidin


Tom log jibbin

Ok... not to be a self promoter or anything, but this next photo should probably be on a magazine cover. Tom gets the photo credit with this absolutely, perfectly timed photo. Great work dude.

The log jib also doubled as somewhat of a hip and this thing boosted you super high.

Exhibit A. The photo was a little far away so we'll go ahead and zoom in.


Method!!!!

Oh man I'm so stoked on that photo... A pretty proper method. Ok, that's quite enough narcissism for one post.

Well that's about it, super fun couple days of riding, Can't wait for more!

Turkey Boarding at Vail & A-Basin

Well, after two nights of bush league group project meetings, a welding project all day yesterday, skating in the 65+ degree weather here in FoCo, and numerous shit-talking text messages from Brian demanding to know why I haven't posted the photos from this past weekend of snow riding and calling me out for never updating my shit rag blog, here are the goods... finally.

Waking up the Friday morning after Thanksgiving wasn't the easiest thing to do... After eating enough food to feed a small village and two or... five, or so extra stiff whiskey cokes, I was hurting when the alarm went off at 7:00 in the a.m. So, I did what any hardcore, dedicated shred enthusiast would... turned that shit off and went back to sleep for 2 hours. When I awoke again, with sun kissing my face, I was feeling slightly better and stoked for some tasty shred action. Brain and I loaded up the tank and hit the road, not exactly sure where we were going to ride.

Being an Epic pass holder and having 5 mountains at your disposal, deciding where to ride is like the deciding on where to eat dilemma. "Where do you want to eat?" "I don't care, what do you feel like?" "Ah dude I don't know, it doesn't matter to me..." You know how it goes, no one wants to make a decision. We waited until we were about to hit the Eisenhower Tunnel to make our decision... Vail. We figured it wouldn't be as crowded as the other mountains in Summit County since it's an extra 40 minute drive. Time to rip.

VAIL - 11/29


Early season at Vail

It wasn't all that crowded at the Lionshead gondola and it was gray and cold, and looking like it was going to snow. I had an inner battle with myself on whether or not to wear the jacket or go with my favorite riding attire, the hoody. I opted for the hoody steez and would later come to regret that decision. That and not sticking the low light lenses in.

Brian and myself

There were only a few runs open due to the early season poop snow, but it was still such a fun day of riding. It wasn't too crowded on the mountain but there were a couple sections where the runs funneled together and it was like playing Frogger, dodging people left and right, and skies and poles as they projected away from the gapers wiping out. We saw some kook wearing a flannel bath robe and had a good laugh. There was a little park with a few jibs set up but whoever laid that out should be slapped in the face. Unless you didn't stop from the top of the run, there was no way to get enough speed to hit anything. After one trip through there, we decided to stay away and just get our turns in. There was this fuckin rad roller section on one of the runs with like 5 different lips to air off and we sessioned that pretty hard. I was flying off those at mach speeds and my ollies were on point all day. I'm already feeling in top form.

There was also a very nice little lip at top of the run that boosted you super high. We threw down some early season maneuvers, shiftys, tail grabs... shifty tail grabs, and it was nice to catch some decent air.... Until the lip got all tracked out and both Brian and I got squirly on the take off and ate shit. Sweet.

Brian with a little stalefish action


Not sure what I'm going for here...

A few runs in it started snowing. Very light and grainy like at first, and then after a while, full on cloud pukage. I was so stoked for it to finally be snowing! It didn't stop for the rest of the day and continued on into the night. As it turns out, cotton isn't exactly water proof and I started to get soaking wet and heavy. On top of that, the gray day along with the snow made it almost impossible to see, especially with my dark fire engine lenses in. We made the "two more runs" call, took one, and called it a day.

Blaaawk! (puking noise)


Smurf pants


So stoked I'm wet...

Vail quote of the day: "That dude in the bath robe is fucking pissing me off." - Brian

We ended up crashing at Brain's buddy Rich's sick house in Keystone after a fucking fiasco at a babe's house in Vail. Long story short, we had a place to stay in Vail, but after sitting on the couch for 2 long, awkward, brutal hours at said house with zero conversation , we made up an excuse and bounced out of there at top speed. The only good thing to come out of that is now we have a super funny inside joke to use the rest of the season.

Waiting at the bus station

A-Basin - 11/30

We woke up Saturday to 9 inches of fresh and needless to say I had a huge boner. Riding fresh snow is like a drug addiction I never want to cure.

New snow....


Makes me happy

We were going to drive back to Vail but decided to ride Keystone instead, because it's 5 minutes from where we were, duh. We turned in to the parking lot and immediately turned right back around after seeing the main lot completely full, fuck that. A-Basin here we come! A-Bay is only a few miles up the road and is such a fun mountain. It was cold and snowy all day and I was prepared this time for the elements Again, cause it's still early season, there were only a few runs open. On the first run we went all the way to the top and shit was crazy. A-Basin in one of the highest mountains in the country elevation wise and the weather can often be brutal up there, while the weather at the base is calm. It's two different worlds. Anyway, we get to the top and almost blow off the mountain... Not really, but it was super windy up there. Snow was blowing and all you could see was white, it was icy and I couldn't wait to get down. The rest of the day we only rode half way up and went from there.

Fool me once, shame on you....


Finally looking like winter


Brian, Rich, Zboy

This was a pretty mellow day really, we all just enjoyed the fresh snow and got our turns in. We were able to find a couple of short lived pow staches on the sides of the runs and on the other sides of those orange ropes. On one such stache the rope was hangin low so obviously rope ollies were in order, and Brian executed a not so text book ollie and buried himself in the snow. I rode by laughing hysterically but karma caught up with me on the next run when I got all tangled up in a buried rope. Sweet. The runs were all pretty short and the lift lines not so short, but it was cool, I got some good photos in the lift lines. Which leads me too...

All the gapers and kooks that were out. Any holiday brings throngs of tourists to the mountains and this Thanksgiving weekend was no different. The tourists are a catch-22 really, we don't like em clogging up the mountains with their neon onesies, fanny packs, and Texas accents, but with out them spending all their money, mountain towns would surely suffer. God knows the locals don't have any money. Here are some early season gaper/kook photos... Oh and in case you were wondering, yes there will be post of epic proportions explaining the gaper/kook phenomenon.

One piece gaper suit


Kook leash


ULTIMATE kook suit... All over print Famous suit? Get real bro


Let's zoom in...


Gaper-hawk

On the drive back to Rich's pad after riding, the high light of the weekend went down. We were driving in Brian's Land Rover, aka "The Tank," and he was talking a big game about how the Tank decimates all weather conditions, especially the snow, how nothing else compares to it, blah blah blah, when while he was saying this, we hit some ice, start spinning and are heading for this little 2 foot ditch. Brian, in the calmest, most matter-of-fact voice says, "Welp, we're goin in the ditch," and boom! We slam left front end first into the ditch. Rich and I immediately start laughing as we step out and survey the damage... There was none. Brian has this big ass brush guard on the front of his car and that thing saved his ass. We were only going about 20 mph on a little side rode so the crash wasn't that gnarly, just really funny.

In the ditch


Driving out of the ditch

Super fun weekend of riding, finally got some snow, I can't wait to get back up there!