One of the most memorable parts of my snowboarding career at Mt. Baker was the annual Legendary Banked Slalom.

Every year, all the best snowboarders in the world would come to our little ski resort in Bellingham, WA to compete in the contest, which otherwise didn't have a lot of pros coming through since the terrain parks were minimal - it was always a backcountry-first mountain.

My buddies and I would watch all the recent films of the big names on the contestant list to figure out what they'd be wearing, so we could search for all of them like a scavenger hunt on the weekend of LBS, and stalk them to watch the magic in action after they were done with the race and just goofing around on the normal runs.

The highlight of this annual tradition was when we spotted Travis Rice, my favorite snowboarder of all time and arguably the GOAT of the sport. I bought my Lib Tech board because of him.

I will never forget trailing him on Chair 5, and watching in awe as he did the most impossible things everywhere he went. We're talking effortless double-backflips off the tiniest cat-track blips. Just an unreal athlete at the peak of his prime at the time.

Great memories 🏂🏔