The press release is below, but basically Skullcandy is hosting a concert in Las Vegas featuring Snoop Dogg and Mix Master Mike of the Beastie Boys. The concert will take place when pretty much every person in the snowsports industry will be in Vegas for the annual SnowSports Industries America (SIA) trade show. The show has been in Vegas for 37 years and last year SIA signed a deal to move the show to Denver, Colorado for the next 10 years. This is the first event I have herd of for the show and Skullcandy is coming out swinging. I will be in Vegas for SIA and hopefully can make it in to the Skullcandy concert at the Palms. Stay tuned.

Skullcandy, a developer of core audio products, is stoked to announce Snoop Dogg and Mix Master Mike from the Beastie Boys as its headliners at this year’s SIA show in Las Vegas. A night of music chaos
featuring Super Natural as MC, the company is set to make its mark in Vegas on the second night of the show, Wednesday, January 28th at Rain in the Palms Hotel. A way of thanking partnering industry companies, their supporters, as well as core retailers, reps and dealers, Skullcandy looks forward to bringing key music acts to the 2009 show.

“At Skullcandy, we’re always looking for events that bring a unique energy to the action sports and music industry,” stated Rick Alden, CEO and founder of Skullcandy. “Bringing a mainstream and talented crew of folks like Snoop Dogg, Mix Master Mike and Super Natural to SIA for the show’s last year in Vegas is our way of going out with a bang. We’re thrilled to bring top-notch musicians to our party as a way of thanking our collaborating partners and core dealers—it’s going to be a great.”

In addition to partnering with both Snoop Dogg and Mix Master Mike for the SIA 2009 show, Skullcandy is also pleased to announce their artist collaboration pieces with each music icon. Set to hit the market later this year, Skullcandy will introduce Snoop Dogg fans to a whole new world of music listening as they partner with the rapper for his own Skullcrusher—an extreme base amplified headphone. Skullcandy will also be creating a DJ headphone from scratch for Mix Master Mike, which is set to hit the market during third quarter.

The party will start at 10PM on January 28th and go into the “wee-hours” of the night. For more information on Skullcandy and their second day, SIA Vegas bash, check out www.skullcandy.com or stop by their SIA booth: D80.

Jon posted to his blog today that BOTH Jon Olsson Super Sessions (JOSS) and the Jon Olsson Invitational (JOI) will be taking place this spring. This is awesome considering the current economic climate and the difficulty of securing a title sponsor to help fund the event. There has been no announcement of who the title sponsor will be for the comps, perhaps Red Bull maybe or some Euro company I have never herd of.. Most competitions are sponsored by car companies and they are doing horrible, I just herd on the news this eventing that Chrystler’s sales for December 2008 were down 50%. Chrystler owns Jeep who in recent years has sponsored the US Freeskiing Open, 48 Straight and the Winter X Games. Anyway much props to Jon and whoever helped him get these events going they are two of the most over the top competitions and I am very excited that they will be happening again this season.

It’s cold and windy. Tanner is in first place after the first of two runs.
UPDATE
Tanner wins by a pretty big margin. Simon Dumont had a sick second run but ended up in fourth. Justin Dorey second, Duncan Adams third.

Dew Tour mens slopestyle is on NBC live as I write this. I thought it would be better to watch it on TV because the weather sucks right now (10 degrees and windy at my place in Keystone) and it’s like I’m there since it’s airing in HD. Mens ski half pipe takes place later today and I will be there making my first attempt at livebloging from my iphone.

That’s right the NAO has been postponed until next season. I have seen and herd lots of reports of sponsors pulling out of events this season.  This is bad news for the snow sports comp scene and the sport as a whole, the economy is forcing companies to trim their budgets and the comps are suffering, hopefully when the economy rebounds sponsors are quick to get back on board or it might be even harder for the comp secne to rebound. A perfect example of cutbacks in sponsorship funding is the Esurance Icer Air, this year comp was scaled town to a small hip jump from last year where it was a full on scaffolding jump in a baseball field.

The qualifiers for both ski halfpipe and ski slopestyle have taken place and the results are below. One thing to note is that PK Hunder was not on the list of pre qualified athletes for slopestyle, this is odd considering he just won the King of Style not too long ago. Then ther are relative unknowns like Thomas Dolplads (no offense Thomas) on the pre-qualified list. I hope that the Association of Freeskiing Professionals helps to make the athlete selection process more transparent. In the end I am stoked for Tanner returning to the comp scene and competing in his first slopestyle in a long time.

Halfpipe Qualifiers Results
1. Henrik Harlaut
2. Gus Kenworthy
3. Mike Riddle
4. Alexis Godbout
5. PK Hunder
6. Tucker Perkins
7. Nick Martini
8. Oscar Scherlin
9. Banks Gilberti
10. Sean Jordan
11. Derek Spong
12. Sean Decker
13. Matt Margetts
14. Karl Fostveldt
15. Pekka Hyysalo
16. Sean Logan

Halfpipe Pre-Qualified Athletes
Christian Allen
Xavier Bertoni
Sammy Carlson
Justin Dorey
Matt Duhamel
Simon Dumont
Sean Field
Tanner Hall
Matthew Hayward
Antti-Jussi Kemppainen
Marshall LaCroix
Kalle Leinonen
Peter Olenick
Tucker Perkins
Mike Riddle
Taylor Seaton
Lyndon Sheehan
JP Solberg
Josiah Wells
Colby West

Slopestyle Qualifiers Results
1. Matt Philippi
2. Byron Wells
3. Wise
4. JL Ratchel
5. Walter Wood
6. Matt Margetts
7. Andre Simonpietri
8. Jack Sullan
9. John Strenio
10. Tyler Peterson
11. Thomas Krief
12. Kyle Smaine
13. Colby Albino
14. Rob Heule
15. Miles Honens
16. Kentaro Tsuda

Slopestyle Pre-Qualified Athletes
Anders Backe
Bobby Brown
Sammy Carlson
Philip Casabon
Michael Clarke
Thomas Dolplads
Simon Dumont
Charles Gagnier
Tanner Hall
Russ Henshaw
JF Houle
Antti-Jussi Kemppainen
Kalle Leinonen
Peter Olenick
Tanner Rainville
Matt Walker
Tom Wallisch
Josiah Wells
Colby West
Jacob Wester

Tomorrow the first stop of the Winter Dew Tour will begin, the mens ski open slopestyle qualifier is scheduled for 11 am - 3 pm. The forecast tor Breck is 100% chance of snow…bummer…for the Dew Tour (I have been waiting to break out the pow skis all season).

The pre-qualified athletes for mens ski slopestyle are:

Anders Backe
Bobby Brown
Sammy Carlson
Philip Casabon
Michael Clarke
Thomas Dolplads
Simon Dumont
Charles Gagnier
Tanner Hall
Russ Henshaw
JF Houle
Antti-Jussi Kemppainen
Kalle Leinonen
Peter Olenick
Tanner Rainville
Matt Walker
Tom Wallisch
Josiah Wells
Colby West
Jacob Wester

I really hope this event goes well, I went to the Paul Mitchell Progressesion Session this past Saturday and the whole event was a bust, from the nearly vacant VIP section to the lackluster big air jump I was not impressed or the least bit entertained (I’m easily entertained). I kinda felt bad for the event orgainzers who put so much in to the event. Keep an eye out for more updates on the Breck stop of the Dew Tour on FocusFreeski.com.

Copper Grand Prix

This weekend the Grand Prix of snowboarding will be at Copper I have not herd anything but I know they are the first resort with a halfpipe. I’ll be at the event with a friend who got me a pass. It will be interesting because I really don’t know many snowboarders or much about snowboarding. The photo above is of this years pipe at Copper, it is sick because it is at the bottom of the mountain and all the gapers can watch while they eat their overpriced lunch. I wonder if you are a hardcore pipe rider if you could just go to the mountain and hike the pipe without a lift ticket. Snowboarding Grand Prix Website http://www.ussnowboarding.org/grandprix/. (If you click on the Grand Prix logo it still links to their old title sponsor Chevy, oops)

Next week is the first stop of The new Winter Dew Action Sports Tour. I have big hopes for this event and I think everyone else does too. It will be run like the Summer tour with athletes accumlating points over the three events and a champion will be determined at the final stop. Word on the street is the Dew Tour is the reason why Breck opened Peak 8 first and concentrated snowmaking there because they wanted to be absolutly sure that the park is ready to go.

The coverage the Dew Tour will get for our sport will be awesome and the 3oh3 concert in Breck should be awesome aswell. Dew Tour website http://www.allisports.com/events/breckenridge.

The Breck stop of the Dew Tour is December 18-21 and at the A51 Terrain Park in Keystone you can see just about every big name in skiing and snowboarding practicing their hearts out. A good place to look for coverage of the Keystone park action is Jon Olsson’s video blog he is killing it at http://www.jon-olsson.com. These are some very exciting times people my picks for the season are Jossi Wells, PK Hunder and Mike Clarke.

Today Keystone, Breck and Copper opened for the 08/09 ski season. Woo hoo!

Breck opened Peak 8 first this year. They are focusing thir efforts on Peak 8 so the terrain park will be at it’s prime for the first stop of the Winter Dew Action Sports Tour. It is going to be sick.

Copper has been blowing snow for their pipe for about a month now so that should be open soon.

Keystone started their brand new 8 person gondola today. It’s about 100 yards closer to the village and it’s two minutes faster. Also new for this season Keystone has introduced Friday Night Lights, a three part concert series featuring Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Nov. 21, DeVotchKa Nov. 28 and Girl Talk Dec. 5. Check out www.KeystoneFNL.com to get more info. (Can you tell I work for the Keystone marketing department?)

P.S. I love the wordpress app for the iPhone, I’m writing this from the bar where I’m enjoying a beer and some nachos. See photo.

I’m back and will start posting more storys as the season approaches. New for this season look out for random
posts uploaded from my phone, like this one while I sit watching the world series with my macbook on my lap.