May 7th, 2008
Scott, Chris and Brad join forces with several others to embark on a climbing adventure in Cougar Canyon. Honorable mention goes to Scott and Chris for leading both 10c and an 11a routes. A crowd gathered below the face of ‘Critical Mass’ as Brad began an incredibly sketchy repel off the top of Crowbar Crag, to get a shot of Chris in the middle of the 10c route. A small slip on Brad’s part would have spelled disaster for Chris, who would have been knocked off the face, resulting in a harsh whipper. Disaster was avoided and Brad was able to capture Chris’ moment of heroism on the face of ‘Critical Mass’. The next ascent was on the 11a known as ‘Kokopelli’, which Scott and Chris led, and Brad flailed his way up on top-rope. A solid day in the mountains, air-fives’ all around!
April 17th, 2008
Jon met up with a guy by the name of Niall who was interested in doing a parkour shoot around the city. They starting off on the top of the Telus Science Center building which lasted about 20 minutes before getting kicked off, then moving over to the skate park next door. The afternoon proved to expose some great images!
April 8th, 2008
This early season boulder session saw the crew converge on gnar-friend Pat`s garage based bouldering wall. The atmosphere was chill, while everyone took turns on the home-made cave. Jon took some photos and group festivities ensued. A good solid start to the climing sesaon of 2008.
April 6th, 2008
A two day mission to Rossland BC. to meet up with friends, party and finish another wicked season at Red Mountain. Saturday turned into a casual day of riding under sunny, cloudy and snowy skies, typical spring weather in the Kootenay’s. But a snowfall of 15cms overnight turned Sunday into an awesome spring pow day. As well as snow, the crew had the chance to meet up with locals, Mike Hopkins, Alex Berg, and others to session a large 80ft booter set up for a poorboyz/theory 3 shoot a week earlier. Sickness was thrown down as a drunk crowd watched from the deck of the lodge. The day ended with beer and a long 7 hour drive home. Another solid season in Red!
April 5th, 2008
Cold weather marked Wes’ arrival at castle on late Friday afternoon. The clear sky was not an encouraging site for any overnight dump possibilities. The crew decided Saturday would be dedicated to sled skiing. This was reinforced by the fact that when Harker arrived back from grooming the stars were clearly visible and shining brightly in the sky. Against all expectations we awoke to a glorious 40cm in the village, and 55cm-60cm up on the mountain. Just beautiful blower powder; Saturday appeared to be a promising day indeed. Castle greeted us with pillows that were epic in magnitude and proportion. Creamy turns aplenty, and the smoke trails of reverse camber twin tips could be seen as Team Obscene shredded the shit out of Castle’s gift to humanity. By 4pm our legs were burning, and the snow had begun to fall again; reducing visibility to minimum. A sky-line traverse in the cat was arranged in the zero-visibility weather. Three of us loaded into the cat and went for a white-knuckle adventure ride up (and down!) the face of Castle. Holy-shit-handles were clung to for dear life as the cat adventure slid its way through the snowed in tracks and powdery faces of Castle’s left ass cheek. Wes pooped a little.
We reconvened back at headquarters in the village, our spirits high and our inhibitions low. After two-flats of beer and Drunckan, (aka Duncan English), exercised his bad influence; we downed a two-six of vodka, and things began to escalate. A bon-fire was constructed and various crews from the village gathered to the fiery debauchery.
The next morning we woke up late and extremely hung-over. Wes decided that a pound of bacon was the cure for the morning’s ailments. Sadly, after an extensive search, that sweet bacony goodness never graced his stomach. BACON. BAAACON. We then went skiing again. Sunday was good, but was not as good as Saturday. Overcast and cold weather encouraged us to quit early. Still suffering from last-night’s hangover, we decided that the only real cure was to tap the keg. Mohawks, dance parties, and another red-neck bon-fire were just a few of the night’s festivities. Once again Team Obscene was out in full force…the keg was done by 11.
The next day Harker left for Vancouver to sell crack. Pete and Wes did a few laps in the park, and decided that it was better for body and mind to pack it in. To sum up: The glory of Castle instills a wonder of what is to come next year at Hodgefest ’09
March 24th, 2008
Revelstoke yet again proves itself as one of the sickest mountains around! This time the crew met up with friends from across the country; Halifax, Calgary, and Vancouver and long lost member Matty G. Three days of shredding went down in everything from sunny, warm spring conditions to grey, windblown freshies. The crew of twelve partied in true gnarstars fashion getting belligerently drunk and befriending everyone they could, including the local stripper. All and all it was a good weekend of riding and partying! We would like to thank the Mountain View Inn for its cheap and luxurious accommodations and Stokers for the quality entertainment.
March 18th, 2008
Jon, Scott, and Brad head out to Revelstoke for a two day mission after hearing of expected fresh. They nailed it head on with 38cm falling over the weekend, boosted by sunny skies and warm temperatures. The fact that the resort was dead, also helped in consistent fresh tracks. The crew met up with Bruno, one of the local groomers (one of the best people to know on the mountain) who showed us a few new ways to get down, sick! We were also able to discover a few new areas out of bounds, and have plans to return this weekend for some more shooting with a full crew.
In a nut shell, we ripped fresh trees all weekend, and it was sick.
Stay tuned for the reunion of long lost member, Matt Goddard
March 17th, 2008
This weekend Justin Sweeney, Mark Nailer and Wes Harris decided to unleash our reckless debauchery on the wonderful resort of Mt. Washington ironically located on Vancouver Island. More specifically we were here to rep Rip Curl in the Okanogan Springs After Dark Invitational. What has traditionally been a snowboarding event, this year decided to include some skiers in a mixed category ski/snowboard winner takes all, rider judged event. Mt. Washington’s park crew did a super sick job making a 68ft step over jump that was more than comfortable considering its size, unfortunately the quarter suffered the effects of the beautiful daytime weather and can not be spoken of so fondly. The contest really stepped things up like mark’s 1080 and backside 7’s and 9’s, also worth mentioning was the 10yr old local who tried double back. In the end the 6 ski judges and 19 snowboard judges amongst an excess of pizza and beer decided it would be a tie between Whistler’s Logan Short and myself. Justin and Mark both agreed that it was super cool to see that the end result was reflective and fair in the true nature of sport. However, like I said from the beginning, the best part about this contest is that it is sponsored by a brewery which means the after party is always the most fun and in this regard, Mt. Washington did not disappointed. Fat Teddy’s was a sick time with an awesome live band and a plentiful bounty of booze flowing through everyone’s system. I also most definitely have to give a shout out to the entire global news team who supplied most of the night’s liquor. I would also like to give a big shout out and thanks to Drew and Sweeney from Rip Curl who made this event possible. Stay tuned for a short vid.
March 13th, 2008
Today is the official Launch of Gnarstars.com. We have had it around for a little while now, but finally pulled the last pieces together. The video section is up and running so check it out. You can also check out the crew section to see our new studio photo shoot mugshots. Keep posted for all the upcoming shenanigans.
March 7th, 2008
Brad and Geoff coached their kids to victory in the Big Mountain Comp at Lake Louise. Sunny day and solid snow (and by solid, we mean fucking rock hard!).
