An 8 day road trip
to cover over 5,700 miles
driving for nearly 90 hours
to snowboard 6 days
in 3 separate states
ending in the Orwell Memorial Day parade
this is 1 married couple's perfectly normal vacation
watch it all unfold on www.fiestavus.com starting May 15th.

As posted on www.FIESTAVUS.com

At some point in your life, you are bound to find yourself in a situation that makes you think, "If I make one wrong move, it is game over, done, gone, period."

Good day friends, family, and snowboarding brethren,

Many years ago, I started my web presence here on snowboard-mag. Through my experience here, I got involved in the Mongol Rally and that has led to something fresh. Well, today begins the new adventure, the Fiesta Movement.

For the next 7 months, I will be cruising around the US in a euro spec Ford Fiesta. Every month I will be dropping a fresh video and will be constantly documenting the trip online at fiestavus.com. These journeys are sure to include some riding through-out the USofA.

Hopefully I will see some of you on the road.

Welcome back adventure,

SBC

www.fiestavus.com
Three years ago, I drove a Ford Fiesta from England to Mongolia as part of the Mongol Rally. I posted most of the entries from the rally here at SNOWBOARD Mag and received a lot of result through the community.

Well it is no Chatter Creek, but here is the working man's adventure.

7 days, 6 riding, 5 resorts, 4 states, 3 powder days, 2 hangovers, 1 working idiot
Quite the week of riding, I put up detailed posts on bad colonies, here are some photos...

Cranmore's own Mike G, BW Full Size Click Here

Wyoming
I was able to secure a stop-over in Jackson on my way back from Irvine for next extra cost, so game on. Free lodging, fresh Bataleon decks, good friends, powder, and PBR.

Pat and myself, Jackson Hole

note: east coast flat light and a crap digi create crap photos but you get the idea
Phone rings, head splits, legs ach, fumble for the phone, “Yo, let me look, no not much, looks like a pretty weak snowfall, yeah let’s do 9:30, ciao.” Uh, so I take the hit for the team, suffer the hang-over, and where’s my redemption? As any good rider knows, the surest way to ensure a solid snowfall is to sacrifice your head to the depths of Milwaukee’s barrels. Screw it, it’s a snow day regardless, I am hitting the hill.
explanation of 7YW here

and more...

SUPPORT A TRUE RIDER - For Details Click Here

As Van Hazinga put it in an interview just days before his accident, “If I wanted to be rich, I wouldn’t own a skate shop. But I want to live a rich life, so that’s why I’m in it.”

I met JVH, better known as Big John, while I was in high school. He moved to my small town a few miles from my house. He would swim out to my boat through the muck and weeds of Lake Champlain for the chance to wakeboard. We spent many hours on the lake, hanging out, enjoying life. I grew to know John as one of the single nicest, most caring people I have ever met. Through out the years, I would run into him at random events or on the mountain. It was always as if we had never lost touch, he was always the best of friends regardless of how many years it had been.

He committed himself to the board sports, opened a skate shop in Burlington, and always he has done it his way. I was just talking with LJJ about how disenchanted I became with the industry when I owned a shop. JVH is the opposite of all that nonsense, he is in the game for the love it and is not caught up in the politics or the quest to have the latest gear. He is a role model for all of us.

Last weekend, I was at a wedding for one of my friends from home. I was completely caught off guard to find out that JVH had suffered a tremendous accident while longboarding on Smuggler's Notch. As I am currently living under a rock in West Virginia, I was clueless and shocked to say the least. Seven Days ran an article on his condition, here and his family is maintaining a daily blog on his condition, here.

He is currently in a coma but has stabilized. As would be expected, he is fighting through. I urge all the Vermonters to head out to Higher Ground on 8.13.07 for a benefit concert. For Details Click Here. If you can't make it to the show or are out of state but still want to help, you can donate on his shop's site, www.rdnhigh.com

It was just about 7 years to the day, I was walking/stumbling down a back alley in Patpong with a group of Thais. It was one of those 4 am mornings in Bangkok where it is still sweltering hot, you are living off street food, and the night has just begun. It was nearing the end of my assignment in Asia for the mighty General Electric and I was on the far side of a 3 day bender of celebration. It was during this moment, the best of times in my GE career, that I decided I was quitting.

The 93/94 season was epic for the Northeast, they didn’t write songs about it, they started companies named after it. That winter was magical for many of us. It would be the first year that I became immersed in snowboarding. At the time, I was what the folks call a troubled youth. Blame it on divorce, blame it on the shit of High School, blame it on whatever, I had not found my place and I was taking it out on the world. When I started snowboarding, it just clicked, this was me, I was hooked. I traded a whole bunch of waterskiing junk at a “Play It Again” type place for an old Rossi, the one with a bright green base and purple letters. It was a pile of junk, but I could care less. I put ski boot liners in my Sorels and attacked every bit of snow I could get my hands on, be it the golf course, my backyard, or the pre-Killington take-over Pico slopes. I was not alone in my new found lust, some of my best friends were also learning along my side. The combination of a vintage New England winter, good friends, and snowboarding made a year that would never be forgotten.