AGoodReed / Takes lotsa knocks to bust rocks!

While in the Northern Hemisphere everyone is dousing their livers with heavy amounts of alcohol, getting kicked out of MDP premieres and chasing girlies that like snowboard boys, we are still hopping around on our snowboards trying to avoid coming home and getting a real job.The season finally feels like it’s winding down, temperatures are rising and the last snow fall seems to have been ages ago. The AGR office has now moved from Farrellones to Santiago where we will try to detox, wash our clothes for the first time and spend time meditating for our second trip to Pucon this coming Friday.

Part of this meditation includes updating you on what went down the last time we went to Pucon….

Once upon a time on our way to Bariloche, Argentina…

After 20 hours of bus riding… we’re still sleeping. We woke up to white streets, buildings styled after Les Alpes, and hotties pondering in the streets.

The next day we made the trip to Cerro Catedral. No luck with girlies, kicked out of an Irish pub for drinking to much, $60 lift tickets, riding cat tracks full of rocks, super wet snow and 30 core shots between the 3 of us riders, we decided we had enough of Bariloche.

This is what Ralph thought of Bariloche!

After checking with our faithful meteorologists friends over at snow-forecast.com we decided to jump right back on a bus to Chile to chase a storm in Pucon. A storm that was said to bring over a meter of snow…. our hopes were high.

Bags packed and the team was ready. 1 meter of snow here we come.

From left to right. Barry, Unda, Marco, Ralf and John.

After 3 days of rain in the city, we were off to rent a car to prepare for our journey to the mountain. AVIS rental car. What a classy business.

We rented a Peogout 312, leather seats, tilt wheel, beautiful red paint and room for 4. We were five.

Our faithful Captain Marco. He had us believing he was a great driver.

He drove more than 10 feet after starting the car in the AVIS parking lot and drove straight into a hole!

Straight into a sewage drain.

Bottomed out.

The lady assured us that this wasn’t the first time this had happened and happily handed us keys to a new SILVER Peogout.

Luckily they had another.

And we were on our way.

Our anticipations high.

Welcome to Pucon. 1 meter of fresh!

Villarica. An active volcano.

5 hour hike to the top of the volcano and we’re welcomed with this snow mouth.

The shark was a little angry after Ralf went to the bathroom in his mouth.

Ralph slashin.

Jon made the five hour hike to the summit of Villarica with a broken ankle. The run down was a little slow for him but he was able to descend in front of us and point out lines.

Ralf doesn’t hesitate with anything. Whether it’s girls or droppin’ bombs with snow shoes on the back.

That’s it and that’s all from the international amateur team comprised of riders from 5 different countries.

Here we come again Pucon! We hope you’re ready.

Ralf Manflimfla is known as the crazy Swiss guy.

Barry: “Hey Ralf”
Ralf: “ya wat u want Barry?”
Barry: “You make a nice double nose grab cab five over there.”
Ralf: “Ya gracia. I think now we go finish the snow box now. The world isn’t ready for what I want to do today.”
Barry: “Yeah really? What are you thinking about doing?”
Ralf: “Ya don’t worry Barry, you will see.”

Ralf has a reputation in Chile as the crazy Swiss guy and every week he seems to live up to his reputation.

Taking over 2 days to construct, we ended up with this….

Ralf only speaks the truth. The world is not ready for the sequence of what he did over the snow box.

For those who haven’t seen the radar of South America in the last 2 weeks you may have missed the 4 feet of snow that came through the Southern Hemisphere.  We have a rule here at the AGR office; when it snows, we don’t work.

The DC Snow Team frequents Chile and happened to be here for the last 2 weeks. AGR hung low as Devun and the fellas did their thing. It wasn’t tell we hit the bar when things got a little out of hand.  You can be sure to see some of their trip in the upcoming Mt. Lab 3.5 and catalog.  According to rumors, the Burton crew will not be coming to Chile as they have in years past….  Maybe the recent team set backs also came with budget cutbacks.

After the most recent storm the AGR: Field Coorespondance crew in South America was deported from Chile.  We have no news as to why.  Maybe they were slashin’ too many innocent bystanders, maybe stealing french fries, who knows. Or maybe they set off this 600 meter avalanche in the area known as Santa Teresa… But this was the last that was seen of them……….  riding in the back of the patty wagon.

Send us signals soon fellas!

Hello World. Benivenidos a la internet.

Hell. We flew in, and for the first 13 days of the trip we have spent a total of 10 minutes on the internet. The saying goes
while traveling, the less time spent on the internet, the more fun you be havin’. But it feels damn good to have fingers glued to a keyboard again.

After 24 hours of landing we hooked up with the “Big Show”. He’s somewhat of a big deal down here as you can see above.  Straight out of the UK he’s been throwing down some serious old school hammers. Not to mention he hasn’t cut his hair in 6 years. We haven’t cut ours either.  He’s a slayer.

For the first couple days we were cruisin’ around. Mountain touring. No new snow = small park days and beer sippin’. As our hearts were jerked around with the falty snow forecasts of “www.snow-forecast.com”, the storm finally arrived late night last Tuesday. A glorious Wednesday. Blue skies and 2 feet of fresh. Unfortunately, a late night of partying the night before, and an unforgettable 3:30 am powder run home, we plugged in our camera charger to the wrong circuit and blew every fuse in the house. Hard to believe……… The best day of the trip so far went undocumented by photos.

After a few days of powder cowboys, the AGoodReed team began practicing for the “Freestyle Tour at Valle Nevado” presented by Rossignol and Lippi. Our newest addition to the team, Ralph began working with Mr. Gillis on tricks for the new competition. Just like any snowboarder out of Swisssaland, ie ISENSEVEN, he likes lots of fancy tricks. Ralph claims he knows the fellas from ISENSEVEN and when ever we reference the movie he gets a foul taste in his mouth because us Americans jock the movie.

Ralphy tailblocking the meadow of Valle Nevado.  Proper.  I guess spending 50+ hours in your snowboard boots doesn’t prevent you from competing in a big air and doing tailblocks.

Ralph taught Doctor Gillis Truckdrivers. The doctor stomped one in the competition on Saturday landing him in 3rd place. Ralph claimed that because he taught The Doctor the trick that he should buy him beers for the rest of the night….. just another irrational statement by our Swisssa friend.

The only picture we have of the truckdriver is this one.

The photographer for the competition was a local bystander. He may or may not have been blind. Sadly enough this was the best shot of the 20 photos he took.

After all was said and done. Doctor Gillis made the podium along with a local Chilean Tomas in second and a fellow Canadian Tamo in 1st. Prizes we silly. A pair of gloves, thermals and ONE Redbull. Just ONE Redbull……

We do a lot of hanging out in the parking lot. Looking for tickets on days we don’t want to purchase.

Mario ordering Barry to come about.

Amongst all the fun, we did run into a little accident. Our fearless Chilean Tour Guide Mario Hevia suffered the patented snowboard injury. Grade 3 shoulder separation. After a girl complained about breaking her arm during our last run… (Everyone knows you don’t jinx yourself like that), Mario separated his shoulder. A week off the snowboard and he’s back riding tomorrow. A salud to Mario.

That’s it and that’s all for now. Shout out to all the friends at home. And a farewell to Dr. Gillis. Have fun in LA bro bro! You won’t be disappointed in the substitute.