Eric Pollard (skier)

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Eric Pollard is an American snow freeskier and film editor from Welches, Oregon and currently resides in the Hood River region of Oregon. He was a professional skier for Line Skis for over 22 years and now designs skis and snowboards for Season. Always challenging the status quo, he has innovated outerwear, accessories and hard goods for FW Apparel, Anon Optics, Dakine, K2, Causwell and Hest.

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Skiing

Eric Pollard began skiing professionally at the age of fifteen. He learned on Mount Hood, where snowboarders far outnumber skiers and as a result developed a unique style more closely resembling snowboarders. Because of this he developed the first fully symmetrical ski—equal height tip and tail, with a symmetrical flex. [1] Pollard mostly works with filming and skiing backcountry rather than competitions.

Season

With snowboarder Austin Smith, Eric founded ski and snowboard company Season EQPT for carving, all-mountain, powder and touring. The timeless black products, Kin, Aero, Nexus, Forma and Pass, questions annual consumer culture, supports product longevity and creates unity for everyone in the mountains. The skis are made in at Amer Sports and snowboards are made at SWS-Boards. It is the first ski and snowboard brand to be Climate Neutral Certified.

Nimbus Independent Films

In 2007, Pollard created Nimbus Independent with Pep Fujas, Andy Mahre and Chris Benchetler. [2] Nimbus was an early producer of webisodes. His goal in creating the company was to show skiing as it is, with all the ups and downs. The company produces short films showing highlights of its creators' seasons. Named Powder Magazine's "Movie of the Year" Drawn From Here is a film by Eric Pollard that opens with an exploration of his processes as a skier, as a ski/product designer, and as an artist. It follows the influences he draws from—like basing the shape of a ski tip off of a surfboard or finding patterns observed in nature to integrate into the graphics he hand draws for a ski—and illuminates a thread that runs through and binds all his different disciplines and hobbies.

Personal life

Eric initially intended to go to art school and become a graphic designer, but ended up skiing with his family and loved it. He is married to Erin Valverde Pollard and has two children.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snowboard</span> Winter sport equipment

Snowboards are boards where the user places both feet, usually secured, to the same board. The board itself is wider than most skis, with the ability to glide on snow. Snowboards widths are between 6 and 12 inches or 15 to 30 centimeters. Snowboards are differentiated from monoskis by the stance of the user. In monoskiing, the user stands with feet inline with direction of travel, whereas in snowboarding, users stand with feet transverse to the longitude of the board. Users of such equipment may be referred to as snowboarders. Commercial snowboards generally require extra equipment such as bindings and special boots which help secure both feet of a snowboarder, who generally ride in an upright position. These types of boards are commonly used by people at ski hills, mountains, backcountry, or resorts for leisure, entertainment, and competitive purposes in the activity called snowboarding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snowboarding</span> Snow sport involving a single board

Snowboarding is a recreational and competitive activity that involves descending a snow-covered surface while standing on a snowboard that is almost always attached to a rider's feet. It features in the Winter Olympic Games and Winter Paralympic Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alta Ski Area</span> Ski resort in Alta, Utah, United States

Alta is a ski area in the western United States, located in the town of Alta in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah, in Salt Lake County. With a skiable area of 2,614 acres (10.58 km2), Alta's base elevation is 8,530 ft (2,600 m) and rises to 11,068 ft (3,374 m) for a vertical gain of 2,538 ft (774 m). One of the oldest ski resorts in the country, it opened its first lift in early 1939. Alta is known for receiving more snow than most Utah resorts, with an average annual snowfall of 545 inches (13.8 m). Alta is one of three remaining ski resorts in the U.S. that prohibits snowboarders, along with nearby competitor Deer Valley and Vermont's Mad River Glen.

Terje Håkonsen is a Norwegian professional snowboarder. He is considered one of the most influential snowboarders in the history of the sport. In the book The way of the snowboarder, Rob Reed wrote that "Haakonsen took the young sport of snowboarding and revolutionized nearly every aspect of it".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freeriding (sport)</span>

Freeriding is a style of snowboarding or skiing performed on natural, un-groomed terrain, without a set course, goals or rules. It evolved throughout the sport's formative early years as a contrary response to the highly regimented style of ski competition prevalent at the time. Snowboarders primarily refer to freeriding as backcountry, sidecountry, or off-piste snowboarding, and sometimes big mountain or extreme riding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freeskiing</span>

Freeskiing, or new school skiing, is a specific type of alpine skiing, which involves tricks, jumps, and terrain park features, such as rails, boxes, jibs, or other obstacles. This form of skiing resulted from the growth of snowboarding combined with the progression of freestyle skiing. "Newschoolers", or those who specifically ski in this style, as opposed to traditional freestylers, freeriders, big mountain skiers, and racers, are often found in terrain parks, which are designed specifically for tricks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ski geometry</span>

Ski geometry is the shape of the ski. Described in the direction of travel, the front of the ski, typically pointed or rounded, is the tip, the middle is the waist and the rear is the tail. Skis have four aspects that define their basic performance: length, width, sidecut and camber. Skis also differ in more minor ways to address certain niche roles. For instance, skis for moguls are much softer to absorb shocks from the quick and sharp turns of the moguls and skis for powder are much wider to provide more "float" in deeper, softer snow.

Dakine is an American outdoor clothing company specializing in sportswear and sports equipment for adventure sports. Founded in Hawaii, the name comes from the Hawaiian Pidgin phrase "da kine". Now based in Hood River, Oregon, the company also sponsors athletes from the lifestyle and sporting fields of skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, surfing,windsurfing, kiteboarding, and skateboarding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Travis Rice</span> American professional snowboarder (born 1982)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timberline Lodge ski area</span> Ski area in Oregon, United States

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teton Gravity Research</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ski film</span> Film with sequences of activity on snow skis

A ski film is a motion picture with sequences of expedition, recreation, competition, or acrobatic exhibition on snow skis. These non-fiction action sport films capture the experience of an athletic outdoor snow sporting culture. Ski films typically present one or more techniques, locations, or skiers. Categories include the feature, documentary of competition or other event coverage, instruction or technique demonstration, retrospective history, travel guide showcasing a region, or a short subject. More than 200 such videos debuted in 2006. Notable examples are listed at the Ski and Snowboard Film Institute, or have received awards from the International Ski Film Festival, X-Dance Action Sports Film Festival, IF3 International Freeski Film Festival, Cold Smoke Winter Film, Powder magazine, or similar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bear Mountain (ski area)</span> Ski resort in southern California, United States


Bear Mountain, formerly Goldmine Mountain, is a ski area established in 1969, in the San Bernardino National Forest in Southern California United States. It is located by Big Bear Lake, two miles apart from its sister resort, Snow Summit; these two resorts operate under the same management collectively known as Big Bear Mountain Resorts (BBMR).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Backcountry snowboarding</span>

Backcountry snowboarding is snowboarding in a sparsely inhabited rural region over ungroomed and unmarked slopes or pistes in the backcountry, frequently amongst trees, usually in pursuit of fresh fallen snow, known as powder. Often, the land and the snow pack are not monitored, patrolled, or maintained. Fixed mechanical means of ascent such as ski lifts are typically not present, but alternative means such as splitboarding, hiking, snow shoeing and helicopters ("heliskiing") are sometimes used to reach the mountain's peak.

4FRNT Skis is an independent brand of alpine ski equipment that helped to pioneer the development of the freeskiing movement. 4FRNT introduced the model of a rider-owned and operated ski company to the sport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Line</span> American snowboarder (born 1974)

Peter Line is an American professional snowboarder, snowboard industry entrepreneur, writer, photographer and designer. Line is regarded as one of the greatest influences in the history of snowboarding based on his broad contributions as a professional rider, industry entrepreneur, designer, and media contributor. Line is a six-time X Game medalist, one of few to gold medal in the Summer and Winter X Games, as well as a two-time US Open medalist and a World Snowboarding Championships gold medalist.

Brad Steward is a former professional snowboarder and one of the first entrepreneurs in the industry. Brad made his mark in the industry for bringing snowboarding to the global stage. In the late 1980s Steward, alongside Craig Kelly, Tom Hsieh, Wiley Asher and Bud Fawcett became the first Americans to snowboard in Russia, in a seminal Soviet-Era visit to Gudari, located in what was then Soviet Georgia. Memorialized in both Warren Miller films and Craig Kelly's video ‘Board With The World’, this trip was seen as the starting point for a generation of wandering riders, searching the world for dangerous and desirable mountains. Steward and crew were forced to leave Gudari and the Tbilisi area in a Russian troop transport helicopters as a result of protests and conflict from the Tbilisi Massacre, where 21 deaths and hundreds of injuries took place. Craig Kelly, who at that time was the 4-time World Champion of snowboarding, later passed away in an avalanche.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Line Skis</span>

Line Skis, commonly shortened to Line or stylized as LINE, is a new school skis company owned by K2 Sports. Line Skis was founded by Jason Levinthal in 1995 to produce short, twin-tipped skis for freestyle skiers, and has since moved to produce full-length freeskis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grenade Gloves</span>

Grenade Gloves Inc is a manufacturer of snowboard gloves/mittens. Founded by professional snowboarders Matt and Danny Kass in 2001, the company specializes in a product line aimed at snowboarders and motocross riders: gloves, outerwear, apparel, footwear, and accessories. The company's headquarters are located in Portland, Oregon.

This glossary of skiing and snowboarding terms is a list of definitions of terms and jargon used in skiing, snowboarding, and related winter sports.

References

  1. "Line Skis 2012-2013 | Skiing is Fun". Archived from the original on April 25, 2013. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
  2. Meyr, Kyle (2 May 2014) Nimbus Independent’s new film: After The Sky Falls RedBull.com