When it snows over a foot and there are no mountains around to shred, you have to get creative. I was in Fort Collins for a couple days last week to see some friends and was hoping to get some skating in, but during my stay the clouds rolled in and proceeded to puke snow all over the front Range. Sweet. I was in Fort Collins when Vail got like 4 feet of snow, F my life. I digress though...
After it finally stopped snowing, and after like 7 or 10 episodes of season 2 of Californication, and various other premium cable shows, JB and I decided to get proactive and go build a jump in his drive way. The initial plan was to build the booter so we could air over, jib, bonk, tap... Any or all of the above, the old piece of shit Subaru my good buddy Z-Bird was driving at the time.
Something like this, but pewter, not nearly as clean looking, full of rust, and with trouble starting.
We called up Tom after we started building the jump and he was stoked to come over and help out for the session. It probably took us an hour or so to build the mini cheese wedge, and when we finished it was dark out. We strategically positioned the Xterra across the street and also JB's truck right behind the jump to provide the necessary illumination. The street was pretty hard packed with snow and ice from being plowed and from cars driving on it so we did a couple test tows up and down to get the feel for it.
From the very beginning it was pretty sketchy being towed behind the car on the street. It was hard to get on an edge so we had to stay pretty flat based the whole time and there were multiple "Oh shits.." when we almost lost it. As you'll see in the video, we had to cut in heel side right before the jump and plow through a bunch of shit to hit it, so the first couple attempts we came up short on the landing. More speed. We smoothed out the run in as much as we could and decided we needed about 30-35mph of speed to clear the driveway. Being towed behind a car on hard packed snow/ice going 35mph isn't a walk in the park, let me tell you. After a few very questionable tow in attempts at this speed, a couple bails and a washout, we finally got it dialed in and figured out we didn't need to go 35mph down the entire street... Only like that last 100 feet before the jump. This made it so much easier and we finally successfully cleared the driveway multiple times. Tom got a sick shifty back 1, and I, of course, got a pretty rad method.
After being pretty sketched out by the tow in, we scrapped the airing over the car idea, but looking back now we totally could have done it, and it would've be so awesome. We're a bunch of pussies. JB was on film duty and gets a grade of C+... He got most of the shots, but there were a few blur balls that were totally out of focus. He had some sweet commentary though and was stoked on the session so maybe he gets a B- instead.
So peep the video, and remember, you don't need mountains to have fun on your snowboard. You just need some friends and the creativity to make the most out of your surroundings... And you need a tow in rope. Dig it.
From the very beginning it was pretty sketchy being towed behind the car on the street. It was hard to get on an edge so we had to stay pretty flat based the whole time and there were multiple "Oh shits.." when we almost lost it. As you'll see in the video, we had to cut in heel side right before the jump and plow through a bunch of shit to hit it, so the first couple attempts we came up short on the landing. More speed. We smoothed out the run in as much as we could and decided we needed about 30-35mph of speed to clear the driveway. Being towed behind a car on hard packed snow/ice going 35mph isn't a walk in the park, let me tell you. After a few very questionable tow in attempts at this speed, a couple bails and a washout, we finally got it dialed in and figured out we didn't need to go 35mph down the entire street... Only like that last 100 feet before the jump. This made it so much easier and we finally successfully cleared the driveway multiple times. Tom got a sick shifty back 1, and I, of course, got a pretty rad method.
After being pretty sketched out by the tow in, we scrapped the airing over the car idea, but looking back now we totally could have done it, and it would've be so awesome. We're a bunch of pussies. JB was on film duty and gets a grade of C+... He got most of the shots, but there were a few blur balls that were totally out of focus. He had some sweet commentary though and was stoked on the session so maybe he gets a B- instead.
So peep the video, and remember, you don't need mountains to have fun on your snowboard. You just need some friends and the creativity to make the most out of your surroundings... And you need a tow in rope. Dig it.
Moonlight Driveway Booter from Zac Bryson on Vimeo.
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