Bury the Hatchet

Teaser for an independent project by Tyler Whelan. The skiing is pretty good and there are a few pow jumps in the mix but mostly urban. The full feature is going to be free and released sometime this fall.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/25220512}

Hardcore by Wordup Media

This is a video I’m actually pretty excited to see more of. The trailer is pretty sick and these Norwegians shred everything from street to pow to a dub remix of an 80’s hair metal song. I can dig it

[http://vimeo.com/25114871]

Crystal Media Presents!…. Something

Ok so Something isn’t the name, in fact I don’t think this project has been named. This is just the teaser that precedes the trailer but it’s got a double backflip so that gives it some merit… right?

Business by Twinmotion and Bizz’Up

Pretty good edit from these German kids, though watching this trailer makes me thankful I’m not epileptic. The slow mo is a little choppy but these kid’s can throw down in the park.

On The Road with Solitaire by Sweetgrass Productions

On The Road with Solitaire is a monthly 12 part webisode series that documents the two year South American ski and snowboard project Solitaire. The documentary style of shooting is pretty intriguing, there’s no skiing or snowboarding until episode 4, but paints a good portrait of the the film maker and his experiences in South America.

The webisodes are released the third week of every month (though I’m still waiting for episode 5 to drop, you’re a day late sweetgrass!) and I’ll keep this updated as more webisodes are dropped.

Episode 1:

Episode 2:

Episode 3:

Episode 4

Chillin in Jackson!

So I haven’t said much about it on my twitter or facebook, but I recently was given an amazing opportunity to intern with the web department at Teton Gravity Research. I can’t express how excited I was when I got the email sayin I got the position. I immediately dropped every plan I had to be in L.A. for the summer to intern for Aerial7 headphones (don’t get me wrong, Aerial7 are an awesome company and I love their products, but at heart I’m a snowboarder. Check this review of their Phoenix headphones by TheAngrySnowboarder. Personally I rock the Tank Mondrians and get compliments on them daily.)

So I’ve been in Jackson for a week, being homeless for a day because the plans I had to tour an apartment on my first day fell through, and it’s amazing here. There’s so much to do for such a small town. Yesterday the other interns and I rode out to Grand Targhee and did a hike up to this tree tap we built right off the highway (edit to follow). First time I’ve strapped in since I did this to myself at Tyrol Basin in Madison, WI in April.

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All in all having a great summer, I’ve got an amazing internship and I start making coffee in town on friday to pay the bills n buy beer, you know the necessities. Check back as I’ll update stuff from the summer and follow me on twitter for snow sports updates as they happen.

Peace and love people!
-Kyle

After a year hiatus I’ve decided to come back

Not for any particular reason, boredom mostly and my recent interest in the re-surging appreciation for style in snowboarding among other things. Despite the recent craze for all tricks that come in triple cork form, This year it was great to see the the Best Method Contest at the Winter X games.

Or this weekends Big Wave Challenge at Mt. Bachelor. I think it’s great that Mt Bachelor is using their natural terrain to create unique contests. I’ll elaborate:

There has been all this talk about progression, and pushing the limits of snowboarding the past few years. However the boundaries being pushed by these elite pro’s are only the boundaries of what we know is capable of being done on a board. For the other 99.9% of athletes out there that will never land a triple cork 1440 (though props to Mark McMorris for nailing the first one on video) this doesn’t do much but provide the opportunity to watch someone have a hard banger somewhere in a blooper reel or crash clip trying to perfect a new trick (see Torstein Horgmo’s multiple attempts at X games with broken ribs and the resulting infamous onslope interview).

Event’s like Mt Bachelor’s big wave challenge, or Burton’s Stash Park are what really progress the sport for everyone.

What I’m not excited about as much is spring. I’m in Minnesota and we haven’t had a hill open for over a month now. The Spring hasn’t been kind in reminding me that asphalt hurts more than snow. Took a few longboard spills, and a couple bike accidents but no big, finally all healed up and once next week is over (which means finals are done) I’ll be back at it. Hopefully it will be dry enough to go ride some of the Mississippi river valley bluffs on my newly setup 24″ cruiser BMX bike!

Dew Games at Snowflex

Hey Everyone, I just got done with a 20 hour drive from Virginia to Minnesota, but it was well worth the almost two days in the car to be able to head down to Liberty and check out the Dew Games at Snowflex.

Kids were throwing down some sick stuff, Yale Cousino showed up with a few friends to compete, and Keir Dillon came down to announce.

The cash prizes amounted to $5,000 among snowboard and ski big air and rail jam disciplines. Ill update more after some sleep!

Season’s over

Well for quite a few of us in the US the season has ended. The last local hill around me closed last Sunday, leaving me anxious for November. But I have some good news, at least for me… I will be in Virgina in two weekends for the Snowflex Dew Games at Liberty Mountain doing my own coverage of the event. Im going to have interviews with Brian Thomas, the inventor of Snowflex, the GM down in VA, some of the riders (I heard Kier Dillon is going to be there and some more) if you want more info about the event its a slopestyle event open to the public expecting a field of 200 snowboarders and skiers narrowed down to 30 (15 from each discipline) competing on the first US artificial snow surface.

For more info check out http://www.liberty.edu/snowflex

Coming up

I kinda skipped over the olympics. They dont really do it for me, the only thing I thought was interesting about it was that Torah Bright one gold. The first Australian to take gold in a snowboarding event, and Scotty Lago getting kicked out because of some “racey” images of him and a girl. Heres him on Jimmy Kimmel

In other news, next month the US’s first snowflex center opens to the public in Virginia. The Liberty Mountain Snowflex Centre [sic] is set to open April 10th.
More info HERE

The X-games are going to Europe this month. March 10-12 at Tignes, so thats gonna be sweet.

More Info HERE

And the Oakley Arctic Challenge is going down! Probably the most exciting news to me. Happening this weekend Mar 5-7. The TAC is the best of the best riders competing against eachother.

These are the specs:
• TTR top 10 from last season, according to the TTR guidelines
• Previous TAC winners
• TTR Top 20 after Burton Canadian Open
• Top 3 from the Swag qualification event in Vierli

SICKNESS!! so not just any pro can make it, you gotta prove your worth to ride here. Ill for sure post some updates on that event which is going down in Oslo, Norway.