Right after Whistler I was able to catch a ride down to Tahoe with Kerry Miller, Kyle Delong, and Alex Hackel for the Trains event. A fun journey on the road, and when we got into Tahoe I was able to stay with the Good Enough boys again. The next day in search of fun we had some free time and hit a fun pump track that the boys had built the day before. 

The next day was a very mellow chill day, but the day after that was Trains. Since the Good Enough guys were doing it I was stoked to catch a ride. At this time I wasn’t completely sure if I was going to be able to get in or not. After talking to the event promoters, Kerry, and whoever else I needed to I was told I didn’t get a spot. I wasn’t too disappointed about it at the time, and started hot lapping the course with my buddy Kyle till they started. When we were hanging out around the festival village I found out that they did have two spots open. Those spots went to me and Kyle Smaine. 

I'm still so pumped that I got the honor to ride in the High Fives Foundations event Trains at Alpine Meadows Resort in Tahoe.

The last four years I’ve watched many videos and always thought it would be cool to be apart of it. The thing that makes Trains so unique is that this competition is not serious at all. It’s all about having as much fun as you can and in the end if you do well you’ll get a few items of swag to keep for yourself, but all the money portion goes directly to the ski charity of your choice. Super pumped on actually getting into the event, I joined up with the Red team which consisted of Khai Krepala, Jason Arens, Will Wesson, Jake Hickman, Max Szekely, Rebecca Roberts, Garrett Russell, Harry Meyer, and Will Mayo …… Let’s just say we had a blast.

The first part of the afternoon consisted of a 540, backflip, and switch contest. The big jump was about 70 feet big and super smooth.  So many crazy things happened during this morning session. I saw Parker White go absolutely massive on a backflip and somehow keep it together. Chris Logan and Nick Miles  doing some fun tricks. During the backflip contest Nick Geopper and Kyle Smaine started talking about doing simultaneous backflips, and they somehow convinced me into joining them. This was the first time I had done a backflip on a jump that big before, and I am so glad that I did. Backflips are already incredibly fun, but doing them with two other friends at the same time is a thrill.

After the switch contest we had a little break to eat, and revive ourselves a little bit. The next part of the day was the main event, Team Trains. For those who don’t know, a train in skiing is when multiple people go off a jump right after another. The cool part about this is that everyone has different style and you can see a great variety of style and technical tricks in a matter of seconds. Some teams had organization, and others played it by ear. Red team was extremely good at playing it by ear. With the riders we had assembled we had a great all-around group that kept the crowd happy. One of the highlights of our train was when Garrett Russell threw a beach ball into the air when he was mid air on the jump, and Khai Krepala came by swatting it out of the air like a ninja with his pole, the crowd went wild.

After a few rounds of runs with each team displaying there best trains, it was time for the massive train with all 30+ competitors going off the jump in a massive group. This was easily the best part of the day, and we all had huge smiles on our faces from ear to ear when this was happening.  

When the awards for the event came around, we were shocked to find out that Red Team won the Trains portion. Needless to say all of team Red was extremely pumped. With winning Best Train we also were able to Donate $2,000 to the Shane McConkey Foundation.  Other awards went to Rals White for his switch dub 9 and he donated $1,000 to the Bob Woodruff Foundation. Nick and Smaine won the best 540 contest with their simultaneous switch 540 hit, and best backflip went to snowboarder Toby Miller. Toby, Kyle, and Nick all donated their money to the Sarah Burke Foundation for a total of $2,000.

This was easily the most fun event I’ve been to so far. All day long there was nothing but smiles and good vibes from everyone. Such an amazing event, and I cannot wait to be apart of many more to come.

Later that evening we headed over to Incline Village to celebrate and ended up spotting this bear behind a friends house.

The next day I was finally able to ride Squaw for the first time with Kyle and the Good Enough boys. Still hyped from the day before, we just enjoyed a fun shred day and hot lapped like crazy.

After a few more days of hanging out in Tahoe, I met up with Robby Franco and Alex Hackel and we went on down to Mammoth for a few days. This was the first time I had been to Mammoth in the spring time, and certainly won’t be the last time I make a trip down there at that time.

I can honestly say the park got progressively better the three days we were there. The first day was already heaps of fun, then overnight they added 10 new features and improved the jumps. Of course after skiing we were able to make the trip down to the hot springs. 

While we were down there we met up with Kyle Smaine, Brent Whipple, and Brian Walker who filmed a little edit and I was able to get a few shots in at the start.

After the few fun days of riding it was time to head back up to Tahoe for a quick second before flying home to Washington for a little bit. Had such a blast riding around Cali this last spring, and cannot wait for my next Tahoe trip later this summer. Next up is my blog post from West Coast Sessions!

Stay Classy,

-Noah