philfell

Thanks Jack, This is the year that counts for most of these guys though. After the Olympics many of them will be retiring. But the next gen guys and gals can sure use the help you are offering.

A little while back there was a thread about riders getting cut from the US Snowboard Team due to budget cuts. Recently some of these riders have pooled together and formed their own team and are currently fund raising. If you would like to contribute to these riders you can contact Chris Klug through his website (www.chrisklug.com) and he can give you all the proper info and let you know where you can send your donation to. Help fund an Olympian.

They can't pull you over for a seat belt "check". If they SEE you without a seat belt they can pull you over. And if you happen to have other things that are illegal in plain view then that's your dumb fault for having them in plain view AND breaking other laws that you now know they can pull you over for. They have probably cause. They just witnessed you breaking the law, it's that simple. I used to think that seat belts should be a personal choice and kind of felt funny about laws requiring them. But when I add up the amount of money I've spent on car insurance in my life (I'm only 31 so many of you have paid considerably more than me) it makes me sick. On top of that I've never made a claim. So I can understand and now I encourage ways to keep cost incurred in auto accidents to a minimum, and seat belts do this. So a few weeks ago when we were at Mt. Hood two snowboarders were driving up to the mountain from Hood River. It was about 6 am in the sleepy town. Driver had his seat belt on passenger did not. They got pulled over and the passenger received a ticket for $107. I will not provide names in order to "protect the innocent". To the OP I don't think it will be cost effective for ski areas to put GPS monitors on everyone at the ski area. They are looking for ways to get people there, not drive up cost even higher then they already are and turn people away.

The event in Telluride will be one of 5 events that will qualify riders to the Olympics. Official criteria is here. http://ussa.org/magnoliaPublic/ussa/en/sports/snowboarding/advancement/olympicselection.html

I'm pretty sure she is the most sucessful snowboarder to date on the FIS World Cup.....MALE or FEMALE. She dominated SBX and Alpine for the ladies and was pretty much unstopable. Of the 245 FIS events she started in she was on the podium in 147 of these. That is unbeleivable in any sport to have that kind of percentage of azz whooping ability.

Oh that's troll bait here, let's see where it goes now.

Yeah we're friends. I'm just trying to point out that it's a much more complex issue than USSA decided to cut much of the alpine team and they suck because of it. I feel IT sucks that the team size was cut. I do not feel THEY suck because I understand the reasons why it was done.

That's great, thanks Seb!

Billy I don't think you are actually reading the points I'm trying to make. Maybe I'm not explaining myself in the right way. I'm NOT attacking you credibility. I'm just pointing out that when someone, i.e. you in this case. says that it is not important to let people know the full story then they have a chance of loosing credibility. It's that simple. Your friends on the US Ski team may feel the snowboarders are getting a raw deal. If they were saying that USSA sucks and telling people that they do, and ONLY giving reasons why they suck and NOT giving the reasons as to why they HAVE to make the decisions they did, then in the future when that person called foul on a seperate issue I would not take what they have to say to heart as quickely as before, because I would know that to them it is only important to give facts that support their stance and not the entire story. You are saying that the athletes shouldn't have to overcome obsitcles on their way to the Olympics! That's what they HAVE to do to get there. If something stands in their way they figure a way to overcome this. This is what makes a champion. Yes it would be great if ALL the athletes had more funding, but the FACT is that they don't. They can either accept this and overcome it or they can dwell on it and complain or wish it were different, but in the end this is a waste of their time and energy and it will NOT help them acheive their goals. I use Tyler as an example because he HAS done what he has needed to do in order to go to the Olympics. He HAS overcome the obsitcles in his way. I can use Klug as an example he HAS over come tons of obsticles on his way to the Olympics, one of these is being the benifit of modern medicine. If Klug was not able to get a new liver he would be DEAD right now. Is it "fair" that he had to overcome this to acheive his goals when others did not?? No, but he HAD to regarless. And yes I have told this to athletes, if you hide the fact that they will have to overcome challenges on their way to obtaining their goals you are mis-guiding the athlete. The budget cuts are one of these challenges. If the athlete can NOT overcome this challenge then they will NOT be able to acheive their goals. Is it fair they the US athletes have to do this and the Swiss do not? No, but does that unfairness change anything? No. Yes I would like more funding for the athletes, BUT I can see the big picture and understand WHY they were made. In my involvement with snowboarding I have had multiple job roles and titles. I have (and am) been a coach, a FIS TD, an event organizer, an athlete, a mentor, a friend, and many other things. One thing I have learned while doing this is that the "right" answers change depending on your job role. When I'm at an event I am pushing for things to benifit my athletes and make their job easier. When I have put on events some of the things I would have liked as a coach can not happen for one reason or another and I must make decisions based on what is best for the event (I have to consider future relations with the resort, fairness for all the athletes, maximizing the resourses I have available to me) many times the decisions I made as an organizer would have been different if I had been in a coaching role at the time. The same goes for when I'm at an event at the TD. In this role I am the person representing the FIS. My job here is in conflict at times with the coaches and even the event organizer when these times come up beleive me it sucks. But does it sucking change anything, no I must make the best of it and overcome. This has given me the a skill I beleive I'm pretty good at and am still trying to develope. It has allowed me to look at situations from different perspectives and has allowed me to put myself in different job roles and find solutions to problems while looking at them from a different point of view than my own. In this case, although I do not like the budget cuts, I can put myself in the shoes of the staff at USSA. And based on the info I have, beleive me I don't have all the info and numbers, I would probably have made similar choices. I think you would have done the same if you were in their position and had their job roles. Coming from your job role as an alpine coach of course you would have made different decisions, but you are not looking at the problem from the point of veiw as to what is best for the organation as a whole. You are only looking at the point of view of what would help your sport. Unfortunatly these two positions are in oppisition. The examples you gave of things the USSA could have done to prevent this, things such as cutting admin, development programs, vehicles, ect. First I'm pretty sure that the vehicles are a direct donation (I could be wrong though) so giving these back would free up zero funds. The only thing this would cause is them having to use persone vehicles in exchange for gaining nothign. Second- Many Development programs were cut. Like I said earlier the SBX C Team was totally cut last season, while the Alpine C Team remained (it even expaned some last season). The skiers also took cuts in development funding. Third- Many in house jobs at USSA were cut and streamlined. The current number of employees at USSA is less then it was a year ago. Fourth- EVERY coach at USSA took pay cuts. Not just the snowboards, EVERY coach. The suggestions that you feel would have simply solved the funding issues were done, among other things the USSA did to cut expenses, but these were not enough. Yes the athletes need all the help they can get. But to hide the facts as to why they are in this situation is unfair to USSA, the athletes themselves, and the people here reading this. These are FACTS not opinions. I accept these FACTS and I find a way to do my job the best I can knowing the challenges that surround me. I do not try to hide the challenges from my athletes. I give them information everything I can get and we come up with a plan to overcome ALL that is in our way. This is a way to sucess. Trying to shelter athletes from challenges WILL NOT give the athletes the skills to rise above the many things that will stand in their way on the road to sucess, not just in snowboarding, but in life as well. You having a military background should understand where I'm coming from here. Sometimes things are not fair, and sometimes some people have an easier road to get to the destination than others. But that is just the way it is, you must accept this, deal with it, manage it, and OVERCOME IT!

Yes we will probably be sending 2 guys and 1 girl, unless the ladies can pull it together and earn another spot.

Billy, yeah really, especially in this case. Keep in mind that what's going on in this thread is in no way an attack on you peronally, and I do and always will consider you a good friend. I consider this a healthy exchange of words, nothing more. The reason why I'm calling you out on this is that early on you were calling US Snowboarding a joke in terms of the Olympic Team. This is completely unfair when all the information is presented. It looks like you are leaving out legit info on the reasons why US Snowboard HAD to do what they did in order to push the anti-US Snowboarding theme you started out pushing in this thread. This could lead to future loss of credibility when discussing issues that you bring up later. It would be very easy for someone to not accept what you are saying because you are now viewed as a person who self-admittedly says that presenting all the FACTS is not important. It's only worth putting down the info that helps my case and leaving out or ignoring the info that does not support my case is cool. Just saying it's a slippery slope to go down. But maybe I'm taking this too far. I've switched my accounting software and since then I've been at my computer ALL week trying to figure it out and update everything. I hate it and maybe that is spiling over here. Plus I also think that one or two years ago I would have had similar grips. But after working with a different side of the sport for the last season, it opened my eyes to more of the larger picture. You really can look at this from both sides of the coin. Straight out right now we are FAR behind the rest of the world in alpine. Look at the world ranking of our top 5 guys and girls compared to other contries. Then look at the world rankings of our 10-16 ranked guys and girls. No other way to put it we are behind at the top and we have no depth coming up. We didn't even have the depth to fill our quota spots at our own World Cup event we hosted, because we didn't have enough people who had the MINIMUM amount of points to compete. With this info you can do two things with it. One option would be- We are behind in alpine, we need to act now and pump some funding their way so that we have a chance at 2014 and beyond. With no help the sport could be a total loss for us in the future. The other option is- Why "waste" funding on alpine when we have other sports that we can put the funding into. These other sports already have solid depth and we will see results now, this will please our board. When budgets are being cut in every sport, then it's hard to justify to the higher ups taking option #1, especially going into an Olympic year. These are facts! It's up to the athletes to overcome these obsticles and rise above. No one is working AGAINST the athletes, they are just putting more responsibility on the individual athlete. As soon as more of the alpiners realize this the sooner they can move on and above to better themselves and start performing. Tyler isn't slowing down. He is charging forward. So is Klug, he has already started his conditioning program and is fundraising like a made man right now. The people I feel it will hurt are the ones with mis-aligned goals. The ones whos primary goal is making the US Team, instead of being the fastest. Put being the fastest as your number one goal and making the team really doesn't matter. And when Trappy or Vic Wild podiums World Champs in the years to come we may see some of that funding come back.

US Team budget is determined by USSA. They have a fundraising department. At the end of a fundraising cycle they look at the funds. Then look at funding request from the different departments (alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, alpine snowboarding, nordic skiing,.....) Then they go through and divey out the funds as they see fit. Alpine skiers usually get the biggest budget by far. Right now Alpine snowboarding gets the least amount. Unfortunatly, like Bordy said you can not call up USSA and say I'd like to donate to alpine snowboarding. You can call up USSA and make a donation, but the funds go into the "big pot" so to speak. You can call the CSF and donate to an individual canadian rider though, which is pretty cool of them to do. Athletes fund themselves by getting sponsers, hosting benifits, working, Andi Jo sells coffee through a local sports booster type of program, it has her pic on it. All you coffee drinkers should get your coffee through her. Don't ask for the organic coffee though, she can not get it dispite me nagging her on it. They have to get creative. The high level athletes qualify for the Home Depot program which is an awesome program for athletes in all sports. But rumor has it that this program may see the ax due to the economy. Coaches help however we can. Introducing athletes to the proper people in the industry, writing letters of recomendation on behave of the athlete, in some cases taking money out of our own pocket to help the athlete when needed.

I thought you were a fan of bringing everyone into the loop on current things.....Like gear. You are persistant (which is good, I'm totally not bagging on you) on bringing info on the latest and greatest product out there. And you back up what you are saying with real world experience. This is a similar issue. If I made a post that said something like "Kessler is killing alpine snowboarding". In some ways he is. No an athletes board budget is like 5 times what it used to be. Many athetes that raced when I did, myslef included could not compete today because of this. There are many athletes who drop off because they can not afford to buy the proper equipment to compete. But when someone like you brings the "whole" picture here, things become a little clearer. Kessler is NOT killing alpine he has pushed every board builder to produce a better produce and in return our gear is better and the level of riding has taken a huge leap forward in a short period of time. He has also made many people re think an alpine turn in general. This is more of a whole picture, that YOU bring here all the time. Now you are saying it isn't required to tell the whole story?! When you do this you start to loose credability. Look at any person in politics. I think donating directly to the athletes is great. You know I have done this a bunch in the past and will continue to do so. But bashing on USSA for the current state of the economy is very poor. Because they did what they had to do. USSA does NOT care if some one is a racer, freestyler, SBXer, their job is to win medals in the Olympics. That's is! If the alpiners were doing better on the World Cup than the SBXers the SBX team would have taken the biggest cut. Keep in mind though ALL USSA programs took a cut, including the skiers. Over the past year I have been working with the SBXers more than the Alpiners. If the alpiners were as motivated to raise their level as the SBXers then they would be performing better. Unfortunatly from my point of view there is more of a feeling of entitlement on the alpine side of the sport. For some reason the alpiners feel they deserve to have things given to them. This has lead to us falling behind the rest of the world in results. I think that this is due to the small numbers in alpine right now. There is no one (other than Trappy) really coming up strong to make the top guys feel insecure about their spots. So the top guys get lazy. In SBX there is a bunch of guys coming up pushing hard to prove they are ready to have a spot on the World Cup. Ross Powers is an example, when he finally got a chance to do a World Cup he podiumed! Bobby Minghini, he was CUT from the team last year because USSA cut the C Team SBX. Yeah the SBXer had to cut their C Team last year and the alpiners got to keep thier C Team. When he got his chance to prove him self he finished 8th in a World Cup. These are non US Team riders who don't even have a full World Cup spot getting results better than any guy on the Alpine side. We need to tell the whole story, because it is important. Knowledge is power.

Fastskiguy, budget cuts are not keeping anyone from participating. Anybody can participate as long as they meet the criteria. Since Olympic spots are limited by the IOC going to the Olympics get a bit twisted. Sometimes the person on the bubble in alpine is actually up against the person on the bubble in SBX to show that they are a better medal contender. It gets super weird at times. In 06 if Lindsay J. did better at the final Grand Prix HP, there was a really good chance that Klug could then have gone for Alpine.......It can get that twisted. But it's the same for EVERY country not just ours. Mark Eislan was ranked 5th on the World Cup points list but could not go because the Swiss had such a strong team that year. Billy the tone of which you started this thread and the title straight up attacks the USSA and US Snowboarding. When you look at the big picture what they have done makes sense and if you were in the job that they are in you would be making very similar calls. Yeah a call to USSA letting you know their feelings is good, but you know what makes a better impression??? Being actually involved in the process and GOING to the meetings where these decisions are being hashed out. They are held in your hometown. When was the last time you have been to a meeting with USSA? Become involved. Go to the meetings, help out at camps run by US Snowboarding. Offer to help. You will learn a lot of the process.

Off the top of my head I know Lindsay Lloyd needs a new heart rate monitor. Anyone have access to a myotest? We are looking into getting one of these to help tailor dryland better for the athletes. http://www.myotest.us/Home.aspx Hotel points The stuff Sinecure mentioned would be great. Like I said if you want to donate anything directly to any of the atheltes send me an email through this site and I can get you in touch with that individual athlete or athletes. Every little bit helps. Our focus is quality early season training. Because the Olympics are in Feb. everything that matters is early. We will be spending about 3-4 weeks in Argentina training. Tickets are spendy to get there. Donate a ticket on miles to an athlete going. That would be huge. Or help pay for their training or coaching there. Gift cards to restaurants would be cool too. Kind of like buying a potential Olympian dinner while they are on the road.

Flailing hand?! Take a look at a Schoch heelside and it will be pretty darn close to what this kid is doing. Only they weigh in about 150 pounds more than this kids.

Bordy this is NOT a USSA decision. They can only send so many athletes. For 06 I think it was 16 athletes TOTAL. Look at the entire US Snowboarding picture. You could only take a MAX of 4 atheltes per gender per disipline. With the guys and girls Halfpipers killing it that take up 8 spots right there (of those 8 athletes all made the finals and ended up taking 4 medals) Only one ladie SBXer went, no one on the SBX side is complaining about that, saying it was a joke to only take Lindsay and not the second girl in line. Why becasue the second girl in line did NOT podium at a World Cup leading into the Olympics. There were FIVE guys who podimed world cups in SBX leading into the Olympics in 06. Luckily (unfortunatly though) Palmer got injured making choosing the 4 athletes to take easier. Now 13 spots are now taken, only three spots remain for Alpine. Michelle and Rosey both got podiums in the World Cup leading into the Olympics, OK they show medal potential, send those two. Now only ONE spot left for guys alpine they sent Tyler, who going into the Olympic only had an 8th and a 22nd (I think these numbers are right I'm going off the top of my head here). None of the guys or other alpiners showed legit medal potential, why would they pull a spot from another disipline when all the other disiplines are show MUCH stronger medal potential??? Yes Tyler did finish 9th, but that was the Only disipline where we did NOT medal. Yes there was only one guy there, but there was only one female SBXer that went also and she did medal. You think it would have been fair to give a spot to Klug who did not even make it in the top 16 in the World Cup leading into the Olympics? If they did they would have had to take a spot away from another athlete. That athlete would probably have been Jason Hayle, who got a 3rd in a world cup SBX 3 weeks before the Olympics and was 2nd in World Champs the year prior. You think this would have been fair?????? The Olympic Team size is NOT determined by USSA or US Snowboarding it is determined by the IOC. US Snowboarding has to do the best they can given the restrictions handed down by the IOC. It comes down to the athletes have to start performing on the World Cup, right now they are NOT so cuts are made. USSA does not have the money to hand out right now! Tyler made the sacrifices he had to in order to make it happen for himself. He did not rely on others to do it for him. The other alpiners need to do this also. Right now they are not. This is why Tyler stands out above the others.......Sacrifice. No one is going to do it for the athletes. Giving directly to the athletes would be great. Bitching about budget cuts is going to do nothing for the athletes. I will be coaching a few of the athletes that got cut from the team helping them to make it to the Olympics. If anyone wants to donate directly to them that would be awesome. Even if it is gear. I can give you all a list of what they need for training this summer and if people already have it laying around they can send it directly to them. Or I have pretty much everyones contact info. If you would like to make a donation directly to that individual athlete contact me and I can get you in touch with that person. Lets figure out solutions without shooting ourselves in the foot.

Bordy the US Snowboarding spring congress was in Park City last week. Why did you not show up and express your concerns directly to the people makeing the decisions? It ALL comes down to budget. The USSA gets their spending budget from the fundraising they did last season, a big chunk of this is from their "ski balls" they host. These were hosted when the economic crisis was first hitting, and hitting hard. Their projected budget for next year (the Olympic year) is about half of what it was a few seasons ago. Every coach involed with US Skiing and Snowboarding had to take a pay cut, yes even the ski coaches. Then they had to make more cuts. They looked at the programs that were the weakest in the ENTIRE organization. The skiers are killing it on the alpine side with athletes winning multiple overall titles. The nordic guys almost swept world champs (completely unheard of from those guys) the freestyle skiers are getting world cup podiums. Our freestyle snowboaders have a huge chance at bringing home Olympic medals, the SBXers....10 guys in the top 32 (2 of themin the top 3) and Lindsay winning the overall by a ton......Then we come to the alpiners, barely any results other than Michelle. This was the second year in a row that the girls couldn't earn another world cup spot other than Michelle. Injuries hindered the guys, which is the main reason why they kept those guys on the team, by the way Vic will still be listed as B Team due to his results before his injury. If I had to make cuts, taking a look at the overall picture it would be easy for me....... Now to a few other points here. Olympic criteria is posted on the USSA site, go to sport then snowboading then advancement and read it for your self. You do NOT have to be on the US Team to compete in a world cup event. The guys who did get cut will still be able to compete in the world cup if they qualify for a spot based on the posted criteria. The only thing that is different now is that they don't get a free coat. Over the past few years MANY of the alpine athletes have complained about the US Snowboard coaches and the support they received.....Well now those athletes can set up their program how ever they want to.....Body style, but wait now that they have COMPLETE control over their own career they are still people complaining. You guys can't have it both ways....bitching at USSA for not having the staff they want, then when USSA says you can still have most of the benifits of being on the team (world cup spots, training facility, ect.) and now you can hire any coach and support you want you just don't get a coat they are still bitching. Look at the big picture before passing judgment on USSA for doing this. There is much more to this than what is on the surface.

Mike is a great guy and great coach. Any one on the fence about going to this camp or not, should go for sure now that he is involved. You WILL come out with plenty of things to work on probably for the reast of your snowboading life. Yes he is that good.

Other guy backed out so if you want it Steve email me your shipping address and I'll get it to you tomorrow. philip.fell at lycos.com

Someone already emailed me about it. If they don't take it then it's yours. I'll let you know.

I have an old US Team Speed Suit for sale. Probably from around '99 or so. No built in pads, pretty much all black with some white patches on it. No holes, decent overall condition. X-Nix brand, size medium (I think) any offer taken, must at least cover shipping cost and gas to the post office.

You are right there is no "right or wrong" But some positions are stronger than others. Some positions will allow you to recover faster than others. Some will allow you to ride a cleaner edge in more varible conditions easier than others........

Bindings are sold. Sorry

I'd be interested in putting these under some riders. We are doing an equipment testing camp last weekend in May at Mammoth and I could also bring them to the US Snowboard Project Gold camp if you would like feedback from those kids. That camp would be mid-June. Do you have any SBX shapes you have been working on? Board I would be interested in seeing on snow: Standard guys PGS board- 185ish + or - Standard ladies PGS board= 173is + or - Guys SBX board 167ish + or - Ladies SBX board 158is + or - We also may have some younger riders attending gold camp this year so if you had a PGS board for the 15 year olds male and female they would get put to use also. I would also send video of riders on their normal equipment compared to your new equipment to you for your review. phililp.fell AT lycos.com