Me and my younger brother Øystein drove before-sunrise-early on friday, and arrived at the glacier in good time for shredding. Parkshaper, mushroomrepresent and buddy Emil Fossheim had a funny rail-line going on friday and saturday, so we killed those obstacles until Saturday evening.

The picture above is from saturday’s jump session. Its me doing a FS 1080 melon captured by Olav Stubberud, an amazing young lad with sick photograph-skills! OLAVSTUBBERUD.COM

As Saturday passed by, me and Øystein had been shreddin’ the park, skatin’ the miniramp, doubleflippin’ the trampoline and eaten lots of icecream! It was already the perfect weekend. I didn’t know how ridiculously sick the helishoot on sunday would be…

The time was 23.30, we threw the boards and boots in the back of the car and got ready for 4 hours of drive back home. I was stoked as a motherfucker! I had gotten 8 jumps with the chopper flying so close behind I could have poked it (at least it was really close, the pilot was insane skilled). We were 11 snowboarders and skiers, and everyone had done their craziest shit with the chopper recording it all with a camera way too sick and too expensive to imagine. We even had 3-4 photographers and 3-4 additional cameras on the side. This was one for the history-books!

I have been in Breckenridge Colorado for almost two weeks now, we had great weather all the time! Me and Kim Rune Hansen was shredding and filming each other, check out the movies!

To top things off in the end of our stay, we went to Park City to do “The Intelligent Design”, where I got fourth place! The course was really inventive and creative and started with a 25 m kicker, a hip, a down rail, a halfpipe and then a quarterpipe in the very end. My run was bs 1260 on the kicker, cab 9 on the hip, fs blunt to bs board on the rail, back to back seven and a fs air in the pipe and a chuckflip in the quarter, really stoked to put down all those tricks in a row! Shaun White won, Charles Reid on second and Luke Mitrani got third. It is to be mentioned that I stayed at the DC Mountain Lab, which was a sick experience!

Norwegians in Breck 09 from Gjermund Bråten on Vimeo.

Gjermund

Today we had Big Air practice and I had the slowest board ever. I think I knockled like 6 times or so. But that is not the worst part! To solve my speed problem, I figured riding straight down to do a bs rodeo would be the solution. That went very well, the first time. The second try, I did a bs rodeo 9 with crail, something I’ve never even tried before. I was stoked! So stoked I couldn’t keep the balance until the end and I slammed, hit that icy flat after the landing with my back. And there I was, stumbling my way up to my room to get the painkillers.

“We regret to announce that the 2009 Vans Cup has been cancelled. Thank you everyone who has played a role in making the Vans Cup one of the world’s top snowboarding events. We apologize for any inconvenience this news may cause.” NOOOOOO!! HELL NO! I have been looking forward to this contest since the summer when I got a spot. And now they are blowing it off. I was also supposed to do the rookie challenge in air and style as well, but that got cancelled too. Screwed. I guess I’m having some bad luck this season hehe.

After staying in Breckenridge for almost a month, I had to go home for christmas in Norway. I had a thousand reasons for not leaving though, next time I’ll book a one way ticket! Since the 24th of November me and my friends at the national team and a whole lot of friends I’ve just met over here, have been shredding amazing parks in Keystone, Copper and Breckenridge. The first three weeks we spent our days either hitting up the rails of Keystone, hiking the pipe in Copper or cruizing powder in Breckenridge. When we got back home we ate dinner, rested for a while then went to work out and play basketball at the rec-center.

Anyway, these last two weeks have been the most progressing and intense during the stay. It started off with the US Grand Prix in Copper, and I fell in both my runs. I was somewhere between nervous, not safe and unlucky. The next day we went to Keystone because they just opened their park with three jumps in a row, then 4-5 rails and then two jumps again. We spent the following days here. I teamed up with photographer Andreas Halser, Oakley team manager Alex Rieger and a bunch of talented german shredders for a photoshoot in the fresh groomed park! It went off the hook!

Photo by Roger Hjelmstadstuen

A couple of days ago I, my austrian friend Tom Clocker and Andreas did a rail to drop photoshoot in the town of Breckenridge. It was my first streetrail and I was lucky to get some good shots, and not to slam at all. Tom was putting down some sick nosepresses on that spot by the way, look out for pics in the next issues of Onboard!

And finally, I had my last weekend in Colorado. I was going to ride the qualifiers for the winter Dew Tour. The pipe was the best I’ve ever ridden, so was the new DC PBJ board I got from Zack Dalton. It is crazy how fast you can progress with a board that is exactly your type. As for me, I went from doing spins at one meter height to what you can see at the pictures! That board is going to be the most radical christmas gift for this year, no doubt!

Back to the Dew Tour. I was standing at the top waiting for my second run. I fell on cab 7 in my first. My second run was a fs air, bs five, fs 7, cab 7 to a fs 9. I landed. That was my best run so far. I didn’t make it to semi’s, but I did my best! I was stoked! That day we went to a concert with the all american rejects and 3OH!3, that was crazy. Probably one of the best concerts I’ve been to!

Right now I’ve done my packing, and I am ready to leave. I’ll give thumbs up and a big thank you to Andreas Halser for freezing his fingers off to shoot pictures of me and the other guys here in CO. Then it is goodbye Colorado for this time, hope to see you again soon!

Friday morning 21. November I was supposed to be sitting on an airplane direction Stockholm. Thanks to Thomas Harstad and Jonas Greve I got a later flight, and an interview with VG, the main newspaper in Norway! VG is making an article with 8 young talents which they’re publishing in their first issue of 2009. There I was, at one of Oslos most fashionable hotels shooting pictures dressed up in smoking, hehe, yes, it was awesome!

A couple of hours later I landed in Stockholm, running my ass off to catch the first train and the first taxi to reach the practice. I made it, even though it was a close call! After doing some straight airs, and some 9′s, I and a lot of other Norwegians went to our hotel.

Saturday morning 22. November I was standing on top of the big air ramp, ready to drop into qualifications. After first round I placed 7′th with a bs 9 mute. (Only 6 persons per heat made it to finals). Since I had a good feeling, I went all in on the second round and tried a bs 12. That worked out pretty well, and I placed first with the highest score of the day! In the finals I tried to do the same but didn’t have the feeling at all, it ended up with 3 bails and a 12′th place. Anyway, I’m stoked! Props to Winter Jam for a good jump, awesome event, and at last, a great party! (Maybe that was because of the free beer at the riders lounge!)

Tuesday morning 25. November I was awake at 6 in the morning with the biggest jet lag ever! Me and the rest of the national team were getting ready for snowboarding in Keystone, Colorado! This is my first trip to the US, it is off the hook! Everything is bigger and better.

Since Tuesday we have been riding kickers and rails in Keystone and Breckenridge, and on friday we had a übergreat session in the pipe of Copper. If I had had the money I would buy a house here in Breck, I’m convinced!

This morning I woke up to 20 cm of snow in the town of Saas Fee. The streets were covered in white, epic! We were supposed to have our last day of training before the Worldcup in pipe, but it got cancelled because the slopes were closed. We had a great yesterday though! Me and Torstein went shredding the rails and had a good session of skating afterwards. I’m pretty stoked to ride with him these days, he is helping me out with tricks and is so fun to shred with. We made a little edit as well, follow the link and watch it!

Right now I’m getting bored playing World rally championship on playstation. It is still snowing and I’m probably going to find some streetrails or funny jibs pretty soon to keep time running!

I’ll start off by telling I’ve just got hooked up by Lasse Andersen on Oakley goggles, that is really awesome! I have always wanted to ride for
Oakley and I feel really lucky to represent them from now on!

I spend this weekend in Oslo at Arvid Søndreli’s place, DC salesrep in Norway. I had so much fun, and on Saturday night; we went to the movies Ästhetica by standard films and also a Norwegian movie called Signatures. I had a hard time telling which one was the best, they were killing it both!

In Geilo, where I go to school and live most of the time, the snow has already showed up, last weekend to be exact. It didn’t stay more than a couple of days though; so we didn’t get any time for snowboarding. But no worries, I’m going to Saas Fee (again) on Tuesday 14. for two weeks of, hopefully great time to snowboard. I’m staying there for three weeks, included a weekend trip to London the 25. Oct. to ride the Big Air WC! Really looking forward to meet some friends there and do some of the first competitions this year, can’t wait!

If we had a mini ramp in our house we’d probably sport the same big fat smile…

Since I was a little kid, I’ve always dreamed of having a miniramp at home. This fall it happened! Me, dad, grandpa and my brothers worked on it for a
week in August, and we have been skating it everyday since (not my dad and grandpa of course)! I’ve learned a couple of fancy tricks there as well. The
best thing is we get to skate it during the winter because it is indoor. As a matter of fact, I’m on my way for a session there right now!

Stay tuned for a report from Saas Fee in a few days!

Best regards, Gjermund Braaten

8:00
It’s Monday morning and a beautiful day here in Saas Fee, Switzerland. After a quick breakfast of eggs and bacon, me and my roommates put our gear on and went up to the glacier for another day of perfect shred!

9:00 – 14:00
I’m at the bottom of the Pipe, “the chill-out spot” for all the riders, drinking lots of water to avoid getting headache (the pipe is at 3500 m.a.o!). Today was no doubt the best of our whole trip. I could tell by the perfectly shaped park, the awesome weather and good friends!! After doing some test runs to get the feeling, I hooked up with Kevin Backstrom and a camera, they made a great combination and we kept shredding together the whole day. To mention a few highlights, I put down my first 9′s and 10′s of this season, while Kevin was dropping huge fs 10′s all day. You should check out the movie to see our sick line at the very end!

14:00 – 15:00
At this time we (the Norwegians) sat down to enjoy a coke at the famous restaurant on top of the mountain. We watched the movie shots of today, got some tan on and made jokes about life, FUN!

16:00 – 23:30
The clock is around four and I’m sitting on our balcony with a glass of orange juice, listening to some thrilling beats on the stereo and I am really feeling the true spirit of Saas Fee, awesome! The rest of the evening was spend at the skate park and making the movie you are about to see! Cheers, Gjermund!

Frontside 7 indy – photo by Jens Erik Holmquist

Gjermund is rocking NZ rails… Picture: Roger Hjelmstadstuen.

After being a head-to-toe Burton rider for two years now, I’m proud to report that I’m representing DC snowboards from now on! While spending the whole summer in Norway waiting for Burton to come up with a new contract, Norwegian DC team manager and sales rep, Thomas Harstad, talked me into trying some boards here in NZ, and that made my decision. The boards turned out to be the best I’ve ever ridden!! They are totally killin’ it, even if it’s rails, huge kickers or icy halfpipes. Thanks a lot to Sean Lake, Zack Dalton and Thomas Harstad for giving me the opportunity to ride DC!

But a big shout out also goes to Burton and Elling Balhald, Robin Gaastra, Christian and Calle for helping me up, and out! Wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for their support during these two years..

…and kickers at the moment. Picture: Roger Hjelmstadstuen.

To all of you wondering what board to ride this winter, the snow is whiter on the DC side…

Shred and have fun!

Name: Gjermund Bråten
DOB: 23.10.90
Hometown: Torpo, middle of Norway
Sponsors: DC, Swag