Bubble Wrap and Nutella

This Skier Got Lost in a Snowstorm—Could Rescuers Find Him in Time?

2021-03-27T20:50:00.001-07:00

You've heard this story I'm sure. Moral of the story - always call your Mom (and use the Spot)
😘
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> https://www.readersdigest.ca/culture/bc-skier-lost-in-snowstorm/
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> Sent from my iPad

Central America photo dump

2012-11-04T12:15:00.005-08:00

As promised, here are a bunch of photos from my real camera, enjoy!

Evan and our pet dog walking down the Montezuma´s main drag.

Juan, the chocolate lab.

Saw a lot of this in Montezuma

Hey Evan

There was a bit of a flash flood in Montezuma which turned the ocean into chocolate milk.

Fresh banana at Mal Pais surf camp.

This guy´s a pool shark.

Old stuff and things.

Iguana

Poolside Evan

Cahj owl at the Jaguar Rescue Center http://jaguarrescue.com

Huge constrictor

Green tree frog.

I dunno what this is but it might be the cutest animal I´ve ever seen.

These sloths are close contenders though.

Hey slothy

Ocelot

A spider monkey and a howler monkey just cuddling

Howler trying to jump on people.

Bocas Del Toro sunset.

Aqua Lounge swingset at sunset.

Me, mid dub.

Evan backie.

Your´s truely, just havin a time.

Aussie Jim in his speedo.

Bocas Del Toro at night

and again..

Aqua Lounge on a mellow Monday.

The Aussie´s, Evan, and I celebrating a Commonwealth beerpong victory.

Jacó sunset.

That´s all for now, dealing with a funky sd card in my gopro so it might take a while (till im home) to get those photos on patrol.

Puerto Viejo and Bocas Del Toro

2012-10-31T15:57:00.000-07:00

There wasn't much going on in terms of weather or other people on the Pacific coast of Costa so anticipating a bit some sunshine and friends we decided to make the move over to the Caribbean coast, to Puerto Viejo in particular. We rolled into Rocking J's, the wild hostel we'd been hearing about everywhere http://www.rockingjs.com/ . This place is insane, basically like a compound of tents, hammocks, some dorms and private room, a bar, restaurant, 2012 bunker, all of it covered in bright tile mosaics and painting done by the crowd this place attracts. It was actually kind of off putting at first because the whole hippy thing was just so in your face and not exactly what we were expecting. Fortunately though, that evening a few like minded travelers grouped together and we fired up a game beer pong which turned into Canada vs the World flipcup, which turned into $1 shots of the local hard alcohol (disgusting), which turned into a dance party at a nearby bar called Tasty Waves.
Had a pretty fun night and met a bunch of people from all over the world like Australia, Murica, Canada, Netherlands, Germany, and who knows elsewhere. This was pretty awesome because we hadn't really met any other travelers yet and that always makes things more fun. When we showed up we were told about people being held up and robbed by guys with machetes in the forest, one guy was even cut when he tried to chase the bandit down. Still, we braved the wild road (not actually wild at all) and road some bikes to the Jaguar Animal Rescue Centre. I'm going to have to do a separate post for that since I took a bunch of great photos on my real camera and cant really find anywhere that has a computer with a working usb port and fast enough internet to handle large photos. Still, it was cool as hell. We got to see some spiders, snakes like boa constrictors and vipers, got to play with howler monkeys and spider monkeys, saw sloths, green tree frogs, falcons (saw one get fed a live mouse), an owl, two ocelots, and all sorts of other cool animals I've never seen before. I totally recommend seeing this place to everyone who travels through Puerto Viejo as it was definitely one of the highlights for me so far.
We rented surf boards one day an attempted to surf some small Caribbean waves with little success. I did manage to stand up a couple times though so it was worth it, don't expect a surf career from this guy anytime soon though.

From Puerto Viejo we headed down to Panama to check out the islands of Bocas Del Toro. After a long wait in line at the border, we were sitting in a shuttle bus waiting to get going when our two Aussie mates J-Rod and Jim randomly rolled up. We teamed up with them and ended up staying at the same place in Bocas called Aqua Lounge. Aqua is by far the coolest place I've ever stayed at http://www.bocasaqualounge.info/ . Basically it's a hostel/bar that's built on the turquoise water... There's a set of swings and a trampoline set up right beside the water, dedicated beer pong tables, free pancakes every morning, and some of the biggest parties in Bocas. Soo basically heaven for me. One day we went on what was supposed to be a snorkel trip to 5 different islands but turned out to be more of a boat tour and one hour of snorkeling.. We still saw some cool fishies and coral as well as the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. Once again I'm sorry to say that I'll have to do a separate post for the snorkel tour because all the photos are on my Gopro... Other than that we spent our days at Aqua Lounge jumping off stuff into water all day and all night, playing beer pong and flip cup, and taking advantage of $0.50 happy hours with our Aussie mates and other pals from around the world.

I have a lot more photos to add that actually have some thought behind them soooo stay tuned for when I find a better computer!

Hammock City at Rocking J's

A cute baby mammal of some sort with a long tongue.

Green tree frog

Cahj bikes.

Puerto Viejo

A very small example of Rocking J's

Not uncommon at Rocking J's

Evan walking across no man's land into Panama

Daily pancakes at Aqua Lounge

Aqua Lounge

Typical Aqua Lounge activities with Jeff

Sunset from Aqua Lounge overlooking Bocas town.

Panama has some weird money called Balboa's which look like toonies but are only worth $1. They use American currency for everything else.

I can't get enough of Aqua Lounge

Another reason I love Aqua Lounge.

Panorama of a sunset from Aqua Lounge.

Montezuma to Mal Pais/Santa Teresa

2012-10-21T13:57:00.001-07:00

We're been on the Nicoya Peninsula for a couple of days now, started off with a casual bus ride from San Jose and across a ferry to a little ocean town called Montezuma. Montezuma is tiny! It only has two paved roads and you have to take an ATV or 4 wheel drive vehicle to travel any of the other roads outta there. We showed up, found a nice lil place to stay on the beach, then hopped in the ocean, did cahj things and then that night while we were sleeping the craziest rain storm I've ever seen kicked up and lasted all night, and the next night (wasn't too quiet on the tin roof). We originally went there with the goal of hiking up to a couple of waterfalls where you can apparently jump off one and ropeswing into the other but this rain storm caused a bit of a flash flood soo we couldn't walk up the river too far, still tried though..

We kinda ran out of things to do there so we hopped on another bus to Santa Teresa. Showed up in another tiny little dirt road town, not exactly sure whether we're staying in Santa Teresa or Mal Pais but it's still sick regardless. We're staying at a pretty nice place called Mal Pais surf camp, it has a pool, open air bar with pool and ping pong, howler monkeys running around, and most importantly, it only costs $10 a night! We've just been spending the days getting worked by waves in the ocean and staying super casual like usual.

I know the formatting of this post is all weird but ill fix it once im on a normal computer, not my ipod. Also hopefully I´ll be able to upload photos from my real camera and gopro once I find a computer with a usb port.

Montezuma

The main road into Montezuma

Cute lil cafe in forest.

The flooded river brought a bunch of dirty silt down with it into the ocean.

Evan, just waiting for his not so traditional French Toast (a few extremely small pieces of plain toast and butter)

One of our pet dogs.

One of our pet cats.

Mal Pais surf camp pool.

Hola

2012-10-15T21:00:00.004-07:00

Just rolled into our little hostel in Alajuela, Costa Rica! Travel day went without a hitch but my debit card doesn't seem to be working... Which is weird because it's worked everywhere else in the world. It's not an adventure till something goes wrong I guess! Looks like we're heading to a place called Montezuma on the Pacific Coast tomorrow. Not sure how to get there but we'll figure it out.

Colorado

Just a great meal in Texas

Layover life.

Sunset off the non sunset side of the 757 over the Gulf of Mexico

Locked and loaded

2012-10-14T14:49:00.001-07:00

Im leaving to Spokane in an hour where I'm catching a flight bright and early tomorrow morning, so like a typical Jeff I started packing about an hour and a half ago.. All good to go for 7 weeks now, maybe I'll toss out a blog post from an airport on the way tomorrow.

Bye

Long time no post..

2012-10-10T18:14:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted anything here since February... Sorry.. The only excuses I can dig up seem to be my severe case of procrastination and the fact that I don't really enjoy writing (dont ask why i have a blog). One would think I'd have a way better handle on this terrible habit after doing the majority of my High School courses online. Oh well, I'll just start where I left off in February when I was still a teenager. Beware, this might get long.

Waaay back in February I was taking some classes at Selkirk College and skiing almost everyday (obviously). We went through a big high pressure pattern combined with a really stable snowpack for a week or two in the middle of feb so I spent a lot of time skinning to earn some turns in our unreal back/slack country.

Record Peak on my 20th Birthday

Panorama from the top of Grey Mt.

Big Tuna having a little nap in the Credit Union after the Karaoke guy gave us a ride back to Rossland from the Crown...

A rat I dissected in Biology

A failed attempt to ski Old Glory with Colston

Then the snow came back.

In March I headed out to Lake Louise for the Smith Optics Freeski Competition. I hadn't skied in one since 2009 when I was still a Junior but I figured it would be rude not to go check it out and say hi to all my friends in the Rockies. Zimmer and I left from Rossland, picked up one Mr. Siggers in Fernie then proceeded to Golden to stay with my good friend Brenna (and her cats) for the night. Yes, we stopped at every single Tim Horton's on the way.. (it was "roll up the rim to win" season...)

Yes, the three of us drank a lot of coffee.

Brenna's kitty, named Daisy I think?

Daisy hangin on Siggers

The next morning we came across good hombre Jayden Starnino at nowhere other than the Golden Tim Horton's so we drove over to Lake Louise together and checked into the little hotel room where we were all staying.

It was small.

We decided to go ski a lil and make sure the venues hadn't changed too much in the past few years. they hadn't.

So we found a....

Megan Gunning!

And took her to the Chateau

The next day was qualifications and I did the exact same line as I did as a Junior competitor there in 2009.

The main feature on the Quali run.

As it would turn out, I ended up in 5th place after the first day which I was pretty pleased with after not competing at all for 3 years, and for my first old person comp, and for skiing without an ACL or MCL.

Zimmer was right at the top of the next page too in 10th place I believe. Unreal for his first Freeski comp ever with over 50 competitors.

Me, Jay, and Siggers watching Zimmer drop into his run in the Finals.

Just skiing and wrecking skis like usual at Lake Louise

There's my run from finals. It looks really mellow but you have to remember we're skiing on a slope that has been skied a couple of times each by over a hundred people in the few days leading up to it, making for some super firm conditions. Factor in that a fall up top would result in tumbling over a couple hundred vertical feet of sharp rocks and hopefully people can understand why it looks like we're skiing so slow and going so small.

I ended up moving up into 3rd place though! Felt great to be back on the podium even if it wasn't on top.

Medal and shot ski trophy.

Mine and Siggers' shot skis.

I was stoked so I gave my hair a lil trim into mullet form for mullet March.

We had to celebrate so obviously I brought my flip cups to the bar. They got taken away soon after though..

This guy fell off the bridge and got stuck.

The next morning we packed my rig back up and hit the road to the nearest Tim Horton's.

Which happened to be in Banff where Zimmer put on a parkour show.

Instead of driving home the fast way through Radium, Invermere etc. we decided that there would be far more Tim Horton's to stop at if we went through Calgary then the Crowsnest. So we did. Aaand us rural BC kids managed to get pretty lost in the big city..

We found the Apple store though.

Then got out of the hell hole that is Calgary no where near as fast as I would have liked. What would normally have been a casual 6 hour drive ended up taking a much less casual 15 hours due to our little detour through Calgary, numerous stops at Tim Horton's, and by far the worst driving conditions I've ever seen on the Kootenay pass. If Tim Horton's didn't exist I'd probably still be driving.

Managed to get home alive, make it to my 8:00 class the next day though, and continue on with my winter.

Skied the ol beast that is Microwave just about everyday.

Dug out my tramp for my first bounces since September of 2010.

I always have fun on closing weekend.

And what's more fun than skiing in minimal clothing?

Skiing naked obviously.

We skied a top to bottom Link's Line including the bowl jump and stupid chute. The chair lift loved it.

Ski season wrapped up so I did a bit of touring to get some turns in. Mostly just ended up doing typical Rossland stuff like lighting fires doing backflips off little bumps around the hill.

With and without clothes..

I've actually really wanted to do a naked backflip on skis for a long time. But unfortunately when the air is warm enough to handle skiing naked, the snow is in melt-freeze cycles and falling on those little ice crystals results in some serious wounds to any exposed skin. But I finally sacked up and gotter done. Probably the pinnacle of my skiing career right there.

And here's a little POV edit I put together from a couple days of skiing this winter. It's far from being up to par with my usual work but it is what it is so check er out!

4 Days of Pow from Jeff Amantea on Vimeo.

Climbed some less traveled hills around Rossland/trail.

Did more naked stuff in cold lakes.

Started working for a local contractor. This was a nice sculpture in the trailer.

I found some girls to put the shot ski to use.

Did a quick solo trip out to Sunshine for their Slush cup on May long weekend.

Then the next weekend Raine, Marshall, and I decided that it was about time that we did our first solo skydive. We took a nice casual drive out to Vernon, leaving Rossland around 10pm. Obviously we took a mandatory stop at everyone's favourite strip club in Kelowna - The Cadillac Lounge for a cahj beer and dance before continuing to our scenic sleeping spot next to Okanagan Lake where the three of us managed to get somewhat of a sleep in Raine's lil Celica..

Cute morning view.

We headed on over to the Vernon Airport bright and early to meet our instructor and go through the solo jump course. The course basically teaches you all the things that can go wrong and all the ways to deal with each situation. Skydiving is actually really safe if you know what you're doing. It would take a whole combination of errors/failures for you to hit the ground without one of your chutes opening.

Since we're all full of brains, we finished the 6 hour course in about half the time, and were allowed to jump after lunch..

Top Gun.

Then we jumped! Unfortunately we couldn't bring GoPros or cameras of any sort in the plane or for the jump, but let me tell you.. it was one of the most exhilarating things I've ever done. The only scary part is really climbing out of the fuselage and onto the landing gear to hold onto the wing while flying. Think of when you stick your hand out the window while driving on the highway. Then imagine climbing out of your vehicle onto a wing... It really isn't that hard but it sure takes you by surprise. After that just letting go of the wing you're hanging off is a piece of cake. Well, in theory it is anyways.. I ended up upside down somehow, with a nice little twist in my chute lines, it was cahj though, I just spun right out of it. I was really surprised at how much fun it is to fly an open chute, it's really like you're flying! I soon found out that you can get fully sideways in turns and do cool spirals down to your landing zone. It was one hell of a time let me tell you that. I think everyone should go at least for a tandem jump if you aren't into the solo thing, it was very worth it.

That was definitely one of the bigger highlights of my summer but I'm not done this post yet...

Raine and I on a midnight cruise in electric shopping carts in an American Walmart.

Yes, chocolate wine exists and it does magical things. Tastes kinda just like wine mixed with chocolate milk and baileys..

That's a rainbow, if you didn't know.

Sunset in Ladysmith on Vancouver Island

At the end of July, a sizable crew from Rossland headed out to Kimberley for their annual Julyfest (Beerfest). We arrived in Kimberley with nowhere to stay so of course we set up camp (beerpong/flipcup table) in the overflow parking lot for a nice looking Church, conveniently located within about a block from downtown Kimbo. Many games of flip cup were played with complete strangers who happened to be walking by which let us meet a lot of cahj people.

That's 1.5L of beer.

Some kids.

Most of the stories from that weekend should just never see the light of the internet for various reasons. But I can tell you that somehow a few of us managed to end up riding a train in the parade through all of Kimberley. That was definitely sweet as.

Parade chillin.

My new cat and I

We somehow made it out of that little slice of heaven alive and out of jail so you will certainly see me back there next year.

Back in Rossland I...

Took a cahj trip to Wilson Falls with a Jessie. (Ask her about a magical place called mudfoot beach)

Swam in tailings ponds on the back of Red.

Marsh drank outta my shoe.

I ate a messinator, yes it's just as good as it looks.

This Jord laced into one too.

Climbed Old Glory one morning with Brodie, Dane, and Marsh.

Shot a startail photo.

Ran a few km up Record Ridge to shoot a photo of this sunset.

Then Nathan came to town!

So I taught him how to drive standard.

He has a sick 360 degree film camera.

We went to Nelson one ill fated evening..

And met some nice homeless fellows.

Their names were "Steve Beers" and "Billy the Kid"

We drank beer.

I won't go into details but basically one of our posse came out of this night with a fractured skull and I had to sleep at Steve Beers' house (a park bench).

The next morning we did some lake stuff at my Grandparents' place on Kootenay Lake.

"the Lake"

I water skied for the first time in 5 years and Raine was pretty stoked. So was I.

Then Nathan left but we still did fun things.

Like the natural waterslide.

And fishing

Then all my friends left to go to school and I stayed behind to work for a couple more months before I head off to Costa Rica for 7 weeks with Evan. Just took my first Malaria pill and I'm leaving in 4 days. Stoked!

That's where I'm at now, definitely left out a bunch of stuff from this post but it's way too long as is. Sorry for taking so long to update this but check back regularly for updates from Costa Rica and some of the stuff I have lined up for the wintaaah! Feel free to follow me on both Instagram and Twitter while you're at it, @JCAmantea for both.

I'll be back,

Jeff.

2012/2013 ON3P Skis Catalog

2012-02-21T07:25:00.000-08:00

Check out ON3P's lineup of skis for next year! I've been skiing the Caylor for the past two seasons and I think it's the best ski I've ever ridden. Check out my review for it- http://bubblewrapandnutella.blogspot.com/2011/04/review-191-on3p-caylor.html

Open publication - Free publishing

Dane Tudor's first switch triple....

2012-01-14T16:57:00.000-08:00

My pal Dane has been having an unreal early season out in Colorado this year. This switch triple is, I guess, the exclamation point of his early season so far. There are only a small handful of the world's top park skiers who have done triple variations, and Dane's is definitely (IMHO) one of, if not the styliest one yet. Not to mention the ridiculous cork 7 & 9 wallride taps along with both switch double 9s in this video. Super stoked for him!

2012 X Games Real Snow - urban snowboarding just became next level

2012-01-12T00:01:00.000-08:00

Click this link - http://espn.go.com/action/xgames/realsnow/2012/realsnow and prepare to have your mind blown. Make sure to vote for your favourite in each matchup so they can move onto the next round!

THE FLOOD

2012-01-09T22:46:00.000-08:00

Our trusty old tractor/zamboni at the Rossland Arena is being retired this year. Despite having not put on skates for the past 5 years, I used to spend a lot of time skating on freshly flooded ice in that arena. I'm sad to see the tractor go but as this video says it may just be going "to a pond nearby". Possibly the outdoor rink kitty corner to the arena? that would be sick.

Anyways, check out the video Juicy Studios put together. My boy Andre helped film and edit it. Watch his movie "Nothing Else Matters" from last winter in Europe with the Legs of Steel Crew again here - http://vimeo.com/31067789

First Tracks - December 30th on Short Squaw

2012-01-06T13:07:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick POV from the first run of the day on December 30th down Short Squaw. I'm definitely still not skiing at my fullest as my knee is still healing and getting stronger, but it feels great to open up some turns and slowly work towards where I was at the end of last season.

Not that sick of a vid, I know but I figured it was time to put something a little more relevant to me on here.

Much, much more to come!

Dylan's December delivered.

2012-01-05T21:00:00.000-08:00

I like alliterations, and Dylan's December bangers.

happy jersday/wingnight!

Early Season Vinz

2012-01-02T20:53:00.000-08:00

I helped film some of these shots (the bad ones) for Vinz. He killed it like usual but I'm really a terrible filmer. But the shots work, I guess it's something for me to improve on...

Photo in SBC's Resort Guide

2011-12-12T12:32:00.000-08:00

Last season, I spent a day at Red with Jason Mousseau, Chris O'Connell, and Darryl Hunt trying to get some photos for SBC's Resort Guide. This is one of the shots that I sacrificed the well being of my shins to get so I'm super stoked that it ended up getting published.

Big thanks to Moooose, CKO and SBC!

En Route: Camp BC

2011-12-05T18:51:00.000-08:00

Here's another banger from Nimbus. I'd really like to do a similar trip this winter, seems right up my alley!

Movember with Siggers

2011-12-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

I don't think Dylan can grow a very good mustache, but he had a pretty epic Movember regardless.

Speedflying. I need to try this.

2011-12-04T17:12:00.000-08:00

Mom, don't watch this.

JP Auclair's Urban Segment from All.I.Can

2011-11-29T21:50:00.000-08:00

This was one of my favorite segments from All.I.Can (which I HIGHLY recommend buying) as well as being one of the best, most creative urban segments I've ever seen. It was shot in Rossland, Trail, and Nelson. Pretty cool to watch as I often ski through Rossland on my way home from the ski hill (http://bubblewrapandnutella.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-do-you-get-home-from-ski-hill.html) and have had very similar ideas.

Fernie Opening Day - Through the Eyes of Dylan

2011-11-28T11:52:00.000-08:00

siggies is shredding. He and I are also starting a "Through the Eyes of.." series. jk! or am I?

Surge Freerun: Year One

2011-11-26T17:57:00.000-08:00

My bros JZ and Liam finished up their freerunning edit from this summer, it's epic. They just won people's choice and judges choice awards in the U-19 Rossland mountain film fest.

That's Fine - Voleurz

2011-11-22T09:32:00.000-08:00

Kick back and enjoy the funnest movie of the year (every year) put out for FREE by Voleurz! Might as well check out their website and buy some fresh new duds while you're at it. http://voleurz.com

FIS Sucks

2011-11-20T15:35:00.000-08:00

Here's a copy and paste from Ted Ligety's blog about FIS's new regulations. Now that slopestyle and superpipe are in the Olympics and will be much more influenced by FIS, I'm really worried that some ridiculous policy will be imposed on competitive freeskiers. Although it wont affect me at all, I would hate to see the "free" aspect of freeskiing die out. (Remember when mogul skiers weren't allowed to do inverts? Thank FIS)

Anyways, read up. It's a long one, but a good one.

Tyranny of FIS

FIS’s tyranny has gone on long enough. It seems FIS is going out of their way to ruin the sport. FIS runs a dictatorship. They demand absolute control then try to butter their will in a fake cloak of benevolence. Athletes, SRS (Association of Ski Racing Suppliers and NGBs (national governing bodies) are completely impotent in their ability to create positive change in our sport or to stand against rules FIS imposes.

I feel like I might be beating a dead horse on this subject but it is paramount for the future on ski racing. The new rules imposed on ski regulations can’t go through in their current state. They will eventually ruin this sport. As most people already know FIS is imposing new ski regulations that turn back the clock on the evolution of this sport. Giant Slalom has been unfairly targeted. Current rules are >27 meters radius (more sidecut) and minimum length of 185cm, new rules will be >35 meters radius (straight skis from 80’s) and minimum of 195cm. (I currently race on 29-meter radius, 191cm in length skis.) FIS has put together a study that has recorded injuries from 2006-2011. A time frame for which did not allow for any correlations to build between injuries and eras in equipment. We’d need the same info dating back to the early 80’s to see any injury to equipment correlations, not the last 5 years. In FIS’S study they say 36 skiers were “severely” (out for 28 days or longer) injured in downhill, 9 in Super G, 16 in GS and 11 in slalom. They didn’t not take into account that GS is the most skied event, everyone from downhillers to slalom skiers train GS. There are probably 200 GS runs skied for a single downhill run skied and in races there are 2 runs in GS as opposed to one in downhill. Without even doing math it is obvious that the injuries per run in GS are far less then downhill. This begs the obvious question that goes unanswered; why was GS targeted?

On the World Cup it is pretty rare when the vast majority of the athletes agree on anything. The ski regulations, particularly in GS have brought together the athletes like never before 41 out of the top 50 men signed a petition against the rules and in Soelden 15 of the top 20 men in GS (Austrians didn’t come) met to discuss the rules. (It should be noted that only 2 racers have advocated for the rules; Hannes Reichelt and Benjamin Raich along with one Ski Company Amer Sports or also known as Atomic and Salomon.) In which we all opposed the imposed ski regulations and agreed that the ultimate goal was to eliminate FIS from equipment regulation. As athletes we have the greatest incentive to be safe and healthy. We all know how short our careers can be and very few of us are compensated for the risks we take. Therefore, we currently and in the future choose equipment that not only allows us the ability to be fast but to make it to the finish line safely. I have on many occasions chosen skis that were slower but had better control instead of faster and uncontrollable skis. The equipment companies are highly incentivized to keep their athletes healthy as well. They have far more invested in us then FIS and NGBs so they want to protect us as their asset. FIS has shown that they don’t value athletes, as seen in this instance in their complete disregard for our input. FIS’s study was based around 2 on snow sessions with several Europa Cup skiers. Suffice to say that is not nearly enough data to come up with such dramatic conclusions. With just those two tests and with no input from athletes or coaches they pushed the rule though so that there was no opportunity to debate the proposals. The athletes, SRS and the coaches protested and have since proposed a World Cup test where the top 15 athletes would test the new equipment on a World Cup slope but FIS denied this opportunity to evaluation their hypothesis. Proof that FIS has little confidence that their research will hold up under further testing. FIS’s only goal it seems is to look like they are being proactive safety wise though they won’t bare the brunt of the consequences when they don’t work. By making these rules they can say they tried and that may somehow elevate them of any liability.

FIS has already shown their incompetence in coming up with safer rules in the past. In 2007 they made a rule that made the skis wider which made the skis more aggressive which may have led to injuries by extending the lever arm thus putting more force on the knee. The new rules will make the sport more not less dangerous. Not only did FIS’s study say that there was no statistical difference in force between current skis and new skis but they didn’t measure the torque that will be needed to twist the ski around in a clean manner. Thus creating a larger force on one’s knee. The law of unintended consequences will kick in and most likely create more injuries. The latest generation of World Cup racers has never skied on straight skis so these new skis will be completely foreign (less controllable), making them/us get into awkward body positions and ski in a “jumpy” manner so that we can create enough force to turn them. We will also take a straighter line in which we will slide the top of the turn then hit the edge hard, creating a higher peak force (mostly centered around the bottom of the turn where force is highest already), while leaning back to get the radius needed, since the sidecut in the tip will not allow the ski to turn in a forward/centered body position. Outside of the injuries this type of skiing will create by creating a higher sheering force on the knee (commonly associated with ACL tears), it will also cause greater fatigue, which is one of the leading injury causes. The ski industry has produced many studies tracking millions of skier visits over the last 30+ years in which they have found the advent of sidecut has juristically reduced injuries (mainly to the knee). I’m more inclined to believe a study that has tracked millions of skiers over 30+ years then a study in which testing was concluded in 2 days with less then 10 athletes. Injuries happen when the athletes are taken out of their comfort zone and we will not be in our comfort zone with these skis.

So how will this ruin the sport? The new skis will make skiing at the World Cup level less enjoyable to watch and perhaps more importantly far less enjoyable to participate in while making it more dangerous. Arcing clean turns is a joy everyone racing now days can enjoy. That feeling will be gone. First World Cup athletes will suffer this fate then in a couple years when the rules become FIS wide 15 year old kids will have to turn in their “old” carving skis for long straight skis. This will give the big kids an even bigger advantage and will drive kids out of ski racing; into freesking or the copious amount of other sports kids have available to them. Another way it will ruin the sport is the economically side. Ski racing is to ski technology as Formula 1 is to car technology. This new rule will take that away from ski racing since anyone will be able to buy better skis in a store then we race on. Why would ski companies stay in racing if it were no longer driving technology and sales? Ski companies are the main financial supporters of this sport; the athletes make the majority of their income for their ski companies and the amount equipment built for World Cup skiers is astronomical. If the athletes are no longer driving R&D and sales, the companies will eventually pull their support. Most athletes struggle to make a living at this sport already and without the support of the ski companies most won’t be able to afford to continue racing. And there goes the sport of ski racing.

FIS’s tyranny doesn’t just cover ski regulations but all sponsorships too, from the size of your headgear sponsor to the speed suit to the logo on your goggles. I am particularly concerned about the goggle logo issue for the obvious reason that I own a goggle/helmet company; Shred. FIS has long had a rule that the logo on the goggle strap could not be larger than 15 square centimeters. The rule has been ignored for just as long as it’s been around and for good reason, you can’t read a 15 square cm logo on someone travelling at speed and it was never enforced. This fall, out of the blue FIS decided they were going to enforce this rule, for seemingly no reason. Enforcement now is apparently, first a warning followed by not being allowed to start the race on the second offense. Most logos currently are 40-50 square centimeters. There is no point sponsoring a ski racer let alone start a company based around ski racing when one’s logo is too small to be noticeable. This hurts small companies like mine the most since it greatly takes away Shred’s ability to get valuable impressions to break through. Outside of this rule’s enforcement being a bad idea, it was not made known to companies early enough so they could put together the logistics to comply or what will likely happen in the future, decide their marketing budget is better spent else where. Which gets me to the greater point of FIS seemingly trying to drain the pockets of the athletes, since a large portion of athletes’ income is derived from helmet/goggle companies. I would think it would be in the sports, therefore FIS’s best interest to create value for not only FIS’s sponsors but also the sponsors that allow the athletes to compete at a high level.

Not only will FIS not listen to rejections from SRS and NGB’s on the ski regulations and logo issues as a show of complete power. It wants to fine athletes for speaking out against FIS. I was threatened several years ago for wearing a “FIS SUCKS” sticker on the back of my helmet. (I was 2 minutes late to a pre bid draw meeting and forced to start 45 while I was leading the standings hence the sticker.) I was told that a similar action would result in a 5000 CHF fine. Most recently word is that FIS is thinking about suing Jon Olsson for his choice comments he made on his blog about the ski regulations and posting “FIS SUCKS” logo on his site. At the most recent FIS meeting they discussed punishments for athletes speaking out against them. I quote an excerpt from that meeting, “The Council agreed to develop a “Code” to deal with cases of improper behavior that fall outside the competence of the competition jury to augment the existing rules, such as blasphemy on social networking sites or bringing the sport into disrepute.” Who would have thought that being a ski racer you lose your right to free speech.

One would think there would be some discourse to combat these atrocities but there is not at this point. Apparently Bill Marolt; the President of USSA and Vice President of FIS doesn’t even have the ability to bring these subjects up for discussion, let alone reversed or revised. The athletes to this point have had zero representation in the decisions FIS makes. When we hear of FIS’s decisions and we disagree we are ignored as shown in Soelden. Faceless committees make these decisions, and once the mandates are passed down their ego doesn’t allow them to admit wrong and reverse rules that are so obviously wrong. Unfortunately for alpine ski racing FIS monopolizes the sport so any and all changes will be hard fought or take FIS vastly rethinking their position in how the sport processes or more likely regresses. Perhaps it’s time to unionize the athletes or start an alternative tour. (An athlete union is now developing but it remains to be seen how effective it will be.) This should serve as warning for sports like freeride skiing and snowboarding, don’t let FIS monopolize your sport. FIS will bleed your sport dry of what has made it so cool.

Ted Ligety

PS Feel free to repost this anywhere and everywhere.

Movember - Week 2

2011-11-17T12:46:00.000-08:00

Forgot to post the pic when I took it, but here it is. (may or may not be enhanced by some true black Just for Men)

Sign this petitition to keep NSCAD University Independant

2011-11-17T11:22:00.000-08:00

Click it and sign. http://www.change.org/petitions/keep-nscad-university-intact-and-independent