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Just this past February she had the chance to head out to Sochi and check out the setup for next winter while competing in the official test event.

Since travelling to Russia and heading into the mountains is little more than a pipe dream for the most of us, we caught up with Mercedes to see what she thought of the trips to Russia, and the progress of the Winter Games prep.

Sochi, Russia. February 2013.

Before I left to go to Russia I was a little scared, wasn’t sure what to expect, knew that I was going to put the buddy system in effect! Once we got there it was nice to see that things were fairly organized for us. There was a group of people waiting to meet us as well as a bus to take us to our hotel.

It was a long trip to Russia! Took something like 2 days to get there. I left Whistler the 6th of February having had a great powder day to board a 6pm flight to London. YVR-LHR-SVO(Moscow)-AER(Sochi) arriving in Sochi on the 8th at 10am. Having a 12 hour time difference.

We got to spend a couple nights in Sochi, having a tour of the town. Saw the countdown clock for the games in the center of Sochi. We were taken to the museum downtown Socih as well, where we saw 3D Maps of the Olympic Venues. It was tee shirt weather in Sochi, the Black Sea was a beauty!

The architecture there is interesting, down in Sochi that is, it’s either construction, an amusement park or a shack. Not really anything in between. The language barrier is a difficult one as well. If you smile and use hand gestures, it doesn’t help, they just look at you with no reaction.

It’s about an hours drive up to the mountains, Rosa Khutor, where we found a lot of construction, a beautiful river and our hotel for the time. The Mountain was a huge surprise to me, if you take the gondola to the top there are amazing lines to be had.

Since the town of Rosa Khutor is so new there isn’t really a ski or snowboard culture, you needed accreditation to get up the hill, I have no idea where the locals were and how they’ve been affected by all this construction.

The Olympic area at the mountain is really cool, the Halfpipe, Aerials, and Moguls all share the same finish area.  I haven’t seen that before. It’s nice to see the other sports practice and compete. The night of halfpipe finals there was aerials practice going on as well as moguls. The venues at night were a sight to see!

While we were there I guess there were having record high temps. Doesn’t make for great winter sports, but last year at the same time in snowed a meter and a half, so only time will tell for next year!

I didn’t get the chance to try any crazy food, it was mostly Americanized as we were staying at the Raddison. I did bring a lot of food, thinking there would be crazy meat soup and who knows what!

To finish off the trip, I had to try the Vodka! It was a necessity!

From Russia with LOVE,

xoxo

Powder Room team rider, and Snow-ga instructor (aka yoga for snowboarders) put together a snow-ga routine that will help your flexibility, and your riding.

Dom’s guide to Snow-ga.

The aim of yoga movements is to give you strong and flexible muscle, a powerful mind and conscious breathing. Fortunately it’s exactly what you want for snowboarding. The more mind and body connection you make, the more agile and in control you are on the slopes.

Yoga also helps to open your hips that naturally get tight doing pretty much anything but specially snowboarding. Opening your hips will help protect your knees, ankles and lower back. When your hips are open, it helps to take the impact when you turn, spin, land and even fall. Doing yoga just once or a few times as week will make a huge difference to your body. Just try it for yourself and reap-in other yoga benefits without even trying.

This is my favorite yoga sequence that I put together a few years ago. I do it every morning as soon as I roll out of bed after a big glass of water. Weather you go riding or hangout all day, your body will feel good and open. It even helps with digestion, specially first thing in the morning.Kick-starting your system the right way.

It might be a little hard at first but it get’s easy fast I promise.

Dom

If you read through the story and have a look at the photos we have no doubt that you will be too.  After all, it combines one of the best sports and an extremely important cause. 

This is what Dom thought of the event.

Boobs, titties, tatas, melons, lady lumps, who doesn’t love breasts? They are all beautiful no matter their shape or size. How appropriate as Megan Pischke and I drive up to this giant peak covered with snow. Red Mountain resort is hosting the first ever event ReTreat Yourself in collaboration with Boarding for Breast Cancer.

Three days packed of fresh mountain air near Rossland, BC with yoga, journaling, slope riding, nutrition, massage and beyond. A retreat for breast cancer survivors to find healing and supporting friends and for all women to learn more about the mind/body connection in the mountains with the help of amazing healers.

The mountains provide a space of clarity and grounding. A space to disconnect from anything that isn’t real and valuable. Only the present matters, not the emails or phone calls you need to answer to, not what “she said, he said” the other day. The mountains, the fresh air and the snow couldn’t care less about the small stuff, all that matters is the rhythm of nature right now. Feeling that connection alone is what binds you to the earth. This is why in some level, we all love riding some much, no matter what the conditions. It’s pure living.

Megan, long time friend Kendra Starr, Maria Debari and I catch-up for some good times and powder laps a few days before the main event, catboarding on Red Mountain in the new Grey zone. Red Mountain is perfect for this event, and hopefully the first of many.

In total 13 women from all over Canada and the US join us for the weekend. The B4BC Scholarship Fund, sponsored by The North Face provided10 fully-paid ReTreat Yourself spaces for breast cancer survivors, but spaces were opened for all women to attend.

Incredible women are involved to make this long weekend a success. The day starts off with yoga and journaling with highly acclaimed yoga teacher Kristin Campbell. After some deep hip and chest opener, a hardy breakfast is in order before hitting the slopes.

A stop at the B4BC booth to register for the draw saturday night and get valuable information from breast exam, healthy eating habits to toxic chemicals in everyday cosmetics. Knowledge is everything.

The ladies enjoy a full day on the hill with the pros such as pro-snowboarder and ReTreat leader Megan Pischke, pro-snowboarder/Doctor of Chinese medicine, Kendra Starr and pro-skier Kasha Rigby.

Off the hill, the ladies can relax and catch their zen by booking some time with master massage therapist and post-surgery breast tissue scientist Susan Chapelle from Squamish, BC. Linda Kennoy, life counselor from Colorado, will help you unfold your life’s blockages so you can strive forward; 10 minutes with her will leave you empowered and ready to conquer the world.

ShRed the Love day on Saturday was awesome!! Red Mountain gave 50% of their sales to B4BC as well as what was raised that day from the raffle tickets sold and the silent auction from donations from The North Face, Gnu, Yes and Powder Room at the Rafters bar. The soon to be famous band, Allen Stone, performed right after to a full house. There’s nothing like a world class music performance in a small, overloaded resort bar full of pumped, semi-drunk, ski-boot-thumpers.

Shred the Love is a way of being – healthy, active, and aware. Since 1998, B4BC has been hosting grassroots events in partnership with local mountains as a platform to promote healthy, active living. A total of $5,156.73 was raised that day for the cause.

The weekend went on, bonds were made stronger, nutritious antioxidant cooling foods were eaten family style, shakra’s were opened and slopes were shredded.

All the ladies were all touched and inspired by the time Monday came around for a final intimate lunch at the Starter Shack on the very top of the mountain before packing up and saying good byes, or more like see ya later.

No words can give this event real justice, so for more info please check out the links below.

For more info:
http://b4bc.org/retreat-yourself-2013-at-red-mountain/

Best new must have free App: B4BC
Funny add for Red Mountain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7Z0MBLHF20&list=UUL6rdygij-FOe5fSetS3ELg&index=18

Dominique Vallée

We caught up with Powder Room team rider Mercedes Nicoll so she could walk us through the steps of waxing a board, and a few key things to keep in mind while you’re doing it.

Mercedes waxing tips:

1. You can tell when you need to wax because the edges of your board’s base will begin to become white along the edges.
2. You never want to hold your iron in one spot for too long or you may bubble your base.
3. Try not to use too much wax. You don’t need much to effectively get the wax into the base’s pores, plus it will mean a lot less work to scrape the excess wax off.
4. Avoid using an older scraper if you can.  A new scraper makes scraping much easier.
5. You are done scraping when there isn’t anymore wax residue coming off.

I was so excited yesterday when I tried on some photo-samples from the new Powder Room International line of Fall 2013. New styles, new designs and new fits like never seen before in snow outerwear, really mixing fashion and function in one. Powder Room has reinvented itself.

After working extensively with the design team in the last year, including meetings with Mercedes at the Powder Room main office this summer, mixed in with countless emails and Skype sessions with our head designer and mastermind Cindy Taylor which all paid off; the changes are huge! I can’t wait to go to Las Vegas in a few weeks for our catalogue shoot and see all the jackets come to life. A huge thank you to the design team for all the hard work, I’ve never been so pumped and proud to represent Powder Room.

Lots more stories to come out of Vegas.
To be continued…

dom

Attention Grade 4s & 5s

Want to ski and ride free this winter?  The Canadian Ski Council’s 2012-2013 SnowPass™ lets you ski and ride three times at EACH participating ski area all across Canada!  That means you get to ski or snowboard free three days at every one of your favourite ski areas; if you have a lot of favourite Canadian ski areas, that’s a lot of free skiing and boarding!

Requirements are simple:  You need to be 9 or 10 years old, living in Canada, and want to experience this great winter sport.

Beginner?  All the better…all Grade 4s and 5s are welcome!

Great news…you can now use your Grade 4 & 5 SnowPass card all across Canada!

Tu es en 4e ou 5e année?

Tu veux skier et surfer gratuitement cet hiver?  Le programme Passeport des neiges 2012-2013 du Conseil canadien du ski (CCS) te permet de skier et de surfer trois fois à CHACUNE des stations de ski participantes partout au Canada!  Cela signifie que tu pourras skier ou surfer gratuitement pendant trois jours à chacune de tes stations de ski préférées; sit u as beaucoup de stations de ski canadiennes préférées, tu auras alors la chance de skier ou de surfer très souvent!

Les conditions sont simples.  Tu dois être âgé de 9 ou de 10 ans, habiter au Canada et avoir envie d’essayer ces merveilleux sports d’hiver.

Tu es débutant?  Tant mieux…tous les élèves de 4e et de 5e années sont les bienvenus!

Bonnes nouvelles…Tu peux maintenant utiliser ta carte Passeport des neiges 4e et 5e années partout au Canada!

Fonctions et responsabilités essentielles

• Éduquer et former les employés de vente au détail sur les marques, la technologie et l’héritage des marques Ripzone / Powder-Room
• Favoriser l’expérience du consommateur en faisant la promotion des marques lors de divers évènements.
• Collaborer avec les représentants actuels afin d’harmoniser et de soutenir les initiatives et les objectifs.
• Mettre l’accent sur la vente en formant les associés.
• Faire office de personne-ressource sur les marques Ripzone et Powder Room à l’échelle locale : diriger des cliniques, organiser des activités spéciales et communiquer le message de la marque.
• Visiter les magasins selon l’horaire prioritaire établi par le directeur des ventes.
• Planifier et diriger des « journées des vendeurs » et des activités de formation sur le terrain avec les partenaires de vente au détail.
• Transmettre les commentaires des clients au chef, Ventes et marketing, relativement aux besoins sur le terrain (p. ex., faible niveau de stocks, tendances de consommation dans les régions, changements à la surface de vente et concours de vente).
• Assister aux expositions commerciales et aux réunions de vente pertinentes liées à l’industrie.

Qualifications
Langue

•Maîtrise du français parlé et écrit. La connaissance de l’anglais constitue un atout.

Études / Expérience

• Expérience à un poste connexe aux reponsabilités similaires.
• Expérience dans le secteur canadien du commerce de détail et/ou bonne connaissance de l’industrie du ski et de la, planche à neige.
• Diplôme collégial ou universitaire

Ce qu’il vous faut pour réussir.

• Être passionné par la planche à neige et les sports d’action
• Avoir de l’initiative
• Être très structuré
• Avoir de solides aptitudes à l’établissement de relations d’affaires.
• Avoir une personnalité dynamique
• Aptitudes au multitâche
• Aptitude à travailler de façon autonome ainsi qu’en équipe.
• Posséder un permis de conduire valide
• Avoir une bonne connaissance des principales applications de médias sociaux (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
• Être en mesure d’effectuer des déplacements en Amérique du Nord, au besoin
• Être en mesure et être disposé à travailler selon un horaire flexible
• Maîtrise de toutes les applications Windows

Lieu de travail principal :  Montréal
Entreprise: Ripzone / Powder Room

Horaire : temps plein

Ripzone et Powder Room sont des marques canadiennes de sports d’action qui font partie de la famille de marques de RMP Athletic Locker Ltd. R.M.P. Athletic est une société privée établie à Mississauga, en Ontario. R.M.P. Athletic Locker fait partie de l’industrie canadienne des articles de sport depuis plus de 30 ans.

www.ripzoneinternational.com
www.powderroominternational.com

Veuillez envoyer votre C.V. et votre lettre d’accompagnement à : ripzone@rmpathletic.com

_________________________________________________________________________________

RIPZONE & POWDER ROOM
Job title: Brand Support Rep
Description

Quebec – based in Montreal
Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Educate and train retail employees on Ripzone/Powder Room brands, technology and brand heritage.
• Create consumer experience’s promoting the brands at various events
• Partner with existing account reps to align with and support field initiatives and goals.
• Focused on driving sell-through by training associates
• Serve as an authority for the Ripzone and Powder Room brands at the local level – conduct clinics, host events, communicate brand message.
• Conduct store visits aligned to sales manager priority schedule
• Schedule and execute vendor days and field training events with retail partners.
• Provide feedback from accounts to Sales and Marketing Manager’s on field needs (e.g. low stock, regional consumer trends, floor changes, and sales contests).
• Attend relevant industry related trade shows and sales meetings.

Qualifications
Language

• MUST BE fluent in English & French, both written and spoken communication

Education/Experience

• Experience in a related job with similar experiences
• A back ground in the Canadian retail industry and/or knowledge of the Snow/Surf industry
• College or University graduate

What you will need to be successful

• A passion for snowboarding and action sports
• Self Motivated
• Very organized
• Strong relationship building skills
• Passionate, driven personality
• Ability to multi task
• Ability to work independently as well as in a team
• In possession of a valid drivers license
• Be proficient with major Social Media applications
• Ability to travel within North America when required
• Able and willing to work flexible hours
• Proficient in all Windows applications

Primary Location: Quebec territory Organization: Ripzone/Powder Room Schedule: Full-time Job Posting: July 15, 2012 Ripzone and Powder Room are Canadian action sport brands that are part of the R.M.P Athletic Locker Ltd family of brands. R.M.P. Athletic is a privately held company based in Mississauga, Ontario. R.M.P. Athletic Locker has been part of the Canadian apparel industry for over 30 years.

Please email your resume to ripzone@rmpathletic.com.

View from Molly's patio in Wanaka

It’s been about two weeks since I arrived in New Zealand with the sole purpose of just shredding a whole lot of park, get some new tricks in the bag and to bring my consistency up. I’m riding at Cardrona, and am super impressed with the set-up there. There are four nice-sized jumps you can hit in a row, tons of rail features that run almost all the way to the bottom of the lift, plus the terrain is nice and roll-y. Perfect for practicing new tricks to bring to the big jumps later.

Upon arrival, I was able to master driving on the left side of the road and round-a-bouts pretty quickly, however I still look ridiculous and take forever parking my car, and juuuuust got over constantly switching on the windshield wipers instead of my turn signal. Despite it supposedly being spring-ish, we’ve been hit with a few pretty big storms and after hiring chains for the day to get up the mountain and realizing they were the wrong fit resulting in us having to remove both tires in order to get the chains off PLUS one sketchy couple of seconds losing control driving down the mountain, I finally realized I needed to upgrade to 4 wheel drive. Whew, dodged that bullet.

When I’m not on the hill here, I’ve been spending my time taking photos, cooking, and starting this week, I joined a pretty intense fitness class at the gym to work on my muscles recovery time. Holy these are some challenging classes. Check out www.mollymilligan.ca <http://www.mollymilligan.ca> for recaps of each workout.

I haven’t been to NZ in a really, really long time and I’m so stoked on my decision to come down here, I know it’s going to make a huge difference in how the rest of my season plays out, with little to no “warm-up” once early season kicks in in November. My goal is to qualify for the Canadian Olympic Slopestyle team in just over a years’ time, so from here on in I’m making every effort to get in as much time on snow as possible. I’ll continue to work with my coach, Mister Joe McAdoo at the Whistler Valley Snowboard Club, he’s been integral in how much I’ve progressed over the last year.

So I’m here until the mountain closes, which is around October 8th I think, and then I’ll be heading home to Yellowknife for a few weeks before getting back to Whistler to unpack and settle myself in for the season. I am hoping to travel for a month of early riding in Colorado before the competition circuits begin – fricking pumped for another great winter ahead!

Molly.

classic jump-in-the-air with glee shot

As most winters go, there are highs and there are lows to deal with and this season wasn’t any different. Just as the ball was getting rolling on some of the bigger comps of the year, I managed to bruise not one, but two heels at the Burton Canadian Open in Calgary. This is a pretty common injury with snowboarders, but something I’d been lucky enough to avoid up until then.

I took the next three weeks off and talked to three physiotherapists and one doctor about treatment as well as alot of friends with much of the same conclusion. There’s nothing you can do except give it the time to heal. How depressing.

They did start getting alot better, and I was riding again, albeit with significant discomfort which was a big step up from the pain I was in in the beginning. And it wasn’t until I’d waited three weeks to get in to see a particularly popular physiotherapist here in Whistler (popular equals really good. Really good equals a three week wait to see her in the winter) and I was giving her the rundown of my aches and pains and previous injuries, when she started staring at my heels. Which I hadn’t mentioned. “Oh yeah” I said, “I bruised my heels awhile ago as well” and she had noticed immediately because the fat pads on the bottom of my heels were totally off to the side. They aren’t supposed to be off to the side. And contrary to what every other person I’d been seeing about this was saying, you actually can tape your heels, and you NEED to, not just for the pain, but for them to heal properly.

After this, my season just got better and better. My confidence was back, I was riding strong, and managing to bring in some good competition results by the end of the winter. And then there was May. Man did we ever get a lot of sunny days! Holy crap did I learn a lot. The only thing that could top off such a great end to the season would be finding out I’d also made it onto the National Development Team. It means a lot that despite the frustrating first half of my winter, these guys see my potential.

I’ll be spending my summer riding up on the Glacier, jumping on trampolines, working out and biking. Pretty good plan I’d say, now if only we could get some sun….