Dynamicsmultimedia.com

SteezMiniMag.comVol.3 Issue1

Chief StaffAndrew Bablo andy@steezminimag.com

Art Director Joe LoVasco joe@steezminimag.com

Staff Photographers Stuart Lander stuart@steezminimag.com

Kurt + AJ dynamicsmultimedia.com

Ian Pouliot nemesisphoto.com

Writing StaffBobby Martin bobby@steezminimag.com

Larry Brown larry@steezminimag.com

Colby DeGrechie colby@steezminimag.com

Patrick Gaffney pat@steezminimag.com

IllustratorDan Skowyra dan@steezminimag.com

Reps. Pete Prudhomme pete@steezminimag.com

Dougie Brassill doug@steezminimag.com

Brandon Griffin brandon@steezminimag.com

Ben Werth ben@steezminimag.com

Stefan Kunze info@steezminimag.com

Chris Gadomski chris@steezminimag.com

Jonny Boornazian john@steezminimag.com

Alex DeGrechie alex@steezminimag.com

Danny Behnk danny@steezminimag.com

Contributors Evan Nelson

Scarecrow (Ryan Bonsall)

Ian Post iheartsnowproductions.com

Skye Nacel perpetualmocean.com

ThanksKris Anderson, Calico Graphics, Duke Logan, Gary

Pruitt, Daily Printing, Mike Lee, Kimmy Lavoie, Shalini

Saycocie, Dave Akins, Roger Cameron

Steez Magazine

17 Knowlton St. #3 Beverly, Ma 01915

607-329-5767 603-986-3839

Steezminimag.blogspot.com, SteezFacebook, SteezMyspaceSteez Magazine is a collaboration of East Coast riders who devote their time, money, and resources to riding East Coast terrain, regardless of the conditions or cir-cumstances. Steez and it’s constituents are simply the vehicle for which you, the reader, may learn about new places, concepts, and ideas to consider. Stay Steezy!

No reproduction of any content in whole or in part is allowed without the expressed written consent of the publisher and artists. © Steez Magazine 2008

What you can expect

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Hot Edition Vol.3 Issue1

The temperature was in the high 80’s, a per-fect day for the beach. Definitely not the type of weather one would associate with snowboarding. We’d heard that Whaleback Mountain had just built a dry jib setup, called Jib Harbor, one of the first of its kind on the East Coast. We couldn’t be quite sure of what to expect, only that it was going to be surreal. I personally had an idea of what was in store, but one thing kept ringing throughout my mind “It’s summer and I’m going snowboarding!”

Upon first inspection of the rail setup I was equally baffled and very impressed. There were two boxes and one handrail built into a giant wooden platform. The platform was not on a hill but instead at the bottom of the mountain, looking

Rail JamWords: Evan NelsonPhoto: Stuart Lander

extremely out of place amidst the greenery of the trees and grass of summer at Whaleback. Each of the boxes and handrails were set up at the bottom of steep drop-in ramps. All ramps were covered in Astro Turf as well as the few feet leading up to the rails. I realized right away that this was definitely going to be an experience unlike anything else.

In order to make the rig rideable, the Whale-back crew used dish soap and a type of fake snow, called Snowgel, that resembled beads of plastic and somehow remained damp but didn’t melt. As a matter of fact, they were extremely slippery. This material was spread all over the Astro Turf mak-ing it slick enough to gain the speed needed to properly hit the rails. It was a pretty ingenious

idea. When there’s no snow, why not use manmade products to get the same effect? To help out, ice was thrown on top of everything to allow for a little extra speed.

Riding on Astro Turf and soap was very differ-ent from anything our riders had ever tried. The first attempts at hitting the largest box resulted in some pretty gnarly falls. It turns out that un-like riding on snow, the flatter you kept your board

upon approaching, the slower you went, and if you used an edge, well you’d fall instantly. So traction was immediately noted as difficult to harness. Af-ter a few runs though, everyone seemed to get the hang of it and started having a wicked good time. Unanimously, the phrase of the day was, “I can’t believe we’re hitting rails in the middle of sum-mer!” We hiked and hucked for several hours of nonstop jibbing, and you could sense just how im-pressed everyone was with the day’s events. There really wasn’t anything like it.

All in all I’d have to say that Whaleback Moun-tain is tapping into something very unique, setting them apart from many other East Coast moun-tains. Most mountains especially the smaller ones, only focus on winter and don’t even bother to uti-lize the month’s in-between seasons. Whaleback impressed all of us and will most likely remain a memory in all of our lives, not only because of the uniqueness of the experience, but also because of how much fun we had. To all the crew at Whale-back, you guys are awesome, keep on pushing in new directions and trying different ideas. We’ll be right there to throw some Steez.

“It’s summerand I’m going

snowboarding!”

Hit up Whaleback Mountain online for year round action sports at www.whaleback.com.

INTERVIEWby Larry Brown

Dear Roger & Sarah, what is the magic in your wax that will make me go-go?

The magic in our wax comes straight from our hearts and craniums and is fortified with fun.

You have a skate wax called “Power-Sparkle Formula,” what’s that about and what are these power sparkles you’ve inge-niously infused in it, you mad scientist, you?

Our first formula was PowerSparkle™ skate wax… We figured that skate wax needed some twinkle so we gave it a sprinkle.

It seems that your wife shares the same weird-science approach to wax in her own

company geared towards women, “POM POM.” And it’s scented? Like vanilla? I

know it’s for girls, but I’m probably get-ting some.

photos courtesy of magical go-go

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Rad! There are plenty of dudes that are down with POM POM, it’s like

candy…and who doesn’t like candy?! We’re all about fun-whether it be scents, colors, graphics…it’s all the little details….all about the cherry on top.

Magical Go-Go makes five different kinds of snowboard wax, two of which are soy based. What drove you to make your Go-Go Eco line of environmentally friendly waxes?

We’re a vegetarian household here. That being said, we’re pretty tight with soy. One night we had some leftover tofu, and we thought, what are we going to do with all of these leftovers? Our dog Rufus is imaginary, so he was of no help. Hence, GOFU was born! Just kidding, seriously, I really hope none of your readers take a snack break right now and start munching on GOFU. Honestly, we’re down with doing our part to lessen our dependence on petroleum and at the same time offer alternative choices that are better for our environment.

Your slick, all-temp wax “GREASE LiGHTNiNG” has go-go graphite injected into it? What goes on in that beautiful mind of yours and how does that work?

Go-Go graphite injection helps reduce static that your board creates when you slide over the snow and it also helps repel dirt & grime from crusty old snow. Hence, Go-Go graphite = faster!

Speaking of wax, I hear there are rumors of a possible surf wax line in the near future. I suppose you’ll be brewing that up with a sprig or two of shark tail, or maybe essence of dol-phin?

We’re working on the surf wax, for sure. POM POM will be offering an all-natural surf wax line first, and then Go-Go will follow soon after.

Riding conditions in the Northeast are notoriously inconsistent, the kinds of ice-face only a mother could love. What sort of an edge does a company

like Magical Go-Go bring to the table, being from the said frozen nether realm?

Sure the Northeast winters could be better, but they could be a lot worse too. Being from Western Mass gives us the gratitude and a positive attitude towards whatever kind of winter comes our way. I think that attitude is shared by everyone on our FEAM (family + team) and people can see that.

You started Go-Go way back in 2003 when there was no such thing as honeycomb cores or “easy” bindings or boots you didn’t have to lace, and we were all thrashing around on construction re-fuse. Now the company is five years old? Any big plans ahead?

This is sort of a funny story because Magical Go-Go was born in 2003 at approximately 12:16 in the afternoon, during a lunch break, at a skate park. I was in search of some wax to help myself slide the lightning when the words “Magical Go-Go” slid out of my mouth and presto, the brand was born.

Yeah, that’s how the brand was born. I think some of the original labels were like pirates or something—some clip art which was actually pretty funny. After the 9-5 grind, we’d make some wax, cut out labels with scissors (that was before we discovered that we could just buy circle labels), shrinkwrap it (I person-ally enjoyed the shrinkwrap gun) and pack up orders for some local shops. There was no business plan, no marketing (except some stickers and some ads in he Journal), no strategy. It was awesome. Totally home-grown. After a couple years of this, however, our stove and laundry room became colored with wax, our floors became tacky…it was a mess and really becoming too time consuming to just be a hobby. So we were left with a choice—either bag the idea or go full-force. Neither of us was going to throw in the towel, so we sat down and decided to take it seriously. We consider this upcoming year really only our 2nd year since we decided to go full-force. Ever since then, we’ve been non-stop with ideas. I mean POM POM was born so fast—not even a year old yet. We’ve got huge ideas

that don’t stop, which is awesome, but at the same time, we get overwhelmed because there’s just not enough time in the day. But bottom line, our goal for both brands is to be multi-sport. We’ve got the ingre-dients, just need a double oven to bake it up.

Magical Go-Go has twenty-three team riders, so you guys over there in your wacky laboratory must be doing a lot of things right. I wouldn’t put making an extra rider out of used body parts past you, but are there any new recruits in the near future besides Frankenstein?

Our latest recruit was also one our our biggest and that was Louie Fountain. He heard about Magical Go-Go through another Go-Go rider Chris Beresford. We were really stoked and flattered that he wanted to be a part of the FEAM. As far as new recruits go we re-ally need to take things step by step and as we grow a little bit more so will our ability to grow our FEAM but of course anybody can be part of our family!

POM POM had an awesome feature in Transworld Business this past summer and there was a brief mention of surf wax coming out. We’ve since received some pretty radical inquiries from girls wanting to be sponsored, which is awesome. But first we want to get the wax out!

Finally, if you had a million dollars what would you do with it?Hmm… a lot of things come to mind. We probably wouldn’t just do one thing with the money but try and do a little of everything. First off we would advertise on the back cover of Steez Minimag, then donate the necessary funds for a public skatepark here in our hometown of East Longmeadow, maybe throw a big Go-Go & POM POM party for the FEAM or rent a big billboard on the side of 91 that thanks everyone who has supported us. WONK!

Yeah and then maybe go buy a brand new wax-free stove. HAHA! Ph

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Rider:LukeFrecceroPhoto:NemesisPhotoSlide ride Enfield skate park, MA

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Rider:ErikRichardsPhoto:ScarecrowBack smith, UMass

Rider:MylesStarkPhoto:IanPostKickflipping the garden gap in St. Johnsbury, VT

Rider:PetePrudhommePhoto:Skye-mocean365Top of the quarterpipe Newburyport, MA

Rider:DannyBehnkPhoto:NemesisPhotoSecret ghetto QP Springfiled, MA

Rider:RyanKellyPhoto:StuartLanderNight riding in West Lebanon skate park, NH

How did you get into filming? I was 14 or15 years old, when my family got a video camera and I started to film my friends skiing. My parents wanted me to get a job but I figured I could make a little money making a ski movie, so I did.

How did you come up with Aberrant for your film company?

I was thinking of something like unnatural films and then I looked up unnatural in the thesaurus and found Aberrant.

What was the first film that you made? I filmed Natural during the 06-07 winter sea-son and thanks to my sponsors, Volkl, Tecnica, Marker, Whaleback, and Golf and Ski Warehouse, I was able to give 1,000 copies out for free on the East Coast.

by Stuart LanderPhoto:Stuart Lander

What have you been up to this summer?I went out to Momentum Ski Camps in Whistler BC with Solomon Skis. I filmed a freestyle ski in-strustrnal movie for www.skitricktips.com.

So where did you film this year?I filmed at Whaleback, Loon, Attitash, Mount Sunapee and Mount Snow.

I was able to photograph some of your end of season sessions. How do you think the shots came out?

All the footage came out sick! People will be pretty stoked on the photos. Lets see, I think some of the coolest shots were of Jon Brogan and Dylan Goodspeed at Whale-back. I also really like the shots from Attitash and Sunapee of Matt Pothier, Richie Paradies and LJ (John Strenios).

Rider:John Brogan

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What are your plans for this coming fall and winter, what can we expect?

I have two movies coming out this fall, the Ski Trick Tip movie and the new Aberrant Ski movie. I will probably do a mini east coast tour with the Aberrant ski films and the ski tip movie will be online at www.skitricktips.com. This winter we will be working off a bigger bud-get so you can expect to see a lot more trips. Definitely some powder skiing and snowmobile backcountry outings all over the East. You can also expect a ton more urban footage from the top skiers that have come out of the East Coast. And to top that all off we should be doing close to double the amount of park shoots we did this past winter. All in all, every aspect of next years film will be stepped up a few levels.

Rider:LJ

Rider:Matt Pothier

www.aberrantskifilms.com

Who says that Western Mass doesn’t have much of a skate or snow scene? Well if that’s what you think, then you probably haven’t checked out “Fat Trax” in East Longmeadow, MA before. Snowboard, skate, and BMX shop manager, Mike Lee, has been with Fat Trax since they opened over ten years ago. Mike and his crew have done a kick-ass job at keeping the scene alive in the Springfield area. They’ve even opened a second seasonal location in East Hampton, MA for both skiing and snowboarding.

For those that still don’t know, the cats outta the bag. The Springfield area has some good parks and even better urban terrain for a sick day of skating. For all those rainy days, the locals have an unbelievable indoor (underground) BMX/skate park that’ll blow your mind. (Insiders only, that’s

why you probably haven’t heard about it). Lastly, believe it or not, there’s mountain’s in Western Mass too, and though they aren’t huge, they’ve helped bring up some pretty damn good riders in the past few years.

The Fat Trax HQ is open seven days a week and carries a ton of great brands and all the latest shwag. Snowboards, skateboards, BMX/moun-tain/road bikes, skies, clothing and accessories. Don’t have any dough to throw down right now? No problem. Stop in and chill out for a bit. The Fat Trax crew is always down to chat about local hap-penings. There’s plenty of good stuff going on all the time. No matter what the occasion. Whether it’s for a big sale, a video premier, or a snow or skate event, as always, it’s FTK ALL DAY. -A

www.Fat-Trax.com

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Many people use vanity plates as a way to express certain opinions they have of themselves. For example, if an obese 85 year-old woman were to walk out of a car

tagged as “WKDSXY,” one can only imagine that she hasn’t looked in the mirror in quite some time. However, that’s the beauty of these vanity plates. No matter what other people think of you, a vanity plate gives you a chance to label yourself as something or

someone that you want to be. The downfall of a self labeled whip is that by associat-

ing yourself with such a plate, you open yourself up for some serious scrutiny by anyone who crosses your path.

Having known somebody with a vanity plate, I’ve given the subject a lot of thought. My sister’s boyfriend rolls

around with “STUCK” bolted to the back of his ride. While to him it may represent

a clever play off his last name, Stucker, to my family it represents his almost relentless presence in our lives.

Certainly “STUCK” is one of the more modest labels we cross paths with on the road, but recently I‘ve noticed quite a few labels I haven’t been able to shake. “2CRZY4U” was a handle affixed to an old sedan on one of the streets I drive by. Figuring it to be some teenage kid, I didn’t pay it much attention, until one day the car’s owner unveiled her true identity. Oxygen in tow, I watched as an 80 year-old lady entered the car. What could possibly have compelled this old lady to willingly publicize her affection for living life on the wild side? Caught somewhere between admiration and sheer terror, I pulled off the road to let this budding “NASCAR” driver pass by.

“1NTSTND” a paraphrased version of “One Night Stand” certainly caught my attention as I was parked at a New Hampshire grocery store. First I concluded the plate had something to do with the driver staining themselves, and then the actual meaning clicked. Curiously, I awaited the arrival of the driver, expecting to see either a boda-cious girl who would soon grace the cover of Sports Illustrated, or a chiseled man so full of himself that he would have to publicize his sexual endeavors. Instead I see a mid-aged man about 5’1 and 135 pounds, glasses, long greasy hair and ankle socks. Needless to say I think the Steve Erckle look alike was thinking rather optimistically when purchasing the tag. Certainly some people just enjoy criticizing people’s plates, other people see it as a way to express their opinions, but for the most part vanity plates provide some flavor on the road. Remember, if you do decide to give your car a personal ticket; just make sure you don’t get “STUCK” with something you’re going to regret.