It appears Jake Burton has testicular cancer. If you follow this link you’ll read his rather stoic and inspiring letter to his employees. I think it says a lot about the guy and, clearly, it says just as much about the culture he has created at Burton Snowboards over the years.

It will be 20 years this november 22nd that I was diagnosed with stage 4 Testicular Cancer. A harrowing day indeed, one my 17-year-old mind was far from ready for. One I am, in so many ways, still reconciling. But, while being diagnosed with cancer at age 17 posed some unique and soul starching moments in the immediate, that day, and the subsequent 8 months of surgeries and in-patient and out-patient chemotherapy that followed, would prove to be the most important of narratives in my life. From that moment in my pediatrician’s office to this moment stumbling away across my keyboard, I have been informed and engaged by a disease most people only understand as an enemy. But that didn’t have to be the case.

With super-human support from everyone in my family, and an equally strong support of friends and acquaintances, I was able to contextualize the emanation of my mortality in a way that was not only healthy but, as far as I can tell, deeply advantageous. I consider it a great gift of fortuitousness that, at a very young age, I was no longer blindfolded from the cold realities of the criminally short time I would be given on this planet and, with the help of a large group of friends who knew the proper techniques of the ancient and honored art of the belly-laugh, that the only currency that matters on this planet is Joy. How you get to Joy is a deeply personal and terribly complex pattern of actions and reactions, but, outside of specifics, if you work for any other goal aside from Joy, mark my words, you are a fool and a rube.

Life is too fucking short. You will die, hopefully peacefully, but if you waste any time not pursuing the highest aims of hilarious and terrifying achievements, you’re a dumb shit.

It’s clear from his letter that Jake Burton has already figured this out. I wish him the best as he ventures into his own, very personal, dark night of the soul. I hope it is short, but I hope, also, that it is resonant, challenging and mind-blowing.

And I hope the same for all of you.

Thanks Jade!!

I’m not sure if today is the best or worst day to discuss protecting our winters. Regardless, here’s Jeremy Jones stating his case for keeping snow around.

Viva la snow!

Good morning, America!

I know my posts have been infrequent and hovering around the similar and predictable constellation of food and beer as of late. But it’s the holidays and I’ve been drunk, stuffed with food and preoccupied by things more compelling than coifing my blog. I’ve got a back log of info on events going on around the city and some sweet skateboarding videos, not to mention info on bicycle snow tires as well as some interesting eco-friendly snowboarding gear. But, right now, all you’re going to get is this awesome and simple instructional on how to make your own butter.

If you’re disappointed you need to reconsider your relationship to the virtues of fat.

These industrious criminals had what looks to be the best day ever at Alta, sneaking in before the resort is actually open and having this devil’s playground all to themselves.

Trespassing has never looked better.

I just sent in my application to help out with CHILL this winter. CHILL is Burton’s charity created to give underserved kids from local communities a chance spend some time learning to snowboard.

Each year, we take about 75-100 youth from each of our sites to the slopes. We provide them with everything they need to learn to ride: lift tickets, lessons, transportation, and head-to-toe gear. We use snowboarding to motivate youth to accomplish goals they never thought they could, while teaching them some of the most important lessons in life about patience, persistence, responsibility, courage, respect, and pride – our weekly themes within the program.

I’ve been looking for a new way to give back to my community for a few years now and this seems like the perfect opportunity. Beyond giving me a chance to spend some more time on my board, I believe firmly in the ability of snowboarding and skateboarding to pull people out of their present frame of reference and give them, through challenges and perseverance, the opportunity to make their life richer and more rewarding. I’ve seen it happen to me and I’ve seen it happen to others close to me. I’m looking forward to sharing this opportunity.

The Chicago arm of CHILL takes place at 4 Lakes Resort in Lisle. Oddly enough, this is where I learned to snowboard. A friend of mine, who is unfortunately dead now, used to work at 4 Lakes giving us the opportunity to ride there for free most days of the winter after High School got out. It should be a trip to ride that ferocious bunny hill once again.

I’m sure there’s plenty more need for volunteers, if you are interested you can email Megan Skiles at megans@chill.org .

Pottery Barn Teen, of all places, has these pretty nice wall mounts for snowboards. The rope light on the mount reflects off the gloss on the deck to make a diffused light effect.

Pottery Barn is asking $129 a piece for these things. I’m thinking you can make one for under $15 and use battery powered LEDs instead of rope lights to eliminate wires and also drop your costs substantially. Add a microcontroller, program it to fade between different colors, and punch this up even more.

Once I make my first one I’ll post an instructional up here.

Our long-in-the-tooth correspondent… Trevor:

As the air gets cooler and the days get shorter, skateboarding will be taking a back seat and the new round of snowboard gear will be hitting the stores. I’ve made a few field trips to my local snow shops and perused the new round of buyers guides, and, from what I’ve seen, it’s going to be a fine season to buy a full new ride. Good thing, too, as I will be spending more time away from Chicago this winter working to get my game back, because, come March, I’ll be heading back to Valdez, AK – the home of the greatest snowboarding in the world!!! – and, by God, I’ll be taking at least a couple of deep carves on some freshly cut blades before I do that. I love my Burton Fish and my Malolo… and the very last year of the K2 Eldo – GOD rest its soul! – but I’m a junkie for gear and, right now, I’m in a bad way for a fix.

This year has brought about a whole new set of super exciting and perfected shapes. Last year most board companies just weren’t there. The one exception was the Liberation Technology Skate Banana boards which raised the bar so far above everyone else’s head that the rest of the snowboarding world had to rethink the way they build their decks or forever be forgotten. And let’s be honest, only the consumer benefits from fates like this.

So, after much thought, and kicking the tires of my favorite brands, I think I have my sites set squarely on K2 and Lib Tech for the 2010-2011 winter season.

The choices do have a little to do with their geographical locations – Seattle – but also what they are doing. Mervin Manufacturing’s Lib Tech is always pushing the envelop and this year is no exception. The Magne Traction is some seriously cutting edge shit, and my sources are telling me that this years boards hold better, and blow through the crud and eat up the pow even better than previous models. This thing makes the guy that’s been riding since day one better with way less leg burn, and the middle of the road riders will see immediate improvement at all points of their riding. I’ve also heard talk that it will be better for park riding, but that is something that I can’t talk about as I have zero interest in exploring. Lib Tech isn’t cheap, but it’s a ride I believe everyone is going to L.O.V.E!

For those of you looking for a lot of bang for your buck , I don’t think you can do any better than the new K2 lines. Their boards have really been bumming me out these last few years and it’s been especially hard as I’ve been a die-hard K2 Eldorado fan since the first series (I still got a few in my garage). But, as with everyone else this year, they’ve upped their game, putting a new line full of great decks. But – and this seems true with all board companies – it’s getting harder and harder to find longer boards, everyone is moving towards a shorter, more versatile deck. I’m not really on board with this at all, but that’s just my selfish sidecountry/backcountry opinion.

Mind you, there are tons and tons and tons of totally badass decks out there, but I have only so much time and a three year old girl that’s just not that into spending 3 hours at a time at the shoppe, (why doesn’t anyone put a daycare in these places?). There’s a few more rides that have my eye, that I’ll try to explore in a a future posting, but one company I for sure won’t even bother talking about is Burton until they get away from their Infinite Channel System (ICS) thing. And mark-my-words, they will drop that shit like a burning turd one day soon.

The long and short of this story is that I am a fiercely addicted gear head and I must have the latest and the greatest or my life just won’t be complete. So, Santa, you fat bastard, cop up and get a brother either the K2 Gyrator 168… unless, of course, K2 smartens up and makes their 0 in a 169… or the Lib Tech Skunk Ape 172 (does anyone remember the Grocer! Fuck Yeah!). If you could do this, Santa, if you could be this stand up kind of guy and set me up with one of these rides, I promise, I swear to Christ, I’ll be good. I won’t even need another piece of gear ever again, if you can hook me up here. I won’t need another ride again, I swear.

Well, at least not until I find that new and perfect skateboard for the spring of 2011.

]]> http://outsidersalmanac.com/blog/2010/11/07/snowboarding-season-is-upon-what-will-i-ride/feed/ 0 http://outsidersalmanac.com/blog/2010/08/19/seattle-snowboard-connection/ http://outsidersalmanac.com/blog/2010/08/19/seattle-snowboard-connection/#comments Thu, 19 Aug 2010 20:55:54 +0000 Ron John http://outsidersalmanac.com/blog/?p=1144

I wanted to tip my proverbial hat to the Seattle Snowboard Connection for being some real nice folks running a great shop. We were both knuckleheads and packed our pads in our checked bags for our return flight meaning, once we were stranded in Seattle, we needed to pick up new gear in order to skate while stuck. The nice people at Seattle Snowboard Connection gave us 10% off our gear out of sympathy for being in a bummer situation.

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