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Ski or Snowboard Rentals – Whistler

Renting skis used to be a dreaded experience, long line ups for poorly maintained out of date equipment provided by ski bums who didn’t care. Changes have swept across this industry with new companies competing in every resort worldwide.

With airlines charging extra for ski baggage, the inconvenience of carrying heavy equipment and an increased environmental awareness the number of skiers renting equipment has risen.

If you look at ski technology and ski branding a two year old ski can often look outdated, therefore before you leave home do a quick calculation of “how many days a year do you ski?” multiplied by the cost of renting against the cost of new skis. The average cost of renting top end gear is around $50 CDN for two days. If you average 10 days per year that works out at $250 per year. New skis with bindings range from $500 to $1100.

Factor in the cost of tuning, inconvenience, baggage fees and your environmental consciences and renting comes out the winner.

My family decided to test this theory with a visit to Whistler in January, we looked online and booked with a company called Affinity Sports. (www.affinityrentals.com)

After breezing through the airport and traveling the sea to sky highway we checked into our hotel around 9pm. Surprisingly the rental shop was still open so despite our jet lag we headed in to pick up our gear. The staff greeted us on the way in the door and our reservation was ready. We tried on the boots and with skis hanging on every wall I picked out a new Pair of Volkl AC50. The binding was adjusted and the staff answered all our tourist questions while helping us feel welcome in Whistler. The kids tried snowboarding had to choose from a selection kids gear.

On the third day the weather moved in so we took a rest day, I dropped the skis back at the store and was surprised to learn I would be credited back the days I didn’t use. I then took advantage of the best reason to rent, trying different equipment. The trend in skis is to have more specialized equipment to suit the conditions so I changed for a K2 Coomba, a powder ski. Each time I dropped into see the staff at Affinity they accommodated my every request without hesitation. The equipment was tuned, it was the latest model and the service was excellent.

Two weeks later back at my desk I thought about the old rent vs. buy argument. I will be renting skis, snowboards and maybe even snow blades every time I go. The image of ski rentals is changing and being driven by companies like Affinity, I hope to go back to Whistler for the Olympics and will be renting everytime.

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Effective April 1 - 30, 2003 the Forest Service will be implementing and enforcing a Supervisor's Closure on Vail Mountain, which will prohibit unauthorized access to the Minnie's Deck area where the end-of-season BB&B event has occurred. The Forest Service issued a directive to Vail Resorts under the terms of their special use permit to shut down the BB&B event on Vail Mountain. Historically the BB&B event has taken place at Minnie's Deck and the event had evolved into a gathering of as many as 2,000 people. The behavior of participants posed serious risks to public health and safety as well as caused resource damage. The Supervisor's Closure will be in effect to ensure protection of public health and safety.

So, with a stroke of the pen, the US Forest Service ended the infamous end-of-season party on Vail Mountain, ending a 22 year tradition.  Know by many variations, Boobs, Boomers and Beers; Buns, Boobs, and Beers; Boobs, Booze and Brews, etc, (BB&B) was held on the second Tuesday in April as a way for Vail valley residents and employees to blow off some steam at the end of the season.  The event started in 1980 as a small end-of-season birthday party on Minnie's deck. BB&B devolved into an orgy of drinking, snowball fights and raucous behavior. During the last several years, partiers spent days before BB&B building large snow forts, stashing large quantities of alcoholic beverages, and, too often, hauling up more illicit substances.

Historically, the end of season party probably started much earlier with the Great Race.  This season-ender was usually held in Lionshead and People would dress up in all kinds of wild costumes. A photo of Vail local hooligan Packy Walker standing on the winner’s podium wearing nothing but a fig leaf and his gold medal made the front page of the Vail Trail newspaper. After Vail executives and lawyers killed that event people continued to get costumed up and party at Minnie's Deck.  In those days it was called the mountain formal.  Costumes included top hats and suits as well as high school prom dresses, horrible powder-blue tuxedoes and ballerina tutus.  The event grew and was combined with Warren Miller’s Mad Mountain Marathon and the Rubber Legs Slalom.  The race involved 150 or more slalom gates at the bottom of Vail Mountain and the event raised money for local charities.

When I was there in the spring of 2002, my brother Travis, his wife Michelle, Mayela and I went to the BB&B.  We all carried backpacks loaded with beers, booze and buds.  When we arrived at Minnie's deck the atmosphere was relaxed and people were lounging on the deck in the sun enjoying the event.  We set up camp on the deck and in one of the nearby snow forts crafted by a group of Beaver Creek's happyshack community.  We took some runs and explored the other various snow forts in the woods.  It was amazing the elaborate complex of forts and the adornments within.  Some had full Ice sculpture bars complete with barstools carved from compacted snow.  Others were complete igloos with only a small portal in the roof for ventilation.  Another was an elaborate maze to thwart cops and security spies.

As the day continued, there were jam sessions on the numerous rails that had been created in the woods.  One was a 50 foot long triple wave that dumped out into the main area opening.  Eventually the traditional snowball fight erupted with the main focus from the snow forts surrounding the opening at Minnie's deck.  Some forts were equipped with water balloon launchers.  A couple of times I snuck out through the woods with my snowboard to take runs down born free.  After riding the gondola back up to the top, I'd come rolling into the woods with my pants down and flipping the crowd off in my black afro.  The trick was to ride fast and get to the fort as quickly as possible.  Poor unfortunate souls that tried to follow in the wake turbulence of my entry would get blasted into oblivion.  I would stand on the wall and yell out obscenities to the enemy forts.  The response was a furious barage of snowballs.  People were getting pissed because we were getting bombed with snow.  One time, standing on the wall, I took a water balloon launcher shot to the chest that blasted me flat on my back.  Heffe came right up like a  medic with the Jaegermeister bottle to nurse me back to insanity.

In the evening when security starts to herd everybody out of there is a Chinese downhill of sorts.  This race to the pub progresses down the mountain. There is one particularly steep pitch where people who are so f*cked up that they just take their skis off and hurl themselves bodily down the face, laughing their drunken asses off.  I came up to the edge and launched the hand bag I was carrying as high in the air as I could--only to find out Mayela had her camera in it.  We all ended up at the bars in Vail village till the weee hours of the morning.  It was amazing.  I'm glad I got to experience the greatest party on earth before it was over.  Good times

As kind of a sick footnote to all of this, the event has been commercialized in a couple of different forms. Never shy about making a buck off the sweat and toil of the locals Vail Resorts promptly christened Siebert's Mad Mountain Marathon and Beaver creek Blues, Brews, and Bar-B-Que. There is no limit to the depth of slime with Vail Management.

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Daffy Duff hot doggin' on skis / Behind the scenes with Dev

Duff killed it on skis over the biggest table at the Camp of Champions last Friday which also happened to be the last day of camp.





Photos by Dice K

Kimball sent in this little behind the scenes video from a recent Scullcandy shoot.

# posted by Furious @ 8:58 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Who Loves Hot Dogs? / Team News x 2

Wow!



That must of been one hell of a BBQ! No offense God.

IS EYEWEAR team rider Chris Dufficy joins the Signal family



and works on a new summer look. What a busy bee.

Something you didn't know about Kale: Kale is absolutely fanatical about tubing.



Once the snow melts its eat, sleep, tube for Mr. Stephens. In fact I haven't even been able to get in touch with him for almost a month now. If you see Kale around please tell him to call us. Thanks, IS blog team.

# posted by Furious @ 3:42 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Butter!

# posted by Furious @ 5:01 PM 0 comments

Monday, July 14, 2008

Extreme Party Team / Warehouse Goodies /

IS Eyewear is putting together an extreme party team. Jake's cousin "Ronnie" just won the team captain position. If you think you have what it takes send in photos, videos or stories to info@iseyewear.com



We're in the middle of moving our warehouse right now and have been stumbling across tons of amazing stuff from way back. Yesterday we found a huge box of "Mack Dawgs Technical Difficulties", The Gathering, Wildcats Nine lives and Little Bastard on VHS. For anyone who places online orders this month we'll throw in some "warehouse goodies" if you mention it in your order. You never know what you might end up with!

Monday music video:

# posted by Furious @ 9:22 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Hump day music video.. Cluster of birds being awesome.. youtube a team rider.. google a team rider....

Hump day Music video going out to you know who you are...



Cluster of birds being awesome:



Youtube a team rider:

# posted by Furious @ 12:35 PM 0 comments

Friday, July 04, 2008

Jack a blog Fridays / wheelies of the week!/ blobbing!

Canada day long weekend was a doozy, its already Friday and I haven't posted a blog yet this week. I don't even feel like posting one now so I'm getting gangsta and jacking the 8mile blogs latest beauty of a post. Kale really does need his own reality show.

8milelife.com

Here are some highlights of Kale's trip to Superpark 2008 with Paavo and Jbone.



p.s. he did finally stop eating and get out of bed and got some shots that you can see in the new 8MILE movie dropping this fall.

Youtube wheelie finds of the week:

Old school wheelie



New School gangsta wheelie



Youtube rules. Happy blobing!

# posted by Furious @ 10:40 AM 0 comments

Friday, June 27, 2008

Bowl Series

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We had a few captains, one that was actually navigating the Tahoe Gal, and another whom is our fearless leader, Chappy. We had ladies in lovely 70’s evening attire with furs coats, heels and gold clutches, we had gentlemen in sweaters and action slacks, I do have to say that Burton's Nor Cal rep Trevor Patterson had on a wonderful mustard yellow sweater, and needless to say there were a few Hawaiian shirts and boat shoes! Michelle Parker who is on the Porters team as well as the K2 skis team and Orage was there with some very stylish Vans boat shoes. The outfits of the evening went to Lars our web guy who showed up with two outfits and Aaron Gaines, our warehouse manager who showed up with three things! Notice how I didn’t say three outfits, take a gander at the pictures below and see if you can figure it out.

The Tahoe Gal crew put on a great party for us, the food was great and bartender was doing it right. Chappy brought his computer so we could have some Love Boat era tunes and once the alcohol started to take effect the grooving dance moves started to pop up. At the end of our three hour tour most of us still had sea legs as we exited the boat but that didn’t stop us from heading to our after party at Lakeside Pizza in Tahoe City, formerly known as Pierce Street. Do not be fooled by the new name as it is also a night club and they are doing it right there. With free keg of CL smooth and beats to make you move there was no stopping the Love Boat crew. A few left early as they did most of their drinking on the boat, others stayed to get their dance on and others stayed even later. Rumor has that the club locked the doors and Chappy and a few ladies stayed and dance until three in the morning.

I do have to say the Porters Crew knows how to party and I think I speak for all of us when I say thanks to Kelly and Chap!

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From 6^th to 13^th of April 2008 Kühtai hosted the BAGJUMP SpringBreak08 Snowboard&Freeski Camp. The Film&Foto Award presented by TVB-Kühtai was an additional feature to the Camp where filmer and photographers had the chance to get the best shots from the whole resort and be rewarded with 2000Euro prize-money. Good riders had the chance to get some international coverage and present their skills. This event was a unique experience for snowboarder, freeskier, filmer- and photographer!

A perfect shaped park, the BAGJUMP MegaBag for training and 4 IOU-Special obstacles prepared for shootings throughout the backcountry. The Völkl Pro Team was here to coach and film for the Völkl-Movie the whole week and many other international Pros to get some last shots from the 2007/08 Season with over 40 international photographers and filmers around. Some lucky campers got a Völkl Sponsorship because of their amazing riding skills. The weather was like it is in April: unpredictable! As we had Snowstorms and waist deep powder for the first 3 days and fine spring slush with mostly blue sky for the rest of the SpringBreak08. Camp-Hotel Marlstein was located close by and the food was excellent with breakfast buffets in the morning and 4 course dinners in the evenings.

Campers and daily visitors had the chance to win Zimtstern, Völkl, Gravis and X-Double prizes in the everyday mini-competitions like Poker-Tournaments, Best Trick-MegaBag, Night-Sessions on the special spots and the XBOX360 Guitar Hero Madness. Due to the bad weather Saturdays SpringOFF Slopestyle Contest took place on the rails whit over 60 motivated riders giving their best to win money and prizes.

Everyone could get 2009 Boards and Skis at the Völkl Test in the chill area and test their new Board or Ski of Choice. Listening to fine tunes coming from the RedBull Event Car mixed by Dj Seren and eating at the BAGJUMP BBQ/Grill was a good chance to regain energy for riding. While watching international Pros practicing contest winning tricks into the MegaBag not only media but also the crowd and people passing by took out the camera to capture the action.

Read a more details from BAGJUMP SpringBreak08 in Playboard, Pleasure, Onboard, Methodmag and Shralp.com!

Results BAGJUMP SpringBreak08 Film&Foto Award presented by TVB-Kühtai:

2000.- Euro prizemoney!

Springbreak08 Video-Award:

Judging by: Helge Zirkl (Playboard Magazine), Mee-z (www.shralp.com), Richard Prendergast (Method.tv) and viewing-points on blip.tv.

1^st Place with 95 points: Niki Kranebitter AUT (To watch this clip: Aufmschlauch@SpringBreak08: http://blip.tv/file/834426/)

2^nd Place with 94 points: Chris Garside NZL (To watch this clip: Völkl-Team@SpringBreak08: http://blip.tv/file/843655/)

2^nd Place with 94 points: James Vooght NL (To watch this clip: Flash Horton&Niki Korpela@SpringBreak08: http://blip.tv/file/834929)

The winner clip will be shown on www.shralp.com, www.method.tv, www.playboard.de and www.BAGJUMP.com.

SpringBreak08 Foto-Award:

Judging by: Markus Fischer (Pleasure Magazine), Sami Touriniemi (Onboard Magazine) and Richard Walch (Pro-Photographer).

3 categories: Best Single Picture Snowboard or Ski, Best Sequence Snowboard, Best Ski Picture.

Best Single Shot Springbreak 08:

1^st Place with 122 points: Thomas Holleis AUT (Rider: Daniel Mösl, Trick: OneFoot)

The winner picture will be published in Pleasure Magazine this Fall! The rider on the picture wins a subscription to Pleasure Magazine for one Year!

Best Sequence SpringBreak08:

1^st Place with 75 points: Jason Horton ENG (Rider: Niki Korpela, Trick: Fs360drop)

The winning sequence will be published in Onboard Magazine! The rider on the sequence wins a subscription to Onboard Magazine for one Year!

Best Ski Picture SpringBreak08:

1^st Place with 111 points: Michael Obex AUT (Rider: Niko Rauch, Trick: WallrideSlide)

The winner will be published in Skiing Magazine! The rider on the picture wins a subscription to Skiing Magazine for one Year!

Congratulations to all winners!

Last but not least we would like to thank all participants, Sponsors, Media for making this event such a huge success.

Sponsors: TVB-Kühtai, Bergbahnen Kühtai, Völkl, RedBull, Zimtstern, Gravis, X-Double, Tobis Travel Solutions, Himaya.

Media Partners: Playboard Magazine, Pleasure Magazine, Onboard Magazine, Methodmag, shralp.com.

Watch out for the BAGJUMP SpringBreak09 with even more features than this year!

For more BAGJUMP action visit us at the Camp of Champions COC in Whistler B.C. Canada from June 21 to July 19 2008.

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12 Deals of Christmas
While supplies last, porterstahoe.com has selected 12 awesome items that they’re blowing out.

What kind of deals??
How about a 2006 K2 Apache Outlaw slashed to $399.95 from $999.95.
Or a 2007 Burton Twin for $199.95 instead of $449.95.

And... you still get free, ground shipping on orders over $50. But, if none of those float your boat, Porters has hundreds of other items from last winter at 40% to 50% off and of course thousands of the newest 2008 skis, snowboards, boots, bindings, clothing and accessories for you!!
Get the goods before they’re gone and get up to Tahoe!!

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Registration takes place from 10:00am to 11:00pm in the Village Day Lodge, $10 per slider. The rail jam begins at 12:00pm at the lower section of the park. The format will be divided into three age divisions all with a ski and board category. The Groms (12 and under) will battle it our from 12:00pm to 12:30pm, followed by the Juniors (13 to 16) from 12:45pm to 1:15pm, and finally the Open Class will hit it from 1:30pm to 2:00pm. Each division will get 30 minutes to battle it out on the course. Judges will then select the top three skiers, and top three boarders from each age division to proceed to the finals. Each finalist getting two runs on the slope style course. Up for grabs is $5000 in product from Burton Snowboards, and Orage Outerwear. In the Open Class we’ll also be presenting the top skier and snowboarder with $200 each. 

Helmets are mandatory for all participants. No exceptions will be made. Riders under the age of 19 must have a parent or guardian complete a waiver on their behalf at time of registration.

Aspiring film makers and athletes need to check out the Rossignol Scratch Video Challenge for your chance to win a pair of park skis and clothing from Rossignol.
 
Thanks to Burton, Red, Anon, Orage, Monster, and Pepsi for sponsoring Grandma's Home Made Rail Jam.

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Nombre                     :Sebastian Rothhammer Llop

Edad                         : 23

Ocupación                 : mmm estudio/snow

Lugar de nacimiento    : santiago de chile

Tabla                        : andes 1.54

Stance                      : Regular

Sponsor                     : Andes snowboards, Gotcha y Colorado park

1.      Cómo y cuándo comenzaste con el Snowboard?

         Mm. eso fue como hace 8 años, andaba arto en skate y weno me gustaba la idea de subirme a una tabla en la nieve aparte de los palillos (skis). As cada año comencé a subir más…

2.      Cuál ha sido la experiencia o aventura más terrible en la montaña?

Una vez cruzando de Valle Nevado a Colorado.. en la mitad de la pasada un viento que te cagas y niebla nos salimos del camino y weno estuve unas horas con un frío de muerte y niebla  perdido… aparte caídas bien fuertes en saltos.

3.      Qué haces para combatir la rutina santiaguina?

Andando en sk8 un parque nuevo que montaron que está brutal.. ahí sus bajadas en skate... diversión.

4.      Consideras el Snowboard más como un deporte que un estilo de vida?

El snowboard es un estilo de vida definitivamente, la conexión que uno logra con la montaña es algo brutal.. si te gusta definitivamente es un estilo de vida.. si no lo consideras un simple deporte.

6.      Tienes proyectos futuros concretos?

Si quiero hacer algo turístico en el sur de chile algo bien roots.. y  con el tiempo lograr algo weno

7.      Cuéntanos sobre tu viaje a Europa esta temporada 2007.

Weno.. brutal tuve ahí con los colegas españoles andando harto en snow, casi toda la temporada estuvo mala este año pero teníamos un park perfect y weno, al final unos paquetones ahí sacándose la vena.. La sierra nevada queda al sur de España en la provincia de Andalucía, muy wena gente y lo mejor la playita está a 1 hora.

8.      Qué onda los spots y la gente allá? Volverías?

Filete la gente muy wena onda te acogen bkm . La sierra tiene un parque bien weno desde principiantes hasta avanzados, tiene spot donde practicar y weno, bajadas bien wenas con pow.

9.      Si no es la nieve es…

      Cemento, y madera jhajha

10.  Cual es tu spot favorito en Chile?

El sur tiene los mejores spots y mas bonitos

11.  Qué opinas sobre un video chileno de puras mujeres, funcionaría?

Si pue porque no jaja

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