All posts tagged: snowboarding

Snowboarding, Sex, and Tacos | Psychology Today

Snowboarding, Sex, and Tacos | Psychology Today

Published by Jenni Sidey

We’re lucky if we have even one friend who really knows us. I mean, truly knows us—our history, our wiring, the things we don’t always say out loud. I’m even more grateful that I have a friend like that… who’s also willing to play around like we’re kids. That’s what I’ve found in my friendship with John Kim, aka “The Angry Therapist.” We share a lot of overlapping terrain: immigrant parents, childhood trauma, Asian shame. We’ve also walked through some valleys together—heartbreak, divorce, and leaving previous careers (me as a journalist, him as a screenwriter) to become therapists in our own ways. We don’t see each other often anymore. He lives in Costa Rica. I’m in Seattle. Life has moved forward—remarriages, one child each, work that feels like a calling. But when we’re together, something clicks that’s hard to explain. On a recent snowboarding trip, most of our conversations looked exactly how you’d expect from guys. Talking about the bad tacos we just ate, the great weather and snow conditions, random jokes, and reminiscing about …

This Ruroc Helmet Ruined My Ski Holiday

This Ruroc Helmet Ruined My Ski Holiday

Published by skeptic

“I don’t like talking to you wearing that. It’s intimidating.” A friend said this to me—and he’s not joking. His name is Stuart. Stuart is about as affable a person as you could wish to meet, and we have skied together three or four times. Now, however, he doesn’t want anything to do with me. I haven’t upset him, we are on good terms—but he hates what I’ve got on my head. By the end of the week, so do I. The intimidating headgear I’m wearing is the Ruroc RG2. It is, according to Ruroc, the world’s only full-face snowsports helmet—and now I can fully understand why, despite initially thinking it looked like the ideal lid to replace my aging POC. On paper, the RG2 should be a winner, despite a starting price of $379 (making it more expensive than nearly all of WIRED’s picks in our ski helmet guide). Only when you wear it do the drawbacks become abundantly clear. The RG2 is actually an ISPO Award-winning helmet. It has a built-in Twiceme NFC …

Best Tested Ski Clothes (2026): Shells, Jackets, Wool Socks

Best Tested Ski Clothes (2026): Shells, Jackets, Wool Socks

Published by skeptic

Honorable Mentions During the winter, a whole WIRED crew tests ski clothes almost constantly. Here are a few other items that we like. Courtesy of REI Hestra Fall Line 3-Finger Gloves for $190: I’ve long admired Hestra gloves from across the lift line, impressed by the Swedish company’s elegant stitchwork and thoughtful design touches. This was the year I finally got to try a pair for myself, and the Fall Line are exactly what they look like. There are six sizes available so you can get the perfect fit in this glove. The cowhide is buttery smooth and has already broken in a bit with five days’ use. The wrist strap means you never have to fret about dropping your glove from the lift when checking your phone, and they’re very warm without making me sweat. If you do sweat, the lining is removable so you can wash it without damaging the leather. —Martin Cizmar Courtesy of Crab Grab Crab Grab Snuggler Mitts for $89: These mini sleeping bags for your fingers are packed full …

​T​he ​Winter Olympics ​feel like a 90s ​snowboarding ​game​, and I’m here for it | Games

​T​he ​Winter Olympics ​feel like a 90s ​snowboarding ​game​, and I’m here for it | Games

Published by Sam Flores

As someone whose childhood holidays consisted of narrowboating along the Grand Union canal or wandering the harbour-side at Whitby looking for vampires, I have never been on a skiing break. The idea of plummeting down a hill on anything but a plastic sledge is totally alien to me. And yet, my wife and I have been gripped by the Winter Olympics, especially the snowboarding and freestyle skiing events. And I think I know why. Those events are really channelling the look and feel of the wintery sports sims I’ve always loved – especially those that arrived during a golden period in the mid-1990s. This was the era in which snowboarding was exploding in popularity, especially among twentysomethings with disposable incomes and no responsibilities – which coincidentally was the games industry’s target market at the time. Perhaps the first title to take advantage of this trend was Namco’s 1996 arcade game Alpine Surfer, which challenged players to stand on a snowboard-shaped controller and swoop as quickly as possible down a mountainside – it was one of …

Paralympic governing body lifts ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes ahead of 2026 games

Paralympic governing body lifts ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes ahead of 2026 games

Published by Sam Flores

Six Russian and four Belarusian athletes will be allowed to compete under their own national flags at the 2026 Paralympics in Milan-Cortina, the Games’ governing body confirmed to AFP on Tuesday. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) told AFP the athletes would be “treated like (those from) any other country”. Valeriy Sushkevych, president of the Ukrainian Paralympic Committee, was furious at the announcement. “I am very, very angry and outraged by the decision to allow six Russian athletes to compete under their national flag,” he told AFP by phone. “This is terrible.” Athletes from Russia and Belarus had been banned from competing under their own flags since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Read moreUkrainian skeleton racer Heraskevych loses appeal against Olympic ban The IPC unexpectedly lifted its suspension on Russian and Belarusian athletes at the organisation’s general assembly in September. The partial suspension – introduced in 2023 to replace the fullbban imposed after Russia’s invasion in 2022 – allowed athletes to compete only as neutrals. Athletes from both nations have been permitted to accumulate ranking points …

U.S. snowboarding star Chloe Kim takes silver in women’s halfpipe

U.S. snowboarding star Chloe Kim takes silver in women’s halfpipe

Published by Sam Flores

MILAN — Chloe Kim’s quest for a third straight Olympic gold medal fell just short in the women’s halfpipe final at Livigno Snow Park on Thursday. Follow along for live updates Kim’s first run earned an 88.00 after she landed a backside 720 before a switch-backside air, a switch double cork 1080 and an inverted 540 to close it off. She led midway through the third and final run, but South Korea’s Gaon Choi got a 90.25. Kim had one more chance to top Choi but failed to complete her final run. Choi, just 17, is the youngest medalist in the Olympics. Had Kim secured gold, she would have been the first snowboarder — man or woman — to have ever done it three consecutive times. U.S. snowboarding legend Shaun White has taken top honors in three different Olympics, but not in a row. Before the final, Kim said she was content with whatever happened. “I’m just going to do what I came here to do, and if they decide to give it to me, …

What Paralympic Athlete Monster Mike Schultz Packs for His Races

What Paralympic Athlete Monster Mike Schultz Packs for His Races

Published by skeptic

When he was 27, snow cross racer Mike Schultz (who got the nickname “Monster Mike” because of his renowned fearlessness) drifted off course in a race, flew off his snowmobile, and obliterated his knee. It required multiple surgeries and multiple days in a coma to save his life. Ultimately, his medical team had to amputate his leg. Rather than give up his love of action sports, Schultz engineered his own prosthetic knee and founded his own high-performance prosthetic company, BioDapt. His prostheses use a patented proprietary linkage system and mountain bike shocks to dial in such precise performance, enabling him to return to compete at the highest levels of the sport. Since 2008, he has won multiple Winter Paralympics and World Championships for adaptive snowboard cross and banked slalom. More importantly, however, extreme athletes, amputees, and veterans all use his prosthetics. That includes many of his competitors, whose gear he sometimes ends up repairing right before an event. “You never get the temptation to, you know, ‘fix’ a competitor’s Moto Knee?” I asked him over …

Best Ski Gloves and Mittens, Editor Tested and Reviewed (2026)

Best Ski Gloves and Mittens, Editor Tested and Reviewed (2026)

Published by skeptic

Outer Material: Most ski gloves are made using thick polyester treated with a waterproof DWR coating. These offer durable protection against the weather, although it is almost always worth spending a little more for Gore-Tex, or the equivalent waterproof membrane, to guarantee waterproof performance even in the wettest spring slush. Leather is a premium option for the very best ski gloves and mittens. It is soft, durable, and incredibly comfortable. But, unlike a polyester glove, leather requires a little more care, and you will need to use a specific leather cream to maintain softness, and also avoid drying them on the radiator, as it will dry out and potentially crack the leather. But, if looked after, a pair of premium leather gloves with a Gore-Tex liner will last for years. Check carefully as some leather gloves won’t be fully waterproof. Leather is naturally water resistant, which is great if you’re not planning on skiing in extreme conditions, but as always, look for a Gore-Tex membrane to ensure proper waterproofing. Skis and snowboards should be sharp, …

Ryan James Wedding, a Former Olympic Snowboarder —Turned America’s Most Wanted— Has Been Arrested By the FBI

Ryan James Wedding, a Former Olympic Snowboarder —Turned America’s Most Wanted— Has Been Arrested By the FBI

Published by Sam Flores

Wedding was first incarcerated in 2008 at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, where, according to Kalina, he began forging connections and absorbing lessons from seasoned foreign traffickers. “We did hear comments he’d make about meeting interesting people and learning things,” says Kalina, who listened to phone calls Wedding made to the outside world. After his conviction for conspiracy to traffic cocaine, Wedding was transferred to a federal prison in Texas. There, he met the man who would, more than a decade later, help bring about his downfall: Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia, a Colombian-Canadian with deep knowledge of the trade. Upon Wedding’s release in December 2011, the FBI alleges that he formally established his trafficking organization and installed Acebedo-Garcia as one of his most trusted operatives. Then, in 2024, Acebedo-Garcia appeared to vanish. Within Wedding’s organization, alarm bells went off. Word spread that he had been flipped by the FBI. He earned a new nickname: “the rat.” According to a US indictment, Wedding’s attorney, Deepak Paradkar—who often operated under the alias “cocaine lawyer”—advised that Wedding’s legal exposure would be …