sports: November 2011 Archives

For 62 years a new Warren Miller ski movie has heralded the advent of the winter sports season and his latest effort has arrived, "Like There's No Tomorrow," which will play for one night only at 8 p.m. Friday at Torrance's James Armstrong Theatre at the Civic Center.

Here's more on the film from Warren Miller & Co:

Narrated by California native and Olympic Gold Medalist Jonny Moseley, Like There's No Tomorrow follows more than a dozen professional skiers and snowboarders to exotic locations on five continents. Watch as world-class athletes hit the slopes of some of the world's most inspiring snowy landscapes; from the striking Himalayas in Gulmarg, India to the southern hemisphere's highest peak in Portillo, Chile to the legendary powder of Squaw Valley, Calif.

Tickets are $20.50 apiece. After the film, moviegoers can use their ticket stub toward a buy one, get one lift ticket offer at participating mountain resorts and discounts at Sport Chalet. For tickets, call (1-800) 523-7117

Torrance is one of 240 cities nationwide where the film will be screened.

Check out the trailer:

President Barack Obama called Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena, currently with the Carson-based Major League Soccer club in Indonesia, to congratulate him on winning MLS Cup earlier this month.

The President said, as a soccer fan, he wanted to let Coach Arena know that the team inspired a lot of young soccer players, including his kids. The President congratulated Coach Arena on all that the team has done for the game of soccer and asked him to pass along his congratulations to Landon Donovan, David Beckham and the rest of the team.

The White House visit is expected to occur sometime next year.

Incidentally, the Galaxy won the first game of its Asian tour in the wee hours of this morning Pacific time.

And if you're a soccer fan who can't wait for next season to start in the spring, here's an appetizer in an ad featuring Galaxy players at what will be the new home of MLS:

Due to a technical error the 100 Percent Soccer blog is "down" and readers may not post comments nor can it be updated until the blog is restored (which could be a cumbersome and time-consuming process).

Moreover, there is a factual error in the most recent post that can't be corrected at this time.

For the record, Chivas USA midfielder Paulo Nagamura was traded today to Sporting Kansas City and not the MLS club indicated in the post.

Thank you for your understanding.

No modern athlete, by any resonable measure, has dominated their sport like Kelly Slater has dominated pro surfing.

Not Jordan or Montana. Not Favre or Lebron or, dare it be said, Kobe Bryant. Not even the historic sporting successes of Woods, Federer and Nadal can really compare to Slater's stunning run of athletic supremacy.

So when the Florida native took home his unprecedented 11th world title this week in San Francisco, he was heralded as a conquering hero by the surfing world.

Slater's feats have lit up Twitter and Facebook, been highlighted in magazine spreads and newspaper articles, fueled massive corporate marketing campaigns and been featured among mainstream sports highlights on ESPN. He was even profiled a few weeks back on that one show my parents always TiVo, CBS Sunday Morning.

"This is pretty fabulous," Slater told reporters after being crowned the tour's 2011 champion. "It's very fulfilling and there's personal satisfaction. It feels real nice. I've dedicated my life to surfing and competing and to go a whole year and win a world title and have it pay off, it's really fulfilling. To win on American soil is nice."

He has already posted three tour wins this year and reached the finals in five of nine events.

Slater's most recent achievement was highlighted this week by the New York Times, which lauded his ability to remain above the competition despite a constant influx of talented young surfers.

The article appeared just after the completion of the latest Association of Surfing Professionals tour stop up north, which - in true Ocean Beach fashion - featured chilly water, offshore winds, a powerful swell and the reported sighting of a massive shark.

The ASP calculates winners and losers through a complex point system, and Slater clinched the title of the 11-stop tour by reaching the fourth round in San Francisco. But it was Gabriel Medina, a 17-year-old Brazilian, who topped Slater in their heat and eventually went on to win the event by beating Australian Joel Parkinson.

Medina may be the gifted young phenom of tomorrow, but today belongs to the Champ.

Need more evidence of Slater's unrivaled superiority? Just take a look at the numbers: 11, the number of world titles he has won; 20, Slater's age in 1992 when he won his first ASP world title; $3 million, the amount of prize money he has earned over a career spanning two decades; 48 tour wins, two X Game medals, countless fans and immeasurable commercial appeal.

Slater holds the distinction of being the youngest and oldest world champion in the history of professional surfing.

Max Klinger of the The New York Times looks at Slater's longevity and deep influence in nearly every aspect of surfing, where younger pros have dramatically progressed the sport by taking to the sky - literally. While Slater has developed his technique to incorporate aerial surfing, he has remained true to his iconic power-surfing style. And Slater's successes this week at San Francisco's legendary Ocean Beach proved to be a powerful testament to his staying power in an ever-evolving sport.

From the NY Times article:

Slater, who is considered a master of every facet of the sport -- barrel riding, aerials, power surfing -- has seemed to age in reverse.

"When I need to, I'm surfing better than I ever have in my life," he said. "The thing about getting older in anything is keeping your mind open to trying new things and taking new approaches. I honestly don't feel like age is a restriction."

Part of that has to do with the low-impact physical nature of surfing, but part also has to do with Slater's unusual ability to balance the motivation required to surf in contests -- which are often held in less-than ideal conditions and whose format can limit risk taking -- with the desire to advance the larger progression of the sport.

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On Sunday, after the final horn of his title-clinching heat had blown, he paddled for a wedging barrel and disappeared behind the thick green lip for several seconds before emerging from what could have easily been the best wave of the event.

It did not count, but it did not matter much to Slater, whose title was already in the books. As the crowd burst into a frenzy, it was clear that the tour's champ was also the people's champ.

Slater's appeal is broad for many reasons, one of them being that he just genuinely seems like a decent guy. And that's refreshing in today's culture of celebrity worship. He doesn't drink or smoke or do drugs. He gives his money and time to charity, visiting with wounded solders and teaching disabled veterans how to surf. He often does this under the media's radar. There are no cheating scandals or salacious sex headlines or failed 72-day marriages, no ridiculous political campaigns or head-scratching run ins with the law. Heck, the guy even updates his own twitter feed. Talk about "the people's champion."

Next up in Slater's 11^th world title tour will be the Pipeline Masters held in December on the North Shore of Oahu. Us mortals hope retirement doesn't soon follow.