This new job is slowing down the Realms , but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and there are travel plans floating around.

Some really exciting things for new episodes.. cross your fingers.

In the mean time, here are some new products from SIA 2012 and a short edit from my brother Sebi.

Love you guys

t

CAPiTA and Union riders, Dan Brisse and Scott Stevens are in the running for this years X Games Real Snow competition. You may remember, last year Dan walked away from the event a mellow 50K and a gold metal for his efforts. This year our boi Scotty Stevens joins him in the competition. Round 1 of the fan favourite is on now, check it out at <a href=”http://espn.go.com/action/xgames/realsnow/2012/realsnow”>http://espn.go.com/action/xgames/realsnow/2012/realsnow</a>
Good luck Briseburg and Sleepy.

Sales meeting week

One of my most exciting weeks of the year just went down in Zell am See Austria.

The, Deeluxe, CAPiTA, and Union Bindings, sales meetings are the first opportunity I have to see the new product lines first hand. Seeing a years worth of design and testing, turn into a physical product is pretty amazing… Actually, beyond amazing, kind of mind blowing, like seeing our little love child reborn each year.

This year, Deeluxe opened up their presentation of the 2012 “Inspiration Series” with my design of the “Rough Diamond 6”, I really can’t believe that I’ve designed 6 seasons worth of boots with Deeluxe…

My idea behind the “Rough Diamond” name, was to have a product that could forever evolve, each season getting closer to becoming a “perfect” product.

Similar to the steps a raw diamond has to go through before it’s placed on a ring.

Each year I’ve done a ton R&D on the boot, and each year we have found ways to improve it. This year we’re working with a ton of new materials, both inside and out. New cuff collars and insoles, improved the overall heel hold and support of the boot, and even though I didn’t think it was possible, the new liner improves the straight out of the box comfort of the boot…

Over all, the design of the Rough Diamond 6 is a lot cleaner that it has been in the past. Without saying too much, I’m really happy and excited for you guys to see this one.

The New Rough Diamond 6...

When Deeluxe finished up, Blue Montgomery came onto the stage to introduce the new 2012 CAPiTA line up.

There’s always exciting things happening over at CAPiTA. This past year, one of the more notable, in my opinion, is the introduction of our good friend, Sean Tedore to the family.

If you’ve been around a while, you’ll know who Sean is… just go back a few years and check out the early NeoProto flicks.

While Sean was a professional snowboarder, he worked his ass off, and received a full Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Nevada, Reno. Over the last 6 years, Sean’s had a hand in developing over 20 other award winning snowboards…

Long story short, even though CAPiTA is a brand with more than half of their line being award-winning snowboards, year after year; most of the industry has viewed CAPiTA only as a leader in graphic department. The addition of Sean to the development team; means that the technical features of the boards will match the beauty of the outside.

This year is pretty exciting for me personally. 2012 marks the 10-year anniversary of the Midlife series. It’s crazy, I remember sitting in my high school English class drawing out my “pro model” products… I can’t say, I didn’t think it wouldn’t happen… But 10 years of designing a snowboard… It’s a dream come true.

Graphically, I’ve always tried to the incorporate the previous years story into the new boards. The first board I had a hand in designing was one of the first boards the industry had seen with a “heart” as the dominant image on the base… I remember sitting in JB’s basement and him saying “this is so rad! Just a big heart…” Jason really taught me to look at board graphics more as art pieces rather than just “cool” images on a snowboard.  Anyway… I’m really stoked on how this one turned out. It’s clean and very simple.  I hope you all like it.

Midlife Zero sneak peak.

After CAPiTA, was Union… I don’t think much needs to be said about these dudes, They are simply the best bindings out there. If you’re not currently riding Union bindings, chances are, the functions you like on your bindings, they probably had a hand in developing that.

Union.... a whole lot of Union.

Anyway, I forgot to tell Sebi that I was rolling into Austria for the sales meetings. To be honest I thought he would just be there and it would be quite the surprise… Instead, I had to call him and tell him to hope a train for 10 hours to come shred.

20 hours or so later Sebi was there.

Kits

Sebi, Pete and I were all rolling pretty much the same gear, Airblaster Nick Dirks Jacket, Airblaster Jed Anderson Pants. Pete and Sebi were in the Deeluxe “Street Boot” while I was in my “Rough Diamond 5”. Sebi and I both rolled the CAPiTA Midlife Zero 155, me with the Pabst collab binding and Sebi in the Team Atlas, Pete on a little Ultrafear set up.

Sorry dudes , but this is what the screen of my computer looks like. It’s bad timing and I don’t know when I’ll be able to afford a new computer. I’m looking into it though…I’m fresh back from Europe, where I went shredding with Sebi and Pete…Really hoping I can make that video soon.

If you were in one of the bands that let me use their music, It would be super rad if you could resend me some tracks. Everything is GONE. thesnowboardrealms@gmail.com

Also feel free to help us get back on track by heading over to the store and picking up a little love.

Fuck ski companies in snowboarding at all!

This isn’t a post to just point you towards CAPiTA. It’s meant to make you think… then point you in the direction of companies like CAPiTA,(haha) rider owned, and rider operated! CAPiTA’s Blue Montgomery, Signal’s Dave Lee, shit even Burton’s Jake Carpenter… There are only a hand full of Board, Boot and Binding companies out there that are owned and run by people who share snowboarding as passion and lifestyle.
I love snowboarding, and it makes me so sad to see so many other snowboarders tossing their money at companies that haven’t got a clue, why I feel the way I do.
That’s my rant.
TJ Schneider, Snowboarder!

Super limited Collectors edition of DOA.

Just click the image and youll be directed to Facebook, fallow the instructions. Easy style , good luck.

Just click the image to be directed to Facebook

Vimeo

Music
“Law of Nature Outro”
Marlin

“Totally Totally”
The Flamboyant gods

So…. I wasn’t sure if an opening day could ever top a few years ago, I was wrong.
Hands down the best opening day…Possibly my best ski hill shred day ever in North america. Sorry Mt. Baker, Japan has you beat.
John and I rolled down from Vancouver at 6 am. We met up with C3′s Johan Malkoski and caught the 3rd chair up in the morning.
You’re kidding me right ? 3rd Chair !

I don’t really know what else to say about the day… I had moment though. About half way through the day, mid run, I had this feeling come over me… Pure happiness, joy and a feeling of what i describe as love. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt that way, I was pretty taken back… Nov 18, 2011 one of my greatest days of shredding EVER ! Thank you Mt. Baker and a cold wet front that brought a mellow 3 feet of light pow to us in the classically wet and heavy Pacific Northwest.

My kit was pretty much spot on for the day… Yeah I probably should have mounted up the Partyshark Charlie, but that CAPiTA TFk’n Awesome 157 has been calling to me for a while now. I was actually blown away by how great this deck handled in this deep of snow. My lower half was held in by the new Union Atlas team binding, simple, clean, light… same pair I was rocking last year. With my design, Deeluxe Rough Diamond 5‘s keeping my feet toasty. I opted for a thicker pair of Drop mittens. I thought it was going to be a lot more wet than it was, I hate wet cold hands, no wet + no cold = me happy ! My head held the classic tj schneider kit.. My model Goggle from drop kept me fog-less and seeing the lines though that mess of snow, And my Bern Macon model helmet kept me feeling safe… Helmets are a really good idea in early season conditions. There are a lot of rocks just under that surface, I’ve lost one friend from hitting his head on a rock just under the snow, I’d love to not lose anymore… protect yourself foo!

As I mentioned in the video, our store also has a good stack of new “Realms Solid Gold Tees” in stock. We also have a ton of stickers and a few, very limited hats, Check em out.

Thanks everyone, looking forward t ep 3

tj.

Note: I’m now using the GOpole for filming , works pretty fucking great ! Check em out 

Finally ! Things are starting to happen around here. Yesterday Cypress opened up, soon Baker, Whistler, Seymour, and Hood … I’m really looking forward to this season. Things are a little up in the air, I have no doubts though, we will be making some fun shred videos, with tons of our friends.

Keep your eyes on the Twitter and Facebook page, you can also fallow me on your phone via Instagram “tjschneider”  I will be keeping you guys updated and let you know when there is a chance to come and shred with us.

The Snowboard Realms season 5 is here! I hope you enjoy the first episode. Prey for snow.

tj

Zana found a Jimi Hendrix cover band to play before the show,

Cheap drinks for some…. free drinks for me !

At about 11:30 everyone piled into the club where Scotty Stevens started up the main event.

Glued to the screen as "BrisseBurger" goes wild.

In true Euro fashion the party continued well into the night, somewhere around 3 the lights came on , somewhere around 4 people started to leave , somewhere around 5 I found a couch and somewhere around 6 I was on my way to the airport.

Huge thank you to Zana and the Swiss CAPiTA crew for putting on such a rad event and everyone that came to join us.

It was a great way to see Defenders of Awesome for the first time. For a full list of “Defenders of Awesome” premier dates check out CAPiTASNOWBOARDING.COM

Tj Schneider.

All photos by Vernon Deck