Mike and Gus’ Aviemore Garden Shred is fast becoming the not-to-be-missed season closer event for Scotland!
Gus and Mike are Highland local lads and Mike has a back garden on a good hill with a lot of trees: it looks like a set off the Blair Witch Project. Mike has spent the last few years digging ground works for a snow park with Dendex (plastic death hexagons) coated berms, plus a permanent down rail and flat down box. He even built the best lift I have ever seen, out of a motorbike engine, with a thick steel cable and some wheels nailed to trees!James Haggerty and I drove for most of Friday (the Highlands are almost as far from London as Mayrhofen is from Amsterdam!), slept good on Friday night and after a proper Scottish breakfast (basically lots of fried food) were ready to get involved at about 10 a.m. The weather wasn’t playing ball though, it was fully pissing it down.

First job was getting snow. Being mid-May we had to take pick-up trucks with trailers right up to the top of the resort road and fill them with crusty snow from the roadside. Scotland has had a great winter this year so there was plenty to be going at. After two round trips plus the two done by the boys the night before, there was enough snow to get this party started!

The Garden Shred set up was the top down rail into flat down box. After the box you could use the berm on the left to cut into a hip, or crank hard right to hit a gas pipe into a pool off the right hand side or the hip landing off the end. Dopest garden ever!After a couple of hours shaping, plus some standing under the gazebo when the rain got too hard, the course was ready, and with the snow quickly melting there was no time to waste. It reminded me of trying to ride the jump at Battersea Park after months of not snowboarding, with no warm up, but in heavy rain.

Luckily there was no option to go in with half measures: If you didn’t make it to the end of the rails, you landed in a muddy puddle, if you came off the gas pipe early, you fell into a muddy hole and if you didn’t commit to the hip, you rode into a tree, got fucked up and then fell into a muddy puddle. It was snowboarding with consequences, perfect!

Fifteen or twenty people shredded and much fun was had. Standout tricks were Mike riding the whole course LIKE A BOSS (even the parts that no one else took on), Gus somehow milking speed out of the flat-down box to SEND IT (at least 50% higher than anyone else) over the hip with all kinds of moves, Marc "Gladis" McClement was tech man of the day with hardway 270s and a back 3 onto the down box. With the dirt gauntlet to get over, it was even sicker. Scott Penman back flipped the hip, Mark Ruparelia front flipped and got sweet front 3s over it and I got a nose press on the flat down into method on the hip. There were other moves from other guys, but all the smokes and radlers addled my memory. After a couple of hours the snow was disappearing and the course had taken a beating, as had most of the riders. In fact, slam of the day award goes to Ruttar Neeme from Estonia, who spent the whole of this season in Scotland and must have picked some bits up becuause he rides like a maniac. Stomping nice tricks and taking heavy slams in equal measure!

 With the light starting to die, we left the last of the shred to the young guns and went to take a shower and get changed. We returned to the garden an hour later clean, dry, and laden with Guinness and pre-rolled little friends. There was a DJ (under a big plastic sheet obviously) and he was cranking out some kind of nü-assed music all night. We drank Buckfast, got wasted, lit a massive fire using a petrol bomb, melted the gazebo and generally had a FUCKING GOOD TIME!

Scotland is renowned for being a bit ghetto and the locals are renowned for making the most of it. The garden shred combines both of these in the most Scottish (and best) end you could hope for to a season – good times with good friends! I’ll be there again next year with any luck...

Words by Sir Ian of Thrashmore
Photos by Photo by Steve McKenna
Cover Shot Rider: Connor Carey
Video by James Haggerty