Lost Time in Tofino

Life has taken an unexpected turn when one morning you wake up and a year has gone by and your life is completely different. Here I am on this island ripping wet sticky snow and rocking cut backs on waves. Edmonton’s potential for anything great has come to an abrupt halt once you leave that little shit hole. The world seems brighter when you have mountains oceans and rad wave breaks all within a short rip in the car.

It makes no difference your cash flow or your job its all about the community and the people out here. Going out to Tofino for the day you will want to stay a lifetime. You will meet the most radical people who have lived a certain lifestyle their whole life, with no signs of letting up. Dudes are in there 60's growing the pot in their Volkswagen Westfalia with their collection of wetsuits and surfboard that have endless stories if you got into it with these dudes he would drink you under the table and still be the first guy in his wetsuit paddling out to the breaking point. It gives a guy a new perspective on life, these old dudes are out here surfing, smoking and having beach fires when most dudes their age are worried about their pensions and planning their estate. Fuck the dude has a hippie van and enough surfboards that he will never have to buy a new one. If that’s not planning for your retirement then I don’t know what is.

Going surfing is the raddest experience of a lifetime. If you get a chance to go, fucking go or else you will be that loser all old and wrinkly planning your shit waiting to die. The first day you catch that first wave you are hooked. I find myself thinking less and less of knee deep pow, but thinking more of perfect right breaks and when ill be sleeping in my car to catch early morning swells. The meaning of life goes out the window and you feel Zen once you get into the wet suit and are sitting out there in the line up watching the sets, just waiting for the perfect wave, and hoping that each set is going to be the best of the day.

Every wave is different and you will never get the same wave twice so each ride is an adaptation of the way the ocean is swelling. Every ride is an art you are carving into the ocean leaving behind some whitewash and a few fist pumps. So live your life and shred some waves, fuck being an old dried up loser and buy a fucking van, stock up on planters and meet me on the beach.

Peace and love

He's Got Wood

Since it's the summer and everyone's out skating, I figured I should show you what this dude did with all of his broken decks. (And I'm sure he scored some from local shops too). Regardless this Japanese artist, named Haroshi made all the sculptures with the remains of skates after they have been shredded. These are pretty gnarly, wish I had one in my house. Enjoy these babies!

Just like to say thanks to ufunk.net for providing the photos!

Time for Tunes Vol 1

Check this out a mix tapes of the jams that have been getting me through the past weeks, but really they have been helping hippies for years. So for this month’s playlist we take it back to the roots and enjoy some songs from the 70-80’s. So throw on those tie dye shirts and those flared jeans. Maybe even have this playlist put onto vinyl just to get the full effect. Regardless it’s going be a trip for the ears. All I can say is hold on tight and turn this shit up!!

1.       Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath

2.       John Lennon  - Instant Karma

3.       Billy Joel – Only the Good Die Young

4.       Janis Joplin – Me and Bobby Mcgee

5.       Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Shuffle Your Feet

6.       Lube – Every time I see your Picture

7.       Bob Dylan – Subterranean Homesick Blues

8.       Cat Stevens – Sitting

9.       Iggy Pop and the Stooges – The Passenger

10.   Iron Maiden – Fear of the Dark

11.   Pink Floyd – On the Turning Away

12.   Simon and Garfunkel – The Only Living Boy in New York

13.   Supertramp – Asylum

14.   Tom Waits – Christmas Card from a Hooker  in Minneapolis

15.   Tom Waits – Kentucky Avenue

Sex-Ton

Upon surfing the Transworld Snowboard site I manage to stumble upon a interview with 

one of my favorite new up and comers. Just turning pro last season Joe sexton seems 

to be changing the snowboarding scene, he kills rails, just learnt backcountry, this guy has done it all. And at only the age of 25 . Needless to say this is a solid read if you got the time . 

Minnesota Joe strolled through the office under the watch of JP Walker and Roberta Rodger recently. The crew was helping Sexton heal up his knee with a visit to the doc while pulling him out of his late day routine. Time spent healing gives your mind idle time to wander, and in Joe’s case he’s been sleeping in till three, watching every episode of the Office, and exploring how things are made—from pictures to goggles to magazines. Although wading through injury, Joe managed to bang out an impressive part in the People video Down With People. The kid’s head is clear and level and with all that patient waiting he’ll be ready to blast down some rails come snow time.

So what’s new in the life of Joe?
I moved into an apartment with three other friends, I live in a closet. It’s been pretty cool and rent is super cheap because of that. I’ve been rehabbing my knee. I blew my knee out at the end of last year and I’m four months out of surgery and I just saw a doctor down here and he said it was all good. I’ve been riding my bike and I got a gym membership and I’m trying to eat better—a whole life change (laughs).

How did you hurt your knee?
I hurt it at the beginning of the year filming, like in January. I jumped down a set of stairs and hurt it then so I went to the doctor to get it checked out and he said it was all good so I was like, “Okay, cool.”  Then I went filming all year with the People guys and every time I came off a rail weird it would hurt and shake and do all this crazy stuff so I knew it was messed up, but I didn’t really want to go see a doctor. At the end of the year in Mammoth I came off this park rail all weird and just felt it totally slip. And then I was done, I went to get it checked and I had torn my ACL.

That was the same trip JP blew out his shoulder right?
Yeah, that was the same trip, the next day. It was funny ‘cause Darrell [Mathes] fell super hard and kinda got shooken up. I was like, “Oh man that sucks.” Then JP got hurt and blew his shoulder out and I go, “Man I’m next,” but Darrell said naw you’ll be fine. Don’t curses always come in threes?

As soon as I hopped on the rail I knew it was going to happen.  There was a hole at the bottom of the landing and I hit the up slope and snapped my knee. I had to walk down the whole mountain and it was my first major injury so I was tripping, I didn’t know what to do. The thought of not being able to skateboard all summer was crazy.  I thought, “How is that going to be possible?”

Yeah, how do you usually spend you summers?

Skateboarding. Well, I had a couple summer jobs and stuff and then worked for my dad for a while installing sprinkler heads and seriously skateboarding. It’s what I do to stay in shape and it’s just my passion. I love skateboarding so much and when I couldn’t I was like damn it this sucks. And all my friends come back and go skating and on these skate trips which was hard. I‘ve been taking pictures of them skating though so that helps.

How have you been healing up?
Well, everyone said I would get fat, but luckily I got that gym membership and I got this girl’s cruiser bike. I’ve been watching movies and playing mad video games—Bond 007.

Nintendo 64 or what?
Yeah that one and the Xbox version.

What’s the word on the new Stepchild/ThirtyTwo movie project?
It should be fun, Sean Johnson is producing it and Ilari, the same guy that did the Child Support movie is going to film it. And then we have a couple more filmers and it’s basically going to be JP, Simon, Markku, Stian, Risto, Fredu, and I.

That will be a tight knit crew.
It’s going to be pretty small which is good. It’s just fun because we all have different views on things and I guess it just works. Like Simon, JP and I went to Bear and I never really knew JP very well, but by the end of it were just hanging out.

Yeah you guys are homies now.
It’s seriously like a family. I’ve been with Stepchild three years now and I just can’t see myself anywhere else. All those guys make it super fun. I can’t really complain.

When can you plan on getting back on the snow?
The doctor said I have about two more months, which is okay because stuff should just start rolling by then. Nowadays it seems like we start filming later and end later so that should work out. I’m just curious to see how it feels to hop back on my snowboard. My steeze will be all weird, I’ll probably look like a rollerblader.

Are you stoked with your part in the People vid?
Yeah I like it.  They made the movie really well. I like a lot of the parts, Jordan’s, John’s, Simon’s and all the guys that I filmed with this year. I think they did a super good job. Do you like it?

Yeah, I’ve only seen it once so far but I really dig the fierce pow blasts. They just kept firing those off at the camera and it gets you stoked to shred.
Yeah I was anxious to see it again too so I went to a shop and bought one. I wanted to see the bonus too because the bonus has all the good stuff.

I know you’re a big skate fan, any recent skate outings?
I went to the Goofy versus Regular of skate. It was awesome. I got to go in the park and sit down by all the guys. I’m a pretty big skate nerd when it comes to that stuff so I kind of fan out about some am kid or something. I saw Dylan Rieder and Chris Cole, I never to get to see any of that in Minnesota. I was there for like five hours just watching.

Just tempting eh?
Yeah I wanted to skate so bad. Random kids were skating the park and I could have been too if my leg was better.

What are some of your favorite new skate vids?
The new TWS vid And Now. I saw the Fallen vid Ride the Sky a couple times it’s pretty good. I think And Now has some more appealing riders though. I’m just waiting to see the other flicks come out.

Thanks to TWS for making this interview happen. 

Early Session Lovin'

After this week of tests and studying, I feel better sitting down to review what happened early last season. Before this time last year we had been shredding over 10 times. I mean the goal every year is to shred 100 days thats why I start so early. But like really 10 times and its not even october, that can be defined by one word... Gnarly. Thats when we take the time to thank the gods for blessing the hockey rinks with glorious white love and of course the box of our trucks to make it all happen.

The goods time were rolling that day, it was a beautiful plus 20 day, two fresh truck loads of snow and we were good to shred a few boxes. Obviously the day would be awesome we had beer, bro’s, and boxes (like the ones you slide to all you crazy dudes out there not like a dirty term for a chico). Needless to say this video deserves to be checked out and of course laughed at for a good hour and a half.

Props to Stu and the crew for making this 2 minutes of glory, well more like 2 minutes of epic failure. So here it is

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=134656147142&subj=512104845

Yeti Shredin'

The Yeti Shred

After all the big money being pouring into heli skiing and cat trips, I've decided its time to bring shredding pow back to the roots. Just pile the board on the dogsleds and head out into the back country. Yeti style if you will. No need for gas money, no need to pay for lifts, all you need is some dog chow and obviously, a team of dogs. Plus you will always have a shred partner and someone to dig you out of those avalanches.

The options would be endless to the amount of shredding you could do. You could even just build a little shack and train the dog team to hunt bears and other wildlife. Then you could live there for the rest of your life growing your hair and beard in three year increments. Just like a true Yeti...

Now we need to focus on the main reasons how to get away from everyone and everything to become the ultimate shred Yeti. So I've decided to lay down Burtons 13 reasons to skip. Pick your favorite and start packing up the dogsleds !

13 Reasons to Skip .

‎1. Snowboarding is way more fun than your job/class

2. Work is forever, snow isn't it

3. Craig Kelly would

4. It's a powder day

5. Once the robots take over, your teacher and bosses won't be as lenient

6. Skaters have a day in june

7. Snowboarding cures a hangover, work/class doesn't

8. All work, no play makes a shredder go crazy

9. To stimulate the local mountain's economy

10. It makes you more core

11. Broverdose would

12. You've got to make up for the tribal tattoo somehow

13. You know you want to

The dudes at signal really stepped it up with this shred stick. Using all recycled cans and water bottles, the only costs that they had to pay was the resin and the inserts which basically cost about 15 bucks. Check this video out as Signal drops another version of everything third Thursday.

Every Third Thursday. Build A Recycled Snowboard Video With Signal. TransWorld SNOWboarding

Cops Suck

This weekend turned out to be quite the extravaganza. The weekend was cold and wet, with a very good chance of moving snow to set up some features. Seems like classes had another plan for me. Spend the day studying then have a few big boy pops before heading to the 'ol watering hole. Have a few cold ones, have a nice stroll home then of course sleep in.

However the walk home was a lot more epic than could have ever imagined. As we are nearing Hudson's on Whyte Avenue I noticed a bunch of cops standing around basically doing nothing. There were two EMS paramedics attending to a girl crying on the ground. Then I notice this dude is bleeding like 5 feet from the coppers. So I ask any of the 5 cops if they could maybe get this dude a wet nap, I mean he’s bleeding like every where. Obviously this was way to much work for those lazy ass pigs to do. Instead they threatened to give me a ticket for public intoxication. I immediately claim I’m not drunk and they can even give me a breathalyzer. He then forced me against the wall pick pockets my wallet and gives me a ticket for public intoxication.

What a joke.. like i ask for them to help out a civilian which I believed to be in their job description but they cant be bothered to do anything. 5 Police just kicking it not one could step up. Then as he finishes writing my ticket one of the other cops goes into the ambulance and gets him a wet nap. I guess it was the bitching about fighting the ticket and of course following through with a complaint on the officer.

Needless to say, this weekend got a little bit out of control. At least I made it through the weekend without the pain of missing the shred.

Heres a video that caught my eye this week. Enjoy.

Johnnie Paxson At Bear Mtn