After all the Love stories that clouded the media space last fall it is nice to finally read something good about Burton snowboards on MSNBC.com. The story explains how the Burton’s Chill Program is changing the lives of children at risk.
They look like any group of young snowboarders decked out in the latest Burton gear, but looks, as we know, can be deceiving. These kids can’t afford snow sports or the gear, much less bus fare to the mountain. In fact, some live in homeless shelters, others live in group homes around Burlington, Vt., about a half-hour’s drive from this locally-owned ski area. Some have been in trouble with the law. . . . They are here thanks to Jake Burton Carpenter, the founder of Burton Snowboards and the recognized pioneer of the snowboard industry.
See, in addition to introducing young people to “pornography” and “self-multilation“Jake and Donna Carpenter are also making it possible for many kids to snowboard who otherwise wouldn’t be able to. And that’s good for everyone.
Friday the 13th turned out to be a lucky day for snowboard TV personality Todd Richards and the Nixon crew. The Air Pacific 747 jetliner they were on bound for Fiji and the NIxon High Tide Hold ’em on Tavarua was forced to turn back to LAX when it was discovered that the plane had a “fuel transfer problem,” according to a story in the LA Times.
Airport police Sgt. Daniel Vaughn says the Boeing 747, carrying 441 passengers and crew, landed safely shortly before 2:30 a.m. Friday.
Todd was feeling very lucky this morning in a chat with Yobeat.com:
“Luckiest day of my life so far. Two and a half hours out, the pilot comes on and says we have a fuel problem, we need to turn around. We head back, then circle Catalina Island for 2.5 hours then come in to land with a full fire brigade right there. Smash ass down, then the fire trucks were on us at high speed as the plane rolled down the runway spraying with foam and water.”
We’re all glad that Todd didn’t end up on a real life episode of Lost.
Women’s snowboard pants almost half off at Seattle’s Snowboard Connection. . . and everything else, too. This is apparently what analysts call “getting promotional”?
The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics are one year out and already the Chicago Tribune is making medal predictions. Writer Philip Hersh is making what he calls “glass half-full” guesses. Here’s how he believes snowboarding is going to end up with 8 medals, three of them gold: (Turin’s medals are in parentheses):
Snowboard (7 medals, 3 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze): Boardercross (1 gold, 1 silver): Champion Seth Wescott and Lindsey Jacobellis, whose hot-dogging turned gold into silver, both return: Prediction: 2 medals, 1 gold. Parallel giant slalom (1 bronze): Prediction: No medals. Halfpipe (2 gold, 2 silver): Shaun White, now a grizzled 22, will be hot again. U.S. women, including 2006 1-2 Hannah Teter and Gretchen Bleiler, good enough to sweep. Prediction: 4 medals, 2 gold.
When we add in Nate Holland, Kelly Clark, and Steve Fisher, we think there will be even more medals.
People like to think that the mountains of Southern California are all soft and cushy. They’re not. They’re hard. Just ask 33-year-old snowboarder Timothy Triche. He went out of bounds at Mt. Baldy Ski Area on Wednesday, got lost in a storm and ended up barely surviving the night, according to a story in the Daily Bulletin.
He called 911 with his cell phone but weather conditions delayed his rescue until Thursday morning. . . . Rescuers reached Triche at 7 a.m. at the 10,000-foot level, according to the release.
Search and rescue apparently told Triche to huddle under some rocks and stay about of the wind for the night. After his rescue he was taken to “San Antonio Community Hospital where he was treated for frostbite and exposure.”
In the latest round of letter writing, Adrenalina the Florida-based, three-store action sports retailer is demanding the resignation of PacSun CEO Sally Kasaks and nominating four people to the PacSun board of directors, according to a story on Reuters.
In a letter to CEO Sally Kasaks, Adrenalina, which owns about 3 percent of PacSun shares, said it has the support of the largest shareholders in demanding her resignation. . . . Adrenalina’s claim of shareholder support could not immediately be verified. . . . “We hereby demand your immediate resignation from Pacific Sunwear, which is imperative for the company’s survival,” Adrenalina said in a letter to Sally Kasaks date Feb. 12.
Makes us wonder if we should buy up a few shares of our favorite publicly traded action sports company and start making demands . . . hmmm?
Woodward at Copper, a collaboration between Camp Woodward and Copper Mountain Resort kicks open on February 28, 2009, according to a story on First Tracks Online. Apparently, there will be three levels of “training” offered:
Winter Camp Days, Introductory price $199, Season Passholder price $159 (includes lift ticket and lunch)
The One Hit Wonder, Introductory price $69
Drop-In Sessions, Single Session $25, 5-Session pass $100
Then, in the summer a whole new set of snow training will go down.
A 33-year-old surfer known only as Gary was “having a sunset surf off south Bondi about 7.30pm when he felt something brush his arm while paddling back out to catch another wave” according to a story in the Sydney Herald.
Realising he had been bitten, he called out for help to a group of nearby surfers who came to his aid, paddling him to shore and carrying him to safety onto the beach. One of them used the leg-rope of his surfboard and wrapped it as a tourniquet around the man’s heavily bleeding arm.
A doctor and nurse just happened to be walking by and were able to help stabilize the surfer and get him ready for transport. Sadly, the surfer has lost his hand above his left wrist. This is the second shark attack in Sydney this week. In that attack a diver lost his right hand. Guess the shark was going for a pair.
Whether it’s on the cover of business magazine Fast Company, or Rolling Stone, or in a new film about his visit to the remote Hokkaido backcountry in Japan for sponsor Red Bull, the energy drink, White is casual and never stiff, a relaxed Southern California style, where he grew up and lives, a guy you’d actually like to hang out with. Never mind that he’s a ridiculously amazing halfpipe rider, and is a double threat – a top-tier skateboarder in his spare time, with an eye on the 2012 Summer Olympics in London if skateboarding, as speculated, enters the Olympics.
While we’re not so sure about the snowboard fame lineage coming down from Jake Burton, Craig Kelly, and Terje Haakonsen (we’d put Shaun Palmer in there), it is true that Shaun White is doing the snowboard celebrity thing better than anyone before him has ever done. And a reported $10 million in annual endorsement money helps keep him right there.
We don’t normally follow the shoe wars, but it’s good to see people like Brian taking control of their personal brand message and putting the word out themselves.
After all the Love stories that clouded the media space last fall it is nice to finally read something good about Burton snowboards on MSNBC.com. The story explains how the Burton’s Chill Program is changing the lives of children at risk.
