This is the original business card we hit the road with in 1999

I started SBG with two good friends in the fall of 1998 as we prepared to hit the road on a snowboard roadtrip. It’s been more than a decade since I started cobbling together bits of code to make a website that would catalog our trip as we traveled from Alaska into Canada and then down through Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado during what was to be one of the best seasons on record.

We started out as what would later be called a blog

In the years since, Snowboarder Guide has taken a number of forms. We started out as what would later be called a blog, an online journal chronicling the story of three 18-year-olds on the road with the sole mission of snowboarding. The journal turned into reviews, and the resort reviews we wrote and published were some of the first available on the web. Over the next few years we moved into product reviews as well, and before the term blogging had even been coined, we had adopted a web magazine format.

We’ve been as small as two people, and at times had ten contributors. Maggie joined our team, first writing reviews, then articles, and then taking on the role of women’s editor and overseeing the female half of the product world as the industry recognized the need for women’s specific gear. We married in 2001, and celebrated 10 years this year. We’ve traveled all over the US, attended incredible events, hung out with legends and heroes, and made friends throughout the snowboard industry, and along the way we’ve had more powder days than anyone really deserves. 

In the process, we lost our voice.

In the mid-to-late 2000s, two things happened: snowboard blogging really took off, and the print snowboard magazines started to put some real money into their websites. SBG was caught in the middle, more than a blog, but without the resources or print-revenue of a magazine. Stretched thin, we adapted by posting more press releases (because it was free content and search engines loved it), and opening our review system up for public reviews. In the process, we lost our voice. We were still here, snapping photos at events, publishing press releases to the website, and moderating user reviews, but it was no longer our words that made up the bulk of the site. The personality and character that our readers trusted and came to our corner of the web for, vanished.

At the same time, I was being pulled away by my other project, teaching, coaching, and guiding with Steamboat Guides. Steamboat Guides is awesome, and I’ll still be on-snow with SG many days of the week, but SBG is back.

“Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.”

We’re still hammering out a number of details for this season, but I thought it was time to start laying some of it out. As Mark Twain so eloquently put it, “Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.” So here are a few of the changes:

Press Releases: We strongly feel that press releases are an important part of snowboard story, and so we’ll continue to post press releases. However, our goal is to do a better job of filtering the interesting and newsworthy (or things we want to make fun of) from the bland, generic press releases that fill up our inbox, and provide you that information with our voice. You can still read the standard press release at the bottom, but the top will be our words.

Contributors: Reviews and articles are back to a small team of on-snow reviewers. We hope to grow this and include more riders, but we’re starting small, and finding our voice again. If you’re interested in joining our team, feel free to get in touch.

Reviews: Reviews have been migrated out of the separate Censura review system and included within the main site. This makes for a site that runs faster, is actually searchable, and is far easier to update.

Review Scores: After ten years, we’re updating our review scoring. More on this soon.

A new look: This one is still a little ways off, but should be ready by the time snow hits.

SBG is a testament to years of hard work and great rewards, and is proof that if you work hard you can create something from scratch. It has been an incredible journey. I hope you’ll join us as we explore what’s next for Snowboarder Guide.

SIA10 was a mixed bag. Some of it went well, other parts were plain awful. But more on that later, I’ll do a full critique of the show when I’ve had time to digest it.

More than anything else I’m just tired, a sentiment I heard often at the on-snow demo days. Four days at the tradeshow, followed by two days of cramming in every board you can, flat wears you out.

I’m really looking forward to a couple of slow days back in Steamboat. Maybe make a few mellow park laps, ride a bit if it snows, but mostly sleep and write up all the stuff we’re behind on.

Out front Volcom had a hat making booth set up, and visitors could get a free hat, pressed with their choice of Volcom labels on them. Inside there was pizza, an array of free posters and a couple of Volcom pros hanging out. Twitter user jjwingate won a free snowboard for finding Gigi Ruf and tweeting a photo to @volcom.

The store had a pretty good-sized crowd gathered at the back to rock out with Kandi Coded and ASG. There were probably 50 people that stayed the whole time, but quite a few more milled in-and-out.

Thanks for a fun night Volcom!

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For more coverage of the SIA Snowsports Tradeshow in Denver, check out posts tagged SIA10 or follow us on Facebook or Twitter

The Routt National Forest ranger offices sell Christmas tree cutting permits for $10 each, and we’ve taken advantage of this for the past several winters, spending an afternoon hiking into the woods around Rabbit Ears Pass. This year’s tree is a smaller tree, but it’s perfect for us. We rescued it from a crowded little stand of trees, hopefully our thinning will help out that section of trees.

Today was my first day out on a new pair of Atlas BC24 snowshoes, and I was thoroughly impressed with them. They’re pretty light-weight for their size, and they float great. It seems like I’ve seen a million different strap systems in the last 10 years, and the BC24 has one of the better systems, easily adjusting to my snowboard boots and holding them tightly. I’ll have a full review of the shoe up in another week or so, once I’ve had them out a few more times.

I got up for a few turns this morning with a few instructors to check out the new terrain. We took the Gondola up and then Rudi’s down to the BC lift. I was pretty stoked to find some calve-deep powder on the right side of Rudi’s, but lower down it got a bit rougher. From the top of BC we cruised down Tower to Heavenly Daze and made our way down to Jess’s Cut-Off, across to See Me, and on to the park. The Daze is pretty rough; there’s some slightly softer snow on the sides, but the majority is ground up ice balls.

Once you get down to the park everything changes though. The snow and grooming on lower mountain has been fantastic, and the park crew is doing a tremendous job keeping the Little Rodeo Park smooth and safe. The park is flowing great, and the features are set up perfectly. I’m super optimistic about this season’s park, if Nick can build two more parks as sweet as this one, I think we’re in for a treat.

Luckily the weather warmed up and the sky turned blue before too long, resulting in a gorgeous Steamboat day. Christie Peak was the only lift running today, but it served up several runs, and the snow was surprisingly good. More snow is right around the corner, and the gondola is expected to start running Friday, providing access to a couple of long blue groomers down.

The real story however is the terrain park. Steamboat’s new terrain park director, Nick Roma, put together one of Steamboat’s best opening day parks on record, and it was packed all day. The park has a dozen features, including a couple of flat boxes and rails, a rainbow, a battleship, a nice 15 foot jump, and a killer bottom feature that can be approached and hit in several different ways. The snow was a bit slow today, so speed was a bit of an issue, but as long as you stomped your landings it wasn’t too bad. This was just a start, but if Nick can keep this up all season, I think we’re in for a banger park year.

View the entire photo gallery here.

This is the final day of the 30 Days on the Road series, but there’s still a few back-posts coming, and I’ll be working up a follow-up post on the whole month as well.

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“30 Days on the Road” is a blog series tracking my travel for thirty days in October and November; from leaving Alaska on October 27th until Steamboat opens on November 25th. Due to a series of cool opportunities I don’t have to be back at a “real job” until 11/26th, and after a summer that seemed way too long, I’ll be making the most of my free month with as much snow and snow industry fun as I can cram in. The goal is two-fold, first to get you pumped about the upcoming season, and two to help keep track of time as I wander aimlessly for a month.

I’ll also be posting updates on Facebook and Twitter, so make sure and check out the action there too.

Burton often gets a bad rap for being the big kid on the playground, but their leadership in the field of snowboard education is unparalleled; they really get it. The Keystone Super Clinics were well designed to create two-way communication, Burton was getting feedback from us, and at the same time, feeding us information about their LTR program. For me, this was a great opportunity to get inside the LTR world, ride the equipment, and see what’s on the plate for the big B; thanks to Shaun and Hillary for setting it all up.

Hearing about the Burton Academy at Northstar at Tahoe was one of the highlights for me. Burton has worked closely with Northstar to create a snowboard-centric learning center based on bringing new students into the culture, and making them snowboarders, rather than just teaching them to snowboard. The program starts with the snowboard culture education, and then works through teaching progressions with terrain designed to complement learning to snowboard. The Burton Academy at Northstar is the first of its kind, but I expect we’ll see more popping up over the next few years, just like the Stash (speaking of which, there’s even a mini-stash at the Academy). I’d really like to get out to Northstar and check this out myself at some point this winter.

Shaun from Burton explaining some of the differences when tuning an LTR board

Having taught a couple of young kids on LTR boards with base bevels last year, getting on snow with a base-beveled adult LTR board was a pretty satisfying experience. It’s a soft board, and as tempting as it was to get jibtastic, I took it slow for the first few turns, and made some basic switch skidded turns to get a feel for how it performs. Noticeable right away is the smooth roll from edge to edge: where a flat-based board goes from edge to flat to edge, the LTR board rolls across the base to the new edge, making for a much easier learning process. The bevel does lead to a bit of instability at high speeds, but obviously that’s not what this board is designed for.

I was also really interested to learn more about the Go Snowboarding and Get Lifted programs. At a time when consumers are spending less, and many companies are cutting costs, Burton has worked with a slew of resorts to offer these two programs designed to get people out and riding. Go Snowboarding is a program that includes a free snowboard LTR lesson and lift ticket at a participating resort, with the purchase of a price-point Burton snowboard. Get Lifted is a program that includes a free lift ticket at one of more than 80 participation resorts, with the purchase of any Burton snowboard with a MSRP over $350.

All-in-all it was a great couple of days on snow. Big thanks to Burton for the invite and the opportunity to learn more about their LTR program.

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“30 Days on the Road” is a blog series tracking my travel for thirty days in October and November; from leaving Alaska on October 27th until Steamboat opens on November 25th. Due to a series of cool opportunities I don’t have to be back at a “real job” until 11/26th, and after a summer that seemed way too long, I’ll be making the most of my free month with as much snow and snow industry fun as I can cram in. The goal is two-fold, first to get you pumped about the upcoming season, and two to help keep track of time as I wander aimlessly for a month.

I’ll also be posting updates on Facebook and Twitter, so make sure and check out the action there too.

With the runs busy and cruddy, I spent most of the afternoon hiking the park features. It’s a great little progression park, and I had a great time working on taking a few new tricks through the features.

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“30 Days on the Road” is a blog series tracking my travel for thirty days in October and November; from leaving Alaska on October 27th until Steamboat opens on November 25th. Due to a series of cool opportunities I don’t have to be back at a “real job” until 11/26th, and after a summer that seemed way too long, I’ll be making the most of my free month with as much snow and snow industry fun as I can cram in. The goal is two-fold, first to get you pumped about the upcoming season, and two to help keep track of time as I wander aimlessly for a month.

I’ll also be posting updates on Facebook and Twitter, so make sure and check out the action there too.

Still no riding in Steamboat, but I took a short snow walk, and then started setting up for the split board how-to article.

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“30 Days on the Road” is a blog series tracking my travel for thirty days in October and November; from leaving Alaska on October 27th until Steamboat opens on November 25th. Due to a series of cool opportunities I don’t have to be back at a “real job” until 11/26th, and after a summer that seemed way too long, I’ll be making the most of my free month with as much snow and snow industry fun as I can cram in. The goal is two-fold, first to get you pumped about the upcoming season, and two to help keep track of time as I wander aimlessly for a month.

I’ll also be posting updates on Facebook and Twitter, so make sure and check out the action there too.