george crosland photo blog

As always, when you go on snowboard trip you try to enjoy the whole experience

High Power Lines taking juice to So Cal in the Owens Valley pre dawn light

Sometimes you feel like camping! I slept at these hot springs from about 1 am - 6 am. Sat in here drinking Keystone Light from 11pm - 1 am. Just sitting there, sipping on beer alone watching the night sky and a LOT of meteorites - Ownes Valley, about an hour from Mammoth

bed for the night

For whatever reason I awoke way before dawn. It was well below freezing and tough to get out of “bed” The sune was nice on the mountains so I wandered around and took some photos. Right about the time this photo was takling some sketchy ass couple drove past me, did a donut, drove to another camper a few hundred yards away, did another donut. Then proceeded to drive like a lunatic back to the hot springs and within minute they were bangin’ and fightin’ at the same time. I heard her moaning and then heard him saying “you better behave or you are walking home” Yes, they did disturb the pre-dawn quiet but it was worth it to hear the drama, too funny

Any real snowboarder has seen the dawn on some mountain range after an all night drive or possibly airplane flight. Dawn is always trippy. Dawn is the beginning of the new day, whether you are on your way to shred, surf or regretting what you did the night before and wishing the dawn would stay away, dawn will always be there. The White Mountains

It had snowed about 20″ in mammoth the day before

The noids - not really rideable yet but kind of - bring an old board and helmet

Elk on the side of the road in the Owens Valley

Is this California or Montana?

Adam Lovejoy made a snowboard movie called That Snowboard Movie. He had a little premier at Whiskey Creek. The movie was pretty sick with riding by lot’s of heads; Gabe Taylor, Pat Bentcheley, Matt Mo and even Snowboard Revolutions own Johnny Centi. Here is Adam with his chick Nicole. The movie is definitely better than watching RSN so get a hold of one if you can

Snowboarder and DJ Matt Mo (Moriarity)

For those curious about the riding, here are some snaps from around Mammoth - top of 3, Sunday Dec 9

Some little hits in the Forest Trail Intermediate Park

Main Park Hip

Main Park “big” jump

Jibtastic part of the main park, on Sunday they also opened the PBRJ venue to the public, now that was cool

The top was open. Temp 5 degrees, wind 20-50 mph

Mammoth doing it’s best impression of Europe with the Gondola popping out of the clouds

Cornice was the way down from the top with the best coverage - by far

Sometimes you gotta visit the family and friends. I spend so little time with my family actually that I really enjoy it

The fall leaves were still on the trees back east. The leaves usually fall off in October. Anybaody who says global warming is not real is fooling themselves. Potomac River. Shot taken from Maryland into Virginia

Harpers Ferry West Virginia is a total throwback town. West Virginia is truly a mountain state and this is where it starts. Where the Shenandoah River emeges from the mountains to meet the Potomac, where the North meets the South. Where the first battle of the civil war took place

My Dad walking alont the Potomac River

What is with all this nature arty shit?

This wall was built during the Civil War and here it just sits in the middle of the woods

Fall along the Potomac

The sunset on the fall leaves was pretty nice

Like Europe but it is West “by god” Virginia

Also went to my high school reunion. So fun to see everyone. Thats my friend Pat, I met him in like 1983. He lives in LA and we still hang out

After the reunion we went to Bar 11 in Pittsburgh where I was made honorary bartender. Bar 11 is an insane place. Always packed, always crazy shit

Like Ibiza, only in Pittsburgh, with real people

The owner of Bar 11, Rob, is a complete nut, he makes the place what it is. He has fucking drums at the bar

“Lets get reatarded”

You think the dude in the yellow shirt is gonna get lucky?

Head drums?

2:15 am Saturday morning, Pittsburgh PA. Hella fun times but you can’t live like this, well Danny Kass can. There are fucking trees in the Bar?

My Dad visited from Maryland this past weekend so I took a break from my recent contest/event coverage for like the past 20 weekends in a row, ha. We cruised out to the desert east of San Diego, an area call Anza Borrego. A beautiful place to visit.

The desert out here is very dry but not life less and sahara style like you imagine. It is full of all sorts of plants and animals that have adapted to life in a harsh environment. Elevations range from below sea level to 6,000 ft

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Our Boss recently told us to keep it fresh. Well, I am going the opposite and making it really old, like 1985. To make it even worse I am putting pictures of me from 1985 in Pitsburgh, PA. The first transition ramp I ever skated in Brian Cummins back yard. Thanks to Brian for the photos. I used to take a bus like 2 hours to skate the 10 foot wide, 6 ft high gem. It was the epicenter of Pittsburgh skating for a while

Frontside stink bug air. Kevin Staab board, Indy Trucks and Powell Rat Bones

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Unless you live in a cave you know So Cal has had a tough week with fires. At one point they said 1 million people were evacuated. San Diego took the brunt of it with over 300,000 acres burned and still going

A car on fire on my way to work Tuesday morning

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Or so it seems in San Diego, holy cow there a fires everywhere. Yesterday stared nice-good wave, good wind for surf. I headed out for a motorcycle ride and hike in the backcountry of San Diego. On the way to my hike there were firetrucks racing around but no smoke in the sky

This point is way out in the middle of no where and required riding miles on dirt roads - The Pacific Crest trails

Here is a view of 10,800 foot tall San Jacinto peak and 11,499 foot tall San Georgonio peak from remote Combs peak

The very remote North Coyote Canyon part of Anza Borrego

Off to the South is the beginning of the Witch Creek fire, which is causing havoc in San Diego today. It pretty much started in front of my eyes

Here is part of a plane wreck, no joke

So, while riding my motorcycle home I see some smoke from a different fire in the distance, by the time I get to where the smoke was it was a raging inferno. Appearantly, the fire was first reported at 3:53 pm and I came across it at about 5 pm - insane

This was like 1/2 mile away

Look at the flames and look at the house, the flames are way taller then the house

Riding through the area, it was still smoking right next to the road

A few hundred yards away was ground zero

Fire burning on both sides of the road. I am shooting photos while riding a motorcycle and dodging fire trucks, tumbleweeds, cars, trucks, smoke and fire

Here is the view just ahead of the fire. People were evacuating their homes, fire trucks were driving around looking were to make their stand and what to protect. For the most part the wind was blowing the fire away from me. At one point the wind changed direction and brought the smoke, ash and embers towards me - I split

Since I am retarded I drove back and snapped a few more photos

look for complete coverage of some of the best ams in the world at Automatics battle of the shops later today

While driving in to Big Bear for the HDDR event you could not help but notice the fire, especially since Hwy 18 was closed

The fire was raging just across the lake from Bear Mountain. The town of Fawnskin was evacuated, so was Green Valley (anybody remember the first all Snowboard Park “Air Green Valley” or something). Around 2000 people were evacuated

This is how close you could to the scene - a few miles. It was crazy, lots of giant heli’s and giant planes dropping fire retardent and water in sketchy to reach places, it was like a movie

It is is still burning. On Sunday the stats were as follows: Staff-1000, 10 airplanes, 12 helicopters, 41 fire trucks and more. Wildfire is a fact of life in the west!

Just got back from a backpack trip with my Dad to the Bitteroot Mountains of Montana/Idaho. Montana is definitely a differnet place than California. We could not find a ride when this kind gentleman gave us a ride and drove us around

We set off up Fred Burr Canyon, which according to the guide book was “remote” and the trail was “barely discernable” The book was right

There were fires every where. In fact we could not even go where we wanted. That is cool though, Fred Burr did not disapoint. It was pretty rugged. Often the grass was head high. Here is the “trail”

There were elk, moose and wolf tracks every where

High on the divide

We camped at this lake on our second night out

Another Lake. We did not see one other person for Three whole days - crazy

Mill Creek Canyon

Heavy Metal Transportation to fix a dam in the wilderness

Stopped at Coure De Lane Lake in Idaho on the way home. Close to Silver Mountain, Schweitzer ski areas and Canada

skate park in Idaho - basic but fun

ATV’s in Idaho, about 2 miles from Tamarack resort

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Took a trip recently, here are some snaps
Aug 10 - Carlsbad, CA - Newport Beach, CA (work til 5:30pm) - Green Creek, CA (near Yosemite)
Aug 11 - Wake up in Green Creek. We (my girlfriend Jesse and I) met some friends, Jeff and Michelle, who were camping with Michelles parents and also Jeff and Michelles 2 kids. From there we drove to McCall Idaho. Animals seen on the whole trip - Hawks, birds, Beaver Dam, four foxes, Bear Tracks, baby bear, elk, bald eagle, osprey, Badger in Oregon, deer and the usual squirrels and stuff

Bear Tracks outside the tent - Green Creek, CA

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