Shredding at Breckenridge

Recently I had the opportunity to visit Breckenridge for a short ski trip with my family. Even though it isn’t a banner year for anyone in the snow industry we had a great time. Breckenridge on a bad year was excellent compared to the typical North Carolina ski hills, so we had no complaints.

Notables from the trip:
– We tried out Shred Ready’s new snow-sports helmet, the Forty4, and were very pleased with the performance. Seven of us wore these helmets for a week on the slopes, including a 5-year old, 8-year old, 12-year old and four adults. General consensus was that the helmet was comfortable, warm, really quick and easy to buckle and adjust, and of course very protective.  I really enjoyed that I could implement my iPhone headphones into the ear pads and listen to music and make phone calls from the ski lift.

– The other standout event from Breckenridge that I deemed noteworthy involved me running over a squirrel on my snowboard. I seem to keep having run-ins with these furry rodents. Two years ago a squirrel dropped a chunk of chocolate cake out of a tree and onto the sidewalk in front of me. This was the most ridiculous encounter I’ve had with nature, until now.  As I approached the animal it darted back and forth from the ski trail to the woods in normal squirrel behavior which is always entertaining.  However, in the last second it took a gamble and decided it would be a good idea to run in front of a 150 lb mammal sliding down the snow at 30 mph. Long story short, I clobbered that poor animal and hair went flying all over the snow.  I think “nine lives” may refer more to squirrels than cats though, because he got up and ran away.

While I was not busy killing innocent animals with ski equipment or watching my decade-old snowboard boots biodegrade all over the mountain (I threw my boots in the garbage before we went home, they were that bad) I got a chance to take a few photos of some talented athletes on the hill. Below are a couple of my favorites.

Crossed up, grabbing, all kinds of style up there.

Hey, put this in your video. Was cool watching these guys film and jump together.

Very large amount of air in mid sideways flip trick thingy. Impressive to watch.

And my favorite of all, young Mason styles it out during his first snowboarding lesson.

Thanks,
Spencer Cooke, Effort Inc.