2013 Season Recap/Top Ten Memories: Watching My Little Brother Hit Jump 1

Kyle jumping some Park Lane at Breck.

by Justin Phipps,

February 3rd, 2013

Watching Kyle hit jump one in Park Lane at Breck was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen him do.

Kyle had been begging my dad to let him hit jump one for like a month and my dad’s answer was always, lets see what the weather and speed is like (No). So when Kyle finally got his ‘Yes’ answer, he was super excited.

We all pulled into Park Lane together. Kyle didn’t flinch as I stood next to him. I remember he was tucking really hard to build up enough speed to actually clear the deck. When he went off the lip and landed the jump he made it look so easy. He landed it so clean for a six year old, he looked like he had done it 50 times before. Dad was on the deck. My dad says that while he was riding down the landing he was repeating to himself “I did it, I did it”. He also managed to do another 2 or 3 times that day. All in all, one of the most thrilling times this season was watching my very own brother hit jump number one at Breck.

Four O’Clock Kyle.

Oreo Kyle.

Kyle as dinosaur.

Contest Kyle.

Kyle getting boxilla.

Kyle high five.

2013 Season Recap/Top Ten Memories: #8 Vail Powder Day

This is Josh displaying some joshGuy style.

by Justin Phipps

Dec. 16th, 2012. One of the best days I had this season was going to Vail with a bunch of the guys on a sick powder day. It was the first time we’d been together on a big snow day for the season, so you probably know the good feelings you get on days like these.

I remember that the weather that day wasn’t too good, but that didn’t stop me or anybody else from having fun, there was too much new for that. We would also take basically chair 11 and lap Northwoods down every time and there would still be powder most of the morning.

One of the best parts happened later in the day when Josh took a big tumble in a ditch he couldn’t see, my dad followed and did the same! They couldn’t stop laughing, but then I came flying by and took a big stumble on the same ditch they fell in and we all had a hard time breathing we were laughing so hard all covered in fresh.

Some of our crew that day

Another funny part was when little Nate tried to do a rodeo of and cliff and ate it and when we got back together Josh commented that it was more of a ‘fair’ than a rodeo. One of the coolest parts was when Nate found a really cool side hit where you could get some pretty big air and gap through some trees at the same time. All in all, one of the best days this year was getting to have a really sick and fun powder day at vail with the crew.

2013 Season Recap/Top Ten Memories: #9 Riding the Trees at Breck

I think we took this pic on Christmas day. It was a pretty good pow day.

by Justin Phipps,

Whoosh!! That was the sound of me shralping through the trees at Breck. I rode lots of trees this year and wanted to say that they are definitely some of my favorite. I’m not saying where on the mountain, you just need to know that it’s good, REAL good.

We would always start off by headed down a cat track. Then midway into it we would cut down into the trees while everyone else kept going. The first slash was always the best because there were wide open trees at the top of the drop and you could get tons of speed to make a big cloud of snow. Also there was a gully in the middle of the run so you could shred up and down the walls. They were built up like banked turns, for me!! Once you finished the first part of the trees the second part started with a tree stump jib. Then at the end of the second part there was a log to go up and back down on or transfer off. Once all the trees were done you were back down to the base of peak 8 ready to lap it again. Yes we definitely had spots on Peaks 7 and 9 too. I’ve heard good things about Peak 10 too, just don’t really get out there enough.

I just think the trees at Breck are really good. There’s some other good tree riding and epic days we had on other mountains too. Now you know how I feel about the trees here though, and, that’s why it made my top ten list at #9.

Take Your Kid To Work Day

That’s a savedByTheGnar t-shirt I printed.

By Justin Phipps,

April 25th, 2013

I was expecting today to just be a normal school day and my dad thought it was just going to be a boring work day, but once we found out it was take your kid to work day our days brightened up a whole lot more.

One of the best parts was getting to visit Standley Lake and Legacy High Schools because I got introduced a lot of new people. I also liked getting to make face masks for my brother and sister. I also got given some jobs to do like, sorting boxes and catching T-shirts. I learned some things from my dad too like, how to close a box without tape and how to sell a product. But the best part was just getting to hang out with my dad. Anyways, today I got to go to work with my dad and I had lots of fun.

This is a silkscreeen for printing t-shirts

Here’s my t-shirt.

Mick is laying out the transfer sheets for making facemasks.

The fabric came out of the press with our designs on them.

I’m trimming the excess fabric for my sister’s mask

Here’s my brother’s mask before it has been hemmed and serged.

2013 Season Recap/Top Ten Memories: #10 Filming With Chris Corning

That’s me and instagram: @chrisCorning with @reeceBolin and his friend Zane Lazerus getting the #breckHighFives in before we headed up the Colorado chair at Breck.

By Justin Phipps,

Friday, March 29th 2013. The day Chris Corning and I got filmed together.

If I could describe the one feeling I had filming on this day it would be ‘excitement’. One reason is because me and Chris pushed each other a lot to do the best we could at our lines. We ended up doing really good at sticking most of them. Second, the weather that day was absolutely perfect for shredding and filming. The sun was out so there was great light for filming and the speed was perfect to clear the jumps. Last, the best part of the day was just getting to hang out with Chris and the crew. Earlier that day we had met some guys (Reece Bolin/Zane Lazerus) who wanted to film Chris and I. They were super nice and fun to hang out with. In conclusion, filming with Chris was one of the best top ten moments of the year.

Here’s a look at the edit Reece put together

This is part 1 of 10 in my season review. #topTen2013SBTG

Breck Parks Crew: Darren Riethmiller

“I feel like there are people that are office people and then there’s people that belong outside.” -Darren Riethmiller. We agree. Photo: Marcus Stephens @nigbeats.

By Justin Phipps:

So our last interview in the Breck Parks series went real good with Darren Riethmiller. He’s been real cool and supportive. You may remember he’s the guy that buzzed by a side whooper (you can read about it here: Gapers, Gapers, Gapers). He got back to being a park supervisor mid-season and so we talked this and other stuff too. He said this interview made him nervous.

Justin: So you bounced from the office back to the parks crew mid season, what’s up with that?

Darren: You know um.. man, good question!! Wow, I wanna get this right. You know if you have an opportunity and you THINK you want something new, or you want
to try and progress with your career. Maybe it was getting to a point with my age and the idea of further pursuing a career and maybe it was that I did it because I just felt like I had to do it. Sometimes things happen and this was one where I discovered that it just wasn’t worth it, it just wasn’t the right move. I feel like there are people that are office people and then there’s people that belong outside. So it became a case of cabin fever, if you will. It got to be real hard to be at the office all day and watching people outside.

I just realized that my passion WAS terrain parks and even though I had an
influence over photo shoots and what we had going on with contests and the
5 til 5 and the Throwback Throwdown. Well, all that was awesome, but then I
realized that I was just more of a hands on guy with the parks. I mean I wanted to be out there building. Building, testing, and seeing it grow. I’ve been here for six years at Breck. Maybe a different time, different situation, maybe it turns out differently. But you know, not being part of the crew was actually, well I just needed to be out here again. It’s not like we snowboard all day long, we definately don’t, it’s just being outside, being with your friends. I mean, looking up at the chairlift and seeing your friends and they stop to talk to you. That’s it! That’s what I didn’t have working inside that I missed the most.

Justin: Yeah..

Darren: ..alright, next question, I’ll get better!

Justin: So, Were you shredding a whole lot less doing office work?

Darren: (pause) Yes.

Justin: (laughing)

Darren: Was I shredding less because of the office work??

Justin: Yeah.

Darren: Yeah, totally. I basically could ride on my lunches or if there was a little bit of down time, but, there’s a lot of hustle and bustle in the office so my shred time was definately cut down.

Justin: Okay.. Well, let’s talk about the jumps, they’re soo good every year, why don’t more parks just copy Breck?

Darren: I, well, I think they try to, but, there’s not a lot of turnover with our cat crew and it takes a really experienced team of cat drivers to get it just right and we have a lot of the same guys doing it year after
year. So it’s really the same crew of four that are building Freeway and
Park Lane. We’ve got guys that build jumps that like to work here. They
don’t leave, so that’s good.

Justin: Yeah.

Darren: You know it’s Ray, Greg, Mark, and Eric. That’s it, they just get
it.

Justin: Keystone’s jumps are definately getting better, is there any type of rivalry between Keystone and Breck when it comes to building parks?

Darren: Oooh, well yeah maybe a friendly rivalry cause a lot of our friends work over there. We do see a lot of what our neighbors across Swan Mountain Pass are doing. There’s definitely no true hatred type of rivalry, we’re all pretty cool to each other.

Me and Darren with some #breckHighFives just after they got 1,2,3 built.

Justin: ..alright, last one. The vibe at Key is really different than Breck. Does that same type of vibe come out in their crew?

Darren: Wait, what? What do you mean? (background laughter)

Justin: Do they kind of put out a different vibe, their crew vs. yours.

Darren: Oh, you know. Well they do go out more. I don’t really know. I mean, we’re pretty happy over here and they definately have the same there too.

You can keep up with Darren on twitter and instagram too: Follow @leRiethmiller, and Breck Parks: Follow @breckParks.


Breck Parks Crew: Marcus Stephens

I discovered that Marcus is the best at a lot of things.

By Justin Phipps:

We tried Keystone closing day but it just wasn’t happening for us and so we bounced over to Breckenridge. We spotted Darren Riethmiller immediately and we kind of trailed him over to the parks crew shack on Freeway where a bunch of the crew was having a lunch break. We got a chance to hang out with everybody and interview Darren and Echelon Snowboards shred Marcus Stephens.

Justin: Alright.. so what’s it like??

Marcus: It’s good… It’s REAL good. (pause)

Justin: Yeah?

Marcus: Yeah..(laughing)

Justin: (laughing) I mean, what’s it like being the only black guy in Summit County?

Luke/Nichole: (laughter)

Marcus: Like I said, it’s GOOD! I mean really, it makes me the best at a LOT of things.

Justin: Yeah?

Marcus: I mean by default I’m the best black snowboarder, I’m the best black skateboarder, I’m the best..

Luke: You’re the best black dancer!!

Marcus: Yeah! I just get to win a lot of things, as long as it’s segregated.

Justin: .. yeah right!! So we usually see you guys raking and grooming and that kind of looks like fun. What are, maybe, some of the not so fun things that you guys have to do?

Marcus: Raking and grooming.

Justin: (laughing)

Luke: (laughing) it looks fun, but it’s not!

Marcus: Yeah, um looks can be deceiving.

Justin: Well what’s up with Bonanza and Trygve’s and stuff? Is it maybe a little less fun keeping stuff prepped over there? It’s not necessarily right next to Peak 8 headquarters.

Marcus: It’s actually a nice break to get away from this park sometimes when things get hectic. It’s kind of like a little vacation in the middle of our day. It’s easy, you know, all the stuff is small. It’s really not too bad.

Justin: ..alright

Marcus: Yeah, and that’s where all the pretty girls are too.

Justin: ha ha

Marcus: the fly honeys..

Justin: We’ve been watching you ripping this winter too, on your off days. Talk a little about the good vibes you get shredding on your own features.

Marcus: You know that’s ALWAYS been one of my favorite parts in all this. Having been doing this for over a decade. My favorite two things in this are watching somebody be stoked on something I built and getting to ride my own stuff. I kind of get to cheat to get it to exactly to where I like it.

Justin: Okay. So do pros make you feel appreciated?

Marcus: (pause) um, most of the time yeah. I mean guys like James Woods are grateful and will let us know all the time they appreciate what we do and, you know, it’s a boost, it keeps us going.

You can keep up with Marcus on twitter and instagram too: Follow @nigbeats