Now that you’re all super pumped (or really bummed) on that news, check out all the Day 2 photos on our Facebook.

Greetings from Burlington! I’m on a bit of a fact finding mission in the epicenter of the east coast ski world. If you have any aspirations of making a living in “the industry” here on the right coast, then it’s likely you’re going to end up in Burlington. Always eager to help budding industry drones, I’m here to get a little feel for the city and a couple of the companies that might be getting your resume. Newly minted Vermont resident Mike Rogge, of Ski the East, is my tour guide so you know I’ll be all behind-the-scenes and whatnot.

I’m going to do some interviews and analyze the companies based on some highly scientific criteria, but I’m open to suggestions. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

-          Number of pros working there that you can go totally fanboy over on your first day.

-          Amount of free product laying around for five finger pro deals.

-          Office vibe: Are there dogs? Putting machines? Wall Street style screaming?

-         # of employees (the more the better for you, someone’s always getting fired).

Drop any further questions you’d like me to ask into the comments. I hope to visit Orage and Meatheads headquarters today, and we’ll see what else the day brings.

 Team videos have not figured prominently in the ski scene. A couple light attempts have been made in the past few seasons: Atomic’s 44 Days and Skiing is ____,  Voluerz’s Outdoor Graduation, and Joystick’s Hot Lunch (the balls!). Of course, who can forget the Oakley video, perhaps better known by its more unfortunate name- “Session 1242.” It’s one of the best videos ever made, and one of Tanner’s best parts as well. Not to mention Tony shredding a full part to “Blue Collar Man.”

 We’re ripe for another team video- several teams are stacked with talent, and slopes are flush with video nerds pointing cameras at every jump and rail who are willing to slave for pennies on the dollar. Any bro who can do a switch-up now has his own webisode series; companies are out of excuses.  Somebody’s got to drop a proper team video. Here’s a few that I’d like to see:

Notable shreds: Banks Gilberti, Phil Casabon, Jaime Puigdengoles, Max Hill, Michelle Parker, Kaya Turski, Will Wesson, Andy Parry, Xavier Bertoni, Taylor Seaton, Matt Margetts, JP Auclair.

 The Orage team has quietly gotten loaded with talent, and is now bubbling at the ears with rippers.  You wouldn’t notice because two seasons ago most of these kids were solid B-team shreds, but now are absolute rippers with their own respective talents.  X Games winners TJ Schiller and Xavier Bertoni. Style leaders like B-Dog and Max Hill. Taylor Seaton, one of the most fun guys to watch ski pipe. The TC crew. Super-cool Spanish head Jaime P.  Female rip-a-lot Michelle Parker, and JP Auclair.  JP was in “13.”  Enough said.  Find a music editor who will go easy on the new reggae & a filmer who knows you can make shit happen without a RED camera and voila, skiing’s “Fully Flared” is in the bag. Easy as that!

 Notable shreds: Tanner Hall, JP Auclair, Anthony Boronowski, Jacob Wester, Phil Casabon, Mike Hornbeck, Riley Leboe, Taylor Seaton, lots of sick Euros, Ian Provo, Kim Lamarre, Zack Davison

 Armada has long had a deep roster, although the pro ranks have thinned slightly as of late with the departure of TJ Schiller and Julien Regnier.  Like Orage, Armada is investing in a lot of young talent, and a lot of young Euro shralpers as well.  There’s a lot of kids on the National teams that probably rip to hell, but I haven’t had the time to watch enough Youtube videos to differentiate them all.  However, Armada will have to beat Orage to the punch, as both houses share a few names such as Taylor, JP, Casabon, & Jaime (if he still skis for them, he might not).  Same goes for film style, although the folks at Armada are closely wedded to the latest and greatest gadgets in video definition, they don’t like to use any audio in their edits.  The fact remains, JP and Tony both need a full part each before they fully hand the reigns over to the next generation.

Notable shreds:  Blake Nyman, Banks Gilberti, Jordan Seldin, Jeff Kiesel, Ian Wade, Erica Durstschi, Krista Giles, Dania Assalia , Eliel Hindert, Josh Bishop, Joel Whalen

 Yes, I know.  Walks of Life is due out any week, day, minute, or second.  I’ve been hoping for big things (Hot Lunch Vol. II) from this project, and the NS rumor mill has put the release date back to New Year’s.  Make it happen, Surface!

 Notable shreds:  Andy Mahre, Seth Morrison, Sean Petit, Michelle Parker, Pep Fujas, PK Hunder, Anna Segal, Charley Ager, Frank Raymond, Matt Margetts

  K2’s got some seriously ripping big mountain skiers on their set, along with some of the best jib heads.  We all know the big names, but Charlie Ager and Frank Raymond deserve more than the combined 20 seconds they’re getting in Poor Boyz flicks.  K2 will have to offer some serious incentives for several of their athletes to step away from their current filming commitments with MSP and Nimbus to make the movie, or maybe they’ll just share.  In any case, while K2’s benches don’t appear as deep as other teams, they might have the highest concentration of standout video skiers out of any team. They also have Seth Morrison. If K2 stepped up there could be straight fiyah coming out of the DVD player by the time you’re ten minutes in, and I have enough confidence in Mike Gutt to believe this project would live up to its potential.

 Notable shreds:  Everybody in a “G” or Magic suit, plus Cody Townsend and Mark Abma.

 I’m not so sure Salomon needs to make a team video.  Between Salomon Freeski TV, Matchstick & Poor Boyz (who are often accused of being Salomon Freeski TV affiliates), these guys have more video coverage of their athletes than any other company. It’s time someone else got to compete. Although Kaya Turski needs a part sometime soon. That chick can slay.

 Notable shreds: Garret Russell, Eric Pollard, Will Wesson, Andy Parry, Ian Compton, Max Hill, Joe Schuster, and LJ Strenio.

  I was really disappointed a few seasons back when Line dropped their whole team except for Eric Pollard.  Then I guess all those kids on the Skier’s Union, who were getting flow from Line, started getting good.  Line has some of the most original rippers on their books, notably- Garret Russell, Pollard, the TC boys, Max Hill, and the new butter-smooth kid from Mt. Snow, Ian Compton. The team edit they dropped last week was just a cruel demonstration of how good this video could be. This is one of those rare moments in time where a team captures lightning in a bottle and it’s damn sure not to last. The tools are there to make an absolute classic- Mr. Malczyk has got to make this happen. For skiing’s sake.