You might have noticed a huge influx of posts on the gram coming from Chile this past week. While yes, they have had a pretty solid winter that has brought riders from all over the globe down to the country referred to as a ribbon and the place of poets, last week it was all about Jake Burton’s legacy. We caught up with Brock Crouch to give us a little insight on Day Uno and what it means for the Burton crew.
You just got home — how was the trip?
I just got home, took a shower. So nice to be back.
Walk me through Day Uno — what were you doing down in Chile?
We were down in Chile for a week and yeah, absolutely scored. It was insane. We got there last Saturday, went out that night, woke up Sunday morning… and there was like two and a half feet of fresh. So we got like two to three days of insane pow. And then we had a little Burton shoot. They’ve got a collab coming out in the next few weeks with a pretty cool company in LA. And then we did Day Uno. This year was super special.
What is Day Uno exactly?
Day Uno is an event that has been created around Jake Burton’s legacy, just celebrating and keeping it going. He would always go down there, I guess mid-August to the end of August and get his first day as the new season starts. So now we keep it going. We went down there a few years ago for the first one — in the last like five to six years it’s been blowing up every single year. This year we were close to 200 people that RSVP’d and we did another premiere of Paved. It’s pretty much just an epic, huge party all day with a sick little barbecue, and there’s a park session that goes down, and then a couple different little parties up on the resort. Then we actually all ride down with torches to end off the day. It was pretty magical. This year it so happened to fall on my 27th birthday. So it was definitely a birthday I’ll remember for a long time.
Were the conditions better than what you got in the northern hemisphere this last winter?
Pretty damn close. I was telling people that it was probably like one of the top five deepest days I’ve had out of the entire season. I think it was last Monday or Tuesday, it was probably close to three feet of snow. The only place I really had snow like that this year was Japan. So you could say that we’re in for one if the Super El Niño decides to show up in the Northern Hemisphere this year.
Did you ever get to do a Day Uno with Jake?
No, I didn’t. But like five or six years ago was our first trip when we went down there. It was insane. We were with George and Tom Hackett, Nigro, Danny Davis, Mark McMorris, and a bunch of us… and it was like unbelievable. We were just helicoptering everywhere. Got to heli to the beach, got to heli up to the mountain, got to go and do some heli boarding. So that’s kind of how Jake rolled, and that was really special.
Are you planning to go back?
Every year that we get to go down there, it’s pretty damn special because yeah, my girlfriend is from down there as well. So I think next year we’re gonna try and go for like a whole month, hopefully.
What was the food situation like?
A bunch of steak and empanadas. Really good.
Less helicopters this time around?
There were, but I still wanted to do it the right way. So we got one helicopter ride — I paid for us to get down the quick way. The road to El Colorado is like Big Bear, Cadrona collab times one hundred— just sketchy, country style. I get super car sick, so we took a 10-minute heli bump down to Santiago. Jayva, Ylfa, Raibu, and Z-Boy were there, so I had to show them how the old dogs roll.
Any standout moments from the trip?
We got to do this super sick run called Santa Teresa. This was kind of after our Burton shoot wrapped up, right at the start of the Day Uno event. We had this event down at the mall and a pre-event getting everyone stoked. So we got to go, and I gave Jayva her first-ever beacon and then her first-ever heli ride. We got in the heli, and she looked at Z-Boy, Ylfa, and Raibu and was like, “Is Brock driving the heli?” — because I was sitting in the front seat. It was pretty funny.
