STEEZ MAGAZINE® – Snow, Skate, Culture

The forecast called for rain and while that may have kept a few people home for EB’s 11th annual Last Call, hundreds still turned out. So much for the rain though, it dumped about 6 inches of snow throughout the day, sometimes quite heavy, making it hard for riders and photographers alike to calibrate. Regardless, we saw a good mix of talent and shenanigans as usual. Loon had pretty nasty setups for the rhythm and rails sections and it helped inspire riders to get creative with their tricks. Merrick Joyce took home first and a $1500 cash prize in the end. He was solid in all the sections through the day and well deserving. With that said though, there’s definitely a lot of good riders out there right now and not all of them were able to get recognition for their efforts yesterday. We look at Last Call as a good meeting place for some of the top talents in the northeast to showcase their seasons efforts. There’s new faces and old ones and it’s awesome to see how they stack up against eachother. We’re pumped to see some more of these up and comers next season.

Jumps:
Travis Neuenhaus

Rhythm:
Tanner McCarty

Rails:
Rob Hallowell

High Ollie:
Rob Hallowell
Riley Nickerson
Eugene Stancato

Best Trick:
Jonny O’Connor
(Cab 270 Frontboard to 180 BS Sameway 270)

Most Entertaining:
Big Mike

Womens:
1. Michaela Aaronson
2. Jordan Parks
3. Mary Rand

Mens:
1. Merrick Joyce
2. Mike Ravelson
3. Zack Normandin


Cheeseburger anyone? Make sure you thaw your mustard first…

Ian gettin’ up there.

One of the more creative tricks we saw in the rhythm section.

Peer pressure.

Haddock pressin’ it out.

Gettin’ Steezy on the box.

This kid was throwing down! (can someone identify?)

36 inches and counting.

Honeycutt’s new metalwork.

Nelson held it down.

Murph with some added street cred.

Nice BS. (*note – Hallowell was going huge on this rail all jam, props.)

Ladies podium.

Mens podium.

Pat Moore’s brainchild “Back To The Boneyard” went down today for it’s third consecutive year at Waterville Valley, NH. It was a warm bluebird day, perfect for a slopeside comp. Tons of riders, media and spectators came out and either skipped school or work to enjoy the mellowed out comp format. The jams consisted of jumps, slalom and quarterpipe (with a rail thrown into the mix). Personalities like Pat Bridges, Preston Strout and of course Pat Moore were on hand throughout. You have to respect a comp that is more about the laughs than the prizes. The gauntlet was put into effect during the slalom and there were definitely a couple of casualties as a result. Tons of handplants on the QP and only one serious injury throughout the day. Props out to our boy Alex Cole. Get better soon brotha! All in all, if you’ve never been it’s definitely worth callin’ into work for the day. Don’t expect to spectate or hike to the setup from the bottom of the mountain either- it ain’t happenin’. Over $1,500 was raised for the Pat Moore Foundation which is awesome and the open bar tab from PBR was super dope too. Check out the dozen plus winners below. Everything from new Pat Moore pro model boards to goggles, baby bibs, 8-tracks, artwork and stuffed pheasants were awarded. Love the originality! We’ll be back next year no doubt.

15 And Under:
1. Jack Herald
2. Parker Szumowski
3. James Frawley

Ladies:
1. Julie Kochan
2. Mackenzie Hennesy
3. Mary Walsh

Mens:
1. Zach Normandin
2. Merrick Joyce
3. Nick Esposito

25+
1. Tyler Davis
2. Adam Meterville
3. Jacques Beriau

Most Hagard Kit: Preston Strout
Biggest Hick: Aaron Diamond
Best Method: Jacques Beriau
Best Trick Rail: Merrick Joyce
Best Jumper: Luke Mathison
Days of Old School: Preston Strout
King of The Boneyard: Zach Normandin
Biggest Jump Pussy: Ryan Stephany
Biggest Slalom Pussy: Pat Bridges
Biggest Quarterpipe Pussy: Mike King
Worst Taste In Music: Pat Bridges
Worst Slam: Alex Cole
Biggest Buzzard: Aaron Diamond

Perfect cheese wedge.

Go big or go home.

Improv wall ride.

Gauntlet style.

Keep our head down!

Extra points for style.

Gettin’ some.

Some more.

Dont let the sun fool ya. The pipe was solid all day.

Is that a Rembrandt?

Hecklers.

The man, the myth, the legend.

Saw some gnar on this thing today.

Saturday brought some better weather and the crowds as usual for the superpipe finals. The pipe was moved a little bit further down the mountain so it was more spectator friendly. There was a strong turnout by the time mens finals rolled around at 1pm, which seemed a little early this year… Kazu Kokubo was on fire, dropping hammers for his home country, Japan. With frontside double cork 1080′s and cab 1080 melon grabs in his bag of tricks, the kid didn;t even have to take a final run. He ended up claiming first and the $20K and was still pretty pumped when we saw him leaving the parking lot a few hours later! Kelly Clark was unstoppable as usual winning her record breaking fifth US Open halfpipe victory. Damn! Not only did she take home the $20K for that but she also took top spot in the womens BGOS Finals and scored another $50K and a Mini Cooper. All in a days work, kind of. Peetu took the BGOS for the mens as well. The Sounds closed out the afternoon on-snow and we did what we do best in the parking lot till the snow got heavy. Another year in the books, nobody got hurt or arrested – we can’t ask for too much more than that. Check out all the results below and a boatload more pictures here.

Women’s Halfpipe Finals Results
1. Kelly Clark (USA) BURTON 94.95 $20,000
2. Hannah Teter (USA) BURTON 88.10 $10,000
3. Gretchen Bleiler (USA) K2 86.30 $5,000

Men’s Halfpipe Finals Results
1. Kazuhiro Kokubo (JPN) BURTON 90.10 $20,000
2. Louri Podladtchikov (SUI) TSG 88.60 $10,000
3. Kohei Kudo (JPN) OAKLEY 87.90 $5,000

Burton Global Open Series Men’s Final Results
1. Peetu Piiroinen (FIN) BURTON $50,000 and a MINI Countryman
2. Louri Podladtchikov (SUI) TSG $30,000
3. Christian Haller (SUI) BURTON $20,000

Burton Global Open Series Women’s Final Results
1. Kelly Clark (USA) BURTON $50,000 and a MINI Countryman
2. Jamie Anderson (USA) BILLABONG $30,000
3. Kjersti Buaas (NOR) ROXY $20,000

Men’s TTR World Tour Champion
Peetu Piiroinen (FIN) BURTON $50,000
Women’s TTR World Tour Champion
Jamie Anderson (USA) BILLABONG $50,000

©Trevor Denman – Easily the 15′ mark.

©Trevor Denman – Way better than the lift.

The “SASS”quatch…

©Trevor Denman – Psshh, I can do that…Maybe.

©Trevor Denman – Mom’s looking the wrong way.

We love a good physical challenge here at Steez.

Another happy customer.

High Cascade knew what was up.

Wait, is that really Danny Davis? Damn!

Nothin like watching yourself interview on the big screen behind the camera.

Louie Vito passin out those John Hancocks.

Crowd pleaser.

Skiers helped out too.

Best view in the house = sea of spectators.

Kazu doin it for Japan.

Herded like sheep.

Ladies pipe podium.

Spray some over here!

These guys crushed it all day, with Lg. Fries!

Friday’s festivities are really what we’d call Day One of the Open as it’s the first day of finals. This year with the railjam back and the slopestyle both on the same day, it made for a long one. Good ol’ New England brought plenty of rain throughout the day and then some cold temps for the night. Hey, that’s snowboarding for ya. Anyway, Burton and Stratton came together for one of the gnarliest railjam or “Jam” setups we’ve seen in awhile. It looked more like a Hollywood movie set with all the planks, scaffolding and lights. Riders were a little intimidated but it didn’t stop anyone from throwing down. Canadian Charles Reid went for more of a big air approach and took home the cash for the men. Check out the results below while I shut up and let the pictures do the talking… Oh yeah, check out all our pics from Friday here.

Men’s Results: The Jam
1. Charles Reid (CAN) BURTON
2. Jason Dubois (CAN) ANON
3. Yale Cousino (USA) SHRED OPTICS

Women’s Results: The Jam
1. Kjersti Buaas (NOR) ROXY
2. Jamie Anderson (USA) BILLABONG
3. Spencer O’Brien (USA) NIKE 6.0

Women’s Slopestyle Finals Results
1. Enni Rukajärvi (FIN) BURTON 86.50
2. Jamie Anderson (USA) BILLABONG 84.80
3. Silje Norendal (NOR) NIKE6.0 78.70

Men’s Slopestyle Finals Results
1. Eric Willett (USA) QUIKSILVER 90.40
2. Mark McMorris (CAN) BURTON 87.80
3. Chas Guldemond (USA) ROCKSTAR 87.20

Jammin’ before The Jam.
Why stand in the rain when you can drink a beer and watch it all on TV?

Girls Slopestyle Champs goin wild.

“Whoooaaaaa!!!!”

Nice seats!

Boostin’ it to the hip.

They even managed to sneak a quarterpipe in there.

That MINI sign is HUGE…We love irony.

Proper.

Very proper.

Go towards the light…

Where’s the champagne ladies (Jam Champs)?

What!? Still no champagne?

You’re the owner of No School Snowboard Shop, but what exactly do you do?
EVERYTHING! I also own Triple Diamond Ski Shop next door to No School, so all my duties are doubled! I attend trade shows and place all the orders for the shops from over 50 different companies. I do payroll and all the associated forms and taxes that come with that every two weeks. I pay lots of taxes and insurance and utility bills. Take garbage to the dump. Plow both parking lots every time it snows. Shovel snow. Clean the bathrooms. Restock the stores when needed. Set up store displays. Zip and straighten all the coats and pants and stuff that customers throw around the shops. Sell! Ride when I can find the time. Answer lots of phone calls. Make lots of phone calls. Deal with banks, and mortgage companies, and any customer problems. Manage Facebook pages for both shops. Handle all the money and deposits from both shops. Balance the check books. Pay tons of invoices! Advertise in print, internet and radio. I cut my own radio ads. I always have a direct hand in my print advertising. Maintenance on both shops. Did I mention I pay a lot of bills?!?! The duties are endless. I think most people underestimate how much work it is owning a business. And on top of that I try to find time for myself, my friends, my family and riding.

What is your favorite part about working in this industry?
It never feels like work.

If you could describe snowboarding in one word, what would it be?
Freedom.

What was the last thing you wasted money on?
Golf clubs.

If there were one food you could not live without, what would it be?
Brownies.

Lastly, if you could go anywhere in the world where would you go, and why would you go there?
Wherever my kids are, because I love being with them.

Internviewed By: Jenn Cannon

With many late nights that turned into early mornings Oneoheight brings you a brand new website. After going through it’s third and by far most extensive facelift, they’ve made it better than ever. Here are some of the highlighted features of the new site:

-Full E-Commerce Shop where you can get your hands on all of Oneoheight’s exclusive merchandise and have it delivered right to your door.

-Live News-Feed that is linked to all their major social networks so you will always be in the know with what’s happening around the area.

-Oneoheight YouTude Channel with a featured video right on the homepage. Keep an eye out for things like webisodes, product videos, and more!

-They’ve made it easier than ever to contact them via direct links under the ‘Contact Us’ tab

-And also a mobile site for you guys with all your wicked smahht phones so you can check out the site wherever you are, with the option of purchasing products right from your phone

For the fourth year Rome SDS brings you the end of season stoke you crave. Stoken is the un-contests of all contests. It’s a time to celebrate the shred season as it winds down and warms up, in a huge crew moving from feature to feature just having a good time. The Stoken may include: all, some, or none of the following good times:

Reverse Limbo Ollie Bar – mad ups bro

One Hitters – could be a hip, quarter pipe, pipe, or on the chairlift

The Long Slash – spray and pray

Barrel Bonks – little tap, tap, taparoo

Mystery Flavor – could be anything

Everyone will be traveling as a pack from feature to feature, sessioning each jib or event in a super loose good-times jam format. And while the Stoken isn’t about winning, they still want to hook up a few people displaying the largest stoke quantity with a few extra items.

First in Stoke – 2012 Mob Bindings
Second in Stoke – 2012 Rome Jacket
Third in Stoke – 2012 Rome Backpack

At the end of it all it’ll wrap up with a good ol’ product toss and possibly some hot dogs down in the parking lot.

March 13th – Wachusett’s in MA – 10AM

March 19th – Nubs Nob in MI – 10:30AM

March 19th – Canyons in UT – 10AM

March 19th – Holiday Valley in NY – 10AM (Helmets Required)

March 25th – Summit at Snoqualamie in WA – 10AM

March 26th – Big Boulder in PA – 10AM

It went down in grand fashion this weekend at Mountain High for the second stop of the “Thuggin on a Box” Fundraiser rail jam tour sponsored by Tyrant Snowboards, S4 Optics, Grenade Gloves, Party Snake, IS Design, Ballers Choice, Vulgar Villains, Axtion Magazine, Blaze1, Annenberg, Steez Magazine, Couchboys, Thug Bunniez, Explosive Industries, Civilian Clothing, The Horror Project, Nothings Changed, Ellis, Bad Boarderz and Thug Krew Snowboarding. Over 45 riders registered for the event and all proceeds of the event were donated to the leukemia & lymphoma society, over $350 in honor of Chuck Allen, founder of USASA and co founder of NFFA who passed away on Valentines Day. Chuck was a legend a great man and a legend, he helped build the biggest amateur snowboard competition in the world, and helped more kids achieve there snowboard dreams than most realize. “We ride for Chuck” proclaimed Snowdogg as they kicked off the riders meeting. The crowd was able to enjoy the groovin’ sounds of the Blinding Ash, The Skeletones and the Speaker Junkeez while event host “Dirty D” called the tricks, repped the sponsors and freestyled to the bangin dubstep and hip-hop beats dropped by the DJ on the course. After a quick tally by the Snowdogg announced the finals and everyone threw down there hardest to try and walk away victorious when the spring slush settled it was Nick Guin who walked away with first.

MENS FINALS
1. Nick Guin 2. JD Floen 3. Jared McDaniel

WOMENS FINALS
1. Victoria Flores 2. Kaz Palomino 3. Jenny Johnson

BEST TRICK
Brendon Simons – the hardway 450

GROMS FINALS
1. Colby Lazerette 2. David Arnold 3. Nick Stroter

SKIERS FINALS
1. Alex Gawer 2. Alexa Chadilton 3. Micah Tirre

photos by Michael Stuart, Jody Glaza and Jason Anderson

Thuggin on a rail.

Thug podium.

Thuggette podium lookin good…

Thuggin on a single barrel.

The Skeletones tearin down the house.

Oh yeah, it’s time of year again when the Burton U.S. Open comes back to VT to put on a show. Stratton Mountain will host as usual and the event is going all this week, ending on Sunday. This year the railjam is back for Friday night. Slopestyle is goin down on Friday too. Don’t miss the highlight of the week, superpipe finals on Saturday at 1pm. Flosstradamus and The Sounds will be playing live shows Friday and Saturday night and look for a new and improved festival village atmosphere. New sponsors including Mini and Nokia will be on mountain too. Oh and remember how much of a hike it was to get up to the halfpipe and rail jam in the past, they’ve fixed that too. Everything is right down in front of the Sun Bowl lodge this year. This is America! We don’t walk! Anyway, come find Steez on Saturday, we’ll be giving out a ton of freebies for ya. Good stuff.

Stoked!3 Skate Deck Art Show and Auction to benefit the Chatham Skatepark in New York will be kicking off on Saturday March 26th at 2pm. The Charles Benenson Visitors Center at OMI International in Ghent, NY will host the show and feature live music, refreshments and DJ OFI from 6-9pm. Auction bidding ends at 8pm on the dozens of awesome artists decks. Come help out a good cause and keep the stoke alive! Suggested donation of $5.