The US Open is the longest running snowboard contest on earth. It’s now 28 years deep and still going strong as one of the biggest and most recognized events. It’s been in Vermont for all 28 of those years, and for the last 5 of those years I’ve been taking part. It was the first pro event I ever placed in, but I have a lot of mixed feelings towards it. The first two years I competed I landed on the podium, the last two years I’ve failed to make finals, so I have a very strong love hate relationship with it. This year I was dead set on making finals no matter what the conditions (the Open has a long standing reputation for horrible weather). This year was a huge exception to that reputation. We were blessed with sunshine and extremely warm temperatures the entire week. Most people were riding in flannels and hoodies instead of the usual attire of multiple layers and puffy jackets. As nice as the weather was it did make practice a challenge as the course got hammered every day due to the temperature and 200+ people who were lapping it. It was bumpy, but a lot of fun so I was looking forward to semis when they rolled around. I’m not going to go into it, because this will end up as the longest blog post ever, but some of the girls complained about it being too hard in the morning and for some reason the entire field got put into finals. On a good note, I guess that counts as me making finals, but for me it wasn’t how I wanted it to go down. I think earning a spot into the finals is important and being handed something without working for it, isn’t the way I like to get anything. Yeah I made finals, but I didn’t have to do anything to achieve that so what’s the point? I also felt like it made us look bad because the pipe girls had to ride early in the morning as well and their whole field didn’t go through so why was ours any different? I think safety is important but sometimes you just have to suck it up.

Anyways, I ended up tweaking my ankle the last run of practice but I decided to ride anyways. In my final run I blew it on my easiest trick and hurt my ankle a lot. I didn’t break anything, but I sprained it pretty bad. It was a bummer, but I had fun until that point so it was a much more successful year at the Open than the last few. My girl Sina took 1st place, Shelly got 2nd and Jamie landed in 3rd place. So stoked for everyone, the girls were really pushing it, I’m super stoked on how high the level of riding is right now. Two nights of partying and lots of piggy backs later I’m in Mammoth, CA. I was hoping to maybe ride here at the Chicken Jam, but my ankle still isn’t 100% so I’m going to chill and be a cheerleader for once. Next week is Miss Superpark at Snow Summit and then it’s home for some much needed chill time.

Talk soon,

S.

Ellery, Linn and I flew from LAX to GVA (that’s Los Angeles to Geneva, SUI for you people who don’t live out of a bag) for the first ever European X Games. I was really excited for this contest because I’ve never gotten the chance to ride in Europe and because it’s the first X Games being held outside of the US. Once in Geneva our Burton TM Adam hooked us up with a ride to Tignes, France where the contest was being held. We got lost a couple of times, ate amazing croissants for breakfast and then got lost in Tignes trying to find our hotel. Our hotel was across the street from the venue and almost everyone was staying there. Our room was really tiny, we could barely fit all of our bags inside, but once we did some creative redecorating we managed.

The first day of practice was interesting to say the least. I had really high expectations for the course and the event in general and even though most of those expectations were met, the course was far from great. It was the longest course I’ve ever hit in my entire life, 6 jumps and 2 rail features. That’s more hits than you get in a half pipe and twice as long as any course we’ve hit all year long. The skiers and snowboarders both weren’t feeling it and a lot of changes had to be made over the next few days to make it work. I ended up hitting my head pretty hard about four runs into practice so I called it a day and hobbled myself and my broken helmet back to the hotel. The next day the course was still a mess, but better than the first so I did my best to figure out all the jumps and think up a run to do. Finals went good, it was the best the course had been all week and a lot of good riders made it into the finals. I was really stoked on how I was riding and was excited about my run, unfortunately I wasn’t able to land my final trick and ended up in 4th place. It was frustrating to say the least but I’m happy I went for it. Jenny won yet again, that makes this her 3rd X Games gold in just over a year. Girl’s on fire! The lovely Kjersti and Sina took 2nd and 3rd respectively. On the boys side Eric Willet from Colorado took the gold with Sage right behind him and Marko and Stephan rounding out the top four. Everyone rode so well, it was awesome to see and a really fun week!

Other than riding I got to hang with a lot of Euros that I don’t see much like Stephan, Hasi, Marko, Sina, Christian, Cilka and Lisa. We all stayed in the same spot so it made for a lot of beer drinking and shit talking at the hotel bar. Monster also threw an awesome bowling party complete with skankily clad girls. I’m not sure why companies always feel the need to throw parties and have super slutty girls serve drinks, but the drinks were free so I guess I can put up with a side of boob every now and again. I might have bowled the best I ever have and Evan, Kjersti and me made a solid bowling team.

Talk soon,

S.

After the Olympics I headed to Bear Mountain in California for a Burton women’s team shoot. I had only ever been to Bear once before and that was in the summer for this rail jam they do called ‘Hot Dogs and Handrails” so despite great reviews I didn’t really know what to expect. Beat Mountain kills it! The park is amazing, it covers 80% of the mountain and is really creative and fun. They hooked us up with tickets, a place to crash, food, parking and were down to build us whatever we wanted. Our crew was extremely cultured, we had myself and Natasza Zurek from Canada, Hannah, Maddy, Kelly, Ellery and Susie from the US, Rana and Yuki from Japan, Linn from Norway and Shelly from NZ. Yuki and Rana taught me some awesome Japanese sayings, I can’t wait to go there again next season and ask some boys on a date.

Anyways, we spent four days shooting there with Burton photogs Curtes, and Blotto and filmers Aaron and Tim. I think we came away some solid shots for the catalogue and hopefully for some editorial stuff as well. I don’t get to spend time shooting as much as I would like due to my heavy contest schedule so it was nice to change it up a bit. It also didn’t hurt that we had beautiful weather the entire time and a super fun crew

Thanks to the incredible crew at Bear, Burton, Susie, Blotto, Aaron, Tim, Curtes and the girls for making it an awesome week. I hope we get to do it again soon! Check out the photos below.

Talk soon,

S.

It’s over. It came and it went faster than I could have imagined. I had many opinions about the Olympics, some good but most of them bad and pessimistic. Half of the bad ones were because the entire world would be taking over my back and front yard and the other half because my event isn’t in the Olympics and the tiny dream I had of competing at the games when I was twelve was thus squashed under the mighty fist of the IOC. When I was twelve I rode half pipe and actually thought I would train the next 10 years to potentially be an Olympic gold medalist on home soil. Then I discovered slope style, an event that meant creativity and variation and no hiking. I switched pretty fast and just hoped that it’d be in by the time the big ol’ rings made their way to Vancouver. I was wrong, but at least I don’t have to hike all day long.

All squashed dreams aside I got to experience the Olympic Games in a city I know better than any other. I got to witness a friend’s dream come to fruition after four long years of training for a single day. I got to see a country, my country, come together like I never thought possible. I let myself feel proud of people I have never met, people like Joannie Rochette, Helen Upperton and Charles Hamelin. People like the men’s and women’s hockey team, hell even that old dude who won curling. I was proud. Proud to be Canadian and to see my fellow countrymen fulfill a lifelong dream. If that means I bought into the commercial bullshit, the mega corporation marketing scheme then so be it. I got myself a pair of red mittens and I wear them proudly.

Not everyone was turned so quickly by the games though. Vancouver got a lot of flack for some unfortunate things that happened during the games. There was the luger from Georgia’s heartbreaking and untimely death, an anti Olympic riot in downtown (really guys, it’s already started. They’re not leaving just cause you threw a garbage can through the window of the Bay), fogged out events, no snow at Cypress, a fence around the Olympic Cauldron and broken ‘green’ ice cleaners. Other countries were having a hay day nit picking at everything that was going WRONG in Vancouver. Overall though, despite all the negative press, I think we pulled it off. We built a half pipe and mogul course out of hay bails, ply wood and an extreme amount of helicopter time. We used a lot of tax payer money to build a highway no one drove, but that’s safer nonetheless and we finally got a sky train to the airport. Most importantly though, we proved to the world that Canada is badass, we know how to party, we don’t give a fuck what they think and are way better than everyone else at hockey. Like they didn’t know that already, but I think it’s an important point to get across.

So in ode to the Olympics and my full support of them and the drinking they induce, here’s some party shots and some of the events I got the chance to check out. A big thanks to Gabe, Julie and Olivier for the speed skating tickets and to Susie and Amanda at Burton for the women’s half pipe ticket. I’m really stoked I got to be around for it and here’s hoping I get to be a part of the madness one day.

Talk soon,

S.

PS. Congratulations to the lovely Torah Bright, well deserved girl! Also to Hannah Teter, Kelly Clark and Olivier Jean. High-five guys!