After a long week at Snowboarder Magazines Superpark 16 I, (Patrick McCarthy) started my journey back home to Bellingham, Washington from Bend, Oregon. After a week of nothing but 100 foot monster jumps and double cork 1080’s I could not help but think I needed a solid day of getting out into nature and enjoying the outdoors in peace and tranquility. When I got back to Bellingham weather was looking good so I packed up the goods and headed out the North Cascades Highway for a little quiet time with my roommate Jason Speer. As we pushed on further and further we saw more and more peaks watching the North Cascade mountains turn into a sea of peaks and valleys for miles and miles I was just blown away with the beauty of it all. This world was put here for us to explore it whichever vehicle we decide. I took some time to really take it all in, hear nothing for miles and put some serious mileage on these old legs. Snowboarding is an amazing way for us to detach no matter where or what way you decide the great thing about snowboarding is there is no right or wrong just get out there and enjoy it!

Marco Feichtner hits 686 up with a quick update:

“My friend’s and I, we had a great weekend in Prestine, Italy! To  explain it to you: it is a place where you can motor trail around the 
mountains!
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Loose Snakes
The band consists of three fellows by the name of Daniel Mead, Paul Roach and James Barak. A little history about them would start something like this:
Daniel or Dan depending on the roughness of the neighborhood you may find him in grew up on the east coast surrounded by a family of older brothers who happened to all be musicians of one sort or another that influenced him immensely. Think partridge family but without the silly costumes and cheesy smiles. More like long hair and calloused fingers. He made his way to Portland and played in various bands before moving to San Diego. He has a wide array of guitars in his collection ranging from his go to electric facemelter favorites to his selection of Taylor acoustics to lap steels, dobro’s, banjo’s and whatever else his fingers can flitter on.

Paul Roach, once the lead singer of a local heavy metal band named Niner has made a habit of picking up an instrument and realizing that as Rocky said to Clubber Lane “you aint so bad” and poof like that, he has mastered another style of music weather it is a djembe drum, Turkish banjo, the old faithful’s of acoustic or electric guitars and last but not least the tasty Bass lines that hold Loose Snakes together.

James Barak began his love for music early with his father being a studied opera and folk music singer heard on cbs radio back in the day. He turned his passion into a dj career that sent him all over the state either by himself or with a 6 piece jazz band accompanying his selections. He could be found one night with a local Santa Barbara Hip hop duo and the next opening for the English beat or Les Nubians. With a wide array of musical genres in his back pocket he began his growth of music learning other rhythm percussion instruments and now you can’t tear him off the drums. If he doesn’t have a drum in front of him, his foot and the floor beneath will do.

The three have come together to form a unique sound that can be defined by not defining it at all. The depth of song writing and the backgrounds of each member in the group have made Loose Snakes music a challenge to pigeon hole. You may hear some southern rock guitar or Greek plate breaking undertones while getting a jazzy funk blues reggae riff thrown in there for good measure. Enjoy!

Always wondered what pro snowboarders are up to when the season is over ? For guys like Mario Wanger who lives nearby some of Austria’s finest glaciers, the season never really ends. Check out this little clip.

The 686 crew just recently got to roll out to Bend, Oregon to participate in Snowboarder Magazines Superpark 16. The sun was out in full force and the mountain was off the hook. With park resorts like Boreal, Loon, Seven Springs etc… Building monster features and the worlds best snowboarders ready to throw down the scene was set. Everyone on the crew rode super hard and it was great to see the progression of the sport. I would just like to send a special thanks to Snowboarder magazine and Pat Bridges for putting together such an amazing event. One more thanks to everyone from 686; Forest Bailey, Madison Ellsworth, Kyle Fischer, Ryan Paul, Phil Jacques, Ben Thomas Javid, Brandon Davis, Joe Bosler and myself (Patrick McCarthy) for making the trip such a success.