USASA: United States of America Snowboard Association

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

The United States of America Snowboard Association Announces the United States Qualifiers for the World Snowboarding Championships in Oslo, Norway

South Lake Tahoe, CA – January 23rd, 2012 – The 2012 World Snowboarding Championships (WSC), will take place in Oslo, Norway from February 10th through 19th of this year. This event is the first international championships run entirely by snowboarders since 1999.  The competition, which is the brainchild of both Ticket to Ride (TTR) and the World Snowboarding Federation (WSF), will showcase riders from all over the world. Each WSF member nation is entitled to qualify one male and one female in each halfpipe and slopestyle disciplines. The USASA is the member partner with the WSF, and is excited to announce that Scotty Lago and Maddy Schaffrick have qualified for the WSC in halfpipe, and Justin Morgan and Meghan Ginter have qualified for slopestyle.

Hi everybody, Paul Brichta checking in with an update of my season so far.

Just after the holidays I got back to Colorado and immediately began training with the US Snowboarding Team and coach Spencer Tamblyn. I learned a bunch of new tricks like double backflips on jumps and 1260s, cab 1260s, backside 1080s and cab double cork 1080s in the pipe.

Hey all,

This season has started and I think Tahoe is finally going to get some snow this week! I spent my first month of the season in Colorado doing the Grand Prix and Rev tour and the halfpipe was perfect as always and surprisingly the weather was great to. It was a slow start getting back into the contest groove again but I eventually began landing some new tricks. It was awesome to be back with everyone in contests. The Grand Prix didn't go as planned, but it was good to see Kelly Clark send it and take 1st. It was also awesome to see Maddy Schaffrick come back from an injury and absolutely kill it and get 2nd!

Hey everyone!

This is Cassie. I have had a pretty good start to my season this year. At the Copper Mountain Race to the Cup, I finished 5th in Giant Slalom and 2nd in the new event Triple Slalom. Triple Slalom is what people are now looking at to eventually replace the traditional Slalom. In Slalom (like Giant slalom), all racers take a time trial run on a red course and a blue course. Their times are added together, and the top 16 (those with the lowest combined times) advance to the finals, where they participate in a series of two-run races to try to advance as far as they can. If a racer advances to either “big finals” (the race to determine 1st and 2nd place) or “small finals” (the race to determine 3rd and 4th place), they will have done a total of ten race runs that day! Riders must be in excellent condition to compete at this level.

WE MADE IT to 2012. I am not sure if I am excited or scared and I will tell you why. I have already had two ACL surgeries and a bone bruise all on the same knee. I just got tested in November in Utah at the Olympic Training Center to see if I can compete. I found out that my knee isn’t ready yet. I am not allowed to compete in half-pipe or boardercross. I am still happy I can free ride. I have been going to the gym as much as I can and also got on a strict diet to try and build muscle on that knee.