Empire Attire

By: Felicia Dumont

Athletes in the snow sports industry are notorious for traveling the globe to ski against the top competitors at the best mountains in the world. Freeskiing is saturated with young boys and girls who are eager to shred every peak on the planet. There are extreme benefits to this profession, like the opportunity to learn of foreign cultures and their people, but being on the road all the time is not all perks. Living out of a suitcase, eating out at restaurants, and always sleeping in a hotel bed, couch or a buddies floor can be tough on your emotions, immune system and family. So, courtesy of the professional athletes and industry friends at Empire Attire, we would like to provide all you traveling snow sports athletes with 10 tips on how to successfully live on the road.

Photo Credit: Torin Yater-Wallace

1. Peter Olenick

“Bring more clean socks and undies than you think you’ll need.”

2. Simon Dumont

“Get an agent.” Agents really help with managing travel. They will help you sort out where you need to be and when.

3. Jossi Wells

“The best tip I can give, and it’s pretty legit coming from me because I always take too much, when it comes to packing, pack what you think you need.  Then cut it in half and you’re good to go.”

4. Torin Yater-Wallace

“Don’t drink soda, ever.” Torin is still working on his travel skills, first being how to sleep on a plane, a trick not yet mastered by the young ski star. 

5. Luke Van Valin

“Always pack your bag the night before your flight, specially if your going to the after party.”

6. Jake Largess

“Pack as many socks as possible”

7. Gus Kenworthy

“Make sure you travel in jeans because getting a boner in sweatpants is not very fun on a plane”

8. Colby West

Click to Listen “Colby West Travel Tip“

9. Brian Schroy

“Stick to one airline.” That way you can rack up frequent flyer miles that provide you with priority through long lines and gets you upgraded to first class.

10. Michael Spencer

“Make sure you have one carry on that just has everything you would ever need where ever you go; computer, phone, passport, toothbrush, toothpaste. If you have all of that in your carry on who cares if you bags get lost, you can go anywhere.

The Birthday Boy

Our beloved Peter Olenick is a Leap Year baby. Therefore, his real birthday only comes around once every four years. Today, Petey is busy celebrating his seventh birthday in Mammoth Mountain for the Grand Prix.  Halfpipe qualifiers are delayed due to high winds and bad weather, so hopefully he will be able to use this off day to go have some fun. We got Peter on the phone with us to discuss what it is like being a seven-year-old in a 28-year-old’s body.

First off, Happy Birthday!!!
Thank you.

What are your big plans for the day?
Well I was suppose to compete at the Grand Prix but it is snowing uphill with tons of wind, so that is really fun. Yeah, so, I think I might just Google how long it takes to get to Vegas.

What is the best birthday present you have ever received?
Best present I ever received was my ID that said I was 21. That was a good one.

So since your birthday happens every 4 years does that mean you have to party 4 times as hard?
I think that is exactly what it means. I need to party for all the years I missed, since I definitely did not party for the years that did not count because they weren’t my real birthday. It kind of builds up like stress, you just got to let it loose.

When do you usually celebrate your bday when it does not fall on the 29th?
I will celebrate either on the 1st of March or on the 28th. Whatever day is better for my friends to come hang out with me. I often look for what day falls on the weekend.

What are you going to do for your 21st?
For my real 21st? Like in 50 something years? I hope to be sitting on a porch somewhere really warm sipping whiskey with all my friends.

Did you know you have the same birthday as Ja Rule? How does that make you feel?
Ja Rule and I share a birthday? No way! I knew through his music we had a connection. He is a lucky guy if he is sharing a birthday with me. Maybe I should tweet at him and tell him we have the same birthday.

The US Freeskiing Grand Prix at Copper has come to an end.  It might have been the first halfpipe competition of the season, but it sure did not appear that way.  There was no holding back in the finals for this talented group of athletes.

Simon boosting switch

For the Empire team, Jossi Wells, Simon Dumont, and Sarah Burke advanced to the finals.  Peter Olenick decided to compete in qualifiers, after a long time out due to injury.  He took it very easy in his runs, being that it was his first day back in the pipe, but the crowd went wild for his flares and 900 at the bottom.  Jossi boosted high with effortless style, which the judges rewarded him for.  He decided to stay away from some of his more daring tricks, since he also had a season full of injuries last year. Jossi still earned a respectable 8th place finish.

Peter Olenick back on his feet

Simon took a serious digger at practice last Tuesday.  He shook it off in true Dumont fashion and decided to compete in qualifiers on Wednesday. Simon qualified 3rd in his heat, throwing down a safety run.  He decided to go for it in the finals, putting together one of the more technical runs of the day.  Unfortunately, Simon was unable to get enough speed for his double 1260 on his last hit and ended up in 9th.  The competition season is very young and Simon will be the man to beat when he puts his run to his feet.

Simon peeps the competition

Sarah Burke was a trooper in the women’s competition.  She put down a solid run in qualifiers, which did not get scored as high as she would have liked due to a couple butt-checks. On her second run, she took a gnarly fall on the deck but got up with a smile.  She advanced to finals with her first run, but could not quite stick the run she wanted.  She finished the competition in 7th place.

The kids line up for Jossi

by: Brian Schroy

In order to help our readers get to know our athletes better, I asked Peter Olenick, accomplished freeskier and all ‘round good guy, to feed me information that the average person would never guess about him. We will be checking in with the rest of the Empire team to get their lists in the near future. For now check out what secrets Peter has been hiding.

1. I am deathly allergic to bees.

2. I pooped my pants crashing .

3. I had a hernia when I was 7.

4. My two front teeth are fake from a ski pole I decided to bite on a landing.

5. I have a stick figure tattooed below the belt.

6. Earl’s is my favorite restaurant.

7. I like girls.

Sterling stuff Mr. Olenick!

Simon, Pete, and Colby all came out to LA for summer X. Summer X is a time for these guys to just relax and watch all the action go down. The boys watched all the events from the Staple Center and had front row seats for the events at the Home Depot Center. Everyone caught some sun relaxed and had a good time. Here is what Simon had to say about the summer x-games.

Normal
0
0
1
30
173
Obermeyer
1
1
212
10.2418

0
0
0

What was the craziest thing you saw this year at summer x?

 I would have to say Anthony Napolitan’s double front-flip over the mega ramp. I also got to check out the Fantasy Factory to which was pretty cool.

Moto Step up jump

Normal
0
0
1
17
101
Obermeyer
1
1
124
10.2418

0
0
0

What’s your favorite event to watch out here?

 All the stuff on the mega ramp is really sick along with the moto stuff too.

Kevin Robinson mid trick

Normal
0
0
1
24
137
Obermeyer
1
1
168
10.2418

0
0
0

Who is your favorite summer athlete to watch?

 Travis Pastrana is always fun to watch you never know what he is going to do. That double flipped he tired was insane.

Think that car corners well?

Normal
0
0
1
39
226
Obermeyer
1
1
277
10.2418

0
0
0

What is your plans this next week?

 Right now I am down with Riley working on our movie Transitions, which will premiere around the 17^th of September. Then on August, 13^th I am going down to South America to do an Oakley product shoot, then off to New Zealand from there.

Michael Olenick even came and hung out for Summer X

Peter has been training hard up on the Whistler glacier this summer. He has been thinking about trying this double all year. He finally got a good jump to try to it. Check out his double at this link: http://www.vimeo.com/5430415

Pete Olenicks new dub from Dan Carr on Vimeo.