Maison T. Ortiz, a 15-year-old snowboarder, slid to his death on the Slide Mountain side of Lake Tahoe’s Mt. Rose Resort on Wednesday, January 19, 2011, according to a story on KTVN.com.
The boy’s uncle, Chris Hicks, says the 1:55 p.m. accident occurred after Ortiz and a friend decided to make a final run of the day on the Slide Mountain side of the resort. . . He says conditions were incredibly icy, and the boys thought it would be safer to walk down the mountain. . . Hicks says the boys removed their boards and helmets, and Ortiz crashed into a tree after losing his footing on the ice. He was flown with serious head injuries to a Reno hospital where he later died.
It continues to be a rough year for snowboarders at North America’s resorts. Our thoughts are with the boy’s family and friends.
In past years our policy has always been to roam the SIA Snow Show and see what catches our eyes or ears. While this create epic moments of serendipitous discovery it also means that we often miss some really cool shit.
This year we won’t have that problem because the SIA has created aniPhone app (and Blackberry and Android apps for those sad lonely, beaten down workers forced to use shoddy tools). It’s called SIA 2011 and was created by Core Apps.
Use the SIA Snow Show App to navigate the Show with interactive floor plans, exhibitor lists, twitter feeds, events schedules, listings for Denver bars and restaurants and create your own Show schedule.
The digital map is reason enough to download the app, but add to that a searchable exhibitor list (with booth numbers and full contact info), an events schedule (which has not been updated yet), Twitter feed, Denver Guide, and contact info for all the speakers at SIA and it is a mandatory piece of software for anyone attending the show. One of the coolest bits is that exhibitors in the list can be starred and or checked off the list and later viewed in an “exhibitors visited list.” Keeping track of who to see and who we’ve seen has never been easier.
After years of being at SIA adrift and unguided, the SIA Snow Show app comes like a light in the darkness. Click this link for the iPhone version. You other smartphone heathens are on your own.
Dave Lee, Marc Wierenga and the crew at Signal Snowboards took a Skullcandy Superpipe and built it into a boombox snowboard as part of their Every Third Thursday project. We can hardly wait until all the kids are rocking these turned up to 11. . .
Last night CNN broadcast a little profile on Shaun White. It was part of their Revealed program and the videos have gotten Shaun nothing but grief from the independent snowboard media.
…full of ridiculous claims, everyone just saying how awesome he is, including himself, all the footage was provided by sponsors and advertisers, and we could go on and on. So if you don’t know what to do right now, check how CNN revealed Shaun White.
In fact, this whole program reminded me of a Transworld article. All the footage was provided by sponsors and advertisers, The “editorial” is provided by someone nobody even knows, all claims are ridiculous, all the riders input is strictly worthless sound bites we’ve heard a million times before, and they call it important.
We haven’t watched it yet, but we’re going to just as soon as we link all this video up. . . follow the jump for the rest. [click to continue…]
A body believed to belong to a snowboarder who went missing near Colorado’s Berthoud Pass on Monday, January 17, 2011 has been found by search and rescue workers, according to a story on 9 News.com.
The body was found near where [26-year-old Jeffrey] Miller went missing Monday, while backcountry snowboarding with a friend. . . The friend said he saw Miller and Miller’s dog behind him after a small snow slide nearby, but didn’t see them when he looked back a little later. He said he went down the hill two more times, but couldn’t find Miller.
Our thoughts are with Miller’s family and friends.
As one core retailer told us last week, “Everyone wants a bargain.” Well, it would appear that Nike Snowboarding is giving consumers exactly what they want with a new slew of snowboarding boots at off-price giant Ross Dress For Less.
According to a Boardistan secret shopper Nike snowboard boots which were selling at retail for $249.99 last year are now available for just $84.99 and if we wait a little longer they’ll probably drop all the way down to $20. We can hardly wait.
The last time we read a letter from Terje Haakonsen it was back in the beginning of 1998 when he announced that he would not be participating in the first Olympic snowboarding halfpipe event in Nagano Japan because the International Olympic Committee organization was corrupt (someone made fun of the letter at the time).
Now an older and wiser Haakonsen appears interested in working with the IOC to help young snowboarders get the chance he blew off and compete in the Winter Olympic Games. Broblog posted the entire letter.
Truthfully, we tried reading the letter (written with the Arctic Challenge’sHenning Andersen) and didn’t understand a word of it. If you’re into Olympic organizational politics then dive right it. Maybe it will make sense to you.
The Daily Mail is reporting this star-studded meet up at a “sports shop” earlier this week: the David Beckham family and Shaun White:
The boys – Brooklyn, 11, Romeo, eight, and five-year-old Cruz – seem particularly keen on skateboarding – which is hugely popular in the US – and are fans of sports star Shaun White, who is an Olympic gold medallist and a champion of both the skateboard and the snowboard.
We all just love, love, love each other. Apparently, there is no end to the celebrity circle jerk.
The best halfpipe riders in the world may ignore the FIS World Snowboard Championships in La Molina, Spain, but for the boardercrossers this is as big as it gets other than the Olympics. And Lindsey Jacobellis proved again that she is the best in the world by winning the women’s side of event.
“My plan was just to be top-two and advance because I haven’t been getting to the finals in my last couple of races. Making finals was definitely my first goal and getting out ahead was my second,” said Jacobellis of her strategy heading into the finals. “I was getting the hole shot and doing the first rhythm section really well. I was out in front and wanted to hold my ground giving me the option for every line I wanted to have.”
On the men’s side Australian Alex Pullin won followed by Americans Seth Wescott and Nate Holland in second and third. Follow the jump for the rest and for full results. [click to continue…]
