Pete Thomas Outdoors

Alaska native John Baker wins Iditarod in record time

The Iditarod sled-dog race has a new champion and, for the first time in the event's 39-year history, it's a Western Alaskan native.

John Baker, who was born and raised in Kotzebue above the Arctic Circle, guided his team of 10 dogs into Nome at 9:46 Tuesday morning, local time. His time of 8 days and 19 hours, over an 1,131-mile route from Willow (near Anchorage) to Nome,  breaks by about three hours a record set in 2002 by Martin Buser.

Local villagers along the trail have been pulling for Baker -- who is of Inupiat heritage -- for the past several days. On Monday, as Baker coasted into the White Mountain checkpoint, a fan held up a sign that read, "I'm happy that an Eskimo is in front,"

Baker, 48, set the record in part because of hard, fast trail conditions, but also because of relentless pressure applied by Ramey Smyth, who had been in close pursuit leaving the past several checkpoints.

Smyth, who was one hour behind leaving the final checkpoint at Safety, was expected to easily finish second. Hans Gatt was in third.

Lance Mackey, who was attempting to win the grueling race for a fifth consecutive year, was in the middle of the pack with a diminished team, having been forced to drop off seven of 14 dogs at various checkpoints because of concerns for their health.

Baker led since Eagle Island, the 17th of 25 race checkpoints. His decisive move, however, was resting in Unalakleet, the 19th checkpoint, for only about four hours. Short rest periods became necessary thereafter because of pressure from Smyth.

Baker had previously finished third twice, and had 11 top-10 finishes.

-- Pete Thomas

Lance Mackey's Iditarod hopes fade as dog team dwindles

For Lance Mackey, prospects of winning a fifth consecutive Iditarod sled-dog race are becoming increasingly slim. He pulled into the halfway point Thursday with only 10 dogs, having left six at previous checkpoints because of concerns for their health.

Mackey as of Thursday afternoon was listed in sixth place, but realistically he was in third because three of the top six -- including the top two competitors -- had not yet taken their mandatory 24-hour rest period. The top six were Trent Herbst, Kelley Griffin, Martin Buser, Hugh Neff, Cim Smyth and Mackey. Herbst, Griffin and Smyth still have to take a 24-hour rest and will be passed by several mushers.

That essentially makes it a Buser, Neff and Mackey battle at this point during the 1,131-mile race from Anchorage to Nome. Buser, however, still has 14 dogs, and Neff has 13. To see and hear Mackey talk about his diminishing chances of winning for a fifth time and adding to his legend -- it was shot when he still had 12 dogs -- check out the video:

 

Zoltan Torkos' latest magic trick is first-ever surfing kickflip

Zoltan Torkos is nicknamed "the Magician" and his trick this week is what's believed to be the first-ever surfing kickflip.

Skateboarders know the trick well. It involves using the feet to flip the board, while airborne, and return it to an upright position before landing. But for surfers, who are on much bigger boards and moving walls of water, a kickflip is a far more difficult undertaking.

Torkos had been trying to land one since 2007 and finally nailed it at Steamer Lane in his hometown Santa Cruz. It was worth $10,000 from Volcom, which had agreed to pay the first surfer to accomplish the feat.  Torkos even made the local news. Here's the video:

  

Iditarod athlete profiles begin with a dog named Skunk

Saturday marks the beginning of another Iditarod, and one thing fans and critics of the grueling competition are sure to have in common is an appreciation for the real athletes: the dogs that pull the sleds for 1,150 miles across the frozen Alaskan landscape.

With this in mind the Anchorage Daily News has informed readers that it will post a profile of a different dog each day -- in most cases, with video -- throughout the historic two-week race from Anchorage to Nome.



It's a terrific concept given all the dog lovers in the world, and given what's required of the canine participants in a competition that is called the "Last Great Race on Earth," which often features blizzard conditions, gale-force winds and sub-zero temperatures.

Most of the dogs are mix-breed huskies and the first to be profiled is named Skunk, who "knows that she's kind of cute and gets away with a lot," musher Sebastian Schnuelle says in the video.

Schnuelle, who bought the female dog from four-time Iditarod champion Lance Mackey, explains that Skunk recently escaped from her kennel and stowed away in the musher's bed for a more comfortable night's sleep.

So it's evident that the dog, besides being incredibly cute, is cunning. That's an important trait out on the Iditarod Trail, where the animals, when they're not pulling the sleds, must to some degree look after themselves.

It's too early to tell, of course, but Skunk sure looks like a winner to us.

-- Pete Thomas

Mascots for Sochi Olympics are leopard, polar bear and hare

Leopard, polar bear and hare on Saturday were selected as mascots for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

The selections were made after an all-Russian SMS-voting session, and announced during a  Channel One television program.

According to Ria Novosti, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had made it clear his preference was leopard  (see image).

Leopard received 28% of the votes. Polar bear and hare received 18% and 16%, respectively.

Fire Boy and Snowflake were selected mascots for the Paralympics.

-- Photo courtesy of the © Sochi-2014 press office

Extreme sailor Brad Van Liew leads pack toward Cape Horn

After four months of extreme solo-sailing in the Velux 5 Oceans race around the world, skippers are anxiously approaching the most extreme location of all: Cape Horn.

The tumultuous passage between South America and Antarctica is a notorious graveyard of ships and mariners, known for ferocious winds and towering waves that heave upward unexpectedly and collide with each other, forming even larger waves.

"From now on I'll start planning tactically and mentally for the rounding," said Brad Van Liew, who enjoys a commanding lead in the third of five stages. "I think about rounding Cape Horn every single day. The closer you get to it the more you think about it, but it's been there in my mind all along. There's no way to shut it off."

Four sailors are competing this year in a race billed as "the ultimate solo challenge," a competition held every four years and one that boasts a history rich with drama, which has involved capsized vessels, high-seas rescues and two incidents in which sailors were lost at sea and presumed drowned.

As of Thursday morning Van Liew, who won the race in 2003, was 1,700 miles from Cape Horn. He anticipates arriving in the region as early as Sunday.

Van Liew, 43, who lives in Charleston, S.C., was 100 miles miles ahead of runner-up Zbigniew Gutkowski, a Polish sailor, and 232 miles ahead of Derek Hatfield, a Canadian. Chris Stanmore-Major of England is fourth, 460 miles behind the leader, but this week suffered a rip in his mainsail and is attempting repairs on deck in frigid weather.

The third stage covers 5,800 miles from Wellington, New Zealand, to the resort city of Punta del Este, Uruguay.

At Cape Horn, within the 400-mile gap between continents, the Pacific and Atlantic oceans converge and the sea floor rises abruptly, often creating shifting seas even in calm weather.

When Van Liew arrives, aboard his 60-foot Team Lazarus racing yacht, he can expect 50-mph winds and 30-foot seas. If that prediction holds, conditions will be tranquil compared to what he endured there in the same race in 1999.

He recalled that experience as a "living hell" that lasted several days. It was marked by "horrific" seas whipped by 100-mph winds. Waves towered above his 80-foot mast. He had taken down all sails to protect his rigging and endured repeated knockdowns -- his mast slamming from side to side onto the water -- that seemed to have no end.

Yukon Quest sled dog dies on trail as race draws to a close

As the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest dog-sled race draws to a close, race officials have confirmed that a canine competitor perished over the weekend, becoming the first dog to succumb during this year's event.

His name was Taco and he belonged to Alaskan musher Brent Sass, who continued to race after dropping the animal off at a spot called Slaven's Roadhouse.

Allan Hallman, head veterinarian for the Yukon Quest, declared in a statement that there were "no obvious disease processes or signs of trauma" and that "at this time the cause of death is not evident."

Sass told CBC News, "I will be thinking about Taco for a long time but there was never any question that I would not continue to race -- Taco would want that."

The historic race covers the frozen expanse between Whitehorse, Yukon, and Fairbanks, Alaska. Hugh Neff is the current leader, having been the first to cross the Central checkpoint late Sunday night.

-- Pete Thomas

Viral video shows man's simulated ski jump gone awry

Ski jumping may be dangerous but it's still something best performed outdoors, away from the pets.

The following video illustrates that simulated ski-jumping video games also involve risk, for man and man's best friend, and for man's pocketbook.

It was posted on YouTube two weeks ago and already has garnered 175,000 laughs, and undoubtedly a few sympathy sighs for the poor dog. Here it is, in regular and slow-motion. Enjoy:

 

Tony Hawk tops Shaun White in video game sales

One is an action sports legend past his prime athletically, and the other is a reigning superstar. But it's clear that Tony Hawk remains at least as popular as Shaun White, and a strong indication is that Hawk still rules the video game market.

Hawk is presently reaping benefits from sales of his 11th skate game: "Tony Hawk: Shred," released last October by Activision. More than 270,000 copies have been sold, according to the market research firm, The NPD Group.

White, who has made three snowboarding videos with Ubisoft, is enjoying considerably less success with his debut skate game: "Shaun White Skateboarding," which has sold an estimated 120,000 copies.

Hawk, 42, thoroughly dominated vert skating in the 1990s -- in 1999 he became the first skateboarder to land a 900 during a competition. His incredible fame, however, comes from his line of video games, which have generated more than $1 billion for Activision.

"I think that my games are synonymous with skateboarding because they were the first ones to create the genre," Hawk told the Hollywood Reporter.

White the snowboarder dominates halfpipe competitions the way Hawk used to dominate vert ramp competitions. He's a two-time Olympic gold-medal winner and last week won his fourth consecutive Winter X Games competition.

White's snowboarding video games have sold more than three million copies and he apparently takes the same approach while helping to develop his games as he does in competition: seriously, but all in good fun.

"I still can't believe Ubisoft pays me to make video games," White, 24, told ESPN.

White the skateboarder is an X Games gold medalist and one of the world's top vert skaters. His skateboarding game is the first in the action sports genre to be available in stereoscopic 3D on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

He told Hollywood Reporter: "Whether you're watching a 3D movie or playing a 3D game, this technology is exciting because it makes you actually feel like you're the only one there being a part of the action, and it sucks you into the experience."

In a sense Hawk has invaded White's turf. His "Shred" game includes skateboarding and snowboarding elements. "I've been snowboarding since before Shaun was born," Hawk said.

Of the game, which targets kids 6-12, he added: "We're moving into a more interactive mode of playing with the actual board peripheral. Players standing on the board become more immersed in the game."

Both skateboarders/entrepreneurs, who are friends, have something else in common: Hollywood aspirations. White will appear as himself in the comedy "Friends with Benefits," starring Mila Kunis Emma Stone and Justin Timberlake and scheduled for a summer release .

Hawk will star as himself in the skateboarding flick "Dream Seller" with Bam Margera, due to be released later this year.

-- Pete Thomas

-- Screen shots are from "Tony Hawk: Shred" and "Shaun White Skateboarding," respectively

-- Twitter: @Pete_Thomas

-- Editor's note: A version of this post appears on the GrindTv.com skate blog

All that's left of X Games in Aspen are the (video) memories

Another Winter X Games has come and gone, restoring Aspen, Colo., to a proper level of haughtiness and returning Buttermilk Mountain to ordinary skiers and boarders.

It was, to be sure, one of the more memorable Winter X Games in the event's 15-year history, with double corks popping like champagne corks and even a rare snowboarding triple cork making headlines.

Shaun White and Lindsey Jacobellis got their four-peats and Nate Holland didn't get his six-peat; Kelly Clark become the first female snowboarder to stick a 360 in the superpipe and Torstein Horgmo became the first snowboarder to stick a triple cork during the big-air competition. Progression was evident across the board, whether on skis, snowboards or aboard 450-pound snowmobiles. In case you missed it, here are some highlights: