August 30
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Photo: Huggy
Austin is proud to be from the Northwest, and people from the upper territory are just as proud to claim him. A well-rounded rider with a penchant for going huge, Austin owns a number of tricks suited for gnarly rails or gigantic hips. Still on the come up, look for Austin to do big things in films by “Think Thank” and hip sessions everywhere.
Stance: Regular
Home Mountain: Snoqualmie
Board: Ride Machette 155
Boot: Ride Ful
Binding: Ride Contraband
Outerwear: Airblaster
Goggle: Airblaster
May 9, 2012
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Recap: T. Bird
Captions: Pat Pridges
Thus far, Superpark 16 Presented by Gatorade is shaping up to be one of the best of all time. Day two started off with similar weather to day one. No wind. No clouds. Plenty of sunshine. Needless to say that without the 300-plus person registration process, the Superpark 2012 attendees got right to business.
From nine to noon, the Seven Springs features got sessioned hard. Their two jumps–one at the top and one at the bottom– went off, with twenty-plus riders hiking and hitting the seventy-footer. Once again, Hans and Nils Mindnich proved to be the standouts on the top kicker with a plethora of moves that not only kicked off the session, but kept it going until lunch. Meanwhile, the monster booter constructed by Joel Rerko and his diligent staff was being lapped by about forty riders, including, but not limited to Seth Hill, Sage Kotsenburg, Sam Hulbert, Brandon Cocard, and Brendan Gerard. While Brendan emerged as the star rider (to me, at least), that’s not to take away from any of the other takers who pointed it at the behemoth. The photos from the jump may look fake, but the reality of the situation this morning can only conclude that snowboard park design and execution has hit an astronomical level.
Immediately after lunch, about twenty-five riders were hand-picked to get down on a private hip session. Said riders included Pat Moore, Garrett Warnick, Sam Taxwood, Seth Hill, Victor Simco, Blake Paul, Josh Dirksen, Robby Balharry, Ben Bogart, Forest Bailey, Dustin Craven, Ben Bilocq, Michael Gray, Austen Sweetin, Austin Hironaka, Kyle Lopiccolo, Brendan Gerard (who might have my vote for overall Superpark standout at the moment), Andrew Brewer, Hans and Nils Mindnich (who also might be current standouts), Phil Jacques and a few more. At the end of the afternoon jam, either Austen Sweetin or Dustin Craven went the highest on the hip, Sam Taxwood and Hans Mindnich almost stole the show with gigantic alley-oop front threes, while Austen Sweetin stomped some insane switch methods, but it was Garrett Warnick who walked away with the best trick (and best overall performance) when he sent an alley-oop back seven to the tranny. The crowd went wild and then piled out, except for a select few who were tapped for a sunset shoot on Seven Springs’ top jump and Boreal’s step-up.
As soon as the sun went down, twenty invited riders made their way to the top of the Superpark setup on the Seven Springs booter. Pat Moore, Garrett Warnick, Seth Hill, Brendan Gerard, Andreas Wiig, Scotty Vine, the brothers Mindnich, Colin Spencer, Tim Humphreys, Mitch Richmond, and more lapped the step down as the sun set over the valley in Bend. Superpark is all about sunset shoots, and the images that come from them, and needless to say, you'll see what we're talking about in the January issue of SNOWBOARDER Magazine.
There's three days of Superpark still to go, so keep checking back for all the info about Superpark 16 Presented by Gatorade live at Mt. Bachelor.
March 30, 2012
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It has taken months for Austin Hironaka to get around to this, but he has finally come out with a mashup of his full parts from the Think Thank and F.O.D.T videos. Watch the fruits of his labor above.
March 6, 2012
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The sequel to Familia, FODT brings you another cinematic storyline with a much happier ending in Fam 2. Enjoy and support their movement by downloading the whole film on iTunes now! Oh yeah, there's alot of rad snowboarding too!!
Download it here.
January 12, 2012
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The Ride/Cappel Outerwear team is stacked for 2012 with the addition of four new riders to the circuit roster. Now dressed in Ride Signature Style, Austin Hironaka, Alex Cantin and Silvia Mittermüller are welcomed as pros along with Yuki Kadono as the newest Ride rookie pro.
January 4, 2012
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Photos & Captions: E-Stone
To bring in the New Year and celebrate the past we are bringing you "New Year's High Resolution" photo galleries from SNOWBOARDER Magazine's senior photographers and staff of their top 10 photos from the 2010-2011 season. The latest top 10 picks comes from SNOWBOARDER Magazine senior photographer, Ethan Stone Fortier, a.k.a "E-Stone". This man knows how to hustle whether it is getting the shot or handling business with Technine. Standing out in snowboard photography isn't a simple task, but E-Stone has managed to develop a style in which you could flip through a magazine and know it was his photo without reading the caption. And for that, our lens caps are off you to Mr. Fortier. Here is what he has to say about his experience last winter:
"From being taken in by the people of Tallinn, Estonia and being treated like family to surviving the earthquake in Japan I will never forget this past year of shooting. I recall waking up in a hotel at 4am while the whole building shook and I thought I was going to die. I even texted my good friends to let them know what they meant to me as it might be my last moments on the planet. It’s amazing the places you find yourself and the people you end up meeting along the way. Revo–Estonia’s first rapper to make it on MTV Europe–took our crew in like we were family. I imagined this would be someone I would call a friend for some time. Now, 7 months later, I learned he passed away from skin cancer. Life is short and you need to really enjoy every moment while you still can. Photography puts me in some amazing situations and always introduces me to even more amazing people. It’s not easy, as each shoot has a million variables but when you get a shot you are stoked on it’s all worth it. The riders I shoot with are all some of my best friends and in some cases just as close to me as any family member. Being able to work and travel with them is a dream come true. As I look back at my favorite ten photos of 2011, each one brings me back to the moment they were shot. Some were a couple miles from my house and others were half way around the world. All of them have a great back story and all of them took a lot of work to get. 2012 will bring a new set of adventures and hopefully a new stack of favorite shots. For now, I hope you enjoy my favorite pics from 2011!"
–E-Stone
January 3, 2012
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Rider: Austin Hironaka Photographer: E-Stone
December 5, 2011
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The Visual Collective Presents: Off The Cuff. Featuring: Jonah Owen, Justin Norman, Austin Hironaka, Max Warbington, Josh Dodson, Parker Worthen, Blake Payne, Seth Kitzke, Derrek Lever, Spencer Schubert, & Friends.
November 21, 2011
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Rider: Austin Hironaka Photographer: E-Stone
October 4, 2011
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If you only see one Japanese snowboard movie this year then make sure it is Dirty Pimp's new release "Rolling". Featuring all of the Japanese jib scene heavies including Ma$aki, Kotaro, Masato and even Westerners like Gabi Maiden, Austin Hironaka and Jacob Krugmire. Teddy Koo makes a cameo in here as well. Shot in Japan as well as Mammoth and Big Bear. There are no triple corks in it but "Rolling" is still well worth checking out.
September 27, 2011
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MFM, Dylan Thompson, Derek Dennison, Jonah Owen, Austin Hironaka, and Johnnie Paxson took a trip to Tallinn, Estonia and uncoved not only an untapped urban utopia, but the story of a nation that sang their way to freedom after five decades of occupation from brutal foreign regimes. Here is the video that FODT put together from their trip. Make sure you catch the full story in the
October issue of SNOWBOARDER Magazine.
September 23, 2011
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Why is this called a presentation instead of a video? Good question. But anyway, here is our presentation of the riders competing in Hot Dawgz & Hand Rails at Bear Mountain. If you can't make it to the event be sure to check back to Snowboardermag.com... the very site you are on... for our live Webcast of the contest on September 24th at 3PM Pacific Standard Time. WATCH THE LIVE WEBCAST HERE
September 21, 2011
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Here is a breakdown of the 2011 Hot Dawgz & Hand Rails participants you can see duke it out here on Snowboardermag.com during our live webcast which starts at 3:00 pm Pacific Standard Time on Saturday September 24th. More info here. WATCH THE LIVE WEBCAST HERE
September 9, 2011
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Following the launch of its 2012 product offering and website, Ride Snowboards is amped to announce some big changes to the pro team. Ride favorites including Sebastien Toutant, Mikey Leblanc, Jake Blauvelt, Hana Beaman, Juuso Laivisto, Marco Feichtner and Darrell Mathes will now make room for Alex Cantin and Austin Hironaka, both of whom have paid some serious dues in the Ride lineup over past seasons.
July 17, 2011
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The 11th round of the Superpark Showdown 2011 is here. Quiksilver is going head to head with YKWII/Ride. Get your votes in to push your favorite along.
July 6, 2011
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More propaganda for Think Thank's "Ransack Rebellion". This time featuring Austin Hironaka.
June 29, 2011
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The 6th round of the Superpark Showdown 2011 is here. YWKII/Ride is going head to head with Trip Brown. Get your votes in to push your favorite into the next match-up.
June 28, 2011
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Heading to a Snowboard Summer Camp and you don't know what to bring with you? See what some of the summer camp regulars suggest.
June 12, 2011
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The first round of the Superpark Showdown 2011 is here. NuuLife is going head to head with Think Thank. Get your votes in to push your favorite into the next match-up.
May 17, 2011
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Two weeks ago the FODT crew decided to get out of all the stormy weather of Salt Lake and get some California sunshine. Check out this behind the scenes look from E-Stone.
April 12, 2011
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Two months back it seemed as though every crew in snowboarding was slashing their way across the North Island of Japan. Here is and edit from Ride Snowboards to remind us of better times.
February 20, 2011
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To accompany our Boxes For Days recap from Japan, here is the video. Bananas, boxes, boardslides, and Burtner.
February 16, 2011
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Looks like Austin Hironaka is about to sign off from his first Dispatch mission to Japan. Check out what he has been up to in the latest Dispatch.
February 15, 2011
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Mervin Mfg’s Boxes for Days made it’s ceremonial international debut last week at Sanosaka Resort in Hakuba, Japan. Riders from all over came out to try and best the 100’+ box and hang on a sunny day with Think Thank pros Jesse Burtner, Sean Genovese, Austin Hironaka, Ted Borland and Chirs Larson.
February 11, 2011
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The best big air in the states is back and set to go off once again at the Summit-At-Snoqualmie in Washington. With a jam format which involves riders calling their tricks and mixing it up from run to run the spectacle is unmatched by American contest standards. Just do yourself a favor and make your way to Seattle and Snoqualmie for this must attend event.
February 10, 2011
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Austin Hironaka is back with another behind-the-scenes look at his trip to Japan featuring Seven Samurai, Office Love And The Mole in this installment of Dispatches.
