One Life Wednesdays: Ep. 6: DAVOS, Switzerland

Vito Wins X Games Gold!!

TIGNES, FRANCE, CO - Watch and/or set your DVRs tonight:
Friday, 9pm - 10:30pm Eastern Time, ESPN, Superpipe Men's Finals

(Please double check your local listings for exact times - this is subject to change.)

What a way to end a great season!!!

Since the Olympics:

Louie has been on the podium 8 out of the last 10 major contests since the Olympics:

1st Place Copper Grand Prix
1st Place Breckenridge Dew Tour
1st Place Killington Dew Tour
Bronze Medal 2011 US X Games
2nd Place 2010 US Open
2011 Grand Prix Title (won in 2008, & 2009 also)
Dew Cup Title
Bronze Medal 201 0 Euro X Games

GOLD MEDAL 2011 Euro X Games!!!!

Congratulations Louie on what many consider one of the very best  halfpipe seasons of any pro rider!

Thanks to all of you for your support!!!

TONIGHT ON ESPN
Friday, 9pm - 10:30pm, ESPN, Superpipe Men's Finals
          10:30pm - 11pm, ESPN, Medal Ceremonies
                            (Double check the exact times in your area!)

LAST STOP ON TOUR @ MOUNTAIN HIGH, CA

Hello friends...

Please help us finish off the tour with a BANG!  This is our first ever California Stop, we'd like it to be as fun and rowdy as possible.  This is the DIRECT link   for Registration. Its easy. Just click the link and get signed up before the spots fill up. We have a limited number of spaces available. 75% of our camps have sold out this year. Don't be left out. Sign up today! 


Pat.

Vito Easily Qualifies for Euro X Games Finals

TIGNES, FRANCE, CO - Louie Vito has had an outstanding season this year winning the Dew Cup and his third Grand Prix title. In between all of that he has won several contests including standing on the podium at this year's U.S. X Games. This week Louie is in France for the Euro X Games gunning for his third X Games medal. Vito is one of the favorites to win the gold medal but will have his hands full with a world class field of the best riders in the world.

Here is the TV Schedule (all times are Eastern Times):

Thursday, 9pm - 11pm, ESPN, Superpipe Men's Elimination

Friday, 9pm - 10:30pm, ESPN, Superpipe Men's Finals

Louie Vito Dominating the Halfpipe

KILLINGTON, Vt. - The halfpipe at Killington's Bear Mountain was still empty when Louie Vito showed up early Thursday morning to practice. The 22-year-old snowboarder wasn't wearing his usual hoodie or anything flashy. He wasn't even wearing his Dew Tour competitors' bib. Just an unassuming black and blue coat, black pants, and a black helmet.

For the next two-plus hours, he did laps in the halfpipe - one straight air after another on the halfpipe's 22-foot walls, no fancy double corks or backside 9s.

"Just feeling out the pipe before I do any tricks," he said. "Working on holding my edge all the way through."

At least twice, he walked to the top of the pipe after a run - a workout within a workout.

He practiced until they closed the superpipe for maintenance.

For a guy perhaps best known for his moves on the dance floor in the reality TV show, "Dancing With The Stars," Louie Vito looks as if he's on a mission this year.

In previous seasons, his best results were second at the 2010 U.S. Open and two U.S. Grand Prix wins (one in 2008, another in 2009). His best result at the Winter X Games was fifth in his debut in 2006.

At the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, he was considered a favorite to win a medal but finished fifth, 3.4 points off the podium and 9 points out of first.

Talking to the press immediately after the Olympic competition, Louie looked dejected.

"I'm happy I landed both runs," he said. "That's all I really wanted to do. But obviously, I wanted to get on the podium even more. It is what it is. Those guys rode great."

This season Louie is the guy who's riding great. He has won every contest he has entered - the first Grand Prix of the season, and the first two stops of the Dew Tour.

At the Killington Dew Tour, held this past weekend, Louie led the competition his first run, but then outdid even himself. On his second run, he performed back-to-back double corks (two flips and one spin, performed off-axis), a frontside 1080 (three spins), and a frontside tail grab. His top score of 93.00 was five full points ahead of runner-up JJ Thomas and 6.5 points ahead of third-place finisher Mason Aguirre.

Thomas won a bronze medal at the Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic Winter Games, and Aguirre finished fourth at the 2006 Olympics in Torino, Italy.

Many of the riders at the Dew Tour said Louie is "riding amazing" this year, and according to Thomas, better than he's ever seen him ride before.

Louie is in good position to win the overall Dew Tour Cup and the $25,000 cash prize that comes with it. The Dew Tour concludes with the Toyota Championship on February 10-13 at Snow Basin, Utah - just a few miles north of Louie's current hometown of Sandy, Utah.

Louie's new focus on snowboarding started after the 2010 Olympics, says his dad, Lou Vito, who traveled to Killington from Ohio - where Louie grew up - to watch his son in the Dew Tour.

"I think he was maybe a little disappointed in his score [at the Olympics]," says Mr. Vito.

But Louie didn't let the disappointment drive him from the sport.

"He could have sat back and said, 'The heck with this, I'm not going to do this anymore,'" adds Mr. Vito. "Instead he's gone the other way. He's said he wants to do so well, that he is going to win by so much, that it doesn't matter. And he's working hard to get to that."

In the past few months, Mr. Vito says his son has developed "total laser focus."

"He works out all the time, it's crazy," he says. "His focus is unbelievable. He's become an animal."

Louie is also giving back to the community. On December 26, 2010, he hosted Louie Vito's Rail Jam in Bellefontaine, Ohio, where he grew up. The autograph session was slated for an hour, but Louie stayed for over three hours until he had met every one who was standing in line.

But it's not only focus and maturity that's driving Louie to new heights. He hired a coach who knows how to reach the podium's highest spot.

Bud Keene, who coached Shaun White to both his Olympic gold medals, is now working with Louie. (Keene also coached Louie several years ago when the young snowboarder was a student at the Stratton Mountain School in Vermont.)

"The big story with Louie this year is that he's just hell bent to get on that Olympic podium in 2014," says Keene. "For him, that process started six months ago."

"There is nothing that's more important to him than standing on that podium in 2014," adds Keene. "He's not ashamed to say that, he's not ashamed to do every single thing that he can do to achieve that end. He pays attention to his diet, he's working out like a fiend. He's very, very focused."

Keene knows of only two athletes who have taken this approach.

"One was Shaun White, the second is Louie Vito," Keene says. "They want to leave no stone unturned and no doubt in their minds that they gave it their absolute best shot."

His new focus and work ethic can perhaps be traced to his experience on "Dancing With The Stars" during the fall of 2009. For almost three months, Louie worked with Chelsie Hightower, a professional dancer, for eight-plus hours a day on dance moves that were totally foreign to him. He found the pressure and stress was far more than he expected.

"This is my line," he says now. "I'm wearing outfits that I wouldn't wear on Halloween. I'm doing a dance that I could never do perfectly. There's always something I could do better. Then live audience, live judges, spotlight. It's on TV live to 22 million people."

In comparison, he found snowboarding competitions easier, even at the Olympics.

"Snowboarding, I'm wearing what I want to wear, I'm doing tricks I can do, I know I'm good at it, I'm in my comfort zone," he adds.

And yes, he would do "Dancing With The Stars" again - "in a heartbeat."

Meanwhile, he has set aside the glitz to focus on snowboarding. At the Olympics, he sported a double-finger diamond ring, the first piece of jewelry he bought as a reminder of what he could achieve if he worked hard.

At the Dew Tour, the only bling on his fingers was his Olympic ring.

Louie is now headed to the Winter X Games, slated for January 27-30, 2011, in Aspen, Colorado.

There, he will face White, who has been taking a post-Olympic break and has yet to compete this year. White isn't working with Keene this year either - but the coach says they will resume training next year and through the 2014 Olympics.

But Louie isn't worried. Asked who his biggest competition is, he says, "It's always myself."

"There are so many good riders you can't really worry about one person or what anyone's doing," he adds. "You can only really worry about what you're doing and try to do the best run you can."

The week before the Dew Tour at Killington, Louie worked on basic riding techniques, not specific tricks, with Keene in Stowe, Vermont - where Keene lives.

Louie was the first rider to throw a double cork in competition and was at the forefront of the halfpipe trick "arms race" before the 2010 Olympics, which led to White's famous 1260 McTwist.

But Keene is mum on what new tricks he and Louie are developing. He will only say that they are working on "some new and spectacular things."

Then Keene adds, "We're going to see a whole new treasure trove of tricks come out this year, next year, and the year after, and Louie will be part of that for sure."

And hopefully, that treasure trove will lead to gold bling in 2014.

Peggy Shinn is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This story was not subject to the approval of the United States Olympic Committee or any National Governing Bodies.

One Life Wednesdays: Ep. 4: Breck Pre-Season Part 1

Bonifay vs. Dubai

Mighty Midwest Snowboard Tour Stop 7 And MMST the Movie

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Chanelle Sladics • One Life Wednesdays: Ep 3: Spain/ Andorra

"Last season, we put our heads together and tried to come up with a creative approach to designing our own trip aboard.

The concept of this trip was for each of us to pitch a dream experience and whomever's pitch was most enticing- we would book it!  No detailed itinerary, just follow the snow and the good times, in hopes to creating magic.

Norway, Italy, Canada, Eastern Europe all brought something special to the table, but it was Marie-France Roy's Spain: snow, surf, skate adventure that inspired us most!

Due to high winds and rain, we rerouted our trip to Andorra midway, unfortunately the rain followed us there too! Most of us were unaware that Andorra was its own country, so this was extra exciting- a good world history lesson as well.

We made the best of our conditions building creative urban features, meeting locals and sightseeing some of the most amazing cities in the world: Granada and Barcelona.  World class graffiti street art, museums, architecture and theatre were all on our list- truly making it one of the best cultural experiences for us to date!  We all fell in love with the passionate culture of Andorra and Spain!

Thank you local Professional Snowboarder Merlin, "our Andorra guide", and friend for life! You truly made our trip amazing!

Here is our adventure, hope you enjoy Spain and Andorra through our eyes!

One LOVE One LIFE, for more 411 check out ThisisOneLife.com  "

-Chanelle Sladics

Louie Vito X-Games Superpipe Bronze

Louie Vito SuperPipe Bronze
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Race for the Dew Cup: Louie Vito

By Colin Bane

Louie Vito's been killing it this year, dominating the Winter Dew Tour Superpipe contests in Breckenridge and Killington, and he's heading into the Toyota Championships at Snowbasin in Ogden, Utah thirsty for his first Dew Cup. Can anybody stand between Vito and his quest for the Cup?

At the Nike 6.0 Open in December Vito beat out Matt Ladley and Greg Bretz for the top spot with a front double cork 10, Cab double cork 10, crippler, Michalchuk, frontside 10, and a Cab 7 in his second run, each trick a reminder of why Breckenridge and the other Winter Dew Tour venues had to step it up this year with 22-foot superpipes to accommodate this level of riding. Vito's run under heavy snow at Breckenridge made for one of the most decisive wins in Dew Tour history: His score of 90.25 obliterated next-closest finishers Ladley (75.00) and Bretz (73.75), and left the rest of his competitors far behind.

At Killington Vito was similarly in a league of his own, the only rider in the competition to land a double cork (he landed two, back-to-back, just to emphasize the point). His score of 93.00 trounced JJ Thomas (88.00) and Mason Aguirre (86.50), and now leaves him with a massive overall points lead for the Dew Cup. His perfect score of 200/200 puts him well ahead of Thomas, with 174 points, Ladley (166), and Mason Aguirre and Steve Fisher, tied at 152.

Vito also picked up a bronze medal at X Games this month for good measure, behind Shaun White and Scotty Lago, and is currently in the lead on the US Snowboarding Grand Prix after winning the event at Copper Mountain in December.

To lose his hold on the Dew Cup, Vito would have to finish in 5th place or worse, unlikely given the season he's been having but not impossible: Vito likes to put it all on the line no matter how big his lead may be, and he'll be pushing himself even harder at Snowbasin next weekend since we haven't even seen some of his biggest tricks yet. He may very well be his own toughest competitor.

heck out footage of Louie shredding the pipe in January at the Winter Dew Tour in Killington

Check out footage of Louie shredding the pipe in December at the Nike 6.0 Open in Breckenridge

One Life Wednesdays: EP2 with Chanelle Sladics

One Life Wednesdays: EP1 with Chanelle Sladics

Shane Bonifay and Monster Energy Present Monster Wakeup

Check out this brand new Monster Energy Shane Bonifay - Monster Wakeup video.... Click here...

Shane Bonifay "Son of the entertainment director"

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The So-Gnar Mighty Midwest Snowboard Camp Tour - Stop 8

The So-Gnar Mighty Midwest Snowboard Camp Tour - Stop 7 - Cannonsburg, MI

Day 1



Day 2