snap
Spread:
A common
sight these days.
Right: Going Hella' fast,
Paul Sharpe leaps over
the cat track gap at
Kirkwood.
י
ว
110 THRASHER
chico's got the best style
It all began with a series of phone
calls. After enough wire time to make
Ma Bell rich, a snowboarding trip with
some of skateboarding's street
professionals was arranged. Our group
consisted of Keith Hufnagel, Scott
Johnston, Tim Brauch, Paul Sharpe,
Lance Dalgart and myself along to keep
things in order. Suffering through an
early morning wake up call and three
hours of two lane traffic, we met up with
Mike Carroll, Chico Brenes, Rick
Ibaseta, Al and an eager Julio De La
Cruz. After securing a handful of comp
tickets, we took to the slopes of
Kirkwood for some morning crust
crunching. The soft looking snow proved
be icy and hard, giving our crew some
unexpected thrashings. Soon the posse
split up due to some of the slower slope
sliders in the group. You lag, you get left
behind. . We decided to charge down the
groomed runs for the remainder of the
to
morning to loosen up and give the snow
a chance to soften.
Lunchtime saved us from exhaustion
and dehydration. We rallied for scarce
story and photos by
bryce Kanights
seating on the lodge's outdoor patio just
in time to witness the high digit fashion
parade of passers by as we skarfed
down seven dollar burgers. That's the
price you've gotta pay if you want the
front row seats.
With the hot afternoon sun beating
down we opted to shoot photos at
various hits that our fearless leader Paul
Sharpe had mapped out during the
morning hours. One by one each
launched, landed and laughed from spot
to spot.
Huf
air with fat pop
1 took to the air
that would make even the most sea-
soned jibmaster take notice. Not a new-
to the Sierras, Chico Brenes
comer
hucked some fat frontside 180s and
tossed
I in mute grabs for the shutter.
Julio De La Cruz, the mouth of the moun-
tain,
, nearly beamed me as I moved in
for a tighter fisheye shot of these guys. I
really couldn't blame him for the near
miss since it was his first day in boots
and bindings.
We headed over to Kirkwood's snow
park which was full of big berms, gaps
and rollers but was lacking a half pipe.
Tim "Beans" Brauch rode fast through-
out the day and showed his solid riding
ability on all the hits. Claiming this to be
only
y his second season on board, Paul
Sharpe served as living proof of how
easy learning to snowboard is. Paul
launced an Indy over a gap that most
would get creamed attempting or would
avoid altogether. As there are eno cars,
security guards or cement beatdowns to
contend with, it's inevitable that you
progress quickly. Mike Carroll got off to
Islams
slow and
some good
earlier in
in the morning. Nonetheless,
ooth backside
a
Mike
start
kicked
look
me smooth
into some
shifties over the main hit of the
I the park.
The sun set as the day's events and
terrain had taken its toll on sore mus-
cles. We gathered in the parking lot,
laughed about assorted events of the
day and packed it in for the two lanes of
roadway between us and our beds. ⚫
111