ring•wall

Nürburgring Germany, known for the most bad-ass automotive race track in the world, now also has the largest touch screen multi-user information wall in the world.

Now there are two reasons to visit the ring.

TR

Automotive Art III

In this case, the 1971 Mercedez-Benz 300 SEL 6.3 AMG

Who says you can't run a burled walnut dash in a race-car?

TR

FYi - Birken

We finally bounced home after a triple tour of duty.

Shhhh. (Birken is sooo quiet!)

TR

FYi - Hanoi

This week we are in Hanoi, Viet Nam working with Patagonia on their 2011 Alpine Climbing outerwear program. The factory is encapsulated by its own botanical gardens. With beautiful modern buildings and floor to ceiling glass on all sides. They even have a massive bird sanctuary full of exotic bipedals... A sweat shop? I think not.

Jef Stokes is a man with a vision, and a real piece of work.

Best coffee in Hanoi: Cafe Mai

Traditional Vietnamese coffee is some of the best in the world. Very smooth, and a unique sweet flavor unlike any other bean I've had..

Scooter madness! Hanoi has a population around 8million. Every day, the rush hour commute includes -at least- 5,000,000 scooters weaving and dodging through traffic. It's common to see entire families of four or five people on one scooter. Cargo can include anything; trees, lumber, produce, an engine block... anything you can imagine that can be strapped to a scooter. Good to go.

This guy knows how to roll.

TR

FYi - Hong Kong

The second stop in [ak] development... [hk].

On tour with Andrew 'bugi' Burke.

TR

FYi - Shanghai

It's always a massive shock to bounce from Pemberton B.C. to one of the most populated places on the planet. This time it's Shanghai China. We are here this week working on 2012 Burton [ak].

TR

The race against time

Sometimes pressure can become a catalyst..

It's all about being driven to be the best at what you do.

TR

[ak] underground - Jeff Pensiero

Jeff is the owner/operator of Baldface Lodge. Kind of a hippie-cowboy-sledneck-snowboarder/rural business owner. My kind of peepl! Always great fun to hang with JP...

Peepl and their pets tend to share the same characteristics...

Alvie & Jeff Pensiero.

Have you been to Baldface yet?

Call JP direct at (250)354-7927, tell him FYi sent you, and he'll give you a discount.

TR

Baldface snow report

Latest infomercial from JP..

TR

Baldface 2010 - the yeti returns

Once again, Palmer and Alison West hosted the team Yeti session at Baldface. Pyrotechnics were toned down this year, although JP is still stressing damage to the sauna from an OC Yeti attack. Fortunately we were the only group at the time, so JP didn't have to spend time apologizing to other guests (or shooting them with his potato gun).

Despite some instability in the snowpack, we had great conditions, and found great lines throughout the trip!

Another epic session, and great time had by all. Props to Palmer for pulling this crew together every year!

More baldface highlights to surface in another post at a later date.

TR

Noboard Cafe

Susanna and I swung through Trout Lake on our way to Baldface to drop in on the ambassadors of soulboarding; Cholo Burns and Jenna Low. Trout is very comparable to Birken, both in terms of rural population density (maybe 30 peeps in town on a busy day), and to the caliber of the surrounding backcountry.

One big point of difference is the NoBoard Cafe. Full espresso shop with Breakfast scrambles... and it has a skate bowl next door(!) This is a community with priorities.

Cholo and the NoBoard posse are riding all kinds of epic lines - sans bindings. Literally surfing on snow with no attachment to the board whatsoever. Just balance, momentum and gravity. It's fresh. It's innovative. And it's progressing rapidly. It's the most free-thinking movement in the board community in over 15 years, for sure.

Oh, there ALSO is a general store... which practically makes Trout 'New York' compared to Birken. Check out the gas pumps... I'm told the oldest working gas pumps in B.C.

Check out the first NoBoard video below 'Yes to the No'.

I'm not sure.. but I think we may have dined-and-dashed the NoBoard cafe(!!) We were deep in conversation on all things B.C., and i'm not sure we paid for our goods?!

TR

Terje

2010 [ak] Hover reviewed

An on-point review of the 2010 [ak] Hover jacket, by the folks over at Easyloungin

I'm stoked to see this jacket resonate with the backcountry 'apparel-needs-to-be-equipment' crowd. The 2010 Hover is my all-time favorite [ak] jacket, to date. It was designed with on-snow performance and function as the sole objective, ...for backcountry sledneck guys like Chappy. You can see his FaceTube video review below, or click the Easyloungin link above for a more in-depth written review.

In summary, this jacket is sick. Lots of lurkers and good banter over at Easyloungin too. Ck it.

TR

Happy new year from FYi

Wow. 2009.

A year to remember, and forget..

2010 kicked off with a bang.

Cheers!

TR

U.N.K.L.E.

u.n.k.l.e. is from the U.K.

Check out this video. It's a bit brutal in it's message - perhaps a reflection of the morality of religion in society today (?). The ending is awesome. I'll let you interpret it's intended meaning and it's implications...

TR