We ski at Coronet Peak which is about a 20 minute drive every morning. They have a whole section of the mountain closed off for race training, and it’s usually prepared icy (just the way we like it). One of the trails we train on would be one of, if not the hardest hill on the World Cup circuit for SL and GS if it were a little longer. So that’s a good test of how your equipment is working and helps develop your survival skills. NZ was also my first chance to put on some much needed miles on my new Head set up. I’m not sure exactly how many pairs of skis we had down there but it had to be in the 30 pair range. So my new tech Alex Martin had a lot of work to do get all those skis ready. Everyday we were either cycling through a bunch of different sidecuts and/or constructions or testing different boot set ups/stiffnesses or plastics.

As you can imagine it was a lot of stuff to sort out. So far I’ve narrowed it down quite a bit but still have some work to do to find the set up that’s going to win Solden. Rainer Salzgeber, the Head race team director, who was also a kick ass WC racer, was there taking high speed video so we could get a really good idea of what the equipment was doing and so we could talk through ways to improve everything even more.

Outside of skiing we played a fair amount of tennis. The most momentous match played was a doubles match between myself and Thomas Vonn vs. Felix Neureuther and Fritz Dopfer. Thomas was supposed to carry our team but the combination of falling rain and puddles on court hindered his game. I played okay but Felix’s net play and Fritz’s serve were just to much to overcome and we lost in straight sets, though it was close enough it could have gone either way.

The real highlight of the trip was car jumping. It’s become a tradition for us to buy a crappy car to rally and jump until it dies. We originally rallied the rental cars, but we decided we were lucky to not have done any major damage after driving it up a river, rallying on dry grass, catching the car on fire while rally racing, and then getting 2 flat tires simultaneously. Two years ago we decided we should start buying our own cars to rally rather than trashing the rentals. Our first car was a ‘89 Holden Camira, after getting too many flat tires racing in a dried river bed, we built a jump. After a few jumps we started sending it huge.

From then on we were hooked. Check out the video clips from 2008:

Last year I missed the action, but the boys sent it pretty big, in a free Subaru that Warner Nickerson found. This year Warner Nickerson, Jon Olsson, Felix Neureuther, Sean McKenna and I bought a ‘87 BMW 320i named Gertrude. After an hour of building a jump, I took the first jump then Warner jumped twice, but after Warner’ 2nd jump we noticed something was very wrong. On Warner’s second jump he nose the car in on the landing which pushed the radiator into the engine and cut the hoses attached to the radiator. We figured it was best not to drive Gertrude home in fear it would overheat, so we hid the her off a seemingly unused dirt road in the bushes and walked to the main road to get picked up. Because of bad weather we didn’t go out the next day. The following day we were all psyched to do some more car jumping, but when we pulled up to Gertrude, we were met with the horrible site of our beautiful baby, beaten with a sledgehammer all the windows knocked out, the hood ripped almost all the way off and worst of all, a fresh poo in the trunk. After a few minutes of tinkering with the her, she started up, and we were once again car jumping (minus windows and hood). Luckily, Jon had brought his helmet and some glasses, since without the windshield, smoke, dirt and the remnants of broken glass were blowing in our faces and bouncing around the car.

As the day progressed we went bigger and bigger until the gear box dropped, making it tough to get Gertrude in gear. In addition to the gear box problems, the air intake was loose and needed to be duct taped back on after every jump. The next day we returned to the scene to see if we could resurrect Gertrude for another few jumps. We had to wrap the air intake with some more duct tape and it took some wriggling and jerking of the stick to get it in gear, but she did manage to run albeit with not that much power. After a bunch of disappointing jumps I decided the go hog wild with the duct tape. I taped the air intake extra tight, taped all the hoses that go into the engine and put an extra layer of tape around basically everything that felt the slightest bit loose. All that extra tape breathed new life into Gertrude. She screamed down the in-run with same ferocity as she had the first day, but since the engine had broken off its mounts, the engine was just resting on the front axle, so as I hit the jump, the shocks compressed and the engine dug down into the dirt. As Gertrude and I left the jump, the shocks decompressed and popped us far higher then we’d gone before- perhaps 10ft above previous trajectories. As I landed getting fulling compacted in my seat, Gertrude ran no more. Gertrude’s insides laid all over the jump’s takeoff and landing with chunks of metal from the engine steaming in the dirt.

Thus ending rally fest 2010.

Check out video on Jon’s site: http://www.jon-olsson.com/?p=2666

I’m now home but I’m going to the US Open for a few days before we head back down to NZ for round 2.

lata Ted

One of the first jumps.

It also means that the US Ski Team is down in New Zealand and Chile training for the upcoming Audi FIS World Cup Ski season.

Here’s just a quick primer for what’s going down:

Ocho checking in from Breckenridge, CO. I recently got home from my summer up in Mt. Hood Oregon coaching at Windells. It was a great summer I learned a lot and met a bunch of new people. The last couple weeks up in hood were very productive from learning new tricks, gaining new accounts for my ski company RMU, and a photoshoot with SHRED up on the glacier.

I also just finished a new edit combining some of my winter footage and some of my footage from Windells this summer. Check it out below!

The winter is just around the corner A-basin and Loveland already have their snow guns in place to start blowing snow as soon as the weather cooperates. Thanks to Shred Optics, Slytech Protection, RMU, Mtn Ranks Clothing, Full Tilt Boots, Derek @ Orage, and Windells for a great winter and summer!! See you on the hill!

OCHO

Matt George Self-Portrait

For years now, we at Shred have had the pleasure of using and working with stunning photos of our athletes, both in full Shred action, as well as glimpses of their quieter lifestyle moments.

One of the main players responsible for these photographs is our go-to guy from St Hilaire-Du-Touvet, France: Matt Georges.

While he’s been shooting as a pro for relatively short time (since 2004), he’s already held some jobs with serious cache: Senior Photographer for Onboard Europe and Whitelines, various 40 or so magazines around the world; he also shoots for Rossignol, Rip Curl, Roxy, Shred Optics and Slytech.

Now a lover of his medium format cameras — a Hasselblad and Mamya — for the tactile sensation of handling the negatives and the solitude of darkroom work, Matt has come back home in a way, back to how he got hooked on photography in the first place. He would spend a lot of time just shooting with a Nikon FE and then taking those films to a darkroom where ultimately he found immense pleasure processing and honing his black and white skills.

He then combined his new photography passion with shooting skate action, a sport he grew up with. His shots got noticed and some even published in the mags of the day. His final transformation to the pro-photo world was when he landed a photo editor job at Method and the contacts and jobs from the snowboard world rolled in.

We’re super stoked to have someone like Matt take on our projects and run with them to great creative lengths. Thank you Matt for your commitment to your craft and to the sports you love.

See you out on the mountain sometime and let’s make it a sesh where you don’t have to lug your gear!

Peace… and check out Matt’s work at >> http://www.mattgeorges.com

When you look at him in the gym though, you can’t help but notice that this pint-sized shredder has a ton of talent and strength. My eyes nearly popped outa my sockets when I saw him do those back extensions with a 45 lb bar and what looks like 2 x 25 lb plates. Just insane.

Here’s a Park City TV video of Ted working it in the off-season. Definitely an intriguing expose on a racer with mission… enjoy:

When they got together last year to shoot NEVERLAND (out on DVD), Romain wore mostly his favorite Omnibot 80’s Papaya as featured in this little Slytech Protection spot, as well as the Omnibot Kako.

I never did ask him whether he recovered the pair that went flying in this insane slam.

Here are a bunch of pics from the event and of the Tesma Sport Shred team…

[Show as slideshow]

Boardforce.net explained how the event went off:

“For those who don’t know the point was to ride the Luža as far as you can, to do some cool trick or just to be funny dressed up. There are 2 categories, ski and snowboard which are divided on Male, Female, Boys and Girls, Veterans. This year there was a new award and it went to the best Luža Group that was competing.

Like last year there were 2 runs, but most of competitors were very frozen from the first run and get satisfied with just one Luža ride, fall or trick. The contest brought us a lot of great tricks, back and front flips, corks and big rotations or just small ones, trio ski team and penguins, ski history and the future great riders.”

If anybody’s out in the area next year April, keep your eye out for this event. It’s definitely worth checking out as a spectator, OR if you’re a ripper, go and compete! It promises to be a great time.

NAME: Aurelie Marchand
HOMETOWN: Megeve, France
SPORT: Ski Racing
BIRTHDATE: 1.18.1992

BEST RESULTS:
I did four times in the top 30 in Super-G in European cup (15th and 22th in St Moritz ; 25th and 30th in Formigal) and two times in the top 30 in European cup (20th and 29th in Caspoggio) on the season 2009/2010. I won 4 FIS races on the season 2009/2010. I did the Junior World Ski Championships in 2010 (in Super-G and Downhill)

ABOUT ME:
I live in Megève since I was little. I started skiing when I was 3 years old with my father and my grandfather. I joined the Megève skiclub when I was 7 years old but I was not so good at the races I did. It was better few years later when I was 13 years old. I joined the Ski High School in Albertville in 2007 and the French Ski Federation in 2008. The beginning of the last season (2009/2010) was rather good but I hurt my knee on February 24th and I get a surgery and all which goes with. So now I wait impatiently for my return on skis…

FILMS OR PUBLICITY: I didn’t do films or publicity coverage.

SOMETHING YOU THINK EVERYONE SHOULD TRY IN THEIR LIFETIME: I think that everybody should try an extreme sport with a lot of speed or in the space which create some good sensations like fear and apprehension.

AGE YOU LEARNED TO SHRED: 2.

CRAZIEST DREAM:  Win gold medals on the Olympics and after be plane pilot and travel all around the world.

WHAT EXCITES YOU?: A downhill race on a good slope with good snow and the sun : nothing can be better. I really like to take the plane, go on holidays, do many sports (moto, tennis, volley,…), and of course skiing.

OTHER: Live your life and just be happy.

At only 18 years old, Jenny’s managed to win a whole bunch of FIS Races, has been top 20 in many Europa Cup races, placed 5th in combined at the Junior World Championships in Garmisch back in ‘09 and recently competed in her first World Cup Race in Crans Montana, March 2010. She’s pulled in some sweet results and is considered a strong prospect on the French World Cup Squad.

Here a little iMovie edit by Jenny of the team’s 2009 Chile Training Camp…

This is my first blog post here on the Shred blog. This past winter was in no way an easy one. I was coaching six days a week and trying to get out and ski as much could when I wasn’t coaching. I went out a couple times throughout the season and filmed with the RMU resident filmer Jake Strassman.

I also purchased a Go Pro which ended up being one of the best purchases I have made in a long time and I got a ton of great footage from over the last couple months of the season. Put everything aside I had a great season I met a ton of new people, shredded tons of great snow, stayed healthy, and progressed my skiing. Next season I decided to take time off from coaching so that I can focus on my own skiing!

Lastly here is my season wrap up edit minus shots from spring shoots with Vail, and Bucknaked Visual Works! Right now I am up in Mt Hood for the summer skiing and hanging out, thanks to everyone for a great season and I can’t wait till the next one!

OCHO