This past weekend, I joined the masses in heading up to Mt. High and Big Bear to finally get some snow shredding out of my system. Both resorts opened up their lifts to the public on Friday October 30th, the earliest in the season that I’ve ever been able to ride. So, two resorts in three days…I’m ridiculously sore. I need to start doing some squats or something.


First, let’s talk Mt. High. Mt. High was impressively open from top to bottom. It was kind of weird that the whole chair ride up to the top we were mostly looking at dirt but what’s that matter as long you have some snow to get to the bottom, right? They had jibs and features the whole way down, from flat boxes to roller coaster boxes, double barrel down rails, C-boxes, and even switched it up with some boxes placed as the take off for a jump. It was a good, long, fun run. It was so good that the recently eliminated Tiny Dancer aka Louie Vito himself decided to show up with his Dancing with The Stars partner, Chelsie Hightower. Guess it was time for him to show her the ropes for a change. Pretty much everyone had a goofy grin on their face, obviously stoked to finally be riding some snow in Southern California.

However…let me say that it was about 75 degrees out, seriously making me wonder how the hell I thought that it was a good idea to run thermals underneath my pants. I contemplated joining the group of little snow bunnies that were running around in their tank tops and push up bras it was so damn hot. Let me set the record straight, I’m not complaining. I know the majority of people would kill to have such weather in November but, c’mon now, snowboarding in that heat was just weird to me.

So on Sunday I was prepared for the scorching sun. I cruised up to Big Bear with a few friends sans jacket, goggles, and thermals. Bear only had Chair Five running this weekend. Still, the shortness of the run did not take away from the amount of fun that was taking place. I took a few laps with some of the guys from Knife Show Inc. including Mike Benson (who will be editing and filming for Bear's video this season) and the main face of their films, Casey Wrightsman. They were already shredding and filming, trying to get all the footage they could. And why wouldn't they? They had about half a dozen features set up including some flat boxes, a down barrel, a wall ride, a C box, and a flat-down box. It was easy to get a ton of laps in this park with the lift line moving pretty quickly and chair five not being too long of a lift. It was definitely still insanely warm but every one had their sunglasses on, their zinc rubbed in, and their flannels flapping in the wind.

Even though every muscle in my body is aching and it takes me a minute to sit down and get from point A to point B, it’s just a reminder that I was actually riding this weekend. Hopefully the snow will start dumping and the temperatures will start dropping so that So Cal’s favorite resorts can open up the rest of their slopes! Keep praying for snow!

For proof that this all actually went down, check out the photo album!

For sh*ts and giggles we thought we'd do a little photo review of Louie's costume changes on "Dancing With the Stars". To check out video of the dances and even more photo's head on over to Louie's profile here on GrindTV.com.

Fact: Louie didn't get to pick out his outfit's.

Fact: Louie is a really good sport.

Fact: Louie has good style on and off the hill. He usually dresses quite well.

Fact: Louie really is 5 feet, 5 inches tall.



Louie busted out the classiest of all his outfit's for the two-hour live season premier. This was outfit number one, worn for the "Foxtrot" dance.


Outfit number two for the night. There's nothing manlier then red sleeveless satin.


Aww, look... someone bedazzled Louie's shirt! This leather jacket outfit was for Louie and Chelsie's "Jive".


The "Rumba" is where he got a little creepy looking. Greased back hair and all.


Cowboy up. Everything but the Ass-less chaps for the "Two-step" outfit.


Louie really got his sleeze on for the "Argentine Tango". In real life Louie is not sleezy at all.


This was the fated "Jitterbug" outfit (nerd glasses and all)... the dance that the public voters decided put Louie and Chelsie in the bottom two. (Darn you America for not voting!)


And finally, the "Dance Off" outfit. Before he stripped down to the wife-beater and suspenders Louie had on a crooked black fedora and suit jacket that made him look like a 1920's gangsta.

Tony Hawk tweeted a picture of the one and only Shaun White in his Halloween costume. It's epic, to say the least.

Here's what the Twit read:
"Introducing... Ms. Wendy White (assuming she's not married.)

To follow Tony Hawk on Twitter click here.
To follow Shaun White on Twitter click here.
To follow GrindTV Snow on Twitter click here.

And, of course, you can check out Shaun's official website here for more pictures and vids.

Jamie Anderson has one more thing to add to her list of serious accomplishments in life. Right under two X Games Gold Medals, a Swatch TTR World Champion title in 08’, being named Snowboarder Magazine’s “Best Female Snowboarder” of 2009, Transworld’s “Female Rider of the Year”, and…man, there are too many to keep track…the point being; now she can add having her own signature outerwear collection.

Billabong and Jamie have worked together this year to create a few key pieces that illustrate Anderson’s style and preferences in outerwear. She recently strutted around New York City showcasing her collection to Lucky, Teen Vogue, Sports Illustrated, and ESPN. The collection includes the Peace outerwear jacket, the Love outerwear pants, and the Bling winter street jacket.

Of course there is some pinkish/purple and some yellow in the color way choices. I always seem to notice Jamie rocking at least one of those colors. No problem with it though, who isn't a fan of yellow and purple? Right?

Basically, Jamie is taking the snowboarding world…screw that, the world by storm. She is leaving her mark and she is doing it with style. Look for her Billabong line in stores this winter. Congrats Jamie. Can’t wait to see what you do next.

P.S. If you want to see the list of all of her impressive accomplishments check out her athlete profile on billabong.com

The LOVE Pant The PEACE Jacket The BLING Jacket

There's that smile again!

It was a good run while it lasted for snowboarding's prancing celebrity, Louie Vito. Seven weeks and making it to the halfway mark of the competition on "Dancing With the Stars" is no small feat. (Although at 5'5", Louie probably does have some small feet. Ba-dum-ching, bad joke.) Sadly, this week will be the last we'll see of Louie and Chelsie on prime-time television.

It all started on Monday night's show when Louie and Chelsie set out to do the Jitterbug. Louie was jitterbugging away when he flipped his partner up in the air and (literally) dropped her on her ass. (Watch the clip below- Louie drops Chelsie around the 2:20 mark, but the intro ABC did of them practicing is good laughs too.)



Don't worry, Chelsie wasn't hurt.

And Louie's jitterbug focus was so intense that he didn't even notice he'd dropped the poor thing on her bum. It was kinda hilarious.

His outfit and unexplainable nerd glasses made it even more hilarious.

Otherwise the dance wasn't that bad. Over the weeks the judges main complaints were that Louie wasn't really dancing per say, that he was more walking thru the steps. It was pretty obvious during last night's jitterbug and tonight's "Dance Off" that Louie was really trying to pep it up.

What is a dance off, you ask? Yes, it sounds like something out of a Ben Stiller movie, and yes, it is for real. According to all the buildup the first 45 minutes of the show, a dance off is taken quite seriously on Dancing With the Stars, although we can't say it without lol'ing.

Tonight's show happened to be a "double elimination", where two couples were eliminated rather than the usual single couple. America voted via text and phone after the celeb's did their thing on Monday night, and then three couples with the lowest amount of votes are singled out.

The lowest score of the three was Melissa Joan Hart. She got the boot right away with no last chance at the dance off. (Louie was definitely a way better dancer then her.)

That left Louie and Chelsie up against NFL star Michael Irvin and his partner Anna Demidova for the dance off (again, lol). Louie and Chelsie did the Jive and Michael and Irvin did a Samba, but this time it was up to the judges to decide who the votes went too.

During his dance off Louie managed not to drop his partner and he kept his energy level up, but he did have quite a few missteps.

Judge Bruno Tonioli voted to keep Louie and Chelsie in (we like that guy) but both judges Len Goodman (old stiff) and Carrie Ann Inaba (loud and obnoxious) voted to keep Michael Irvin on the show.

You gotta hand it to Louie though, he had the best attitude possible throughout his entire run on the show, including his final moment after he got kicked off. He backflipped off the stage (crowd pleaser) and told the show's host, Tom Bergeron, "Every week I was proud of myself just for getting out there... It's harder than it looks". And he said it with what has become his trademark smile that makes middle age women all across America want to pinch his cheeks and wash his hair.

And honestly, snow's a fallin' and it won't be long before a halfpipe opens up somewhere. It's time for Vito to get back to doing what he does best and start gearing up for the Olympic qualifiers.

Big ups to Louie for being a good sport and a great representation for snowboarding. Head on over to Louie's athlete page to check out all the dance vids... and some of him actually riding. Become a fan so you can see Louie's updates as he competes in the Olympic Qualifiers and tries to make the elite U.S. Olympic Snowboard Team for Vancouver this February.

Cricket anyone? Shaun White in New Zealand.

Photos courtesy of Burton.com

It's no secret that Shaun White is about ten steps ahead of his competition right now when it comes to slaying it in the pipe. America has high hopes for the red headed anomaly to bring home the gold in this February's Vancouver Olympics- and with that kind of pressure Shaun's been in extreme training mode for the past year or so. He's had private halfpipe's built, top-secret nighttime training sessions, and even took the summer off from skating vert ramp to concentrate on upping his game.

We've been wondering what kind of physical training he's been up to when he's not on the hill. We stumbled across this blog from our friends over at Burton and perhaps this is his Shaun's secret...


Olympic Halfpipe coach Bud Keene analyzing Shaun's "Batsman" technique on the "Pitch"

Ok, so the game of Cricket doesn't have a damn thing to do Snowboarding... but at least Shaun and the crew are having fun in New Zealand during their down time. Check out the full blog here over at Burton.com- there's more hilarious photo's. While you're at it cruise around in their News and Events blog. They've always got tasty nuggets of internet content to keep you entertained.


Just look at the intensity of Coach Keene's pitch...

Josh Sherman and Mike Casanova headed down to Southern California to kill some time before the season kicks off . Check out how the "Spray Tan Challenge" manifested itself on the B-Ball court and come back next week to see how it pans out for Nova.

Warren Miller (left) with Level 1 Productions Owner and Operator Josh Berman

For all you ski enthusiasts out there we wanted to give you a heads up that our favorite freeskiing website, Newschoolers.com, got a new facelift this week.



We're pretty stoked on it. It's got a newer, cleaner layout, a bigger and better video player, and smarter navigation. All of your fav's are still in there, including the forums, photo's, cults, video of the day, daily articles, contests, etc. Cruise on over and check it out.

And while you are at it, you can follow the NS.com crew over at Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.