I’m headed to Vancouver and then Whistler tomorrow for the week. I’m primarily out there to speak at a special industry session during the Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival but I have ample time to explore Vancouver and hopefully catch more spring powder if this snow keeps up. I’m looking forward to it all.

I’ve never been to Vancouver, crazy right? So– where should I go? Shop? Eat? Explore? I’m told I should also hop over to Vancouver Island and see some whales or run with the bears or something too.

If you’ve got thoughts please leave a comment below, or drop me a note. Thanks!

Design Within Reach may still not quite be within your monetary reach, but at least now they’re helping us to lend a hand. For the third year in a row, DWR — with the help of both its Denver and Seattle officers — are hosting the Design the Modern Board competition alongside K2 Snowboarding. Submit a graphic design by March 6th and you’ll have the chance to have your image take to the slopes. Voting will take place at the DWR Denver studio on March 27th. Proceeds from the boards will benefit the Snowboard Outreach Society that helps youth build self-esteem through outdoor activities.

There’s no chill in the air just yet, but we can sense it coming. You better face the fact it’s going to be winter soon, and with that comes prime snowboarding weather. Why not celebrate the imminent frosty season by grabbing yourself new deck? The masterminds at Monument Snowboards (or MNMT) have just what you’re looking for with their new line of boss boards for ‘08-’09, featuring some seriously sick designs from a slew of talented artists such as KRINK, Kime Buzzelli, and Todd Tourso. In additon to their top gear, MNMT has also launched a brand new site that allows you to take a gander at both the brand’s hard and soft goods, check out a few blogs, and become part of the Monument consortium by signing up for their newsletter.

Snowboarders often migrate to the skateboard for the summer. The guys at Blotto Photto are no different — except they also document their efforts with soaring photographs and websites. Summer is about to end and they’ve got some new things to show from their skateboarding season before booking their snowboarding trips. Check out their new website featuring some amazing photographs for skating/snowboarding. If you were a fan of the 28 Days of Winter book we blogged about about a year ago, its the skateboarder’s turn with (UP)Rising Sonz! The book captures the excitement of first stepping on a skateboard photographs of the sport and the culture.

Freebording: not quite skateboarding and not exactly snowboarding. With a totally unique rider-driven design, Freebord gives you the look of a street deck and the feeling of carving a mountain. Using four outer wheels to simulate a snowboard edge and 360° rotating wheels in the middle of the board to initiate slides in any direction, the feeling (so we hear) is just like bombing down a mountain.

Recently they amped up their site with three fresh designs — Elite, Haze, and Riot — all fitted with new lighter trucks for better agility. Gripped and made from 7-ply Canadian Maple, the decks are light enough for tricks but strong enough to support any height or weight. Now go shred.

DWR's Denver studio wants you…to participate in the 2nd Annual Design The Modern Board Competition. The contest sponsored by K2 Snowboards and benefiting the Snowboard Outreach Society is asking established and aspiring graphic designers throughout Colorado to throw their proverbial hats or graphics for a modern snowboard design in the ring. Participants must make their intent to submit known by February 28th, and all submissions are due by March 26th. Final judgment takes place the following day. The contest winner will receive a K2 Snowboard graced with their creation, while the 1st and 2nd runners up will get a trophy in the form of a top sheet of his/her winning graphic. Now if that don't beat all, then we don't know what does.

Although this is old news to Spear Collective comrade Tom Judd, who did the illustration work for this Burton collab nearly two years ago in the Summer of ‘06, and was subsequently sworn to secrecy, it’s new news to us. This 2008 Burton GTwin deck has ‘Tom Judd’ written all over it, although the top sheet was censored a bit to — I’m guessing — scale down the loudness to comport with traditional Burton style. At any rate, whenever Mr. Judd fancies splattering his ideas on a canvas — no matter what type of canvas — we like it. This deck is ladies-specific, so rejoice Tom Judd groupie-snowboarder-chicks!

I’m exhausted. For the past few nights I’ve been glued to Shred or Die, watching pro and regular extreme sports enthusiasts get their skate/snow/surf/BMX/moto on, and as a person who isn’t accustomed to the quick energy burst from these types of short clips, I’m having a pacing problem. I went from watching pro skateboarder Bucky Lasek squeezing blood clots out of his elbow earned from some gnarly incident and Ryan Sheckler manualing around Tony Hawk’s backyard pool (for that one I tapped the video player’s slow-mo and frame-by-frame viewing options) to surfer Joel Parkinson coasting along in a barrel, and then I voted at the end on whether each video shredded or should die. It’s a ton of fun, not to mention addicting. The site depends on user participation to weed out anything that sucks, so the most yawn-worthy videos get stuck at the bottom of the list. Last night’s session got me into the Bails section, where viewers can watch skateboarders eating rock or concrete; and the inspiring Tips/Tricks sections, full of good advice I’d take if I could just even learn to ollie. Unfortunately, like the sports themselves, this site practically encourages me to go play instead of work, so I think I’m going to be up tonight again.

In August 2006, Burton photographers Dean “Blotto” Gray, Jeff Curtes and Adam Moran (also Burton Snowboard’s team manager) hit the road with six major international snowboarders, from Norway’s Terje Haakonsen to America’s Shaun White, to such far-flung destinations as New Zealand and Chile. 28 Day Winter: A Snowboarding Narrative is a culmination of that trip, a coffee table book that puts readers there in the flesh with the photographers as they witnessed these stars doing spectacular 720’s, grabbing air on their boards, soaring over objects like gasoline barrels. The photographs are stunning, showing magnificent backdrops of terrain, sometimes with a brightly colored speck in the distance that is the rider cruising across a blanket of white. Other photos depict riders bonding in their down time, an experience that snowboarders know are very much a part of the whole picture. When you reach the end of the book, you almost have to hold yourself back from hopping on a plane with all your gear and heading to snow country immediately.

The book comes out in December, but you can pre-order it at Amazon for a discounted price.

Last Fall, Quebec born Ridehouse Clothing impressed us with their thoughtful and functional Heartwood line. With board sports brands a dime a dozen these days, it’s refreshing to run across a brand that stands for something unique. Ridehouse has nailed it in that department; their feature film, Funderful, will explain it all. This year, they’ve added even more features and understated flair to their clothes, and the Broadband Hoodie is a prime example: limited edition (514 of ‘em), chin-saving collar, embroidered labels, styled out shadow print, super soft fleece inside, and hidden iPod pocket make this my pick for that necessary winter insulator. C’est magnifique!

Here’s a good way to get my attention: show a guy on a surfboard getting towed by a Jet Ski right into the teeth of a giant effin’ wave, then continuing to ride that wave against all odds for another thirty seconds as about a ton of water splashes on his face. Did I mention that this is a really goddamned big wave? Remember that Powerade commercial where (with the help of some special effects) LeBron makes four full-court shots in a row? This video is that ill, and I think it’s totally real.

BoardRideTv, which hosts the video I’m talking about on its homepage, is Youtube for thrill seekers. Go to the snowboarding channel and you see a bunch of kids just absolutely killing it on the mountain, furthermore I’ve actually never seen anything as fun-looking as some of the videos up in the body boarding section. Of course, if you search Youtube for snowboarding you’ll probably find more content, but BoardRideTv is a place for extreme sports denizens to impress their own, not the masses. As Alec Baldwin would say, “Go and do likewise, gents.”

The Footy Contest Series is a new online video footage contest community that invites those who are passionate about their board sport – and those who catch all the action on film – to upload their footage to the footyCS website for all the others in the community to vote on. Through weekly, monthly, and seasonal contests that are decided by the footyCS community, winners (both riders and videographers) will receive prizes that with help them progress in their sport. Tonight at 8PM PST on The Learning Channel (you know, the one that shows all of those nasty surgeries and stuff), footyCS will be introduced through the show “How to Make Millions,” which follows the founders of footyCS through the trials and tribulations of their entrepreneurial endeavor. The word from the founders is that the site will be alpha ready by 8PM PST this evening, and their first contest will begin to accept submissions at 12AM on June 25th.

A few days ago, my childhood buddy Riley sent me the lowdown on a “business” trip he just took to the interior of British Columbia. From the looks of it, he’s chosen quite a different career path than I have– maybe I should have spent all of that law school tuition money on a camera and a helicopter. I believe his story started: “I don't want to make you jealous or anything but an amazing trip just went down…” I’ll leave most of the details out, but I will tell you that the trip was a collaboration between Red Bull and Oakley called “Backcountry Bombshells.” Since he can tell the story better than I can: the trip included 2 skiers (Kristi Leskinen & Andrea Binning) and 2 snowboarders (Anne-Flore Marxer & Marie France Roy). It took place in interior British Columbia at 3 different cat skiing lodges (Monashees, Selkirk Wilderness, and Chatter Creek), and the additional crew consisted of 2 photogs, 2 filmers, 2 team managers and a very veteran bad ass guide Shin Campos (Pro snowboarder in the Whistler area for last 15-20 years). We had access to snowmobiles (Ski Doo Summit-X 1000’s, snow-cats, and of course the heli. What can I say Red Bull does it right, best trip of my life and that's saying a lot. Basically the theme of the trip was to bring 4 people closer together and progress the level of women’s riding in the backcountry. Mission accomplished for sure! Lucky bastard.

An article on the Snowboard Mag website is indicating that there may be riding/skiing (and a lot more) in Las Vegas in the not so distant future. According to one of the founders of Las Vegas WET, they’ve been exchanging offers and counteroffers with an undisclosed landowner to acquire 200 acres of land along the Strip to build a mega sports facility, that will include an over 350,000 square foot indoor water park (to be the largest in North America), and a ton of other attractions that have yet to be disclosed officially, but may include in indoor ski area (according to the photos on their website– included here). If built, this facility would be larger than the entire Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA. But don’t worry, the development group has decided to “expand the environmental angle” of the project to be more “conservation conscious and environmentally friendly.” (chuckle chuckle). Do we really need another water-sucking, electricity-devouring monstrosity in Vegas? I’ll stick to the roulette wheel.

I know it’s only February (almost March), but I wanted to pass this piece of news while the snow is still falling… before you’ve gone into beach mode. Throughout this coming summer, the 2007 DNA Evolution Tour will be coming to a ton of locations throughout Utah, Colorado, Idaho, and Montana, giving urban jibber types (both skiers and snowboarders) the chance to strut their stuff in a warm summer setting. Now I know a lot of you out there are thinking: “why in the hell would anyone want to ski or snowboard in the summer, especially in an urban setting?” I don’t have a good answer to that question, but I can tell you that a lot of kids out there are really into this stuff. They’re pushing the bar higher and higher, taking their skills to insane features like the Big Rig (pictured above, right), the honorary DNA Evolution Tour feature. The first event will be on May 26th in Ogden, UT, and the final event will be right on our front step at the Jibij Pro Shop in Boulder on September 1st. This tour should be fun for both spectators and competitors.