This Saturday, March 19, 2011 the Los Angeles based HVW8 Gallery will host a book release party (and art show) celebrating the publication of The Art of Mark McKee, published by Random House.
The Art of Marc McKee marks the first installment of the Seen Unknown series edited by Winston Tseng, art director for Enjoi Skateboards. Tseng has worked with some of today’s most genre-defying visual artists and designers whose work extends well beyond skateboard culture. . . With Seen Unknown, Tseng unifies the diverse range of work by some of his favorite artists, putting it all in once place for readers to enjoy.
The latest company that Shaun White has taken a bite out of is Kraft Foods. Their chewing gum brand Stride has signed a two-year contract to have Shaun be an official brand spokesperson. White appears happy to make room on his helmet for another logo.
“When Stride approached me about partnering with the brand, I knew it would be a great fit and I am looking forward to working with them on some pretty exciting things,” said White.
White will reportedly be involved in a variety of exciting things like “promotional activities throughout the coming months” including “giveaways, digital and social media campaigns, and public relations efforts.” We hope Kraft’s contract is a little stickier than Burton’s or White may not show up at all.
Bob and Cheryl Zider, the parents of 15-year-old snowboarderwho died from snow suffocation while snowboarding at Tahoe (Chris picture right), have created a $20,000 award “inspire the design of a positive-release snowboard to save lives” according to a story in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Zider, a Peninsula resident, was provoked to action after reading a series of stories in The Chronicle that described how more than 15 snowboarders have died since the Christmas holidays, most in the same manner as his son. . . “It’s time to build a better snowboard binding,” Zider said. “The device I’m looking forward to has to be positively activated on demand by the boarder. . . . While snowboarding is generally seen as no more risky or dangerous than skiing, the risk of death goes up exponentially in avalanche or tree well accidents due to the fact that the board is rigidly attached to the boots, and the boarder is often unable to reach his boots to release in these conditions. Most die of suffocation as a result.”
Most of the pull-release designs we’ve seen over the years have been pretty terrible. Maybe this award will help. For more information on the Award and where to submit plans visit Chrisziderscholarship.org.
Travis Lee Huffman, 22, an employee of the Aspen Skiing Company, was ticketed by the Aspen Police department for reckless snowboarding Saturday, March 12, 2011 after he slammed into a 7-year-old boy, according to a story on The Aspen Daily News.
The victim’s family happened to be videotaping at the time of the incident and captured the whole thing, Snowmass police officer Franz Zedlacher said. . . Huffman, who was in uniform, allegedly caught air off a blind roller and landed right behind the child before immediately colliding with him, Zedlacher said. . . “It was very blatant,” said Zedlacher, who added that Snowmass police watched the video. Huffman “clearly failed” to ride in a responsible manner, he said.
Huffman faces up to a $1,000 fine for his “Colorado Ski Safety Act” violation. Which reminds us: thinking a few yards ahead while riding really can help.
On Saturday, March 12, 2011 Louie Vito kicked off the finals of the Burton US Open Snowboarding Championship halfpipe with as good a run as he can lay down. He put in three double corks and landed everything smoothly. His run scored an 84.45. It seemed a little low until Kohei Kudo, Iouri Podladtchikov, and Kazuhiro Kokubo took their runs, and then it became pretty obvious that this was no Dew Tour.
Kazu, the defending US Open champion, stole the show when he kicked off a monstrous run that included a frontside alley oop nosebone, frontside 900 melon grab, Michaelchuck nose grab, frontside double cork 1080 and a Cab 1080 melon grab. The rest of the day was spent seeing if anyone could come close.
“I’m so stoked and so happy,” said Kazuhiro Kokubo “I want to say thanks to my sponsors, family and friends, and I hope my win brings a little joy and happiness to Japan.”
No surprises in the women’s event. Kelly Clark won her fifth US Open Halfpipe title (her fourth consecutive) and was followed by Hannah Teter, with Gretchen Bleiler in third. We were very happy to see Bleiler finish a run without sitting. Good to see her back.
Follow the jump for the official word from Burton along with some results. [click to continue…]
Wait, no Jamie Anderson and Chas Guldemond on the top spots of the Burton US Open Snowboarding Championship Slopestyle podium? Nope. Finland’s Enni Rukajärvi edged Anderson by 1.70 points for the win and Eric Willett stomped his frontside 270 boardslide, a backside tailslide 450 out, a Cab underflip 900, tailslide 270 out to a frontside 900 tail grab, and a switch backside double cork 1080 mute grab run to take out Marc “Mr. 1440 Triple Cork” McMorris and Chas Guldemond
“It was awesome to win,” Willett said. “This is only my second time competing in the US Open, so to come here and win is great. Even with the tough weather, the level of riding was insane.”
Danny Kass checks in with all the details for Grenade Games 7 coming up March 25-27, 2011 at Southern California’s Bear Mountain. We’re guessing this could be pretty big being close to LA and all.
Two Boyne, Michigan thieves rolled off with two snowboards from Boyne Highlands right under the watchful gaze of the security camera. If they look familiar, turn them in. (Watch them dance off at the very end of the clip.)
Snowboarders are set to gather today (March 10, 2011) for a meeting at the US Open Snowboarding Championships to discuss forming a union to help snowboarders deal with event scheduling issues International Olympic Committee’splans to add slopestyle to the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, according to a Matt Higgins story in the New York Times.
Such a union would be unusual: X Games competitors’ efforts to create a union have fizzled out, and riders say this is the first attempt to create a union in snowboarding. . . “We have no time to train, no time to recover from injuries,” said Chas Guldemond, 23, of Reno, who during the past three weeks has won slopestyle competitions in Europe, Asia and North America. After the United States Open, Guldemond will fly to France for Winter X Games Europe next week.
While the idea of athletes organizing to protect their best interests is a great one (and we hope they are successful for once), this entire issue seems more related to the owners of established snowboarding events (the TTR series for example) hoping to be included in the Olympic qualification process even though they have never been big fans the FIS.
Apparently, event owners like Terje Haakonsen have finally figured out that being a little more involved with the Olympic process just might be good for business.
