Westbound Boarder

Busy week in snowboard land; here’s some of our fav picks from around the Web!

• Catch the Olympics on Yahoo!: Today, Yahoo! announced it will provide Olympic fans with an exclusive Web site and mobile experience for the 2010 Vancouver Games. (Check out the microsite here).  Less than one month to go!  Also, starting January 25^th, fans will be able to submit their favorite winter sports photos for a chance to win multiple prizes, ranging from digital cameras to a trip to the U.S. Freestyle Skiing Championship at Squaw Valley in March 2010.
• Haiti Disaster; How You Can Help: By now, many of you already know about the 7.0 Earthquake that devastated Haiti on Tuesday, Jan. 12.  Check out this blog post from Spectacular Adventures for more info. on how you can help.
• Bearics Teaser: Inside Etnies and Bear Mountain’s private snow park; sweet vid!
• Surf Expo 2010 Gallery: The 2010 Surf Expo is currently going on, and Transworl has the low down (in 140 pictures or less) here.  I’m really digging some of the new swimwear lines.
• Dew Tour Comes to Utah; Results Are In: After a successful first event at Breckenridge earlier this month, the Dew Tour, Round Two, moves to Snowbasin.  Elena Hight and Elijah Teter lead in the Pipe Prelims (surprised?)  Be sure to catch the Pipe Finals on Sat.

News Bits

• FUEL TV launched an iPhone application.  The application is available here in the iTunes store, free of charge.  The content is syndicated from the Fuel.tv website and includes nine video podcast channels, updates from the FUEL TV blogs, and Twitter integration. There’s also a community photo blog; FUEL TV show information, news updates, and schedules; and all of it can be seamlessly shared via a simple Twitter button. The app will also allow for streaming live events, and will be able to download a selection of FUEL TV shows in the near future.  Sounds pretty sick (I wish I had an iPhone!  Maybe now I have incentive to go buy one…)
• College Night returns to Mt. High.  Last year, Mt. High announced a series of three College Night Events, and apparently the series was popular, because it’s back!  And this time with six events.  If you’re in college and live in SoCal, this event sounds like a lot of fun – $20 Night passes, half-off appetizers, half-off draft beer (21+), $1 hot dogs, live DJs, and hookups from industry partners. College Night will take place from 5pm to 10pm in the Bullwheel Bar & Grill on January 14th, January 21st, February 4th, February 11th, February 25th, and March 4^th, 2010.  This season the January 21st, February 11^th, and March 4^th events will also include a rail competition complete with its own prize pool.
• Gatorade Free Flow Tour, the official amateur series of the Dew Tour, coming to a town near you.  We watched part of the pipe tour go down in Vail this past weekend, and it was pretty sick.  Now, let’s see some ladies!

It’s Friiiday!  And you know what that means; one day closer to the weekend!  Here’s a few links to surf this week, highlighting some of our favorite stuff from around the Web.  Also, if you haven’t entered Westbound Boarder’s headphone giveaway yet, make sure you do so today; deadline to enter is Sunday night!

• Art Show at Hurley HQ (Costa Mesa) Tonight: If you’re looking for something to do tonight (and you live in SoCal), head on over to the Hurley headquarters from 6 – 10 to check out the Greg Weaver Art Show – art, food, friends; sounds perfect to me!
• Ever seen a skateboarding bear? This week, Bordistan reports (via 9news.com) that a Bear was seen prowling the Snowmass skatepark.  When it was found Tuesday morning, the bear looked as if it had been there all night, so authorities on the scene dropped a ladder into the skatepark to give it a way to climb out.
• Transworld Catches Up with Torah Bright: As one of the most recognized female snowboarders right now, Torah’s well on her way to the 2010 Olympics.  This week, Transworld interviewed her on what she’s been up to and where she’s headed, as well as her new Roxy clothing line launching this fall.
• KFC Now Sells Marijuana, You Say? Yeah, you heard me right.  LA Weekly’s “Squid Ink” blog reports that an abandoned Kentucky Fried Chicken in Palms has been turned into a pot shop.  Though they took down the “official” logo, the name remains in tact (ah, but it now stands for “Kind for Cures”)  Thanks @nickmendoza for the tip on this one!  Gotta love LA…

Links we love this week, and so will you!

• Skate Week Recap: We just wrapped up Skate Week this morning here at Westbound Boarder, and what a week it has been!  From top skate shops in Portland to how to choose your new ride, Danielle brings you the 411.  Check out a recap of this week’s best skate week articles here.
• Top 25 Young Surfers: This week, Surfer Magazine released their list of the Top 25 Young Surfers in the World.  The list is great, and features the inspirational stories of all 25 surfers and how they got into the business.  Only one problem – not a single female is profiled in this list.  If you were to add just one to this list, who would it be?
• Axe Commercialization, Will Ya?! There’s a debate going on over at the HUCK blog on pro riders giving in to the monetary commercialization of the board sports industry, this time with skater Ryan Sheckler’s recent appearance in an Axe body spray commercial.  Check out the convo and leave your thoughts.
• Women Talk Sports: This week while surfing the net, we came across an awesome network of blogs called “Women Talk Sports.”  It was started by three female athletes (including one of my colleagues over at Edelman!) and aggregates the best of the best from around the net.  Whether you want to read about female athlete’s personal basketball adventures or BMX riding, this network likely has a blog for it.
• Costa Rica anyone? Vancity Allie posted some awesome pics of Costa Rica; almost as good as being there! (Almost…)
• Interview with Leanne Pelosi: At the top of her game is the World of female snowboarding, this flippin’ chick is on fire.  Check out her recent interview with Transworld here.

Throughout the span of my (Internet) life, I’ve grown to detest e-mail newsletters.  E-mail newsletter, to me = JUNK.  Delete.

However, over the past couple of months I’ve come across a couple e-mail newsletters that sounded somewhat interesting, so I subscribed, and I’ve actually learned to enjoy – even look forward to – my daily/weekly e-mail newsletters.  Prior to my new found love of e-mail newsletters, I subscribed to blogs, etc. in RSS.  However, over the course of a few years, adding one blog here, another blog there, my RSS has become completely overloaded!  I now subscribe to more than 250 blogs, news sites, etc. (several which post multiple times a day) so looking at my RSS can be a bit overwhelming, despite the fact that everything is nicely organized into neat, subject-related folders.

This is the reason I am starting to love e-mail newsletters.  They typically come daily or weekly, depending on what you are subscribing to, and are a great way to get your week’s dose of news from your favorite publications without having to sort through the mess of your RSS.

Here are a couple of my personal favorite e-mail newsletters:

• Transworld Business: Of course, Transworld is most known for its consumer-facing publications (Transworld Snow, Transworld Skate, etc.) but it actually has an awesome industry pub targeted toward people interested in the business side of the board sports industry.  This newsletter is delivered about once per week and brings your dose of board sports interviews with industry experts, shop reviews, etc. straight to your inbox.
• HUCK Magazine: I love HUCK magazine (snowboard, arts, culture and travel glossy for women published in the UK) and after I invested ten bucks into a couple of their paper mags, I stumbled upon their awesome digital site.  This e-mail newsletter is a great way to get your weekly dose of HUCK without having to visit and surf through their Web site each and every day.
• Fitness Magazine: Though its not board sports-related, I still think Fitness magazine has an awesome e-mail newsletter.  Delivered once per day, this newsletter offers fitness and eating tips, plus highlights recent content on the site… and we all know being physically fit is a key component to being a hardcore shred.
• Self Magazine: This one’s pretty similar to the Fitness e-newsletter, but if you want extra variety in your workouts and eating plan, subscribe to both!

As I mentioned above, I’m really just beginning to recognize the awesomeness of e-mail newsletters, so these are just a couple to get you started if you, too, would like to join the fun.  I’ll be sure to keep you posted on any other great newsletters I come across.  Also, stay tuned because Westbound Boarder has an e-mail newsletter of its own coming your way soon!  One for sure to top anyone’s list, in fact.

Do you have any other favorite e-mail newsletters?  If so, what?  Leave a shout out in the comments!