What does any snowboarder or skateboarder do when they see a ledge, bump, transition or downhill slope? They mentally shred it, brainstorm their moves with their bud, and discuss which transitions would go where, how you could place this or that feature here or there. Once you stand sideways your default setting becomes that of seeing the world as one big park, that’s OK, happens to all of us.
So what does a snowboarder named Red Gerard do when his house has a backyard with a nice angle running downhill and a band of brothers willing to help build and create? Well, you guessed it, set up a slew of obstacles so he and his family and friends can get down any day of the week right outside the backdoor.
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The Monday following Dew Tour Roope Tonteri, Anna Gasser and I headed over to get a little DIY shredding in after a long weekend of judged events, seeing how this would be a good change of gears from technical spins on large jumps. Upon arrival, Red’s posse was already in full effect lighting the place up on the flat/flat, straight bar, pole jam and various corrugated tube placements, so we hopped right in and started lapping the joint.
There are no rules to follow except that of shred, have fun and pick up a shovel to create any new organization of rail features you would like to ride. Easy eh! The following hours were that of edges click-clacking on metal, p-tex on corrugated tubes and of course jeers and cheers for tech maneuvers made to look easy, along with those oohhs and aahhs when a body hit the floor before the board.
As the late morning slipped into the early afternoon, a few shredders departed for lift-accessed terrain in the surrounding mountains, others were headed out to snowmobile Vail Pass, while Ryan and Roope assembled a corrugated tube gap that was insta-booter to tranny-finder landing. After this last feature was constructed, Roope and Ryan busted a few sweet moves, we high-fived, continued to talk about how rad Red’s backyard is, packed up and gave one last look at the zone as we drove down the hill.
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