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Finally Lake Tahoe is getting some well deserved snow and so today I took full advantage of our proximity to all the Lake Tahoe area ski resorts. On fun pow days usually I go through a list of resorts to hit starting with those of best pitch and possible snow collection... right, I just go to Squaw just like everyone else and get some high speed chair runs. It was nice to see a line of traffic heading towards but I was super surprised that I was able to once again walk right up and onto the Funitel. That trend kept up for the rest of the day and I was able to hot lap Siberia, granite chief and Headwall repeatedly . Today was great but this weekend into next week things should keep getting better so if you missed today... YOU HAD BETTER MAKE IT FOR NEXT WEEK!!! a title="Burton Snowboards" href="http://www.porterstahoe.com/">PortersTahoe.com

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Well just in time for Valentines day Tahoe is getting some goodness.  It's all about dark chooclates and light snow.  Muhuwaaaah.  I haven't been riding enough this year so every time I go I'm so sore- thank God for the hot tub. 

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Man, all stoked for a storm to hit Tahoe and it stays wet all the way to 8,000.  I HATE THAT!

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This weekend my really good friend Jay came in from NYC, and we kicked his ass. I picked him up at the airport at 11:41 am on Friday by 2:00 we were in the backcountry taking hot laps with Andy Spotts and Peter Tankersley. By nightfall we were tired and went home. Up Saturday morning with the sleds gassed up, lunches packed and a new tape in the camera, we headed out again. We met up with Josh Hall and Dave Harabedian and went full throttle making turns and shuttling on the sleds. Sunday was an on hill day at Squaw, what a trip I have been in the backcountry all season, that was my first day at the resort this year. Squaw was fun, but the backcountry was calling us back. I hit up Chappy, my boss and asked for Monday off, he said yes because he is RAD. So up again Monday, more lunches packed and Andy, Jay, Dave , Peter and myself were ready for another day out back.... Check out the Team Old Guy Vid...oh yes there are some funny bails too...



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Is anyone heading out to the X Games in Aspen CO. this month? Jan 22-25@ Buttermilk Mountain or the Dew tour in West Dover VT. this week January 8-11/ Northstar-at-Tahoe-Trukee CA Feb 19-22? I heard there was a new company looking for boarders to sponsor...what do you think?


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WE WILL ANNOUNCE THE WINNER 01/19/2009

click here to enter the contest

• K2 JIBPAN AUTOGRAPHED SNOWBOARD
  
• K2 BINDINGS
  
• K2 BOOTS
  
• AIRBLASTER JACKET
  
• AIRBLASTER PANTS
  
• AIRBLASTER GOGGLES
  
• AIRBLASTER BEANIE
  
• DAKINE GLOVES
  
• NIXON WATCH

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• AUTOGRAPHED DC PBJ
  
• DC JACKET
  
• DC PANTS
  
• DC BOOTS
  
• GRENADE GLOVES
  
• ELECTRIC GOGGLES
  
• ROCKSTAR BEANIE
  
• CASE OF ROCKSTAR

WE WILL ANNOUNCE THE WINNER 12/29/2008

http://www.porterstahoe.com/DC-snowboard-contest.asp


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This Week on Shred Betties

Mini Shred: 9 Year Old Taelor Mattingly
http://www.shredbetties.com/riders/story/mini_shred_taelor_mattingly/



Project Runway x Beanie Thursday
http://www.shredbetties.com/oa/entry/project_runway_x_beanie_thursday/



WTF - Helmets to Hunt in?
http://www.shredbetties.com/oa/entry/wtf_dorky_helmets/



Canada Here I come
http://www.shredbetties.com/articles/story/canada_here_i_come/




Colorado Ski Areas Open
http://www.shredbetties.com/articles/story/loveland_and_a_basin_open/



Video: Early Season Snow at Heavenly
http://www.shredbetties.com/articles/story/heavenly_early_season_snow/



Rome Speaks Out Against Big Name Athletics Brands
http://www.shredbetties.com/articles/story/romes_libertine_drunk/



Grand Opening of New All-Girls Store in Tahoe:
http://www.shredbetties.com/articles/story/miss_boarder_grand_opening/

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THE MESSAGE  - OCTOBER 2008

Welcome back to another exciting edition of THE MESSAGE.. da da da DUNNNNN.
Good new snow fiends, We got are first dusting on the Sierra's last week, so lets hope that this will be an early season for all us!  THE BLOCK, THE BLOCK is gearing up for Snowboard Season by sponsoring a bunch of snowboard premieres and parties. I just saw the new First Tracks Video,  Knock on Wood at Mont Bleu, and what a great turnout we had, THE BLOCK was soldout and Flick was dope as all hell! 

Hot Dawgs and Hand Rails

If you missed Hot Dawgs and Handrails last month, you done F@cked-up. ! Hot Dawgz & Hand Rails 5th annual snowboarding specatcular tested the skills of some of the best jumpers and jibbers in the world and paid out $15,000 in prize money!  Rio and the entire Bear Mountain Park Staff pulled off the 1st contest of the year with Grand Style!  The Dropin, The Gap, and the rails were epic and riders were stoked to be throwing down for the first time of the Season! Big props to reelcomp.com for broadcasting a live feed of the event besure to check it out on their website.

The winners in the Men's Finals were...
1st Place- Jed Anderson
2nd Place- Chas Guldemond
3rd Place- Scott Vine

and the winners in the Women's Finals are...
1st Place- Desiree Melancon
2nd Place- Marie Hucal
3rd Place- Raewyn Reid

Scott Vine brought home Best Trick. Congratulations riders! Additional Heavy Hitters were Ben Bogart, Scott Stevens, Louif Paradis, Bode Merill, Keegan Valaika, Leanne Pelosi, Elise Borelli, Nick Dirks, Zak Hale and Tim Eddy. J.P Walker, Seth Huot and Hana Beaman were chillin' at Bear and Josh Sherman and Dave Duncan were announcing! If you missed Hot Dawgz this year, we'll see you next September! Big ups to Nam for organizing the afterparty, DJ Slip Matt and Matty Mo held it done hard. If you aint heard Matty Mo got a new mixtape out so be sure to Grab Government Cheese Vol 1. 

THE BLOCK BOOTCAMP 2008

Has been rescheduled to December 1st -13th in South Lake Tahoe. We are selecting 50 lucky recruits from an applicant pool of over 500+ that I received. It has been no easy task going through the applications, so if you were selected congratulations you will be receiving your deployment orders at the end of the week!  Remember that during bootcamp you will be tested to your physical and mental limits. So do yourself a favor and start working out and jogging now. This is not going to be a walk in the park. 

Knock on Wood

Who wants to see some sick snowboarding action for cheap?! Well, South Lake Tahoe based First Tracks Productions is offering a special deal to friends of The Block. If you click on the following link, you'll get to a hidden page on First Tracks' site where you can purchase their new movie, "Knock on Wood" for $10 off retail! http://firsttracksproductions.com/knockonwood091317257375.html If you haven't seen the trailer for Knock on Wood, check it out for free here:

Upcoming Events

Big Bear

October 18th is the last Bear Mountain Job Fair at Snow Summit from 8am-2pm. If you got to ride Bear and cant pass the bootcamp, this is a good option for any shredder.

October 18th and 19th is the 38th Annual Big Bear Lake Oktoberfest! So if you missed the job fair you can atleast Drink it off.

October 19th @ Active Ride Shop in Le Brea - F.O.D.T. Presents "Familia"  and TWS These Days from 7-9pm with DJ Episode! Be there!

Lake Tahoe

Wednesday Oct 15th  Technine's own Eric "MessyHair" Messier aka The Snow Man, will be playing with his group "The Fiz" at Whiskey Dicks with The Mathematicians in South Lake Tahoe.


This Thursday and Every Thursday BAR24 is holding Battle of The Bands until a winner is announced on November 6th, so get down their and show your support!


Saturday, Oct 18th – Late Nite productions brings the Original Wailers back to Tahoe at Moe's Place.


Wednesday Oct 22nd – Collie Buddz  is playing at Whiskey Dicks with Rise of the Revolution and DJ Pee Wee.  Rise kills it so sure to get there early and check em out!


Wednesday Nov 12th – Pato Banton with the Mystic Roots Band and Planting Seeds! Mystic Roots is dope and Pato got love for THE BLOCK so don't miss this show!


Friday November 14th – Finger on Da Trigger presents "Familia" Premiere at Bar24, signing with the Technine Team, Snowbunny Contest, Live Performances by the worlds top VJ; DJ Crime,  Hip Hop by Concise Kilgore from the Cali Agents and more TBA Lots of other bar24 contests for lots of SWAG and giveaways! Be sure you are there!


Saturday November 15th – The Premiere and the team travel to the Sandbar in Sacramento. We got a Snowbunny contest with the Déjà vu Girls and Zsu Swimwear, a Rail Jam in the back, T9 Team Signing and so much more so be there!!!


Tuesday Nov 18th – One Block Radius come to town, Marty James, MDA and Z-Man throw a tough show, pickup there new hit "you got me" and come to the show.


Friday November 28th – Del The Funky Homosapien has been add to host the "Blizzard" Pray for Snow Party with A-Plus and Bukue-one! So mark this one down cuz its going to GO OFF in Tahoe that weekend!


Saturday December 28th– "How The Grouch Stole Christmas" with Grouch and Eli from the Living Legends! I am looking forward to this show the most! So get up on game and go buy his new album that came this past spring and be sure to celebrate X-mas with the GROUCH!!!


Ok that's all I got for ya for now, I am working a bringing a "Familia" premiere to Vegas as well as planning THE BLOCK PARTY 2009 at the SIA Tradeshow. More info when I got it all confirmed but until then, Pray for Snow and see you on THE BLOCK!


-Dirty D from THE BLOCK


PS Check out these Videos:
Live From the PALMS Pools and Bungalows - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru3vhbtu7tI
Live From Hot Dawgs and Handrails - http://reelcomp.com/videos/view/6990

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What is the hardest thing about Snowboarding the first day of the year?  Putting down the board and taking pictures. The mood was epic on the afternoon of the 11th, boards and shovels in hand we embarked on a journey that would bring friends of all types and styles together.  While most kids were playing video games and sleeping in we were playing in the snow that friday nights storm left for us.  Matty McInnis, Chris Bartowski and I headed up there around 11 and met up with the heavy hitting crew including Brandon Cocard, Nick Visconti, Joshua Parker, Niki, Brandon Dury, Who, Brandon Hays, Andrew Brewer and RV. Check out these photos from our long trip to our patch somewhere above the greater Reno/Carson City area.

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So for those of you shredders in the know, you've just been waiting to walk into your local shop to check out the Burton Hero Late Release snowboard. For the rest of you wondering what the big deal is, well this is Burton's entry into the "rockered" category.

What's that?

While I personally refer to them as rockered boards as opposed to "reverse camber", sometimes the less initiated, or non-surfer or non-wakeboarder, or cross-over skier is only used to hearing the word "camber". The result of camber in a snowboard or ski is the slight arch running lenthwise from tip to tail that you can see. When you put one on a perfectly flat surface, it rests on two spots - near the tip and near the tail - with a very small gap between the ground and the middle of the snowboard or ski. Obviously then reverse camber would be where the contact occurs in the middle and the same contact points in a traditional shape are slightly off the ground. Think of it as this shape ...(... turned clockwise versus this shape ...)... turned clockwise.....or looking sideways at a banana with its tip and tail making a frown shape versus rotating it to make a smile.

Eeegads how's that for layman tech?

In the medium of water there are tons of recreational things with rocker - including surfboards, wakeboards, water skis, kayaks, and on and on. Depending on your point of reference, riding conditions, terrain, and some other things, you can obviously have an argument for or against rocker. I haven't made up my mind which shape I like better in all conditions and all terrain scenarios like powder, groomers, park, etc yet., but I can say that I'm a firm believer in deep powder conditions.

And I don't think it's a coincidence that when you have bottomless powder turns on a snowboard that it's pretty darn close to how it feels to make the same turns on a surfboard. The sensations can be felt good in wakeboarding or even some water skiing too. It's that sensation of pushing into the snow / water and sinking but then rebounding back to the surface as the snow / water feels like it is pushing back. Making huge untracked, first tracks, powder turns down a steep bowl and then slashing into a deep, powerful "bottom turn" is heaven or nirvana or zen or whatever you want to call it. For many of the early pioneers of snowboarding - who came from the surfing world - this is the sensation that made them snowboard junkies. They could surf the snow.

So all that to simply say that I've really liked how it felt the two times I've ridden rocker in good, deep Tahoe powder.

And to make a long story short, after the huge success of Lib Tech's Skate Banana and K2's Gyrator, Burton introduces its own interpretation that it calls "V-Rocker".

So all that to say that the Burton Hero Late Release snowboard is now in stock: http://www.porterstahoe.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=215849!BUR



Black metallic finish with a holograph



Of course in Burton's new ICS mounting system



2009 Transworld "Good Wood" Award Winner



A decent shot of the V-Rocker and the gentle rise in the gap between the floor and the base of the Burton Hero



the base...



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Thunderstorms were pretty non-existent this summer, so last night was the first soaking rain we've had since spring that I can remember. If we would've had a little more cold air, this sucker could've produced well over a foot of snow. Instead, snow levels remained about 9,000 feet and never dropped to the 7,500 that were being advertised.

Regardless, snow is snow.....and it got me excited to go see some of it first hand. I had some errands to run in Reno, so I went the long-way around by driving up the Mt. Rose highway. I pulled over about halfway up for a quick shot across to the southwest corner of Lake Tahoe. In the picture below, you can see Mt. Tallac and the Desolation Wilderness way off in the distance.



So then I continued on up Mt. Rose highway to the pass - the highest year-round, open road in the Sierras at almost 9,000 feet. I finally caught up to some white stuff I could actually touch 'n feel...







And then going back down the other side of the Mt. Rose highway, it doesn't quite look like The Chutes are ready to shred yet.....but it was just good to see some white on my little drive, and I can't complain.....kinda like seeing an ol' friend even if briefly


http://www.porterstahoe.com



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"Enjoy The Ride...More" is DC’s marketing slogan for their highly anticipated release of snowboards this winter. Last night at 50-50 Brewery in Truckee, CA, PortersTahoe.com and the DC crew – including riders Devun Walsh, Iikka Backstrom, Aaron Biittner, and Lauri Heiskari – all came out with more than just their A-game to kick off this 20th anniversary edition of Mack Dawg’s "Double Decade."

Somewhere between 400 to 500 people joined Porters and DC at the biggest movie premier ever at 50-50 Brewery. There were two screens – inside and outside – showing the next progression in riding with several very well-received segments from not only the DC crew, but riders like Wille Yli-Luoma, Eero Ettala, and the closing part of Jussi Oksanen. The movie also sprinkled in 20 years worth of snowboarding pioneers and ground breaking MDP parts over the years from names like Chris Roach, Nate Cole, Noah Salasnek, JP Walker, and Jeremy Jones (past and present). "Double Decade" truly does give you more by throwing in a great, eclectic mix of music from the likes of the Pet Shop Boys, Devo, David Bowie, Doobie Brothers, and – believe it or not – the Grass Root’s "Let’s Live For Today" for a very soulful and artistic Jussi part.














Longtime Nor Cal industry veteran and DC sales rep Ron Depp put the evening in perspective this way, "It’s amazing that we could draw such a large crowd with only 5 days advance notice and have so many ex-pros and industry people come out of the woodwork...or the Truckee woods!" Bill Markham, DC Snow Sales Manager, added, "Double Decade is a walk down memory lane that showcases many legends of the 90’s rail brigade. The film also captures how shredding has progressed from backyard rails to big mountain kickers. Couple this with almost 500 kids, beer from 50-50, great support from Porters and DC pro shreds Iikka, Devun, Biittner and Lauri and you got a night you won’t forget....or remember in some cases!"









Judging by how big of a smile Lauri Heiskari had at the end of the night, everyone truly had a great time...and MORE!

http://www.porterstahoe.com

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