Hybrid Sessions

Snow Realms Season 3 Premiere

2009-11-16T01:21:00.003-07:00

TJ and his Snow Realms project are back for another season of shred goodness. Check out episode 1, Mt. Baker opening day... Powder!

The Snowboard Realms Season 3 episode 1 from tj schneider SNOWBOARD REALMS VI on Vimeo.

Hybrid Sessions Returning To A Mountain Near You...

2009-10-11T20:29:00.001-06:00

Very Soon. Dig it.

Skateboard Market Film Premiere

2009-06-20T11:58:00.004-06:00

Tomorrow, June 21st, the Skateboard Market Skateshop is premiering their first ever film titled What´s Your Name? at Northside Skatepark in Fort Collins. Anyone in the area should definitely go check out the film, all the Market riders are super good and it will be sick for sure. I´m still adventuring in South America and am way bummed I´ll miss the premiere but I´ll be swooping up a copy as soon as I´m back in the States.

Go peep this film and support your local skate scene!

Hey Peep This!

2009-06-09T14:09:00.002-06:00

Shayboarder is having another board giveaway contest, read all about it here. All the homies in Denver make sure to check it out!!

World Premiere HS x Mustachio Shred Film

2009-05-16T19:00:00.000-06:00

Press Release:

Hybrid Sessions and Mustachio Film, 12% More Shred: Hand Plants, Hot Chicks, & Huge Airs, drops today.

After months of intense anticipation from the entire snowboard community, and disparaging rumors of yet another drop date push back, Hybrid Sessions Films proudly announced yesterday that their collaboration film with TheMustachio.com was finally ready to be unveiled. Finally, yes... But is the world ready?

We caught up with Hybrid Sessions Films founder Zac Bryson and he gave us a little insight into what went down behind the scenes.

Gnar Shred: How does it feel to finally be done and have this long awaited film out there for the world to see?
Zac: I just can't believe it's finally done. (Big smile) I mean we wrapped filming on this project just under 2 months ago and we've been in the editing room basically 24/7 ever since cutting this baby together. It's a huge weight off my back. And now I can finally get paid, holla!!

GS: I heard you had quite a bit of it done but then scrapped it?
Zac: Yeah we were about a quarter way through the editing process when I had this brilliant, very ambitious idea to do a big stop-motion animation sequence for the intro. I've always really been into cartoons and shit, like the old Looney Tunes, and I thought it would be a rad idea. I knew it push back the release a little, but that shit took so long to do. I'm talking hours upon hours of shooting for a 2:52 intro. That really fisted us. Shits dope though...

GS: This has been billed as potentially the most groundbreaking, progressive snowboard film to date. What are your thoughts on that?
Zac: Let me put it to you this way.... Imagine if, in 1964 when Beatlemania was sweeping the nation and every dude had this brutal looking hair cut, Slayer somehow managed to travel back through time and musically assault the masses with Raining Blood. People would've gone ape shit. It would have blown their very perception of reality to pieces.... That's what we've done here.

GS: Let's talk about the riders for a second. What did each one bring to the table?
Zac: That's a great question. We had a great crew of riders who were out there risking it all for this film. These dudes are fucking insane. I have a couple decent shots but I was doing most of the filming so we don't need to talk about me.

The star of the film is hands down Jasper VonGoggletan. He was boosting massive airs out of the QP all day as well as providing comic relief, the inspiration for the title and introducing the world to the Euro Carve! phenomina. His Red Airblaster pants really gave him that extra bit of steez to front board everything and really carry this film. How is every major company not all over this guy??

David McStachio is one the most stylish riders I've ever seen. He has an incredible arsenal of tricks to draw from and he makes snowboarding look like any chump could do it. He was on point the entire time and had a couple super rad bangers. 50 back 3 off the flat rail? Yeah, he's better than you.

Pole Jam Sam, aka, hand plant master. Hand plants are hard, ok. But not for Sam. He was getting down on the pole jam all day, throwing methods off the up box, doing super sonic 5-0s on the corrugated pipe... fucking killing it. Plus he has an epic Mu-Stache!

The crew was unreal to film with, one of the best times I've ever had for sure.

GS: Any last words before people watch the film?
Zac: Yes. All other snow film companies should just stop making films. They wont ever be able to top this. Dig it.

Oh, one more thing... There is a pretty bad misspelling of a word in the film, and I'm very embarrassed. If anyone spots it, leave a comment and you'll win a prize.

I've watched this about 100 times now and I'm sick of it. So now you watch. Let it load for a minute and turn up the volume!

12% More Shred: Hand Plants, Hot Chicks, & Huge Airs

12% More Shred: Hand Plants, Hot Chicks, & Huge Airs from Zac Bryson on Vimeo.

If you have fast internet connection, you should download the higher res version.

Tomorrow's The Big Night...

2009-05-15T20:14:00.006-06:00

Remember this??

Hybrid Sessions/Mustachio Film Teaser from Zac Bryson on Vimeo.

Because I'm Going to Ecuador, That's Why

2009-05-15T01:23:00.007-06:00

OMG, WTF has been up with Hybrid Sessions lately?!? Why hasen't the site been updated in like a month?? Questions I'm sure the millions of HS fanatics have been asking themselves lately... (By millions I mean <25) href="http://agoodreed.com/wetzler-weekly-waveboarding/">Wave Boarding adventure to South America, more specifically the country of Ecuador tomorrow and I've been so busy I haven't really had the time to keep your shred fix up to date. Fuck me, right? Here's a little rundown of the last month and a half-ish's events:

Sometime in early April I ran out of money and had to leave the mountains of Colorado and my extraordinary shred-bum life style and journey back to the land of my birth, The Biggest Little City in the World, Reno, Nevada. I was definitely super bummed to leave Summit County, especially since Mother Nature decided she wanted to puke snow form the sky in large volumes for about 3 weeks straight, right when I was leaving. Sweet. Powder days in April? Yeah, those fucking suck. I'm way glad I missed out on that....................

On the drive home, some where in Utah I believe, I saw a VW bus exponentially cooler than mine, The Greatful Dead Mobile.

This thing was so rad. There was a painfully obvious hippie couple piloting this exquisite machine and I made sure to pay tribute by throwing up a peace sign as I drove by. Another awesome story from my road trip, I stopped at a truck stop in some small, shitty town in eastern Utah to get some gas and went inside to use the bathroom as the X-Terra/my apartment was fueling. As soon as I opened the door I was warmly greeted by some dude snorting a HUGE line of some white substance (most likely cocaine...Or maybe Sweet n' Low) off the bathroom sink. I'm talking a good 3 seconds of nostril inhalation, taking it straight to the dome. I started laughing and the dude quickly hurried out. Now, I'm no sanitation expert, but I have to assume a piece of shit truck stop bathroom sink is not the best place to be snorting lines... hilarious none the less.

I had the X packed to maximum capacity with a large majority of my shit, finally getting it out of the numerous buddies' houses where it was stored. Even the passenger seat was packed full...

Since I had had no room inside the car, I had to bungee my Tupperware snowboard gear bin and lash my bike and shred stick to the top of the whip. Good thing the rope I had was 500 feet long, shit.

Since my bank account was hurting big time and I wasn't eligible for a federal government bailout , I had to get right to work when I arrived home in order to fund my Ecuadorian Expedition. My pops has a nice little custom cabinet business and we got right down to creating masterpieces quite similar to this. Little did I know though that creating custom cabinetry gems is all I would be doing. We had a particular entertainment center that had to be finished by a certain date so for about 2 weeks we worked 12-15 hours a day to finish this beast, including weekends. So long story short, pretty much all I've been doing is working since I've been home, as seen in this pie chart break down:

I had all these awesome ideas for shit to write about and this grand plan to write a bunch of posts and future date them so they would post while I was in Ecuador, but as it turns out, updating my blog is the last thing I want to do after working for 12 hours. And when I did have some free time, I usually just jammed some tasty grooves on my guitar. Although, I do have quite the laundry list now of post ideas for when I get back, since one has ample time to think whilst sanding wood for hours at a time. So stay tuned for those... Hopefully I don't sabotage my limited audience while I'm on hiatus.

Pretty much the best thing I've done here in Reno was see Heartless Bastards play live music. Holly shit they are incredible. If you haven't heard of them I demand you click their link and give em a listen, and then buy their albums.

Ok, so now on to my 2 month (minimum) surf trip through South America! Hybrid Sessions is taking over the world basically. Fellow voyager JB and I are heading to Ecuador in search of the perfect wave. We will be setting up camp in Montañita, a super rad little beach town, and surfing from sun up to sun down. After we get the feel for things we will then venture out and go where ever the wind takes us, back packs and surfboards in hand, vagabonding up and down the South Pacific Coast. Our main goal for this trip (aside from riding waves of course) is to "fall off the grid" so to speak and totally immerse ourselves in the Ecuadorian culture. We do not want to be the sterotypical tourists, we want to live how they live and do what they do. We are going to be all but free from the burdens of modern technology, bringing only a camera to document our adventures. There will of course be emails sent to family and friends from internet cafés for the sake of them knowing we're still alive, but that's the extent of it. No cell phones or laptops, just the ocean and an open mind. That's really what I'm looking forward to the most...

Like I said we will be there for about 2 months, but will most likely be extending our stay. I am stoked out of my mind for this trip.

This will undoubtedly be me in 2 weeks:

Hahahahaha! I wish. I'll definitely be getting my shred on though...

And this doesn't look so bad right?

If anyone out there has been to Ecuador or Peru and know of any good surf spots, or just anything awesome in general, please email and let me know, it would be greatly appreciated!!

Hybridsessions1@gmail.com

Well, that's what going on in the HS world. We'll see how things go and I might try to post up some photos and video of the trip. Who knows though... I hope everyone has a great summer, get out there and skate, and until next time... Peace I'm outa here! Dig it.

Snow Realms Episode 2-23, 24

2009-04-22T23:18:00.003-06:00

A couple new episodes from TJ, across the pond and in the States. Really great stuff. Dig it.

Episode 23

The Snowboard Realms Season 2 episode 23 from tj schneider SNOWBOARD REALMS VI on Vimeo.

Episode 24

The Snowboard Realms Season 2 Episode 24 from tj schneider SNOWBOARD REALMS VI on Vimeo.

TJ also has a very cool new feature called "The Shot" where he gives a little behind the scenes look and talks about what goes down with getting a certain shot for the vids. Really rad, make sure to peep it.

The Shot episode-1 - Pole jam front 1

The Shot (ep 1) Poll Jam Front 180 Over Grass Gap from tj schneider SNOWBOARD REALMS VI on Vimeo.

Happy Earth Day

2009-04-19T13:28:00.002-06:00

If there's one day you should skate, or ride a bike, or unicycle, or Razor scooter, or roller blade, or even just walk, instead of starting up your car, it's today. But it shouldn't just be one day a year... Go do something positive for the Earth today!

A Wicked Case of the Mondays

2009-04-15T23:10:00.004-06:00

Transworld Snowboarding recently reported that Vail Resorts, the owners of Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, A-Basin, and Heavenly shred hills, is making it mandatory for all employees to wear helmets while skiing or riding starting next season. Really? I mean c'mon... That's a little, um, brutal if you ask me. Don't get me wrong now, I'm all for safety on the mountain and protecting your melon while riding, I wear a helmet most all the time, but to make it mandatory of all employees is a little much.

A vast majority of the on hill employees are ski and ride school and are teaching little kids how to... ski and ride. And most of the time they're just eeking their way down the mountain, waiting for their pupils to follow. Occasionally I see an instructor riding with a private lesson where the kid can actually make turns, and maybe they'll take a couple laps through the mini park, but pretty much all the lessons are a bunch of beginners within a group. And a lot of the time the instructors don't even have both feet strapped in! So how much is a helmet really going to help them?

Like baby-sitting... I mean teaching a bunch of screaming little kids how to ride for $8 an hour isn't bad enough, now the instructors have to wear helmets to accompany their already lame uniform. This is something I guarantee they're NOT going to be stoked on. I know a couple instructors who complain about the job so much already, I can only imagine what they're saying now. It might not be so bad if it was a rad looking, skate inspired helmet or something, but I'd put all my money on it looking like this:

Haha! I can picture a mountain full of these babies covering the domes of many a disgruntled worker. I like the idea of a commitment to safety by Vail Resorts, but for the love of God, let the employees keep some of their dignity!

Thoughts on this anyone?

Read all about the new rule...

09/10 Airblaster Catalog

2009-04-14T00:07:00.007-06:00

Found this floating around the interweb last night during one of my lurk fests, and the new gear from Airblaster looks super tasty. Let's have a look at some of the goods!

09/10 Airblaster Catalog, Yeee Hawwww!
(Click to download, duh)

Airbleezy is expanding their genius Ninja Suit line next year, with more kung-fu options and colors to choose from. Their also introducing the Sumo Suit, which is basically just a loose fitting Ninja Suit. I wish I could snowboard in just one of these...

TJ Schneider with perfect Ninja skills

New Sumo Suit... Operation awesome

The new outerwear is brighter and more radical than ever. You wont ever have a problem being noticed wearing Airblastoff. It looks like their adding some pants with a baggy fit to their line, which is really cool for all the gangstas and thugs on the mountain who don't want to wear Tech Nine. It's like saying, "I'm very fashion conscious, but also a hard core mutha fucka, holla."

Here's a combination of goods from the Coloring Book series... You can literally color on the product, schweet!

Color me bad

This is a sick combination, I love the black and yellow contrast... with pink.

I only want to stand out a little...

This one's for all the ladies...

Pretty in pink

For the sunny spring riding days or for picking up babes at the grocery store, Airblastfromthepast's soft goods work 60%, every time.

Hoody's for the homies

You CANNOT go wrong, ever, wearing a shirt with a Terradactyl with shades on grabbing Indy, or a huge 80's T. Rex . So awesome.

Flying steez

Jurassic pimp

The new line also features some supreme goggles and shades, as well as other crowd pleasing accessories. I really like Airblasterrrrr and am most definitely going to pick up some goods for next season. For shreds, by shreds. The way it should be. Dig it.

**Peeps form Airblaster** If you don't want the new threads and catalog on display yet, I will gladly take them down. Just say the word... Cause you guys fucking rule.

Snow Realms Episode 2-22

2009-04-13T01:28:00.001-06:00

Just a little dickin' around... Great song!

Episode 22

The Snowboard Realms Season 2 episode 22 from tj schneider SNOWBOARD REALMS VI on Vimeo.

Tomfoolery at its Finest

2009-04-12T22:57:00.004-06:00

I guess I spoke a little too soon about my April Fools joke not drawing more of a response...

Check the latest thread on the Ski Gabber forum

I am so pleased with myself right now... Dig it.

Great Grab Off Round 2

2009-04-12T17:07:00.004-06:00

I think this is the greatest contest of all time. There's nothing more stylish to me than a super tweaked grab, and the stealthy ninjas over at Airblaster want to reward the most poked with free shit. Snap some photos of your steeziest grabs and send em on over to Airblaster by April 30th for a chance to win.

I would recommend getting creative with your shots and grabs for a chance to win... I don't think the basic side shot of an Indy air will get you top prize. I would go for a Crail or a Method personally...

I will definitely be entering this contest and will probably, like 150% for certain, be submitting a photo of a method. I mean c'mon, do you honestly expect anything else?

In case you didn't read the poster above, send your submissions by April 30th to:

information@myairblaster.com or fong@myairblaster.com

Seperated at Birth?

2009-04-11T07:39:00.004-06:00

I've had a hand full of people this winter approach me either whilst snowboarding or just walking around town in my Wayfarers, and ask me I was professional snowboarder Zac Marben. Although we do share the same name, and awesome spelling of said name, I am not in fact, professional snowboarder Zac Marben. I can see why some people might get that idea though...

Zac Marben - Zac Bryson... Or is it the other way around??

Pretty striking resemblance huh? Flowing locks, epic Mu-Staches, huge noses... On one such occasion of mistaken identity, a guy had himself pretty convinced I was Zac Marben, and I was just telling people I wasn't so I wouldn't have to talk to them. I had to pull out my season pass and show him my name before he believed me, crazy.

Oh but the similarities don't stop with looks alone. I bet you can't even tell who's doing which super awesome method below...

Ok, ok, of course you can tell... I'm the one on top, HA! If only my methods were 40 feet up in the air...

So what do you think, long lost twins or not??

Gaper Day? More Like Epic Powder Day

2009-04-09T00:12:00.008-06:00

Last week on April 1st was every mountain dwellers favorite holiday, Gaper Day, in which the town locals don their favorite one piece snow suits, Texas accents, fanny packs, and ski blades, and pay tribute to all the people who essentially pay their salaries, the Gapers. I had a pretty awesome kit picked out to wear, some white tights, neon short shorts, a shirt with the Texas flag on it, and a denim vest, but wasn't able to sport it.... Because their was 14 inches of fresh snow when I woke up. Damnit, I really wanted to wear my Gaper Day get up....

Usually on April 1st the spring weather is so epic in the mountains it permits the scantly clad Gaper Day attire, but not this GD, for me at least. As much as I love dressing up and making fun of the mountain ski tourist, I love making huge turns and slashes in knee deep powder a whole lot more. So when I hopped out of the Xterra Inn in Breckenridge and landed in shin deep snow, making my feet cold and wet, I decided my GD duds weren't going to cut it. I instead bundled up, grabbed a few Nature Valleys, and sprinted to the mountain, eagerly anticipating some snow surfing.

I made my way from Peak 9 to Peak 8, to 6 Chair, and finally to the Imperial lift, where I was like the seventh chair up right when it opened.... OMG. I was so giddy it was almost embarrassing. I got off the lift and was once again reminded why I am so fucking utterly in love with snowboarding. Oh yeah.

Making the trek to Imperial

Pre pow slay fest

Oh those gapers...

Getting high

Mmmm...

After about 6 runs of making fresh tracks and giggling like a little girl under the Imperial lift, I found some other fresh staches off to the side, hit up Whale's Tail and Peak 7 Bowl, lapped the T-Bar a few times, and found some amazing un-tracked tree runs. Since it was a Wednesday there was hardly anyone on the mountain and I was riding knee deep pow pretty much everywhere I went and was taking face shots like a porn star. I was supposed to meet up with my buddy Sam but neither of us really wanted to stop riding and wait. The only thing that would have made the day better was if my ipod didn't die, but then I wouldn't have been able to hear everyone's screams of joy... It was probably the best pow day I've ever had at Breck.

Frozen Mu-Stache post face shot

Here's a run I filmed with the poino-shoo, the light was a little flat so it's kind of hard to see, but I think you can get the idea. The camera took a few lens shots along with my face.

Breck Pow Run from Zac Bryson on Vimeo.

Epic

Although I opted out of the Gaper Day festivities, a bunch of people still dressed up. As I was making my way back to Peak 9 I came across this group of gaper lovers just as they were making a gaper rally to the bottom. Pretty hilarious.

Yeeeeee Hawwwwww!

Fool Me Once, Shame On You...

2009-04-07T00:09:00.006-06:00

Or maybe I have...

I'm very happy to announce that my epic April Fools joke about Travis Rice retiring from snowboarding to become a professional skier fooled a grand total of....... three people. Well, three people that I know of for sure. There could have been more, millions more perhaps... But I think it's pretty safe to say that only three people were fooled. I have to admit I was expecting a little bigger response to the hoax, more than 4 comments, so one can reasonably deduce from the lack of response that either:

A) You knew I was full of shit after reading the first sentence
B) You thought it was a feeble attempt at an April Fools joke and didn't even so much as smirk at it and wanted to vomit instead
C) You didn't read the post
D) You're best friends with Travis Rice and he told you I was full of shit
E) A, B, & C

I'm going to go ahead and throw out a wild guess and say.... E. I thought it pretty funny while I was writing it and expected quite a few people would buy it. WRONG. An anonymous commenter stated, "Really lame attempt at trying to be funny." Really?? Not even a little funny? Even if you didn't buy it I think it would've made you at least chuckle a little. Oh well, maybe some dumb schmuck will stumble upon it in the future and shit a brick after reading it... That would be awesome.

One person in particular, a close shred pal of mine who shall remain nameless in order to avoid complete humiliation, who's name is Tom and can be seen here, totally bought the joke and sent out a few text messages to his pals saying, "OMG WTF T.Rice quit snowboarding and is going to be a skier!!" Including one to me feverishly asking if it was a joke. I woke up to that text and was very pleased with myself.

Maybe next time I play a joke on the blogging world I'll try not to suck. Dig it.

Snow Realms Episode 2-20, 21

2009-04-06T23:52:00.002-06:00

Lots of snowboarding at some unique locations. That pole jam looks awesome...

Episode 20

The Snowboard Realms Season 2 Episode 20 from tj schneider SNOWBOARD REALMS VI on Vimeo.

Episode 21

The Snowboard Realms Season 2 epiosde 21 from tj schneider SNOWBOARD REALMS VI on Vimeo.

Travis Rice Shocks the Snowboard World

2009-04-01T01:16:00.003-06:00

Press Release: April 1st, 2009

For Immediate Release

Late Tuesday afternoon Travis Rice held a press conference in his home town of Jackson Hole, WY at the Jackson Hole Ski Resort in front of a small group of his closest friends and family, his sponsors and a few invited member of the action sports press and made an announcement that sent shock waves through the snowboarding community.

"Today is a sad day for me," He said, "But also one of the greatest, most exciting days of my life. I'm officially announcing my retirement from snowboarding, and am going to pursue a career in professional skiing."

Gasps and silence swept over the small crowd in attendance for a moment, followed by utter disbelief and near pandemonium. The press started firing questions at Travis left and right, but he calmly told everyone he'd be happy to answer any and all questions after he said what he had to say.

He went on to state, "I believe I've gone as far as I can possibly go with snowboarding. I've pushed and progressed the sport to heights never dreamed of. I've won countless contests, filmed epic video parts, and traveled the world to ride the best terrain possible. I just don't know what else I can do for snowboarding. I mean, you can only double cork rodeo 12 so many 100+ foot gaps before you start to get tired of it. I need a new challenge, a new set of goals to conquer, a new way to express myself. And quite honestly, I am getting a little bored of snowboarding. I've already got my own Fathead... plastered on millions of kids walls. What else is there??"

Travis Rice Fathead

"With the massive success of my film That's It, That's All, and the sweeping of the Transworld Awards, I realized I'd reached the peak of my snowboarding career." Travis told everyone frankly. "There really isn't much more I can accomplish, much more I want to accomplish. I don't want to be one of those guys who reaches the apex of his career and tries to push for more fame and ends up becoming a total joke, ya know, like Axel Rose or something. I'm going out on top and want to be remembered as the best, most radical snowboarder that ever lived."

Travis after sweeping the Transworld Snowboarding Awards

When asked how long ago he made this decision, Travis answered with, "I think it's been a long time coming. After we finished That's It, That's All, I took some time off and really did some soul searching. People kept asking what was next for me, and how are you going to top TiTa, and I really didn't have an answer for them. How was I going to top the greatest snowboard film ever made? I think that's when it hit me... One day when I was tending to my garden I had this epiphany, a revelation if you will. And that's when I made the decision. I told my parents, a couple friends, and my sponsors, and that's it... I didn't want this to leak out before it was a 100% go."

"There wasn't a single person who saw this coming." Said Rice's long time Jackson Hole friend and snowboarding legend Bryan Iguchi sadly. "I can't imagine why he would want to quite snowboarding at the very peak of his career. He has so much more to give the sport and..... Sorry, I'm just in complete disarray right now."

Iguchi went on to say, "I guess now that I think about it, the signs were there. I called him all the time to go riding and he always had some weird excuse why he couldn't go. He told me once he was baking cup cakes with his mom... This is some crazy shit man."

The big question from everyone was is he already skiing professionally, or would he have to work his way up through the ranks? To which Travis replied, "Oh I'm already skiing professionally for sure. I'm still riding for Lib Tech, on their skies now of course, Quiksilver outerwear, Redbull, and DC is actually going to start making ski boots, the first to be my pro model, the T. Rice Hard On. I've already started filming as well, Tanner Hall and I have been skiing together a ton and are working on a new project that's going to rival the production and magnitude of That's It, That's All. Actually, it's going to be BIGGER than That's It, That's All, and you can quote that."

Travis and Tanner filming for their new project

One of Lib Tech's co-founders, Pete Sari, who attended the press conference was able to shed a little light on the situation. "Travis came to me a little while after he finished filming for That's It, That's All and told me he was thinking of retiring from snowboarding and wanted to pursue professional skiing. We had a long heart to heart and I of course tried to convince him to stick with snowboarding, but he really wanted to shake things up and was pretty set in his ways. He told me he wanted to stick with Lib and since he's one of the gnarliest dudes I've ever known, I couldn't really say no to him. I know he's going to kill it on two pieces of wood, just like he did on one. I wish him the bet of luck. And shit, we're probably going to sell a lot more skis now."

Travis ended the press conference by letting everyone know, "Just because I'm skiing now, doesn't mean I'm a different person or I've drastically changed in some way. I'm just riding skis now instead of a snowboard. I'm still going to push the envelope and progress skiing the same way I did with snowboarding. Now that I'm skiing I'll be able to go even bigger, I'm going to blow minds. I've been dialing in all my tricks and have even landed a few triple heli spins, which no one else on skies has ever landed."

He of course is talking about the mythical skiing trick of spinning upside down with your legs in the air, rotating like the blades of a helicopter.

"I'm breaching the boundaries and breaking down the barriers between skiers and snowboarders. We can both exist on the mountain, and I'm living proof of that. It's time someone with some credibility stepped up to the plate and actually made skiing legit. Skiing was my first ever on snow activity when I was a wee lad, and I guess you could say I've come full circle. I'm back to where I first began and couldn't be happier about my decision." Travis concluded with a grin stretching from ear to ear.

Although virtually everyone within the snowboarding community is still in complete shock about the unexpected news, we can only sit back and watch as Travis Rice prepares to embark on his latest endeavor. God speed.

Who needs Mountains?

2009-03-31T15:22:00.005-06:00

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.

Moonlight Driveway Booter from Zac Bryson on Vimeo.

Snow Realms Episode 2-18, 19

2009-03-29T18:12:00.003-06:00

Snowboarding is so much fun no matter where you are... Shitty snow in West Virginia or knee deep pow in Austria, it really makes no difference. Dig it.

Episode 18

The Snowboard Realms Season 2 episode 18 from tj schneider SNOWBOARD REALMS VI on Vimeo.

Episode 19

The Snowboard Realms Season 2 Episode 19 from tj schneider SNOWBOARD REALMS VI on Vimeo.

Utah Shred-Tacular 2009 Film

2009-03-21T23:54:00.002-06:00

Wow... So when I said last Sunday I would have this posted by Monday, I was obviously completely full of shit. I thought it would be a quick edit, throw in some tunes and voila! A tasty shred film. Well, there were so many clips to go through, I spent about 5 hours alone just sorting through everything and deciding what I wanted to us. Throw in riding all week, filming with my buddies Tom and Justin, hanging with The Mustachios and filming with them while they were here, drinking my weight in PBR on St. Patties day, and spending hours in a couple Breckenridge hotels editing, and it took a few days... Shit, lay off me.

All in all, from the first clip import to finally exporting the film, I would say it took me about 30 hours to create. There were a couple times when I sat staring at the screen for an hour or so trying to decide which direction I wanted to go artistically. Do I want a Kubrick or Malick style visual masterpiece? Or an epic Scorsese like story? Ha! There were also hours spent fine tuning, trimming, matching the clips to the music, and making sure overall it had a nice flow. When I was done I watched it about 5 times all the way through, adding or fixing some little things each time.

So here it is, finally. The Utah Shred-Tacular 2009 road trip film. This was such a fun trip with some awesome people. Shay, Drew, Stephanie, and Emily really made it a blast. I think I did a pretty good job of portraying what the trip was all about and how much fun everyone had. There were some very funny moments... Falls, seizure dancing, deer chasing, among others that Shay and I were able to capture on film. None of us are pro shreds, we're all just a bunch of people who love snowboarding and are always looking to have a good time. Hope you like it!

The film is a little under 25 minutes so it's better to let it load for a bit before you start watching it.

I hope there are some 2001: A Space Odyssey fans out there... Dig it.

Utah Shred-Tacular 2009 from Zac Bryson on Vimeo.

Hybrid Sessions and Mustachio Film Teaser

2009-03-20T01:22:00.004-06:00

Rode Keystone today with David, Jasper, (Mustachios) and Sam and had one of the most fun days of snowboarding I've ever had. We filmed all day and got some great footage, not only of riding, but of some pretty funny shit. I was seriously laughing all day long! Here's a little taste of what's to come...

Hybrid Sessions/Mustachio Film Teaser from Zac Bryson on Vimeo.

Yeah, it's going to be that rad. The film is currently untitled but it will undoubtedly be something funny and awesome. David, Jasper... Any suggestions?

Snowboard Realms Episode... A Lot

2009-03-20T01:00:00.004-06:00

I go through periods where I'm so lazy with the blog and stop posting awesome shit for no reason really. Perfect example, TJ Schneider's Snowboard Realms project. I watch every new episode as soon as they come out and they are so good, I don't know why I stopped posting them up. Damnit...

The last few episodes have been especially awesome, so perhaps that's just the kick in the ass I needed to start posting them again. If you haven't been watching the episodes, you really should be. TJ does a superb job putting these together and they're really cool to watch.

Head on over to the Snow Realms website and watch any of the 16 episodes from this season. Dig it.

Or watch it right here on HS... Holla!

St. Patties Day With The Mustachios

2009-03-18T23:40:00.006-06:00

So what happens when you mix St. Patricks Day madeness, Mu-Staches, goggle tanned Euro shreds, babes, radical dance moves, air guitars, and copious amounts of alcohol? A totally fucking awesome time happens, that's what. David and Japser from The Mustachio in the Netherlands, the hairiest snowboard website on the interweb, are on a 2 week long shred-venture in Breckenridge and I met up with the fellas last night at Slat Creek in Breck to celebrate the only holiday where drinking heavily is strongly encouraged. The other member of the Mustachio crew, Rens, was unable to make the trip to the U.S. due to a snowboard injury, which was a bummer... The night would have been 3% more awesome had he been there. Ha!

Jasper had his camera handy and photos were being snapped all night. There are a few gems in here... I'll let the pictures do the talking. Dig it.

David and me

Jaser and David... Thug life

Jasper putting out the vibe

Sam and Steve.. Giving the mustachios a couch to sleep on

ZB, David, and Sam

Jasper... Longest, finger, EVER

Sneaky...

A fist and 2 PBR's... St. Patties special

Exactly.

Oh shit! How'd that make it in here....

David with a little luck-a-the Irish

Jasper stoked on the toga party sign

Yeah that's an air guitar...

finger moon walk... Epic

no clue who this guy is... Or the other dude snaking in the shot

Mu-Staches!

Who still does this?

David getting down... Literally

There's no sun in Europe

How many babes should I take home tonight??

Such a fun night with the Mustachios!

Win A Captia Snowboard!

2009-03-17T17:45:00.002-06:00

Who the hell can afford a brand new snowboard during these brutal economic times? Not me, that's for sure. So why pay for one when you can win it, for free! $0.00! No purchase necessary!

All you have to do is head on over to Shayboarder, and tell her why you love snowboarding. Leave her a comment with a photo, a video, a poem, a rock power ballad, a screen play, a performance art piece, whatever. As long as it portrays why you love snowboarding so damn much, you're good to go.

You can get all the details and info you need right here, so get the creative juices flowing and go win a snowboard.

The contest ends this Saturday, March 22. Dig it.

Utah Day 3 - Back to CO

2009-03-15T22:20:00.004-06:00

We were planning on getting an early start this morning and riding Park City for half a day before we had to drive back, but instead of waking up at the crack of dawn, we woke up at the crack of noon. Perhaps too many games of Wii beer pong did us in...

While riding PC on Friday we noticed this super fun looking roller coaster thing snaking its way up and down the mountain. Shay and I both agreed it looked incredibly awesome and we decided to channel our inner child and ride it. Our host Stephanie informed us it was like $20 to ride but she could get free passes for it... DONE! I was seriously so stoked to ride this thing, I love roller coasters and going fast. We were going to hit it up after riding but after sleeping in we just packed up all our shit and drove straight to the Park City Alpine Coaster. Boo ya mutha fucka! The racing pod had a brake on it giving you the option to control your speed, and I chose full throttle the whole way down... Until Shay decided to brake a little and I came around a corner and slammed into the back of her. Sorry about that...

I got some great video of the thrilling ride that will most definitely be in the video edit, but for now here's a screen grab of Shay just a few feet ahead of me. I took off my beanie for the ride down so my hair could blow in the wind and ended up losing it... Sweet.

Speeding Shay

After pulling multiples G's on the Alpine Coaster, we went to pick up Drew from his babe's pad and we were on our way back to CO. Oh, but not before we stopped at Pier 1 Imports so Shay could buy a new chair.

Tight Fit

The back of her truck was packed pretty tight with all our shit, so we had to maneuver things around for it all to fit. Do you think we can fit more in there?... That's what she said!!

The drive back was pretty mellow, we saw a fucking ton of deer... I'm talking like hundreds along the way. A few times we stopped the car and Drew jumped out and chased after em, very funny.

At least we didn't almost kill any this time...

Queen of Burger King

As we were driving through the western part of CO, there were a bunch of patches of snow here and there among the desert landscape that looked very rippable. We found a big one with a nice face and a ledge of snow on top right off the highway and we stopped to get a couple shots. Drew is a legit photographer and he suggested a lay back surf slash on the lip, and it just so happens that lay back slashers are not only my specialty, but one of my favorite moves to execute. (Aside from methods of course)

Both Shay and Drew had their cameras ready, and Shay ended up with some pretty incredible shots. I'm so stoked on these! I didn't get to see what Drew came up with, but he said they were sick. As soon as he emails em to me I'll post em up. Thanks guys!

Lacing the boots

Drew with his space age set up ready to shoot

Let's rip

Hiking 40 vertical feet...

Catching my breath after the second hike up

Coming in hot, Drew poised for the shot

Slaaaaaayyyssshhhh!

And the best shot from Shay, right as the sun was setting, silhouetting me perfectly a split second before the slash. So sick!!

Sunset Slash

I can't wait to see what Drew came up with from a different angle...

So that's about it for the Utah shred trip! I had a blast and am so happy I went. Park City is a super cool town and the riding there is incredible. Again, a HUGE THANKS to Stephanie for letting us crash at her place, hooking us up with passes to ride, and showing us around the mountain... You rule! And also thanks to Shay for letting me tag along, you also rule!

I have a lot of footage to edit together so this video is going to be fuckin' epic. I'm stoked to get going on it and I should have it done by tomorrow night. I have vision up the ass right now, and I'm already working on my Oscar acceptance speech. Dig it.

Utah Day 2 - Canyons and Beer

2009-03-15T00:58:00.003-06:00

We rode Canyons today and it was the shiz-nit. Another beautiful spring blue bird day with slushy snow and mellow vibes. I went with one less layer on today and that was the best decision I could have made all day. I think it got up above 50 degrees today... I should have used the talc powder this morning.

We rode with again with Stephanie and also met up with Shay's other pal, Emily. We took some laps through the park and then (again) went on a hunt to find left over pow staches in the trees. The park at Canyons was sooo much fun... A few awesome boxes to jib and pretty much the best jump line I've ridden all season. 4 hits all getting progressively bigger that were the perfect size. I could have stayed in the park all day hitting those jumps, doing methods off every one!

After riding we hit up a little grocery in the village for some tall boys and caught the tail end of a free show featuring the Wailing O'Sheas. After drinking 24oz of God's gift to mankind, PBR, we all headed to another one of Shay's friends pad and BBQ'd some food, drank more beer, and played beer pong and bowling on the Nintendo Wii. Great ending to an awesome day of riding.

I didn't really get any photos from today, mostly just video, so you'll just have to wait for that to premiere in a couple days.

Back to Park City tomorrow for some riding and then another 5 hours back to Steamboat. Dig it.

The crew

Shay jibbing a big ball...

Emily, Shay, and Stephanie tippin' one back

Lib Tech and PBR... A guy can't ask for much more

The Ultimate Gaper... Sweet shirt dude

Utah Dreamin'

2009-03-13T20:33:00.008-06:00

A couple days ago Shay, from Shayboarder, asked me if I wanted to road trip out to Park City with her for a few days of shred and fun. I had to liquidate some assets and sell off some of my Hybrid Sessions stock to swing this trip, but I couldn't say no to a shred trip and am always down for an adventure.

I met Shay in Steamboat yesterday evening and her, her friend Drew, and I hit the road for Utah. After 5 or so hours on the road, some delicious blue raspberry Icees, some compelling conversation about... Well, interesting subjects to say the least... and nearly obliterating a few deer along the way, we rolled into Park City around 12:30am-ish and crashed for the night.

Shay has some nice connections in Park City, I know Shay, therefore, I have some nice connections in Park City. Ha! Shay's friend Stephine (who is super rad) is letting us crash at her pad and hooked us up with passes to Park City and Canyons for today and this weekend. So, huge thanks to both Shay and Stepahine!

Legend has it that Park City is one of the sickest places to ride in the country and I've always wanted to come check it out. We took our sweet ass time waking up this morning and got to the mountain at about noon. It was a good thing we got there so late really, since the snow conditions were slightly less than epic. It was a super warm bluebird day and after a few runs, the snow started to really soften up, which, funny how it works, had a direct correlation on the amount of fun we were having.

We explored as much of the mountain as we could on our own, hitting up a few of its numerous parks and basically just wandering around, before we met up with Stepahine who took us on some sick runs. Apparently there was a big storm a couple days ago and we were able to find some really nice pow staches left over in the trees. It got hotter and hotter as the day wore on, and by the time we were ready to leave, I was ready to strip off all my clothes and take the last run down naked. Wouldn't that have made for some good footy....

So our first day of riding in Park City was a ton o' fun. We got some really tasty pizza after and are now drinking some frosty brews.... 3.2% of course. We're going to ride Canyons tomorrow and Park City again on Sunday. I'm stacking the footage for one big video at the end of the trip so you can expect that Sunday night or Monday, we'll have to see how motivated I am.

Here are a few photos from the days action. Shay and I both took a bunch of shots and I can't really remember who took which. Peep her site for some more photos and a little vid. Dig it.

Parking lot pre shred

Shorties be hollerin'

Shay, Stepahine, ZB

Towards the end of the day we found this little hut right as you come out of the trees and Shay proposed I ride it, which I did. Her fancy camera has a sequence setting and she got some good shots. Stephanie also got in on the action.

Sequence

Sequence

Sequence

My all time favorite skate graphic painted on a park feature

After riding we had a little time to kill so we went up to the Olympic Park to snoop around. Such a tourist move... But it was a pretty cool and we got some pretty funny photos.

Any resemblance?

Mach 5 in the bob sled

Oh yeah

Method!

Don't run with fire

More to come...

Is This Blog Ever Going To Be Updated?

2009-03-13T00:50:00.000-06:00

I think the poster says it all really....

Denver Featured in Slap

2009-03-08T18:01:00.006-06:00

Slap Magazine recently posted a very cool little feature on The Mile High City on their website, with some rad photos of some local shredders. Denver has some incredible parks as well as some of the best street spots around to skate. One of the riders featured is Monico Candelaria, who I don't know personally, but I've seen skate quite a few times and is the real deal. Look for big things from this guy in the future. He rides for local board company, Null Skateboards, and I'm pretty sure he was in one of my classes at CSU, statistics perhaps?

Anyway, it's awesome to see some of these local skaters getting exposure in SLAP, and the photos turned out sick.

Peep the feature! And make sure to watch the video of Monico at the end. Dig it.

Oh and speaking of SLAP, they went all digital back in December and the new website is so rad. They really stepped their game up and have a ton a great content over there. Tons of vids and audio of the interviews, very cool. Yeah, and even the message boards where you all talk shit. It would be worth your time to go spend a few hours clickin around over there.

To Sleep, Perchance To Dream...

2009-03-05T13:27:00.001-07:00

Has anyone ever had a recurring dream? You know, like the one where you're dressed like Italian Spiderman, riding a giant white unicorn with Gary Busey through a forest made of candy and 100 dollar bills, belting Karma Chameleon at the top of your lungs? Wait, no one else always has that dream? Hmmm...

After doing a little recon on recurring dreams, I find the phenomena to be quite interesting. According to DreamRePlay.com, with Dr. David Jenkins Ph.D, "A recurring dream is an important message that hasn't yet been delivered. Recurring dreams make most sense when you think that your unconscious has a message for you and the message is too important for it to drop just because you don't understand it. So, a recurring dream contains an important message. One that is worth repeating over and over." Fascinating...

MeaningOf Dreams.net states, "With recurring dreams, the message may be so important and/or powerful that it just will not go away. The frequent repetition of such dreams forces you to pay attention and confront the dream. The dream is trying desperately to tell you something. ...These dreams may recur daily, once a week, or once a month, but whatever the frequency, there is little variation in the dream content itself. It usually points to a personal weakness, fear, or your inability to cope with something in your life - past or present." Intriguing...

And finally, according to the most reliable fact source in the world, Wikipedia, some of the most common recurring dreams are:

The sensation of falling
Being held down or otherwise unable to move
Nakedness in a public place
Being held back in school or failing a test
Losing teeth or the ability to speak
Drowning, or otherwise not being able to breathe

The only recurring dream I've really ever had is where I'm trying to run away from something, but I just can't get my legs to move and it feels like I'm stuck in quick sand. I've had this one a handful of times throughout my life. Perhaps my subconscious is trying to tell me I can't run away from my true feelings or problems and I have to face them head on. That, or I'm just a really slow runner...

So why all this talk about recurring dreams you're undoubtedly asking your self... Well, over the span of, I'd say the last month in a half or so, I've had a pretty interesting/weird/funny/WTF? recurring dream. The first time I had this dream, I woke up a literally said to myself, "What the fuck was that all about???" And laughed. The second time I had it, I was in disbelief I had it again. The third time, even more amused/confused. The fourth time, which was last night, I gave some serious thought to submitting myself to psycho analysis and seeking intense therapy. Well, not really, but I did ponder what my subconscious was trying to tell me...

If there's any dream experts out there reading this, feel free to take a crack at this doozy...

I'm on a mountain snowboarding, I don't know which mountain I'm riding, or state I'm in, or country, or any other clue as to where I might be. I'm riding a Capita Horrorscope snowboard, (I rode this at the 09/10 demos) and I'm wearing bright yellow pants. When the dream starts, I'm looking down at my board and pants, so that's how I know my gear. I start to take a run and I'm just cruising along, making some turns and popping some ollies like I do in real life. I see a sign for a terrain park and I decide to check it out. When I stop at the top of the park, there are a bunch of riders already there and I stand for a little bit and watch the other riders hit the features. After a couple minutes, I hear a voice behind me say, "Hey, yellow pants!" It Doesn't register that the voice is talking to me at first, so after the second and louder, "Hey! Yellow pants!!" It clicks and I turn around to see who is talking to me. The voice is coming from none other than snowboarding legend, Todd Richards.

I know it's Todd because I recognize his face, he's wearing a jacket that says "Awesome!" all over it, and in all but one dream, he's riding an O-Matic snowboard. I'm a little shocked to have Todd Richards talking to me so I kind of stumble over my words when I say, "Uh, hey... What's up?" He then scoots over to me, and without any type of greeting he says, "Yo yellow, you know how to work a camera?" And holds up a fancy VX style video camera. I reply with, "Yeah sure I do," and he says, "Rad... Take this and follow me." Then he adds with great emphasis, "DO NOT fall behind. Make sure you keep up with me." "Ok no problem," I reply, thinking this is fucking awesome, I get to follow Todd Richards around and film him. He hops forward ahead of me to start his run and I push record, point the camera at him, and start to follow.
And this is where it gets a little weird...

He hits a couple rails, I'm right behind him. He hits a jump, I'm still right behind him. Then, he hits a HUGE jump and does like a 1440 or something, lands and is going mach 5, and I start to fall behind. He hits an even bigger jump, lands, and starts going even faster, and I fall further behind. He's a good distance ahead of me now, so I point it and start to go as fast as I can to catch up. Everything he hits something he starts going faster and no matter how hard I try, I can't catch up. I'm not turning at all, just slightly speed tucked and flying down the mountain. He's way ahead of me now and I'm starting to get mad that I can't catch up. I speed through the rest of the park and now I'm on a regular run. I can still barely see him wayyyy down the hill and I go into a full on, boarder cross, gaper style tuck and am riding at a scary speed after him. No matter how fast I go, I can't catch him, he just keeps going faster. After more intense riding, I finally see the lift at the bottom and slam on the brakes, spraying a massive wall of snow into the air.

The lift is packed with people and I'm looking around for Todd. I finally spot him waving his arms at me and I skate over to him. He's furious. He starts yelling and cursing at me, demanding to know why I couldn't keep up with him, and accuses me of ruining his film. I'm speechless, and try to explain that I was doing everything I possibly could to keep up but he interrupts and yells even more and starts to get really mad and gets in my face. I back up, flabbergasted, and try to explain again, but he yells even louder, grabs the camera out of my hand, pushes me over and says, (In all four dreams) "You're such a fucking loser. If I were you, I'd go throw my snowboard in the trash and never come to the mountain again. Now get the fuck out of my face." He walks away, I'm in shock, and everyone around starts to laugh. I get up and stand there watching him walk away and....... I wake up.

What. The. Fuck?!

I've had that dream four times now. Is that not some crazy shit? I think it's so funny because Todd seems like such a mellow/funny dude in real life. I don't know why my subconscious portrays him to be such an ass hole. This dream lasts all of 5 minutes, or so it seems in the dream. The other weird thing is, I mentioned in 3 of the dreams he was riding an O-Matic snowboard. The third time I dreamed this, he was riding a Rossignol board, what he rode before O-Matic! It's so crazy I notice this in the dream and can remember it now, while everything else happens exactly the same.

So what does it mean?? What is the important message my brain is trying to tell me? What is my personal weakness, fear, or inability to cope with something in my life - past or present? I can only laugh at this, as it makes absolutely zero sense. Perhaps Todd and I are connected in some magical, mythical way... Or maybe I'm just a shitty snowboarder who can't keep up with anyone whilst filming. Whatever the underlying meaning, it makes for a pretty funny story I think. It'll be interesting to see if I have the dream again... If I keep having it I'll start a counter on the site.

Any thoughts and/or opinions about this are greatly encouraged, as dream analysis might become a new hobby of mine. And as always, dig it.

2009-2010 Never Summer SL Review

2009-03-02T23:34:00.003-07:00

Here's the second of 6 board reviews from the 09/10 on snow on demos that I participated in a couple weeks ago. You have to keep in mind that I only took at most 4 runs on each of these boards and all the following words are my initial reactions to how each of them rode. Had I been able to spend an entire day or more on each board, these reviews might be a little different, as it usually takes some getting used to when riding a new board. So if you don't like my review and absolutely love the board I'm talking about, hold off on talking shit and read the above 3 sentences again.

If there's anything in the review I don't cover and you want to know about, just ask. I'll probably know the answer, and if I don't, I'll point you in the right direction.

The next board up for review is the 09/10 Never Summer SL, featuring NS's patent pending R.C. Technology. (Rocker Camber)

SL base graphic... Me caught off guard

The ins and outs

This was my first time ever riding a Never Summer snowboard, made right here in Denver, CO, and it was an interesting experience. It was an emotional roller coaster of being stoked to try a new board with technology that was new to me, to not really liking the board, to kind of liking it, then to liking it a lot more but not an absolute favorite. This board is billed as an all mountain freestyle slaying machine, able to handle anything the mountain has to offer. The R.C. Tech is a combination of rocker (reverse camber) and regular camber. The tip and tail of the board is cambered up to the outside of the binding mounting area to provide supreme control and stability, and the area between the cambered sections is rocker to provide that floating, skateboard-esque control feeling. Take a look at this:

R.C. Tech Explained

This is technology that definitely works but also definitely takes a little getting used to. I had some initial problems with the cambered areas and caught my toe edge about 5 times. Probably because I haven't ridden a regular cambered board in two years... It was also tough to ollie at first. I felt like I couldn't get the board to do what I wanted it to do, almost like trying to ollie on a skateboard and not having your feet set up right. The first few times I tried to pop I sort of washed out on my toe side. I really had to be flat based to get a good snap. After a few runs I got the hang of it but not really dialed in very well.

Snow conditions and weather

Hard packed groomers, cold, snowy, shitty

Set up

158 Never Summer SL with R.C. Tech, my Bent Metal Step-In binders, 25" stance, 17&-17 angles, Vans 11.5 DK4 Boots, awesome tunes to groove to

Rigid, or pliable?

This is a mid-level flex board but I think the cambered areas made it feel a little stiffer to me at first. Also, after talking to the NS rep about it, he mentioned they stiffened it up a little from last year. After the first run it really felt like it loosened up. I never felt like I had to really load up to ollie or butter around, and it was very forgiving over the choppy snow and on landings. I was expecting a lot stiffer board but was pleasantly surprised with how mellow and fun the flex was.

Ease of maneuvering

The very first thought I had about this board after about 4 turns was how responsive it was. I was snapping in and out of turns like I was on train tracks and that really blew me away. The best way I think to describe how easy it was to turn, is that it felt like I'd been riding the board for years and had it super dialed in. The combination of rocker and camber really makes for a smooth and effortless ride. Edge to edge was so easy it was a joke, and even at very high speeds I had absolutely no problems turning. I would even go so far as to say it was the most responsive board I've ever ridden. Yeah, I said it....

Never Summer R.C. Technology... Cambered ends, rocker between

Stability agility

The big debate between regular and reverse cambered boards is stability. Regular camber offers a very stable and controlled ride, while reverse camber offers the feeling of floating across the snow and pow annihilation. On the flip side, cambered boards can often lock you into a turn and be hard to ride in the deep white, and the big knock on reverse cambered boards is the loose feeling and lack of stability at high speeds. With the Never Summer SL, you get the best of both worlds. The cambered areas on the nose and tail cement the board to the snow and make for an unbelievably stable ride, and the rocker allows the nose and tail to float free while riding through the powder. I wish I would have been able to ride it on a pow day to see how it handled and how the cambered ends effected the ride, but unfortunately, it was only groomers for me.

Right foot forward

This is a directional board, not by much though, so it was still easy to ride switch. I usually just snap around front side to ride switch and I caught a toe side edge once while doing this and ate shit. Sweet. Once I finally made it around, it was a smooth ride.

Booters and boxes

This is the only area I really didn't like the board. I could never get a good pop and felt very awkward off the jumps. I usually like to come of jumps a little bit on my toes and a couple times it felt like I would just dig in and didn't even have a chance. I had to bail out one time because of this. After that I was making a conscious effort to pop off the lip flat based ans even then I would get squirley in the air. It bummed me out a little because the board was so good otherwise. Again, no big jib moves other than board slides and some 5-0s and it didn't blow me away, nor did it disappoint. This is definitely a board you would need to dial in and spend some time on in the park.

Everything except...

No pow, no pipe, no 20 sets, and no Dr. Strangelove action.

SL top sheet. Photo: Shayboarder

Art and graphics

Never Summer isn't really known for their artsy graphics, more for their simple designs, and they haven't strayed from that with the SL. I don't really like the graphic, I like the boards that look like they were hand painted, not done on a computer.

cool, rad, or ultra mega super sick?

I would give this board a rating of rad. Had it performed better in the park for me, I probably would've given it the ultra mega super sick title. It's a super responsive, progressive, easily maneuverable, fun board to ride, perfect for all types of riders and riding. The R.C. Tech takes a little getting used to, especially in the park. I would recommend this board to anyone looking to have a lot of fun on the mountain snowboarding and also in the bedroom... Wait, what? Dig it.

The 2009/2010 Never Summer SL will come in sizes: 151, 155, 158, 161, 164, all with R.C. Tech.

HS Headers

2009-02-28T00:49:00.000-07:00

For all you hard core HS readers out there who have been around since day one, (which is nobody) or anyone who is curious about all the past headers I've created to greet you upon arrival to the site, (also no one) here ya go. A trip down HS header memory lane... I thought I had more than this but apparently not. I really like the second one, and of course my all time favorite so far, the Mu-stache header. Hairy, yet elegant... Dig it.

Oh Shit...

2009-02-27T19:37:00.002-07:00

WTF happened to the blog!?!?! I'm pulling some strings and trying out some new looks so things are going to be F'd up for a little bit. Hang in there, the blog with either look new and awesome... Or exactly the same as it did before. Dig it.

Back On The Wagon...

2009-02-26T17:58:00.004-07:00

I fell ya bro....

Well, as awesome as it is living in the Xterra Inn and being able to shred everyday, I'm starting to think my body is rejecting this hard core rock n' roll lifestyle and any further nights spent in the sub 20 degree weather could possibly be detrimental to my health. Last weekend I was feeling quite shitty, with symptoms ranging from an overall dog shit feeling throughout my entire body, to green shit coming out of my throat, and someone playing a Neil Pert drum solo in my skull. I felt So shitty in fact, I left the mountains and went to Fort Collins to chill out and recover for a few days. I didn't feel this shitty though... It was very nice to have a nice warm couch to sleep on, a bathroom that was accessible 24 hours a day, running water, and a meal that wasn't either:

A) Coffee
B) Nature Valley Granola Bar (Oats and Honey flavor, of course)
C) Strawberry Pop Tarts
D) McDonalds Honey Mustard Chicken Snack Wraps (OMGSFGBTW) ((Oh My God So Fucking Good By The Way))

E) Honey Buns
F) Sudafed
G) All of the above

My very good buddy Jake G made me some delicious meals, provided ample amounts of grocery brand cream soda, which as it turns out is really, really tasty, sat on the couch all day with me and watched critically acclaimed films, and overall nursed my sick little body back to health. Thanks again JG.

I'm feeling all better now, and am ready to give up living in the Xterra. I hate being sick and have had enough of the nomadic traveling, dirt-ball, shred-bum, mentally wandering life style. So, I'm moving to Denver and getting a 9-5 as a legal assistant, a nice little loft down town, and a schnauzer. I won't have much time for snowboarding or skating anymore and I'm selling Hybrid Sessions to some global corporation, but that's ok, I'll have lots of money and high class friends and I'll drink dry martinis with an extra olive. Life is good.......

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Psyche!! Oh man I had you all going there didn't I?!? You totally bought it... I think you'll be happy to know I'm not giving up living in the Pewter Palace, in fact I'm in Keystone at this very moment awaiting another magical night in the Xterra and at least 10 days in a row of shred. The determining factor of when I'll be moving out of my SUH (Sport Utility House) is when I run out of money, which hopefully, if I play my cards right, isn't until at least sometime in April. Fingers crossed!

Xterra driving face

I'm really hoping to get some usable footy in the next few days so I can make another video, because I really like doing that. Also, my mu-stache is starting to curl up on its own now... pretty pumped about that. Um, that's about it for this post I guess... "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue."

2009-2010 Lib Tech Skunk Ape Review

2009-02-18T17:23:00.006-07:00

Well here's the first of 6 board reviews from the '09/'10 on snow on demos that I participated in last week. You have to keep in mind that I only took at most 4 runs on each of these boards and all the following words are my initial reactions to how each of them rode. Had I been able to spend an entire day or more on each board, these reviews might be a little different, as it usually takes some getting used to when riding a new board. So if you don't like my review and absolutely love the board I'm talking about, hold off on talking shit and read the above 3 sentences again.

If there's anything in the review I don't cover and you want to know about, just ask. I'll probably know the answer, and if I don't, I'll point you in the right direction.

2009/2010 Lib Tech Skunk Ape 157 Wide BTX

To fully comprehend this review and get the best feel for what this board is all about, you need to click here and listen to a few songs from the new Lamb Of God album while reading this. Really, it's mandatory.

The ins and outs
The fine people at Lib Technologies crafted the Skunk Ape with the big-ass Sasquatch sized snowboarders with clown feet in mind. This twin free-style board only comes in one waist option, wide. Now, I'm right on the cusp of being able to ride a regular sized board and needing a wide. I ride with my bindings ducked out at 17 and -17 degrees so my 11.5 sized boots fit fine on the smaller waist boards and fit perfectly on the wide boards. I've been riding a 25.5 cm waist Skate Banana for the past two seasons and haven't had one single problem with toe or heal drag, or any other performance problems. It also helps that my binders are raised about a 1/2" to 3/4" off the board. Before that I rode a 157w Lib Phoenix and a 161w Lib Factory Test Magne-Trac for a pow stick, so the transition from wide, to regular, back to wide hasn't been a problem for me. Lib's specs recommend the Skunk Ape for a size 10.5 or bigger boot, but again depending on you binding angles, (in my case) you can get away with riding a smaller waist board. However, if your feet are bigger than a size 12, you need a wide board for sure, no questions asked.

Snow Conditions and weather
Hard packed groomies, cold, snowy, shitty day

Set-up
157w BTX Skunk Ape, my Bentmetal Step-in binders, 25" stance with 17 & -17 degree angles, Vans 11.5 DK4 boots, awesome mu-stache.

Like a noodle, or a 2x4?
Stiff, stiff, stiff! Stiff like a big ole'... Ah you get the point. Again, not designed for the status quo 5'6" 150lb rider, the Skunk Ape is stiff to handle a real man riding it. Even with the Banana Tech, (reverse camber) it was still very stiff overall. Perhaps because I'm used to the softer Skate Banana, the first run I took on this board was a little weird. I tried to pop any ollie the way I usually do with the Banana and got about 6 inches off the ground. "Whoa this is super Stiff!" I said. (And also what she said) You really have to load up that back foot for a good pop. After a few attempts I got it dialed in and was able to snap off some big ollies. Stiffer board = more pop. It's science. The nose and tail are a little softer, chalk that up to the Banana Tech, but not much. I tried to butter around on it, and again you have to load up pretty good to make the board bend. Torsionally stiff also for a very stable ride.

Is it easy to turn?
Does a fat baby fart? Take a look at this equation: Effective Edge/Magne Trac x Banana Tech - Stiffness x Pi + Bad Ass Heavy Metal graphics, all square rooted, = Totally fucking awesome and easy to turn. It was super easy for me because I've been riding the Banana Tech (BTX) for almost 2 years now and am so dialed on it, I can turn in my sleep. But for everyone else who has yet to experience the BTX, it's very easy to initiate turns, the Magne wiggles hold an edge like a vise grip, the Banana makes it ride skateboard-esque and edge to edge transitions are quick and effortless... Like how I pick up babes at the club... Holla!

Stability ability
Stiffer and wide make for a very stable board. At warp speed and just cruisin' along. I didn't really notice any board chop suey when bombing, and didn't ever wash out while turning. Also very stable for huge rooster tail slashes, lay backs, and gaper sprays.

Riding backwards
Since it's a twin shape and my stance is as even as the number 2, riding switch was no problem. I've really dialed in my switch game this season and usually ride the wrong way about half the time down the hill.

Booters and Boxes
I took every board I rode through the little mini park at Keystone and hit a 3 box jib line followed by a 3 set jump line. I didn't really want to take boards I'd never ridden through the bigger parks. The boxes were a flat, flat down, and finally a smaller, longer, slightly up. Very easy. No huge ollie or side approach necessary. The jumps were also pretty mellow, getting progressively bigger. The last hit was a decent 10-15 foot table. I didn't throw down any ground breaking maneuvers... 50s, 5-0s, board slides, half-asses front boards, and a couple nose press tail slappys on the boxes, and shifties, stalefishies, nose and tail grabs, a couple back ones, and of course at least one method every time through the park. No double corked rodeo 10's, sorry. Also, I didn't de-tune any of the boards I rode.

I found the Skunk Ape handled very well on the boxes and even better off the jumps. It's not exactly a jib board, being so stiff, but it was easy enough to slide around on. It was super stable off the jumps and on the landings. I didn't have a problem with washing out at all, but then again I wasn't trying to pull a b/s 7 around either. Methods are very easy to grab with the Skunk Ape and everyone below watching gets scared when they see all the skulls. I had tons O' fun in the park on this board, and kind of wish I would've been able to ride it longer and take it off some of the bigger jumps.

Everything except...
I didn't ride any pow, (I know it kills it though) the half pipe, drop any cliffs, or air guitar the board, so if you need that info, you're just going to have to keep searching.

Art and Graphics
So fucking awesome! Done again by Lib artist Qunicy Quigg, the bad-ass skulls and skeletons make me want to listen to Heavy Metal and trash dance all the way down the mountain. I love this graphic, and so does the devil.

Good, bad, or ugly?
Overall a super duper fun board. Stiff, (if you haven't figured that out already) very stable, pops like a balloon, and makes snowboarding very enjoyable. If you're a big, hairy dude (or chick) who likes to have fun all over the mountain, the Lib Tech Skunk Ape is what you need to spend your money. Dig it.

Photo: SOTN

The '09/'10 Skunk Ape will come in sizes 157, 161, 165, 169, 172 with BTX, and sizes 180 and 190 with MTX.

Do You Like To... Do It, Yourself? Snowboard Helmet

2009-02-16T19:11:00.007-07:00

The next installment of the Hybrid Sessions DIY series features some original snowboard helmet art work by, yours truly. I didn't really like what I'd spray painted on it first anymore, so I thought a complete redieign was in order. Plus I was super into doing the time lapse videos at the time. I also created a new verb for the english language during the process of the helmet painting, Arting. Meaning, "The physical act of creating any type of art; painting, drawing, sculpting, snapping photos, etc..." For example:

JB: "Ah dude what are you up to?"
ZB: "Oh not much, just hanging out and arting on my snowboard helmet."

The verb can also be used in the past-tense.

"I arted my ass off last night."

Someone from Websters Dictionary please feel free to contact me and pay me my money!

So anyway, here's the time lapse video I made of some snowboard helmet arting.

Snowboard Helmet Time Lapse from Zac Bryson on Vimeo.

One day in class during my usual arting/doodle sessions, I drew one of those yellow eye/fish looking things and I really liked it, so I drew it's reciprocal, and have drawn and painted those on a few different things. I think they look pretty rad. The rest are just some doodles I came up with off the top of my head. I tried to paint directly on the helmet, without sketching out what I wanted first, but the acrylic paint I was using was pretty limiting. It was hard to paint long, smooth lines with. I would paint a very short line and have to dip the brush into the paint again, paint a short line, dip the brush, paint, dip, and so on. So, I sketched out what I wanted with a black marker and the painted over that. I think it turned out pretty cool... Definitely better than what it looked like before.

After numerous requests from JB, and many empty promises by me, I finally found the motivation a couple weeks ago to paint up his helmet. I wanted to incorporate the written word on the helmet so I used a lyric from one of my all time favorite songs, "All Along the Watchtower" by Bob Dylan.

"There must be some kind of way out of here... Said the joker to the thief."

I painted the faces on there first, having in mind the words coming out of the mouths and wrapping around the helmet. This definitely took some time to paint... Again having to paint, dip, paint, dip. I really like how it turned out.

Let me know what you think!

Shit Happens When You Party Naked

2009-02-15T23:57:00.004-07:00

This post is quarter part snowboarding, two thirds part bloody hilarity, three eighths part drunken shenanigans, full part totally fucking awesome. This little video you're about to watch is from a day of riding at Beaver Creek last week, in which HS crew member Brian was having one of the worst days he's ever had riding his snowboard. Luckily for you readers, and for my personal amusement, I caught some of his mishaps on camera and now we get to watch and laugh at Brian. Enjoy.

Bloody Brian from Zac Bryson on Vimeo.

HAHAHAHAHA! Oh man, I laugh quite forcefully every time I watch that...

So the next part of this post also comes from Brian, this time in the form of the written word, and has absolutely nothing to do with snowboarding, or anything else this blog is about, it's just really funny. After he smashed his face on the mountain, he proceeded to go back to Greely and get smashed, then get his face smashed... Again. He wrote up this little memoir, if you will, of the nights epic adventure, and sent it to me since I wasn't fortunate enough to witness the pandemonium. I was at a Starbucks in Silverthorne when I first read this and was visibly laughing out loud, drawing attention to myself. I couldn't help it though... This shit is funny. Perhaps I think it's funny because I know the majority of the people involved. Brian is quite the sarcastic smart-ass and his mouth has a tendency to get him in trouble sometimes. I would recommend reading the whole thing, and if you don't laugh, well then, you can never come back to this blog. Just kidding... But really, you better laugh. Dig it.

The names of almost all the people involved in this story have been changed to protect the innocent, except Brian's. (who also goes by Dinger)

From the Desk of Brian the Bloody Face...

Wild Saturday Nite

So I have complied the stories of everyone I know that was there to witness the idiocy that conspired this weekend. Since I was blacked out at 9 clock, I had to be informed of everything that went down…..The nite went a little like this.

7:00 p.m. Jake and I hit Romas for dinner. We finished off a pizza after waiting a considerable amount of time for the dude that was serving us to actually notice that we were alive. He felt the need to serve the other 6 tables he had because they had 6 people each. In hindsight, the tip from those tables was probably more than are meal cost total, so I can see his rationale. I proceed to consume a 34 ounce margarita, and Jake downs a 34 ounce beer.

8:00 p.m. We head to the bar where my good friend “Bartender” is working and I begin to drink. I have my first beer.

8:01 p.m. I finish said beer. I have my second beer. Jake decides that he would rather play pool then continue on at this pace. Him and “Randy” go and begin to play pool.

8:02 p.m. I finish second beer. I decide that beer will not suffice, and I have to move on to something stronger. Bartender passes me a shot of Patron. It goes down way to smooth. I decide that shots are the way to go tonight.

8:10 p.m. I decide to order a round of shots. I bring 2 over to Randy and Jake. The next goes to this weird guy that is sitting in the corner of the bar staring at everyone. He seems lonely. I believe that a shot will change his fortune, so I pass him 1 and I drink 1. The guy drinks it and smiles. He is a creepy dude.

8:12 p.m. I order another round of shots. I bring 2 over to Randy and Jake at the pool table. I find a new old guy who is super rad and I give him 1 and I take the other 1.

8:15 p.m. I order another round of shots. At this time “Colby” is showing up to the bar. I think it is going to be a great night. He brings “Madusa”. I think it is going to be a horrible night I bring 2 shots over to Randy and Jake at the pool table. They're not there, I walk back to the bar. Both are getting more beer. I hand them the shots, and hand Colby a shot.

8:20 p.m. I make fun of Medusa for a bit because….well I’m an asshole and I hate her. I order another round of shots. I give 1 to Colby, I drink mine, and I give the other 2 to Randy and Jake.

8:21 p.m. I am starting to get loud. I am clearly buzzed. I know this because I look around at the bar and for some reason half of the bar is looking at me. I tell myself I rule and order another round of shots. This time I order Flaming Dr. Peppers. Bartender says, “Are you kidding? I can’t do those they’re a fire hazard man.” I inform him that that is alright with me, but he still says no. I tell him to give them to me without the flame. He shrugs and decides this is alright. I get the round of flaming Dr. Peppers and hand them out to the usual group. They taste EXACTLY like Dr. Pepper.

8:25 p.m. I sit down at the table and start to make fun of Medusa for a while because….well like I said I’m an asshole and I hate Medusa. The table next to us is a table of 4 girls. I hear that three of them were decent looking, the fourth was a mom. I decide that I look incredible after these shots and that I want to fuck the mom. I begin being very nice and spitting my awesome game, but it quickly becomes clear to me that this is going nowhere, so I do what I do best, and begin, as Colby puts it, “Being a fucking asshole.” I make fun of her for being out at the bar at her age and proceed to tell her how big of a joke she is and how her kids are at home getting high rite now. I laugh to myself as everyone at the table looks at me in disgust. I go back to the bar for another round.

8:26 p.m. I call Bartender over and order another round. I take it upon myself to inform him also that Medusa is under age and that he should not serve for. He thanks me. I feel great, I have successfully ruined her night. Bartender brings me another round of Dr. Peppers. I give a shot to the cool ass old dude at the bar, and bring the other 3 over to the table, where “Tyson” has shown up to. I give him a shot, I take 1, and I give 1 to Colby. I think that I am real cool after I take my shot, so I put my glass down and coolly slide the shot glass across the table. The glass doesn’t stop, slides off the table into Tyson’s lap, and smashes on the ground. I laugh. “Amy”, one of the bartenders that we know walks over and says she saw it with a smile on her face and picks up the pieces. “Amy” rules.

8:30 p.m. I am clearly drunk by this time, and am still ordering shots at an alarming rate. I am sitting at the bar now because I am convinced that the girls at the other table are going to kill me, and I can’t take that humiliation. I am sitting at the bar with the cool ass old dude who is talking to me about girls, when some quite large girls, chunky would be putting it nicely, come over to order drinks from Bartender. They say they want something fruity. This makes me laugh hysterically and me and the old guy start laughing together. They order sex on the beach, and this kills me. That’s just comedy. Fat girls wanting sex on the beach….as if. She can’t take a joke and leaves very upset. Fuck her. I order another round of shots. I get 1 for me, 1 for Colby, 1 for Jake and Randy each, and 1 for the old dude who is still laughing. I take the shots over to Colby at the table, where I get some sweet looks from every girl there. Medusa is there telling them how big of an ass I am, shocker. I sit down to take my shot but decide that I want it to be a true flaming Dr. pepper. Not having the flame will not suffice. I take Colby's lighter and try and light the shot on fire for the next five minutes. The girls tell me that this is not a good idea. I disagree. The shot never lights on fire so I end up just taking it. I take 2 shots over to Randy and Jake, who are still playing pool and drinking beer, and at the table next to them are the girls that I was laughing at at the bar, with their very large boyfriends. They are still not happy with me.

8:40 p.m. I am quickly reaching blackout state, but those damn Dr. peppers taste so damn good that I have to keep consuming them. I order another round for everyone, and this is where the night turns for me.

This is where I blacked out…..around 9 at night. The rest of the story I gathered from other people, bits and pieces to make a full night for me. Times are estimated now, considering the fact that I have no recollection of anything that happened.

~9:00 p.m. I am drunk texting every girl I know, and the ones that take the time to write me back inform me that everything I am sending them is unreadable. I decide to take 3 more shots of flaming Dr. peppers, and then proceed to call a girl whose dad works with mine. I inform her that we are going to have sex, where she proceeds to tell me that she is in TN and to fuck off. She has me on speakerphone and is with a lady that used to work for my dad. I decide to tell the girl how hot I think the lady is, not knowing I am on speakerphone. I sing the whole Flo-Rida song apple bottom jeans to them. They tell me they can’t understand me, and I guess this upset me and I begin to get pissed that they can’t, say horrible things and hang up on them.

~10:00 p.m. Tyson says that his next door neighbors are having a party, so we decided to head over there. Medusa goes home because she sucks at life and can’t drink. Sweet.

~10:15 p.m. We get to Tyson’s house and Colby has a 100 proof bottle of Captain with him. Everyone decides that they are not drunk enough yet so they go into Tyson’s house to go drink the bottle. I inform them that I am drunk enough and want to party.

Jake: Cool dude don’t get in a fight.

Dinger: What are you talking about dude?

~10: 30 I stumble into the party where I know exactly 2 people. There are about 50 or 60 people there, mostly dudes. I decide that I want to be next on the beer pong table and push my way to the front of the table. The kid across the table is wearing a tall tee. I am wearing a tall tee. I proceed to tell him that my tall tee is taller than his tall tee. He walks across the room, and head butts me in the nose.

(I went snowboarding the day before this and caught an edge while messing around. I went flying through the air and the first thing that hit was my nose and teeth. I began bleeding profusely out of my nose. I sat there bleeding for about 10 minutes just watching the snow get blood stained. It was awesome)

Since I had just busted my nose the day before, this dude head butting me didn’t help it, and I again, begin gushing blood from my nose. I am forced out of the house because the kids living there didn’t want a fight, like I was in any shape to fight, but I’m sure I was still running my mouth.

~10:45 I proceed to walk back over to Tyson’s house where everyone is still drinking. I guess I looked a hot mess and was gushing blood pretty bad from my nose. Tyson’s roommate later came out of his room and asked if somebody had died in the kitchen, so clearly it was bad. I guess I still had a little smirk on my face the whole time in the house. I asked them why they didn’t jump in, and they laugh at me and tell me they weren’t even in the same house.

~11:15 While I was cleaning up, Jake, Tyson, Colby, and Randy went back into the house and began trying to fight the kid who had decimated my nose. I ended making my way over there, still talking shit, and the people at the house kicked us all out. We stood outside waiting for the dude to come out, and finally he did, with the rest of the house. The dude ended up apologizing, and we were allowed to go back in the house and continue drinking. I ended up telling Jake that I was way too drunk for this and was going home. I guess I bet him 20 bucks he wouldn’t hit the dude, and to Jake's drunken mind, this was a good enough bet to take on at the time.

~11:45 I ended up trying to walk home and ended up passing out in a frat house front yard about a half mile down the road. While I’m passed out the rest is going on. The rest of the guys ended up staying at the house drinking, and Colby and Jake decided to wait outside for the kid. 20 minutes later, the kid came outside to smoke a cigarette with one of his friends. Jake, being the bigger kid, took the kids friend and tackled him into the street about 20 yards away. Colby ended up getting pushed into the side of the house by the kid who head butted me. He didn’t like that and proceeded to bash the bottle of Captain Morgan over the kids head. I guess the word got out that they were fighting outside, and about the time Colby hit him with the bottle, kids started flowing out of the house. Colby says that the kids that came out of the house were clearly more pissed off than him, and he ended up getting thrown to the ground, and kicked repeatedly by about 6 dudes. He ended up screaming for Jake, and Jake left the dude he was beating mercilessly and ended up tackling most the dudes off of Colby. More guys ended up rolling out of the house, and both Colby and Jake ended up getting kicked on the ground by a plethora of dudes. While this was happening, Randy walked outside to witness this and his drunken thought process was this. “Wow, that dude is getting kicked to death. He’s wearing a flannel. Jake was wearing a flannel. That’s Jake. Save Jake.” Randy ended up trying to break it up at first, and then tried to grab a guy in a head lock. He was so drunk he fell backwards while attempting the head lock, and the guy slipped out of his grasp as Randy hit the ground. The guy proceeded to turn around and drop a straight jab to Randy's eye repeatedly. Randy is now the third guy on the ground getting kicked. “Jason” had shown up just before this whole incident was taking place, and tried to save Randy. Jason ended up taking a kid to the ground and beating him. The kid did not like getting punched in the face, so he bit Jason’s finger, almost off. He had to get stitches. (Jason gets to wear a sweet band-aid on his finger for a while though, so that is a plus.) Some girls ended up screaming for the kids to stop and they finally all stopped playing soccer with everyone’s bodies. Randy was not very happy at this time and ended up going Denzel Washington on them in “Training Day”…you know the “KING KONG AINT GOT SHIT ON ME!” and kicks the shit out of the window in the kids house. He ends up losing his shoe in the process. He realizes quickly that this isn’t a good idea, and decides to run. The cops are coming. Randy is running down the street with one shoe, people from the house in hot pursuit.

~12:30 a.m. Everyone gets up, and surprisingly, besides a couple of bruises, save Randy, everyone is mostly ok. ( Randy ended up pretty bad with a busted eye, couple cuts, and what he says is “internal bleeding”) Colby tries to get in a car and is quickly called out by the police. He gets out and starts to talk to them. They say he got assaulted. He laughs. They say look at you, you have dirt on your face, you got assaulted. He laughs again. They ask him if he wants to press charges.

Colby: “Na man cuz I’m pretty sure I started that shit haha.”

Cops: “Ya that happens man.”

Colby ends up leaving and ends up picking up Jake who had run and was about 10 blocks away already.

I had passed out in the front yard of the frat house down the road. A girl named “Britt”, (who ended up picking up Colby and Jake about 20 minutes after me) ended up finding me in the front yard of the frat house. There was a sign above me and I ended up reading it over and over again until she found me. She ended up driving me home, but I was not satisfied with this and told her to take me to the bar. She did. Good for her.

~1:00 a.m. I walk into the bar and Bartender and Amy have a puzzled look on their faces.

Bartender: “What the fuck happened to your face.”

Dinger: “What are you talking about? Gimme a beer.”

Bartender: “Fuck no dude go clean your face up.”

Amy: “You have blood on your shoes.”

Dinger: “Can I have a beer.”

Amy gives me a beer. Amy rules.

I end up sitting at the bar until Colby and Jake are dropped off by Britt. We end up getting kicked out, which means we were obliterated beyond belief, because Bartender always lets us stay till past close.

~1:45 a.m. We walk across the street to another bar, and are shocked to find that they have made last call. Fuck. We end up talking to some frat boys who are outside smoking cigarettes. This makes Colby happy. He smokes a cig with them. I find out I passed out in their front yard earlier. Sweet.

~2:30 a.m. We end up making our way back to our house. Colby and Jake go downstairs to play some solid games of Mario kart. I end up upstairs with a girl and we proceed to have relations. I know this because Colby and Jake inform me the next day that there were animalistic screams coming from my room that they could hear all the way in the basement, over the awesome noises of Mario Kart.

8:00 a.m. I wake up as the girl is leaving.

Dinger: “What happened? My nose hurts.”

Girl: “Are you joking? Go look in the mirror.”

I get up and look in the mirror to find some blood caked on my nose. This makes me laugh. I go into Colby’s room and wake him up to ask him what has happened. I seriously have no recollection of anything.

Dinger: “Dude what happened, my nose is busted.”

Colby: “Dude, I got my ass kicked. Like literally. My ass hurts so bad rite now, someone kicked me in it so hard. You got head butted dude.”

This is where the whole story of the night before begins to unfold. Jake ends up leaving around 11. Colby and I end up going to the bar. At the bar some guy comes up to me and starts talking about my nose. I look at him blankly for a minute without saying anything.

Dinger: “Dude do I know you?

Dude: “ Ya man you were here last nite, I drank with you when your nose got busted, you told me you got hit by a frat boy or something. “

Dinger: “O sweet man my bad, I don’t remember.”
The two old guys are also there, the cool one and the creepy one. That dude was creepy. He came over and sat by us and just sat there not saying anything and looking at us. We said bye and left.

So the nose is fine, little gash nothing big, not even black eyes or anything. Colby and Jake had some bruises and that was about it. Like I said Randy got it the worst. We went to see him the next day and he was pretty upset. He said he was missing his scuba diving class today.

Dinger: “Why dude?”

Randy: “Because I’m physically unable to scuba Brian.”

Well worth it for a great night of drinking. Alcohols one hell of a drug.

Pow Sesh at The Beav

2009-02-15T23:17:00.003-07:00

TJ, his girlfriend Stephine, and I hit up Beaver Creek yesterday to ride some Valentines Day freshies. It was cold and snowy all day and there were some great staches and pillows in the trees. We were able to get some good shots from the days riding. TJ owns about 10 different combinations of brightly colored outerwear and since my kit is "pretty bland" he insisted I wear some of his gear for the day. Purple pants and a lime green jacket... Sick.

Cold

Nice little pillow...

For me to poop on!

Shifty

Pillow under the log

Ditto

Pillow air

TJ board slide up the tree jib... This photo turned out sick!

Log guitar

TJ and Steph eating the delicious, and free Valentines Day cookies...

'09/'10 Board Demos at Keystone Day 3

2009-02-12T23:39:00.005-07:00

Today was the last day of the industry board demos and man it was a fun one. Unfortunately, I didn't ride yesterday because I woke up with my head feeling like it was being punched repeatedly and a cactus in my throat, so I dropped the crew off at Keystone and went and slept in the Dos Locos parking lot for 5 hours. I felt a lot better after some quality ZZZZZZ's in the Casa de Xterra.

You can peep Shay's blog for some day 2 action.

The sun was shining and there was a dusting of fresh snow that made for some pretty nice conditions today. TJ, K, and I rolled up to Keystone from Breck without our boards, ready to get our demo on. We met up with Shay, Adrian, and Lauren and had a super fun day. Since we were all riding a bunch of different boards, we kind of just cruised and messed around all day, testing out what each board had to offer. TJ and I were on slashing, lay back, and sign spraying missions all day, which we completed of course. We didn't get too radical... Not that we ever do anyway.

I rode the Rome Pusher, Rome Mod, and Capita Horrorscope today. I rode Rome Targa bindings with the Rome boards and Union Force binders with the Captia. Reviews coming soon.

I also got to meet Mark, from MTNOPS.com who was super cool. I was going to demo one of their boards but ran out of time... Bummed. MTNOPS is such a sick site, go there right after you read this!

Here's some moving picture action, expertly edited, and even with music! However, before you watch the vid, you'll need to familiarize yourself with a few references...

This one
This one
This one
This one
This one

Ok you check all those out? Now you can watch the vid. Dig it.

Ultra Radical Demo Fun from Zac Bryson on Vimeo.

We also got a bunch of rad photos from today... TJ took some, I took some... gold jacket, green jacket, who gives a shit?

Standard issue chair lift crew photo

Ultra power stance with the Rome Pusher

TJ with the Rome.... Shit I can't remember

Hookin up the Rome Mod

Tree ollie

K barrel tail tappy

TJ tail block

Shay on the wall ride

Butter on the Rome Pusher... I couldn't believe this photo when I saw it

Adrian with the Forum Scallywag... This board has a great graphic

Lauren with a nose grab

Here's a photo of Shay... Taking a photo!

TJ Slaaaaaaaysh!

Bright colored TJ tree ollie

Reflection

It wouldn't be a good day of shredding with out a method photo. Thanks TJ for this sick shot!

Is that a little Michael Jordan tongue action?? Yes it is... I don't know why

We finished the day off with some frosty brews, (literally) and good laughs. It was such a good day of riding and I'm not really very stoked to go back to riding my old beat up board....

It's so good once it hits your lips...

Lauren likes beer

Shay and TJ... Raging alcoholics

'09/'10 Board Demos at Keystone

2009-02-11T21:51:00.006-07:00

Well, it's official. Hybrid Sessions has hit the big time. I'm in Keystone for the industry demos of all the new 2009-2010 snowboards... Yeah that's right, all the boards that are coming out NEXT season... Boo ya! You're supposed to be involved in the industry some how to be able to demo the boards, but when I rolled up to the tents and told the dude checking credentials , "Yo I'm from Hybrid Sessions, the sickest shred blog in all the land, I'm coming in to demo the boards, ya dig?" He gracefully bowed out of my way and let me enter, saying as I walked past, " Sorry Mr. Bryson I didn't recognize you at first, I love Hybrid Sessions, I read it at least ten times a day!" Of course you do. See? I'm in the big time now....

Does anyone believe that? Anybody? If you do, you just got punk'd! Hahaha.... Hybrid Sessions is only just a little bit in the big time. You know how they say it's not what you know, it's who? Well that phrase is exactly why I'm getting to demo the new boards. I met up with Shay, from Shayboarder, yesterday to ride and she hooked me up real nice. She is pretty much the raddest chick in all of snowboarding and is signed up for the demos so she got me in. She knows the all the guys at Never Summer very well and the dude from Lib Tech so I am very fortunate to know her. So thank you o' so much shay!

The company tents

Shay at the Never Summer tent

I was able to demo 3 boards yesterday, the 09/10 Lib Tech Skunk Ape, the Never Summer SL, and the Never Summer Evo. I'm going to write reviews on all the boards I ride when the demos are over, which is tomorrow. Here are a few photos of yesterdays riding.

Again HUGE thanks to Shay, Jay from Lib Tech and Gags from Never Summer for hooking it up!!

The Crew... ZB, Shay, TJ, and K

Thumbs up for the Skunk Ape

Never Summer SL... I wasn't exactly ready for this photo

Never Summer Evo

TJ likes Rome

Fence ollie

Shay made a cool little video that gives a great look at what the demos are all about. Dig it!

Rocky Mountain On-Snow 2009 Demo Day 1 from Shayboarder on Vimeo.

Terrain Park Chronicles - Don't Be A Kook

2009-02-09T20:07:00.000-07:00

This awesome idea of mine (the only kind I have) came to me this past summer while I was in Reno, skating a large majority of my free time. After witnessing first hand some of the most ridiculous/hilarious human behavior at the various skate parks I frequented, I thought it would be really funny to share these stories with all you. Well, I didn't exactly get around to recalling those hysterical events and the original, "Skate Park Chronicles" idea was forgotten..... Until yesterday.

After trying, and failing numerous times to sneak a couple good photos of my observation subject, I snapped some great mental photos to give you the best description possible. So, sorry I don't have a visual aid, I'll just let my words paint you a Picasso...

Ok, so I'm lapping the park at Keystone and when you get off the lift there's a little spot where everyone usually stops to strap in. I was ratcheting my Bent Metals when I hear this dude behind me say, in a very white boy wannabe gangta-ish way, "Ah shit son I'm bout ta hit the fuckin' illest line... This shit's gonna be that dopeness yo!" I laughed out loud a little when I heard this and glanced back to have a look at this gangsta. What I saw made me laugh even more... Picture this:

A very, very white dude, pale almost.
Probably 18-21 in age
5'7" standing on his tip-toes
Light purple, violet-ish pants, girls I'm assuming, skin tight on the thigh, flared around the boots, sagged past his ass with a yellow belt fastened on his hip, rather than above the zipper.
At least 3 different shirts, all different colors, all different lengths as to all be seen in a descending order, (like this... But hanging almost to his knees) finally covered by one of those hippy/hemp hoodies.
2 necklaces, one gold and hanging pretty low with some sort of bling attached to the end, the other looked homemade, not so low but clearly visible.
Both ears pierced wit dat ice all-up-in-em...
HUGE Electric rasta goggles, sagging almost to his lips.
Two beanies, red underneath, yellow on top.
These Skullcandy head phones on. (I can't believe I found this photo!)
Some wrist and arm flair.
Some ridiculously small snowboard with stickers ALL OVER IT. Even a Burton sticker... Not a Burton board.
Annnnnnnd... That's about it.

I told you I took some good mental photos... Now I usually don't really give a shit, or pass judgment on what people wear, to each his own, but this dude looked like a fucking joke. Wayyyy over the top. I understand people want to look good, and be unique, and express themselves, but I don't think snowboarding should a fashion show, nor a means to draw attention to yourself, in terms of what you wear. Let your riding skills do the talking, not your asinine clothes. I hate to say it, but there's usually a strong correlation with what people wear on the mountain and how good they are. For example, this dude isn't throwing down hammers in the park, ever. You all know what I'm talking about, admit it. I've always felt that if you're not very good at snowboarding, you shouldn't put stickers all over your board, or dress flamboyantly, or spend an hour in the mirror getting ready to ride. Because when you do all this shit, and you're not very good, you my friend, are a KOOK.

Before I get to the story of the Keystone Kook, (KK) let me say this: It's ok to suck at snowboarding. Everyone was shitty at some point, I don't care who you are, I sure as hell was. Not being able to turn, or hit a jump, or slide a rail DOES NOT make you a kook. Not being able to turn, or hit a jump, or slide a rail and bragging that you can, or projecting to others, either by the way you look or what you say, that your skills are "mad sick," DOES make you a kook. A fucking huge kook. King Kook in my book... I'm no pro snowboarder, infact my skills are mediocure at best, and I'm the first to admit that. But I have a brain that works well and I know not to pretend to be something I'm not.

So back to the story... After I strap in and laugh at this dude, I proceed with my run through the park, hitting the triple jump line and doing 3 methods, naturally. When I get to the lift at the bottom, the KK and his crew are in line. One dude had a video camera and they were talking about the shots they wanted to get. The KK says, "I'm fid-a two sev front board dat kink rail and back one off da pipe, make sure you get dat." Meaning, I'm going to spin 270 degrees onto that kinked rail and front boardslide the rest of the way down, then ride up the corrugated pipe and air a back side 180 off of it. Again, I was laughing. By the way this dude was talking, I figured he could actually perform the maneuvers he was speaking of. So I get on the lift behind them and see them again at the top. This time, the KK is loudly rapping along to whatever was playing in his over sized Skullcandys, doing the thug hand thing, and bouncing back and forth on his nose and tail.

Wow.

I was in awe, not really understanding how someone could be so unaware of how absurd they were acting. I decided to follow the KK through the park to witness his skills for myself. He kept talking like an idiot and I followed at a safe distance. The first feature he lined up for was an up box, about a foot wide, 15 feet long, that you ride up and air off. He dances into his approach, rides towards it, dumps all his speed at the last second, makes it about a quarter of the way up, and rides back down. Hmmm. Ok, he possibly hasn't hit it yet and doesn't know how much speed to carry. Understandable. Next feature, a wide box with about an 8 inch diameter pipe splitting the box into two separate smaller boxes. He approaches the left side, slides a slow 50-50, tries to tail bonk the pipe as he's coming off and wipes out. "Ahh shit man!" he says. Next feature, a flat box requiring a decent ollie onto. He goes for a boardslide, makes it about half way and slides off.

All this time I'm watching and thinking to myself, this dude isn't very good at all... But he sure looks like he is.

Next is the kinked rail that he's going to "two sev front board." He approaches the rail regular, from the right, winds up for a front side 270 and.... bails at the last second, sort of running into the rail. Next the corrugated pipe. Rides about half way up and bails off, no b/s 180. Next the quarter pipe. Rides up and washes out. Next a couple more jibs he doesn't hit, a couple good size jumps he doesn't hit, and a little lip towards the bottom he sort of ollies.

I'm in disbelief at this point. Thinking maybe he was just joking about doing those tricks and just fucking around and acting stupid, trying to be funny. But when I got to the lift and was listening to him say, "Nah dawg dat two sev di-n't really feel right, I'll get dat next time," and, "Dat pipe's all fucked up man, day need ta fix dat shit," and here's the absolute best line from the KK, "Hahahahaha, look-it all deez wack ass ridas here today!" It was confirmed.... KOOK. Fucking priceless. The best part was that his friends(?) weren't asking him why he didn't hit the kink or what was wrong with the pipe, he was just saying it in his own defense!. I was visibly laughing at this point and another rider and I exchanged a glance, telepathically saying to each other, "Yeah, this dude's a joke."

After hearing the KK spew all that bullshit, I remembered the "Skate Park Chronicles" idea and tried to get a photo of the dude. I couldn't get a clear shot through his crew and didn't want to just ride up to him and take a picture. In hindsight though, I totally should have, it would have made this post so much better. Such is life...

Moral of the story: Don't be a kook!! Don't tell people you're going to front board a kinked rail when you clearly can't. Don't put on this front like you're some sick snowboarder when you're clearly not. Don't act and talk like you're a hardcore gangsta from the hood when you're probably a middle/upper class white kid. Most of all, just be yourself and let your riding skills do all the talking. If you're not that good, who gives a shit? Go ride until you are good. If you're throwing down bangers, people will take notice of you, in a positive way. And if you're really that good at snowboarding, it doesn't matter what the fuck you look or sound like. Dig it.

Epic Photo and Footage Gathering Day

2009-02-08T20:29:00.004-07:00

After one of the most fun nights and best jam sessions I've had in a while, we decided to keep the riding pretty mellow today.... And by mellow I mean we were too hung over and feeling like shit to do anything really cool. We were going to ride Breck, but woke up a little late and decided to just drive 5 minutes to Keystone. Plus it was kind of a shitty day and we didn't feel like carrying the camera around. We're an extremely dedicated bunch...

Here's all we managed to get today, 1 method photo of me and a 1 minute jib, jump line vid of Tom. Try not to explode with excitement...

While resizing the only photo from today, I noticed this new "Poster" feature in the editing menu. You know, like these funny posters? So, I thought I'd make my own...

Funny right?? Yeah, not really. Maybe just a little...

Tom Quickie from Zac Bryson on Vimeo.

Quick Sesh

2009-02-08T00:23:00.002-07:00

Hit up Keystone today with Tom and his buddy Justin and played photographer for the session. Tom was killing it and I got some sick photos of him with the poino-shoo.... If only I had a legit camera. And a fish eye...

Tom shifty

Justin euro method

Poked Stalefish

Justin air

This is by far my favorite shot of the day. I was sitting against the take off facing the tranny and shooting as Tom, or Justin flew over head. I missed the shot of Justin but got a siiiiiiiick photo of Tom a split second before a tweaked method.

Uhhhhhh Sonnnnnn!

Another Tom Method... 303 represent!

Shifty air to fakie off the wall ride

I got a couple video shots of Tom and Justin hitting the park jumps and crusin' down the mountain. Dig it.

Keystone Crusin' 2 from Zac Bryson on Vimeo.

We're going to Breck tomorrow with the video camera so hopefully we'll get some good
Footy. Dig it.

Sunshine Shreddin'

2009-02-05T23:48:00.006-07:00

I was in Fort Collins for a couple days to get my snowboard fixed and hang with some friends, and the weather there was incredible the whole time. Like 65 degrees and bluebird... and it's February? Hmmmm.... As long as it snows in the mountains I don't care how warm it is anywhere else!

So, yesterday I went and skated the Northside Park in the morning and had the place all to myself which was very nice. I had a great mini ramp session and it felt great to push around on the ole skate again. Since it was such an epic day, I couldn't waste it sitting inside so I went and recruited JB and he suggested we go cruise down this nice little hill he knew about. I hadn't bombed hills for such a long time and since I wasn't snowboarding, I thought I'd get some turns in, just on a different surface. I grabbed my Krooked Gonz cruiser board and we were on our way.

The hill was really mellow and it was such a fun session. We towed each other with the car a few times to get some more speed and soaked in the sunny day.

here's a little video I made of the sesh, dig it.

Sunshine Shreddin' from Zac Bryson on Vimeo.

Soooo, as you just saw I had a little wipe out. Nothing serious, just a totally fucking amateur move on my part. Embarrassing really... I was pushing to get some speed and when I went to put my foot back on the board I got a little squirley, bailed off and started to run. Well I was going a little faster than I thought and my legs couldn't catch up to the rest of my body and I fell forward, rolled once and popped back up. My left hand got the worst of it, and my arm, shoulder and hip were a little scrapped up. No harm done, except to my ego. Thankfully that wasn't captured on film...

Think Thank, Transwolrd, and Mammoth Trailers

2009-02-04T08:30:00.008-07:00

Well, I guess it's getting to be that time of year again when all the new 09/10 snow video trailers start popping up all over the place. There's still so many from this season I haven't seen yet...

Anyway, here's a look at a few of the early teaser/trailers. Peep em, and as always, dig it.

First up is Think Thank's upcoming film, Cool Story. It looks... Cool. Burtner and company are entertaining as always, and I know one of the riders, Bryce Lowell. Actually, my little sis knows him really well and I kind of know him... But he's from Reno which is rad.

Next up is Get Real from Transworld Snowboarding. Great crew of riders, looks very tasty.

Lastly for now, is Hot Laps from Play Big productions. This was filmed 100% in and around Mammoth Lakes, CA, and as Badboysodas predicts, I totally agree that resort films are going to be the next big trend in snowboard videos. Who knows though, we all may be full of shit. Big time names in this film, should be good.

Hot Laps from adam lovejoy on Vimeo.

Livin' The Dream...

2009-02-02T15:44:00.006-07:00

It's a little weird not having shit to do right now in life... But snowboard. I mean I've always had school and other extracurricular activities to keep some structure in my life, I even managed to hold a couple jobs here and there, but now, for the next few months, I don't have shit to do... Except for whatever the hell I want. How can I possibly swing this you're undoubtedly asking yourself... Well, it's a matter of pure love and not giving a fuck really.

Since I've been in Colorado, I've wanted to live in the mountains and be able to snowboard every single day. Unfortunately for me, the whole college thing kind of put a damper on that dream, as there seems to be a direct correlation with going to class and graduating, crazy! Since Fort Collins is a solid two hours (sometimes much, much longer) from the mountains, I was stuck on weekend warrior status for the last 4ish years. I would still get in at least 40 days of riding a season though, foregoing the overrated college party life for the shred. Leaving the mountains after a weekend of riding and returning to the mundane, and often painful routine of going to class was, well painful. The drives back to FoCo usually took like 4 hours because of the insane amount of east bound traffic on I-70, giving me ample time to sulk and not be stoked I was leaving. During the week, whilst in class, I would mostly just draw pictures, watch snow vids on the computer, and wish I was back in the mountains. When the time finally came for the crew to roll back up, I was beyond stoked. Rinse, repeat. Every week..... Well, not anymore!!!

Since graduating and obviously not having to go to class anymore, I've been living the dream of snowboarding virtually everyday. Back to the whole pure love and not giving a fuck thing... I am deeply, uncontrollably, unconditionally in love with snowboarding and don't really give a fuck about anything else in life at this point. (Family, friends, art, skating, music.... showering, excluded form my I-don't-give-a-fuck list) I'm not worried about finding a job or figuring out my career path, meeting my life long soul mate, partying, material objects, living in luxury, etc... Of course the keywords are, "at this point." I don't want to give the impression that I don't have any career goals or that I don't want things in life, because I most definitely do. But for now, riding my Skate Banana down a mountain is all I want to do.

If you're wondering how I'm supporting myself during this epic period of my life, it's quite simple really: I'm a spoiled rich kid and don't have to work cause my parents give me whatever I want, when ever I want it.... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! NOT!!!! Oh shit, I just made myself laugh at that statement... Far from it actually. I'm surviving off money I made from working while I was home and from some graduation and Christmas gifts. I'm living very frugally, surviving mostly off of PB&Js, Nature Valley granola bars, apples, coffee, Twix, Honey Buns, and the Micasa $1 happy hour tacos. Also, not having to pay rent or bills really helps. I'm accomplishing that by living in an exquisitely plush portable condo, aka the Xterra Inn, aka my car.

Just chillen at the Xterra Inn

It's actually very comfy... I have a sweet set up and I can fully stretch out when I sleep. Also, my body has adapted to cold weather living so the extreme temperatures don't bother me at all while I'm sleeping. Who would've ever thought living in a garage last winter would ever pay off? Which brings me back to, I don't give a fuck. I don't need a $500 a month pad to be able to shred everyday. I'm a very resourceful individual... I've secretly located a plethora of locations in the various towns of Summit County I can park the X and sleep. Laundromats and grocery stores are aplenty and that's really all I need. The only thing I don't quite have figured out yet is the bathing situation... A rec membership would quickly solve that, but I'm not sure I want to spring on that yet. A guy's got to eat ya know? Hahahaa... So this is me living the dream, nomadic as it may, of being in the mountains and snowboarding everyday. A bit unconventional, but that's usually how I like to do things. Dig it.

Also, my posts have obviously been few and far between lately, so for the 5 or so people who actually read this and are not just looking for the music from That's It, That's All, I apologize. I know it's been hard for you not having your daily dose of HS, but keep your heads up, lots O' posts are on the way, haha. I'm not going to promise everyday posting anymore, cause that never seems to happen, and as it turns out, finding a free internet connection in the mountains is a little harder then I thought...

If there's anyone in Summit who knows of a good place with free internet, or wants to shred, or who has a couch I can crash on every once in a while, please let me know, I'd really appreciate it!

It's Hard To Concentrate When....

2009-01-26T22:52:00.002-07:00

You're at a super rad coffee shop/bar in Avon (Beaver Creek) called Loaded Joes and Rock Band 2 fest is going on and the joint is packed. I've been melting faces on the guitar all night and have had to have security keep all the groupies off me... I mean what can I say? I'm a Rock Band god.

We went to the X-Games this weekend and it was a circus. An epic adventure to say the least. I'll be doing a post on that after I get back from my Rock Band world tour.

Oh yeah, I rode knee deep freshies today and It's not supposed to stop snowing until Wednesday... Life is good. Dig it!

Vail is Fun

2009-01-23T12:36:00.002-07:00

We rode Vail last Friday and it was lots o' fun. I don't have any time to write about it because I'm trying to get all my shit together as fast as I can and drive to the mountains... It's puking snow! So here's a few photos, and if you have 9 minutes and 57 seconds to kill, a video I made of the days shred action. Make sure to stick around after the credits... Dig it!

Mervin MFG represent!! Lib, Gnu, Lib, Gnu...

Artsey contemporary post modern Renaissance shadow photo

Jake G: $18.88

Family photo: JG, Dinger, ZB, JB

Shits n' Giggles from Zac Bryson on Vimeo.

After riding we went back to Breck to drink some beer and catch the Eek-A-Mouse show... Bong bong bidy bong bong bidy bang bang bidy bong!

Nectar of the gods

Yeeee Hawwwww!

JG, JB on the level

Eek-A-Mouse

We might be going to the X-Games this weekend in Aspen, or we might just shred all the fresh snow! Decisions, decisions....

Keystone Crusin'

2009-01-22T00:06:00.004-07:00

After rolling into town last Wednesday I couldn't wait to get to the mountains and finally ride some good snow. I love you Lake Tahoe, but your icy conditions and lack of snow cover causing me to shred up my board, and not in a good way, was bumming me out to no end. As much fun as riding over rocks, busting my ass, and encountering the greenhouse effect in my snow pants is, I was so stoked to be back shredding the Rockies.

Thursday morning I went to pick up my good buddy Jake Galusha (JG) from the airport in Denver and from there we were on our way to the mountains. We were meeting our other buddy, Jacob Biddle, (JB) who was already in Vail riding. We got to the Eisenhower Tunnel at about 2:30 and decided to hit up Keystone for a Twilight sesh. Since it was a week day there was hardly anyone on the hill so we were able to get in a bunch of runs with no lift lines to wait in.

Keystone has a super sick park set up with a bunch of really rad features and we lapped that quite a bit. I was back in a positive state of mind after my Tahoe park massacre experience, and I rode well in the park. There are some way fun wall rides and I was all over those. There's also a pretty big quarter pipe that JG was charging. We got a couple good photos and had an awesome session. We took off at like 6 and headed to Avon to meet up with JB and crash for the night in the Walmart parking lot...

Haters!

ZB & JG

Honey: Free, tasty, doesn't cost money, provides energy, requires no cash transaction

Rock to fakie

JG board slidin' the QP

Wall ridin'. I can't seem to get a photo while I'm all the way on the wall...

JG sooo close to airing out

Perfect power stance

The Keystone lights

We got a little video action of the last run with the poino-shoo camera, as I like to call it, (point and shoot) so check it out. When I load the videos from the poino-shoo onto imovie, the sound never works, which usually isn't a big deal cause I play music over it anyway, but in this case I was bummed cause we were saying some funny shit on the way down and I wanted it on the vid. Alas, dig it.

Keystone Crusin from Zac Bryson on Vimeo.

Behind the Graphic with Travis Rice and Mike Parillo

2009-01-21T21:06:00.000-07:00

Here's a very cool video featuring Travis Rice and artist Mike Parillo giving the inside scoop on this years Lib Tech TRice pro model deck. There are some details on the deck you would probably never notice unless TRice or Mike told you about... Which they do in the vid. So peep it!

Nu-Stachio!!

2009-01-20T23:38:00.003-07:00

Do you like mu-staches? Do you like snowboarding? Do you like to sport your mu-stache whilst snowboarding?? Of course you do! My good pals from theMustachio.com over in euro town just launched their new website and it is looking so sick! Just like how my mu-stache looks... only with a different meaning for the word sick.

These guys have such a great site dedicated to everything snowboarding and being funny, and it would be well worth your time to go click around the new Mustachio for a while.

The new Mustachio website is even Ron Burgandy tested and approved, so go peep it now!

theMUSTACHIO.com

There might even be a little HS x Mustachio collaboration in the works, so stay tuned in!

Stop and Smell the Mt. Roses, Northstar Gnar, Not So Heavenly

2009-01-20T00:28:00.006-07:00

Well, I got back to CO on Wednesday and Thursday I took off for the mountains of Summit County for 5 days of super awesome shred fun, photos and videos to come... I'm currently in Fort Collins to tie up some loose ends and move out of my pad before my permanent move to the mountains sometime this week. As I mentioned before, I had a place to live lined up but after numerous phone calls, oh about 20, and messages, like 7, and no return calls, I can only assume the people sold it and don't have the common courtesy to pick up the phone and let me know. LAME. So, if there's anyone out there with a cheap trailer for sale, hit me up!!

In the meantime, here are the rest of my Tahoe shred-ventures. Shouldn't these have been done, like, a week or two ago?? Yes, but I was busy sunbathing in the 60 degree Reno weather...

Stop and Smell the Mt. Roses

Perhaps you remember this post? Well, it was finally time to get out and teach the little dude how to shred. My Aunt and Uncle and their two boys, Chase and Reese, all got passes to Mt. Rose for the season and were nice enough to buy me lift tickets for two days of riding in exchange for my super ultra expert lessons, so thanks Chuck and Amy! Mt. Rose is a super fun mountain and is only a short 25 minute drive from Reno, making it a local favorite.

The first day of riding was after a decent little storm and the snow was great. The second sessions was about a week later and the snow wasn't so great then. Both days were bluebird, but super cold. Apparently my Uncle took the boys out for a day of skiing and riding before I got home and Resse didn't exactly do so well on the board. He was wiping out all over the place and not very stoked... Cousin Zac to the rescue! After half a day of dropping vast amounts of Jedi shred knowledge on the little grom, he was ripping like he'd been riding for years, linking heal and toe side turns with ease. It was awesome to see him progress so quickly and I was very genuinly stoked to teach and watch him ride. He was also having a great time and seems to be hooked on snowboarding... Almost as much as Nintendo Wii!

Chase and Reese cheesin'

No Mullets, HAHA!

159 Reese

Myself, Reese, and Chase on the Pondo chair

Need proof of my Obi-Wan esque teaching abilities? Just peep this little vid of Reese tearin' up the mountain!

My Protégé from Zac Bryson on Vimeo.

After a couple runs together on the bunny hills, Chase took off on his own to get some turns in. I gave him the camera and told him to take photos of whatever he wanted and he got some really good ones! Here are a couple...

Mt. Rose bluebird

Chairway to heaven

This blows...

Towards the end of the day, Reese went to the lodge to hang out while Chase and I took a couple runs together. It was nice to get up to the top of the mountain and take a couple real runs. Chase is a super good skier and I had a hard time keeping up with him! He was ripping for sure.

Speed racer

It was super fun to ride with my cousins and teach Reese how to ride. I was even coaching him up on all the different trick names and snowboard lingo while we were riding the chair together. A future shred rat for sure!

The view of Reno from Rose

Northstar Gnar

Another day at Northstar... After a couple nice storms when I first got home, the weather in the Reno/Tahoe area turned tropical. SO WARM. Awesome for skating in January, not so awesome for snowboarding in January. I was wishing I had my skate deck so bad... The snow melted during the day and froze at night causing shitty conditions on the mountain. I rode this day with my buddy Trevor and it was fun until the last hour and a half or so. He had 7 or 8 days under his belt and was getting a lot better. We were just mellow groovin' most of the day, I was working on riding switch and trying to blunt stall every blunt stallable object I could find. I was teaching Trev how to ollie and he caught some nice air off a couple lips a few times.

Trev air

So-so blunt stall

After a bunch of runs, I decided to take a few laps through the park, and this is where things turned shitty. Now, this was my first real park day of the year. There wasn't really any parks with jumps set up in CO before I went home, and Tahoe was in desperate need of snow before any parks were really set up. There was a little mini park at Breck I hit a few times, but nothing big. So I scope out all the features the park has to offer while riding the chair overhead, and see quite a few that look super fun. Well, it wasn't fun. The snow was so icy and all I did was fall all over the place. There were some very easy flat boxes I couldn't seem to ollie onto, some jumps I felt like a first timer on, and a wall ride that absolutely owned my ass. On one jump I was going for a f/s 1, and instead got squirley off the lip and did a f/s ass drop. Sweet. I rarely ever get bummed while snowboarding, and this was one of those rare occasions. I felt so uncomfortable and like I took 10 steps backwards in my park riding skills. The only thing I felt good about was a little lay back I did on the wall ride that didn't annihilate me.

Air to ass

Post lay back

After the wall ride incident, which included me flipping over the wall, unintentionally, I was over riding and we got outa dodge. The mountain got the best of me that day....

Oh yeah, I was pretty stoked on this photo I took through the lens of my goggles.

Not So Heavenly

Lake Tahoe is my absolute favorite place in the world, (so far) but it was hard to love it while I was home for the holidays. With no snow and warm weather, the snowboarding was not good. I decided to try my hand at Heavenly in South Tahoe, since it's covered under my Epic pass, but it was more of the same icy, shitty conditions. I rode with my buddy Ben and we made the best out of the day.

Heavenly

Incredible view of the lake

A beautiful day in Apr--, I mean January

It was like 2 different worlds at Heavenly this day. As you can see, it was like 65 and calm at the bottom of the hill, but up top the wind was blowing like 75 miles per hour and they had to shut down a bunch of the lifts. After some absolutely brutal runs over concrete ice, we ended up lapping this little mini park they had and calling it a day. At this point, I was jonesing for the Colorado snow hard core! I did get a few funny photos though...

This dude must have come straight from the club, he was wearing enough cologne to last him all year

AHHHHHH!!!!

Decisions, decisions

On the drive home, the clouds rolled in and cast this awesome light over the lake and I was able to snap a couple photos of it. It made the water look gray and the photos almost look black and white. So beautiful!

Keep Tahoe blue!

So that's it for my Tahoe shred-ventures... I had a couple really good days, and couple not so good days. I'm super glad to be back shredding in CO, snow is in the forecast!

Do You Like To... Do It, Yourself? Skate Rack

2009-01-14T22:46:00.008-07:00

Movie reference? Anyone....... Buller? Anyone? Hahaha... First person to name those two movie quotes gets a cyber hi-five.

Ok, so as I mentioned before, I'm going to be doing a bunch of Do It Yourself (DIY) features on the site and this is the first one. I'm a very creative person and I'm all about the DIY mentality. I love to make new things and change or alter the stuff I already have. I think people waste a lot of money on buying new shit all the time or paying for a service when they could make or do it themselves. Don't pay $25 for a snowboard wax, buy the wax for 5 bucks and ruin an iron doing it yourself. Want that $300 super snazzy snowboard jacket? Why not buy the black one for $150 and snaz it up yourself? Need somewhere to keep all your skate and snowboards? Make a skate rack in welding class for 20 bones....

There's also a sense of satisfaction when you do something yourself, for me at least. When I spend a lot of time and effort on something I'm way more stoked on it than I would be if I went out and bought it. It's like, "I just made that, fuck yeah!"

Anyway, the first HS DIY feature is a time lapse video of the skate rack I made in welding class this past semester. Well, it's actually me spray painting and adding some foam padding to the rack. I didn't want to risk bringing the camera into the welding shop where I was actually cutting and welding the steel... Shit gets a little crazy in there. It cost $12 for 14 feet of 1"x1", 1/8" thick tube steel and another $8 for some foam pipe insulation, spray paint, and some colored tape. It took me about 5 hours of work to complete, and I think it turned out pretty good!

So here it is, the first of a few DIY videos I've made. Dig it.

Skate Rack Time Lapse from Zac Bryson on Vimeo.

Pre spray paint

Check out those perfect mig welds!

Finished product

I'm Going Going, Back Back, to Colorado.....

2009-01-13T07:30:00.003-07:00

The HS graphic team was hard at work for the last week creating that spectacular visual... Well, I'm finally going back to CO after an extended, but very enjoyable stay in Reno. I can't wait to get back to some good snow! Hopefully the roads are to gnar on the trip... See ya in CO!

Inside The Actors Studio - That's It, That's All Webisode 4

2009-01-10T11:59:00.002-07:00

The next to last installment of these behind the scenes webisodes features the TiTa crew exploring New Zealand and all of its beauty. Lando gets his siiiiick method and T. Rice spins some of the craziest shit I've ever seen. Check it out.

Peep the first three webi's here.

Think Thank Thunk

2009-01-08T22:52:00.004-07:00

So during my weekly visit to the Lib-Tech website, I came across this gem of an interview ESPN did with Lib Tech ripper and Think Thank Films genius, Jesse Burtner. This dude shreds better with one foot strapped in than most people do with two, and Think Thank has put out some great snow films including this year's Stack Footy, and their best in my opinion, 2007's Thanks Brain.

Jesse really seems to have things figured out, "Instead of buying a snowboard to emulate someone else's expression, you buy the tool to create your own expression—that's the agenda I'm trying to push." He says in the interview. Fuckin A. It's the indy film companies like Think Thank that I believe truly embody what snowboarding is all about, and that's shredding with your friends, getting creative, and having a fucking fun time doing it. It's people like Jesse and Think Thank that truly inspire me to go out and ride my snowboard. The big time films featuring the world's best riders don't really do it for me inspiration wise. I mean c'mon, I'm never in my life going to huck, or land, a double corked b/s rodeo 10 over a 100 foot gap like T. Rice does in That's It, That's All. Nor will I ever air 20 feet out of a pipe or drop a 2,000 vertical line in AK. That shit is incredible and I love to watch it, but it's so far out of my reach. On the other hand, I might be able to spin a b/s 3 off a little pow pillow, or blunt stall 180 out on a wall ride, or fast plant off a ledge, or rip up some powder, ya know?

Those are the types of films I get the most stoked on. The ones where it's like, "Oh shit that was sick... I'm gonna go try that!"

So anyway, the interview is great, peep it here. Oh and make sure to watch the little vid also, so sick.

If you need proof that Jesse is the shit, just peep his part from Thanks Brain. Dig it.

And go buy his snowboard films!!!

Vail Dangle Berries

2009-01-07T23:23:00.006-07:00

So I heard about this a couple nights ago and couldn't really believe it actually happened. I mean the physics of it didn't really add up in my head. That was until I saw the photos....

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

What a kook!

You all should go peep The Tacklebox for a very funny description from someone who was on location to witness the upside down Sasquatch.

Dude was like this for 15 minutes apparently... What do you think was going through his mind while his balls were dangling for all to see?

"This isn't good. Let me ASS-es the situation."

"Maybe when I get down I'll go have a HEINE-ken..."

"I hope I don't TAINT my reputation..."

" Myspace!"

"How ironic, the Butthole Surfers are playing on my ipod right now...."

"This is fucking NUTS...."

"I hope I don't piss on my face...."

Ok, ok.... terrible puns aside, this is still hilarious. This guys will be the BUTT of so many jokes... HAHA! Ok that was really the last one.

Tahoe Dangerzone has even more photos of inverted Borat, like this one of someone getting a face full of ass.

I'm sure karma will catch up with me for making fun of this dude and I'll wipe out, causing all my clothes to simultaneously tear off my body, and I'll slide totally naked down the entire mountain.

I'm still laughing at this though...

Rome SDS Deathrider Run

2009-01-07T23:17:00.003-07:00

This is a very cool video from Rome featuring some of their up and coming riders shredding for a few days at Echo Mountain.

Deathrider Run To Echo from KIDS ON SHRED PRODUCTIONS on Vimeo.

Mellow Tahoe Shred Grooves

2009-01-06T02:31:00.000-07:00

I must be a magnet for winter storms that dump feet of snow, or the luckiest son-of-a bitch this side of the Mississippi. Probably the latter... You see, Tahoe hadn't gotten shit for snow before I came home to Reno for the holidays. The day I left CO, a Friday I believe, it had started snowing heavily in Tahoe with a lot more in the forecast. FUCK YEAH. You know, now that I think about it, I think the weather does follow me because CO had a some great early season storms, I get on a plane to Reno, it snows there. Oh and last year... holly shit. CO had an epic early season last year, again Tahoe not so epic, I get on a plane to come home and what happens? 14 feet... yes FEET, not inches, of snow shits from the sky over a 5 day period. I was only planning on staying in Reno for a week and a half or so but ended up staying for like a month, shoveling people's drive ways so I could buy lift tickets, and having about 5 waist deep pow days in a row. I'm getting blood flow just thinking about that... Coincidence? I think not!

Moral of the story, it snows where I go. If you want it to snow where you are, just buy me a plane ticket out there. Well, only if you live near some big mountains and want it to snow... In Utah, or Mt. Baker, or Whistler or something. None of that East "ice" coast shit.

Ok on to the shred!

So I get home and finally Tahoe gets some snow. Stoked. I was a little worried before I came home it wouldn't snow and I wouldn't be able to ride whilst in Reno. Like I said I got home on a Friday, on Saturday we were on the mountain. Pretty much everywhere in Tahoe is like 30-45 minutes away from Reno, so day trips are the norm around these parts. A few of my buddies have the Double Whammy pass, which is good at Northstar and Sierra at Tahoe, and Northstar is where we rode Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately for the people out in Tahoe, there's nothing like the Colorado or Epic pass. The double whammy is as good as it gets, as most resorts just offer a season pass to their mountain. Kind of lame if you ask me. There should be some kind of multi-mountain pass, especially with how close all the different resorts are. Vail resorts has it figured out I guess...

Northstar: 12/20/08 & 12/21/08

Anyway, like the title implies, these were two of the mellowest days of riding I've had in a long time. One of my good buddies was strapping on a snowboard for the first time, and I agreed to teach him how to shred. For some people, teaching someone else how to ride is pure torture, especially if you're doing it out of good nature and it's not your job. For me, it was only semi torturous. Riding half the day with only one foot strapped in is never fun but I remembered the people who took the time to teach me how to ride and how bummed they probably were watching me bust my ass all day and not being able to ride. Everyone has to start somewhere, and teaching yourself is not really an option. If it would have been a pow day, I would have told him to fuck off and learn another time, as there are no friends on powder days. Fortunately for him, it wasn't. It was, however, bluebird and super warm and the snow was soft and tasty.

My buddy bought a new board and it came with this free lift ticket voucher to Northstar so I was set.... Or so I thought. Turns out, after talking to about 4 different people at 4 different locations on the mountain, the voucher was only good for a learn to ride package and had to be redeemed online. Bull shit. I was not about to pay $80 for a lift ticket, so I did what any experienced veteran of getting shit for free would do... Clipped a ticket. I searched for about half an hour for the perfect victim, a father of two very small, unhappy, cold looking children, and dude was more than happy to let me swipe his lift ticket. Boo ya!

Snowboard: $400, Boots: $200, Outerwear: $300. Clipping a ticket and riding for free? EPIC.

Since I was teaching my buddy how to ride, it was slow going both days. So what did I do? Rode switch almost the whole time and got that shit dialed in. Still not on point with the quick turns it takes to ride through the trees, but just carving down the mountain felt super comfy switch. I was also spreading butter over the entire mountain, working on nollies, switch and fakie ollies, half cabs and switch b/s 1's off every lip I could find, I even got a couple small, sloppy cab 3's, bonking the slow signs, and doing lots of fast plants, which are really fun to do. There were a few pow staches I ripped regular through, cause who wants to blow it and wipe out and get stuck in the pow? Not me... I didn't get many photos of the weekend riding, I was just mellow groovin, and in teacher mode, but I did get a couple shots of just chillen.

Gnarstar

Groovin

My pupil Trevor and myself

Trev stoked to finally be shredding

Sick view of Lake Tahoe from the mountain

The ultimate leash

Driving back with 4 boards riding bitch. Not as bad as this though...

On the second day of riding at Northstar, I wasn't as lucky as I was the day before with ticket clipping. I was striking out left and right, and a couple other super secret methods of getting on the mountain for free failed, so it was either hike half way up to the lifts that don't scan or.... Houdini past the gondola liftie scanning tickets at the very bottom. Two days of riding, 0 dollars spent by me. Hey, when you literally don't have any money you do whatever it takes to shred.

Well, I was going to do one big ass post of all my days of Tahoe riding thus far, but that'll be way too long and I don't want to bore you. More to come soon, so stay tuned in. Dig it.

4 Star in San Francisco

2009-01-06T00:25:00.001-07:00

You remember the 4 Star crew shredding the pool at the Pink Motel and hitting up the legendary Brooklyn Banks right? Of course you do. Well, here's the last installment of their catalog shoot, this time in San Francisco. Great song, great skating, and the Gonz wins two bucks.

I would click here and watch the fancy crystal clear version... But you can watch the poop youtube version below if you're feeling lazy.

Epicly Later'd MIke Carroll - Episodes 6 & 7

2009-01-05T23:46:00.003-07:00

Mike Carroll is so fucking good at skateboarding it's not even funny. For all the kiddies out there, this is what you want to skate like.

Episode 6 - The legendary Penal Code

Episode 7 - Filming for Modus, Fully Flared

The Gonz' Super Champian Fun Zone - Vol. 1

2009-01-05T02:12:00.005-07:00

Hybrid Sessions is way stoked to present its latest and greatest feature, The Gonz' Super Champion Fun Zone, the Echo Mountain Chronicles. Sweet ass title huh? This will hopefully become a regular occurrence on the blog, featuring the words, photos, and shred-ventures of HS newest contributor, my good buddy, shred crew member, and all around righteous dude, Jon "The Gonz" Gallegos. HS makin' moves, dig it.

T.G.S.C.F.Z. - Vol. 1

I would like to start out by thanking Mr. Hybrid Sessions himself, Zac Bryson. To all the readers out there, I also would like to introduce ourselves, I’m Jon Gallegos, and with me is my handy intern/cameraman/all around constant complainer, Jordan Gallegos, AKA Jordan The Intern.

Jordan The Intern and The Gonz

Zac called me up one day a few weeks back and asked me if I wanted to be a correspondent for the blog. So, of course I was ecstatic to be a part of something so pure and free from all the crap out there and what the media tells us is the norm. Right around when the snow season began, we decided not to conform to the Vail Resorts Corporation and take back what is ours and not let them tell us how to ride and have fun. Thus, the birth of the Echo Mountain Chronicles begins. Now in its third season, this semi-new Mountain Park has it going on. With an I don’t give a fuck attitude, nestled back 12 miles up Squaw Pass road in Evergreen, CO, Echo is a quick outlet for skiers and riders alike to progress morning till night. With a handful of days under our belts, we’ve decided to make our first post with enough photos to make you wonder, is Echo really worth it? We say yes it is. Here are a few photos of the place to give you a better understanding of what it's all about.

The Lodge, nice and small, way less gapers

e-pill, almost as fun as the wall ride

This is the main run so far... Keep your peepers open for more runs as soon as they get more snow

Some mellow hits with steep landings

The view from the patio of the lodge

Last week we got an early start and headed up there free of traffic and with bluebird skies. The pass on the way up is a little nerve racking considering it's in the shade with ice everywhere and no guard rails, but slow and low is a motto of mine and we made it up there in about 40 minutes from my house in metro Denver.

Sketch road, it's no joke

A near death experience on the way up I would rather not talk about...

Arrival, waiting for the newby to get his shit together

Jordan The Intern

After dropping in, we got a few warm up runs before we started to shot some photos. And might I add, Jordan The Intern is quite the photographer.

A little front board on the mail box

Rock to fakie on the tire

Stalefish to front disaster on the wall ride. Sorry for the blur, makes it hard to see the grab

Method bitches! my favorite shot, but very blurry with a weird glare from the sun. Also premature on full tweak

So now that u have a good idea what Echo is all about, I suggest maybe taking some time out of your busy schedules to get in touch with the roots of why you stared to shred in the first place. In my opinion, the essence of snowboarding is turning, and with everyone out to trying and find the freshest and deepest untapped pow stash or finest groomers, we lose track of what really matters, and that’s having FUN with the crew! There is a lot to be had at Echo and it is only a stones throw away from Denver. So maybe next time you get an itch to go ride, take a breather from Breckenridge or Keystone and support a good and cheap time at Echo Mountain Park. Looking forward to shredding with you all sometime soon!

A shot leaving Echo. Best view in Colorado, hands down!

Echo Mountain Park Hours:

Echomt.com

And..... I'm Back!

2009-01-02T12:29:00.006-07:00

HS tie-dye shirts!? Uhhhh son!

Whew! I hope everyone's holiday was super awesome and happy 2009 to all!

I wasn't planning on that little hiatus from Hybrid Sessions, but as you all know, shit gets crazy around the holidays and it was hard to focus on writing and posting while I was catching up and spending time with family and friends, snowboarding, getting sick, making moves, and growing the Mu-Stache. It was very nice though, to step back and take a break from the blog, kind of regroup if you will, and examine everything I've accomplished through Hybrid Sessions.... Which is very little.

I have made friends with some really rad people, hung out with a pro snowboarder, talked to a couple amazing artists, saw some cool shred flicks, and hopefully made some people laugh and kept everyone stoked. Let's see, what else?.... Eh, that's about it, haha!

I want to thank everyone out there who reads HS and leaves comments and emails me shit. I get so stoked when people let me know they like the site. This blog is something I do because I love to snowboard and skate and listen to music and make art, and talk about it all. Those are my passions in life this is my way of constantly staying in touch with those things. I'm not getting paid for any of this, perhaps someday, but for now I'm just a dude with a gross Mu-Stache and a camera, and a computer... and internet access, who loves to shred.

As I promised before, and after my very refreshing little break, I'm ready to dive balls deep back into Hybrid Sessions and start posting everyday. Well, there might be days when I'm in the middle of the CO back country, camping in a tent with 2 other dudes, ripping pow, so I probably won't post those days. But every other day I will!

I'm still in Reno, kind of stuck here until the vehicle I'm driving back to CO is ready to roll, literally. I got three days of riding in right when I got home, then I got super sick, went out of town to see some family right after a HUGE storm and didn't get to ride that, and was supposed to go today but gale force winds have shut down most of Tahoe. Sweet. I'm starting to have withdrawals from not snowboarding... Jumpy, emotional volatility, rapid emotional changes, depression, bad dreams of all the snow melting over night, nausea, only eating Cliff Bars, staring at my snowboard leaning against the wall for hours and hours and hours... Just kidding. Tomorrow is supposed to be blue bird so I'll be up there giggling like a little girl while getting my fix of the shred. Dig it.

Thanks again to everyone, I hope you all keep reading and help spread the HS word. Look for big things in 2009!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T01:26:00.000-07:00

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

2008-12-18T22:33:00.002-07:00

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

2008-12-18T22:28:00.004-07:00

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

2008-12-15T20:35:00.004-07:00

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...

2008-12-15T19:41:00.003-07:00

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

2008-12-15T17:59:00.008-07:00

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

2008-12-14T13:15:00.002-07:00

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

2008-12-10T20:16:00.003-07:00

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

2008-12-10T10:45:00.003-07:00

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

2008-12-09T22:07:00.003-07:00

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

2008-12-09T09:56:00.003-07:00

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

2008-12-07T19:56:00.013-07:00

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!