WhiteWorld

At only 25, Justine Henin is hanging up her racket and putting on a pair of ski boots, reportedly for the whole winter. If she’s looking for some advice or a job for the winter, could someone point her in our direction please?

Game, set and match
In January, when Justine Henin was riding a 32-match winning streak, retirement seemed as preposterous a thought as a switch to a two-handed backhand. But much has apparently changed in just four months, and on Wednesday, there was Henin, dry-eyed and eloquent at a news conference in Belgium as she called it a career at age 25, effective immediately.

End of a dream
“It’s a page that’s turning; I don’t feel sadness, it’s more relief,” Henin said. “I know it’s a shock for many people, but it’s a decision I’ve thought long and hard about.” Though Henin had experienced a difficult start to the 2008 season, she was still on top of the WTA rankings by a large margin and had plenty of short-term goals available with the heart of the season looming, including a fourth straight French Open title and, above all, a first title at Wimbledon, the only major singles trophy she has failed to win.

“If that doesn’t motivate you, either you’re completely burned out or something else is going on,” said Martina Navratilova, the all-time great who continued to play doubles on tour until she was 49. “It’s strange. I’m perplexed.”

Henin’s explanation for quitting in her prime is that, quite to her own surprise, she has lost the desire to train and compete and is now more interested in focusing on her personal life and her new Belgian tennis academy than on a fuzzy yellow ball.

Time for pleasures and pastures new
“I think I will take long, real vacation,” she said. “I’m going to appreciate going for a run with nothing at stake, just doing it for pleasure. I’ve never put my feet in skis and next year I think I’ll be doing it the whole winter. I want to rediscover the small pleasures, not look at my watch all the time, because I have to get to training the next day. I want to stay in shape but I want to spend time with the people I love, drive my nephews and nieces to activities, have time.”

So is it pure and simple burnout? Not according to Henin and not according to Larry Scott, the head of the WTA Tour who heard the news and an explanation from Henin on Tuesday. “This isn’t an exasperated, frustrated player who needs a break,” Scott said. “This is a life decision. I don’t think there’s any chance she’ll come back. Really.”

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Fancy going for a ski with the original have-a-go hero Eddie the Eagle? Get yourself along to Gloucester Ski and Snowboard Centre on 14 June and you can! Here’s the info…

Ride with the Eagle
Renowned Olympic ski-jumper, Eddie The Eagle, will be taking to Gloucester Ski and Snowboard Centre in June, and this is your chance to join him on the slopes at this one-off event. Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards – dubbed “the world’s favourite loser” – gained international recognition for his daring feats in ski jumping in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Now is your chance to take to the ski slopes with the man himself in Gloucester this June.

On Saturday 14 June, Eddie will be at Gloucester Ski and Snowboard Centre, where for £30 per head you can have two hours skiing with The Eagle, followed by a sit-down meal and a Q&A session with the inspirational have-a-go hero.

Multi-talented storyteller
He’s Britain’s first – and only – Olympic ski jumper, and British record-holder, and he even reached the number two position in the Finnish music charts with his single ‘Fly Eddie Fly’. With many-a story to tell, this is a great chance to hear from the Cheltenham-born, Stroud-living, legend himself.

Event: Ski with Eddie The Eagle
Venue: Gloucester Ski and Snowboard Centre
Date: Saturday 14 June 2008
Times: From 6.30pm
Tickets: Cost £30 per head, including a sit-down meal and two hours of ski coaching. Organisers advise booking early as places are limited. Call Gloucester Ski and Snowboard Centre on (01452) 874842 or visit gloucesterski.com for more information. You don’t need to be an expert, but participants must be able to meet the Centre’s minimum recreational standards.

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The Fat Face Night Ski, held at the Chill Factore in Manchester on Saturday (17th May) was described by many as ‘epic’ and the best British indoor ski event ever!

100 of the UK’s best skiers and boarders rocked up from across the country to take part and from the minute Natives set up registrations (about 2pm) the place was buzzing with a haze of excitement!

The massive freestyle jam session, consisting of kickers, rails and boxes, got underway at 3pm with competitors vying for the coveted 25 places in the Fat Face Night Ski 2008 finals. This is where the lights would be turned out, the spot lights would come on and the big comp would get underway!

The judges, headed up by legendary freestyler, Pat Sharpels included Fat Face Team Rider, Andy David and journalist Zack Wragg. It was their job to decide who was going through, made especially difficult by the exceptional level of competitors. Andy David explained: “It’s definitely the highest level of competing I’ve seen in British skiing.”

At about 10pm the finalists for the Fat Face Night Ski were announced and 25 skiers and boarders made their way onto the floodlit slope where individually they charged down, performing 720s, Inverts, 900s, Invert 270s and a variety of tricks and show stopping moves!

After some deliberation between the judges it was around midnight before the winners were finally announced.

Stoke-on-Trent’s Charlie Smith stole the show to take 1st place in the Male Ski division, with Sheffield’s James Woods in 2nd and Josh Fawcett from Stoke-on-Trent in 3rd. Tyler Harding from Halifax claimed 1st place in the Under 16s Ski.

Jamie Nicholls from Bradford claimed the 1st prize crown in the Male Boarders category as well as 1st in the U16s! Lancashire’s Kevin Edwards wowed the judges to take 2nd place and Tom Hunt from Leeds got a podium 3rd place finish.

The women also put on a phenomenal show with local talent, Lynsey Ashdown from Manchester boarding her way into Women’s 1st place, closely followed by Vicky McDonald from Salford. In the Women Ski category Sheffield’s Katie Summerhays claimed 1st place, followed by Becky Hammond in 2nd place, also from Sheffield.

There were also special awards presented to Best Newcomers, Cheshire’s Bethany Britton and Harry Tomlinson from Rossendale.

They all won their share of the £2,000 prize money, which will go on to help support them doing the sports they love. Fat Face is committed to promoting key sports through its Night Series events and individuals through the prizes.

Will Blair, Fat Face Marketing Manager comments: “It was the best UK Ski and Snowboard event that I’ve see, with the highest level of competitors.

“At Fat Face we wanted to create a unique and aspiration event, where the amateurs could ride alongside the Pros. Adding in the phenomenal atmosphere, which the event had throughout, led to an all round massive success.”

Pat Sharpels concluded: “Castleford stood out for me (where the Fat Face Night Ski was held in 2005) but this event at the Chill Factore has taken it to another level. The lighting was spot on, the snow perfect and with the best Pros it all worked out. It’s been incredible!”

Quotes from the winners:

Charlie Smith: “I’m speechless! I’m just so happy! I just didn’t think I’d do it but it came off in the end. It was dark and crazy out there but really exciting. It was such a brilliant event and I don’t think anything will ever top it!”

James Woods: “I’m so stoked just to be here. It’s not just about winning; it’s about being with your buddies! Everyone’s buzzing; it couldn’t be better! It’s weird skiing in the dark but really good! Thank you Fat Face!”

Jamie Nicholls: “I’m over the moon; it’s amazing! It was really good fun and an epic standard of competition. It feels so good and I really didn’t expect it!”

Kevin Edwards: “I’m super excited to come 2nd place as there were a lot of really good riders out there. I just tried to enjoy it and didn’t try and do anything too special. It was amazing to ride with the lights out and I just really hope the event happens again next year!

Katie Summerhays: “I can’t believe it; I’m stoked! I couldn’t wait to ski and compete and the atmosphere has been amazing. ”

Becky Hammond: “It just feels really really good. Skiing at night is unusual and it’s not been done before so is really cool. The atmosphere was great and really good fun. I’m really happy with the money which will help to support me.”

Lynsey Ashdown: “It’s amazing! I’m really stoked and it tops a great night! It was ace out there; the best indoor event I’ve seen with so many top riders.”

Vicky McDonald: “It makes it so much harder as you can’t see the bumps. It’s a real challenge but turning the light out adds to the whole atmosphere. I feel fantastic and am just buzzing. I’ve not been freestyling for long so am just so pleased.”

Harry Tomlinson: “I can’t believe it; I’m so stoked as I didn’t expect it. There was such a big turnout. Lots of people and lots of support. It was a really good set up and an amazing event.

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Jamaica hopes to enter the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010 with their first competitor since the famous appearance of the country’s bobsleigh team at the Calgary Games 18 years ago which inspired the Cool Runnings movie.

This time Jamaica’s hopes are likely to rest upon the shoulders of a young skier cross star, Errol Kerr, who was raised near Lake Tahoe and has a world ranking of 24 as a member of the US ski cross team, but wants to represent his father’s country at the Vancouver Games.

The 22 year old is currently visiting Jamaica for the first time and is aiming to raise 200,000 dollars in sponsorship in order to pay for a coach and travel costs to compete as a Jamaican. He has the support of the Jamaican Minister for Sport and the head of the Jamaican Ski association, but must state his allegiance to Jamaica to the international Ski federation by June 1st if he wishes to race for the country in future.

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Simply Media, the Internet’s largest online television channel provider, have recently launched Snowzone.tv (www.snowzone.tv). Snowzone is a free online television channel, dedicated solely to snowsports. Simply Media, the creators of the well-established Golfbug.tv and Breaksweat.tv, are extremely excited about this launch due to the free, high quality and professional video content it is going to provide snowsport enthusiasts across the globe.

Snowzone is categorised into six sections namely; freeski, snowboard, alpine, gear, resorts and special features. The content within these sections are diverse and varied in nature in order to cater to a wide audience by providing endless freestyle and freeride action, professional instruction, the latest gear reviews, fun park reviews, resort reviews, crashes, film trailers and competition highlights! The site is complemented with a blog as well as an editorial space for all the latest industry news.

Andrew Cooke, managing director of Simply sports Media believes that, “Snowsports is one of the most visually exciting sports out there. Due to this we saw an excellent opportunity to reach a large audience via the Internet, as a result of providing high quality and instantaneous video content at zero cost to our users. By offering this content online, we afford our users the easiest access to the content from either work or home.”

On top of in house production, Snowzone will make use of key relations in the snowsport industry to guarantee its viewers the very latest and finest content. The channels will showcase: The best resorts and skiing destinations from all corners of the globe. Film trailers produced by industry leaders such as Absinthe Films. Highlights from the world’s most prestigious Alpine, Freeride and Freestyle competitions, including; The TTR series, The World Freeride Tour and the Ride Freesport series of events.

How-to-do tricks” explained and demonstrated by professional coaches and leading athletes. We are also delighted to be working with Warren Smith, one of Europe’s leading performance ski coaches, on our Freeride instructional tips.
Simply Media operates more than 25 digital TV channels, including 6 on satellite and cable. Simply Media has developed and continues to expand on premium content for TV, web, mobile, Captive Audience Networks and IPTV.

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The 8th British Freeskiing performance training Camps (www.britishfreeskicamps.com ) in association with Freeski Britain, will be held this summer in Saas Fee, Switzerland on 12th - 19th July, 19th - 26th July and 26th July - 2nd August and 2nd - 9th August 2008

The camps will be focused once again on bringing the British freeskiing community closer together and building a basis for training riders to become top level New School Freestyle skiers, Big Mountain competitors and Moguls competition skiers. The camps are not elitist and also give less experienced skiers who have never had the chance to ride the park or skier cross a unique learning and confidence building experience.

Saas-Fee is currently the top summer skiing glacier due to the snow quality and the shaping in the Saas-Fee snowpark and skiers cross course. Because the terrain available in the summer in Saas-Fee, the camps also have the opportunity to test skiers on steeps, moguls and amazing well groomed pistes.

During the camps you will also get the chance to witness the Saas Fee Ride 08, an international level freeski competition with some of Europe’s top riders and also the best of British. See last years event live right now on www.saasfeeride.com .

The British Freeski Camps are run in association with the Warren Smith Ski Academy and Freeski Britain (responsible for the representation of British freeskiers) and feature an all-star line up of coaches and technical staff

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On the morning of last Friday, April 11th skiing prodigy and X Games star Simon Dumont of Bethel, Maine broke the world record for highest air on a quarter pipe at his home resort of Sunday River by executing a corked 900 tail grab and peaking at a height of 35 feet (11.5m) above the top of the quarter pipe. The 38-foot quarter pipe built by Snow Park Technologies with support from the Sunday River Park Crew is the largest quarter pipe ever constructed. Norwegian Terje Haakonsen held the previous world record at 32.5 feet.

“I wasn’t sure how this would all go down today with the wind and some healing injuries I’ve been nursing,” said Dumont. “As I was dropping down the hill into the run-in it just hit me that this would be it – the rest is history.”

The attempts began Tuesday morning when Dumont arrived on site directly off a flight from Sweden. Dumont began hitting the quarter pipe in the early afternoon when he reached heights as high as 28 feet, before drifting in the air and falling nearly 66 feet onto the snow below. Dumont’s hard hitting landing caused him to bruise his heal and aggravate an existing knee injury.

After seeing the doctor, Simon returned to the hill on Wednesday, but was plagued by his injuries and was forced to recuperate for the rest of the day. Thursday was disrupted by high winds forcing the entire staff to delay their flights in order to provide Simon with one more opportunity to attempt the World Record.

At 9 a.m. Friday morning Simon showed up with his game face on and was ready for his final attempts. After an hour of repeatedly hitting the quarter pipe, at 10:12 a.m. EST Dumont hiked an additional 15 feet up the hill to gain more speed. Simon crouched into a tucked position going 55 mph down the in run and not only launched 35 feet into the air, but spun a 900 in the process (a trick where the athlete spins 2.5 complete rotations in the air).

“I’m really glad to have pulled this off in my backyard at Sunday River where I started my ski career,” said Dumont. ”The fans from the East have always been super supportive. That makes breaking this record at home even sweeter.”

Building and maintaining the worlds largest quarterpipe for nearly two weeks fell on the shoulders of Snow Park Technologies and Sunday River’s operations teams including Parks Manager Nick Roma, Mountain Manager Brian Jones, and Terrain Park Development Manager for Boyne’s New England Resorts Jay Scambio.

“There may not be any other place in the East where this record could have been broken,” said Alex Kaufman, Sunday River communications manager. “We’ve proven over the last few years with our April Heat Harvest events that Sunday River can deliver world class big air features for world class athletes. We’re known for our snowmaking firepower and that’s always the first step in a project like this. We’re proud to have worked with Simon Dumont and the teams from Red Bull and Snow Park Technologies to deliver this caliber of an event for our hometown hero.”

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Verbier Puts Sonar Equipment Under Trail Grooming Tractors Verbier has unveiled a list of innovative initiatives in the resort’s on-going efforts to minimize its environmental impact.

One of the most innovative is to install sonar machines beneath its trail grooming equipment. This ensures that the resort’s lift company is aware of snow depth across the piste and does not waste water and energy making snow where it is not needed. It also means that grooming can be suspended where snow cover is too thin or does not need grooming for any other reason, avoiding the risk of damage to underlying vegetation and ground.

The lift company also uses bio-diesel for the grooming machines and some of their vehicles (cars on mini-vans). In addition, the Commune de Bagnes encourages the building of houses with geothermical heating. The increase has then been really important over the last three to five years according to the architects of Verbier.

The community also produces electricity by using the waterfalls of the channels for the drinkable or used water. Every year, these” micro-poweer-plants”(three in total) produce the power for 2,000 people - about a third of the Commune’s residents.

The main projects are to reduce traffic in the centre of the resort; create pedestrian areas and zones with priority to pedestrians in the centre. Public transports will be further developed and people encouraged to leave their cars at home.

When possible, the Commune the Bagnes, the lift company, the tourist office and events organisers already encourage people to come by train – or leave their car in Le Châble – and use the gondola to reach the resort and/or the slopes.

www.verbier.ch

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