OT team rider Sean Busby a minute to read insulin levels with some campers taking part in his program, Riding on Insulin.  Get a whole update on Sean’s program here:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/7415919/Pro-takes-time-out-for-diabetes-kids

Powder sessions.  Rail jams.  Mini ramps.  Unlimited banana suit possibilities.  OT team rider KC Deanne helping steer the ship.  Get some.

Evolve Chile Session Uno 2012 from Evolve on Vimeo.

By Brian Tolbert

We started the KUHL team 5 years ago when cross country racing and big factory teams were disappearing. We started this team with the backing of KUHL outdoor clothing and an idea to gather people together that we wanted to travel and hang out with at races not necessarily the high maintenance prima donnas that we saw standing on the top step of the podiums back then. So we started with a handful of new friends and old friends and a van that we stole from the warehouse and drove around looking for the coolest races on the coolest trails around. 5 years later the team has grown across the country and across disciplines but it still has the same idea behind it, we don’t really care about your results as much as we care about you being good dude (or dudette) that can talk to people about more than your placing in your last race but about that sweet jump on the third lap. Our little experiment has worked pretty well over the years  and we actually have some really fast guys and gals on the team that are out winning big races across the country but it is still about having fun and joking with your team mates and friends.

We got to know the guys at Outdoor Technology through our mutual friend (and OT catalog model) Blake Nyman (no serious Blake is on every other page of the catalog). After hanging out with the guys at the OR show we knew we found some kindred spirits (whoa that was deep). What it really comes down to is that in a sport where you spend hours every day by yourself pedaling in the back woods, it’s good to have some sweet tunes. I no longer have to cut holes in my jerseys to fish those crappy white headphones through and up around my helmet, I just put my tags on and go.

By Ben Wannamaker

Photo: Stewart Medford

What motivates people to get out of bed and go to work? Is it the alarm, the paycheck or the habit of experiencing the day-to-day act itself? Understanding that sleeping through one’s alarm will put undue work square on the shoulders of one’s co-workers – ‘co’ being peers that one can empathize with -causes a drive in us, compelling enough to convince some lackadaisical louts to fulfill their obligations and in one way or another work through hungover or hesitant bodies with we: the thankful co-workers of the world.

I work in the terrain park on Whistler Blackcomb,so my motivation to get out of bed is quite often to get the trick I’ve been working on, to plane through the powder that had been pad-padding throughout the cold cold night – blanketing my commute to the park entrance – or simply, selfishly, to get that morning coffee in my handfor the rolling chairlift trip that I’ll ride while rubbing the crust from my eye’s outer rim.

Either way, it occurred to me one day when I wokeup cursing my alarm clock that perhaps if the company that so gratefully employed me, as wellas – theoretically – all companies instituted ‘flex times’ like an honor system, that allowed their employees to come in to work between, say: 8:30 and 10:30: whenever their bodies felt most appropriate – rather than making them feel that they were being dragged out of bed at the crack of dawn against their will – there really wouldn’t be much taking advantage of this experimental system; we wouldn’t see an over-excess of workers showing up at 10:29 each day, especially within the union of terrain park employees like yours truly, who have an appreciation for contribution to a team, enjoy shaping and skiing their personalized snow sculptures and of course, don’t hate the paycheck that comes along with getting up those few extra hours earlier.

On another note…

The link below is a one minute edit from a lap or two that was filmed during the off days in my office by Nevin Falloon.  It was tossed together with the deadline of one day: intended as a last minute contribution, a ‘commercial’ for the Golden Film Festival in Golden B.C. Thought I’d share! Check out the Yowie!

Click the link to watch on Vimeo

Thanks Outdoor Tech, Liberty Skis, TMC Freeriderz, Surefoot, Crossfire Designs and Trew Outerwear.

Ben Wannamaker

Most people that you talk to look at professional athletes and think, man they got the life.  Travel all over the world, just doing what you love, what an easy life.  Now I’m not saying that isn’t exactly the case.  I get to go ski and see amazing places all over the world, and that indeed is pretty awesome.  Even as a teenager looking up to pro skiers and thought the same thing,  but you never really comprehend what the athletes go through year to year.

This year for me has been tough.  The winter started off by an amazing trip to Japan. Great snow, amazing people, and of course the food is always a highlight being over there, but the list of injuries this season seem to have started off there.  While carrying a 70lbs backpack filled with flash and camera gear I got pulled off a large drop and hurt my knee.  3 days later after my knee started feeling better I re-injured the same knee which plagued me for the rest of the trip.  As an athlete its so frustrating to not be 100%.  Imagine going to work everyday and only being able to do it at 60%, not exactly the best recipe for success. After Japan I took some time to get my knee strong and headed north to British Columbia to start filming with Voleurz.  After a few weeks of being there, and only getting to film a few days I was hitting a jump and went a little to large and severely sprained my left ankle.  When I came to a stop I was in so much pain I couldn’t even stand up.  I limped over to one of the sleds and sat there shaking in pain.  I ended up filming the rest of the day and just tried to fight through the pain.  After one more day of trying to film the pain was too great and had to take the next 8-9 days off just to get back to being able to get my foot and ankle into my ski boot.  Finally back to where I can ski, only about 75% but still good enough to shoot and start filming.  Only a few days after finally feeling strong again, I’m back in Mt Baker shooting and decided to ski a line that I have been looking at for a few years now. Widowmaker.  It’s a 2 hour boot pack to the top of the peak, followed by a multi pitch rappel to get into the 50 degree line filled with spines.  As I got in and took my first few turns the snow quickly turned to ice and I began rag dolling down almost the entire face before I self arrested.  Mid fall I felt myself cartwheeling through ice chunks, at one point I was sure that I snapped my right arm, and or dislocated my shoulder.  As I slid to a stop the pain in my shoulder and knee quickly took over.  However I did hike back up get my ski and ski the line I had just fallen on.  After the adrenaline wore off the pain really started to sink in.  Sitting here as I write this, my knee resembles some sort of large fruit.  ACL test showed my knee is intact but I have massive swelling and can only bend my knee to 90 degrees.

Seems like just as soon as you get healthy enough to get back out there something else pops up, wether it be a nagging injury or a new one.  The most frustrating part is not being able to ski, or in some cases not being able to ski 100%.  Not exactly something I had imagined when I dreamed about becoming a professional athlete.  They never showed this in the movies, but then again when I’m headed up to the top of a line at sunrise, surrounded by mountain peaks as far as you can see and perfect snow, I think about people that aren’t able to do this so what am I complaining about?

It’s been bothering me since I first heard about it, Parkour.  Is it cool or lame?  There’s no question that it takes ‘mad skills’ and intense physical stamina.. and shown in the right light it’s badass as hell.  However there in lies the issue, lighting.  The only mainstream outlet I’ve seen was MTV’s Ultimate Parkour Challenge, which in my opinion makes it look like a mix between American Gladiators and Wipeout.  Also, while I realize the roots of the name “Parkour” stem from the French Military (which is pretty badass), it just doesn’t translate properly to the American dialect.  It sounds like a cheese, or butter of some sort.  I’ve heard it called Freerunning.. which might be something totally different, regardless I would push for if I were they.. them?

Featured above:  OT Athlete Michael-Frosti-Zernow

Now, you maybe thinking “Hey man, that’s pretty f-ing superficial” and I’d agree.  It’s also missing the point of the entire practice of Parkour.  But that’s not what this article is about right now, so shut it.  Plus if you’re telling me that this isn’t an image based industry, then I’d tell you to check your facts kid, and brush your teeth.. your breath stinks.  Really I just don’t want Parkour to go the way of Rollerblading (RIP).

Featured above:  OT Athlete Daniel-Knox-Manino

So I’ve decided that Parkour is in fact awesome, but it’s name and the way it’s been shown has earned it a negative connotation.  Much like our efforts with our Bluetooth Tags.  We saw an opportunity in a very valid product with limitless potential that just hasn’t been done right yet.

On a somewhat related side note, I’m a bit taken back lately to find the amount of judgment and hatred between sports in the “Action” sports community.  Skiers are gay blah blah blah.. I understand a good rivalry but it’s important to realize that at their core, all athletes in the action sports community share a similar passion for testing the limits, both their own and each others… so grow up and quit bitchin.

Here’s a quick excerpt, but check out the full review at kdayracing.com

“Hav­ing used them nearly every day now for about three weeks, I’ve pretty much sold every­one in the office on a pair. The con­ve­nience alone is worth it to me. Also, in years past, I’ve used SDAY’S Mac­book pro to watch videos while ped­al­ing away on the rollers. It’s a pretty good sys­tem that I can set up just about any­where, but I’ve never been able to fully hear the audio… until now. The DJ Slims are per­fect for a lit­tle trainer time. At 103 grams, they’re light enough to wear for a few hours with lit­tle or no adjustment.”

-KDAY Racing

My names Jason Henderson, I’m Australian but moved to hawaii in 1998 to live the dream. Recently I just got back from a 5 month trip through central america, where I started in Costa Rica and basically chased waves all the way north to California. I went down to Costa Rica solo and I spoke zero spanish and didn’t know anybody, but I did have a few maps and surf guide books and went down to see what waves were around.

Playa Hermosa next to Jaco was where I first landed and from there I started looking at swell charts and maps and started plotting where I was going to go next. This year I was actually super lucky as it was a really active storm season in the southern hemisphere and I was fortunate enough to score waves in every country except Guatamala.

What inspired you to put life on hold?

I’m 33 and like most people have been working for years and had girlfriends and car bills and other commitments which have kept me from travelling for extended amounts of time and finally I was so fed up with the rat race that I decided that there has to be more to life and sold up everything and just went for it,This trip of mine started as a journey chasing the swells and finding uncrowded waves but getting to these spots and meeting all the random people that were travelling around doing the same thing was one of the best experience of the trip.

I feel you.. At some point I plan to just start running, Forrest Gump style.  Where has the trip taken you?

I first spent 6 weeks in costa rica and pretty much just jumped around from place to place chasing swells. Basically I started in playa Hermosa and from there went north to Santa Teresa and onto Tamarindo aka Tamagringo. And thats when I saw a huge swell on the charts approaching and did a 2 day bus ride  all the way down to Pavones in the south of Costa Rica that has the second longest wave in the world where I camped out for about a month on and off.

I then went up to San Jose to see the Red Hot Chilli Peppers play and then bussed it north to Popoyo, Nicaragua where I stayed for another few weeks chasing waves around that area of coastline. I then saw another large south swell approaching so I bussed it all the  way north to El Salvadore, Las Flores to be specifc and scored some of the unbelievable right hand point breaks that El Salvador has to offer.

After that I was thinking I might start to make my way back to costa rica as i had a flight booked out of San Jose but a huge tropical storm formed off the coast of El Salvador  with 60mph winds that was supposed to hit the next day so I decided it was in my best interests to run away from the beach asap as being in a third world country is not where you want to be when a storm hits, so I decided to run and went north to guatamala to check out the mayan ruins while the storm passed. The storm then turned into a huge tropical depression and sat over guatamala and proceed to rain for weeks. Unfortunately I did get stuck there in the town of Antigua due to mud slides and crazy flooding but after about a week there. The road to Rivas in the north east opened up and I went to Tikal to see the Mayan ruins.

From there I bussed it north to mexico and travelled all the way through the mountains and down to Huatulco and chased waves all around that area for a month. From there I flew to Puerto Vallarta and jumped on a yacht and surfed/fished/dived my way north chasing another swell for just under 2 weeks until the swell went flat and then flew up to tijuana and walked across the border and spent a few weeks in cali waiting for waves but nothing really happened and the cold was killing me so I flew back home to hawaii and now i’m sitting on the beach watching the Pipe masters as i type this.

What’s next?

I’ll stay in hawaii and bartend and teach surfing and do some surf guiding for the next few months and refill the bank acct and then i’ll be off to the bahamas searching for waves in late march for a few months and then I’m not sure. We’ll see what opportunities arise, maybe mex again or indo

I remember you told me you didn’t have any interest in competition (which I like), can you elaborate?

I used to compete back in the day in australia and when I first moved to hawaii but found I wasn’t really enjoying that side of surfing and that I’d prefer to surf more alternative style surfboards and chase uncrowded waves when I wasn’t working.

Any gnarly/ near death/ exciting stories from this trip?

Apart from almost being struck by lightning twice and my car almost getting washed away by flood waters while leaving Pavones.(http://youtu.be/kEx4wi5Rs78) All of central america was kinda gnarly and not understanding everything that was going on around me due to my lack of spanish was definitely one of the scariest things. The other main fear was the fear of the unknown as I never knew what , central america has such a bad rap  due to the drug war that is going on at the moment but I personally had no problems at all.

As far as waves go though, I surfed so many waves in the middle of know where with no one else around that every spot had its own gnarly element to it. Whether it was crocodiles or other large creatures swimming around, or just strange water currents. But my scariest would have been last month in Mex at this secret spot called LA Bamba when i snapped my leash on a heavy takeoff and the current swept me down the beach and into a rock jetty and then I took another 6 waves on the head till it had washed me past it and I could come in around the corner.

Google Earth – How do you utilize it (without going into detail on specific spots)

Google earth has definitely changed the way that I look for surf. With all this new technology that we have on hand, ie satellite charts, bouoy readings for size and swell direction. We can make great calculated guesses on where and when the swell will hit and due to most roads in central america not following the coast. I could use google earth and see what points/reefs/bays were around. Which saved me so much  as I could figure out not only what the coast looked like but roads to access these spots.