Luke, Taylor, and Timmy Courtesy of Burton

Editor's Note: Most of us can only dream of setting off on a world tour. This year, Jake Burton and his family will be living the dream, embarking on a 10-month trip to snowboard all over the globe, covering six continents and following winter the whole way.

Jake, Donna, George(13), Taylor(10), Timmy(7) and niece Victoria (15) set off in July for a year of adventure travel. They will be snowboarding at resorts and in the backcountry of Argentina, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Morocco, throughout Europe and in the Himalayas (India). To round out the trip, they will be surfing in the Galapagos Islands, Peru, New Zealand, Tonga, Australia and Hawaii, sea kayaking in Thailand, and touring through China, Tibet, and Vietnam.

From Jake
After a couple of days at our winter home base in Innsbruck, we headed to Livigno, Italy for the Burton European Open in mid-January. George, Taylor and Timmy all competed in the Junior event, which was all good. Riding alongside Luke, Mikkel, Freddy, Olivier, Christian and Tommy will make anyone ride better and have more fun doing it. This posse of kids reminds everyone around them how much fun snowboarding is and why we all do it. They should be at every pro event just to keep it real, and to put the future of snowboarding on display.

The pro events were sick. Ross won the pipe against a very tough field, and Heikki won the slopestyle with a monster run on a monster course. Dorriane Vidal took the women's pipe with Kjersti in a close second. As good as the events were, the powder riding was what made the week for everyone. Most events were held two days later than planned due to the non-stop snowfall, but nobody was complaining. The only thing more fun than watching Keir, Romain, Gigi, Kelly, Kjersti, and Natasza compete is doing powder runs with them, and we did plenty of those. The best run was a tree run that involved taking your board off halfway down to cross the road, but no one was complaining about that either.

"When sitting down to put her bindings on at the top, Victoria took off down the mountain on her ass. We thought she was toast..."

There were some pro surfers there (Beau Emerton, Tom Whitaker, Luke Hitchings) as part of a magazine promotion (7th Sky), and we rode with them for most of a powder day. This was definitely a highlight of the week. They had never ridden before coming to Livigno, and Tom had never seen snow before. But these guys learned fast and they were fearless. I guess after dropping in at Teahupo'o, snowboarding in powder is not so intimidating. Nonetheless, we tried our hardest to rattle them by taking them down some tight tree lines after just three days of riding. These boys provided some of the best wipeouts I've seen in a long time, but they always came up smiling. I'm looking forward to their promise of getting even with me at Pipeline someday.

Due to the consistent snowfall, the women's slopestyle never happened but nonetheless, we headed back to Innsbruck after a memorable week. Timmy and I drove back via St. Moritz, Switzerland for a day of powder riding and an evening at Michi Albin's house for the Mini Shredder's event. This event is held in Michi's backyard in Pontresina, Switzerland with some of the best pros in the world hitting miniature sized jumps and rails while eating dinner cooked by Michi's mom. These guys put a whole new perspective on a one-foot (30cm) kicker. A good time was had by all. Snowboarding needs more events like this.

After two more days in Innsbruck, it was time to head to Morocco, Africa. I had snowboarded 27 of 29 days so far in Europe and was starting to feel right at home when it was time for a completely different experience. Arriving in Morocco, we were all amazed that it felt so comfortable to be back in the third world. We were back in our element in a country that was developing right in front of us. This was our first visit to a Muslim (Islamic) country, and with everything going on in the world, it was cool to check it out, and see how friendly people are. The locals were as easy going and happy here as anywhere we've been. We stayed at Victoria's grandfather's house in Marrakech and headed into the city every day. We spent a lot of time at the Souks (the local markets), where George and I couldn't stop buying hand knit beanies. They were really nice and cost less than $2 each. Of course the asking price was closer to $10, but bargaining is a huge part of their culture. It seems to be a fundamental source of social interaction, and once you understand that it is in no way personal, it's a lot of fun.

After a couple of days in the city, we headed up into the Atlas mountains to go riding. We had a mission to snowboard on six continents and this was our only shot in Africa. The mountains are impressive, and supposedly the chairlift ride to the top is the longest in the world. I'm not sure how to fact check that one, but it was a long ride up. Unfortunately the snow on the trail was rock hard - we're talking bullet proof. As Vermonters, we take a lot of pride in our hardpack skills, but this was a whole new league. When sitting down to put her bindings on at the top, Victoria took off down the mountain on her ass. We thought she was toast, but the moguls slowed her down enough to stop, and she never let go of her board. After this intro we all took it pretty easy, but eventually got our hardpack game back and had some fun. It does dump here, and the powder days can be epic, but it's hit or miss unless you've got the time to wait.

From there we went back into the city, and the next day we headed out to check out Essaouira on Morocco's west coast. Essaouira is a cool little beach town that is best known for the fact that Jimmy Hendrix loved it so much he tried to buy the whole town. We didn't get to check out Jimmy's villa there, but we did hook up with Daniel Krattinger, a local surf guide www.surf-adventure.com. He set us up with some rental boards and wetsuits (for those who needed them), and we all went for a surf at a local point break just outside of town. The surf was big (double overhead), but somewhat disorganized. The best spots are further south and we just didn't have enough daylight time to get there. Nonetheless, it was fun to get back in the water.

After another day in Marrakech, Taylor and I decided to hook up with Daniel again at his base down in Insuame. Insuame is a little fishing village 100 km (62 miles) south of Essaouira. On the first day the surf was good, but on the next morning the tide was just right for the right point break in town. The waves were frickin perfect; head high to overhead and glassy. I was getting waves over a minute long and Taylor was having the best waves of his life. It was sunny out and the scenery was insane. Our morning felt like a scene out of Endless Summer. We headed back into Marrakech with some pretty big smiles on.

It was time to head back to Innsbruck, get some more riding in and head for Europe's big winter trade show in Munich (ISPO). We were psyched to get back onto real snow, but we had already gotten sold on Africa. The snow was a bit sketchy, but the people, food, surf and vibe in Morocco were as good as it gets. Once again we had a few days in Innsbruck, and once again it dumped. We rode Axams one day, and Donna and I drove north to Seefeld, Austria the next. We were having a fun day riding until I spotted a tree run on a farmer's land, which involved jumping over a wooden fence. I went first and convinced Donna to go for it. Being the trusting, go-for-it girl that she is, she went for it. Unfortunately, she came up a bit short, nailing the top fence rail square and flipping over the fence twisting her back leg. After a trip to the hospital and an MRI, Donna was diagnosed with a sprained MCL (out 4-6 weeks). After running George over with a surfboard in Hawaii and talking Donna into jumping that fence, my credibility is slipping.