Monday Mix - July 13, 2020
Jul 13, 2020·Snowboard Cross
It's a somber one this week here at the Monday Mix, as we at FIS Snowboard and the snowboard community around the world mourn the loss of Alex "Chumpy" Pullin - Australian SBX legend, two-time world champion, two-time crystal globe winner, and nine-time World Cup winner - who passed away at just 32-years-old in a spear fishing accident last weekend. A larger-than-life personality and world-class competitor, Chumpy will be deeply missed by all.
So, before we get into the rest of this week's Mix, we'll start things off with a few of the tributes that have poured in for Chumpy from around the world…
RIP, Chumpy.
Chumpy always took the time to speak to, encourage and coach the next generation whenever he had the chance, so we'll move into the rest of this week's Mix with a video that we think might have made him smile - this clip of Anderson Zerpa, a 10-year-old Peruvian with dreams of World Cup competition who's putting in work pulling starts on the sand dunes of Huacachina.
We'd love to see you on the World Cup one day, Anderson…
Sticking with cross early on in this week's Mix, we're looking forward to seeing some more fresh SBX action from up high on the glaciers in the next couple of weeks, as the US team opened training camp in Mt Hood over the weekend…
And the Spanish squad is currently on hill in Switzerland's Saas Fee…
A couple more pieces of SBX news here before we move on to some shreddin', as 2013/14 crystal globe winner and last season's third-overall men's rider Omar Visintin (ITA) joins SBX Life for an interview this Wednesday. SBX Life's originally scheduled interview with 2014 Olympic champion and reigning SBX world champ Eva Samkova (CZE) has been postoponed to August 5th...
Our final #ClassicsLive throwback competition of the series hit the webwaves last Wednesday and is still available for your viewing pleasure, so take a trip down memory lane to the 2008/09 Bardonecchia (ITA) halfpipe World Cup below.
And a huge, huge shoutout to our commentators Ian Findlay and Gaz Vogan, who expertly did the mental time travel to put themselves course-side for all of our FIS Snowboard and FIS Freestyle & Freeski competitions, for the entire #ClassicsLive series. It would simply not have been the same without those guys and we very much appreciate their efforts...
Ok, now let's get stuck in at Hood for a minute here, because a huge collection of North America's best are on hand there in Oregon and the fresh clips are coming fast and furious. Our favourite from last week? Probably Taylor Gold and this bluebird beauty. Chicken salad, mmmmm...
Mark McMorris may be Canadian but he lives down south most of the time, and he is on hand in Hood, on board, and on point for Method Monday with this little two-hitter line. Crank dat, Sparky...
Snowboarding's other standout M&M Maddie Mastro is keeping it stylish as all get-out with this proper indy...
(Maddie also threw it back to the Mammoth Mountain [M&M, again!] World Cup last week, where in January she became the first women to stomp a dub in World Cup halfpipe competition...)
And then there's Toby Miller, who's already dropping dub 14's just a couple days into his return to snow after four months off the board...
Oh, and a big shout out to Sochi 2014 halfpipe gold medalist Kaitlyn Farrington, who made a guest appearnace in the pipe to drop this handplant...
And, speaking of style and of Sochi 2014 gold medallists, Sage Kotsenburg has also returned to his former habitat, ripping park laps and dropping backside spins...off of his heels?? Whaaaat theeee...?
Hood isn't the only spot that's still firing here well into July, as over in Austria Clemens Millauer has been busy with his friends on the Molltaler Glacier putting this hype park set-up together...
Anna Gasser, Sarka Pankochova, Leone Guetala, Silvia Mittermul...the list of riders on hand in Molltaler is pretty spicy and sure to get spicier as word gets out about the set-up...
Always a pleasure to watch Emiliano Lauzi and his signature style and infectious stoke. The bucket-hatted man himself is also on the scene in Molltaler and having some fun...
And then there's Loranne Smans, who's at home in Belgium getting her reps indoor-style at the big ol' shred fridge in Peer...
Down south of the equator we've been seen some DUMPS on the timeline over the last week or two, and Argentina's Mati Schmitt has not been wasting any time getting out after the powpow in Bariloche. Excuse us while we wipe up a bit of drool and watch this clip one more time here...
Also drool worthy from Mr. Schmitt? This method.
Blessed is the Method Monday with two beauties such as we've seen today...
Meanwhile, over in Australia, Matty Cox and Tess Coady have taken advantage of the latest storm system to...mess around in the parking lot?
And with a quick 2000km hop across the Tasman Sea to New Zealand we can check in on 2019/20 slopestyle second-overall ripper Tiarn Collins, who's working on getting the shred feeling back after so many months off...
Although, to be honest, we were kind of assuming the legs were in pretty good shape after watching TC stomp a ludicrous 20 tre flips in a row a few days earlier...
Ok, a few assorted tibits now, beginning with Torment Mag, who recently wrapped up a pretty groundbreaking week of interviews and features with LGBT+ members of the snowboard community. Check out a few choice quotes from some of the individuals featured here, below, and make sure to take a look at the big interviews through Torment's website...
More and more sports leagues and organizations have returned to action as pandemic restrictions ease, including F1 car racing, with GBR's Lewis Hamilton winning the Styrian Grand Prix last weekend. The second-winningest driver of all time (and quickly closing in on the legend Michael Schumacher's record), turns out Mr. Hamilton is also a shredder, as our friends at World Snow Day illustrated a week ago...
And the Summitt Daily News did a feature on Chris Corning and the rest of the Teal Movie squad last week. The reigning slopestyle world champion and already tied atop the rankings as the most decorated men's World Cup park & pipe rider of all time with seven crystal globes - all at the age of just 20 years old - Corning is getting set to show the world his street and backcountry prowess with the upcoming video project, and we can't wait to see what he and the crew have in store for the movie...
Ok, a couple hot-temps athlete updates now, including Michela Moioli who has switched up boards and been seen out cutting turns wake surfing on Lake Como...
And Benny Karl, who's also in northern Italy enjoying some of the best the region has to offer, snapped on a bike ride through the UNESCO World Heritage Site Dolomites in San Candido...
And while we don't see much snowboarding out of Benny and the rest of the riders on alpine side of shredding during the hotter months due to the fact that it's pretty much impossible to set a decent race course in the summer slush, we can take a peek in on the sand dunes of Chile, where the Dragon Fest sandboarding giant slalom went down last week...
Phew, ok. Now we're sweating, we've got sand in our teeth, and we're two hours past deadling for when this thing is supposed to be online, so that's probably enough for this week. Let's close things out with a fade to whiteroom, courtesy of the one and only Pierre Vaultier...
Beautiful.
As always, thank you for reading and much love. Don't forget to tell your friends and family that you love them, stay positive out there, and we'll see you next week!
