To build some hype, Vert is giving out limited edition Eastern Snowboard League bottles. To get one, just cruise over to the Vert Facebook page, post a rad shred video clip, and get 10 ‘likes’ on the video. The first five people to do this will get one of these bottles, which are ONLY available to competitors of the ESL series.

So what’s up Nick? Tell me about what you have going on?

Hey The Dude, stoked on life right now….the snow just keeps on falling!!! This is one of the best winters i can remember in a long time.  I’ve just been shredding out of my mind and promoting my new company “Vert Effect”.

Of all things people in the action sport industry are into, what made you decide to go with water bottles?

Every sport in this world has super talented athletes who constantly raise the bar for the competition.  As an athlete to be able to perform and compete at your highest level you need to be hydrated!  Most sports like basketball, hockey, soccer, etc. have different types of water bottles or other ways of keeping the athletes hydrated.  Action Sports has nothing like it. I know we all like to drink our energy drinks but at the end of the day you need WATER and I’m just providing a way for the athletes to get it.

How do vert bottles or the brand its self  differ from  the competing brands out there?

Theres a few things that make us different:

1.) We make our product with a super high quality stainless steel called 18/8 grade. Its the same material your moms pots and pans are made out of. We make it with this because its really strong and extremely rust resistant. Other brands use lower quality materials like plastic, aluminum, or lower quality steel.

2.) We are not some big corporate company just firing out water bottles left and right trying to make a million dollars. We are a very small local company that’s main goal is to make a difference. Every bottle we sell, we donate one dollar towards supplying clean, drinkable water to struggling countries through out the World. That one dollar supplies one person with clean drinking water for an entire year. So we already have impacted so many lives and are only looking to keep this going!

What are your plans for growing in the board sport industries? Team riders? Sponsor events? What’s good

Well we just recently started to develop the VERT team and recently just brought on Matt Bothfield aka Matty B. He is our first snow team rider and we are stoked to have him, kid can shred! In the coming weeks we are only looking to expand. Anybody who has a passion for the sport and wants to help us with our cause, we would be psyched to consider bringing on to the team.

I ran into you a few weeks ago at the first ESL stop and you had some rad guerrilla marketing stuff going on…what are you doing as far as marketing goes?

Vert Effect is one of the main sponsors of the Eastern Snowboard League and we are pumped to be a part of an event that is so different and really geared for the local riders. We created a limited edition Eastern Snowboard League bottle that we have been giving away at the events to the riders and eventually these will be available for sale on our website www.verteffect.com as a super limited edition bottle. If your at any of the events well be giving out tons of stickers and bottles.

It may be very possible that you are the first guido who also happens to be a legit snowboarder and surfer…how did that happen?

HAHA JOKES JOKES. Hating on JERZ. Just cause I’m italian, from jersey, and occasionally like to pump my fist does not make me a guido.  Jerz is an awesome place to grow up, we have the beach minutes away and the mountains a couple hours away. There’s not too many other places that can say that. So naturally I spent a lot of time at the beach surfing and in the winters driving up to VT shredding on the weekends.

If you were on jersey shore which dude would you be? Fist pumping party dude? Meat head ladies man? DJ Nicky D?

Anyone who knows me knows I like to go out and party!  I have been known for “cutting up a little rug” on the dance floor and sometimes the fist will come out but its gotta be the right time and place ha. I don’t know, you tell me.

So back on subject…what do you have planned for the rest of this season and then for next?

Were gonna finish out the ESL strong and focus on building a sold Vert Snow Team for next year. We are also gonna start to pop up in your local shops so keep an eye out for us.

Raising the BAR!

Unfortunately the weather did not want to compromise with us, as it rained and sleeted the whole day. We were able to push through with the event for the most pat except for the Big Air Jumps were to sketch and icy so we ended up moving over to the “LOVE” section of the park to get some jumps in.

Peter Pape

Kade Madsen

Lawn Dart

Matty B

The riders weren’t holding anything back throwing anything from Rodeos to old skool lawn darts. Either way it was super fun and entertaining to see these riders so amped and going super BIG!  Guys like Peter Pape, Billy Keil, and Kade Madsen were just technicians at Big Boulder. They were throwing ridiculous tricks and just landing everything. It looked like Billy Keil had magnets in his board, he was painting every inch of every rail in the park.

Billy Keil Killing it!

At the end of the Day though it all came down to the Judges.  I felt bad for those guys because everyone was snowboarding so good, it was just seemed impossible to rank these guys. After about an hour of careful deliberation the judges finally came out to announce the winners.

In the youngblood division Brian Watson took 1st place, Mickey Whitaker took 2nd, and Scott Hopper took 3rd.

YoungBlood Podium

In the Destroyer Division Peter Pape took 1st, Louis Hanft took 2nd, and Billy Keil took 3rd.

Destroyer Podium

As hard as I’m sure it was to make these rankings, I was a little disappointed not to see Kade Madsen in the Top 3.  He was shredding just as good as anyone else out there but I guess he got overlooked by the Judges. Or maybe the judges were looking to make this thing interesting  Now coming  into the final event at SEVEN SPRINGS 1st place is up fro grabs and its still anyones game!

The Morning of the Event we were on the hill at 7am setting up signs and banners and getting the place all steezed up. Redbull was there setting up there DJ Booth and tent and was making it rain with free Redbull. Vert had tons of sign up all over the hill but apparently management did not like our “F*ck Plastic” motto so they made us take down half our signs. Wish we would’ve known that was gonna happen.

Signage

We got everything all set up and @ 8:30 the registration room started to have a line out the door. We had between 60-70 event participants and 9 or 10 of them were girls. We were so stoked to see some chicks involved but when planning the event didn’t think about the possibility of girls showing up so we had to create a Snow Bunny Youngblood division on the Fly.

Dont know her name but she was cute and took 3rd.

Some kids were so stoked about the Eastern Snowboard League that they came in some pretty Gnar costumes. Unfortunately Judges did not give bonus points for enthusiasm and attire.

Steez Machine

The Eastern Snowboard League event is made up of two components. Rail Jam and Big Air. You had       3-4 runs in each part of the park. Big Air was the first part of the competition. None of these kids were holding back at all. Whether you were in the Destroyer division or the Youngblood Division they were throwing it down and didn’t care about the consequences. We had kids coming in switch trying to pull 9′s, rodeos, backflips, you name it….it was thrown. At the end of the day though it is about consistency and Kade Madsen was all about it. He landed 3 out of his 4 runs, all super technical and so cool, calm, collected in the air.  Then we went to the Rail Jam and this time there were a few guys who were killing it.  Peter Pape, Cody Voit, and Travis jones all brought there “A” game with some pretty tech maneuvers with a lot of steeze. As good as everyone shredded Kade just kept taking it to the next step upping the difficulty level and pulling it off smoothly and steezy. Thats why it was no surprise when Kade took 1st on the podium and brought himself one step closer to Super Park!

1st Kade Madsen, 2nd Peter Pape, 3rd Cody Voit

Check out the Eastern Snowboard League Video

watch?v=hmrjLS6lhVo&feature=player_embedded

Our surfers are local legend Sam Hammer and one of the newer guys to the game Tommy Petriken who both shred out of their minds. We also have Bryan Zinski a guy who just has an unbelievable passion for the sport and appreciation for the ocean. These are our Vert Surfers.

Our pro bodyboarders include manasquan native Jason Bitzer who is the founder of the USBA tour and the youthful hawaiian Sammy Morretino who is the next up and coming star in the sport. They are our Vert bodyboarders.

We also recently brought on Emma Jandel who is new to the LPGA tour and Kirsten Flower who is going to be on the WTA tour in the coming months.

Welcome to all our Vert team members. We are excited to have you onboard.