Worst Season Ever snowboard giveaway!

Casey Reed

December 19th, Lynchburg, VA….We finally get dumped on 20 inches (thats a lot for VA)…A few buddies and myself load up my 8ft tall wooden dropin ramp and go to local university to hit some rails….We find a mellow down rail and set up, and start jibbing it…after a few 50/50’s I stomp out 5-0 tail press and then some boardslides. After a few hours of having the most fun I’d had since last winter, it was getting close to time for me to go to work. SO..everyone decides they’re done, and I decide to make 2 last drops on the rail…I climb up, strap in, and drop….I dont knnow what happened exactly but somewhere on my boardslide i catch an edge or lose balance, and come off the rail and slam my knee cap down on the concrete step….OUCH…i get up and walk it off and go to work….Later at work, my knee starts swelling up so much I cant even move it anymore much less walk on it…to the hospital I go where I find out I have a broken knee cap and it took me out for all of the 09/10 winter season (which was one of the snowiest seasons EVER!!! 🙁 )….Thank god for snowflex so I can still ride any day I like..

Kate

I got an 8-5 job and I never got to ride… worst… season… ever!

cody

Alright well this season was pretty crappy for me, between the dislocated shoulder,6 stiches in my knee,mild concussion,broken thumb,broken heel,blackeye and roadrash on my face that was the injuries,one day in “the boat” we hiked north saint pats my friend came to this edge and said it was nice and steep, i went around him maybe 10 feet below him,i was on the patch of snow no wider then a board,couldnt go anywhere, cant go back or down it was pure rock, so i had to take my board off,so i did,it fell off the 40 foot cliff i was standing on! i started hiking up the rocks above me cause it was the only way out,then my left foot slipped and it was all kind of blurry cause of adrenaline but all i know is i saw the edge coming up and new my best bet was to jump,so as it came up i did that same thing.I jumped off a 40 foot cliff with no board,my friend jake was belopw the cliff and all i remember was waking up waist high in solid snow and i just kind of look around,i was perfectly fine, i landed in the snow feet first both together, i yeld for him to come dig me out and help me get outta there,a 40 ft drop with no board and being perfectly alright? one time deal, then on the last pow day,gaper day haha we were riding north saint pats and i was traversing around the bottom of this cliff,as i went to dig my toes in a little sharper my heel edge hit a hidden stump sending me backwards head first into a tree well,all the snow from above me just cascaded onto my head as it just got darker and darker,all i could think about was finding a way for an air pocket,but because i t is so steep back there i knew my only chance would be to back summer salt outta it and it worked fine! so thats twice I guess you could say i “escaped” death and last but not least my boards,beggining of the year i had a gnu riders choice, i warrentied the board due to a small delam, they gave me an instore credit at colorado ski and golf, so i got a ride dh2, 3 day riding it the nose snapped off on a back 5,snapped clean threw the core so i took it back and because i knew most the shop guys they said i could get one more,so i got a salomon drift, 2 weeks ago i was on the bus with my board and look down, right in the dead center of the board, a giant crack going from base threw the core to the top sheet! 3 broken boards this season so i guess you know i had a fun season but on paper haha it was pretty crappy!!

Kelley B.

Well Shay – where do I start? My season kicked off here is Sunny Ohio in November. Second hit of the day at my works annual rail jam. I brought my boyfriend at the time to show him what I could do. It’s a great front lip, but I come of a bit short and land in the mud. My board suction cups to the mud and like an idiot, I put my arm out. Hyper extend it. End up in the hospital with a hyper extended arm. Oh – but wait? What day was it? The day of the OSU vs Michigan Rivalry football game. As I was crying in the waiting room, I’m watching my soon-to-be doctor watching the game. FOR AN HOUR – before disappearing for only five minutes before he comes to call me back with a smile on his face.

A few weeks later – just before Thanksgiving, my father, whom I haven’t spoken to in months starts blowing up my phone. I finally, hastily answer to hear the news that my first grandparent has passed away. His father, Ernie Bryant. I about lost it. He lived in Arizona, and ended up having crazy amounts of trouble getting his body back to Columbus, OH because of all these crazy autopsies they wanted to do on him because he was an experimental heart patient – and a very successful one at that. The funeral kept getting moved back, and finally we set a date.

The night of the showing, I got home, pretty upset after a long day of family time and Catholic rituals, my boyfriend at the time leaves to go out. I mean, I was clearly broken spirited, and the dude had to go get drunk. We ended up arguing about it and he slept somewhere else saying that he needed to clear his head, and that we would talk tomorrow.

I arrive back at our apartment the next afternoon after burying Grandpa Ernie, take a nap, and when I wake up he’s just arriving home. What happens? I GET DUMPED – oh and I’m just starting my job at my local shop this week 50+ hrs – AND I HAVE A WEEK TO GET OUT?

After several back and forth – trips in the following month, between work, we finally sorted out who was getting what animals and all that. But I mean, let’s just talk about my job.

I’m going to leave my shop unnamed on here publicly, but Shay, you can contact me and I will be happy to tell you exactly what it is.

What does Kelley do? Oh – she just runs an entire internet business by herself for her shop. That means our webstore, shopatron, and the ebay store (for used equipment). That means I have to know EVERYTHING about every single thing about every Ski, Snowboard, Boot, Binding, Pole, and piece of outerwear. I worked alone in a main warehouse about 5 minutes from out main store. We also had 5 small storage units up the street as well that I frequented often throughout my days. Did I get compensated for gas? No.

What were my responsibilities? Oh – I had to sell over the phone, pack boxes, mount skis, drive express order to FedEx Locations, maintain emails, maintain 100 listings on eBay a day, answer (ballpark) 50 messages on eBay a day, and I’m sure there’s more. I just have choosen to block out a lot of it.

How many days did you get to ride this season Kelley? Oh? What? I think like 5 – because guess what – that’s how many days I had off between November and April 1st.

I bet you got paid really well for that Kelley!! HAHA – what? $8.50 an hour? Yeah. Really awesome.

But wait Kelley, you’re 22 years old, shouldn’t you be a senior in college? Oh yeah, I should be graduating school here in a few weeks, but my loan company went under last year due to the state of the economy. http://www.campusdoor.com

Oh that’s a bummer – so you started to have to pay back your loans then? YEAH.

Bummer – I thought your shop took a shop trip every year to a beautiful mountain out west every year? All-expense paid, for employees who worked full time there and for more then a season? Actually! Yeah! They went to Tahoe April 12th, looks like they had a lot of fun. I worked overtime, and I’ve been working there since I was 16 – and I didn’t even get invited. So that’s cool.

Also my medical bills have been piling up for about a year now. I had some broken ribs at the end of last season. I’m back in school now, but with minimal income. I will update later tonight with some photos.

David

Everyone has bad and good days. Some days you’re stomping tricks you’ve never even contimplated of attempting, and the next, your eating it on every single rail, box, or kicker you touch. these kinds of days are the days that can either put you down, fire you up, or just plain piss you off.
My first overnight trip at a snow resort this season was a warm spring day at bear. 3 days with me and my crew, stoked as hell. First two days, i was loving it. Blue bird skys and not too warm. snow was perfect, not slushy or anything. I felt like i was ripping the park, i got my front and back 3’s that weekend. On sunday was when the trouble came. Storm rolling in, on a windy windy day. But that didnt stop us from hitting the slopes. Gotta shred no matter what rite?
Barely made the last call of the day. somewhere around the last seat up. I was gonna hit every obstacle possible since it was gonna be my last run till next season. My friends were all waiting at the bottom of the hill looking up at me when i was about to attempt the last rainbow rail. I was gonna try a trick that i never even attempted before. Approached the rainbow rail and got on and started to spin. Out of nowhere, caught an edge at the TOP of the rainbow and fell all the way to the bottom. last run of the season, ended up with a torn ligament in my knee and a dislocated elbow. If it ended there, i wouldnt have minded AS much.
Rushed to the hospital and stayed there for a lil, and came home for recovery. That was when i was confronted by my parents. They gave me the ultimatum, give up wrestling (im a wrestler in highschool), or give up snowboarding, since they think that both will strain my body too much. (i think this is flawed logic here, haha). well after some thought, i ended up giving up wrestling cause i figured that was gonna end after highschool, but im gonna snowboard till im old and frail 😀 im still not too happy about not wrestling next year, but at least ill recover in time to board again. just my luck.

keither

Well I was gonna go off on my season, but compared to some of the stories, a torn ACL isn’t that bad. Especially when I still made my 10-day BC trip from Ontario. After 2 months of physio 3-4 times a week, and wearing a crazy brace, I was still able to drop cliffs and generally rip pretty hard. So, I guess this COULD have been the worst season ever, but turned out to be one of the best despite a “debilitating” injury. And this is the first winter in probably 7 or 8 winters that I didn’t break any boards. Maybe it’s cause I started riding Libs! I thought I had a bad season, but now that I look back, it was pretty effen sweet. Who cares that we only got 60 cm of snow this year in Ottawa, we made the best of it. And we got more than that 60cm on the BC trip alone!
Now, since I’ll be having ACL reconstrution surgery in October, and with a 4-6 month recovery, NEXT season will probably be the worst ever. But then again talk to me in February and I’ll probably have something better to say 😉 Especially since the surgery is free here!

evic

Here is a Haiku:

Snowboard season here 🙂
Found out having kid in March
Snowboard season done 🙁

keither

Who dives head first “hoping” to hit powder at the bottom?

martin beran

yea keither you might be right… that is a pretty shitty winter

NICK Stoller

one morning i wake up and start to get ready for school. i decide that i want to go snowboarding at perfect north slopes in indiana when i get out of school. so i pack all my gear in my car so that i can go straight from school to the slopes. as im getting it all ready my dad tells me that i shouldnt carry so much valuable stuff in my car to school. i tell him that itll be ok and nothing will happen. when i get to my car after school, somebody had broken into my car, and stolen my board, bindings and boots. over 700 dollars worth of gear, gone.

VINCENT

ok so, i live in sherbrooke Québec. This year’s season has been one of the worst. 5 degres celsius with rain one day, and the day after, – 30 degres. So lots of ice and no snow….because of the lack of snow and the rain, it wasn’t before february that a park could be built. So that was pretty bad. In march, the sun started to come out and for the first time of the year, we could ride on soft snow. On my third run, on my way to the chairlift, i was in a narrow slope when a little kid came out of the woods and jumped right in front of me. Maybe i should have ran over him, but my first reflex has been to try to avoid him. So i turned left (he was comming from the right), ran over the nose of his board and ended in the woods and more precisely around a tree. Leaving me with a broken rib and a broken pelvis…..one month in the hospital!!!! 2 months later and can’t walk..so i guess it means a summer on my couch!! What a great season!

Jade Phelan

i broke five boards was knocked out given concusion had goggles broke off my face my friend took me out and had no insurance to get stiches in my knee and broke my ankle landing in the flats after a rodeo