ARREST PROMPTS CALL FOR SNOWBOARDING RULES

Regulations Against Marijuana Demanded After Danish And Canadian Riders
Charged With Possession

Canada's top snowboarding official is calling for strong regulations and
sanctions regarding marijuana use in the sport following a drug bust of two
athletes as they drove away from a World Cup event in Nevada on the weekend.

Michael Wood, administrative director of the Canadian Snowboarding
Federation, said he was "shocked and frustrated" to learn two riders -- a
Danish Olympian and a former Canadian national team member -- had been
arrested on marijuana-related charges.

Michael Kildevaeld, 31, who was 15th for Denmark in giant slalom at the
Nagano Olympics, faces charges of marijuana possession and driving under
the influence and Brett Tippie, 29, of Kamloops, B.C., was charged with
being under the influence. They were traveling from a snowboarding event at
Lake Tahoe to Big Bear Ski Resort in Southern California when a sheriff's
deputy stopped their car for speeding near Topaz Lake, Nev.

The deputy smelled marijuana smoke and a drug sniffing dog found about two
grams of what is believed to be marijuana and a pipe inside the car.
Sheriff's Sergeant Lance Modispacher said Kildevaeld admitted the substance
belonged to him. A preliminary hearing is scheduled in Douglas County
Justice Court today.

"No matter what we do as a federation, it ultimately has to come down to
the individuals because all we can do is lead the horse to water. We can't
force it to drink," said Wood.

"We definitely have to have sanctions and policies in place to deal with this."

He was particularly troubled that a Canadian should be involved in a
marijuana charge so soon after an Olympic doping test for cannabis almost
cost Ross Rebagliati of Whistler, B.C., an Olympic gold medal.

Tippie finished 31st at the snowboarding world championships in Italy a
year ago. "Tippie hasn't worked with us in a year and a half. He was at the
Olympic trials but wasn't on the national team. But it's not a good thing
for the sport of snowboarding to be associated with drugs," Wood said.

"It's frustrating when the majority of athletes are trying hard, doing it
on their own accord and staying away from drugs and alcohol . . . but then
they get associated with this."

Snowboarders have been stereotyped as the pot-powered, non-conformists of
ski sport."

"It's a hybrid event that imports the skills of skateboarding and surfing
onto a snowy mountainside. It also imports the respective
anti-establishment counter-cultures. Board riders call themselves by the
punkish term "shredders" and some feel they are targeted by various
authorities on and off the slopes. When news of the drug bust hit the
airwaves yesterday, a young man phoned Toronto's FAN radio identifying
himself as a Canadian national snowboarding team member who also had been
at Lake Tahoe.

He said he'd been pulled over for driving 10 miles per hour over the speed
limit in Iowa by police, "but when I told them I was a snowboarder, they
tore the car apart. They found nothing, but you have to be careful out
there."

Currently, Canadian snowboarding has no policy to discipline or suspend
athletes for marijuana use. The use of the substance as a recreational drug
by athletes is apparently acknowledged by the International Ski Federation,
which has established a threshold level for doping infractions. Rebagliati
admitted using marijuana, but not since April, 1997. He blamed the traces
of drug found in his test on inhaling second-hand smoke at a party.

Kildevaeld was the snowboarder who told Danish reporters at the Olympics
that marijuana was part of the snowboarding scene. While he said he used
the drug himself, he labelled some Canadian riders as pot users who "go
down the hill stoned."

Kildevaeld's bail was set at $7,000, Tippie's at $5,000.

"It's frustrating, because I felt what happened with Ross had opened
everyone's eyes that this is a problem," Wood said. "It definitely hurts
snowboarding again."

The sport of snowboarding, while a full medal event at Nagano, had
provisional status. Olympic officials aren't obliged to make it a core
sport in Salt Lake City in 2002.

"But I believe the whole snowboarding experience was positive at Nagano,"
Wood said, not believing the sport to be in danger. "Even with the Ross
issue, it was positive because it opened our eyes to a problem we didn't
realize was there. Now we know what we're up against and can make changes
to prevent it from happening in the future."