Nick Hyne Journal Box: April.

April has been sick so far! Will, Browner, Roebuck and I got some snow at Stevens Pass that

was pretty much too deep to ride. We had heaps of fun.

The next day Will, Browner and I went up there again and it was just like the day before but a bit lighter and easier to ride. FUN.

Will LIkes it.

We all LIke it.

Browner Getting a shaka in.

That night I met up with a few of the Ride people and we got on a plane to The Ride Shakedown at Mont Saint Saveur just out of Montreal. We left at 10pm and got into New York at 6am New York time. We got on the next plane 3 hours later to Burlington, Vermont where we got 2

rental cars and met New Hampshire man Sam Hulbert. Austin, Noble and Scott jumped in one

van and Sam, Sickels and I were in the other.

Night flight from Seattle.

We loaded the vans with board bags and drove across the border to Quebec, Canada. After being interrogated by customs we were let through and made our way to Montreal airport to

pick up Jusso. Just after we were across the border Sickels realised he had forgotten Darrel. A

few phone calls and Darrel started to make his own way in another rental car. We got to Mont Saint Saveur in the evening and were greeted with a dope castle type residence. I scored a bed, which has put my total number of nights slept in a bed in 2009 to 12.

Montreal.

Hot chicken Sandwich - Pretty much a sandwich smothered with gravy.

Castle Accommodation.

The first day was Qualifiers. A pretty tough cut with the field of 70 being cut to 3 who went through to the semi finals. After that was the Rail Jam. There were about 25 or so of us in it. Nobody was taking it easy. The setup was battleship rail - why?, a down-flat concrete ledge and a C down rail. It was rad. 3 people were chosen from the jam session to go through to a final 2

run showdown for $5000. It was torrential pissing down rain so we ended up leaving before the

finals but apparently Will Lavigne won with a hardway cab 270 through the concrete

ledge. Yale Cousino was second and Charles Reid claimed he was going for the crowd pleaser and tried a backside rodeo off the battleship.

Fancy Dolly Setup.

The next morning we took it pretty easy and made our way to the hill for semi finals in the

afternoon. Once we were registered and sitting down we were told there was an autograph signing session. It lasted about half an hour and was pretty funny. It would have been the most fun to be at the end of the chain viewing all the ridiculous stuff written before you though. The format is real different to a normal competition. We got 2 and a half hours to ride the course and in that 2 and a half hours we got 2 judged runs. When you wanted your run judged you told the guy at the top the trick and the grab you wanted to do and he would radio the judges saying 'run ju'jey'. I am guessing it means judged run.

Just for the fans.

Get a photo of me signing autographs.

Seb Toutant signs one for his Mum.

I landed a Front 9 tail into half cab 5050 on the ledge. I ended up in 17th. 15 went through to the finals. A lot of crazy stuff went down. Here are a few links to some videos.

Ride edit.

Snowboarder edit - Main Event and Rail Jam.

After the main event was all over the second main event of the day started - making party.

Sickels found this in the clearance bin at a local supermarket.

Watching Le Finale.

Rickard's Red on tap. Richard from Lo.wer's signature drop.

First stop. The Manoir.

Bourbon Street zoo of people.

Pretty sure these dancer girls were paid to dance on stage.

After getting a photo of dancer girl she offered to return the favour. Merci.

The next day was another massive travel day, with the drive to Burlington not really going thatswimmingly. We got lost and ended up seeing a whole lot of Quebec we hadn't planned on seeing. Luckily our plane was delayed an hour and we walked straight onto it. We got to New York and walked onto our next plane right away as well. Roebucks the trooper set his his alarm and come and got me from Seattle airport at 12.30am. Thank you!

New York Airport Sports Bar - a few screens.

A few more screens here.

Back in Seattle.The next morning Greg was up early frothing as he does and we jumped in his

car and made our way to the Stevens Pass carpark. We ended up spending 5 hours building a corner wallridey, oververt skatebowl/pooly thing. One of the dopest things I have helped build for sure, and the photos look rad. Thank you once again Greg!

We moved that snow from up there to down there.

Stevens Pass gets a lot of snow. Enough to make a wallride out of.

The runin, the lights and the towing vehicle.

The Jack in the Box Drive Thru has beautiful scenery in Monroe.

More Cherry Blossoms. Got to love these things.

Browner doesn't let driving get in the way of putting ketchup on his breakfast burger.

The next morning Browner, Michelle and I started to make our way to Tahoe in Browner's truck. The drive ended up taking us 2 days. We stayed a night in Oregon. Browner had both the front wheels off his truck 3 times in the 2 days but we did eventually make it to Reno.