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.

Northstar At Tahoe

I rode Northstar this past week, and they got some serious snow. It was pretty much bare when I rolled in, but over the course of 2 days they easily got over 3ft of fresh snow. Danny Garrity, Seth Morrill, Brian Kelley, and I rode some closed stuff with some waist deep turns. I rolled in from the Grand Prix for an Oakley meeting, and brought the snow with me. Great conditions, great friends and great sushi. It was nice to take a trip and not have to watch everyone ride. Cheers to Monkey Fairy and the SPT folks.

-Nelson

US Snowboarding Grand Prix Copper CO

I recently just got home from announcing the Sprint US Snowboarding Grand Prix in Copper Colorado. Copper is one of the coolest resorts that I have ever been to. They also have a Woodward training facility that looks really good. The event itself was really great and I worked with long time announcer Mark Sullivan. Louie Vito won the pipe contest with a pretty crazy run of two 10's, two 9's and a straight air. On the Paul Mitchell Progression Session side of things, I was stoked on Tim Humphreys and Kyle Clancy. The set up of the jump was a bit weird with a cliff drop style kicker, and then the jib was a big hitching post. It was also dumping snow the entire time I was there. I want to give a shout out to Eric Webster, Mark Sullivan, Todd Richards and Andrew Mutty for making the event fun.

-Nelson

Oakley Rev Tour Portsmouth

Oakley is known for throwing huge lavish parties, and the Rev Tour stop in Portsmouth NH was no different. The Rev Tour is a super clinic for Oakley dealers and VIP's. There were over 400 people at this stop and everyone recieved free food, drinks, and goggles. Trouble Andrew played for what seemed like 3 seconds, but I was running around keeping people happy and missed most of it. I got on stage and gave away some outerwear kits for the best 80's outfits, as well as a seasons pass to Waterville Valley for the best hair cut. Everyone had a blast and the event was off the hook. http://www.oakley.com/

That's It That's All Premier

In my lifetime, there are 3 snowboard videos that have changed how I looked at the sport. The first was Subjekt Haakonsen, the second was Simple Pleasures, and now That's It That's All. I was up in Burlington VT hosting the premier for the movie, and I was blown away by the riding and film work that was done by Curt Morgan. Travis Rice really hit his mark with the choice of riders and locations to film. Big thanks to Curt, and everyone at Red Bull and Quicksilver for having me host the premier.