NW Camo

When I first moved out to the Pacific Northwest, and my brother still had ambitious snowboard filming aspirations, he would complain to me about not showing up very well in videos because of my NW camo. Seeing as how most of our riding is below the treeline, often within the trees, and under gray skies in the Evergreen State, his definition of northwest camouflage was any dark colored outerwear. So I showed him by later investing in a 3L Gore-Tex jacket that was actually camouflage. I know a large part of our readership contingent is in the midwest thinking "Well la tee da, fancy Gore-Tex for the fancy Pacific NW city boy!" Living in the Midwest, I used to think you would have to be stupid to pay the premium for Gore-Tex. Now that I ride the Pacific NW, I slowly learned to buy nothing but the best and never think twice about it (so long as it's 50% off -- hey, I'm still a Swenson). As a compromise to the straightup camo, I opted for a bright green head beacon.


You can see me just fine scoping it out against rare blue skies.

But this is more typical (note these photos were brightened significantly, too).

Dropping! Stevens Pass.

By some sordid twist of fate, my camouflage jacket needed warranty repairs, which ended up with me getting a bright orange jacket. Now I look like a pumpkin.

But I hope to look like a carrot by swimsuit season.