VIDEO Aspen Rain Weaver hails from Oregon...sort of. He's a bit of a nomad. He's been all over, from the deserts of New Mexico, to the moist loins of Florida, and the wind-blown or powder-filled peaks of Alaska, and pretty much every Wal-Mart parking lot along the way. During the season you can always find him in the drivers seat of hit epic Datsun camping rig heading to put it on rail or send it in a fairly sketchy fashion. But we like that. We want anyone who's a member of the ultra-exclusive @vonzipperelninos clique to be one step ahead because they don't have any brakes. We chatted with Aspen before he got into the mix to takeover our Instagram this weekend to see what he's doing. Not surprisingly, he's just come from Mammoth. So we are jealous. But we love him, so it's cool. Here's what he had to say...
VZ: What's your full name?
Aspen: Aspen Rain Weaver
VZ: Tell us where you were born?
A: I was born on The Grateful Dead tour, June 14th, 1993 in Tallahassee Florida.
VZ: What is you current location?
A: I'm in Incline Village, Lake Tahoe enjoying the sunrise and a coffee on the lake.
VZ: Where do you call home-ish?
A: Tahoe has been my home for the past several years. The lake is one of the most beautiful things in the world and honestly the whole basin should be a protected National Park. It's special for me because of the people, the mountains, and how many activities there is year round from summer beach bumming to winter powder hound!
VZ: If it wasn't Tahoe, then where do you think you'd settle down?
A: I really love the Pacific Northwest after spending a bunch of time over the past several months. Either base myself out of Bend, OR or somewhere near Seattle, WA. Just keep moving north I guess. Closer to Alaska haha.
VZ: This could go a couple directions, but give us a quick version of your take on living in the #VZWildLifeLodge.
A: Oh man there was a lot that went down at the WildLife Lodge! First off we had so many epic days of hiking in the backcountry that it seemed like a blur of slashes for 2 months. There was a lot of random/crazy activities that came about, like a tattoo gun and karaoke in the house(our only disks were 80's pop hits). Lastly it was a house that brought together people from all spans of our globe. It was a melting pot for everything snowboarding, from style to stories, to old spots in Tahoe being resurrected! Overall this is what our lodge was....
A group forged in the flames of frames...A squad of all power forwards. With lenses clashing...hot chicks flashing...powder bashing...beer smashing...and tomahawk crashing...We are the VonZipper El Niños!
VZ: You spent a a ton of time there. What kept you from leaving?
A: Honestly it was both the crew that we had at the lodge and the snow that just kept coming. When you have those things it's easy to start feeling like you have a family and home which is exactly what the VZ WildLifeLodge became for me. And seriously...who wants to leave a house full of rad people and perfect snow?
VZ: So the VonZipper El Ninos are made up of your close friends and buds you’ve known for a long time. If you had to describe it would you call it a gang, a club, or a family?
A: Hahaha we are definitely a prolific gang! We would roll out to Boreal for the day or go out at night and probably looked like a gang at times too, but really a Gang is a family so I guess both! All the people there were radical, kind, intelligent, and very gifted at snowboarding so I would be honored to call them family.
VZ: What is your El Nino name?
A: El Diente (The Tooth)
VZ: Whats the plan for this winter?
A: There's a few trips in the works for this winter already. I'm hiring my own filmer and we're gonna start with a US roadtrip from Bear-Colorado-Utah-Tahoe-Bachelor-Baker. Then around the New Year gonna hop on a plane over to Japan for a month. And finally after that I'm going to make my third pilgrimage to Alaska (the best place in the world)! By the end of Alaska it should be time for Superpark, which is always such a badass/scary time and the last event of the year. The culmination of these trips will hopefully end in a series of webisodes called "Miles." It will be an odometer based trip and somewhat of a "how-to-travel" guide for kids who might not have the budget of a professional snowboarder.
VZ: Sounds like it will be incredible! Thanks for rapping with us dude. See you soon!
