What does Seth do when it dumps 2 feet at Sugarloaf? He slays pow, rips laps on the Quad, and tracks down freshies just like you and me. Today's he's on a flight to Austria for the next World Cup stop, where he'll try to lock down his spot on the Olympic team. Check back soon for an update from the man himself. Until then, check out some pics from yesterday.
It comes as little surprise to those of us know Seth and have followed his career, but Team USA recently featured his 2006 Gold Medal run one of the most amazing moments in Olympic history. Seth's memorable run into the history books stands alongside those of such athletes as Jesse Owens, Michael Phelps, Dick Fosbury, Bob Beamon, Mark Spitz, Mary Lou Retton, Jim Thorpe, and fellow Mainer Joan Benoit-Samuelson, as well as many others. A well deserved honor for Seth.
You can check out the full story and video on Team USA's web site at http://teamusa.org/video?fr_story=437eea2bc6fd1cc5681f3496928549a9e2f709e3&rf=bm
Seth takes off next Monday for Telluride and the next (and hopefully final) step in qualifying for the Olympic team, and he's been plenty busy during his last two weeks at home, with interviews and photo shoots galore, including a brief jaunt to NYC for an appearance on the Today Show and an interview with Matt Lauer, a shoot with Maine Home and Design magazine, a interview and photo shoot for Sunday's Sun Journal, and a commercial shoot this morning. The crew hit the mountain at about 6am and scored some great full moon and sunrise shots as the clouds cleared out. (check out the pics below).
On Monday Seth will head for Telluride, where he'll have his biggest competition so far this year at the second World Cup. A good finish here could lock up a spot on the Olympic team and leave the rest of the season open to concetrate on nothing but training for Vancouver. Follow the World Cup and get the latest results at www.fissnowboard.com.
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.
Over the summer we told you about Seth's trip to NYC for a photoshoot with Sega for their upcoming Vancouver 2010 video game. Yesterday Sega put out an official press release to announce the athletes who were featured on the cover, complete with an image of the game. Here's the cover, and you can check out the full Press Release 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 :-)
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 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..