US Snowboarding Grand Prix Tour Director Eric Webster serves himself a bit of vegetarian lasagna and salad off the buffet line in the VIP lounge in the Boreal Lodge and walks over to the cafeteria style picnic table. His radio crackles as he sits down.
For the past 11 years the former professional snowboarder has been spending his winters making sure the US Snowboarding Grand Prix events happen. His arrival at Boreal Resort is a bit of a homecoming. “During the 1988-89 season, Burton had a team house at Tahoe Donner and we used to ride and train here all the time,” Webster says. “It’s good to be back. The resort has been great to work with.”
While we were at the SIA Show it seemed that no one in the snowboard business was being effected by the economy. But it appears that Mammoth Mountain is not floating blissfully along. The LA Times is reporting that the mountain has laid off 101 employees.
CEO Rusty Gregory, in an interview with KSRW radio, or Sierra Wave, confirmed that 101 employees have been fired and other cost-cutting measures were enacted to make up for a sharp drop in skier-visits. . . . Revenue at the Eastern Sierra resort, which offers some of the world’s finest skiing and snowboarding, is down 21% from preseason projections. And the projected number of skier visits for this season has been reduced from 1.4 million to 1.1 million. . . . Gregory said 10 senior managers received 5% pay cuts. Vacation time has been shortened and gas allowances have been eliminated. Gregory, however, assured that none of the cuts will jeopardize the safety of visitors.
And to think we always figured if things ever got really bad we could always get a job as a lift op. Guess not.
Monica Davis, a 35-year-old British snowboarder died on New Year’s Day after falling nearly 500 feet while riding in the German Alps at Garmish Partenkirchen, according to a story on Thisisderbyshire. The woman, who got separated from her friends, had sent several text messages before her fall.
She sent text messages from her mobile phone asking for help, but the battery ran flat before she could be found by the German emergency services.. . . The message read: “I am really stuck on the mountain off-piste. I am not being funny, I think I am going to need mountain rescue. I am not OK, I am really stuck.”
Davis took her snowboard off and apparently fell while trying to walk to safety. Her body was found the next day.
The Alliance of Action Sports has just announced a three-year deal with Eurosport 2 giving the European sports broadcaster exclusive live coverage of the Winter Dew Tour. And of course, Alli President Wade Martin is excited.
“We are thrilled to offer a live telecast of the Winter Dew Tour in Europe through Eurosport 2,” said Wade Martin, President of Alli, the Alliance of Action Sports. “This is a terrific opportunity for fans throughout Europe to see live coverage of the best action sports athletes in the world.”
Our favorite Euro snowboard blog Snowbroader has all the great ISPO parties lined up for anyone who is staying on the trade show party train. And for those not lucky enough to make the trip to Munich they’re kicking down complete coverage from the floor starting Sunday February 1, 2009. We’ll be checking it out.
As if Onboard Magazine’s full-time photo staff wasn’t stacked enough with Peter Lundstrom and Matt Georges, the magazine has just announced that they talked Espen Lystad and Cole Barash into joining the team as Senior Photographers.
Cole Barash, although only 21, is one of the most respected snowboard photographers in the US, his unique creativity earning him the respect of editors, readers and riders the world over. His artfulness has also made him hot property in the industry with a list of commercial clients that includes Nike Snow, Billabong and Oakley… . . Espen Lystad, needs little introduction as his artistic dissection of the lifestyle of snowboarding has added grace to the pages of snowboard mags for over a decade.
Maybe some of there photos will eventually show up on the Onboard website so we’ll get a chance to check them out.
The biggest party of SIA09 was the Skullcandy Snoop Dogg show in Rain at The Palms Hotel and Casino last night (Thursday January 29, 2009). Rick Alden and his crew handed out twice as many tickets as there were room for in the club. This resulted in a line 400 people deep for two hours and near rioting at the entrance of Rain.
After hanging around The Palms for half an hour getting more bummed by the minute we finally got an extra special Sessions miracle (Thanks, Larry and Jessica) and the next thing we knew we were sitting next to Session owner Joel Gomez on the couch of his VIP suite looking down on a crowd of over 2,000 people.
Mix Master Mike got the party started and then around 1:30 AM Snoop Dogg came on and with reminded everyone why he sells so much music.
Travis Rice was a regular on the Transworld Riders’ Poll stage last night but he saved his best acceptance speech for last. In it he mentioned all the riders who hyped him this year and more importantly gave props to the next generation of riders who are going to take snowboarding even farther. Just watch it.
Transworld Snowboarding brought their annual Riders’ Poll party back to Las Vegas for one last time. The night kicked off with Transworld Editor Annie Fast and Photo Editor Nick Hamilton’s welcome and flew right through some of the biggest names in snowboarding.
The big winner for the night: Travis Rice with four awards including: Best Video Part, Readers Choice, Stand-out of the Year, and Rider of the Year. For the women Marie-France Roy took home Best Video Part and Readers’ Choice. Jamie Anderson won Women’s Rider of the Year.
