April 1, 1999

By Those Ignorant Readers

The final issue-200 letters left and less than two pages to squeeze them in. Obviously we can't print them all, but that doesn't mean we didn't appreciate your sending them in. In the interest of making as much room for y'all here as possible, we're going to make like we're one of them fancy professional magazines and not tag on a last word to your letters. Well, except for the letter of the month-you can make up your own responses for the rest of 'em. Ta!-eds.

Licks Of Butts

You're the bible of snowboarding, and thanks to god you come also to the newsstand of the railway station of my town. End of compliments and licks of butts.

I wrote you because of the competition of the October issue [Fantasy Park]. Last October (1997), I enjoyed a lot the lift-pass competition, and I sent you all my old passes, hoping for goods. I didn't win. So this season I saved all my lift tickets, but this October ... noooooo! You didn't run last year's competition!

Okay, no one did tell me you would, but I hoped you would, because it was a great competition, and it served to prove the commitment in snowboarding for the competitors. So now I have all these passes, and I send you the whole of them. What will you do with them?

Alessandro Pierantoni

Italy

Oh, we guess we'll keep them and give you a free Random snowboard, Alessandro-but only because you were so close last year, and 'cause we love random mail. Get it? Random! Hah! Uh ... we gotta go now-bye.

T.W.A.D.D.

This will be my third year of watching snow pile on the beautiful mountains of British Colombia from a wheelchair. Why? Because an idiot drunk driver made me a quadriplegic. I have been taken to the absolute depths of extreme terror and have had my whole soul undermined by this (DJ Shadow). At the same time, I've learned how to find happiness. I am confident in modern medicine finding a way to fix my spinal cord, and in the meantime I maintain a positive life. I don't know if I'll be hitting the pow anytime soon, but reading your mag today kept my dream alive!

My friends from Whistler and North Vancouver have been strong support, and I want to let them know how much I miss the snow. Helping Kearns and Johnson edit Whiskey 4 made me realize how much I miss filming my own movies, riding deep Revelstoke powder with Allan Clark, yelling atop Whistler with Mike Orr, international journeys with Shin Campos, hearing Dano sing beneath a cliff, but more than anything, I miss riding fast with my best friend Glen Wal.

Thank you everyone who has given me amazing memories of the snowboard world. Without you I would have never made it this far. When you make your turns this season, please throw one down for me, and then phone and let me know how it was. I'll love to hear about it. Who knows what the Year 2000 will bring us, but my money's on a return to the snow for me!

To Whistler, the CSM Crew, Stu, A.G. Fresh, The Juice, Circle clique, North Van locs, Mervin, Warburton, Lundgern, the Pendygrasses, Glen Wal, and everyone I ever shared a day with-much love! Keep the burns glowing.

Murray Siple

Burnt Productions

[email protected]

A'ight, Yo

I never had a favorite boarder until I read the Michi Albin interview in your November issue. He is so cool, and he kept it real. To all those guys out there who are so absorbed in the business aspect of boarding, KEEP IT REAL, and have fun.

Ryan Maguire

Wisconsin

Sypniewski Loves You

Snowboard tricks used to be easy to understand. In the beginning there were frontside spins and backside spins. Grabs could be described simply by adding the name of the grab to the spin. Then came fakie and switch. Simple. Now it seems like everyone has to name their own trick. No offense to any of the countless pro-riders pushing the limits, but there's just not enough room for you all to name a trick. There are only so many combinations of spinning and grabbing that can be done, and all can be easily described by terminology we all know now.

Skateboarding's got it right. When the transition was made from kickflip to 360 kickflip, they didn't call it a "Wet Crap." Every flip trick would be named after Rodney Mullen if the guy who landed it first got all the credit, but they describe them right on so there's no misunderstanding. We're headed in the direction of wakeboarding, where the same trick landed with the tow-handle in the opposite hand is called something else. It makes learning difficult.

I know the ollie, McTwist, and Caballerial are tricks named from skaters, but all these were huge leaps in skateboarding's progression. We should respect that, and take care not to water down snowboarding with tricks identified by four names (i.e., Sato flip, Kinger flip, 540 Crippler, frontside McTwist, etc.). Huge props to Peter Line for realizing that a backside rodeo is just that.

Craig Williams

Via Internet

Hick Towns Rock

I am from Sioux Lookout, Ontario-you can't even find it on a map! We just got over two feet of snow, went out to the golf course, built a few kickers and had a blast! We were pulling 540s off the littlest jumps. That is what snowboarding is all about. You don't need an expensive lift pass at a well-known resort to have fun. Riding at a golf course, or behind a church is just as fun 'cause you make the runs, the jumps, and the landings-it's amazing. I don't think this will get printed but I just had to say that hick towns rock because the boarders here rock-we can find fun anywhere! Owww!

Paul

Sioux Lookout, Ontario

Hardcore

I just want to say that all your articles on foreign lands have made my feet itch-enough that I have busted my ass to make things happen. I sold my car, work two jobs, and have been living the so called "dream" for the past two years. No comped tickets or adver-sponsors paying the tab-no one's help but my own. Articles on New Zealand over the past few years did nothing but stoke me out. When I attempted to get some companions for a journey there, all I heard was, "I need more time to plan ... I haven't got the money ... I wish I could ... "

Strangely enough these responses from my friends sound like the words I've heard many a pow day spewing from some weekend warriors/tourists lips. "You snowboard here, in this snow, every day? Wow! I wish I could do that."

"Why don't you?" I say. You can.

Those who want it bad enough will make it happen. I managed to ride every day one season without a pass. I make it to other states without a

car. I went alone to New Zealand. I met a lot more people I probably wouldn't have met had I traveled with a bunch of my friends. Now I have places to stay and floors to crash on all over the place.

So get off your ass and quit whining. There are some of us out here

who look at the photos and know that someday, maybe soon, we'll be

checking this out ourselves.

Greg Sperry

Happy Valley, Utah

This One Goes Out To Our Homies At Freeze

Here is my theory of skiers in the snowboard parks, and yes, I am a

snowboarder (not a skier) reading this mag. Okay, who looks better crashing? Skiers, because their skis go one way and their poles go another, then they usually have to walk uphill to retrieve them. When a snowboarder crashes, all that happens is maybe a broken bone, but nothing as fun as watching someone walking around looking for their gear.

Mike A

[email protected]

Sorry Little B.

I just read the November issue and saw a dog doing an inverted tailgrab, and it said original letters get prizes. Well my dog can bark! And I bet you've never seen this in a letter: AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz

So I'll be expecting my snowboard soon. I'll never give up. And if you print this, withhold my address. I don't want some crazy bastard showing up at my door!

Brandon Hoffner

Alberta, Canada

Someday We'll All Have Bionic Knees

Once, I dreamed of a race of superhuman snowboarders who were warm in any temperature or condition. Life was good. We snowboarded all day and never got wet or tired. But then I woke up, and I was in the hospital, and my knee was in traction, and it hurt, a lot. I kinda remembered being really cold and wet and seeing a serious section of bone pushing out of my thigh, so I pushed on the morphine button a couple of times and went back to my dream.

Miguel Javier Caballero

[email protected]

Pencil Carvers

I'm a 24-year-old snowboarder living in Holland-yes that's the country without mountains, but with the legal grass. If we want to board, we have to drive for one whole day (which we think is quite a lot). There are way too many people riding hardboots here in Holland-well in Europe anyway. Okay, that's what I wanted to contribute to your kick-ass mag. It's super cool, only not the price. In Holland we pay 17.50 guilders, which is about nine U.S. dollars.

Hot Oliver

Holland

Skiboarding Is The Cool New Thing

All this publicity is kicking snowboarding's ass! I mean, I'm not going to quit just 'cause every grommet and his cousin does it, but when you hear kids talking about which beanie matches their suit best, it's kinda lame. Maybe you guys could say that skiboarding is the cool new thing to do. That way all the posers can go out and get their pair of skiboards-'cause it's the new trend.

Dave Price

Sandpoint, Idaho

Letters (which may be edited for clarity and space) should be sent in marked: Letter To The Editor, TransWorld SNOWboarding. By snail-trail mail: 353 Airport Rd., Oceanside, CA 92054. By FAX: (760) 722-0653. By e-mail: [email protected] Those of you who are bored and have access to the Internet can post cyber-letters on www.twsnow.com