From the Sidelines: Launch Slideshow
First off, spring riding in CA is ripping. The Launch was pure bliss. Sunny skies, amazing slopeside catering, a group of talented shredders, and an insane park crew to keep features groomed, salted, and perfect..could you ask for anything more? Not really. Welcome to the Launch.
Watching the event go down was like a scene from back to the future, where you witness the progression of civilization and it’s beyond your imagination. The skills of the new kids on the block is bonkers to say the least. Highlights included Ross clearing the 70 foot hip with backside 7’s, Greg Bretz’s air time off the kicker, Zepplin Zeerip doing handplants off the tree ride, and Trevor Jacobs nailing some HUGE tweaked out methods off the hip.
Here’s a photo of Ladley hitting the Frozen Seagle beast.
Broc was holding his own on the rails even though he was dying of Streph Throat for the majority of the trip.
Bryn Valakia was a standout all week, but knuckled the jump on the last day and injured her knee. Stay gold Bryn and get strong soon! Louie Vito made a guest appearance.
Other highlights includedPat Bridges from Snowboarder. Pat is a living, rough around the edges, musty ol’ history book of snowboarding. This guy knows every name, every trick, in snowboard heritage and is legendary for scoping up and coming talent and the “hieght check trick.” If you know the height check, consider it an honor. Pat was on the sidelines of the Launch, rallying the troops, barking orders, and letting em rip. Here’s a rear-mirror view of Pat wrangling.
Pat brought his sidekick T-bird, the fiery red head, and two filmers named Sam (aka Slam) and Jake. These two are super talented filmers and totally geeked out video nerds. Were talking jokes that consist of calling each other compressed files, and naming Pat an “animated gif.” Yah, nerds right? but entertaining and fully capable. Good times.
The photographers were a Norseman named Espen and a kick-ass femme named Ashley who seemed to run the show. These two were a serious team and got some serious photos for the upcoming editorial feature. Anyways, this crew, plus Bryan (the totally rad events guy)made it all happen. I can’t wait to see video footage and editorial feature that come out the Launch. Stay tuned for September when Snowboarder Mag is going to let the cat out of the bag. In the meantime, here’s a slideshow shot from the sidelines.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.