Westbound Boarder

This past weekend, the Mavericks Surf Competition at Half-Moon Bay (NorCal) took an unexpected turn when what some media outlets are calling a “rogue wave” (although they were not technically rogue waves, as rogues typically occur offshore) came and wiped out spectators.  More than 12 people were injured in the accident, according to CNN, and 3 people were hospitalized with broken bones.  From CNN:

They were “sneaker waves,” waves near the shore that are unexpectedly and significantly larger than others occurring at the time, said Larry Smith, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Monterey, California…

Saturday’s sneaker waves were the result of several factors, including a storm in the Gulf of Alaska, Smith said. The storm, many hundreds of miles north of Princeton-by-the-Sea, was kicking up high waves — 18 to 22 feet — well off California’s shore.

Don’t believe me?  Check out the video for yourself!  It sucks that three people were hospitalized; otherwise, it is kind of funny (and ironic?) if you think about it.  Perhaps fate played a part here, and wanted to give everyone a chance to take part in the comp. 

Weather forecast?  Freezing.  Swell?  EPIC!!! The Mavericks Surf Contest, presented by Sony Ericsson, will be going on throughout the day today near Half Moon Bay, CA, and in case you can’t catch the action live … no worries!  Ustream (one of my clients) will be streaming the event live all day long.  The stream is below!  The first heat will begin around 8:00a.m. PT, with the finals anticipated to conclude at 2:45p.m. PT.  You can also check out live event updates via their Facebook Fan page.

Online video chat by Ustream

The Winter X Games is one of the largest annual contests of the year and is notorious for pushing its competitors to the next level and raising industry standards year after year.  This year was no exception, especially since the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver B.C. are right around the corner. The X Games are a great opportunity for women snowboarders to showcase their skills, while raising the bar for womens snowboarding. There were three female snowboard competitions during this past weekend’s event.  Snowboard Cross, a treacherous, windy, and super fast, five person race, the Slopestyle park comp, and of course the 22′ Super Pipe. The super pipe contest was awesome this year, and the U.S. girls ripped it up. In fact, the girls who podiumed where all on the U.S. woman’s Olympic team. First place went to Gretchen Bleiler, a Colorado local, second was Kelly Clark, and third was Hannah Teeter. Kelly was the only girl to do a 900 and absolutely popped the highest out of the pipe, but it was Gretchen Bleiler who had her trademarked crippler 720, which is sort of like a rodeo, but more inverted and stylish. Hannah Teeter had a great bag of tricks with perfect 540’s as well. Unfortunately, one of my favorite riders, Elena Hight, didn’t medal, though she did kill the Dew tour stop at Snow Basin (Ogden, UT), getting first in the woman’s Super Pipe.

Slopestyle was impressive this year, with a few different riders than the Super Pipe and plenty of tricks to go with them. The slopestyle course was made up of a rail garden and three giant jumps, stretching from 50′ to almost 70′ to finish off the run. Jenny Jones from Great Brittan won the Gold, Jamie Anderson won the Silver, and Janna Meyen-Weatherby won Bronze. Janna has been tearing up contests for years - she’s 32 years old and making it look effortless over the jumps. She was also the only girl to stick a 900. Jamie Anderson was great on the rails, doing a 360 nose bonk, and she killed it on the jumps with clean 7’s all around. It was Jones, though, with her perfect run with big air and style over all of the jumps pulling the consecutive 540’s with no sketchy landings, who conquered. Also have to give credit to Eero Ettala for the mens, stomping the best run I’ve ever seen in a contest. His first slopestyle run consisted of the double cork 1080, double backside rodeo 900, and then a double back flip. I knew this guy was good, but wow, taking a safe gold with no one even coming close to his score.

Once again, our favorite “must reads” from around the Web.  Make sure you check out the ESPN X Games going on right now and through the weekend in Aspen!  Oh, and if you haven’t already entered our socks giveaway, make sure you do so!

• 15-Year-Old Snowboarder Named to Austrailian Olympic Team: I love seeing and meeting young shredders, but this is unreal!  In Austrailia, a 15-year-old snowboarder was named to the Aussie Olympic Team.  Rad!
• Teter for Haiti: We all know Hannah Teter is an awesome snowboarder, but she’s also an awesome person.  She typically donates all of her prize money to a clean water charity, however, this year she donated her winnings from the US Snowboarding Grand Prix to Haiti.
• Preparation is key to ski trip success: Great advice from the New York Times on taking family ski trips.  Key theme?  Efficiency!
• Snowboarding Postage Stamp Revealed: Wow.  You know snowboarding has made an impact when they release a postage stamp with a snowboarder on the face.  Very cool!  Bummer that it is only available at Park City post office locations, though.
• Will Bright be the First Female to Crack The Double Cork Code? Well, I can’t exactly answer that question, but she sure does hope so!  FYI, love her training schedule - eat, sleep, and snowboard.

I know we have all been anxiously waiting to hear who will be riding on this year’s 2010 Olympic Halfpipe team.  This weekend, Park City, Utah will play host to the fifth and final round of the Olympic qualifiers, where 30 riders will be vying for the remaining spots on this year’s team.

The US Snowboarding Grand Prix made stops earlier this year at Copper Mountain and Mammoth Mountain, so Park City will be the third and final stop of the tour where the 2010 Olympic team (four men and four women) will officially be announced.

We know that Shaun White, who has already seen two first place finishes in former qualifying rounds, has already solidified his spot on this year’s US Olympic team in the men’s category.  Louie Vito, with two second place wins, is in good shape as well. Other probable contenders include JJ Thomas, Zach Black, Scotty Lago, and Mason Aguirre, though the last two spots remain somewhat uncertain.

On the women’s side, Kelly Clark’s two earlier wins in qualifying rounds have already secured her a spot on the team, with Gretchen Blieler being a shoe in as well.  Elena Hight and Hannah Teter also have the odds in their favor, though Ellery Hollingsworth will give them a good run for their money.  Between these five ladies, the four open spots up for grabs this weekend in Park City seem fairly predictable.  The only question now is, which one won’t get to see Vancouver this winter?

Catch the US Snowboarding Grand Prix on January 23, 8:30pm ET/5:30pm PT on Fuel TV or via the live stream here: http://www.fuel.tv/USSnowboarding

Next week, Tadpole Marketing, in partnership with Stanton & Company, will host it’s second-annual Women in Business conference, focising on women who are involved in the sports business industry.  With a phenominal line-up of speakers, this seems like a really great event, so if you can make it I highly suggest you attend!

Details

When: January 13^th, 2010 from 6pm-10pm

Where: Red Bull Headquarters in Santa Monica, CA

Cost: $30, Proceeds support the Women’s Sports Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to empowering girls and women to participate in sports equally.

About the Conference

This highly anticipated event is designed to inspire individuals through the contributions of influential women in sports marketing. Our unique format includes a networking reception, a panel of experts and through our round-table discussions, allows attendees to get face-time with the panelists instead of being a number in a crowd.

Awesome Panel of Speakers

• Laura Gentile: Vice President, espnW for ESPN
• Jessica Mendoza: Olympic Gold and Silver Medalist/President of the Women’s Sports Foundation
• Mary O’Connor: Director of Olympic Marketing for the Marketing Arm
• Julie Solwold: VP of Global Sports Marketing for Paul Mitchell
• Amy Stanton: Founder and CEO for Stanton & Company
• Diane Thibert: Global Director PR for Oakley

I think that opportunities to strengthen women’s position and perspective in the business world, especially in sports business, a traditionally male-dominated industry, are so important and it is really neat to see events such as these flourishing in the industry.  Unfortunately, I will be unable to make it this time around (sadly, I’ll be vacationing in Vail) but if you get a chance to attend please leave a comment below and tell us what you thought!

For more information or to sign up, visit Tadpole’s blog.

For those of you who may not know (or simply overlooked our sidebar) Westbound Boarder is a part of a larger blog network called Women Talk Sports, which brings together blogs and Web sites that support and celebrate women in sports.  A few days ago, the network challenged bloggers to write a post highlighting their favorite moments for women in sports in 2009.  As we here at Westbound Boarder never forego a good challenge, we were happy to participate!  For board sports, though, the real challenge is choosing just a few great moments.

Overall, I think that 2009 was a phenomenal year for women involved in board sports, both on a pro and amateur level.  We saw more women competing in competitions, more women snabbing film parts, and more women being featured in mainstream media, both alone and alongside their male competitors,

Here are some of our favorite moments from 2009:

• In January, the Winter X Games joined the US Open in a move to provide equal prize money for both males and females. In a sport where women have always been viewed as second best, this was a pretty huge feat, setting the stage for a great year ahead.
• Jamie Anderson was named Transworld’s Female Rider of The Year. Who will it be in 2010?
• Years ago, women who participated in board sports received a dismal amount of press, at best. National press, though? Forget about it! But in October, pro riders Gretchen Bleiler, Hannah Teter, Lindsey Jacobellis and Kelly Clark flew to New York for a Glamour magazine cover shoot. As we all know (or those of us who are Glamour addicts, anyway) the magazine cover typically features A-list celebrities - the likes of Carrie Underwood, Britney Spears, and Taylor Swift. To think that mainstream America will see these four women as A-list cover girls is absolutely amazing.
• During the US Open of snowboarding halfpipe competition, Torah Bright won first place - and the $20,000 prize purse - with her third and final run, scoring an overwhelming 96. Though she fell during her first two runs, she persevered and knocked the third out of the park, surpassing Kelly Clark’s 93.3 score.
• Little miss shred Lexi Roland celebrated her tenth birthday. Roland, often compared to Shaun White for starting out at such a young age, filmed her first part at age 6, and has been dominating the sport ever since. We’re so stoked to see her ride in ten years!
• Stan Evans and Jeremy Miller created a snowboard film featuring an all female cast called Stance. One of the first of its kind, Stance featured some of the most progressive riding we had ever seen. Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention Roxy’s Dear and Yonder, a surf film also with a female cast.
• The team for the 2010 Olympics was officially announced. Go US!

While 2009 was an extremely progressive year for women involved in board sports, we would also like to point out some of the challenges women still face.  While a handful of women are stepping up their game in the sport, the rest are largely absent from the competitive circuit, as this New York Times article points out.  So basically, we are seeing four or so women, Bright, Clark, Teter, and and Bleiler, dominating, while the rest really aren’t trying anything new.  What we are also seeing, however, is a number of younger riders who will really take things to the next level in years to come.  Women like Jamie Anderson, and Lexi Roland, who are pushing the sport to its limits and setting the bar high.  Will the decade to come be their moment to shine?  I guess we’ll just have to wait and see, now won’t we?

But enough about us, how about you?  What were your favorite moments for women in action sports of 2009?

Don’t have plans this New Year?  No bother, because Red Bull and sponsored athlete Travis Pastrana are bringing you something special: Red Bull: New Year. No Limits.  This New Year’s Eve, Travis will attempt to break the world record for car distance jumping in Long Beach, CA.  Red Bull: New Year. No Limits will be televised on ESPN on Thursday, Dec. 31, right after the Chick-Fil-A Bowl (around 8pm PT).  But if you can make it in person, by all means, go!  Red Bull events are always a good time (check out our review of Red Bull Soapbox).  Here are the deets on ESPN.

Side note: For those of you lucky enough to live in Hollywood, Travis will appear at the Hollywood DC store for a special autograph signing Tue., Dec. 29 from 5 - 7 p.m.  Store addy: 8025 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90046

The long drive to Mt. Hood and a large, warm cup of coffee go hand and hand… With the winter freeze going on right now I can’t help but drink a lot more of this warm stuff than usual. So naturally, it doesn’t surprise me when I hear another pro clams P-Town as their home. We have pro rippers like Darrell Mathes, Danny Kass, and Austin Smith reppin’ our lovely state of OREGON. And now, Mack Dawg’s rider Willie Yli-Luoma, known for his CREATIVE progression in snowboarding (360 board spin anyone?), opened up a coffee shop here in Portland.

Located just off Burnside (2211 E. Burnside), it’s called Heart Coffee Roasting and it just opened in October, 2009. They offer an assortment of Guatemalan brews - A frothy winter brew in time for Christmas. And the best part - they are even having a beer tasting next week! Complete with a bike race (because beer and biking also go hand-inhand… obvi). That’s Portland’s style for ya, the style that I love so much. I’m going to go check it out this weekend, and I invite all my Westbound Boarder readers to come along, too!

LA is known for being home to some of the worst traffic in the nation… but this weekend all that traffic might not be such a bad thing.  On Saturday (that’s tomorrow, for those of you who might not be counting down the hours already), Red Bull Soapbox is coming to Los Angeles, where forty-two teams will race (and crash) through Downtown LA.  But this isn’t your typical NASCAR-style racing…

This year, a banana slug, a pinata, a beaver (crush the Beaver!!!), and a taco are all expected to make their way to the race.  More than 200 teams entered their craziest, off-the-wall ideas for go-karts, and Sat. will feature the 42 who made the cut.  All teams will be competing to win a trip to the NASCARs, complete with the Red Bull royal treatment (and lots of free Red Bull, I’m sure).

Here are details for Saturday’s event: The pits open at 1am for Soapbox viewing, while the Opening ceremony begins at 12:30pm and the race stars at 1pm.  Due to several street closures and large crowds, Red Bull recommends taking public transportation or carpooling.  For complete event details or to check out team bios, visit the Red Bull Soapbox home page.

If you’ve never been to a Red Bull event, I guarantee you they’re always a good time.  But if you’re on the fence about attending this event and need some added persuasion, check out some of the best (and by best I mean worst) crashes below, courtesy of our friends at Red Bull.  See ya there!

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