While most of the snow industry is descending on Denver for the SIA Snow Show, those who stay at home don’t have to feel left out. Nope, thanks to Transworld Business we all can get a solid overview of many of the new boots, bindings, and boards (along with the company line from each brand) in Transworld Business 2011/12 Preview.
Nice of them to share it all with us, isn’t it?
[Link: Transworld Business]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Two more snowboarders died in the last week in unrelated accidents resulting in head injuries. Rahsheka Keith (right), a 22-year old UC Santa Cruz theatre student from Oakland, California died after riding her snowboard (like a sled) into a lift tower at Lake Tahoe, California’s Granlibakken Resort, according to a story in the Sierra Sun.
The accident occurred when Keith used her snowboard as a sled, sitting upon the board with her feet unattached to the bindings, Ausnow said. At some point, Keith became turned around, facing uphill, with her back turned toward the bottom of the hill. She then crashed into a lift tower pole.
In Arizona, 22-year-old Branson Holm died from injuries sustained after landing on his head while “attempting to do a backflip on his snowboard,” on January 9, 2011 while riding near Flagstaff, Arizona, according to a story in the Mail Tribune.
Keith and Holm become the 12th and 13th snowboard deaths in North America since December 20, 2010. Our thoughts are with their families and friends.
[Links: Sierra Sun and Mail Tribune]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The wallets of many Washington State snowboarders could take a pretty big hit if a new bill becomes state law, according to this story on KOMO.com. Washington’s Senate Bill 5186 could fine snowboarders (and skiers) up to $1,000 for venturing out of bounds.
It states that people “shall not ski on a ski slope, trail, or area that is designated by a ski area operator as closed to the public and that has signs posted indicating the closure.” . . Under the measure, members of the ski patrol who witness out-of-bounds skiers can collect evidence and turn in a report to the local sheriff, who could then issue a citation.
All that for a little “adventure.”
[Link: Komo4.com and Seattle PI]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
During the Sundance Film Festival (which runs January 20-30, 2011) brands do pretty much anything they can to get celebrities to wear, hold, use, and promote their products.
Stars reportedly get to roll through houses and/or shops set up in Park City, Utah and pick and choose what they want. Burton Snowboards is all over it according to a story on The Wrap.
Try for the Burton House, where select industry VIPs can get off Main Street, get private lessons (and free gear) from snowboard legend Jake Burton himself, or just hit the slopes for a few hours.
Danny Davis is even out making celebrity runs with stars like Gossip Girl’s Penn Badgley, according to Zimbo. Don’t say Burton Team members don’t work for their pay.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
We mentioned the Denver Big Air contest in the past when Metro Denver Sports Commission first thought they could get people to pay $75 a head to stand out in the cold and watch a big air snowboard contest. After having lowed the price to an overpriced $45 they’re still getting grief because of the lack of big name talent in the event, according to a story on the Denver Post.
This forced USSA Competition Director Eric Webster to deliver one of the best lines we’ve heard this week:
“This is a legitimate field of skiers and snowboarders,” said competition director Eric Webster. “It’s not just people we dragged off the street.”
And that’s a bummer, because just think how entertaining this sideshow snowboard event would be if competitors were simply “dragged off the street.”
[Link: Denver Post]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
With more of the stunning network-owned, caffeinated-sugar-water, sports entertainment programming you’ve come to expect from Boardistan.com here is our complete in-depth coverage of the weekend’s events from freezing ass Killington, Vermont.
Louie Vito and Kelly Clark won pipe, and Jamie Anderson and Torstein Horgmo won slopestyle.
Watch the slope video from above and then follow the jump for all the results and the halfpipe finals video.
[click to continue…]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
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.
[Link: KTVN.com]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
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 an iPhone 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.
For the latest on the 2011 SIA Show follow the jump.
[click to continue…]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
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. . .
[Link: Signal Snowboards]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
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.
Snowbroader.eu said the profile was:
…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.
Yobeat in a post titled: CNN Has Nothing Better to Cover Than Shaun White by Shaun Blanco said:
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…]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
