July 18th
Hey guys, just got back from the E.S.A 40th ANNUAL SUN N' SURF CONTEST - In Memory Of Bill Murray - and I got 1st place.
Here is a photo from the contest, hope things are good!
-Rodrigo

Today was officially the sickest day of summer up at the Camp of Champions, it was the first blue bird day we have had in a about a week and everyone stepped their game and we had the best session. Our park was just fully rebuilt and the jumps were perfect. The ripzone gang at camp were ready. Dennis Bannock was destroying the new giant step up that was just opened with picture perfect cab spins packed full of style, Geoff Brown has been back killing the park form his gnarly hip dislocating accident and myself I could not be pulled away from the big jump line I even missed lunch. All in All camp has been sick and the Ripzone team is Killing it and having tons of fun. Enjoy the rest of the summer and we will see ya up on the glacier!
Peace
-Andrew Jackson.

Hey Everyone! Just wanted to let you all know that Mercedes ruled it this past weekend at Burton's Abominal Snowjam in Mt Hood. Mercedes rode strong placing second in Women's halfpipe! Here's some pics!
-Roberta Rodgers

Hello! - from a super warm Whistler summer. Ya, it's been crazy beautiful here for a few weeks, even the glacier lakes have been warming-up really fast. I've been enjoying the Lake life with friends, swimming and jumping cliffs and doing the big Canada Day Parade in Whistler over the weekend. It was pretty funny. The whole Whistler Village was packed with people watching and sweating away the day. We had to walk through the village with a few of Whistler's Kids Sport Teams. Here are a few cute photos of them. Next week it's Glacier time coaching the MGT Girls.
-Dom

July 6th
I wake up; struggle out of bed, lots of moans and groans, I limp to my window to see another blue bird day here in Whistler. "Just F'n Great." I hate being injured.
About a week ago, I was carted out of Camp of Champions while coaching on a 40ft box. I dislocated my pelvis and now, my new best friend is a giant cold ice pack. I'm so bored!!! (pictures to follow soon)
I was going through my computer and found a video I made earlier this season. It's a clip of me spinning in the Blackcomb Park. Enjoy.

Geoff Brown

Justin's having better luck

June 19th
Pete's Costa Rica adventures PART THREE.

June 15th
Pete's Costa Rica adventures PART TWO .

June 13th
Pete's Costa Rica adventures start HERE.

in other team news...

Well it's been so long since I last wrote in. The season ended quite well. Finally spent some time in Whistler where the snow was still abundant and the Ski and Snowboard Festival was so much fun and I finished second in pipe. Then it was a really good Mammoth trip for the Women's Super Park. I stayed with all my best girl friends, rode some real good park for a few days and ended the season with great parties. I decided from there to take a few weeks off spending some time in Montreal with my family and old friends. I even have to go present the diplomas at the graduation of my old high school next week. In-between Montreal, I just got back from Southern-California visiting some friends there and taking a little surf vacation out there. Life is pretty ruff right now, but I'm going back home next Friday and summer camps are starting at the same time. It will be busy till the end of July on the Whistler Glacier. I'll be coaching the all girls camp MGT at Camp of Champions. Should be amazing, YA SUMMER SHRED!!!!Ok, I'll send some photos next time.
Ciao
Dom Vallee

June 9th
The contest was the fifth annual cold water classic in Washington and I got 3rd. The photo of me on the big wave was from my recent trip to Mexico and the rest were taken in Brazil. The one of me with the smashed face, was when i dove head first into shallow pool. Yes there were girls watching. It took a week before i was back on the girl program.

May 26th
New Bios and vids up in the Team section, more coming soon.

May 11th
In Whistler the snow is still falling, the mountain is litered with big backcountry style kickers and some nice spring pow landings. heres a pic of Eric Soucy on a natural hip at the future piccolo chair line.

April 29th
Hey Chief, WSSF went well for our guys. Geoff Brown killed it at both the rail events (Downtown Vancouver and in Whistler) taking second place in Whistler. The downtown rail event was a demo and there were no winners declared. Dennis took third and Brad won second in the Slopestyle event. Brad also won the Superhit contest in the Pipe and also placed 5th in Superpipe. Dom was second in the Superpipe for the girls. Justin and Brad both rode well in the Big Air but just missed qualifying for the finals so I cut them both.
Pete
(team manager)

April 15th
Welcome to the new site. Even though were still shredding pow in Whistler, summer has arrived for alot of you. So get your boards out and enjoy the new site.

March 25th
Brad got 9th at the US OPEN
* 1. Shaun White
* 2. Danny Davis
* 3. Mason Aguirre
* 4. Markku Koski
* 5. Michael Goldschmidt
* 6. Risto Matilla
* 7. Vans Rolf Feldman
* 8. Tyler Edmond
* 9. Brad Martin (Ripzone)
* 10. Antti Autti
* 11. Steve Fisher
* 12. Andy Finch
* 13. Freddi Kalbermatten

Justin took 7th in the final FIS stop in Furano Japan, congrats to both.

March 19th
A big gap shot of Eric Soucy shot by Ian Millar

hey,
just left lake placid for japan. lake placid was pretty fun. got 9th in the nice sunny and slushy pipe. was not expecting nice weather. we also got to bobsledding while we were there. a whole crew of us went (hugo lemay, americans tommy czeschin, gretchen bleiler, tricia byrnes, and aussie andrew burton and a couple of his teamates, and a few other people i don't really know). notice how some people found some speed suits just for the occasion. tommy, hugo and i were racing in "black ice" and lost out to the girls. something about them getting a faster push... or their speed suits. we don't know. you don;t get to drive the bobsleds but the big corners are really fun. gretchen even went back for a second time right before riding in finals (which she won). spent a day chillin in the eastern townships at my parents place then jumped on the hell trip to japan. i lfew from montreal, to toronto, to vnacouver, to tokyo to sapporo. then a 3 hour bus ride to the hill. took a mellow 30 hours+ of travelling. the best part is that when we arrived in tokyo they informed me that my bags were still halfway around the world in toronto. hopefully i get them soon cause it looks like there's some pow up there to ride. later
jl

March 11th
so now I"m in Lake Placid, NY, I've been all over the map lately. The Olympics were fun, a little bit of a dissapointment for me, but not to worry I was back in Canada in a flash to go cat skiing with my family. We had a lot of laughs and a lot of snow. We went to this place called Chatter Creek, it's a 30 min heli in from Golden, BC. The first day we road it was so sick
and sunny, good for photos, there are some sweet views! The next 3 days is dumped! we road trees the whole time. The night we were gonna fly out we got fogged in so we spent an extra night, no complaints, good food and good company! Next stop was Tahoe for the Vans Cup. Well that ended up being more pow days rather than pipe! The contest was fun, a little all over the place, but jam format so everyone had a good time! I ended up 9th and Dom 10th. Now I have qualifiers tomorrow for the World Cup in NY. Check ya later
Mer

1the photos
the views from the glacier
3my bro
after the tree run of a life time and laughs the whole way.
5me and my bro in the heliMarch 7th
yo, how's it going?
i guess i can fill in some of the gaps that my last update left. the olympics were crazy busy. the last few days it was dumping in bardonecchia so there was lots of pow turns to be had. so we'd ride most of the day in the trees (cause euros don't ride pow for some reason) then jump on a bus to
torino to check out hockey games. we got to see the girls gold game along with a lot of the guy's games. we'd be coming home from torino around 1:30 in the morning go party for a while then wake up early and go ride more pow and do it all again. amazing. i came home to whistler a little early to do the showcase showdown comp. the setup was pretty cool. hip jump into the pipe, couple of hits box on the side of the pipe, another pipe hit then pick one of 3 rails to finish off the run. it was a super fun comp especially hearing what the mc were gonna come up. the mcs were darryl trinidad and pete anderson (the team managers for spy optic and ripzone) and they were heckling everyone. nobody was safe. including their team riders (ie, me)!had a sick day or 2 of pow riding in whistler then i went down to washington state to ride a couple hills there and take some photos with eric greene, travis williams, a couple of their buddies and photog geoff andruik. we got into some really fun lines and some pretty big cliffs. we even dropped some 25 footers at night. so fun. sorry, i don't have any photos of anything cause uhhh i forgot my camera everywhere i went last week. and there was a photographer there for most of it. so i'm gonna pick a photo at random from
my files. a shot from a few years ago that my friend jake mcbride took of me out in sledland BC..
i got home from washington and promptly took off to a world cup in lake
placid. should have some photos of that.
later
jl

March 4th
The Annual Canadian Air and Style is coming up soon, full details here, event poster here.

BACK TO THE EAST COST:
 
The season for COMPETITIONS has started already. This past weekend i competed in the 2nd ANNUAL JAH SURF( THE DIRTY SOUTH SURF CONTEST).
 
There was a waiting period for this surf contest. The winds for waves started NOVEMBER 25th and they need waves at least HEAD HIGH to have the contest. I got the call 24 hours in advance to compete and i drove 5 hours to SOUTH BEACH MIAMI, i went STRAIGHT to the beach to start competing with no REST. To my surprise i WON 1st PLACE, got some MONEY and a BRAND NEW CUSTOM MADE BOARD. I'M STOKED!!!!!!!!
Here are some photos from the CONTEST, take care and we will talk soon.
PURA VIDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rodrigo Miranda.


Coming home!!!
So finally got out of Base Camp: The Bardonecchia Olympic Village. Iˆve been there for a full month. I donˆt even remember last time I was somewhere for a month, let alone home. I did pipe and BX, didnˆt get the results I wanted
but once all the competing was over I got to really experience the Games and it was all that· from Hockey Games to Freestyle Skiing to the men©ˆs Curling Finals (Canada got Gold and it was the best event of the Games with beers
and crazy fans). We even rode some amazing powder with the mountain closed for the snowboard competitors only.  I even got to fly to London for 3 days to go sightseeing and see my mom. But these last few days have been crazy with everybody done with their events hitting the ¯Danceteria˜ Disco till
the wee hours of the morning. Who knew that the bars and discos never closed in Italy? So we finished off last night with the Closing Ceremonies and even got to see Ricky Martin, hahaha! Iˆm writing this in the plane on my way
home finally, Iˆve never been so happy to be stuck on a plane for 12hours just so I could catch up on some sleep sitting in-between some figure skaters and bobsledders.
Dom

Also a bonus shot of Bannock I snapped at the showcase show down


February21st
it's been crazy busy over here, hockey games, pow turns, cheering and i've got another guys' hockey game pretty quick to go to, so just photos this week. later
justin

Dom V buried
Drew canada vsfinland
girls BX day
i love these
Kelly Clark Canadian WBX
Maelle Mer and Sarah Wgoldgame
obviously not snowboard fans
powies
tom and tom Wgoldgame
treejib

and back in Canada
Eric Soucy going up and coming down and hanging out all results of getting up early

February 17th (grab a drink this one may take a few minutes)
Iíve always told my friends from the mainland that Mt. Washington is not that far away. True, the B.C. Ferries routine throws a significant sized monkey wrench in the operation, but the driving is actually minimal. Iíd have to say that I was stoked when Andruik told me he had a crew organized and motivated to hit the island. I knew from the beginning that this trip would be a success because the terrain is more than worthy and the entertainment of local islanders will never let you down. Youíre guaranteed to witness a lot of Jeff Brushie pro-models, mustaches and Carhart work wear scattered across the slopes. To my pleasant surprise, there seems to be a significant supply of Ripzone product that is increasingly infecting the island region.
So the weekend warriors included Geoff Andruik, Carlo Wein, and his main man Skippy who were all working hard behind the lenses. Matt Belzile, Dave Short and myself operated the sideways sticks. We were also lucky enough to be graced with a Saturday appearance by the infamous Jon Coleman. You may remember him from such hits as Route 66 with Ripzone and the latest album from Death Hammer.
Friday morning at the crack of 10:30, we were hard at work. After a couple runs of warm-up and scouting we found a gem of a log ride that could be shot in the flat light. After about a half hour of bails we found ourselves in the midst of a record breaking west coast blizzard that came on faster than you could spot a cowboy at a pirate party.
Around that same time a patroller came by on his snowmobile informing us that the chairlift in the back bowl was now closed and we would have to hike out. (At least he didnít tell us which way was out, let alone offer us a ride). Several wind gust knock-overs and an hour and a half later we were safe and sound in the resort bar.
That night it snowed 60 cms. That ís rightÖ.. 60. Although we had a magnificent condo on the side of the slopes, the nightlife proved to be rather lacking on Mt. Washington. Dave, Matt and I built a night time hip-jump over the entrance to the underground parkade. It was snowing way too hard for any type of camera use, so we strictly hit it for the glory. After the session expired Dave and I thought it would be a good idea to drop the sleds and go for an evening burn. We began harmlessly chasing each other around the powder filled vacant parking lot, but before I knew what was going on we had tracked out about eight runs and were at the top of the chairlift at midnight. Not wanting to push our luck too far, we de-summitted to park the snowmobiles. However, my efforts to stealthily load my sled into my truck using a snow bank resulted in getting severely stuck. Dave laughed at my stupidity and said, ìthatís just like robbing a bank and getting the car stuck in a mud puddle out frontî. Lucky for us we ended up evading the authorities and all our tracks were probably covered within the next twenty minutes.
On Saturday we opted out of the traditional chairlift routine and drove down the road until finding a prime location for a death-defying highway gap. Mid way between digging and shaping, Coleman showed up in full approval of our project. After several flying carcasses over the road each we called it an injury-free success and the media side of our team was convinced that we scored some pretty hot shots.
At 3:27 Skippy, Coleman, local legend Brian ìTurboî Ladeucer and I caught the last chair up and experienced an epic out-of-bounds run down the backside of the hill that landed us halfway up the mountain road. (We had parked one of the trucks there previously because we are just that organized). Everyone that has done this run will no doubt label it ìUNBELIEVABLEî. It is similar to the world famous Peak to Creek run on Whistler, except itís longer and steeper. Half way down we had to take a break to slap high-fives and hug each other. I think Coleman may have even cried. Next we searched our pockets to discover that Brian had a lighter, Coleman had a Coffee-Crisp bar and Skippy had some medicinal substance. Our great minds began to turn like the gears of the Titanic and we had soon created the most innovative contraption done by mankind since the Trojan Horse.
That night we dined at the mountain bar, enjoyed several golden throat charmers and had a repeat session on the parkade hip. Sunday morning we awoke to find out that Skippy and Coleman had both been called into work and were already too far down the highway to guilt trip them into staying. Leaving the rest of us in a distraught state, we decided to hit the slopes and kill it hard in the honor of our departed brothers. As we ventured over to the Boomerang chair in the back bowl, we discovered that while we were busy jumping the road the previous day there had been too much snow to open the area and we were now minutes away from the rope dropping in front of 60 fresh cms. As we waited with anticipation and smiles on our faces, I caught sight of a red-jacketed snowboarder sliding down a ridiculously gnarly chute from the back of the summit that is approximately three football fields in length and locally known as ìThe Heroinî. A few hours later we experienced an intimately close interaction with this mystery red-jacketeer who turned out to be none other than the man himself, Mr. Brian Savard.
Our motley little crew spent most of the day trying to claim fresh lines before they were high-marked out by the local snowmobile community. And yes, we were in bounds the majority of the day. After a minor yelling match with a few of these old-boys on account of their complete ignorance, they were stoked to hear we were from Whistler because they knew Omar Lundie. Thanks to the mutual acquaintance with Omar, the weekend gear-heads were happy to leave some untracked snow for us to enjoy. We built a decent step-down jump surrounded by some very aesthetically pleasing rocks and finished the day off with round two of the backside road run. In the middle of a logged out clear cut we discovered the most insane and perfect natural log ride known to the history of snowboarding. Within months youíll probably be able to see the photosÖÖeverywhere!
After reaching the road and our pre-parked truck at 5:30, we tore back up to the condo to pack up, clean up, have a quick hot tub and hit the road for the last Sunday night ferry. Overall, it would be safe to say that the island weekend was a complete success for all of us. I couldnít have concocted a better mix of soldiers if I tried. Dave Short is a rad mellow dude who rides a 165 and chargers harder than a broke logger on pay-day heading for the liquor store. Belzile is probably the most under-rated shredder in the game. ColemanÖÖneed I say more? Heís only, like, the raddest dude alive. Skippy has the nicest setup of toys and machines out of anyone I know. Heís always down with helping out anyone and getting you stoked with some loud rock and high fives. Carlo is an organized and experienced filmer who has a good eye and great judgment for what is good and what is the opposite of good to shred on. Shooting with Andruik always seems to go as smooth as butter on a bald monkey. He just wants to look for art, play with his camera, and the rest is up to you. Also, big upís to Turbo Bri for hooking us all up with lift tickets and believing in us when nobody else would. Solid!
geoff

This is some POSTERS for the surf EXPO in ORLANDO, i got that walking on the STREET in FLORIDA.
  
 This is some SUN GLASSES i surf for and if you look on the SHORTS you can tell. That PHOTO is acouple of days beafore we SHOT for the CATALOG 2006 in PUERTO ESCONDIDO and the same SHOT is on the EASTERN SURF MAGAZINE for the JANUARY 2006.
  
PURA VIDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  
Rodrigo Miranda. 

So the pipe contests here are over. The candians didn't do as well as planned, but there's always 2010! I have a couple shots from over here:
brad and me getting ready for the opening ceremonies.
We actually made it, and we didn't trip!

Mer

allors mes journaux y arrives tards c'est jours si a cause qui neige bien trop a whistler. mais c'est correcte parce que ian (notre web-guy) y ride aussi trop pour les postez surs l'internet! voice le snow report du lundi le 30 janvier (1478). c'etait incroyable. en plus y a neige 15cm pour lundi,
15cm pour vendredie et 30cm pour samedi. samedi ete aussi incroyable. et mecredi on est parti pour les olympiques. la policier sont tous partout. surs les toits en sortant du aeropart, et en entrant dans les villages des
athletes ils fauz passer les detecteurs de metals et pour passer les machines de xray pour les valisses. aux jourd'hui on est retournez a torino pour voirs le village des athletes la est aussi pour avoirs nous vetements olympique. en deshors du maison d'equipe canadienne, il y a une 'petite' drapeau canadien (1509), avec touts les riders ripzone en devents
(dominique,moi, brad et mercedes). salut
justin

I've attached a few images of some of my pieces. I will send a couple more in another e mail. I've also been doing some background and photo double/stunt double work lately. I did a few days for the L-Word when they were in town and last week some snowboarding background for "Whistler" an upcoming Canadian murder mystery.
Vanessa
Vanessa Stark can be contacted at: starkvanessa@hotmail.com

Words from Roberta Roger...
Of course it was snowing for last night's Women's Superpipe Finals and eventhough the snow made it slow the girl's were definitely pushing it! Mercedes dropped in with a backside 720 to switch air, cab three and finished her run off with back to back 540's. I hope you all caught it on TV because the whole SuperPipe finals was televised every run and Mer was interviewed!

>>>>>

I haven't spent this much time at home in forever. Not only am I home but Whistler has been great. Not to much sun, but snowing golf balls almost everyday. I just finished a great pipe camp with the Canadian team and taking it easy at home with friends while others went to X-Games. I got a surprise visit from a friend from Finland so when we're not riding we're doing tourist things in Vancouver like the Aquarium. It's been pretty fun running around and going to a few parties with friends. Last night we had a party at Justin Lamoureux's place who lives 20 meters from my house and for the first time in over 2 years the highway 99 was closed in-between Whistler and Squamsih. Over a dozen cars in the ditch even a bus and police everywhere. Almost nobody could show-up so we all went to bed early to wake-up to another fresh 40cm over night. Met-up with all the French crew in the line-up at Creekside like Martin Gallant, Alex Auchu, Benjy, Annie Boulanger and even Emanuel Krebs came-up for the ride. Once again, one of the best days of the year doing laps in Vity Threes. A good way to leave home since I'm going over to Europe for a month on Wednesday. I managed to loose my cell phone on a run thinking it's the end of it all and I could no longer communicate with the rest of the world. Oh well, we'll see if I get lucky before the battery runs out. For all you guys that are going to go into the backcountry, please be careful for the avalanche danger that is almost to Extreme.  Here are my two favorite photos from the Aquarium. I think the Beluga is one of my favorite animals from having been around them sailing when I was younger in Quebec City's St-Laurence River. Weird looking I know.

Later
dom

Je n'ai pas passe autant de temps a la maison en si longtemps. Non,

seulement je suis chez moi mais Whistler arrête pas de recevoir de la neige en fou. Je viens de finir un camp de pipe avec l'équipe National et j'en profite pour me reposer avec des amis pendant que d'autre sont aller au X-Games. En plus, j'ai eu une visite surprise d'un ami de la Finlande. Alors lorsque nous ridons pas, nous en profitons pour aller faire les tourists comme visiter l'aquarium de Vancouver. C'est vraiment plaisant de profiter de mes amis et de quelques sorties. Hier soir, nous sommes aller chez Justin Lamoureux qui faisait un petit party, mais pour la première fois en plus de deux ans, l'autoroute 99 entre Whistler et Squamish était fermer. Plus d'une douzaine d'autos et un autobus dans le fosse et des polices partout. Presque personne a pu venir, donc tôt au lit pour ce réveiller avec un autre 40cm de poudreuse ce matin. J'ai rencontre toute ma gagne de Québécois dans la ligne au Creekside comme Martin Gallant, Alex Auchu, Benjy, Annie Boulanger et compagnie. Encore une fois ce fut une des plus belles journées de l'année en ridant les arbres Vity. Une bonne façon de partir de Whistler avant d'aller en Europe pour un mois mercredi. J'ai même perdu mon cellulaire dans une descente pansant que je ne pourrais plus jamais communiquer avec personne. Journée triste pour mon téléphone. Pour finir, SVP, tout les gens qui vont aller dans le back country dans les prochains jours, faites attentions car le danger d'avalanche est presque a Extrême.
Voici mes photos preferees de l'aquarium. Le Beluga est l'un de mes animaux preferes. Ca me rappelle de quand j'étaies petite dans le St Laurent a Québec.
Ciao
Dom

Bon bien, pas grand chose de nouveau depuis la semaine passe. J'ai beaucoup ride sur Blackcomb, passe le plus de temps possible avec mes amis et j'ai énormément profite d'être a la maison. Whistler a eu plus de 50 cm de neige encore cette semaine et pour la première fois en 3 ans je peux faire certaines pistes qui étaient trop dangereuses les dernières années. Même mes amis qui montent dans le back country restent pris tellement qu'il y a de la neige et ils espèrent  qu'un "sledneck" puisse brise la piste pour eux pour pouvoir se rendre au bon endroit pour pouvoir rider et filmer. A part de cela, j'ai été pas mal isole dans le pipe au bas de Blackcomb avec notre propre motoneige qui nous emmène le plus vite possible en haut du pipe. On est très gate et ca va être difficile de retourner a monte le pipe a pied. J'essaye de passe beaucoup de temps avec mes amies filles avant que ma vie
de jet-set recommence. Voici des photos de mes filles: Joanna, Leanne,
Deidra, Jodie et Annie et aussi des photos du pipe dans la brume.
Ciao
Dom

Bon, alors ça y est, le dernier bout avant les Olympiques. Je crois qu'il reste moins de 29 jours maintenant, c'est fou. Je pense que ça viens de me frapper comment extraordinaire ça va être. C'est peut-être un peu différent encore avec le snowboard, car les Olympiques ont été pendant longtemps hors
des principes du sport, mais les temps ont changé. Ceci m'a vraiment frappé lorsque je parlais a mon grand-père de 95 ans et pour la première fois il a finalement compris ce que je faisais toutes ces années a perdre mon temps a jouer dans la neige. Vous savez qu'un évènement est important quand un homme de presque un siècle, qui n'a jamais fait de sport de sa vie, comprend ton rêve et devient excité. Et vous pouvez seulement imaginer comment un homme de cette age réagit a une telle excitation?....
Donc, je viens de revenir d'Europe il y a quelques jours et j'ai eu la chance de passé du temps a Salzbourg avant de retourner a Whistler. Toutes les personnes qui ont dit que c'était terminé les hivers a Whistler étaient "dans les patates". Il vient de neiger près de 200cm dans la dernière semaine et ça recommence demains. Donc v'nez-vous s'en et emmenez votre plus grande planche.
Même avec toute cette neige, nous avons demains le début de notre camp d'entraînement avec l'équipe Olympique Canadienne. Pour la première fois de l'année, nous avons un camp de pipe et pour la première fois jamais, nous avons notre pipe privé. Ceci est merveilleux, seulement 8 personnes a rider
le pipe du Championnat du Monde a Whistler. En autant qu'on ne se fait pas ensevelir par la neige, ce camp va être fantastique.
Donc, a la semaine prochaine alors. Je vous laisse avec des photos d'Autriche: one nuit froide a la demi-lune, une de Salzbourg, et une de mes parents qui ont passe la fin de semaine avec moi a Squamish.
Ciao
Dom

More updates tomorrow ...

January 16th
It's been a while since the last update, mainly becasue ripzone web updater(me) has been shredding the biggest storm Hakuba Japan has seen in 88 years! So now i am back in Whistler and guess what! It's puking here too! Lucky me, more on that in abit.

In Justin's world he sent in an interesting update...
"Hi all, just had a fantastic weekend in colorado for the US grand prix. i screwed up a cab 10, hooked my heels, smashed my head and split my helmet in half and spent 2 days in the hospital. it was sweet. i'm all good now. But while i was recovering in the hospital on monday, it was announced that I'm officially going to the Olympics! the story ran on the front cover of the Vancouver Sun yesterday and i think most major papers across canada (national post, la presse in montreal i know for sure) had a story on it. I've also seen a draft of the Time magazine interview that coming out on me (next month). it's about 700-800 words and pretty good. gives a pretty acurate description of me, i think.... and the photos that phil tifo and i have been taking for it are insane. I'll let everyone know when the article is out.
Febuary 12th is the guys pipe event at the Olympics. better hear you guys cheering...
thanks for the support"
Justin

In Brad Martin news...
"Hey guys hows it going?
I have reached the outside world again..... It was hard to find internet over here. I'm in munich right now, It's 145am at a hotel and going to sleep soon because today was a very eventfull day. Yesterday we had the contest i finished 9th! It was fun it was a night halfpipe finals during live prime time eruo sport tv, kids were out on the side of the pipe in the dozens. We have 3 vans of people it was a big team this trip. So there was 6 of us who wanted to go check out this well known ski resort near by. We did and it was insane how big this place was and we had fun all day riding POWDER intill the last chair ride when they said we can't go up anymore at 4pm. But we moved on the road to munich and justin knew of this indoor waterpark that had slides and this man made wave that that we got a chance to do intill they closed it down at 10pm. So we drove another 2 hours till we got to the hotel. We did a lot of driving today! Tomorrow I fly home to wash my cloths and pack again..... Then off to Whistler for Halfpipe Training for a couple weeks. Today was great. It was all Justins plans that made it happen. Thanks Justin. Dan Ramond was doing all the driving which deserves a thanks aswell. Good times."

And now for some Japan action...
The first day I showed up it snowed 1 meter of snow, the typical turn in Japan after a dump like this.
I met up with Ripzone Japan rider Yuuta. Yuuta is the Happo ninja. I took him to this gap I hit the day before, which he never had hit. He nailed this back 3 off it.
There are dams everywhere on the Happo, they make for some fun riding.
The Northern Alpsare insane, i can figure out why they have not been exploited yet.
Here is me with a little slash, and a line off the side of the road. The cool thing about this line was it had this stairway to the top of it.
A nice picture of my friend Kaori
It was deep workers had the work cut out for them
Pretty trees
Down town Tsusgaike
On Greg Todds memorial day I took the Noboard and shredded, the mountain, it was sick, best Noboard day I had yet. this dam line was so fun, after shredding this gully it ended up at a dam that you could ride threw. With no bindings it was a bit sketchy.
Heres some shots of lines I shredded...
The Breaks
The Face
The Face Gates
Dart Vader
The Gate Pillows
Gates to Face connecter
The Dam Triple
So there was line that I had been eyeing up since the day I got there, but it was considered closed and ended up on the wrong side of the dams, I would have to cross a creek to get back to boundry. And with the snow as deep as it was that would have been a serious problem. Finally I eyed up a different route out and decided to head in. From what I heard this line had not been ridden in atleast 2 years. It was deep and had some sweet pillows in it. It also had this weird cable that crossed it. On previous inspections I noticed that this animal, a Kumushka, always hung out at the cable zone. So I figured when I drop in he will likey start to run. Well as suspected when I crossed the cable I looked over and he started running down the run. It was insane we were about ten feet apart for around 50 feet, finally he got tired and headed in to the trees so i followed. He stopped and I did too, we checked each other out and he split. He was the coolest experience I ever had on a shred stick.

Overall best trip ever!! untill I got home and found my driveway had been barried in snow. I just had to laugh this one off.