Last Saturday, I went to the Lib Tech Downtown Throwdown put on by Snowboy Productions. The comp was a 2 hour jam with a few breaks to fix the big divots that formed below the rails in the trucked in snow. The setup was a round rail, a pole jam or a down-flat-down ledge with a small box in the middle and a quarter pipe at the end. I got a few shots walking around during the setup, then went up to the library for some from above views. I tried to get into the other building across the way for better light, but my big white lens and my media wrist band weren’t enough to get me into closed offices, up top. During the rest of the event, I found a bunch of different angles and even climbed a few trees. Even at an urban event, I’d find trees to climb...

Dylan Alto took first, with Nick Visconti in second, Dyland Thompson in third, Ryan Paul in fourth and Brandon Hobush in fifth. Andrew Brewer won the destroyer award and Chris Brewster took the Dinner For Two award.

Check out the rest of the shots in the gallery: 2011 San Francisco Lib Tech Downtown Throwdown

Last November, when I was in Utah after SIA, I shot with Emily Blewitt and Libby Redepenning. We talked at the Transam Jam and ended up shooting street around Park City that weekend. Snowboard Colorado magazine was doing a feature on her in the March issue and she didn't have any shots, so it worked out perfect. The magazine is only in Colorado shops, so I added bigger images so you can read the interview (click the images). My shots are the b/w one on the index, top/right and all the shots on the other pages.

Follow Emily Blewitt on twitter - @specialEMME

When I was in Utah after SIA in February, I went to Solitude mountain for a day of shooting, except it wasn't me behind the camera. John Shafer was working on a review for the new Sony Alpha SLT-A55 for photographyreview.com. He wanted to test the cameras action shooting capabilities and I was up to ride for him immediately since I rarely get to be in front of the lens.

Check out his sequence shot of me on a curved rail in the park on page 3 of the review: http://reviews.photographyreview.com/sony-alpha-a55-review

Here's a few shots from the afternoon that I flew from Mammoth / Yosemite airport to San Francisco. It's the smallest airport I've ever been to, but they spent more time going through my camera bag and x-raying it more than any other airport I've been to. Though, it definitely has the nicest view.

I went to the Transam event at Park City Saturday with Sam. I shot practice and then brought out the flashes when the sun set behind the mountain. I tried using them at the Wyoming rail, but only 1 of 4 pocket wizards were working. Someone suggested putting hand warmers on them to keep the batteries from getting too cold. I tried this that night while shooting the jam and they seemed to work fine (though it wasn't nearly as cold).

Check out the rest of the shots in the Park City Transam gallery.

One morning, I went up to The Canyons Resort in Park City to shoot with a friend of a friend, Lori Stromness. I shot with her in the trees in the morning, and then shot the end of bordercross practice in the afternoon. To get the first photo (of Lori), I climbed like 25 feet up an aspen tree that had some sketchy branches. I think that was the first time I climbed a tree with snowboard boots.

galleries:

• Lori at The Canyons
• Bordercross Practice at The Canyons

I met Sammy Elam when he called me about shooting while I was doing a hot sauce tasting at F'in Hot in old town Park City. He had been filming with one of my friends earlier. He picked me up, then we picked up my camera stuff at a friend's place I was staying at. We were off looking for things to shoot when he got a call that a friend had cut his hip on something in the park at Park City. He had to take his friend to SLC, so we didn't end up shooting anything.

A few days later, I went with him and some others to Wyoming for the afternoon to shoot street. We were trying to find a certain rail that was at a certain school. None of us knew which school it was at. We went to four and still hadn't found it. Someone in the other car asked the drive-through person at Taco Bell if there was a school nearby... haha. Eventually, the others found it and were off to the right place.

The first few shots in the gallery are of them looking at the first school and not finding it. This happened several times. Apparently, Travis Rice shot this rail 10 years ago, so we were shooting a famous rail. Here's the gallery of all the shots: The Wyoming Rail

The only official SIA party I made it to was Arnette's first event of the Brain Freeze Tour with DJ Matty Mo, Bukue One and Del The Funky Homosapien at Benders Tavern in downtown Denver. Arnette put on the Brain Freeze Tour to celebrate the re-launch of a goggle line with a new team of riders.

I got to the show a bit early. When I got there, they were doing Karaoke with many of the songs being 80's Glam Rock balads. Soon, a bunch of people started to show up and I realized the show was in the other room... When I got in there, DJ Matty Mo was putting together some beats. Soon, Bukue One was on, followed by Del. They all killed it. The second show will be on February 10 in Mammoth and the last, in Whistler on March 12.

Check out the gallery for some visuals of the show: http://gallery.pbmedia.us/p1024883433

For audio, you'll have to go to a show. More info: http://www.arnette.com/blog/brain-freeze-del-sia/

Last Wednesday, I flew to Denver for SIA. From Thursday to Sunday, I went to the show to check out new products and meet a lot of people. Between going to the show every day (except for an afternoon trip to Boulder) and partying each night, the weekend has become a blur.

Sunday night, I left with some friends to stay in Salt Lake City for a bit to get some shots and do some riding. Today, I rode Utah powder for the first time. I went with two friends to Canyons Resort. We we got to the parking lot, it was 0 degrees Fahrenheit... After spraying my self several times with the crazy light powder, the hair on my face froze. It was damn cold, but so worth it. Next time I'm bringing something to cover my face.

Check out the photo gallery from SIA: http://gallery.pbmedia.us/p548620962

I finally got my shots up from the Olympic Qualifiers at Mammoth I shot two weeks ago.