Ride Snowboards has always been a rider focused, rider driven snowboard company that offers contests like these to stoke out their fellow fans. Ride Snowboards gains true respect in the snowboard industry.  Who wouldn’t want to see their own artwork displayed on their own custom Ride shred stick?  If you didn’t get a chance to see last years entries, you’ll be in for a treat this year.  Some of the applicants are truely talented graphic artists.  Thanks to Ride Snowboards for throwing down yet another inspiring year of fun and shred!

Ride Snowboards has been working hard deep in their labs to reveal yet another secret weapon in snowboard binding technology for the 2009 season. The New Ride Contraband Snowboard Binding is ridiculously light and fast all while incorporating a responsive comfortable chassis that you hardly feel connecting your feet to the board. If you’re anything like the guys on the Ride team you spend a lot of time getting in and out of your bindings while sessioning a street rail or a park jump. The Contraband binding combines Ride’s new revolutionary “V-strap” single ratchet design and new lightweight chassis to provide the performance you need with the quickness of a “one-touch” in and out. Spend more time lapping terrain and tighten up your game. The new toe strap design make look like it came from the stone age, but the theory binding instep pressure and reaction has been streamlined for ultimate heelside response all within a single closure system. These bindings are size specific to ensure the best possible boot to binding interface and board control. The Ride Contraband’s will be arriving soon. Get em while they’re hot!

Joanna Dzierzawski Wins Cricket Campus Rail Jam Tour - Reno

Excerpt from Ride’s site:

Ah to Reno, a great place to visit….if you are looking for a great time at half the cost of Las Vegas. This old west town has a lot of things to be proud of. It is the divorce capital of the US, home to the National Bowling Stadium which boasts over 100 lanes and is home to the Nugget $5 Awful, Awful burger which weighs 3lbs and comes with 2lbs of french fries.

All Photos Courtesy of Drew Diehl. Words Courtesy of Snowboard-Mag.

This town is also very proud of its University, UNR, and for good reason as they showcased the region’s top riders on Saturday night as the 9th host of the 2008 Cricket Campus Rail Jam Tour. Located only a 5 minute drive down Virginia Avenue from Reno’s major casinos, the brand new Joe Crowley Student Union Building made the perfect venue for a top tier rider performance.

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Ride Agenda Snowboard

My Agenda for today was one of the better ones this week. I was fortunate enough to hit up Mt. Hood Meadows today for a little sample of Ride Snowboards overlooked dream machine. The Ride Agenda 152 snowboard. This is much shorter than I normally ride but thought I’d give it a whirl in the snowboard park since it was finally a Spring day up there. Not that it’s a bad thing, but it has been snowing eternally this year and we’ve been waiting for some Spring sessions. The day was perfect, sky’s were blue, wind was light and the temp seamed to be a perfect 32 degrees. It was just cool enough to not get hot while riding and kept the snow an ideal consistency. I’d call it packed powder, the groomer’s were soft and the snow off trail was just light enough that you could throw it around a bit. Not only were the conditions great, but there wasn’t anybody else around. Empty chairs, empty groomers, empty lift lines. Anyhow, I wanted to head straight to the park to test this Ride Agenda Snowboard out first hand.

(Vista Express)

The Agenda snowboard was super playful in the soft stuff and held a decent edge on the groomers. Due to it’s soft flexing nose and tail, the Agenda didn’t hold a rail the way I really prefer, but it gets the job done. It’s a true twin in shape and rides equally switch as does going forward thanks to the radial sidecut. I was very impressed with it’s ability to handle the terrain while riding backwards. The blunt nose and tail geometry made for great release off the transitions in the park and presses on rails. The ABS sidewall construction proved to be a good defense against the rails wrath. Takeoff’s were smooth and predictable, and spinning was effortless due it’s low swing weight and obviously shorter length. The board is soft because of the Biaxial glass weave, so it didn’t necessarily help to much with landings, as I found myself washing out on the larger jumps. But this is just my point of view, because I tend to ride stiffer boards. You just need to make sure you land square over your bindings and you’ll be fine. Graphically, the board is youthful with an edgier punk rock look to it. I think it looks great and not to mention the die cut base graphic is flawless. Speaking of the base, it’s only a extruded 1500 blend, but it was definitely speedy enough to get me over the 40ft. step up feature. Didn’t hurt to have a fresh wax job too. All in all, I rate this one of my favorite underrated boards under the $300 price mark. As I said before, super fun, playful, and a great snowboard park weapon. Can’t wait for next year’s 2009 Ride Agenda Snowboard!

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