Snowboarding

I found your March 23 article, "As Snowboarding Soars, So Do Injuries," interesting, since I suffered broken ribs due to being hit by a snowboarder this month while skiing in Big Bear. As I discovered from the ski patrol and hospital staff, my experience is becoming more and more common. In fact, later that same day, my friend was also struck by a snowboarder while skiing. He suffered an injured knee and damaged ribs! In your article the parents of the young girl who has been in a coma since her snowboarding accident are quoted as saying that it would never have happened if she was wearing a helmet.

Five snowboarders died in a backcountry avalanche Saturday afternoon  about 60 miles west of Denver, authorities said. A group of six snowboarders started out at Loveland Pass, which is  just short of 12,000 feet in elevation, but got no more than a mile down the mountain when the slide swept them away, Clear Creek County Sheriff Don Krueger told the Los Angeles Times. One snowboarder dug himself out and called for help. The Sheriff's Office said the call came in around 2 p.m., about an hour after the avalanche.

The weather on Venice Beach was typical for a Sunday afternoon in August: The sun was out, there was a slight breeze, the thermometer registered 74 degrees. So, naturally, it was the perfect day for snowboarding. In a patch on the boardwalk amid wandering tourists and crispy beach bums, a snowcapped mountain had been erected out of scaffolding, plywood and massive bricks of ice chipped into a wintry powder. It was built just for the day for the Supergirl Jam, a women's competition in snowboarding, skateboarding and surfing.

The gig: Michael Scully is creative director of global design for BMW Group DesignworksUSA in Newbury Park. So it's fitting that a car designer who grew up in snowy New Hampshire would be assigned this latest BMW project: building a bobsled for the U.S. Olympic team. Usually, BMW doesn't want its vehicles to slide freely on ice. But that's exactly Scully's goal now as he designs the two-man bobsled to compete in the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, next year. He's also worked on other projects for BMW since he joined the design team in 1996, including developing bicycle components and designing race cars.

Search and rescue teams braved strong winds and snow Saturday night to look for a 14-year-old snowboarder missing since the afternoon, authorities said. About 30 searchers from the Antelope Valley, Montrose and San Dimas looked for Jeff Thornton, of Brawley, who was last seen at the Mountain High West ski resort about noon, said Sheriff's Lt. Steven Fredericks.

One way to look at the 12.2 national rating CBS got for Saturday night's coverage is that it is the lowest prime-time rating for the Winter Olympics in 10 years. But CBS was putting a different spin on it. "It's the highest rating ever for snowboarding and freestyle skiing," quipped Dana McClintock, the network's director of Olympic communications. CBS got killed when the men's downhill got postponed on the first day of competition. Same thing happened to ABC in Calgary in 1988, and it got a 9.

Australia's Gary Elkerton had just finished winning a preliminary heat during a surfing contest last summer in Huntington Beach, but his mind was in the Alps. "Snowboarding is an excellent sport," said Elkerton, the second-ranked surfer on the Assn. of Surfing Professionals tour. "It's pretty easy for a surfer to catch on to and it's something real fun for us to do in the winter." Terrific.

Heavy snowfall forced the postponement of the women's giant slalom snowboarding event on Monday, with organizers rescheduling the race for Tuesday. The International Ski Federation (FIS), which is organizing all snowboard events, said the race, originally scheduled to be run Monday morning would now be staged Tuesday morning. "Due to the weather conditions, we were forced to take the decision to postpone the race," FIS spokesman Toni Reiter said.

Doctors on Monday upgraded the condition of 14-year-old snowboarder Jeff Thornton, who was rescued last week after surviving a six-day ordeal when he became lost in the San Gabriel Mountains. A spokeswoman at Loma Linda Medical Center, where Thornton was being treated, said the 5-foot-9, 215-pound youth had been moved from the intensive care unit to an intermediate unit after his condition was upgraded from serious to fair Monday morning.

The bruised survivor of a Mt. Baldy avalanche that apparently killed his companion recalled Monday the horror of being swept down the mountain slope, slammed into a tree and buried, then clawing his way out for 20 minutes. Although searchers continued over the weekend to probe for the body of Mike Pilotti, 24, of Costa Mesa, "It's pretty sure he's gone to be with the Lord," said Larry Beard, 32, who survived the Jan.

Once the hottest craze in snow sports, snowboarding is cooling down, as many riders are switching to skis that are easier to ride. Join us for a live video chat at 3:30 p.m. on the shift in snow sports trends. Los Angeles Times travel industry writer Hugo Martin will talk about skiing, snowboarding and the trends on the slopes with Josh Holm, who manages a ski rental shop at Squaw Valley ski resort. Have you switched from snowboarding to skiing? Or vice versa? Join in on the conversation by leaving your comments below.

At the height of the nation's snowboard craze, Rod Rice was a so-called blazin' raisin - an older dude who loved to bomb the slopes at breakneck speeds. That is, until he wiped out and dislocated his shoulder on a trip to Canada. The 65-year-old engineer still loves to carve fresh powder, but now he does it on a pair of extra-wide skis. "I'm not planning on going back to snowboarding," said the Lakewood grandfather. Once the king of the mountain, snowboarding is on the down slope.

The Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard Resort , one of  Sin City 's best-kept secrets, is open for the 2012-13 season. There are new features  as the resort celebrates its 50th anniversary. It's less than an hour's drive from the Strip to the slopes in Lee Canyon, in the Spring Mountains near Mt. Charleston in southern Nevada. The resort's owners hope new amenities this winter will lure people away from the casinos. The resort has 14 new, groomed trails, bringing the total to 30, plus a new quad chairlift.

MAMMOTH LAKES - Before we get to the early snow, the new businesses, the zipping skiers and beaming boarders at Mammoth Lakes, let's remember how bad things have been this year for this corner of the Eastern Sierra. First, Mother Nature delivered scant snow in the 2011-12 season, driving tourism down just as the larger economy seemed to be recovering. Then in June, management at Mammoth Mountain, the resort that dominates the town, trimmed staff, cut salaries and announced the shuttering of its June Mountain ski operation - a painful blow to the tiny mountain community of June Lake, 20 miles north of Mammoth.

If you're a novice who's interested in skiing or snowboarding at North Lake Tahoe on Dec. 8 and 9 and want to start with a lesson rather than having a friend or spouse teach you, consider this: Six resorts will host their annual Learn to Ski and Board Weekend those days. The event is designed for beginners, costs only $30 and includes an all-day beginner lift ticket, group lesson and gear rental. First-timers can choose from Alpine Meadows , Boreal Mountain Resort , Granlibakken Resort , Homewood Mountain Resort , Squaw Valley and Sugar Bowl Ski .  Several resorts also will offer guests savings good on a return visit.

Two snowboarders stranded in Washington's Mt. Rainier National Park for two nights were rescued Tuesday morning and were expected to be reunited with their families by the afternoon. The families of Derek Tyndall, 21, and Thomas Dale, 20, were “ecstatic” when they got word the duo had been found and were in good health, said park spokesman Kevin Bacher. “Obviously they understand what a grave situation this was, and the chance that it might not come out positive,” he said.

Shaun White is very, very sorry. He promises he will never pull a hotel fire alarm again. Well, unless there's an actual fire. The snowboarding legend apologized Tuesday for "unwise choices," saying he got "carried away" after police accused him of pulling a fire alarm that forced guests to evacuate a Nashville hotel. White was charged with public intoxication and vandalism and is due in court Oct. 10. White said he is sorry for "any inconvenience it caused my family, friends, business partners, the hotel and their guests.

Tom Sims, an innovative skateboarding and snowboarding pioneer and former world champion who helped bring snowboarding to the masses by pushing ski resorts to embrace the fledgling sport in the 1980s, has died. He was 61. The founder of Sims Skateboards and Sims Snowboards died Wednesday at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital after suffering cardiac arrest, said his sister, Margie Sims Klinger. "He was the godfather of all board sports," Michael Brooke, publisher of Concrete Wave Magazine, said Friday.