Shane McConkey Dies in Base Jumping Accident

Today i'm sharing some very sad news, skiing legend and all round nice guy Shane McConkey has died today in a Base jumping accident in Italy. See below

Posted by sweatpantsmom


Big mountain skier and BASE jumper Shane McConkey, 40, was killed earlier today in a ski-BASE accident in Italy. According to ESPN McConkey died while performing a maneuver he had done some 700-plus times before; launching off a cliff with the expectation of deploying his parachute canopy and then gliding down to the ground

ESPN has this account from filmmaker Scott Gaffney, a longtime close friend of McConkey's:

"He did a double backflip off the jump and he has these releasable bindings so they come off in the air and then he flies off in his wing suit.

"But one ski did not come off. And when that happens the drag on the skis causes you to flip over, so the skis go over your head. So he was struggling with the one ski. Then he also got into a bad spin. So he may have never even pulled his pilot chute. And that's coming from [fellow skier] JT Holmes, who Shane was with in Italy and who reviewed the footage of the accident. So the combination of the ski, the spin and the pilot chute, apparently. Because you can't throw the pilot chute like that; if you throw it while you're upside down and it wraps around the ski, you're done."



McConkey is survived by his wife, Sherry, and their 3-1/2-year-old daughter, Ayla. What a tragedy that Ayla is left without a father at such a young age. I'm sure she's old enough to grasp that her father is gone, but not old enough to understand why. But what a legacy he leaves behind for his daughter to take pride in.

Our thoughts go out to McConkey's family and friends.



Source

Vice, Photos and contest

Well, we all love Vice and half the fun is the pics. Vice has partnered up with Scion for a photo comp, anyone interested? Here are the details c/o Vice:

Guess what?! We know that you've always wanted an excuse to send us your photos of your aunt's senile cat or the time you met your Belgian girlfriend when you saw a Bosnian ska band on your trip to Sarajevo or the guy who was walking around in front of the bankk dressed like a seagull or your parents backyard in the middle of winter. So Scion and Vice are inviting any and all photographers to submit their work to the first ever Scion Photo Contest. Go to www.scion.com/photo from March 15 until May 15 to see if all that time you've spent jacking around on your blog was worth it. The top photographer in each category will receive $1000, the runner up will get $500 and third place will walk away with a free subscription to Vice magazine and a copy of True Norwegian Black Metal.

peace out amy

Snow Park scales Back for Winter 2009

Hot of the wire from Sam Lee @ Snow Park, read on

'In light of the current world economic situation, Snow Park NZ will be scaling back our operations for the 2009 winter.

“This is a temporary measure to ensure that the Park remains financially viable and can continue to operate through this very tough time. We have some great industry support and really value the hard work put in by so many over the past 8 years. We are considering all options moving forward,"- said Lee.” Snow Park General Manager, Sam Lee.

The resort will offer day passes this season but as part of the restructuring will not be selling season passes. Snow Park will be taking a hard look at our operational model in efforts to maintain those features that are most popular with our loyal riders. In the long term we have every intention of keeping our plans for expansion alive and will continue to source the additional capital needed to do so.


"We are all affected by the global economic recession, as a family operation, we realise that we must take action now to ensure that our 84 years of history in the Cardrona Valley is preserved. These are difficult times, we are optimistic about the future, but must be realistic about the present. " Sam Lee, General Manager.

We will be releasing more information soon with definitive plans for the 2009 winter.'

Sad but true, we're hoping things improve and the park can continue giving the NZ the world wide exposure it deserves and killer park terrain and features for locals and pros alike.
Good luck Sam

Peace and Good Beats
Matt

Have you been watching?

While some of us are enjoying the snow, the rest of us live vicariously through their lives, reading blogs, checking out the latest f/b posts, and of course watching flicks.

Throughout the N.H. winter, Powder & Rails has been churning out its webisodes. Have you been watching? Well you can check out the full length episode - Snowboarders In Exile, here.



What are you thoughts? have you been watching? Is powder & rails keepin it real with its representations of whats happening?

peace amy.

A Rocker Revolution

Hey Peeps,

so i've had a lot of inquiries the last couple of weeks for snowboards with rocker. For those who don't know what i mean, they are boards that rise towards the nose and tail similar to a surf board. I say rocker revolution because it seems that every snowboard brand out there is releasing or is working on a rocker type board. K2 snowboards and Libtech were really the first to get this new technology to market. K2 with the Gyrator and Libtech with the Skate banana. Both brands have now developed rocker tech into many boards in their ranges, with K2 now only have 3 boards in their whole range without some sort of rocker design. Other brands i've seen with rocker boards ready to go are Ride snowboards, Burton Snowboards, Salomon Snowboards, Rossignol Snowboards, and Never Summer. And these are only the ones i've heard of in passing. I'm going to do some digging and bring you some more info on this revolution in snowboard tech which is crossing over thru the whole industry and which, i think, will turn out to be the biggest change in snowboard design in the last 10 years.
I'm going to put together a series of posts explaining the concept and technology behind rocker snowboards and the advantages and disadvantages. I will then post on the boards currently available with rocker tech.
with that i leav you all for a great weekend. After a few days of super cold temps in Wanaka and a bunch of snow on the hills the sun is back out and it's looking like a great night for a BBQ and a few brews with the boys.
Have a good one
Peace and good beats
Matt

De La Soul Playing in Wanaka!!

I stood there stunned with 4 tickets to see De La Soul play in Wanaka in my hands, i couldn't believe it. Sadly showing my age here but i've been bumpin to De La Soul since their seminal first LP 3ft High and Rising dropped in 1989, home to classic cuts like Saturdays(see below) But to be now holding tickets to see them play in such an obscure faraway part of the world as Wanaka is blows me away. Big ups to the guys at revolver for making it happen. If you haven't got tickets yet, get on to it as they're selling out fast. The Show is on 13th May at the Lake Wanaka Centre, it's gunna be killer. See you all there.
peace and beats
Matt