Snowboarding

The International Olympic Committee has been asking for trouble since it admitted snowboarding in 1998, and the sport's delightfully counterculture performers have routinely obliged. Most of the transgressions have been fairly benign, mere mischief compared with doping and crooked judges (and at least one historic knee-whacking) in other sports. But in Vancouver, the snowboarding venue threatens to become a real danger zone. Maneuvers in the halfpipe have grown from exhilarating to terrifying in the four years since Shaun White won the gold in Turin, and the champ's face smacked against the lip of the pipe at the Winter X Games last weekend, sending his helmet flying.

Eric and Kendall Butler of Auburn were out back gardening when their son's friend came running toward them, saying something had gone terribly wrong with Justin. Dropping their tools, the Placer County couple raced through the kitchen and upstairs. Their 16-year-old son, Justin, shirtless and in red football shorts, was unconscious. Around his neck was a brown leather strap hooked to the center of a Bowflex exercise machine. Justin died hours later after being airlifted to a Sacramento hospital.

Children will not have to wear helmets when they hit the ski slopes in California after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a piece of legislation Friday. The measure by state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, would have imposed a $25 fine on parents of minors caught skiing or snowboarding without a helmet, though supporters acknowledged the rule would be unlikely to be enforced. The language of the measure mirrors bicycle helmet laws already in place. Schwarzenegger actually signed that bill, but vetoed a companion bill that would have required ski resorts to develop and publish safety plans and submit reports to state safety officials.

(12-28) 07:02 PST WRIGHTWOOD, Calif. (AP) -- Officials say a Fullerton man has died while snowboarding at Mountain High ski resort in Wrightwood. The San Bernardino Coroner's Office says the accident was reported at 6:06 p.m. Monday. The 24-year-old man, who had collided with trees, was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead shortly after. The victim's name was not released pending notification of his next of kin.

1999-06-18 04:00:00 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- The X-Games the televised outdoor competition that begins next Friday in San Francisco is transforming Piers 30 and 32 at the base of Bryant Street. Sports venues are being built for the nine-day event on the empty lot topping the piers. Construction workers are putting finishing touches on a ramp designed for snowboarding events that stands 110 feet tall and stretches 270 feet long. The Bay Bridge is in the background.

2006-02-13 04:00:00 PST Bardonecchia, Italy -- Olympic nostalgia set in as soon as Shaun White, using his best slacker-dude-on-the-make dialect, started propositioning Sasha Cohen in absentia Sunday afternoon. To the uninitiated, this stunt might have looked like nothing but an attempt to get a date. It was actually, and probably unintentionally, an homage to local hero Alberto Tomba, who made similar passes at Katarina Witt during the 1988 Winter Games. "I'm hoping Sasha dates gold medalists," White said, grasping a new accessory around his neck, before he began an imaginary pick-up conversation with the figure skater.

Squaw Valley officials say the death of a 16-year-old Los Altos boy who veered off a popular mountain trail while snowboarding remains a mystery. Results from an autopsy on Thomas Reyneri, who died Friday after falling off a narrow bridge and landing in a creek, are still pending, Vernon McCarty, coroner for Washoe County in Nevada, said Tuesday. Thomas, who was a junior at Bellarmine High School in San Jose, had been snowboarding with his mother. On their last run before lunch Friday, the mother and son split up and planned to meet at the bottom.

All Times PST FEB. 6 7 p.m. -- (CBS) Opening ceremonies FEB. 7 1-3 p.m. -- (CBS) Men's downhill and women's ice hockey previews. 3-4 p.m. -- (TNT) Preview: alpine skiing figure skating skiing snowboarding hockey luge speedskating nordic skiing. 7-10 p.m.; 11:35 p.m.-12:35 a.m. -- (CBS) Men's downhill freestyle and cross-country skiing. FEB. 8 12-3 p.m. -- (CBS) Men's luge men's speedskating and women's ice hockey. 4-5 p.m. -- (TNT) Event Coverage: snowboarding.

Bay Area native Daniel Berk had planned to spend the Christmas holiday in Sri Lanka getting his scuba certificate but canceled his plans at the last minute. He missed the deadly tsunami but on Saturday he was killed in an avalanche while snowboarding off-trail in the Austrian Alps. Berk 31 who grew up in San Mateo had been living in Munich as a consultant for Intel Corp. for several years and was scheduled to be transferred back to the Bay Area in March said his sister Valerie Berni of Tigard Ore. He had taken up snowboarding while living in Germany and frequently visited the Alps.

2002-02-11 04:00:00 PST Park City Utah -- SNOWBOARDERS WERE supposed to help push the Olympic envelope drag the Winter Games into a new era. Instead the Olympics may be stuffing snowboarders into little boxes. If Kelly Clark an 18-year-old from Vermont hadn't won the host country's first gold on a dramatic final run yesterday's halfpipe competition would have been remarkably pedestrian as out of sync with this cutting-edge sport as deck shoes accessorizing an Armani suit.

If watching female snowboarders overcome icy "death cookies" during the Olympics on Monday night left the adrenaline pumping there's a new way to vent that energy without leaving the couch: snowboard video games. Snowboarding which looks like skateboarding in the snow is part of the Winter Olympics for the first time this year and has helped spawn a raft of new electronic games. Players who can't tell a half-pipe from a tailpipe can learn all about it before tomorrow's Olympic events thanks to several new games for the PlayStation and the Sega Saturn.

The challenge: Stylish snowboarding sunglasses The budget: $100 or less The adviser: Jason Allan 24 snowboarder Among the possibilities: Arnet Raven $70; Dragon Hiss $64.95 at SFO Snowboard Shop San Francisco. The solution: Black Fly No. 5 $78 at Skates on Haight San Francisco. The reasoning: "These have style and they provide good UV protection which is pretty important out there in the snow especially if you do a lot of springtime snowboarding. These are not a bad price for what you get."

(12-28) 13:18 PST Santa Rosa, Calif. (AP) -- A Sonoma County man was found dead at a popular Canadian snow resort after family members reported the snowboarder missing a day earlier. Twenty-year-old Cooper Plaxco of Windsor had gone snowboarding at Whistler Mountain in British Columbia on Friday and never returned after going off the designated trail. Whistler Blackcomb resort officials told the Press Democrat of Santa Rosa that Plaxco apparently fell through snow and into a deep creek in a forested area.

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Given the early start to the Sierra snowfall, now's a good time for novices to discover what to do with it. During the 11th annual Learn to Ski and Board Weekend, seven North Lake Tahoe ski resorts charge just $25 for an all-day beginner lift ticket, group lesson and gear rental for schussing or snowboarding down the slopes. Reservations are not required, but arrive early to purchase the package at one of the following resorts: Alpine Meadows, Boreal, Granlibakken, Homewood, Northstar-at-Tahoe, Squaw Valley and Sugar Bowl.

(12-03) 17:27 PST Big Bear Lake, Calif. (AP) -- A man missing since Thanksgiving weekend in Big Bear Lake has been found dead buried in snow not far from where he wandered off. The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department says the body of Bryson Lukacik was discovered Friday by contractors who were working on a property two blocks from a vacation cabin where Lukacik had been staying with his father and father's girlfriend. Lukacik's father told the San Diego Union-Tribune the 22-year-old disappeared on Nov. 26, hours after suffering a head injury while snowboarding and seemed disoriented.

Though she is in a wheelchair and many motions are painful, Trina Sanchez's hands are constantly moving. One plays with a green stone tortoise charm that hangs from a vibrantly colored necklace. The other reaches, seemingly unconsciously, to hold and stroke the hand of her 15-year-old daughter, Patricia, whenever she's nearby. And when Patricia is home, she's often nearby. Although she is autistic and mostly nonverbal, she is Sanchez's only caretaker. Patricia is all Sanchez has, and vice versa.

It'll be wet, it'll be windy, and in the mountains it'll be white. The soggiest storm of the season is expected to bear down on Northern California this weekend, coating the Sierra with snow, drenching 73,000 football fans at the Big Game and initiating a possibly very wet winter. "It's a good weekend to stay inside with the hot chocolate and break out the Christmas movies," said Diana Henderson, forecaster with the National Weather Service in Monterey. The Gulf of Alaska storm is expected to soak the Bay Area through Tuesday, leaving clear skies for Thanksgiving . At Tahoe, ski resorts were expecting from 4 to 6 feet of snow, which would make it the biggest November storm in six years.