As we gear up for the holiday season, Roxy girl Torah Bright kicks off her ride towards the 2014 Winter Olympics. We don’t know what to expect from the reigning 2010 Gold Medalist, but we know it will be good. Take for instance this past weekend when at the Breckenridge Dew Tour, Torah decided to learn a new trick (a backside alley-oop rodeo) right before the finals started. She didn’t quite stick it in finals, but we’re confident she’ll be putting it down in many contests to come. We’re excited to follow Torah on the rest of her journey and see what else she has up her sleeve.
Check out this highlight video of Torah’s 2011/12 season, and as you head out on your holiday break and into the New Year; take some queues from Torah and dare to go big and try new things!

Holiday break is fast approaching, and we can’t wait to pack a bag and head to the mountains for warm-hearted adventures with friends and family. We caught up with our snow team riders to see which mountains are their favorites to visit around the holiday time. What’s yours?

Corinne Pasela says “So my favorite holiday resort is Peek’n Peak, nestled up in Findley Lake, NY. My personal connection to the place comes from learning to ski there early on in life. It was a mellow day trip from Ohio, perfect for our family trips. The main lodge, and all it’s retro greatness, is perfect for a place to warm up during the day or chill for the night. They boast a few terrain parks, some bumps and jumps, but the real fun happens through the trees across their 27 slopes (mellow enough to entertain all skill levels). Plus, the snow is always good! In a nutshell, Peek’n Peak is the best place to ride around my neck of the woods for the holidays because it’s family friendly, easy on the wallet, has good snow, short lift lines, and that good ol’ ma and pa feel. Hip hip for winter!”

Robin Van Gyn is “biased to B.C., but Whistler is like no where else during the Holidays. The village is lit up and the snow droops from all the trees, its a winter wonderland.”

Ty Walker says “My favorite place to ride in the holiday season is Breckenridge in Colorado because the town is so pretty and it looks like something out of a Christmas book, But for the actual holiday I always go home to Stowe, Vermont to spend time with my family.” The newest member of our Amateur team, Jordie Karlinski, also loves Colorado, but she prefers Snowmass resort in Aspen, “during the holidays my whole family is in town and its a great mountain to either ride with my dad and brother or take a hike with with my mom and sister. Friends I grew up with are in town as well, so it’s nice to be able to ride with them.”

Erin Comstock and Torah Bright head to Park City Mountain Resort in Utah because as Torah says, “They have it all… parks, pipes and great terrain! My favorite memories are during the holiday with a group of friends just lapping the mountain on a blue bird day. I Ride Park City!”

Once there were girls who dreamed of riding frozen white waves. In the dog days of winter, while everyone else shivered in their homes, they bundled up in bright colors and stepped out into the snow. They bound their boots to snowboards made just for them.  They went to the very top of the highest peak and then they rode down. With every turn, every jump, every floating second, they fell in love with snowboarding. At the bottom the girls looked back to see the path they had taken and saw their fortunes written in the snow.

Explore the Wonders of Winter in the New Catalog and shop the collection!

The Winter catalog makes its online debut tomorrow and in grand anticipation we’re pulling back the curtains to give our readers some insight into the collaborative graphic genius behind our 2012/13 Roxy snowboards.

As much as we’d like to say they’re just really cool boards (because they are), there’s a whole lot more heart, thought, tech and creative energy that goes into the boards that are ecologically handcrafted in the USA at the Mervin Factory in Sequim, WA. Today we’re giving you a brief glimpse into the collaboration between Roxy’s own designer Yuhei K., Kyre M., Roxy team riders (including Kjersti Buaas pictured below), and Thomas Sullivan and the rest of the design crew from the LA based design firm National Forest.

We caught up with National Forest and asked them all the tough questions.

As an artist, how important do you think a board’s graphic is, and why?
National Forest: A great graphic can be very important. Snowboarding is about expression, having fun, and feeling great. Being stoked about the look of your whip is a good step in the right direction.

NF designed the 12/13 Roxy snowboard line, can you briefly walk us through the process?
National Forest: Sure thing. The process begins with a lot of “What if we did this?” conversations. We dig up favorite books, posters, pop culture references, old photos, etc., and pool them together for a big mind- -meld of intuitive concepting. We formulate abstract ideas and begin drawing, setting type, or designing with the conversations, references, and specific snowboards in mind. In the beginning we make intuitive marks; then we step back and ask ourselves, “Where is this going? Is this new? Is it good?” We’ve found that this is the best path to create a new vibe that we know we want but can’t quite describe. Our rule of thumb is if we’re uncomfortable with an image it’s good because it’s new and uncharted. As the images take form we meet with Roxy and the snowboarding team, via our friends at Mervin to discuss the progress and invite them to add their contributions to the pool of ideas. We collectively decide which creative paths to follow and then fine- – tune the images. We tweak and refine until the pictures are done and ready to send off to the factory. We all meet at Mervin HQ, located in Sequim, WA (near Seattle), for one final multi-day press check followed by high-fives and beers.

Where do you get your inspiration for the graphics? Do the Roxy team riders contribute inspiration?
National Forest: It is important that each design has a heartfelt expression at its core. We think this level of sharing, risky as it may be, is what allows visuals to resonate deeply and communicate with other folks. These expressions come from the Roxy team, outside artists, or our personal experiences.

Do you think a good board graphic can make you ride better or make your day better, and why?
National Forest: Yes ma’am! I’m stoked on my current set-up and as lame as it may sound, when I feel cool, I ride cool. If you roll to the disco knowing your steez is just right you’re going to strut like a king, look girls straight in the eye, and crush it on the dance floor. The same goes for a day on the mountain.

NF works on a lot of very impressive, national and international campaigns for big brands, are there any similarities in how you approach a national campaign and how you approach designing a snowboard line?
National Forest: There sure are. We work on a lot of self-initiated projects and, as you mention, some big global ones. With all of our projects, big and small, we try to share the same message: “It’s important to experience and share joy, it is important to find time to be in the present, and we can collectively create a ‘cool’ that everyone is invited to enjoy.” We find the message important to remember in our personal lives and are excited when we can help steer big companies (Roxy included) to spread the word.

A few of the 2012/13 designs feature work from prominent artists, can you tell us a little bit about the artists and why you chose them?
National Forest: Sure. There are three contributing artists who collaborated with NF on the 2012/13 line. Two of the artists, Imants Tillers and Michael Nelson Jagamara, are friends of Torah Bright, a shredder on the Roxy Snow team. Torah suggested the two collaborate to create the key image for her signature Eminence C2 BTX board. Thomas, one of the crew here at NF, suggested we reach out to Theo Altenberg for a collaboration on the Banana Smoothie. Theo is a great German contemporary artist who has been making amazing work since the ’70s. He’s also a cool-ass dude.

Do you have a favorite board from the 2012/13 collection and why?
National Forest: I dig the Inspire. I like the simple irony of a rainforest jungle scene with rainbows and tropical birds slashing through the snow. It’s a silly notion but I appreciate the gag. Can you get me one in a men’s 162 wide?

Have any of National Forest’s employees ridden a Roxy snowboard?
National Forest: Not yet. But I’m happy to say we have a new shredder with us who will surely be taking some turns on a Roxy whip come first snow.

Missed our last two countdown posts? Sneak a peek at the catalog press check and get your winter wardrobe fix with the girls from Peepshow Films.

Winter is waiting and so are we. Instead of feeling that uncomfortable impatience of waiting though, we’ve decided to ‘countdown’ in an attempt to take away the anxiety we get when thinking about flipping the pages of our Winter catalog (we can hardly wait!).

Our first behind the scenes look from our 2-week countdown to the Winter catalog comes straight from the press all the way in Wisconsin. If you look close enough you’ll catch cover girl and Olympic Gold Medalist Torah Bright wearing the Torah Bright jacket in Brandywine (one of the best colors we’ve seen all season). Check out some more snaps from Wisconsin down below.

Stay tuned until next week when we introduce you to some of our Roxy friends.

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Snow has started to fall in many parts of the country, so riding days are soon here again. We cannot wait to ride the chairlift and cruise the park with our friends. This little gem is the 3rd video in our Wanderlust collaboration series with Peepshow films, and features Roxy snow team riders Corinne Pasela, Erin Comstock, Kjersti Buaas, and Ty Walker. Watch, enjoy, and whet your winter whistle! Don’t forget to stock up on all your Roxy Snow gear.

For 5 seasons now our ever so talented snow team rider, Torah Bright, has had the opportunity to design her own winter collection: Roxy Bright Edition.  Torah has impeccable taste, so this is a dream come true for both Torah and Roxy.  Every year we are impressed with Torah’s approach; she finds inspiration in the most unusual places, and the results are quite spectacular.  For 2013 her inspiration is an alluring mix of romantic, gothic florals and the sun burnt deserts of her Australian childhood.  We love the combination of the brandywine Bluff jacket with the cavern grey floral Birch pants with her Eminence snowboard.

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We’re excited to get our hands on Drifting Decade, a book released this week by one of our favorite photographers, Daniel Blom. The book is a selection of Blom’s finest pics taken over the last ten years of his snow photography career. Blom hails from Sweden, and we think his photos capture the beauty and simplicity that Scandinavian design is known for. Lucky for us, Blom is also a fan of Roxy, and has worked a lot with the Roxy snow team over the years . So if your coffee table needs a pick-me-up, add Drifting Decade to your collection.

Every winter our snow team riders go on epic adventures to distant snowy locales, and at the end of the year we have more photos than we know what to do with. So rather than let those photos hide in a hard drive, we are posting scrapbooks of each trip for the world to see. Check out our first scrapbook documenting a road trip that team riders Torah Bright, Erin Comstock and Robin Van Gyn took to the beautiful mountains of Alberta, Canada. On beautiful bluebird days the girls rode snowmobiles out to hidden areas at Fortress Mountain to find some of the Rockies best powder. After riding they cozied up back at the ranch and partook in the local après with the various four legged ranch dwellers. Adventure is out there, so take a spin through the scrapbook and get inspired for your own winter travels.

It’s a brave new winter! Today we’ve launched a new snow site, so be sure to sneak a peek. We’re also excited to unveil a new collab video series with the ladies over at Peepshow Films. This talented filmmaking duo, June Bhongjan and Esthera Preda, met at a snowboard contest in 2008 and bonded over their love for filming, fashion, and snowboarding. They teamed up and created 2 successful films that documented women’s snowboarding the way that it really goes down, with creative verve and progressive riding. Always a supporter of women who are working to redefine the sport, Roxy proposed to join forces and apply Peepshow’s unique vision to Roxy’s team of talented riders. The result is “Wanderlust”, an inspiring collection of videos that roam from urban obstacles to the backcountry, from pipe to park, and showcase the depth and diversity of the Roxy team with a fresh new eye. Follow the series here.