The All New Snowblower 5.0
(February 20, 1997)

In case you're wondering it's been a while since we loaded one of this puppies up. Rather than ramble on, here's the skinny:

RANDOMLY QUOTABLE:
"No, I don't know Craig Kelly. I don't think that guy was still snowboarding when I started." --Bobby Meeks answering someone's question in the SOL Talkbox Chat.

"I hope none of you are buying into this Craig Kelly powder seclusion B.S. You think Jake didn't see this whole Olympic thing coming. He took Craig out of the scene in his prime and sent him to train at a secret northwest facility under the guise of some backwoods recluse. Soon the truth will be known. Craig's gonna motor a f---in' Samurai home from Nagano baby." --[email protected]

"Almost nothing important that ever happens to you happens because you engineer it. Destiny has no beeper." --David Foster Wallace, "Infinite Jest."

NEWS SO OLD IT'S DUSTY:
Ben Pruess and Jesse Hyvaari were driving back from the demo in Les Deux Alpes and they hit a deer at night and knocked the windshield out. What can you expect, they were driving a Peugeot. They had to drive the next day with their goggles on to get the car back to the rental place.

Congratulations to Jimi Scott who married his long-time girlfriend Kristy in October. If we waited much longer to tell you all, we could have just said happy one year anniversary.

We hope Daniel Franck bought everyone in his family nice presents for Christmas after winning the largest cash award ever given in a contest in Sweden at the Goteburg quarterpipe. First place netted him a lump sum of 46,000 dollars. What do you think Terje and Peter Line got for second and third place?

Luxury's Shin Campos was recently reported to be putting his newly purchased snow machine to work in Revelstoke filming with TransWorld Video Mag. When not filming Shin has been helping get the Canadian Olympic Halfpipe Team going. Final selection for those riders will be announced throughout this and next season.

The Victoria Jealouse fan club will be happy to hear that not only will they be able to see their favorite female snowboarder every time they plug in a TB movie, but she'll now be appearing regularly on main stream TV in the new Mountain Dew commercial that was filmed at Jackson Hole in December. The commercial apparently also features stunt woman extraordinaire Morgan LaFonte who is up and riding strong after a knee injury that took her out for most of last season. for the commercial Morgan was reportedly dropping some of the highest cliffs ever dropped by a woman, which we know coming from the queen of backflips, we don't have to see to believe.

Mike Ranquet recently had a little battle with a snow mobile in Canada while filming with Sean Kerns and Johnson. It seems Ranquet didn't realize that it's not a good idea to get the machine going sideways on a hill and he accidentally rolled it off of a cliff. The next day they flew in with a copter and rescued the battered snowmobile. Luckily it was a rental and not one of the lovely new Ride Inc. snow machines.

Rocket Reeves won an award for being "The Best Liquor Pig" at the X Games. At the moment he's working hard at keeping that honorable award, while sitting around in Europe waiting for it to snow. After good coverage in the early season, the Alps are seeing a dry spell, and Standard Films is having a hard time finding freshies to film guys like Rocket on for TB6.

Gabe Crane moved from Steamboat to Tahoe (about three months ago).

WRECKAGE RUNDOWN:
Michele Taggart is back on board again and riding strong after a broken leg put her out of commission for December and January. She said she's feeling strong and was seen competing in the FIS halfpipe contest at Mt. Bachelor in early February.

In other injury news this winter: A get well goes out to Bobby Meeks who blew out his knee at the MTV gig a early in December in Steamboat after rock n' rolling off a big bum holed kicker.

Mammoth Mountain's Billy Anderson is moving around better these days after breaking his leg a while ago in the Mammoth Snowboard Park. He was seen at the FIS contest at Mt. Bachelor, but didn't enter it.

Travis Wood continues to be on the mend, working out in the gym getting back range of motion.

Eden Carter's knee may be blown for the season. Damn shame.

Salomon's Kristi Yzerman took a nasty spill in the FIS boardercross at Mt. Bachelor in early February and may have blown out her knee. We're still waiting final confirmation.

Peter Strom's elbow injury from last summer at Hood seems to be healed, however, he can't straighten his arm all of the way anymore.

Ingemar Backman is still taking it easy after riding all of last season on a bad ankle. According to inside sources, he getting really good at nursing his injuries.

Lael Gregory has a broken arm and will be taking the rest of the season off from competing to heal and work on his powder sluttdom.

Todd Richards broke a back tooth after pulling a nice spin to face plant at Bachelor in the pipe in February.

K2's Josh Rosen blew his board and ankles up in Utah last month, but still competed in the Mt. Baker Banked Slalom and got tenth place a week later.

Gnu rider Dave Sypniewski broke his shoulder a few weeks ago and tells us he is taking lots of really good pain killers these days.

Swedish Style king Oskar Norberg is back on snow after blowing his knee out at Riksgransen last year.

Sabrina Sedeghi is riding strong after pulling her MCL in December. She placed first in a recent halfpipe contest at Mt. St. Anne in Quebec.

FULL RIDE SPONSORSHIP NEWS:
Twist poster girl Jennie Waara has left Duotone and signed on with Ride for a fat pay check. Ride Team Manager Jack Coghlan wouldn't confirm the salary rumor but instead said while laughing heartily, "No, I think it was 80,000 a year and an Island in the South Pacific." Ride must be stoked to have the Scandinavian sweetheart as she just rocked the house at the X Games bringing home three medals.

Dub Pro Russell Winfield is back in Seattle these days in search of a new board sponsor. Rumor has it that MIA (if they are not MIA) is talking to him. So far this winter Russell has been reported to be lurking in the SOL chat room from various locations around the US like Snowmass, So Cal, and Taos. Hey Russell, how was the skiing in Taos?

Nate Cole and Roan Rogers are no longer riding for Cappel snowboard clothing. Could it be that the fat contract Brushie obtained clogged up the budget for other team riders? Or have they just joined the Circus?

Blaise Rosenthal is reportedly shopping around for clothing. We hear he's a wanted man: Special Blend, Planet Earth, and Swag are all talking to him.

Sarah Elwell is no longer riding for Pepsi because they have decided to quit making boards. Does that mean she still gets the rest of her reportedly large salary?

BJ Leines, formerly of Airwalk has left the footwear giant to join Peter Line's new company Forum.

Also recently spotted on a nice new Terje forum board was former Division 23 rider Alister Schultz. When asked if he was riding for them he sort of vaguely alluded to just trying the boards out. He was ripping pretty hard in the pipe though, so we hope that they'll pick him up.

Mikie LeBlanc has left Ride and is reportedly riding for Division 23. This would make three riders (Wendy Powell, Blue Montgomery, and Mikie LeBlanc) on the Yang team who also are on the Division 23 team.

Paige Clay signed on with Evol early this fall and has a late season pro model coming out soon. She says she pretty excited about riding for the skate/snow company because she can really focus on getting photos and freeriding the winter away. In the Spring Paige is talking about moving to L.A. where she will pursue acting and stunt work. "It pays well and it's a lot of fun." Currently Paige is signed on with the same agent as Heather Locklear and Tori Spelling. For more details on Paige's life, check out the Paige Clay article under Circleplus.

What do Jamie Lynn and Jeff Brushie have in common? Boots with their names on them. Next season will be remembered as "The Year Of The Pro Model Boot." Brush's logo and Jamie's signature will grace the shelves of shops everywhere. What will be next--signature long johns?

HAPPY HOME OWNERS:
"Whistler seems to be the place to buy a crib these days. Shorty's team rider Kevin Young just made the plunge into the home owners world with his new purchase outside of Whistler in Pemberton.

Derrek Heidt and Adventurescope cinematographer Brad McGreggor recently bought a new house in Whistler together.

Rumor has it that Sims pro rockstar Alan Clark is on the hunt for a little place to call home in the area as well.

Michele Taggart and Shannon Melhuse recently bought a new house in Salem, Oregon. They had plans to build a house on the land they purchased last year next to Jake Blattner's sprawling 12 acre ranch, but it seems that's on hold for the moment as both are on the road year-round at the moment gearing up for the Olympic trials.

Well, that's it for another installment of the Snowblower. We'll be back next month with another fresh dump of gossip from the road.

THE END: We'll have more real soon. And this time we mean it. If you've heard anything that doesn't need repeating please send it in to [email protected]. We won't tell anyone.