So it's New Year's Day, some of you may be nursing hang-overs, some of you may be digging out from yet another massive dump. Back here in Vermont times are tough, real tough. Everytime we click on snowboard-mag.com all we see is Sick Dump this, Snowboard-Mag/The Block/Bear Mountain/New Year/Blog-That, while we eye those massive storms pumping the white gold in the rockies and wait for ours three days later.......

all that's left to do is knock down another cold one and dream of what might've been........

how about a fuck yeah?!

boys, nice work on the latest issue, photography is off the hook.

shred on,

eesa

June 27th: Whistler
We get to Whistler with no major issues and head to our good friend Alan Lande’s for a quick catch-up and make some plans for some trout fishing as we wait for the riders to get off the hill from camp. The weather is beautiful, mid-90’s, not a cloud in the sky and the lake is aching to get served. After sorting out our gear we determine there are only 4 flippers for the float tubes and we need 8. Everyone decides to go one-footed and it turns out to that trying to paddle in a float tube with one flipper is not that rad. By the time we get out of the water my right leg looks like quadzilla.

We float out to the middle of the lake, the fly du-jour is the ant and within three casts I’ve got a 12” rainbow on the line and a smile from ear-to-ear as we enjoy the lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains and plenty more fish the rest of the day.

When we head back to the condo, which overlooks the village square, we spy a mad bmx course with crazy big gap jumps. We noticed some people milling around and then a guy drops in. When I say drop in, I mean drop in, there was a 40’ scaffolding built up and the riders would drop in about 20’ and then pump the hairpin corners picking up mad speed, as soon as they shot out of a corner the gaps began. We’re talking easy 50’+ gaps and people were just chargin’ it. We snapped a picture of a guy who was slaying it. It’s either clear the gap or pay large…….see for yourself.

Shortly after jump mania, Jesse Fox, Annie Boulanger and Dom Vallee roll-in. Another crew that’s on point with what they like and don’t like. We get solid feedback and head down to Sushi Village to stuff ourselves with fish. After many Saki Marg’s, we head over to longhorns to finish off the night and head to bed tired and stoked.

JUNE 28th: A down day.

Since we finished our last round-table and there’s nothing on the agenda per-se we decide to head up to the glacier to make some turns. To access the glacier you have to take three chairs and a short bus ride, there is plenty of snow and the sun is expected to hit 100 today.

Up on the hill, the amount of snow is unbelievable. We head over to the camp of champs tent and scope out the scene. Plenty of campers getting nasty on the jumps and rails coupled with a solid level of positive energy and we know today is going to be on. Inside the tent is one of the most ridiculous food spreads you’ve ever seen, meats, cheeses, fruit, etc, etc. The best part of the food table for me was at the end, out of sight. After prepping a healthy sandwich with chips I look down and see a massive blue bin filled with candy. Yay for candy.

We spend the next several hours hitting the wedges, quarters, rails and half-pipe. At the end of the run everyone on the hill is funneled on to a T-bar which proves to be adventurous for Travis and I as we get on and I try to explain to him how when I’m riding solo I like to put the T-bar between my legs and make obscene gestures, but he’s not getting it as he has it behind his butt. Next thing I know Travis is sitting on the snow and I’m laughing my ass off, as he now has to ride back down to wait in the massive line again. I take the opportunity to show him how it works between the legs now that he’s off. He’s laughing, but the look on his face is one of disappointment.

A handful of hours later we decide to head down as camps are wrapping up. We head over to the ‘you can never come back to whistler’ coulour (will make sense in few sentences). We drop into some steep corn-snow turns and decide to hit another line where an old cornice is still there from the winter. We take the bus and lift back up to the top, strap in, ride the snow vein down to the cornice, roll in and make another round of great corn-snow turns.

As we hike out of the valley floor I look up to see Johnny Ski Patrol coming over. ‘Hey guys, where did you come down from’? It’s obvious where we just came from as it’s the only way into the spot we are standing so we turn around point up the chute and momentarily admire our turns. ‘Did you notice it was roped off’? Limoge steps up, ‘No, I only saw the trail name sign’. Now, you have to realize that when they rope something off in Whistler they put up like 8’ netting so it’s impossible to not ‘notice’ it’s closed. ‘Right, right, let’s see your passes’. We show ‘em our passes and he notices our wristbands from camp-of-champions. He’s all ‘what’s going on’? I say we just drove out from Vermont and we are only up for the day. ‘You drove all they way out from Vermont to ride for one day’? Yes, we are leaving tomorrow, we are doing a tour of sorts and this is our last day’. ‘Do you have any ID’? Almost in unison we all reply ‘Not on me’. He realizes this is probably going to be more of a pain in the ass than it’s worth and warns us that if we are up again tomorrow he’s going to ‘turn us around’.

We get the hell outta there and head back down to jump in the lake and get ready to take off the next day. A good hard day was had by all and we have a mellow night in the village as we have to get up at the crack of way-too-early AM to head back to VT.

Next week, the road trip home including all the uncensored trip outtakes, ever wonder where all those mufflers on the highways come from?

eesa’s inaugural collection hits select specialty snowboard shops this fall in the US, Canada, Europe and Japan, in addition to online distribution through www.eesa.com. eesa lifestyle performance clothing was created to remove the shackles of the snowboard industries incredibly static first-layer offerings. If you’re still rocking a long-sleeve cotton-T and hooded sweatshirt when you ride; eesa is the brand for you. eesa makes design-driven innerwear and apparel with a sophisticated focus on functional fabrics engineered with your style in mind. The results are layering pieces that can be worn from lift-to-lounge.

Founded on 11.11.04, eesa is the brainchild of former Burton Snowboards anon optics category manager, Stephen Cleary, who together with global sales director Fran Frost, are creating the lifestyle performance category.

Do you like free shit? Yeah? Well then, send an e-mail to enabler@eesaclothing.com and don’t forget your mailing address. We’ll send you some fairly ridiculous stuff in the mail. Did we mention it’s FREE!
Shred on,

JUNE 22ND: DEPART FOR PORTLAND | HOOD

An early morning departure found us heading north on The 5 from Lake Tahoe to Portland. Not much excitement today as we hammer down and arrive in Portland at the crack of 1 AM. We roll into one of the largest 24-hour Wal-Mart’s we have ever seen in our lives. We park the beast and head inside to freshen up, do some shopping and get our bearings. As I am walking around I realize I’m lost, literally lost in a Wal-Mart, the place is so retardedly big you can buy anything from car tires to a head of lettuce. We roll back to the RV and grab some winks.

JUNE 19TH: ARRIVE PARK CITY/SLC
We roll into Park City at the crack of 10 AM eight-hours later than we thought we would but with the two mechanicals and a short skate session at one truck stop, not too bad, 44 hours from VT to Utah. We roll into the Park City Skate Park and try to shake the cobwebs from the trip and push around for a couple of hours wishing Vermont had a park half this good. Calls are made, copious amounts of coffee are drank, Tomich and Coulter are locked down to meet later and talk 08 product.

OK, so we are writing this post-trip, but we did just drive 7000 miles in 12 days....

JUNE 17TH: LEAVE VT

The tour begins as we push off at the crack of 2 PM on a fine Vermont afternoon. Only two weeks earlier the idea came about to buy an RV and head West to meet with team riders and visit the summer camps at Hood and Whistler. Rolling in the crew is myself, Fran Frost our Global Sales Enabler, Travis Limoge team rider and all-around high-energy hopped up on Red Bull kind-of-guy, Rob Ticho greendevil.org founder and trip photo/filmer and last, but not least, Allison Pacelli our marketing intern who, for whatever reason, decided it would be fun to drive cross-country with a bunch of smelly shredders.

all right we aren't due to launch from VT to the west coast for two weeks, but really this update couldn't wait. i can hardly believe this happened, but here's the readers digest version:

last night i roll-up on the RV as we had it parked at the office, no insurance, no tags, no nothing, completely rallied the beast from CT under the cover of darkness. i noticed the door is open and was all like 'that's weird', i get closer and there's a fat kid inside in hysterics, snots running down his face, can barely breath

hell's yeah we did and she's a beaut. 1984 something-or-other 350 blah, blah, blah. starts up real nice and not too squirrelly at 80. stay posted we are heading to hood, camp o' champs, seattle, slc, co, etc, etc, in a couple weeks and we want to rock your town if you are down. we'll post the details shortly.

shred on,

www.eesa.com

www.myspace.com/eesaclothing

all right here's the deal, we've been getting peppered with request for catalogs.
requests like 'hey your stuff is awesome, now where the f is my catalog'?

or this little gem 'i'm backin' your company, now where the f is my catalog'?

another one went a little sumpin-sumpin like this 'wanna touch'? we knew right away they were asking for a catalog and we were all like, no doubt, no doubt this guy's so amped he doesn't even throw in the f-bomb, just goes straight for the touch.....

finally we got this e-mail the other day 'hey eesa you guys think you're soooo cool, huh? so f-ing cool (edit: note the f-bomb, doesn't take long does it), yeah? yeah? what? send me a f-ing catalog or i'm gunna get all blocka-blocka on your shit.

so we've been getting peppered with questions about becoming and eesa enabler, so we thought we'd break it down for you.

what is an eesa enabler?

an eesa enabler is someone who's amped on shredding and everything that's shredtastic about it.

what do I have to do?

being a snowboarder is a good place to start. go look in the mirror, ask yourself 'self, am i a dragger of knuckles'? if your question is followed by a long silence, chances are indeed you are a dragger of knuckles.

yeah, but what do i have to do?

well, if you are as half-assed as most of us, all you have to do is sit on your couch and wait for the mailman to arrive with envelopes of goodies addressed to you from eesa.