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I’ve been known to have a beer on the weekends. I’ve been on this program since my poor college days back in the 90’s. I remember getting half-racks of PBR at Happy’s Market in Ellensburg for 4 bucks. Sometimes i’d bring half-racks of PBR to parties. People would say ‘gross, how can you drink that?’, ‘PBR is for hobos’ or ‘next time bring Budweiser bro’  …something fratty like that. But back then, that was all my Dining Hall wage could swing.

Since college, I’ve watched PBR change from cheap, shitty beer to popular, acceptable beer complete with a subtle yet effective marketing campaign. It seems like their demographic has changed too. What used to be choice beer for hunters, hobos and poor dudes, changed to middle class white kids, capitol hill residents, and snowbros.

Lest we not lose sight of why we drank PBR in the first place.  It wasn’t cause it tasted good–it was because it was cheap. Ain’t cheap beer anymore.  They gotta pay for that marketing campaign somehow.  Here’s a list of beers in the same league as PBR that typically cost less:  Oly, Schmidt, Busch, Lucky Lager, Miller and Rainier*.

Have a good weekend all you Bumbershitters.  Im off on a soggy surf mission.

*Rainier is usually cheaper. And cooler.

ps. If you see me at a bar and would like to purchase a beer for me, PBR is acceptable.  Thanks.

Last Tuesday and Wednesday (4/8 and 4/9) i got to ride Baker with no one else. K2 put on their hopefully now annual ‘Kamp K2.’ They did this a few years back–then it was called Festicle. The company rented out Mt Baker ski area and invited both the ski and snowboard teams, a ton of their employees, a bunch of shop people, misc industry people, some Baker locs and a few random dudes like myself.

The two day event was filled with a ton of activities that coupled the difficult and rare combination of coordination and beer drinking. Examples include Flip-Cup, Mechanical Bull rides, Capture the Beer, Mini Banked Slalom, Beer-Pong and Trike Bike Rally.

Actually, back up. I missed an important point here. PBR sponsored this event with 55 kegs of beer. 55 kegs of beer! Of PBR. (On a side note, 1 keg is the equivalent of about 14 cases of beer. 55 kegs equals a little over 9,000 cases of beer. I like to think that required it’s own semi-truck for that delivery). Needless to say, beer was flowing tough, usually mandatory during the activities.

The snow conditions were all time. Visibility was perfect. Hardly anyone was there. It was on. I had a few activities that i was supposed to take part in (a free massage) but opted to ride pow all day. Both days. The sun came out on Weds too. I rode the chair a few times with some people from the east coast who when they were able to see the Arm were trrrrrrrippin! I can only imagine what was going through their heads coming from an icy, flat east coast straight to the most balls-out, powdery place you can. And having it pretty much all to yourself with epic conditions….

Each day was sic. The siccness continued into the night with sic live music, sic costume parties and sic people. DJ Mullet, Vitamin D and Hells Belle’s all provided beats and/or metal for the parties. The partying was nuts. Get a bunch of snow/ski bros together with 55 kegs of PBR, a mini ramp, Rock Bank, beer bongs and 55 kegs of PBR and holy shit…shit goes down!

I finally rode a Gyrator for a few runs–those things are no joke. They tear ASS through pow. Centered stance, little to no leaning back….just like you’ve heard. I’ll probably invest in some sort of non Lib-Tech reverse camber board next year.

So stoked i was able to go. Good times, great conditions, awesome people. Thank you Kamp K2, you’re the best!

Check out the full Gallery from the event.