What it do, nephews?  Hoppe here.  Some careless individual gave me the keys to this here blog, so I’m going to be coming on here to ramble at you guys when the mood strikes.  Expect stuff like riding tips, gear tips, some Freebord history (both ancient and recent), behind the scenes happenings and what not – straight from the brain of this old owl.

Today’s topic: SNOWBOARDING.

Duh.  That’s every day’s topic this time of year. All the production companies are dropping their new videos, stores are stocked up on all the shiny new shred sticks, and every motherfucker online is like “OMG I can’t wate to go snowboarding LOL!!1!”  Well shit son,  we’ve been riding all Summer.  Ain’t no off season in the Freeworld.

Hoofing it up a snowy hill to get a few turns or landing in the same early-season mini park bombhole 100 times in a day is going to be a lot easier on some legs that haven’t been playing xbox for seven months straight.  Not to mention you can skip that November nonsense altogether because you’re not fiending for a run like a heroin junkie in withdrawal.  Down here below the snow line the roads are dry, the sun is out, and the shredding is better than ever.

Of course it’s no surprise that freebording and hiking roads will exercise the same muscles as snowboarding and hiking mountains, but it doesn’t end there.  Shredding isn’t about being buff.  Shredding is about technique.  Sure it doesn’t hurt to be fit, but even for a good athlete, the first-ever snowboarding experience can be full of bruised butts, sprained wrists, and angry girlfriends.

Chris Rotax setting up his bord

Aussie Freebord team riders Luke Howell, Stephen Howell, Sam Trowbridge and Duncan Wright had a very different first day ever snowboarding.  Visiting from Perth in 2007 (I think?) they were virgins to any kind of Winter. The Howells in particular had never even seen snow in their lives.  I mean these guys have kangaroos on their money. Seriously.  So naturally, we took them up to Tahoe.  At Luke’s insistence, they skipped the bunny hill and went straight to the summit.  First run, black diamond, no problem.  I rode with them the next day at Northstar and they were riding like they had been riding for 2 years solid.  Keeping up on any run, jibbin around and clearing medium jumps.

The same thing happens when an experienced snowboarder hops on a freebord for the first time.  Hell, it took me a week to figure out how to ride and slide at all, but when a pro snowboarder tries, it’s just monkey see monkey do.  Moral of the story, we don’t just substitute snowboarding when we do what we do, we supplement it.  They feed off of each other.  Like Whitney and Bobby.

So which did you try first, Freebord or snowboard?  Did you have a leg up over the other noobs on the snow/streets?  Preesh me some stories in the comments.