Five members of the New Zealand Winter Performance Programme (WPP) Snowboard Team are currently taking part in a three-week Olympic training camp alongside the U.S. and Australian Snowboard Teams at Timberline Ski Area on Oregon’s Mount Hood.
The camp, which makes use of Mt. Hood’s High Cascade’s 22-foot halfpipe, is giving snowboarders the opportunity to perfect their skills in soft, spring snow conditions before returning to New Zealand to transfer their new level of riding onto the mid-winter snow in New Zealand. Training under Head Snowboard Coach Tom Willmott and with support from team Physio Sheryl Dickinson, athletes attending the camp include: Rebecca Sinclair, 17, of Taupo; Ben Stewart, 16, of Whangamata; James Hamilton, 20, of Auckland; Paula Mitchell, 27, of Christchurch; and Mitch Brown, 21, of Wanaka … Details
Can Bobby Vaughn, a Californian with a shady past, turn Rockaway locals into professional surfers?
n the Saturday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend, FTW, a bright, high-ceilinged surf shop on Beach 116th Street in Rockaway Park, is overrun by kids: preadolescents sprawled across black vinyl couches watching a surf video; skateboarders attempting kick-flips on the sidewalk out front; pretty girls wearing purple velour sweats standing around, their boyfriends clinging to them from behind and telling war stories about last night’s party. Two months since the store opened, it has already become the default hangout for local teens who have grown up surfing the waters off Beach 90th Street and Breezy Point.
An older Rockaway surfer with shoulder-length hair is regaling a few kids with a story about a wave he caught in Costa Rica—“I’ve never been … Details