Published Work
Action Sports Correspondent, ESPN.com/Action
I’m a skate and snowboard lifer and a huge fan of all action sports, and writing for ESPN Action Sports has been a dream gig. Skateboarding, Snowboarding, Surfing, Freeskiing, BMX, FMX, Rally Cross, and anything related to the X Games: I’m on it.
Featured Clips:
The Edge, Westword’s Winter Activity Guide 2010-2011
My insider’s guide to 25 places to ski and snowboard in Colorado for Denver’s Westword. I sought out locals at each mountain to get the lay of the land, including hot tips for steering clear of the crowds at the major resorts and a bevy of off-the-beaten-path spots at smaller ski areas: Try some the Junkyard Terrain Park at Echo Mountain, expanded heli-skiing terrain at Silverton, Ted’s Secret Stash at SolVista Basin (a new all-natural terrain park made out of beetle kill trees), get in over your head at Wolf Creek, or try or the Ski/Swim/Stay package at Sunlight near Glenwood Springs. I’ve been snowboarding in Colorado since 1986, and I’m spending this season researching next season’s guide: Trying to get to as many spots on this list as possible.
Never Summer Industries is a 19 year-old Colorado company, run by brothers Tim and Tracey Canaday. They manufacture snowboards in North Denver while most of the competition has outsourced to China, and they’re running one of the only snowboard companies in the industry experiencing growth in the middle of the recession. This Westword cover story was published on the first day of the SnowSports Industries America (SIA) Snow Show, providing a local take on the winter hardgoods business as the trade show began its 11-year contract in Denver.
Pipe Dreams: Snowboarder Steve Fisher hits a double cork in the road on his way to the Olympics
A profile of an interesting character caught at a crossroads in pro snowboarding evolution: Steve Fisher won the U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix in 2009 and had the Olympics in sight, but oh what a difference a year makes. Competitors landing new double cork tricks (complicated spins, inverted twice during the rotation) in 2010 ended up passing him by on the way to Vancouver after this Westword cover story.
I laced up my sneakers, spent six weeks training with Mark Toorock at his Primal Fitness facility in Washington, D.C., and chased the American Parkour crew across the country for this 2008 Washington Post Magazine feature on freerunning.
Ongoing Projects:
Contributing Writer, ESPN Action Sports
Why don’t high school guidance counselors tell kids about gigs like this? Bookmark http://espn.go.com/action for ongoing reporting on freestyle motocross, snowboarding, skateboarding, and other adrenaline-fueled pursuits.
Covering Colorado’s outdoor sports scene, local music and arts happenings, and assorted off-beat action for the alt-weekly I grew up on.
From the Archives:
Responsible for FUEL.TV/Moto content and the Action Sports Life+Style blog at FUEL.TV/ColinBane, 2009-2010. Some highlights:
- Blake”Bilko” Williams, 2009 FMX Rider of the Year
- Interview with Jay Schweitzer, Powerband Films
- 2009: The Year in FMX
- Interview with Jolene Van Vught, Nitro Girl
- Jeremy McGrath wins TransWorld Motocross Legend Award
In October 2009 I helped launch a daily outdoor sports blog for Denver’s alt-weekly, chronicling the mountain lifestyle and local adventures to be had within a few hours of the city. It’s good to be home: I spent my formative years skateboarding in downtown Denver and snowboarding in the Colorado backcountry, and now live near Cheesman Park.
Have skateboard, will travel: I’ve wrote the Skate Life blog for Banquet Action Sports Digital Media for three years, keeping up on crazy new video clips, skate scene gossip, and all the art, music, and cultural etcetera that comes along with skating and creating. I got my first board when I was 7 or 8 years old, and I’ve been carving life’s many paths ever since.
Contributing Writer, Washington City Paper
Punk rock, poetry, politics… My first real writing gig, after graduating from high school and college newspapers, and they let me write about the things I love most, including the music scene that attracted me to D.C. in the first place. Here are a few of my favorites:
- Don’t Call Me Leader, Punk (profile of Mark Andersen, reluctant head of the Positive Force collective)
- You Can Lead a Horse to Books… (profile of Richard Peabody, local literary scene luminary and publisher of Gargoyle)
- Dial “J” for Je Ne Sais Quoi: Former Jawbox frontman J. Robbins moves to the background to produce a new sound for D.C.’s indie-rock bands
- They May Need To Amputate (The Dismemberment Plan, caught in the corporate crossfire at Interscope Records)
