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more. Kick down the latest for the Snowblower 9.0 The Snowblower Archives: Check out past versions of The Snowblower RANDOM &
RECKLESS
"Has anyone seen Dave Swift?" — Todd Richards saying hello to the staff
at TransWorld Snowboarding Magazine.
"Know anyone who wants to start a new snowboard magazine?" — Whitey
McConnaughy
"Seeing all the recently cut pros riding pipe at Mt. Hood is like
watching a guy who just got fired from Taco Bell practice folding burritos." — Bitterman.
"I feel pretty good about the turnaround at Ride,
so good in fact that I'm calling it a finished project." — Bob Hall, Former President of Ride
Snowboards.
"Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, bullshit." — X Games vert crowd after watching the
judges give Tony Hawk third place.
"No, I’m a freerider now. I’m done with all that training stuff." —Ex-racer
Jeremy Jones after being introduced as a racer.
MICKY D’s McTWIST CO-OP
Filmer Jon Boyer spotted this lovely McTwist
Value Meal while travelling in Switzerland. Apparently, if you order the meal you can enter a contest
to win a new Nidecker Snowboard. Mike McGill should definitely put in for some royalties.
Isn’t a trick considered intellectual property?
HOOD WINKED
It’s been raining at Hood all summer. In fact,
here’s what it looks like at Timberline right now. (Image stolen from Portland Channel 8 KGW).
The weather hasn’t stopped the scene, however. Here’s the latest from the hub of North
American summer snowboarding:
Burton
is doing some super secret stealth testing on a new line of boards with the working title Seven. This
name follows the tried and true five-letters-three-consonants-separated-by-vowels format used by Kodak,
Xerox, Nikon, Nixon, Canon, and not surprisingly, Forum. The new team is rumored to
include Jeff Anderson, Rahm Klampert, plus some Euro and Japan riders. We're not sure what the whole
gig on the line is, but apparently it targeted at the core snowboard market. Interesting. Maybe Burton
is beginning to take the World Industries approach to snowboards. When you max your brand, start a new
one.
Airwalk is back in scramble mode. With Tony Hawk gone to Adio who can blame 'em. Andy
MacDonald who just won 1998 X Games Vert Gold in San Diego is still down with the program and should be hanging out at Hood this summer to keep the
Airwalk name alive. Major cuts at Salomon.
Not only riders like Todd Franzen and J2, but Euros, too. A big meeting in France went
down in mid June and it looks like more than riders are going to be cut from the program thanks to the
new Adidas buy out.
Tomi Tominen has to go back to Finland next week to begin his six month stint in the army. He
managed to dodge the mandatory time for six year, but they've caught up with him. Max
Plotzenider somehow dodge the draft thanks to Nitro.
Blaise
Rosenthal
Blaise Rosenthal and the rest of the Silence team is gone-daddy-gone. But Blaise is
taking it in stride. That just means he’s a free to play the field.
Victoria Jealouse has been spotted at Hood. This time she has brought her mom to camp.
The whole K2
and Shimano crews were in town for company meetings. Brian Savard is still happily
married, Luke Edgar had a baby girl last winter, and Hayley Martin is getting close to
having a baby.
Ride Snowboards just lost more of their corporate big wig marketing people, but there weren’t
there long enough for us to know them anyway.
In other Ride news; Jennie Waara is living in Seattle these days with her boyfriend Mike Ranquet. Circe Wallace's new rental in Cardiff burned down
a day after she moved. Apparently, some upstairs hippy neighbors left a candle burning a
little too long.
Justin "Billy Idol" Hostynek has been practicing paragliding tandem with Mike
Basich and hopes to film Hood from the sky with riders Kurt Wastell and Marc Frank
dropping triple hitters in the Windell's park.
Chris Brunkhart left Snowboarder and is now working for T-Dub (aren’t we
all). His summer roommate Matt Donohue is still the most sought after bachelor at Hood.
Pink Leo reigns supreme.
USSTC is rocking this year thanks to Andy Wolf kicking ass with his new program.
Mt. Hood Snowboard Camp has a pretty cool new website at www.snowboardcamp.com. Check it out.
Windell's dope new digs at the Shamrock are taking summer camp to a whole new level. Not only
is there an insane skate set up, but also 26 acres of mountain bike trails owned by the camp.
That’s about all. Stay tuned for more wonderful stuff from Mt. Hood and around the shrinking
world of snowboarding. Which reminds us:
Snowboard Industry washing instructions: to avoid shrinkage please wash in COLD water and DO NOT
TUMBLE-DRY. Thank you. |