Nike is giving another shot at The Action Sport-Snow world with the third introduction of Nike Snowboard Boots.  They are going to be recruiting some heavy hitters in the snowboard industry to help their core image.  Among the five other team members that will be on the Nike squad is two time Olympic competitor Danny Kass.  Joining him will be Louie Vito, Annie Boulanger, Justin Benee, Eric Jackson and Laura Hadar.  The boots will probably be really comfortable.

When you are a pro snowboarder you bank on the fact that you can get paid for appearing in magazines, in videos and on tv. Alot of rider contracts are based specifically on incentive programs. As snowboarders we understand that getting published is much more than just a great accomplishment, it is a way for us to continue our drive as riders. It is a way for us to get some cash to fill our sleds for the next day.

As an industry, we all know that sponsored riders receive incentive for appearing in “print magazines” photos, video and television appearances. What about the internet? Many internet shred sites today are receiving more page views than the average print magazine per month. Internet sites are also able to track exactly how many times the pictures, and pages are viewed. It makes alot of sense to me why if I were a rider I would push for this type of incentive.

I can also see the flip side, like a rider saying. Yo check out my “myspace” profile. I got made photos published there. I do understand why a rider shouldn’t receive incentive’s for some website’s, but major magazines are all taking a big push toward becoming an “online publication”. Technology is also improving screen resolution so pictures can make just as big an impact as print photos (in some cases). We believe that riders should definitely get paid when they appear in feature articles like the MAC SPEDALE INTERVIEW and in the PHOTOGRAPHERS BLOG These are just a few outlets out of many where a rider should receive photo incentive in my opinion. Among the other outlets I would include snowboard-revolution.com, twsnow.com, snowboardermag.com, futuresnowboarding.com for top rate payment. Those are among the top Snowboard websites for editorial online publication content.

If I were a companies team manager I would ask a rider to submit a list of the websites they believe they should get incentive for. I would contact the online editor and make sure that user generated content is kept separate from the incentive program just to be safe. You don’t want “Tommy Backlip” creating his own Snowboard Revolution profile and dropping 1000 photos into the community and claiming incentive on them.

I would like to see these riders we publish get paid for riding.  I guess thats where the Revolution begins.  If you agree that riders should get internet photo incentive drop a comment and lets get these riders some incentives online.

The revolution crew cruised up to Holiday Valley with the shop Suburban Blend to go check out the Shop Wars contest.  The shops that showed up from the Western New York region were Suburban Blend, The Boardroom, Mud Sweat N Gears, 245 Snowboard Shop, Ski Chalet, Sliders, The Shop @ Swain, Curleys, The City Garage.  The contest was sick and Im glad we made it out.  Its always super fun to go shred the local resorts and when there is a no pressure, all fun event going on there is no better time to be out.  Read the full story at the link above and watch the video too.

Union Square, New York City was host to one of the largest rail jams I have ever seen on February 8th called The Union Square Street Sessions. I have competed in other rail jam like this. The Vegas High Roller Rail Jam, The West Coast Invitational and those were great contests, but this one had some different elements that made it the best rail jam to date.

It was in downtown Manhattan NYC, At Union Square. The area is a megamopolis and a very touristy area, so the foot traffic was insane. The Crowd was huge last night! Never of all my rail jam experience have I seen a crowd turnout like this one. I have also never seen so many New Yorkers this stoked on Snowboarding. It was the perfect location.

The media was all over this contest. Luckily only limited media was able to access the event. For example, If you looked like a snowboarder you were in. If you looked like a subway lifer, you were out. No offense to the City Dwellers on that. I guess the point I’m trying to make is when a rider does a “boardslide 450 out like Lucas Magoon did), He is not just doing a 360 and stuff in the air. Their is technical terms that only the core snowboard community can understand. For that reason only certain media members could get inside the gate. I promise this contest is going to get blown away by the media soon enough. You will see.

The level of riding was INSANE! Damn, 25 riders, $15,000, even if you split that purse evenly it would be a session to see. The case was that only one rider could win this event and with a line up they had you couldn’t even expect anything less. RIDERS LIST: Danny Kass, Charles Reid, Pat Moore, Scotty Lago, Scotty Arnold, Aaron Biitner, Sketchy D, Zak Hale, Chris Rotax, Lucas Magoon, Eddie Wall, Yale Cousino, Jonas Milichot, Jed Anderson, MFM, Louie Vito and Jeremy Cloutie. Each rider threw down some insane tricks but it really came down to the top 6 finalists when the heat kicked in. This shit went off and some highlights were… Lucas Magoon did a 270 on 450 off the jeep rail, and a nollie back tailslide 270 out on the middle rail. Eddie Wall did a backside 270 onto the middle rail and stayed consistent all night. Yale Cousino did a 270 on the hard way, 270 out. Charles Reid did a frontside 360 to 50-50 on the middle rail that was INSANE!

The people who made this happen were Snowboarder Magazine, Lat34, Killington Vermont, Mountain Creek, and Jeep and I am not sure who else but I know one thing for sure. This contest was so bad ass that New York City officially deemed February 8th “Union Square Street Sessions Day” and on that note we will see you next year!

-John Centi

-Photos Steve Olson

The Union Square Urban Rail Jam kicked off today in Downtown NYC. At 7 am we showed up to the “Demo” for media. A couple riders showed up at that time. This thing is right in downtown NY, Im guessing you will see some, riders in the subway with their boards shots. The contest begins at 2 o clock with an amateur jib off for Mountain Creek riders that want to try and compete against the big dogs. Lucas Magoon is here, Chris Rotax, Louie Vito and Zak Hale were around this morning throwing down. We got some sick footage and will have plenty more to come when this thing actually starts. Look out for some inanse photo galleries, stories, and videos. Thanks to Joe Prebich from Snowboarder Magazine for helping us with our media access.

The setup: From right to left

1. A flat down bar mounted on top of the roof of a jeep, perfect for gaps.

2. Down box

3. Down bar with stairs

4. Down box with ledge

5. Up flat down rail at the bottom of the setup.

-Photos Steve Olson

World Rookie Fest 2007 _ Livigno

World Rookie Fest slope style finish today with a very good showcase in Livigno pro park, dominated by norwegian team riders. During the 90 minute jam session, the champion title was assigned to well known rookie Stian Aanestad from Norway, impressive both on rail and jumps: he show triks like bs900 to sw-bs900 on the jumps and solid on rails.

Today in Livigno top rookies from all over the world, express a very high level of riding, getting the attention of several media and photographers, providing us a good example of rookie to pro system.
(more…)

Torah Bright on Roxy

Huntington Beach, CA - Roxy announced today that snowboardings’s shining star Torah Bright has officially chosen Roxy as her sponsor from head to toe with the addition of hard goods. Having joined the team in 2000, the deal marks the continuation of a successful collaboration between brand and athlete.
To celebrate, Roxy will be creating a signature series jacket, snowboard and boots, in addition to another signature rhinestone-studded Torah Goggle available in winter 2007.

“I couldn’t be more excited to be furthering my relationship with the Roxy brand. From assisting the design team with the creation of our outerwear, to my signature goggle last year, it’s been so rewarding to work with a sponsor that wants to involve their athletes on and off the mountain” said Bright. “I’m looking forward to making the most of this opportunity to not only ride the most innovative boards on the market, but help create ones that will hopefully inspire girls all over the world.”

About Andreas Wiig and O-Matic Snowboards (by Todd Richards) - Andreas was given a large dollar offer that we couldn’t compete with. We are a small company, concentrating on growth. This means that we are not paying ourselves anything. Andreas is a supper ripper in his prime, his salad years, if you will. We could not in good conscience keep him from such an opportunity. We will miss Andreas, and wish him the best with his next venture. It was a very hard decision for Andreas and we are still on good terms with him, no hard feelings at all.

Anne-flore is a female pro snowboarder from Preverenges, Switzerland. She rides for Burton, Oakley, Dvs, Bluebird wax, Kiuu, Les ettes. I remember running in to Anne-Flore at the Tahoe cup in 05. She was frontside boardsliding the biggest rail in the event (26 stair) with a full cast on her arm. I was blown away and was even more blown away by her live and love life attitude. Make sure you find out what makes this girl tick because she is female snowboarding. Click here to read her interview.

You gotta love Anne-Flore Marxer. She is a female pro snowboarder from Preverenges, Switzerland and is one of Burtons top pro riders. She has a love snowboarding and love life attitude and it shines in her riding. She kills it and does it with a big ol grin on her face while doing it. This is a mini gallery of her and her full snowboard interview is coming to you. Ed sent her a grip of questions and she was happy to answer back, but would you expect anything else from Anne-Flore.

Make sure to stay in the loop or you might miss it and if you miss this one you are missing out!

Here is a little preview of what you will read….

SR: If your snowboard could talk, what would it tell you?

Anne-Flore: I want MORE!

Photos by Vanessa Andrieux