The phone call came in Sunday night to meet the People Crew in the Midwest…I was on the plane outta Phoenix the next morning, excited to hang with this motivated posse once again. During the Christmas break, the Midwest was getting pounded with two plus feet of snow…a perfect amount to do what we do: snowboard, film and take photos.

The direct flight out of Phoenix was easy…no delays, no connections…just take off to set down. Once on the ground it was right over to the hotel room to rearrange the gear for shredding and head on out the door. Jeremy and Zac swung the cars around, I hopped in and we were off to spot No. 1. After a hearty meal of shoveling, setting up lights/strobes/flashes and numerous attempts, location uno was a wrap with shots in hand.

I’ll be here through the week with Zac, Jeremy, Seth, Simon, JoeJoe and my media sidekicks Mathis, Minhondo and Sam. Check back in, I’ll post up shots as often as possible. Click “Continue…” for more.

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The music rolls on and we follow…made the quick dash up to Montreal to catch another Trouble, Amanda Blank and Santigold show. Location Theatre Metropolis on Ste-Catherine Est. The citizens of Montreal showed up in force to sell the show out, jam pack the place and show their love for the music. Another great time hanging with the Trouble Gang getting some street skating in, more tales from the road and what lies ahead on the tour.

As soon as we pulled into MTL, Douce, Trevor and JOFO came rolling up on their skates…a quick sesh around Ste Catherine Street before hitting the stage. Click “Continue…” to read the rest of the story.

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I left Breck as Mother Nature was really doing a number on the place…at least a foot had fallen over night…rolling past Copper it was the same story…once I reached Vail Pass the ceiling rose and the heavy snows lightened up providing a smooth drive past Avon, Eagle and Glenwood Canyon. After passing Basalt you could see what the mountains would have in store for our April 18th shred day…POW !

Click “Continue…” to check the stoke…

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The AK Mission has wrapped up…21 days calling Haines our home…chillin with Phil at the Beach Road House; flying with Herk, Johnny, Brett and Tiege through the Chilkat Mountains; shredding with Nicolas, Jussi, Jeremy and Freddie; shooting with Brad and Jaakko…the trip dreams are made of.

Thanks to all…see ya in O’ten…

Peace, BLOTTO

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It’s possible Jussi and Jeremy like Jaakko’s shot

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Alaska has started…two days up with Pilot AL Holzman and Herkie our Guide. Mixed bag of weather, snow quality/quantity, plenty of searching, some shred…plain ‘ol good times any way you slice it

Few pics for ya…I’ll post some more sooon.

BLOTTO

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Mike McEntire aka Dawger, preps the boom cam

Took a trip with Heikki and Jussi to Mack Dawg Productions final shoot of the season in 2006. Big Bear hosted the crew for one of their semi-annual Junkyard Jams. An odd assortment of vehicles, corrogated pipes, wood…combined with boxes, rails and jibs.

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Seattle Tacoma Airport 1

After enjoying some quality family time, chowing down Mom’s delicious eats and getting schooled by my 3-year old nephew in ping-pong, it was off to the airport for the beginning of the journey from AZ to AK. Alaska, or the Final Frontier as it’s referred to on occasion; is our annual March slash April destination for documenting The Shred.

Jussi, Frederik, Jaakko and I made our way to Juneau via Seattle, only to start the waiting game once we touched down. A fresh storm had moved in prior to our arrival and created havoc along the ‘inside passage’…the small aircraft route that takes you into Haines.

With an overnight stay in the cards, we made our way to a local hotel, checked in, then called our taxi cab driving friend Andrew to get us downtown for some eats. His Scotish upbringing, mixed with growing up in Hawaii, and calling Juneau home since ’95 made the cab ride efficient and funny.

We asked for some background information on this region and this is what we got: “…famous for gold, jay-walking pedestrians and rush hour is a family of 6 brown bears walking down the road…oh, and those big houses you see on the hill that have the best view take the brunt of the wind coming off the glacier…”

Tomorrow we hope to catch the 7:45 AM flight to Haines…once there we’ll settle in for the long haul and hope for the goods.

Another report ASAP…

Peace, BLOTTO

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Chase Money Funky mixxxx

K for Keegan

The Midwest…third mission for 2009. All good by me…more cement, metal, grimey snow, pollution, dilapidated bridges, nice folks, low bust ratio…all things ‘middle of the Lower 48.’

Keegan and Aaron called late Tuesday night saying the mission was on…I had already made plans for another shred day in AZ on Wed morning…not to worry, shred till early afternoon, then drive back down to Phoenix and catch a PM flight to our destination.

Snowbowl was fun, snow started to turn real nice (we were calling it champagne slush) around 11, snowboarders easily out-numbered the skiers, Rudy was hyped to get his 7th day of the year on snow…A FULL WEEK he called it.

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