SIA 2008

Monday morning I got a new camera in the mail, packed my bags, and hopped on a plane. 4 hours later I arrived in Las Vegas, it was a lot colder that I expected, but

it was still warmer than Cleveland.
The next morning I woke up and began my trek to the Strip. Once there I began my next trek of finding the convention. SIA was stupendous, a lot of companies are doing some cool stuff for next year.

Capita's whole line is amazing. If I were you, I would buy at least two Capitas for next year

Only at Capita do you have board meetings lying down

Forum was business as usual.

SELL! SELL!SELL!

Forum sure made a mess

Kids there were so hyped to ride they decided to drop in on some cargo rollers and go carpet boarding.

Fakie Dawg

Snow>Carpet

Volcom threw a cool party and gave away cool stuff I'll back Volcom

Matt Hammer chillin' at the Signal igloo

Greg Hahn showing off the Forecast line!

Airblaster made me feel at home

Until next time...

TECHNICOLOUR

Rollerblade falls!

Ok so this isn't snowboarding... but in some ways its better. 

8 wheels are better then 4...

This first kid looks like Jason Kell!

Listen to what the kid says at the end...

tell your friends.. more snowboarding to come this week!

Sonora Sucks... Idaho Goods

So after after that big storm in Tahoe everyone thought the back country was going to be so good. So we all cleaned off are cars and headed to Sonora pass to meet up with Peter Benchetler, and Gabe Taylor.

 

My car after the storm

The first day of sledding was not so good you might say, we get up to about 8000 feet and it started to rain! So that pretty much ruined Sonora, but despite the rain me(Mike Miller), Gabe Taylor, and Peter Benchetler headed up the next day. The snow sucked! There was a nice ice layer on top of everything and we couldn't get anything going. Things where not going good, we couldn't build anything, couldn't do any lines, and Peters sled caught on fire! haha... but it was still running after so its ok to laugh.

Peter checking out the damage

We searched a few areas and nothing was working. We decided just to try and get something going, so we found this tree stump pole jam thing. Yup... that didnt really work either haha. The day was shaping up to be a great day. 

Peter and Gabe

We decided that Sonora was no good, so we loaded up the cars and starting driving up to Idaho to try and get things going in the back country.

Artsy fartsy sunset driving pic

The drive was long and boring but thanks to my mac and Fully Flared, the drive was a little better.  I almost drove off the road a few times, but Mike Mo's part made it all worth it.

Brett had to pee

After a nine hour or so drive we roll into the spot and get to the hotel.  We had no idea where we wanted to go or where the good zones were. We went to this coffee shop and found a funny illustrated tourist guide that showed a snowmobile drop off.  The drive there was rad, tons of road side pillows. 

Brett getting pretty stuck

After a few days of pillows, Scott Blum and Peter Benchetler showed up for the fun.  Luckly Scott knew the area better then any of us and he took us to some good spots.

Peter checking out his line

Snow faced Brett

Cool guys 

This trip has been good despite the freezing weather and the clouds. Everyones been able to get some and hammers and some fun shots. Idaho has been good to us but its time to get back to Tahoe.

Scott would call this an art shot

Shred or Die

Ever wonder how to do a backside 5050 on a double kink? 

Check out Brendan Hayes showing you the business at www.shredordie.com.

We will have some photos and stories from the guys up North in the backcountry shortly.

Got snow in your backyard? If you have spots and snow hit us up at myspace.com/autumnline and let us know.

Boardercross

Boardercross is back!  Only its way more Xtreme now... we keep finding spots that require boardercross courses into them.  Maybe we can hook up a Taco Bell sponsorship out of it.

This little gem was like setting off a firecracker...

literally...

snowing hard enough for the gogs.

We spotted this bridge headed out to a little island at this park.  Tara Dakides and Kevin Jones would have been proud of this bridge rail, walked away with no wet feet.

Sled Hill.

View from the ollie.

We followed the rules.  

A few more days down... a couple more weeks of rails and it will be full on jump season.

If you know of any smooth zones with a lot of rails, hit us up on myspace.com/autumnline

Pillow Fight

Mike sent over a snapshot of yesterdays mayhem in the backcountry.

The snow is back... 

Robbie Sell said "it looks like a knee to the face"... could be right... or its just sweet.

More to come this week.  Check out www.twsnow.com & autumnline.com for updates.

Always Time for a Margarita

Been a slow week... warm spells put a damper on some plans. 

But not all is lost... got a crew headed up North to Idaho, or Montana.. I don't know actually, I get a little confused where those states are at sometimes... which is odd considering I took almost a whole semester of Geography classes in college.

Anyway... Snow is on the way... off to an amazing 2008 start.  Probably one of the best filming years yet.  Just be happy you aren't one of the guys who flew or drove into California for the big snows this week and had to head home the next day because of the rain.  

In the meantime.. get yourself one of these...

More to come next week.  If you haven't seen www.autumnline.com  then check it right now.

We will be adding more content in the days & weeks to come. We also have some contests coming up.. you could win some gear from some of our great sponsors just by checking out the blog. 

Enjoy the weekend.

Back to the Middle East

Back East

After an amazing trip to the west we headed back east to try and keep the good vibes going.  

Eric wanted to hit this well know down bar, so some friends came up to get the session going

Matt, "So what are you gonna do on this?"

Eric warming up

the Porter Bros. were there getting the footy

Me and Eleanor getting shots in the sun

BMX photographer bobby digital showed up to take some photos in just a hoodie and sandals in 20 degree weather, silly biker hippies

Eric getting some, skate style

Matt was happy to be there

Next day we woke up to rain. But we decided to go for it anyway. 3 hours later we walked away sopping wet and frozen but we got a shot. 

rainy, cold, and no light; a filmer's dream

Eric was covered in thorns and only had half a glove left ,but there was no way he was going home empty handed

Matt was just chillin' in the heated car jammin Nickleback 

Reviewing footy in the Susstudio. Don't worry kids the edits are coming.

Autumnline.com is going live in a couple days.

Headed West

2008 arrived with a bang.  That bang came in the form of a blizzard.  Myself (Matt Porter), Mark Wiitanen, Brendan Hayes & Eric Fernandez all rolled out to see what damage could be done with the new snow.

Eric Fernandez... Pirate extraordinaire. 

Brendan "the shark" Hayes

We went and checked out this awesome rail at a golf course, or library, we don't really know what it was but a bunch of old people kept showing up to drop things off in a big metal box by the front door.  Either the way the rail was epic, but a pretty obnoxious balancing act at the same time.

"Is that a rail or are you happy to see me Brendan?"

Those guys handled it right. I'm usually skeptical when a rider says "I've never done one of these before, but here goes...", but this time around it worked out just fine.  We packed up, high fived, and headed to Wendys to partake in some Spicy Chicken madness.  Wendys has a sandwich called the "Stack Attack" now... word of advice... as Mark learned, it lives up to its name about 2 hours after you eat it.

We headed west, it should have taken 2 hours, but it was the sketchiest road of all time.  It didn't really seem that crazy, but we saw about 25 cars in ditches on the way, including a 5 car pile up.  4.5 hours later we arrived at our hotel.

Screw that drive.

The next day we checked the scene to see what spots we could find.  Thanks to the snow all the schools were closed, including this one with a bunch of soccer fields looking out at the city.

Calm before the storm.

As we were setting up the snow came back with avengence.  The drop-in was holding up solid, and the session was on.  Eric warmed up with some blunt slides while B Hayes figured out the switch business.

Drop-in.

The rail was sick except for the weld spot. Mark handled it.

The session was sick, logged some footage, & headed for our next fast food excursion.  Burger King also makes you feel like crap about an hour after you eat it.  After lunch we headed out to check some more zones & came upon this kink rail.   Eric was all jazzed up to hit it so we went for it.

Hey Eric what kind of board is that?

Sling shot for good measure.

Warm ups.

That rail was a tricky one, but the plow guys watching from the bottom had their camera phones out & ready to send "pics" to their other plow guy buddies.  Logged 2 more shots. Brendan spotted a launch spot to ride this fence, and with plow piles everywhere it was a quick setup.  He held on solid, even though that fence was wobbling and shaking all crazy.

Fence grind.

Eric. Method.

Eric leaving his tag for the next crew.

The trip has been amazing so far, not too cold, lots of snow, and plenty of fattening food to enjoy.  We celebrated with Dennys breakfast for dinner... you make the call if it was a smart decision.

mmmmmm. sausage?

2 days down... good start for the new year.  Heading east tomorrow.