Josh Dirksen’s Dirksen Derby hand-shaped banked slalom at Mt. Bachelor presented by Bonfire this this weekend (December 11-12, 2010) helped to raise money for snowboarder Tyler Eklund who was paralyzed during the USASA Nationals in February 2009. Looks like a lot of fun even if the weather was less the perfect. Click here for a photo gallery.
[Link: Yobeat.com]
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A month ago Burton Snowboards released a new board that features a design created in partnership a local Burlington, Vermont bong builders The Bern Gallery. The board is called the “Nug” and the Burlington Free Press used this local collab as the perfect hook for a story on one of Burlington’s coolest businesses..
Inside, Burton looks like a ski lodge, combined with an ad agency, a retail store, a mad scientist’s laboratory and a dog kennel. Dogs are everywhere — big ones, little ones, short-haired ones and furry ones, playing in people’s offices, staring sweetly from beneath people’s desks, and tearing around corners in hot pursuit of something, although it’s not always clear what.
See, the Burlington Free Press occasionally does nice stories about Burton, too.
[Link: The Burlington Free Press]
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Louie Vito danced with the stars down Copper Mountain’s halfpipe with a frontside double 10, cab double 10, stiffie, back 9 and front 10 to win US Snowboarding Grand Prix number one today. Luke Mitrani and Scotty Lago got second and third
“I’m really stoked. I’m happy to land a run when I had to and start the season off well,” Vito said. “It’s good to have landed and to be on the podium with two of my best friends.”
Sun Valley, Idaho’s Kaitlyn Farrington edged Kelly Clark to win her first US Grand Prix with an air, backside 9, front 7, cab 7, and air to fakie. Japan’s Rana Okada finished third.
“It was the first time that I’ve landed the backside 9, so I was stoked just to try it and land it,” Farrington said. “I worked on it a lot last year and I’m happy it all came together this year. It’s a good way to start out the season.”
Follow the jump for the more complete results.
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Kevin Jones has always been one of our favorite snowboarders. While we may have been rough on him in the past (when we couldn’t figure why he was giving up so much) it’s good to see that, aside from mucking things up on Buoloco, he’s back on his snowboard as well.
Snowboard Magazine has a great story up on their site titled The Life Between My Ears. Here’s how it starts out:
“Maybe I just love it too much,” Kevin Jones says with more than a hint of nostalgia. “But I feel like I owe it to the snowboarding community to tell it how it is. I owe it to my friends now and gone. I owe it to myself to say what I really think.”
The story (with Jeff Curley photos) pretty much answers every questions we’ve had about why Kevin left snowboarding, where he went, and why he’s back. And it’s all good.
[Link: Snowboard Mag]
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A snowboarder who “undercut a cliff area just sound of No Shadows couloir” got buried in an avalanche on Tuesday morning, December 7, 2010, according to a story in the Jackson Hole News & Guide.
[The snowboarder] was buried with only his fingers exposed in 15 feet of debris at the toe of the slab. The slab propagated up through a cliff area and into drifted snow beneath a cornice.The snowboarder, who was the fourth person to ride or ski the slope, survived with minor injuries.
Quick work by friends got the snowboarder freed. It always helps to ride with good people.
[Link: Jackson Hole News & Guide]
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Haleiwa, Hawaii artist and musician Ron Artis died Wednesday, December 8, 2010 of an apparent heart attack leaving a large hole in the vibrant life of Haleiwa town. He was 61.
His colorful gallery/studio a.k.a. Resurrection City was one one of the brightest spots on Haleiwa’s main drag. Literally covered in reclaimed and painted broken surfboards and music playing seemingly 24-7, the place was obviously the work of man committed to his gifts. The entire North Shore was his canvas, according to the Honolulu Star Advertiser.
Artis. . .created 900 murals in the community and resurrected discarded surfboards to adorn his Haleiwa gallery. . . The Texas-born painter and musician . . . participated in a 2008 police-backed beautification project to cover graffiti in Wahiawa, painting 25 murals around the town.
One of his last musical projects were two songs written in memory of Andy Irons. His family has said on their website: “”Our Father Ron Artis is now watching us from Heaven he lived a full life and put everything into us and we will not disappoint him.”
Artis is survived by his wife and 11 children. Our thoughts are will the family.
[Link: Honolulu Star Advertiser]
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California State University-Long Beach master’s degree candidate Ryan Pittsinger says surfing elevates people’s mood, according to a story in US News & World Report.
Pittsinger, a lifetime surfer and native of Manhattan Beach, Calif., surveyed 107 surfers after a 30-minute session in the waves and found that positivity and tranquility increased significantly while negative mood and fatigue decreased.
Wonder how this same study would go after a 30 minute session on a good day at Pipe?
[Link: US News & World Report]
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Slate.com’s Matt Feeney has written a surprisingly insightful round up of professional surfing circa December 2010 titled You Should Worship Kelly Slater.
Like almost no surf writer so far Feeney sums up Andy Irons’ death, Kelly Slater’s number 10, and what it means both in and out of the “insular” world of surfing. He also has some ideas as to why Kelly isn’t a bigger mainstream celebrity like, say, Shaun White. But it is Feeney’s final paragraph that especially hits home:
So maybe the final limit to Slater’s fame is that he’s the dashing and deific king of a sport that is, in the wider world of athletic pursuits, something of a rogue nation. Surfing may seek attention, on occasion, but mainly so that it can invite that wider world to kiss its ass.
Be sure to read the rest.
[Link: Slate.com]
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Luke Kennedy, editor of Tracks Magazine is lucky to be alive today after getting speared with his board at Sunset Beach on Oahu’s North Shore at 11 AM on Thursday, December 9, 2010, according to a stories on Waves Mag.com.au and Hawaii News Now.
The nose of his board had pierced him in the the front of the neck, just above the collarbone. Ross Clarke-Jones stood beside the ambulance and looked almost white. “I didn’t even realise it was Luke. It’s looks really bad. I tried to stop the bleeding, but when I tried that he couldn’t breathe,” said Ross. From all reports Luke’s board had snapped while he was in the shorebreak. How he impaled himself is unknown.
Luckily, there were bystanders on the beach who were able to stabilize him before he was transported to Queen’s Medical Center where he was reportedly in critical condition, according to the Honolulu Star Adversier. We wish Luke the best and hope for a speedy recovery.
Click the Waves link for the rest of the story.
[Editors’ Note: This story was updated from its original (and erroneous form) at 2:25 PM after we got a link and the following kind note from a commenter: “WTF kind of reporting is this? Read the story, the surfer has been named.” It’s that kind of team work that we depend on.]
[Link: Waves.com.au, Hawaii News Now and Honolulu Star Advertiser]
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The last thing we need while stumbling though one of our favorite snowboard parks is more distractions. Apparently, Mammoth, AR4T and the JLA Project aren’t building their new Round Robin Art Park for us.
“Snowboarding has always been about creativity – finding your own line. Art is the exact same. That’s why cultures like snowboarding, skateboarding and art have always gone hand in hand. The great part about the Art Park is that there are no rules; we can get as creative as we like. The artists can go nuts, Dustin – the person who makes the rails come to life and who is an amazing artist himself – can push the limits, and hopefully the folks who come through the park will have fun and go home inspired, feeling a part of the whole experience” said Torrey Cook, AR4T’s curator.
Torrey may be right. It could be quite inspiring to see something beautiful moments before folding into a face whip halfway through an up/flat/down. For the rest of the details, follow the jump.
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