In an apparently move to become completely Laurent-Free Burtons Snowboards announced today that Super Rep Laurent Vrignaud is calling it quits and will be moving on “to pursue new opportunities as of June 1st.”
“Laurent has been a part of the Burton family for so long, and we all thank him for dedicating over two decades of his career to growing the brand and the sport,” said Jake Burton, Founder and CEO of Burton Snowboards. “Everyone here wishes him the best on his next chapter, and we look forward to a new era with our valued dealers in the territory.”
In other Laurent rumors it appears that former Burton CEO Laurent Potdevin (who left the company on May 3, 2010) has finally found a new home as President of Toms Shoes.
Australia’s gold medal girl, Torah Bright, has just signed on as an equity partner and endorser of Liquid Nutrition, a “smoothie, food, vitamin, and supplement retail chain in Canada, according to The Phoenix Business Journal.
Liquid Nutrition plans to use the six athletes as it looks to grow. The announcements coincided with the public listing of Liquid Nutrition’s stock and the beginning of its franchising push, both of which are occurring today.
Torah joins two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash, and NY Yankee’s catcher Russell Martin on the Liquid Nutrition squad. At least it’s not an energy drink.
On Friday night, May 20, 2011, US Open winning snowboarder Kazuhiro Kokubo was on his way to LA from Mammoth on US 395 when he lost control of his vehicle, entered the center median and flipped three times, according to a story on Turnto23.com.
The driver of the vehicle, 22-year-old Kazuhiro Kokubo, was wearing his seatbelt and suffered minor injuries. . . He was transported to Ridgecrest Regional Hospital. . Alcohol was not a factor in this collision, officers are investigating the possibility that Kokubo fell asleep while driving.
Can’t fault ESPN executives for playing into one of their few sports property strengths. Today, as just one of the items the company rolled out to advertisers during “2011 upfronts” ESPN announced that they are doubling the number of live, faux-sporting, action entertainment television events to a total of six for the coming three years, according to a story in the LA Times.
Currently, X Games events are held in Los Angeles during the summer and in Aspen, Colo., and Tignes, France, during the winter. Under the new plan, called Global X, four events will be held outside the U.S. ESPN will hold a competitive bidding process beginning in 2012 to select the three new locations, which will be signed to three-year agreements and work with ESPN to stage the events.
Not surprisingly ESPN’s Senior Vice President of Programming and Global X Games Scott Guglielmino is “incredibly excited to take the X Games to the next level.” More events, more coverage, more sponsors, more money, more dilution, more irrelevance. Sounds like a perfect plan.
When Mammoth Mountain says they’re open until July 4, 2011, they’re not just fooling around. On Sunday, May 15, 2011 they had 11 inches of fresh snow for full Main Lodge powder shredding. Today they’ve already gotten four more inches of new snow, the high temp is going to be 25 degrees, and it is supposed to snow tomorrow and possible Thursday as well. Damn, that’s winter in May.
Follow the jump for a couple more reasons why it might not be a bad idea to get your snowboards back out and charge the 395. [click to continue…]
Former pro snowboarder Andrew Crawford, 32, graduated from Kalispell, Montana’s Flathead Valley Community College this week with an AS degree in pre-engineering, according to a story in the Daily Interlake.
Crawford says he owes a debt of gratitude to Flathead Valley Community College and the support of his parents, Bill and Sue Crawford of Kalispell. His three years of hard work just helped him win a paid internship this summer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. . . “Over 5,000 kids apply for these and I got one,” he said. “I’m so excited. It’s the closest thing to a little kid’s dream coming true — to actually work for NASA.”
This summer, Crawdaddy can answer without lying: “Why yes, in fact, I am a rocket scientist.”
Mike Parillo is opening a new showing of his recent paintings titled Watch What You See at the CES/FA in Laguna Beach, California on May 20, 2011.
Observations and notations from current events, personalities, and places invoke a new series of paintings and mixed media work from Wyoming based artist Mike Parillo. Parillo’s report on the now comes in fragmented groups of work within one major body. Watch what you see is a social commentary conveying the artist’s fascination with various symbolic icons, locations and ideas from contemporary culture that have an indefinite resonating affect on his vision of the current global landscape.
Society is tough on the aging, white, American male. We’re not sure how this “52-fuckin’-year-old” Reno man ended up with the job of keeping snowboarders off the rails in this park, but if we were guessing we’d say it was a horrible string of divorces, bankruptcies, and years of substance abuse. Just watch and you’ll see what we mean.
Academy Snowboards is going to learn you a thing or two this weekend at Boreal. For only $199 snowboarders of all skill levels can get two days of on-hill training with Academy Pros, walk home with $50 is product, and have the best spring shred session of the season. At least that’s what the JB and the crew at Academy are telling us.
Mark Occhilupo joins snowboarder Louie “Tiny Dancer” Vito as the second third boardrider (we forgot Layne Beachley) to appear on a version of Dancing With The Stars. Occy’s first go didn’t go so well. As one judge said:
“You’re not just a goofy-footed surfer, you’re a really goofy footed dancer . . .I’ll be clear––it was the worst routine we’ve had in 11 series. You had no concept of partnering Jade, you were out of time, your steps were wrong. It was just truly awful. . . stick to surfing.”
While it obviously takes serious sack to get out and dance on TV, we’ll just put it this way after round one: Snowboarders: 1, Surfers 0.
In an apparently move to become completely Laurent-Free Burtons Snowboards announced today that Super Rep Laurent Vrignaud is calling it quits and will be moving on “to pursue new opportunities as of June 1st.”
