Andy Phillips has a bit of a different story to tell than most ski race athletes. Soft-spoken Andy Phillips is a prime example of the U.S. Ski Team National Development System. A development teamer in 2007, he was upgraded to the U.S. C Team after the 2008 season, but turned down the nomination in favor of a two-year LDS mission in Oslo, Norway for the 2009 and 2010 seasons.

He’s back to skiing and already impressed coaches at the spring on-snow camp in Mammoth Mountain, CA. In between working out at the Center of Excellence in Park City, Phillips is taking classes at Westminster College during the summer months before heading to the Southern Hemisphere for some more time on-snow before getting into the competitive season.

ANDY SAYS
Living in Norway for the past two years was one of the best experiences for me. It gave me a chance to grow up and gain discipline in some areas in which I was lacking, and will attribute to my skiing success.

Being out on your own in a different country and not knowing the language is a difficult situation, but because of these circumstances I was able to push myself to learn the Norwegian language and acquire much needed skills.

[Show as slideshow]

As I came home from my mission, I did not know what to expect when I got back on skis at our Mammoth camp, but I knew that it would take much longer than two years to take ski racing out of my system. After some much needed free skiing with Sasha and a few days to compose myself and find my balance, I was able to get back up to speed and begin where I had left off in 2008. I now look forward to some more skiing this summer and to the start of next season.

FIRST TRACKS
Phillips started skiing when he was two years old with his dad at Snowbird, Brighton and Alta. He started racing at the age of five. He grew up at the base of Little Cottonwood Canyon in Sandy, Utah. He got his start at The Waterford School then moved to Rowmark Academy in Salt Lake City. Then he turned to the Park City Ski Team before joining the U.S. Development Team in 2007 and jumping to the C Team the very next season.

OFF THE SNOW
Phillips plays the violin and piano. Stays summer fit by wakeboarding, hiking and swimming. Biking, yes please – road and mountain. Grabs a good book from time to time and loves kicking back with his family.

A noticeably more cleaned-up version

At 6′4″, 210 pounds, Czech ripper Filip Trejbal is one of the more agile technical big ski racers on the World Cup Circuit and Olympic alumni. And with 8 year long handlebars resembling an out-of-control James Hetfield in Some Kind of Monster (as witnessed in the 2007 BBC News photo and caption below), he’s probably the only one humming Metallica’s “Creeping Death” at the start gate.

While seemingly intimidating rocker through and through, Filip is one of the nicest and most helpful guys you will ever meet. Czech World Junior Champion and hard charging ski racer who’s been at it since the age of 2, he briefly considered a career in Sports Science, but then quit university to pursue his real passion: skiing. He’s a ski racer by profession hitting the Slalom, Giant Slalom, Combined, and Downhill events in the Olympics. But he doesn’t stop there: he also loves charging the mountains whenever he can for freeski and then to round out his summer activities hits other X-sports like motocross and biking. An all-around go for it adrenaline junky.

Rock and Roll

As focused and hardcore as he may look, even someone with cojones the size of Filip’s thinks about protection. I’m no physicist, but I would image that when a huge guy like Filip at 210 pounds wipes out, that’s a lot of mass accelerating and impacting on hard surface: E=MC².

You may recall this unreal crash at the Torino Olympics in the Downhill. Skiing is a beloved sport to millions, but when you combine speed, slick surface, sharp edges, etc… you’ve got a lethal cocktail that requires you to be protected. Just ask Filip:

We’ll be interviewing Filip in the future on what an event like this does to your psyche, your resolve to pick-up and dust off. We’ll also ask him some other questions about his new relationship with Slytech and why he’s particularly stoked to be protected with our back protectors.

Stay-tuned… if there are any questions you want me to ask Filip, just leave a comment below and don’t forget to SIGNUP to the right or follow us on FACEBOOK OR TWITTER.

Emi Hasegawa just got her new shipment of Slytech Nervous Shin and Arm Guards and already blogged about it. She’s really  looking forward to using them on a regular basis and expressed her stoke about getting on what look and feel like the fastest guards out there…

If Japanese is your bag, check out her blog here: http://www.plus-blog.sportsnavi.com/emi-hasegawa/article/437

You just got to love it when people just go for it in life. So many people don’t or can’t seem to assert themselves and live a life they were destined for. Rather than daring to dream and jumping headlong into that dream, many toil in unmindful repetition and end up like Kevin Spacey in American Beauty.

Lisa Filzmoser, a diehard Slytech wearer from Austria is one of these people who dared to dream, jump into that dream and carve a life out for herself that’s authentically her.

This post is dedicated to all those — especially our femmes fatales — who take that first step and never stop going for their dreams!

Lisa Filzmoser “Serious…Not” Part from LaFamiglia on Vimeo.

YESnowboard is making waves in the snowboard industry. Known for affordable, yet solid design and build quality, the boards are equally fun-inspiring as the YES team riders are. Gone are the boring board, distribution and marketing meetings of old-school snowboard companies, and in are debaucherous, hard rippin’ and “family-style” tropical work vacations.

In these videos, the Yes team meets up in El Salvador to hit the waves for some good surf, knock-back shots, and ohhh yeah, have business meetings.

Freakin’ hilarious to watch, it inspires us to go travel, discover new locations, and maybe even dream about having business meetings as relaxed as this. Careful though, there is some foul language in there. If you’re sensitive to F-bombs and the like, maybe don’t watch them.

Slytech Protected Romain de Marchi leads the charge… check it:

PART 1

YES. in El Salvador. Part 1 from YES. Snowboard TV on Vimeo.

PART 2

YES. in El Salvador. Part 1 from YES. Snowboard TV on Vimeo.

PART 3

YES El Salvador 3. Surf Finale, and Sketchy Zip-Lining. from YES. Snowboard TV on Vimeo.

Hot off the presses… Slytech Protection’s Partnership with Absinthe CONTINUES this year with the sponsorship of NOW HERE.

Slytech shredders in this movie include once again: Wolfgang “Wolle” Nyvelt and Romain de Marchi.

The larger than life snowboard video teaser has already fetched over 2500 views in a matter 2 hours of having been posted. The frenzy is justified…

Just check this out…

NowHere trailer by Absinthe Films from Absinthe Films on Vimeo.

Name: Adam “Sangy” Zampa

Hometown: Yysoke Tatry, Slovakia

Birthdate: 9/13/1990

Shred Sport: Ski Racing

Website: http://adamzampa.com

BEST RESULTS:
21st in World Championshops 2009 Val d’Isere slalom
12th on World Junior Champs GAPA kombi
2nd place for my birthyear in the world in slalom

ABOUT ME: I was born near my town in kezmarok. I started skiing when i was 3 years old. When i was 11 i start to race but it was just for fun. I couldn’t place well back then, because I was a late bloomer and was too small for my age. ;( But now that I’m older and work hard, it’s getting better and I’m starting to get some results  I always want to work harder and smarter to become better and hopefully soon, I’ll be THE BEST
My hobbie is bike racing street car racing and other adrenaline sports

FILMS: I like to watching a lot of comedy, but then I also like The Secret.

SOMETHING YOU THINK EVERYONE SHOULD TRY IN THEIR LIFETIME: We are here on this Earth not so, so I believe everybody should go for their dreams! I believe the motto that all that we are is a product of our thought. What we allow ourselves to think about will eventually manifest.

FAVORITE MOVIE: The Secret

CRAZIEST DREAM: I dream a lot, especially when I eat a large dinner. Typically I dream about cars — Ferrari’s to be exact. I also dream about skiing and getting huge air off a ramp… right at the landing I wake up in a cold sweat.

AGE YOU LEARNED TO SHRED: 3 years old.

WHAT EXCITES YOU?: Standing on skis on a hard snow or ice, knowing it’s up to me to shape my run. I love that feeling. Chicks excite me too.

Adam Zampa on Slytech

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 3

You’ve got to just love the solid video work and high-flying action. It takes some solid dedication to get these shots and of course several takes on the moves, before you have enough to piece it all together and make a sweet lil youtube vid like this.

No doubt, crashes and spills were abundant on this shoot. From what we gather, there were no serious injuries, possibly due to the guys using solid back protection and of course helmets.

Ride on!

HOT HOT HOT

Just stumbled across this video and was blown away by the amazing shots and insane riding action. Slytech’s very-own Wolfgang Nyvelt hits some just crazy peaks that just give you chicken skin…

Riding the mountains seems like a distant memory for most us right now in the northern hemisphere. With the whole country in dark red temps, this seems to be the only hope we’ve got right now…

That is, unless you live our in Mount Hood, where the summer season is in full swing.

As the Red Bull Stratus Project is nearing launch, the team’s preparations turn from equipment tests and refinement to pilot interaction with it. The equipment will perform in predictable ways in controlled environments, but the pilot’s awareness of that equipment and the outside forces — i.e. the human element — is anything but predictable.

Here Felix Baumgartner talks about his preparations and making sure that he understands how to use the high tech equipment outside of the lab.

Slytech Protection gear too responds predictably and with the highest level of protection in the lab. It’s only when the rider begins to use it, however, that he will begin to test his limits and feel-out how the protection is best applied.