Snowboarding

Youth Culture trend forecasters have been repeatedly pointing us toward Taro Tamai’s Gentemstick snowboards. First it was a two-year-old video on Youtube showing the Gentemstick crew cruising snow bowls in Japan. Now it is a post on the hype blog CoolHunting.com. But what are these retro-future snowboards exactly?

An answer to the homogenization of board shapes that happened as snowboarding gained mainstream appeal, Tamai’s goal is no less than to “perfectly blend into the terrain miraculously made of snow and wind, just as if birds flying in the sky or fish flowing in the stream.” The upshot of his philosophical approach to the sport (he calls it snow-surfing) is a line of boards renowned for their flexible fins, oversized sized fish tails and rideability in almost any snow condition.

So are these boards the “longboard skateboards” of snowboarding? Could be.

[Link: Gentemstick via Coolhunting]

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A 20-year-old snowboarder who was riding with two friends in an area called Steep Gully #1 west of Colorado’s Arapahoe Basin triggered an avalanche that killed him on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 according to a report from the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.

There is a convex knob in the middle of the starting zone for Steep Gully #1. The first rider triggered the avalanche as he rode over the knob. The avalanche broke to the ground along the convexity. The snowpack was very shallow, and rescuers estimated the average crown depth about 12 inches, and around 24 inches at the deepest. The avalanche was the full width of the gully, but left large areas of hangfire. . . The rider was caught and carried for most of the avalanche’s run. He was stopped by trees in the upper portion of the runout, and partially buried. His partners descended the path and used their snowboards to excavate him before organized rescue arrived. The avalanche broke trees approximately 6 inches in diameter.

The avalanche was reportedly 150 feet wide and it slid 800 feet. None of the snowboarders carried avalanche gear according to the report. The name of the snowboarder has not been released but he was reportedly from Spring Grove, Illinois and had been an employee at Breckenridge Resort since November. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.

[Link: CAIC and Denver Post via Westword]

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Today, March 8, 2010 marks the end of the IOC’s Rule 41 embargo that kept sponsors from marketing Olympic athletes during the Games. It didn’t take Flow Snowboarding long to dive back in and begin reminding everyone that bronze medalist Scotty Lago rides for Flow.

We also noticed that some of the other Olympic athletes are back up on their sponsors teams lists as well. While others are a little slow on the uptake.

[Link: Flow Snowboarding]

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For the second year in a row Finland’s Peetu Piiroinen has won the TTR World Championship title. And on his way he won the Oakley Arctic Challenge. For the full story, follow the jump.
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A Vancouver snowboarder died Saturday, March 6, 2010 after apparently hitting a tree while snowboarding at Big White Ski Resort, according to a story in The Province.

Michael Ballingal, spokesman for Big White, said the young man died while snowboarding in bounds down Whitefoot Bowl run, an intermediate level hill. . . It’s believed the snowboarder may have struck a tree, but Ballingal did not have further details on the circumstances that led to the death. . . “It’s a tragedy. It’s very, very seldom that these things happen, a sudden death like that. It’s so close to home and it’s the first Saturday of spring break,” said Ballingal.

The snowboarders name and age have not been released.

[Link: The Province]

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