Gabriel Lee Hilliard, a 30-year-old snowboarder died Wednesday, January 18, 2012, after hitting a tree on the run Deep Temertiy at Aspen Highlands, Colorado, according to a story in the Aspen Times.
The man was discovered, unconscious, by another skier who notified the Ski Patrol. A patroller performed cardio-pulmonary resuscitation on the man for an unknown period of time before he was pronounced dead at the scene. . . An investigation into the incident revealed a single snowboard track leading into a tree. It is believed the snowboarder hit that tree, continued and struck another tree. A branch from the second tree impaled the man in the left side of his chest, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Our thoughts are with Hillard’s friends and family.
From early pioneers such as Jay Adams, Tony Alva, and Steve Caballero through the giants of the 1980s and 1990s, including Tony Hawk and Brian Anderson, to such legends of the scene today as James Hardy and Justin Figueroa, every icon of skating has graced the cover of Thrasher, captured in mid-air and mid-action by the sharpest shooters around. . . Organized chronologically, and including every cover published in Thrasher’s first thirty years—even long out-of-print and hard-to-find collectible issues—the book at last reveals the stories behind these legendary cover-photo shoots, as told by the skaters, photographers, and editors who made these the most iconic mementos of skate culture.
Glen “Lenny” Folkard, a 44-year-old surfer was “dragged from his board and mauled” by a seven foot long shark on Wednesday, Janaury 18, 2012 while surfing Australia’s Redhead Beach, according to a story in the Sydney Morning Herald.
More than 100 people were in the water when the shark attacked. Witnesses in the surf said Mr Folkard was lying on his board about 20 metros from a large group of surfers when the shark struck about 4.40pm. . . Believed to be a bull shark, it took a large chunk out of Mr Folkard’s thigh as well as his board before dragging him underwater, witnesses said.
After Folkard got free he was able to surface where other surfers reportedly helped him catch a wave in. The man is currently in stable condition with a “deep wound to an upper thigh. For the rest of the story click the link.
686 is looking for some snowboard industry people who would like to settle a score, knock someone out, or just dust it up for a round in their Lights Out boxing matches during the SIA Show on January 26, 2012 at Casselman’s.
They’re describing it as “a fun-filled evening of your friends from the snowboarding industry kicking the s*$t out of each other!”
We’ve been diving into all the new Youtube “channel” content lately to see what it’s all about. (Want to read more about Youtube’s somewhat skewed logic check out John Seabrook’s story Streaming Dreams in The New Yorker).
Livin’ Louie Vito is just one of the shows Red Bull is populating their channel with that, not surprisingly, promotes an energy drink sponsored athlete. If you hadn’t noticed yet, self-serving media is the new media.
A Lake Michigan surfer was “taken into custody” yesterday (Tuesday, January 17, 2012) for surfing, according to a story on ABC 7 News.
Police from the Near North District and Marine Unit responded about 5 p.m. to a report of a man surfing in Lake Michigan off Oak Street Beach in the 1000 block of North Lake Shore Drive, police said. . . Beaches are closed until May 25, according to the Chicago Park District’s website. Lifeguards are not on duty and swimming is “discouraged” at all beaches.
Oh no. Call the cops. A man is surfing. In Lake Michigan for gosh sakes. Oddly, the police didn’t really know what they were going to charge the guy with, but “detectives are investigating.” Don’t they know: Surfing is not a crime.
The search for someone to host a fictional new extreme sporting show called The Gnar Zone has potential to be one of the funniest new webisodes on Youtube. Check it. . .
In 1997 Burton Snowboards was at the nexus of a storm of rumors. The rumors were so pervasive that some clever instigator at the company created an extremely limited edition T-shirt for the 1997 SIA Trade Show in Las Vegas. The shirt jokingly outlined all the outlandish, outrageous things people were saying about the company that season.
Now, 15 years later, we thought it might be interesting to revisit the T-shirt that set out to sarcastically dispel the rumors and see how many of them eventually came true. Follow the jump for the complete rumor breakdown.
Ghost Wave author Chris Dixon has written a touching and insightful piece on Surfline.com founder Sean Collins (above with his son A.J. in 1997) for Outside Magazine Online. In the story is titled Surf Prophet Dixon recounts his first encounters with Surfline and his meeting Collins for the first time.
Sometime in early 1995, I visited the spartan office directly across the street from the Huntington Beach Pier—a workplace with one of the best surf views in the Golden State. The place held a jumble of computers, a handful of full-time staffers, and a closet-sized mad-scientists room exploding with a Christmas tree’s worth of wires—a telephone nerve center capable of handling upwards of 200 calls at a time. The single landline phone tied into it held a sticker that said, “Pray for Surf, Or Call Surfline.” . . . Sean told me that he had spent his young life sailing the coastal outbacks from Point Conception to Cabo San Lucas. He lived on pennies for months on end, surfing Baja California and paying for his feral existence by selling photos to Surfing.
Click the link to read the rest of what has to be the best thing written so far about Collins and his mission in life.
