The Weekender: De Aboitiz's wave of the winter, the Whiskey Project, more
Each Friday in The Weekender we take a look at the best videos from the week that was—like a Backdoor barrel from an unknown or a dreamy look at East Coast skiing—and we give you a preview of some of the most important events in the world of action and outdoor sports coming up this weekend.
Underground Charger?
It’s kinda funny to see the surf media go bonkers over an underground charger getting a big wave at Backdoor Pipeline on Hawaii’s North Shore. All of a sudden, an unknown entity comes out of nowhere and catches a bomb and the whole industry’s caught with their pants down. That was the story this week in endemic surf media. Only Keahi de Aboitiz isn’t really an unknown entity. He’s won multiple world championships in kiteboarding and is an accomplished standup paddler with an incredibly smooth style. Aboitiz put his name in the running for Surfline’s Wave of the Winter competition with this gem (above). The Wave of the Winter is a video contest that decides the best Pipeline wave of the winter season. Aboitiz definitely isn’t unknown anymore.
Shipstern Looking Somewhat Inviting
Last week, we showed you a series of wipeout clips that were hard to watch from Tasmania’s Shipstern Bluff, a mutant wave that looks absolutely frightening on video. This week XTreme Video released an edit making the wave look almost tame in comparison. These brave souls tow into this monster and are actually able to make a few look somewhat appealing (if you’ve got a couple of decades of experience under your belt). Check out three-time would champ Mick Fanning at 1:08 with the best wave of the bunch.
Wishing This Year Looked Like Last Year
The conditions in this edit are incredible. Too bad 2016 on the East Cost doesn’t look like 2015. Meathead Films and Ski The East present Spectral, a rowdy video series profiling skiing on the East Coast at its finest, from urban to backcountry to park. This episode, the Cliffs of Stowe, shows off some of the finest terrain, and some of its best snow conditions in years. The video features the skiing of Dylan Dipentima, Louise Lintilhac, Noah Ronallo and Carter Snow and they definitely give the edit life, especially at 2:47 when Ronallo tries to thread a gnarly line above a cliff band and ends up sailing over the 30-footer cockeyed. Of course he hikes back up and stomps it, another testament to the hardiness of East Coast skiers.
The Streets Are Where It’s At
This is another episode of Arbor Skateboards’ Whiskey Project (they make a mean snowboard, too) featuring Sean Imes, Jared Huss and Sid Melvin as they skate the streets of New York this fall to a sweet little Pharcyde remix. Gotham’s man-made features make for super interesting viewing—especially when a skateboarder is using his (or her) imagination to create athletic art in the concrete jungle. Makes you yearn for spring even though it’s only January.
- MORE EDGE: Breaking down the '15-16 ski, snowboard season
What’s On Tap
Monster Energy Supercross | FS1 | Saturday, 10 p.m. EST
This weekend in Anaheim marks the opening of the Monster Energy Supercross series. And it could be a wet one. El Niño has arrived in a big way, sending large amounts of rain to the Southern California area, making everything pretty sloppy. But that’s not a totally bad thing for supercross, where grounds crews will often try and hose down the course. But Monster’s series kickoff doesn’t need too much water.
World Cup Skiing | NBC | Saturday, 6 a.m. EST
The men and women get back after it in the New Year. The U.S. men are coming off an exceptionally tough week in Santa Caterina, Italy where no U.S. male qualified for a second run in the slalom event. “(It) was extremely disappointing,” said U.S. Men’s Coach Sasha Rearick. “It was a huge opportunity, and absolutely a missed opportunity.” This week the men are in Adelboden, Switzerland competing in giant slalom and the U.S. women try to jumpstart 2016 at Altenmarkt (Austria) in a World Cup downhill event.
