2011 Nitro Swindle Earlyman

The Nitro Swindle has been a staple in my board quiver for going on three years.  I've watched this model evolve over the last few seasons from a slight camber to zero camber and this year Nitro has thinned the core underfoot for even more flex and tweakability.

While the Swindle has always been advertised as an urban rail slayer, this year it fits that profile more than ever.

I got my hands on the Swindle Earlyman (A special edition collaboration with the metal band Earlyman) through High Cascade's demo center.  This was a summer demo meaning snow conditions ranging from salt-crusted to deep slush.  High Cascades expansive park layout let me test the deck on jumps, rails and in the pipe, while Mt. Hood summer conditions gave me some rocks and gullies to play around on.

First, this years Swindle is noticeably softer than previous models.  While it's fun to butter around and easy to maneuver, I found the pop to be serious lacking.  Rocks I was nollie-360ing over with ease using Nitro's Gullwing camber (a play on reverse) I could barely clear with the 2011 Swindle.

Compared to past models, the pop/snap in the 2010 was surprising given the switch to zero camber and the 2009 (traditional camber) boosted; the 2011 was for lack of a better word "dead" underfoot.

Kickers have never been the Swindle's strong point, however the deck will handle most medium sized booters (up to 35 feet).  The Swindle is too soft for anything bigger and will buckle at high speeds and larger compression.

On a plus, the softer torsional flex from thinning the core let you get insanely creative with tweaking grabs.

Cruising with the 2011 Swindle turns any groomer into a playground; The board is loose underfoot, and again pretty soft, so have fun buttering and flat-spinning your way down the hill.  For charging or eurocarving this isn't the deck to go for; it doesn't absorb chop too well and will give way with high speed carves.

On rails the Swindle is as good as ever.  The looser feel edge-to-edge was tailor made to setting up your approach for rails. The deck does phenomenal presses, and I've always loved zero camber for locking boardslides dead centered.  I've been pretty hard on the pop for the 2011 model, but I want to point out it still does it's job getting you on whatever jib might tickle your fancy.

Not much worth mentioning as far the halfpipe goes, but I will say that the Swindle is fun to play with in the minipipe.

Overall I think Nitro set out this year to fit the Swindle to the urban/rail category they've had it in for a while; while in past years it was an overall slayer all over the mountain, this year I would limit the Swindle to being a playful spring park/jib deck.

Check out the Swindle and Nitro's other decks on their website.

2011 Nitro Pro Series Gross Out Eero

The Nitro Swindle is the first snowboard I've loved enough to invest in two generations.  The construction, performance and price is unparalleled, so when I had the chance to demo some boards at Mt. Hood a few weeks ago, I went right to the Nitro rack to see if all of their boards were equally amazing.

I had heard some amazing things about the Gullwing tech, which is Nitro's take on multi-camber that lifts the contact points while employing traditional camber beneath the bindings.  Unfortunately all of the Team Gullwing models were out, but I was able to snag the Gross Out Series Eero Ettala, essentially a team Gullwing with special graphics.

This is a directional model with a slight setback.  That always plays game with my head, especially riding switch, so I set up my Flux Super Emblems to get the board as twin as possible. While I thought setting my bindings to make the deck twin might alter how the Gullwing tech rode, I was pleasantly surprised.

Mt. Hood in August has a very unique riding surface.  It can be firm in the morning, and especially firm where salted, then it softens into deep slush a little past noon.

High Cascade gave me a lot of options to try the deck out in, from rails to the halfpipe, freeriding, rocks, and a number of medium sized kickers (20 to 30 feet).  The Pro Series Gross Out Eero passed all of my tests with flying colors.

On saltier, hard-packed terrain the board gripped well through hard turns.  It cut through deep slush at high speed nicely, and never felt too hooky or squirrely.

The pop on this deck was impressive, one thing I always have reservations about when riding an alternative camber board.  I guess adding slight camber beneath the bindings does what it is supposed to do.  This was one of the really fun things about the board, popping high off rollers, ollieing and spinning over rocks.

In the lap park (where High Cascade maintained a number of medium kickers) the Gross Out Eero absolutely slayed it.  I had no problems with speed or clearing jumps, the looser feeling of raised contact points made it easier to set up spins, and one thing I noticed was where I'm usually a bit backseat with the first few hits while I get used to reverse camber, this board did exactly what I wanted it to do from the get-go.

I always kill it in the pipe with alternative camber, and the Gross Out Eero was no exception.  Whether it had to do with Nitro's custom base with this model, or simply High Cascade's stellar park construction, I had no trouble keeping speed and linking hits wall to wall.

On rails, the explosive pop and loose ride edge to edge are a great advantage.  Raised contact points make it easier and safer to really tweak out boardslides catch-free, and of course the reverse camber part of the deck means you can press and butter to your heart's content. One area I had trouble (and I always do with alternative camber decks) was locking boardslides centered over thinner features such as rails; for boxes everything was all good, but rails not so much.

Overall, the Gross Out Eero wins the award for best deck I demoed this summer, and while I would recommend to anyone more into switch riding in the park that they look for the true-twin Team Gullwing, if you are someone who likes to destroy the mountain all-around this directional take on Nitro's Gullwing tech would be the way to go.

Check out Nitro's Pro Series Gross Out Eero and their other solid products at Nitrosnbrds.com.

Bear Mountain Presents 'No Big Deal'

No Big Deal holds a special place in my heart.  Not only was it a record setting season for Bear Mountain, but it was also my first year on a snowboard after high school.

There I was working the midnight shift for UPS.  At 9am I would punch out, hop in my car and make the hour drive to Bear to relieve some stress; it was the year that started it all.

Bear gave me a copy of their promotional DVD, No Big Deal, on my first visit of the season.  It was the first snowboard movie I ever owned, so needless to say I watched it so much I finally wore it out... even the menu skipped, and playing it was impossible.

It remains to this day one of my favorite edits, so I lit a fire under my ass to get my copy playing again. Getting the DVD to you via Vimeo meant buying a Skip Dr, and after that didn't work, sending the disc to Florida for resurfacing.  On the way to Florida the disc cracked, but somehow it missed the data, and I was able to get all the files.

Low and behold, here it is: No Big Deal. I'm in the same boat as you, watching this for the first time in years... and I remember the magic that made me continue to blow my UPS check on gas to drive up to Bear three times a week.

With the copious amounts of snow, Bear made the 2004/2005 season the biggest and most creative season I ever experienced there.

From enormous kickers to a plethora of VW Bugs, blazers, and giant rails painted to look like the American flag, it was a really great time to be riding in Southern California. M3 still existed, Mikkel Bang and Zak Hale were still groms with high-pitched voices, and 1080s were still a big deal.

Join me in reminiscing on a season long passed. I hope you all enjoy No Big Deal as much I did when I first saw it, and still do every time I watch it.

Bear Mountain Promo 2004 - No Big Deal from Deserts Don't Snow on Vimeo.

High Cascade Adult Session 6 - August 2010

The top of Palmer; Above the clouds.

 I have been going to High Cascade for a number of years now as both a youth camper and an adult, and in the last two the camp has gone through an enormous number of changes.

The crew gets ready to shred.

This years adult session featured some of the strongest talent from "old people" I've witnessed in a while.  With a number of improvements and additions to High Cascade's facilities on snow and off, it was a perfect recipe for progression.

On hill the setup couldn't have been crispier.  An abundance of rails, wallrides, medium jumps, and signature creations like the double manual pad, with one showtime booter kept on its own. All of this instantly accessible via the Big Toe (High Cascade's first rope tow added summer of last year).

A good-morning cruise through Main Park.

One of the keys to progression that High Cascade has stuck with is starting each session fresh with all features buried to where falling becomes low-consequence; there is no better way to build confidence as familiar features melt out and grow bigger each day.   

A private lap park just for you. Rails to hip to more jumps!

Backflips into clouds.

The highlight of the session for me was the lap park. While it no longer featured the back-to-back hips I enjoyed last summer, the slopestyle setup of rails between jumps High Cascade went with this year made for some really progressive hot laps.  The kickers were sized perfectly for trying all of the things you weren't completely sure about, and many a first backflip attempt was landed here.

Hiking the pipe, while considered by some a kind of religious experience and chance to become one with the transition, takes a lot out of you.  With the addition of a second rope tow to do away with that endurance test, the adult campers found themselves riding High Cascade's superpipe more often.  Many of us learned to air out of a pipe for the first time, still more even learned to link spins in all four directions off both walls.

Hard to miss, the biggest addition to High Cascade's main park was the airbag on loan from the DC Mountain Lab.  Landing on a cushion of air gives you the balls to do some brave things, and a few adult campers came away with their first backflips board attached.

Chris Hargrave (Green beanie) teaching the handplant "squirt".

An adult-only handplant clinic with instructor extraordinaire Chris Hargrave yielded tremendous results.  Many campers were able to stick their first handplants, and the ones that didn't were well on their way to landing it this coming season.  Words cannot express my stoke in learning a trick that had been giving me grief for three years on both walls of the minipipe.  Cheers to you Chris for making dreams come true.

 New additions to the skate areas.

Off snow the activities offered by High Cascade reached new heights, with a redesigned skate course, completely new bowls to skate, and the all new foampit/trampoline area.

The best part about being an adult camper is the opportunity to participate in "adult-only" activities.  We were given full reign of the bowls and the trampoline course; no kids allowed!  All of the adult coaches came together to teach everyone how to skate the bowls, but the one thing everyone got into was a backflip clinic using the trampolines and foam pit.  Every adult camper learned to backflip that day; some even went on to try doubles, gainers, and rodeos.

Even with all of the fun to be had, there are still some things about camp that need to change.  It's understandable with Mt. Hood being one of the big summer training grounds for professional snowboarders that campers and pros will be sharing the mountain, but watching pro riders hang out with themselves, snake campers in the rope-tow line, and generally be their own entity separate from the camp experience is discouraging. 

This is part of High Cascade that has gotten more noticeable the longer I'm at camp, and considering the average session costs about $3000 I feel like those who have daily access to these facilities can be a bit more sympathetic.  For example, why should the Stepchild team skate with the kids and make someone's session when they can just do their own thing?

All in all, it was a unique experience to see the camaraderie and watch a group of nearly 60 adult campers (the largest adult session to date) of entirely different skill levels push each other to accomplish their goals.  We learned handplants in a halfpipe together, we learned how to backflip together, we skated the bowls together, and when we were done we partied our asses off at DJ Matty Mo's final show.

Rumor has it that with the success of this adult camp, we've proven to High Cascade we are worth the investment and next year adults will have three opportunities to enjoy camp versus the two (first and last session) that have been available in years past.

One thing is certain, seeing a train of the entire adult crew boost every jump in the lap park was once in a lifetime, and the most fun I think I've ever had at camp. Rock on "Old People"!

Hood Bound

The Hood shot.

 What a journey it has been. I woke up at 6am on Tuesday morning and jet out of Southern California with my sights on getting as close to Mt. Hood as possible. Counting an overnight stop in Redmond, Oregon the trip took about 16 hours driving nonstop.

There's was a lot of amazing scenery to take in moving from deserts to cities, plains, lakes, and rivers; unfortunately I had no time for any of it, so I did some drivebys.

Ground Zero

Leaving the desert.

Six Flags

California "Happy Cows" huddled shoulder-to-shoulder to live in their own shit.

Farmland

Sacramento--the city of...trees?

California landscape shot

First evidence that snow still exists.

Where they filmed Sound of Music. No, I don't know.

Sunset in Oregon. Only 230 miles to go...

Fancy views from a fancy Portland apartment.

It's nice to be in Oregon and out of the scorching heat. It's also nice that in Oregon you aren't allowed to pump your own gas, so I haven't had to do that for a couple of days. Of course snowboarding today was excellent. Nothing too fancy in the public park this late in the season: for rails there was a choice a single barrel donkey dick, a double barrel down, and a flat bar; for jumps a line of 4 perfectly shaped kickers, which were definitely the highlight of the day.

I have to say I think this is the most barren I've seen Mt. Hood in August, but the public park has kept good shape and I spotted some cats working on the High Cascade layout for session 6, which starts tomorrow. Stay tuned for photos and coverage of what goes down.