Well, now that the Olympics are over, it time to get back to writing about every day occurrences in the snowboarding universe that everyone blacked out during the Games. So let's get you updated on whose dating who...

Jake Blauvelt made a bold switch and left Forum and Foursquare. He is now with Ride Snowboards and Oakley apparel. Not too sure on what caused that break up yet.

Some other former Forum riders made new deals also. Eddie Wall hooked up with Bond Outerwear and Weekend Snowboards while Travis Kennedy joined the Tech Nine team - sporting their boards, bindings and outerwear. Going full throttle with that one. Hope it lasts...

Mathieu Crepel (who we just saw boosting the pipe in the Olympics) is back with Gnu snowboards after taking a four year nap. He's a keeper.

The Swiss of a man, Nicolas Muller, made big waves when Nike announced that he'd be joining their team, donning their boots and outerwear. He will however, still be ripping on Burton boards and bindings.

Last but not least, Austin Smith, is also on board the Nike train. He has always been on their boot team but his three year contract with Quiksilver was up, and after an injury, he decided to make this casual relationship into a long term love affair.


That's the gossip folks. Enjoy.

This past weekend Snowboarder Magazine held it's inventive new contest "America's Next Top Pro Model" at the summer shredding glacier on Mt. Hood, Oregon in the world acclaimed Windells snowboard park. If you missed our coverage from the first day, pop-in over here to check out some video shorts from the "High-Ollie" and "Best Jibber" contest.

Going into day two of the contest the 20 pro riders, all riding their new insignia snowboards, were tasked with three more on-snow mini-events. This time the schedule for the day started with the "Spin to Win" contest, followed by the "Biggest Air" and then capped off with the carnage-filled, crowd-pleasing "Chinese Downhill".

Rather than force your eyes to go numb by actually reading, go ahead and check out these vids we whipped together. (We're not aiming for quality here, obviously. Our apologies.)

For banger photo coverage you'll have to head over to Snowboardermag.com. It's their signature contest so they have the legit coverage in the works... we were more like the annoying friend of a friend that showed up and out of pity was allowed to hang out.

Spin to Win:



Biggest Air:



For footage from the Chinese Downhill you'll have to wait with bated breath for the official Snowboarder Magazine video edit (coming soon to a website near you). We totally missed it... but we were told that yes, indeed there was plenty of spitting, shoving and carnage. Breaking thru the finnish line first was the unstoppable Fin Lauri Heiskari, followed by American badass Bryan Fox, with another Finnish luminary, Eero Ettala, coming in third.

After shredding the hot snow all day the riders and the crowd moved down the hill to the Windells Campus where the pro's put on their philanthropist game-faces and started hawking their own pro-models to the Windells campers in a silent auction.

Each board sold to the highest bidder, and the money for all the boards was collected and given to the charity chosen by the rider who received the highest bid out of all the boards. That rider who received the highest bid out of everyone was the revered Eddie Wall, who brought in $300 bucks for his Forum pro-model. The auction pulled together a total of $1909.00 that was donated to St. Judes Hospital, Eddie's charity of choice.

With each mini contest, including the five on snow events and the silent auction, the riders stacked up points that went towards determining the overall rider who would win the title of "America's Next Top Pro Model". Throughout the weekend there was an undeniable standout. Lauri Heiskari, on his DC Snowboards XFB Pro board, won the Highest Ollie, Chinese Downhill and Biggest Air contests, and even placed third in the Spin to Win, making him the most winningest rider of the weekend and earning him the crown of America's Top Pro Model. If that's not some bragging rights for DC Snowboards and Lauri's R&D skills than we'd like to know what is.

Besides checking out all of the coverage online, be sure to pick up a copy of Snowboarder Magazine's November issue to see America's Next Top Pro Model in all it's glory with the aesthetics of print.

"Danny Kass, you are still in the running to becoming America's Next Top Pro Model."



Snowboarder Magazine was kind enough to let Grind TV check out their first ever summer contest "America's Next Top Pro Model" held at Windells Camp on Mt. Hood Oregon. Editor Pat Bridges (standing in as Snowboarding's own Tyra Banks) and the entire Snowboarder Mag crew invited a slew of top professional riders up to the glacier with one requirement: they must have a pro-model board coming out this season.



An interesting array of pro's have graced the summer riding camp with their presence this weekend. From MFM to Eddie Wall to Lauri Heiskari to Danny Kass; you've got your contest killers and you've got you're shred-porn stars - and just about every breed of rider in between.



The riders battled it out for two days, earning points during each of the five "mini contests" held up on the glacier. Be sure to head over to Snowboardermag.com to check out the full coverage.


The first contest the riders had to anti up to was a regular old ollie-off.