Summer Snowskate Session from Eric Schleicher on Vimeo.

You may have already heard, but Summit Boardshop is opening up their skatepark to everybody on Wednesdays.  Best part of all, it’s completely free.  If you haven’t checked out Summit lately, be sure to make it out on a Wednesday and bring your deck for a little session.  Summit has tons of plans for expansion and even an artificial snow surface this summer.  There will definitely be a future post on rideMinnesota when they get their snow surface completed.  Get out there and support your local shop.

Original Interview by Moda3.

Straight out of Minnesota, regional Burton rider, Ryan Paul has been killing it this season. Dude has been winning some heavy regional contests and been getting a significant amount of coverage nationally. Ryan took a minute to do a quick interview with me while he’s extending his season in Colorado. Look for him at Mt. Hood this Summer, digging to ride. Seriously, look for him and say hi – he’s one of the nicest dudes you’ll ever meet.

1. The basics – name, hometown, sponsors.

Ryan Allan Paul (RAP) Cottage Grove MN, Burton, Anon, Gravis, Coal, Summit, La Bodega, Banshee Bungee, Bald E-Gal, 1817 and Midwest Represent!

2. You’ve been getting a ton of coverage this season, where have you been and what have you been up to this year?

This year has been super rad for me! I filmed with a lot of dudes for both the Bald E-Gal and 1817 movies and I think this year’s footy is some of my best stuff so far. I got to travel alot around the midwest filmin’ and doing contests and just recently have been gettin out West. Myself, Viktor Simco and Sam Fenton went to Utah for 2 weeks and had a blast then me and Viktor hopped on a plane to LAX to kick it in Cali for a little bit. [We] hit the beach up and got a good week in of shredding Bear Mountain a.k.a. my new favorite spot! Went home, hopped in a car and now i’m in Colorado.

3. I heard you spent all Summer out at Hood last year living a gypsy existence, tell me a little bit about that.

Yeah I Gradumatated high school and got a bunch of money for that so I scraped it up and headed out there in my cutty. I got out there and bought a season pass, spent time campin’, sleeping in my car, and couch surfing. The best place to ride on Mt Hood is High Cascade so I did Dig-to-Ride there. The Diggers nicknamed me ‘86‘ because they kicked me out for doing a crappy job one day, but I kept coming back cause HCSC is so sick and we all became friends evenutally but they still call me ‘86′ haha!

4. What are your plans for this Summer?

Digging!

Backie to 50-50 at HCSC

5. What’s the House of 1817 all about? How come you keep popping up on that site?

1817 is a blog site of a bunch of homies who are into boarding, skating, music, and fashion so their posts kinda revolve around those topics. I guess I just keep ending up on there cause of the boarding one. Check out their site it’s pretty cool!

6. Any plans for next season yet?

I wanna move to the cities with Sam Fenton and some other boarder friends for a few of the Winter months. It would be rad cuz we’d all be in the same place tryin to do the same stuff, snowboard and film. Hopefully, I’ll get to travel a bunch more to check out different cities to hit rails and stuff and hopefully go to Utah again to ride some powder!

7. You’ve recently become more active in the whole yoga thing and eating healthier, what’s your program and how has it affected your riding?

Yeah dude, Bob and Mindy Elmergreen are my good friends and also Burton reps. They both are into going to Bikram Yoga so I thought I’d give it a go. Its crazy your first few times, you’re in a room that is 105 degrees fahrenheit doing all these postures for an hour and a half but you feel so awesome when you’re done! I just try to eat as healthy as I can… you know, you are what you eat. When I have been doing yoga and eating good I feel a lot more relaxed and on point on my snowboard, its sweet!

They call this pose ‘upward tail over fence.‘

8. What setup are you currently riding?

The Burton Wammy Bar 150 with Custom EST binders and the Imperial boots. Its a Keyed-up set-up! I like it.

9. How do you think growing up in the Minneapolis area has shaped the way you snowboard? Do you think it would be different if you grew up somewhere else?

Definitely. I think I’d be more into jumping or pipe if I lived out here in CO. But living in Minnesota all I want to do is hit handrails, street stuff and tow ropes! All that stuff is super fun too but I think MN is where its at for me as of right now.

10. Any shout outs / parting shots?

Anthony Rosati, Josh Iniguez and the Snowboarders For Christ, Gabby Maiden for lettin’ me stay at her house, Bear, the Sweds, Nate Harrington, Baby Cale, Colbs, Butters, Jeffy, Team Buttflex 4 Life, God and My homie Jesus thanks for having my back! Blake Reid, Beef, Bald E-Gal, Bob, Mindy, Jay, Hoff, Midwest Represent, OEoeoeo, Randy, Ricky, Cheesin, Finkle sqwad, BABs, Duncan, vinny, Alex Loren, Sam and Labaw, NT, Riley, Keef L, Fenton, T, Cody, Farmer, The Dirty Kids, RamRod, 1817, The Diggers, My Family, My Friends, and everyone who has helped me out! Love you guys!

Summit Backyard from Sam Jorgensen on Vimeo.

Summit Boardshop is going to be hosting a new kind of competition in their backyard park.  The contest titled “Crew Wars”  will be a chance for you to put together a crew of riders/skiers that you think can be called the “Dream Team.” Each team must wear distinguishing clothing so it will be a great opportunity to bust out those Gorillas suits. The “wars” will be on January 29th, but make sure you pre-register by January 22nd.  You can register by phone or at Summit’s website.

Pro/Am Series Details

The Summit Pro/Am is a rail jam series.  There are 4 qualifiers.  At these 4 qualifiers the top snowboader and skier will be automatically invited to the final.  Also, 2nd place will receive 100 points, 3rd will receive 50 points, and so on down to 10th place.  The top 10 point leaders at the end of the series will also be invited to the final.  The final will take place in the Summit “Backyard.”  A last chance qualifier will give us a total of 20 amateur snowboarders and 20 amateur skiers the chance to compete against 5 special guests in the final.  The top amateur in the final will win a special prize.  Amateurs will also have a chance to battle the special guests for a $4000+ cash purse.  Each qualifier will also have a top prize, snowboard/ski raffle and plenty of free stuff.  There will be news releases for each qualifier.

How to Register:

To pre-register you can call 651-714-1117.  You can reserve a spot for any of the qualifiers.  You can also register the day of the even.  Please call if you have any questions.  Last chance qualifier is open only to those who have competed in one of the previous qualifiers.  If you place first in a qualifier you will not need to compete in any other qualifier.

Check out Summit Boardshop.

Summit Boardshop in Lake Elmo will be hosting a rail jam directly behind their shop this Saturday. The setup looks sick and there is a $1000 grand prize. There will be a cap of 100 riders so register early. The first heat will start at 1pm and the final jam will be at 6:30pm. Call Summit for more details or check our event section.