ashleyswan.ca

Sending some Moss Culture love…

So awhile back I wrote this long kick-ass post about a couple of friends new company… then wordpress killed it on me. Sad moment, but I finally got around to reposting it!

MOSS CULTURE

So some of you might remember a couple of years back (oh god has it really been that long?) I lived in this tiny little house with eight other awesome individuals, it was probably one of the most ridiculous adventures I’ve ever had. A lot of partying and hanging out, with the odd moments of drama here and there made for an epic eight months in the 3308 house in Vernon, B.C. Now two of those two roommates have started a new venture called Moss Culture. Jeff Barrett and Chris Saavedra (aka. Panda) are behind the new skate/snow/etc. media site MossCulture.com. Here’s what they have to say…

“Moss Culture is a media and apparel company based out of Barrie, Ontario.  Moss Culture is dedicated to continuing exposure of the “extreme sport” lifestyle through online media.  We will continuously offer high quality video media and apparel to you. Keep Mossin!”

The Moss Culture Site

The guys have just started out in the apparel world with some new sunglasses & they were kind enough to send a pair out to yours truly. They sent me the coolest pair of ray-ban style shades with polarized lenses and tortoiseshell arms, and needless to say… I am in love. They have a ton of cool color options and two lens choices in the shades, and you can get hooked up with a pair (for $10) through their website or their facebook page. Jeff and Chris are working on a full line that should be coming out in Spring 2012, I heard rumors of flannels and some layering pieces and knowing these two guys I have no doubt that they’ll be dope!

So steeeee!

Thanks guys!

The guys also got together an impressive crew of Ontario shredders for their team and put out a pile of edits this past season. All the edits are available either on the website or on their Vimeo channel. Right now their team consists of: Chris Scudds, Justin Verberne, Adam Leadbetter, Jeff Braun, Jesse Greer, Pat Klacza, Regen Stewart, Sam Pollock, and Chris Mullins. Check out their Crew section for full bios on all their riders.

Chris and Jeff have combined their interest in running a business with a genuine love for the sport of snowboarding, which is something that this industry desperately needs. Too often you see companies advertising “Rider Owned” when really they’re operated by cold corporate drones who could really care less how many pow turns they’re getting in a season. There is none of that fluff here, these guys are legit… just a couple of vagabond snowboarders who are trying to make something out of an awesome idea. The guys took off to Whistler for a couple of weeks last spring to visit some friends, chill, and get some spring shots… you can check em out on their page or hit them up on facebook!

I’m hyped on what they’re doing and I know I’m not the only one! They got a little help from super babe graphic designer, Meghan Hindle who was behind the Moss logo which can be found on the sunglasses (and on the site!) and I’m sure there will be a ton of awesome friend collabs in the future! The guys are all about positive vibes and they have no problem promoting events and throwing out props where they’re due. Their website has definitely become my go-to source when I want to know what’s going on in the East.

So go check out the site… like NOW!

Time Waster

When I opened up my blog’s dashboard tonight I really had no intention of writing anything. Seriously, I was halfway through an operations management assignment and just generally looking for a 10 minute escape from the monotony that has become my last year of being an undergrad. Of course being a student, 10 minutes turns into 15 and then an hour later I’m sitting there staring at something like this or this. But more often than not, my focus eventually wanders to the never ending parade of snowboarding related media sites (I swear new blogs/sites appear by the hour.) This time I focused a little more on the chick shred content but there’s a little bit of every thing thrown in there. Also it’s not just video content or snowboarding content, it’s a mash up of everything really.

Nike Girls Revelstoke Trip - Decent.

Pow lines in India with Caja Schöpf and Lena Stoffel – Cooler Mag’s got the story.

Rugged Riders Take a Skatecation on SBCwomen, honorable mention for the lion cat in the 2nd picture. I want it!

The Wind That I Feel As I Wait – Kevin Charles on bwgmag.com

Yobeat review of Peepshow’s Winter Wars“Peepshow, as it stands, is a rebel force in snowboarding. It shows girls don’t have to be skittle-colored contest junkies to stand out.” - Nick Lipton (p.s. thank you…)

Carissa Moore’s nike commercial – All I can say is congrat nike, you made a commercial that wasn’t fucking horrible…unlike this one.

Pirate Dog’s Surf Trip

September 1st – Random trip to the liquor board with Ally turned into a week long surf adventure. We just wanted a bottle of wine…

Literally, we were driving to buy some wine to celebrate moving back into our place & to make the unpacking process a little more bearable; when the conversation turned to surfing. I had never gone, and Ally had gone quite a bit while she was living in Nanaimo but either way we were both desperate to go. It was then that we realized… why don’t we just go? I had been planning to drive to Tofino for a couple of weeks already, and it just made sense to do it when we both could go! We had less than a week to make the trip so we decided to go home, re-pack and leave at 6am for Ucluelet. Two girls and my lil aussie cattle dog Kip packed into the car for a two day drive to the Island.

We made it there Wednesday evening, and set up camp at the Ucluelet campground for the next three days. We spent most of our days wandering back and forth between Ucluelet and Tofino.

We usually ended up in Tofino for breakfast at the Common Loaf bakery which had the most amazing breakfast wrap EVER & white chocolate cranberry muffins that were faaaantastic. Then we spent the day surfing at cox bay and just hanging out with the dog on the beach. Day one of learning to surf was amazing, I fell in love. Instant love, I would actually quit life and just surf from this day forward if I had the guts to do it. Maybe after I finish this university thing… Anyways, day two was not so mellow. The wave information went from high to EXTREME overnight and by the next morning we were literally in over our heads…. like 10 ft waves over my head. Yikes.

We went to long beach for about an hour and the rip current was so strong even when I’d walk another 30 or 40 feet down the beach I’d still find myself getting pulled back into it so fast. On top of that it seemed like EVERYONE was out trying to learn at Long Beach and it was just a mess of boards and people flying everywhere. Not exactly the most comfortable spot to keep learning in. So after some debating we headed back over to Cox beach which was mellow and had breaks that I could actually handle. Once again I was in love…

Sadly our trip came to an end all too quickly. On Saturday we had to head to Victoria where Ally and I would be parting ways. She was flying back to Regina that day and I would finish the drive from BC to Saskatchewan on my own (the doggy was still with me though!)

We found one last adventure to do together though… On the way through Nanaimo we brought up the idea of bungee jumping. We initially had talked about doing it in Whistler on the way out but when we switched our route and went on the 97 instead of taking Duffy lake road we decided that it would just have to wait. However, luckily for us WildPlay in Nanaimo had a 150ft bridge jump over a river…

I was so not into the idea at first, like I felt sick at the thought of walking up to the bridge but when I finally got up there and looked down my first thought was “oh it’s not even that far down…” an hour and one game of rock paper scissors I was standing on the edge with a long rubber rope tied to my ankles. I was fine until the very moment I got to the edge, it wasn’t until just then that the “WTF are you doing?” part of my brain kicked in. It really wasn’t that bad… I actually didn’t get the chest pounding rush that it seems like you should get afterwards. I was already trying to decide if I could afford to do it again!

After the bungee jumping we checked out some sweet antique stores and then eventually we made it to the airport, tearily parted ways and I kept going… I planned to drive to Chiliwack that night but ended up going to Merritt instead where I stayed at some cheap place filled with the coolest older couples who were on a Goldwing tour, we had some sweet breakfast chats around a whole lot of motorcycles and I found out there was over 300+ bikes on their ride!!!

Sunday funday, almost a week after leaving Regina I arrived in Vernon where I spent some time with the bestest crew of friends & old roommates that anyone could ever ask for. Pool parties, bbqs, puppy play dates & a whole lotta beach time went down. I really do have the best friends anyone could ever ask for! Thanks for putting up with the dog & I! Love love love.

Sadly, our trip had to come to an end and by Wednesday the Kipster and I were back in our own bed in Regina… but now I’m already planning the next adventure. Chile it is!

Worth It.

Lost In Translation

Charlotte: I just don’t know what I’m supposed to be.
Bob: You’ll figure that out. The more you know who you are, and what you want, the less you let things upset you.

An Update… Really?

Not really, more of a teaser than an update… but yes the blog is resurfacing. I’m slowly working on it again.

Randoms…

4010Den – Nelson Trip photos; the old roomies have a new blog… 4010 Den…go check it out!! Tons of preseason shred edits for you to watch!! These guys are the best ever. Serious hearts for them. – http://4010den.blogspot.com/

Silver star updates usually suck, this one however is awesome… 0:08 seconds in, Clark cameo!

Angry Snowboarder – Stock Insoles Suck

 

Dramarama – Shop Kids Edition

So let’s get this straight…

Saturday was an interesting day for me. It was the first contest of the season at Asessippi Ski Area this year. Get Amped was going off in the afternoon starting at 4:00PM. Instead of riding in it this year I elected to help judge it along with four other locals or resort employees. The contest categories were 17 & Up, 16 & Under, Girls, and Skiers. I would say there were at least thirty contestants entered in it this year, which is lower than usual, possibly because of how cold it was that day?

It was a slope style course in Asessippi’s mini terrain park on Robin’s Run, with basically two lines to choose from. The first option was either a ride on flat box or a street style t-box, followed by a small jump or dance floor option, then there was another small jump or a barrel bonk, and finally there was a flat down ride on t-box or a street style shotgun rail. So plenty of options for all riding levels…

I had been coaching all day in a CSF women’s camp (which was awesome!) so I decided not to ride in the contest, and also I felt that I wouldn’t mind judging since I feel that I’m pretty unbiased when it comes to what shop I support in Saskatchewan/Manitoba. Over the years, I’ve tried to support every shop’s start up regardless of what province it’s in. I think if you’re willing to invest the time and money into the local scene in a positive way, then you’re probably worth my time to deal with. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like a lot of other people feel this way…

Now I get it, a lot of shops want consumer loyalty, they want you to come spend your money there over another shop because that’s how they make their living and keep their shop open. If you’re not moving product, you’re not making money, and if you’re not making money, then what’s the point? So getting customers to support your shop is crucial, and one of the ways to do that is to create a bond with a customer. Making them feel like they’re part of what you’re doing… which is awesome, and it helps create and strengthen our snowboard community as well. The only downside to this is when your customers or riders get so loyal to your shop that they start to run down others in the process.

If you’re involved with a local shop and you’re proud of it, that’s awesome! Honestly, support them as much as you want. Sticker up your gear, tell your friends how they hooked you up, and spread positive vibes but don’t start going around hating on another crew just because they’re not part of yours. This seems to be a big problem in the prairies and I keep running into it over and over again this year.

However, an incident at Get Amped really made it clear to me how big of an issue this is… once the results were tallied up, and decisions were made we realized how close the standings were (a 0.5 difference between 1st and 2nd place) but we all felt that we did things as fairly as possible and went by the numbers that we had from all four judges. None of the sponsoring shop’s employees, riders, or owners was involved in the final judging process. It was myself, and three resort employees who did all the scoring. Now most of the people riding in this contest were people I’ve rode contests with before or known for many years, but I would like to think that what shop you’re from, how you act, or where you come from has no affect on my judging. I’m judging you solely based on your riding in that contest and on the features that I was given. Falling, putting hands down on a feature, or inverts resulted in no score. So I tried to judge everything as fairly as I possibly could, and I felt that the results on my sheet reflected it. No one seemed to be complaining going into the final rounds, it wasn’t until after it was all said and done that we had a problem…

The sponsoring shop’s rider took first place, now anyone who is putting on a contest knows that this can be a nightmare because as soon as that happens everyone starts crying that it was fixed or unfair. All sorts of strange ideas come up, and the shit talking starts… Now I can’t say that I completely agreed with the scoring done by the judges on the bottom features, but at the same time I couldn’t see them so I can’t say that they did it unfairly at all either. I know the features that I was on were done fairly, but that’s all I can say. That being said, someone is always going to feel that they should have placed higher (I’ve even felt this way at contests too) but that’s just how it goes. The contest was not fixed, no one added up the points wrong to make someone else win, and nobody was going out of their way to score any certain shop’s riders higher. So basically what I’m trying to say is suck it up and stop whining.

If you start hating on the contest and the shop that’s putting it on, all you’re doing is making the shop that you represent look bad. Don’t go around talking shit, and posting crap on facebook (especially if you weren’t even at the contest!!) because all that is doing is making event organizers, judges, and potential shop customers lose respect for you and your shop. We are all in the same industry and it makes a lot more sense to try and keep relationships positive whenever possible. You never know when you may need to work with those people in the future. Also, if you hate on a shop…there’s a pretty good chance that they’re not going to want to let you ride in their events any time in the near future. Just sayin…

Game Of: In Your Face ft. Mark McMorris

Check it… Sasky boy killin it…

Shred Playlist – December 6, 2010

So here’s my first shredding playlist of the year… they’re not really new songs in most cases. They’re just songs that I like to ride too, some are pretty chill. Check em out, see if there’s anything you like… or even suggest songs that you think I should check out! I love new riding tunes!

1.      Julian Casablancas – 11th Dimension
2.     Two Door Cinema Club – You’re Not Stubborn
3.     Two Door Cinema Club – Eat That Up, It’s Good For You
4.     Van Morrison – Baby Please Don’t Go
5.     Broken Bells – The Ghost Inside
6.     Tame Impala – Solitude is Bliss
7.     Wait What – Mo Stars Mo Problems [Biggie/XX Remix]
8.     LadyCop – I Felt Just Like Anybody Else
9.     La Roux – Growing Pains
10. Pure Prairie League – Amie
11. Wait What – It’s All About The Crytalizabeths [Biggie/XX Remix]
12. Chromeo – Bonafied Lovin’ [Tough Guys]
13. Van Morrison – Jackie Wilson Said
14. SoCalled – [These Are The] Good Old Days
15. Foster The People – Pumped Up Kicks
16. The Ting Tings – Keep Your Head
17. Lykke Li – I’m Good, I’m Gone
18. SoCalled – You Are Never Alone
19. Snowgoons – Ride On [Ft.Defari, Maylay Sparks, & Sondro Castro]
20.  Royksopp – The Girl and the Robot
21. Crookers – Hip Hop Changed [Ft. Rye Rye]
22. Passion Pit – Make Light
23. Ellie Goulding – Starry Eyed [Jakwob Remix dubstep] 2 seasons now… still awesome.
24. Crookers – Cooler Couleur [Ft. Yelle]
25. Two Door Cinema Club – Something Good Can Work [Crookers Remix too!]
26. La Roux – Reflections are Protection
27. Kid Cudi – Scott Mescudi Vs. The World
28. La Roux – Colorless Color
29. Kid Cudi – These Worries [Ft. Mary J. Blige]
30. Phoenix – Too Young [Zoot Woman Remix]
31. Wait What – Everyday Shelter [Biggie/XX REmis]
32. Best Coast – Crazy For You
33. Phoenix – One Time Too Many
34. Wait What – Juicy-R [Biggie/XX Remix]
35. Temper Trap – Science of Fear
36. Lady Sovereign – Bang Bang
37. Vanity Fair – Hitchin A Ride
38. Crookers – Remedy [Ft. Miike Snow]
39. Chromeo – Needy Girl [Lifelike Remix]
40. Julian Casablancas – Left & Right in the Dark
41. La Roux – Fascination
42. Wait What – Suicidal Fantasy [Biggie/XX Remix]
43. Wait What – Islands is the Limit [Biggie/XX Remix]
44. M.I.A. – Come Around [Ft. Timbaland]
45. Marina and the Diamonds – Oh No! [Grum Remix]
46. The Last Royals – Backseat Lovers [Crayon Remix]
47. Walter Sobcek – Je Me Souviens [Z Hive Remix]
48. The Last Royals – Crystal Vases
49. Cold War Kids – Royal Blue
50.  Chromeo – Night by Night

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