telluride world cup

well, it was a really fun week getting back into the start gate again. ten months and two days after the olympics i re-entered the field of play and had an absolute blast.. when i first got into the start gate for round one i highly underestimated the younger world cup riders in heat one.. about halfway down the first straight away when i was sitting way back in third i got a quick wakeup call that i was indeed trying to ride the world cup after a summer spent on the golf course and plane seats on the way to speaking engagements.. the young italian who had won the pre-ceeding world cup in austria had clearing been working his butt off all summer.. time to get aggressive. turn four was the hardest one in the course and i took an inside line to muscle out the young luca matteotti.. i hung in second place to the finish line and realized it was going to be a hard days work at the office.. round two went better and i made another great inside pass in turn six to move to the semi finals. when i reached the gate for the start of the semis the heat ran like the who's who in sbx the past three years.. pierre vaultier of france and markus schairer of austria. the two previous world tour champions.. i had a good start and was trailing only pierre as we came over the first step down jump.. i pulled into his draft and sling shotted him over the next jump.. i hit the gas and never looked back until i was crossing the finish line to find myself with a major lead considering the talent in the heat.. i was off to the finals. when the gate dropped in the finals it was game on.. i pulled my first hole shot of the day and held it all the way to turn six. i opened the inside lane just enough for pierre to slip through but i had the line for turn seven and passed him back on the way into the final straight away.. sometimes the decision making process is a tough one in the split second format of time i have to work with.. all week i had watched pierre's practice runs in which he was working the final triple of the course where as all week i had opted to jump the whole thing.. knowing that its slower to be in the air i opted for a change of plans that resulted in a third option which was simply no good.. the dreaded caseing of a feature.. to case is to land on an uphill angle which effectively murders your speed. and that is just what it did.. i cruised across the finish line to a photo finish that i already knew i had lost.. no hard feelings though i was thrilled with my riding on the whole and it had been great to have a real head to head duel with the two time world cup champion..  as i sit packing up today for the travel day back east its been awesome to look back on two weeks that had a number of loafers along side the course here in telluride cheering with the blue triangle waving in the sky.. to watch alex tuttle qualify for the first time in his young career through the time trials and into a world cup made me as proud as taking the podium myself.. the year is officially underway and i'm looking forward to the holidays at home with some more great training time at the loaf.. see you all at the rack and tune in sunday afternoon on nbc after christmas to see the world cup from telluride as well as some familiar scenes from the loaf.. see you all soon.

on the road again

so week one in colorado is coming to a close. i started off with two days in beaver creek to see the men's alpine ski world cup and take some sprint clients out on the hill there. we lucked out with some early season powder on the west side of the birds of prey course and i was overjoyed with my first day on my new team8 fish board that i had grabbed hot out of the press in an early morning dash from the loaf to pwm to catch a 7am west bound plane.. the drive to the airport was a special one for me.. those early morning hours that i have logged over the years speeding south on route 27 have always been moments of solitude and while i did have a moment of panic when he was running five minutes late at 4:10am i was so fired up when the lights of alex tuttle's dad's truck swung into the driveway.. it has been since i was a cva postgrad that i had anyone from home to travel with and the drive south was much shorter with the excitement of alex riding shotgun.. my first trip with him was to new zealand this summer where he took home third at the junior world championships and to be delivering him to the airport for his first us team camp was an even better feeling.. i had to just sit back and smile a day ago when he posted the fastest time in a roller drill training session. to hear the excitement in his voice in those early morning hours was worth the wait of these 14 years of driving alone as i truly see the new career of a fellow loafer being launched!  

so unfortunately the downhill was cancelled due to wind at beaver creek.. see loafers we aren't the only place that has wind holds.. and after another night of delivering my olympic story to the sprint crowd i headed out early the next day to fly to park city for a fund-raiser for the waterkeepers alliance.. a non profit founded by robert f. kennedy jr. to fight the legal battles of the polluters of public waters world wide.. after an impassioned speech from RFK jr. i got to take the stage to do a live auction item for a surf trip to fiji next summer and to talk briefly about the ways in which the travel i have been exposed to has shown me first hand some of the devastation to the natural world that bobby is fighting to protect..  a true honor to share the stage with a man like that who is fighting the hard fight on behalf of the health of all citizens of planet earth.

a six hour drive back to colorado the following day and it was right into training mode. telluride despite having been missed by all the snow i have been hearing colorado has been getting pummeled by has done a great job creating a practice course and we have been using the days effectively. this afternoon the whole team went and rode with some local school kids and it was a posse of mayhem that quickly degenerated into a battle of spray wars but the kids were smiling ear to ear and we all had a blast.. last day of camp tomorrow and then a rest weekend before we get into the world cup week..

i have to admit though while i was looking at the trail reports online today at home i am a bit jealous to have missed out on the loaf's first pow day but i am psyched for all of you that we are really turning the corner into winter at home.. enjoy the snow loafers. see you soon. signing off from the road. seth.. 

welcome back loafers

sitting three thousand miles away reading the trail report from west hollywood and realizing i am really excited for tuesday morning and my first turns on snow.. another year is upon us and frankly i am pumped! just a quick note this morning but i am bringing the blog back to life! it has been an amazing offseason with the most travel i have ever endured/enjoyed in my life and now the snow is back. so check back as we all get under way with sugarloaf's 60th winter and all that it holds for those of us who have all committed our lives to the snow..  let's hope its a good one! see you all in the lift lines soon! make a turn for me tomorrow if your out there! enjoy. seth

Aspen bound, then off to Vancouver

So its been a whirlwind since New Years. I spent two weeks in Europe with only two highlights to speak of. Austria's highlight was my first semi-big mountain line of the year on my new Team Eight pow board. Dropping into this chute with 18 inches of light dry pow and the actual feeling of joy while being on my board again was followed up by the Bad Gastein World Cup qualifiying round in pea soup fog, and my first time ever with a result in the 50's. The trials and tribulations of my 7 year history at Bad Gastein live on.

Getting to drive the ten hour trip across the Autobahn through Germany was the second highlight and, despite the snow, it was a speedy classic road trip with Holland, Palmer, Graham and Jason Smith. Things were looking up in Switzerland. A nice apartement with a beautiful view of the Alps that left me stunned daily was a hightlight every morning. The qualifiers turned around at Veysonnaz though and I popped a 2nd place, although in the process I took some landings a little to deep and found myself sore as hell on race day. That soreness slowed me down and resulted in a quick departure from the day's racing in the first round. As it turned out though, my good friend David Spieser from Germany pulled a late pass on Nick Baumgartner in the finals and I got to breathe a sigh of relief as my Olympic spot was locked and I could take the next week off to rest up and let my body get back to an equilibrium.

Getting home to the Loaf brought some great snow, and just the comfort of home was very welcome. I made the drive north of the border to watch the outcome of the Stoneham World Cup, and it was a day of drama for sure. Palmer pulled out a truly inspired performance and made it through to stand on the podium in the 3rd spot. It was one spot short of making the Olympic team, but it reinforced the true champion he has always been.

After a restful weekend at home I now find myself boarding my flight to colorado for the X Games. Here we go again...

Seth

Ed. Note: The X-Games SBX Finals will be broadcast live on ESPN 2 on Saturday, Jan 30 from 4-6pm. Click here for the full schedule and get your TiVo ready. 

The pre-Olympic whirlwind begins...

Leaving the access road at 4am on the dot I beat the first rays of sun to the fourth floor of the parking garage at the Portland Jetport. Portland was just lighting up and the sliver of the moon that had hung over my drive had just disappeared..

It had been a quick turn around to the valley and back to the airport after last weekend's World Cup in Argentina. Two nights in my own bed, 54 holes of golf and it was back to the road for a night to fly down to Dallas for a fundraiser for USSA. Here it comes, that hectic pace of a preolympic fall. It was reading 32 degrees this morning on the dashboard of the VW as I sped through the early morning. It's coming everyone.. It won't be long..

On my way home...

On the podium with Pierre Vaultier, Graham Watanabe, and Markus Schairer

Sipping coffee in the dulles red carpet club, tired from the travel this morning and looking forward to a shower and home..

Argentina was a great start to the year. I made the right call in delaying my trip south. I got to enjoy a beautiful week in Maine while my teammates went stir crazy in the rain in South America. I showed up in Bariloche along with the sunshine and got my first two days back on snow there. A short training course brought the feeling back and let me test run my new board shapes which turned out to be amazing.

We packed up and headed north to the town of San Martin de Los Andes and settled in for the kickoff World Ccup week. After a couple of rest days the clouds cleared to a foot deep powder day and a lot of fun riding with Ross Powers and my Italian friend Alberto Shiavon ripping around finding little stashes.

The next three days were all business as Curtis Bacca (my was tech) and I set out to glide test my new boards and see which ones were up to speed. While our days on hill got eaten up by counting hundredths of seconds, I had neglected to check out the construction of the course. When I showed up on the first day of training I was dumbfounded to see what looked like an unridable opening roller section. This was not what I had hoped to see. What I soon came to realize though was that when things look unridable, my experience can allow me to best the rest of the field. Two runs later I was linking the section that was knocking my competitors to the ground.

The rest of the course ran well and I went away excited for the Friday time trial. As I crossed the finish line for the first time of the season the next morning under a clock I looked at the Swatch score board to see my name back atop the rankings. A few minutes later Pierre Vaultier of France edged me out by a 13 hundredths of a second but no one else got within half a second. The sun was beating down and changing the snow consistency but I executed the second run even better and posted the fasted second run despite the deteriorating conditions. At the end of the day it was Vaultier 1, me 2 and last year's World Cup champion Marcus Shaierer in 3rd. I can't help but feel that I will be dueling with these two the rest of my career.

Race day and I started to get that great inner feeling going again. I breezed through winning the first three rounds including taking down Marcus in the semi final. The line up for the final went 1,2, and 3 of us from the prior day's trial, and a truly motivated graham watanabe. Full all-stars. I had a horrible start in the final and colided with both Marcus and Graham in the opening roller section but stayed on my feet and started hunting down Pierre. On the course's third straight away I closed a thirty yard gap and had the chance to pass on the third turn but I got bucked by a rut and botched my toeside turn. Pierre pulled away again and I went back to work, railing the next two turns and gunning it into the two final kickers. I juiced the final landing and closed to within a foot at the finish line, Pierre and I both wheelieing across the line fighting to push our board noses across first. He held on for the win but I went away with my first Olympic qualifying result in the bag as the top American and my tank of confidence topped off as I head into the next two months of training at home. The mission was accomplished as the Olympic clock is ticking down every second in downtown Vancouver. My quest to February in going to be an amazing journey, but I am well on my way!! See you all at the rack over Homecoming weekend. I am pumped to be headed home to the Loaf for the fall and as I saw spring blooming in South America, winter is just around the corner for the rest of us. Bring it on!!

Surfing in a Hurricane

Big monday.. Hurricane bill came ripping up the east coast and bringing with it massive waves to the coast of maine. Tragedy struck when a young girl was washed out to sea from MDI'S Thunderhole, but last monday when the winds calmed down and I sat outside the gate of Scarborough Beach State Park in the pre-dawn darkness of 5 am I was filled with nothing but anticipation, for I had not stood on a clean wave since my last morning session in Costa Rica at the point of Matapalo on the morning of June 1st.

My friend Ben Coombs pulled up along side me and opened the gate with the swipecard and we were in! The first two cars for what I heard discribed afterwards by many as the best swell to hit Maine in August in years. My first paddle out sucked me into a fast rip that sucked me 70 yards down the beach and right in front of an 8 wave set. Severely winded, I paddled out the back to meet Ben grinning at me amidst the rolling swells. As I stroked into my first wave of the day some minutes later I was brought back to that magical feeling of standing on water, flying along in a place visited by very few. The moments I experience in the waves of the world are only matched by my most zen moments in Alaska and fill me with a contentment in life that is very hard to find.. The day was epic indeed.

As I drank my third red bull of the night to stay awake on the drive up 27 north that night after some 7.5 hours in the water I was reminded once again of just how special Maine is. It's been a good week of golf, training and landscaping, and now I find myself in seat 9k ready to fly to Beunos Aires. I am going to the winter and the task at hand is upon me. The quest to repeat in Vancouver begins. I will awake in Argentina and cross the continent in a search for snow. To test the Kessler boards I have designed and to meet my comrades in competition. I am less then six months away from the opening ceremonies and couldn't be happier to be embarking on this quest. When I return home the color will be coming into the maples and we will all be moving closer to snow on the Loaf. Have a great couple of weeks Maine. I will see you soon...

Switzerland - Part 2

...Stepping out of the train (cog railway) I was greeted by the logo that adorns my boards, and a sign: “Kessler, snowboards for winners.” I realized I needed to tell him that “champions” might be a better translation to English. When your company can boast of six Olympic medals in the last two games the signage shouldn't sound like a feel good moto after grade school gym class.

 

Kessler’s products are simply the best handcrafted boards on earth. So the little village of Braunwald is “autofrei” as the sign boasted and I started my walk steeply uphill in dense fog as instructed by the woman in the Kessler sport shop. “Ten minutes up zee path…”

 

Thirty minutes later the pee soup had clearly obscured anything that looked like a factory and I placed a call to Hansjuerg, the founder, bummed that I hadn't been able to just drop in. When I found the place I realized why it hadn't stuck out. The Kessler factory is nestled in the back half of a shared barn/carpentry shop and is surrounded by sheep pastures. Bells were clanging away in the background.

 

We spent the day catching up, having lunch, talking about our own personal snowboard histories, plans, then got down to work on the computer coming up with designs that we would build.

 

I returned to Mollis for the night after a great lakeside bbq at the Klontal Lake. Surrounded by two-thousand foot cliffs that were peaking in and out of the clouds through the moonlight we dined on brats and bread till everyone was ready to turn in.

 

I awoke early to martin saying he wanted to go shoot a time lapse and that I should join him. So we had a nice morning rally back to Klontal passing one of my old world cup friends who was walking to a launch point for an early morning paraglide, and found upon arriving that the lake was shrouded thick in clouds. It might have turned out alright for Martin’s time lapse but I only had ten minutes to wait before going to catch the 6:50 am train back to Braunwald to lay up the boards.

 

The building process was a lot of fun to see and really drove home for me the true difference in handmade craftsmanship vs the way the big manufacturers cookie-cut mass quantities of product. At the end of the day I left with two beautiful boards built exactly to my specs and ready in my eyes to carry me to the top of many a podium on the world stage.

 

In all my years of working with people like Burton, Atomic, and Rossignol I had never received such treatment or seen such a perfect finished product. A big thank you and props to Hansjuerg Kessler and his team there in Braunwald for truly being artisans of the snowboard world.

 

So with the work of the trip done I headed off to Thun, to catch up with Tanja Frieden, the other 2006 snowboardcross gold medalist and stay with my alaskan freeride partner Ueli Kestenholz. Tanja and I had a great talk over coffee about what the whole process was looking like this time around, the pressure, the journey and just catching up on life. It was really nice.

 

A few miles around the lake of Thunersee in the village of Gwatt lives my good friend Ueli. Ueli and I went to Alaska for the first time together in 03 and he has been a big part of the development in my life and in riding to transition to big mountain riding. He has also been a pioneer in the development of the sport of speedriding. Check out www.playgravity.com to see what it’s all about as it defies explanation. Three dimensional freeriding is about the best I can do to put it to words. Shortly after our AK trip this spring Ueli successfully made the first ever descent from the summit of the Matterhorn with the aid of a speedriding canopy. I only saw the still photos but it was sick!

 

He is also about 5 months into fatherhood and we had a great time catching up on all fronts. In the morning he woke me and said we just had time to fit in a wake-surf before I would need to run to Zurich to catch my flight home. So under the shadow of the Eiger on the lake of Thun we surf our legs off for a couple hours before the clock was really ticking on me. Settleing back into my seat for the quick trip home I was in awe of my favorite little country away from home and was so glad I had made the jaunt. A couple weeks at home and it will be time to head for South America and the start of it all. Can't wait!

Switzerland - My Home Away From Home - Part 1

Ahhhh Switzerland. My home away from home. I always forget how amazing the Alps are in summertime.

 

Pulling away from the Zurich airport I got my little Citroen rental up to speed and pretty much kept it there everywhere I went during a busy four days. Driving in Europe has always been one of my favorite parts of life on the road.

 

My first task was to find my way to Braunwald, check out the Glarnerland valley and find my friend Martin Babler. When I was more or less at the turnoff from the highway to Glarus I stopped at the Glarnerland Raststadt for a severe jet lag nap. Two hours later I awoke in my driver’s seat and wandered inside to enjoy the unbelievable highway food stop cuisine that the Swiss provide in abundance. A fresh blueberry shake and my first favorite Swiss salami sando of the trip and I was back on my way exploring the narrow little country roads of the Glarnerland. Now when I say narrow, it feels crowded on the street when a motorcycle approaches, and at times you have to straight-up stop for things larger then a VW. But when the streets are all yours at night it reminds me of the driving scenes from A Clockwork Orange (minus the ultra violence of course) and they are so much fun.

 

So with the Braunwald Bahnhof located I cruised halfway back to the little village of Mollis and awaited a call from Martin who was in an afternoon meeting. I parked in a lot with a beautiful mountain view to read A Champions Mind by Pete Sampras. Below me the local kinder practiced soccer. The Swiss trains flew by (no doubt on time). The cows rung their bells as they sampled the fine looking grass and Switzerland was in the process of being how it is - idyllic.

 

I got Martin's call and he sounded as though he hadn't spoken english since I saw him in Alaska last April. I struggled through some directions and eventually found him waving with a massive smile on the road side.

 

Being welcomed into the Babler family home was an experience in and of itself. Of the six kids (all grown) five are living at home and all I can say is the parents have reason to be proud. The oldest works as a helicopter pilot and paraglide instructor, the next is finishing studies to be a doctor, Martin is an award winning cinematographer, commercial producer and part time gymnast training the local kids, the next youngest is employed as a dancer by the ballet, next is a music composer who makes all the original scores for Martin's movies and doubles as a filmer as well, and the youngest is finishing her university studies. Wow.

 

After a traditional Swiss dinner lead we headed out to a local pub where I caught up with two old friends from Glarus who are retired world cuppers. The next morning we had a wonderful breakfast and made the drive to catch the train up the mountain to Braunwald and the Kessler factory, where I would get to work designing the boards that I’ll ride all the way to Vancouver…

home at last..

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