Casting call! Today marks the official start of the 2012 Roxy Shooting Star Online Video Contest. We’re on the search for the next snowboard video star. So gather up your best snowboard video shots, or go out and shoot some new tricks and send them our way for the chance to win money and loads of Roxy prizes! New this year, enter as a A-Lister or a Local Celebrity– you decide based upon your ability. We’ll select winners every week and award them with prizes. The grand prizes and overall Shooting Star champ will be awarded on March 5th. Weekly winners will have their video shown on Roxy, yobeat.com, and sbcwomen.com. Entry is FREE. The first 30 girls to enter receive a Roxy tee & beanie! Submit your video & follow the action at Roxyshootingstar.yobeat.com

Highlights from last years Shooting Star:

In the latest episode from the Roxy rider Robin Van Gyn and the girls over at P.S., they head deep into the British Columbia wilderness to a place where you and I are likely to never set foot. Good thing we can just watch this video and see what we’re missing!

Here’s a fun video featuring Roxy team rider Erin Comstock & friends shredding it up at Park City. It’s one more way Roxy likes to have fun in the sun.

Board bags are zipped up, skis packed away, and red tail lights line the road leading out of Aspen as another Winter X Games comes to a close and the world’s best freeskiers and snowboarders disperse to their next mountain adventures. And while they may all go their separate ways this week, whether to the next contest, photoshoot, or distant backcountry terrain, they all leave with a renewed sense of love for the snow community they are so lucky to be a part of. This is one of many valuable reminders that the passing of freesking legend Sarah Burke has inspired.

X Games practice began mere days after the snow community was faced with the loss of one of its brightest stars. This devastating news left a gaping hole in the hearts of all in attendance. But as the practice days turned into competition days, signs of Sarah began to pop up. At first it was the purple ribbons with “Sarah” hand written on them. Then red “Sarah” stickers and blue “Celebrate Sarah” stickers appeared on helmets, boards, skis and goggle lenses. Next came the white armbands embroidered with her name and a snowflake (a nod to one of her many nicknames). By the evening of the beautiful tribute that ESPN organized in honor of Sarah, reminders of Sarah were everywhere, and it was clear that she was with us and would never be forgotten.

The athletes did not let their grief hold them back, but filled with love for Sarah, they rode strong and surely made her proud. By the weekend finals, white Sarah armbands emblazoned almost every shoulder– from Sarah’s fellow skiers to boardercross racers, and even Shaun White himself– it seems that everyone found strength in Sarah.

In fitting tribute, her close friends and fellow Canadian Olympic freeski teammates won gold in both women’s freeski events with performances that are sure to help further Sarah’s efforts towards getting recognition for women in freeskiing (see Kaya Turski’s mind blowing slopestyle run and Roz Groenewoud’s 14 foot superpipe airs). Fellow Roxy teammate Kjersti Buaas wore a Sarah sticker and armband as she rode her way to a bronze medal in women’s snowboard slopestyle. And snowboarders Kelly Clark, Marc McMorris, Jamie Anderson, and Shaun White all wore the arm band to gold medal victory.

By the end of X Games 16, the armbands, stickers, and ribbons came to symbolize more than just the memory of Sarah, they are a symbol of the bond tying the snow community together. In wearing them we recognize that we are a family until the end. Sarah symbolizes all that draws us to the mountains and to each other: a shared love of snow and the endless possibilities it presents, the exhilaration of learning something new and pushing ourselves, and the ultimate joy of playing in the mountains with those you love.

What do you do to keep your face protected on the mountain?
I wear a neck warmer, Roxy makes some really nice ones that you can hide from the cold with style. And I also use SPF 25 sunscreen.

What item do you consider your must-have on the hill?
Music. My phone or a shuffle. I put a good playlist on so I can jam out. Everything from really cruise-y music to upbeat. Music inspires me to try something that I’m scared of.

Tell us something that would surprise us about yourself?
I use a reusable glass coffee mug with a glass straw to protect my teeth from the coffee staining.

@ajuthe asked: What’s your favorite part about snowboarding? and what is your fav trick? i’m going to guess air to fakie in the pipe!
I love air-to-fakies. But now my favorite trick is a backside 5 on a jump, it feels really good in the air.

@adribbby asked: How do you manage to snowboard so long without freezing?!
I wear wool first layers, even wool underwear. Growing up in Norway I learned a lot about this. They even have bras made of wool. Don’t use cotton because that will make you colder. Roxy has a lot of good fleece options. And foot warmers, the ones with the rechargeable batteries are good.

@ibisssx3 asked: Where’s you favorite place to snowboard at?
Wherever there’s good snow. I like the Breckenridge and Keystone parks, and Tahoe and Northstar is great in the spring. Norway has some cools spots, and Japan for powder.

@kiranapiranha asked: If you couldn’t snowboard for a living, what would you be doing instead?
I would be a teach of some sort. I love kids and I like to teach people things. …And if I could choose a talent, I would be a singer or a rockstar…but I don’t have that talent.

@sj4569 asked: Hey what’s your favorite thing to do when your not snowboarding?
I love to watch movies. Old ones and new ones. In the Christmas spirit, Love Actually is a really good one. I also like to shoot photos, edit photos, edit movies, all kinds of media stuff. And I love to play my ukelele. I’m not very good yet, but everyday I’m learning. I’m learning Christmas songs now, on the uke.

Looking for a little Refreshment? Check out the latest ROXY Refreshment vid edited by & starring Kjersti Buaas…

Roxy team rider Ty Walker has been named to the US Olympic slopestyle team, joining the ranks of snowboarding’s elite. Ty is the youngest team member (at 14 years old) and also the only girl on the team! We checked in with Ty to see how things are going so far:

Ty Walker here! Hoping everybody is loving the start of the winter season as much as I am! After spending Thanksgiving with my family, I came back to Colorado to ride with the U.S. Snowboard Team. The U.S. Team consists of the riders that the USSA (United States Ski/Snowboard Association) thinks are the most likely candidates to go to the next Olympics (and hopefully medal ). I feel so honored to be on the team, especially since it’s the first U.S. Slopestyle Team ever and I’m the only girl. They’ve given us US Snowboarding Team luggage bags, t-shirts, stickers, and a bunch of other stuff that they give you to rep U.S. Snowboarding. I love the stuff and it makes me super proud to represent my country in that way.

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Robin Van Gyn is a wizard at riding powder in the backcountry. Last winter she buckled down and got to work, snowmobiling out to faraway snowy locales to spin off jumps, drop lines, and slash fresh snow. She’s living the dream up in beautiful British Columbia. While powder may look like marshmallows, it’s not always that forgiving, and Robin paid her dues. But when this girl takes a lickin’ she keeps on ticking, and the results are quite extraordinary. Watch, Ooo and Ahhh, and be inspired.

The Roxy Refreshments are back and better than ever!  Here’s a sneak peak of things to come.  The 2011/12 Refreshments web video series will follow the winter adventures of the Roxy snow team, including Torah Bright, Sarah Burke, Robin Van Gyn, Erin Comstock, and more.  Stayed tuned every other Tuesday for more escapades on ice.

Over the weekend our girl Kjersti Buaas won 2nd place in the slopestyle event and 6th place in the halfpipe at the first stop of the Global Open series in New Zealand.  This contest marks the beginning of the new 2011/12  winter competition season, so Kjersti is off to a great start!  Here’s a few words from Kjersti about the event:

“My best run in the slopestyle event consisted of: 360 tap, 50-50 to backside boardslide, 50-50 to bs. 180 off the pole jam, cab 540 indy, fs. 720 mute and a fs 360 stalefish. The course and weather stayed perfect, actually the best conditions I have ever ridden here.

The next  morning in the halfpipe event I tried some good old air-to-fakies in practice, but I was mainly focusing on pacing my energy, since I was running on fumes. The finals started and the first contest run that went down made everybody on the top go; wooohhhh! Spanish rider Queralt Castellet dropped in and did the biggest bs. 900 I have ever seen from a girl and set the standard for the rest of the day.

I was inspired by the American mafia, Kelly, Gretchen, Elena and Hannah, that did not disappoint! fs and bs 900′s, cab 720 and huge airs went down left and right. I aso surprised myself and landed a good run, witch earned me 6th place out of 8th riders in the finals. I also won the creative use of space award, for my air-to-fakie on the first hit, something that I feel very honored to win.

Big thanks to my sponsors, Roxy, Monster, DNB Nor and KAB for the amazing support. Special thanks to “coach of the week”, One Life team captain Chanelle Sladics for holding it down!  -KJ”

To hear more about Kjersti’s trip to New Zealand hop over to her blog.

I just received this update from our snow team rider, Robin Van Gyn, who just attended the world premier of Winter Wars, the new film from Peep Show (a super cool all girl snowboard video project that you must check out…or perhaps you already saw them in a little magazine called Paper?).  Here’s a little recap of what we all missed.

“Starry skies and skate bowls filled with campers set the scene for Peep Show Films’ “Winter Wars” world premier at High Cascade Snowboard Camp on Thursday. It was a first for everybody including all the riders, so the buzz and anticipation was at an all time high. Riders and campers were surprised and hyped to say the least and the high fives and compliments poured in after the movie finished. It wouldn’t be  a proper film premier without prizes; the girls stuck around to fight (old west style) for a 11/12 Roxy Ollie Pop. The arm wrestle was over fast and a fit young camper went home 1 snowboard richer! Believe the hype….Winter Wars!”

To see Robin and the rest of the PS crew in Winter Wars, look for it online or at your local snowboard shop!