Now that the last of the big-buck dotcoms have shut their doors, several ex-online editors and producers have been searching for employment elsewhere. Those who didn’t end up at TransWorld or Kinko’s have been collecting unemployment checks that barely cover their Audi leases. Evan Rose reportedly sought employment at a public-relations firm in charge of Burton’s press materials. He found himself out of luck when Burton’s Amy Barrett, still bitter over a U.S. Open story Rose wrote in BLUNT four years ago, told the PR firm if Rose even got an interview, the person in charge would be fired. In hindsight, referring to a potential employer as a "stupid-ass" and a "terrible person" probably wasn’t that great of an idea.

There’s a good chance this year’s movies will look even more similar than usual. Four separate film crews showed up at a not-so-secret southwestern Colorado location on the very same day to film, while on an earlier East Coast rail trip both Whitey and Mack Dawg found themselves causing trouble in a Buffalo, New York hotel (as a matter of pure coincidence).

The only thing worse than showing up to film at a played-out location is ending up in jail. Just ask Chad Otterstrom, Andy Wright, and Brad Scheuffele, who were taken to the Japanese big house after partaking in a pellet-gun fight in the streets of Tokyo.

The Mammoth East Coast invasion is expected to continue for another year, as practically the whole Killington Mountain School scurried to get their 399-dollar passes last spring. Mammoth Lakes residents can look forward to further debauchery from kids like Kyle Clancy, Zach Leach, Catherine Nieves, Lane Knaack, Danny Kass, and Rahm Klampert. In another two years, if any of them get married, they might even be able to call themselves "locals."

In the land of fly-rides, the self-proclaimed "man with the most bling" in snowboarding, Trevor Andrew, is still driver’s license-less. Maybe it’s a just a Canadian thing–photographer Dano Pendygrasse was 27 before he got his.

Sims has been hyping its newly added, long-awaited French Canadian delegate Gaetan Chanut. In the company’s first marketing effort with him, he has been given the more friendly alias of "Gary Chinnuts."

Wille Yli-Luoma and Nicole Angelrath are rumored to be house shopping in the Portland area with eleven-month-old daughter Lilou Isa Pirkko Angelrath Yli-Luoma. Hopefully they’ll land in a good school district where their wee one will learn to write and spell her name before she graduates from high school. This could be a problem, though, because her name includes a full 67 percent of the letters in the Roman alphabet.

Dave Downing reportedly turned down an undisclosed offer for an Xbox video game because he doesn’t believe in video games and the evil and laziness they represent.

FALLEN PREY

This season saw a string of severe and unfortunate accidents–a couple of which required helis to airlift riders out. Mike Page and J-F Giasson both rode into a knee-high grappling wire after a late-night photo shoot at Blackcomb. Although Page sustained critical injuries (amputation was mentioned initially), doctors believe he will regain full use of his legs and will be riding soon. Additional word on J-F was unavailable at press time.

Mikko Sjoblom ended up comatose after flying approximately 160 feet from takeoff to landing on a jump in the Mammoth backcountry. Although he set it down, Mikko couldn’t take the compression from the combination of height and speed. Consequently, he was then sent from his hip to his head. Blood clots in his brain made recovery grim, but not long after being hospitalized Mikko began breathing without a respirator, responding to family and friends, and he is now making incredible progress. Now back in Helsinki, he is being worked on by specialists. Our prayers are with him.

Natasza Zurek blew out her ACL again and will have surgery in anticipation of the 2002 Olympics.

Fredrik Sarvell found himself with ten stitches in his chin after he and Roger Hjelmstadstuen both bought dirt bikes in Colorado. That’s what you get when you’re the last one to jump on the motocross bandwagon.

Travis Mclain and Gretchen Bleiler have allegedly broken up, leaving one of Colorado’s finest open to offers from the rest of the industry. Get in line. And Shane Flood cut his hair, a crippling blow to anyone who enjoyed him as the dirty hippie he was.

DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK

Chris Dufficy has been fully cleared by doctors to return to snowboarding, although they’ve all pleaded with him to quit banging his head.

Kurt Wastell is bionic. After severing the ACL in his right knee in late February in Japan, and having surgery in mid March, he was taking runs again in early May.

After years of imagined ailments and diseases, snowboarding’s most notorious (and accident-prone) hypochondriac, Bobby Meeks, finally found a health-insurance company to cover him. Now he can get the ankle injury that plagued him during the Y2K Slopestyle in Japan last February examined. Whoops, we mean the ankle injury he sustained, ah, last week. Yeah. It was last week, right Bobby? Meeks, figuring that all snowboarders look alike, convinced K2 Team Manager Brian Craighill to compete and represent in his place. Craighill subsequently placed in the top four, winning a bike, an MP3 player, and some cash for his sidelined teamrider. Their overall win at this year’s Team Challenge may now be under review.

THIS SPACE FOR RENT

If it’s uninjured and available teamriders you’re looking for, there are plenty floating around. Type A abandoned its team of Ben Ashburner, Jim Moran, Lane Knaack, Dave Cashen, Quim Cardona, and Chris Crossland. Some contracts will hold true until fall, while other riders have already found new deals. Lane was seen receiving packages from Gnu and Nitro, and might continue to ride on the latter.

What is Jason Borgstede going to do now? Still without sponsor, he was spotted riding a Gnu. There’s no current word on continued negotiations.

The demise of Morrow’s team program has left Erik Leines, Josh Dirksen, and Chris Hotell sponsorless. Dirksen is trying to decide if he should go into pro skiing rather than find himself a new board sponsor. He may also be looking into snowskating pro. After executing benihanas over a medium-sized tabletop at Snow Summit following this year’s Team Challenge, some have hailed him as the Burton Junkyard ﾒDawg."

Sims released Kim Bohnsack from her contract.

K2 also made some changes to its own team. Tina Dixon found herself without a contract renewal, but it’s hard to snowboard when you’re living in Southern California, surfing every day, and cooking, cleaning, and sewing for "Cute Rob" Campbell. Marc-Andre Tarte and Jonas Guinn also discovered that their deals were not being continued.

Burton is cutting their rookie team down to ten riders, total. They also shut the front doors of their Mt. Hood house to anyone not on the global team for the prime months of summer, proving once and for all that being an am in snowboarding is not as cool as being an am in skateboarding.

SIGN HERE

Not everyone has been a victim to the sponsorship axe. Todd Richards signed on with Rossignol only one week prior to K2 pulling the plug on the entire Morrow team program and marketing department. Andrew Crawford has been looking dope on his new Rossignol pro-model board with a Danzig-like graphic and in his Pro-Tec helmet. Did Chris Engelsman leave after being denied a multiyear contract with K2, or did he not have any say in the matter? Not discouraged, he’s gotten a good deal with Burt Lamar’s new project, Elevation (scheduled to have boards out this season). Matt Hammer added Clive and Planet Earth to his sponsorship list. For anyone else who wants a piece of Hammer, rumor is he still needs a stomp-pad and leash sponsor. Eddie Wall has also been spotted pumping up his new DC boots. Chris Brown has been riding a Lib Tech with continued and encouraging communications in process with that brand. Jordan Mendenhall now rides Forum. Tyler Lepore has reportedly signed on with Capita.

PIECE OF THE ROCK

Kevin Jones has certainly become the snowboard-industry enigma these days. After leaving Lamar, he was rumored to be launching Capita with Jason Brown. After creative differences, he was seen riding a Forum (and will be through the year 2001). Then word was he was hooking up with Sims as its mystery teamrider. Most recently, there’s been hubbub that he may be starting his own company. The brand is supposedly called "Fishing Company" after Kevin’s love of tying one on.

In a glimmer of light for those on the sponsorship quest, it seems to be cool to start up new companies again. Grenade Gloves, the brainchild of the Kass brothers and Jared Slater, has been blowing up over the past year. Although the company doesn’t make gloves yet, it does have quite a following with its hoodies, stickers, T-shirts, socks, and antics, as well as a global team including Jesse Burtner.

Here’s a name that you haven’t heard in a while–Jeff Brushie. Denying retirement rumors, we’ve discovered that he is working on Vendetta with girlfriend and ex-Ride Marketing Director Greta Brumbach. The new company is set to be a small project at first, and product may potentially available around the time you’re reading this here.

Mikey LeBlanc, Scotty Wittlake, and Devun Walsh also have a new venture in the works. As of yet, there is no telling if their clothing company will be hip-hop or hessian, or what it will be called. After Wittlake’s latest effort, maybe they could name it "Banned For Life From Southwest Airlines." After getting in an argument with another passenger on a Southwest flight, Scotty was reportedly held for three hours in an airport jail, questioned by the FBI, and as a consequence, will be arrested for trespassing if he even attempts to purchase a ticket from SW.

Finally, here are a few questions to ponder in anticipation of the next issue. Is Jamie Lynn really retiring? Does riding powder at Mt. Baker, entering the Banked Slalom, and publishing a magazine with your bros count as being a professional snowboarder these days?

Will a snowboard-industry dropout/skateboard-industry outcast really start a new company with a snowboard videographer that will bring the rebellion back to snowboarding?