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Each year the crew from Mervin’s Denver office takes to A-Basin for a day on snow with drinks, BBQ and games.  Once I knew the date, I marked it off on my calendar and planned for the day off from work to come enjoy the festivities with friends.  I made my way into Denver last night to stay at Dan’s house, stop by NS this morning and then head to A-Basin for a late morning/afternoon of shredding. Capita (my dog) came along for the ride.

I arrived at A-Basin with enough luck to find a parking spot close to the tents and join in the festivities which included good drinks, food and people.

We had a great crew at the party, I was able to meet up with my friends from 720 Boardshop in Denver (Lauren, Adrian, Erik, Scott), good friends like K and new friends like Scott and Brett.  Snowboarding really does unite a lot of different people into one happy place and I had a great day because of the people I was with.  I also was bummed that these are people I’ll miss when I move.

The riding was fun, Colorado has been getting some really late season storms dropping new snow over the mountains and with A-Basin as the last resort open…the conditions are better than I remember for mid-May.

Scott M on the flat down flat down

Erik on the flat box to barrel bonk

Scott B on the flat down flat down box

The mountain laps were fun but most of the day was hanging out at the Mervin tents talking and catching up with friends.  I hadn’t seen K in months so it was good having him back in town before I leave town.

The two Scotts drinking and talking

My best impersonation of Napoleon Dynamite poses.  I was stoked to try out a new jacket, 686 Timber light jacket that I bought.  I’d been looking for a lightweight jacket for this summer and came across that so today was the first day rocking it.

One of the highlights of the Mervin Party is the game, usually games are pretty corny but this one involves drinking, riding as fast you can, eating chocolate and competing with a partner.  It was pretty funny to watch it go down.

Nichole from Mervin explaining the rules

The partners running up the hill in order to slide down on inflatable swim tubes

Everyone is trying to dig out what’s hidden beneath the snow which ended up being frozen t-shirts

The frozen balled up t-shirts then had to be wearable so it took people some strength to smack the t-shirt ice cubes in order to wear them

The next step was to finish a rather large piece of chocolate cake

A champion was crowned and still with chocolate cake in his mouth

At the very end of the day was the Crown Royal Pinata which was filled with mini liquor bottles and unicorns

Huge props and thanks to Mervin’s Denver office for holding such a fun party at A-Basin.  It was a really fun day to be able to see friends and get some snowboarding in.