Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Day 15-18 OTS Durango Mountain Resort, Feb 24-27 2011

I closed out the end of February with 18 days on the snow total for the season. Better than most full seasons for me here in New Mexico. 15 of 28 days in February alone!! Over ½ of the entire month of February on the snow… I feel like a kid!!!

It was the 9th annual DMR SkiBike festival and we set up on Thursday along with our great friend Patrick from Stalmach. I obviously did not get my skis on at the Creek on Wednesday. I decided to have yet another down day as I would be on the snow for at least 4 days straight and wanted to get rested up. We had nice weather for a few days and even caught a powder day on Saturday morning. The SkiBike festival was a very different one this season as finally all of the in-fighting and animosity seemed to be strangely absent this festival along with one of our vendors. In fact this was the first festival I had been to in 2 missed previous years as I had tired of the in-fighting and DMR politics. My buddy Krusty had went last year without us and told me that things they were a changing and I decided to put my opinion aside and see for myself. I saw true comradery for the first time ever in this industry across all the makes on models. I saw people sharing runs for the first time this festival that had never in 9 years past. Yup, things they are a changing and I was glad to have seen it with my own eyes.

One of the coolest days was on Sunday, I saw folks swapping up gear and each platform user had a new appreciation of what the other could do on their own gear. I myself ended up taking a Snowscoot Boardbike down a 2x diamond without knowing it until my next run up. There is a lot of great gear out there today on several platforms no matter what you have on your feet or how you stand or sit on your gear.

Lots of vendors and folks in the biz showed up. Don Koski, Greg from ASA, Rod from SkiBike world, Devin from Lenzsport, Patrick from Stalmach, Scott from Geary and lastly Cliff and his crew from pedal the Peaks. It was great to see where the sport has arrived after 9 seasons. Most of the gear we played on this festival was not available only 9 seasons ago.

On Sunday I was tired as a dog left outside but was a bit sad to see all this friendship and true comradery end. This festival was a breath of fresh air in the sport and for the first time I saw some true growth in the respect across the sport, platforms, vendors and individual riders. It was truly an incredible festival and I am looking forward to our 10th annual next year. Those of you that don’t want to share the snow together regardless of platform or think you are the only ones that should have access to the slopes..…and you know how I’m talking about, stay away because we have move beyond that old shit and the push forward without you is incredible. We tried to do it with you, now we will do it without you!! You are always welcome if you want to show respect and play nice. Just show up and bring a smile and a hug with you!!

Keep it shiny side up and slippery side down,

Randy