Snowboarder Danny Toumarkine suffered a traumatic brain injury on a routine jump in early 2011. “After nearly two weeks in a medically induced coma, four brain surgeries and thirty-three days later, Danny was discharged from the hospital.” Danny and his brother had dreamed of making a season-long snowboarding film, but they never thought they’d be making one like this. The full-length 22-minute film is on YouTube.
The TimeLine crew has managed to find some powder while the West wallows in drought. Xavier de le Rue, Anne Flore Marxer and Victor de Le Rue are in the first of the season two releases from the group. They make the most of a snowstorm just before the holidays and a few couloirs with difficult access. It might not be the best light for filmmaking, but at least there’s snow.
Working at Red Bull must be like working in the candy department of a toy store. These guys make boatloads of cash selling caffeinated sugar water that’s more expensive than the vodka people add to it, and they get to do insanely fun stuff with the cash. It would be so easy to hate them if they didn’t spend their cash on rad stuff. Now, I understand that people can get upset about how this backcountry location was, uh, “enhanced,” for the competition, but at least they didn’t put a chairlift on the site. God knows they could afford to. Check out Red Bull to learn more about their so-called future of snowboarding competitions.
The small outdoor manufacturers TREW missed the holiday selling season. With orders placed well in advance, one of the company founders had to hop on the plane to try to find someone new overseas who could meet their production needs. TREW first made their gear in Vancouver, then moved to China but ran into quality control issues, and settled on a place in Nepal. As small fry for gear makers, their orders for additional jackets and ski pants aren’t exactly given priority. The company is on their third year of making gear, and last was their first time selling on Backcountry.com. They say they’re not too worried about the production hiccups, when people see the gear, they find it worth the wait. Powder Mag has a great write up on the small shop.
It looks like a bit of snow might finally be hitting Utah. So these guys won’t have to worry about catching toe-side edges while being dragged at 50mph through the salt flats. I would have loved to see them get behind one of those cars that goes 300mph out there.
The fine folks at Vice have put together a series (or at least 2 parts for now) on Standard Films making 20 years of snowboarding films. They tag along to see how they do it in the first episode, and then in the second they dive into the old footage, looking at the massive lines that the pioneers of big mountain riding laid down. Also, as a gory bonus, stay tuned for the worst crashes in filming 20 years of Totally Board (get it…board!?…we can forgive them, it was 20 years ago) in Part 2. I wonder if they all used avalanche beacons back then.
The Kahuna Snow Stick made by Kahuna Creations is seeking to make cross-country snowboarding more of a viable sport. A few years back we had some dedicated cross-country snowboarders who seemed to do just fine without the stick, and in their purist view of the sport would likely skoff at people using sticks. Prepare to get laughed at by the purist snowboarders! At $119 it’s a great way to spend cash on something you’ll use for about 10 seconds before throwing it away. Is it too early to start thinking Olympics 2022?
Xavier de le Rue and his crew from Timeline Films released the full-length version of their film This is My Winter after postingwebisodes through last season. Take a half-hour off to watch the video, meet the crew, and ponder how these guys can spend an entire year making a snowboarding film and then give it away for free on the internet when it’s done.
Barbed wire, manure and farm equipment. The KGB crew is out with their sixth webisode installment of Wyoming Triumph. We find them building a western-style jib course that looks like it’s a wonderful way to lose a limb while snowboarding. Prior webisodes can be found on their YouTube channel. Tetanus (I double-checked that spelling) shots and all.
