Beginning tomorrow (June 2, 2011) the Frends ™ are getting together for their 2nd Annual Frendly Gathering, a three-day camping, snowboarding, and music festival at Crowley Lake Campgrounds, on the Eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Range. According to reports there will be a “corn-hole tournament,” swimming, jamming, snowboarding and whatnot.
Mammoth Mountain will be hosting the giant slalom, presented by Amp & Mountain Dew and old school highway halfpipe competitions, sponsored by Burton, at Chair 4 on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday a skate jam will be held at the Brothers Skatepark. Prizes will be awarded to who ever we feel like giving awards to. . . Thursday and Friday night music will be brought to you by DJ Modsun, DJ Pat Brown and B-Rolla and a live musical performance by the one and only Led Zepplica (the sickest Zepplin cover band), presented by Nike will be held Saturday night at Crowley Lake Campground.
Obviously, with sponsors like Mammoth Mountain, Nike, Dragon, Burton, Nixon, Billabong, and Mountain Dew, it’s not exactly a low-down roots event, but hey, it sounds like fun and the kids have to get paid right? Follow the jump for more info. [click to continue…]
Chi Fong (a.k.a “Frankie”) Leong’s winning design focuses on the emotional moment when the SWATCH TTR World Tour Champion takes the prized trophy in hand. The design makes use of thermochromatic heat-sensitive paint to reveal the trophy-winner’s own handprint on the trophy: the heat of the winner’s hand causes the trophy to change colour, revealing the handprint offset in white against the black trophy. When the trophy cools, the handprint disappears and the trophy becomes entirely black once again.
How’s that for high concept? Eurolandia snowboarding certainly is keeping things swanky. Make some noise for the wo, wo, wo, wo, world champ indeed!
British Snowboarder Miles Kemp, 33, who crashed off a jump on the last day of an Innsbruck snowboard vacation in March 2006, died last month as a result of his brain injuries after five years in a care home, according to story on This Is London.
Kemp, who had been wearing a helmet, was travelling at high speed and his head “took the impact” when his board clipped the edge of the jump and he spun out of control. . . He continued snowboarding after the accident in March 2006 but then fell unconscious.
The former management consultant had 5 years of “intensive therapy” but never again regained the ability to communicate. Our thoughts are with Kemp’s family and friends.
In an apparent move to bring relevance to their collection of old, Eastern skis the Vermont Ski Museum has decided it’s about time they added the world “snowboarding” to their name, according to a story in the Burlington Free Press.
“The museum’s board of directors has long recognized the need to formally acknowledge snowboarding’s Vermont heritage and we’re pleased to announce our decision to change our name to include snowboarding,” said Tom Sequist, the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum board chairman. “The roots of skiing and snowboarding run very deep in Vermont and we’re committed to collecting and preserving their Vermont history and continuing to be a resource for those seeking information about skiing and snowboarding in Vermont.”
Oh what a great day! Wonder if they’ll add any Burton product to their dusty displays?
In the spirit of a winter that just doesn’t seem to want to end we offer this DC clip of Devun Walsh, Iikka Backstrom, and friends lofting into some mid-winter fluff ‘n stuff. Yes, this clip will be everywhere today, but we enjoyed it and so might you.
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…]
Beginning tomorrow (June 2, 2011) the Frends ™ are getting together for their 2nd Annual Frendly Gathering, a three-day camping, snowboarding, and music festival at Crowley Lake Campgrounds, on the Eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Range. According to reports there will be a “corn-hole tournament,” swimming, jamming, snowboarding and whatnot.
