PR: Coca-Cola Associate Sponsor of USASA
(December 23, 1996)

Dec. 23, Malibu, CA. Austin Hearst and Paul Taublieb, co-prsidents of LXD, Inc., the Malibu-based company which is in a co-venture with ESPN with the ESPN Freeride Snowboard Championships (Ja. 16-19, Sierra-at-Tahoe), announced today that through its Sprite soda, Coca Cola has become an associate sponsor of the Freeride Championships and the USASA as part of an integrated marketing package to promote both amateur and professional snowboarding.

Coke/Sprite joins 1-800-Collect, Mint-a-Burst as associate sponsors, with Airwalk the presenting sponsor. Sponsorship includes the ESPN Freeride Championships, which will be broadcast as a one-hour prime-time program on ESPN itself, with multiple re-airings on ESPN and espn2.

As part of this package, gate panels, start/finish gates and extensive other, badly-needed signage has been bought and delivered to all 27 regions of the USASA. The USASA National Championships, to be held in Bear Mountain, will also be the subject of their own half-hour program to be broadcast on espn2.

In other Freeride Championship news, Dishwalla has been confirmed to play a Freeride party on Saturday night, Ja. 18 at Caeser's Palace in South Lake.

For further information, call 1-310-589-0733. Note: comp rooms are available for accredited media. Please call for registraton form.