Oakley definitely knows how to pick their competitive athletes. The big O took a total of 21 medals at Winter X 14 this past weekend including 10 golds, 6 silvers, and 5 bronze. From Gretchen Bleiler and Shaun White to Halldor Helgason and Eero Ettala, the whole team was on fire. You can peep Oakley’s big X photo gallery here.
In other big time snowboarding news, Icelandic shredder Halldor Helgason won the Rookie of the Year award at the Transworld Riders’ poll in Denver last night. He wasn’t there to get the award because he was too busy topping out the the elimination round of the X Games Slopestyle event but in winning he became the first ever to win Rook of the Year from both Transworld and Snowboarder. Peep the interview with him on ESPN. Also peep the Helgason brother’s blog here.
The Association of Surf Professionals name their 2009 rookies of the year on Friday, with the award going to two Hawaiians, 24 year old Kekoa Bacalso for the men and 18 year old Coco Ho for the ladies. To congratulate her, Nike 6.0 hooked up this video to show some of the drama behind the scenes as well as some super kind words from 3 time word champion Stephanie Gilmore.
Despite being in only their third year, Stoked Mentoring has become firmly entrenched in both the action sports and philanthropic worlds as the dopest sport and lifestyle specific mentoring program in the world. Tomorrow night, founders Steve Larosiliere and Sal Masekela are back at the Red Bull Space for the Stoked Awards and honoring Quiksilver Chairman Bob Mcknight for his charitable contributions. Helping the the whole thing along will be Sal on host duties as well as Joy Bryant, Santigold, Edwin Delarosa, Trouble Andrew and DJ Jayceeoh on the decks. As part of the evening, director Matt Zuckerman and Berry Blanton will debut their short film “Leti’s Story” about a girl who’s life was changed by Stoked. You can’t get much more feel good than this. Stay tuned for an exclusive recap.
On Saturday night, the International Association of Skateboard Companies (IASC) held their first ever ceremony to induct Tony Hawk, Tony Alva, Bruce Logan, and Danny Way into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame. In true skate fashion, the event was much less abut the inductees, who have all certainly locked in their legacy as legends, and more about the various causes and charities surrounding it including the Go Skateboarding Foundation, The Tony Hawk Foundation, Ray Underhill, the Johnny Romano Foundation, and the Patrick Kerr Foundation. Congrats dudes.
Big ups are in order to Garrett Reynolds who snatched up his second consecutive Street Rider of the Year award at the 2009 Nora Awards in Las Vegas. He also picked up Best Video Part for Nike 6.0′s Writing on the Wall, which also won best video. This is this kid’s year. In addition to last night’s big wins, Garrett won his 7th X Games Gold medal for BMX Street, has a show on MTV2 and is currently leading the Dew Tour Park standings.
Last night the TWS Awards went down with all the usual mayhem: booze, boobs, and sick, sick skating. Sean Malto took best rook, AVM snagged best video part for Mind Field and Chris Cole took the readers’ choice. If you weren’t sitting at home in watching it from your computer you can peep the full results after the jump.
The oscars/grammys/emmys of skateboarding, the Transworld Skateboarding Awards, are going down tonight in Hollywood. Awards will be given for Best Rookie, Best Street, Best Team, Best Video, Best Transition, Best Video Part, and Readers Choice. There will also be a special presentation to Christian Hosoi as a TWS Legend, capping off a nice week for him that also saw the birth of a new baby boy. Transworld will also be premiering their new video, Right Foot Forward, featuring Corey Duffel, Joey Brezinski, Kellen James, Matt Beach, and Bobby Worrest. The best part is you can watch the whole thing live on the internets starting at 6pm PST / 9pm EST right here. Sick! Full nominees after the jump.
Ok, big wave surfing is something for the insane and extremely skilled, even though there’s the help of race boats, jetskis and even helicopters. But it’s not only the tow-in riders that hit the big ones. It’s amazing what waves the guys are even paddling into today. Check the paddle nominees for the Billabong XXL Awards.
In it’s ten years, the Transworld Riders’ Poll has evolved into the snowboard industry’s pre-eminent awards event, and not because of corporate buy-in and bullshit but because the winners are voted in by the riders themselves. The 2009 awards were handed out in Vegas last week and the winners are… after the jump. Here’s a hint though, Travis Rice took home every award he could and no one was surprised. Kid is just that ill. Via Transworld Business
