etnies

Etnies Snow Team Report 04-14-04

The season's winding down and the heat is rising. Here's the latest in snowboarding news...

Dionne Delesalle
got his report back from the doctor and it looks like he will be getting his knee scoped to repair his Meniscus. It won't be too bad since his season is coming to an end, plus he'll be in the gym every day rehabbing it and staying healthy.

Nicolas Droz
continues to work on his video part. He'll be shredding every day and maybe head to Garmisch to film a little more.

John Jackson
has been bouncing back and forth from Mammoth to Tahoe, filming with the Standard Film crew. He may head out to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to film some different terrain.

Markku Koski
is back in the States filming with Standard. He'll be venturing out to Colorado this week and then back to Tahoe to finish his part for the remainder of the season.

Tyler Lepore
recently celebrated his 24th birthday. Happy Birthday, Ty! He will be taking a short week off from the snow due to a slight ankle injury. Tyler said it's nothing major, his ankles are little sore from all the pounding. He'll be back at it later this month to attend Snowboarders Super Park, which will be held in Alberta, Canada this year.

Roberta Rodger
is in Vancouver shredding her local mountain and getting ready for the Ripzone contest scheduled later this month.

Kevin Sansalone
just joined the injured squad and will be scheduling himself for some repairs later this month. He ended up tearing his MCL, so he and Dionne will be motivating each other to hit the gym every day.

Joni Makinen
will be spending the rest of the week in Oregon filming with the Love/Hate crew. He'll probably visit Option for a few days before he heads back to Finland.

Janna Meyen
is in training mode, rehabbing her knee. She'll be spending the next several months in the gym working on getting stronger for next season.

Alexis Waite
made her way back to her hometown of Seattle, where she'll be joining the rest of the Northwest locals at Stevens Pass for a little jam session. She'll be up there for the week shooting photos and shredding with locals. She's been trying to make it into the Ripzone contest scheduled for later this month in Whistler, so if she gets in, she'll be making her way to Canada. Lexi recently got the cover and some interior shots in SG magazine.

Wille Yli-Luoma
must have done some evil things in his past life, because old man karma recently came around and bit him in his ass. Wille's truck was broken into while he was staying with friends in Vancouver, Canada. Everything was gone, including two iPods, a laptop, some really expensive camera equipment, snow gear and his passport. He's currently stranded in Vancouver waiting to get his passport sent back to him. Good luck, Wille--sorry to hear the unfortunate news.

Snow Team Report 04-05-04

Dionne Delesalle
overshot a jump last week while filming in the backcountry, causing him to land pretty flat. He reported that his knee was pretty swollen and painful, so he'll be getting an MRI later this week to see there wa any serious damage. Hopefully, it's just a bruise. If not, Dionne will be added onto the injured list for the rest of this season.

Nicolas Droz
is working hard to get as much coverage as he can this season filming for Absinth films. He'll be traveling around Europe to search for new spots and terrain. nico will then finish out his season in Europe and hopes to visit the States late spring.

Markku Koski
recently made his way back to Tahoe, where he will concentrate on filming and shooting photos with the Standard Films crew. He'll be in the States for the next couple of months.

John Jackson
shredded it up during the Boost Mobile Pro of Snowboarding last weekend in Chicago, but he unfortunately couldn't put a good enough run together to qualify in the finals. He did, however, extend his bank account just by representing and trying his best during the event. John is heading back to Mammoth, where he'll be going out with the Standard Films crew to slaughter it some more.

Tyler Lepore
also represented pretty hard at the Boost Mobile contest last weekend. He was mixing it up during the rail contest with frontside 270s to backside lips and ultra fast lipslides down the rails. Tyler made it into the finals Saturday night during the Big Air main event without a practice run with a frontside corked 720, but he unfortunately couldn't hold it down during his final runs. All in all, Tyler said he had a blast and was stoked to have the opportunity to head out to Chi-town.

Benji Ritchie
stepped it up last weekend during the Shakedown in Montreal, Canada, but was a few points shy from the main pot. He took second and got $3000 richer. Benji will be heading to Southern California this week to attend a Rossignol meeting in Big Bear and visit the etnies offices.

Roberta Rodger
recently got back from a ten-day trip out to Japan. She also participated in the Boarding for Breast Cancer event held at Sierra at Tahoe this last weekend. Roberta plans to hang in Tahoe for the next couple of days shredding around with some of her friends. She'll be bouncing back and forth from Vancouver to Salt Lake City, Utah and California for the next couple of months.

Kevin Sansalone
participated in the Shakedown contest out in Montreal, Canada this last weekend. He'll be hanging with some of his friends for the next couple of days and then make his way back to the West Side. Kevin's been shredding with the White Out Films crew. He reported that he's collected a good amount of footage for the video. He's also been working on his Skid's project and reports positive vibes for the fourth release.

Joni Makinen
will be in the States for the next month. He's in Oregon right now filming with Ami Voutilainen. Joni reported his ankle is feeling a lot better, but still sore once in a while.

Janna Meyen
is recuperating from her knee surgery. She'll be in the gym every day rehabbing and staying positive so she can come back late this summer.

Alexis Waite
will be in Tahoe for the next couple of days, shredding with friends and shooting photos with various photographers.

Wille Yli-Luoma
is back in Utah filming with Mack Dawg. No plans have been made for him to travel back to Europe anytime soon.

Upcoming Events

April 16 - 18: Rip Zone, Whistler, BC, Canada
April 19 - 21: ThirtyTwo Boot Clinic video shoot, Mammoth Lakes, CA
April 30: West Coast invitational, Mammoth Lakes, CA

Chi-Town Boost Mobile Pro

On March 26 and 27, Boost Mobile put on one of the biggest snowboarding contests the city of Chicago has ever seen, offering $250,000 (the largest-ever prize purse in snowboarding history) to throw your professional ass off a sketchy kicker and hit some wack quarterpipe. Included was
a $20,000 purse for a Rail Jam on March 26. As you can imagine, every professional  snowboarder in the world was there for a piece of the action. ThirtyTwo / etnies team riders like John Jackson, Wille Yli-Luoma, Tyler Lepore and Alexis Waite were all ready to get their hands on the loot.

Friday night was the Rail Jam, and the set-up was pretty cool--twenty stairs with three
different options to shred down. 1. Round bar rail, straight down 2. Straight ledge with a lower step-down rail 3. Hubba ledge, flat, down

John Jackson and Tyler Lepore both headed into the Rail Jam session with some serious hammers from practice. Once everything got under way, Tyler was doing frontside 270s over the flat part on the hubba ledge to frontside boards to 270 out! Check the footy! John was throwing all kinds of rail combos, frontside 270s
to frontside boards down the round bar, plus a nose press to frontside board to 180 out on the ledge. With twenty grand on the line, riders were going for broke. Once the smoke cleared from the hammer blasting, MFM won.

Okay, okay, now onto the main event! Did I tell you about the set-up? No. Okay, here we go. The contest was a Big Air jump that went straight into a quarter pipe. Remember this was Chicago, in the parking lot of Soldier Field. There was about 500 feet of metal and wood scaffolding set-up, throwing riders into a huge cheese wedge of snow. The jump was about 45 to 50 feet long, and once the
rider hit the landing, it was straight into the sketchiest quarterpipe ever! But with sixty grand for first, thirty grand for second and fifteen grand for third, riders were trying their best to clear the jump and get up the quarterpipe.

Even with an extra ten feet of scaffolding, most riders couldnt even clear the jump, let alone get enough speed to hit the quarterpipe! John Jackson was able to put together a solid run with a frontside 360 Indy to a McTwist on the quarterpipe. But the man of the hour was Tyler Lepore, who showed up last minute. With no
practice runs, Tyler ascended to the top of the jump, strapped in, and freight trained a frontside corked 720 to a huge backflip on the quarterpipe. Good enough to get him into the eight-man final, but Tyler couldnҒt come through with another solid run.

After the main event, Dialated Peoples, Kanye West and Ludacris pumped the crowd up with a free concert. What a way to end the day! Special thanks to all the ThirtyTwo and etnies riders; Chris from The Shop; RQ Board Shop crew Brian, Shakil and Todd; Torque Center dudes; Chris Shred Shop and the Zumiez Kids.