QUEENSTOWN, NEW ZEALAND (July 27, 2008) — Hundreds of snowboarders flocked to The Remarkables in New Zealand this weekend to celebrate the opening of Burton’s newest location of The Stash®. Over 20 of Burton’s regional and international riders, including Keegan Valaika, Mikell Bang, Robett Hollis, Nick Brown, Juliane Bray and Shelly Gotlieb, came out to christen The Stash alongside the shredding public at Saturday’s grand opening event.

Max Baillargeon grew up in Quebec, sharpened his claws on all that cold French Canadian steel, recently made the move west and spent last winter taking his lumps in the Whistler backcountry. Kid is on his way. He rides for Billabong, Etnies, Thirtytwo, Salomon, Dragon, I Found Headwear and Radical snowboard shop and is also working his way through college. He’s been lurking in So Cal recently, interning at Billabong, and swung by the TW offices. This is what he had to say.

Did a little Q&A with These Days filmer Corey Koniniec. We talked about his hippy tendencies, the passion of stress, self-improvement and how he hates to keep secrets, especially about snowboarding.