Bobby Witty
The latest addition to Team SASS is Bobby Witty. We have known Bobby for the past 8 years and have watched him grow up riding with Scott Harris, Ryan and the Squaw Team and get better and better at snowboarding. After having qualified and made the cut of 16 for finals at this years Van’s cup, Bobby has proven he has what it takes to compete against the worlds best. With a cab 270 on to switch out on the 1st monster box features, a switch bs 5, nasty front 7’s tail and a perfect back 9 landed on his toes, Bobby stepped to the plate and delivered.

Bobby Witty > Northstar Pipe
Photo: IJ Venezuela

We are very excited to be having Bobby down for a month of training this year in Argentina, to work on all of his 9’s & 10’s and maybe add a few 12’s…get tons of footage and photos before heading to New Zealand for the OPEN. Hell yeah Bobby way to get after it. Brian Sullivan and Seb Latapie from SASS made the trip out to Tahoe to ride park, pow and trees for a week and chekc out the action.

Labels: Bobby Witty, South America Snow Sessions (SASS)

Words by Team Rider JT Holmes, WAY TO GO JT!!

Well, I managed to pull of 2nd place!

I was in 2nd after finals day one and finals day two brought another solid run, but i was not able to take over the lead. it was super close and i am totally happy with 2nd. the field was packed with good skiers form norway france sweden and USA. Both days were really hard core skiing. I was fully peaking on adrenalin up top.

Labels: Ekstremsportveko, extreme sport week, JT Holmes

Red Bull Snow Warz, Northstar, Ca. What do you get
when you get when you combine 250 riders, from over 40
schools, under bluebird skies, all jacked up on Red
Bull? .....A F-ing good time.

Team "Harvard United" of the University Nevada, Reno
walked away the champs of the 3rd Annual Red Bull Snow
Warz. Harvard United was composed of; Brandon Cocard,
Taylor Carlton, David Abarta, Bret Davis, Danny
Conroy, & myself, Chris Bosco. In true Harvard spirit,
we were all dressed to impress, with collared shirts,
slacks, ties, and sweater vests.

Kids were throwing down off some small-ass jumps and
no one had any practice what-so-ever. Only five teams
were chosen to ride in the finals. Each team chose two
riders to represent them in the finals and a one run
would be taken from each rider and combined to make
the final score. Brandon and Taylor threw it down in
practice and rep'd Harvard United in the finals. They
dropped the hammer in finals with combinations of
switch backside and frontside sevens and sick rail
combs. After each put down a flawless run, the
decision was a no brainer. Brandon and Taylor were
honored with Best and Second Best snowboard
performance to take the gold for Harvard United.

All in all, it was a great day with smiles and fun had
by all. Keep an eye out for coverage of the event on
Fuel TV and check out full photo galleries and stories
and these links:

TheSnowLife.com
http://www.thesnowlife.com/content/view/384/154/

redbullusa.com
http://www.redbullusa.com/snowwarz

futuresnowboarding.com
http://www.futuresnowboarding.com/photos?g2_itemId=17171

twsnow.com
http://www.transworldsnowboarding.com/newss.jsp?ID=1000059005

Bosco Out

Labels: Brandon Cocard, Chris Bosco, Northstar at Tahoe, Red Bull Snow Warz, Snowboard, University Nevada Reno

Saturday afternoon me, Kyle O’Neal, and Jason Abraham (Abro) decided we were sick of this Tahoe snow showers weather and we were gonna hit the road and chase the snow. We decide to leave the next afternoon. I run into videographer Ryan Scardigli at the gas station that night and he is all about joining and decides to bring along Timmy Dutton, a classic individual, Tahoe loc and sick skier.

We hit the road stoked. The forecast is for blue skies and fresh snow in Lamoille canyon outside Elko Nevada and we are just stoked to be on the road, and looking forward to some sledding, some skiing and with still and motion shooters on board we know it could be a productive session.

Sunday night about 830pm we arrive in Elko and check into the Stockmen's Casino for a whopping $50 per room. Before we even check in Ryan and Timmy have vanished. They come back bummed. Down $100 in no time at all. We decide to hit the casino restaurant for before going to bed. Typical casino diner, you figure nothing is gonna be great, but nothing will be expensive or awful either. I decide to go with the patty melt and in justifying my order to the crew I tell them "it is pretty hard to fuck up a patty melt." The meal is uneventful, the food mediocre, and the bill is as reasonable as the room charge was.

Back at our "suite" we are all getting ready for bed and our 5AM wake up call. Timmy declares that he will be waking up at 4:15 cuz every time he takes a shit he has to take a shower. He has an infected open wound near his butt hole that needs to be cleansed and redressed upon each defecation. The kid has just foul gas. Just awful. He shares that really he needs to take a dump, but does not want to have to redress and shower so he holds it in... til morning. We manage to all crash out in spite of our protesting olfactory nerves and 5am comes around, of course, WAY too quickly.

Immediately, I know something is wrong. I feel a rumble in the Bronx brewing in my stomach and by 6 am at the coffee shop I have no appetite. The others wolf down bacon and eggs before we set off, but I am unable to even eat a few bites of cereal. At the gas station our last stop before the trailhead, I pick up some pepto bismol, some TUMS and I am complaining of daggers in my stomach.

We make it to Lamoille Canyon Road and the stoke returns. There is 8 inches of blower powder on the road and not a cloud in the sky. The Ruby Mountains are so sick, fresh snow is ripping off the peaks, because, as always, it is windy. There are no clouds in the sky and not a sole to be seen. These mountains are big and ominous, hanging valleys, ice falls and jagged faces of cliffs everywhere, there is a vastness and ruggedness here that reminds me of the alps, yet you can ride a snowmobile right to the tops of the runs that the local heli-skiing operations use. I can’t wait to get up to the zones, but in the back my mind, or more accurately, in the bottom of my stomach, I have a feeling of impending doom. I tough it out.

The conditions are perfect. I have been here at least once a year since I bought my first sled in 1999, and I have never seen it this good. We decide to all ski a warm up run together, maybe shoot some stills see how the snow is and get a feel for the safety of the snow pack. It is cold and the when we ski through the pockets where the wind blew snow in there is tons of vapor, and even snow pluming over our chests. Today is a photographer’s wet dream.

We notice a small pocket release on our warm up run, so decide to start shooting some mini-golf stuff, there are plenty of 150 to 300 vertical foot pitches with cliffs, chutes and features. Kyle is hungry for a 30 footer with a sweet tranny, I am hungry for another couple of TUMS.

We are all down below in the meadow reconvening for what will be next when I realize I am in trouble. I excuse myself to go to the bottom of the next zone to find a line to ski, and before I even make it there, I jump off my sled and vomit violently, 3 or 4 rounds followed by dry heaving. I did not even have time to turn off my sled, and I was a meadow away, but when I return to the crew it is obvious that they heard me in my demise. Kyle looks at me, laughs and says “I thought you said it was hard to fuck up a patty melt bro!”

At this point, I am fucking miserable. The daggers in my stomach are still just as sharp, my back and body are aching and I have no energy at all. I am here though. We are way out in the backcountry with perfect conditions. I need to ski another run, shoot something, have fun or make something of my day. The boys and I decide to ski another run before I inevitably head back early.

The run is sweet, and the theme of the day is pocket releases. The chute I skied fractured after the narrow straightline of its entrance. Kyle drops in, stomps his air, and the pocket he landed in releases. No big deal, but it gives Abro, a fright, who is shooting just below, barely out of the path of the small slide. I ski next, and the chute I have chosen releases as well. Timmy has perhaps that most exciting run as he punches front on landing and tumbles a front flip or two amidst the pocket release avalanche. Fortunately, his skis stay on and he skis clear.

That’s it I am out of there. Fucking patty melt.

JT

Labels: JT Holmes, Nevada, Skiing

Court Leve has been sending back some great shots of Alaska, this time from Cordova Alaska with Points North Heli-Adventures.

Thank you Court.
Be sure to check out gravityhook.com for more of Court's photos.

Labels: Alaska, Court Leve, Points North Heli-Adventures

Ask any local who has been lucky enough to call Tahoe home for more than a decade or two how good of a two-week + storm cycle we just finished up. Sure we’ve received more snow in a multi-storm event several times before, but the amazing thing about this one is just how cold it’s been and the awesome snow to water ratios. For those not fully educated on that point, in layman’s terms as a rule of thumb around here if Sacramento gets an inch of rain that should roughly equal a foot of snow or a little less. Often the ratio of the amount of snow to the amount of liquid for the Sierra Nevada mountains around Lake Tahoe is about 10:1 – and often when we tap into the “pineapple express” and the snow levels rise and the ratios go down and……..welcome to Sierra cement.

Not these last couple of weeks. The snow has been cold and DEEP – especially in the backcountry.

So yesterday on Super Bowl Sunday before the game I ventured out in the general vicinity of Tinker Knob on the sleds with our Nordica rep Roff Carter and a buddy. Did I mention already that it was deep, delicious, blower powder?

They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, so check out a few that we snapped….

Labels: Backcountry, Lake Tahoe, Nordica Skis

Before I left for X, I was invited to shoot A DIY Super Duper Backwoods Park Courtesy of Brandon Cocard & friends. Brandon had told me what he had been constructing and I was super excited to see what was going to be there. I won't disclose the location but, all I can say is, sweet! I felt like I was 15 again. It was a genuine park made with blood, sweat & tears for pure snowboard enjoyment. I had blown it though, I didn't bring my own stick. :( Hanging out with these guys made me feel young again, it remimded me of when I used to go to the snowparks in the Central California Mountains and build kickers to flat! Hell yes!.....Glory days! Yeah they'll pass you by! So get on it and build your own park. A few shovels, good bros and some imagination, you'll be in snowboard heaven! No lift tickets & ski patrol to f$%^ with you.

DIY Super Duper Backwoods Park courtesy of: Brandon Cocard, Andrew Irwin, Leif Hutchison & Brett Davis.

Labels: Brandon Cocard, DIY Park, Truckee