The So-Gnar Mighty Midwest Snowboard Camp Tour - Stop 3 - Buck Hill, MN

Day 1



Day 2

Louie Vito Rail Jam 2010

Louie Vito Wins GOLD at Dew Tour

BRECKENRIDGE, CO - The snowboard superpipe finals were a case of rider against nature when the clouds started dumping down powder. But it was the same conditions for everyone at the Winter Dew Tour in Breckenridge and it came down to sticking your run and keeping up speed to make it to the top of the podium.

In the men's field, things didn't go as planned for Louie Vito in his first run even through he threw down two double corks right off the bat. But landing those tricks loosened him up for the second run.

"Last year I landed all my good runs in the second run," Vito said. "I like contests, I like the pressure and I like having to stick it right then and there. So in the second run I just had to put it down and I just wanted to come out strong in the first two hits because I knew it was going to get slower as I went down."
The high flier from Ohio came out charging with a frontside double cork 1080 to a cab double cork 1080 to a crippler to a Michalchuk to a frontside 1080 to a cab 720. It was the sickest run of the contest, and he threw away his first-run score of 61.00 and catapulted into a dominating lead with a score of 90.25, more than 15 points higher than anyone else.   His score held on throughout the rest of the finals, and the Nike 6.0 rider took home the win.

"Maybe I just chuck it harder. I'm smaller going harder, maybe. I don't know," Vito said, struggling to come up with an explanation for his astonishing performance.

"I'm just happy I landed," he said. "I'm super pumped. It's nice to get a win at Dew Tour."

It was the second time in eight days Vito won a major contest on a powdery pipe. He claimed the U.S. Halfpipe Grand Prix last week at Copper Mountain, on a similarly snowy day.

"Yeah, it was kind of like at Copper - I'm just real confident in my tricks and we have a great wax tech with the U.S. Snowboard Team," he said.

Vito's next competition will be in mid January at the second stop of the Winter Dew Tour in Killington, Vermont.


Louie Vito loves to  come from behind and land his tricks when it counts. And that's exactly  what he did when he threw back-to-back double corks into his run and  jumped from fourth-place to take the win.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
1. Louie Vito, 90.25
2. Matt Ladley, 75.00
3. Greg Bretz, 73.75
4. JJ Thomas, 69.50
5. Christian Haller, 69.00
6. Trevor Jacob
7. Steve Fisher
8. Mason Aguirre
9. Luke Mitrani
10. Ikka-Eemeli Laari
11. Scotty Lago
12. Kazuhiro Kokubo

Watch a replay of the Dew Tour Finals, January 1st on MTV 2 at 1pm

The So-Gnar Mighty Midwest Snowboard Camp Tour - Stop 2 - Echo Mountain

Day 1



Day 2

Get Your Dance On...

Louie Vito Wins U.S. Grand Prix

COPPER MOUNTAIN, CO - Coming off the most progressive  year in halfpipe snowboarding's history, the athletes at the Visa  U.S. Halfpipe Grand Prix could be forgiven for not ushering in the new  season with any unprecedented wizardry.  Instead, U.S. rider Louie Vito   stuck to reliable tricks to win the first major pipe competition of the  Northern Hemisphere winter at Copper Mountain, Colo., which received  nearly 18 inches of snow in the 24 hours preceding the contest.

Vito,  22, stomped back-to-back double cork 1080s -- frontside to cab, a combo  he has "pretty much on lock" -- to slip past Luke Mitrani, 27.9 points  to 26.7. Mitrani also landed two clean double corks but did not do them  in succession, which distinguished the two impressive runs.

For Vito,  Saturday's victory was his second in three years at the Copper Grand  Prix, sandwiched around a runner-up finish to Shaun White last year,  when both went on to compete at the Olympics. Vito followed his  perfectly executed first two hits with a frontside stiffy, a backside 9  and a front 10 -- all of which featured solid amplitude, which hasn't  always been his strength.

He considered trying to add a third double  cork to his final run, but settled for a (doomed) front 1260 attempt due  to the slow pipe and the fact that riders must incorporate a straight  air in any F.I.S. competition, he said. Vito has landed three double  corks in a run three times in his career, the most recent of which was  this summer in New Zealand.

"I was just trying to keep a good line,  because if you messed up a little bit, you paid for it in speed," he  said. "So I was trying to land everything solid and then just ride the  edge across. It wasn't too bad."

"I'm really stoked. I'm happy to  land a run when I had to and start the season off well," Vito said.  "It's good to have landed and to be on the podium with two of my best  friends."

Vito, who took the lead with his back-to-back doubles  in the first run and carried it through the end of the competition, was  joined on the podium by Luke Mitrani and Olympic bronze  medalist Scotty Lago.  According to Vito, with the first  one out of the way, he's ready for the rest of the competition season.

"I'm  happy to be back into contests and to shake those pre contest season  jitters out of the way. You get rid of the anxiety and remember the  feelings you have up there and you're ready to move forward," Vito said.

Vito's next competition is this coming week in the first stop of the Winter Dew Tour in Breckenridge, Colorado.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
Top 3 Men

1. Louie Vito, Sandy, UT, 27.90
2. Luke Mitrani, Mammoth, CA, 26.70
3. Scotty Lago, Seabrook, NH, 25.50
Watch the Finals on TV today (Sunday, Dec. 12) on NBC at 2 p.m. ET   and again on
Dec. 18, Versus at 5 p.m. ET
Dec. 25, Versus at 4 p.m. ET

Logan Imlach is back with more words of wisdom.

Check out his article How to: Pick up a Hippy Chick in a Resort Town over at sbcskier.com

The So-Gnar Mighty Midwest Snowboard Camp Tour - Stop 1 - Winter Park

SO-GNAR kicked off the Mighty Midwest Snowboard Camp Tour this last weekend at Winter Park Resort in Colorado.  Conditions were great and the level of fun and progression was off the charts.  The mountain got fresh snow last week and then the skies cleared to provide two days of sunshine and great snow.  We had our own private park setup with 4 custom features for exclusive use by Mighty Midwest campers. Check out the video recap below..

Riding chairlifts with strangers.....

Check out Capix team rider Logan Imlach's high larious tips for riding the chair lift with a stranger over at sbcskier.com