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I’ve been hitting Alpental the last few days and it’s been so sic. They’ve been getting rocked for the last 3 weeks from this storm cycle and luckily it’s been staying cold. The snow’s been pretty damn light for the NW and coming down non-stop.

It’s been a free-for-all. Almost no consequences…the snow is so deep you can pretty much boost off everything, land flat and ride away. And we’ve been doing just that.

Rode today with Becker…tore the shit out of The Fan, Breakover, Upper I, Snake Dance, etc. It’s rad right now, still early season so stuff hasn’t completely filled in yet…jumps everywhere, and hella pow to land in.

So much pow, my back leg is worked!

UPDATE 12.22.07: Eric is home!

This from Shawn in an email Sat 12/22/07:

yo everybody! as you all prolly know, e is free! pretty figgin nuts what all just went down. you can’t make this stuff up. can’t even imagine whats going thru his head. he was the headlining story on CNN’s website last night. here’s a clip from last night as well. http://www.newschannel5.com/global/story.asp?s=7533451

From 12.20.2007

Some of you may have heard of Eric Volz.Eric is a friend of a friend who was wrongly accused of murder down in Nicaragua. Eric was living down there, running a magazine called El Puente at the time of his conviction. He’s been held in prison down there for a little over a year.The court proceeding that convicted Eric was a complete joke. Evidence demonstrating that Eric was 100% innocent was thrown out and/or not allowed in court. Basically the Nicaraguan judicial system is completely corrupt and Eric’s 30 year sentence is a result.

The Nicaraguan media has sensationalized the case to the point that almost everyone associated with the court case is locked into an ‘Eric is Guilty’ mentality or else they receive death threats.

Good News: The local Appellate Court overturned his conviction on Dec 17th and demanded his immediate release from prison.

Bad News: He’s still being held in prison because the judge that originally convicted him, who is supposed to sign the release papers has essentially refused to sign the papers. Im sure she’s receiving death threats.

This story just trips me out. Its like a movie but it’s happening to someone relatively close to me. I can’t imagine what this guy is going through. Makes all the shit i’ve ever gone through in life seem pretty small.

Here’s to a safe and speedy return home.

Videos and more info below:

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Holy crap there’s a lot of snow at Alpental.

There’s also a lot of holes, creeks, bumps, woop sections and worst of all, flatness. There’s some sections of bottom chair Alpy that are brutally flat with thigh deep snow–and i hit all of them.

We had to bail before top chair ever opened. The bottom was toast in about 30 mins. There weren’t too many people but when everyone is confined to a couple runs…it gets blown out quick.

Glad i dropped 4-fif and got my pass though…it’s gonna be a mad-house up there this weekend in the pass line. Everything should be open by sat.

Fun day.

Baker was sic this weekend. Drove up early Saturday morning with Otter/Petersen to 10″ of new. Crowds were minimal but rocks and stumps were abundant. I managed to escape unscathed on the new shred stick. Board rides sick but i cannont–yet. No pow legs.

Met up with a pile o’friends: Otter, Petersen, Bjones, Muffbreath, Crazy D, Snowball, Peelers, Clem(M.I.A.), Bryan R. Hartstad, Bachmeier, JR and BRock. And Lorn.

Saturday we got into some deep pow, face shots left and right. Barreled myself a few times and hose a few people too. At the end of the day we came down Pea Garden which was probably not quite covered enough and got to watch Otter slide on his back down a rocky chute. Why is watching your friends wreck so funny?

Sunday Otter and i powered back up there…still super fun. Had a jump line going down the natural half. Watched some guy backside3 out of the natty half and land on Bryan’s girl. Totally stomped it too. He ended up breaking her pole and scraping her leg up. Savage.

Goddamn Baker is sic. I wish they’d invent teleporters.

Winter is ON son!!

If you’re a surfer and you live in the NW you undoubtedly understand the time commitment of the long drives required to get in the water. Whether it’s powering out to La Push or rolling the dice @ 70mph on SR104 out to Westport, the road is long.

Here’s a list of things to keep you occupied on long coastal road trips:

1. Sleep
2. Karaoke practice
3. Play Soduko
4. Fart
5. Buy Air-Soft Guns at a gas station and shoot your friends! (See Video Below)

I’ve been lucky enough to get into the Banked Slalom two years in a row. With a crazy tight lottery ’system’ getting in two times in a row is highly unlikely. Prior to getting in i’d applied for like 5 years straight. I’d pretty much given up hope and just assumed that the whole operation was run by a bunch of flakey stoners.

Well som’bitch, i got on the Waiting List this year. Holy Ef! Im #8 on the list, so i just need to take out 8 people and im in! I noticed a bunch of friends on the ‘Didn’t Make it In‘ list. Bummer dudes…keep applying.

A couple of my friends–Darin and Clem both applied. Darin got in and Clem didn’t. Funny thing is Clem did the slalom last year and didn’t think he did good enough to make the cut for this year. But he’s on the Top Finishers list and didn’t even know it–which means he’s in this year. Bastard.

A few years back i was up at the Mt Baker Banked Slalom with a bunch of friends. Clem and Darin both were in the Slalom, i was just there to heckle them and drink beer. One of the days we were sitting down at the White Salmon lodge drinking some beer in the sun when some guy came up to us and asked if he could ask us some questions about snowboarding, avalanches and safety.

The guy ended up being an author of a book i read in college that had a part in it about the elementary school i went to as a kid–weird. Anyways, check the article below. It’s basically about how avalanche deaths are on the rise, Craig Kelly and snowboarding. The article quotes myself and Darin a few times. I’d say it mis-quotes me. Evidently i worshiped Craig Kelly.

Hmm…

NY Times Article

I’ve gotten into this debate a few times. Usually with people who aren’t snowboarders. Some people consider snowboarding to be a Sport. I don’t think it is. I believe it to be a hobby or something you just do. Some people might call it a way of life.

The thing is, snowboarding never was a sport to begin with. Sport entails competition. Football, baseball, basketball, hockey which are about as sporty as you can get wouldn’t exist without competition. You can’t play any of these Sports without an opposing team, or at least one other person to catch a ball or smash into. The premise of snowboarding has nothing to do with competing. It never has. Snowboarding began as an alternative, rogue activity that pretty much just pissed off wealthy white dudes.

Today however, the most visible aspect of snowboarding is the Olympics, X-Games, Shawn White and Mountain Dew–all of which are synonymous with competition. But at it purest form, snowboarding is a one man show. You can drive to the mountain solo, ride solo, and have as good a time or better than you would riding with your friends.

The only legit competition in snowboarding is getting 1st chair on a pow day. And you pretty much have to be a local to win that competition.