Apparently, the Burton Canadian Open was going on this weekend up in the Great White North somewhere (WinSport Canada’s Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Alberta). Iouri “iPod” Podladtchikov apparently won it. Here is some video proof. For complete halfpipe results (you may have even heard of some of these people) click here: Men, Women. Or here for slopestyle: Men, Women.

[Link: Burton Global Open Series]

If it’s Superbowl weekend then that only means one thing in snowboarding: the Mt. Baker Legendary Banked Slalom. It is on February 5-7, 2009.

Today Temple Cummins won his fourth Mt. Baker Legendary Banked Slalom (only Terje Haakonson has won more (5)) and Maelle Ricker won her fourth pro event in a row. Click the links below for all the results and more info.

Click here for full 2010 qualifying results and click here for the final results (if they are up yet).

[Link: Mt. Baker Legendary Banked Slalom and Yobeat]

When the Snow Industries of America announced it was moving the SIA Trade Show to Denver after a few decades in Las Vegas we were not happy about it. In fact, every time we thought about making travel plans for SIA 2010 we remembered where it was being held and put it off to another day.

Having spent part of a late January in Denver in the past, complete with 30 below zero temps and 50 mph winds nearly blowing us off the highway, we weren’t looking forward to making the trek. No matter how many times C3 Worldwide president and SIA Board Secretary Bob Gundrum listed the reasons why the show would be better without the all-night partying and drinking that Vegas delivers, all we could think about was those $49 flights, $35 hotel rooms and nights at the Hard Rock’s Center Bar. After 20 years in Las Vegas we had it down and weren’t into everything changing.

But that was before the show. Now, at the other end of four days with friends in one of the nicest, cleanest, convention centers in the world, we’ve mostly forgotten about the rest. And there was a lot to forget. Police storming our hotel the night before we arrived, the drug dealers who said “Hey,” as we walked down the street, the pimp having words with two of his employees in the lobby of our hotel, bums fighting in McDonald’s at 8 in the morning, and Denver’s general urban-blighted-ghetto feel faded into the background. We left town with a much more positive view of the SIA venue change and it seems we’re not alone.

Follow the jump for the rest of the story or click the links for photos: People : Booths : Product : Parties
Continue reading ‘SIA 2010: Getting It Done In Denver’

According to ActionWatch December 2009 comps in core shops were up over October and November, but closed out the quarter 13 percent down, according to a post on Transworld Business.

This number gives the fourth quarter first prize in lowest sales declines of the year for the shops on the panel, but by a very small margin,” said Cary Allington. “Also, Q4 2009 had the “easiest” comparison of the year since that quarter was so bad in 2008, so we were actually expecting (or at least hoping) for an even smaller comparative sales decline.”

So that means it’s not getting worse, worse. It’s getting better worse. And that’s good.

[Link: ActionWatch via TransWorld Business]

Capita Snowboard’s celebrated their 10th year anniversary at the Denver SIA Show on January 31, 2010. Luckily for us, the Tahoe Dangerzone was there to get it all down on video. . .

[Link: Tahoe Dangerzone]

Ericka Schriefer, a 24-year-old snowboarder from Fort Collins, Colorado was riding alone on Copper Mountain’s Formidable Trail Sunday, January 31, 2010 when she hit a tree fracturing her head and neck, according to a story on Coloradoan.com.

Schriefer. . . was found Sunday morning in some trees off an expert trail at the Copper Mountain ski area. . . Schriefer was airlifted to an area hospital where she later died. The coroner’s office says she was wearing a helmet.

Our thoughts are with her family and friends.

[Link: Coloradoan.com and ABC7 Chicago]

On Friday night January 29, 2010 after the Transworld Riders’ Poll we cruised out to the wasteland below the bridges to Mile High Station for the RZA show sponsored by Snowboard Magazine. As noted in the comments, we apparently only caught the Wiz Khalifa portion of the show and don’t feel bad about it at all.

And to think, some dude in this could would later get arrested for punching a girl in the face and police would reportedly find him armed with both a knife and a gun. . . yep. Denver.

In case you missed Gretchen Bleiler and Kelly Clark in the X Games 14 halfpipe last night, January 30, 2010. For details on Gretchen’s gold, follow the jump.

[Link: ESPN/Action]
Continue reading ‘Gretchen vs. Kelly: X Games Pipe’

Union Binding, Coal Headwear, and Snowboard Magazine graphic designer Aaron Draplin has become one of the most influential designers working today. Last year, when the Obama administration wanted a graphic that would communicate their economic stimulus plans they turned to Aaron to create the logo. The president eventually presented Aaron’s work to the nation himself.

Recently Aaron has been on the national speaking circuit with the AIGA sharing his story with design students and professionals. But the reason more and more people are becoming Draplin fans is through his Field Notes Brand Notebooks. The simple, “paper, folded and stapled books made in America” is replacing the Moleskine as the world’s hippest analog note taking device. We saw Mr. Draplin near the Coal booth and asked him to tell us the Field Notes story.

[Link: Draplin Design Co. and Field Notes Brand]