Last night I met a few shredders at Ruby Hill, near downtown denver. I haven’t actually ridden the free park yet. Ruby’s goal is to make snowboarding accessible to more people. Its working, there are a lot of  beginners shredding the boxes, they will have a great head start when they take it to the slopes. Ruby is like a gym for jibbing, I have never learned so much in so little time. I took the camera out after the lights shut down at 9pm. (the park is open till 11 though)

The cypher13 / JoyEngine team has all sorts of new characters in the works.  Here’s a sample of our latest series of Geisha!

We threw a bit of cupcake love at our homies over at Tee & Cakes.  It’s amazing what a little paper and wheatpaste can do for cupcake sales!!!  Check out more at JoyEngine.com.

Patrick Park
Everyone’s in Everyone
Curb Appeal Records

This guy utters some spiritually sanguine acoustic tracks with a James Taylor/Matt Costa hint. As you may already know, I hate to draw comparisons betwixt bands & artists when describing them, but sometimes I don’t have the energy to go about it any other way- so those are two dudes that I identify in the sound of Patrick Park. This record has a clean-cut tang and is recorded like it was produced by a perfectionist. Anyways, if you have an empty spot on your shelf in the “P” section for a positive and reflective acoustic songster, this could be worth checking out. – Kelly D. Williams, Mannerist Zine

The Detention Rail Championships is a comp for high school students of Colorado. the winner of the finals at Ruby Hill will walk away with a $5000 scholarship. These photos are of the qualifier at Jefco stadium. Men’s Snowboard:1st: Kevin Senes2nd: Collin Tucker3rd: Lakota Sage Men’s Skiing:1st: Drake Unrah2nd: Will Berman3rd: Luke NuttingWomen’s Snowboard:1st: Lillie Nauslar2nd: Kristine Thompson3rd: Lauren Laskowski   

One of my bros spotted this empty pool when his dads car broke down. It sometimes pays off to wander into the depths of the ghetto. We panned a mission and shredded it for nearly two hours after sweeping it out. the best part was the dust monster attacking my equipment. A pool shredding dream. Enjoy    

The Busy Signals
Self-titled
Dirtnap Records

As always, Dirtnap Records is staying loyal to good sounds and introducing listeners to fun rock such as The Busy Signals. If a more sinister and less-Hairy Debbie fronted for the New York Dolls, this could be the unrefined result. Smashing it up with good guitars, inspired drumming, and unruffled album art suggestive of older LP material, The Busy Signals of Chicago are shrieking realism like only the qualified can. – Kelly D. Williams, Mannerist Zine

Revisions
Revised Observations
Dirtnap Records

Revised Observations is the studio creation of Doug Burns and members of Clorox Girls performing “acoustic punk rock.” At first I was doubtful of this claim, but like the Minutemen of yesterday and The Evens of today have already verified, unplugged punkrock is certainly a possibility. My only quip is that the vocals (or at least the production of the vocals) could use some general variation. I found myself getting bored with the unswerving manner of singing they employed. Don’t let that discourage you, because there is definitely a place in every record collection for this album. The ghostly echo of their makeshift recording studio is haunting enough for me to never forget these guys. Check out the other Dirtnap Records releases, too. These Portland folks are putting out some seriously good music. – Kelly D. Williams, Mannerist Zine

I went out to San Diego and Bear Mountain for the Burton Am Series competition and some surf. If you haven’t been to Bear its killer. Jibs and gapers down the whole run.     They sold out both days we were up there shredding which means everyone who cant afford Mammoth was there, standing on the lips and landings. Saturday was the slopestyle comp, we had been practicing on the largest jumps in the park but it turned out they would hold the comp on some smaller ones. There was some really good riding and a ton of 7’s and a 9 or two off the 30ft kicker. The judges posted the top ten for finals and neither of the riders that came with us made the cut even though they stomped their runs..bummer. Halfpipe was the next day and Nick (Larson) should be able put a good run down. The weather was a bit off for halfpipe, it rained all night and into the morning. There were only about 12 men registered by the first run. So everyone made it to the finals after 3 runs, Nick took first and a $1000 with a killer line. The rest of the trip was great, tons of rain and choppy waves in San Diego but still a blast.   

I did this painting this past summer for the Cape Kiwanda Longboard Contest here in Oregon. My goal with it was to represent the place and mood of the contest. I wanted to capture the feel of Oregon summer surf. Which can be a bit wind-blown and small, but still fun with the right equipment. The actual painting technique I am playing with can be time consuming, but I like the end result.