Powsurfing the “Secret Bowl”

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“Secret Bowl” – One of my all time favorite zones.

The view from the top

The view from the bottom

Today was the perfect day for a first decsent of the northeast face of “Secret Bowl”. I powsurfed the north face of the bowl a couple of years ago as well as last year and finally the conditions were ripe to get the NE face.
The drop in of the run is usually the toughest part due to wind and sun damage. You kind of just have to point it thru that stuff and catch yourself with a turn as soon as the snow turns good. That really gets the heart pumping…. I felt like Danny Way dropping into the mega-ramp up there.
The first turn
The first turn was a good one! Thank God- or I would have been starfishing down the mountain uncontrollably. Now I have 1200 vertical of fresh pow ahead of me to slash before reaching the bottom. 20 turns and 10 or so faceshots later, I was at the bottom with a shit eating grin on my face. That was one of the funnest powsurf runs I have ever had.
Getting Barreled

Two perfect windlips awaited me near the bottom – begging me to slash them.


crushing the lip

The first run got me so stoked, especially after slashing two deep windlips near the bottom. I had to get me some more of that. So we charged back to the top for another.
Round 2!

Threading the needle – High speed ollie

Another perfect windlip waited for me near the bottom


We only had time for a half day today so we unwillingly packed up our gear and headed for home. We had scored much better conditions than we bargained for and it was really hard to leave so much sick terrain and untouched pow behind. I hope I can make it back before the season is up. Fingers crossed.


120cm Powder Skate – Slaying the deep pow.

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I keep getting requests from people for longer boards… trust me, you don’t need the giant board that you think you might want! Our boards are designed to be much shorter than snowboards for a number of reasons and as you can see even the shortest board we make dominates the deep & light pow.

Here’s a quick peep of the 120cm slaying some April pow pow.

Playgrounds

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I’m loving how powsurfing has opened up so much new terrain to play in and on. Features that we would normally disregard have become the source of all sorts of good times. It really makes you look at the mountain differently and opens up new worlds of possibilities.

I’ve been driving by this feature for years on my snowmobile. I finally took a closer look at it and this cave/couloir made for a perfect gap jump.


We threw together this quick kicker to see what we could do off it. If you could make it past the insane run it at extremely high speeds then you got to boost off it. Made for some pretty cool footage… either you would slam super hard on the in run, or you would get a nice boost into a perfect landing.

I’ve always wanted to kickflip off of a cliff, so we made it happen one fine day. It was great fun until my board shot out and hit the snowmobile, exploding on impact.
Kickflip rock drop…scary.



Pop shovit in the pow!

A simple pow slash always puts a smile on my face. There has been no shortage of these this season. In fact, my face is sore from smiling so much.

Non-stop powduh

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The powder has been stacking up deep this year… the big boards have been seeing quite a bit of action.

This winter has been relentless. A constant flow of storms has kept us riding fresh pow every time we get out. Sunny days have been few and far between but the quality of snow has kept powsurfing conditions epic to say the least. Bigger airs, faster lines…. powsurfing just keeps getting more and more fun and the possibilities reveal themselves every day.

Boosting a natural hip under milky skies.





Full Steam

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The latest round of boards, hot off the press. – The “powder skate”, “slasher”, “slasher 140” and “Powder Shark 140”


The recent lack of posts on the blog is certainly not a reflection of a lack of riding this season. Footage and photos are stacking up so fast I can hardly keep up. R&D on some longer boards and new shapes has been super fun and the progression of riding is moving ahead faster than ever. Bigger cliffs, steeper lines, and technical tricks are an everyday occurrence. More and more riders are catching wind of powsurfing and realizing the potential. People all over the world are testing the boards and I have had nothing but positive feedback and intense stoke on riding the boards. Once they step on one of these they are instantly sold.

Warming up with a little drop which sends you straight for a little hip jump (pic below)

Kickflip in the pow pow

360 shov on the mini hip

If all your interested in doing is making turns, you may be missing half of the point of bindingless riding. – 360 Kickflip in the Utah Backcountry.


One glory slash is worth a hundred turns!


Here I am talking shit about turning… Seriously though, here’s my philosophy, “Turns are what you do to control your speed and guide you to the next feature that you plan on dropping, launching or powerslashing”… you can quote me on that.



New Shape Test in the Mashed Potatoes

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We snowmobiled for a few miles before we finally hit the snow line. It was sopping wet and it was raining/snowing. We were lucky enough to find a tree filled zone with rideable snow. A wicked rime crust had formed above 8700 feet and the rain line was at around 8000 ft. Our zone was right in the sweet spot in between.

A mix of wind crust and coastal mashed potato powder was on the menu for the day. We managed to have a great time and the new shape I just designed cut thru that shit like a hot knife thru butter.

Winter is upon us. Surf’s up!

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Crackin an ollie in the forest.

Winter came quick and with a vengeance in Utah this year. Before I knew it there was nearly two feet of pow in my yard and 40-50 inches up in our nearby mountains. I should stay home and keep working on this snowboard/powdersurf film that’s been in the works for a couple of years now, but it is just too difficult when I know there is pow to be slashed.
The usual early season zones were in full effect so I made some time to get some powdersurfing in. A couple of quick sessions with my dog was all I needed to get me in the right mood. I came home inspired to finish up this film… so I can move on to the next project. Which will likely be a longer powsurfing documentary of sorts.
I learned to snowboard in this zone 21 years ago… I have visited this place for early season riding every year for the past 21 years. Damn, that makes me feel like an old timer.

Happy Anniversary… 21 years!

Kickflip


FS air


360 Shovit

Storm-dog looking for critters to harass.



When the sun and warm weather comes out and kills the snow quality there is still some fun to be had. We packed out a little kicker and proceeded to get our skate on.

We used to joke about one day being able to do a 360 kickflip on a powsurfer… well, today was the day I guess.
Rider: Jeremy Jensen Photo: Josh Serna
Ever year a small rail garden grows down in the campground. Kids bring up new rails and logs every year and when the road is no longer passable the rails become buried for the winter and are confiscated after the snow melts in the spring. Some how the garden re-grows every year near the same spot. This years garden was quite nice and I was able to jib and bonk a few things on the powsurfer before it got buried.
Tubular.

Fresh Beaver!

The solid early snowpack caught our local ski resort by surprise so we were able to get quite a few preseason days at the resort in. Bindinless boards are forbidden within the resort boundaries here during the season so this was our window to get some powsurfing in. Sorry to all the people who showed up opening day to an already tracked out mountain… :)
I assure you we had a great time cutting it up.
Dec 4, 2010
The ‘Beav is now opened up to the public so now I am forced into the side-country runs- which is fine with me. That is where the goods are at anyways. Dave and I made it up there for some backside runs… super fun as usual, especially in the low snowpack. Baby pillows galore!
Dave blasting down the backside..

First Day of the New Season! – October 27, 2010

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Oh Magog.
 

Nearly two feet of snow had fallen over the past few days and I was itching to get out. I had crushed my foot while moving a big boulder out of the landing of one of our jumps the day before the storm hit and my foot was swollen and in a lot of pain, but I really had to get out and slash some pow.

All the homies in town were stuck at work so Storm-dog and I had our own session. The snowpack was pretty damn good for this early in the season. We are pretty limited to the grassy slopes this time of year, so we made the most of it- Jumping the little bumps and mini rollers and slashing as much pow as possible on a couple of different powdersurf boards.
The powsurf quiver for today..
 
Storm is getting older and slowing down a bit, but he’s still loving fresh pow
 
I was quickly reminded of how damn fun it is to ride these silly boards. Gotta love the simple pleasures in life.
 

Self portrait slasher
 
My mind gets board with no one to talk to up in the hills so I decided to take some photos and video of the day. Since my dog cannot operate a camera, I had to do it all myself. The action still shots didn’t work out so great but I managed to get a couple of shots that were ok. The video turned out pretty good though…
 
 
 
Check it:
 

A Foot of Fresh Pow on May 25th!!!!

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Any powder day after the end of april is gravy. I love gravy. We have had some pretty good helpings this season. Today we knew it was gonna be good and it wasn’t going to last long so we pulled out of town at 5:45 am and headed for the goods.

The powder test I performed this morning resulted in a rating of “BLOWER!!!”

We parked to unload the sleds and we were standing in 10 inches of light and dry pow under bluebird skies. We rallied up to the top and knocked out a couple of runs each in Rock Bowl as quick as we could. There was a foot + of fresh pow. The conditions were blower so I was alternating runs between my snowboard and my powsurfer. Things were heating up quick on the east facing slope so we headed for a higher more north facing zone.

We got to the Lgn Ln sector and it was holding some epic snow. So we frantically lapped it as many times as possible – racing against the warming weather. I had one of the funnest lines in a long time on the powsurfer. I entered the chute entrance, hit a little ice patch and ass checked the top of the chute, causing a wet slide that would take me down about 50ft and land me in a pile of wet debris… it was more funny than scary. I got my board back under my feet and had the sickest run… high speed face shots and rollers lined themselves up perfectly for me to ollie off of. Funny how the funnest run of the day would come on a powdersurf board.


The powsurfing in this sector was soooo sick. Roller after slash after roller…

The pow on the north facing slopes was all up in your face

Aaron and I about to drop in
This could be my last ollie of the season on the powsurf.. stoked it was a good one.
We called it a day at about 1:30. The weather was scorching, the pow was cooked and we were both running super low on oil.

It is Moustache May and this is my “powder stash”

We drew some lines here. Our shred tracks on the left and the powder 8 slednecker tracks in the middle… and we’re outa there.
What a killer day!!! The snowmobiling was super fun, the snowboarding was sick, the powsurfing was epic and it was a beautiful way to end another winter season. I got home and parked the sled in the backyard for the first time all season – just to taunt mother nature. I hope she makes me drag it out again for another pow day this year. But if not, we ended on a perfect note.Spirits were high today until I got home to the news that an old friend had passed away after a battle with breast cancer. Krista Moroge was an amazing skateboarder, snowboarder, and human being. She was extremely talented and motivated far beyond the average person. Her inspiration lives on inside all of us. We will miss you Krista.

Check the video!

May 22nd 2010 Powsurf Solo Session

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Slashing bindingless in May!

We got a nice shot of 6-8 inches of light n dry pow on friday night. Most of my homies have given up for the season it seems because I couldn’t find a single bro to join me on a late season powsurfing mission. So I went solo.. I couldn’t resist.

I showed up to really good conditions and new snow that bonded nicely to the slush beneath. Most of the jumps had melted away and the cliffs had melted back leaving no good takeoffs. I was limited on what I could shred but I managed to find some pretty fun stuff.
I did a few warm up laps in an open bowl that I could ghost ride the sled down for my pickup. It was pretty fun on the powsurfer although the light was a little flat. When that was played I walked over the the “toilet bowl” and packed out a nice little kicker to try a few tricks off of. I had mixed results.. I mostly just slammed alot. The toughest part was the run-in to the jump. I would either be going too slow or way too fast.

I think I slammed on 4 or 5 attempts at a 360 shovit and cracked my board landing in bomb holes :-(

Flying thru the air out of control… I went at least 15 feet past my landing slamming into the backside of a windlip… ouch.
I got tired of getting worked by this jump so I moved to a new zone. The light came out and things got really fun. I hiked the pinball sector for a few fun lines and took a couple pow shots using my remote control shutter release.

I was about to leave when I saw the perfect place to safely ghost ride my sled and get myself a solid 700 vertical run in an open field of pow.

If you look close you can see a little speck in the middle of the shot- that’s me slashing down on the sardine (and that is my ghost ride track to the left).