Naku is on it… he recently emailed me with the tearsheet of his Italian Onboard Mag coverage last winter.

Hey there!

I finally received the Italian Onboard-mag in which i had a cover and an interview… I suppose it was published in January or February?? Too bad the mag was all wet & its pages were stuck together when i got it, damn the postal service! Anyways, here it is:

Cheers!

-naku

[click on the pics to enlarge and read {if you can read Italian}]

Director Brett Morgen films Jake Zamansky in the finish at Soelden. (U.S. Ski Team)

PARK CITY, UT (May 19) – Jake Zamansky (Aspen, CO), who was a member of the U.S. Development Team at 17 and a member of the 2010 Olympic Team, is retiring from the U.S. Alpine Ski Team. His last race was the Olympic giant slalom at Whistler Creekside in February.

“I didn’t intend for the Olympics to cap my career,” said Zamansky, after returning from a surfing trip to Nicaragua with fellow U.S. Ski Team alums Scott Macartney, Erik Schlopy and Bryon Friedman. “After Whistler, I still thought I had some fight left in me, but the way my body feels, it’s just the right time to move on.”

A product of Aspen’s Team Geronimo, Zamansky made the very first U.S. Development Team just before his 18th birthday and roped the opportunity into the 2001 Junior of the Year honor from Ski Racing Magazine. He then went on to capture U.S. Championship medals, NorAm titles – including the 2006 NorAm overall crown – World Cup points, and earn births on the 2009 Audi FIS Alpine World Championships and 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

“I look at my life right now and I am so thankful for the freedom that ski racing has provided. It’s a very special lifestyle and that comes from the people involved in skiing world,” he said. “I’ve seen so much of the world, I ride motocross, surf in the summer and then each winter, I’ve been able to do what I love the most and make a living doing it – that’s pretty special.”

Yet for Zamansky, the lifestyle didn’t come without commitment and struggle. Following the 2008 season, he fell short of a slot on the U.S. Ski Team for the following winter, yet his NorAm results were good enough for a 2009 World Cup starting spot in giant slalom. Zamansky wanted it and opted to fund his own racing.

That struggle became an integral part of the groundbreaking Audi documentary “Truth in Motion: U.S. Ski Team’s Road to Vancouver,” which aired during primetime on NBC two weeks before the Olympics. The is now available for free download from iTunes.

“Honestly, it was one of the best things to happen to my skiing career,” Zamansky said. “I was finally racing for all the right reasons. I was tuning my own skis, so I carried all the weight if they weren’t fast and the only expectation I had to live up to was my own.”

On top of that, there was an equipment switch to Fischer from Rossignol, and a summer of missed training due to a broken left collarbone.

“The guys a total fighter,” said Head Coach Sasha Rearick. “But he’s also professional and very well organized. He knew what he needed to do to get his skiing to the next level and he didn’t back down from that. He embraced it and got the job done. I respect that.”

Zamansky translated the pre-Olympic season into scoring his first World Cup points at the Alta Badia, Italy giant slalom, one of the tour’s toughest races. He then went on to score again in Adelboden, Switzerland directly after Christmas and earn a slot on the 2009 World Championships squad, which he followed up with his career best 15th in Sestriere, Italy.

“I was totally broke before Alta Badia and actually thought it was going to be my last race. Then I scored my first World Cup points and went back to the U.S. for Christmas, scrounged up some new sponsors and went back on the road,” said Zamansky. “The big results took a lot longer to achieve than I thought they would, but that didn’t make them any less special.”

He made the U.S. Ski Team again for 2010 and scored World Cup giant slalom points in Beaver Creek, CO and Val d’Isere, France to earn a spot in Vancouver.

“Jake was always one of the best technical giant slalom skiers through the ranks,” said teammate TJ Lanning (Park City, UT), who joined him on the first U.S. Development Team. “He trained hard, skied hard and in my eyes had a great career. But he’s not done with skiing, we’ll see him around.”

And that’s Zamansky’s plan too. He’ll continue to work with Spyder, a longtime U.S. Ski Team and personal sponsor, through next winter and do some coaching with Team Geronimo with a goal to remain a part of the industry.

“Skiing is what I’ve known my whole life,” says Zamanksy. “Working with Spyder is great opportunity and I’m excited to do some coaching this summer. Like I said, skiing is a special lifestyle and one I will always appreciate.”

Alright, alright, so this is all very old news, but it’s worth showing again and making a point.

Back in January NYC parks department workers wrongfully booted a group of guys snowboarding in a Brooklyn park. It all started jovially with BK snowboarder Brian “Deka” Paupaw showing inner city kids how to ride. It was a great winter for snowfall in NY and what better way to expand people’s perspectives than to introduce this sport all of us in the shredder community love or at the very least respect.

Well, suffice it to say, a couple of power-tripping parks workers come down, breakup the party and destroy the little makeshift ramp. Stating that “snowboarding is illegal in NYC parks” you could already tell they were talkin’ out they asses by how insecure they were speaking and how Paupaw got them to backtrack by pointing out that sledding is not illegal.

The New York Daily News later reported: “Parks officials were later forced to admit they had goofed, although they pointed out that the snowboarders were misusing a garbage can as a ramp to launch themselves airborne.”

Not only that, but the city later played nice and put on a good PR face by inviting Paupaw and his friends to the Winter Jam NYC snowboarding event on Feb. 6 in Central Park which Shaun White attended.

There’s something important to take away here: when authority confronts you, be respectful, but hold your ground. Yes, rules are rules, but verify whether they even are on the books or whether someone is trying to strong arm you. If it is on the books, fight the system and appeal it. Find out what it takes to call a law in to question, garner community support and bring it to the right “official’s” attention.

Shred on…

BLKOPS-122009-Snowboarding in Brooklyn from jsjcreative on Vimeo.

Every-so-often as winter snow sports enthusiasts, we’ll run into scenes or stories from other sports that so closely describe what it is we feel on our own journeys  in the mountains, that it transcends the specific sport we have chosen.

As winter makes its way into summer in the northern hemisphere, most of us will take to the mountains by foot or on bike, or we’ll head to the ocean to play in the world biggest playground. So much of what we do, whether on water, frozen water, mountains, lakes, streams evokes the same sense of freedom and personal fulfillment.

This little video of legendary big wave surfer Laird Hamilton paints that picture well. Take in the intensity of the experience and how it’s changed the rider… it’s something most of us have felt before in our lives when we’re out doing what we love, moving towards our calling.

Shred on…