In 1994, Anders Hagman and Calle Eriksson, then a professional snowboarder and snowboard photographer, respectively, launched an online snowboard magazine from an apartment in rural Sweden. Method Mag, as it was dubbed, was not just one of the very first snowboard websites, but one of the earlier websites in general, published not long after the first images appeared on the nascent web. Drawing inspiration from California's Heckler Magazine, Eriksson and Hagman set out to document snowboarding and its culture as they were experiencing it on the ground, which often stood in contrast to the polished press that populated major media at the time. Zigzagging across Europe with a carload of equipment, fashioning impromptu dark rooms in hotel bathrooms, hacking fax lines and constructing myriad other mobile workarounds, the pair published near real-time coverage and content in their unfiltered Gonzo style, bringing to life a media outlet as spontaneous and raw as the riders and scenes it covered. Perhaps more importantly, the website's then-cutting edge flairs, like open forums and a commenting feature, brought the burgeoning global snowboard community together like never before. Over the next two and a half decades, Method evolved through numerous changes in format, ownership, location and staff, consistently pushing the conception of what a snowboard magazine could be and what it could deliver. But its journey was a tumultuous one, even by snowboard media standards. Throughout its existence, the magazine lived on the razor's edge: it dodged so many would-be deaths that former staffers refer to it as "the cockroach of snowboarding." Yet, through an often chaotic blend of foresight, personal fortitude - i.e., working for magic mushrooms, squatting in abandoned properties, a stint in solitary confinement - and a fair serving of luck, Method always lived to publish another day. Part oral history, part archival collection, part contemporary commentary, Hold Fast, Tweak Hard provides an intimate look inside European snowboarding's most influential and infamous title, diving into the outlandish characters and innovative products that guided Method through financial crashes, a shrinking industry and a dramatically changed media landscape to stand out across the globe as a definitive voice of snowboard culture.

The first full-length study of skiing in the United States, this book traces the history of the sport from its utilitarian origins to its advent as a purely recreational and competitive activity. During the mid-1800s, inhabitants of frontier mining communities in the Sierra and Rocky mountains used skis for many practical reasons, including mail and supply delivery, hunting, and railroad repair. In some towns skis were so common that, according to one California newspaper, the ladies do nearly all their shopping and visiting on them. But it was Norwegian immigrants in the Midwest, clinging to their homeland traditions, who first organized the skisport. Through the founding of local clubs and the National Ski Association, this ethnic group dominated American skiing until the 1930s. At this time, a wave of German immigrants infused America with the ethos of what we today call Alpine skiing. This type of skiing became increasingly popular, especially in the East among wealthy collegians committed to the romantic pursuit of the strenuous life. Ski clubs proliferated in towns and on college campuses and specialized resorts cropped up from New England to California. At the same time, skiing became mechanized with tows and lifts, and the blossoming equipment and fashion industries made a business of the sport. On the eve of World War II, as the book concludes its story, all the elements were in place for the explosion in recreational and competitive skiing that erupted after 1945.

Skiing into Modernity is the story of how skiing moved from Europe's Scandinavian periphery to the mountains of central Europe, where it came to define the modern Alps and set the standard for skiing across the world. Denning offers a fresh, sophisticated, and engaging cultural and environmental history of skiing that alters our understanding of the sport and reveals how leisure practices evolve in unison with our changing relationship to nature. Denning probes the modernist self-definition of Alpine skiers and the sport's historical appeal for individuals who sought to escape city strictures while achieving mastery of mountain environments through technology and speed two central features distinguishing early twentieth-century cultures. Skiing into Modernity surpasses existing literature on the history of skiing to explore intersections between work, tourism, leisure, development, environmental destruction, urbanism, and more.

The sport of ice hockey is going through a transitional period, losing popularity in the United States even as it gains momentum in other countries. The Hockey Dad Chronicles is the touching and funny story of one season in the youth hockey career of Ed Wenck's son, Oliver, when he played for the Indianapolis Junior Ice. Hockey parents spend an inordinate amount of time and money on their child's sport of choice -- considerably more than soccer, football, or basketball parents dish out. They get their children to the ice rink for 7 a.m. ice time, they travel with them to other states for games every other weekend -- and if they're anything like Ed Wenck, they spend a lot of time sitting in bleachers wondering at the absurdity of it all. As youth hockey grows ever more popular, increasing numbers of parents are seeing their lives taken over by their children's hockey careers. The Hockey Dad Chronicles will be a familiar, amusing, and moving reminder to them -- and to all parents who devote themselves to their children's extracurricular activities, whether they're sports, drama, or dance -- of what it's all about.