BURTON US Open 2010

US OPEN 2010 Halfpipe competition.

I had a series of incredible experiences at the Snowboarding US Open 2010, last week,  so I thought I’d post a few items that made the time spent there so live!

khwst doin’ it.  I’ll have some BUTTER with my snow, please.

I went up there with Deka, of Hoods to Woods, who is making things happen for kids from the ‘hood, everywhere, when it comes to introducing them to action sports and outdoor lifestyles.  Much props.  He’s also my ::BLK OPS:: comrade.  If you have a facebook account, you should join the OPS!!! brigade.

Deka- rollin’ with 1 foot out, ready to kick a dude. Brooklyn!

Maria McNulty of M3ee laced us with passes.  She’s the truth!!!  Good looks Maria.  Also a huge shout out to Jane Nathan and family for years of friendship and kindness at the Open.  She’s been lacing me and my peoples since 2004.  If you are looking for anything New Englandish, check out her husband’s auction site. Kinda tight, and you might come up on a nice find or two, or a piece of property on the cheap.

We stayed at Buster’s crib, and considering that he and Ingrid just gave birth to a special baby-boy (Kamil), we really have to be thankful for them opening up their doors to us once again.  Although, if you know Buster, you wouldn’t expect anything less.  OPS!!!

We got to ride and kick it with our homie, Craig Wetherby.  Craig holds it down when it comes to photography, and sun is nice on a snowboard too.  Say what you want, but I’ve been noticing over the years, we seem to lead the pack of out Brooklyn, when it comes to reppin’ on any mountain from BC to VT.  What up Craig?  Oh, check out his photos at Frank 151, as well.

Craig with camera and dope lens (hard to miss). Me with goggles and brown skin (harder to miss)..

Timbo was sidelined with an ankle injury, but that only makes him go harder with his High Snobiety and Rad Collector columns.  Get well soon, Timbo.  Maybe one day, I’ll get to drop some ink on a column at Rad Collector, along with the rest of the OG’s of style…

Blotto and Cole at their gallery show at the Simpson’s Barn.

Nuff props to Blotto and Cole Barash for the amazing gallery show they held at the Simpson’s Barn.  The pictures were stellar.  The road leading to the house, however, was a mud-pit; so much so, that the Simpsons started shuttling people to-and-from the barn via 4×4 pickup truck.  Fortunately, the AWD rental from Enterprise held me and Deka down, and we made it in and out, without incident.

While there, in addition to hanging out with Blotto a bit, we kicked it extra hard with Mason Aguire, which was a pleasure.  If you don’t know Mason, google him, or check out the 2010 Olympic Snowboard team.

Deka and Mason Aquire at the Chill Pizza Party, with plenty of reason to be hungry…

As for the Open competitions, Mikkel Bang won the Men’s slopestyle event with an amazing run, and Kokubo Kazuhiro took the Men’s half-pipe competition.  Look how high this dude was getting.  The Rail Jam had some sick hits, and Charles Reid came away with 1st place.  Shaun White’s jet-propulsion wasn’t firing, so he didn’t compete in any events.  He did just win the Olympics, not to mention, make a guest appearance on Oprah, so I guess you gotta cut him some slack.  Feel better Shaun.

As for the ladies, Kelly Clark came took home the victory in the half-pipe, Sina Candrian won the slopestyle comp, and Jamie Anderson won the Rail Jam.

Kelly Clark and Deka.

On Sunday, I got to ride with my homies again, including Michael Cohen, from Shut Skates.  Mike is one of the chillest people I know.  Stop by Shut NYC and kick it with him sometime.

Deka came thru with a video clip of a tree-run, that he edited pretty tight.  I’m getting my turns in, but I should a been riding switch a lot more.  I need more days on snow.  All-in-all, a memorable time at the Open.  I’m truly blessed to be able to experience such good times.  Can’t wait for it to snow again, so I might have to head to the other side of the equator, although with recent climate changes, maybe not…?

See you on the snow.