Spring Time Boardin'

Apparently, before we started going to the hill, it was way colder in New Jersey than any place else in the world. Like blizzard of '96 type things were happening all the time.  Now that our East Coast home has settled into a fairly mild winter this season, Spring Boardin' can begin a week earlier than usual.  Spring riding is the best kind of riding.  The most people come out, you don't need to wear a bunch of pesky outerwear that takes up room in your car, and trying increasingly harder tricks gets increasingly easier.  Imagine snowboarding in 55 degree weather everyday?  It'd probably be a lot like skateboarding or surfing, ie. way too difficult.  The hardest part about snowboarding is getting over the fact that your favorite activity exists when most people would just go inside.  

East Mag's 5 Things to Bring Boardin' -  A great reference for Spring Shredding.

ThirtyTwo Demo was FIRE all day.  Kids were trying boots, Capita Boards, and Union Bindings.  Look at that Sunday blue sky. Next weekend is more of this, better come take advantage.

This kid was ripping the Twisted Kids session.  Proper front board to regular.  Kids need to learn those non-Zeached tricks early.   Ski and Ride School are a great resource to make sure your tricks are proper. 

Us here at Park Blog HQ are always super reluctant to refer to rails in a terrain park, which are never designated to be used by hand, as "hand rails."  Hand rails require stairs underneath and have a minimum rise of 24 inches.  A rail like this is called a down bar, a park rail, or just a rail.  Attaching the prefix "hand" to the word rail gives this feature a false sense of urbanity.  This weekend, however, we were forced to revisit our rail vocabulary as a well known ex-girl shredder actually used the park rail as a hand rail while it was closed for maintenance.  

Also, what's up with the phrase "hitting urban."  Shouldn't it be "hitting suburban."  It's too hard to park and set up a drop-in in actual urban areas.