From France with love.

Here’s another one from Giray Dadali!!

Grommets R Us!!! Paal Saatvedt has some fierce style for such a young kid, and a quality bag of tricks to complement!!! This Norwegian unit has been doing some work on Breck’s park, check it!!!

Here’s a couple other Facebook links to some vids that aren’t on YouTube or Vimeo and so can’t be embedded!!

First one is my first day in Hakuba – riding with, and filmed by, Steve Lee. This was just a taste of what was to come. Unfortunately we hadn’t quite had enough snow to fill in some of the lines that looked like pillows, so needless to say there were some sneaky snags about!!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150493818437311

Second is Falls Creek local, currently tripping around the US, Canada, and Japan, Jodan Cook’s first edit of the season!! Expect big things to come from this kid!!!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150566771807018

Our friends over at Mitten Media brought out a pretty stellar flick for their first crack this year, called One gLove. It featured numerous Nine22 riders, and was primarily shot and edited by good friend Judd vanMelle. The guys at Mitten media have now started doing their own webisodes, and you can keep track of them by liking their facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mitten-Media/150316465012616

Like it up and stay up to date – here’s the first one!!

Follow their Facebook and check out their website for details on how to order their movie, what’s going down with their webisode series, and their plans for future flicks!!!

Here’s some action that we haven’t thrown up on to the website yet!! We’ll be all over it from now on!!

Firstly, here’s an edit from earlier in the season by Spencer and Laker!!

Next, an edit from PC rider Tim Gage!

At Nine22 we are stoked to have such shredicated people on board with the company. Here is a perfect example!! This is what Nine22 graphic designer, and Revelstoke marketing employee Ian Houghton does with his time off!!!

New one from Nick Miles and the Purple City Project!! A classic flashback to some old school cartoons too, epic!!!

MORE TO COME!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well the anticipation has been building and we are now ready to start showing off what we have coming out in the near future. New factory, new patterns, new sizing arrangement, new fabrics, and new styling, has basically meant that we started from scratch again – and having learned a lot of lessons from our previous range, we’ve waited until now to start showing you what’s next for Nine22.

This year will see the birth of two Nine22 ranges – a snow range and a street range. We hope to have the snow range ready for shipping around the end of January, and the street range will slowly release thereafter. This is primarily for two reason – firstly we wanted to make sure that all the product was exactly as we wanted – this involved a range of efforts from testing fabrics to working with The Sample Room on our new fit. Secondly we sit between the Northern and the Southern winter and so by releasing the range shortly, and having it ready around the end of Jan, we align ourselves with the Northern spring and the Southern winter – the seasons that our garments are most suitable for!!

This years snow range will feature some much more appropriate fabrics for riding in. We will release details as we release each sneak peek, but we can tell you that all the garments in the snow range have some level of water resistance and all the long and short sleeve tees will be thermal.

So, here it is, the Nine22 Itinerary Hoodie – named so because this is one you can take with you anywhere and everywhere regardless of where your travels take you!!! We are stoked on this product, and we think you will be too! Made from a poly softshell fabric with DWR treatment, this highly water resistant hoodie features zippered air vents under the arm like last year for those extra warm days, a high collar to zip up on those slightly colder/windy days, a media pocket on the chest so you can keep your music close by, embossed buttons, branded drawstrings, and thumbholes for those nice detailed touches, and an embroided Nine22 logo on the front so you can rep hard!!! The Itinerary Hoodie is available in 2 colours, Toothpaste and Frigate, and comes in our new 3 size range, MT, LT, XLT! Check it out and let us know what you think… Pre order will open very soon!!!

Whilst training for the Olympics on the last day of 2009, snowboarder Kevin Pearce sustained a serious head injury which saw him hospitalised for months. KP’s brain trauma was severe, and it took extensive rehabilitation with neurological experts to get KP on the road to recovery. Lucky to survive, KP had to learn to walk again, to eat again, to talk again, and there was barely a moment in this process where he wasn’t 100% positive and committed to do so!! This inspiring story has reached a prolific moment in this last week, as Kevin returned to Breckenridge, Colorado, to strap into his snowboard for the first time since the 31st of December 2009. For us snow dwellers, going a few months, let a lone a full year, without being on snow is incredibly hard to deal with. Imagine now, that you were at the top of the game, one of the best halfpipe riders in the world, and that world came crashing down with no definite light at the end of the tunnel. Once it’s ingrained in us, snowboarding/skiing, whichever action sport you partake in, is a way of life. Simple. To have that taken away from you for two years, with no guarantee of getting it back, would be one of the toughest things to endure in life. It is testament to an atheletes dedication to their sport to positively approach rehabilitation for two years, always pushing for that chance to get back out there. When it started to become evident to Kevin that snowboarding was back on the cards soon, the elation he felt must have been earth shaking! What I wanted to focus on, was not only Kevin’s positivity – never losing sight of the opportunity to snowboard again, but also the stoke you get from the little things in this industry.

As you watch this video below, just take a minute to soak it all up. Remember all the little things that you get to enjoy in everyday life, and in whatever it may be that is the passion of your life. For us, things like stickering up a pair of skis, a helmet, a skateboard, mounting up a fresh set of bindings on your skis, throwing new bearings on your skatey –  soooo many little things that we can take for granted, are the foundation of the stoke we have for our sport. The second we lose sight of these things to concentrate on the big things – X Games, Olympics, winning, being as good as someone else, is the second that we lose sight of why we are passionate about it in the first place.  Watch as KP stickers up his snowboard for the first time in years, and as you feel some of his excitement, let it reinvigorate all the little things that make up the big picture you are so passionate about!!

Such an inspiring story, and such a positive attitude. Well, KP got back out there, and was welcomed to the bottom of the chair at Breck by hundreds of inspired riders that were all there to show their support. You will see a huge number of people wearing “I Ride for Kevin” t-shirts, stickers, etc – a movement that was put forward to help KP in his recovery, both financially and mentally. It is a wonderful reflection on the community aspect of the industry that so many people can get together to support one persons road to recovery! As you watch the next video, think about all the times you get disappointed when the weather is bad, when the park is closed, when you haven’t slashed pow for a couple months, and then watch as KP and hundreds of like minded snowboarders take a cruisey lap down a groomer – and remember that snowboarding/skiing is whatever you make it. It’s a far cry from the day he hurt himself trying double corks in training for the Olympics, but you can be that KP was just as stoked taking that lap as he was on landing the double in the pipe. Cherish every moment you get to ride, for every reason, because if you don’t – what are you riding for?!?!

It’s the little things…

So inspiring!!!!

Matty