Chinese
in Dutch
Search
Snowboarding News
Snowboarding News - July 2008
Display Mode:
Feed
Thursday, 31 July 2008Over 200 snowboarders from 17 countries went to Wanaka to participate in the sixth annual Burton New Zealand Snowboarding Open.
At the six-venue global open series, world-class snowboarders go head to head to win one of the most coveted titles in snowboarding as well as the prize purse of (USD) $900,000. Some of the athletes who showed up for the said competition were Wanaka's very o wn Mitchell Brown, Jamie Anderson, and Juliane Bray.
The Burton NZ Open will be concluded with a halfpipe competition on Saturday, August 2.
For more details on this news, please visit www.odt.co.nz.
Wednesday, 30 July 2008United States of America - The newest buzzword in the travel vocabulary is "staycation". It means staying home and still doing the things one loves to do. That's difficult for skiers and riders who don't live in tiny mountain towns and villages. OnTheSnow.com's 17 regional editors, based in alpine regions around the world, have selected 10 excellent ski and snowboard options, all within a tank of gas, from a metropolitan area. That's staying, at least, close to home and still indulging in a favorite sport.
- Salt Lake City, Utah: The Wasatch Mountains are so close to the city that skiing and snowboarding are a birthright shared by locals and visitors. The Park City resorts of Deer Valley, Park City Mountain Resort, and The Canyons are a 30-minute drive. The Cottonwood Canyon resorts of Snowbird, Alta, Solitude, and Brighton are only 45 minutes away. Sundance is an hour, and one tank of gas will get you to Powder Mountain or Snowbasin and home. No reason to go anywhere else with the Wasatch as your backyard.
- Innsbruck, Austria: Are you are lucky enough to call Innsbruck home? Then you live in a virtual skiing and sports embarrassment of riches with 300 miles of ski trails in 25 villages. Even better, they are all interconnected by a free ski bus system. Culture, history, and skiing combine to make a fine staycation. Axamer Lizum is a fulfilling ski area. It's about a 30-minute drive from downtown. Night skiing awaits at Mutters and Igls. Patscherkofel is close by, as is the Stubai glacier for summer skiing and boarding and Seefeld, a superb cross-country ski venue.
- Denver, Colorado: Winter Park Resort always has felt like Denver's "home base" for skiers and riders, but never more so than now. The venerable resort is 70 miles (about 90 minutes drive) from downtown. A fun way to avoid the car altogether is to ride the Ski Train from Union Station. Other good bets on the Denver side of the Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70 are Arapahoe Basin and Loveland. Live in Boulder? Eldora is "home".
- Rome, Italy: The San Grasso region, east of Rome, means skiing and riding at Campo Felice. The ski area is 116 km. from the city, about an 80-minute drive. The resort provides varied skiing and snowboarding experiences, and there are a surprising number of challenging pistes. The weekends get crowded, but there are 16 lifts. There's not much nightlife at Campo but, after all, home is Rome.
- Albuquerque, New Mexico: Sandia Peak is just nine miles off I-40 on the east side of the state's largest city. It's famous for its 2.7 mile-long tramway, one of the longest in the world, taking tourists and locals alike 11,000 feet over the canyons to some quality skiing and boarding. Intermediates love the long cruisers. Live an hour away in Santa Fe? Ski Santa Fe is merely four miles away. How close can you get?
- Vancouver, British Columbia: Cypress Mountain is 30 minutes from Downtown in the North Shore Mountains and is served by four quad chairs. Add snowtubing, cross-country skiing, and snowshoeing to the mix. Freestyle and snowboarding events at the 2010 Winter Olympics will be staged here. Smaller Grouse Mountain is 15 minutes from home and, while it can get crowded, two high-speed quad chairs can move the traffic along. Whistler Blackcomb, among the finest resorts in the world, is just 70 miles away, about a two-hour drive, and less than a tank of gas.
- Boston, Massachusetts: Wachusett Mountain is one of the most accessible ski areas close to big metros (one hour from Boston; 1.25 from Providence; 1.5 from Hartford, and 20 minutes from Worcester). This family-owned gem is 2,006 feet high, but still gets help from the resort's "Department of Mother Nature" to assure good conditions. Try the Ski Train from Boston's North Station to Fitchburg and grab the free shuttle to and from the lifts and forget the car.
- Los Angeles, California: There's a reason Mountain High has become one of the nation's most visited "close to home" ski areas. It's 1.5 hours from Downtown L.A., and 75 minutes from Orange County. Even San Diego is but 2.5 hours south. But here's the rub: There's no mountain driving involved. The resort is as hip and board-oriented as it can get, offering three distinct riding (and, ok, skiing) experiences.
- Minneapolis, Minnesota: Buck Hill is so nearby that skiers and snowboarders feel like they can toss a snowball from their car window on I-35 in the suburb of Burnsville and hit the slopes. It's no slouch in size, either, with 11 chairs and 15 runs. The little ski area churns out U.S. Ski & Snowboard team racers, boarders, and freestylers. Another choice close to home is Hyland Ski & Snowboard Area in Bloomington.
- San Francisco Bay Area, California: Family-owned Dodge Ridge is a popular pick for families living in California's Central Valley or Bay Area. The ski area averages between 300-500 inches of snow each season. The Family Lodge that opened last winter is a plus. Terrain is ideal for beginners and intermediates, and there are some black diamond challenges. Dodge is 30 miles east of Sonora off Highway 108 near Pinecrest. That's about 160 miles from San Francisco and San Jose; 140 miles from Fresno. This resort has become a popular "tank of gas" option in the region. (PRLog Press Release)
www.prlog.org
Tuesday, 29 July 2008Breckenridge, CO - The AST, the umbrella brand and organization of today's most prestigious action sports events, has announced the host resorts and dates for the three stops of the inaugural AST Winter Dew Tour. The Winter Tour, which will feature freeskiing and snowboarding disciplines for both men and women, will kick off at Breckenridge Ski Resort in Breckenridge, Colorado (http://www.resortq uestbreckenridge.com) - Dec. 18-21, 2008, Mount Snow Resort in West Dover, VT - Jan. 8-11, 2009, concluding at Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort in Lake Tahoe, CA - Feb. 19-22, 2009.
The disciplines for the men will include slopestyle and superpipe snowboarding as well as slopestyle and superpipe skiing. The disciplines for the women include slopestyle and superpipe snowboarding and slopestyle and superpipe skiing exhibitions. All three stops of the Winter Dew Tour will be televised on NBC and event information for spectators will be available prior to the start of the season.
"We are extremely excited with all three of our host resorts for the inaugural AST Winter Dew Tour," said Wade Martin, AST President. "We feel that each resort is a great fit for the AST and we look forward to the start of another successful action sports series."
"From an athlete's perspective, we are all really fired up about the inaugural AST Winter Dew Tour season," said Simon Dumont, 2007 World Superpipe Champion. "The AST has had huge success with their Summer series and we in the Winter sports world have been waiting for something like the Dew Tour for some time."
The Breckenridge event marks the return of the Dew Tour to Colorado after a two-year hiatus from the original summer series at the Pepsi Center in 2005-06. The five-stop summer series includes season-long competition in skateboarding, BMX freestyle, and freestyle motocross, in which competitors earn points toward an overall championship cup awarded at season's end. A similar structure is planned for the winter series, with a $1.5 million competitive purse spread across the three stops.
Guests who are interested in lodging for the competition are encouraged to contact ResortQuest Breckenridge Vacation Rentals (http://www.resortquestbreckenridg.ecom). ResortQuest offers a complete selection of vacation rentals and lodging packages for the Winter Dew Tour along with convenient locations near the slopes and the town of Breckenridge. Guests can choose from deluxe hotel suites, 1-4 bedroom condominium, and luxurious private homes in ski-in/ski-out or downtown locations. For more information on ResortQuest Breckenridge and their wide selection of vacation rentals, visit www.resortquestbreckenridge.com.
ResortQuest, one of the nation's leading vacation rental hospitality and resort real estate companies, provides a one-stop resource in North America's premier resort destinations (www.resortquest.com). ResortQuest is the largest marketer and management company of vacation condominiums and home rentals in the U.S. and Canada, based on a portfolio of nearly 15,000 vacation rental properties with a combined real estate value estimated at approximately $7 billion. ResortQuest Real Estate is one of the nation's leading real estate companies focusing exclusively on resort properties, offering superior brokerage services in the country's premier beach, ski, and golf destinations. ResortQuest employs more than 4,000 people and is a subsidiary of the Leucadia Corporation (NYSE: LUK). (PRWEB)
Monday, 28 July 2008A snowboarder from Sydney passed away due to an incident happened while he was on a snowboarding holiday last Tuesday, July 22 at the Portillo winter resort, located north of Santiago, Chile. The victim was identified as 31-year old Julian Fine.
According to reports, Fine fell off a ledge after getting off a lift before reaching the peak of the mountain. Officials added that Fine suf fered fatal multiple fractures.
The Australian Embassy in Santiago said that the snowboarder's body was taken to the town of San Felipe for an autopsy. After that, the body will then be sent to his home with a funeral to be held in Sydney next week.
For more details on this news, please visit www.news.com.au.
Sunday, 27 July 2008Lake Wanaka is fast establishing a reputation as the first choice for off-season training for top international skiers and snowboarders. Cardrona Alpine Resort, Snow Farm, Snow Park, and Treble Cone have all confirmed that they will host Olympic and National snow sports teams who look to continue training through their summer months.
Lake Wanaka's resorts are also included on the com petition circuit of many prestigious international snow sport events attracting further elite skiers and boarders here to compete.
Snow Park NZ provides the stage for the Burton New Zealand Open (29 July – 2 Aug) with Slopestyle, Quarter Pipe, and Half Pipe competitions, promising big air from snowboarders at the top of the game. Next up at Snow Park NZ is the Billabong Snowstock (14-15 August), incorporating a Big Air competition for international and New Zealand snowboarders.
The Volkl Free Ski Open (20-29 August) attracts elite freeskiers from around the world to test their skills at all the resorts. Giant Slalom and Slalom skiers from Australasia are joined by Asian and European athletes to compete in the Continental Cup (30-31 August) at Treble Cone.
Snow Sports NZ will stage FIS Continental Cup slopestyle event (3 Sept) at Cardrona Alpine Resort. It will be the only slopestyle event in the Southern Hemisphere to carry coveted FIS points. A few days later, Snow Sports NZ will host the first event of the 2008-09 FIS World Cup snowboarding calendar, also at Cardrona. The LG FIS Snowboard World Cup Half Pipe (6-7 Sept) will feature some of the world's top snowboarding talents.
Teams and individuals who confirmed to train at Treble Cone include Alpine Skiing World Cup holder Bode Miller (USA) as well as Austria, Norway, Germany, and America's national teams. Olympic Teams from China, Japan, Australia, and Italy will train in the freestyle park and also Kelly Clark Olympic gold medalist with further teams heading to Snow Park NZ once the superpipe has been primed. Cardrona Alpine Resort will host teams from Canada, Sweden, and US throughout the season with many national snowboard teams training during late August and early September.
Many international teams will also be drawn to the area in preparation for the Winter Games NZ 2009, with over 600 athletes expected to compete from Pacific Rim countries and beyond. Lake Wanaka's resorts will take center stage for many of the skiing and snowboarding elements of the Games.
The resorts work to a tight schedule, rotating the teams' training times to ensure ski field visitors are not affected by the channels reserved for training.
John Alldred, CEO of Lake Wanaka Tourism, welcomes teams and events to the area. "Having so many international teams and events at Wanaka's resorts is testament to the world-class facilities we have available to snow sports enthusiasts and professionals," he said.
For further information, visit www.skilakewanaka.com.
For the latest news, tips, trivias and special offers, sign up to the ABC of Snowboarding newsletter.
advertisementadvertising info
advertisementadvertising info
Latest Snowboarding News
For a complete list of all discount coupons with our merchants, subscribe to our Discount RSS Feed: 
MySpace
Squidoo
Facebook
Scribd
Twitter
© 2003-2012 ABC of Snowboarding, part of MaxLifestyle International Inc. All rights reserved.
