FREESKIER AD

Fat-ypus Family in Chile

Kent Hyden, Rebecca Selig, Myself, and Ben Wheeler

Freeskiing World Tour- El Colorado, Chile

During inspection I was not feeling great. With only doing one ski competition before, and it going not so well, I had mixed emotions. On top of that, being in another country and unfamiliar with the terrain made me even more nervous. In the end I decided instead of scaring the shit out of my self or worse getting hurt again, I would choose a line I was positive I could stomp and ski it as fast as possible. Day 1 went great, I was 4th and did exactly what I planed. I had a blast cheering on all my friends. Everyone threw down and skied so well. I met tons of people and was so happy to see everyone so stoked. I ended up placing 9th going into day 2. I figured I now have nothing to loose so I better step it up on day 2. All in all, It was a beautiful fun day but I was happy when it was over. We all called it a night and tried to get some sleep.

We woke up early on day 2 for our inspection run. Once again it was a perfect blue bird day and everyone was amped for their run! I was unusually calm. My confidence had gone up leaps from the day before. I decided I didn’t travel this far to stress so I’m going to enjoy my self no matter what happens. So while we waited at the start gate I rocked out to my music until they sent the first girl. I was second so I told everyone “good luck, can’t wait to hug you all at the bottom!” There was just one air in the middle of my line I had been trying to visualize all morning. I was a little sketched out because the snow receded from the rocks so you had to go fast and ollie before the cliff. I felt great dropping in. My music was blasting and I was skiing fast and strong. I didn’t hesitate at all and stomped my air! It felt great! I danced the rest of the way down.

After cheering on the rest of the girls I made my way over to the open bar where I proceeded to down smirnoff ginger’s and take photos with everyone at the event. I ended up placing 6th, I’ll take it!  Of course,  we partied and danced our faces off that night. The next morning Drew Stocklein, who won the mens, bought a $75 dollar bottle of champaign to help our hang overs.

South America – Part 1. Chillin in Chile

August 12th I got off the plane in Santiago at 6 am. After 30 hours of traveling I was stiff and tired and worried about what was going to happen next. Knowing how things can operate in South America I half expected my bags to be gone. On top of that, I was traveling on the word that I would get “hooked up” if I made it. So with zero plans or expectations I dragged my bags along until I noticed a short man with a white paper that had my name spelled wrong. I smiled, everything was going to work out! Pablo drove me to cozy spot right off the slopes of La Parva. Eight of us made up the sweetest  house ever, casa de no name! It was Kent, Norte, Jess, Chuck, Drew, Ben, Alex and myself. Pretty much a bunch of super nice, very rowdy people, who happen to like skiing and partying A LOT. Money and room was a bit tight for everyone so things like eating at home every night and using dish soap in the shower were part of a daily routine. The first day we hiked around a bit and ended up hitching a ride up with some patrollers who showed us a fun little chute to ski. It felt so good to be hiking in the cool air and skiing again. I was so stoked to be with my friends skiing in the middle of summer!

The next couple days were full of blue skys, pisco and fondue. We weren’t skiing pow, but we were having an amazing time shredding around hitting random features and pretty much skiing as fast as we could. We did a couple random photo shoots so we could continue to get free passes from La Parva and El Colorado. We also did some filming while we explored these chutes and caves at La Parva. Those will be pretty entertaining. After partying and messing around for 4 days it was time to start concentrating on the competition we all few around the world to do.

I would like to take this time to thank Rodrigo Medina and Jota Hernandez. Thanks to them I actually did get “hooked up” and had the most amazing time in Chile.

EVO GEAR

My newest sponsorship is defiantly the coolest shop out there! Evo Gear’s shop is in Seattle (my home town- REPRESENT!) located in the heart of the most happening area downtown. I am honored to become a part of this family because their values represent mine so closely. Evo carries the most stylish brands, involves the community, and is growing quickly!

“It is no mistake that our location is a venue, art gallery, and retail space all wrapped into one” -evo.

A year ago when I was paying a visit to Seattle, I took my friend from Japan, Yutaro, to an Evo party. They were premiering a snowboard flick where the pro’s traveled around snowboarding, surfing, and skating. Yutaro had a blast drinkng as much Seattle mircobrew beer as he pleased, hanging out meeting tons of people, and getting photos with the “pro’s.” Later Yutaro wrote me a letter and said, “I don’t like American party, I LOVE American party!” -Thanks evo for showing us how it’s done.

Here is my interview with Evo crew member Molly Hawkins…