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 :-)
Tomorrow marks the start of Sugarloaf's annual Homecoming Weekend, and Seth will be around to join in the festivities. He'll be hosting a showing of one of his movies, Play Gravity, in the Sugarloaf Mountain Hotel starting at 6pm on Saturday evening. If you've never heard of Play Gravity, you're not alone. It never really made it into the mainstream ski/snowboard movie culture, but it's certainly more than worthy, with a fairly lengthy segment featuring Seth descending some Alaskan mountains.
But the most incredible segments in the movie have to be the unbelievable footage of athletes combining paragliding with skiing and snowboarding, descending faces that would truly be unrideable without the aid of a parachute.
So come on out tomorrow night, check out this incredible movie, and say hi to Seth.
Here are a couple of photos from the movie:
Seth talks to WEBN in Boston about the US Snowboarding team heading into the Vancouver Olympics:
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.
Seth just emailed in a quick update from somewhere over the Atlantic ocean. Check out what he's up to and stay tuned for some cool footage of his off-season training coming later this week...
It blows my mind how quickly the time passes, but as I settle into seat 11d buisness class bound from Boston to Zurich the reality of the mission ahead of me is becoming clear and the time is getting near..
A quick four day hop over the Atlantic to the Kessler factory to build up my quiver of race boards that will hopefully carry me back to the podium of the Olympic Games is my mission of the moment. Snow is moving closer with every day and this is the first real trip to mark the starting line towards Vancouver.
Departure days are always hectic for me and today was no exception:
- Early morning laundry, coffee, Cheerios with fresh Maine raspberries.
- A rally mission over the Carriage Road complete with an unsuspected security sighting halfway there.
- 1020 flat-water paddle strokes on my smallest surfboard for an early am workout.
- Rallying back to try (unsuccessfully) to make a 10:40 tee time.
- Second breakfast in the form of a Strokes breakfast sando delivered with a smile and green Tabasco from Laurel.
- Get beat by Blake and Simpson without contributing much to McClure’s valiant effort at grinding back in our 9-hole best ball match. Managed to birdie number 7, but McClure already had before me so no help there.
- Lunch, more laundry, packing, and surprise! It’s the USADA to put me two hours off my projected departure with a surprise drug test. Yeah! Love it when I can't pee on command…
- A frenzied drive south through Maine amidst the mass exodus of weekend NH and Mass plates, and once again I have made a flight thanks to the short line of the Premier Exec Gold Line.
I am pumped to see the Alps and old friends again. It will be a quick trip to pick up my boards (no doubt the best I will have ever ridden) before I jet back to Maine to get the training wheel spinning again to prepare for Argentina.
Summer has finally arrived in Carrabasset and it has been beautiful! All of you down southers owe it to yourselves to come ride your bikes, hike, and smack whitey around the course (as our friend McCormack would say). It is sugarloaf off-season at its best right now and I can't wait to get back there on Thursday to move into my house and enjoy the days.
Seth
PS. - A funny story from last night about the first fouling of my carpet at the new house. My good friend Chad Coleman was helping me move my bed over last night, and when his dog Cedar got to the top of the stairs and saw my bear rug he literally crapped himself on the new carpet. I had never seen a husky so scared of an inanimate object. The good news is that the carpet is ok, the dog is ok, and we all had a good laugh.
Part two of Seth's spring AK trip, featuring lots of helmet cam footage. Muy bueno.
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As promised, here's some crazy footage from Seth's spring trip to Alaska. Not a bad way to cap off a World Cup season. Part two is coming later this week, so stay tuned...
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