Search: snowboard death

Snowboarder Slides To His Death In New Zealand

by The Editors on August 8, 2011

5411181Tim Stone, a 29-year-old Australian snowboarder, who had taken his snowboard off to climb the side of Tarn Basin near the Mt. Cheesman Ski Area on Friday, slipped and fell to his death, according to a story in the Sydney Morning Herald.

“As a result of slipping on the ice he couldn’t stop and just slid down into rocks, causing a massive head injury,” Senior Constable Dave Watkins of Darfield Police told AAP on Monday. . . The accident happened about 12pm (10am AEST) on Friday, when the man, as yet unnamed, and his two male friends were climbing out of the basin after a morning of snowboarding.

According to The Press, Stone was not wearing a helmet. Our thoughts are with the Stone’s family and friends.

[Link: Sydney Morning Herald and The Press]

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Troopers Investigate Alaska Snowboarder’s Death

by The Editors on February 26, 2009

254-Roycemorgan1.8669.Original.Highlight.Prod Affiliate.7.JpgRoyce Morgan, 18, was found dead near Alaska’s Hatcher Pass on Wednesday after snowboarding with his brother and getting separated, according to a story in the Anchorage Daily News.

Morgan was snowboarding with his brother, 25-year-old Matthew Theodore, in the late afternoon when the two became separated, troopers reported. . . . Theodore looked for his brother but couldn’t find him, troopers said. He went to the Hatcher Pass Lodge and called troopers. Theodore then went back up the mountain to look for his brother.

Theodore reportedly found Morgan a second time, but Morgan could not walk. So Theodore tried to push him back to the lodge on a snowboard, but was unable to and again went back for help. By the time searchers found Morgan at 9:15 PM he had no pulse and was not breathing.

[Link: Anchorage Daily News]

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Snowboarder Saved From Tree Well Death

by The Editors on February 26, 2009

News Treewellcrop 2-26 T640Steamboat Ski Resort ski patroller Paula Lepporoli jumped right into action when she saw a snowboard sticking out of some branches while she skied through the trees on the resort’s Typhoon run, and a 40-year-old snowboarder from Denver has her to thank for saving his life, according to a story in the Steamboat Pilot.

Lepporoli’s training kicked in as she popped off her skis and rushed to help. She dug out the rider’s head, stuck 3 1/2 feet under the snow in a tree well. . . . “He wasn’t breathing when I got there, and I cleared his airways, and he started breathing,” the 20-year Ski Patrol veteran said. “It took us 10 minutes to get him out of there.”. . . The 40-year-old Denver man survived and wasn’t hospitalized, Lepporoli said.

A few minutes later and the man’s wife and three-year-old son would have lost a husband and father. Reminds us to stick together in the trees. This can happen to anyone.

[Link: Steamboat Pilot]

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Powder Suffocation Likely In Snowboarder Death

by The Editors on February 17, 2009

Aline Christina Martins, 19, of Santa Barbara, California died while snowboarding Monday February 16, 2009 at Dodge Ridge, according to a story on KCRA.com.

Aline Christina Martins, 19, likely suffocated, but an autopsy was planned to determine the formal cause of death, said Paul Tualla, a spokesman for the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office.

Our thoughts are with her family and friends.

[Link: KCRA.com]

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RIP: Snowboarding Legend Adam Merriman

by The Editors on September 21, 2022

The snowboarding community lost one of its original innovators on Wednesday, September 15, 2022. Adam Merriman died while riding an electric skateboard on the North Recreation Path and Red Sandstone Park in Vail, Colorado, according to a story in the Vail Daily. Merriman was 50 years old.

Officer Brad Porter said it was a Halo Board Beast 2 electric skateboard. “I observed one end of the board to be completely broken, with both wheels on this portion of the board to be broken and completely severed from the rest of the skateboard and skateboard’s deck,” Porter said in his report. “These wheels were still attached to the board, connected by wires that led to the battery pack. I observed these severed wheels to be the driving wheels (mechanism) that powered or moved the skateboard.”

Merriman had reportedly gotten the e-skateboard the day before his crash. He is remembered by the staff at Slush Magazine in a glowing eulogy. Here’s a piece, but you should read the entire story by clicking here.

Adam Merriman’s impact on snowboarding is immeasurable and the loss on his friends and family is inconceivable. Perhaps a sliver of solace can be found in the faith that Adam is likely laughing and conjuring new adventures on the other side alongside J2 and the rest of our snowboarding community who we have lost too soon.

We grieve with the entire snowboard community. A memorial for Adam is planned for October 1, 2022 at 4pm at the Colorado Snowsports Museum and Hall of Fame in Vail, Colorado.

[Link: Slush Magazine via Vail Daily]

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Surfer Magazine Dies A Final Death

by The Editors on October 3, 2020

[Editors’ Note: Okay, just for historicity sake here goes the media story that we hinted we weren’t all that interested in covering because you don’t hold funerals for zombies.]

Today (October 3, 2020) it was announced that the Bible of the Sport of surfing, Surfer Magazine has been shuttered by what remains of American Media Inc. (now called A360 Media). The 60 year old chronicle of the surfing life will live no longer. Longtime Photo Editor Pete Taras said it this way on Instagram:

It’s with great sadness that I write that today was my last day at SURFER. Between Transworld SURF, SURFER, and SURFING, that was half my life. 21 years between the three. It’s really hard for me to put into words right now the feelings. I’m a weepy mess. I taught. I was taught. I cared so much for all the creatives I worked with over the years. We were family. Thank you @fijichili for providing that 16-year old film when I needed it. @chriscote , Marc Hostetter, @the_check_republic and Joel Patterson, you took a chance hiring me as a 23 year old Photo Editor. @eslate you gave me confidence to go full bore with my visual vision. @chatoaganza , you were always the creative guiding light. @jimmicane you always brought the heat! @todprod you taught me patience and professionalism. Lastly, I want to thank my wife @grettygt123 for having to deal with it all through thick and thin. With much love – Peter

Taras (and the rest of the Surfer Magazine staff) were only the first wave of “furloughs.” The employees in the Carlsbad, California offices who survived the first round will reportedly stay on the payroll until November 20, 2020. Then they too will be out of a job. Happy Thanksgiving to them and to you all.

Bike, Snowboarder, and Powder magazines are also being put to rest: RIP. Oh, and David Pecker remains true to his name, one more time.

For those who still read and subscribe to magazines now would be the perfect time to subscribe to The Surfer’s Journal, and/or The Snowboarder’s Journal.

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Soft Drinks Increase Chance Of Death

by The Editors on September 5, 2019

Thanks to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association it has been shown that drinking sodas (like the brands that sponsor skateboarding, snowboarding, and surfing events) is bad for your health and increases your changes of dying sooner rather than later, or as they put it there is an “association between soft drink consumption and mortality.”

In this population-based cohort study of 451, 743 individuals from 10 countries in Europe, greater consumption of total, sugar-sweetened, and artificially sweetened soft drinks was associated with a higher risk of all-cause mortality. Consumption of artificially sweetened soft drinks was positively associated with deaths from circulatory diseases, and sugar-sweetened soft drinks were associated with deaths from digestive diseases.

In other words, rather than trying to encourage people to drink more, we should encourage them to drink less. That’s the main reason why we’re not into seeing action sports brands partnering with caffeinated, carbonated, high fructose corn syrup poison peddlers. Drink water. Duh.

[Link: JAMA]

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Snowboarder Dies In Swiss Avalanche

by The Editors on March 30, 2015

A 30-year-old snowboarder who was riding off-piste with his 31-year-old brother has died after being caught in an avalanche in the Valais area (Southwestern Switzerland), according to a story in The Independent.

The pair are thought to have been travelling down the so-called ‘Hannibal corridor’ of Mont Vélan, in the Valais area, when the younger was caught in the slide. . . The accident occurred at an altitude of 3,600 metres and while rescuers were able to reach him quickly, he died at the scene.

He is reportedly the 28th person killed by avalanche in Switzerland this winter. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.

[Link: The Independent]

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Snowboarder Dies Trying To Retrieve Board

by The Editors on September 4, 2013

Caroline Johnston, 44, fell to her death at New Zealand’s Whakapapa Resort on Saturday, August 31, 2013 after ducking past warning signs in pursuit of her lost snowboard, according to a story in the Otago Daily Online News.

Constable Conrad Smith of National Park police said the woman was walking back from the West Ridge chairlift towards the Waterfall T-bar in an area known as the Amphitheatre on Saturday when she lost grip of her board. . . It slipped down hill and she went after it. . . “She’s gone past warning signs and dangers signs to look for her board and she’s fallen off a cliff,” Mr Smith said. . . The woman, who had left her friends who she’d been skiing with earlier, fell 15m vertically before tumbling a further 100m-150m.

Johnston was a British-born TV director who had moved to New Zealand in 1999. Our thoughts are with Johnston’s family and friends.

[Link: Otago Daily Online News]

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Snow Industry Mourns Avalanche Deaths

by The Editors on April 22, 2013

Acc 505 5096-RWe all hold our breaths each time an avalanche story reaches the mainstream news. First, hoping no one was hurt while at the same time recalling our own interactions with slides, and then selfishly hoping that it was no one we knew.

Unfortunately, on Saturday April 20, 2013, the action sports industry was faced with the sobering reality of Mother Nature’s deadly power when five comrades died in deadliest Colorado avalanche since 1962 when a huge field of snow slid near Loveland Pass in Colorado.

The four snowboarders and one skier who died in the slide all lived in Colorado and were all either ski and snowboard industry professionals or veterans of the backcountry, They were equipped with avalanche beacons and proper backcountry gear. The victims included Christopher Peters, 32, of Lakewood; Joe Timlin, 32; Ryan Novak, 33; Ian Lamphere, 36; and Rick Gaukel, 33.

The group had gathered on April 20, 2013 at Loveland Pass Resort for the Rocky Mountain High Backcountry Gathering sponsored by Snowboard Colorado Magazine according to a Colin Bane story on ESPN.com. Timlin was a sales representative for Jones Snowboards and an organizer of the backcountry event. Lamphere was the founder of Gecko Skins and Gaukel was an American Mountain Guides Association-certified climbing guide from Estes Park with extensive avalanche eduction. Jerome Boulay, the only person to survive the slide is the sales manager for Silverton, Colorado-based Venture Snowboards.

Please follow the jump for the rest of the story . . . [click to continue…]

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