Action Shots

I was thinking of a challenging project when I remembered Espen Lystad came to mind. I thought maybe it is time to blow the dust of the digital slr that has not felt a warm human hand in ages. Time to hit the local park for the boarders. I am familiar with the danger among the skaters themselves but I come in peace.

I was surprised when they were receptive to my presence, doing tricks especially for the camera though they know they will not be appearing in some fancy sports magazine. I thought I was going to get shot at when I said I just felt like taking photos.

These kids are tough. Great knees. I wonder if anyone with congenital arthritis can pull off a trick as neatly as these guys did. My point? They are not just burning energy on nothing’ it may seem stupid or shallow to some but it is a sport that requires a good combination of talent and skill.

Vail, Colorado

Vail is like the mecca of powder sports. It is notorious for its sole ski mountain resort that is one of the largest in the United States.

Having mentioned skiing, naturally snowboarders would like to have a taste of how it feels to ride the ski resort. Since there was a stigma with snowboarders, from their overall appearance to their overall attitude on and off the slopes, they were rarely accommodated. Jake Burton can attest to that. In First Descent he said during his time, if you get a pass to Vail, you are god.

Things sure have changed with time. They now have designated areas where snowboarders can do their thing without being cumbersome to those who remain loyal to skiing.

Andy Mac

I grew up to a handful of notable names in several sports. Andy MacDonald is one of them. The entire time the X Games is on, I would stay at home just to watch him and his contemporaries. To me it is more of the pure entertainment of having all these athletes come together for such an event. I am not into the competitive aspect for the entire program, it is more on sportsmanship. That is why my favorite part is the exhibitions.

Andy Macdonald started skating when he was twelve. He was simply inspired by a kid who did it before him. When he got his board around the same time as his brother, they began skating together. Two years later he was already a professional. He has won the World Cup Skateboarding seven times! Quite an achievement for the young thirty five year old.

Jason Lee

Jason Michael Lee is more known as an actor than a skateboarder. Shame because he did have a remarkable career as an athlete. He was known for his kickflip backside tailsides and 360 flips. He was the first skateboarder to have his own signature Airwalk along with Tony Hawk. He co-founded Stereo Skateboards in 1992 but it was only in business for a short time.

He became a household name when he starred in Kevin Smith’s Mallrats. Since then he has become a regular in succeeding projects of the director. My favorite Jason Lee movie has got to be Almost Famous. He played Jeff Bebe, the vocalist of the fictional band Stillwater. The actors did their respective musical parts, no stand ins whatsoever. Brilliant.

When Hyperactivity Is A Good Thing

Tony Hawk started skating at the age of nine with the board given to him by his own brother. From then on, he never looked back. He too was way ahead of kids his age, he ‘had a twelve year old mind in an eight year old body’ as him mother once said. With this known fact, it is no surprise that Tony started his professional skateboarding career at the tender age of fourteen. He had big time sponsorships along with it which allowed him to purchase his own home at sixteen. He also had a clothing line that was later acquired by Quiksilver.

Apart from sweeping the ramps, Tony is also a geek. Now that is a good boy. He has been married three times and has four children.

Linkstar text ads

I’ve seen quite a few blog posts on Linkstar now. I’d actually never heard of them until I got an email and decided to check them out on wordpress and twitter. There are quite a range of reviews, mostly positive or at worst someone saying they’d be contacted like me but then Linkstar had changed their minds about advertising on the site. Figured that I’ll give it a go, try make some money on one of my other blogs (travel related) and emailed back asking for more details and how much I’d get paid.

For reference you can read over these other reviews:

Linkstar UK Legit

Linkstar Ad Broker

Linkstar is reliable company

Making money with Linkstar

Linkstar.co.uk Superstars

Advertising from Linkstar (seems to be the place to be for webmasters)

Since they paid my prompty and the advert is to a legit company that I’ve actually seen advertising on TV (their T&C deny me from disclosing the advert) I figured the least I can do is take 5 mins to add a new post and confirm they are legit

Here’s the Paypal payment.. “From Linkstar.co.uk for advert on (my travel blog address)”

Danny Kass

Another board prodigy who can be considered as Shaun White’s contemporary is Daniel Kass. Like the Flying Tomato, Danny started out as a skater. When he was in high school, he started combining profit with pleasure. He was signed by Vans at the tender age of seventeen.

If Shaun hardly misses the gold, this dude is right behind him with the shining silver. He bagged the silver medal for four consecutive years at the X Games. The same thing can be said with his performance in the Olympics. His passion for the sport paved the way to his commercial success. He founded Grenade Gloves with his brother and their friends which initially manufactured gloves for snowboarding then eventually branched out to outerwear and street wear.

Jake Burton

Jake Burton Carpenter is considered as one of the living pioneers of snowboarding.  Born on April 29, 1954 in New York City, he started skiing at the age of seven.  He got into snowboarding almost by accident.  Living near the beach, he was initially into surfing, he always wanted a board but never got one.  This is where his passion for board sports began.  He founded Burton Snowboards in 1977 after a series of various jobs in various industries, from bartending to tennis coach to his last job before he started Burton.  He was one of the first snowboarders who had to bear with the primitive snurfer.  From then on, he did not look back.

He is married to Donna and has three sons namely George, Taylor and Timmy.  They are based in Stowe, Vermont where the Burton flagship store is.

Global Warming Will Be The End of Snowboarding

Riders from all over the world, I beseech thee to do as much as they can to help the environment and stop further deterioration, otherwise we have to get used to sandboarding.  Not cool.  Watching The Inconvenient Truth should be a polite awakening to all of us.  Polar bears are drowning.  They are nearly extinct, we do not need problems like this.

Worse comes to worst, imagine a complete transition from snowboarding to sandboarding.  In snowboarding, we use winter gear, gear for cold weather.  If we are forced to carry out the sport in a desert, we have to be in the nude.  I know it would be favorable for men on women snowboarders but still.  That is turning the sport upside down.

Shaun White: Board Prodigy

On September 3, 1986, Shaun Roger White was born in California.  He has been a professional snowboarder since he was thirteen and has established his name in both snowboarding and skateboarding at such a young age.

Earlier in his career, he was dubbed as the Flying Tomato for his big red hair.  I guess he simply outgrew it.  Even a quick look at his career would make you fall off your chair.  You can only count his bronze and silver medals with one hand, the rest is gold.  This is his entire career we are talking about, back from when he started up to present.

Great skill in a seemingly small package.  Effing amazing.