PARK CITY, UTAH (May 21, 2009) — Starting today, there’s HuckNroll.com , a store dedicated to dirt riders and our take-your-personal-best-and-shove-it-up-your-ass, meat-hucking, scab-picking habit known as mountain biking.

HuckNroll.com is an online mountain bike shop. You heard right. Online. And we wouldn’t be putting it lightly to say that the bike industry didn’t want us. The consensus when we first approached suppliers about launching a high-end online mountain bike shop was, “It will never work, the bike industry is different.” Our response? “Damn right, it’s different. It’s the last industry in existence to accept the Internet as a viable sales channel.”

So we went for it. And along the way we’ve made friends with the industry’s best. In fact, the raddest brands in the biz are snubbing the status quo to team up with us. (They mentioned something about Specialized and Trek pushing them out of bike shops…) We’re stocking more than 6,000 products from 130 high-end bike-specific brands. We have components from Shimano, Race Face, Truvativ, Avid, Easton, and Gravity; apparel and accessories from Fox Racing, Troy Lee Designs, POC, Sombrio, Dakine, Endura, and Zoic; and complete bikes from Santa Cruz, Intense, Titus, Look and Rocky Mountain. (We’re the only authorized online dealer of Rocky Mountain in the U.S.)

HucknRoll.com is staffed by mountain bike gear freaks (including that dude who rambles on about the frame geometry of the 1993 Fat Chance Yo Eddy every time he laces a wheel). Only USA Cycling race-certified bike mechanics will touch your bikes, and only fully trained customer service gearheads will take your calls and answer your live chats. Our goal is to provide, hands down, the best customer lovin’ in the industry.

HucknRoll is community-powered, with gear reviews, Q&A, and images all submitted by you and other riders on the site. That means you get the god’s honest truth on the goods, whether the guys that make the bikes like it or not.

We mentioned our friends. As more proof that we have some, log on to HuckNroll.com/sweepstakes to check out the vid of pros and bros who at least humored us enough to say our name on camera. If you can ID all 15 in order, you’ll get the chance to win $2.9k-worth of gear, including an Intense Tracer VP frame, a Giro helmet and gloves, and an ass-load of Cutter swag.

HuckNroll.com is another store from Backcountry.com , who pretty much realized that skiers and climbers don’t know jack shit about mountain biking. Probably against their better judgment, they gave us some room to do what we do, the way we want to do it. We are proudly related to Chainlove.com, as well as the two shave-your-legs-to-your-scrawny-buttocks roadie sites: RealCyclist.com and Bonktown.com.

So here we go, y’all. It’s a whole new day in the bike world. We don’t give a rat’s ass if you love us or hate us, but we’re here and we’re open for business.

About Backcountry.com:
HuckNroll.com is owned by Backcountry.com—an online retailer of high-end outdoor gear and center for gear knowledge online. Backcountry.com carries more than 400 brands in various categories, including backpacking, camping, cycling, hiking, climbing, trail running, paddling, skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing and adventure travel. Backcountry also operates RealCyclist.com, Bonktown.com, Chainlove.com, SteepandCheap.com, Dogfunk.com, Tramdock.com, Brociety.com and WhiskeyMilitia.com. Backcountry.com is a controlled subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation attributed to the Liberty Interactive Group (Nasdaq: LINTA).

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Jamie and I drove into Sun Valley Saturday evening to a welcome reception by lots of dogs.  Oh, and my Dad and Betty too.  Cody was a good dog and though he looked worried most of the 12 hour drive from Colorado, he seemed really happy to be in Idaho smelling the cool, fresh air in the Sawtooth Mountains.

Today marks a day of remembrance for all of our fallen soldiers.  In honor of Memorial Day, the local American Legion post held a ceremony at the Ketchum Cemetary.  In attendance were some local families, a bugler, a corporal from the Air Force base in McCall, ID and a slew of retired servicemen.  As the speeches were given and the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ was sung, I looked over at my dad sitting next to me and noticed a tear welling up in his sunglasses.  I’m sure he was reliving the times with his old buddy, Cappy, who died during the Vietnam war.  My dad never had to see any action in the war, due to his being stationed in Germany as a tank commander, but I know he feels terrible that his good friend had to go off and fight in Vietnam, never to return alive.  It was a moment of introspection, and witnessing it, I could only think of all the armed forces service men and women that were working hard to keep us free.

At the end of the ceremony, two jets from the Idaho National Guard completed a fly-over, much to the delight of the children and adults in attendance.  In such a serene and beautiful place as Sun Valley, it was really nice to see the community pay their respects to our country’s fallen heros.

Tomorrow night, my dad will be presenting my Grandfather’s film, ‘Topaz’, at the Community Library here in Ketchum, as part of a series titled, ‘Fences’.  More about that later…

Wow, in the wake of this past ski season, I have found myself hitting a wall, both emotionally and physically.  With a doctor’s diagnosis of fractured humeral heads in both of my shoulders and a fractured right scapula, I finally have an understanding of all the pain I had dealt with throughout the season.  Not to mention the torn labrum (a part of the AC joint muscle-tendon group in the shoulder) in my left shoulder that I must have sustained through the impact and eventual dislocation during the ‘Jib theTatsVan’ session back in January.  I haven’t had the motivation to keep up with stories on this site, mainly because I haven’t been doing much.  Needless to say, the X-rays, MRIs and doctor’s diagnosis have helped me get my head around all of these injuries, and I’m now trying to get back in shape for rafting this summer.

And though there is no excuse for my tardiness in updating this website, I make no apologies from taking time off from the Internet.  I know some of my close friends and acquaintances have been jibbing me for all the mobile-uploads on Facebook and my fervor for Twitter updates, so I decided to give myself some time away from it all.  But now, I find myself clearing up my mind, ever more intent on keeping this blog up-to-date.

In the interest of introducing you, the reader, back into the life of a ski bum, I have compiled a list of Twitter feeds for you to check out:

Freeskier Magazine’s ’100 People to follow on Twitter’ – Yours truly is included in the list of skiers!

Tecnica/Blizzard – My ski and boot sponsor
Backcountry.com – Follow BC.com and catch up on all the latest sales
Julian Carr – My good friend and entrepreneur extraordinaire
Cody Townsend – This guy rips.  And sleeps on couches too.  Sweet.
Henrik Lampert – My fellow Freeskier Fest ski tester – always good with funny quips!
Dave Amirault – Digi Dave is the brains behind the whole Freeskier Online
Jonny Atencio – Backcountry.com’s Athlete Wrangler and my longtime sponsor
Keith Carlsen – Former editor of Powder Magazine and current big mountain comp photographer

To wrap it up, I’ll give you a little idea of what I’ll be doing over the next few weeks to a month from now.  Soon, Jamie and I will be driving to Sun Valley to celebrate my dad’s 67th birthday.  I can’t wait to go home and see the old valley for a short while.  On the 26th, my dad will be giving a presentation at the Ketchum Library on my grandfather’s film ‘Topaz’ about the Japanese-American internment during WWII; it’ll be good to get back in touch with my JA side.

Jamie and I will return to Aspen by the end of May, when I hope to begin working for Blazing Adventures once again as a professional, commercial bus driver and (crossing fingers!) raft guide.  By June 10th, I’ll be hitting the road with the Challenge Aspen race team on the way to Mt. Hood, Oregon to help coach a two-week race camp and some summertime skiing.  Big thanks to Jonathan Mika and Kevin Jardine for the hookup on that one!  Read more about Challenge Aspen here

This hat is just plain dope.

All your outdoor gear needs!