An American professional skier, Tanner Hall, has teamed up with a marijuana company called Black Rock and launched the “SKIBOSS Collection” retailing at $14.95 (£10.50).
This partnership represents the first official relationship between cannabis and active professional athletes. The kit includes a grinder card, rice rolling papers (certified 100% gluten-free) and a SKIBOSS-logoed lighter which the company says is good for up to 3,000 lights and designed to work in high-wind scenarios. Hall has won numerous golds over a near 15-year career, particularly in the X Games, in the disciplines of slopestyle, big air, half pipe and superpipe as well as appearing in many ski films and being Co-Founder of ski company Armada Skis. “There’s so many smokers in skiing and snowboarding, they finally can have a brand they can identify with, that actually wants to work with athletes,” said Hall, who also says he would like to develop his own blend of marijuana. Hall is reported to credit marijuana use along with visits to the gym as helping him recover from injuries. He said in an interview that he was prescribed almost limitless pain-killing prescription drugs and felt addicted to them, but that taking marijuana helped him escape his prescription drug addiction. “Our brand is focused on debunking the lazy stoner stereotype, and Tanner has been poking holes in that misconception for decades,” said Tommy Joyce, Black Rock’s Co-Founder. The recreational use of marijuana has been legalised in a number of US states, including Colorado, but smoking the drug is banned at most ski areas.
