Snowboard A – Z

Her run consisted of an Air to fakie followed by an Ally-Oop McTwist.  If you’re not sure what that means, read on….

180
Closest thing to a 180 in the halfpipe is the straight air.

50/50
Riding straight over the rail

AIRDOG
snowboarder who jumps most of the time and is most interested in aerial tricks

ALLEY-OOP
used to describe any maneuver in the halfpipe where one rotates 180 or more degrees in an uphill direction.

BAIL
used to describe crashing or falling to escape out of a trick

BACKSIDE  180
Aerial maneuver in which the rider makes a 180 degree rotation off the jump leading with the heelside

BASE
bottom side of the snowboard, the part of the board that touches the snow.

BETTY
female rider

BEVEL
degree of angle to which the edges of a snowboard are tuned

BLINDSIDE
A term given to any rotation where the rider has oriented herself  “blind” to her takeoff or landing.

BOMB HOLE
a rutted out landing off a jump or rail.

BONK
hitting a no-snow object with the snowboard.

BOOST
used to describe catching air off of a jump. e.g. “She boosted ten feet out of the halfpipe.”

CAMBER
amount of space beneath the center of a snowboard when it lays on a flat surface and its weight rests on the tip and tail.

CHATTER
vibration of a ski or snowboard caused by the edges bouncing off hard snow instead of biting in.

CORN
small, rounded kernels of snow, most often seen in the springtime

CORDUROY
when a snowcat freshly grooms a trail leaving a finely ridged surface. Corduroy is nice for laying out clean turns.

CRIPPLER
a general term for an inverted frontside 5, 7 or 9 with most commonly a back flip and sometimes more of a side flip blended into it.

CRATER
used to describe a crash or fall

CRUD
snow of variable consistency because of temperature changes and several snowfalls.

FAKIE
riding the snowboard backwards from a normal stance

FALL LINE
the path of gravity’s pull on you down the hill.

FLEX
used to describe the stiffness of the board and how it absorbs various snow conditions; determines how a board will go into and out of a turn.

FREERIDING
recreational snowboarding; no contests, no halfpipe, no gates, no rules.

FRONTSIDE AIR
performed off of the toe edge wall; While airborne, the frontside of the riders’ body is facing out of the halfpipe.

GOOFY FOOT
riding on a snowboard with the right foot in the forward position, closest to the nose of the board.

HALFPIPE
trough-like area of snow with vertical walls.

HUCKER
one who throws herself wildly through the air and does not land on her feet.

HUCKFEST
gathering of snowboarders riding as hard and wild as possible.

INVERT
trick where the head is beneath the level of the board and the snowboarder balances on one or two hands.

JIB
act of riding on something other than snow, i.e. rails, trees, garbage cans, logs.

KICKER
a medium-sized jump

LEASH
device used to attach the snowboard to the front foot so that it doesn’t run away.

MCTWIST
inverted aerial where the rider performs a 540 degree flip.

NOSE
front end of the snowboard, specifically the tip.

OLLIE
pushing hard with your rear foot to get lift.

POWDER
fresh, dry, light snow that hasn’t been groomed.

POWDER PATTY
When one’s face meets the powder

PUNCH
a bad crash.

ROLLING DOWN THE WINDOWS
phrase used to describe when someone is caught off balance and they rotate their arms wildly in the air to try and recover.

SKETCHER
someone who flails precariously and comes close to falling.

STANCE
position of one’s feet on the snowboard.

STEEZ
style

STOMP
term used to describe making a good landing.

TAIL
rear tip of the snowboard.

TWIN TIP
board has an identical tip and a tail so that the board may be ridden similarly in both directions.

The Art of SK8 Contest

The folks at Ollie Pop have created a way for shops to get involved with their “Art of Sk8″ contest, a charity art exhibit in conjunction with the Skate Shop Showcase in LA.

The Showcase is dedicated to uniting the skate community through music, art and culture. Each participating Skate Shop is given a designated amount of wall space within the show to which they are free to design however they see fit. Add on top of that bands, dj’s and good times…

The event is focused on putting the spotlight on the Skate Retailer since skate shops are at the forefront everyday serving as the bridge between the consumer and the gear

Organizers are looking for Skate Shops to submit skateboarding inspired pieces from innovative artists to create an exciting and unique experience. Art work can be on any type of skate related material (skate shoe, wax, deck, etc). Top prize earns $500 worth of Ollie Pop Bubble Gum and the grand prize winner, chosen by the editors of Skateboarder Magazine, will be featured at the Showcase and in an upcoming issue of the mag.

Shops enlisted to be part of this years event include Liberty Board Shop, Urban Era (Daly City), Val Surf, Maintain, Transport, Non-Factory, 2^nd Nature (New York), Good Times (San Antonio, TX), ZJ’s Boarding House, 9 Star, Shelter, One Way Board Shop, Sunken City, IG board shop and many more.

The first Skate Shop Showcase event was produced in 2006 and saw everything from a full-blown build-out to hanging branded merchandise and painting on the walls (acrylic and aerosol).

Submissions will be used to raise money and awareness for charities that support the arts, skateboarding and/or children’s causes.

This year’s Skate Shop Showcase will take place on June 20th in Downtown L.A. at the Gallery 1018, 1018 Santa Fe. 8:30 pm – 1:30 am.

Deadline for submissions is June 18, 2008. Download the Entry Form/Flyer: Art_of_Sk8.pdf

For rules and submission information, please visit www.SkateShopShowcase.com

Let’s make sure some girls are represented!!

Making waves: Brazil’s surf sensation Maya Gabeira inspires girls

A Brazilian is emerging as one of the world’s top big wave surfers – and she’s a woman. Maya Gabeira’s skills and bravery have made her a female pioneer of daredevil tactics in a male-dominated sport. Pretty Tough, indeed.

Gabeira first took to a surfboard as an escape from her own teenage rebellion, but now she is breaking as many taboos and preconceptions as she is surfing breakers. She gave up a privileged life in Brazil to chase a dream: to surf the world’s biggest waves. From Hawaii to South Africa, Gabeira is doing exactly that, riding one wall of water after another.

Five years after leaving Rio de Janeiro, the 22-year-old is a star on and off the water. After winning a third consecutive surfing “Oscar” for best female this spring, she has just done a photo-shoot for Italy’s Vanity Fair and recently appeared on a popular Brazilian variety TV show that generates audiences of up to 80 million viewers.

Hailed as a pioneer for female athletes, Gabeira has become a role model for young women who are following her into the sport.

“It’s changing already,” she told the Observer. “The girls on tour are surfing so good and they are young and beautiful. Being a surfer and feminine at the same time is becoming more normal now.”

Dubbed the belíssima surfista by local media, Gabeira is a striking departure from the  footballers who are Brazil’s traditional sporting idols. The daughter of a fashion designer mother and political dissident father, her struggle as she was growing up was not against poverty and racism but the trauma of her parents’ divorce and an unwillingness to conform. When she was 14, a boyfriend introduced her to surfing and she was hooked (though far from a natural).

After finishing school, Gabeira moved to Hawaii to pursue her passion. In between working as a waitress and learning English, she borrowed boards and hit the waves at Waimea Bay.

Underneath her feminine veneer is a young woman driven to pursue a rush that few of us will ever know, punishing her body and testing her resolve as she breaks into a macho and fiercely-territorial boy’s club. She gradually took on bigger and bigger swells, eventually taking on the monster waves that only a few daredevils risk.

“I thought it would be so cool to have a girl who could do it, just like the boys,” she says. “I thought it was an impressive sport, and so radical and intense, and it took so much dedication. And I thought if I ever saw a girl doing it, I’d be impressed… Right now, I can’t even visualise that that girl is me.”

Big-wave surfing has been around since the late 1950s, when a handful of surfers first paddled into 6m waves on Oahu’s mythical North Shore in Hawaii. Legends such as Greg Noll paved the way for the discipline’s biggest names, from Ken Bradshaw to Laird Hamilton. Massive breaks and barrels, like Maverick’s in California, Teahupoo in Tahiti or Dungeons in South Africa, are sacred to the surfing community. For a great look at big wave surfing watch Riding Giants (Special Edition), an outstanding documentary about surf culture.

From the 1990s a handful of women such as Layne Beachley, Rochelle Ballard, Keala Kennelly and Sarah Gerhardt (the first women to surf Mavericks) started taking on big waves. Gabeira followed their lead, and then went further. “No one had ever seen a woman take off on waves as big or dangerous as Maya,” said Bruce Jenkins, author of the surfing bible North Shore Chronicles.

Her wipeouts have become famous. One spectacular tumble at Teahupo’o, a deadly reef break in Tahiti, was the most impressive ever witnessed in female surfing, Jenkins said. “This brought her considerable notoriety in a man’s world. There are some great, well-paid, well-travelled surfers who would never take off on that and other waves.”

This spring she won her third straight Billabong XXL Girls’ Best Overall Performance Award. “She has continually pushed the boundaries of female big wave surfing,” the judges said.

Why aren’t there more female big wave surfers? A disparity in prize money may not help. Greg Long, who won top honors as “rider of the year”, was handed $50,000. As “best girl”, Gabeira received $5,000.

Gabeira has more of a chance to push big-wave surfing into the mainstream than perhaps anyone else. It’s a prospect both exhilarating and exhausting to the 22-year-old, who still struggles to fathom how she went from travelling the world’s surf meccas on borrowed money and clothes to assuming the mantle of professional women’s big-wave pioneer.

Keep making waves, girl!

For more info on Gabeira, check out this interview on sponsor Red Bull’s site.

(info from  Red Bulletin magazine, the Observer)

California High schools embrace skateboarding as a competitive sport

Skateboarding is as diverse a sport as the athletes it attracts.  From doing tricks, riding in a skate-park, sliding, racing, or freestyle, there are lots of ways to ride and more and more girls are taking up the challenge.

While most schools don’t allow skateboarding on campus (big surprise),  there are some high schools in California that are embracing skateboarding as a competitive sport.

The idea of high school teams competing in skateboarding came from the 1970’s era of team skateboarding.  Like the surf culture had seen for many years, in the 70’s and early 80’s, skateboarders affiliated themselves with their local surf/skate shop.  Shop teams would travel up and down California and compete for bragging rights.  In the early days, the competitions were held for different types of skateboarding.  Freestyle, slalom, and downhill were among the most popular.  In the new millennium, skateboarding has seen the emergence of street style skateboarding.

Now, the National High School Skateboard Association,  respecting the history of skateboarding, is trying to build on those traditions.

The mission of the National High School Skateboard Association (NHSSA) is to provide a positive environment for the best high school skateboarders to showcase their talents.  The NHSSA allows skateboarders to realize their potential both personally and professionally.

The goal of the NHSSA is to assist the skateboarder throughout the high school years.  The skateboarder will be able to either take their abilities to the next level professionally or realize the potential to have a career inside the skateboard industry. Started three years ago with only seven member schools, the NHSSA now has 40. Skateboarding might not be sanctioned by state athletic associations, but it’s on its way.

Some girls are competing at the high school level – but there’s room for a lot more.

If you’re interested in pursing skateboarding, here are some tips:

Style: Figure out what style of riding you want to try. Just as mountain biking, trail riding, and road riding are different, with bikes specifically designed for each, there are different kinds of skateboards for different kinds of boarding.

Gear: Get your first board from a store where the sales staff are experts. Your best bet is a local independent skate shop, not a big-box sporting supply store. Talk to kids at the local skate park to find out where they buy their gear. Note: New boards can run you anywhere from $90.00 for a deck and another $100+ for trucks and wheels.

Safety:  Used equipment is okay but don’t buy a second-hand helmet if you can help it. Be prepared to replace the helmet when it no longer fits, or after about two years.

Lessons: Some skate shops offer lessons or clinics for beginners. Sometimes the lessons are free, just to help out new skaters; others are offered for a fee. The best way to become a good rider, of course, is to skate.

Kimmy Fasani: The positive side of an injury

(Ed. Note: Winter X Games veteran Kimmy Fasani is the latest addition to the Pretty Tough Team and this is her first blog post for the site. )

Snowboarding professionally is an amazing career, however, sometimes your body has to pay the price for trying to progress the sport. In my eyes, small injuries are part of the job description when you sign on to be a professional athlete, but as an extreme athlete I must remember that big injuries can take me out of the sport I love forever. Therefore, every time I drop-in to hit a feature while I’m snowboarding I have to remember the risks that go along with what I am doing.

When I am standing at the top of the run I weigh my odds and typically ask myself three questions:

1.  Do I feel confident in what I am doing?
2.  Am I scared of the consequences?
3.  If I hurt myself, will it be worth it?

These questions help me gauge the fear and the motivation I have to hit the feature.

On April 24th, 2009, I was in Park City, Utah and I was building a jump take-off that would make it possible for me to jump over a 35 foot dirt gap and land in a five foot window of landing. I was with a couple other riders, a filmer, and a photographer and together we were assessing the feature and its possibilities. I decided to do some test runs for speed and for some reason my board was running really slow.

I had hesitation in my mind because of the speed issues. I was asking myself, “How am I going to land in that landing perfectly? Will I go too far or will I come up short?” Immediately I tried to erase these thoughts from my mind and think about positive aspects of the feature. I was nervous but felt confident that this feature was do-able; I was just going to have to have the perfect speed.

None of the other girls were ready to step up to this feature, so I decided I would give it a go. I was the guinea pig, meaning I would be hitting the feature first. As I dropped in I was feeling good, but as I rode off the take-off I knew I was in trouble. I popped too hard, I was going too fast, and to make things worse I shut my eyes in the air.  I missed the landing by a hair and my knees gave out. I slipped onto my butt and I felt my back compress; this wasn’t going to be good. To make matters worse, I knocked the wind out of myself so I was having a hard time breathing.

Once I caught my breath, my mind started spinning with thoughts. I couldn’t believe I had just hurt myself. Was my season over? Did I just break my back? What will my sponsors say? How long will the recovery be? Should I get X-rays? I slowed my mind down, looked at my friends and had them help me stand up. I shifted from side to side and back and forth. I was almost certain I had compressed a vertebra in my back and I would need to get X-rays to see how bad it was.

As I moved around, I was having a lot of pain at the bottom of my right ribs. I had one of my friends take me to the clinic in Park City and sure enough after we got the X-rays back I learned that I had compression fractured my T11 Vertebra and that my 12th rib was out of place on my right side. I was given doctors orders to stay off my snowboard for 6-8 weeks.

After I found out the facts about my injury, I started looking on the bright side. My first thoughts were, “It’s the end of April and I have already filmed a full video part with Stance, my sponsors are being really supportive and understand that I will be off the snow for a couple of months, and at least I am walking and on my way to recovery.” I even got to take a mini vacation to San Felipe with my boyfriend, Chris. We laid and walked on the beach, swam in warm water, found sea shells, and went clamming!

Even though injuries are the worst part of the job, every injury teaches me more about my confidence and helps me define my fear. I learn to reevaluate my abilities and I learn from my mistakes. I have learned that no matter how many times I hurt myself, I still have a driving desire to get back out on the hill and ride again. This feeling shows me that snowboarding is not only a passion, it’s also an addiction. I am addicted to snowboarding and I love my life.

Olympic Snowboarder Karin Ruby dies in Chamonix climbing accident

 

The world lost of its trailblazing female snowboarders on May 29 to a tragic accident.

Former Olympic snowboarding champion Karine Ruby of France fell into a 20m crevasse while climbing Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Western Europe, located on the French-Italian border. She was training to become a mountain guide.

Lt.-Col. Pierre Bouquin, a police official in Chamonix, said Ruby was roped to other climbers when she fell. Ruby and one other climber, a 38-year-old man from the Paris region, died in the fall, while a 27-year-old man was seriously injured.

The group was descending on the glacier du Geant, next to the Tour de Ronde, when the accident took place, Sayssac said. The injured man was evacuated by helicopter and later died in the hospital.

France’s best known female snowboarder, the 31-year-old Ruby dominated her sport for almost a decade. She has 65 wins on the world cup circuit, six world championships to her name, and two Olympic medals (gold in 1998, silver in 2002).

She retired after the 2006 Olympics, when she was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the snowboardcross event. She was expected to wrap up her mountain guide training in the coming weeks.

In a statement Friday, French Prime Minister François Fillon hailed Ruby as an “exceptional sportswoman.”

“Karine incarnated the emergence of snowboarding in France,” the statement said. “The people of France will hold on to the memory of her talent and her joie de vivre.”

Karine’s funeral took place in the open air outside the church in Chamonix centre at 15:00 on Monday.

A sad day for the action sports community and a reminder that the ‘haute montagne’ is a beautiful, yet unpredictably dangerous place.

New for fall – Pretty Tough Skateboards

August 29, 2008 – New from Zazzle - decks featuring the perfect competition shape and construction for all terrains. These boards got supreme pop! The best quality hard-rock maple decks and an unrivaled patent-pending printing process make this the best skateboard available in the world. Check out the latest Pretty Tough versions!

 

Action – Lucky 13

LOS ANGELES, CA, August 7 2007 – The Summer X Games 13 are over. Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins took 1st in Skate Vert | Marissa Del Santo won gold in Skateboard Street and the USA ladies beat the World Team in surf. Check out the skateboarding results:

Skate Vert

1. Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins
2. Mimi Knoop
3. Cara-Beth Burnside
4. Karen Jones
5. Holly Lyons
6. Apryl Woodcock
7. Jodi McDonald

Skate Street

1. Marisa Dal Santo
2. Elissa Steamer
3. Amy Caron
4. Lacey Baker
5. Evelien Bouilliart
6. Vanessa Torres
7. Lauren Perkins
8. Leticia Bufoni