Snowboarding

George Carpenter Shares His Spine Story

by The Editors on March 14, 2024

George Carpenter, son of Burton Snowboards founders Jake and Donna Carpenter has shared his spine surgery story publically for the first time on Instagram. Here’s what he said:

On July 27th, 2023, I underwent an emergency surgery to remove a benign tumor that was within my spinal cord at the T-4 level. Until a week before this surgery, I had been unaware to the presence of the tumor. And we’ll never know why or how it got there. If I had left the tumor alone, I would have been paralyzed in a matter of months. . . Post-surgery, I was left with incomplete paralysis, with very little sensation and no movement below my nipples. Since then, I have regained some function and sensation. I’m living in Denver with my girlfriend Jamie and doing intensive rehab at Craig hospital, one of the best spinal cord injury facilities in the world. . . While I tend to deal with hardships privately, at this point it feels good to share. Much love!

For the rest of the story and continuing updates please check George’s posts on Caring Bridge.

[Link: Instagram.com]

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Craig Kelly Bio The Darkest White Out Now!

by The Editors on February 26, 2024

Former TransWorld Snowboarding Magazine Editor Eric Blehm’s deeply researched, insightful, and heartfelt biography of snowboarding legend Craig Kelly, The Darkest White, is now available where ever you buy books. And, of course, you should buy it right now.

The Darkest White is the story of Craig Kelly’s life, a heartbreaking but extraordinary and inspiring odyssey of a latchkey kid whose athletic prowess and innovations would revolutionize winter sports, take him around the globe, and push him into ever more extreme environments that would ultimately take his life. It is also a definitive, immersive account of snowboarding and the cultural movement that exploded around it, growing the sport from minor Gen X cult hobby to Olympic centerpiece and a billion-dollar business full of feuds and rivalries.

Trust us. No matter how well you think you knew Craig Kelly and his story, you will learn something in The Darkest White. If you’re in San Diego, California this weekend Eric will be appearing at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore in Encinitas at 6 PM on Friday, March 1, 2024 to discuss Craig’s life, his legacy, and to sign some books. For more info click here and to get the book sent straight to your house, click here.

[Link: EricBlehm.com]

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Salter Selling Off Boardriders Piece by Piece

by The Editors on February 22, 2024

We wondered what plans Jamie Slater aka Athentic Brands Group had for Quiksilver, Billabong, et. al. when he purchased the Boardrider Group back on September 1, 2023, so we’re not surprised to see him begin selling it off in little pieces to whomever is interested. The first piece of Boardriders is reportedly going to French group Beaunamoir, according to a story on Fashion Network. The company, which owns a load of fashion brands you’ve likely never heard of, has reportedly “entered into exclusive negotiations . . . to buy the Western European activities of the Boardriders Group made up of Quiksilver, Billabong, Roxy, DC Shoes, Element and RVCA.”

Roland Beaumanoir, the group’s CEO, believes that this takeover “would develop the Beaumanoir Group’s expertise in the lifestyle segment, which is doing well. The Boardriders brands are emblematic and offer a lifestyle that is both relaxed and driven by a passion for outdoor sports. We would therefore be delighted to take on the challenge of promoting these brands on the European market.” Details of the countries covered by the agreement have not yet been released.

Brands are brands and apparently they have value long after they’ve died. If Jamie knows anything, it’s Zombie brands. So we’re going to just trust him to do the right thing for his wallet. 

[Link: Fashion Network]

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Inside Jay Peak’s International Funding Scam

by The Editors on February 12, 2024

It’s not often that a rad, little resort in Vermont makes the pages of The New Yorker Magazine, especially in a story featuring hundreds of millions in potentially mishandled funds. But that’s exactly the position Jay Peak and former resort manager Bill Stenger are in this month with a story titled “The Rural Ski Slope Caught Up in an International Scam,” by Sheelah Kolhatkare.

The crux of the story revolves around how Stenger and a business partner raised money for development at the resort and what they actually did with the money they raised. Here’s the how:

He [Stenger] raised money using the EB-5 visa program, which aimed to channel foreign investments into businesses that created jobs for Americans, especially in rural or economically depressed parts of the country. For five hundred thousand dollars (the amount has since risen to nine hundred thousand), foreign investors and their families became eligible for green cards, so long as that money succeeded in creating at least ten jobs.

As for what they did with all the money, you’ll have to read the story. In the end, it goes to show that running a resort isn’t always about keeping the snow guns blowing and the cats repaired. There is much, much, more involved. And sometimes it even a little prison time. Click the link for the rest of the story.

[Link: The New Yorker]

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Action Celebrity Posts Crazy New Video

by The Editors on January 24, 2024

There’s nothing we love more than scrolling social feeds for hours looking for crazy videos from famous people that we can repost with a clever caption. Take this video for instance. It features amazing footage of something really crazy. It will blow your mind when you see it. And then send you out on an hours long scroll through the same stuff we’ve been looking at. For more crazy videos from action sports super stars, please click the link.

[Link: Hot Action Videos]

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Jeremy Jones & Son Were Riding KT-22

by The Editors on January 11, 2024

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Palisades’ KT-22 Slides Moments After Open

by The Editors on January 10, 2024

Now that the sun has set over the Sierra, the press conference is over, and releases have gone out, here is the official word on the day:

At around 9:30 AM on Janaury 10, 2024 four Palisades Tahoe guests were involved in an avalanche in the “GS gully area, to the skier’s right of the KT-22.” One skier, Kenneth Kidd, 66, of Truckee and Point Reyes, California died. Another was injured, and two others were able to get free of the snow with no serious injuries. No one is currently reported missing.

According to the resort the “cause of the avalanche is under investigation.” In other words, the resort is attempting to figure out how their avalanche mitigation measures failed to recognize the potential dangers on a slope that in hindsight was totally unstable.

This is not the first time the Palisades Tahoe has had an avalanche event or issues with avalanche control.

On March 3, 2018 five guests were buried in an avalanche near the Olympic Lady lift.

In 2017 the resort was fined $20,000 after a ski patroler died in an explosion during avalanche control on January 24.

On December 25, 2008 a skier was killed in avalanche in the Red Dog area of the resort.

 

 
 
 
 
 
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Forbes Checks In With Chip Wilson

by The Editors on January 5, 2024

The thing that no one ever mentions about Westbeach (and Lululemon) founder Chip Wilson is that the guy can dance. Put on some swing music and he will drag the most uncoordinated person out on the floor and make them look like Willa Ma Ricker. This vision keeps coming back to us as we’ve watched Wilson negotiate all kinds of business successes and snafus over the years. But now, as a guy with a reportedly $7 billion wallet and a large chunk of Atomic and Salomon parent company Amer Sport some are wondering what he’s been up to lately. Forbes finds out.

Wilson, who famously stepped away from the yoga-inspired fashion brand he started in 2013 after landing in hot water for blaming an issue with see-through leggings on “some women’s bodies,” specifically those with thicker thighs, has spent a good chunk of the past year opening up about his disease, a rare form of muscular dystrophy that slowly eats away at muscle strength in the upper body and shoulders. Though he was diagnosed with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) over 30 years ago, more than a decade before he started Lululemon in 1998, it wasn’t until last year that he revealed his diagnosis and launched a full-scale assault on FSHD, which impacts an estimated 870,000 people around the world. Citing his likely need for a wheelchair in the next few years, the Vancouver-based billionaire in March 2022 pledged the equivalent of $75 million to a new organization he set up to stamp out FSHD by 2027.

For the rest of the interview, please click the link and if you don’t have a subscription to Forbes, you can just turn javascript off in your browser and read it for free.

[Link: Forbes]

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It’s Simple: Shaun White Is A Sweat

by The Editors on December 20, 2023

This clip from Shaun White’s Bomb Hole interview gets to the crux of the issue Shaun and snowboarding have always had. And what no one pointed out to him is that the “issue” has nothing to do with what he has done or not done for snowboarding or snowboarding culture.

The bottom line is that Shaun White is, and always has been, a total sweat. He takes things very seriously. From the time he started in action sports he’s put every single waking moment into getting better at whatever he is doing. He has very little time for anything (or anyone) else. Every move he makes is calculated to get him closer to his current goals.

Even as a kid skateboarding at the Encinitas Y he attacked it with the complete lack of joy one sees in German fetishists. Doing a trick over and over and over, not noticing anything else. Many snowboarders (and even more skateboarders) don’t like sweats. It’s that simple.

Shaun is trying to be nice in this interview. He wants to show that he’s just a regular guy who loves snowboarding like everyone else. But that’s not really true. He approaches it like no one else. As a result, he became the best in the world. He doesn’t need to apologize for the way he approaches life and shouldn’t feel bad for even a minute. But if he’s wondering why he was (and is) treated the way he is by snowboarders and “the industry” (and that seems to be his question in this clip) then that’s the reason. Glad we could help.

[Editors’ Note: Donna Carpenter is also a sweat. A business sweat. So, yeah, it’s funny she would call out Shaun. Then again, we are all most critical of what we are.]

[Link: The Bomb Hole Podcast]

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Give The Gift Of The Snowboarder’s Journal

by The Editors on December 11, 2023

Give the gift of snowboarding that keeps giving all season long with a subscription to The Snowboarder’s Journal. Get a hat at 50% off and support independent snowboarding in print.

From now until December 18, get 50% off the Head in the Clouds Tech Cap with print subscription. Hat ships immediately, subscription starts with upcoming issue.

There is no better magazine about snowboarding. Click the link to subscribe.

[Link: The Snowboarder’s Journal]

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