In one of the more useful articles that they've ever produced, the US Ski Team web site recently wrote about exactly what is required to represent the United States in the Olympics as a snowboardcross rider. The quick and dirty version is this: it takes A LOT.
The team can only take a total of two men and two women (base on World Cup results) and if there's enough room on the overall Team, they might be able to add one more. Considering that 6 of the top 20 SBX riders in the world right now are Americans, that's a pretty tall order.
As the top American finisher in the season's first World Cup, Seth is already well on his way to earning one of those two spots.
For all the info you can handle on how to be an Olympic SBX rider, check out the full article right here.
In between presentations to the town selectmen, working on his restaurant, and (of course) training for the upcoming Olympics, Seth still has to find time for the periodic publicity function for the US Ski and Snowboard Association. Such was the case this past weekend, when our favorite Gold Medalist took a quick jaunt down to the Big Apple for a brief appearance on the Today Show along with fellow snowboarder Ryan St. Onge, and then attended the US Ski and Snowboard Ball at Gotham Hall.
Seth was a headliner at the event, along with other former Olympic medalists and ski team stars Bode Miller, Donna Weinbrecht, Billy Kidd, and Tommy Moe. While it's more than justified, it's still very impressive that Seth is now regarded among these legends of US skiing. Check out the complete story here.
And in other fun news, we stumbled across this video the other day on NBC's Olympic web site. We think you'll enjoy it :-)
September 17, 2009 11:07 by
Seth
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..
September 15, 2009 12:22 by
Seth
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!!
As the saying goes, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Seth's journey back to the Olympic podium began with a gigantic leap over the weekend, with a second place finish in the first World Cup and Olympic Qualifier of the season. Seth finished just half a board length behind Pierre Vaultier of France and was the top American finisher, putting himself in great position to make the Olympic team again this year along with teammate Graham Watanabe, who finished third.
In an interview with US Snowboarding after the race, Seth credited much of his success to the "Rocky Balboa training program," he's been on here at Sugarloaf during the offseason. That includes mountain biking, paddling, running, and all sorts of other activiteis that incorporate Sugarloaf's natural environment. Check out the full write-up at http://www.ussnowboarding.com/news?storyId=1955, and the full results at http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/604/610.html?sector=SB&raceid=8584.
Seth will have a bit of a break before the next World Cup race, which will be in Telluride in December.
We got an update from Seth over the weekend from down in Argentina, where he and the rest of the US Snowboard Team are getting ready for the first World Cup event of the season, and the first step towards qualifying for Vancouver. Sounds like training was put on hold for a bit, however, while the powder piled up on the mountain. Up to a foot deep according to Seth. September powder - another perk of being a World Cup snowboarder.
For a little more info check out this article posted on funsporting.com, and be sure to check out http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/disciplines/snowboard/ for the latest news and results from the World Cup stops.
September 2, 2009 13:58 by
Seth
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...
When you're preparing to defend the only Olympic Gold Medal in history of your sport, your personal schedule can start to look something like this:
- Fly to Switzerland
- Design custom, hand-made snowboards in a factory in the back of a cow pasture
- Fly home
- Fly to Toronto for rad Chill On The Hill event
- Fly back home for a round of golf in the CVA Sugarloaf Classic
- Sleep/eat/breathe
- Fly to Argentina to start on snow training
This has been Seth's schedule in a nutshell over the past week, and now he's on his way to Argentina for a month of training on actual snow. I think it's fair to say that things are truly starting to ramp up as we pass the six-month mark until Vancouver. CTV managed to catch up with Seth for a bit while he was in Toronto this weekend and posted this piece about his preparations for the games...
August 21, 2009 10:13 by
Seth
...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!