Snow!

30cms so far this week, and it keeps getting better. It's so good to be back skiing pow after so long without it, I'll have some pics and maybe some video tomorrow. In the meantime, we are all skiing for Trav.

Weekend Edit

Here is an edit from last weekend.


Weekend Compilation! from Jeff Amantea on Vimeo.

R.I.P. Travis Steeger

Dude....
How did this happen? Travis Steeger was basically a legend. I didn't know him well, but I knew him well enough to know that he was the ballsiest man to ever grace the slopes around us. He wasn't supposed to go out any other way than doing something utterly insane and wowing us all one last time. He lived life to the fullest at a whole new level. He basically reached the carrying capacity of gnarly and then broke through to contaminate the air around him with his gnarly essence. He and his wonderful stories will be missed by everyone.
The absolute gnarliest man to ever walk this planet.

Rest In Peace

Sunny dayyyyyyssss

The past couple days have been reallly warm and bluebird so I have been skiing mostly park.
Here are a couple shots that Nathan took of Todd and I on his fancy camera.

Stay tuned for an amazing edit from these two days.

love you

Safety!

So for the past two days, Sparky Steeves (Sally's dad) has been teaching us about snow safety, the variables in snowpacks, how to determine what is safe to ski, and if all else fails how to rescue any victims.

Examining surface hoar and facets.

Rutschblock

Rutschblock

Rutschblock test.

Rutschblock test.

We learned so much valuble information that will probably save our lives at one point or another.

Greed

So yesterday, Joel told me about this kid named Filip Gigic who is a 15 year old ski racer living in Calgary. Filip has his own website (http://www.filipgigic.com/) and whilst browsing, I noticed his "Support Filip" page. In disbelief, I clicked on it and sure enough this kid has the nerve to ask people to pay for his skis equipement, outerwear, phones, training trips, schooling, and race fees. Although he has type 1 diabetes,I think that he is being rediculously selfish in focusing on what he wants/doesn't have/needs instead of being thankful for what he has. I don't think it's fair for him to be asking for a free ride when there are so many less fortunate people of all ages all over the world who don't even have clean drinking water, education or adequet food for a healthy life who ask for nothing. What pisses me off even more is that some people would even donate money to this individual when there are many other causes that mean so much more than 8 new pairs of skis and a new speed suit every year.
Filip - I hope you or your parents read this and get over yourselves, get your heads out of your asses, and think beyond yourselves. If you really need the money there are other ways to get it then to beg.

Best of luck to your skiing career.

Friday The 13th

So since today is Friday the 13th, I had to take it super easy because I'm pretty superstitious.
I decided that it was time to build a nice little backflipper underneath the pits on Red. I was pretty stoked to do this because I haven't been upside down on skis since I was in Whistler in July.




Tomorrow will be super fun and I'm super stoked to get back in the game.

love

Fernie Junior Freeski Competiton

Last week I journeyed to Fernie for the junior freeskiing competiton. I had heard that the conditions were going to be super hard and sketchy but our first day there, we got about 10cms of snow which softened everything up pretty well and allowed us to charge like 5x as hard. I had a good day scoping out lines and testing them on Friday, then that night I rolled over to my pal Dylan's house to shred his sick little backyard rail for a bit.



Sample 8 from Dylan Siggers on Vimeo.


We had to wake up bright and early on Saturday for the competitor's meeting and to get a few last inspection runs before our qualifying runs. Since I am in the oldest category and we run last, I had a few hours to burn so me and my home dawgs Brodie and Jacob met up with former Rossland local - Jamie Rizzuto. He showed us all the gnarly airs and lines and kept the vibes high and flowing.

The venue for the qualifiers was on Easter Bowl which is pretty mellow with not very many features, but it is long and fast so it showed who the strong skiers were. I qualified 3rd so I was pretty happy with that.

For finals they switched the venue to Big Bang which is shorter, steeper and has more features. The run got super skied out the day before so the conditions we pretty sketchy, in my run I hit a solid 10-12 foot drop onto flat hardpack with a 1 ski length takeoff about half a foot wide. I stomped my run clean and stayed in 3rd place. Overall I'm really happy with that result in my first bigger competition after destroying my shoulder in late December.

Check out
http://www.biglines.com/blarticles/4405/Highlight_video_-High_Speed_Heavy_duty_HotDogs_-_FAR_Jr._Freeski_Finals
for the final results and an edit of the finals.

Bizarre Ideas

- Last night I was watching TV and I ended up stopping on a show called "My son the pornographer" at first I thought it would be a high drama reality show about a millionaire who documents porn, well you can't judge a book by its cover. The shows about a pornographer who dropped out of school, was sexually assaulted and moved to Prague and becomes a pornographer. His father is making the documentary to try to reach out to his son.
I learned a lot from this show and about the porn industry, and I thought to myself; I could do that. The porn industry, just like health care, no matter how bad the economy is will never shut down because people are always needing help and will pay what ever it takes to stay alive. Its the same as the porn industry, people will always be horny and as weird and twisted it may sound there are so many people out there that rely on porn to be happy, if you know what I mean. People will keeping looking at porn as long as they are living and as long as they're living the more money they will spend on themselves to stay healthy and alive.
After realizing all of this information I had the wildest idea of becoming a pornographer, but I'm all over that now because that shit don't phase me.

Salmo Night Skiing!

Last night a few of us decided to go night skiing at this little ski hill in Salmo, about a 40 minute drive from Rossland.
The setup there is pretty cool; theres one t-bar to pull you up the hill, and some nice groomers to bomb with the most righteous side booters around to play on and the "halfpipe" which is just a dope little gully thats actually really fun.

It only costs $12 ($9 if you have a Red or Whitewater seasons pass) and the food is pretty decent.

The Game Rail Jam

For the past 4 years during the Winter Carnival here in Rossland, Rossvegas Boardshop has put on The "Game" Rail Jam on Queen Street (beside the post office).


This year's setup was the best yet, with 2 lines of 3 rails and a quarterpipe/picnic table bonk thing at the bottom. People showed up from places like Nelson, Kelowna, Sweden and Grandforks to help keep the vibe high.



C-box



Down-Flat-Down Rail




Flat-Down Rail.




pop shots from Jeff Amantea on Vimeo.
One of my runs on the right line.


I ended up in 2nd place in my age category and Rossvegas hooked it up really good with prizes.
(I have a blue Ride Jacket size large, size 8.5 Circa shoes and a size large quilted Sessions hoodie for sale)



Thanks to Nathan B., Nathan R., and Dylan S. for photos.