Windham Hosts Jeep Terrain Park Challenge Sat.

Windham Mountain will host a regional qualifier for the Jeep Terrain Park Challenge, Saturday, Feb. 3 at 11 am.

The Jeep Terrain Park Challenge offers amateur skiers and snowboarders a chance to showcase their best moves in the nation's best terrain parks. Proceeds will benefit the Heuga Center for Multiple Sclerosis.

Windham Mountain is hosting one of 75 qualifiers for thousands of eager participants. This group will be whittled down to the top 24 athletes through six regional qualifiers spanning from the East and West Coasts to the Rocky Mountain and Midwest regions.

Top finishers will be invited to the National Championship, which will be held in Lake Tahoe, California, in March of 2007.

Windham's course will consist of a combined Big Air and Half Pipe run. Registration is from 8-10am. The cost to participate is a $10 donation to The Heuga Center.

Personally speaking, I rode Windham this weekend, and they are ready to ROCK!! The snow is thick and excellent. The halpipe is sweet. The terrain parks are ready and waiting. The new "G Lift" is fast and takes you to uncrowded parts of the mountain that I never found before. And the trail "Why Not" was like nothing I've ever seen with huge 20 foot mogul rollers that made you feel like an ant cavorting in a bag of giant marshmallows!

Snowboard Rail Jam Spectacle in New York City

2 Rail Jams in NY, Feb 8 and Feb 10

NEW YORK CITY HOSTS FIRST MAJOR PRO SNOWBOARDING COMPETITION

on Thursday February 8,
World’s Top Riders Meet for the Union Square Street Sessions, Presented by Jeep®

Amateur Rail Jam in Central Park Saturday February 10 by NY Parks Dept.

Aura360 in partnership with NYC Parks & Recreation announces New York City’s first major pro snowboarding rail jam competition, The Union Square Street Sessions, presented by Jeep®. Thursday, February 8, the world’s top pro riders including Marc Frank Montoya, Danny Kass and Eddie Wall will compete head-to-head for a prize purse of $30,000.

"The Union Square Street Sessions will expose residents to the thrill of a professional snowboarding rail jam set in Union Square Park, the gateway to downtown Manhattan," said Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe.

Twenty-four men and eight women will participate in Union Square Street Sessions and will show off their skills on a customized urban rail fabricated at Mountain Creek Resort’s Jib Lab. This will be the largest such structure ever produced for an event of this kind in New York City.

“We have been working on the concept for a major pro snowboarding competition in New York City for several years,” said Dan Gacetta, partner of Aura360. “We wanted to produce a breakthrough event in a world class venue that would demonstrate the long standing involvement of urban communities in the sport of snowboarding.”

The Union Square Street Sessions will begin with athlete training at 3:00 p.m. leading up to the rail jam competition commencing at 5:30 p.m. During the contest, the neighborhood of Union Square will be transformed into an action sports block party with celebrity judges, live music provided by Fuse TV and a sponsor village comprised of action sports retailers.

The invitational pro field of top riders will be augmented by up-and-coming athletes selected at three Street Session qualifiers. Winners at The Block Party in Tahoe and Rails to Riches and Shop Wars events at Killington receive automatic qualifications.

Union Square Street Sessions partners include Jeep as the presenting sponsor and supporting sponsors Burton, Fuse TV, Snowboarder Magazine, Lat34.com, Boost Mobile, Plantronics, Mountain Creek Resort and Killington Resort.

“Freedom and adventure are among the core values of the Jeep brand, so we’re excited to sponsor The Union Square Street Sessions,” said John Plecha, Jeep Marketing and Global Communications. “Snowboarding is one of the many outdoor activities Jeep owners enjoy. Snowboarding in New York City fits naturally with the ‘go anywhere-do anything’ versatility of the Jeep brand and its vehicles.”

The winter sports celebrations will continue in New York City on Saturday, February 10 with NYC Parks & Recreation’s Winter Jam, a pro/am rail jam and winter carnival with snowshoeing and cross country skiing held in Central Park.

UNION SQUARE STREET SESSIONS SCHEDULE – THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8

Street Sessions Pre Event Demo For Media – 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m..

o Athlete Demo

o Athlete Interviews

o Fashion & Gear Demo

Street Sessions Pro Rail Jam – 3:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

3:00 p.m. – Demo & festival area opens

3:00 to 5:00 p.m. - Athlete autograph signing and demos

3:30 to 5:00 p.m. - Athlete warm-up

5:00 to 5:30 p.m. - Music act 1

5:30 to 6:30 p.m. - Rail competition preliminaries

6:30 to 7:15 p.m. - Music act 2

7:30 to 8:30 p.m. - Rail competition finals

8:30 to 9:00 p.m. - Awards

9:30 p.m. - VIP Rail Jam Party

WEBSITE: www.lat34.com/streetsessionsnyc

DIRECTIONS: Subway: N,R,Q,W, 4,5,6, or L to 14^th Street/Union Square

NYC PARKS & RECREATION’S WINTER JAM IN CENTRAL PARK

Saturday, February 10 - 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

o Winter Sports Gear & Product Demos

o Amateur Rail Jam

o Music & awards

WEBSITE: www.nyc.gov/parks

DIRECTIONS: Subway: 6 to 68^th Street; B or C to 72^nd Street

Halfpipe at Windham Opens!

Windham debuts their new Halfpipe Sat. January 27, 2007

Halfpipe Update for Northeastern US

A lot of halfpipes this season are late or non-existent in the Northeast due to the lack of natural snow.

But the mountains have been pumping away, making snow like crazy, and we're excited that we're going to ride Windham's brand new pipe tomorrow. The pipe is being cut now by a former Stratton superpipe cutter, with Windham's new Zaugg pipecutter, just in time for the Catskills Region USASA Halfpipe Competition Saturday.

Btw, Windham had plenty of water and even extra air on hand so they could make as much snow as possible this season as soon as the temperatures cooperated. They rented air compressors to be on the ready.

What's USASA? It's the largest grassroots snowboard competition group in the world, and one of the only ways you'll ever get to try Boardercross or Slopestyle as an amateur. Read more here
http://www.snowboardsecrets.com/QandA/qascross.htm
and here
in "How to Go Pro" http://www.snowboardsecrets.com/QandA/howgopro.htm

And check out USASA's page here:
http://usasa.org/series/series.lasso?-token=browse&SeriesCode=catskill&-maxRecords=1&-database=regions.fp3&-layout=region_info&-search

Speaking of halpipes, Okemo's SoBe Superpipe is ready to ride now, and Whiteface will have their pipe open soon. Killington is working toward Feb. 1 opening of their superpipe.

Next blog is about the 2 rail jams in NYC next week.

Mountain Creek Loses Snowboard Grand Prix Stop

Sad news indeed, reported today by Snowboard-mag.com.

Especially since Mountain Creek was the scene of the last stop of the Grand Prix last season, and the stop that determined the final Olympic Snowboard "team". AND the scene of the most kickin' snowboard party of the season. See pix of the Mountain Creek Grand Prix Jan. 20-22, 2006 here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the Huckfest Productions video clip. http://www.snowboardsecrets.com/Articles/grandprix06.htm

Also go to the second picture page to see the white bikini and boot clad go go dancers at the party. When the police dept. shut this party down at 3:30 a.m instead of the planned 4 a.m. there were a lot of disappointed dancing snowboarders left standing around. When I got home from the Grand Prix I slept for like 16 hours straight! Now THAT's what I call a GOOD TIME!!

Well, ok, so there's very little snow in NJ and no way to build Mountain Creek's beautiful world class halfpipe in time. We'll just keep going to rail jams and hope for snow soon!
http://www.snowboardsecrets.com/Articles/grandprix06.htm


Mountain Creek Loses Snowboard Grand Prix Stop

Vernon, NJ - The second stop of the Chevrolet U.S. Snowboard Grand Prix, originally slated for Feb. 2-4 at Mountain Creek Resort in New Jersey, will be relocated to a resort in the western United States due to unseasonable temperatures on the East Coast.
Mountain Creek was to host the second of three halfpipe competitions along with a slopestyle exhibition as part of the Paul Mitchell Progression Session. An announcement on rescheduling both events will be made as soon as a suitable location has been secured for the same weekend.
Mountain Creek has been an instrumental partner in the continued progression of the Grand Prix series. Located just 40 miles west of New York City, the resort has hosted elite level halfpipe competitions for the past three years with thousands of fans showing up to see world class snowboarding just minutes from the biggest metro market in America. Mountain Creek also was the site of the announcement of the 2006 U.S. Olympic Snowboard Team that won an unprecedented seven medals, including three gold, in Torino.
Also, the first stop of the Chevrolet Revolution Tour - the pipeline to the Grand Prix - set for Spirit Mountain, Minn., has been postponed to February 16-18. The event, originally scheduled for Jan. 12-14, will include halfpipe, snowboardcross, slopestyle and rail competitions.
Remaining Chevrolet U.S. Snowboard Grand Prix Dates:
Feb. 2-4 - location to be determined
Saturday, Feb. 3 - Halfpipe
Sunday, Feb. 4 - Slopestyle
Feb. 24-25 - Tamarack, ID:
Saturday, Feb. 24 - 22-foot Halfpipe
Sunday, Feb. 25 - Snowboardcross (part of the Visa U.S. Snowboardcross Championships)
The 2007 Chevrolet Revolution Tour:
Jan. 26-28 - Copper Mountain, CO - HP, SS, SBX, Rail
Feb. 9-11 - Mt. Bachelor, OR - HP, SS, SBX
Feb. 16-18 - Spirit Mountain, MN - HP, SS, SBX, Rail (*new date)
Mar. 2-4 - Okemo, VT - HP, SS, SBX
June 21-22 - Mt. Hood, OR - HP, SS

Grenade in talks with Section Outerwear for Friendly Merger

Grenade Outerwear is in talks with Section Outerwear for a friendly merger.

You heard it here first. The rumor mill is pretty sure that Grenade and Section outerwear will be teaming up, to the benefit of both companies

Grenade of Mammoth Lakes, CA is the creator of style-setting snowboard gloves and outerwear and was started by smooth riding Olympic snowboard medalist Danny Kass with his brother Matt Kass and several friends. They formed the company Grenade Gloves and soon expanded into the snowboard outerwear and goggle market where they are poised for world fashion domination.

Section Outerwear was founded by brothers Troy and Trent Bush and John Walbrecht in Boulder, CO, in 2002. Section is one of the fastest growing global snowboard apparel brands with distribution in over 40 countries for 2006. The Bush brothers have played a significant role in the development and growth of the progressive snowboard market. The Section line is based on industry leading design and development, tested and backed by a team of top professional snowboarders led by Marc Frank Montoya and Lindsey Jacobellis. Technine merged its operations with Section Inc. in November 2005.