Happy Valentine's Day

This week there was news that a number of ski babies entered the world over the last several weeks. Congratulations to Kirsten Clark (Raymond, ME), Erik Schlopy (Park City, UT) and Sarah Schleper (Vail, CO) on their new babies.

Kirsten is from just up the road from our U.S. offices in Farmington, ME and now resides in the Truckee area. Word from her local KJUS rep is that she'll be seen in KJUS when she gets back on the slopes.

A special congratulations to Sarah and her husband as they named their little one Lasse. And yes, after none other than Lasse Kjus.

He is in Key West

This is the answer to what is surely to be one of next week's most commonly asked questions.

Next week the SIA show takes place in Las Vegas and ISPO invades Munich and visitors to the KJUS booth at each show are likely to ask- Is Lasse here? What is he up to these days?

This week Lasse is in Key West, FL, competing in the Acura Race Week. This is not a new King of the Mountain event made for TV in the warmer climate, it is one of the worlds largest sailing regattas. When Lasse doesn't have a ski pole in his hand he is likely to have a tiller in it. Lasse has long been keen on sailing and since retiring has been racing his Melges 24 NOR 724. In 2006 he and Aamodt both purchased Melges 24s, so the friendly rivalry now continues on the water.

In Key West, Lasse is currently 31st in his one-design class. Weather has been pretty iffy through out the week, and on Monday he had a pretty tough go of it in a practice session with one of his crew members taking a swim.

Today in Gary Jobson's day four video report he interviews Lasse about how ski racing and sailing are not too different from each other. Gary is an exceptional announcer, so we'll let his pronunciation of Kjus slide this time.

Bode in Time; In Kjus

Earlier this month Time Magazine featured Bode Miller in their 10 Questions column where they pose questions (and yes 10 of them) from the public. In the print issue he's shown leaving the starting gate, but online there is a video of the interview where he is wearing one of his Team America KJUS jackets. For those of you keeping score at home, that's the KJUS Force jacket in black that features the ultralight and ultra-warm PrimaLoft insulation. It is one of Bode's favorite KJUS pieces.

You can watch video here, or if you have issues with the video player listen to the podcast on iTunes, or just read the story.

Puckett Looks to Repeat at X-Games this Week

Practice kicks off today in Aspen for the Skier X competition at the XGames. Last year Casey Puckett held off Jake Fiala at the finish to take home the gold. Qualifying is on Friday and the finals are on Sunday. Here's the full XGames 12 schedule and the TV schedule.

Last years final:

Congratulations Bode!

Bode Miller broke Phil Mahre's record of World Cup wins today with his Combined win. He was second in the downhill on Saturday with an amazing run, which included arcing a turn off the snow fencing- Congratulations Bode, but we know it's the Globe at the end of the season that you are really aiming for.

Bode breaks out the KJUS Team America race suit for Kitzbühel training

images: Reuters

Bode was 15th today in training in Kitzbuhel- he was 5th in yesterday's training. He's looking to pass Phil Mahre as the American with the most World Cup Wins. The Hahnenkamm would be an amazing place to do so. The weekend schedule currently is Super G Friday, Downhill Saturday, Slalom Sunday.

The Man in Black

As the original man in black says- he walks the line, and in skier cross it is a fine line. Just ask our Casey Puckett. Casey has been in Europe for the past week or so competing in a couple skier cross World Cups.

There is a lot of rubbing of paint in skier cross, which makes it exciting to watch, but dangerous to compete in. A couple of US athletes have had unfortunate crashes. You can read about the details on Casey's blog.

On Sunday, Casey got his second podium of the trip finishing 2nd in Les Contamines, France. Hew was third earlier in the week at the Tignes “Airwaves” event.

The man in black will hopefully continue the trend and move to the top of the podium this week when the ski cross World Cup heads to Flaines, France.