AGoodReed / gettin' down to it!

Goodbye productivity, hello Gnarshmallow.

We have been a bit hard on video games in the past.  A result of being raised by a pack of wild moose, the appeal of programmed beeps and blips fails on us.

We get it now.

Gnarshmallow is a flash game wherein you control a little skier dood as he swooshes and loops his way down pristine mountain slopes. In addition, you can edit the topography of the slope by moving trees, rocks, and whoop-dee-doos to wherever you fancy. This guy made himself a doozy of a line. We are in the process of spelling bad words.

 Another reason this game is great is because it reminded us of a great snack, marshmallow fries!

Keeping things “fun” is so last year that it went through a time warp and is now the bee’s knees again. Our friends over at Signal Snowboards gave us a lil’ sneaky-peaky at how they have been keeping it “fun.”

FUNerful Teaser from Signal Snowboards on Vimeo.

Not too much known about this one yet. We’ve heard some rumors…there might be a scene where Spencer defeats an entire gang of ninjas, and Jake might have a nude scene. Stay tuned to agr and Signal for more dirt on “FUNerful.”

For part 1 of this interview, click clack.

16.    Favorite: powder, park, pipe or porn?
-Powder in the morning + Park in the day + Porn at night = Perfect day!

17.    Favorite snack:
-Chocolate, ice-cream and grilled cheese sandwiches

18.    What kind of music do you like?
-I’ve listened to hip hop forever, will always hate r ’n b, but now I’m addicted to blogging electro, electro pop, idm and hella remixes. Check out Santogold, Metronomy, Ladyhawke, The Twelves, Miami Horror and everybody loves Ratatat.

19.    Which is better: Europe or America?
-Europe for free riding & girls, but America for everything else.

20.     Tight pants, baggy pants, or candy?
-Baggy, but not Technine baggy (overkill).

21.    What do you think about mega-corporations (e.g. Mountain Dew, Toyota, agoodreed.com) getting involved with snowboarding?
-This topic always seems to spark the biggest never ending debates. My view is that being pro isn’t as easy as it looks, or all that it’s cracked up to be. It’s a privilege and not a right, because there are heaps of kids out there that are killing, but will never get picked up due to their lack of marketability for a certain brand/s. If selling out is realizing that there a bills to pay, families to provide for and that there’s life after snowboarding, then how is that such a bad thing? I don’t see anything wrong in major corporations paying you to do what you love. That‘s of course if you still love it.

22.    If you couldn’t choose agoodreed.com, what is your favorite website?
-Is that a trick question?

23.    How easy is it to get girls in South Africa when you are a sponsored snowboarder?
-I’ve known some guys to have super dry spells in the summer months, only to make up for it tenfold throughout the winter months. Strange, but oh so true. Doesn’t that happen wherever there’s snow?

24.    What is the worst trend in snowboarding?
-Too much hating. It’s not going to solve anything. Isn’t snowboarding about having fun and expressing yourself, no matter which way you choose to do it?

25.    What is a word that rhymes with soup?
-The Coup. (Ed. Note: we were thinking poop.)

Katlego wishes to thank his sponsors for their support: Oakley eyewear, Skullcandy, especially Quiksilver and the entire crew of SA riders.

agr would like to thank our sponsors: Oatmeal and Escudo.

agr has a new friend. His name is Katlego Maponyane. Like most of our friends, we have not met him in person. But the Internet is even better than real interaction. Because you can use smiley faces and whatnot.

Katlego “Kat” Maponyane is a snowboarder from South Africa (yes, there is snow in South Africa). Kat is a damn good snowboarder. He is sponsored by Oakley, Skullcandy, and Quiksilver. We are going to go ahead and say that he is one of the best snowboarders on the entire continent. Kat answered some questions that agr had about snacks, babes and boardin’.

1. How hot was your first snowboard instructor? If she were a celebrity, who would she be?
-She was pretty hot. On a scale of 1 to 10, I definitely would have given her one. She would be a cross between Jessica Alba and a Suicide Girls model.

2. Was she impressed by your snowboard skills?
-I don’t know really? I hope she was. I went through a lot of pain for her.

3. When did you begin snowboarding?
-23 July 2006

4. When was the last time you went snowboarding?
-Close to a month ago (August 24th to be exact).

5. How many days a year do you get to snowboard?
-Probably only about 60 days max. That’s counting both Northern and Southern Hemi seasons.

6. What is cooler: skateboarding or snowboarding?
-Snowboarding, only because I suck balls at skating, I can wake skate a bit though.

7. What is your home mountain like? Real or artificial snow? Lifts? Powder? Park? Babes?
-Afri-Ski has been described by many as a line of cocaine down a hooker’s ass, due to the fact that it’s a single slope that’s about 1km long, 4hours from Johannesburg and is literally in the middle of nowhere. The snow’s both artificial and real, but mostly artificial. It has a T-bar lift and the coolest thing about it is the sweet little park that’s been built there by the guys from the snowboarding club of South Africa (snowboarder.co.za). The only girls that go there are the ones we already know. I wish more would go more often.

8. Is snowboarding popular?
-Most South African’s have never seen snow, so I doubt they even know what snowboarding is.

9. Tell us about the movie you are in.
-It’s called TIA (THIS IS AFRICA) and will be the first ever full length snowboard film out of Africa and its being produced by Scratch Media. It’s about letting people know snowboarding exists down here through a crew of friends having good times in the last place you would expect to find snow. No budget, no choppers, just under 3 months of snow and the plain and simple rawness of what snowboarding in Africa is like.

10. Can you be a “pro” snowboarder in South Africa?
-The word “pro” can be thrown around loosely, but none of us can actually claim it. Being hooked up with a couple of sponsors helps a great deal in cutting down a whole bunch of costs and being able to spend months on end in North America and Europe snowboarding is super rad, but in reality it’s unfortunately more like an expensive hobby.

11. What would be the best non-snowboarding sponsor to have?
-Free petrol for the rest of my life.

12. Are your favorite snowboard videos and magazines from South Africa or elsewhere?
-The only way to stay up to date with the rest of the snowboarding world is the internet. Online magazines are ingenious and European videos are way too underrated.

13. If you got to pick your home mountain, what would you pick?
-Hmmm, I’d have to choose one of the spots in Tahoe. It just has so much to offer, whether it’s one of the big resorts or the smaller ones. Always fun!

14. What is the most popular snowboard company among South African snowboarders?
-Not one brand dominates the market because none of them have any distributors here. All the riders have different outerwear, boards, boots, bindings, etc.

15. Best snowboarder ever?
-I’m still super wet behind the ears with this whole snowboarding thing, but from all the videos I’ve watched and knowledge I’ve gained in my short time, my all time favourites would have to be Scotty Wittlake, Terje Haakonsen, Jamie Lynn, JP Walker and Jeremy Jones (Jib).

Stay tuned for part 2 with Kat….

a tip o’ the hat to our great friends far and wide:

-The first, the best, and our deities: YoBeat.

-We’ve been telling ya, there is Something In The Woods. Pack your knapsack and get lost.

-Draplin. ’nuff said.

-Spacecraft’s craftiest craftsman, Sir P. Duffy.

-Studio Nemo: unparalleled excellence.

-Signal, givin’ it hart and soul.

-The DYNOmite duo over at YEAR100. They will make your life more beautiful. Guaranteed.

-Nose Stradamus who keeps the ol’ Tackled-Box in ship shape.

-AL, surf dog, maker of fine enchiladas, blazer of trails, damn good friend.

-Frontlipped, keeps it clean up north. Save us a spot on the couch–if things get messy down here, we’re coming up.

to all:

May the winds of fortune sail you,
May you sail a gentle sea.
May it always be the other guy
who says, “this drink’s on me.”

Bad news: Putin’s got George Lucas on his team.

«Кухня» from stereotactic on Vimeo.

“Cooking” - the new film from Stereotactic Films. The longest season in the history of the studio - from December to August! Free filing form - mix of parties, travel-segments, gaming and documentary films. Fully pilot soundtrack legendary track from Radiohead. The expanded geography of the film, made possible by the support Helipro: Greenland, Norway, Kamchatka, Krasnaya Polyana, Sweden, Chile. Two special segment: DreamPark session spb. and RedBull / Stereo Invitational Folgefonna (Norway).

Freeride, backountry freestyle, urban snowboarding, park and even under normal track at turn 4 Dombae - snowboarding fit any space. As someone who loves Snowboarding is irrelevant Moscow eternal spring, the process itself is important only skiing - what you spend one or 300 days a year.

The snow is! Is there any desire? ..

Riders: Andrei Moskvin, Artem Teymurov, Peter Yastrebkov, Alexander Moroz, Alexander Bragin, Dmitry Fesenko, Maxim Balahovsky, Sergei Tarasov, Dmitry Mindrul, Alexei Sobolev, Sergey Lapushkin, Shin Campos, Victor Teymurov.

The official movie trailer please visit www.kitchenfilm.ru

Coming soon on the screens!

(Thanks Google Translator!)

We have been trying to come up with some ideas for a special Labor Day Edition of agr. But the ol’ idea well seems to have run dry. This may be due to having been unemployed for so long (Mom, Dad…we love you). So instead of griping about our own labors, we would like to feature a laborer who works hard and kicks-ass even harder.

Tyler Lepore.



Many know Tyler through his lengthy professional snowboard career. Tyler was most recently featured Capita’s “First Kiss,” Sandbox’s “Flavor Country,” and “IR77.” Remember? He’s the cloud of powder barreling down knee-shaking lines. Gnarlytude is off the charts and number of energy drink/electronics/automotive sponsorships is zero. But more recently, Tyler has been focusing on his duties as king of the Vancouver track bike (fixed-gear) community. In 2007, Tyler (aka “The Merchant of Death”) opened the track bike shop Super Champion. Tyler’s commitment and ability to work month-long shifts has made Super Champion the heart of the Vancouver track-bike scene. His pursuit to create a haven for Vancouver’s cut-off jeans and v-neck wearing populace is documented in the newest edition of the Vancouver-based online magazine h(y)r collective. Definitely agoodreed indeed. Get over there and giv’er a look.



We were planning on swinging by Super Champion to say hi the last time we were in Vancouver. But we had to go pee really bad, and couldn’t find a place to park. So we had to rip down a side alley, hopped-out of the car, and let’er go next to a dumpster. But somebody was following us. So we tried to pretend like we were looking for something in the dumpster and came up with an empty juice box. Not sure if they bought it, so we made like a banana and got out of Dodge.

Studio Nemo is the Portland based photo production outfit owned by Trevor Graves, Jeff Bartel, and Chris Hotz (thanks for the correction Nemo! -love, agr). agr is big fans of Studio Nemo. They are masters of innovation, but not just any kind of innovation; eXtreme-O innovation. Behold, the newest incarnation of the wizards at Studio Nemo.

Dew Underground is the FUEL TV program that documents the AST Dew Tour, which just left the home town of Studio Nemo, Portland. To promote the eXtreme television show, Studio Nemo put their thinking caps on and thought, “what do eXtreme kids like?” Well, everybody knows that eXtreme kids like sugar and logos. So Nemo thought, “how can we make logos sugary?” Well, they nailed it. Introducing Voo Dew Doughnuts.

Voo Dew Doughnut - Nemo and the Dew Tour from Dave Allen on Vimeo.

The collab of all collabs, Portland based sugar-dealers Voodoo Doughnuts x Mountain Dew. Kiddos, say hello to diabetes and goodbye to your teeth.agr heard that every time someone eats a Voo Dew Doughnut, a vegan dies.

A friend of a friend told agr about a letter in the newest issue of the skiing magazine POWDER that we thought we would share. The person who penned the letter is referring to the marketing campaign where snowboarders were called on to “poach” the remaining skiers-only resorts.

Dear Jake Burton Carpenter,

- Hans Ludwig (via newschoolers.com) Ed. note: Don’t even think we made all the obvious spelling and grammar errors. We are super smart, ya’ dig?

Because that letter was so long that we didn’t even read it, we will spare you our response at the moment. But please feel free to discuss. Instead, we would like to share our new tattoo:

With movie release dates nigh, agr is about to burst with excitement. There are so many flicks we want to see, but there is one that has us particularly giddy.

Dod Sno (Dead Snow)

There isn’t too much info yet regarding the Norwegian horror film, but from what we’ve heard so far is solid gold…The attractive snowboarders of a small northern Norway ski-town discover a new meaning of gnarly when Nazi zombies rise up from the snow and go hunting for brains. YES! (via twitch)