Rider News

Ever dreamed of being famous? Ever dreamed of being part of the Forum Team? Then head to www.forumfamous.com now! Forum Snowboards launches Famous – Join The Team, an interactive game in which Forum Snowboards takes you on a journey of a young rider trying to make it to the top. And you are in control.

From your first time on a snowboard to the ultimate dream of becoming a pro and getting your first video part - each of the interactive films allows you to decide what happens next taking you one step further in your career every time. Six episodes in total, one released every week!



Stick around to find out how the story ends and to use the unique chance of winning a 1-year sponsorship with Forum Snowboards! Finish all six episodes successfully and complete the task that is given to you at the very end. Simple as that! Additionally you can win packages full of featured products from Forum, Special Blend, Foursquare, Anon, Red, Drunken Masters, Isen Seven and Rockstar Energy Drink.

To play, sign up now on www.forumfamous.com. If you want to fully enjoy all features of the game and be entitled to win you need to sign up with your own Facebook Account. You can also play the anonymous version of the game but you miss out on a lot of cool shit!

For more information visit us on www.forumfamous.com or join us on facebook.com/forumsnowboardseurope now.

SCUK has a coach booked from the UK to Mayrhofen, Austria with spaces available for anybody that needs a cheap lift out there with no luggage restrictions (within reason).

We head out on Friday 3rd Feb with pick ups at Castleford Xscape, Tamworth SnowDome, Snow Centre Hemel Hempstead, Hatton Cross underground and Dover.

We leave Mayrhofen midday, Saturday 11th February arriving back in the UK on Sunday 12th February.

Anybody is welcome to take up the spare places and the cost is £125 return or £70 one-way.

All details are here and if you're interested, the contact stu@soulsports.co.uk

If you could spread the word, we'd be most grateful.

I don't need to add anything to this.



Discussion in the forum...

The BBC has just reported that Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke has died from injuries sustained in a training accident on 11th January, a family spokeswoman says.

Burke, 29, helped bring freestyle skiing events to the Winter Olympics, and was considered a gold medal contender for the 2014 Games.

She was injured in a superpipe accident at Park City in the US state of Utah.

The four-time Winter X Games champion crashed on the same superpipe where snowboarder Kevin Pearce suffered a traumatic brain injury during a training accident in late 2009.



www.facebook.com/pages/Sarah-Burke/50553451173

Katie Ormerod sent us a recent edit from her trip to Breckenridge in December. She hopes you like it.

Katie O Breck 2011 from Mark Ormerod on Vimeo.

You've gotta be in it to win it. Today is the last day to make a donation and possibly win a trip for two to join WSG's team for the Everest Challenge, which includes Sam Nelson and Laura Berry.

If you fancy the challenge of skiing or snowboarding a total of 150km in 48 hours, including a night ski session and a night mountain hike - then the Everest Challenge is for you!

www.worldsnowboardguide.com/everestchallenge/index.cfm

In order to continue to enjoy the magic of World Snowboard Day just a little longer we have just launched a video contest!

Your mission, should you accept, is to “Show us your favorite spot to ride”! You can present a video of your home resort, snowpark, favorite kicker or where you like to freeride. Be creative and show us the perfect place to ride!

To select the top 3 short movies, we will call upon a jury composed of pro riders : Mathieu Crepel, Elias Elhardt, Anne-Flore Marxer, Victor Delerue and Xavier de le Rue.

The best among you will have the chance to win part of the 3 000€ worth of snowboard prizes provided by Rip Curl, Billabong, O’Neill and DC Shoes.

This video contest is free and open to everyone who is passionate about snowboarding so take a chance, submit a video and spread the word!

You will be able to upload your videos online, via the dedicated Riders Match web page on www.ridersmatch.com till February 6th, 2011.

Winners will be announced on February 20th, 2012, once the jury has reviewed each video. For more information, take a look at the video contest rules here.

Following the trend around Europe, the French Government has decided to make skiers and snowboarders pay for its increasing debt mountain and has recently increased the VAT on lift passes from 5.5% to 7% as from 1 January 2012.

A story on the BBC reveals that the French courts have liquidated the Channel ferry company and ordered it to stop trading. A spokeswoman for SeaFrance said "Provision has been made to ensure that all customers with pre-existing bookings will receive refunds".

We're not sick of this yet, so it's nice to see it's been picked up by both the BBC in a great interview and also by The Sun.

With all the love (and hate) shown to Billy Morgan after he hit the big time recently with his triple rodeo, Whitelines had the chance to chat with him before Christmas to get his thoughts on the whole thing.


http://whitelines.mpora.com/news/interview-billy-morgan-talks-triple-rodeo.html

You might also be interested in this post in the SCUK forum and the hating from Angry Snowboarder on Facebook who gets in to a bit of a tizzy after being called up by SCUK:nickmotture.

After Billy nailed the World's first triple rodeo recently, ESPN decided to go in search of the man himself.

Full article on ESPN.

As we all know Ben Kilner is not a nice person. Here he takes young and impressionable Billy Morgan up a mountain and makes him do a triple rodeo.



Discuss this on the SCUK forum.

Burton Snowboards is proud to congratulate Burton team rider Kevin Pearce on his first day back on a snowboard since he suffered a traumatic brain injury while training for the Olympics in 2009.


Kevin Pearce at Vail

Kevin has been a part of the Burton family for years, receiving his first snowboard from Jake Burton himself back when he was just five years old. In 2004, Kevin earned his first official sponsorship with Burton Snowboards after a Burton team manager was impressed with his riding during summer camp at Mt. Hood. From that point on, Kevin started showing up on podiums everywhere, with career highlights like consecutive Arctic Challenge victories, a pair of Air &Style wins, multiple X Games medals and back-to-back European Open wins.



Everything changed in an instant when Kevin suffered a traumatic brain injury while attempting a Cab double cork during a halfpipe training session on December 31, 2009. Since then, Kevin has spent nearly two years putting all his energy into rehab, re-learning things we all take for granted like eating, walking, talking, balancing and seeing.






Until recently, Kevin didn’t know if he would ever be able to snowboard again. So when he got the green light from his doctors it was a dream come true, and everything came together yesterday as he strapped on his board for the first time since the accident. Jake Burton was honored to join Kevin for his inaugural runs at Vail yesterday, before Kevin headed to Breckenridge to ride with friends and fans.



“To get to this point in his recovery, Kevin has worked harder and has had more determination than anyone I know,” said Jake Burton, Founder and CEO of Burton Snowboards. “His positive attitude and sense of humor through it all has inspired millions of people, including me personally in a big way. I couldn’t be happier to be here with Kevin to get back on snow with him. It was a day I’ll never forget.”


Jake Burton and Kevin Pearce - "Ride with Kevin"

In a pretty historic moment yesterday, Jake switched out his ‘I Ride for Kevin’ snowboard sticker (the grassroots campaign Burton created back in 2009 to show support for Kevin) with a new Burton sticker that says ‘Ride with Kevin’. The new message pretty much says it all.



In honour of Kevin’s amazing milestone, on Wednesday December 14th, Burton donated 10% of all proceeds from its sales on www.burton.com (US site) to traumatic brain injury research.

For a look back at Kevin’s snowboard career and recovery process, check out his timeline at www.burton.com/kevinpearceand his new website at www.kevinpearce.com


Kevin Pearce in Breckenridge

[Photos: Vail by Adam Moran. Breckenridge by GabeL'Heureux.]

The Easterly Canadian province of Nova Scotia will be the first in Canada, and believed to be the first in the world, to introduce compulsory helmets for everyone using the ski slopes, adults and children alike, the provincial government has announced.

Helmet wearing for children has been a legal requirement, with a small fine for transgressors, in France and Italy for some years and more recently was made law in the US state of New Jersey, but has not been enforced on adults anywhere before, except in some cases by individual ski resorts insisting staff and people taking ski lessons or using their terrain parks wear one.

The new law will put the onus on skiers and snowboarders to wear helmets, rather than on the areas to enforce them to do so, and transgressors ‘could face’ fines of up to $250 Cdn. Inspectors will be sent to ski areas to enforce compliance and the areas will be expected to put up clear warning notices to slope users. The law will come in to force in November 2012.

Although not a major skiing destination or well known to the international destination skier market, Nova Scotia has four small to mid-sized ski hills.

Nova Scotia’s Health and Wellness Minister Maureen MacDonald says that since 2000, there have been 11 traumatic brain injuries attributed to people skiing or snowboarding without a helmet in Nova Scotia.

"It may seem like a small number to many spread over this 11-year period, but when we consider the impacts... there's nothing small about it." MacDonald told a press conference, noting that it costs the local health system about $400,000 per year to care for people with a brain injury.

Lynn Fenerty, research manager at the neurosurgery department at the provinces QEII Health Sciences Centre said that, "Brain injuries are not like a broken bone that heal within six weeks but have lifelong consequences for patients' families and communities at large."

Local media reports say that about 88 per cent of Nova Scotia skiers already wear helmets, the highest percentage in Canada and probably the world.

The issue of helmet wearing legislation hit Canadian and world headlines in March 2009 when the actress Natasha Richardson, wife of actor Liam Neeson and daughter of actor Vanessa Redgrave, died from a head injury sustained following a low speed fall on the beginner slope while being taught at the Eastern Canadian resort of Mont Tremblant, Quebec.

Disability Snowsports UK and Snow-Camp will benefit from sales generated on the Westbeach online store this weekend as www.westbeach.com prepares to donate a whopping 10% of all weekend sales to the two snow sports specific charities!

Disability Snowsports UK is a national charity, which seeks to enrich and enhance the lives of those with a disability by enabling them to take part in skiing and snowboarding. We believe that anyone – regardless of their disability – should be able to enjoy the thrill of snowsports. We provide exciting, life enhancing and therapeutic activities for those who require adaptive equipment for those who require adaptive equipment or special instruction and support to boost confidence, self esteem and independence.

www.disabilitysnowsport.org.uk
www.facebook.com/dsuk.disabilitysnowsport

Snow-Camp is an innovative youth charity that uses a unique combination of skiing, snowboarding and life-skills programmes to support inner-city young people. Through this combination of snowsports and life-skills, our programmes enable young people to grow in confidence and self esteem, develop as individuals and make positive choices for their lives. Snow-Camp programmes also enable young people to reflect on the key issues impacting their day to day lives, and help them develop new skills to support their futures – particularly towards careers in the snowsport industry.

www.snow-camp.co.uk
www.facebook.com/snowcampcharity

Helmets can save your life, you need to wear them in the UK for freestyle anyway, so you might as well have your own. Most importantly, it's somewhere to stick your SCUK stickers and that should be reason enough.



There's plenty of helmets in the SCUK Shop, so there's no excuse. If you ain't riding because you've smacked your head, we're not happy.

Discuss...

Well done Calum! You can read the full report on Whitelines.

NASA has confirmed that it has located a planet that could support skiing. Although there has been speculation that ‘frost’ might be present on massive peaks on Mars and that super-frozen surfaces on some of Saturn’s moons this is the first time that NASA has been able to confirm that a planet may have both decent powder and a breathable atmosphere.

Kepler 22b, 600 light years from the Alps and first recorded in 2009, is the first planet that NASA has confirmed exists in a ‘habitable zone’ which are the correct distance from their local star to potentially support water and thus snow - along with a suitable temperature and atmosphere to support life. It’s more than double the size of the earth and orbits its sun every 290 days – which may mean shorter gaps between ski seasons than here on earth.

"We have now got good planet confirmation with Kepler 22b," said Bill Borucki, Kepler principal investigator at NASA Ames Research Center, told reporters. "We are certain that it is in the habitable zone and if it has a surface it ought to have a nice temperature," he said, although he failed to mention the likely snow conditions or maximum skiable verticals.

In true Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy style, SCUK are now busy raising funds to build the huge spaceships necessary to ship all Lycra-clad skiers off to Kepler 22b.



NASA launched its Kepler spacecraft in March 2009 on a mission to locate Earth-like planets orbiting stars similar to our sun. Kepler has uncovered 1,000 more potentially skier-friendly planets but 22b is the first to be confirmed.

Since the early days of Burton Snowboards, women have always helped shape the team, the products and the company. Today marks another milestone with the launch of burtongirls.com, Burton’s first online community dedicated to women and the snowboard lifestyle.

“With burtongirls.com we wanted to create a forum where girls could discover fun, unique and diverse content around the lifestyle and culture of our sport,” stated Donna Carpenter, President of Burton. “There are so many cool aspects to our lifestyle – from traveling and meeting people all over the world, getting to ride the best mountains on the planet and working with the best snowboarders, and burtongirls.com reflects all of that.”

The freshly launched burtongirls.com website features five content sections, chosen to represent all of the facets of the true Burton girl lifestyle. The first of course is ‘Snowboarding’, followed by ‘Travel’, ‘Health & Beauty’, ‘Style & Culture’ and ‘Après’. And contributing to all of this content is a group of more than 30 female contributors, all who share a love for what our lifestyle is all about.



Burton team riders like Kelly Clark, Hannah Teter, Gabi Viteri and Linn Haug are the foundation of the site, sharing stories about their travels, riding, fitness, fashion, favorite foods and more. And backing them up is a diverse crew of cool and talented women broken up into categories.

The first group is called the ‘Burtonistas’, who are outside contributors from fashion, entertainment, cuisine, photography, snowboarding and more. This includes actress Joy Bryant, model Noot Seear, DJ Jasmine Solano, and the Barefoot Contessa, just to name a few. There is also an ‘Inner Voice’ group, featuring women who work on the inside at Burton. These women will be providing an insider’s perspective on life at Burton, travel, products, Burton milestones and more. And lastly, the site features the voice of Burton’s Shopgirls program, a group of girls who work in snowboard shops and who really are some of the most passionate snowboarders around.

“I am beyond excited to be a part of burtongirls.com,” says actress and Burton girls contributor Joy Bryant, who currently plays the role of ‘Jasmine’ on NBC’s “Parenthood”. “Snowboarding is what I love to do most – I’m always on the mountain, dreaming about the mountain or trying to get to the mountain. And I can’t wait to share all of my on and off mountain antics with the Burton girls community.”

In addition to all of the amazing contributor content, the site also allows girls to check out the ultimate Burton outfits, share content via Facebook and Twitter, and coming soon will be great calendar info on all the awesome events happening throughout the winter. It definitely will be a one-stop-shop for all things Burton girls.

Friends and family of the brand got a sneak peek at the new site just recently, at the burtongirls.com launch party at the MILK Studios Penthouse in New York. For a taste of the event and to get an idea of what to expect from burtongirls.com...



www.burtongirls.com is live now, and we can’t wait to welcome you.

Watch all the best of Cheryl's bangers from her Open Air Project in this months offering... the “video part”! The talking gets left behind and here we have 3 minutes of pure action – just to show you exactly why Cheryl is in the running for numerous awards and titles this winter. Check it out and make your own mind up. Well done Cheryl!! We are stoked on this and hope you are too! Next month we will be back with the second to last episode when Cheryl tears up Jackson Hole, Wyoming!

Cheryl Maas Open Air Full Video Part from Volcom on Vimeo.

This summer, SNO!zone Milton Keynes invited our UK team rider Laura Berry to design her own park for their Signature Sessions series. The set up was sick so what better way to celebrate than invite the rest of the UK team down to shred the park after hours! Andy Nudds, Matt MacWhirter and Laura Berry welcomed Jesse Smith to his first team shred session. Enjoy.

Check out the footage to see what went down!

The North Face®, the world’s premier supplier of authentic, innovative and technically advanced outdoor apparel, equipment and footwear announces the launch of kNOw Boundaries, a new pan-European snow safety campaign.

Live from November 2011, The North Face® kNOw Boundaries initiative is an interactive online platform at http://snowsafety.thenorthface.com/ which gives free and important information around snow safety in an easy and fun way. Aimed primarily at skiers and snowboarders, each segment introduces key concepts such as snowpack layering, avalanche information, key learnings on how to recognize an avalanche terrain, signs of unstable snow and safe travel techniques.



Each chapter features videos and tips from The North Face® Global Team snow sports athletes (Xavier De La Rue, Giulia Monego, Ian McIntosh, Sage Cattabriga Alosa, Jimmy Chin, Mark Carter, Dana Flahr) and certified mountain guides.

Since 1968, The North Face® has encouraged outdoor enthusiasts to Never Stop Exploring™ supplying technically superior skiing/snowboarding apparel and equipment.

The North Face® kNOw Boundaries information is available in English, French and German on: http://snowsafety.thenorthface.com/

Back in July 2010, SCUK were contacted by a research student Mary Ondrusz asking for assistance in a survey concerning attitudes to helmet use in snowsports. Mary had an overwhelming response to the questionnaire and exceeded her target 4-fold.

So, we thought we'd show you the summary of her findings, in full, glorious research-o-vision. I hope you find this interesting.

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When Dieter Althaus was involved in a skiing fatality at the beginning of 2009 sales of helmets for skiing soared and debates about the use of helmets in snow sports were reignited; these debates were refuelled with the death of actress, Nastaha Richardson. Fatalities in snow sports are quite rare despite the prominence given to these in the media. However, the primary cause of death is traumatic brain injury, which is also the primary cause for long-term disability. For this reason, there have been some calls for mandatory helmet use as there is evidence that using helmets may reduce the risk of serious head injuries by as much as 50%. Hence, bodies such as the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (bfu), Monash University Accident Research Centre and the American Medical Association recommend helmet use. Yet, they support voluntary use as there is no evidence that mandatory use would reduce the number of fatalities. This latter reason has been used by opponents of helmet use to suggest that there is no compelling reason to wear helmets, with some arguing that doing so may actually increase the risks of incurring an injury owing to risk compensation.

Although helmet use in snow sports is increasing, it varies widely across ski regions with uptake as low as 12% in some areas. Much of the research into why people wear helmets assumes that helmet use is common sense and those who do not use them lack sufficient knowledge of the risks involved. While there is research to suggest that better knowledge may be associated with safer skiing behaviours, there is also evidence that those who take more risks are more knowledgeable. If knowledge does not fully explain why people use or do not use helmets for snow sports, then maybe we should look at people’s attitudes and beliefs. Prior research into this subject has elicited some of the beliefs and attitudes associated with helmet use, but did not indicate how strongly each of these influenced a person’s behaviour. Hence, research was undertaken to assess the variables influencing people’s intention to use helmet (and indirectly the likelihood that they would do so).

We invited people to complete an online questionnaire constructed using the well-tested method for the Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen 1985) and drawing on beliefs and attitudes found from earlier research. Over 1200 adults completed this survey; they were predominantly skiers (c. 80%) of whom 9% also boarded; almost three-quarters were male. The majority were at advanced or expert levels and were positively disposed to helmet use.

We found that a person’s intention to use a helmet was strongly related to their age, attitude, beliefs about the amount of choice they had (perceived behavioural control), what was normal for their sport (subjective norms), past behaviour, self-efficacy and moral norms. Unsurprisingly, the strongest predictor of a person’s intention to use a helmet was past behaviour. This may explain why those most likely to have worn or intend to wear a helmet were significantly younger than those least likely to do so. Older experienced skiers may have begun learning when helmets were not available whereas younger skiers may have been introduced to skiing or other sports when young and helmets were more commonly used.

Attitude was the next most significant predictor for helmet use intentions, with beliefs about the protective aspects of helmets being the most important. This finding supports the idea that helmet users were more likely than non-users to believe that helmets would protect them from injury. Although those who were unlikely to use helmets were more inclined to believe that wearing helmets would lead to risk compensation, these beliefs were weak and may have very little influence on their ultimate behaviour.

The overall analysis does not support the idea that helmet use behaviours are influenced by subjective norms as suggested by some researchers. However, analysis of individual beliefs indicates that those with a strong intent to use a helmet were much more likely than those with little intent to report social pressure to wear helmets. A similar finding exists for moral norms.
It seems that there is a tendency for people to do what they have always done as custom and habit presents the path of least resistance. While it is possible that beliefs elicited so far may be convenient excuses that do not ultimately influence behavioural intentions, generally, the beliefs held by those with low and high intent to use helmets were mostly in the expected direction, but the differences were small and often not important.

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Note: This research study was undertaken by Mary Ondrusz as part of the requirement for the MSc in Health Psychology at the University of Surrey under the supervision of Dr Victoria Senior.

I am indebted to every person who participated in this study and who willingly donated their time to support my work.

Shona Robison MSP, Minister for Commonwealth Games and Sport, today (Tuesday 8 November) officially opened the world’s first permanent, artificial avalanche transceiver training facility, specifically designed to help develop the skills of winter mountaineers and ski mountaineers of all abilities.

The facility is located at sportscotland’s National Outdoor Training Centre, Glenmore Lodge in the heart of the Cairngorms National Park in the Scottish Highlands. Constructed at a cost of approximately £10,000, the 500 square metre facility provides potential rescuers with an artificial, highly realistic and easily accessible facility that enables would-be rescuers to simulate various avalanche transceiver search scenarios at any time of year and whatever the weather conditions.

Winter mountaineering, and ski mountaineering in particular, are increasingly popular activities in Scotland. Last year alone, the sportscotland Avalanche Information Service (SAIS) recorded over 329,000 people accessing its online avalanche reports, over a four month operational period, across five key Scottish mountain areas.


Shona Robison, MSP © Rob Eyton-Jones

An individual’s chances of survival diminish rapidly the longer they are buried in an avalanche. Companion rescue therefore forms the focus of a successful recovery. Increasingly individuals are carrying transceivers which can both transmit and receive a signal on a common frequency. In this way any members of the party not avalanched become rescuers. Groups therefore have a need to be practiced in their use.

A keen skier and hill-walker, Minister for Commonwealth Games and Sport, Shona Robison, said: “Snowsports generate £30 million each year for Scotland’s economy, supporting over 600 jobs, and in 2011 – the Year of Active – we are keen to see people taking advantage of some of the fantastic terrain available in Scotland’s mountains to enjoy winter sports.

“But we can’t lose sight of the fact that lives are lost on Scotland’s mountains each year. The opening of the avalanche training park – the first of its kind anywhere in the world – is a timely reminder to those heading out into the great outdoors in winter to plan ahead, check the weather and ensure they have the correct safety equipment and knowledge.

“The training park is a fantastic achievement and offering year-round training in dealing with avalanche scenarios, builds on Glenmore Lodge’s reputation at the forefront in providing world-class training facilities.”

Designed by Back Country Access (BCA), world leaders in avalanche research and product development, the avalanche transceiver training park involves four avalanche transceivers (simulating victims) being buried under the deep layer of woodchip that covers the park. Every beacon is connected underground to a central control box where one or more units can be turned on to emit a signal that is picked up by the avalanche transceivers worn by trainee rescuers.

Almost all avalanche training facilities operating around the world currently rely on snow to hide the transceivers, restricting the use of such training parks to areas or times of permanent snow cover. BCA have provided £4,000 of hardware (including transceivers and probes) as part of their ongoing support of Glenmore Lodge.

Bruce Edgerly, Vice President of US-based BCA commented: “The avalanche training park we have helped put in place at Glenmore Lodge is one of the finest anywhere in the world. Well constructed, designed and easy to use, the innovative approach of using an artificial surface is one likely to be recreated in a number of locations around the world.”

Bob Kinnaird, Principal of sportscotland Glenmore Lodge, explained: “In addition to mountain rescue personnel, an increasing number of skiers, winter walkers and mountaineers carry avalanche transceivers to increase their chance of rescue in the event of an avalanche. However, such equipment is only helpful if those involved in a rescue operation know how to detect the signals and how to best plan a rescue.

“As Scotland’s National Outdoor Training Centre, Glenmore Lodge is keen to continually develop our facilities to support the outdoor sector. In partnership with BCA, the development of the year-round transceiver training park is an example of an innovative approach to offer accessible and appropriate training opportunities that help outdoor enthusiasts develop their knowledge and skills to safely enjoy our mountains in winter.”

Ian Sherrington, Chief Instructor at sportscotland Glenmore Lodge, added: “This transceiver park provides an excellent training facility for anyone venturing into avalanche terrain. Your chance of surviving an avalanche burial is directly linked to the speed of your rescue. Therefore, training in the use of transceivers, probes and shovels in this environment will ultimately help to save lives. Moreover, this park will not only benefit a large number of the 750+ winter course participants we host at Glenmore Lodge, but mountain rescue teams, ski clubs and individuals who simply wish to hone their skills.”

He added: “Scotland’s mountains in winter present a far more serious environment than summer and should be treated as such. Every piece of clothing and equipment carried or worn should be carefully considered and more importantly winter hill walkers must know how to use it. We highly recommend learning from an experienced mountaineer, joining a club or better still completing one of the wide range of winter skills courses available.”

www.glenmorelodge.org.uk
www.backcountryaccess.com