What’s up NS? I hope you guys are all having great seasons! I’m gonna

share a few highlights from my season that’s currently wrapping up too

quickly in Ontario.

I started off the season skiing a bunch at Mont-Tremblant. Their park

has been consistently wicked this season. After I finished up my fall

exams in December my girl Kim Lamarre came down to Ottawa to hit some

urban with me and Matt McEnery of Highland Productions (check out the

teaser from their last year’s movie! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIzVVf39Z8o).

We got a bit unlucky with some rain that froze right after, making

urban especially unfriendly, but after getting a light dusting of snow

it was game time. We hit a variety of metal and wood in the few days

that Kim was with us and Felix Rioux even came down from Montreal for a

day to get some cool shots.

 

wooden fun in Ottawa, Felix Rioux photo

 

Being in school full time, I really try to make the most of any time

off that I get but the weather over Christmas break in Ottawa was just

plain brutal. We did our best to make the most of it, especially with

the one and only Mack Jones making a home town appearance after his

life-altering experiences in Whistler during the fall months. Pretty

much the most fun we had was a day at Camp Fortune hitting side booters

in the rain. So yeah my Christmas break really blew.

 

I was depressed and back at school in January when I got an invite from

Steve at Salomon Freeski TV to tag along on an east coast rail trip

with Alexis, Walker and Martini. I begged a few profs and weasled my

way around a few school issues and made it down to New England for the

last few days of their trip. It was pretty intimidating being on a trip

with a bunch of guys that I didn’t really know too well at all, plus

the fact that they absolutely destroy urban and hit some pretty gnarly

features. I know that even just adding one more person into the mix in

an urban setting slows the whole process up a lot but all the guys were

super friendly and always ready to offer advice or tips. In the end I

got to hit a bunch of stuff with the guys but most of all I was stoked

on how much I took away from the trip, not only from their coaching but

also just from watching them ski. I gotta give a shout out to those

three guys cause they worked their asses off for that week and killed

it the entire time!

 

Me, Walker and Rogge; "Just tryin' to keep it real and all-black. Just bangin', you know?", Matt Stauble photo

 

On that trip I met a fine fellow by the name of Mike Rogge. Despite

telling more than a few strangers that I was his girlfriend, or that I

had peed my pants, I actually got along with him pretty well. He ended

up getting a job with Meathead Films (dopest peeps evaaaaah: http://www.meatheadfilms.com)

and managed to bamboozle me a spot on a trip the crew was taking to the

fine state of Pennsylvania. Chris, a.k.a. Rooster, and I made the

loooong trip down to Philadelphia to pick up the rest of the crew in

the Meatwagon following Geoff and French-Canadian Ben in a separate

car. We picked up some of Mama’s Nookies (not what you might think) in

New Hampshire and then were pretty much set for the journey ahead.

Rooster had plenty of time to warn me about what I was getting myself

into going on a trip with Andy Parry and Will Wesson.

 

The glorious Meatwagon, photo: my ballin iphone jea

 

Andy and Will. Damn they're cute... ladies, any takers?, photo: me

 

Eight (or more) hours later we picked up Andy, Will and Garrett

Russell. Rooster was definitely right; Andy could talk your ear off and

Will was very quiet. We headed over to Blue Mountain the next day to

check out their park. We were all pretty skeptical that we were

actually about to go skiing because there were nothing but grassy

farmers fields surrounding us wherever we looked. To our disbelief we

pulled up to the mountain and saw a shit ton of snow on the hill. The

park was SO much fun!! They had a bunch of really unique boxes and some

fun rails and overall the park had a pretty good flow to it. We spent

the next couple of days sessioning different features in the park with

bluebird weather. It definitely felt strange to be spring skiing in

February but we went with it. Watching all three of those guys was so

fun. Will is soo ridiculously clean, smooth, and calculated and Andy

and Garrett are always super creative and did some mind blowing stuff.

The whole park staff was so good to us and hooked us up with whatever

we needed; thanks Jason! We capped off the trip by hitting up the

tubing hill adjacent to the mountain with some local kids... Andy

screamed like a little girl the whole time.

The crew and some locals, can you find Will in the picture?, photo: stolen from the Meatheads, Chris James most likely

 

The weather turned ugly and we headed back up to Vermont. The ride back

was pretty interesting. Andy and Will are the definition of an old

married couple. I truly believe they’re madly in love but neither of

them will admit it. They find flaws in anything the other one says and

they argue to no end about who’s right. Needless to say I enjoyed every

minute with them and really miss those kids and their traveling circus.

When we got back to Burlington I skied a day of pow with Garrett and

Rooster at Stowe. It was super fun to do some soul skiing for once.

Garrett also made me realize that tall tees on powder days aren’t too

practical.

 

In March I went down to Mount St. Louis for Salomon’s Jib Academy stop.

There was a good crew of us: Iannick, JD Zicat, Alexis, Kaya, Denise

Jaworsky and Dave Bishop. MSL’s park was on point and the weather even

held out and we dodged some rain until the end of the day. Jamieson

Irvine continued his domination of the Southern Ontario ski scene and

took home the trip to Mammoth with the whole Salomon team in May!

 

Jib Academy at Louis... so much fun!, Photo: Pippin Lee

 

Up next was the Telus Triple Challenge at Blue Mountain (Ontario, not

Pennsyltuky this time). The legendary Mack Jones once again showed his

face on the east coast for this contest. Two other Ottawa boys made the

trip down with us, Bryan Snow & Max Morello. I introduced the guys

to Radio Ron on the trip by showing them the Meatheads movie Wanderland

so they couldn't stop yelling "dip dip dip" and "do it up one time" all

weekend. Slopestyle was pretty interesting with blizzard conditions but

Bryan, Mack and I all managed to make finals. Speed was a huge issue

but I ended up finishing 3rd, Mack was 5th and Bryan was 6th or so. The

rail jam the next day was also super fun minus the fact that they

decided to run the finals with all the skiers and all the snowboarders

at once, on 2 features, for 2 hours. Even if you hiked you had to fight

and snake your way in there to get another hit. It was kinda lame for

that because it didn’t really feel like a rail jam and you couldn’t get

any flow going. We had fun anyways and Jamieson ended up taking home

1st for the second year in a row. I finished up 1st in the girls’

category but all the girls were throwing down super hard, especially

Jess Warll... yeaah girl! The next night was big air and Mack was

wow-ing us with his beauty kangaroo flips with a japan held the whooole

way. Mack was definitely the favourite to win but ended up coming in

2nd... I even heard someone say it was the biggest upset since the text

message scandal (x...).

 

Me at the qualifiers for rail jam, photo: Pippin Lee

 

Game face bro... daaaa boys, photo: me

 

Then the highlight of my season happened. I got a call from Geoff at

Meatheads asking me if I was interested in skiing some bumps that

weekend with... RADIO RON. I lost my mind and said of course. I had a

commitment to my girl Britney Spears in Montreal that weekend also but

I made it all happen. Britney was amazing and is definitely back in

form.

Deeeee-amn Brit, girl, you fine, photo: Reebs Becca

 

I headed down to hippie town the next day to meet up with the

Meatheads. I couldn’t believe it when I walked in the house and saw

Radio Ron. He’s everything you think he is if you’ve ever seen

Wanderland or Head for the Hills. We picked up Dan Marion on our way

down to Connecticut and then met up with Hammer to session Sundown that

night. Ron and Hammer wasted no time showing me and Marion what was up

in the bumps. We got up early the next day to register for what was

gonna be a super gnarly day: slopestyle, then big air, then a mogul

comp to finish things off. The slopestyle course was SO fun, a flat

down box followed by a long flat kinda up rail followed by two tables.

I was the only girl but I finished up 3rd with Marion being a jerk (jk

babe) and winning and taking home the cash. The mogul course was

honestly two normal courses attached end to end. I could barely even do

a top to bottom. But I had Ron yelling “DO IT UP ONE TIME” in my ear so

that was pretty motivational and that got me pumped. I ended up falling

in my final dual... I’m not gonna lie I was pretty bummed but I had no

gas left in the tank so I just crashed. Marion finished 3rd and Hammer

destroyed everyone taking home the $1000 prize. We got real friendly

with some locals in the lodge after the comp and I saw a 50 year old

lady table dance better than I ever could. I definitely hope to get

back to Sundown someday!

 

I hadn't skied a bump contest in five years but I was still pretty

stoked on throwing down some iron-cross spread eagles. Photo: Carrie

Vibert

 

Life goal complete.. me and Radio Ron. Photo: some great guy on my iphone, maybe Marion

 

Next up was Carleton University Ski and Snowboard Club’s annual JIB

TEST. With a huge lack of snow in Ottawa the Club did their best to

make a sick set up. They had a super smooth down flat down rail and a

nice down box with a sea of mud surrounding everything which made

falling pretty interesting. I got a bunch of different tricks in the

jam so I was stoked but as per usual there weren’t too many girls. But

I should mention my girl Maxine who definitely stepped it up that day,

chea! The boys were getting real greasy and Max Morello was throwing

some suuuuper stylie tricks... he didn’t get too much love from the

judges though. With the defending champ, Mack Jones, out sending it in

Whistler, Chris Honeywell won the big shabang.

 

Mudfest. Photo: Peter Kelly

 

Chris Honeywell: pwned, at least he won the mouhla. Photo: Aleesha Mullen

 

Right after the comp I met up with Sandy Boville to head up to

Tremblant for the next Jib Academy. I was starving after hiking the

scaffolding at the rail jam all day so I figured we could make a pretty

quick stop at McDuu’s in Papineauville... WRONG. There were some major

sketchballs ordering literally 35 or more cheeseburgers. They were

being super weird when we asked them what they needed so many for. The

next day was one of the most epic days of the year at Trembs with warm

and sunny weather. Kaya, Sandy and I spent the day skiing the South

Park and hiked this one flat down box for a long, long time trying all

sorts of tricks. Definitely one of the funnest ski days of my season!

That night Coors Light threw a party in a mystery location but really

dropped the ball on their DJ choice and most people ended up leaving

before 12:30. The DJ even refused to play Britney... that’s when I knew

it was time to leave that bunk rave he was trying to start. The next

day the weather turned pretty ugly for Jib Academy. Despite hurricane

force winds and rain everyone still had a bunch of fun skiing around

together and Antoine Bourassa ended up winning the trip to Mammoth.

 

This past weekend it was snowing at Tremblant and me and some friends,

Max & Jay Leroux, did some gangsta sheeeiiiiit in the baby park as

the south park seemed to be dunzo for the season sadly. The guys just

started doing front flips the other day so they are totally obsessed. I

threw together a quick little edit of some of the stuff from me, Kaya

and Sandy’s day as well as the wet and snowy day at Trembs last

weekend. Hope you enjoy it, thanks for reading my long ass story of my

not-too-glamourous but really fun season, and I hope you guys are

making the most of what's left of your seasons! DO IT UP ONE TIME!!!

carpet kids from Jen Crichton on Vimeo.