Kind of crazy that with all the drama surround the US Snowboard Grand Prix Olympic Qualifiers that it’s taken until the last event in Park City, Utah to get a live Internet feed rolling. Now, thanks to Fuel TV, we can all see the final stop of the Olympic qualifying series Saturday January 23, 2010 at 5:30 PM PT.
Seems like doing more of these live web events would be good for Fuel’s business, doesn’t it? Follow the jump for the official start list.
To commemorate the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, the US Postal Service created a snowboarding stamp. The stamp, created by illustrator Steve McCrackenm, features a snowboarder who looks not un-like Scotty Lago. The “first-day-of-issue” ceremonies followed the US Snowboarding Grand Prix halfpipe event last night.
Alan C. Kessler, member, Board of Governors of the U.S. Postal Service, and Dick Coe, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, are the dedicating officials.
“We are proud to support the Olympics and are pleased to be able to continue the tradition of honoring the Games by issuing postage stamps celebrating different Olympic sports,” said Gov. Kessler.
As usual with postal art, this image appears to be an artist’s mix of tricks and terrain. Follow the jump, check out the stamp, and let us know who it is and what trick they’re doing exactly. [click to continue…]
Neither of them needed to win an event to get into the Olympics because both Kelly Clark and Shaun White already on the team. That didn’t stop either of them from throwing down their best runs of the season tonight and winning in halfpipe number one at for the US Snowboarding Grand Prix at Park City. Shaun even threw in his 1260 double McTwist.
“It was just the run of my life, I don’t know how to say it,” White said. “I’ve basically been practicing this trick for as long as I can remember, and I don’t think I’ve crashed as much (as I have) in the last couple years I’ve been learning it.. . . The wild part about that trick is, the way I’m spinning the double cork hasn’t really been done before by anyone except myself,” White said. “Kevin Pearce was the only one trying something similar in a way, he was doing a double front flip – which is like a 900 but just spinning that way is really difficult.”
Kelly Clark saved her best run for last. ““I’ve always loved competing in Park City,” said Clark, who won Olympic gold in the same pipe in 2002, “They build amazing halfpipes, and it’s always fun for me to come back to get to compete and do well. . . I think I will need a tougher run than tonight in Vancouver. I’m definitely working my way up to it.”
The real battles for Olympic glory are going on directly below them on the results where there are six spots on the US Olympic Snowboard team still up for grabs. But tonight things are definitely beginning to get more sorted out. Here are the results from Park City halfpipe number one, January 22, 2010 (click the headers for full scoring).
Men’s Results
1. Shaun White 49
2. Scotty Lago 47.7
3. Greg Bretz 46.7
4. Elijah Teter 44
5. Luke Mitrani 44
6. Louie Vito 43.3
7. JJ Thomas 43
8. Danny Kass 42.7
9. Steve Fisher 42
10. Dylan Bidez 41.
Women’s overall
1. Kelly Clark 45.2
2. Hannah Teter 44.8
3. Ellery Hollingsworth 43.6
4. Gretchen Bleiler 42.5
5. Elena Hight
Tomorrow there will be no real reason for monitoring the as the entire US Snowboarding Grand Prix will be live on Fuel.TV. Follow the jump for the current US Snowboard Grand Prix standings.
As the preeminent American artist of the 20th Century, Andy Warhol challenged the world to see art differently. This distinctive project presents a new approach to skateboard/artist collaborations by pairing unique examples of Warhol’s groundbreaking artwork with each of the ten iconoclast pro riders sponsored by Alien Workshop. . . .Featuring five pro decks with works from Warhol’s Death & Disaster Series and five pro decks showcasing his iconic Pop works, the complete set is shipped in custom printed board box packaging inspired by Warhol’s box sculptures from the 1960’s.
Andy would likely be happy to see the same company recycling his art over and over again. We’re wondering when the Channel Islands dead artist collab will be announced, or did we already miss that one?
There are no qualifiers for the final two US Snowboarding Grand Prix halfpipe events. These events are invite only and that means it’s all finals tonight at 6:30 PM MTN (Friday, January 22, 2010) and tomorrow night (Saturday, January 23, 2010).
Here’s the men’s start list for tonight’s pipe (just for fun, you can reverse the list and see who is currently inline for the four Olympic spots):
We want Terry Kidwell to get paid, but watching him pitching the boards that he used to invent freestyle snowboarding is almost too painful to watch. These boards are priceless.
As a commenter sb13c on Youtube said, “Someone needs to buy this and put it back on TK’s wall in it’s rightful place.”
We agree. Then again, if Terry wants to clean out his garage this way who are we to stop him.
Apparently Danny Davis’ L3 wasn’t the only thing broken. Today he goes in for more surgery according to his agent Susan Izzo.
Snowboarder Danny Davis (Highland, MI) will undergo surgery today to repair a fracture on the left side of his pelvis.. . Doctors are very happy with his recovery thus far from the L3 surgery performed Tuesday evening.
Keep those prayers flying for both Danny and Kevin.
Kjersti Buaas, Chanelle Sladics, and Jamie Anderson apparently took a little break from last week’s Winter Dew Tour at Snowbasin for a “couple hours” of air at iFly Utah, an indoor sky-diving facility in Ogden, Utah, according to Kjersti’s blog.
After qualifying we went down to Ogden, the closest town from the ski resort, to check out the indoor skydiving facilities everybody was talking about. The skydiving team took us for a “flight” I’ll never forget. After flying for a couple of hours we went back to our mansion in the hills (thanks Oakley) and had a water drinking contest.
Seems like a pretty tame evening considering the options.
