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):
Henderson, Nevada police are looking for the guy in the above photo because they believe he was involved in a hit-and-run accident with a 15-year-old skateboarders, according to a story in the Las Vegas Sun.
Police said the boy was riding a skateboard in the street at about 4:20 p.m. when he saw a car turn off Center Street onto Fir Street. The driver struck the boy and drove off, authorities said. . . The boy was taken to a hospital and treated for non-life threatening injuries. The driver of the vehicle didn’t stop or call 911, police said.
Luckily, a bystander got this cellphone photo of the kid. If you know who this is, please call the Henderson Police Department at (702) 267-5099 or Crime Stoppers at 385-5555.
When the mainstream media visits the action sports world (even a corporate giant like Luxotica’sOakley) their sense of gee-wizness is always entertaining. This mood is pretty self-evident in the title of Tom McNichol’s Time.com’ story on their visit to Foothill Ranch: Oakley’s Pursuit of Cool.
It’s not fair to say that the inmates are running the asylum at Oakley, the hypercool eyewear company–they’re designing and engineering the joint as well. . . . “Pursuit of cool” is not part of the company’s mission statement, but it’s a heck of a recruiting slogan. “Most of my engineering friends went into horribly stifling jobs where they get to design things like an on-off switch that clicks,” says Neil Ferrier, 26, an advanced-product-development engineer. “The freedom here at Oakley is fantastic. Once you’re given the basic aims of a project, you’re free to run with it.”
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.
The Fresno Bee reports in that hometown snowboard hero Andy Finch doesn’t care that he’s not going to make the 2010 US Olympics Team. He’s not going to do any double corks.
“All these other guys are trying to do them, and about half of them are getting broke off,” Finch says. “But some of the guys are learning them. I don’t think Shaun expected everyone to catch up so quick, actually.” . . .”I’ve had a long career, man,” he says. “It’s not really worth it for me to take that kind of risk right now.”
Banks have seized Intrawest Holdings, the owner of the Whistler ski resort that’s hosting the Olympic downhill races next month, after the resort operator missed a big debt payment, and now plan to auction the company off right in the middle of the games. . . Intrawest’s owner, Fortress Investment Group, lost control after missing a big interest payment to its lenders. The lenders, which include Lehman Brothers and Davidson Kempner, plan to auction off ownership of Intrawest on Feb. 19, according to a notice published in major newspapers. The first events of the games are scheduled for Feb. 12 and the closing ceremony is set for Feb. 28.
[Editors’ note: The following was our original post from earlier today] Investors who have loaned Intrawest close to $1.4 billion dollars say they may foreclose on the resort operator next week according to a story in the New York Post.
Sources tell The Post that creditors holding $1.4 billion of debt on Whistler owner Intrawest are planning to foreclose on the company within the next week and a half, casting a shadow on the resort, which will host the alpine events of the 2010 Olympics. “It will probably happen within 10 days,” a source said. . . The showdown comes amid an impasse between the estate of fallen investment bank Lehman Brothers, Intrawest’s largest creditor, and Intrawest owner Fortress Investment Group, the publicly traded hedge fund run by Wesley Edens. . . By forcing Intrawest into bankruptcy, Lehman and other creditors could raise several billion dollars repossessing Intrawest and selling off its various resorts.
Luckily, all the snowboard events are taking place at Cypress Mountain. . . where last week they closed because there is no snow. But not to worry. They still have 23 days to load up.
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).
