Travis Rice mentored a bunch of kids in Stoked Snow Mentor program last Sunday at Snow Summit. As soon as he was introduced, he jumped right in with no coaching and basically set the bar for mentoring. It was awesome. He even led a snowball fight at the end. Check out this video from the day. Many thanks to Travis for being such an inspiration for kids and adults.

Last weekend was massive for my organization Stoked. Our biggest and best program, Snow Mentor (Snowboard mentoring) started its 2011 season. We took inner city youth from Los Angeles to Snow Summit and in New York to Belleayre Mountain. It was extra special in New York because we opened our very first Barn. We’re extremely grateful to the Harvey & Sylvia Young Charitable Foundation for generously supporting the construction of it. We’re also thrilled that this is our 5th year at Snow Summit as well. Check out the pictures after the jump.

I went to Snow Summit this past weekend to set up our upcoming Snow Mentor program. Our Snow Mentor program is headed into its 5th year in California. This winter we will take hundreds of Los Angeles youth from underserved communities snowboarding and teach them valuable life skills such as goal setting, overcoming obstacles, and how to create a vision for their future. Setting up the season usually consists of me flying to LA (5 hours) and then driving (2.5 hours) to Big Bear. After meeting with the director of the resort (30 minutes), the team and I have chairlift meetings and do laps around the mountain. We plan the program activities, special projects, and life skills workshops for the season. It was a fun and hot day at Snow Summit. I had Bret (our Senior Program Manager), Charlie (LA Program Coordinator), Constance (volunteer), former pro snowboarder YuLin Olliver of The Street League, and her husband, Brian Olliver, formerly of Fuel TV all in tow. I love snowboarding especially with a good crew. Usually the hardest decision I have to make while snowboarding is which run to take. Check out the video and more pics after the jump.

When I saw this clip it made me really excited about snowboarding this season. Perhaps it’s the music with the flow of the video. Or maybe it’s the ritual leaving the city butt ass early in the morning to head up to a mountain with your fellow snowboarders. We snowboarders in NYC know how lucky we are. It’s not out west, but at least we can do it. I haven’t hit the hill in NY yet, but will do so this weekend at Snow Summit in California. Enjoy the weekend.