Great interview with Terje about the Olympics.

http://www.methodmag.com/node/6501

You gotta love Japan.

Japanese boarder Kazu Kokubo didn´t tuck in his shirt when he boarded the plane in Tokyo and was suspended to walk with his countrymen in the opening ceremony. Love it.

It did not help Kokubo's case when he made light of the incident and said the Games were "nothing special" and "just another snowboarding event."

The Japanese ski association wanted to send him back to Japan after he made an public apology, but with a sarcastic undertone.
God I love this.

Read the complete story here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/winter-olympics/7240259/Winter-Olympics-2010-Japanese-snowboarder-punished-for-wearing-low-slung-trousers.html

Apperantly you need to train.

Training to me is like going to the gym with protein drinks so you can get some tan on your tribal tattoos while sporting your new Dolce shades and Ed Hardy hat.

It´s jock, it´s lame.

I do understand that exercise is healthy, duh, but I never liked the attitude of people who practice, practice, practice, practice to become great and make money and get medals. I just can´t relate.

Sure Peter Forsberg practiced A LOT, but he has the talent too, and it shows + hockey is a jock sport to start with.

When the jock mentality hits skate/snowboarding I tend to look the other way. I totally understand why it´s there, I just don´t want anything to do with it. Hell, "our" sport is run by skiers, at least the olympic part of it. But then again I´m not associating myself with an olympic snowboarder, half pipe or slalom (haha, slalom.. ). Some of those olympic boarders, well most slalom ones, think like skiers.. old school skiers. Like racing gates skiers..

I like snowboarding that takes place on powder and to some extent jumps. Urban snowboarding is what it is and I like documenting it but it´s not what gets me psyched to get in the car (or subway here in Stockholm).
Gigi, Nicolas, Parker and others take care of that for me.

So while reading this article ( I couldn´t read the whole thing, so sorry if I missed something) on Bud Keene who´s a coach for the US olympic team or national team or whatever.. I got a little confused. Like.. really.. he just said that..?
I was never one to really understand what he had to do with any American taking a medal at the olympics.. I mean yes I understand that there are team managers, friends, filmers, riders etc who travel with the talent and push the riders to do better but a coach? Like, oh your head is a tiny bit lower on your double cork than it was last week.. try chucking it harder.. like that? And full time? And probably making over 10k a month doing it, hell probably 20k a month.

Here´s a quote from the article:
What did you think of Vito's dance career? Good or bad for his snowboarding? Or is it a just a totally "snowboard" thing to do on an Olympic year?
No, not really. He could have been down in N.Z. learning a new trick instead.

Yes, he said that.
I also think that my job as filmer, editor, driver, team manger, baby sitter, drink buyer and coach has been and is rewarding.
I just don´t totally understand Bud´s point of view, or the people who pay him. Cause I do understand it, just not totally.
In the late 90´s a traveled a fair bit with the Swedish and Norwegian national teams and Petter Levin who coached both of them (I think) was a really good guy to have around, but he was more of a friend and possibly team manager and I never saw him as a coach, in the jock sense of the word / profession.

Here´s another:
Do you do any intelligence snooping on foreign halfpipe comps and athletes?
People have been inspired by Shaun's private training ground last winter, and so have been working to get their own special situations set up. We know about most of those situations, and what was accomplished at each, but I can't help feeling that we don't know about all of them. We'll see.

I wouldn´t use the word "inspired". At least that´s not what I´ve heard. And no I don´t see his "special situation set up" comparable to the DC Mtn Lab if anyone made that connection.

I´d like to give the riders more credit and not involve some coach. But when you´re expected (and yes Shaun you will with 99.5% certainty) win the olympics I can see why it would be good to talk to a mental coach who helps you focus and get in the zone. But I´m certain Torstein Horgmo and Halldor Helgason got their gold medals without a couch telling them what to do and they didn´t even get mercy points (Salt Lake pipe olympics + X-Games big air 2009).

My $0.02.

Would have been great to see Danny Davis take the gold.. but not this time. Hope he and Kevin Pearce makes great recoveries and I´m happy Shaun didn´t hurt himself in that nasty, nasty slam from the X-Games (which made Espn hold the broadcast for 30 min.. completely different post/subject though..).


Don´t get me started on the Swedish "national team" and their $2,000.000 budget for the 2006 olympics... gees. Get me into a meeting with those who are/were sponsoring that sinking ship.

Shaun White on 60 minutes..

For those of you who don´t live in the US and aren´t too familiar with Shaun, check this out. Very mainstream, they even mention that he makes over $10,000.000 / year. That oughta get the mainstream looking.

There´s a slam in there that I´ve never seen before and wouldn´t mind not seeing again.
You also get a glimpse of his crib.

There are also some other related links on that site, below the main video.


Watch CBS News Videos Online

Did I forget to mention he´ll win the Olympics in about two weeks?

So Shaun White wins the olympics..

As most of you know olympic podium hopeful Kevin Pearce is in a coma after snowboard related fall. Now Danny Davis hurt his back and needs to have back surgery and will miss the olympics.. sucha shame. Not only that he injured himself, obviously, but he was my hope for the olympics.

From what I gathered he might have been playing around at the DC Mtn Lab with his friend Elliot on atw´s when they got hurt.
Elliot was also part of the equation when I broke my neck at the Mtn Lab.

So now the odds of White winning the olympics are prolly about 1.05.


Here´s a clip of Danny from the last half pipe contest:

In case you haven't heard.

Kevin Pearce was severely injured about a week ago when he hurt himself in the Park City pipe.

Kevin's family has set up a Facebook page where they let us know how he's recovering. 20,000 people have joined in just a few days.

Then ABC News stepped in with a story about how dangerous snowboarding is and how the IOC who in their minds are "the leaders of this sport" need to evaluate how they get less injuries in this dangerous sport. I, obviously, got pretty upset by watching yet another tool on tv talking about snowboarding without having a clue what she's talking about. This wouldn't happen in any other "traditional" sport, trust me.


Not that I expect much else from people working with sports on national tv. Heck ESPN doesn't even know what they are doing with the X-Games and they've owned and operated it for 15 years or something and they STILL don't get it.

The olympics is, in my mind, about the best performances in each sport. This isn't the case in snowboard, for a number of reasons.
Reason 1: The Swedish olympic (or national team who are supposed to find and support the best snowboarders in the country) team for example havn't supported the best riders. I mean in the last olympics they got €2,000,000 or something to get some good riders to the olympics. I could have saved Lexmark or whoever paid for it (hopefully it wasn´t taxpayers) that money since no Swedish person could have gotten top 10 in Torino even if half the people in the contest fell. The best riders from Sweden, like Ingemar, Hampus, Jakob, Chris, Johan etc never got any backing (of relevance) by the Swedish national team to grow as snowboarders. Not that they (well Ingemar could have been a podium contender) were olympic material, but that didn´t stop the Norwegian national team to help the likes of Mikkel, Torstein, Fredrik, Andeas etc to become better riders.

Reason 2: Halfpipe doesn´t show who the best snowboarder is. It´s probably the easiest discipline to judge and pretty interesting for the endemic viewer who doesn´t know/care about what snowboarding is.
Yes, boardercross and slalom are easier to judge, but I don´t consider the slalom people to be snowboarders. They are skiers on a narrow snowboard with ski boots, with skier mentality.
And even if halfpipe did determine who the best snowboarder was the IOC definitely aren´t the best ones to portray it.
Just take the Vancouver halfpipe.. not the best resort / location to have it. The mountain doesn´t like snowboarders and if it rains I bet they will still force the riders to drop in.
Does skiers get that treatment? Eh, no.


Ok, Shaun White is a great snowboarder. Maybe the best. But he´s not on my top 10 list for snowboarders I like to see.
Same with Travis Rice. Some might say he´s the best, but he´s not on my top 10 of riders I like to see come down a mountain.
I´m not saying I´m right because there is no right or wrong. But snowboarders I like watching are, Gigi Ruf, Nicolas Muller, Jussi Oksanen, Jake Blauvelt, Devun Walsh, Travis Parker, Hampus Mosesson, JP Solberg and others. They probably can´t physically do what Rice and White does, but imho you can´t categorize snowboarding like you can figure skaters. The IOC and 90% of the people watching the olympics will never get that and that´s ok. But it´s not ok when ABC News put this bitch Christine Brennan on tv to talk about snowboarding. And it´s not ok for the X-Games to crown the gold medalist by having Americans text in their votes before the riders even drop in to do their trick. So basically I´m fucked for even thinking that someone who has a suit job will ever understand my pov, which is a healty pov, cause I know better than them.



Some people created a Facebook group against this ABC News bitch. Feel free to join.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&ref=share&gid=240255262381

Here are three emails that were sent to her, click to enlarge.