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NOV/DEC 2019
NEWS| cont.
TACTICS BOARD SHOPS ANNOUNCE
19/20 SNOWBOARD TEAM
P: Spencer Wilkerson
Bend locals Nora Beck (left) and Oz Zehren (above)
P: Jon Tapper
Snowboarders Jared Elston, Gabe Ferguson, Demetri Bales, Dru Brownrigg,
Justin Norman (relocated to Washington), Randal Seaton, Kai Huggin, Che Contor
Oz Zehren, and Nora Beck round out the Tactics Bend Snowboard team. Three of the
team riders have parts in films debuting this fall. They include:
Jared Elston - Nitro Snowboards “Offline”
Demetri Bales – Absinthe “Isle of Snow”
Gabe Ferguson – Snowboarder Mag “Everybody, Everybody”
Nora Beck also had a breakout season last year, stacking clips and standing on a number
of podiums including: 1st Airblaster Skolf Championship Brighton, 3rd Place Dew Tour
Women’s Rail Jam Breckenridge, and 2nd Place Hot Dawgz & Handrails SnowSummit
(September).
Looking ahead to the 19/20 winter season, Tactics has a short film in the works with
longtime team rider Justin Norman and videographer Colby Mesick. The film will follow
Justin’s progression on and off the board as well his pursuit for bigger mountains and
terrain since relocating from Bend to northern Washington a few years back. You should
expect see a few other Tactics team riders in the mix as well as other local talent as
Justin explores the endless terrain and bottomless powder surrounding Stevens Pass, Mt.
Baker, and beyond. The full video is set to release February 2020.
HUNTER HESS SELECTED TO
U.S. HALFPIPE PRO SKI TEAM
Bend local, Hunter Hess had the 2018-19 season he was looking for. With four top 10’s
(including a podium in China) he moved up from the US Rookie Halfpipe Team to the Pro
A team for 2019-2020 season. This is great news because on the Pro Team, most of
your expenses are taken care of leaving the athlete to concentrating on excelling. Hess,
20, was on the Halfpipe Rookie Team for the last three years. The World Cup season
starts on December 11-14 at Copper Mountain, Colorado.
MAX TWINS VERBALLY COMMIT TO
RUN FOR PRINCETON
The Max twins Fiona and Isabel,
seniors at Summit High School,
have committed to collegiate run-
ning starting in the Fall of 2020 for
cross-country season. The twins
received from Princeton what’s
called a “likely letter” from the ad-
missions office. Fi and Izzy started
getting recruited last fall when
coaches were allowed to contact
them directly (there are a lot of
NCAA rules around this).
Recruiting picked up after their
team won CX Running Team Na-
tionals, and by last winter they had
narrowed down the search to a
handful of schools. They did official
visits at Georgetown, Princeton
and the U of O.
Fi and Izzy met with coaches at meets and two coaches (Princeton and Georgetown)
flew to Bend to meet with them. Along the way, the girls came to identify the things they
were looking for in a program and a college. The combo of academic opportunities and
the coach/team/program at Princeton put it at the top of their list. Princeton coach, Brad
Hunt, first reached out to them via Summit’s athletic director after seeing them run at
nationals last December. They started talking to him pretty regularly starting late last year,
and he made a surprise visit to a track meet at Summit this spring. Now the only question
is, will they share a dorm room together?
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