Help Bentley!
You may remember the lovely Bentley from Under the Radar part 1, which she helped to film. Well, she’s just informed us that her snowboard has been tragically stolen!
kelly | 12.16.08 | Comments (4)
And we thought ski boots were bad
Occasionally, I scour the web for things that are not snowboard related. In fact, often times, those things are fashion related. Anyway, I came across some pictures of Ms. Victoria Beckham shilling her new perfume line at Macy’s in New York, and all I could think when I saw her footwear was “EGADS! I thought ski boots looked like a form of torture!”
julie | 09.29.08 | Comments (7)
Hidden Valley Ski Resort Closes
So after reading this article about this ski resort in St. Louis closing, I got to thinking… I would be SO PISSED if a resort just up and closed on me, especially if new owners didn’t plan on reopening it. Like, what would I do with my winter if my home mountain closed? It would be so inconvenient, not to mention sad that the place you first learned to snowboard was no more. And you’d waste so much gas trying to get to the next “local” hill. I don’t think I have much to worry about, especially come this winter… but either way, I’m sorry for those of you in St. Louis. That sucks.
halley | 09.12.08 | Comments (1)
A Poem
Let me preface this by saying I am NOT a poet. However, a few glasses of wine will get you thinkin’ about how much this time of year actually sucks. It’s RIGHT on the cusp of being cold. You can feel it. Websites get updated, new product is everywhere, ticket/pass prices are posted… Winter is only 2-3 months away. So here it is. I’ve entitled it, ever so eloquently, “Summer sucks.” Enjoy.
halley | 09.01.08 | Comments (4)
Snotty Skiers. Meh
So I’m walking around the bar tonight handing out cheaply made t-shirts and baseball caps for a beer that shall remain nameless (I’m a liquor promoter. I don’t just randomly cheer lead for alcohol companies.) Anyway, I come to a table, give them my spiel on why they should order said beer, and somehow we got on the topic of winter. This doesn’t surprise me, as I have a one track mind.
halley | 08.22.08 | Comments (9)
The New “Tight Pants”
If you’ve read the interviews in the Betties section of our site, you’ve seen that most people stated that the worst trend in snowboarding has been tight pants on the hill. I hate to admit it, but I’ve almost gotten so used to seeing this that it’s not such a big deal to me anymore. Now something else has taken its place.. Unzipped Jackets. Why are so many shredders rocking the open jacket…I don’t really get it? It’s one thing to have your jacket/hoodie zipped up half-way, but another to have it flapping around in the wind and wing-like when you jump. Sometimes, at least to me, it makes tricks look sloppier. And, when you eat it there’s way more snow down your pants/sleeves/shirt than normal.
kelly | 08.17.08 | Comments (17)
Anti Core
As long as snowboarding has been around, there has always been an attitude the that we were an underground sport, that we were “core”. To this day, people still feel this image exists and strive to try and maintain a sense of “core”. I won’t deny that I was one of these people for years, but as snowboarding changed, and I grew older my idea of what snowboarding is has moved forward with the times. However, many people and companies still stick to this image as if it is the end-all-be-all of what snowboarding represents.
dee stroyer | 08.04.08 | Comments (51)
Reason #846 Why WInter is Better Than Summer
During the winter, everyone doesn’t run their ACs 24/7, thereby causing a transformer to explode and lie sparking in the street for an hour, causing the electric company to turn of the power all night. Fortunately, the apartment buildings who were probably responsible for this overuse of power all have their own generators, so they weren’t screwed. Unfortunately, I live across the street from these buildings, not in them, and had no power. Yay for summer
julie | 07.24.08 | Comments (0)
Why People Disappoint Me
So I generally try to be a pretty positive person. I can come off as cynical, but I try to see the best in people. I mean hell, a few months ago, I admitted my gooey love for stories about people being respectful towards each other. And I suppose this is why when people suck, it infuriates me all that much more.
julie | 06.26.08 | Comments (2)
Tracking Everything on a GPS
My boyfriend recently bought a Garmin GPS, ostensibly so that we don’t get lost in the wilderness during backcountry snowboarding. However, he has since become slightly obsessed with the device, and now I’m pretty sure he’s using it to track and map pretty much everything we do. Last week, he had me use it to find the City Market. This is our regular grocery store, so I’m not quite sure why I needed GPS, but I humored him, since he seemed so excited to use the turn-by-turn directions. However, he became very anxious when, as we were approaching the parking lot, the GPS suddenly just said “head southwest.” I had no idea what direction southwest was, but I was pretty sure heading southwest would involve hopping a median and hitting a tree, so I decided to just turn into the parking lot via my normal route. This upset Eric greatly.
kelly | 06.18.08 | Comments (0)
Being Green
Recently, on the shiny new Shred Betties forum, I started a discussion asking the girls what they do to live a green lifestyle. It made me happy to know that other people are trying to take steps towards a more sustainable way of life. This inevitably got me thinking about the whole notion of being “green” and what it means in today’s social/economic/political climate.
julie | 06.12.08 | Comments (0)
10 Commandments of Riding Park
Ever had one of those days where you’re trying to ride park and everyone seems to piss you off? I have! Maybe it’s just the mountains where I ride, but for some reason people don’t seem to have any clue as to what proper park etiquette is. Therefore….the new 10 commandments:
1. Thou shalt not lie in the landings of jumps where no one can see thee
Seriously, I do not understand why people do this, unless they are REALLY hurt. And really, unless you’re knocked out or have a broken bone or something, you should be able to scoot out of the way. I don’t understand why people camp out in landings of jumps. Do they have no sense of self preservation? I mean, I know I personally like not dying, but maybe I’m in a minority here.
julie | 03.31.08 | Comments (1)
It Must Be Cold Somewhere….
..because it’s raining, and will be for the next couple of days according to the “supposedly all-knowing” folks at weather.com and my mac weather widget. I’m currently blogging to you from southern New England, where it seems that the amount of rain we’ve had this season is greater than the amount of man made snow that multiple resorts have, combined. But soon I will be in Utah, where it must be cold. Afterall, it’s snowed what? 7-8 feet in the past week! So this week’s hoodie is for those who reside where it actually snows and is cold: the Nomis Women’s Heated Hoodie. I’m not going to tell you how much this costs, if you’re interested in buying it you can find out for yourself. Clearly it’s going to cost you more than your average hoodie, because it is better than the average hoodie.
Sara | 02.05.08 | Comments (0)
The X-Games Makes Me Angry
vSo, admittedly, I’m not too into competitions. I don’t really do that kind of riding, and while I find the tricks in the pipe and slopestyle to be impressive, if I had to chose a favorite pro rider, it’d be someone more like Victoria Jealouse or Jeremy Jones (the big mountain one). I dig the creativity and passion for snowboarding that these riders show as they pitch themselves off cliffs and down 60 degree grades that would make most people pee their pants and faint. And barf. Even the jibber videos are fun to watch, you can see the kids are trying new things and experiment. Competitions, on the other hand, seem a bit too staged to me. There’s no room to try something new or be creative.
However, I was pretty excited for my first opportunity to check out the X-Games in person. Sure, I hadn’t paid a whole lot of attention to the event in the past, but I figured now that I live 20 minutes away from the venue, it’d be worthwhile to go see. Plus, the folks at Girls Learn to Ride helped us out with access to the Pac Sun Lounge for the Women’s Superpipe Event - which turned out to be a raised area below the judges booth with a great view of the pipe.
kelly | 01.28.08 | Comments (0)
The Schick Quattro Slopeside Studio
The other day, Sara asked me if I thought it was a bit odd that Paul Mitchell sponsors the US Snowboarding Grand Prix series. Maybe our vision of snowboarders is warped somehow, but I don’t really picture the 75% male snowboarder population buying expensive salon quality hair care products.
kelly | 01.17.08 | Comments (0)
ice… woof
so i’m on the way to hunter mountain. we are about 11 miles away and on the token narrow twisty-turny road going up hill through the mountains. usually, this is my favorite part.. ya know, nature n’ all. so we’re driving along listening to kody’s crappy music and following this kid thats in a black nissan in front of us. out of NO WHERE he does what resembles a move out of Tokyo Drift and 180’s down the road avoiding the guard rail. of course, we weren’t so lucky.
halley | 01.04.08 | Comments (0)
The Weather is Out to Get Me
No, seriously, it is. I mean it! When I can’t ride, it’s a powder day. When I move to a ski town, the snow doesn’t come. When I wear a t-shirt to work, it’s suddenly 40 degrees out an hour later. When I don’t have an umbrella, it rains. When i do have an umbrella, it’s so windy it blows me around town. When i forget sunscreen, it’s the sunniest day ever. Grrrr. I think it’s some kind of highly developed plot by weathermen to confuse and trick me. Yes, me personally. What, that sounds narcissistic? Paranoid? Ha! Everyone knows the world revolves around me.
Ok, or maybe it’s just global warming. Maybe I should go get a hybrid and start using soy wax so I can prevent that.
kelly | 11.28.07 | Comments (0)
Dear East Coast Weather Gods
Today, my friend Delphine (a surfer) was absolutely exuberant about the weather. I, of course, looked at her like she had 18 heads and said, “That’s okay Delphine, you can have your indian summer until November, but then it’s snowboarding season!”
julie | 10.25.07 | Comments (0)
Too Much Time On My Hands
So, because the summer’s seemingly endless… us snowboarders get the itch for winter. Whether we check manufacturer’s websites for the new product line, post endlessly in forums, youtube videos of people falling just for your own amusement, we’re still looking for a fix. This summer, I decided that I would be a little more productive and not JUST laugh at people launching off jumps and face planting.
halley | 09.26.07 | Comments (0)
Is it still August?
So this weekend, when I SHOULD have been enjoying the last of the summer sun on the beach, I went through some extreme snowboarding withdrawal and decided that my time would be far better spent pretending to snowboard.
julie | 08.27.07 | Comments (0)
