The Sunday Story Behind the Photo with Steve

April 1988, my cuz Ricardo Byrnes, aka "Dickie", John Grady and I were on a mission to ride the "Holy Grail of the East", Tuckerman Ravine...

The conditions were perfect! No wind, 50 degrees, and the stoke factor was high, I waited for days like these... The only problem was we had the worst equipment for hiking and riding Tuckersman Ravine. Dickie was riding a Burton Safarai 175cm square tail, John and I were rocking Burton Cruiser 165cm swallowtails. Our boards weighed about 15lbs, our board bag straps weighed on our shoulders, and our boards whacked us in the calfs with every step we took. But as Dickie and I stood there for this photo-op, we were STOKED! We were about to make turns, it didn't matter how bad our shoulders and calves burned, we were going SNOWBOARDING!!!

This was my second or third trip to the Ravine and I was slowly learning the Tuckerman ropes. I went over the lip for the first time this day and it was the most scared I'd ever been! If I had to do it again with that same board I think I would still be JUST as scared.

This photo brought back so many great memories. Dickie, John and I will never forget this trip. John wrote an article for the local newspaper about the whole experience that day. We met an 80+ year old couple that John interviewed, they had been skiing the bowl for over 50 years!!! So much history in that bowl!!!

When we finally got back to my 1974 Gold Dodge Swinger in the parking lot I just passed out in the back seat.Dickie and John kept the stoke going the whole way home.