Editor's Note: We are delighted to welcome a guest blogger for this week's installment of the Gunstock Blog. Tyler Davis lives in New Hampshire where he can be found ripping turns at Gunstock and other local mountains. He grew up riding and competing alongside Pat Moore, Chas Guldemond, Danny Garrity - refining a talent that has taken him to resorts around the globe. As a writer, Tyler has contributed to Snowboarder Magazine and Red Bull Snowboarding, among others, and was the copy editor at Snowboard Magazine until 2016. Since 2014, he has hosted The Tyler Davis Hip Jam at Gunstock. This annual, old-school-style contest brings together the multi-generational snowboard community in New Hampshire and celebrates the East Coast scene at the resort where Tyler started riding. Tyler is a high school English teacher and plans to introduce his toddler to snowboarding this winter. Tyler is @thebrownfriend on Instagram.
On February 3rd, Gunstock will be hosting Methodology for the third time. It’s an amazing event and I’m grateful that Gunstock has been hosting for the past three seasons and says so much about the mountain and the park staff that the event keeps coming back. I spent my childhood riding here, and there is nothing better than watching both the older and newer generations come together to enjoy snowboarding and snowboard culture. And while the snowboarding is fast and fluid, what I love most about this event is that the true goal is to give back to the snowboarding community.
If you’ve never witnessed the event you must be wondering what the heck Methodology is, and that deserves a two part answer. The event is essentially a banked slalom where the competitors race around flags placed on the high sides or berms, fastest time through the course wins; but for this event there is also a freestyle element at the end where depending on the degree of a trick performed you can deduct up to a second off your time. The trick involved is the method grab; it’s the most individual of snowboard tricks as we all have them but some are much better than others.
Methodology is the brainchild of Pat Moore, a New Hampshire bred professional snowboarder. Pat has had a long and amazing career, and a few years ago he developed Methodology as a non-profit way to give back to the community that is still close to his heart and gave him and so many others so much. The event is a way to bring together young and old to celebrate snowboard culture, with the best part being that this event raises money to get kids who might not normally get the chance to get on snow and learn how to ride. For the second year in a row this event will benefit the Burton Chill Program, which over the past two winters has introduced kids from Manchester to the world of winter sports. Last winter the Chill Program kids were at the event and there was nothing better than watching them learn to ride and fall in love with snowboarding. And who knows, this might be the year that they take those skills to the course and show many of us what the next generation is capable of!
So please come out to Gunstock on the 3rd to participate or even just watch; It’s a day filled with too many smiles and high fives to count, a day where the results are serious for some and not so much for others, and a day where even the most stiff of us make sure to stretch before we reach for our methods. I have the pleasure of hosting, so if you don’t want to hear it from me make sure you wax your board, maybe stretch a little bit in the morning and go fast!