The Goat recently posted an interesting article illustrating how to use a bike to power your TV. This got us thinking about similar applications for snowboarding. We thought about installing hand cranks on chair lifts, but that sounded like a lot of work. We also thought about just walking up the hill, but that was too slow. Then we came up with the ultimate green solution: squirrels on wheels. 

In our book, the more accesories the better. Before we go out, we make sure that we are wearing at least our weight in ornamental feathers, bracelets, piercings and whatnot. We do this to a) look snappy, and b) to compensate for our car lacking cup holders among other luxury items. You could say that we are of the “more is better” school. That is why we are so excited about  Mash Snowboards.

Airbags, for getting radical. (image via  Mash Snowboards)

 Mash Snowboards bills itself as the “Next generation of sport boards.” They claim that their patented “Adjustable Air Shock Absorption and Performance Enhanced Snowboards” will provide new levels comfort and performance. What Mash has done is essentially placing an airbag between the board top sheet and bindings, to give the rider “A powder like ride, with the agility of a cat.”

Mash Snowboards

Sign us up. We plan on taking things a bit further, by enclosing ourself in a big inflatable ball so that we never get hurt and have entire gondolas to ourself. 

Thankfully, we can get away with not hitting rails. This is because we are from the Northwest. And being from the Northwest, we have excuses for not sliding metal. Namely: rails are for sissies, no rails on a powder day, and split-boards don’t work so well for jibbing.We were reminded how fortunate we are to not have to get down with rails by this video. To the poor bastard in the video: hope that blood gets out of your urine soon.

Worst Snowboarding Trick Ever - Watch more Sports Videos

We had a long list of resolutions that would better ourselves and dramatically improve this blog, but those have been flushed down the tube like last nights copious adult beverages. Instead, we have resolved to do no snowboarding in 2009. This decision comes in light of an exceptionally hazardous year on the mountains of North America. It seems like each new week delivers another nightmarish tale of snowboarders in peril. We were managing to keep our fears of snow shredding in check until our friends at Updown Magazine shared this video.

Anybody need to buy a lot of used snowboard gear?

The New York Times has an excellent article on skateboarders who have taken advantage of the wealth of empty pools left by home foreclosures during the current economic down-turn.

Across the nation, the ultimate symbol of suburban success has become one more reminder of the economic meltdown, with builders going under, pools going to seed and skaters finding a surplus of deserted pools in which to perfect their acrobatic aerials. (via NYTimes)

Be sure to give the article a read, as it is a good one indeed. It got us wondering how the recession (yes, a recession) has impacted snowboarders…

• Less people are heading to the hills. This means that there is less of a risk of sitting next to someone you don’t know on the chairlift. Thank God!
• Lift tickets are more expensive than ever. But that is most likely independent of the economy. Lift ticket prices are like reverse gravity–they always go up.
• Fewer people are leaving half-eaten chili bowls in the lodge. This leads to us going hungry.
• There are fewer Detroit-made big rigs in resort parking lots. This has led to increased indecent exposure. It is really hard to pee behind a Kia.
• In a state of economic despair, snowboard companies have produced the most heinous snowboard outerwear ever. Fortunately, much of this season’s outerwear can double as a clown outfit, an aid to snowboarders looking to make a little extra cash.

Being extreme can be tiring. Between the energy drinks, loop-de-loops and reverse-double-flying-squirrel maneuvers, we are lucky if our heart rate ever drops below 150. That’s why we are so excited about the new Skateboard Car. One of the brains over at the Discovery Channel heard our pleas for a little rest from the tiring life in the extreme and has constructed a technology that has our name written all over it.

(via TouchExplode)

Make sure to click on all of our ads so we can afford one of these puppies.

In addition to being distinguished journalists, the agoodreed team is highly regarded as purveyors of progressive fashion. Remember JNCO Jeans? Those were all us. This coming season, we are taking snow fashion a step beyond the whole Bohemian-shaman-hipster-gypsy look. For 2009, think “Swedish Dance Bands of the 1970s.”

(image via Yemii)

Think, bowling uniforms x The Brady Bunch

Key components of the “Swedish Dance Bands of the 1970s” look:

• Oversized shirt collars
• Frills
• Large buttons
• Chest hair and necklace framed by a low-cut shirt.
• Scarves
• Perm
• And of course, you must match outfits with your crew

(image via Yemii)

Click for more examples. Trust us, you won’t regret it.

In junior high, we were worried about fitting in. We had our mom take us to the mall so that we could buy over-priced clown shoes from Zumiez. Then, we took some sand paper to our shoes to make it look like we skateboarded. We bought TechDecks because if your fingers can skateboard, it would seem that your whole body could skateboard as well. Instant coolness! But the truth is finger skateboarding does not reflect an ability to skateboard, so we weren’t really that cool.

Today, we still worry about fitting in with the cool crowd, we still wear skate shoes, and we still do stupid things with our free time. If we had known about The Beez back in junior high, we might not have been so concerned about falling in line with the cool kids. The Beez keep it weird. Real weird. Now when our parents ask us what we are doing with our lives we can point to The Beez and say “Look mom and pop, The Beez are immature and off-the-wall. And they have a movie!”

From agoodreed and Batman.

(via Dave and Thomas)

We are getting tired of everyone complaining about the lack of snow.

“Bro, where is the snow?”

“I don’t know bro, I am bummed.”

So are we bros, but bumming out doesn’t get those mountain peaks frosted. We have always said, “Necessity is the mother of invention” and we necessitate snow. So what are we going to do about it? We are going to buy a whole bunch of iSnow.

(image via OhGizmo!)

iSnow is a non-toxic polymer material which can be used to create artificial snow. Just add a bit of water, and you’ll be ready for a (very small) snowball fight in no time. The material is reusable, so you can create snowballs over and over again, provided you scoop up the remains and keep them safe. (via OhGizmo!)

We realize it may be unrealistic to cover an entire slope with iSnow, but maybe you could just sprinkle a little bit on your whiskers and pretend you have been getting face shots of fresh powder (on second thought, sprinkling white powder on your face probably isn’t a great idea).

Nevertheless, we are stoked on iSnow because it made us think of this brilliant invention…iPod compatible snow. PATENT!