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College Snow-Shredding; Appalachian State Snowboarding!

Oct 27, 2009

Snowboarding season is right around the corner boys and girls.  Im getting the pre season butterflies and can't wait for the local slopes to open their lifts for shredding.  Appalachian State is getting their Club Snowboard Team ready for action to defend their ranking of 2nd in conference and 6th in the nation! A little better than their prized football team?  Many of you might not know about college snowboarding and many of the schools don't appreciate their club snowboard teams; all of the athletes pay almost 100% of their travel and competition fees.  These teams travel almost every weekend to compete against schools from their conferences representing their schools, and if you have been snowboarding or skiing you know how expensive it is to spend a weekend at the mountain.  

Appalachian State just spent millions of dollars to renovate their stadium for a team that isn't living up to their hype!  They spent so much of their budget on the stadium that the teachers are not allowed to use paper from the school to print off class assignments and such.  Wow!  Can't believe it?  Me neither...  So spending a little bit of money on club sports that bring just as much prestige to the school as their mainstreem sports doesn't sound too rediculous now does it.  

The teams compete in all aspects of snowboarding throughout the season including Giant Slolom, Boardercross, Superpipe and Freestyle.  App State took the number 2 in conference and 6th in the nation!  I don't think their Football team can say that this year..  

The team is working with local snowboard shops to come up with sponsorship deals to make the financial burden on the riders a little less heavy.  A big thanks to Alpine Ski Center.  A little thanks to App Ski Mtn who was generous enough to take whopping 30 dollars off their 300 dollar season pass!  

The average cost on the athletes for just the regional events was upwards of a 1000 dollars!  And to go to nationals alone was over a 1000 Dollars!  But the students sucked it up and paid the steep prices to represent their school.  So the schools should put a little more thought into their club sports to help out the students that are exhausting their financial resources to be part of promoting their school in the sports they love.

Look for App State this year on the slopes and in the magazines.  If you want to check out some media you can go to 

www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=48919558511

Or on youtube at

www.youtube.com/user/ChilProductions

Last words of wisdom.  Wax it and Shred it!  Till next time, Peace!

U.S. Olympic Snowboarders Happily Get Off

Aug 11, 2009

Snowboarders who shred on the pristine slopes of majestic mountains rack up a natural high, for sure. Walking away boosted after a day of boarding, they hit the nightclub scene to imbibe the night away. Such is the life of a boarder: stomp, party, repeat.

This “utopic” cycle was recently interrupted for a pair of U.S. Snowboarding team members who confronted jail time and fines in New Zealand. 

As publicized all over the web, twenty-somethings Danny Kass and Louie Vito are believed to the boarders who were nabbed with pot in their vehicle, while training in this country.

As a quick recap of what went down, these athletes were pulled over on Saturday, Aug. 1 evening by New Zealand cops, who are notorious for their strictness, as part of a roadside check.

Here the troopers spotted marijuana in this party van that was conspicuously painted with a shark’s jaws on its front. As rumored, Kass indicated to the arresting officer that he was given this stash by a hitchhiker as a thank you. Whatever!

Despite this rationale, the boarders were arrested for possession, facing fines and/or jail time.  These charges had far-reaching implications. 

Not only would their travels and Winter Olympics training be disrupted, but their lives were hanging in the balance by a no-nonsense court system. 

Furthermore, the pair’s Olympic hopes were in jeopardy, too...especially if they were found guilty.  Remember Michael Phelps’ suspension by USA Swimming?

Fortunately, they were offered a “diversion” by the police: a way to get off from a court hearing where the judge would decide on their fate. 

Because the amount confiscated was less than one ounce per person, these two first-time offenders willingly agreed to this deal that required them only to make a donation to a New Zealand charity.

And because this payment was made, their records are now cleared, as if never being arrested.  And fortunately, their names are being suppressed from the public record by the Judge, compliments of laws that permit this privacy.

Now a more daunting issue faces the pair: whether they’ll be yanked-off the Olympic Team by the suspiciously quiet U.S. Snowboarding organization.

B/R Classfied: Recruitment Needed For a New Community

Apr 9, 2009

Writers Needed For Extreme Sports Community

Ladies and gentlemen, sportwriters of all ages, B/R is a place we love to spread our ideas, share our opinions and manifest our passion through writing and leaving comments. There are many communities from the NFL, NBA, MLB, Tennis, F1, NHL, NASCAR, and the Wrestling community, my main community.

I venture off into other communities as I'm fond of many sports. I know writers out there have written for other communities as well. One day, I published an article for the X-Games and noticed that there wasn't an Extreme Sports community.

I must have not been cognizant, but now I am. I've taken this to the B/R big guys and they've made a proposition for me and hopefully the community. If at least five guys agree to join the community, we can get it going and the Extreme Sports community will join B/R's other communities. We all have a good sense of what Extreme Sports are, but just in case, I'll touch the surface.

Skateboarding

Tony Hawk is one of the most legendary men of the sport and is hands down the Michael Jordan of skateboarding. Since his 90's era, skateboarding has come back to life from the days of Tony Alva.

A slew of young men aspire to rule the sport and they have their own World Series, Wimbledon, Daytona 500, NBA Finals, Masters, Wrestlemania, and it's called the X-Games. The Games are covered by ESPN and the boys come out to play.

Tony Hawk Lands The First Ever 900

BMX

Everyone knows cycling right? We know Lance Armstrong, but what about Extreme cycling? Have you ever seen a man rotate his bike five times in the air without neither hand on the bike handle?

I have and it's called the No-hand 900. It's been done by BMX legend Matt Hoffman. Dave Mirra was another star in BMX and the moves these guys pull off will blow away minds.

No-Handed BMX 900

Moto X

We've seen dirt bikes right? Have you guys ever seen men go across entire arenas doing death-defying stunts on motorbikes? These men are true dare devils as their lives are on the lives.

When you ask if they do it for the fans or themselves, some respond with they do it for themselves. Travis Pastrana is a legend in Moto X. He was the first man to successfully land a double backflip on a motorbike. The move is known too.

Double Backflip

Snowboarding/Skiing

When summer ends and snowstorms come out, do you think Extreme sports are done for the year? Heavens no! The winter X-Games come into play. Skiing and Snowboarding are taken to the next level. Shaun White is a extreme sport prospect. He skateboards and snowboards.

In some eyes, he's the next Hawk. This would be equivalent to LeBron James or Adrian Peterson, or the young and upcoming Tampa Bay Rays MLB team. With all the snow and no wheels you would think that people wouldn't be going to the extreme right? Wrong. Shaun White has rotated further than the 900 and landed the 1080. But have you seen 1260? How many spins is that? Watch and find out.

Shaun White Lands 1260

There's also surfing amongst other extreme sporting. These sports defy gravity. These sports cover land, air, and sea. It isn't about what you can do, but doing what you can't do. I am very optimistic about this new community, but it'll only happen with the help of writers who want to contribute to the Extreme Sports community.

ESPN, NBC and ABC are three big broadcasting networks cover extreme sporting throughout the year and the things we'll see are phenomenal. I'll leave a preview of 2009's X-Games. You can view it here. Comments at the bottom any anyone is welcome to join the community.

Any "Love" for Burton: Controversial Snowboard Hits the Slopes

Nov 12, 2008
With the opening of many ski resorts across the nation the past two months, the ski and snowboard season seems to be well underway. However, don’t be surprised this season when you’re carving down the slopes to be passed by a few naked women.

The naked women of course are four Playboy bunnies on the Burton snowboard series, Love, with one woman on each of the four different sizes that the board comes in (152 cm, 155 cm, 158 cm, and 162 cm).

The board which is intended for riders to mostly use in park and freestyle terrain was part of a collaboration with Playboy and designed by the request of two of the company’s professional snowboarders, 18-year-old Mikkel Bang and 19-year-old Keegan Valaika.

Boulder Freeride IT Director, Nathan Minatta, a 21-year-old junior film studies major at CU said he doesn’t have a problem with the board, and likes how the company chose vintage Playboy models as its graphic.

“I like the choice of the older playboy models,” Minatta said. “It’s fine with me, plus the bindings cover most of the graphic anyways and the nipples are photo-shopped out.”

Love has already caused quite the controversy around ski towns from the Appalachians to the Sierra’s on the appropriateness of the board.

Vail Resorts, which owns Colorado ski areas of Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, Vail, and Heavenly near Lake Tahoe, has prohibited their employees from using the board while on duty.

Though members of the Vail Resorts communication department were unable to be contacted to comment, CU sophomore Christian Rhiel, a 20-year-old Psychology major and a member of CUST (CU’s Snowboard Team), plans on working part time at Vail this winter and said he was told he was not allowed to ride the Love or wear anything that might be offensive when on duty.

“[Vail] told me when I’m instructing or on duty that I’m not allowed to wear anything inappropriate,” Rhiel said. “I think employees are banned from using two boards, the Love and the Primo.”

Primo, Burton’s other controversial series of board’s shows people mutilating their own hands into popular cultural hand signs such as the sign for peace and ok. However, the Primo has received a lot less attention than the Love.

Amanda Hankison, a 19-year-old sophomore studio art and pre-journalism major at CU and membership director for the Boulder Freeride said she doesn’t like the board, but not because of the graphics.

“I don’t like it because people will just want to ride it because it has a naked girl on it, not because they want to use it for park or anything else,” Hankison said.

Though many students at CU don’t have a problem with the graphics on the snowboards, others across the United States do with many groups protesting the Love, including one protest in front of the Burton headquarters in Burlington, Vt on Oct. 23.

Laurent Potdevin, CEO of the Burton Snowboards said in a statement on Oct. 22 that the graphics on the Love boards support freedom of expression.

“Burton supports freedom of artistic expression,” Potdevin wrote. “Board graphics are artwork, and art can be offensive to some and inspiring to others.”

Potdevin’s statement also said that Burton was not breaking any laws and they don’t encourage violence towards women with the production of Love.

“We are not breaking any laws by creating these boards, and it is our sincere belief that these graphics do not condone or encourage violence towards women in any way,” Potdevin wrote.

The statement was concluded by saying that the company planned on keeping the boards and had no intentions on recalling them.

Burton’s Love is not the first snowboard to depict a naked woman as the image on a board, with the Sims Fader depicting naked porn stars Jenna Jameson and Briana Banks for its image starting with its 2003 model.

For Minatta, the controversy of the Love is that it’s the farthest a snowboard company has gone showing a naked woman on a board.

“This isn’t the first time a naked woman has been depicted on a snowboard,” Minatta said. “It’s just the farthest someone has gone with it, but it is still not that far.”

Though the four Love boards don’t show any nipples or anything else that Playboy has come to be known for, the controversy is what will happen when a child sees a naked woman on a snowboard.

Rhiel said he doesn’t mind the graphics but would feel weird if a kid saw him riding the board.

“I don’t have a problem with it, but I would feel awkward if there was a young kid who didn’t understand it,” Rhiel said.

Though it seems like the board won’t have an effect on many young people’s view of Burton, it has with many parents as the Burlington based company has received hundreds of letters and phone calls from parents voicing their displeasure of the board.

“Burton’s image will have an effect on some parents,” Minatta said. “But for me, the graphic is the last thing I look at when I pick a board.”

For many, the Love is great for its riding abilities, while others dislike it because of the graphics. Either way, the images of the snowboard have definitely sparked controversy.

Controversy Rhiel said that was probably what Burton was intending.

“It was creative marketing because they knew they would make controversy,” Rhiel said. “Controversy creates attention and attention sells boards.”
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