Aline Christina Martins, 19, of Santa Barbara, California died while snowboarding Monday February 16, 2009 at Dodge Ridge, according to a story on KCRA.com.
Aline Christina Martins, 19, likely suffocated, but an autopsy was planned to determine the formal cause of death, said Paul Tualla, a spokesman for the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office.
Our thoughts are with her family and friends.
[Link: KCRA.com]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
As surprised as we were to learn that snowboarders are still racing slalom, it was sad to see that the management at Cypress Mountain, home to next year’s Vancouver Olympic snowboard events, could not pull of the course prep necessary to hold a slalom event and it was cancelled, according to a story in the Vancouver Sun.
We were pre-riding on the race hill and a lot of athletes were irate at the snow conditions,” said a frustrated Alexa Loo of Richmond, a veteran on the Canadian team. . . .“There was basically a metre of sugar. There was no bottom. You try to push and there was nothing to push on. It would have been like trying to run a track meet in six inches of mud.” . . .The decision to cancel was made by the International Federation de Ski and accepted by Vanoc, the 2010 organizing committee which is overseeing the venue as an Olympic test.
Even some of the halfpipe riders were complaining:
“I just get a bad vibe,” Canadian halfpiper Jeff Batchelor of Oakville, Ont., said Saturday. . . His coach, Jesse Fulton, used even stronger language, about both the condition of the superpipe — “it’s off axis, not steep enough, not long enough” — and Cypress’ lack of co-operation.
Hopefully, they’re figure it out by next year when the eyes of the world are watching.
[Link: Vancouver Sun]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Two years ago while making practice runs at the 2007 USASA Nationals at Northstar-At-Tahoe 14-year-old Tyler Eklund of Bend, Oregon broke his C-3 vertebrae leaving him paralyzed. But thanks to the work of friends he made it back on Mt. Bachelor snow on Sunday February 15, 2009 according to a story on Kgw.com.
Strapped into a “sit-ski” made by Oregon Adaptive Sports, Eklund packed along his ventilator, and had his breathing tubes wrapped in hand warmers to keep them from freezing. . . . “It feels awesome – a dream come true, pretty much,” Eklund told NewsChannel 21 in Bend Sunday. When asked how long he’d been waiting to get back on the snow, he said, “Pretty much since the first day I got hurt. Just to come up and do it again, it feels awesome.”
Makes us realize how much we take for granted and how strong Tyler and his family are to make this happen again. We’re glad Tyler can still enjoy the ride.
[Link: KGW.com]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Okay, so Shaun White and Kelly Clark won the FIS Snowboard World Cup at Cypress yesterday in a pre-run of what will probably happen at the 2010 Winter Olympics. That’s great an all, but we just couldn’t pass up this headline from The Toronto Star:
Red-hot Tomato flies to World Cup victory.
Looks like the sports writing nickname game just had the bar raised.
[Link: Toronto Star]
[click to continue…]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
It appears that the US Snowboarding Team is not going to be able to make it to the final world cup events of the season according to a story on Reuters.
We are short (of enough money) to make it all the way through the season but we’ve known that since last summer when we did our budgeting,” U.S. national team head coach Peter Foley told Reuters. . . . “We thought they would find that money to get us through March but with the tightness of the economy we just haven’t been able to find it. It’s tight with sponsorship and donor dollars and everything costs more.
We were thinking maybe they should have a bake sale but then realized they should probably just shine it and wait until next year when the US Snowboard Team is loaded with people America cares about and the Olympics are on the line.
[Link: Reuters]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The Motley Fool investor information site has recently given Volcom a “4-star” rating and a headline that says that the “stock is about to pop.” Not sure what that means exaclty, but here is their logic:
Over on CAPS, 380 of the 416 All-Star members who have rated Volcom — or 91% — believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include MagicDiligence and bullshiite, both of whom are ranked in the top 10% of our community. . . . Late last month, MagicDiligence noted that Volcom “is smartly run, financially sound, and has plenty of growth opportunities overseas. It’s also extraordinarily cheap!”
Not to say we disagree, just that we’re not so sure that user-generated stock advice is the best guide for where people should invest their money.
[Link: Motley Fool]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
After all the Love stories that clouded the media space last fall it is nice to finally read something good about Burton snowboards on MSNBC.com. The story explains how the Burton’s Chill Program is changing the lives of children at risk.
They look like any group of young snowboarders decked out in the latest Burton gear, but looks, as we know, can be deceiving. These kids can’t afford snow sports or the gear, much less bus fare to the mountain. In fact, some live in homeless shelters, others live in group homes around Burlington, Vt., about a half-hour’s drive from this locally-owned ski area. Some have been in trouble with the law. . . . They are here thanks to Jake Burton Carpenter, the founder of Burton Snowboards and the recognized pioneer of the snowboard industry.
See, in addition to introducing young people to “pornography” and “self-multilation“ Jake and Donna Carpenter are also making it possible for many kids to snowboard who otherwise wouldn’t be able to. And that’s good for everyone.
[Link: MSNBC.com]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Friday the 13th turned out to be a lucky day for snowboard TV personality Todd Richards and the Nixon crew. The Air Pacific 747 jetliner they were on bound for Fiji and the NIxon High Tide Hold ’em on Tavarua was forced to turn back to LAX when it was discovered that the plane had a “fuel transfer problem,” according to a story in the LA Times.
Airport police Sgt. Daniel Vaughn says the Boeing 747, carrying 441 passengers and crew, landed safely shortly before 2:30 a.m. Friday.
Todd was feeling very lucky this morning in a chat with Yobeat.com:
“Luckiest day of my life so far. Two and a half hours out, the pilot comes on and says we have a fuel problem, we need to turn around. We head back, then circle Catalina Island for 2.5 hours then come in to land with a full fire brigade right there. Smash ass down, then the fire trucks were on us at high speed as the plane rolled down the runway spraying with foam and water.”
We’re all glad that Todd didn’t end up on a real life episode of Lost.
[Link: LA Times]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Women’s snowboard pants almost half off at Seattle’s Snowboard Connection. . . and everything else, too. This is apparently what analysts call “getting promotional”?
[Link: Snocon.com]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics are one year out and already the Chicago Tribune is making medal predictions. Writer Philip Hersh is making what he calls “glass half-full” guesses. Here’s how he believes snowboarding is going to end up with 8 medals, three of them gold: (Turin’s medals are in parentheses):
Snowboard (7 medals, 3 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze): Boardercross (1 gold, 1 silver): Champion Seth Wescott and Lindsey Jacobellis, whose hot-dogging turned gold into silver, both return: Prediction: 2 medals, 1 gold. Parallel giant slalom (1 bronze): Prediction: No medals. Halfpipe (2 gold, 2 silver): Shaun White, now a grizzled 22, will be hot again. U.S. women, including 2006 1-2 Hannah Teter and Gretchen Bleiler, good enough to sweep. Prediction: 4 medals, 2 gold.
When we add in Nate Holland, Kelly Clark, and Steve Fisher, we think there will be even more medals.
[Link: Chicago Tribune]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
