The US women won first second and third podium finishes at the FIS World Cup halfpipe snowboarding competition held in Italy over the weekend. Thanks to www.fisttracksonline.com for bringing us this story.

The women of U.S. Snowboarding swept the podium of a World Cup halfpipe contest in Italy on Saturday with Kelly Clark (Mt. Snow, VT) in first, Hannah Teter (Belmont, VT) in second and Gretchen Bleiler (Aspen, CO) in third.

“For me personally it’s a good feeling to win where I was defeated three years ago,” Clark said. “Hannah was riding very strong but I just did my run as I wanted it. I’m glad that I won this great event and that the U.S. took one, two and three.”

Clark last competed in Bardonecchia when she placed fourth trying to defend her Olympic gold medal during the 2006 Games in Torino. Now, while it’s not the Olympics, Clark feels redemption.

“When we talked to her after the podium she said, ‘I got my rebate from Bardonecchia,’ because in 2006 she wanted more than anything to be standing on top of that podium,” U.S. Snowboarding Halfpipe Head Coach Mike Jankowski said. “While it’s not an Olympic medal, it’s a hard-fought win for Kelly.”

Clark put together a frontside air, backside 5, frontside 7, cab 7 and frontside 5 for the win at the former Olympic venue, which had challenging conditions due to record snowfall.

“Bardonecchia has the most snow they’ve had in about 50 years and we got here and the pipe was challenging. We had just come from some great competitions and we showed up to a smaller pipe and challenging conditions,” Jankowski said. “We knew there was only one way to go and that was up. So, we said every day it’s going to get better. We pushed our way through semi finals and got our way through to finals.”

In all, Jankowski was very pleased with how the women swept the podium.

The ladies had an absolutely stellar day. I think, obviously, things really went our way,” Jankowski said. “The pipe was in great shape today. I think there were some memories from 2006 going through some of the ladies’ heads and they were able to dig deep, be themselves and they were able to come out on top.”

In the men’s field, it was France’s Mathieu Crepel who earned the best score with 47.0 points, winning today’s World Cup ahead of second ranked Nathan Johnstone (43.5) from Australia and Swiss rider Iouri Podladtchikov (42.8).

Crepel missed the 2006 Olympic finals by placing 17th, although “this dates way back. But I have learned what I had to learn from this. Today, it was a new contest.”

The 24-year old impressed in the second run of the finals with a brilliant finish. Crepel started with a Frontside 1080 into a Cab 1080, followed by a Frontside Air as well as a Backside 540, just to finish his run with a Frontside 1260 as smooth as his other tricks.

“After the other riders had attacked in run two I had to step it up, too. And I did it. I’m super stoked. I wanted to give my best, especially as all the fans had cheered so much.”

Steve Fisher (Breckenridge, CO), who was first in qualifications Friday, finished seventh for the best result from the U.S. men.

According to Jankowski, getting in some competition time against an international field can only benefit the men.

“The international field is super strong right now and it’s good for us to get out there and ride against those best riders in the world,” Jankowski said.

Now, the riders move to Cypress Mountain just outside of Vancouver where they will compete in a World Cup at the 2010 Olympic venue. But, the fact that a year from now they will be competing on the world’s stage at Cypress doesn’t phase the athletes.

“We just take it one pipe at a time and we’re definitely not getting ahead of ourselves,” Jankowski said. “As long as the pipe is in good shape, whether it’s a Revolution Tour, a Grand Prix or the Olympics, we go there to win and I expect our athletes to push hard for the win.”

OFFICIAL RESULTS
2009 LG SNOWBOARD FIS WORLD CUP
Bardonecchia, Italy – Feb. 7, 2009
Halfpipe

Men
1. Mathieu Crepel, France, 47.0
2. Nathan Johnstone, Austria, 43.5
3. Iouri Podladtchikov, Switzerland, 42.8
4. Christian Haller, Switzerland, 42.5
5. Rolf Feldmann, Switzerland, 40.6

Women
1. Kelly Clark, Mt. Snow, VT, 45.1
2. Hannah Teter, Belmont, VT, 43.2
3. Gretchen Bleiler, Aspen, CO, 39.4
4. Holly Crawford, Australia, 36.3
5. Kjersti Buaas, Norway, 34.9

The action below comes from GerryPallor at the US halfpipe 2007 Burton snowboarding championships which shows Shaun White winning the competition and he explains how he attracted the nickname ‘animal’ , and it also shows the winner of the women’s event – none other than the gorgeous Kelly Clark who won again and also the equally lovely Gretchen Bleiler in very close attendance.

In the early 90’s I had to good fortune and pleasure to skate and travel around the world with Julien Stranger. At the time I was very closed off from the people around me, but enjoyed the adventure very much. Julien is one of the more intelligent people I got to travel with and also one of the most inspirational. Check out this frontside air. I don’t remember who shot it, but I found it in my stash of photos. Amazing!

Sorry so slow. Real life has stolen my House of Steam time lately. But I “Musn’t Grumble” So here are a couple contemporary pictures of Skate Hell Team rider Todd Morrow. He is still ripping and getting his mug on the cover of the local skate mags! Todd sent i a fine stack of old school pictures I will be getting on with adding to the archive ASAP.Nice One Todd!

I just realized I don’t know where Dunedin is? Someone comment

Todd Morrow 2007 R & R Dunedin

Todd Morrow Local Skate Zine Dunedin 2007

3 days of Camp Fight Club

Or

Children are the death of the future

Or

No Blood till Brooklyn

Or

Is Too much Free Beer a Good thing?

Last Friday I went down to DC once again, partially because I was supposed to go to court on Friday morning, but the judge decided he didn’t want to show, so I will be going back at some point. Well, that didn’t stop me from enjoying 3 and a half fun and sun filled days at the beloved Camp Fight Club!

For those of you who are not familiar with Fight Club, it is a community space dedicated to the providing a place for skating music and art in the Washington DC area. It is privately owned and operated by a group of people including Stephanie, Ben, Dan and Jen. They have a very cool bowl inside the warehouse area which is temporarily dismantled during renovations. They are also working on building an outdoor punk ramp, which we official had the ground breaking party for on Friday night. First we went to the Gordon Biersch Brewery where Jason Oliver is the Brew Master.

“3 wise men, Tommy Jason and JC and there hops…”

He flowed drinks and food as he gave Tommy, JC and me a tour of the facilities. It was pretty cool, and the beer was great!

“little Steam Jesus”

Later we headed back to Fight Club to start drinking as we moved around 3000 lbs of dirt from where the ramp is going to go.

“John and Matt Moving Dirt”

It was hell on earth as we shovel and picked away for 3 to 4 hours, getting drunker and drunker the whole time! Man those guys really know how to party down there!

So on Saturday. After I got up early and went to 7 Art Museums, we decided to go to the Chaumpa Ramp in the woods next to Jeff and Susie’s house, and reportedly built by Devan of CCCC fame. Oh, let me mention at this point that the punk ramp at Fight Club is going to have some of the original steel from…guess where…that’s right, Cedar Crest. It was delivered without explanation a few months ago and it is going to be used to surface the new ramp. It’ll be good to skate on something covered in my blood again! Chaumpa is like 9, 10.5 and 12 feet in height, and around 2 miles wide, swear to God!

Jeff Frontstide air D.C 2007

The tall side sits lower than the shorter part so the coping lines up. It also has an escalator, pool coping and a French maid; just kidding about the French maid. Me and Tommy had been bragging over who could do the higher air, him or me, and neither of us had much to do after the drinking and the shoveling. I think Tommy actually made an air, and you can see his body jar is almost the 8 feet out he claimed he would do.

Tommy Body Jar D.C. 2007

Ah, there was shit talking galore! I am going back soon to skate it for real, and learn how to take pictures with a real camera again. On to the night life; We decided to go out to the Black Cat, a popular bar in the DC area. It was pretty cool, and Tommy and I schooled some pool as well, as Tommy’s friend flowed free beer and shots. Then Ben said his friend Steve Teig worked down the street, and I thought the name sounded familiar. We went over and it was just as I thought; Steve Teig and I rode together for Tracker and both flew out to the NSA Finals on the same flight back in 1989 or something, maybe 90. I can’t remember, it was that long ago, but somehow I remembered this guy. We talked about old times and new times, met his brother and drank more free beer and shots. Eventually we were tore up and had to go back to camp Fight Club. On Sunday, Dan made it official by assigning me my very own Fight Club Locker! By the way, thanks guys, I’ll be back. If anyone is interested in helping at the Fight Club Project let me know and I will pass along the contact information.

Next Week: Who knows, maybe the Oil City Skate Park, right her in Long Island New York, now owned by KEN PARK!!!

Jay

Well there it is our first of many installments of “No Way!! Its Jay” (thanks to Tom Groholski for inspiring the name)

If you would like to have Jay Henry at your ramp, event, wedding or special occasion The House of Steam is accepting all bookings. Just put WE WANT JAY in the subject line and email jasonoliva@gmail.com.

Little Steam Jesus….too funny!

YouTubeSkate (Videos)

JasonOliva.com

Forums

Subscribe

MySpace

East Coast Pride by Tom Groholski

Skateboardings Golden Age

Remember The House of Steam is looking for Sponsorship, Submissions and Suggestions!!! Send all to jasonoliva@gmail.com

Tom Groholski Cherry Hill Skate Park NJ Circa ?

Tom Groholski Frontside Air Cherry Hill Skate Park NJ

Tom Groholski Frontside Grind Cherry Hill NJ

Tom Groholski Invert Cherry Hill

Photos provided by Tom Groholski

Im not gonna go too far out on a limb here and say these are from the infamous Cherry Hill Skate Park in South Jersey. I can also somewhat safely assume that they where taken by Tom’s Father. Well its all there in these picks lip tricks, big frontside airs, standing tall on the coping. I wonder what the other kids at the park where doing.

Tom will be forever tied to this place. His name has became synonymous with the place.

As for Cherry Hill if you don’t know the story well I’m not gonna make it up for us. We must refer to those that lived it:

Head over to CherryHillSkatepark.com its an amazing website with tons of galleries, stories, and interviews. Drop by the forums and tell em The House of Steam sent you!!

Cherry Hill Skatepark 1978 to 1981, RIP

jason

Thanks to Chris and Bryce at Skatedaily.net for making The House of Steam their site of the week (second time!!) Check them out for all your Skate News/product reviews nd info.

The House of Steam – 07/31	+Submit a site

jason oliva

Thanks to Wendy and Tony for getting all this together…(Check out Squindo.net)

and Tom for the big Ole stamp of approval!!! You Rule!!

YouTubeSkate (Videos)

JasonOliva.com

Forums

Subscribe

MySpace

East Coast Pride by Tom Groholski

Skateboardings Golden Age

Remember The House of Steam is looking for Sponsorship, Submissions and Suggestions!!! Send all to jasonoliva@gmail.com

Tom Groholski 1986 Girl Ramp NJ Frontside air over channel

Photo Jason Oliva

Ok so I am a little biased having taken this photo and cropped it but I think its the coolest vert shot ever…

Its available to use as wallpaper (click the wallpaper post it button below) and has become the Official House of Steam image.

here is a copy of the full photo:

Tom Groholski FACE HIGH Frontside Air over the channel Girl Ramp NJ 1986

Ok equally as cool with the exception of Jimmy Kame looking like a conehead on the far wall. The Deck Shadows from left to right are:

2 girls… hence the name girl ramp, always at least 2.

Dan Tag

Jason Oliva

Ben Cornish

Rocky Vertone

Bernie O’Dowd (far wall behinf Tom’s Head)

Also check out the sweet Tommy G Robot Smith Grind graphics from none other then Team Steam’s own Raging Lamos Stevie “D” Mannion (never quite sure what the D was for)

Head over to Steve Mannion’s EBAY store and buy this gem:

Creature from the Black Lagoon and Kay!

Tom Groholski another FACE HIGH Frontside air over the channel 1986 Girl Ramp NJ

Photo Ben Cornish

Ben managed to snap this killer shot same trick same day.

If Dagnasty ever wants to make a new record then The House of Steam is sitting on the next album cover.

Hmmm… The ramp had a giant Dagnasty written across it and 2 girls would hang out on the deck. What do you call the ramp? The Girl Ramp naturally.

That makes alot of sense really.

jason

PS:

Thanks to Chris and Bryce at Skatedaily.net for making The House of Steam their site of the week (second time!!) Check them out for all your Skate News/product reviews nd info.

The House of Steam – 07/31	+Submit a site

jason oliva

Thanks to Wendy and Tony for getting all this together…(Check out Squindo.net)

and Tom for the big Ole stamp of approval!!! You Rule!!

YouTubeSkate (Videos)

JasonOliva.com

Forums

Subscribe

MySpace

East Coast Pride by Tom Groholski

Skateboardings Golden Age

Remember The House of Steam is looking for Sponsorship, Submissions and Suggestions!!! Send all to jasonoliva@gmail.com

Hey man whats up? I like your site. I am a skater of many years,
origionally from Globe Arizona, now living in Portland OR. here are some
skate pics and a drawing I made. The frontside is from 1987, Globe
Arizona, I was just learning frontside airs. The sweeper is from last year
in Globe Arizona, at the historic Globe Ditch. keep up the great skate
archive. Its really awesome. thanks AF

Aaron Franquero
http://www.myspace.com/heartweapon

Awesomeness!! AF

Thanks for spreading the word about The House of Steam and turning me on to thee killer Neil Blender clip.

Anyone else skate the Globe Ditch in AZ?… Taylor?

!

jason oliva

THE HOUSE OF STEAM YEAR ONE VIDEO.

Remember The House of Steam is looking for Sponsorship, Submissions and Suggestions!!! Send all to jasonoliva@gmail.com

CLICK HERE FOR The TEAM STEAM 1987 PHOTO ANNUAL.
Take the time to sign the map or add a skate spot to it.

Brent Jordan Toronto Canada 2007

Nice one Brent

Send me an email and tell us where this was taken and tell all your Canadian peeps to head over to myspace an sign the map!!

jason oliva

Remember The House of Steam is looking for Sponsorship, Submissions and Suggestions!!! Send all to jasonoliva@gmail.com

CLICK HERE FOR The TEAM STEAM 1987 PHOTO ANNUAL.
Take the time to sign the map or add a skate spot to it.

Blue Ramp under construction in New Jersey Early 80’s

Cant remember who sent me this one but if your out their send me your name again.

Bernie O’Dowd 85 Blue ramp NJ

Dig the Police Ghost in the Machine tag…too funny

jason oliva

DONATE TO THE HOUSE OF STEAM

Remember The House of Steam is looking for Sponsorship, Submissions and Suggestions!!! Send all to jasonoliva@gmail.com

Dont forget to check out THE HOUSE OF STEAM

SKATE SHOP!!!

Be the first to get their pic in the archive riding one!!

CLICK HERE FOR The TEAM STEAM 1987 PHOTO ANNUAL.

Bernie O’Dowd and Chris WEEP Blank Dorkin Around circa 1987
Super 8 footage by Ben Cornish

Team Steam at Matt Klein’s New jersey Circa 1987
Super 8 from Ben Cornish

Take the time to sign the map or add a skate spot to it.

Also subscribe to our new email feed by clicking the orange box(be sure to look out for the confirm email, it’s a two part process)

Jason,

Now for our next tale, at some point while I was in WHRHS(Watchung Hills Regional Hot Skater), I picked up an very old Kodak Duaflex IV twin lens reflex, with a single bulb Lumaclad Reflector flash, at a garage sale for $5.00 (pretty steep, but well worth it). These were made by Kodak from 1947 to 1960 (mine looks mid ’50s).

I shot all my Graphic Arts photos with this old thing. I took it on skate trips too. During the summer of 1988 (Aug.), we hit the Blue Metal in OC (many times) and I took the attached shots.

Rick Charno did a head high BS Mute air. If you look close, it looks like he has two heads.

Geoff Graham slid a crazy FS rail grind at a high rate of speed.

Darren “the Moose” Menditto, chuck a huge FS tuck knee, that was a complete blur.

This was the life. The Bay was a block to my right and the Beach was 3 blocks to my left. We had a free place to stay and we skated all day for free with the best skaters on the East Coast.

I still have this old Kodak, and they now sell for $20 bucks on eBay.

Dennis

Nice one Dennis!!

If you are not on the map then go here

Or goto THOS on MYSPACE here

AND join the map let us know where you are at!

Thanks

jason oliva

DONATE TO THE HOUSE OF STEAM

Remember The House of Steam is looking for Sponsorship, Submissions and Suggestions!!! Send all to jasonoliva@gmail.com

Dont forget to check out THE HOUSE OF STEAM

SKATE SHOP!!!

Be the first to get their pic in the archive riding one!!

CLICK HERE FOR The TEAM STEAM 1987 PHOTO ANNUAL.

Bernie O’Dowd and Chris WEEP Blank Dorkin Around circa 1987
Super 8 footage by Ben Cornish

Team Steam at Matt Klein’s New jersey Circa 1987
Super 8 from Ben Cornish

Take the time to sign the map or add a skate spot to it.

Also subscribe to our new email feed by clicking the orange box(be sure to look out for the confirm email, it’s a two part process)

Darren Menditto Frontside air at Ocean City Maryland

Darren Menditto Ocean City Maryland

Is that a Bernie O’Dowd pro model The Moose is riding? I think so!!!!

jason oliva

Remember The House of Steam is looking for Sponsorship, Submissions and Suggestions!!! Send all to jasonoliva@gmail.com

Dont forget to check out THE HOUSE OF STEAM

SKATE SHOP!!!

Be the first to get their pic in the archive riding one!!

CLICK HERE FOR The TEAM STEAM 1987 PHOTO ANNUAL.

Bernie O’Dowd and Chris WEEP Blank Dorkin Around circa 1987
Super 8 footage by Ben Cornish

Team Steam at Matt Klein’s New jersey Circa 1987
Super 8 from Ben Cornish

Take the time to sign the map or add a skate spot to it.

Also subscribe to our new email feed by clicking the orange box(be sure to look out for the confirm email, it’s a two part process)

Chris Miller nose Bone Frontside Air Jeff Roennings Hillcrest Ramp New Jersey

photo Jeff Roenning

You know whats wrong with this picture?…..Not a damn thing!!

Another sic pic from Jeff Roenings Hillcrest ramp in New Jersey this place was like East Coast vert skatings Studio 54 in the 80’s….all the stars came out to ride.

I am working on a series of posts about Jeff’s ramps (all 8 of em) in New Jersey and all the folks who rode em…but for now I will just keep shuffling in these gems…

Thanks Jeff!

Also hello to all our new found friends from www.SkateDaily.net Chris and Bryce (dat’’s right last name starts wit a “K”) are doing great things for the skate community and culture….check em out! I’ll give em a proper post explaining their radness soon.

jason oliva

Checkout: http://youtubeskate.com From the good people who brought you The House of Steam!!

THE HOUSE OF STEAM YEAR ONE VIDEO.

Remember The House of Steam is looking for Sponsorship, Submissions and Suggestions!!! Send all to jasonoliva@gmail.com

Bernie O’Dowd frontside air TomGroholski’s ramp NJ circa 1984

I road Tom’s ramp once Dan Tag brought me…. it was a tricky one I remember it being really slick, wish I brought my camera that day.

If you are one of the individuals on the ground in this photo let us know who you are!

jason oliva

HEY MAN This is the House of Steam circa 1988
Photo Kevin McDowall

This Gem of a photo of one of the Barns last days and Steve Mannion’s The House of Steam logo are available on T shirts NOW!!

Click anywhere to check em out

If you want some stickers just paypal thehouseofsteam@gmail.com some dough and we can put them right out to you!

Thanks

jason oliva

Take the time to sign the map or add a skate spot to it.

Also subscribe to our new email feed by clicking the orange box(be sure to look out for the confirm email, it’s a two part process)

or fire up your scanner and email jasonoliva@gmail.com with your stuff…

thanks…

Team Steam rider Rob Randolph checking in…and still killing it!

Frontside air, California, June 2006
jason oliva

THE HOUSE OF STEAM YEAR ONE VIDEO.

Remember The House of Steam is looking for Sponsorship, Submissions and Suggestions!!! Send all to jasonoliva@gmail.com

CLICK HERE FOR The TEAM STEAM 1987 PHOTO ANNUAL.
Take the time to sign the map or add a skate spot to it.

Dan Tag Slug Ramp in the Snow 1987

I created a series (14 or 15 in all)  of Team Steam Trading cards (they are actually stickers) in our High Schools graphic arts department in 1987.

They are as big as a baseball card and almost every member at the time had one, including the Barn itself and The Raging Lamos.

Special thanks goes to Mr. Abella our Graphics teacher for letting me hog the printing press all the time and floating us copious amounts of sticker paper. Mr Abella was the most skate friendly adult the world had seen at the time.

Take the time to sign the map or add a skate spot to it.

Also subscribe to our new email feed by clicking the orange box(be sure to look out for the confirm email, it’s a two part process)

or fire up your scanner and email jasonoliva@gmail.com with your stuff…

thanks…

You could ride her by day…

You could ride her by night….

She came in two colors!

Wood tone and….

White!

Anyone want to write a history of The Slug feel free to email me or leave it as a comment…all I will say on the subject is as far as ramps go she was BYOOT!

Oh yeah and we skated this thing in the dead of winter too…

Photos:

Geoff Graham photo by Dan Wilkes

Rocky Vertone photo by Ben Cornish

Wood tone Slug photo by Dan Wilkes

Snow White contest day Slug photo by Jason Oliva

Rocky Vertone photo by Ben Cornish

…thanks for the pics Dan! Keep em coming!

This was a letter written to Thrasher magazine in 1983 by Team Steam’s Captain Jon Ballon. The Bernie he is referring to is his best friend Bernie O’Dowd. According to Bernie this letter was read by Tom Groholski’s Father who Invited John and Bernie over to skate Tom’s backyard ramp. They all became fast friends and the rest is skating history folks….

…and Captain…THRASHER, Black Flag, DEVO and the Circle Jerks are still too cool!

Bernie O’Dowd frontside air at Tom Groholski’s ramp New Jersey 1983

Nice One Bernie!

Jim Murphy at Edgewood Maryland 1986

photograph jason oliva

Spot the giant car with the huge grill? That was the “Tagmobile” (that’s Dan Tag for the uninitiated)

Bernie O’Dowd frontside air at the barn 1985

(gonna go out on a limb and say photograph Ben Cornish)

jason oliva

Checkout: http://youtubeskate.com From the good people who brought you The House of Steam!!

THE HOUSE OF STEAM YEAR ONE VIDEO.

Remember The House of Steam is looking for Sponsorship, Submissions and Suggestions!!! Send all to jasonoliva@gmail.com