ICER AIR

ICER AIR is an urban big-air ski and snowboard event first held on one of San Francisco’s steepest streets and is now held annually at AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants.

History

ICER founder Glen Griffin originally created the ICER AIR event with Olympic gold medalist Jonny Moseley to promote ICER, a sports products company that developed a new type of aerosol spray-on ski and snowboard wax.

After receiving city permits to hold a ski and snowboard jump on one of San Francisco’s steepest streets, the permits were revoked 3 days before the event was to happen because of neighbor complaints and crowd concerns. The event organizers fought city hall in a very public battle and won, regaining the permits. On September 29, 2005, over 15,000 people showed up on a sunny Thursday afternoon to watch the event. The steep, mansion lined, historic Fillmore Street hill had previously been famous for its views of the San Francisco bay, and for the notorious car chase scenes in the movie Bullitt.

With the momentum of press and notoriety, the event was moved across town in 2006 to AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, creating the first stadium big-air ski and snowboard contest to be held in the United States. With the financial backing of title sponsor Esurance, the ICER AIR event is now held annually. A convert|110|ft|m|sing=on tall, convert|60|ft|m|sing=on wide, convert|350|ft|m|sing=on long scaffold jump takes 5 days to build, and is covered with 200 tons of man made snow. ICER AIR features BMX, skate, and wakeboard competitions, as well as featuring headliner bands such as Jurassic 5, Ladytron, Mos Def, and Talib Kweli. The ICER AIR event draws over 25,000 people and generates over 450 million media impressions annually. Olympic Gold Medalist Jonny Moseley hosts the annual event, and notable athletes have included skaters Tony Hawk and Pierre-Luc Gagnon, Olympic and X Games gold medal snowboarders Travis Rice and Danny Kass, and X Games gold medal skiers Jon Olsson and Simon Dumont.

Chronology

* 1. ICER AIR, September 29, 2005, San Francisco - Fillmore StreetWinners: C.R. Johnson - ski, J.J. Thomas - snowboard

* 2. ICER AIR, November 4, 2006, San Francisco, CA (AT&T Park)Winners: T.J. Schiller - ski, Travis Rice - snowboard

* 3. ICER AIR, November 3, 2007, San Francisco, CA (AT&T Park)Winners: Jon Olsson - ski, Travis Rice - snowboard

External links

* [http://www.icerair.com ICER AIR official website]

ee also

*Air & Style
*Dew Action Sports Tour
*X Games
*Jonny Moseley