Japan 2016

First, i just gotta say i love japan.   The people and the culture there are amazing and very special.  The snow, Well its just plain incredible.   I call it the Snow Factory because every day at around 4pm when the lift closes it just starts Dumping snow,  and snows all night with anywhere between 8-28 inches of Fresh in the morning.  Then somehow it just lightly snows or clears up during the day so you can have the best day ever riding Pow.  This year i was there in Hokkaido for a Dealer Event,  then i hooked up with Ben Ferguson, Who was born the year the Custom Board from Burton came out at Retail in 96.  Ben is a Pleasure to be with and was a great riding partner.  Thank you to Jimmy and the Whole Burton Japan crew,  they are top notch and Love snowboarding as much as I do.

Yea Ben, that was a sick day bro 

Empty pow in Hokkaido 

me with Skeleton Key 

hiking back to resort from a side-country run 

Japanese people are so awesome 

Drink Mizu

Ben Ferg"Son"

Spray snowboard shop

Ben Ferg"Son" buckled 

SIA Denver

Another year at SIA Denver.   Burton has their own Setup at CityHall where we are able to show the line and entertain the Retailers.    This year Burton paid homage to Jake and how he started.   Jake Carpenter started building boards in 1977.   40 years ago,  Dang i was only 7 years old.  Ha.   Anyway , this year we brought some equipment from Craigs Proto shop and some of the employees and we had some fun.   Retailers were able to cut out their own board and design the graphic by themselves.  It was a really cool experience helping people make their own gift.   Good times.  :-)

Ethan D

Steve Klassen getting creative 

Concentration

Warren from Easy Rider 

Classic Shape 

Warren and Trey putting some graphics on 

Warren and Trey from Easy Rider and some History 

Mark Weeks from the Source sanding away 

me and a couple of dudes that have been around snowboarding longer than i have been

Ken Achenbach, Emmet Manning 

Edit of the Tahoe backcountry trip

Tahoe Retail Trip FROTH! from Dave Downing on Vimeo.

alex andrews did this edit of the trip to tahoe, all footage was filmed with iPhone and a GoPro, Edited on his iPhone

Brighton Demo

Getting Retailers on some of the new Burton hardgoods lineup.  We went up to Brighton in Utah and the conditions were incredible.  I haven't seen Brighton this good in years.  I used to live in Utah and Brighton was my local resort.   I filmed my whole TB4 part just out of bounds at Brighton with Dave Lee and Mike Hatchett back in like 95.   It was great riding with some awesome people and getting some Utah Pow Pow.   #skeletonkey #branchmanager #gatekeeper

Frothing 

snowy chair ride up Milly

it was so cold out we had to switch up boards inside the lodge 

gate keeper and the skeleton key 

Family tree 

tailgate style 

Epic Conditions for a Hike out of bounds 

skeleton key 

Tahoe Backcountry

I've been shown the ropes in the Backcountry from some of the Best in the world.   Being able to learn from a lot of my peers while filming for Standard Films and Mackdawg were some of the best days of my life.  Now, i get the chance sometimes to take some friends out in the Backcountry and show them that special place.   This has been a really good winter so far in Tahoe,  and after 4 years of meager conditions it has been awesome to ride some epic Tahoe Pow Pow.   George from Milosport in Auburn was a lucky guy to get conditions this good.  

all smiles 

Zach and George

George and i about to take another run 

Skeleton Keys ready to rip 

Snow was epic 

my buddy Dan 

backcountry posse 

pointing up to a line