Video: LINO’, an Animated Surf Flick
Check this video out...I've watched it ten times already. The music is super mellow, vibing well with the impressive stop-motion animation that makes those little Playmobil figurines look like they're just shredding some epic waves. Lino', made by Karim Rejeb of KarimRejeb-SurfArt.com, is a masterpiece fit for anyone who has played with plastic toys.  His vision of the world of surfing, a...
Friends of the TatsVan: Scott McBrayer – Bull Rider
Scott McBrayer, better known on the Freeskiing World Tour as McSlayer, just rode his third bull at the Carbondale Thursday night rodeo.  Known for tossing frontflips to a stomped landing off of 40 foot cliffs, it's his background as a hunting guide and cowboy that makes Scott really stand out.  He didn't make eight seconds (the minimum time for a score) in this ride, but as any cowpoke knows...
Mobile Lifestyle: The Mobile Office
Come the latter half of the summer, most of my days are spent shuttle driving for Blazing Adventures as the water on wild rivers gets lower and lower, and operations shift to other, more dam-controlled rivers.  With the local trips on the Roaring Fork River on the wane, thanks in part to a rapidly melting snowpack and only a few bursts of precipitation since Memorial Day, we have started buss...
Pingu Goes Skiing
This is a funny viral video that has hit the winter audience. Stop-motion animation is so fun! (WARNING: some adult language and themes) For those who haven't been following ski design innovation over the past few years, rocker technology is an ancient design that has found a new life in current ski brands.  Ski companies are adopting the early-rise tips and tails of the old carved, wood...
Friends of the TatsVan: Leo Ahrens
It's not very often in the skiing world that the major ski media promotes the up-and-comers of the freeskiing world who don't hail from the superpipe or slopestyle scene.  Yet the competitive Freeskiing World Tour (read as gnarly cliffs, manky venues and sometimes, billowy powder) has had its share of stars emerge from the ranks of ski bums and college students alike. (more...)

Great Canadian Heli Skiing gives a plug!

Posted By: admin-christatsuno on February 12, 2010 in All New Posts - Comments: No Comments »

The following is an excerpt from the Great Canadian Heli Skiing newsletter they send out to all their clients.  I will be posting a review on their operation at the Powder Highway blog site linked to below.

The Ultimate Ski Bum

Ultimate ski bum contest

No doubt many of you would have heard of the Ultimate Ski Bum contest. It was a competition organised by Kootenay Tourism (our regional tourism association) that promotes the “Powder Highway ” a joint marketing venture between ski resorts, cat-skiing and heliskiing operations in the area.

The person who made the best “Why I’m the Ultimate Ski Bum” video was the extremely lucky recipient of free skiing all winter long with unlimited resort skiing at places like Kicking Horse, Revelstoke, Red Mountain, Fernie, etc and the coolest part: 1 free day of heliskiing at all the different cat and heliskiing operations in the region.

A 2nd generation Aspen/Sun Valley ski bum, Chris ‘Tats’ Tatsuno won the competition with this video: powderhighway.com/SkiBum

Tats visited us last week for a day and had a blast! In fact, he racked up 14 powder filled runs! Maybe he should of visited us last as we may have spoiled him!!

FWT Tour: Revelstoke, BC is delayed due to weather

Posted By: admin-christatsuno on January 9, 2010 in All New Posts, TatsVan Chronicles - Comments: Comments Off

The athletes and organizers of the Freeskiing World Tour had a powder day today, choosing to use the optional weather day to wait out the surging storm. Revelstoke Mountain Resort is offering up the use of their helicopter to shuttle athletes to the landing zone (LZ) at the top of the almost 2000 vertical feet of spines, chutes, and cliffs. With everything on hold for the day, the mountain was abuzz with the whoops and yells of roving groups of freeriders dressed in baggy, bright clothes.

If you had a chance to ride the 8-seater gondola from the mid-mountain lodge today, you would probably have seen some frozen waterfall lines being sent by shredders in full-face helmets. Or snowboarders slashing some turns down a steep, powdery face. Not much sun out, so most folks were taking advantage of their low-light goggle lenses to battle the drab greybird day full of indistinguishable clouds. With all the gladed, steep tree skiing on the main aspect of Revelstoke’s frontside, poor-visibility is not an issue.

To wrap up our day, some friends and I ate some good burgers at Nomad’s and finished it all up with a hot tub session.  The yoga from the other night can still be felt in my muscles, but the hot tub definitely helps.  Tomorrow, the comp wraps up; I’m hoping to get some interviews with fellow POC athlete Arne Backstrom , while he sits in third place going into an epic finals.

Tats’ Twitterings

The Eye of the Ski Bum

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Tatsuno's Gear Reviews

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