What's up. My name is Ashley, and I am about to indulge on my experience with IF3. I have never written a blog before, but have wanted to for a while now, so please excuse its existence if you are not entertained.

I want to start off by first explaining how I was feeling going into this event. A short while after joining this site, I noticed how much older I was than most of its members. Really what helped me notice this was the Ladies Men cult. So I decided to start a cult of older members, 21+ (though it didn't remain that way). I slowly chose new members, some were suggested to me, and some I just picked up based upon their posts. Well, this cult went on to show the kind of community you can create online (not that NS hasn't done this before with previous cults), and make friends from all parts of the world. There are members in this cult from Whistler, Washington, Oregon, Vermont, Onterrible, New York, Australia, Montreal, New Zealand, California, Assachusetts, Utah, Minnesota (don't cha know?) etc. etc. We have a great bond, a bond that can not be replicated. A few months before September, talk of the International Freeskiing Film Festival occurred. And we realized, that quite a few of our members were going to be in attendance. Me, K2ECripa, starlightlou, MacMahoooon, Klazo, drew., C.Faller, stowebum, Bangor, papasteeze, J.D., Bishop, Schmuck, Mousseau, Rogge, soxripper, & thegreyarea. Needless to say, it was easy to get stoked on IF3 – just knowing that we'll be watching insane ski movies, drinking/toking, and meeting each other. For 4 days. What?!

I start my adventure off with someone who is very dear to me. Her name is Lesley, and I met her on here a little over a year ago. A few months after that, we met in real life at my home mountain. From there, we have become incredibly good friends, trying to hang out whenever possible....being as she lives an hour and half north of me. Not to mention we both hate bishes, it works out well.

snwbrdmilf & K2ECripa = werd up!

So I started off the morning of Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 8:00am by driving up north to meet her. I was supposed to arrive at her place of employment at 9:30, so we could go from there to the Albany International Airport to pick up none other than Lindsay, aka starlightlou. The funny story about this girl, is she's only been on Newschoolers since June 3rd, 2008. If you can count correctly, that is 3 months of membership. She created a thread, “Any girls in SF wanna skate with me?” - got deemed a pedophile, and somehow through Papa's good work, she got into our cult. Why not, she's 28! Turns out, she's one cool fucking chick.

So I'm on my way to Albany, and every time I head here, I get lost. I miss the exit, make a few wrong turns, and call Le on the cellyphone so she can rescue me. Well, this time I promised myself I wouldn't miss the exit, and that I would make it there no problems. So I spot it, exit 4, and turn off. And like the asshole that I am, I accidentally veer to the left and get back on I-87. Fuuuuuuck. Needless to say, I didn't make it to Lesley's office until 10:00. And Lindsay's flight gets in at 10:15, and we have a 20 minute drive. Dammit!

I also didn't recognize Lesley, because she was dressed in full on work clothes, straight down to the heels. Mind you, I have only seen her in street clothes which consist of jeans & flip flops. Way to throw me for a loop woman!

We're on our way there, and we get a text from Lindsay, “I'm waiting on the curb”. My fault, shit. So we roll up, and there she is, all 5'4” of her. We greet her with a sign and some lovable NS hugs, throw her HU-FUCKING-MUNGOUS suitcase into my trunk, and peace back to Lesley's pad. Where we eat food, toke some weedage, meet Lesley's crackhead of a neighbor, who has Alzheimers and told the two funniest jokes ever! and get to know each other in real life. Right off the bat, we can tell this is going to be a fantastic trip.

Next is Drew's turn. He was to be picked up at the same airport, at 12:47. Well, guess who was late and guess who was waiting on the curb? 2 for 2 baby! Again, a round of hugs and bags in the trunk. Here's where we get giddy, because this is the point in which we start our 3 hour trek up I-87 through the Adirondacks into Montreal, Canadia. I was incredibly stoned on this drive, as I tried my best to take in the scenery that was put before me. I have driven through the Adirondacks many times, and each time, my breath is taken away. These mountains are so gorgeous in all their glory. Fuck me NY is beautiful. And no, NOT THE CITY!

Ok, lets move on.

So we finally arrive at the border, and pass through no problem. Basic questions, “Where are you from? Where are you going? How long for?.....eh” - pretty easy. Along our 15 minute drive were small comments about how flat it was, fun shit. We get into Montreal, and slowly make our way to St-Hubert, where the Comfort Hotel is. The parking is first come, first serve, so its a giant clusterfuck when we pull in. I end up having Drew be my eyes as I back in da Suby like a giant puzzle piece. Voila! I'm in! Perrrrfect. Bags out, car locked, head inside to claim our room. We take the elevator to room 208, and leave Drew to head on up to his room, 505, where he would meet Klazo and C.Faller, his roomies. We walk into our room, and immediately notice the great window stoop we have for people watching. We chill there waiting for MacMahoooon to arrive, the lucky guy staying with 3 chicks. He gets there around 7:30, and this is where it all begins. The smaller portion of the group is here.

l-r: drew., starlightlou, MacMahoooon, snwbrdmilf, C.Faller, K2ECripa, & Klazo – PH rep!

So we all get ready, and head off to the Salomon 1080 party at Club La Mouche, where we start off with some premade watered down drinks. The venue was pretty sick, a long bar area at the back, and then long couches and huge square tables in the middle. We walked around a bit, danced here, drank there, and chatted with each other. We finally settled down in this one couch area to hang out, when I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around, and screamed in my face is, “HI!!! I'M MIKE ROGGE!” Excellent. I let out a laugh, and gave him a hug. I then yelled over the music to introduce him to the other members. He asked us if we had met Schmuck or anyone else, to which we replied No. He pulled us down through the dance floor and we settled near the front. Schmuck had wandered by and gave us a quick Hello. We continued on with our “drinking” and dancing, chatting it up as well. At one point, I turned to my side, and standing there was J.D. May. He made it!

After a while, someone said to me that it was 1:30, and we should head to bed so we could be well rested for the rest of the crazy weekend. After all, both Lindsay and Drew had a very long day of travel. Lindsay leaving San Fransisco the night before catching the red-eye and Drew waiting for stand-by, both having to switch flights. I let a few people know we're peacing, but Rogge wasn't having it. He pulled me onto the dance floor, in which I could not escape. Why would I want to? I didn't. So I danced. We then walk back over, to which he grabs Lesley this time, and we all head back out. We hooked him up =)

After that, we left to go back to the hotel. The original crew that had started, were all chillin in the ladies room talking. I realized at this point how incredibly well we got along as a group. Its always weird going from an online friendship to that of one in real life. Sometimes personality's clash, and you don't work as well as you thought you would. But this group did. We finally all decided we should head to bed, since we had our famed cult breakfast planned for the next morning.

We woke up at 9:00am, and scrambled to get ready. We didn't head out of the hotel doors until 10:00, which is what time we were supposed to be meeting at the NS office, which Chris then informed us was on the opposite side of Montreal. Awesome. We hopped in cabs and headed on over. We arrived at 10:45, to which we get to hear Bishop bitch about how we were late. This was his post in PH:

“Ummmmmm..... ok so here I am waiting at the NS Office at 10:00am... and NOTHING!

Am I getting stood up here or what? Come on, if I can make it, YOU CAN TOO!

Anyone who is officially down call:

office - 514.448.2760

cell - ***-***-****

Don't send txts because my cell is fucked... call me and let me know because I'm hungry!!!

Official office party starts at noon.”

Hilarious, right? Thought so. So we head out the door, we had the crew plus Bishop, Schmuck, & J.D. We go to this one diner that looks like it has enough seats for all of us. Doug starts heading towards this sweet round table where we could all face each other. The owner comes up and says, “How many?” - “12” - “to the back!!”. I felt like Rosa Parks for a split second, until I realized I was with the coolest group of people ever, and it didn't matter where we sat. They gave us shitty tables. We all ordered, chatted together, and listened to Doug play some awful music from the mini juke boxes in each booth. What awful music you ask? NSync. He was totally groovin' and loving every minute of it. I know so, because we went back to the office and he downloaded all of their albums.

Spread out, walking to breakfast, Craig, Chris, Doug & Drew

So at the point of getting back to the office, we realize we need to go get some drinks for this office party. We head down the road in a huge crew to a small convenience store. A thank you here, is being extended to Doug (and the donators! lolz) for accepting my snobbyness when it comes to beer. I simply can't drink cheap beer. So we compromised, got a huge case of .... something.... and a nice 12 pack of Becks. I know I know, but I was happy it wasn't Boreal. We walked back to the office, & created a Pancake Hamburgers signing area on the wall next to Jason's (I believe) desk. We're hoping all the members sign it one day. So sitting in Dougs office area, I look at the door only to see another cult member, stowebum. No one else notices, so I give a quick, “Happy belated Birthday Phil!” and the introductions, hugs & fives begin.

stowebum lost in a cloud of smoke (the last night)

At this point I want to extend another thank you to Klazo, for smoking copious amounts of pot, and sharing with all.

It is what it is.

It's now about 2:00 and us girls would like to go back to the hotel to shower and what not before movies and more partying. We had also talked about taking the Metro for “the experience”, and Drew decides to tag along. Our quest begins with me hounding Schmuck while Lesley and Lindsay hound Bishop on where we're going. The information I get from Jeff is basically, getting on the green train with a french name that I will memorize by appearance, and get off where the green and yellow train meet at a named stop in which I will memorize by appearance. Perfect. The girls seem to be done chatting with Doug, so we exit the office and walk out the door. To which I say, “Do we even know how to get TO the metro from here?” and we soon discover that it is Lindsay and Lesley's job to get us to the metro from the office, and Drew and my job to get us into and on the metro, and to our destination stop. From there to the hotel was a free for all.

So we got there, and immediately there's a small issue. Lindsay speaks a little bit of french, so we had been using her throughout our trip when needed. Except she didn't know where we were going. So her and I worked together as we tried to get the guy in the booth to understand where we were headed, while the manager in the background was a little peeved. Things get sorted out and we enter the metro station. We quick look at a map, so that we have a small idea of where to go when we get off. The train comes, we load, and stand there like idiots. We arrive at the first stop, and us girls grab seats as people filter off, and before the new peeps come on. We soon realize in our blaze of glory, that Drew had gotten stuck on his own on the other side. At every stop in between people getting on & off, we would motion for Drew to inch his way over. And every time, he got cut off, which resulted in little girl laughter springing from the corner. And the heat from the speed did nothing good for my intense cotton mouth, which kept the laughter coming out of Lindsay's mouth as my lips stuck to my teeth and my need to rehydrate my mouth with saliva that wasn't there. 8 stops later, we got off the metro in style, and headed in the direction of St-Hubert as if we knew where we were going the whole time. We made it back to the hotel easily, and were quite impressed with our ability to make it from one side of the city to the other, with only bits and pieces of information we grabbed from the admins. We all had a bit, and it all worked itself together, and we completed this part of the puzzle.

We all got showered and dressed, & headed back to the theater to meet up with our counterparts.

From here we watched Why Not, then Alliance, and finally a movie we had been waiting for, Head for the Hills. Its really great to be an east coaster (even as a snowboarder) and see this kind of footage. It really gets you stoked for the season. After the Meatheads film, we realized we were pretty hungry as we hadn't eaten since the breakfast. We decided to miss Journal, and grab something to eat before we saw Massive. So we bounced from the theater and grabbed some grub, some good grub mind you. We got back to the theater to see that it was paaaaacked. We scrambled to find some seats, losing both Lindsay and Drew in the process. Chris, Le, and I finally settled upstairs nicely in some seats, and began to watch. For 3 whole minutes, we were truly stoked on what we were seeing. And then the credits started rolling.

We realized we had totally missed Massive. Pretty sucky, eh?

The place we ate, & missed Massive for.

So after this, we head on over to the Massive party, where sadly as we all know, Cali P was not performing, but Mikey Dangerous instead. The line for the bar was atrociously long. Lindsay disappeared to get us drinks, and returned a half hour later. Again, with over priced pre-made watered down drinks. After a bit, we head outside for some fresh air, and we decide that we would rather grab a huge group of us, and head to bar where we can actually talk, and actually DRINK! So we go back inside to spread the word. As we're doing this, Rogge takes us girls with a quick “follow my lead” into a back room, where there are “VIPs”. He points some people out, and introduces us to a few. He then says, “Hey Ashley, you're into ECHeadwear, right?” - I respond with a “Hell yes!” thinking I'm getting some new swag, and instead I got a better treat. I see him grab Mr. Benedetto and say in his ear, which I can only assume was, “this is snwbrdmilf” because I was greeted with a “Hi!” and a nice hug. We chatted for a minute, and he tried to take a picture, but Tanner decided it would be cool to ruin it with his hand. It was nice to meet you Matty =)

After this, we head back out into the main room to grab our group. We wander around for a bit before settling into this dope bar with lots of outside seating. We grab tables and chairs, slam them together, order 3 pitchers of beer and begin one of the most fun nights I've ever had. We sat outside the bar having awesome conversations, getting insider info from Mike, & having chicken fights (which Papa has the pictures of) on our way to the late night poutine adventure.

I will now present you with some pictures from that evening.

Sitting outside the bar.

Looking like a bunch of stoners. And nopoles! /claim

Bishops business card.

Bahahahaha, I can only laugh.

l-r:Bangor, MacMahoooon, drew., K2ECripa, starlightlou, thegreyarea, Rogge, snwbrdmilf, papasteeze, Klazo, & J.D.

After the chicken FIGHTS!

Lindsay & Drew

You can't plan this shit NS, I swear to you!!

Late night POUTINE!

We then went back to the hotel, where we spent another night in a room full of NSers having some great conversations. Within these conversations, great laughs occurred. And some red faces. Want me to elaborate? SURE! At one point, out of nowhere, Mike Rogge sits up, and lets miss Lindsay know, that even though she uploads photos onto NS that are private, they are only private to average members. Admins and mods can see them. And even though she deletes them, they are not really gone. Don't you love how noobs learn? =)

He then rolled over, and bam! Lights out on our windowsill.

We woke up the next morning in a haze, but ready to take on the day. We showered/got dressed/smoked and headed on over to the theater in time to catch the end of Road to Nowhere, which we followed up with seeing SLAMINA. We then watched Skiing is_____. which I really enjoyed. It was nice to watch some “noobs” to big mountain tackle the terrain how they did. Lesley and I then left to grab some grub before Turbo and Reasons, leaving Lindsay to indulge in the movies. We missed Broadcast, Up In Snow, Get Lucky, & Hunting Yeti. At this point, we ran into both Amanda (soxripper) and Adam (thegreyarea) outside. They invited us back to their pad to get our drank on before the NS Awards that evening. We cracked some beers and began to play some Asshole. A card game for you slower folk. We played quite a few rounds, had some good laughs, as Lesley and I bowed out as President & Vice President. We headed back to the theater, just in time to catch the start of Turbo. At least we had good timing on one night! Turbo was amazing. There were so many 'what-the-fuck' and 'are-you-serious' shots. The crowd was wild, and Mousseau had his air horn on full effect in front of us. Definitely my favorite movie so far. We chilled back and ended our movie watching with the much anticipated Reasons. Watch it.

Once Reasons ended, us 3 girls headed towards the NS Awards while the boys went back to the hotel to do their thang, whatever that may be. On our way there, we got a tad bit lost as we noticed the streets were getting darker and the people a little bit creepier looking. We stopped and asked an old man directions, starting with “St-Catherine's?” - and he said, “Hold on, let me pull out my Bible.” - which he did. And inside, was a map of Montreal. How convenient! He pointed us in the right direction and we went on our merry way. As we're walking, we notice a bunch of “guido” looking dudes (button up shirts, sharp pants, slicked back hair & shiny shoes to boot), seeming a bit lost. We overheard them question, “St-Denis?”, which is where we were headed, so I quickly let them know they were going the right way. We asked them if they were headed to the Newschoolers party, and they said yes. And I say, “Are you sure?” - “Yeah, why not?” - “Because you're not dressed like skiers?”, one guy looks at Lesley and says, I promise, “Oh, so we're under dressed?” she cracked up and said, “No, you're over dressed” as we walked away. We walked towards the venue, which is right next to where the Salomon 1080 party was, at Club La Mouche. And as we get closer, we see 100's of these dudes and their slutty counterparts, chillin' outside. So we deem the new club, La Douche. Unfortunately for Lesley and I's immaturity, we kept this up all night. Every time we walked by, we would comment. After the NS Awards were said and done, we were outside waiting for our crew, when we somehow ended up in conversation with one of the douchebags. It started off with, “Hey Le, look, a guy from Club La Douche has lost his way”. Lesley then made a comment about his oh so trendy button up shirt, in which he replied that his clothes get him laid. Oh, its not easy girls? You sure? I then popped his collar, as one of the whores found her way there. Apparently she thought we were friendly, as she introduced herself. “Hi, I'm Melanie” - “Hi, I'm Lesley, and this guy has the Clap!” where a round of applause followed. She then shook my hand and introduced herself, to which I replied, “Hi, I'm Whore” - she clearly didn't catch on as Le and I burst into laughter. We continued putting him down, left and right, feeding of each other. I ended our encounter with a quick, “Would you like some antibiotic ointment for that oh so epic burn?”. We gathered our crew, and headed out. On our way, Lesley and I noticed that our work went unappreciated as we saw the whore and douche up against a wall making out. Oh well, they deserved each other.

We walked back to the hotel, were we ended up chilling outside in the parking garage behind my car, smoking doobs and enjoying out last moments together. Cue the photos!

Drew at the NS Awards with, “Cops: In Jeans”

starlightlou, K2ECripa, & Klazo

Drew & Lindsay

Whaaa bishes?!

Chris & Lindsay

Mike & Lesley

Chris & Me

Fuck.You.

Humping Chris' truck? Yeahhh about that....

So many things going on here....

We took our shenanigans upstairs to the hotel room, where we conversed a little bit more, and one by one passed out. I woke up the next morning to Chris ever so gently tapping my shoulder with an “Ashley..........Ashley........” I respond with a grunt, and then hear, “Its 10:00am, we have to check out in an hour”. We all jump out of bed, pick up our incredibly messy room, pack our shit away, and settle for our goodbyes. First was Mike, having to peace to catch his bus back to Kingston. A hard one to say goodbye to. Who am I kidding? They all were. Next was Craig, leaving in his beat up truck...and then Chris. Who met up with Paul to grab some grub. Us last four, jumped back in my Suby to head back to the states. The roads were blocked off for a race, so we had to detour our way back to the 720. Which seemed like a blessing, because on our way we saw Felix walking on the sidewalk. As we passed, we gave out a slew of, “FELIX!! THANK YOU!! WOOO!!!”.

We got through customs faster than I thought. And it got a little weird at first. The lady was nice, but her questions made us look crazy. Or was it our answers?

--Hand her our passports--

“Where were you visiting?”

“Montreal”

“Why were you in Montreal?”

“For the international freeskiing film festival.”

“And how did you find out about it?”

“Umm, newschoolers.com.”

“You are from NY? (yes) You are from California? (yes) You are from Minnesota? (yes) and you are from NY? (yes). And you know each other from the internet?”

“Yes.”

“And how long have you known each other?”

“A little over a year.” - (please Lindsay shut up about your noobness!)

---Questioned look---

“Okay, you may go. Have a good day.”

“You too!”

Took our drive back down I-87 through the Adirondacks and to the Albany International Airport, where Lesley and I left Drew and Lindsay with a group hug. I then drove Lesley back to her pad, where her and I shared a hug before the tears came.....yeah right, we're bad ass, we don't cry.

PH FO' LYFE FUCKAS!