It happens every year and it’s the most talked about shop trip in the Pacific Northwest. The Crazy Train 2014 trip to Whitefish Resort in Montana will go down as the best one yet. If you haven’t heard, this is the trip of a lifetime where 30 people from shops, Burton HQ, and the NW reps come together to ride, party, and become friends for a lifetime… all through the common thread of snowboarding. This year was no different as shops from all over the Pacific Northwest participated in a 60 day no-holds-barred sales contest; the top 20 shop kids with the highest sales made the cut. There’s nothing more rewarding than getting acknowledged for your hard work in a snowboard shop than a shred trip. The winners were treated to an overnight party on the Amtrak train. If you haven’t been stuck in a tube for 14 hours with a bunch of frothing snowboarders it’s a sight to behold. Once the group arrived in Whitefish it was all about the shredding… and shred we did. The Burton Northwest (aka Sales Asylum, LLC) had their 2015 demo fleet waiting to be mounted up and destroyed and Whitefish Mountain was in pristine shape for us to enjoy. Whitefish delivered the goods each day with powder, sun, incredible off-piste hiking, perfect park laps, and top to bottom slush runs. This trip had it all and more—the weather and snow couldn’t have been more perfect.

Just when you think the trip couldn’t get any better and we couldn’t have more fun, we added a new twist. Dubbed King of the Fish, we designed a contest for the contest winners. The group was divided into six teams where each team was rewarded with points for completing as many tricks or pranks as possible over the four days. To bring the contest into the digital age, each trick or prank had to be posted to Instagram using #crazytrain2014 as well as @mentions for all the participating sponsors of the trip. If you couldn’t witness the shenanigans that went down during the contest be sure to check out #crazytrain2014 for a recap. In addition to seeing the action you can also meet the people who went on the trip, the brands involved, and see why this trip is so special and one to remember. Not only did everyone have a great time trying to rack up points but each team was awarded prizes for their efforts with the top prize being a trip to Burton Headquarters in Burlington, VT to participate in their famed Boardin School event as well as an invite to Jake’s Fall Bash. Needless to say, the battle for first place was fierce with the reward being another trip with memories that will last a lifetime.

As they say, all good things must come to an end but Crazy Train 4 is just around the corner. For those who earned a spot this year, THANK YOU for your hard work in supporting not only the brands we represent but the sport and culture we love! We look forward to seeing some familiar faces as well as new ones next year. It’s no secret that this is the trip of the season and the battle for those coveted spots on the train will be intense.

For all great trips, there are great people involved who make it all possible. Without the shops supporting us we wouldn’t be able to go on this crazy journey so THANK YOU to Snowboard Connection, Evo, Tactics, US Outdoor Store, Hillcrest Sports, Ski Shack, Exit Real World, Sporthaus, Sturtevants, and Bergs Snowboard Shop. Without brand support the trip wouldn’t have the same impact so thank you to Burton, Anon, Analog, Hitcase, Xsories, Mizu, and Freewaters Footwear, your contributions to the gift bags and promo are incredibly generous and appreciated. To the people behind the brands we couldn’t be more appreciative of your support with a special thanks to JG, the legend, Alex Andrews, and Trevor Moore for keeping us all stoked and motivated to shred it all. To Jason Janecek from Hitcase and Xsories for outfitting everyone with the necessary tools to capture all the incredible photos and videos and for documenting the action daily. To those who couldn’t make the trip but support the event, Mark Wakeling and Sasha Dietschi-Cooper from Burton, and Christian Connolly from Analog and Anon, your support is vital to this trip and we can’t thank you enough for helping us get there. To Jason Forrest from Whitefish Mountain, you’re a great host and this trip isn’t what it is without you; I promise we didn’t ride off the roof but we did “pee off the chair.” And last but certainly not least, my team, the Sales Asylum crew (Tad Hukari, Jaymie Anselmo, Larry Detris, Ben Stiles) for organizing this amazing contest, keeping the shop kids stoked, and making sure we all made it to Whitefish and were where we needed to be when we needed to be. You make the trip run smoothly and efficiently and I can’t thank you more for your dedication to making Crazy Train 2014 awesome. Until next year…