The Wire: Industry News–Gossip, rumors & lies from the world of skiing

This story originally ran in the October 2008 issue of Freeskier (V11.1).

Photo: Chris O’Connell

October, the first Wire column of the year. Skiing in North America has halted for a few months (save Whistler and Mt. Hood), giving companies and athletes time to relax. Sort of. It"™s during this "recess" where quite a bit of moving-and-shaking is done. Here is the first crop of industry news this year:

Photo: Courtesy of Line Skis

Photo: Shay Williams

Former LINE marketing manager, Gary Winberg, has been busy behind the scenes these days, starting his own company called G Brand, which will manage and plan marketing for two main clients: Nimbus Independent and Spacecraft Clothing. Check out everything that is happening at garywinberg.com and we wish G Brand long-lasting success.

Photo: Shay Williams

Who else made it down to Summer X? Female superstars Sarah Burke (5) and Grete Eliassen (5) were spotted hanging out at the Standard Downtown Hotel and the X Games venues, catching some rays and cheering on their summer teammates. Rumor on the street is that both Burke and Eliassen got on stage and rocked out with Three Six Mafi a during one of the nightly parties in Hollywood. Describing why, Grete simply states that they were, "just keepin"™ up the street cred."

Photo: Grete Eliassen

In other news from the world of Grete Eliassen, she has just returned from Argentina with Oakley, testing out her new team-inspired outerwear. The pieces are in their final stages of testing and will be released in the fall of 2009.

Photo: Shay Williams

In other new beginnings, account executives Philip Welsh and Luke Blaser (7) have left Freeskier to pursue new opportunities. Philip has taken a job with Mountain Time. Luke, meanwhile, has taken a sales role at bnqt.com in Santa Monica. We wish both of them the best of luck in their new posts, and they will be sorely missed by the Freeskier family.