Last week on Jump 5 in the Snowmass park in Colorado Mark McMorris stomped the first-ever Backside Triple Cork 1440, the crew was sessioning the public park for the upcoming “Park Sessions” Project coming Fall 2011.
From the looks of this make we’re not going to see the end of the McMorris spin machine any time soon.
The only real surprise in the US Grand Prix Mammoth Slopestyle event was that Chaz “Chuck G” Guldemond sat on his first run and had to take another. Other than than, it was the usual huck fest.
We were secondarily surprised at how embarrassingly shallow the women’s slopestyle pool really is. The women’s finals were made up of Jamie Anderson and seven girls who could barely 50-50 and straight air their way down the course. In their defense it was a big course and some of the more talented girls had some trouble with their landings, but no-grab straight airs should not get anyone on a podium at a “national” competition. Oh, if you wondered, Jamie Anderson won again.
We didn’t even watch the Mammoth Halfpipe comp on Saturday, March 5, 2011, but apparently Steamboat Springs’ Matt Ladley delivered a “back 5, front 9, back 9, front 10, cab 10,” to claim victory over Greg Bretz and Louie Vito. “I feel great. It’s hard to explain. It’s surreal. I got a victory lap up there and I was thinking, ‘I already won, this is crazy,'” Ladley said. “I knew I put down a solid first run but I saw a lot of those guys landing their doubles, but it turns out it held up pretty well.”
On the women’s side Kelly Clark continued her complete and utter domination of women’s halfpipe riding. “It’s great to come out and get another win here. More than the placing, I’m happy with my riding. That’s the most important thing for me and the good placing follows that,” Clark said. [click to continue…]
On March 19, 2011 Academy Snowboards at Tahoe’s Boreal Resort will host a Cash For Kids comp on “a jib feature specially designed by Academy Snowboards’ Team Riders Chad Tarbell and Will Bateman.
Creative setup allows riders to hit different features and take different lines through a jib/rail oriented course. Judging based on overall performance. Top 6-10 riders advance to cash finals. Riders get four runs in finals. One rider on course at a time.
Pros, Ams, and Girls are invited. The event begins at 9 AM and ends at 4 PM and costs $10 in addition to a lift ticket. Follow the jump for all the details or click the link for more info.
Frequency: The Snowboarder’s Journal’sColin Wiseman got the inside line on what big mountain rider Jeremy Jones has been up to lately. More specifically, what his new film Further is all about. Here’s some of what Mr. Jones said.
Further, for me… well Deeper was me going to places that I was really familiar with, then crossing this imaginary boundary into the unridden realm of these areas that have become almost my home ranges, places I’ve gone back to year after year for ten or fifteen years. So with Further the idea is to switch things up… what I learned with Deeper gave me confidence and fresh eyes. I look at the world’s mountains with a new perspective. I look at them and go, “There’s nothing that I consider too far for riding.” So Further is about getting to some exotic places that I’ve always wanted to ride and taking the show on the road; taking the knowledge I’ve learned in the snowpacks and ranges that I’m familiar with, and taking that to places where I’m somewhat starting from scratch.
Just think: we can watch the entire US Grand Prix of Snowboarding Halfpipe tomorrow (March 5, 2011) at 2 PM PST from Mammoth Mountain right here. Nice, huh?
Anglican Priest, the Rev. Neil Elliot, from Trail, British Columbia, has reportedly just completed his thesis for a PhD in Snowboarding (or as he calls it “soulriding”) from Kingston University in London England, according to a story on The Spec.
“It’s the first PhD in snowboarding at all, so it’s pretty unique,” said Elliot. “It gave me an excuse to get out and participate in a sport I love and it provided me with a framework to examine human spirituality.” . . . An ordained priest with a master’s degree in theology and Islamic studies, Elliot decided to undertake his doctorate in the sociology of religion at the secular Kingston University in London, England. . . He wanted to get away from theology and look “at what’s happening on the ground and the kind of stuff you can actually measure.”
We’ve heard of some pretty big stretches before, but this may be the most evolved excuse to go snowboarding we’ve ever heard. We’ve read the story twice and still have no idea what Rev. Elliot is talking about.
Bert Lamar was one of the first pro skateboarders to successfully cross over to snowboarding. First with Look Snowboards and then by launching his own company Lamar Snowboards (and later Elevation Snowboards). Though the brand (which he no longer owns) still takes up a big chunk of booth space at the SIA Show in Denver, Bert left snowboarding for golf years ago.
After a winter of “technical issues” the 686 website is back up to full “on” status with their new 2011 Spring Collection. Here’s what they have to say about it:
We do apologize greatly for our internet absence the last few weeks. If we told you what happened, you wouldn’t believe us, so we’re just going to keep it quiet and tell you that the offending parties responsible for the collapse of the 686.com empire have been dealt with appropriately. We made them take a few runs nude during the last big storm and now all is right in the world.
Having experienced similar issues (June 2010) we feel for them and are glad the’re back.
This is for everyone around the world who believes it silly that snowboarders live in Southern California. Mt. Baldy (where all Todd Richard’s power footage was shot) is 45 miles from downtown LA. Go ahead and weep. It’s okay.
