As the El Nino Winter slowly approaches, ski movies are beginning to make their way onto center stage promoting stoke among us all. Rage Films has released a couple of great ski films that showcase our great sport on the big screen. Enjoy!
Pretty Good
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Such is Life
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El Nino is on it's way back for the winter of 09/10. No complaints here, since that generally means more precipitation. I hope that it doesn't also bring warmer temperatures keeping the snow level higher. In California all we can hope for is a huge winter and heavy snowpack to fill up our lakes. According to NOAA:
"NOAA scientists today announced the arrival of El Niño, a climate phenomenon with a significant influence on global weather, ocean conditions and marine fisheries. El Niño, the periodic warming of central and eastern tropical Pacific waters, occurs on average every two to five years and typically lasts about 12 months. NOAA expects this El Niño to continue developing during the next several months, with further strengthening possible. The event is expected to last through winter 2009-10... ...El Niño’s negative impacts have included damaging winter storms in California and increased storminess across the southern United States.
DAMAGING WINTER STORMS IN CALIFORNIA. To me that sounds like Winter Storm Warnings!
I love the ski shop. I love the smell of Ptex and Wax in the air, conversation about what skis do what, how deep the last powder day was and where the good lines were at everyone's favorite hill. All of that stuff is just great. I live about an hour from the nearest ski shop. The backcountry around my place is great. Deep snow, no one around and stable. The problem comes when you need work done on your boards. Where do you go? Well I got some new boards from Praxis Skis in Truckee California just the other day. I am super excited and ready to go tear up the Lassen and Shasta areas here soon. However, my old Gun Labs have my bindings and there are no drill holes in the Mtn Jib skis yet. I don't want to drive an hour and don't want to pay the shop $50 to mount them. So! I did it myself. Here's a video of what it was like to mount up the new skis. They turned out great. Don't be afraid, just go at it carefully!
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Always ripping around Squaw with ease and style on some new wierd ski that you'd never seen, McConkey was always stoked. Skiing would not be what it is today without his influence. He changed our sport. He changed the way we look at the mountain. We'll be talking about him to our grandkids, about the Spatula, about Saucerboy and about Death Camp. Loosing McConkey brought a hush over the Tahoe area, and a hush over the whole freeskiing community. His influence will continue to push our sport. Thanks for all you did man!
Shane McConkey was an incredible influential figure in two distinct sports, and he was a brother for the MSP Films crew and thousands of people whose lives he touched. His loss will be felt the world over as he leaves a void that simply can never be filled. As one fan put it, “It feels like Superman died.” He basically did. --Scott Gaffney
A memorial is set for Sunday April 5th at 4:30pm at Squaw Valley. You can find more information here: http://shanemcconkey.org/
The iPhone has transformed the personal computing / cell phone world. It is the beginning to a revolution in the way we use our hand held devices. There are quite a few iPhone applications out there that are just great at simplifying your daily routine, but these five are just what you need to simplify your skiing experience.
