We’ve been in the Alps for about a week now. We started our mission in France at Nico Droz’s home resort, Avoriaz. The terrain there was amazing, but due to Mother Nature not giving us the snow and weather combo we needed, we had to make a move. We were checking out the weather all over Europe, and took a shot at our best option, and headed to Austria.
The Active Sponsor-Me Contest is going down on March 21st at Mountain High Resort. The Rome SDS will be hooking the winner up with a 1 year Regional Sponsorship.
Shawn Dumont, who you may know from such Rome SDS contests as, “Tramp Stamp for Dumont”, has been a part of the SDS for six years now. He’s spent countless nights sleeping on the couch downstairs after working into the wee hours churning out art, he’s been asked numerous times to stop singing in the office, and snowboarding has been a part of his life for the past 18 years.
Dumont’s responsible for a lot of things you see in your local snowboard shop like Rome Gloves, all of the art in our outerwear design, t-shirts, beanies, caps, and boards like the Postermania. Now go back and re-read that sentence. That’s a shitload of stuff.
Coming in hot off of his first place win, at Marky B’s Boardfest at Kingpine in New Hampshire this past weekend (Slalom), he’s sitting down this Friday to answer any questions you may have in the third installment of the Inside The Design House live Twitter interviews.
It will happen this Friday, March 12th at 3:00 pm Eastern Standard Time.
It’s time once again...to get Stoken.
Rome’s Stoken event series has returned after a short hiatus, and the good times are guaranteed. What Stoken lacks in rigid structure, international point rankings, and official rotation judges, it makes up for in what’s most important in any snowboarding event… having FUN with a big crew.
Be ready to get awesome on three communal features which may include, but are not limited to….
• Barrel Bonking Bonanzas – Get tappy
• One Hit Wonders – Pipe hits without the gymnastics
• Small Air Contest – Grabbin’ fast counts
• Mystery Feature – Mysteriously awesome
The filming of “The Shred Remains” has officially kicked off. Although we’ve gotten a couple shots here and there in prior weeks, this was the first real trip to get the project underway. Eiki, Lazz, Will and Paxson along with filmer Leland McNamara, Team Director Ryan Runke, TWS and Method-Mag photographer Frode Sandabech and myself (John Cavan) jumped some flights from around the world for the mellow 26 hour jaunt to Sapporo, Japan. Yes the home of Sapporo and Asahi beer. Where we were greeted by Rome Japan distributors Akira and Shuichi along with Rome Japan riders Koni and Doo. A quick note on the guys from Rome Japan…they’re all time. They had it so dialed. They helped us link up with Freerun Mag guys 2C and Max who helped us scout a ton of spots, and they where our translators for the trip, which was a huge help. A big thanks goes out to those guys, without all the help things wouldn’t have gone as smoothly, that’s for sure.
All right ladies, if you’d like this medium Astor jacket, just either be the first to get all these photos, or the person who gets the most of them this weekend and email your pics, (smaller file size please), to winner@romesnowboards.com
-Lift tickets from 5 resorts this season
-Your picture taken with a snowlerblader
-Photo of you and 10+ people at Après tailgate party
-Someone wearing a fleece Rasta fake dreadlock hat
-Skier wearing Jeans, and jean jacket
-Someone with a non-ironic neon outfit
-Photo of you hugging a lifty
After reviewing all the entries to help us shame our now cigarette smoking in-house designer Shawn Dumont, one entry clearly had it all. Congrats goes out to Ben Banks for incorporating multiple bad decisions into one glorious design.
We at Rome have just learned of a potential safety issue concerning our 2010 United binding. If you have purchased this binding or are using it, please stop immediately and contact us at 802.244.1758 or at warranty3@romesnowboards.com. We will upgrade your 2010 United binding at no cost to you. However, we will ask you to return your 2010 United bindings to us.
Following up his TWS Readers Choice award a few weeks ago, Eiki has landed the cover of the April issue of Transworld Snowboarding. Congrats to our favorite Icelandic snowboarder.
Might as well be a bull’s-eye….
For those of who check out the Rome SDS Blog from time to time, you may or may not remember a little bet between a couple in-house guys over here. If you don’t recall, Ron bet Shawn Dumont, one of the in-house graphic designers here at Rome, that he couldn’t quit smoking. If Shawn did smoke, he had to get a henna lower back tattoo to shame him during the summer months. (We pushed for a real tattoo, but his bottom lip started to quiver… so we let him off.)
Rome had a big night in Denver at Transworld Snowboarding's Rider's Poll Awards.
Here's another on the spot ichat interview from our team manager. Up this time is our favorite female pro snowboarder Marie-France Roy. See what she has to say about filming with Absinthe, her season so far, scrabble, and even her MFR glove.
Make sure you get your entries in for Rome's "Ima Betta Jibba" college backyard park contest. The deadline is nearing, so grab your crew and your camera and shoot us your entry for a chance to win New Rome snowboards as well as a chance to have members of the Rome team come and session your park with you and your friends. Click the link for a look at some backyard parks from our films No Correct Way and Any Means
During a down day, Karl Jost from Society brought the crew over to a local playground for some fun times.
Four years ago Rome decided it was time to take the team on a on a short video trip. After some brainstorming, the thing that made the most sense was to just grab the crew, jump in a van, and drive around and snowboard. This was the birth of the first GNAR, or Great North American Rendezvous.
The GNAR video was distributed for free, contained no helicopter shots, no double corks, and was not released on Blue Ray. Even watching that video today (which can be done on YouTube by searching “Rome SDS the GNAR”…no audio of course…) it stands the test of time. A short, fun video about snowboarding.
Yobeat.com is known for breaking down the walls of the traditional interview. This week Bjorn sat down in the hot seat for his Hump Day Interview. Click the link below to hear him discuss hunting, the new generation, shredding and family life.
http://www.yobeat.com/2010/01/13/hunting-for-hump-day-with-bjorn-leines/
Here are a couple pieces of eye candy for your viewing pleasure.
We're not gonna lie, the middle part of the FuGnar trip was tough. Incredibly long drives coupled with a lack of snow in almost every place we stopped made for a tough go of it. We hit a couple things up in Thunder Bay Ontario, then we stopped in Ottawa to pick up LNP but the airlines lost his luggage so he had no board, or boots. We hit a few things up and then pointed the van straight for Quebec. Here's some footage from the road and the middle part of Canada.
Chances are if you’re a snowboarder, you’ve sat through school, or a meeting, or something and doodled on a piece of paper thinking to yourself, “it would be sick if I could design snowboards…” Well it’s just that easy. Of course, that’s not true, and Rome’s art director for hardgoods Mike Paddock will be the first to tell you that, and he’ll tell you that directly this Friday, January 8th on the latest addition of Inside the Design House, live Twitter Interview.
Our Icelandic killer has been on the warpath as of late. With two serious video parts, a nomination for TWS’ Reader’s Choice Award, and a blog with his brother that is one of the most frequently updated things in snowboarding (as well as one of the most unusual), Eiki is one busy guy. He recently got a little banged up while filming in Sweden so I checked in with him over iChat to see how the early part of his season has been going, what follows is our conversation via the world wide web, I hope you enjoy. – John Cavan
John Cavan: Yo you wanna do this?
Eiki Helgason: I’m ready
