Start young. Sign up for the sport’s premier academy, located in Vermont. Pay $40,000 a year for tuition and board. Devote days and nights to the pursuit. Add guts. Expect glory. . . Stratton alumni are hoping to fill a third of the spots on the US Olympic snowboarding team for the upcoming games.
Yes. That makes nice brochure copy for the Stratton Mountain School, but not all students are Louie Vitos. For the full horror story on what some people will do to try to get their kids get into the Olympics read the rest of the story.
Snowboarding doesn’t seem like a place you would find a hot athlete. It normally attracts tomboys and women who don’t really care about their looks as much. But we did hit the jackpot with Gretchen Bleiler. . . This sexy snow bunny is an Olympic silver medalist and a golf medalist in the Olympic bikini competition that I just made up. Congratulations.
When Gretchen did the FHM shoot did she every think it would be following her around all these years like a crazed stalker? Probably not. On a side note: freeskier Kristi Leskinen ended up at number 5 on the same list from the same issue of FHM.
Nigel Hughes, 39, a surfer from Australia’s Gold Coast lost the tip of his big toe to a shark while surfing at Coffee Rock, near Evans Head, NSW on Sunday, December 13, 2009, according to a story in the Tweed Daily News.
Mr Hughes had just taken off on a wave when he began yelling out really loud, surfing mate Paul Plenkovich, of the Gold Coast, said. “I didn’t know what was going on,” he said. Mr Hughes paddled into shore and began yelling out “shark, shark”. Mr Plenkovich said the surfing posse managed to stay calm while they paddled about 100m in to the shore.
Hughes suffered a 10cm gouge in his toe. After undergoing surgery at Lismore Base Hospital he is expected to make a full recovery.
December 12, 2009 was a huge day at the Billabong Pipeline Masters, but it was about more than the waves. Each round three and four heat had so much riding on it that it felt like a day full of finals. There were so many stories: Fanning/Parko, Slater, Andy Irons, Bruce Irons, and John J. Florence, the 16 year old who didn’t even hiccup until he met surf strategist Damien Hobgood in heat 2 of round 4. Andy and Bruce Irons both went down in round three (Andy to Damien Hobgood and Bruce to Taj Burrow). Kelly just kept on charging through his heats with the style we remember him having a year ago.
And then there was the heat between wildcard Gavin Gillette, 23, and world number two Joel Parkinson that set up the biggest news of the day. Gillette beat Parko in heat 15 or round 3 and pushed Mick Fanning into his second ASP world championship title. Playing a pivotal role in the title hunt wasn’t something that had escaped the wildcard.
“The thought crossed my mind about 100,000 times that I could have an effect on this year’s World Title in that heat,” Gillette said. “Joel (Parkinson) is one of my all-time favorite surfers and he’s a great guy. We just met up and one of us had to lose, but that’s the way that contest surfing is. Joel knows, he’s been doing this forever.” Fanning was so fazed by winning the title that he seemed to forget he was even in a contest and paddled out only to get tossed onto the reef. He appeared to pull it back together, but it wasn’t in time to win the heat against Dean Morrison (pictured above). And he was still hazy after being carried up the beach.
“I’m just a bit overwhelmed right now and I don’t quite know what to say,” Fanning said. “It was hard out there. I was trying to get ready for my heat and then Gavin (Gillette) got that one score as I was paddling out and, I don’t know, I just sort of slowed down.”
We said we were only going to watch a couple early heats, but got sucked in glaze-eyed in front of our computer all day long. And we’re not sorry.
Follow the jump for full results and releases from the day or click here for the saucy fresh version from Kid Charlemagne because he was there, tasting the sweat and breathing in the La Roche-Posay. [click to continue…]
[Editors’ Note: Today’s original story (which has now been updated) was gleaned entirely from the Twitter feeds of : @tbyrnes, @shayboarder, @burtonsnowboard. Say hello to remote control reporting. Please take a moment to follow them right now.]
Doing what he loves to do today at US Snowboarding Grand Prix at Copper Mountain, Colorado Shaun White dropped in on his first run in the finals and put down his perfect contest run with a front 9, back-to-back double corks, back to back 10’s and landed the highest score of the day a 47.
“It was great. It was a heavy competition. We’re doing tricks that have never been done before. I think today was the heaviest run I’ve ever done in a competition,” White said. “I’m just happy to get through it, get through the weather and be the leader here.” . . . “I’m just excited because now I get a little breathing room before the next event and I think you’re going to see a whole new rider by the time it comes around,” White said.
Aside from Louie Vito (who ended up second) and Greg Bretz, the rest of the men’s field struggled through the first run knowing White was coming up last. Many fell in the process. Ryoh Aono of Japan was taken from the pipe in a sled . “Okay seriously, three landed runs out of 13,” Tricia Byrnes tweeted at the time.
On the women’s side with Hannah Teter out with an injured shoulder Kelly Clark and Gretchen Bleiler were left to battle it out for the top spot. Clark got her first run down butBleiler fell on her first run, according to Shannon Johnson. The women switched up for the second run and Clark fell and Gretchen landed her run. Clark’s first run was enough to take the win with Bleiler in second.
“I liked having the Grand Prix at Copper. They did a great job today and I’m really excited,” Clark said. I was really happy with my first run. I’ve been working really hard on the fitness side of things and really preparing for this season mentally and physically every way I can. I feel like at this point in the season I’m riding better than I ever have.” . . . “Everything for me this season is leading up to Vancouver and every event I’m using as practice,” Clark said. “I’m pushing myself to do my most technical difficult run right now so it becomes a lot easier for me and a lot like second nature so I’m able to build and progress throughout the season. This is a great starting point.”
In the age of live online event streaming it seems almost a crime that the Olympic qualifying events of the US Snowboarding Grand Prix at Copper are not live on the web.
In spite of that, snowboard fans around the world are keeping up with the run-by-run details from an army of Tweeters who are on the scene.
We’ve been John John Florence fans for a while now, but nothing compares to watching the 16-year-old frolicking in the Billabong Pipeline Masters. This morning he playfully decimated Brazil’s Heitor Alves with a 18.90 and logged the highest score of the day. John John has been surfing so perfectly in his own zone that it will be interesting to see if anyone can stop him.
“I’m just going crazy out there with only three people out,” Florence said. “There are so many fun waves and I was just trying to catch as many as I could while I had the chance. It’s good to know the lineup out here when it’s smaller because a lot of times they run along the reef faster and those right barrels get really small and can be tough to make it out of.”
Tomorrow, Bobby Martinez gets his chance in heat four of round three.
The most potentially reality warping matchup of the contest comes tomorrow in heat two when Mick Fanning meets Torrey Meister. Meister wouldn’t even be in the Masters if Sunny Garcia hadn’t showed up 5 minutes late for his round one heat against Nic Muscroft. Strange twists of fate like this often end up writing history.
Tomorrow the biggest stars of the ASP meet the North Shores offensive line and there’s a high probability for things to get seriously scrambled. Follow the jump for the ASP release from today. [click to continue…]
Looks like Shaun White is keeping his 2010 Olympic program right on track by qualifying at the US Snowboard Grand Prix at Copper Mountain in the top spot and edging second place Louie Vito by .9 of a point. Both reportedly corked their double doubles so it is on.
“I’ve got a few different spins I’m going to mix up, but I just want to keep it consistent. I was already in, which was all I cared about,” Vito said. “I think Shaun felt the same way. It’s always practice and you’ve just got to step it up, take it up another notch and just get ready for tomorrow.”
Here’s the rest of the top 16 who will ride in the finals tomorrow:
3. Greg Bretz 45.7
4. Danny Davis 45.50
5. Dustin Craven 44.5
6. Scott Lago 44.30
7. Steve Fisher 43.3
8 JJ Thomas 43.2
9. Jack Mitrani 43.1
10. Ryoh Aono 42.9
11. Tore Holvik 42.9
12. Elijah Teter 42.6
13. Charles Reid 42.5
14. Nathan Johnston 42.4
15. Zachary Black 41.8
16. Matthew Ladley 41.6
Circa is proud to announce the Sierra Fellers shoe release party Saturday, December 12, 2009 at Venice, California’s Air Conditioned Supper Club and we’re proud to have Sierra Fellers taking up so much room on our page because he’s good. And we like him. Doors open at 8 PM.
