VoiceOver Stuff

In the past month I have extended my services to the world of Voiceover work. I recently narrated and commentated three televison programs for the MSG Network. This was for the Transit Chapters series. I worked on the Dumont Cup, RedBull Crashed Ice, and the Unsound Pro Surf contest. All three were very different and it was definitely not easy to read out loud with enthusiasm and conviction. I definitely enjoyed my time in the studio busting these out.

Manny Mania Columbus Ohio

Another stop on the Red Bull Manny Mania Am Series went down recently. Red Bull had me come out to host the event in Columbus. There was epic weather for the event, and many of the midwest skaters brought their A-Game. Columbus is definitely a fun city, and the spot for the event was perfect. Thanks to all the folks Red Bull for having me!

Red Bull Manny Mania Boston

The Red Bull Manny Mania Am Series had their Boston stop this past weekend. I was on hand to host the event and entertain the crowd. Skaters from all over New England rolled into City Hall Plaza to show off their skills on 2 wheels. There was 64 competitors at the event, and only 4 of them walked away with some cash. Pro skater Tim O'Connor and the crew from the Orchard Skate Shop were there with clear eyes to judge any and all manual tricks. There were plenty of flip in-flip out tricks going down from everyone, but it was Mark Dodd who took away the win and the $500 first place prize. The best trick was changed to the MVP award when New Hampshire skater Matty Johnson shredded everything on the course. The weather was great, the crowd was great, and the free burritos from Chipotle were good too. Big thanks to Seth and Pete at Red Bull, Matt Bagley and the Orchard Crew, and all the East Coast skaters that came out to support the event.

Terry Adams Demo

Red Bull had me come out for the Old Port Fest in Portland ME last week. I was their to announce some BMX Flatland demos that Terry Adams was doing. This guy has many qualifications, like X-Games Gold Medalist, and being voted best in the world twice by the big time bmx mags. The demos were really cool and I learned everything there is to know about flatland BMX from Terrys website and a youtube video that was 5:12 mins long on the basics of flatland. Thanks to Red Bull, Terry Adams, Matt Fasano, and all the people that came out for the demos.

2009 US OPEN

If there is a contest that I look foward to each year, it would definitely be the US Open of Snowboarding. This was my 6th year announcing the event, but this year I did the live event for finals instead of the webcast. It was a long week for me, announcing all of the qualifer events and the semi/finals as well. They brought back the Quarterpipe event on friday night and that went off super well. Lots of good riding from some of the best transition riders in the world. Peter Line, and Seb Touts killed it all night, and NH boys Scotty Lago and Danny Garrity shralped as well. Lago ended up taking the win at the end of the night. On the halfpipe side of things, Danny Kass made history winning his 5th US Open title and absolutely killing it on his 3rd run in finals. Torah Bright won for the ladies with some super progressive tricks like switch backside 7s and starting her run with air to fakies. Slopestyle was super good seeing some riders doing all 4 nine hundreds down the SPT slope course. We also saw the double mango roll from one of our pre-qualifier riders. The highlight of my US Open experience this year was seeing my long time friend Chaz Guldemond win the slopestyle and take that overall Burton Global Open Series title this year. Chaz took home 145k on sunday!! This year was super fun helping T-Bird from Snowboarder Mag shape his announcing skills, and then working with Preston is always rad. Obviously a huge thanks needs to go out to Liam Griffin, Maria McNulty, Christy Nicolay, Preston Strout, Tom Monterosso, and all the riders for making a great event this year.

US Snowboarding Grand Prix Killington

The last stop of the Grand Prix tour just went down last week at Killington in Vermont. I was on hand to lend out my commentary skills for go211.com. The 22ft halfpipe looked to be on the bigger side of that, because it was the largest halfpipe that I have ever seen in person. A lot of the big guns were doing world cups out in Europe to get enough FIS points to qualify for next years Olympic qualifier events. Michael "Goldy" Goldshmidt took the halfpipe contest and the Paul Mitchell progression session was clobbered by my friends from Waterville Valley. 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 12th place were all Waterville kids. Sam Hulbert took down the top spot, and his first big podium finish of his career. Check out the highlights of the webcast on http://www.go211.com/

Alaska Heli-Trip

I usually keep this blog limited to events that I am hosting, but this trip made the cut for sure. I spent a week in Haines Alaska for a trip that was incredible. I have traveled all over the world, and this trip was the best one that I have ever been on. Myself, Junior Kantor, and Scott Keating made the voyage out to AK for a trip with Oakley's Heather Call and her husband Ashley. They are probably two of the best people on this earth. If there is one thing that I took from my trip to Alaska, it is that people in Alaska look out for each other and have a deep respect for the elements around them and the lifestyle that they all live. Heather is more bad ass than anyone I know, and Ashley was quoted by Mark Sullivan as "Ashley Call will save your life if shit goes down" This made me feel really good about my first trip to Alaska. Riding in AK is on a completely different level than anything I have ever done. I pride myself as one of the few that have learned how to race gates from Bill Enos, and can turn my snowboard unlike most of the rail goons out there today. I was striaght up humbled by the terrain we were riding. Our guide Tim Tom was super on point and brought us on some rad runs. Bluebird, bottomless turns, and a great crew made for a memorable time. All of this combined with a Halibut dinner at the Funny Farm, riding sleds in the backcountry, and shooting guns with locals made this the best trip ever!! A huge thanks goes out to Heather and Ashley Call, Bruce from the Funny Farm, Luck, Ken and Amy, Patrick from Sequence, and Sean Dog at http://www.alaskaheliskiing.com/

See you next year!!!

Red Bull Snowscrapers

New York City is an unbelievable place. It is also one of the last places that you would think of for 16 of the best snowboarders in the world to be competing under the lights on the East River. Redbull Snowscrapers was the premier event to be at this season. It was a doublesided hip contest that was built by the guys at SPT. There was 20,000 spectators that came out and watched this spectacular contest. Preston Strout, Tricia Byrnes, and I hosted the live event that was also on MSG TV, and webcasted on Go211.com, and Fuel.tv. There was some speed issues for some of the riders, but there were a handful of riders who figured out that little extra that they needed to boost some serious airs with the New York City Skyline in the background. At the end it was Shane Pospisil who took the $50,000 first place check. Terje Haakonsen won best trick for doing a one footed backside air, but I personally think that the best trick was just dropping in on 90ft in run unstrapped. I want to thank everyone at Redbull and the thousands that came out to watch Snowscrapers.

Winter X-Games

So I rolled out to Aspen for the Winter X Games and had a great time. The event was production was really on par, and I had a couple days of some epic riding. We rode Buttermilk for a couple days, but the last day we went over to Ajax and got waist deep powder. I got my $90 dollar ticket pulled and it was worth it. The highlight of the trip was watching the pipe finals from the Oakley VIP Suite at the bottom of the pipe. I have always thought that the way to watch the X-Games was from home on your TV, but the live event was great and our seats couldn't have been any better.

10th Annual Burton European Open

I just got home from a week in Switzerland hosting the go211.com webcast for the 10th Annual Burton European Open. The Laax resort is a rad resort that caters to snowboarders. Being in the heart of the Alps is not the easiest place to put on an event like the European Open. The staff and everyone involved is super on point with everything. Danny Davis won slopestyle for the guys, while Lisa Wiik took the win for the ladies. In halfpipe, Kevin Pearce won again this year. It was the same situation as last year when Shaun White was in first place and Kevin was last to drop, pulling it all together to take the win. Kelly Clark won with no suprise to anyone. She is better than half of the guys that were in Semi-finals. Weather was great, food was epic, and the webcast was successful, and I had fun hosting with Ed Leigh and Tricia Byrnes.