Nemo’s Trevor Graves and Terry Kidwell. Photo: Brooke Geery
Last night (January 8, 2010) the snowboarding world got together for the Portland stop of the I Am Snowboarding art show in honor of Jeff Anderson at Nemo HQ. YoBeat’s Brooke Geery was there and got all the pictures.
And as this was the only NW stop of I Am Snowboarding, pretty much everyone was there. Terry Kidwell, Dave Seoane, Jamie Lynn, the list goes on. Even Cobra Dog’s Cory Grove was enjoying reminiscing about the olden days when no one did double corks (on purpose) with the people he looked up to.
Sorry we missed it. We’ve figured out how to be two places at once, but we’re finding out it’s nearly impossible to be at four. Click the link for the rest of the story.
Last week when Kevin Pearce knocked himself out while training in the Park City Halfpipe he became the biggest story of the “pre-Olympic” media. Granted, it has all the trappings of Olympic drama: youth, talent, ambition, and sudden tradgedy. We can already hear the soft music, slow-motion falling snow, and soft-spoken voice over.
But for those who love and care about Danny, some of this media coverage can seem trite, annoying, and occasionally damaging. Such was the case when ABC News aired the above Olympic Hopeful In A Coma video which aired on January 5, 2009 while many of us where on the snow at Mammoth for the US Snowboarding Grand Prix.
In the report ABC News spoke to Snowboarder Magazine’s Pat Bridges who explained that progression in snowboarding pushes athletes into “going bigger, going faster, and doing more difficult tricks.” Australian Olympian Torah Bright was also quoted.
Then ABC rolled in with a live interview an “expert” named Christine Brennan, a “sports columnist” for USA Today. In about 30 seconds Brennan was able to discredit the entire sport of snowboarding saying:
This sport was added for TV ratings . . . the international Olympic committee wanted to bring a sport like this into the Olympics to try to encourage better TV ratings and viewership from a younger audience. So obviously the more extreme . . . the better it is for ratings and the better for them and their endorsements. That’s how this goes.
Old-media sports columnists are notorious for inciting readership with ignorance, and truthfully we never would have typed Ms. Brennan’s name if she had made more rational comments so great for her. On the snowboard side of things however, people got pretty riled up.
TV commentator and pro snowboarder Todd Richards was one of the first to throw what his wife called a “twitfit” .
Christine Brennan you are a hack “reporter/consultant” that should actually get real opinions and facts before reporting on “extreme sports,” he said via Twitter. , , Here is the deal on why i am pissed about this abc fiasco: i think of myself as one of the creditable mouth pieces for snowboarding on tv. i really take pride in having snowboarding being shown with integrity to the masses. i may joke and be sarcastic at times but i am….really protective of the sport that gave me a reason for being. how would a baseball player feel if i was suddenly a self proclaimed authority on what professional baseball players should be doing ? i would be strung up by my taint hairs..right ?
But he wasn’t the only one to get upset. Here are links to the rest (thanks to Yobeat.com):
Meanwhile back in SoCal, ignoring the hunt for Olympic gold and glory in the Super Duper pipe of Mammoth Mountain, the etnies snow team is getting down at their private snowpark facility The Bearics.
JP Walker, Simon Chamberlain, Chris Bradshaw, Joe Sexton, Nima Jalali and the crew get all railie and stuff.
It’s a trip that after all the excitement of Wednesday’s epic halfpipe final at the Mammoth US Snowboarding Grand Prix the whole thing starts all over again today at 9:30 AM with qualification rounds for halfpipe final number two on Saturday, January 9, 2009.
We’re all waiting to see if Danny Davis‘ momentum pulls through or if someone else is will step up and step in. The men’s field still has room but Shaun White, Louie Vito, and Scotty Lago could tighten their grip.
On the women’s side Hannah Teter could solidify here spot on the team with a win. As Gretchen Bleiler said yesterday, “All I have to do is do the run that I do.” The real battle will be between Elena Hight and Ellery Hollingsworth.
Click here for the official qualification start lists (men and women).
Chas Guldemond (not pictured above) was leading in the first round of Slopestyle at the Mammoth US Snowboarding Grand Prix today (January 7, 2009) with a 51.2 and that score held up all the way. Nick Julius got his 51.00 on his second run and Brett Esser landed into the third spot with a 49.2. Click here for the complete qualifier results.
No surprise on the women’s side as Jamie Anderson landed her second run with a 50.3 nearly three points ahead of Lynn Neil and Isabelle Lalive in second and third.. Click here for complete women’s qualifier results.
Following today’s qualifiers slope riders will take two days off before hitting up the finals on Sunday, January 10.
Since it appears that everyone has already seen Danny Davis’ near perfect run. Here is our version with Shaun White’s answer back at the Mammoth US Snowboarding Grand Prix Halfpipe #1.
John Jackson, Luke Mitrani and frends keeping the KP faith.
When Danny Davis received his trophy today at the bottom of the Mammoth Super Duper pipe he said, “This is all for Kevin Pearce.” The crowd was littered with signs all afternoon and it looks like the positive energy that the world has been sending KP in Salt Lake City is paying off, according to his facebook page.
One of Kevin’s doctors, Holly Ledyard, M.D., a Neurointensivist (a physician with specialized education and training in critical neurological conditions) at University of Utah Health Care remains positive about Kevin’s condition, “Kevin is in serious condition and remains in intensive care at University of Utah Hospital. We’ve been able to remove his breathing tube, and he is slowly regaining consciousness and able to follow commands. While we’re pleased that he’s improving faster than anticipated, he still has a long recovery ahead of him.”
On a day filled with amazing news, this is the best so far.
Watching snowboarding for the past few years has made it easy to get complacent about Shaun White winning halfpipe contests. Like it or not, we all do it. He seems the perfect halfpipe machine and that makes it simple to put him in his well-marketed box and mark it “the best halfpipe snowboarder in the world.” When someone beats Shaun, like Danny Davis did today, it feels like they have done the impossible. But that’s not exactly fair to either rider.
The truth today is Danny Davis threw down two of the best halfpipe runs in the history of snowboarding. In his first run he blasted a double cork off the first hit. Followed it up with a a Cab 900, a crail, another double cork, and got in one more spin. And he stomped it all perfectly. The crowd was blown away. His score of 47.2 topped the 11 riders who had come before him by more than four points. [click to continue…]
