Shredtastic Tuesdays

If you snowboard, you know that pain is a part of the sport. You see the way the sport has progressed over the years, and you notice that there are a lot of gnarly wrecks in videos and in contests. You may wonder any of us ever overcome these injuries. Well, one thing you need to understand is that everyone’s body is a little different. One person may need a week off the snow while another may only need a couple of days. It is important to treat each injury with respect and take your time getting back into it. Most ACL MCL, and other major injuries, occur because of small nagging injuries leading up to them. That is why it is important to heal and rest.

Broken bones suck. Follow these tips so it doesn't happen to you.

Many thanks to Flickr user: Nico Tranquili for sharing this.

Here Are Some Injuries That I Have Had In The Past And How I Have Overcome Them.

Concussion:
Many people seem to think you will be fine as long as you can remember your name and address. This is FALSE. I have played this one out wrong in the past. I would knock myself out and then the next day be back on the big line trying the same thing that knocked me out. The fact of the matter is PCS (post concussion syndrome) is no joke. The best thing you can do is take your time until the symptoms (headache, nausea, and loss of balance) go away. Even then PCS can linger around from days to a year. There is no true treatment except time away from snowboarding. Please don’t do what I did. Don’t do a keg stand the night of the concussion only to wake up and try the jump again the next day.

Hip Flexor:
A bad hip flexor injury really sucks dick for snowboarding. Last season, this injury kept me off the hill for two weeks. Imagine, if you possibly can, two weeks of not snowboarding! On the third week, I was able to ride but was still feeling pain while pressing into rails. By the fourth week, I was able to ride park again but would still feel a popping in my hip when I tried to spin. Your hip flexor is made up of three muscles that help you make explosive movements. The muscles start at your hip and work into your upper thigh. A hip flex injury is very common and can be overcome by regular icing and stretching. The best advice I can give for this injury is take your time with it. Rest for at least 5 days before you start to stretch it. Start slowly on the hill when you are ready, and make sure you are paying attention to all of the signals. Coming back too soon from this one will just result in another injury and more setbacks.

Knee and Ankle Sprain:
This happened awhile back when I came off a street rail and twisted my shit up into all sorts of crazy fucked-up-ness. This is another injury that you need to take seriously because knees are one of the most important joints in snowboarding. Sprains vary and are different every time. Rest and ice regularly. Keep pressure off the hurt leg until the pain starts to go away. Make sure you get healthy before going back on the hill, or you’ll do it again.

Injuries suck. Unfortunately, they are a part of the game. So take your time getting well, or you will just end up back at the doctor asking for a stronger pain killer and more of them because your friends keep stealing them for leisure use. Also, if you are into taking pain killers, taking them while not injured is fun it can lead to a high tolerance. This can create problems later on when you are in pain and are finding it hard to kill that pain.

So if you got some nagging pain, let that shit heal before it becomes a major problem. One or two days off the hill is much better than weeks and months.

Sincerely,
Joe DeSteppingOnHoes

Breckenridge is one of the more legit places to ride in Colorado. In fact, we like it so much that we live and ride there all of the time. All in all, the park is the best thing about Breck. Hands down, they tend to have the best built jumps in all of Colorado, and we aren’t the only people you will hear saying that. Last year, Freeway was blowing up and Park Lane was one of the best places you could go to progress.

Brian Locke throwing down in Freeway Terrain Park.

Photo taken by Ted Bendixson.

Breck Is, By Far, The Best Place To Progress Your Tricks.

Seriously, one of the best ways to take your tricks to bigger jumps is to head over to Breck. That’s because you can hang out all day in Park Lane, dial something on those jumps, and then head straight to the Freeway line to really make a statement. I can’t tell you how many tricks I’ve taken to the big line by doing this. That’s because every jump in the series is designed to be just a little bigger than the one before it. If you can do something smoothly off the last jump in Park Lane, you can totally do it on the first jump in Freeway. You just have to believe in yourself.

But Breck isn’t all park. They have some fun bowl and pow options when it does snow. Most of us go there on snowy days when we don’t want to drive all the way to Vail or Beaver Creek. The six chair has the best pow in the area. You get there by hopping on the Colorado Super Chair and then following the sign going skiers right. But watch out, when the resort gets packed, everybody wants a piece of the pow. You have to get there early when it snows or you’ll miss out.

The 6 Chair Is Where It’s At When It Snows

We’ve done some of the new runs on the imperial express chair, but that’s much more hit and miss than the six chair. We think it’s because the area the imperial express services gets much more wind while the area under the six chair is more of a snow repository. Plus, it can be hard to see up at the imperial when it’s snowing. I remember going up there just for fun one day and having the hardest time seeing where I was going. But then, that’s the risk you take when you go above treeline when it’s snowing.

I can honestly say there is only one downside to Breck, and that’s the wind. Man it can really gust at Breck when the season is in full swing. You have to exercise a little caution in the park on some of these windy days. You might think you have the speed, but the wind will tell you otherwise. We like to stick to Park Lane when it’s simply too windy to throw down on freeway. Breck can also be a very cold place to shred, at least, compared to everywhere else in Summit. The wind makes it a nice ten degrees cooler than Keystone. If it’s January and you’ve decided to go to Breck instead of Keystone, pack a few extra tall tees and hoodies in there. You’ll be thanking yourself.

After having ridden Breck and Keystone for a few years now, deciding where to ride in the middle of the season can still be a tossup. Breck has perfect jumps. Keystone’s are nice, but not as good as Breck’s. But then, Breck has the wind which can be a problem too. Basically, if you know there won’t be any wind, head over to Breck. If you think it’s going to be windy, Keystone is much more protected than Breck, so it should be pretty fun over there. That, or you could just flip a coin. You’ll be having fun either way.

Rocking a Tech Nine on the big line, Joe hasn’t seen anything like this in the east. Day in, and day out, head injury or not, nothing stops Mr. Destefabro from fulfilling his prime directive: To willfully attack all cheese wedge shaped objects made out of snow.

Joe smoking it up at Breck

Photo credit: Ted Bendixson.

We interviewed Joe to see his perspective on snowboarding and what he does on a day to day basis to bring the bro back to the seph, thus making the true Broseph DeStefabro.

Q: How old are you, Joe, and how long have you been snowboarding?

A: I’m 23, and I have been snowboarding for over a decade by now.

Q: What is your favorite stunt, and why?

A: Well, as you know, I like to keep it gangsta as fuck. I prefer the backside 180 melan because it is a timeless trick that only true gansters can pull of correctly. All of these bustas, who have no knowledge of the streets, think they can just come in and impress me with a “what the huck?” 1080. I tell them to go home.

Q: What stunt do you wish you could do?

A: Cab 900. I’m so jealous.

Q: Describe in two sentences, the best day you ever had while snowboarding.

A: So many days… Something like this tho, wake up mid morning go ride park on a bluebird day with friends till the lifts stop running.

Q: Tell us about the worst crash you ever took.

A: Knuckling number 2 on keystones bigline. Concussions are no fun.

Q: Is it better to ball within a set of fluid and dynamic parameters regarding your own safety and control, or is it better to be ballin’ out of control? Also, considering one’s urgent desire to progress, is it only possible to expand the aforementioned parameters by temporarily ballin’ out of control with intent to ball within the parameters at a later time?

A: My body and mind will tell me when I am ready to try new things. If I can mentaly see myself doing it I can do it.

Q: It’s morning. Coffee, orange juice, crunk juice? (The crunk, apparently, cannot be juiced. Contrary to common knowledge, crunk juice is not the juice of crunk, but rather, that which fuels the crunk and allows it to perpetuate itself as THE CRUNK).

A: In the morning I wake up last. Slam a Amped energy drink and hard boiled egg and BAM Im ready to stomp my tricks ontop of gapers like they are koopa troopas.

Even if you’ve just started snowboarding, it isn’t a bad idea to learn how to ride switch right away. It might seem awkward at first, but switch riding really is the key to being able to do any trick on the mountain. You should learn how to do it just a few days after your first day on a snowboard.

Wanna do this trick? You're gonna have to learn switch. Rider, Ted Bendixson.

Many thanks to Dan Weems for snapping this photo.

What Is Switch Riding?

First, for those who don’t know what I am talking about, switch riding is basically the opposite of normal riding. You typically have a foot that you decide to be you front foot and another that you decide to be your back foot. Around 75% of us are regular, which means we like to ride our snowboards with our left foot as the front foot. The other 25% of us are goofy, meaning we use our right foot as the front foot. To ride switch means to switch the front and back feet so that your new front foot is your usual back foot and your new back foot is your usual front foot.

If you ride regular and you want to ride switch, you will have to start riding with your right foot forward. If you ride goofy and you want to ride switch, you will have to start riding with your left foot forward. This is kind of weird at first, and it’s definitely not the kind of thing I would suggest to people who are out riding just for fun and trying to keep up with their friends. You will have to go pretty slow at first to learn how to do this correctly. Trust us. It really sucks when you catch an edge or lose control going very fast down a hill with an unfamiliar front foot.

Don’t Start Bombing Down Blues When You Ride Switch. Go With The Greens.

Also, if you want to start riding switch, it would be a good idea to do it on the easiest run you know. You don’t have to go to the bunny hill or anything crazy like that, but keeping it easy allows you to slow it down and focus on what is important. As you get more confident with making switch turns, you can start going faster and faster down the easy runs. Once this isn’t fast enough, try going at even clip down some blue runs.

Most people who begin learning to ride switch make one fatal mistake. They don’t look where they are going. If you are too focused on how weird it is to ride with the other foot in front and you’re spending too much time looking at your feet or back up the hill, you won’t be able to get down the moves you need to ride switch. Just relax. Everybody gets it with practice, and after a certain point in time, it will seem no different that your regular riding.

You’ll Need Switch If You Want To Do Any Tricks.

Switch really is the key to doing any trick. As soon as you can ride switch, you can try all four of the 180 degree spins because you’ll have no fear of starting them or landing them. You’ll also be able to try doing little 360’s because who cares if you land somewhere in between? You’re prepared. Oh, and one more great thing about finally learning how to ride switch is showing it off for your friends. Back when it was still a novelty for me, I’d fool my friends into thinking I ride goofy. Somehow that’s just not as exciting these days as it was back then. But trust me, you’ll be just as stoked.

There is a huge difference between photos that look kind of good and photos that truly stand out. The one thing we see all the time is the photo with your friend in the middle. While this is kind of cool because it’s your friend and all, it doesn’t really draw the eye in. Pictures like this just look kind of bland. If you don’t know what we mean, here is a picture of our friend Brady with a moustache. Sadly, it doesn’t do this bro montana much justice.

I like the moustache, but I hate the composition. Try to avoid placing your subject dead center in your photo.

Try To Follow The Rule Of Thirds When You Take Snowboarding Photos

To get the best results, you want to put your bro somewhere else. Usually, but not always, it’s a good idea to put the person you want to photograph somewhere about 1/3 into the frame. In photography, this is know as the rule of thirds. It is a very basic and common sense composition rule. If you follow it, you’ll usually get pictures that turn out more interesting. Why? We don’t really know. We aren’t brain scientists. That’s just how it works. Here is another photo of our bro that does a great job of demonstrating the pimpin’ he is in possession of that many other individuals who claim to have acquired the baller status simply aren’t able to handle.

Do you see where the lines intersect? That's where you should place your subject.

Will you always make great snowboarding pictures by doing this? Nope. Will you greatly increase your chances making great snowboarding pictures? Definitely. There are other things that affect how your pictures look. Some objects in a picture make patterns that attract the eye and make it move across the photo. This naturally makes the picture interesting and we have no idea why. Here is a picture of Broseph DeStephabro that illustrates this point.

Joe Destefano rocks the stall and demonstrates the rule of thirds.

Photo taken and modified by Ted Bendixson.

There are two patterns that work in this photo. First, Broseph is wearing a black jacket with a pair of red pants. He also has a green hat that matches the green bottom of his snowboard. These color patterns balance out and give the picture a theme. Broseph’s clothing matches the feature he is sliding on. That’s sick.

Look For Interesting Shapes And Lines

Also, if your eye is trained, you can see that there is a diagonal line at the top of the lip that is perfectly parallel with the feature. This is another pattern. Your eyes naturally follow the lines made by objects in a photo. Keep looking for patterns like this. When you find a good one, you can make some real art. Whenever we look for things to photograph, we are always keeping this in mind.

You don’t have to have a nice camera to get pictures like this. We have an entry level DSLR, but it could have been taken with a point and shoot. It would’ve taken a bit longer to get the shot because point and shoots don’t take pictures as fast as DSLRs, but that isn’t a huge issue. You would be amazed at what you can do if you start looking.

We are certain that countless material has been written on this subject. What, exactly, makes a person a gaper. Is it just one thing, a collection of things, or is it, perhaps, a certain je ne sais quois that makes somebody appear completely unskilled at all things mountain related? Why is it relevant? Aren’t we all here to have fun anyway? Who cares if somebody looks a little funny? Well, you might if you are that person. Frankly, we could care less. But, with that said, here is the gaper guide.

Pssh. What a gaper. In case you're wondering, you're staring at the origin of the word.

We pulled this image from the Wikipedia article on the word “gaper.” We highly recommend checking it out.

The original etymology of the word gaper goes back to the Netherlands where pharmacies would have a giant stone head depicting a man with a gaping open mouth, ready to take his medication. We of the snowboard community think the word spread when people saw others on the mountain who appeared clueless with their mouths open in a similar fashion. A gaper is just that, somebody on the mountain who has no idea what they are doing, what they are wearing, and why all of it seems so weird to us.

Most Gapers Do One Of Ten Things:

1.) Wear one piece suits with very bright colors.
2.) Forget to “mind the gap” between their goggles, hat, or helmet.
3.) Stop in places with high traffic flow, or even worse, the landings of jumps.
4.) Keep a camelback on their person at all times, even though water is just a chairlift ride away.
5.) Refer to the halfpipe as the “trick ditch”
6.) Continually case jumps as if that’s what one is supposed to do.
7.) Wear a really nice jacket while all of their other gear comes from second hand sales.
8.) Wear a high profile helmet that makes them look like an extraterrestrial communication device.
9.) Take their kids to see the terrain park, only to have the bejesus scared out of them when a near-collision makes it abundantly clear why they shouldn’t have.
10.) Go to the rental shop thinking that the demo skis are free of charge to rent because they’re “just demo-ing them.”

Now we would be naive to think we haven’t done at least one of these things. We aren’t saying it’s easy to avoid being a gaper. In fact, it’s probably the natural thing to be if you are just starting out. That said, there are some simple steps you can take to transform yourself from gaper to gangster.

How To Transfrom From Gaper To Gangster

1.) Tall tees and tall hoodies. We like to call this the cheap alternative to a nice jacket. If you can’t afford one now, just get a bunch of big shirts and wear them over a hoodie. We’ll think of you as a bro, and you even get to be creative.

2.) Do mind the gap. It’s a very simple and often overlooked step. One might even say the “gaper gap” is so iconic that if you have one, and you posses no other gaper characteristics, you will still be labeled as a gaper. If you still don’t know what we’re talking about, just make sure there is a seal between your goggles and your hat. No exposed forehead. That’s what we mean.

3.) Be safe. Surprisingly, it’s actually kind of cool to not run into people or be in their way when they’re trying some gnarly stunt. Every jump, rail, or other feature has a landing. Stay out of it. Even when you fall, do your best to get out of the way. We’ll thank you and so will your body. I know somebody who knocked the teeth out of another man because he landed on him and it caused him to injure his knee. See 720-to-small-girl-tap if you still don’t understand.

4.) Do tricks where you are supposed to do them. If it isn’t in your skill level, go somewhere else. We see lots of gapers going off the side of the little ramps for rails. Those aren’t supposed to be hit that way. If you’re going to hit the little rail ramps, you have to hit the rail too. If you want small ramps, go to the small park or the regular runs. You’ll find plenty of them there.

5.) If you are going to spend money, spend it on nice goggles and gloves. These are the characteristic items that show us you no longer posses gaper style. Expect to spend at least 80 bucks on goggles. Trust us, it’s worth it. The difference between a nice pair of goggles and those nasty bland gray things is huge. The same goes for the difference between a streamlined pair of gloves and those giant bulky things you get at Walmart. Think streamlined, low-profile, baggy, and gangster. You’ll be on your way out of gaperdom in no time.

Actually, all of these steps are small in comparison to the total transformation you must undergo in order to avoid being a gaper. Just keep on reading and riding, and you’ll be on your way.

We of Summit County consider ourselves to be pretty lucky when it comes to having training options. If we want to try new tricks, we can head over to Woodward any time or hit up open gym at Artsports in Colorado Springs on Saturdays. Both options give us the trampoline to foam pit setup, which is perfect for learning any double or triple cork. They’re also great for improving on overall air-awareness and developing an understanding of how your setup can affect the outcome of the tricks you’re trying to do. There a lot of moves that are really scary to try if you don’t already have some kind of air-awareness. It’s a great skill that we are always building upon.

You can throw yourself all kinds of crazy directions when you try stuff off of a diving board. When you're more air-aware, you avoid injuries.

Many thanks for Flickr user Lori Photography for this image

We know what you’re thinking. You would like to try this stuff out, but you don’t have an insane trampoline center in your town. Well, the next best hobby is diving. It may hurt a little more, but you will get all of the benefits of an enhanced air-awareness that you would get from trampolining. Here is a guide on beginning diving and taking it to a place where you can begin to try some of more burly snowboarding tricks.

Even Though You’re Only Throwing Yourself Into Water, You Still Need To Start Small.

First and foremost, there is no need to go straight to the high dive and begin hucking dubs. Just like snowboarding, diving has its own progression. You will get hurt or slapped really hard by the water if you don’t follow it. For example, it is important to get a good bounce off of the diving board for any of your tricks. Learning this one thing can take an entire two hour session. If you want to get to the point where you are throwing double corks, you will have to go diving on a fairly regular basis. Do not go to your first diving session with the thought that you will be going for broke just because there are lowered consequences. You will only be very disappointed at the fact that you didn’t get nearly as far as you thought you would. Stay patient and practice basics before going totally crazy. It will make the crazy tricks all the more better because you will be prepared.

Always Bring A Friend. It’s Way More Fun.

It should almost go without saying that you should bring a group of friends with you or know a few divers at the pool every time you dive. If you don’t have them there, you won’t know if you’re throwing your tricks correctly or getting the right amount of bounce. Bounce is the type of thing that you won’t notice you are doing wrong until somebody tells you. It’s good to have someone there to tell you.

Also, doing a trick off of a diving board is quite a bit different than doing it on a snowboard. Typically, front flip type tricks are much easier on a diving board than gainer/backflip type tricks. As you probably already know, the reverse is true in snowboarding. Backflips come around so naturally that you barely have to throw them. This means you will either have to stick to front flip type tricks or work very hard at getting your bounce correct in order to move up to gainer type tricks. One advantage of this is that gainer type tricks will be much easier for you to do on a snowboard if you can already do them off of a diving board.

As a last note, don’t take something to the high dive until you have it dialed on the low dive. That even goes for dubs. If you get the right amount of bounce, you should be able to throw a double front or double gainer off of the low dive. There is no point in destroying you skin and ruining your session because you think you need to be higher off of the ground for those tricks. There are plenty of air awareness skills for you to develop on the low dive before going crazy on the high dive. Give it time and practice and you’ll have a ridiculous understanding of how your body moves in the air. Suddenly every trick will start making sense.

Of all of us, Curtiss is the most willing to charge to his own death (or amazing success) at will. One might say he is a huck machine, and in a very good way. None of us have progressed as fast as he has. Within two seasons, he has gone from just starting snowboarding to throwing frontside 900s, going on 1080s. Give him a few beers and a camera, and Curtiss will be on a mission. Wherever he is, Keystone, Breck, Bachelor, or T-Line, he is probably spinning faster than you.

Curtiss loves that Pacific Northwest. He's our favorite shred out west.

Photo Credit: Ted Bendixson

We found some time between road trips to speak with Curtiss about how he relates to shredding and the day to day on-mountain head trip that has become our lives.

Q: How old are you, Curtiss, and how long have you been snowboarding?

A: I’m 21, and I have been snowboarding for three years now.

Q: What is your favorite stunt, and why?

A: A nice slightly corked back 5 over a large booter…. super good times.

Q: What stunt do you wish you could do?

A: Switch 1 million flip with late back one, landing in nose press on a down rail.

Q: Describe in two sentences, the best day you ever had while snowboarding.

A: Every sunny sorta warmish but not to hot day i’ve ever spent at hood with my friends when there are nice booters. Also the day we had the little rhythm section in our front yard summer 08 with the tunnel and the canoe jibby.

Q: Tell us about the worst crash you ever took.

A: First season shredding more than 4 days…. hit like a 50 footer at heavenly came off the landing straight into the trees on the right… broken back dislocated hip, a tree limb poked my kidney, and I got a helicopter ride to reno before spending 4 days in a hospital bed.

Q: Is it better to ball within a set of fluid and dynamic parameters regarding your own safety and control, or is it better to be ballin’ out of control? Also, considering one’s urgent desire to progress, is it only possible to expand the aforementioned parameters by temporarily ballin’ out of control with intent to ball within the parameters at a later time?

A: I usually get way to excited and try to ball out of my comfort zone when shredding, which usually gets me hurt… (front 10 to broken ankle ha)

Q: It’s morning. Coffee, orange juice, crunk juice? (The crunk, apparently, cannot be juiced. Contrary to common knowledge, crunk juice is not the juice of crunk, but rather, that which fuels the crunk and allows it to perpetuate itself as THE CRUNK).

A: Iced mocha drinky things from govy general are where it’s at…. they might actually be this crunk juice you speak of.

First things first, you will find a place to live in the mountains if you are determined enough. That isn’t really the issue here. We are more concerned about your quality of life, which is definitely under your control if you have the knowledge. Here are some tips for finding the right place just before the season starts.

Snow is a reality in the mountains. Is your driveway steep? Do you have snow tires? Do you know who is supposed to plow your driveway?

Many thanks to Flickr user jpctalbot for sharing this image.

If You Do Everything Right, You Should Be Able To Avoid The Following:

1.) Living with the old grocery store clerk who is where he is in life because he defrauded a company of large sums of money.

2.) Living with the guy who offers you an awesome house for a very low price, only for you to discover later on that he has planned to hold on to your security deposit and last month’s rent indefinitely. Oh, and he has two dogs and four cats. One of those cats is senile and likes to pee on your bed.

3.) Living with the guy who just got divorced and still has delusions of one day becoming a rock and roll star. (I know we’re kind of delusional too, but I prefer the young and deluded).

4.) Living in a great apartment with employee housing, only to lose your place when you lose your job.

5.) Living in a12 person sardine can and sharing a room with, like, 3 other people.

Except for the second to last one, all of these have happened to me. What do they all have in common? Lack of planning, that’s what. If you don’t get in on getting a place early, and I mean September at the very latest, you will end up in this situation. If you have friends in the mountains, get in contact with them and see where they’re planning on living. Places disappear fast up in the mountains, and come November when you have no place to live, only the really desperate will be looking for roommates. All of the best deals are gone by October. You can either expect to pay more per month for civility… or else.

How To Find A Place On Craigslist

If you don’t plan early, you’ll probably end up looking on craigslist. I can’t make you avoid doing this, but I’ll give you some guidelines should you decide to go down this route. Don’t look at places that have the following in their descriptions:

1.) Divorced. If you see that word, run. You don’t want this person’s drama, trust me.

2.) Open-minded. To what? I’ll just let you know that you don’t want to know.

3.) Pet Lover. Be very careful about what this means. Do they have one dog that’s under control, or will you stumbling around in the dark on top of poop at 3 A.M. for the next six months?

Sometimes it pays to arrive at your mountain town a month or two early, just to hold on to a good place to stay. Sure, you are paying for that one extra month, but you’ll be sitting quite pretty when everyone else is out there looking for a place to live. I did this when I went to Wanaka New Zealand for a winter. If I had left any later, I wouldn’t have found the awesome place (Holler to Bill’s Way House Crew!) I did.

Save Your Money For The Winter. It’s A Lot More Fun That Way.

It should almost go without saying that you should really try to save as much money over the summer as you can. If you can use that money to offset some of your rent, you won’t feel like it’s such a bad idea to spring for the comfy house as opposed to the crazy cat lady trailer (yet another experience to add to my book). Come December when the snow hits and your car gets stuck in the snow yet again because you didn’t realize that it won’t be easy to get your car out of a tiny parking space at the bottom of a valley when the road is covered in snow, you might not snap.

And that’s another thing to pay attention to! A place might look great in the fall, but try your best to imagine parking your car there when it’s snowing very heavily. If you don’t think you’ll be able to get out of the parking lot, don’t rent the place! Trust me, you will be thanking yourself.

Oh yeah. One final note. Lawsuits don’t accomplish anything. Take your anger and bring it to the park. I say this because it will probably happen to you, despite your best efforts. It isn’t worth it. You’ll just end up spending money on legal fees, and you’ll waste beautiful days you could have spent in the park.

So here’s to getting a good place this year. We’re rooting for you!

We spend winter in Summit country every year because we are all addicted to park riding. There are many other places that get more snow than we do, but we keep choosing to stay in Summit county because there really is no better place to ride park. If you’re looking to progress super fast, Breck’s park has everything you could possibly want.

Ted Bendixson doing a rodeo 5 on the first jump in Breck's Freeway terrain park.

Thanks again to Geno Fonderoli Of Fonderoli Photography for this image.

Start With The Baby Park

Let’s start with the baby park over by the bunny hill. If it’s your first time ever going into a terrain park, these very small jumps and jibs are exactly the thing to help you get rid of a few bad habits before you begin to hit medium sized features. Breck has three tiny jumps that get a little bigger as you go through the line. By the time you hit the third, you will be able to notice the difference.

All three tiny jumps are placed next to a mini-halfpipe and in front of a medium sized quarterpipe. These are great places to learn some pipe basics like pumping up and down the walls. Plus, you won’t have the added worry of higher level riders trying to drop in and being frustrated at the fact that you aren’t moving fast enough. Not getting crushed by people is a great first step towards learning something new.

Park Lane. Our Favorite Place To Progress

Once you’ve learned about everything there is to learn in the mini park (don’t stay there too long or you’ll never progress), it’s time to head to Park Lane. Singlehandedly, Park Lane puts every other progression oriented park to shame. It is about as perfect as it gets. At its start, there are three medium sized booters that go from about 10 to 15 to 20 horizontal feet. This is the place to get tricky and do your best to combine three tricks in a row without crashing.

After this line of three, you’ll see another medium jump to the right. This one is usually around 20 feet as well. It’s super sick if you have some bangin’ new trick you want to try on its own without losing the chance to hit other jumps. We have learned a ton on that jump. Once you get to the bottom of Park Lane, you’ll notice that there are two more jumps on the left side. The first one is usually around 25 feet and the last is somewhere around 35 feet. There is no better place to practice new lines than on these two jumps. They are just the right size to not be really scary and their transitions are always perfect. We train all kinds of two trick combos on these jumps all the time.

Goin’ Big Time In Freeway Park

When you feel like you need to really thug out, it’s time to take it to Freeway. These are some of the biggest and smoothest jumps you will find in all of Colorado. They also fit right in with the progression from Park Lane. If you can handle everything in Park Lane with confidence, Freeway isn’t a much bigger step. Breck is the only place we know of that has such a smooth transition from medium park to big park.

The first jump in Freeway is usually around 50 feet long. It’s great for practicing switch tricks that you have dialed in Park Lane. The next jump will take you about 65 feet horizontally, and quite a few feet vertically. It’s the biggest in the park. This is where you really ball out and throw your biggest trick. When you stomp that, you’ll have enough speed for the the last jump in Freeway. This jump is usually a step up of some kind that takes you 70 feet horizontally. We do say this with caution though. Sometimes they make that jump HUGE. We’ve seen it as big as 90 feet before.

We always call freeway the fishbowl because people like to hang out in front of the fence and express shock at the fact that people are hitting jumps that big. It’s a pretty cool feeling. It’s also sick that the entire Superpipe is right after the jumps, so you get a full run with every big feature you could possibly want.

The word is out. There really is no better place to progress than Breck.