Skateboarding
    Windells is excited to have Jamie Weller back as the Director of Skateboarding. This winter, Jamie has been building urban style features throughout the campus, adding to the already amazing indoor skate park and 6,000 square feet of concrete to the campus. Silas Baxter-Neal was skating 4/20/08 and calls BOB, “The best indoor skateparkark” in the Northwest! Windells is looking forward to skating with: Mikey Burton, Daewon Song, Jeron Wilson, Mike Taylor, Torey Pudwill, Lamare Hemmings, Chet Childress, Micah
Hollinger, and the Krux team.

    GET IN ON A FUN DAY OF SNOWBOARDING MIDWEST STYLE IN MAY! THIS DAY ALSO MARKS THE 3ND ANNIVERSARY FOR DAMAGE BOARD SHOP.  SO COME OUT DO SOME SHREDDING AND HAVE A GOOD TIME.

    TIME: 9:00- 4:00
     COST: $25 FOR ALL DAY SHREDDING
    LOCATION: SPIRIT MNT. TERRAIN PARK

    A WAIVER HAS TO BE FILLED OUT AND SIGNED FOR THE EVENT.  IF YOU’RE UNDER 18 WE HAVE TO HAVE A PARENTS SIGNATURE.  TO SPEED THINGS UP GO TO OUR WEBSITE AND PRINT OUT THE WAIVER.  YOU CAN BRING THE WAIVER AND PAYMENT TO DAMAGE ANYTIME BEFORE MAY 9TH OR BRING IT TO THE EVENT.

    THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR MAKING THIS EVENT POSSIBLE!

    DAMAGE BOARDSHOP
    1904 WEST SUPERIOR ST.
    DULUTH, MN. 55806
    218-724-4027
   
www.damageboardshop.com

    A 1980s short bus that made its way down from AK recently?  Check.
    A hand-painting session on the bus by Rome artists and riders?  Check.
    A trip to Goodwill to outfit the bus with couches, bean-bag chairs and hammocks?  Check.
    The birth of the Rome Magic Bus?  Check.
    A crew of riders who don’t mind smelling each other for ten days?  Check.
    A crew of riders stoked to get their parking lot jib on?  Check.
    Dirty Joel as the designated driver?  Check.
    A load of tents to camp along the way?  Check.
    A schedule of Shred With Rome Sessions from Washington to Mammoth?  Check.
    Snowboarder Magazine along for the ride to document the mayhem for mass consumption?  Check.
    Fun times on and off the Rome Magic Bus?  Check.

    As Ken Kesey once said, likely in some induced state of mind, you’re either on the bus or off the bus.  Following his lead, the SDS is getting together its own group of merry pranksters, cramming them into the Magic Bus and hitting the road for a late-season road trip.  After getting together to paint the bus by hand someplace in Seattle, the riders will head out to Snoqualmie in Washington for the first stop, and then head south from there for about ten days of road stories and shred sessions.  Other stops will include Mt. Hood Meadows, Sierra-at-Tahoe, Kingvale, Sonora, and Mammoth.

    A spirit of communalism will reign supreme on the road—four “Shred With Rome Sessions” are half the reason for loading up the bus and heading out on the road.  With stops in Washington, Oregon and California, the Shred With Rome Sessions are a chance for local riders to have fun with the Rome team: meet the riders, shred with them, grill food with them, and possibly appear in the same-day web posts that track the Magic Bus Trip as it rambles south.  All the Shred With Rome Sessions will be filmed for the Magic Bus segment of No Correct Way, so heading out for these sessions is your chance to have a shot Rome’s next full-length release.

    The first stop in the Magic Bus Trip will be this Friday, April 25th at Summit at Snoqualmie.   At 4 pm in the Summit West parking lot, the crew will get together with all the local riders who want to come out and session the van and other features.  

    The rest of Magic Bus Trip goes as follows.

    Shred With Rome Sessions Schedule

    •    Stop 1  Summit at Snoqualmie, Friday April 25th
    o    Public Shred With Rome Session at 4 pm in the Summit West parking lot
   
    •    Stop 2  Mt. Hood Meadows, Sunday April 27th
    o    Public Shred With Rome Session at 3 pm in the Main Lot
   
    •    Stop 3  Sierra at Tahoe, April 29th and 30th
   
    •    Stop 4  Kingvale Project, Friday May 2nd
    o    Public Shred With Rome Session at  2pm in the Kingvale Park
   
    •    Stop 5  Sonora Pass, May 3rd and 4th
   
    •    Stop 6  Mammoth, Monday May 5th
    o    Public Shred With Rome Session at 1 pm at the Main Lodge

   ; When you roll up to the resort, look for the Rome Magic Bus to find the exact location.  It will be hard to miss.

    Stay posted for what went down at the last stop and the details for the next stop in the trip.

    This is how I think it all happened.

    Headed to the mountains. Caught word of police checkpoints on way out of town. Passed sign that read: Caution Smoke Ahead. Thought it funny. [Later research revealed the Forest Service was also doing some controlled burning in the area] Was soon surrounded by at least a dozen menacing looking coppers. Saw fellow shreds getting the once over. Thought: Was that a rubber glove? Situation inspired paranoia, even with nothing to hide. Damn this police state. Tried to act cool. Apparently it worked.
   
    Got to June. Breathed a collective sigh of relief with all the other Grenade gamers. On mountain and familiar turf now. Spirits were high. Party on Wayne.
   
    Cue psychedelic rock anthem, don rose-colored shades, get on the lift, take the ride.
   
    There are long hairs everywhere, and boys dressed like bag ladies, and gypsies and rastas and friendly-looking prepubescent gangstars and every other type of misfit, the wild-eyed kids wandered around with snowboards, lawn chairs, fireworks and megaphones, there’s a clown making balloon animals but the animals are shaped like genitalia and beer cozies, and there’s a monkey with a snowboard, a most extreme primate, and someone is passing out stickers with phrases like “Don’t bogart that joint,” “Check out Beaman’s mogul field,” and “Don’t worm my chicks,” imagine they must be backed with blotter paper, and all the gremlins go for them like they’re two dollar bills and they slap ‘em on to their boards…
   
    And in an instant everyone’s part of the propaganda machine, chugging along and everyone is darting in and out of the woods, disappearing and using smoke signals to summon buddies, these great swarms of shreds moving like killer bees down the mountain, maybe more like locust, but everything’s buzzing…
   
    And the  gnarliest of the lot are jumping over these great gaps in the snow, these gaping maws that look ready to eat the unsuspecting SOB who speed checks, meanwhile, at a ceremony called beefy chopper some start to whirl like dervishes, most in robes as flowy although far more flamboyant, strange scene, then later these same hell bats are racing down the hill hundreds maybe thousands all at once and that’s when the mountain first roared thunder in protests…
   
    So then we descended, some literally crawling, into the u-ditch for more tweaking and other contests, no, displays of highness…next thing, there’s this gigantic bloodshot eyeball rolling down the half pipe toward all the heathens now laying around like lizards in their respective states of enlightenment, and of course Terry Kidwell is melting everyone’s faces with his amplified axe while Shaun Farmer is howling like a banshee on acid or energy drink (more likely) and then all at once the crowd turns crazy (probably also a result of energy drink) and starts up the hill and before long this maniacal mass is armed with snow balls, ice chunks, half-hot dogs and full beers…
   
    And they’re winging them at the any one who tries to ride a snowboards without bindings,.. the boarders and boards fight back, firing like missiles into this crowd of savages, somehow though the angry (albeit karmically blessed) mob remains unscathed….
   
    One board flies away only to come to rest by the barbeque where a hamburger falls flat on the board just as a crow swoops down, snatches burger and the board (apparently adhered with grease) and flies off into the alpen-glowing haze diffused horizon…take mental picture. Think: weird, rad.
  p;
     Moral: Grenade games is a trip.

Grenade Games IV 2008 Results:
Chinese Eyed Downhill: Thor Ryen
Zumiez Meat Helicopter: Chas Guldemond
Zumiez Boned Age Award: Kyle Clancy
Boosted Highest Air: Luke Mitrani
Best Mountain Award: June Mountain
Rusty White Best Shred Photog Award: Jeff Curley
Most Radical Dude: Chas Guldemond

The Burton NZ Open is the pinnacle of snowboarding competition in the Southern Hemisphere  and attracts the world’s top professional riders including X Games champions, Olympic gold medallists and world champions, all competing for the largest title payout in snowboarding. The male and female cumulative-points champions will each collect US$100,000 after competing in the New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan and USA events, and New Zealand is the first port of call on the international circuit.

Competition gets underway on Wednesday July 30 with the men’s and women’s halfpipe qualifiers. On Thursday July 31 the action moves to Snow Park NZ’s newly designed slopestyle course for the qualifiers followed by the Slopestyle Semi-finals and Finals on Friday August 1.  

Friday night will see awe-inspiring massive air in the invitational quarterpipe under floodlights with live music from top New Zealand DJ’s. Spectators can watch all the action for free from a specially created grandstand carved out of snow. All eyes will be on the Superpipe Semi-finals and Finals on Saturday August 2 when the world’s best will fight it out for the Open title and a share of the NZ$50,000 prize purse.

The action is just as exciting off-snow with the Gravis Open Sessions featuring some of the biggest names in Kiwi music every night of the Burton NZ Open, from the launch party on July 29 to the wrap celebrations on August 2. For further information visit www.opensnowboarding.com

      We are hosting an Amateur and Pro comp open to male and female skiers and snowboarders.  

        Amateur comp is rail jam format.   $4k in prizes up for grabs!!!

                -registration is online only at www.echomt.com

                -check in at 8am

                -comp runs from 9am to 12pm

                -winners of Am comp go on to Pro comp

       Pro comp is slope style format.  $12k in CASH up for Grabs!!!

                -registration is online only at www.echomt.com
              
                 -check in at 8am

                -comp starts at 12pm

                -for special registration consideration contact comments@echomt.com