Riding Journal

A-Basin 5/9/09

A-Basin is the last resort standing in Colorado now and quite the popular resort for a mix of snowboarding and hanging on the beach (drinking and BBQ’ing). It’s a 1.5 drive from Steamboat so I made the trek to meet up with Lauren, Adrian and Xavier to ride for the day.

The sunshine came out on the mountain with some cloud coverage and A-Basin has held up with their snowfall this season.  Hardpacked and icy in the morning, slush in the afternoon.
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I made the rounds with the occasional shayboarder sticker
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We made a couple laps and I found I was capable of hitting the mini park…always a plus for me to find rails that don’t scare me. 

For the whole month of May, A-Basin is putting on Saturday Rail Jams.  They are free to enter and are a jam format of skiers and snowboarders hitting two rails.  We convinced Lauren and Xavier to enter the rail jam and I headed down the mountain to grab the camera to take photos. 
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Almost time for the jam session to begin
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I was on the sidelines taking photos and rooting on Lauren and Xavier.  Lauren is deaf, so I was able to communicate with her on how much time was left and just be there for support.  

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Lauren on the log jib
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It’s fun to just watch and take photos of friends competing, I snapped this sequence of Lauren and caught her board only in the first shot but it’s my favorite photo…board and log jib coming together.  

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Xavier with what looks like snow feet on the rail
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My reflection on Lauren’s goggles, taking photos 
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Jam format and riders watching each other drop in/kill it/eat shit
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I recognized one of the riders competing because we’ve been at the same demo days all season long.  His name is Tommy and he was awesome to watch today, great style and his tailblocks were insane.  

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Tommy
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Favorite Snow spray of the day
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The contest was over after an hour and we headed down to get some water.
Hanging around for the awards
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At the end of the day, Lauren walked away with most consistent female rider winning a goody bag!  

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STOKED!
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We took a couple more laps and then called it a day since we’ll be up shredding again tomorrow.  On my way out, I ended up meeting one of the readers of the blog who is out from Nebraska to get his shred time in.  Nate spotted me in the parking lot and it was rad to meet another reader who checks out Shayboarder.com!  I’ll be at A-Basin again tomorrow, probably with monster jacket again so if you see me, come say hi and I’ve always got stickers to hand out!

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  • Anonymous
    May 10, 2009 at 10:01 am

    Holy jebus, that capita has freaking bend! Damn I really need to get my hands on some the new boards next year to wrap my head around it.

  • Anonymous
    May 10, 2009 at 3:20 pm

    Yeah Tommie is a sick rider! He is super nice and is always down to ride! I actually rode with him today at abay. Deff. keep an eye on the kid, he is the whole package!

  • Shayboarder
    May 10, 2009 at 9:23 pm

    haha yeah reverse cambers definitely have bend, my park rocker has a ton it’s insane.

    Nice you rode today Basin, I missed out on hitting it up. Yeah Tommy was super nice to meet and definitely an amazing rider to watch.

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2009 at 6:35 am

    Shay. would it be possible if you could post a side view shot of either the evo or revolver? neither look to be this bent but I dont need a huge suprise like that if I get it ordered to the local shop. If possible, please hook it up!