STEEZ MAGAZINE® – Snow, Skate, Culture

Crotched Parks – Block Party 2012 from Sean Mitchell on Vimeo.

This Saturday night, don’t miss out on the biggest block party at the mountains. Crotched Mountain is hosting a banger evening! Print the above flier for a 2-for-1 lift ticket for the night. There’ll be a bon fire, live music, giveaways and one of the sickest street setups in New England. Party starts at 9pm and goes till 3am!

UNH kicks off the winter season with an on campus rail jam! Rail Jelly Rail Jam is goin down tonight at Boulder field. $5 gets you in the comp (UNH students), open to skiers and snowboarders, and all proceeds benefit Boarding for Breast Cancer. Prizes and more, check it!

SnowRiders 3rd Annual Winter Kickoff Party is this Saturday night at Who’s On First in Boston. There’s over $2K on the line this year and it’ll be bigger and better than last years. This party is always huge, don’t miss out!

Tonight at the MUB on UNH campus is the 6th Annual Get Outta Bed and Shred winter mini show. Drop by for product tosses, raffles, giveaways and tons more. Always an awesome time!

This Friday night it’s goin down at PSU! Stept’s annual video premiere will be held at Hyde 120 this year at 7:30pm. $3 gets you in the doors to check out their new flick “Weight” with plenty of product being tossed out afterwards. Stick around town ’cause you know the parties afterwards will be just as epic!

CVA’s huge ski and sports equipment sale is this Saturday october 8th at the Anti gravity Complex. Tons of gear for winter at awesome prices, get there early cause it only happens once a year!

Yep, time for another beach session at Whaleback. The first 10 people there will get a Meatheads DVD. $10 gets you an afternoon of jibbing. Good stuff!

SGT Argentina: Session 3 Snowboard from SASS Global Travel on Vimeo.

Weight Trailer – Stept Productions from Stept Productions on Vimeo.

On Saturday September 2nd, Bolton Valley will host Vermont’s first ski and snowboard rail jam of the 11-12 season. $10 gets you in but preregister by clicking through and be sure to get a spot. There’ll be plenty of snow with a nice jib setup in the tennis court area. Prizes, swag and early season sessions. Dust your board off!

The Second Annual Shop Guy Invitational went down yesterday at Ragged Mountain Golf Course in Danbury, NH. The event was a huge success, drawing more than 50 snow/skate industry characters from throughout New England together for a good cause. This years event helped raise more than $1,500 for the Molly Fund. It was blistering hot and the scattered thunderstorms ended some games a hole or two early, but that didn’t stop everyone from having an awesome time. Congrats to the Snowboard Jones crew for taking the top spot and Mike Lee and Shannon Mitchell for hitting the farthest ball for men and women. Even without snow at the mountain you can still have a kick ass time. We’re looking forward to next years event.
Photos: Sullivan McLaughlin

Ahhh Memorial Day Weekend. A time dedicated to those who have fought for our country, a weekend to honor the men and women who have served to ensure our freedom, and time for skiing. Yup, that’s right. On May 28th in 75-degree weather, a few hundred of New England’s most dedicated skiers and riders made what has become an annual pilgrimage to West Dover, VT to enjoy Mount Snow’s Peace Pipe Rail Jam.

This spring, the slushy remains of Inferno’s 70-foot booters are bulldozed flat and, like a phoenix from the ashes, reborn into a glorious rail garden. Despite an ominous forecast and swarms of black flies large enough to carry off some of the smaller riders, the day was a success. With seven features and a few hundred yards of snow-covered slope, those who showed up were well received.

This year’s set up consisted of some corrugated pipe, an A rail, an up rail, a flat box, a down-flat-down rail, a flat down, and a water tank jib, not to mention the collection of mini-ramps on the lodge deck for people to play on if they wanted to take a quick skateboarding break. As Phill Geyselears pointed out, “The set up is great. The only thing that could be better is if we had a lift… maybe a pony that could pull us up the hill, just something so that we didn’t have to walk so much.”

Lift or not, moral at the Peace Pipe only improved as the day went on. The day was described by some of the skiers as “energetic, bomb, spectacular, saucy, awesome, intense, and beautiful.” However it was summed up best by Rob Dresser. When asked to express his thoughts about the event in three words, he responded with a wide grin, calling Saturday simply a, “real fun day.” Others, such as Spenser Cook, echoed this sentiment saying, “It’s hot, snowy, what more could you want? This is the most fun I’ve had all year, too bad it’s the last event.”

As the day went on, the cloudy skies gave way to a mostly sunny day, as if the ski gods were in full support of this last hurrah. As the temperature in increased, so did the intensity of the tricks. By noon, flips-both front and back-had been thrown despite the lack of any real jump, K-Feds became a regular sight, and pretzels were plentiful. However, it really started going off when 17-year-old Robert Bittner threw a 450 disaster, 270 out on the flat-down rail.

This year, like the past four years, the Peace Pipe has been all about getting everyone together for one last day of on-snow shenanigans, not about competition or a fat cash purse. Cook, when asked what he thought of the Peace Pipe’s format, replied with, “this is perfect, I wouldn’t want anything else. With this, it’s just pushing yourself for the fun of it.”

Overall, the day was one to be remembered. It’s events like this that will help us all push through the warm, snowless months to come as we wait for the first flakes of the ‘11/’12 season to fall. For 15-year-old Hunter Tyrrell, the three hour drive to Mount Snow was, “totally worth it,” saying that, “when opportunities come like this, take them no matter what.” This sort of passion is the driving force that helps us to continue to advance the sport we have all come to love, and it is great to see it alive and well in so many of the younger skiers who took part in Saturday’s event.

None of this would have been possible if it weren’t for the Mount Snow Park Rangers, so a big thank you to them. Their hard work was what gave us the chance for one final day of fun. Bittner put it best by saying, “It’s awesome that these guys set this up so late in the year. I never thought that I’d be skiing Memorial Day weekend. This is like paradise for me.” Thanks again to the Rangers and to everyone who came out for the jam, making it one of the best days this year. Have a good summer.
Words and Photos: Sam Davies