After visiting the OR tradeshow in SLC and before driving the 8 hours to SIA in Denver, I got an unexpected treat: riding Snowbird with Mikey Basich and Dalton Paley! Having watched Mikey in all sorts of videos during my grom days, it fulfilled a childhood dream to get out and ride with him for a day. This was after the ‘bird’ had gotten a crazy dump of snow and had been ridden pretty hard, so mobbing with Mikey and Dalton through pow moguls all day was a serious workout. Mikey and Dalton put together “Open Space: The untold stories of Mike Basich” this year, which you can watch for free at Mike’s website: http://www.241-usa.com/index.html. This amazing film chronicles Mike’s life through 25 years of snowboarding, and his struggles and triumph over epilepsy as a child.
I left for Denver and Mike and Dalton headed up to Bozeman for the Cold Smoke Awards http://coldsmokeawards.com/, a festival celebrating winter photography, film and culture. Open Space won the “most innovative” award, and ironically, a pair of our Fuse bindings. Congrats to Mikey and Dalton!