Words & Photos: Laura Austin

First of all I am going to start off by acknowledging the fact that I know there are a shit ton of photos in this gallery. When you are stuck in a van for five days with the Rome team, there are a lot of photos to be had.

With that being said, a couple weeks ago I was presented with the opportunity to hop on the tail end of Rome Snowboard’s movie tour for their latest flick, “The Shred Remains”. This entailed me sitting in a van with 6 dudes for 5 days from Southern California to Seattle. It’s hard for me to turn down an adventure so I figured what the hell, it should at least make for some good photos.

Kicking things off on a Monday morning I hopped in the Rome van that pulled up honking relentlessly outside of my house. Inside: Laurent-Nicolas Paquin, Johnny Lazz, Rusty Ockenden, Riley Nickerson, Rome’s TM/Filmer John Cavan, and rep Joel Cline. The van reeked of stale beer lingering in leftover cans scattered on the floor and the remains of half eaten sandwiches lost under the seats. This was my home for the next five days from SoCal, to San Francisco, to Portland, then Seattle. I knew I was in for a treat.

I will let the photos tell the rest of the story. But spending a week in close quarters with these guys was refreshing, despite the lack of showers, the smell, and the hangovers. They weren’t hopping in a plane from stop to stop living in a lap of luxury… they were roughing it from shop to shop just as enthusiastic each time to party and hang out with fans and shop kids no matter how hungover they were. The time spent in that van is lifestyle that a larger amount of the snowboard community can relate to than some other images portrayed in our sport. These guys are snowboarder’s snowboarder and with them the Shred definitely Remains.