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Sprung Break for the Poor: Northeast Edition

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

If you’re a college student with a spring break, chances are you’re gunning to do some drinking and some skiing this March. But if you’re not lucky enough to have a family that takes annual ski trips, or already spent all of your money this year drinking, there are a few options around the area to keep you shreddin’ hard and having a good time despite your gloomy financial situation. Here are a couple options:

The “all my TGR buddies went to Alta and I’m stuck at home with my Dynastar XXLs” spot: Magic Mountain

The Word: The recently un-shuttered Magic Mountain is about as straightforward as you can get: one red double-chair, completely open boundaries, and no stakes blocking off those tempting cliffs East Coast resorts always rope off to keep the joeys from airing into icy mogul fields and blowing their ACL’s. Magic is only open Friday-Monday and during the week if there’s a powder day (6”+), so trails and the woods stay pretty fresh. If you snag Redline first run with fresh snow you can send it off a bunch of cliffs, drops, and catdrops that sit right under the lift line, earning you double points from the AT-sporting TGR crowd that swear by their GoPros that Magic is the goods. As a bonus, you can see all the idiots at Okemo and Stratton waiting in line while you hot lap trees. If pulling out a knife and fake-wrestling in ski boots on the deck with your buddy after you’ve slammed four beers is your thing, you’ll find plenty of that quirky Vermont humor here.

The Deal: Mid-week tickets are $39, or weekends for $59.

The “all my rich buddies went to Breck and I’m stuck at home with mom’s car” spot: Mount Snow

The Word: The East Coast’s answer to Bear Mountain + Dew Tour course. The Nitro Express at Carinthia gets you top-to-bottom jibs, jumps, polejams, etc., etc. etc. on every trail off the lift, with the highlight being Nitro, the small/medium park that runs the length of the liftline with 20+ options to hit in a row. The wood park is nasty if you’ve figured out how to slide wood on skis or are Garret Russell. If you are indeed as hard as the “underground” hip-hop playing from your Skullcandy’s, the original Dew Tour course is open every day. If you’re the kind of guy that’s pissed Level 1 doesn’t just do park segments anymore, or are ripping off the tongues from your old basketball shoes and duct-taping them to your Salomon boots so you can afterbang like T-Fresh, Mt. Snow is your new kingdom. Any jibber worth their weight in tall tees needs to check this park out.

The Deal: If you pick up the March issue of Transworld Snowboarding, on page 36 there is a coupon for a free lift ticket after the purchase of a first one. That gets you two days of jibbing for $75 and yes, BroBomb looked that hard for deals for you. Lift tickets on St. Patty’s Day (the 17th) are also only $17. If your buddy’s got a pass, he/she can bring you on Fridays for $45, or $36 for you nerds still studying pre-algebra in high school.

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Your Ass Missed the Mark

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

yams

This might be the beginning of a recurring series, or it might be a once-and-done bitchfest. Either way, I present to you: Your Ass Missed the Mark (conveniently shortened to YAMs). I’m going to do my best to get that into regular circulation, so when you hear a bearded weirdie yelling “you YAMed it” from the lift, you’ll know I’m near.

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Noseblocks with Garrett Russell

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

The noseblock is a tricky maneuver. It’s fun and simple, but there’s significant risk of breaking your precious skis if you’re not doing it right. We went straight to the source for a trick tip to end all trick tips. Garrett has more variations on the noseblock than anyone in the game, and has probably forgotten more quirky tricks than we’ve even dreamed of. Scroll down for animation or check out Wild Life and the latest TC webisode to see him in action.

noseblock imageAll photos: Ed

BroBomb: Let’s go into trick tip mode. We’re going to talk noseblocks, mostly because I try to noseblock all the time and I suck at them. So I’m going to be completely self-serving and try to get some pointers from the master.

Garrett: Cool. It’s all about timing and waiting for your apex. It’s crazy because I see some kids do it, and I’m like, “Oh my god, they’re going to break their skis!” Don’t do it like that, I hate for kids to break their skis. I know a couple people who have and I’m sorry, but it’s super fun. It’s all about having the right snow, and you’ll learn that if you go into something icy you’ll die. But if it’s too soft your skis are just going to punch through.

Been there.

Yeah. It can work out though, it’s all about reading the snow and waiting for that one point where you come up to a point where the hill goes like this (makes a hill with his arm) and there’s a little bit of tranny where you slow down. You wait until you slow down, and that’s when you lean forward and bring your heels up to your butt. Then you kind of lean back and do any grab you want, like you’ve got the “backpacker” now.

It’s all about patience and waiting and finding that balance on the tips. Other than that just practice, I guess. But it all depends on where you do it. Like, when we’re going skiing I’ll do it in one spot and then I’ll keep going back to that one spot. Then I can slowly dig out these little tip steps in the side of jumps and it’s pretty cool.

So that’s noseblocks, and tailblocks…I don’t know.

The tail block?

Yeah, it’s a hard one. I feel like I’m going to throw out my back trying it.

Sounds dangerous. Are you working on the tailblock?

Well, if I have the time and the place to do it, and somebody inspires me maybe it can happen. There can be so many variations. You can do the screamin-semen noseblock and you step over to the other ski. I don’t know man. I’m thinking about it, it’s interesting.

Do you sit at home and dream up tricks to do?

There used to be days when I couldn’t sleep, you know, where I just had the greatest idea and I’m like “I’m going to do that!” It’s been years and I can’t do it still. I don’t even know what I was thinking about. Skiing is just constantly in my brain.

garrettr

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Bums On Parade

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

header photo

In my virgin BroBomb article, I outlined several predictions for the coming ski season.  First among them was that “poor is the new cool.”  This might be the beginning of a mid-season retrospective analyzing how each of my prophecies was panning out. I’m going to begin with a quick recap of the Traveling Circus’ webisodes to see how they are managing from a quality of life standpoint.

The TC crew got outfitted with brand new bright Orage gear for the season, which has done much to mask their ghetto standards.  Andy’s new clean blue and red get-up is a far cry from last seasons’s rolled up baby blues that looked like they had seen more use than the inside of his sleeping bag and the soles of his easy walker sneakers put together.  However, as evidenced in Episode 4, Andy, Will and the gang are still sleeping on floors, in cars, and in ski patrol bomb shelters, while eating pb & j’s for breakfast, lunch & dinner.  With all this success and fame, wouldn’t they have upgraded their quality of life?  Then it came to me, a moment of business clarity:  they could get away with being much poorer.

Fig. 1 TC budget

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Olympics? Nah, We’re Good.

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. Denver, Colorado. February 22, 2010— The Association for Freeski Olympic Competition in Superpipe (AssFOCS) would like to make the results of its recent emergency vote known to all interested parties. As you may know, our organization has been tirelessly pursuing the rightful inclusion of ski superpipe in the Winter Olympics since 2006. We have faced great opposition, but with great determination we have made amazing progress towards inclusion.

However, after an emergency text message vote last night, we have decided to immediately suspend all of our efforts. The change in the Olympic climate has happened so quickly that we are sure this will come as a great shock to all of you, but we offer these excerpts from members’ texts in order to explain the prevailing mood:

Jossi Wells- “F*ck that! Did you see the girl kissing that snowboarder’s bronze? I’d take my chances with those music video stalkers before I’d let her kiss my medal.”

Tanner Hall- “I’ve got a great clean pee guy, but no dreads or sagging pants? Cali P tell me mah nah gwan fokwidat mon. Oh and I get better girls in Retallack.”

Xavier Bertoni- “Huhuhuhu. Frenchy French French! Cette fille était laide.”

Greg Tufflemire- “Dude’s got great abs. What? I did a 1260 in 1999.”

Skiers decide local pro ho's are better.

Skiers decide local pro ho's are better. photo: TMZ.

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Dunfee Does Vail

Friday, February 19th, 2010

IMG_5297

Ah, Vail.  Remember Vail?  When it hosted the luster-less US Freeskiing Open, Vail saw freeskiing careers made on its slopes.  Remember when the Big Air came down to a showdown between Andy Woods’ 1260 and some 17 year-old Swede’s D-spin (can you actually do that trick anymore?) Remember when Phil Poirer ran halfpipe contests? Marc Andre switch frontflips, JP Auclair winning the first Open with a 720 and holding the first pair of 1080’s in his hand on the podium, TJ Schiller winning slope, Mikael Descheneux’s gorgeous switch 7, switch 9, switch 10 combo over the channel gap, the list could go on for an installment of Know Your Roots (I’d send along all my VHS recordings).  Anyone whose parents would pay the money for a trip out to Vail from Vermont, because their kid thought they could get sponsored but crashed every run, made their way up I-70 every January to freeskiing’s biggest home-grown show.

Vail’s position in the freeski scene has changed significantly, going from the jib haven of yore with the first serious S-rail to a resort that gets talked about more frequently on the TGR forums by people arguing that it’s a better locale for the backcountry shredder than Aspen.  During my time in Colorado I’d never gotten off in Vail except once to get lost on South Frontage Rd. for half an hour and then get drunk at my friend’s house.  The sliver of trails you see from the highway seemed like a conduit to a far-off land of Back Bowls, those mythical formations that have been both hyped and hated.  So when I was back out in Colorado last December, I had to make a stop by.

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We Want Us Some Olympics. Right?

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

SkiingOlympics

I guess Olympic coverage is obligatory right now. The slipping ratings and questionable national relevance of these hallowed games aside, they’re still a pretty big deal. Then there’s the question of whether or not ski superpipe will make it in next time.

To be perfectly honest, I couldn’t care much less if ski superpipe makes it to the big stage. I have a hard enough time sitting through the X-Games; the Olympics would just be another event I have to pretend to care about. If you are one of these people who are still deluded enough to think that “freestyle” and competition can coexist, check out this article about baggy pants rules. Or check out some extreme commentary on that article.

Nonetheless, it does seem pretty ridiculous that there are no skiers up there in Whistler with that red Shaun person. Like everything though, it’s all business. There’s only so much airtime and there’s no way to speed up curling. That said, no NBC executive worth his weight in Conans would turn down an action packed double-sport. It’s more for less; simple economics. Nordic combined is going strong, so all we’ve got to do is a little freestyle-combined and we’re in the game baby!

I dug deep into the BroBomb Archives and discovered a little thing called Skijoring. It’s the original extreme Olympic sport. Back in 1928 these rad dudes were getting towed around by horses in pursuit of that sweet, sweet Gold. It’s been discontinued for the past 80 years, but what better time to bring it back?

Work with me here—you’ve got Simon Dumont behind his favorite pony dropping into the pipe. Not only is there a cute and cuddly horse to distract the public from the rebellious nature of his baggy pants, but there’s shit tons of amplitude. Amplitude! Naturally the skijoring-combined High Air is next, and we’re on the board with two totally extreme Olympic offerings.

U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!

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Internet Drama Goes Skiing

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

The boys here at BroBOMB have really been milking the SIA coverage. I get it, it’s a big deal and you worked super, extra hard, but come on dudes, it’s snowing in the real world. (And by Real World, I am talking about DC, even though on the show it’s magically summer and not the midst of the storm of the century. There is also some bitch who is complaining that she needs to go home cause she can’t last 6 WEEKS without her boyfriend, or something. Anyway, I feel like I may be getting off track.)

I ventured over to this Wordpress back end as opposed to my own, because while my hate mongering towards skiers is mostly for show, I felt the video submission YoBeat received recently and the attached story may better be suited for the BroBOMB readership. Allow me to introduce Jeremiah Paquette, aka Jermagain.

Hopefully you enjoyed that little vid, as Jeremiah made it to prove a point: Snowboarding is easy, but skiing is easier. Apparently this was his first day shredding on two planks this season. But don’t worry, that’s not the good part of the story, or the reason I posted it. No, the real reason Jeremiah made this video is out of pure spite! You see, as Jermagain, he is a frequent commenter on REELcomp, a sort of extreme Youtube where kids post their videos and make fun of each other. Apparently, the kids trying to show off their skills don’t appreciate Jermagain’s subtle brand of hate-filled humor though, and he recently received this letter:

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SASS Around the World

Friday, February 12th, 2010

New media outlets are so great because they provide timely, relevant content. So it’s a little awkward for me to be writing a blog post about SIA more than a week after it happened.  But the beauty of BroBomb is that you don’t stop by to find out what trick Bobby Brown did two minutes ago; you stop by because we find some funny way to hate on Bobby for being sponsored by Under Armour.

burton casinoPhoto courtesy of Yobeat

This year SIA moved from its traditional home in Las Vegas to the more pedestrian locale of Denver, Colorado. Burton made a mis-directed effort to maintain the Vegas motif with a series of table games and slots. All lame because after winning in slots I had to give all my coins back to the woman standing attentively by the machine, without even a shitty Burton hat to show for my performance. Despite the lack of distractions, SIA was a pretty intense experience thanks to the six hundred meetings and after parties I attended on behalf of South America Snow Sessions. The founders of SASS spent years and years building the brand. I got to show up two months into working there, and attend meetings in which top-level ski and snowboard companies and media would shower praise and money on SASS. It was pretty overwhelming and really cool to be a part of, or more accurately- ride the coattails of. Not to mention that having a business card & a media pass let me fuck around with numerous unsuspecting industry personnel.  I just hope that chick from Bitch Boards doesn’t call me asking about the SASS/Bitch Boards signature session that I promised her.

While the vast portion of SIA was taken up with SASS-related business, I did find a little bit of time to bask in BroBomb’s growing celebrity and get led around by Mike Rogge to meet several industry big-wigs (read: BroBomb readers).  Eric Iberg, feeling rosy after a few frosty brain grenades from the Orage booth, proceeded to bow to us.  I don’t really know how to finish that comment in a way that would make it remotely believable, but Iberg was pretty stoked when I gave him a BroBomb sticker at the X Games. For what it’s worth, he was sober then.

Proof

Proof

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Trewly Technylish

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

trew bus
When images of Trew Gear’s ’09-’10 line made their way online sometime last year, I wasn’t exactly blown away. I was a fan of the brilliant thumbs-up logo immediately, but nothing else struck me as particularly original. I thought the colors were fairly similar to what companies like SAGA and LDC were producing, and the fit appeared to be thugtastic. Essentially, I assumed that Trew was another fledgling outerwear startup that unabashedly placed “form” miles ahead of “function.” What I didn’t know, was that the masterminds behind Trew Gear were 100% committed to producing some of the most technical gear this side of those brands your dad swears by and that you wouldn’t be caught dead in.

TREW promised us no cheeseball ad campaigns.

TREW promised us no cheeseball ad campaigns.

Any other reservations I had about Trew were totally laid to rest upon seeing and touching the 2010-2011 line, and talking with the guys behind the wheel. While the designs and colorways of last year’s line were cool—if not exactly groundbreaking in my estimation—this year’s stuff is top notch in both style and quality. Trew appears to have set their sights on a slightly wider audience, while still retaining an undeniable freeride influence and styling. For guys looking to steer clear of skittle steeze and yet still look the part, Trew is positioning itself as a viable alternative.

Thanks to the guys at TREW for taking time out to chat with us, and be sure to check their site for updates.

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