May 13, 2009

Sessions Outerwear is now an official sponsor of the Morgan Hill Snowflex Center and could soon be headed to a mountain near you!!! Due to open in the next two years, this project will offer you a rideable, shredable, jibbable mountain 365 days a year with no snow at all!! Paste the link below in your browser bar to see more!

www.morganhillsnow.com

P.S. IT'S GONNA BE SICK!!!

Check out Farmboy’s new ad for Untitled Skateboards in this month’s issue of Thrasher Magazine! Smith bigspins all day - Peep the shirt!

July 1, 2009

Earlier this season Sessions team rider Peter Benchetler and crew from Signal snowboards headed out to the shred ranch to meet up with Jeff King and get down on a little built to shred action! The episode airs on Sunday July fifth so be sure to check it out!

For more info and pictures from the shoot log on to: http://www.fuel.tv/BuiltToShred/blogs/view/48164?item=48985&type=Blog

Matt Walker: Business student?? Check out his interview on ESPN.com and discover what goes on inside this guy’s head, both on and off the snow. Follow the link below:

http://espn.go.com/action/news/story?id=4284059

Also, be sure to visit http://dahoodhouse.com/ for some photos, vids, and updates on Matt’s summer sessions at Windells.

Check out a little Q & A from Canadian rider Dave Fortin after his gnarly bail at the Grenade Games on nlintel.com.

Check it out Here! http://nlintel.com/2009/06/sessions-team-rider-dave-fortinafter-the-slam/

June 22, 2009

Once again George Crossland from Snow Rev is back on the road to give us more updates on some of our riders. This time he headed up to Beartooth Pass in Montana to meet up with Sessions regional riders Kyle Miller and Shane Stalling Check out more on this story on the Crossland blog at http://crosland.snowboard-revolution.com/snow-skate/beartooth-pass-montana/

June 18, 2009

Check out Big Mountain banger Sam Smoothie killing the cover of New Zeland Skier Mag with a sick glacier pillow drop...SO ICY!

Everyone woke up after day one super sore, tired and sunburnt. Andreas’s back was sore from knuckling the beast, Tim’s heal was hurting from overshooting a jump, Kyle Miller was still recovering from a ankle sprain and Peter found out he needed surgery on his shoulder from a previous fall. So broken and battered we headed to the mountain with high hopes for less wind and new features to hit. The wind actually got worse on day two and it was more of a fun relaxing day.
Around 4 there was roomers that the giant hip was going to open up. Everyone commuted over and the session got under way. The 20 foot mark was hit by a few and Nate Farrell reminded everyone that he is a tranny master sending it over the gatorade banner.
Day three saw the wind die down and after a mellow day two, the guys where excited to get after it. Big Bear built a pretty unique feature. It was a giant table that had a bowl enclosed in it. Hip on the right side, that you could hit right like a normal hip or left witch put you into the bowl. There were two entrances into the bowl on either side of the lip that if hit sent you over the whole feature. This thing was only limited to the imagination. Nate Farrell and Greg Bokencamp where coming into the bowl from opposite sides, wiping around the bowl and slapping hi fives. Tim was airing into the bowl, shooting across and hand planting the other side. Andreas and Kyle where playing on the outside hip. Everyone was having a blast with this thing.
There was a lot of creative stuff pushed up at Super Park 13. One of the more popular features was a 40 foot gap through a few trees. Drift right or left and you are coming face to face with a tree. Come up short and you are stacking into a wall of snow boulders. Miller threw some methods and backside 180s through the gap. Humphreys was doing some frontside 180s and Taylor got a pretty frontside 360 taping the top of a tree halfway through his rotation.
Day three finished off with another session on the big hip. Andreas, Nate, Tim and Miller all got in on the action each hitting the 15 foot mark.
Today is the last day of Super Park but we had to depart early to get Andreas to the airport. Hats off to Snowbaorder, Mammoth, Big Bear and Loon for putting on one of the best Super Parks ever!

Super park 13 started out with a bang today with nice weather and great friends. Most of the Sessions team is down here for a full on reunion and as usual where throwing down. A few highlights where, Kyle Miller, Peter Benchetler and Zak Hale destroying the moto/BMX section. Andreas Gidlund and Nate Farrell stepping up to the 90 footer, Andreas got a front 9 and 10 over the beast. Billy and Brett throwing some sweet moves over the industry jump. Early in the day Billy hit this channel gap and completely over shot the thing, didn’t catch an inch of trany. He came away with a smile on his face. Later in the day, Bridges opened the BIG boy. Its about a 100 feet to the knuckle with a 30 foot tall lip. This thing is a beast. Only a select few were giving the OK to hit it today and Andreas got the nod. After watching Jonas Carlson go deep, Andreas took one to many speed checks and came up a board length short. We were all sitting up top and it looked pretty bad. Andy came away unscathed but broke his headphones in the fall. Check back tomorrow for more photos and story’s about day 2!

Antti Autti’s Shredbangers Ball hip-contest took place this past saturday. "Naku" took 1st place and took the highest air title!

E-Man, Zak Hale and Dave Fortin ran the show at the Grenade Games finals last weekend. Check out this video. Hopefully Fortin is OK after that slam.... ouch!!!

http://gnarcore.com/?p=2072

4/27/2009

Last Saturday, Sessions employees teamed up to give back to their local community in, "Come Fly With Me," a fashion show to benefit the Children’s Hospice and Palliative Care Coalition. The event was put together by Angela Chesnut and Marilyn Calciano to ensure compassionate, comprehensive care for children with life-threatening conditions. Among those in attendance were Laurie Butterworth and Devon Dabbs (the Co-Founders of “Children’s Hospice and Palliative Care Coalition” in Santa Cruz County). In addition, Susana Glina worked as a volunteer for the event and former Senator Bruce McPherson and his wife, Mary proved to be exceptional models in the runway show. Sessions rocked the runway wearing bright colors and catching everyone’s attention from the moment the models hit the stage. The entire team that came together to make this whole event possible worked very hard and the end result was a positive one. Sessions is very happy to support the Children’s Hospice and Palliative Care Coalition. Look forward to seeing more support from Sessions for this great cause in the future.

Click View Slide show for more pictures!

Congrats to "Naku" for taking 3rd in the Survival Of The Fittest contest in Crans Montana!

4/23/09

Brotherhood Snowboard camp is launching on July 4th and aims to represent tru snowboarding in the fullest!


Click here check out more info on Transworld biz

4/22/09

While creating high quality apparel in the interest of all the riders out there, SESSIONS is also dedicated to the interest of the environment around us. In order to make a positive impact on the world and help create sustainability, SESSIONS has implemented the Going Green Program. This program has 11 steps to assure that as a brand we are producing less waste.

Sessions is a proud supporter of Earth day and hopes that everyone will make the difference and pack their trash wherever they go. It’s the little things in life that make a difference!

-Sessions

4/21/09

Sessions, a leading snowboard outerwear manufacturer, is seeking talented individuals for a summer internship. Marketing interns will be responsible for MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter accounts as well as updating the Sessions’ website and blog. Interns must be able to work independently and follow direction within the work place and need to be trustworthy and hard working. Responsibilities include web updates, uploading product to website, event set up and tear down, guerilla marketing, promotions, and writing press releases.

Qualifications: Must be knowledgeable in MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and blogging. Must be proficient in Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Photoshop. Other desirable qualities but not mandatory are video editing, flash, and html coding.

This is an unpaid internship. Internship can be used for school credit.

To apply please send cover letter, resume, and letters of recommendation to info@sessions.com Subject Line: Marketing Internship


ABOUT SESSIONS:
Founded in 1983, Sessions is a leading snowboard and action sports company that designs, merchandises, sources, and distributes high performance snowboard apparel, accessories and apparel for the core, youth-driven sports segment. Sessions was the first snowboarding company to incorporate Gore-Tex fabrics and Recco avalanche reflectors into their products. Today, Sessions has placed itself at the cutting edge of the music, snowboard and skateboard culture. Sessions is one of the last remaining independently owned brands.

More about Sessions at www.sessions.com

4/20/09

Sessions is a company that has been involved in snowboarding since the early 1980’s when Joel Gomez opened the first snowboard only store in the world. Now they make all sorts of kick ass stuff; clothing, outer wear and so on. Anyhow, the good people at Sessions had arranged for a little photo shoot up in Lake Tahoe with some of their team riders. Pretty much anyone would jump at that chance; Tahoe in spring, good riders, good weather, time to head up interstate 80 and on to Tahoe! It also happened to be the final weekend for a lot of resorts in the area.

For the whole story and more photos, check out
http://crosland.snowboard-revolution.com/snow-skate/tahoe-final-weekend/

April 20, 2009

Check out the latest webisode from the Nimus Crew "En Route America," feturing our very own Andy Mahre and Chris Benchetler.

http://www.nimbusindependent.com/videos/webisodes.html#top

4/19/09

Second day at Alpine was even more sweet!

super tierd after today!!

Brett was filming beacause he was feeling a bit sick…
George from SnowRev was there shooting photos for my interview!
Jump was fun and weather was amazing…
We ended up shooting lifestyle pics.
Went down by the river, we got some cool once when i was standing right in the middle of it…
yey…
Tomorrow were going to Squaw Valley again to shoot!
Hopefully the have finished their new kickers!

cheerios

4/19/09

First day at Alpine! super super fun! kind of warm and slushy but it was alright, they had a pretty fun jump! Hard to get the speed because of the slush but we got some stuff!

Tomorrow we’re going back there with SnowRev.com to shot a interview and film some more.

Highlight of the day!



We were just cruising around and Tayler showed us a natural jump.

He told us to POINT it because there is no way to overshoot it...

So first they go and it looks just fine.

Then Brett drops in and just overshoost the hell out of it!

Maybe 4 m flat then a 5 m landing then a hill up on 3 m but he went over all of it... to his ass....

So I was like god damn… I’ll chill a bit with the speed...

Ye right.... pointed but instead of going over to the flat, I land in the uphill and faceplant...

No one got hurt but if we would have got it on film it would have been so fun to watch.... Now its barbecue time!!!

April 17th, 2009

We have been in Tahoe for a few days since the Colorado trip.

We had a bit of bad luck in Colorado with the snow. They had a dust storm the week before we got there and that made the new snow that landed on top of the dust super bad…

Warm weather and dust under = bad conditions….

Kind of bad for a 13 hour drive for 1 day of shooting then 13 hours back.

We all got shots from Colorado, so we were happy about it anyway… we had allot of fun during the way so it was all cool!



Since returning from CO, we have been shooting at Boreal for a couple days, got some cool and fun stuff!

Went up one day and checked out North Star as well, shot some trick tip stuff for our blog!

We’ve had a few days of sunshine witch has been awesome, snowboarding the whole day and barbecue and chill after!

Next few days we will be shooting up at Squaw Valley, we are looking forward to it!

Keep checking in for new and fresh updates!!!

Drew has been working hard filming his part for Pirate Movie Productions and he is headed back to Europe at the end of the week to finish that up for this season. Drew recently did a trick tip for Twsnow last week at Keystone so that will be coming out in the mag and in the 20 tricks vid next year. Also check out the spot we did for Skullcandy TV here... http://www.skullcandy.tv/channel--media-16999-title-Lift-Interview-with-Drew-Fuller.html
Drew’s having a great winter. Look for all his hard work to pay off in the magazines the Pirate movie and TWsnow 20 tricks video hitting your local shop this fall!

Beaver Creek, CO April 15, 2009 -

Malay Day is an event held each year in honor
and loving memory of snowboarder Josh Malay who lost his life while
snowboarding in 2004. Malay Day is celebration of Josh’s life, where friends and
family are inspired to "live and love life" in his memory.

For the 6th consecutive year and the first with Beaver Creek as the host, Malay
Day was a smashing success. More than one-hundred (100) competitors signed
up as crowds of on-lookers were scattered throughout Beaver Creek’s
snowboard park. The park staff did a great job laying out three (3) different
sections for riders to hit including; the upper “Lumber Yard”, the “Half Barrel”
half-pipe and the main “Rodeo Terrain Park”.

The top to bottom competition was judged on overall performance throughout
the entire park. As the sun emerged, the “Rodeo Terrain Park” became the main
session of the competition, where riders were expertly executing the rails and
hip. There were many standout performances during the day, but in the end, it
was clear that Billy Rodriguez was the overall winner. Please visit
http://www.snowboard-mag.com/?q=node/35045 for event photos and results.

Final Results:

Men:

1st Billy Rodriguez
2nd Andrew Steward
3rd Ricky Rodriquez

April 14, 2009

Check out Team Manager/ Rider Brett Butcher and Swedish phenom Andreas Gidlund having some fun during Andy’s first ever Tahoe shred sesh! It was a good one!

April 9th, 2009

Come out to the Beaver Creek Park tomorrow for prizes, music, food and drink to celebrate Josh’s life.

April 3, 2009

A memorial service for Shane McConkey will take place at 4:30 pm on Sunday, April 5th on the Olympic Plaza Sundeck (base of KT-22) in Squaw Valley USA. A Gathering of Shane’s Friends will follow at 6:30 pm at the Olympic Village Lodge (OVL).

Even though he travelled the world, Shane’s presence in Squaw Valley was ubiquitous. From the many pairs of rockered skis that dangle from the chairs lifts, to the scores of 18 to 30 year-old Shane-idolizing dream chasers – in Squaw Valley, Shane is everywhere. People live here because of Shane. People come to ski here because of Shane. They find euphoria skiing on skis invented by Shane, while skiing lines they saw Shane ski in a movie. Shane McConkey’s influence and resounding affect on the members of this community cannot be quantified.

When word of Shane’s death first hit, disbelief, sadness, and the looming question “why?” ran rampant. Today, the flags in Squaw Valley hang at half mast still, but slowly a sense of humor has begun to come back. Reminded of Shane’s satirical genius and hilarity through good times and through bad, we strive now to conjure these traits in ourselves. Shane is life, hyperbolized. May we smile and live loud for Shane - his life and his legacy.

March 27, 2009

Sessions is extremely sad to announce the passing of long time team rider and friend Shane McConkey. Shane, who has been a part of the Sessions’ family for over a decade and was known for his incredible big mountain skiing and base jumping, passed away on March 26, 2009 from a base jumping accident in the Italian Dolomites.

“Shane did a double back flip in perfect McConkey style. As planned, afterwards, he went to release his skis in order to fly away from the wall and safely deploy his parachute. This is where the jump went wrong. He was not able to release either of his skis. He remained focused on releasing them by reaching down towards his bindings. This put him into a spin/ tumble/ unstable falling style, that may have appeared out of his control, but in reality, Shane was not concerned about flying position or style; just concerned with reaching those skis so that he could get them off and fly or deploy his parachute. He succeeded in releasing both of skis and immediately transitioned into a perfect flying position.” – JT Holmes. Although Shane was able to release his skies he was unable to deploy his parachute in time.

Shane had completed over 700 successful base jumps in his career and was filming with Red Bull and Matchstick Productions when the accident occurred. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all who knew him especially his wife, Sherry, and his 3 ½ year old daughter, Ayla. He will be missed dearly.

Friends and family have started a website in honor or Shane. Please visit http://shanemcconkey.org/ donations and wishes to his family can also be made on this website.

Shane’s Memroial will be held at Squaw Valley USA on Sunday, April 5 at 4:30pm.

March 27, 2009

Yesterday I lost a very dear friend... I’m saddened and devastated....... Words cannot express the loss. The last time I was this sad was when I lost my father. My heart is breaking for Sherry and Ayla, their loss is incomprehensible.

I cannot remember the first time I met Shane McConkey but it must have been 15 years ago or so at Squaw Valley. Jimbo Morgan and Brad Holmes told me that I should meet this guy Shane that had big cajones….from our very first introduction I grew to love, respect (and laugh my ass off with) Shane.

Shane was passionate about life. He was funny, friendly, creative, patient, and one of the most loyal friends I have ever known. He was a devoted Husband and Father. I had the unique good fortune to ride with him many times over the past 15 years. Although I could never keep up with him, he would always be patiently waiting for me at the bottom of the run, smiling, ready to ride the lift back up.

Over the past 25 years I have had the opportunity to know and sponsor some of the greatest skateboarders, snowboarders, surfers, skiers and musicians in the world. Shane was the very best of the best. Next to Steve Caballero, Shane McConkey has been sponsored by Sessions longer than any other athlete in the Sessions family. He will be forever missed.

Joel Gomez

March 26, 2009

A nice late season dump in Tahoe leaves us with a little extra pow to tide us over for the rest of the season!

March 24, 2009

Our very own international rider, Antii "Naku" Piirainen, gets the title spot of cover on March’s Issue of Onboard Magazine. Naku also scored a 12 page interview in the same mag issue.

Check it out!

Hump’s run looked like this,
Switch boardslide to frontboard tap to fakie, Half cab 5050 on the down rail, backside 7 nose, front 9, cab 9, switch miller flip over the barrel to finish it off
Congrats Tim!!!!!

Donner ski Ranch was one of the first resorts to allow snowboarding and in 1985 held the World Snowboard Championships. Tahoe’s roots go deep into snowboarding and every winter the Tahoe Legends pull out their vintage gear and come together to play in the snow, share old story’s and listen to some good ole rock. This year the venue for the event was a hand dug halfpipe complete with hits, jibs and bonks. In order to compete you had to meet one of the following criteria below.

a. 1983 – 89 World Championships
b. 1983 – 89 US Open
c. 1985 – Sierra Snowboarding Championships, Soda Springs, CA
d. 1986 – Subaru Snowboarding Championships, Donner Ski Ranch
e. 1987 – 89 California State Snowboarding Series or Ragen’ at the Ranch Snowboard Series.
f. Any OP PRO snowboarding events or the US Open, 1989 or earlier.

Chris Roach, Jim Rippey, Rocket Reeves, Jeff Brushie, Mike and Tina Basich, Noah Salasnek, Joel Gomez, Terry Kidwell and Tom Burt where just some of the legends that came out to ride and hang out.

It was pretty amazing to stand next to the pipe and watch these guys shred the pipe with the same gear and style that they did in 1985. If you are anywhere near Lake Tahoe in March next year, I highly recommend you make it up to Donner Ski Ranch to partake and support the Tahoe Legends of Snowboarding.

March 17, 2009

Sessions would like to thank everyone for participating in the South Lake Tahoe USASA series this season! It was a huge success and we were glad to be apart of the fun, and we are looking forward to next season!

March 17, 2009

Check out the latest edition of "En Route" with the second webisode filmed in Austria featuring our very own Chris Benchetler and Andy Mahre. Check it out

March 16, 2009

Here is a photo of some team riders hangin with the animals at one of out 2010 meetings!

3/16/09

Congratulations to Canadian Sessions rider Dave Fortin for winning the TELUS Triple Big Air Challenge this weekend! Dave walked away with a nice check for 3500.00 for his effort!

March 16, 2009

The Nimbus crew are at it again and this time they are in Poland. Check out all their travel details and pictures on Powder. Click Here for Full Story

March 13, 2009

Sign up with Sessions Search & Win site and redeem points that can be used for Sessions gear. It’s super easy and it’s free.

How Sessions Search + Win Works:

1. Search the web and get results directly from Google + Ask.
2. Win Rewards Points just for searching.
3. Redeem your Rewards Points for Sessions Rewards and More!


It’s free and anyone can join:
http://sessions.searchpluswin.com/


Search + Win!
-The Sessions Team

March 12, 2009

Check out Tim’s runs from the Toyota Big Air event in Japan landing him in a 2nd place podium spot!

Click here to watch!

March 12, 2009

Molly Milligan took 2nd overall and 1st place in the rail contest at the recent BILABONG FLAUNT IT event at MT Seymour.

Congrats!

March 11, 2009
Come out and support your roots at the Legends of Tahoe Snowboarding Classic taking place Mar. 14th, 2009 at Donner Ski Ranch!

Entry Fee: $20.00 towards the purse.

Public: you started snowboarding in 1990 or later, you’re not a legend but you’re important and you’re rad! Prize will be awarded to top riders, all ages invited!

Snowboards: pre 1993 or earlier! Must be approved by Mike Chantry.
We are not so concerned about bindings.

March 11, 2009

Zak Hale took 2nd at Brighton’s first Utah Jazz Jam. Congrats Zak!!!

March 9, 2009

Here is a picture taken from the top of Kirkwood resort looking down into a nice fresh powdery chute before it gets slayed!

-Billy Flick

March 9, 2009

Come out to Sierra at Tahoe Saturday March 21st for the 3rd annual "Buckle Up Big Air" contest! Anyone can enter and there will be cash and prizes for winners! See you out there!

March 9, 2009

Check us out on Twitter and leave your comments.

http://twitter.com/SessionsInfo

3/8/09

February has been a great month for Tahoe. Multiple 3 - 5 foot dumps and the snow pack is finally starting to get stable. We woke up at 3:30 the other morning to take a stab at a popular Tahoe jump. We hiked through the dark woods for about an hour and finally reached our destination only to find that Andreas Wiig had beaten us by five minutes. We were a little bummed but than after watching the sunrise and finding a perfect face full of lines to ride the smiles came back and we quickly started to set a boot back to the top of the face.

March 5, 2009

Its a GIRL!

Congratulations to the Greg Oakley family on the new addition to the Sessions family, "Ava Taylor Oakley" born last Friday.

March 5, 2009

Check out Chris Benchetler’s North Cascade Heli trip on freeskier.com! Yet another epic pow day for Chris! Click Here to check out the article

March 2, 2009

Hello All,

Please check out our (Nimbus Independent’s) ’En Route’ webisode from Japan- http://www..nimbusindependent.com/videos/webisodes.html

As you have now seen (if you click the link), we moved forward with our second year of free HD and iPod downloadable webisodes, as well as restructured our website- www.nimbusindependent.com

The second webisode from Europe will be releasing on the 15th of March.

Enjoy. Hope everyone is well...

Chris Benchetler
www.chrisbenchetler.com

2/28/09

Tim had a great showing at the Asian open taking 5th place in the slopestyle.... look for Tim later this month as he defends his big air title at the US Open.......

2/24/09

Tahoe was amazing last week, once the sun finally came out we got out there and bagged some air time for Autumn Lines new movie.... Montevideo

Feb 24, 2009

Check out the Brighton Jazz Jam on March 7, 2009 at the majestic park at Brighton Ski Resort! Registration starts at 9-10:30 am and the event begins at 1pm! Join the fun for some great riding and awsome prizes!

Feb 24, 2009

Congratulations to Sessions Ski team shredder Matt Walker on his Dew Tour finnish! He ended up taking home an 11th place overall finnish on the tour and was consistently tearing up the finals at every stop! The Sessions team also stepped out to beautiful Northstar, CA for the weekend to support Walker on his stop... check out some of the pics!

Tim has been in Japan for the past few weeks riding bottomless powder. He took a break from all the gostly trees to compete in the Toyota big air, and came out of there with a 2nd place finish!!! The only rider to top his performance was Eero Ettala. Not to bad. Congrats on the strong finish!

Feb. 18, 2009

Come and check out the Pop Unknown reunion show on Saturday Feb. 21st at Mohawk! Then join Pop Unknown and Friends at the Rehab After Party the following day from 3-8pm at the Good Life Team Headquarters! Food and drinks will be provided!

Feb 13, 2009

After unwillingly being split from his twin at birth, Sessions team manager Brett Butcher was finally reunited with his brother! During Damage Inc Concert at the Sessions booth after tuesdays SIA convention Brett’s brother was spotted slam dancing in the crowd. After he was mistaken for Brett by an employee of Sessions he was brought back stage to show Sessions TM the remarkable resemblance. This sparked some kind of weird bond between the two, leaving them to discuss their lives leading up to the encounter. Brett told his brother that he was the TM for Sessions outerwear, and also a pro snowboarder. In return his bro explained to him that he had been shipped to Kentucky at birth to become the son of two nascar crazed Irish farmers, leaving him to believe they were his real parents due to the red pigment in the hair. Weird as it may seem he did not even show up to this event because of snowboarding, but because he had heard word of mouth that there was going to be a savage ass Metallica cover band (Damage Inc.) at the Sessions booth inside the SIA event. Once again congratulations on the reuniting!

Feb 11, 2009

Sessions would like to thank everyone who helped to rock the party at ISPO and SIA Vegas this year! The turnout was great at both events and Sessions blew away the competition with their award winning innovations and live band appearances! Vegas and ISPO had a year to remember with fly after parties (thanks to Skullcandy) and a great atmosphere! check out the some of the pictures!

February 12, 2009

Sessions won the acclaimed ISPO Board Sports Award for the Apparel Category for Snow 10 innovations. Sessions Ignition Stripe Jacket won the award for the hidden mitten available in select men’s and women’s Snow 10 Jackets and all softshells. Sessions also won an innovation award for the Breakaway pant that allows you to take off your underlayer without having to remove your outerwear pants, allowing for maximum convienience.

Check out our tech page soon to see these new features.

February 10, 2009

I recently went on a trip to Niseko, Japan to film with the Nimbus Crew (Eric, Pep, Chris, Justin, Ike, Erin, and Dave). We were shooting for our first webisode of the year, called “En Route”. We were blessed with plenty of fresh snow and nice people. We may not have hit the biggest jumps or cliffs ever, but we did ski pow for two weeks, and get a lot of good footage for the webisode which will be online February 15th at www.bnqt.com.

DayOne – Here is Chris, Eric and myself getting ready for Japan shred day number one. Justin Wiegand on the camera.

Staple_JAPAN – Here I‘m holding a staple that was put in my head from a crash. I paid $135 to have it put in, so I pulled it out myself to save a few dollars.

-Andy Mahre

Come out for a night of fun and great drink specials Feb. 11th at Lakinuki!!! There will be a live DJ and NO COVER!! GET THERE!!!

Last week Las Vegas said goodbye to SIA. The annual trade show is moving to Denver next year. Sessions had Damage Inc (a Metallica cover band) play and play they did. They went on for 3 nights straight at the Sessions booth. Things got rowdy... check out the photos!
Photos by Jeffhehlen.com

Anna Segal braved the fierce stormy sky’s to take home the gold in the slope style event at Winter X. The course was slow and the light was flat making it hard to see. Anna was the first girl to drop and was able to put down a run that couldn’t be topped all day. Gap to the down on the down flat down box into a FS 360 on the first jump, a Lincoln loop on the second and a 540 on the “money booter” to finish it off!
Way to go Anna… Congratulations and thanks for all the support!

Women’s Slopestyle Final Results:
1) Anna Segal
2) Grete Eliassen
3) Kaya Turski
4) Keri Herman
5) Megan Olenick
6) Kristi Leskinen
7) Sarah Burke
8) Kim Lamarre

Tim finished with a very respectable 7th place finish today at winter X. The field was stacked and the riding was insane. Tim put down a very solid 2nd run and at one point was sitting in 3rd. As the contest went on the ridding got better and better, you truly had to bring your A game and than some to get on the podium. A big congrats and thanks to Tim for his strong showing and for representing Sessions!!!!

Watch Tim go for the gold in the X games slopestyle finals tomorrow! Tune into ESPN at 3ET.....

Mini Session’s shred Jacob Krugmire took first this past weekend at the Greenhorn Games at Summit at Snoqualmie. This is a contest for the young guys. If you are over 13 don’t even think about it! Its a great time for the little guys to have the park all to themselves and push each other. Congrats Jacob!

Drew Fuller has a two page Skull Candy add in the February issue of Snowboard-Mag

Brett Butcher has a full page Gallery photo in the February issue of Snowboard-Mag

Tim Humphreys has a Sessions add, a Flow add and a full page Elements photo in the February issue of Snowboarder

And finally check out Andreas Gidlunds Sessions and Celsius adds in the February issue of Transworld Snowboarding, his Bataleon add in the February issue of Snowboard-mag and his couple shots in the Route 66 story in the February issue of Snowboarder!

January 16th, 2009

This weekend marks the grand opening of the Sessions snowpark in Greece. The park is up and running for 2 years and is a huge success. This weekends festivities include the grand opening, NIght riding provided by blow-up light gloves in the park and of course, the big shin-dig. So, if your willing and able, head 2 hours north of Athens to Fterolakas and bring your party pants.

Jan 5, 2009

Come check out college night @ Mt High resort for great savings on riding, drinks, and food, plus a ton of free swag and hook ups by the sponsors!!!

The Sessions family would like to wish Team manager/ Rider Brett Butcher a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

Sessions showed their support for World Snowboarding Day at Squaw Valley USA on the 21st of December, by setting up their tent in the village and passing out stickers to snowboarders who were out on the mountain to support the cause. Followed by a little work in the village the Sessions crew got to take some fluffy turns in the fresh powder leaving the day a total success and a great day to be onboard!!

Tim Humphreys and Andreas Gidlund are both going to be competing in the Slopestyle event at the TTR 6 Star, O’neill Evolution tour this week. Slopestyle Qualifiers are Wednesday the 7th and Finals are Friday the 9th. If you are over in Switzerland head to Davos and check it out!

December 21, 2008

Congratulations to our Virtual Best Friends contest WINNER !!! The prize will be awarded to 19 year old Andrew Kong!

Once again congrats and everyone at Sessions and Skull Candy hopes that you enjoy your ill new jacket!

December 19, 2008

Sessions would like to announce its’ participation with World Snowboard Day. World Snowboard day is a great way to get out on the slopes and show your appreciation to the kids and people who make the snow industry possible. World Snowboard Day on Sunday, December 21, 2008 is a day to have fun and shred it up.

Sessions and Squaw Valley USA have teamed up to make this day visible in the Tahoe Area. Sessions will be supporting this day by setting up a booth near the Squaw Valley Funitel and holding games for great giveaway prizes including outerwear jackets.

Come stop by the Sessions booth at Squaw Valley USA for plenty of fun and prizes.

We’ll see you there!

For more information on World Snowboard Day check out: http://www.world-snowboard-day.com

Dec 18, 2008

Sessions would like to congratulate Tanya and Justin on their new addition to the Sessions family a BABY GIRL! We are all very excited for you and wish you the best!

-Sessions

Today was the Mens slopestyle Qualifier for the Dew Tour. There were 50 guys battling it out for 16 spots. Some heavy riding went down for a qualifier. Tim Humphreys qualified 3rd with a run that went, front side 900, cab 900 to backside 720. Semifinals and Finals are this Friday!

Tune in on Friday, December 26th at 6pm PST/9pm EST on Fuel TV and later again that evening at 9pm PST/12am EST. 
 
The show rebroadcasts the following weekday on Monday, December 29th at 11:30am PST/2:30pm EST and again later at 2:30pm PST/5:30pm EST

Hello everyone,
Our latest Red Bull project up in Whistler was another great success and a ton of fun! On December 12th Whistler/Blackcomb opened their new Peak 2 Peak Gondola which connects the two mountains from the top. To help "launch" this amazing new engineering marvel myself, Miles Daisher, Chuck the Chuckin and a few other members of the Red Bull Air Force - Andy Farrington, Luke Aikens, Jon DeVore and Eli Thompson - got to launch ourselves off one of the gondola cabins from its highest point, about 1,427 feet above the valley floor. To see the video go
here:
http://www.whistlerblackcomb.com/webcast/index.htm
Click on the middle video link - the one with the Red Bull logo on it.
See if you can spot Chuck.
We all had an amazing time in Whistler enjoying their incredible mountain and village. That place is a lot of fun and the skiing up there is pretty dam sweet. Whistler/Blackcomb and Red Bull Canada worked together to put on this great event and all went very smoothly.
There were a lot of other things going on as part of the launch besides our base jump. It turned out to be a very big event with a lot of logistics to organize but we were all very impressed with how smooth the entire operation went. It was a pleasure to work with everyone there. The event was scheduled for Dec 12th but due to what looked like some snowy weather that week we decided to get up to Whistler a week early to nail the jumps during some good weather. We all got 3 jumps each for the cameras so that we would insure having the footage in the can for the official launch on the 12th. All went great and we traded off filming each other on the jumps. On one of the jumps Miles got directly underneath me so I pulled early. This earned me an embarrassing altitude abuse ticket! I got to do a bunch of flippy doodles on a couple of the other jumps so that kind of made up for it.
Miles got some great shots of me while jumping with me as the camera man. This is usually harder than doing flips or tricks. The next week we flew back to Whistler for the official launch but the weather wasn’t very good for filming the jumps. The event production used the footage of the previous jumps for the live ceremony and for the web cam but we still all jumped right during the ribbon cutting anyway. Nobody saw that except for the people in the gondola with us but we didn’t care. It was still fun as hell! Our still photographer, Yorick Carroux, got some great shots. They are attached. The ones that have more snow in them are the ones from the Dec. 12th official launch. http://www.carroux.com/ or http://www.redbull-photofiles.com/Photofiles/PhotofilesModule/ShowShootingImages?shootingID=1229127831538-1824928553
There was also a crew from the Discovery Channel there to document everything. They have been following the construction of the Peak 2 Peak for one of their shows. We might appear on Discovery Channel after all! The Peak 2 Peak Gondola travels a total distance of 2.73 miles (4.4km). The highest point is 1,427 feet (436m). The ride takes approximately 11 minutes. There are 28 gondola cabins which can hold 28 people, 22 sitting and 6 standing. Each cabin departs every 49 seconds. Its capacity is 2050 people per hour each way. I believe it is the longest unsupported span in North America. Its pretty dam cool!
For more information go here: http://ww1.whistlerblackcomb.com/p2pg/
Thanks to all who made this project happen! It was a ton of fun.
- Shane

The new Snowboarder Photo Annual recently hit the book shelves and the Sessions team is all over it!

Tim Humphreys, Nate Bozung, Antti "Naku" Piirainen and Drew Fuller all have one page editorial shots

Andreas Gidlund has a Sessions add

NW Sessions rep rider Shane Stalling has a two page spread

Go pick yourself up a copy and check out all the action!!!!!

12/14/08

The Grand Prix, "Progression Session" took place last night under snowy skies at Copper Mountain. Tim Humphreys was in town to compete for a chunk of the prize money.
The setup was a flat step down style jump into a hitching post jib with transitions on all for sides. 20 riders took to the course and five were giving the nod to ride in the finals. Tim rode supper strong in qualifiers and made the cut.
Finals were best of three runs. On Tim’s first run he landed a picture perfect cab 900 but fell trying a miller flip hand plant on the hitching post. A run that would have landed 1st or 2nd place. Tim went for the same tricks on his next two runs but with snow pilling up on the run in, speed was becoming difficult to obtain. He wasn’t able to put down a perfect run in the finals but still came away with a very respectable 5th place. Great job Tim!

December 13, 2008

Sessions is sponsoring the weekly shred night in Reno at the Pub N Sub with Out of Bounds.

This sunday is Tim Humphreys birthday!!! Hope its one for the ages... happy birthday Tim!!!!

December 11, 2008

Congratulations to our Virtual Best Friends contest WINNER !!! The prize will be awarded to 16 year old Connor "Newschoolers" Johnson!

Once again congrats and everyone at Sessions and Skull Candy hopes that you enjoy your ill new jacket! As for the rest of you, there is still time to enter for a chance to win because we will be choosing one winner a week until December 25!

December 3, 2008

Tim Humphreys and Taylor Carlton will be at Copper next week to compete in the Triple Line contest. If you are in the area go check it out. It kicks off at 7PM on December 13th!!!

December 2, 2008

Congratulations to our Virtual Best Friends contest WINNER !!! The prize will be awarded to 29 year old Linda Johnsen!

Once again congrats and everyone at Sessions and Skull Candy hopes that you enjoy your ill new jacket! As for the rest of you, there is still time to enter for a chance to win because we will be choosing one winner a week until December 25!

11/29/08

Pirate Movie Production Team: Danny Larsen, Sani Alibabic, Kalle Ohlson, Drew Fuller

and Joshua Sherman – Tuesday 12.02.08

Today, Pirate Movie Productions team members, Danny Larsen, Sani Alibabic, Kalle Ohlsen, Drew Fuller and Joshua Sherman shred onto the Habit. Plus, our own Jordan Morris goes to the rodeo to find out if he’s got what it takes to grab the bull by the horns. Also, correspondent John Cowan went to Whistler, BC to check out the Crankworx bike festival. Danny Larsen’s sponsors include: 32/Etnies, Spy, Whiteout Outerwear, K2, Clast and Sessions Boardshop. Sani Alibabic’s sponsors include: Analog, Burton, X-Double and Clast. Kalle Ohlson’s sponsors include: Vans, Smith, Bataleon, Union Bindings, Neff Headwear and Haze Streetwear. Drew Fuller’s sponsors include: Celsius, IS Eyewear, Sessions, IM Streetwear, Rossignol, Rockwell Timekeepers, Skullcandy and Dakine. Josh Sherman’s sponsors include: Salomon, Smith, Bonfire, Active, Breckenridge, Elm and Drop.

This one on Methodmag.com

21.11.2008
Amidst the mayhem of booze, cheese, and bad weather at Le Mondial du Snowboard at Les 2 Alpes, France we ran into Flow’s freshest meat, Tim Humphreys. After last seasons triumphs at the US Open Big Air and other events, this young rider from New Jersey has been launched to the center stage but found the time to sit down with us and give us his quick two cents on the French, New Jersey, Flow, and what the 08-09 season has in store for him.

Name -Tim Humphreys
Age-20 years old
Hometown- Basking Ridge, New Jersey
Sponsors- Flow, Bolle, Sessions, Eesa, Neff, Skullcandy

How is it that someone from such an unsnowy and dirty place as New Jersey has so much skill?

Well in New Jersey, you learn very quickly not to fall because it’s icy and you falling equals you getting hurt, so I think that’s why a lot of the east coast guys are so consistent because we learn quickly that falling isn’t an option.

Do you have New Jersey Pride?

Oh yea! I mean it’s dirty, it’s scummy, it has like 3 or 4 of the most dangerous cities in the US, it might have like 108 toxic waste dumps, but you gotta love it. The euros might not know too much about it but they will.

What are you doing in France?

"It’s an opening season industry jam" in Les 2 Alpes called the Mondial, some sort of tradeshow contest but the event was cancelled. I was just told I’m going to France and that’s it.

What is one good thing about the French?

They have some really good food here. I haven’t had one bad meal yet. No matter where I go it always seems to be tasty.

What is one bad thing about the French?

It seems like people here run on French time. Every time I’m supposed to do something in 20 minutes, it ends up being like 2 hours later. Things just seem to move a bit slower here... but hey I hear Spanish time is even worse. This interview is the first thing I have done on time so far.

If you could go back to one country you have been to, which one would it be?

Japan, for sure. That place is the best. They get dumped on super hard and being from New Jersey where you barely get fresh snow it’s nice to get 2 meters in a week. It’s definitely a nice change.

Do you prefer big comps like the Open or do you prefer a day out with the homies?

I like both, I definitely like riding with my friends but I am a fan of contests, growing up I did a lot of comps and so I feel comfortable and enjoy competing.

What do you have to say to anyone that doubts the Flow binding system or hasn’t tried it?

Well if you haven’t tried them or doubt them, they should go get a pair, maybe a demo, borrow some and see how they feel and find out what all the hype is about. The NXT AT’s are the real nice. While they’re at it they should try a Flow board too. I recommend the Era or the Quantum.

What do you say to the people that are calling you next "Big Man" at Flow?

I’ll take it, I’ll take it.

So just to wrap things up, what are plans for this season; filming, competitions, girlfriends, pets....

Well I don’t have a girlfriend, maybe I’ll film some stuff but I’m not really with any film company yet, maybe if someone is looking… hint, hint, I might be available. Definitely have a lot of competitions coming up; the first Dew Tour, some of the (Burton) Opens, I am gonna try to make it to the European Open, definitely the US Open, the Honda sessions, Toyota Big Air, and probably a bunch more that I can squeeze in. I’ve got a list long that is as long as hell of things I’m supposed to be at. I’d like to tell myself I’ll spend some time learning new tricks and filming but just seems like I always just end up doing comps.

-By Alexis
-Photos by Rami Hanafi

November 25, 2008

Congratulations to our Virtual Best Friends contest WINNER !!! The prize will be awarded to 25 year old Luke Sparkman!

Once again congrats and everyone at Sessions and Skull Candy hopes that you enjoy your ill new jacket! As for the rest of you, there is still time to enter for a chance to win because we will be choosing one winner a week until December 25!

Sessions B4BC Madonna Jacket will be featured on FuelTV tonight.


Monday, November 24th at 6pm PST/9pm EST on Fuel TV and later again that evening at 9pm PST/12am EST.


The show rebroadcasts the following day at 11:30am PST/2:30pm EST and again later at 2:30pm PST/5:30pm EST (however, check local listings in your area is it could vary from location to location). You will therefore have four opportunities to catch the show in a 48-hour period

November 21, 2008

Check out Andreas Gidlund goof around and throw down in Hintertux, Austria
Click on videos and check it out!

November 20th 2008

November 20, 2008

Congratulations to our Virtual Best Friends contest WINNER !!! The prize will be awarded to 25 year old Jenny March from Fairbanks, AK!!! Once again congrats and everyone at Sessions and Skull Candy hopes that you enjoy your ill new jacket! As for the rest of you, there is still time to enter for a chance to win because we will be choosing one winner a week until December 25!

November 12, 2008

Congratulations to our Virtual Best Friends contest WINNER !!! The prize will be awarded to 14 year old Tyler Sammons from PA!!! Once again congrats and everyone at Sessions and Skull Candy hopes that you enjoy your ill new jacket! As for the rest of you, there is still time to enter for a chance to win because we will be choosing one winner a week until December 25!

November 12, 2008

Tim will be competing in X Games slopestyle for the second year in a row.
Congrats Tim!

November 6, 2008

Congratulations to our Virtual Best Friends contest WINNER !!! The prize will be awarded to 16 year old TJ Marriott from Chatham, NJ!!! Once again congrats and everyone at Sessions and Skull Candy hopes that you enjoy your ill new jacket! As for the rest of you, there is still time to enter for a chance to win because we will be choosing one winner a week until December 25!

November 5, 2008

Sessions is pleased to introduce Matt Walker as part of the Sessions Ski Team. This Aspen, Colorado native had his very first big win at age 18, with the AM competition called Young Gun. It was telling that he was destined for greatness.... Following that win, he’s gone on to win the Kick Aspen Big Air in ‘07, as well as taking 5th place in both the U..S Open Slopestyle. and the Nippon Open slope over in Japan; while his main competitive accomplishment was in winning the ‘08 Aspen Open Slopestyle.

“Great choice guys, couldn’t have picked a better guy!” - Doug Bishop, Newschoolers.com

Aside from Matt’s ski slope success, he’s also made some room for a few film accomplishments. In the past two years he’s been filming with Poorboyz; Yeah Dude in ‘07 and now he’s also got a segment in Reasons coming out this year.

Keep an eye out for Matt this coming winter as he represents Sessions throughout the U.S. and Europe. As you’ll see, he’ll be a force to be reckoned with this Winter!

“I am STOKED to be on the Sessions’ Ski Team and to have another epic, fun, healthy winter!” – Matt Walker

More about Sessions at www.sessions.com

November 4th

WINTER IS HERE! Today was amazing. All summer long your thoughts are on the first day you can pull the snowboard out and take some turns, hit a rail or get some airtime. Today was that day and it ranked as one of the best first days I have ever had……
The plan was simple, drive to Mt Rose, hike the ridge and find powder. James and I weren’t the only ones with this idea, we rolled up around 9 and the parking lot was filling up fast. We quickly laced up our boots as our noses took in the crisp cold air. Not a minute into the hike we ran into Jake Devine, Brendan Hayes and Brandon Dreary. After high fives were thrown we continued up the ridge into a winter wonderland. A little ways up the trail Jake spotted this hip step down into a pretty deep pocket. After a quick pat down the session was on. Front threes and methods were the tricks of the day. Halfway through the session Brandon Cocard, Tim Eddy, Taylor Carlton and Alex Horgan came hiking up the ridge. More high fives were tossed around and they got in on the session. After the hip was torn to pieces we moved down and hit every bump, rock, tree and cliff we could find. It was an epic day and the smile is still on my face. If today is a sign of things to come it will be a winter for the ages!!!!

Brett Butcher

Sessions was on hand this past weekend for the SF Ski and Snowboard festival. With colder temperatures and snow in the forecast, people’s thoughts are changing over to winter fun in the Sierras. The weekend was split up into two days. Day one’s theme was wine and ski and day two was beer and boards. Over a hundred breweries and wineries where on hand for people to sample there product. Consumers could also purchase their season passes from there favorite Tahoe resorts, check out new products from industry leading companies and buy new winter gear from the many shops on hand. Both days were packed and the Sessions blue ball toss was a hit! The event was a success and should be bigger and better next year!

November 2, 2008

Report by Sessions EU team skier, Skye Darden.

"Awright geezer?", some bloke said to me with a serious cockney accent. I was to learn that he was just calling me a dude. He must of seen all the sessions gear i was sporting, and knew what time it was. A couple of other "dudes" have come from across the Atlantic and all over Europe to compete in the first big air event in London. The London Freeze saw 32 of the best skiers in the world hit the old Freestyle.ch style jump in front of the massive and very iconic Battersea power station. The event included a knockout judging system lead by head judge, and the ultimate "dude", Tanner Hall. Other riders included Simon Dumont, Jacob Wester, PK Hunder, and Colby West battling it out against some of the best new up and coming athletes. One of those up and coming riders is Breck’s own, Matt Walker. The newly acquired session’s rider stoked the crowd with his great style while spinning his 9’s and 10’s. Due to the difficulty with the snow, the in run was very dicey as many guys had problems with their switch tricks. Matt sailed through the first round to go on and face Austria’s Fabio Studer. Fabio threw some very stylish 7’s with great grab combos and wowed the judges enough to edge Matt. But what do most of the session’s guys do when they are done competing? PARTY!! And Matt came through in true form by helping plot an "emancipation" plan to free a bottle of Jack. It worked, and as of the time that this report was written, have not seen, nor heard from Matt. I just hope he made it home. I’m sure he did, after all... he is a dude! PEAZ

0ctober 30, 2007

What up everybody! The Tim Brauch 60 min Doc. is comming soon! Untill then you can check out the trailer by clicking one of the links below! One love Tim!
Trailer in English
Trailer in Spanish
Trailer in Japanese

Oct 30th 2008,

Sessions would like to announce a new member to the Sessions web family. www.sessionsteam.blogspot.com is another place to go to get all the news, videos, story’s and happenings from Sessions riders all over the world. Check back daily for new content and spread the word!

Sessions

Check out Shane McConkey’s Interview about his new ski video "Claim" on The MSNBC Today Show!(a href= http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27338223#27338223>Click here to view

October 28, 2008


Come check out the railjam and raffle @ The Valencia Club Friday Nov 14, 2008!!!

Oct. 25th, 2008

Boreal’s 4th annual JPI went off with a bang high atop the Sierra Mountains on Saturday, October 25th. The JPI is a great event because it really kicks off the snow season in Lake Tahoe and this year was bigger and better. With cold temperatures the past few weeks, Boreal was able to blow a ton of snow. This enabled them to open a public jib area witch included a stair feature, down boxes, C boxes, wall ride and a 20 foot jump. It was a complete zoo, with as many as 500 kids hiking a patch of snow and trying to avoid collisions! Sessions had a great presence at the JPI with riders Nate Farrell, Taylor Carlton, Zak Hale, Brett Butcher and Kyle Miller all in attendance hanging out at the Sessions tents, singing autographs, throwing out Sessions tees, hats and stickers. The main event went down on the custom-built staircase feature when the sun set. Zak and Kyle competed and had a strong showing, both just missing the podium. With over 3000 spectators JPI4 was a huge success and an event you should mark on your calendars to attend next fall!

October 24, 2008

Sessions would like to introduce Brett Butcher as its new Snow Team Manager. Brett has bean a part of the Sessions family for quite some time, working up through the ranks from a flow am rider to getting ads and representing Sessions on a professional level.

Brett brings to Sessions over ten years of experience as a sponsored rider competing in contests such as Red Bull Heavy Metal, Vans Triple Crown, and Boreal’s Jibassic Rail Jam. He has also been featured in and worked with production companies such as Straight Jacket Films, Think Thank Productions, Mack Dawg Productions and Autumn Line.

“Working for a company as a team manager has always been something I’ve wanted to do and I couldn’t be happier to work for Sessions,” says Butcher. “They have supported me through my entire career as a snowboarder and there isn’t another company out there I would rather be involved with. Everyone at Sessions has a common goal to build it bigger and better, and I feel honored to be a part of that!”

Sessions team includes Tim Humphreys, Andreas Gidlund, Drew Fuller, Nate Bozung, Nate Farrell, and Zak Hale.

October 28, 2008

My flights into Ushuaia turned out to be a struggle once I arrived in Buenos Aires.  Everything was going according to plan until I got through customs and waited to grab my bags to fly on my domestic flights.  As you may have guessed, from the title of this entry - none of my bags showed up.  With little time to spare, I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off.  I couldn’t find anyone who understood my situation or who spoke a bit of English.  Oh how I really wished I payed better attention in my Spanish classes!  I ran from terminal to terminal only to be sent to another.  Finally I had to run over to the terminal where my next flight was and check into.  the airline attendant stressed that I needed to have my bags before boarding the flight and that I couldn’t get my ticket until I checked them through customs.  After she said that, she awkwardly handed me my ticket.  I then took that ticket and struggled getting through military police at the security checkpoint.  The X-ray machine was a joke as no one took off or out any metal and you were expected to beep when walking through the metal detector.  Everyone seemed to do it so I did it instead of sending my stuff through the machine.  The security would just pat you down and that was much easier then taking my belt off, cell phone out, watch, and wallet.  My diabetes syringes, pump, and needles were a whole new ball game.  In fact, the security seemed pretty ticked off with me.  Not understanding anything they were saying, I kept repating: med-i-cation, med-i-cation, diabetes de juvenile.  I think finally they were so fed up with me that they just let me through.  I was then herded onto a bus and driven to the airplane.  I kept my fingers crossed about my baggage and was planning on just dealing with my lost baggage through expensive phone calls to the airline carrier.  I was sick to my stomach.  When I landed in Ushuaia I surprisingly found my bags waiting for me.  I was stoked!  I still haven’t figured how that one worked out, because I was supposed to take my bags through customs upon first arrival in Argentina.  Whatever it matters, I am glad to have my bags now with me. 

I am in Ushuaia currently and am patiently waiting for my departure to Antarctica in a couple days.  Tonight I met up with John Griber, Doug Stoup, and Andrew Mclean at a local restaurant.  Doug has rented a truck and tomorrow we will load in our gear and head up to the Patagonia and into the Martial Glacier area to earn some last minute turns.  He also informed me that only one student is joining us on this expedition, I think age 10?  The snow line in Ushuaia is still very close to the valley floor here.  It appears that they had an excellent winter and we are all very excited to see the conditions down in Antarctica 

Ushuaia, from what I have learned, used to be a place that convicts were sent to.  Today it is the capitol of Tierra del Fuego and seems to display a strong and proud Argentinian culture.  Today a brief storm rolled in and out and brought some strong winds, brief rain, and white caps to the Beagle Canal.  The storms seem to come and go continually down in this part of the world and the sun isn’t setting till about 10 pm.  Temperatures have also been averaging about 40 degrees and another front is working its way in tonight.  From my bedroom window I can see Chile which also happens to be directly across the Beagle Canal.  Most of the restaurants close down after lunch and reopen for dinner.  Around dinner time, the main street is packed with all sorts of people.  There are street barterer stations in business entrance ways and windshield washers at traffic lights.  The sound of horrible American techno music bombards your ears from the street cruisers and school children run pack the ice cream parlors.  I am a stand out tourist in this town and my Spanish is very poor.  My bright style of clothing also sends out a different cry to the locals.  The snowboarding and skate culture is a huge minority down here.  The food is pretty good and cheap with the American dollar.  Meat is the popular choice out here, especially lamb and steak.  One thing that I could use is a fruit smoothie, which would be rare to find in this part of the country.  I am going to try and seek one out at the local grocery store. 

I am currently staying in a hostel with two Australians and a French backpacker.  They are nice company and have some great stories too from their recent travels.  The operators of this hostel are a Canadian girl and her boyfriend.  Being able to get the local tips from them in English has been a great resource. 

I am going to hit the sheets now so I can have an early start tomorrow and catch up on my jet lag. 

Powder lines,
Sean Busby

October 28, 2008

Close to a year in preparation the time has finally come for the anticipated departure date for the long journey south to the end of the Earth – Antarctica.  I left Salt Lake City International Airport this morning bright and early to make sure all my bags were within the strict weight limits and verify that my climbing gear could make it through airport security.  With enough time to spare, I meandered through the airport looking at the vistas of the surrounding Wasatch Mountains out towards the east.  They were naked, and only clothed up high with some early season snow remnants.  Possibly, by the next time I return to Salt Lake City, they will be more conservative in their attire and will be fashionably displaying their winter season base layers of powder snow from top to bottom.  But for now the air outside is cold, the leaves are piled on the ground in colors of brilliant red and yellow, and my summer skin is chilled.  After all it is fall in the Wasatch, but even more exciting - spring down in the Antarctic.  Today will probably be my last day of wearing flip flops and shorts until next April. 

Within the first hour of my flight I flew over Colorado, my favorite of all the States I have been.  I reminisced on how Colorado has impacted my snowboarding career and all the friends I have made along the way.  I think of them and wish them luck, I know they wish me the same.  Most of my racing buddies are out there training currently and appreciate my respect for the sport and the change I made to be focused more on expedition and big mountain snowboarding.  In fact, Colorado is where the idea of Antarctica came up many years ago as I was watching a Warren Miller Film.

I am now sitting in the Atlanta, Georgia airport waiting to hop on a jumbo set of wings and fly south down over Cuba, Venezuela, Columbia, through Brazil, and down into Buenos Aires, Argentina.  From Buenos Aires, I will then fly to El Calafate and then finally into Tierra Del Fuego "The Land of Fire."  I will land in the southernmost city of the world, Ushuaia (Argentina). 

Ushuaia will be the link up point for all team members of this expedition.  I am arriving early, followed by Jackson Hole’s John Griber, in hopes of the possibility of riding some big backcountry in Patagonia.  It will also be nice to jump back on our boards once more before setting upon the frozen land filled with penguins, seals, and crevasses.  The last time I happened to be on my mountaineering setup was nearly two months ago on my Middle Earth Expedition through Southern and Northern New Zealand.  For Griber, it was also a few months ago at Gasherbrum II in Pakistan (riding at 22,000 ft.).  It will be nice to brush off some of the dust from our crampons.

After a few days in Ushuaia, we will board a ship (along with scientists, zoo specialists, and adventurers) that Doug Stoup has set up through Ice Axe TV.  We will then set way through open seas for over two days.  We will cruise down the Beagle Channel and out past Cape Horn before trying to convert our mountain legs into the sea legs required to cross the dreaded Drake Passage, known as the roughest body of water in the world.  My mind has been set on the Drake for a couple weeks now.  I have been monitoring the Southern Ocean swells and have taken a fine interest to the 20-30 ft. wave averages.  I have an arsenal of motion sickness wrist bands, Dramamine, and patches.  The seas are foreign to most of us and when we cross the Antarctic Convergence (49 / 55 degree south latitude) we will encounter a sharp drop in temperatures and possible changes in the atmosphere.  If the weather is calm we may see a sudden fog bank, multitudes of feeding sea birds, and/or a line of turbulence.  Our eyes will then be searching for the first set of icebergs followed by pack ice. 

The wildlife of Antarctica, especially the spring time wildlife, is promised to be amazing.  Of one of the penguin rookeries, we are expecting 60,000 pairs plus their chicks.  We will encounter many species of penguins and seals as we hike to our lines in the frozen wilderness.  I can’t imagine what to expect, I can only day dream right now.  I am stoked for this opportunity of a lifetime!

I will talk to you all next from Ushuaia.

PowderLines.Com,
Sean Busby

October 27, 2008

Come check out Cab’s art show "Gears, Gas, and Grease" taking place November 1