Our boy Colin Wallace is getting silly this year. Apparently he doesn’t know that summer is just around the corner.

This past weekend he was up on Fisher Peak getting his shred on. Good job Colin, you make us jealous (and a bit afraid).

To celebrate the fact that The Choice is still standing, we are putting everything in the store on sale. Come and grab the savings, the whole store (except Toms footwear) is 20-50% off.

Devan Smith, Ollis Oien, Mitch Dove, Taylor Wilson and Brodyn Ratcliffe had a little bit of fun the other night, here are some photos to hold you over until the video edit comes out.

Devan Smith BS 5.0

Taylor Wilson FS nosepress.

The Landowner.

Mitch Dove BS nosepress.

Mitch Dove BS Lipslide

Mitch Dove BS 180 fakie nosepress.

Ollis Oien Frontboard.

Ollis Oien Pretzel out.

This last Saturday The Choice threw a picnic in the Kimberley Alpine Resort’s Terrain Park, and the sandwiches and carcasses were getting tossed all over the place.

With $4000 in prizes to be given out, pretty much everyone went home with a grip of loot.

Big thanks to all of you guys for coming out and having a great time and to Devan Smith for shooting some photos.

We are already looking forward to seeing you all again next year.

Abe trying to bribe the judges with a bottle of Patron.

Sharing is caring at a picnic.

Corey enjoying a frosty Vans Barley Soda.

Joey enjoying a mouthful in between mocking children.

The boss doesn’t joke around.

Dude soup.

Zak, old and stale.

Kenny frontside 180.

Corey, doing something that skiers thought was pretty cool. It was pretty cool.

Mitch Dove.

Coming up on March 31st The Choice will be throwing a little snowboard/ski park jam at Kimberley Alpine Resort’s Terrain Park. The main focus of this little jam is to have the best time possible, no pre planned runs no mandatory tricks just throw down and have a good time. We have tons of prizes that will be given out through out the day, as well as a special prize for the best bagged lunch.

It all starts at 12 noon and entry is free, so come on out and slap some high-fives.

Mike, Joey and I got the chance to get out on some of Jones Snowboards’ offerings from next year as well as the much hyped up Now bindings.

There are a lot of big names backing this brand and the change in technology that it represents. Check out their website to see what they are all about. As for right here I will give you a little run down on how I felt about them.

The big deal with these bindings focuses on the way that they connect with the board. It gets a little weird, but I will try and explain it. The only parts of the binding that contact your board are the disc, and four urethane pads on the corners of the baseplate (the bright green pieces you see in the photo). This gives the binding the ability to absorb some of the natural flex and movement of the board, which cuts down on chatter and foot fatigue. When I heard about this change in binding technology my first reaction was that they would be un-responsive and a bit sloppy feeling, my fears were not justified. These bindings felt just like any other high end binding in respects to their responsiveness, where I noticed the difference was charging through the cruddy snow (that ski hills seem to have an abundance of). In the crud, these bindings seemed to offer a more controlled ride that gave you the confidence to keep your speed up and not worry about where you were going to initiate your next turn. Think about them as the difference between riding a regular skateboard wheel down a rough Cranbrook street, and the feeling of riding a softer longboard wheel down that same street. One is going to rattle your fillings out while the other can absorb some of that chatter.

The real standout to me was the quality of the straps and ratchets. Usually when a new binding company jumps on the scene, they seem to take a few years to get their straps and ratchets figured out, but not Now, they nailed it. The ankle strap was fairly minimal in comparison to some of the mega pillow straps that are out there, but was just as comfortable. The good thing about this is you aren’t wasting all that weight on needless straps. The ratchets had a really nice feel and held on tight, there isn’t much more you can ask for there.

Overall these bindings rode well and are filling a very important space in the binding world. It is always nice to see a company that is owned and concepted by a snowboarder (JF Pelchat) doing something different and getting such a glowing response from the industry (they received the ISPO new product of the year award).

Now bindings will be on the shelves at The Choice next fall for everyone to come check out, so keep your eyes peeled, because these guys are doing something new that could be a bit of a game changer.

On January 19th, 20th, and 21st The Choice in partnership with Treehouse Outdoor Education put on a Level One Avalanche Course. After two night classes learning about the transitional process of snow, and snowpack, we got up bright and early to do a field day at the Salmo Creston Pass. We all met at Hot Shots at 7:30 in the morning. It was dumping outside, and warm. According to our last two night of getting our Avi Smarts, this meant that avi conditions were in the high to extreme danger ratings. After a careful risk assessment (Dave Quinn telling us what we are doing), we decided that the Kootenay Pass was probably a bad idea, and that we should play it safe, and hit up out of bounds at the Kimberley Ski Hill.

All in all we had 19 people doing the course. Seven of which were on Splitboards which is pretty rad.

We hiked up around Moe’s Canyon, assessing snow conditions, and terrain traps as we went

The best part about this shot is that you can see in the distance 7 skiers breaking our trail…it didn’t last long though.

Andrew House learned the joys of skiing down hill on a spitboard.

As the day went on, we started to see a good slab form with all of the new snow, and we got a lot of whoomping when we were stomping around. Good signs that conditions were getting dangerous.

We spent a good hour burying our beacons, and then finding them again.

After we proved that we can find a buried beacon, we made our way to the top of the ski hill, and did some mock rescue scenarios.  The split board team killed it. Finding, and digging out the buried ‘victims’ in no time.

Big thanks to Dave Quinn with Treehouse Outdoor Ed.  for helping us out with this. The course was a huge success, and we will definitely be doing it again next year.

With all of these splitboards going out the door, we realize that we need to promote safe backcountry travel. With this in mind we have teamed up with Treehouse Outdoor Education along with our sponsors Jones Snowboards, Dakine and Spark R&D to offer the Level 1 safety training course.

The course is $200 and consists of two evening classes and one day in the field. It will be running January 19, 20 and 21.

Contact Mike if you have any questions at all (250.489.4568 or mike@thechoiceshop.ca)

Merry Christmas from all of your friends at The Choice. Thanks for the great year. We’ll see you up on the hill.

No need to hold hands with your friends if you can get your hands on a Banshee Bungee. Perfect for carcass hucking over those street gaps with no run in, or tossing yourself up on all those rails you have dreamed of hitting.