SLUSH THE MAGAZINE VOL 1.4
TO GET THE FUNDS TO BUY HIS FIRST CAMERA, GARY LAND STOLE A GUN FROM HIS DAD AND PAWNED IT. TRUE STORY.
I first met Gary in 1993-or maybe it was 1992. Either way, he had just moved to town from Virginia Beach, Virginia and had taken a job working for Killington in the Snowshed base lodge. Other than my fascination with someone who grew up in the shadow of the legendary Trashmore vert ramp, there wasn't anything too remarkable about this introduction, but within a few weeks Gary-like all transplants-had become ingrained in the Killington scene. There was a bond amongst all the locals at the time. Anyone who had forsaken college or a more conventional path, just to ride a snowboard every day. subsidized by whatever minimum wage employment allowed you to get in the most laps, meant you were a freak to the rest of society. In turn we saw strength in numbers and as the establishment looked down on our ilk, we looked to each other to provide the sanctuary of a scene, no judgements allowed. At some point Gary started to show up with a camera. Whether it was the Killington Bump Off Mogul Comp or late season sessions on Superstar, our straight airs and 360s seemed to provide a test bed for his budding photo skills. At first we didn't take Gary's shooting too seriously. After all, we weren't taming the terrain of Baker or linking tricks in Boreal's Jibassic park. The front lines of the jib revolution were in Summit County and Salt Lake City, not Rutland, Vermont. As far as the snowboarding media establishment were concerned the only riding east of the Mississippi that mattered began and ended with the US Open at Stratton-period. All that changed when Gary got published. It's hard to express the pride we all felt seeing our scene in print. Today, everyone has a camera in their pocket and their own channel to broadcast all things both majestic and mundane, yet back in the mid 90s having Gary's photographic proof that we existed appear on the pages of Snowboarder and Transworld was a game changer. I was fortunate to know Gary Land back then and feel even more fortunate to know him today. Since his dirtbag days at Killington, Gary has done very well for himself. Yet, in between shoots for Under Armour, Reebok, Apple, Nike, and Peloton, Gary decided to pass his time during lockdown focused on a passion project: East Street Archives. This 400-page tome is a tribute to a time and place that probably won't be repeated. Yet the experience of taking the unconventional path to pursue a passion, the sacrifices, the stoke, the relinquishing of responsibilities in pursuit of pow or park laps, this is the omnipresent right of passage that takes a person from going riding a few daysa year, to calling themselves a snowboarder full time. The following pages include photos from East Street Archives, accompanied by a candid conversation Gary and I had about the backstories behind the images.
PAT BRIDGES
