After a long winter I am ready to explore the outdoors with warm weather and good friends. To start my 2012 summer off right, we drove out to Yosemite National Park.

My boyfriend Merrick and I left Tahoe at 7:00 am to drive 184.89 miles to Yosemite. After meeting up with a couple of friends we finally reached beautiful Yosemite. The views were breath taking; waterfalls in every direction you look. Massive rocks that tower above you, with a green valley below. With a long day of driving the four of us were eager to put the hiking shoes on and hit the trail. We parked the car and took the free shuttle to Happy Isle where the Mist Trail began. The Mist Trail is 1.5 miles to Vernal Waterfall. Once reaching the top of the falls, we relaxed in the sun for about an hour till we decided to ascend to the top of the upper section of Vernal Falls. After the steep switch backs, we were right below Half Dome. The four of us spent a while looking out over the top of the powerful falls. An hour before sun set we headed back down to the Yosemite Valley. Since we arrived late we were unable to find any camping spots. We were forced to drive 45 minutes to Indian Flats where we paid $40 to camp along Hwy 104L.

6:30am I woke to the sounds of the river and rushing cars. This motivated me to pack up and get my day started. Merrick and I drove back to Yosemite to try and reserve a camping spot and hope for someone to cancel so we could camp inside the park. After putting our names on the list we decided to hike the Upper Yosemite Falls trail. This trail was 3.5 miles that had steep switchbacks that led to an amazing overview of the Yosemite Valley and the falls.

I recommend that everyone take a weekend trip to Yosemite and hike these two trails. After descending the Upper Yosemite falls trail, our legs were so tired. We went back to the ranger’s office to see if we got a camp site; unfortunately there were only 15 cancellations. We were 18 on the list. So we took a bus to the trail head of Mirror Lake. This was a mile hike on a paved road, an easy walk that followed the creek. When we reached the Lake, half dome was towering over us. We relaxed by the water for a while discussing where we were going to lay our heads that night. We were going to try one more time, but the ranger’s office was closed. Luckily, we ran into a couple who just decided to give us their site. Merrick and I ended up getting a free camp site all to ourselves. We grabbed a bottle of wine and made s’mores… a perfect way to end the day.

We woke up on Sunday around 8:00am, packed up our gear, and slowly drove out of Yosemite stopping along the way to take pictures. It took us about an hour and a half to reach hwy 395. We made one last stop at Mono Lake before returning to Tahoe. Mono Lake is an unusual lake in California that has saltwater instead of fresh water. It is alkaline, with a pH of 10, and almost three times as salty as the ocean. The seagulls feed on Brine Shrimp at this lake.

3:00pm we finally arrived back in South Lake Tahoe; drove directly to Zephyr Cove, one of the beaches at Tahoe, and fell asleep in the sun.

I hope you all make it to Yosemite this summer! – Claire Hewitt-Demeyer

Kim Kirch is about a month into her epic 4-month long Euro Adventure. Check out this montage of her adventures following the Liquid Force Gipsy Tour and Waterski Langenfeld in Germany. Now she’s moving on to France and will be competing in a couple wake comps in the next couple weeks, so stay tuned for more Eurotrip goodness from Kim!

I do know what one of those new grads is doing. Our part-time employee, Tyler, will be heading across the pond for a couple months of adventures hopping around Europe visiting music festivals, soccer games, and generally enjoying life! We conned him into keeping us updated while he’s having fun so that we can live through him while we’re stuck here working. Stay tuned for his updates over the next couple months!

Seems like everyone is escaping to Europe these days. One of our team riders, Kim Kirch, has been hopping around Europe wakeboarding and making new friends already this summer. You can check out what she’s up to on her Tumblr.

On Saturday we ventured out to Breckenridge to check out the Throwback Throwdown halfpipe competition. Erika Vikander was competing… wait, did you say Erika was competing in a halfpipe competition? Yes. Erika doesn’t normally do halfpipe comps… she’s a slopestyle gal. But how can you pass up an opportunity to have a lot of fun slaying it in an old-school hand-shaped halfpipe with the likes of Danny Davis and Luke Mitrani?

We wouldn’t.

Anyway, so we get out there just in time for the guys to be seshing the handmade pipe as a warm-up. The first portion of the comp was spent in a full-size competition pipe but the second part of the day was a 30-minute jam-style session to see who would move on to the finals. The women got a little bit of a break since there was only 6 competing and they just did 1 30-minute session to decide the winner. Overall results are below.

Women’s Overall
1. Rebecca Sinclair
2. Sylvia Mittermueller
3. Ariel Gold

Men’s Overall
1. Zach Black
2. Dom Harrington
3. Taylor Gold

Of course a good day in Breckenridge always requires Happy Hour tacos and pitchers at Mi Casa. All in all a great day. Check out all the pics from the comp below.

This past weekend a few friends and I traveled to Bear Mountain, Ca. If anyone is looking for a fun and affordable mountain, Bear is the place to visit. For $56 you can shred park top to bottom, and at the end of the day you can watch other riders kill it while enjoying a cold beer with friends. Bear Mountain has not only top to bottom park, but they are also very creative with their features and the lay out. Bear creates a perfect flow for every type of rider.

After three days of riding I had a very dark goggle tan and tired legs. Before heading back to Tahoe; Merrick Williams, Lauren Chea and photographer Dylan Warren and I headed to Huntington Beach and L.A. You can’t leave SoCal without seeing the ocean. I wish the water was warm enough to swim in, though the smell and sight of the saltwater was enjoyable enough.

We arrived back in Tahoe Friday night around 9:00 pm. I had to get my rest because I had to be at Sierra Tahoe at 8:30 am the next day to compete in the Billabong Flaunt it finals. when I woke early saturday morning the forecast was calling for 60-100 mile hour winds and snow. Not the best conditions for a slope style, and rail jam. By 9:00 am all the lifts on the mountain were on wind hold, so the director of the Billabong Flaunt it said they were going to take all competitors up to the top of the course by snow cat. Even though it would have been a fun experience to by brought by snow cat for every run, I was not looking forward to hitting a 40ft and 60ft jump with these high winds. A half hour goes by and the winds increased too high to have riders on the mountain so they postponed the event til Sunday. All the girls clapped and cheered, knowing that sunday will have better conditions. Billabong threw a bowling party for all the girls that night to celebrate for tomorrow’s event. The bowling party was a great idea, all the girls really got to know each other, making the on snow event more comfortable and fun.

Sunday morning: I woke to beautiful blue bird sky with 18 new inches on the ground. I could not have asked for a better day. We got to the mountain an hour and a half before the event so we could ride Sierra’s fluffy powder. When the slope style started the course was a little slow because of the new snow, but that did not stop Jessika Jenson from taking 1st place with a $5,000 check! Congrats to her for killing it all day. After we were all treated to lunch we hit the rails. The rail jam went on for an hour, in a jam format. I took a pretty hard fall, knocking the wind out of me. I was pretty scared thinking I broke a rib, but luckily I just could not breathe for a minute. Though I did not place in the Rail Jam I was honored to shred with all of these talented ladies that traveled from all over for the competition. I did however get a shot on snowboarder magazine. Congrats to Breanna Strangeland for taking best trick at the Rail Jam with a $700 check. Words can’t express how much fun I had with these ladies. I hope to see you all next year.

A big thanks to my Sponsors Akinz Boardwear, Flow Snowboards, Shred Betties and Essi Eye Wear

Above photos by Dustin Miller

In case you didn’t know… team rider, Kim Kirch’s passion doesn’t stop at snowboarding and wakeboarding. Her first solo art show is coming up on Thursday, April 12th at Shapers Studios in San Diego from 7p -11p. The exhibit is titled “Creative Collective” and will feature approximately 7 wood pieces and one of a kind hats, jackets, and shoes.

This event is open to all ages, but there will be adult beverages available for those who are of age. If you’re in the San Diego area, stop by and check out Kim’s art and hang out before she’s off to Europe for the summer.

This past weekend was Bumpas’ birthday. Since he fractured the bone in his heel a couple weeks ago, shredding wasn’t an option, so we took advantage of the lack of winter and got a headstart on summer in Moab. We tackled 25 1/2 miles of mountain biking in 2 days, hot tubbed it up, grilled out, ate some badass Thai food, and generally wore ourselves out.

Birthday biking grin.

Spicy Yellow curry makes me happy.

Taking a break out at Slickrock.

Short trip through Arches National Park on the way out of town.

Ashley Battersby finished up a week long session at the Suzuki Nine Queens in Austria by nailing a switch 1080 mute grab. Even though she’d tried this trick in the past, this was her first time to land it… now with a switch 1080 mute grab in her bag of tricks, we’re positive she’ll be unstoppable.

Full set of results:

1. Ashley Battersby (switch 1080 mute, switch 720 mute)
2. Eveline Bhend (misty 720 mute, misty 900 mute)
3. Kaya Turski (switch 1080 safety, switch 720 critical)
4. Keri Herman (switch cork 540 high safety, switch 720 safety)
5. Devin Logan (switch 540 safety, cork 720 tail)
6. Emilia Wint (switch cork 540, 720 mute)
7. Emma Dahlström (switch 540 japan, switch 720 mute)
8. Anna Segal (switch 720 mute, cork 900 mute)

OtterBox has a great fundraising program where they get their employees involved in choosing where their donation dollars are spent. It is called the G3 Challenge – OtterCares (the charitable arm of OtterBox) ‘gives’ each OtterBox employee a $200 certificate to GROW for the non profit of their choice.

We think it’s a fantastic program! That’s why we teamed up with one of the OtterBox employees to create these sweatshirts to raise money for Respire Haiti, an organization whose mission is to “encourage, educate and empower restaveks, orphans and vulnerable children.” From the Otter employee, “We are doing http://respirehaiti.org/ because our fellow co-worker moved there and is serving there. We have 3 weeks to ‘grow it’ and then ‘give it’ on April 13th.”

These sweatshirts are made from an eco-fleece that is a blend of organic and recycled materials and dyed with low-impact yarn dyes, so not only will you be helping others, but you’ll be doing it with a garment that is safe for the planet. Available in heathered royal blue, red, or black.

Each one costs $40 and 50% of the proceeds will go to this Otter group who will then pass it on to Respire Haiti. If they raise the most, OtterCares will then donate another $3000 to their chosen charity. Preorder deadline is April 11th to give these otters enough time to get the funds for donation to Respire Haiti. All sweatshirts will be shipped out within a week of order deadline. Order here.