Ever been lost at a new resort? Those days could be over with the RealSki augmented reality app for the Apple iPhone. This heads up display shows run names, points of interest, and will hopefully help oblivious skiers stay away from the snowboard parks.
REALSKITM utilizes the camera, compass, GPS, and other 3GS features to overlay ski runs and key points of interest in augmented reality. . . Version 1.1 includes demo maps for five resorts and offers more than 80 mountains in North America from which to choose.
Sounds great for getting around the mountain, not so good for oblivious visitors who already seem to have enough distractions. The app works only on iPhone 3GS and is currently free in the iTunes store.
The snowboarder who died at Killington Resort on Thursday, December 24, 2009 was Alex Westphal, 20, a sophomore at Hofstra University, according to a story on WPIX.com.
Just minutes minutes before his death, Westphal took a cell phone picture at 11:54 a.m. of the mountains and sent it to his parents, who were cross-country skiing. . . . He then began his decent down the resort’s expert slope and apparently hit an object like a pole or sign post. . . Vermont State Police Detective Sam Capogrossi says though the student from Cheshire, Conn. was wearing his helmet, he sustained massive internal injuries.
Westphal was an only child. Our heartfelt sympathies are with his parents, Ryan and Ann.
The Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour is calling the 4Star 8th Red Bull Nanshan Open ” the largest event on Asian soil this season.” We’re not exactly sure what that means, but for snowboarders who aren’t on the hunt for a spot on the US Olympic halfpipe team the $25,000 prize purse and up to 500 Swatch TTR ranking points are probably worth a trip to China on the January 9-10, 2010.
Aspen still draws the celebrities for Christmas. If it’s not Charlie Sheen getting arrested for allegedly swinging a knife around the house, it’s country singer LeAnn Rimes snowboarding with her boyfriend Eddie Cibrian, according to JustJared.com.
Eddie, 36, and LeAnn, 27, are spending more time together out in public after a divorce settlement was reached with LeAnn’s ex-husband, Dean Sheremet. The divorce will officially occur as of June 19, 2010.
That is so good to hear. . . Snowboarding needs more rich divorcees.
A 9-year-old boy who was snowboarding at his grandparents house near Black River Falls, Wisconsin died after riding into the path of an oncoming car.
Jackson County sheriff’s officials say the boy was snowboarding Saturday afternoon on the property of his grandparents, who he was visiting for the holidays. According to preliminary reports, the boy slid onto a highway and was struck by a passing van.
Our thoughts are with the boys family.
[Update from The LaCrosse Tribune: The man driving the van, Jarred Mortenson, 19, of Tayor, Wisconsin, has been arrested “for driving a motor vehicle with a detectable amount of a controlled substance,” the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department said.]
A 20-year-old Connecticut man found unconscious in the middle of a Killington Resort run on Thursday, December 24, 2009, died, according to a story in the Times Argus.
According to an e-mail sent Sunday from Tom Horrocks, the resort’s communications manager, the man “died following a snowboard accident.” . . . “Killington Ski Patrol responded to reports of an unconscious person on Cascade Trail at approximately 12 p.m., brought him down the mountain, then transferred the man to Regional Ambulance Service,” according to the e-mail, with information Horrocks said he received from the resort’s risk manager.
All that the resort would say was that “the man did not fall from a chair and he was wearing a helmet.”
DCI Cheese Co., “the largest importer and marketer of specialty cheeses in the United States” is giving away 300 snowboards as part of their “Feed Your Inner Olympian” contest, according to a story on Progressive Grocer.
DCI Cheese Co. is rolling out a themed giveaway of 300 snowboards in support of Canadian-based Black Diamond Cheddar cheese. The enter-to-win “Win a Snowboard” contest, which will run from Jan. 1 through Feb. 28, 2010, will be available to shoppers at such participating grocers as Safeway, Whole Foods Market and Wakefern Food Corp.’s ShopRite stores.
Kind of surprised that the Totino’s frozen pizza boys don’t have some kind of collab going here. Seems like the perfect fit.
Yep, as Hannah Teter said last night on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon: “gotta defend.” To answer a common Hannah Teter question: No, she’s pretty much always like that. We’re kind of bummed Tom Arnold didn’t try to kiss her. . . maybe next time.
Snow injury specialist Jasper Shealy, professor emeritus of industrial and systems engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology says skiers run into snowboarders more often than the other way around according to a post on a New York Times blog.
“Most people think that snowboarders whack into skiers,” Mr. Shealy says. “But it’s completely the other way around,” a phenomenon related to how each group falls. “Snowboarders stop abruptly,” Shealy says, their boards biting into the snow. “Skiers slide,” he says, often into a downed snowboarder.
