84106

THE MOST PROLIFIC ZIP CODE IN THE WORLD'S MOST PROLIFIC SNOWBOARDING TOWN

Words & Photos by Andy Wright

I’ve got some not-so-breaking news — if you want to pursue a career in snowboarding, there’s no better place to live in the world than Salt Lake City. What Hollywood is to the aspiring actor/director/filmmaker, SLC is to the aspiring pro rider/photographer/ videomaker. Epic mountains minutes from a major city that gets blanketed with snow throughout the winter. Add in an international airport and relatively cheap cost of living, blah blah blah. This a worn out story that’s been written dozens of times over the years— and will surely be penned many more times in the future. I’m guessing most of you have long since figured out that Utah’s capital city is the place to be. The more interesting question is where exactly in this epicenter of snowboarding is ground zero? And I’m not asking for a neighborhood per say, as those boundary lines are somewhat flexible and often overlapping. I want an official border that is universally accepted and not subject to debate. Zip code maps provide just that and while Salt Lake has great ones to choose from, I’m here today to make a case for the 5 digits of 8-4-1-0-6.

Actually what sparked this whole idea was a recent trip through my photo archives and a realization of how many considerable photos I’d taken over the years basically within a mile or 2 of where I slept at night. Now this might not seem that extraordinary to some, but when you consider it in the context of traveling thousands and thousands of miles each season, sometimes on the opposite side of the globe, all in search of photographing epic street snowboarding, it does have personal meaning.

What also struck me as a good basis of this argument was the overwhelming number of snowboarding industry elite – riders, media and magnates – are or were at one time home owners in this zip code (see side bar). Most of these are people came from other states or parts of the world, lived in a few places around town, could have settled anywhere but all picked this zip code to plant roots in.

And finally, I should mention that the photos featured here are all based on street riding. This type of snowboarding has provided an opportunity to make a living for many of us, but it was only a bonus reason for either coming to Salt Lake – or sticking around for those raised here. The mountains are the anchor of this whole valley, and ease of access to them while still living blocks from Whole Foods might be the best argument of all. Whatever the case, as long as your zip code starts with an ‘8-4’ you are pretty damn stoked each winter. I just happen to think that in the context of snowboarding history, the one ending in ‘1-0-6’ is Salt Lake’s most notorious.

Canon EOS 1V - Fuji Provia Film

Mikey Leblanc, Feb 2003

The transformation of the Sugarhouse shopping center had just begun and these curved ledges were part of an office complex that was one of the first buildings to be finished. I think they are still there today, but obstructed from street view because of all the other buildings that have gone up around them. On a super chilly night while filming for the MDP classic “Shakedown”, Mikey LeBlanc and Seth Huot were the first riders to get to scuff up the freshly poured concrete that I’m sure a few other guys around town had their eyes on. This ledge didn’t age well and was deemed too small within a few years, but at the time it was a great gift from the developers.

JP Walker, December 2007

JP hadn’t done a lot of filming around Salt Lake for several years after a lot of the early spots he’d established had dried up. There had also been a several year drought of good city snow prior to 2007 and right around Christmas we got dumped on. Holiday snow is ideal because schools and most businesses are shut down. This fence was on a construction site that I’m sure is condos by now, but we had full access because of the time of year. It was also right on Highland Dr., which gets a ton of traffic so it was full exposure to anyone driving by. Thankfully this was pre-instagram or I’m sure there would have been a crowd gathered all getting their own personal content.

Canon EOS 1D Mark II

Jeremy Jones, December 2007

This was the last night of 2007, New Year’s Eve, and not the first one of those (or last) I’ve spent shooting snowboarding instead of adult beverages. Jeremy had been one the first riders to really bring the wall ride thing into snowboarding several years earlier, and it was around this time he was pushing the ways it could be done, as with most tricks, by adding consequence. This may look like standard fare now, but 11 years ago not many were wall-riding over features going high-to-low. This really opened up people’s eyes as what was possible using the wall and it’s crazy to think of where it went from here.

Canon EOS 5D

Canon EOS 1V - Kodak Portra 400 VC Film

Matty Ryan, February 2002

The Brickyard rail (R.I.P.) was one of the best down rails in Salt Lake but it was gone before it’s potential realized. The fact that it was square was a problem for a lot of riders at the time and not a lot of tricks were put up on it. If it was still in the mix today, this could be one of those rails of legend that people would travel from out of state or even out of country for. Like Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, James Dean — the Brickyard rail was a living legend and left us way before it’s prime. It will always hold a special place for those you got to experience it. My only time shooting this classic piece of metal was during the filming of Kingpin’s classic “Happy Hour” when Matty Ryan’s put up switch boardslide and then promptly lit a smoke and declared he was "over it.” Oh what could have been…..

Canon EOS 1D Mark IV

Garrett Warnick, January 2017

This is one of those "mind surf” type spots that you might drive by 1000 times and not even realize your day dreaming about riding it. Dan Brisse was the first to make it a reality, probably a good 5 years before a session I got to shoot with Garrett Warnick and Bode Merrill for the “Pepper” video. The setup is kind of perfect with natural speed but it’s very high profile and has a lot of neighbors with itchy fingers to call the cops. We had a “super citizen” drive by and stop and threaten police action several times during the session which added to the stress levels. The man never showed up but a worker from the church did. Instead of giving us the boot, he actually brought a snowboard for Bode to sign while Garrett got to hit it a few more times. True story and not the outcome any of us had expected.

Canon EOS 1D Mark III

Dan Brisse, January 2010

The search for the perfect down-rail has taken riders and media across the world several times over. Salt Lake isn’t a big down-rail type city after it’s limited supply of them either got removed, too small as standards got bigger or they simply were shut down from having every trick done on them. So when Dan Brisse came up with a creative sort of way to put this 50-stair monster into play, the rumor mill was churning hard but no could figure out where such a rail could exist in a town that had been scoured for such treasures. It was hidden in plain sight at a school, close enough to my house that I could almost pick up the home wifi signal. It’s suprising that no one (not my knowledge) revisited this beast since that day considering that riders will travel halfway around the globe in search of this exact feature, yet it sits undistrubed since Brisse’s front board almost 9 years ago.

Canon EOS 5D

Bode Merrill, December 2008

The mythical “urban jump” was kinda of a unicorn that a lot of riders used to be on the hunt for after Mark Frank Montoya had a big backside 7 over a fence in Denver in Absinthe’s “Optimistic?” Bode and Phil Damanakis scored when they found a mound of snow the plow had pushed up in the top parking lot of Brickyard Plaze that had a natural gap into some tranny to the lot below. It was one of those jumps that if you found it on the mountain, you and your crew would lap it all day. But this was one was behind an AutoZone and had the magestic backdrop of 33rd south and it’s stream of vehicles wizzing by.