Crazy Days out in Val d'Isere, France at the World Championships of Alpine Skiing...

First, a dark horse immerged from the back of the pack. Naoki Yuasa started 75th and as he came down, the bousterous French announcers were blaring his name out, firing up the crowd that was going crazy as the Japanese racer came down and qualified for the 2nd run. "Yuuuaaaasssaaaaaahhhhhhhh!" the people yelled! Just goes to show, people LOOOOVE the underdog. Way to go Yuasa. Konichiwa for a killer run! Ohhh yeah, and good choice in using Slytech Nervous Shin Guards.

Then Bode Miller, the no-holds-barred American -- always a crowd favorite -- skied with his usual reckless abandon depsirately looking for a medal and promptly skied out 2nd run.

But the biggest stoke moment came when Slytech/ Shred rider TED LIGETY came in 3rd place and collected the bronze! He had a so-so first run, but surprised everyone with a sweet second run that catapulted him to the podium. Congratulations TED! Way to sport those Shred Omnibot 80's Papaya Goggle.

I'm not one to toot my own horn much or overhype things, but when I learned recently that some of the Swiss National Ski Team wear Slytech Nervous Shin Guards as opposed to the LEKI guards that their team is sponsored by, I just had to share it with you.

So, we're all hangin' at the World Championships of Alpine Skiing in Val d'Isere, France checking the action out when a friend leaned over to me and said: "you see Zurbriggen there? Recognize those shin guards?"

I zoomed my 400mm camera on him and couldn't believe my eyes. He had SLYTECH NERVOUS GUARDS on with a LEKI STICKER!

Now, that's a guy who knows what gear he likes. He also needs to keep his sponsor happy, so he slaps a sticker on them.

Actions speak louder than words, I guess.

ISPO in Munich was hoppin' yesterday (ISPO, in case you didn't know is the International Sporting Goods Trade Show in Munich)! Sometimes it was impossible to scoot past people in the halways between the booths, it was that packed. Slytech/ Shred was no exception, filled with representatives from stores, distributors and the people like you and me who just simply use it. Anyway, if you're in the neighborhood, stop by today, because at 10:30AM CET, we've got Olympic Golden Boy Ted Ligety signing autographs at the booth (A-118) and then at 4PM we've got YES snowboard legend Romain di Marchi stopping by to chit chat and sign autographs. You might want to come early to either session, because it'll be packed.

Wow, what can you say about Kitzbuhel's ferocity? That place seems to always chew up and spit out one poor soul every year.

You may remember the 07/08 season when American Scott McCartney crashed on the final jump of the Hahnenkamm downhill.

Well, this year there was another casualty. Daniel Albrecht of Switzerland took the final jump, lost his balance and landed right on his back, skis shattering in the process and Albrecht sliding to a halt at the finish.

He was wearing back protection when he crashed going some 130 km/h, and thankfully so. He came away with a crushed lung and head trauma, but no doubt without back protection and a helmet, things would have been much much worse.

As of the writing of this blog, Albrecht was still in an artificial coma, his hemothorax stopped, lung infection staved and head trauma progress positive (information taken from http://www.skionline.ch/index.php?section=news&cmd=details&newsid=7472&teaserId=) .

We all wish him well and remind ourselves as avid winter sports enthusiasts to protect ourselves with quality safety gear.

In the video clip below Romed Baumann of the Austrian Ski team chats about the SLYTECH 2ND SKIN BACK PROTECTOR on Austrian ORF TV.

Unreal things happen when two friends get together and look for trouble. This video of Romain de Marchi -- Slytech's newest shredder -- and Travis Rice hitting Chad's Gap in Utah. The gap is about 120ft wide and consists of 2 piles of old abandoned mine dirt.

It was considered completely unridable for snowboarders, but one day when the boys were out, they looked at one another and thought, damn, we can do this!

This is what resulted... please, do NOT try this on your own, unless you've got serious balls, adult supervision, are a bit "off" in the head, solid medical insurance, a Shred helmet, and a Slytech 2nd Skin Back Protector.

Ted looked deep into Vladimir's eyes and... saw a friend.

Haha. I'll never forget the day George "dubya" Bush said that about Vladimir and lo and behold, it turned out Russian relations went down the tubes!

But, thanks to Ted, there couldn't be any smoother sailing between the USA and Russia. He even had the balls to hand Putin a Barack Obama bumper sticker and said: "here, put this on your car!"

That takes some serious serious guts. Good stuff!

On Friday January 2nd, 16 of the top men's alpine skiing athletes participated in a promotional event meant to create enthusiasm for the 2016 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. Organizers estimated over 25,000 people attended the FIS alpine promotional event held on a specially constructed ramp towering 183 feet over the heart of the Russian capital.

Even though he had Vlad pulling for him, he managed to come in 4th, behind Bode (3rd), Grange (2nd) and Neureiter.

Wild stuff that event, and it made you think: imagine they pulled that off in Central Park in NYC? Or in Chicago? Or any major European city? Fun...

Whether you're in the Rockies, Alps, New Zealand, or Moscow: RIP IT UP!

The Slytech Fam and I  want to wish you Happy and Healthy New Year! I don't know about you, but it always shocks me when I think about just how FAST the year cruises by. You blink once and whamo, it's over.

What's the take-home lesson?

Milk every day you've got! Are you hesitating about hitting the hill on an average winter Saturday? Use your gut instinct and TAKE ACTION! In any case, NO REGRETS!

The ladies in Semmering had no regrets this past weekend in Austria. One of the biggest and most visited events of the ladies FIS Alpine World Cup circuit, Semmering night slalom boasts 12,000 screaming fans in attendance and hundreds of thousands more glued to their TV. Bright lights and the most cutting edge ski gear in the world can be seen at events like these.

The technicians of the top tier skiers are constantly tweaking the skis, using the newest waxes, sharpening edges just right for the snow conditions and then of course reporting back to the ski manufacteurers on their findings of what works and what does not. Countless personnel is always on hand to drive the R&D process.

Slytech, in just a few years of being on the scene, has been able to penetrate the market and convince many skiers that their gear, both 2nd skin back protection and nervous arm and shin guards are at the vanguard of engineering R&D. It says a lot when long established companies suddenly see a newcomer come in and (A) look cutting edge and (B) see them worn by the world's best!

If you ever have the privilege of sitting in the lunch room with all these ski girls, you'll always see a bunch of of them wearing Slytech 2nd Skin back protectors and their Nervous Guards.

The time has come for Wolfgang “Wolle” Nyvelt.

One of the late comers in the sport – having started at the ripe age of 15 in Mayrhofen Austria (in the Zillertal) through his passion for skateboarding – he’s now at 30 received the huge distinction of “The 2008 Transworld Rider of the Year” award.

He’s never been much of a protection wearer and it’s only when his local shop owner showed him the newest back protector from Slytech, that he started strapping it on. We caught up with him on his cell phone in between a sessions and proclaimed, “It borrows its concept from motorcycling and those guys for sure know what they’re doing in the protection department.”

Wolle was hooked and convinced that this backprotector was exactly what he needed to “give me that extra little bit of confidence.” When he met the guys at Slytech, he got hooked up with a sponsorship to boot! It was a natural fit… Wolle loves his 2nd Skin and Slytech has the super talented and personable  â€œRider of the Year” to take his game to the next level.

Just take a look at these sick images… nuff said.

It's been since March that the 07/08 FIS ski and snowboard season came to an end in Bormio, Italy. While the conditions were so-so for the men and women's alpine final (several events were canceled due to warm conditions and rain), the action that did happen was pretty sweet and the crowd loved every minute of it.

Check out some of the scenes from the hill in the action blog photo gallery...

In the end, the athletes that use Slytech gear were some of the TOP performers...

1. Lindsey Vonn -- Women's Overall Title Winner uses Slytech Nervous Shinguards
2. Ted Ligety -- Men's Giant Slalom discipline winner. Ted uses Slytech 2nd Skin, and Slytech Nervous Arm and Shinguards.
3. Daniel Albrecht -- 2nd in Bormio Men's Slalom Race. Daniel loves to slap those gates out of the way with his Slytech Nervous Armguards.

Next week we'll see what's happening on the Freeski scene as we site down and chat with Taylor Felton. See you then...

Shredfully,
The Slytech Team