Just took a road trip down to San Francisco to shoot another urban snowboard rail jam for Yobeat. It’s halloween weekend, and there’s no distinguishing between those who are dressed up, and those who just live here and are out for a walk. Check out the gallery I shot at the bottom of the post here on Yobeat.

Yesterday I went up to Seattle and shot the Sixth annual Downtown Throwdown, a snowboard rail jam in Occidental Square. Hundreds of bags of trucked in snow and some rail features brought out a huge crowd. At one point a lady asked me “is this one of those Occupy protests I’ve been seeing on the news?” Yes, yes it is. You can see the full gallery here on Yobeat.

Here’s the look book we started sending out last week to retailers for the fall 2011 / winter 2012 Yobeat line. This stuff should be available in select snowboard related shops around the country in the coming month or so, and it’s all available now on the Yobeat online store. In addition to the above Issue flipbook, it’s also downloadable as PDF here. All this stuff gets designed and printed in house. 25 different styles plus colorways… I didn’t realize it was that much stuff until we put it all together.

Before the SIA Tradeshow (the big snow industry show) in Denver, we threw around some ideas in the office in regards to handouts for Yobeat advertisers, pro riders, and overall cool people. Something to give away in meetings or run-ins that wasn’t just a business card that they threw in their bag and forgot about. We wanted to do something that made an impression quickly and that people would actually look at. We also wanted to communicate visually that Yobeat is more than a snowboard web site, we also help brands create marketing strategies. We thought about basic t-shirts and hats, but everyone does that, and again, they just get tossed in a SWAG bag with other tradeshow goodies, often to be forgotten about.

Yobeat’s traffic has grown tremendously in the last year, so we had to show that we were just as “Pro” as the corporate guys, but still had that DIY mentallity that sports like snowboarding are born from. In other words, Pro, without being too Pro. Since we’ve been doing all of our new apparel in-house, a t-shirt was a good way to promote that, but we didn’t want to be cliché about it. So we decided upon a packaging option we could create in-house that would contain a limited edition t-shirt (we did 60 shirts using our new script design, in a limited gold flake ink just for the show), as well as a limited edition die-cut sticker, a screen printed Yobeat sticker, and of course, our business cards. The shirts and header cards for the packaging were all screen printed in house. Woven tags were sewn onto the shirt for a custom, finished feel, and everything got put together and shipped off to Denver. We got a lot of great response. The general reaction seemed to be “Holy shit, you guys got Pro.” A few brands quickly asked us about the creative direction side of what we do, so it worked well. We gave away all 60 pieces pretty quickly, and at this point I don’t even have one for myself.

The draw to design for me is the actually creation. I’d much rather create something on a small budget entirely in-house if we have the opportunity. This was the perfect opportunity to do that. Had we outsourced these, it would have been too costly, but in-house they were about $3 each. Check out some more details after the jump. The white with gold was a tradeshow only edition, but we may be releasing a gold ink black shirt version in the future (without the fancy kit, though).

At some point last year I started helping design more apparel for the snowboard site YoBeat, trying to take things beyond its basic logo t’s. At some point in the process we got the bug to take things one step further, and make more of an apparel line, sell it on the site, and hopefully get it into some shops. In recent years, part of brand marketing has become creating content around a brand, hopefully getting that content played as editorial content. It’s advertorial. Or advertising disguised as editorial. We went the opposite direction, and started creating a brand out of an existing editorial voice and content stream. There was a built in audience, so why not. So far it’s worked out well. A number of shops around the country have already signed on to carry the goods, and we’ve been selling the stuff through Yobeat’s online store. The products market the site, the site markets the products. One can go without the other, and the gear can stand on its own. We set up an in-house screen printing shop so we could streamline producing samples, and also keep things within the realm of the DIY approach YoBeat has taken throughout the years. So far so good.

Above are a couple of the new shirts in the line, to which we’ve added sewn on woven tags to the lower left front. The new “Snowboarding is Super Fun” shirt is a play on the ironic hipster type shirts you see at streetwear shops. The only YoBeat branding being the small woven tag. Hipsters rejoice. It’s even got swashes on the type. After the jump you’ll find some more details, larger views, and some new embroidered patches we’ve created as well. This stuff is a nice break from doing commercial work for clients. On that stuff there’s always compromise. With this stuff we get to do what we like, and even produce most of it in-house, keeping it fun and hands-on. The new shirts should be on the online store later this week, and you can also find some other designs over there are up in the Yobeat store now. This is just the beginning of the new stuff for 2011.

To find YoBeat apparel at a shop near you, click here or click here to order online.

I spent this weekend out at Mt. Bachelor filming the the 2010 Dirksen Derby, a snowboard slalom race put on by legendary pro snowboarder Josh Dirksen. This is the fourth year of the Derby but the first one I’ve made it to. We tried to go last year, but an insane ice storm kept us in Portland. This year, we headed out a day ahead of time to be safe, and spent the weekend in Bend, and riding Mt. Bachelor. The first day was absolutely miserable — rain, lots of rain — but the second day, which this video covers, was awesome. The event is super-fun, with a great low-key vibe, and it’s all for a good cause. The proceeds go to Josh’s friend Tyler Ecklund, who was paralyzed a few years ago snowboarding. Check out the full coverage and photo gallery on Yobeat.

I shot video of a snowboard rail contest in the pouring rain on Saturday up in Seattle (who knew it rained in Seattle) for YoBeat.com. The resulting short video went up last night. If you’re into mini-shred snowboarding, or in this case, slushboarding, check it out. Despite the rain, it was a fun event, and had a surprisingly large crowd of plastic bag wearing snowboard enthusiasts.

We went up to Summit this weekend to film the 7th Annual Holy Oly Revival, a snowboard contest celebrating Olympia Beer, for YoBeat. Awesome contest, and a laid back atmosphere. The Northwest snowboarders know how to make shit fun. The winner of the Holy Oly, in this case Austin Hironaka, wins a pallet of 30-something cases of Olympia Beer. No money, just beer. Check out the video, then go look at a story and photo gallery (not by me) here. Sunday we filmed a fun little project with snowboard legend Peter Line which should be up on YoBeat in a week or so. In the meantime you can check out an iPhone photo of Peter and his dog Parnell, as well as a shot from the balcony of his Seattle Penthouse after the jump.

I made my first trip to the Legendary Mt. Baker Banked Slalom (the 25th year) this past weekend to film this video for YoBeat. The event is amazing. It’s just how events like this should be: fun. Nothing more, nothing less. There’s no prize purse, yet the best snowboarders in the world (including some Olympians who still couldn’t resist despite the Games being just days away) make the trek to Baker to ride year after year. Some legends, like this year’s winner Temple Cummins, only surface for the Banked Slalom each year. As Mt. Baker manager Gwyn Howat put it, how many events do you know of that 10-year-olds, 60-year-olds, and Olympians compete on the same course on the same weekend? Not many, if there are any others out there.

Mike Parziale started Grease Not Gas along with Aaron Stuart of the band Piebald. They convert diesel motors to run on waste vegetable oil from restaurants, and Grease Not Gas was started to educate people and assist in conversions. When you consider the cost of fuel, a free product is an incredibly appealing solution.

Grease Not Gas have also converted buses used on nationwide tours for Snowboarder Magazine, Clif Bar, and a number of bands, Piebald included. Last winter Mike started the Grease Bus, which shuttles people from Portland, OR to Mt. Hood Meadows, for a mere $10 round trip (a 1.5 hour drive each way). A steal by all accounts.

Given his ties to the snowboard community, YoBeat.com gave me a platform for the above short video interview with Mike, in which you’ll see a bit of how the process works, and find out where discarded restaurant waste has taken him.