Icebreaker - Pure Merino

The Bomb Squad just got back from a 3 week project in Alaska, involving big mountain skiing, speed-flying, and ski BASE jumping. It was super exciting – the AK mountains have had an incredible winter with lots of snow, and the conditions for our stunts were amazing. The primary goal of the trip was to speed-ride down first descents, mountains that no one has ever skied or flown off before.

Speed-riding is a combination of skiing and paragliding with a very small paraglider that only goes down, and goes very, very fast.  The sport was originally about launching off the top of a mountain with skis on and landing at the bottom. But it’s evolved to include much more skiing and interacting with the terrain, tapping the tops of trees, touching down and making ski turns before skiing off thousand foot cliffs. Amazing!

We were super excited to be fully stocked with the best merino wool out there – Icebreaker!  The team relies on the versatile nature of IB products to keep warm in the winter and cool in the summer. It’s crucial for our clothing to be able to handle hiking up the mountains while we’re sweating and carrying our gear. It also needs to keep us warm while we’re waiting at the top in the snow for the weather and winds to cooperate before we fly down.

While it’s usually hidden under our speed flying harnesses or wing suits, Icebreaker is the only brand we trust in the mountains to push the limits of human flight.

The Bomb Squad

Icebreaker sponsored athlete William Acosta is originally from Cuba and was one of the first people to kiteboard in Canada. He then took advantage of Canada’s cold snowy winters by snowkiting. This crazy Cuban has just been crowned World Champion in snowkiting at the WISSA championships at 46 years of age – huge congrats. We’re pleased to have been able to keep a warm blooded and soft hearted Cuban warm at all times in the cold conditions…

“I recently just won the title of World Champion in snowkite category snowboard at The Wissa Ice and Snow Sailing World Championships 2012 held in St-Ignace, Michigan, USA. The Wissa is the oldest best known event of its kind attracting snow riders from all hibernal country like Canada, USA, Finland, Switzerland, Russia, Estonia, Germany and others… Did I mention I am CUBAN and that I need to stay warm in all time?

When I race in snowkite I need to make sure I will not sweat and freeze with my own sweat, I need to be 100% concentrated on the technicality and on where is coming and going the wind. Snowkite racing is really demanding physically, every inches of my body is working, it needs toughness and because of all the above, when I race, I need to be comfy in my layers and wearing Icebreaker merino.”

William Acosta Pro Rider Starkites

Icebreaker is thrilled to welcome Tobi and Max to our Kids Alpine Team. Based in Germany these guys are uber-talented snowboarders, skaters and surfers.

Their “big goal” is to participate at the X-Games in both skateboarding and snowboarding. And with some great results this year it is already looking highly achievable. Just recently, Tobi, aged 12, and Max, aged 10, both achieved first places at the THE ART OF SKATEBOARDING in Kaprun. What is so remarkable is that because they are so young there is often no category for their ages and they are frequently competing against kids many years older than themselves.

At 12 years of age Tobi is the youngest member of the German National Snowboarding Team.

Both Tobi and Max love Icebreaker because, “We can go skateboarding for 6 hours and still won’t have smelly feet in our skateboard shoes!” plus “We are the only young snowboarders who are warm and look cool. The others look cool but they are not so warm!”

And to top it off, Tobi and Max think, “Icebreaker is the only brand which makes great fitting and looking snowboard clothing.” Thanks guys!

We think these kids are absolutely awesome and can’t wait to hear more updates on their progress in the world of snowboarding and skateboarding. Check out some of their great pics…

Unsere neuen Mitglieder im Kids Alpine Team – Tobi & Max

Icebreaker freut sich riesig, Tobi und Max als neue Mitglieder in unserem Kids Alpine Team willkommen zu heißen.  Aus Deutschland kommend sind diese zwei Jungs über-talentierte Snowboarder, Skater und Surfer.

Ihr “großes Ziel” ist es, an den X-Games teilzunehmen – sowohl beim Skateboarden als auch beim Snowboarden. Und mit einigen wirklichen guten Ergebnissen dieses Jahr sieht es schon jetzt sehr realistisch aus. Erst vor kurzem haben die beiden – Tobi, 12 Jahre, und Max, 10 Jahre alt – erste Plätze bei THE ART OF SKATEBOARDING in Kaprun erzielt. Das bemerkenswerte ist, dass beide so jung sind, dass es oftmals keine eigene Kategorie für ihr Alter gibt und sie somit regelmäßig gegen Kids antreten, die viel älter sind als sie selbst.

Mit 12 Jahren ist Tobi das jüngste Mitglied des Nationalen Deutschen Snowboarding Teams und wir sind uns sicher, dass Max schon bald dazukommen wird.

Tobi und Max lieben beide Icebreaker, weil sie “für 6 Stunden skateboarden gehen können und immernoch keine stinkenden Füße in unseren Skateboardschuhen haben!”. Plus: “Wir sind die einzigen jungen Snowboarder, denen warm ist und die cool aussehen. Die anderen sehen zwar cool aus, aber ihnen ist einfach nicht so warm.“

Und, um noch einen draufzusetzen: Tobi und Max denken, dass “Icebreaker die einzige Marke ist, bei denen die Passform und der Look von Snowboardklamotten stimmt.“

Wir denken, dass diese Jungs absolut großartig sind und können es kaum erwarten, neue Updates von ihren Fortschritten in der Welt von Snowboarden und Skateboarden zu hören.