KRANJSKA GORA, Slovenia (Feb. 28) - Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) came from third place after the first run to win a World Cup giant slalom Saturday in Slovenia. Ligety out-skied Switzerland's Didier Cuche and Massimiliano Blardone of Italy, who were second and third, for the win.

The win makes it a back-to-back situation for Ligety, who also won in Kranjska Gora last year. In fact, the hill marks the place where Ligety truly burst into the racing elite. Longtime fans recall his Europa Cup slalom win on the Pokoren in 2004 following a pair of World Cups.

"This year has been tough, and to come to Kranjska Gora is always an awesome experience. It's been such a good hill for me for so long," Ligety said. "My coach set the second run and it was just how I like it. You know, I like those big sweeping turns. I had a couple of bobbles along the way, but I'm really happy."

For Ligety, who is coming off a World Championship bronze medal, it's the fourth win of his career and 15th time he's been on a World Cup podium. Though the win keeps Ligety in third for the season's discipline standings, Ligety said overcoming Cuche, who is 73 points ahead after Saturday's race would be a tall order.

"I'm still a long way off. It's going to be hard to make up so many points on Cuche. I'm happy with the day, but I'm not really figuring the red bib anymore," Ligety said.

Austrian Benjamin Raich sits in second in the giant slalom standings, just 21 points behind Cuche, making the race even tighter.

"In Sestriere, at that point when I went out in the second, I knew the crystal globe chances were gone. It was pretty disappointing. Then I let that go. We had a couple of race to go. At least I wanted to come away happy," Ligety said.

"After last week's performance, to step up and win a race is amazing," Men's Alpine Head Coach Sasha Rearick said. "Cuche is skiing really hot, so to go out and catch him took a lot of effort and a lot of risk."

Rearick said American coaches took the opportunity to set a course for Ligety that would give him the best shot at a win.

"We set the second run set really turny to try to give Ted an opportunity to shine at his skill, and he skied super."

These are some more pictures taken from ISPO in Munich at the beginning of February. Snowboard legend Romain Di Marchi and Olympic Gold Medalist Ted Ligety took the time to meet and greet with fans and industry players, sign autographs and show the serious engineering merits of Slytech and Shred products. The show was a huge success and everyone here is so stoked to see the family of shredders come together under one roof at one booth.

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.

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 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