Use AirBnB to Book Your Next Trip or Vacation

Are you looking for an easy way to find cheap yet awesome accommodations for your next surf or ski trip?  Looking for something more exciting than a boring hotel or a stuffy resort, at a much better price?  Sounds like you should check out my favorite online travel site perfect for booking rooms for travel: AirBnB.

Firefly Music Festival | Festival and Camping Tips

By Andrew Sachs
So the Firefly Music Festival has released its lineup for the 2013 festival and it is right up there with the best of the 2013 summer festivals.  Vampire Weekend, White Panda, Ed Sharpe, Passion Pit, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Alabama Shakes and Dr. Dog are just a few of  "non-headliners" that will be playing.

StoreYourBoard was at the 2012 Firefly Music Festival and we are definitely headed back for 2013.  Here are some tips we learned from camping out at Firefly in 2012:

Spring Cleaning | Tool Racks For Garages and More...

By Andrew Sachs
Despite the weather outside, spring has officially arrived.  And along with the beginning of spring comes that annual ritual when everyone needs to get ready for the coming whirlwind that are the spring and summer months: SPRING CLEANING.  Take the time to get all your gear dusted off, hung up and organized.

And to help you with your spring cleaning, check out some of the newer additions to our website, our Tool Racks.  We have a number of tool racks from very simple hooks used to hang individual tools, to bigger, adjustable racks that can house a variety of tools in different shapes and sizes.

What's a YOLO Flip | I-Pod's Gold Medal Trick Explained

By Andrew Sachs
The biggest news out of X-Games Tignes is that Iouri Podlatchikov, aka I-Pod, nailed the first ever (what announcers called) Cab double cork 1440 in competition history in the snowboard superpipe finals.  He who lands the trick gets to name it: I-Pod's calling it the YOLO Flip (even though you flip twice).  This new trick follows on the heels of the breakthrough of the Triple Cork at X-Games Aspen.

To understand the trick, start with its traditional name:

• Cab = switch frontside.  I-pod said himself that the term "Cab", which comes from Steve Caballero of skateboarding legend, should be reserved for skateboarding tricks.  He refers to the YOLO Flip as a switch frontside trick.
• Double Cork = 2 inverts
• 1440 = 2 inverts + 2 rotations

To see how all that happens at once to create the YOLO Flip, check out the frame-by-frame breakdown, below.  Unfortunately, we didn't make it to X-Games Tignes this year, so we have to rely on grainy zoomed-in video stills...

In frame 1, you can see I-Pod hitting the pipe in switch and starting to spin frontside, hence the Cab/switch frontside reference.

1

2

I-Pod is completely vertical in frame 2, on his way to full inversion in frames 4-7 as part of his first cork...

3

4

5

6

7

Completing his first cork, I-Pod flips back upright through frames 8-11.  Of course, he is still only about halfway through the 4 total rotations (spins + flips) that make this trick a 1440...

8

Grabs anyone?  I-Pod's on it...

9

Would love to see that fan's picture in frame 10...

10

11

Here we go again as I-Pod starts to invert himself as he heads into cork 2...

12

13

And completely inverted for the second time, frames 14 and 15.

14

15

Still spinning...

16

17

Coming out of his second inversion...

18

19

Dipping below the lip of the pipe and finishing the 1440 rotation...

20

21

And I-Pod stomps out the landing in frame 21 to complete the trick for the first time ever in competition.  So how come he ended up in 4th place?  On his last trick he landed like this...

Although I-Pod would have liked to nail that last trick and end up with Tignes gold, he said after the event that he wouldn't trade landing the YOLO flip for gold...he called it "the best fourth place ever."  I would have to agree with him.  It also seems that landing the YOLO Flip was a message to Shaun White that he better be ready for the 2014 winter olympics in Sochi.  It's on. 

Visit: www.StoreYourBoard.com

National Nutrition Month I How to Make Your Own Almond Milk

Did you know March is National Nutrition Month? I know, crazy...it SHOULD BE EVERY month, right? As we draw near to the end of March, rest assured that there is still time left to celebrate with some homemade almond milk! Both nutritious AND easy.

First Day of Spring | Top 10 Reasons We Love SPRING

You GUYS....ITS FINALLY HERE!!!!!!! 

The long anticipated first day of spring has arrived. We hope you are as ready as we are. Can't wait to see what the longer days and warmer weather will bring this year.

My top 10 list of spring's greatness: 

StoreYourBoard.com Wakeboard Rack | Storage and Display | Customer Photos

Who else is ready to WAKEBOARD?!?

Spring is on its way and it is time to get the boat tuned up and get back on the water.  I know the crew here at StoreYourBoard is ready to rock and excited to get out and ride again.

As a preview I thought I would share a few customer photos of wakeboard racks.  Both of these wakeboard racks are the StoreYourBoard angled wooded storage and display racks.  They look great and are extremely functional.  Check them out, maybe it is time for you to get a wakeboard rack!

Slater Out Surfs Parko to Win Quik Pro Gold Coast

By Andrew Sachs
Kelly Slater started the 2013 WCT season off with a bang by winning the Quik Pro Gold Coast down under and beating defending champion Joel Parkinson in the finals.  Although there's a long season ahead, the opening event victory put the rest of the tour on notice that Kelly is showing no signs of slowing down and is in prime shape to fight for title 12!

Top 5 Best Costa Rica Surf Spots | Pura Vida from Pacific to Caribbean

By Geoff McCabe

Costa Rica is a tiny nation, its people peaceful and laid-back. The country lies like a bastion between the tumultuous Caribbean Sea to the east and the turbulent Pacific to the west. Both create some of the most fantastic waves and breaks on their coasts and beaches that draw millions of people each year. These beaches are also less crowded than those of Hawaii, southern California or Sydney.

The Costa Rican coasts can be roughly defined as 5 separate areas for surfers of all levels of expertise to enjoy, that vary by quality of surf and the isolation of the beaches:

Ski Mountaineering | Uphill Skiing

By Andrew Sachs
Ski Mountaineering, a new "rage" in the ski industry, is all about skiing uphill, instead of down.  The goal of the ski mountaineering, or "skimo," is to engage in a new form of skiing that is about a combination of physical exertion and mental toughness, rather than the need for speed or maneuverability that downhill skiing is all about.  Opponents to uphill skiing argue that it is dangerous and some ski resorts have taken to banning the practice.  But others are catering to the "boom" in the ski industry.  Here's what you need to know about it...

Daylight Savings Time | Spring Forward and Get Outside

Believe it or not, spring is right around the corner and that means it's time to adjust your clocks for daylight savings time!

Tomorrow (Sunday) morning at 2 a.m., remember that your clocks will spring ahead an hour, from 2 to 3.  The result of this lost hour of sleep is that the mornings will have less daylight but the evenings will have more.  

This is great news for everyone looking to get outside after school or work or whatever it is you have to do during the day that keeps you from doing the stuff you like: surfing, biking, skating, getting out on the lake, really any sports.  So it's not a bad deal to lose 1 hour of sleep and gain an evening hour for every day from March until November.

If you're reading this in some places of the U.S. (or the world), you won't even know what daylight savings time is.  Some central states don't even switch their clocks.

The original justification for daylight savings time was to save energy: generally, moving the clocks an hour meant more light during the "day" hours and less lights had to be used.  This started around World War I when fuel was at a premium.  Today, it's not clear whether daylight savings time truly saves energy, but the tradition lives on.


Daylight savings time really means one thing - more time to get outside - take advantage!  



 



Visit: www.StoreYourBoard.com

Travels to the Dominican Republic!

I just got back from a 5 day trip to the Dominican Republic.  

Jackpot!! How inviting does this place look?? I could have just slept at the airport for the next 5 days. Took my beach chair and tanned on the tarmac. But I was advised that we continue on to the hotel...As we drove to the hotel, I was struck by how green and lush the landscape looked.  Rolling grassy hills, horses, cows - it was like a tropical Lancaster County!  

We were greeted at the hotel by Diego, who was pouring champagne.  Why gracias amigo! A girl could really get used to this! And I did!  We checked into our rooms and hit the beach right away... 

As you can see, pretty windy where we were staying. We knew there are some great spots in DR for wind surfing, but we didn't see anyone out. No surfers either, just way too blown out. 

On Day 3, we signed up for a 4-wheeling tour... That morning it had rained...pretty decently. We had gotten a few of those casual 15 minute afternoon tropical rains, but this had been sustained pouring. We drove off the beach and connected to a main-ish road, which was compacted dirt/sand. The road was filled with pot holes and the potholes were filled with dirty rain water.  Pheww I thought. These 4 wheelers were made for this!

The tour was about 2 hours and it was awesome to see DR’s true beauty in its natural state.  We rode up a small mountain and got to stop and explore a cave nooked into the mountain.  As we drove through the neighboring village, the local kids were walking home from school, waving and casing after us. I wished I had a bag of candy to throw to them like in parades. All in all, a really fun adventure.

2 days later, it was time to leave DR and I was totally depressed thinking about regular life back in the Estados Unidos.   

All in all, a great trip.  Thanks for traveling with me!



Visit: www.StoreYourBoard.com

Surfing Somewhere in El Salvador...

By Andrew Sachs
Check out some of the pics from my surf trip to El Salvador!



Our quiver needed a surf rack!

Visit: www.StoreYourBoard.com