By Paul Thissen, Contra Costa Times

Concord will build bocce courts, install playground equipment, resurface tennis courts and make upgrades at Camp Concord with money from the East Bay Regional Park District’s Measure WW bond.

Councilman Mark Peterson asked to delay Tuesday’s council vote because he wanted to see whether part of the money could be used toward the creation of a downtown ice rink. Councilwoman Helen Allen agreed.

But the council majority overruled them and approved the list of projects, saying the talk of an ice rink was too nebulous to push back a vote on the rest of the projects.

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The 2010 USA Cycling Professional Mountain Bike Gravity Tour (Pro GRT) is having a five-event series this year, with a stop at Northstar-at-Tahoe June 26-27

The Pro GRT will remain a downhill-only series in four states from April to September. Each stop offers series ranking points to top finishers, and overall individual titles for professional men and women. The series also features an Amateur GRT which, like the Pro GRT, will give expert-level category 1 racers the opportunity to compete against each other for an overall series crown.

For more information on the series, visit www.progrt.com.

2010 USA Cycling Pro Mountain Bike Gravity Tour (Pro GRT)

April 24-25: Northwest Cup, Port Angeles, Wash.

May 22-23: Plattekill Gravity Open, Roxbury Bike Park, N.Y.

June 26-27: Northstar-at-Tahoe, Truckee

July 31-August 1: Trestle Bike Park (Crankworx Colorado), Winterpark, Colo.

Sept. 11-12: Whiteface 5th Annual 5K Downhill – Lake Placid, N.Y.

The third stage of the Freeride World Tour was Monday on Silverado at Squaw Valley USA. With its playful terrain, the riders put up a show for the hundreds of cheering locals, pushing the limits with a best of two run format.

Local Squaw Valley skier and Freeride World Tour wild card Jaclyn Paaso was without a doubt the biggest crowd pleaser. She took a massive cliff jump at the bottom of the face, faster and higher than most of the men, challenging them for the second heat.

Three out of the four winners today (Windstedt, de Le Rue, Paaso) have scored enough points to climb to the top of the overall Freeride World Tour Ranking 2010, before the final stage Nissan Xtreme by Swatch in Verbier, March 20.

Official results from the Nissan Tram Face, Squaw Valley USA:

Men Ski

1- Henrik Windstedt (SWE)

2- Aurélien Ducroz (FRA)

3- Reine Barkered (SWE)

Women Ski

1- Jaclyn Paaso (USA)

2- Ane Enderud (NOR)

3- Ingrid Backstrom (USA)

Men Snowboard

1- Xavier de Le Rue (FRA)

2- Matt Annetts (USA)

3- Ryland Bell (USA)

Women Snowboard

1- Shannan Yates (USA)

2- Aline Bock (GER)

3- Susan Mol (USA)

An avalanche at Squaw Valley on Sunday postponed the Tram Face competition. Click here to see video.

Squaw Valley's Tram Face. Photo/Provided

The event is expected to resume today on Silverado.

Today’s warm temperatures will disappear when winter returns on Tuesday. Here is the ski report from Curtis Fong, the Guy from Tahoe.

By Kathryn Reed

TRUCKEE — Magic Moguls — that’s the one run I always want to do at Northstar.

Each season the rollers off Vista Express are a little different. Each season it’s worth having some fun on them. It reminds me a bit of when I was a kid and we’d ski here as a family. My friend Darla would take me all over the mountain, over little jumps we’d go, so sure we had gotten some big air.

Seeing what boarders and skiers do these days, I’m not even sure we got any air back then.

Northstar-at-Tahoe Village

These Magic Moguls aren’t anything compared to what is in the terrain park that the lift crosses over. The features in there look pretty intense — especially for non-aerialists.

It was a week ago today that Sue and I spent the day at Northstar-at-Tahoe. Having the luxury of being able to stay at my sister’s place made the experience all the more enjoyable.

Fortunately, we arrived mid-morning. This meant missing the single-digit temperatures on the mountain that fellow skiers had experienced.

The snow on the front side was good. (I wish we were there today for the freshies from this past storm.) The back side, though, was slick, hard and unforgiving.

It reminded me a bit of the men’s downhill course at Whistler, just not as steep. It was like this area didn’t get any of the fresh snow that had sprinkled the rest of the mountain the previous couple of days.

This area didn’t even exist when I was kid. Only the front side of the Comstock lift was inbounds.

It’s the backside and Lookout Mountain where the bulk of the black diamonds are. In the past I’ve had some fun skiing the trees at Lookout Mountain. The conditions didn’t allow for it this particular day, but still, the groomers kept us entertained.

The views into the Martis Valley and into the wilderness are spectacular. Lake Tahoe is visible from other areas of the mountain, which always confounds me because that big body of water is not where I think it should be.

From the mid-mountain lodge the Ritz-Carlton peaks out among the trees. They’ve done a good job to not make it obtrusive. It’s open to the public and could be skied to for lunch. A free gondola takes riders between the village and Ritz.

The village at the base is a great spot to rest. Cushy seating around massive fire pits beckon. An ice rink sits in the middle of everything so free entertainment is available, even if it means watching a woman be carted off on a stretcher after blowing out her knee on the ice.

One of the things about staying at Northstar is being able to access the free bus service. Our bus-mate in the morning, though, said all the changes to the area in the last few years have meant having to wait longer for a ride. It took 20 minutes for a bus to arrive to haul us to the village.

Back at the village after showering we looked around for a place to eat. Our choices were upscale, Japanese or pizza. We picked the latter. And it was yummy. But the options were obviously limited.

Most of the shops were closed as we walked around at 6pm. It was dead.

All of this was rather disappointing since we’d had a great mid-week village experience at Whistler a month earlier.

Northstar was once known as a family destination. In talking to people visiting the resort some still see it that way. Their conclusion is families don’t do villages.

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By Susan Voyles, Reno Gazette-Journal

Skier Julia Mancuso did a little podium dance and jingled her two Olympic silver medals as if to tease a welcome-home party of several thousand gathered today at Northstar ski resort.

“I want to show you something,” she said on the stage at the village ice rink and then raised her arms to show off an Olympic medal dangling from each hand. “I’ve got three Olympic medals, one gold and two silver. And it all came from skiiing every day here at Squaw Valley

Julia Mancuso Photo/John David Mercer/US Presswire

and the mountains.”

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It’s a beautiful day to be skiing at any of the resorts in Lake Tahoe. Here is the ski report from Curtis Fong, the Guy from Tahoe.

Lake Tahoe is known for many things; it’s 400 inches of annual snowfall, 300 days of sunshine, and home to the largest alpine lake in the country. Add a new distinction to this list as the destination is now the largest flat-water stand-up paddleboard venue in the world hosting a series of five races starting May 29 and ending Sept. 26.

Stand-up paddle boarding is an emerging sport with a Hawaiian heritage, and gave early surfers a higher viewpoint, increasing visibility of what was going on around them, such as incoming swells. Today boards are anywhere from nine to 18 feet with features such as padded decks, one to three surfboard-style fins for stability and equipped with a long paddle.

In Lake Tahoe, stand-up paddle boarding is popular with crossover athletes, especially skiers and snowboarders, along with mountain bikers and runners, as it helps develop a strong core, essential for succeeding in just about any outdoor sport.

Recently the Lake Tahoe Paddleboard Association and Ta-Hoe Nalu, both nonprofit organizations, combined their stand-up and prone paddleboard events to create the 2010 Quiksilver Tahoe Stand-Up Paddleboard Race Series, with two of the five being elite races and offering a combined purse of $40,000 in cash and merchandise.

It all kicks off May 29 with the 2nd Annual Donner Lake Memorial at the West End of Donner Lake in Truckee at 9am. This is a five-mile race and free on-water stand-up paddleboard demos will be available to spectators after the contest.

Over on the East Shore is the Thunderbird Run Lake Tahoe June 5 with an eight-mile loop course that runs past Sand Harbor Beach State Recreation Area and turns around by the historic Thunderbird Lodge.

The 3rd Annual Jam to the Dam is July 10, 8am, when participants paddle the six miles from Patton Landing Beach in Carnelian Bay to the Tahoe City Dam located at the Gatekeeper’s Museum in Tahoe City. Spectators can also get in on the action as free on-water stand-up paddleboard demos will be available after the race.

The Ta-Hoe Nalu Stand-Up Festival runs the weekend of Aug. 21-22 in Kings Beach with five races, including a 14-foot elite race class and OC-1 Outrigger Race.

The five races conclude with the Tahoe Fall Classic Sept. 26, 8am. In its third year, there is also an additional 14-foot elite race class. This event has paddlers going 22 miles from Camp Richardson Marina in South Lake Tahoe, completely across Lake Tahoe, to Kings Beach on the North Shore. Visitors get wet with free on-water stand-up paddleboard demos.

Call 877-949-3296 or click here for information.

By Kathryn Reed

The ski pole as we know it today came to the market 50 years ago this winter after Ed Scott saw the need for a lighter pole with a smaller basket.

Steel was replaced with aluminum and the baskets used on kids’ poles became the standard size for adults.

In the 1960s, most racers were using Scott poles. But other manufacturers came along, using the same technology, and captured some of those athletes because the companies were willing to pay skiers to use their poles. Scott wanted nothing to do with that.

Before Scott’s invention, poles were said to be like using a golf club or steel croquet mallet. As skiers became faster, the steel poles were making it more cumbersome to plant in time before turning. It took great arm and upper body strength, and balance just to use poles.

Scott, who was from Sun Valley, Idaho, died in 1999 at 85.

Today, stores and slopes are filled with Scott poles — as well as others. For many recreational skiers not much thought is put into what pole they use.

“These were the ones on sale,” said Alan Asari of San Ramon of his DuraFlex poles while riding a chairlift at Heavenly Mountain Resort. “I hardly use them. They are a nuisance.”

Poles mostly range in price for $35-$120 for recreational use, and can be much more for racing poles.

“Poles are a personal preference. You can give me a rental pole and I don’t care,” said Adam Ruscitto, customer service rep for Porters Sports Lake Tahoe in Tahoe City. “The grip is probably one of the more important things people look for.”

Mark Martini of Menlo Park was using Scott poles at Heavenly, saying he likes the flexibility of the pole.

Sports Ltd. in South Lake Tahoe carries a slew of Scott poles.

“They have a pole for every condition,” salesman John Whisnant said of Scott. “The biggest advancement is the new material — carbon composites. It’s not as stiff and jarring on the wrist as an aluminum pole would be.”