Ask the best snowboarders, or those most-traveled, to name a world-famous ski resort that has done the most to accommodate snowboarders. A frequent answer will be Tignes in eastern France.

Tignes, at its peak, is more than two miles above sea level. The lift is at 3,350 meters, which translates to about 11,000 feet. This has led Tignes patrons to describe "the closest slopes to the sun. At this height, combined with the effect of the Grande Motte Glacier, the climate remains so cold that there is deep light powder available for virtually the entire year. Another statement that snowboarders use to describe Tignes is as follows: "When it snows elsewhere in the Alps, it dumps on Tignes."

Many top resorts are known to accommodate only the highest caliber snowboarders and skiers. Tignes prides itself on providing vacation opportunities and fun for snowboarders of any level, down to beginners. Lessons for beginners are offered in English.

Still, for the snowboarding maven, Tignes is it. There are more than 180 miles of pistes available at Tignes, and so many off-piste places that Tignes annually hosts the Free Ride World Tour.

The Tignes area is so vast and high that freestyle snowboarders may take a lift and ride straight to a chalet, to the Tignes resort center or to one of 20 mountain restaurants. Runs are as long as 9 miles.

For snowboarders who wish to stay closer together, Tignes offers a pair of pipes and a vast terrain park.

In fact, expect some company regardless. Tignes possesses 47 lifts that are able to handle 75,000 boarders and skiers per hour. Just to make sure the slopes remain lightly powered, more than 200 snow cannons are at work at Tignes.

Tignes is so popular, in fact, that there are daily 85-mile bus runs from Geneva International Airport in Switzerland.

Sources:
http://www.j2ski.com/ski_resorts/France/Tignes.html
http://www.alpineelements.co.uk/snowboarding-holidays/resort/tignes.html
http://www.snowboardingholidays.net/location.php?LocationID=1266
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/snowandski/4030838/Snowboarding-the-worlds-best-resorts.html

Professional snowboarder Antti Autti is only 23, but it's been more than three years since his stunning gold medal victory in the super pipe at the 2005 Winter X Games. He skyrocketed to victory with back-to-back 1080s, which of course is a 360 multiplied by three. This is a trick that the other professional snowboarders, from Shaun White on down, were forced to learn in order to remain competitive.

One would think that to succeed at such a young age, Antti Autti is super-competitive. Indeed, he works hard and puts in his practice, but he looks for more than gold medals when he's on tour.

"It would be best if people who throw themselves into snowboarding understood what this sport is about," Autti says. "The competitions alone don't mean everything. There'll always be more of them. In my opinion, the fun going-ons and the smile on your face are a lot more important. Doing well's nice, no doubt about it, but it's important that you don't lose the pleasure of the riding itself in the competing."

Antti Autti was born in Rovamiemi, Finland, which is a city of 55,000 and sits on the Arctic Circle. Needless to say, Autti never was lacking for snow as a child.

Autti was taught first how to ski by his father, Yrjo Autti, a football (soccer) star on the Finnish National Team. He was 10 years old, on a family ski vacation, when he saw somebody snowboarding. He decided he wanted to try snowboarding, and his father and mother (Katariina) were open minded enough to allow him to break tradition. In contrast, his younger brother Tuomas is focused on freestyle skiing.

Antti Autti's first competitions were in 2001, after he turned 16. Despite his flashy 1080s, he is known for technical skills and a smooth style. He has excelled on the half pipe as well as the super pipe, and his favorite trick isn't the 1080, but a switch-backside 540.

Autti looks forward to the 2010 Winter Olympics. In 2006 at Turin, he placed fifth with a controversial, low score that caused booing from the Italian fans. His countryman and teammate who won the third-place bronze, Markku Koski, told reporters that it should have been Autti with the prestigious medal.

Autti also enjoys skateboarding, photography, music and Johnny Depp movies. But despite doing 1080s, he doesn't like airplanes. With his snowboard, says Antti Autti, he's in control.

Sources:
http://www.airbornmag.com/article_details.asp?ID=42
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antti_Autti
http://snowboardermag.com/features/fresh-and-tracked-with-antti-autti/

Eddie Wall is one of the hardest-practicing technical experts in professional snowboarding and one of the most fun-loving free spirits. His background demonstrates why these seemingly opposite traits go together.

Born in Pennsylvania, Eddie Wall managed to land in the state's definitely non-Allegheny flat portion. He grew up in the small town of Rome, which he describes as two hours from "the smallest hill imaginable."

Still, he found his way to enough places to gain some skills. His main accomplice and friend was his father, Eddie Wall Sr., who was also into boarding as one of the sport's elder statesmen. Eddie Wall Jr. worked construction with his father from the time he was 13-years-old.

"My dad and I started snowboarding together, which is really cool," says the younger Eddie. "We always used to go up and poach pipes, just hike up the mountain and ride the pipe." On one occasion, at Camelback in the Pocono Mountains, they got busted by ski patrol officers.

Eddie knew what he wanted. Upon graduation, he headed for California and Mt. Nebo, where he supported himself for two years as a dishwasher and night janitor. With gradual practice, he became one of the world's best and best-known snowboarders.

This experience sort of makes Eddie Wall an older scolder, as he observes younger snowboarders who follow an easier path.

"The money and fame that these kids are chasing is taking a lot of the purity out of the sport," he laments. "In a few years, it may be similar to baseball and football, soccer moms yelling at their kids for not landing a 1080 ... Snowboarding was never supposed to be like that."

Eddie Wall says his crib in San Clemente is filled with so many loose surfboards and skateboards that "it's such a ghetto." He lists his favorite places to party as "Europe, L.A., premier tours, Whistler, Quebec, my house, pretty much anywhere."

That covers a lot of ground, but if anyone has earned it, it's Eddie Wall.

Sources:
http://snowboardermag.com/features/snowboarder-vital-20-eddie-wall/
http://fueltv.fuel.tv/FUELTVED/blogs/view/3446?item=25774&type=Blog
http://snowboardermag.com/features/online-exclusives/eddie-wall-interview/
http://www.grindtv.com/athlete/eddie_wall/bio/

During our nice warm summer north of the equator, Jamie Anderson has been making her mark on women's pro snowboarding during the winter and south of the demarcation line.

She turned 18 years old on September 13. En route, she had a clean sweep at the New Zealand Open in the slope-style and half-pipe competitions. This allowed her to emerge No. 1 in the Burton Global Open Series and the Swatch Ticket to Ride World Snowboard Tour.

One newspaper headline simply stated, "Beware, women's half pipe riders." This was because Jamie had been best known as a teen phenomenon in slope style.

Former Olympic half-pipe gold medalist Kelly Clark was first in half-pipe qualifying in New Zealand, and Anderson barely squeaked into the finals in eighth place out of 36 participants. Anderson was the first of eight half-pipe finalists to ride for the judges. She caught their eyes by executing an inverted backside 540. The maneuver won best trick and helped her score 84.25, a total the other riders couldn't top, despite four attempts. Clark placed third.

In slope style, Anderson was so dominant that her 90 points strongly surpassed runner up Cheryl Maas of the Netherlands, who scored 66 point.

Anderson then went on to sweep the Swatch TTR Billabong Big Air Event. At only 18, she was a veteran repeat winner.

The web site Go211.com responded to the New Zealand accomplishments, describing Jamie Anderson as "a female Shaun White." Indeed, three years ago Jamie became the youngest Winter X medalist at age 15, edging out Shaun by a few days. She already has three X-Games medals to her credit, most recently winning the 2008 Gold in slope style for the second year in a row.

Jamie plans to continue her surge by competing in the Australian Open in October. After all, it still is winter Down Under.

She is one of eight siblings, with five sisters and two brothers. Her sister, Joanie Anderson, won the 2007 X-Games in snowboard cross.

Blonde-haired Jamie Anderson is 5-foot-2, 120 pounds, and will complete her senior year at California's South Lake Tahoe High School by taking work-study courses. She netted $10,000 for her New Zealand Open victories.

Sources:

www.stanton-company.com/2008/08/14/Jamie-anderson-shows-her-diversity

www.stanton-company.com/2008/08/08/double-honours-for-us-snowboarder

www.go211.com/u/jamieanderson

expn.go.com/expn/athletes/bio?id=26003

Amber Stackhouse and Fabia Grueebler were among female pro snowboarders who saw a problem. They wanted more publicity and they saw a lot of movie making going on, but these snowboard flicks were doing little for the chicks. Gals would only get scant 30-second segments, and their tricks looked feeble compared to the guys.

Solution? Amber and Fabia created Mischief Filmsand have produced a pair of all-girl films, "As If" and "Ro Sham Bo."

"We just wanted women to get more attention in the sport," Fabia says. "We wanted to make movies with riding, not just all talking or girly-ness. We didn't put the movies out to be feminists."

Amber is a Roxy Girl who has taken the lead as the producer and director, at the expense of her own time on the slopes. Snowboarding is combined with freestyle skiing.

"I just dove in, and it was sink or swim," Amber says. "I took some cues from the guys' companies that we were friends with."

Fabia explains that filming opens new opportunities for the women to take some risks. Many play it safe during competitions, as they concentrate on solid landings. Film gives them a chance to do it over.

"It's just a fact: The landing percentage is a little bit smaller than for the guys," Fabia says with a laugh. "A lot of the filmers we hired came from men's movie productions, so they had to learn different angles because women ride with a different style. They couldn't be that far away because, you know, the girls aren't going to be as big as Travis Rice."

Amber says the men predicted that the ladies would engage in catfights while gathered en mass for filming, but that the guys have it wrong.

"They're great girls," she says. "I'm friends with all of them, and they're incredibly talented. I figure it's about time to bring the two together."

Names of those featured, along with Amber and Fabia, include: Natasza Zurek, Laura Hadar, Victoria Jealouse, Erin Comstock, Hana Beaman, Annie Boulanger, Anne-Flore Marxer, Izumi Amaike, Stacy Thomas, Marie-France Roy, Leanne Pelosi, Tara Dakides, Silvia Mittermuller, Spencer O'Brien, Jacqui Berg, Priscilla Lewis, Maribeth Swetkoff, Alexis Waite, Kelly Clark, Gretchen Bleiler, Torah Bright, and Jamie Anderson.

Sources:

www.lat34.com/snowboard/girl_on_amber_stackhouse_2

snowboardermag.com/features/online-exclusives/interview-fabia-06

Tim Windell, the "voice of American snowboarding" during the 1980s, has evolved into one of the leading camp operators on Mt. Hood near Portland.

Snowboarding continues to gain some history, but few people have been involved long enough to put together multiple careers. One of them is Tim Windell. He was a champion World Cup Pro racer during the 1980s, and became a rider representative and shop owner. He now is entering his third decade operating year-round camps on Mt. Hood, near Portland, Ore., known simply as Windell's Camp.

Yes, Mt. Hood is one of the few places in the continental United States that has enough elevation to keep fine powder even in summer for superpipes, kickers and rails. Windell says his main goal, other than to earn a living, is to demonstrate "fun professionalism" for campers of all ages. The process is "snowboarders teaching snowboarders."

He started during the late 1980s with a small group of mostly professionals, but soon expanded his vision to focus on youth and offer instruction for all skill levels. Snowboarding is definitely the focus, but his venue also offers a skateboarding facility, a 12,000-square-foot indoor recreation center, a BMX track, mountain biking trails and pro shops.

He called his location "Shred the World" for several years, but by 1994 he decided that the term "shred" wasn't cool anymore, so he dropped it.

At the same time he purchased the Shamrock Motel, which was in bankruptcy court, to provide ideal housing for the campers. During his competitive career, while the sport became popular during the 1980s, Windell was known as "the voice of American snowboarding." He won nine national championships and twice finished as runner-up in worldwide competion. Since then he has won multiple awards for promoting the sport, including the 2006 Anna McIntyre Citation and the 2007 Russell Wilder Award.

"Snowboarding has defined my life, from the first day I stepped into bindings to the overwhelming joy of being crowned two-time vice world champion. This was the beginning of the rest of my life," Windell says.

"My love for snowboarding helped me characterize myself and find something even more amazing: snowboard, ski and skateboard camps. Seeing a smile on the face of a camper makes it all worthwhile. Camp has changed people's lives forever, including my own."

The web site for Windells Camp is www.windells.com. The sign on the side of the road says, "The 'funnest' place on earth." : )

SOURCES: www.mthoodmagazine.com