Helicopter pilot and Haines Alaska snowboard guide Christian Cabainilla has reportedly died from injuries sustained when a section of snow he were traversing gave way an caused him and two others to fall on Sunday March, 3, 2013, according to a story KTUU.com.
Alaska State Trooper spokesperson Megan Peters said troopers received a call from Haines Police on Sunday afternoon about an accident in the backcountry, although she didn’t know the exact location. . . The deceased was identified by troopers as Christian Cabainilla. He is listed as a guide for the local heliskiing company, Southeast Alaska Backcountry Adventures, on its website. The company did not respond to messages on Sunday evening.
Cabainilla was profiled on ESPN.com/Action in 2011 for a column called Dream Job. In that interview he talked about how he got into the business:
I saw that you could either pay a bunch of money to go skiing, or get paid to go skiing [as a guide]. So I just camped out in Valdez and helped out any way I could to learn the ropes of heli-guiding. I was looking for some way that I could support my snowboarding addiction, and one of the pilots at H2O, Wes Conrad, said, “Here’s what you have to do if you want to become a helicopter pilot.” So I started going to flight-training school in Seattle seasonally so I could still snowboard in Alaska and South America.
Officials report that two other people were injured in the accident, but there were still no details on exactly what happened. Our thoughts are with Cabainilla’s family and friends.
Scott Hultgren the design mind behind the Valhalla Design & Conquer agency has created an action March Logo Madness grid to find the best action sports /youth culture logo of all time, but he needs you to vote to make it happen. Here’s how he describes it:
That’s right, just like the basketball tournament but different. The voting will be open for a week, at the end of the week the votes will be tallied and the winner will go on to the next bracket. At the end, the designer of the winning logo will be able to claim he is the world champion of the logos and may receive a prize of some sort.
For the first round match ups click here. In the skateboarding category Independent and Thrasher go up head to head in round one. Man, that’s a hard decision to make. Check back each week as the winners go head to head in the next round.
Halfpipe judging is always suspect, but never more so when an amagingly talented new kid goes up against a well established halfpipe juggernaut like Shaun White. That’s what happened, apparently, in the second run of the 31st Burton US Open Snowboarding Championship at Vail, Colorado on Saturday, March 2, 2013 when just crowed World Snowboard Tour Halfpipe Champion Ayumu Hirano, 14, went up against White in the second run. White ended up 8.18 points ahead of Hirano even though many people agree that Hirano’s run was one of the best they’ve seen. White, however, had his say in the second run.
Coming off of his 6th consecutive X Games win, Shaun White put together an unbeatable second run at the US Open with a top score of 95.58, earning him his fifth US Open men’s half pipe victory – in addition to his two US Open men’s slope style titles. His winning trick combination included a backside air, frontside 1080 double cork stale fish grab, Cab 1080 double cork melon grab, frontside 540 stale fish grab, backside 1260 double McTwist mute grab, to a frontside 1260 double cork stale fish grab. Shaun also claimed the top five highest trick scores of the day. . . “It was incredible to get my fifth US Open half pipe title in Vail, and hands down, this is the best pipe of the year,” said Shaun White. “I’m pretty happy to end my season with a win at the US Open.”
Hirano’s second run included a Method Air, Frontside 1080 Tail Grab, Cab 1080 Nose Grab , Frontside 900 Tail Grab, Backside 540 Mute Grab, Frontside 1080 Double Cork Indy Grab. So the truth is, while the judges may have been a little off (or a lot) on the numbers, they were not off on the placing order.
For the women, Kelly Clark won her sixth US Open title over For the official word from Burton and video of Hirano’s second place run follow the jump. [click to continue…]
It was all Canada at the top of the Burton US Open Snowboarding Championshipslopestyle podium yesterday (March 1, 2013) as Mark McMorris (video above) and Spencer O’Brien ruled the Vail, Colorado course.
While snow fell steadily all day, the riding level remained high with competitors working hard under tough conditions. Mark McMorris took his first ever US Open men’s slopestyle victory with a winning run that included a MINI wallride to gap to lipslide, gap to backside lipslide, double backflip indy grab, frontside 1080 mute grab to a backside 1080 mute grab. Coming in second was Torstein Horgmo (NOR), who arguably had the best rail trick of the day, and rounding out the podium in third was Chas Guldemond (USA). . . “Winning the US Open is one of the highlights from my season, and I think everyone is psyched to see it in Vail,” said Mark McMorris. “Conditions were a little rough, but I kept my speed up, and these are the best jumps ever built in slopestyle. I’m having more fun than I’ve ever had and to be sharing the podium with my good friends is really fun.”
O’Brien edged usual winner Jamie Anderson by .45 of a point. For the official word from Burton, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
Media coverage for the 31st Burton US Open of Snowboarding is going to be all over the place this year. Beginning today (Wednesday, February 27, 2013) at 7:45 AM PST the event kicks off from Vail, Colorado with the Men’s and Women’s Slopestyle Semi Finals viewable on the Burton.com/USO. But that’s not all it keeps going:
Burton is rolling out five hours of live programming on Universal Sports and NBC Sports Network, plus an additional 22 hours of original live coverage on Burton.com/USO so viewers around the world can watch the most anticipated snowboarding event of the season. Burton.com programming includes “The Board Room,” a new online talk show about snowboarding. If you can’t make it to Vail, below is a complete broadcast schedule by date, time and network. Times and events listed are Mountain Time (MT) and are subject to change, so please consult your local listings.
Click here to watch it live or follow the jump for all the details including times, networks, and events. [click to continue…]
It is good to see great snowboarders like Jeremy Jones getting proper respect in mainstream media outlets like the New York Times.
At a local restaurant here in his hometown, Jones does not look like one of the world’s most radical snowboarders. A 38-year-old father of two, he is soft-spoken and friendly, an outlier in a sport known more for brazenness than modesty. But for more than two decades, as snowboarders have started trends and realized Olympic ambitions, Jones has pursued a singular dream: riding some of the biggest, significant mountains in the world.
Jones has always been an genuine, authentic, unassuming giant in snowboarding, and we’re stoked people outside snowboarding are getting to know him better. Click the link for the rest of the story.
Salomon Bonfire would like you to better appreciate the snowboarding skills of their standout rider Louif Paradis. What better way to do that than with a promotional video edit all his own. This one, designed to give us all in intimate, up-close view of the snowboarding superstar is appropriately titled At Home With Louif. Enjoy.
Helicopter pilot and Haines Alaska snowboard guide Christian Cabainilla has reportedly died from injuries sustained when a section of snow he were traversing gave way an caused him and two others to fall on Sunday March, 3, 2013, according to a story KTUU.com.
