The revered Burton US Open celebrates its 30th birthday this season, and with things kicking off Stateside, the Powder & Rails crew take a look at the history of this prestigious snowboard contest. Peep it.

On the second weekend in March 2012, snowboarding’s longest running contest turns “Dirty 30.” The Burton US Open is one of the most respected events in snowboarding and has been traditionally held at Stratton, VT for most of those 30 years. A lot of things have happened at the USO: old school downhill racing, the first machine-dug halfpipe, keg parties, snowball fights, mini-riots, people dangling from trees above the halfpipe, drunk people did a lot of dumb shit and some of the coolest stuff in snowboarding history – sometimes those last two are one in the same.

Powder & Rails collects accounts from snowboarding legends like Terje Haaksonsen, Jake Burton, Jeff Brushie, Andy Coghlan, Tricia Byrnes, Seth Neary, and Jason Ford, many of which have had podium spots throughout the USO history. Speaking of podiums, US Open winners and Olympic medal holders like Danny Kass, Ross Powers, Kelly Clark, and Hannah Teter are in there too. Part 1 goes into one of the most controversial things to ever happen at the US Open, 1996: “The Year of the Cage.” Look out for that story.

Vice continue their trip down memory lane with the third part of their Powder & Rails special on Standard Films.

If you missed the first two episodes, they are here and here.

The epic story of the Hatchetts and their crew of riders continues in part 3. Instead of letting a broken hip and a snapped femur end his snowboarding career in 1994, Dave Hatchett, under the guidance of brother Mike, picks up a 16mm camera and gets behind the lens for the 1995 season. Dave’s previous backcountry skills came in handy when in 1997 he belayed himself down to a cliff ban and creatively shot a now famous Tom Burt first descent on the TB Spines near Donner Pass. The Hatchetts continued their streak of cultivating the careers of some of the best riders ever through the late 90s and well into the 00s. They found a then-unheard-of Jeremy Jones dirt-bagging it in Alaska and gave him the closing part in TB6, fostered a non-English speaking Finn named Jussi Oksanen, pulled Lonnie Kauk away from his janitorial duties at Mammoth Mountain, and gave big mountain rider Xavier De La Rue from France parts in their films.

Vice’s historically-laced Powder & Rails series is back to cast its all-seeing eye over the Standard Films legacy. As with last week’s Part 1, this is 10 minutes of compulsory internetting.

If you watched Part 1 last week you’ll be frothing for this. If you missed Part 1, watch it now and then come back and watch this. This has footage of and chat about Johan Olofsson’s legendary TB5 part in it goddamnit! It also drives home the intensity of working on producing the backcountry hero shots that many take for granted. Essential viewing.

Here’s the chat:

VICE today announces the premiere of the fourth season of Powder & Rails, a series developed by VICE and Burton devoted to exploring the frosty world of snowboarding, the onslaught of shredding, and day-glo jackets.

In the first four episodes of the new season, VICE heads out to Red Rocks, Colorado to attend the world premiere of TB20 (Totally Board 20), in celebration of Standard Films’ 20th anniversary. There, we catch up with Travis Robb and Mike and Dave Hatchett, the first of their kind to join together big mountain, back country boarding with freestyle hi-jinks. In this episode, the guys invite us to see some of TB20 in the making at Alpine Meadows, Lake Tahoe with the company of snowboarder friends Gjermund Bråten, Gulli Gudmundsson and Halldor Helgason. They divulge Standard Films’ inception, tracking its history with the likes of Standard alumni Tom Burt, Jim Rippey and Jeremy Jones.

For the fourth season of Powder & Rails, not only do we go behind the scenes of Standard Film’s TB20, but we get up close and personal with the likes of snowboarding’s first backcountry maniac, Tom Burt, the most badass board developer, Chuck Barfoot, and hit up Summit County where we chat with Marc Frank Montoya, Dave England, Mikey LeBlanc, Scott E. Wittlake, the Tarquin Robbins, and many more.

The third installment of VBS.TV’s in depth Powder & Rails webisodes focussed on the rebirth of the Nixon Jib Fest is live and direct for your peeping. Peep.

In the final episode, you get introduced to the “wheels of death”, a game that consists of JibFest invitees spinning two wheels. One of the wheels has tricks labeled on it. The other one determines what obstacle the trick must be done on. The wheels can come up with some terrifying combinations, but it sometimes also serves as motivation by throwing a bunch of hundred dollar bills into the mix for people who land the tricks.

Further along in the episode, Snow Park Technologies’ Chris “Gunny” Gunnarson and his crew walk us through the history of many features they created that are now considered stock at most snowboard parks. And as we learn, having input from riders like JP Walker, Jeremy Jones, and Dave Downing probably didn’t hurt in the creation process. Near the end of the show watch as we see how the JibFest voting process goes down for “Best Trick” and first, second and third place.

For more info about the Nixon JibFest plus additional videos, photos, updates and more please visit: nixonnow.com/​jibfest

Vice Mag kick off another season of their history-laced Powder & Rails webisodes with part 1 of their feature on the rebirth of the iconic Nixon Jib Fest.

As you may know, last winter the Nixon Jib Fest rose from the ashes and celebrated a banging return to form after an 8-year hiatus. The original contest in 2000 was a the brainchild of Jeremy Jones, JP Walker and Dave Downing who had the idea to celebrate the (at the time) relatively new resurgence in jibbing that they were spearheading and invite some of their bros to a loosely competitive jam session to push the envelope.

After several successful editions the boys moved their attentions elsewhere and the Nixon Jib Fest went into hibernation. Last winter, though, it was time to revive the contest and corral a selection of the most progressive jibbers around to throw down in a custom-built concept park once more. While we posted the hammer highlights of the Nixon Jib Fest a while back, this behind-the-scenes look at the event mixed, with what Steven Hawking might call a Brief History of Jib thrown in for good measure, is awesome. Watch it.

Nixon Jib Fest 2011