Snowboarding’s all about corporate sponsorship, triple corks and wearing tight pants these days. Sadly Nikita didn’t get the memo and held their annual end-of-season contest with the sole aim of letting some talented ams have a blast all day, making sure the vibe was chill, and hooking the best rider up with a deal for a year. What were they thinking?

Nikita Chickita, Photo: Anna Langer

Serfaus played host to the 4th Nikita Chickita Europe last April and the goodtimes were in full flow. Sure, shred contests are from time to time all about beating the other riders into a bloody pulp with your skills, but let’s face it – for most people snowboarding is simply the best fun you can have without a pin-up, KY jelly and a length of rubber. This is the vibe Nikita wanted for their end of season shindig.

16 girls from across Europe had beelined to this quaint town tucked away in a fold of Austrian alpine and come the day of the contest the park had softened up nicely under the bluebird skies meaning the double kicker line and the extensive array of jibs was ripe for the girls to throw down on. Straight off the bat, the freeform, easy-natured approach Nikita were keen to encourage was evident when the riders conferred with the judges and decided that scrapping the qualifi cations/finals format in favour of a day-long jam session was the way to go. It worked out perfectly as the girls could now lap the park all day without having to hang around, while the judges (Nikita riders Julia Baumgartner, Lisa Filsmozer, Maude Richon and Vanessa Waldenhofer) were charged with keeping an eye on whoever was stepping it up and throwing down hardest. In fact it went so well that even when the judges were ready to decide on the three girls who’d impressed them most, the riders wanted to keep the session going for the fun of it and did so into the late afternoon.

In between laps, the girls would head over to hang at the Chill Out area to grab a drink, some food or even enjoy a massage from the on-site physiotherapy guru, Jan, before heading back into the park to continue with their session. As we hung out here all day, supping on beers, watching the riding and chatting with the Nikita crew, the brand’s warm family spirit was obvious, with Heida, Geiri and co’s children and other halves all having made the trip to enjoy the vibe, and it was all in all most defi nitely the least contest-like contest we hit up last year.

Over a burger and a beer, we asked event organiser Geiri to sum up the Nikita Chickita in a nutshell. “It’s not really about the contest itself, although the contest is at a really good level,” he explained. “It’s more about just having fun and keeping it real and progressing. That said the fi rst prize is pretty good, it’s a year’s contract with Nikita and Ð1000 and a shitload of goodies, but we’re more about having fun and enjoying snowboarding.”

Fun and enjoyment were certainly had and when the girls had finally been dragged off the course, we euro carved our way down through the spring slush with the whole crew and it was hard not to feel a warm glow in your stomach. Ok, that may have been Geiri’s schnapps so we made the glow all the warmer with some afterski and by then it was time to crown the winners. Yeah, yeah, it’s not about winners and losers, it’s all rainbows and unicorns, but Nikita wanted someone with the lick on their books for a year so after much deliberation the judges doffed their caps to Elena Könz, who’d convinced them with her solid riding through the day putting down stuff like front 3s, front and back 5s, switch back 1s. Isabel Derungs nabbed secon thanks to her back rodeos and front 3s and Malin Johansson’s Cab 5s saw her into the third spot, with Mary Luggen getting some love for being the day’s best jibber. If you’re a young, up-and-coming chickita and fancy being part of the family this year, head over to nikitaclothing.com/events where you’ll find details of how you can become part of the fun.

RESULTS:

1. Elena Könz
2. Isabel Derungs
3. Malin Johansson

www.onboardsnowboarding.com

It would seem that even snowboard’s movie industry is suffering in these times of budget cuts. At the Nike 6.0 Twisted Tricks sessions in Barrèges, La Mongie, France Marco Smolla played human dolly for Martin the filmer from the Pirates. He as all tied up and ready to go. “Lights, camera, dropping, Action!” Rats! “CUT!” “Can you do that trick again please but with more emotion!” What happened next?

Marco Smolla

ALEX TANK

Fieldnotes

(Deep newsy voice like CNN)

“This month’s man on the battlefield is young Isenseven  ripper Alex Tank. From the icy streets of Hells-inki to the nose deep powder of the Austrian peeks, Mr Tank reports on risking life and limb. Alex?”

Alex Tank, Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

What’s up haters? I’m in Oslo right now with Ludde ‘Birdman’ Lejkner and Isenseven’s Tom Elliot trying to get some snowboarding on tape. Before that, the season started pretty early this year. My first real trip was a Head shoot in Helsinki right before Christmas, where Ludde was also part of the crew. I’ve never seen so much snow in a city, Helsinki is snowboarding’s Barcelona for sure. Spots and crews everywhere. Came home on Christmas Day, and had a mad  dinner with my family. After that it was girlfriend time for a few days – it doesn’t get any better than that after a hard street trip – before we left for the famous Ruhrpott in western Germany. Ruhrpott is awesome when it comes to snowboarding. So many spots all over the place. Rails, banks, walls, you name it! But, you’d better not hit a rail in Duisburg in the middle of the night and leave your car 500m away in a dark parking lot. Chances are that someone’ll break into your car and steals iPhones, iPods and wallets. Not such a nice ending of the trip and the year of 2010! After a chilled New Year’s Eve with my girl it was time to get some shred on at home. The crew was the Atagge homies: Benny Urban, Flo Geiger and me. Just shredding with friends, lots of high fi ves and a few beers. Good Times! Now I’ve switched from slushy park mode to street mode again. Oslo is awesome, it’s a sunny morning! Okay fellas, gotta run now. The guys are already waiting in the car! Take me to the spot!

Jonathan Weaver

JONATHAN WEAVER

Ask the Expert

How to score the best job in the industry? 

Perhaps the question is a little inaccurate when asked like that, but apparently it sells, so there you go. In fact, what we want to know this month from Jon Weaver (former British rider, now Nike 6.0 team manager and moonlighting by writing a column for our site and MCing events), is how can you make a living involving travel, meeting people, and a bunch of shredding from your true passion.

How did you moved from being a pro to team manager?

A pro? Well, I was never really what you would consider a ‘professional snowboarder’. Think more a 3rd division footballer, and that was me. I moved from being a rider to a team manager as I helped doing some events, working at ISPO, and on a few things like that, and after a few months was offered a role doing events, which eventually moved to being Team Manager.

Can you describe your job? Your tasks? 

There are two sides really. One is the team manager-side of organising riders, travel arrangements, payments, accommodation, making sure they have the product they need, hassling people like you for coverage for them and then making sure they know where to be and when. Then you have the more brand-related stuff like organising photo and fi lm shoots, and organising advertising campaigns. Then you also have stuff like if you do movie tours you basically become a dad for the week, getting people out of bed, kicking girls out of hotel rooms so riders can make fl ights, and getting people where they need to be. I have some great stories from the movie tours, but maybe that’s not for print. Kareem El Rafi e was always one of the guys to look out for.

What essential qualities do you need to be a good TM? 

To be organised, to be able to give positive and negative feedback when it’s needed to ensure riders learn for the future, to be a friend, to be someone who riders can ask for advice, someone they know always has their back. I like to pride myself on the fact that I also cook for riders at events. Even if at times it goes slightly wrong… for example my homemade hamburgers a few years back went down in history. But a good Ruby Murray [curry] will always ensure happy riders.

How do you spot talent? What do you look at in particular? 

Nowadays it’s a rider who actually knows how to use his edges. So many kids now can skid a front 10 round or do some spinny trick onto a rail, but for longevity in the sport you need to have board control down. Look at guys like Müller, Blauvelt, Haakon, they all come from a pipe background, and so have the ability to mix it up anywhere. Then they have to know how to travel, as you can easily fi nd some amazingly talented riders but if they don’t want to ever travel or leave their resort, they won’t make it. It’s funny but the one thing that no one realises is that to make it “pro” it’s maybe only 40% riding, the rest is about personality, psychology to do well in contests and in front of cameras, and then just not being the junk show kid.

What would be your advice to the kids out there who think it’s the dream job? 

It is. No fronting. Getting to travel with a great bunch of riders, seeing the best contests on earth, going to places like Norway for shoots, I mean what could be better? The only tough parts are missing your lady, and then having to be the guy that, no matter what happened last night, has to get the riders up and moving. We did a premier in Munich two years ago, and I went to bed at 6.30am and had to get the riders up at 8am, so you can imagine… that stuff you have to be super strict on yourself. I remember the fi rst trip we ever took Niki Korpela on when he was 14, we were in Austria somewhere, and he was so eager, so one night we stayed up kinda late, and ended up waking him up at 3am, saying it was time for a shoot, and being mad at him that he was late. 30 seconds later he was ready with goggles, boots backpack on and then he slowly realised that we were all kind of halfcut standing there, but props to him for getting up.

The boss at Soulfood, Photo: Anna Langer

APRÈS-SHRED

Field Notes

This new column in The Wire will help you discover a hot spot of the Euro resorts nightlife. Let’s start with a classic, and in fact probably where après shred was invented, according to the number of posers on the streets talking with a strange accent and in the bars who don’t really snowboard, and certainly not on the local steeps: Chamonix. It’s the only resort in Europe we know there’s more drunkens at night than on the slopes on a blue bird day…  Let’s call it the Easyjet syndrom.

The ultimate place for good vibes, local ambiance AND epic music is at the Soulfood Bar, Rue des Moulins. Local owned – the two friendly but bald brothers used to own the infamous record shop of the same name back when Onboard was based there. Sick old funk tunes, raging live concerts and fi ne beer (a famous Bavarian one that I can’t really name here).

Rue des Moulins - the party street of Cham, Photo: Anna Langer

Alternative places in Chamonix:

Bar’d Up: Classic seasonaire hang out with sports TV, imported beers, and raging parties. No food inside but amazing pizza and sandwiches from the little food stall across the road.

MBC: Snowboarder friendly restaurant a bit outside the centre with the best veggie burger ever and a choice of self brewed beers.

The Vert Hotel: Great venue for food, drinks, music and staying, with a full range of DC boards that hotel guests can take for a test ride on the mountains.

The Office: Authentic locals’ bar in the beautiful village Argentiere a bit up the valley to hide from the tourists.

Munchies: Best restaurant in town, period. International food. Also on Rue des Moulins.

Sylvain Bourbousson, Photo: Matt Georges

High Five

SYLVAIN BOURBOUSSON

Apart from another heavy Absinthe part and his cover last month, we’ve not heard much from Bourbouss lately. Let’s set that straight – here’s his handslap…

We were wondering what was happening with you, then, “bang!” suddenly a cover. How did you prepare that come back? 

It’s not a come back! And I intend to be around for a bit. You know, the older you get, the more stupid you get!

Yes we know, you’ve been around, videos and shizz but it seems you were less present in magazines. We thought maybe you took on a Canamerican nationality? 

I’d love to have a US or Canadian passport, it would help a lot! Live the American dream, haha! But I’m not complaining, Europe is cool, it’s just there’s more snow here in Canada right now.

As a major nudist enthusiast, when was the last time you got your kit off in public? 

At the DaKine meeting in Chamonix, but I was forced to! I must say I can’t wait for my friend’s wedding this summer to strike again…

The Onboard cover last month, how did that feel? 

It felt great! I was stoked, the cherry on the cake. Appreciated it to the max!

What would you like to improve in your part this year? 

A lot of things. Go higher, go further, get more style, more rotations, more corks, more fun, more originality, and a lot more powder!

Marco Feichtner

BACKYARD

Marco Feichtner

“My home spot is called Montafon. Montafon is valley in West Austria close to the Swiss boarder. We have five ski resorts in the valley and all of them have something special – from big mountain riding to parks, you can find everything! I like it there because I grew up in St. Gallenkirch, a little village in Montafon, so I spent many days searching for some sick spots up in those mountains, and I found tons! If you guys want to see some shots from mountains, check out my homepage www.marcofeichtner. com. We shot a lot of stuff with the Pirates there! You just have to watch out for the police and hunters, they aren’t that pleased if you’re riding the special tree lines in the closed areas! If you guys want to shred some sick stuff you are more than welcome! See you around!”

HOT SHIT!

COLLABS STRIKE BACK

Vans will present something rather ‘so hot right now’ for the 2011/12 collection: a boot and shoe collab with outerwear brand, Holden. Seeing as these two brands are generally at the cutting edge of style, it’s hardly surprising to see that they both look set to become cult. The Vans/Holden boot features premium leather and the same innovative recycled nylon found in the Holden outerwear line, with all the usual top Vans features and medium flex. As for the Sk8-Hi shoe, the vintage leather is there too for extra style and it just begs for a good skate session.

NEXT LEVEL STREETWEAR 

MANOEUVRE

Started in 1995, Loreak Mendian is a Basque company making sweet clothing and accessories. Art, music and architecture are the root of their wild inspiration, not forgetting the surf and skate roots, but what is really noticeable here is that if you chose, like us, to be a responsible consumer, you’ll be happy to know that Loreak Mendian produces everything within the European Union. Not only good eco-wise, but also philosophically focused and, no, we don’t have shares in the company: we just love it. The brand offers a wide product range including more than 350 items (most of them produced in Portugal) for each season’s collection. www.loreakmendian.com

SOLAR CHARGER 

Xsories is one of those companies that brings you the tiny components you’re missing in your quest for the perfect geek set up. From slick media players, to all kinds of accessories for your GoPro or Contour camera, they’ve got it all dialed. All well and good, you might say, but what happens when your electronic equipment runs out of battery on the hill? Well, that’s when the genius hits with their unique solar charger, which works universally with all kinds of phones, camera batteries, GPS… you name it. The keychain design allows you to lock it outside your backpack, so it charges while you ride, but you can also charge it in advance. Compatible with all lithium batteries, camera, DV, phone, GPS batteries, and for most digital devices: mobile phones, MP3 players, PDAs, GPS… This brand also have a lot of different waterproof and shock-resistant cases for your media unit of choice, as well as heaps of accessories for GoPros, like this U Shot extendable pole. www.xsories.com

Words: Danny Burrows

Enzo Nilo - Handplant in Les 2 Alpes, Photo: Matt Georges

It’s 4.40 in the morning and I’m hanging off the side of my bed feeding words into my laptop having been shaken from sleep by one of those ‘eureka’ moments. This revelation relates to the response that those with a vested interest in your wellbeing habitually say when tell them you’re going for a ride: “Be careful”. Well here it is: I hate that phrase. It’s prophetic. It’s the sharp stone under a skate wheel, tripping that state of instinctive reflex that is the essence of any session that you would define as RAD. You know the ones I mean; Riding without thinking. Carefree not careful. It’s being in the flow, not expending energy contemplating the things that may go wrong. Careful creates hesitation. Hesitation causes slams.

So next time you’re heading out the door with a deck and someone sees you off with a well-meaning “be…”, stop them, policeman like, with a raised palm and Spockish stare and insert “carefree” into their kind but misguided farewell. They may think you a little odd but you’ve taken the first positive step into what will be an amazing day. You’ll be in the flow.

I know, it all sound a little soul-surferish, a descriptive that sends a mixed charge of dread and venom down my spin – but the “fl ow” doesn’t have to be a cross-legged, patchouli oiled experience it can be as punk as you like. Think talking in tongues rather than a monotonous ‘ommm’ and it implies mini-shredding rather than dreads and no-board turns. Anyway, whichever channel you’re tuned in to you’ve got to be in that carefree state; instinctive refl ex rather than contrived action.

If you are reading this and thinking to yourself, “what the hell is he going on about?” then I apologise: it’s now past five and I’m trying hard to exorcise this brainstorm otherwise I may as well get up and rattle around the house for the next four hours until the sun’s up. The truth is I wouldn’t be rattling either, I would be limping. Yup, I was careful; I borrowed someone else’s deck while skating, a Duane Peters, to be precise, and disturbed the fl ow of a perfectly good skate. Was it the hesitation of being unsure about the steed under my feet that led to my limp or just bad luck? In a snowboarding context I dropped without that last ratchet of my straps or some other miniscule action that as a key to THE ZONE. Funnily enough, thinking about it, writing has to be done in that state too. Screw English lessons and their rules which cause you to hesitate and stammer through your thoughts. Carefree not careful. Let spell check pick up the pieces in the morning.

Well, I really want to get back to sleep now although I am worried that this whole “speaking in tongues” that I am doing will read like Jabberwocky. But go out it will, otherwise next Monday I will just sit in the office staring at the falling snow and cussing the hesitation or being careful as the rest of my compadres are out at the Shops First Try testing boards.

Ride on – I am going back to sleep

Danny

POST NOTE: This is the last issue of the 10/11 season and as such we would just like to thank all those riders, photographers and writers who have contributed to you the readers pleasure this season. Hope you enjoy this issue with its forays into the snow-filled concrete jungles of Poland and Japan (don’t ask), the wilds of Turkey, the minds of our main interviewee Elias Elhardt and Freshman Gjermund Braaten – here’s wishing him well in mending that shoulder – and all its other butt slappingly good content. Enjoy!

Marco Smolla, Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

Ask the Expert

Marco Smolla

Not that this Bavarian shredder is any more aware of his image than any other pros out there, it’s just he’s one of the increasing number of riders that’s bombarded the internets with some fi ne footage. As we noted last month, it’s something of a trend right now as there’s more rippers than ever, but fewer movie productions. We asked Marco for his advice should you also want to share your shred with the rest of the global village.

When did you actually launch your website and what pushed you to do so?

After a successful season in 2007 I had a lot of coverage in the media. So Red Bull came up with the idea of doing my own website so everyone could easily get more information about me. I try to update it frequently so the people who are interested know what I’m currently up to.

How do you make the most of new media to put your presence out there?

The web has become very important to stay close to the customer in general. Especially Facebook is the channel where brands try to reach their customers and riders try to reach their ‘fans’ with their latest clips. But as well pages like onboard.mpora.com are very important as they are more
selective and directly appeal to the snowboard branch. It’s always good to appear in clips which are shown on such a website!

How about the ‘Smolla Winch Week-end’ you posted on Youtube? What kind of feedback did you get?

I was impressed how many people talked to me about that. It was shortly after my comeback from 2 torn ACLs so I was really glad to see that people were fi nally taking notice of me again! The whole project was really fun and productive and I think most of the viewers liked the output, too.

Does it ever interfere with the stuff you shoot for Isenseven?

Not really. This year I’m actually going to fi lm a lot with my friend Elias Elhardt. We are posting well-produced snowboard clips – from foggy slope runs to perfect powder days – fi lmed and edited by Maurino Castelani (former Pirates filmer who will follow us all season) at www.elias-friends.com

Do you use other types of media to put your footage out there?

Sometimes I post a clip on Facebook or on my website and I’ve got a blog at redbull.at. But I prefer to just go snowboarding and let photographers and fi lmers take care of publishing the footage.

What advice would you give to people who want to put their footage up? Create a blog? Post stuff on Youtube, Mpora and such?

Blogs and youtube are definitely a good way to reach people. But it’s hard to make people watch your stuff as there are so many people uploading stuff that is not really exciting. So select your footage and only post things that will make people want to see more of you! Don’t just copy everything you see in the movies but try to come up with your own ideas! That’s going to convince people a lot more!

Tyler Chorlton, photo: Matt Georges

Field Notes with Tyler Chorlton

This month, Tyler Chorlton risks his health at the forefront of snowboard news reporting. Over to you Tyler…

Ya man, to the bone. Down here with the guys from Rip Curl doing some kind of product launch… That’ll leave me enough time to explain you what I’ve been up to in the last two weeks… Shit’s been all over the place.

Let’s start with the lovely visit from Matt Georges, CoinCoin, Valérian Ducourtil and the Serge to my home town, Soldeu. We somehow managed to time it with the busiest Spanish weekend of the year for our new shop ‘Slidewayz’, so while the guys scoped and shaped spots I worked in the shop. Then they would call me when it was ready and I’d head up, kill the spot in a few hits then get back to work, son!

A few days later it rained and that was pretty much the end of that, but we did good considering the shnizzle. Then in amongst the madness we had a huge opening party in Nemo bar to celebrate the opening of Slidewayz and Nemo in El Tarter, it was insane how many chicks showed up! Like over
60%… Banging!

Then those guys hit the road so a few days later The Method homies decided to come up and party their nut sacks off again in Nemo bar for pretty
much the last Pirate premiere of season we had going on. Epic times! We even busted out a gnarrrr vid even though the conditions were whack attack….

So right now we’ve got the entirety of Rip Curl in town for their product launch hence me writing this after a huge night, still drunk, sat alone in the
shop. We sent that shit…

Oh! And I’m on Electric now! So stoked you don’t even know, cuz. Now I’m gonna take care of this epic soon-to-behangover.

Peace Onboard!

TC.

Sent from my phone

Seb Toutant, Photo: Frode Sandbech

Oakley Air&Style Contest in Beijing

Seb Toutant returned to an Air&Style event with a point to prove after last year’s gig in Innsbruck, and – we’d imagine – a fair bit of angst as well after his terrible slam… Well, the kid can surely handle the pressure and his strong mentality and insane skills saw him top of the pile in China, which boosted him to third place in the TTR… Before moving on to the next Air&Style events (in Innsbruck, Feb 5th, and Munich the week later), we caught up with the French-Canadian slayer…

What the hell happened on Jump 1 of the Final at Air&Style Bejing?

Haha! Well the set up was so icy and so hard to ride. I tried my Cab 1260 double cork and I slipped off the take-off.

How did you manage to re-focus after that slam to pull the knockout Cab double 12?

I knew I had to put down this Cab 1260 double cork to win the event and I was trying not to think about my previous run, and it worked out good!

In the live blog we did of the event, when your last jump was ‘only’ a back 10 double, we said: “perfect back 10 double so you fi gure he’s got nothing more in the can than the Cab 12 dub and is content to let the others have the stress. Understandable really.” Do you think that’s a fair comment?

Yes, I knew that I couldn’t do the Cab 1260 double cork any better and my score was really good and I felt that it was a good way to end up my night with the BS 1080 double cork.

Seb Toutant, Photo: Frode Sandbech

How many places did you climb on the TTR ranking after this win?

I think I’m in 3rd place on TTR right now! That’s good, but it will be hard to stay up there.

Was the TTR a priority for you this season from the beginning? Or is it becoming one now?

This year I’m trying to do as many TTR as I can, and the Dew Tour. If I can be in the top 5 TTR at the end of the season with good results at Dew Tour, I’ll be stoked for sure. I will try to fi lm a video part as well.

How much money should we put on you winning the TTR title this year?

Hahaha! That’s your call! I’ll try to do my best and have fun like always.

Marko Grilc and girls

High Five

Marko Grilc

Where was this and how did it happen?

Hehe, this was in Ljubljana. The Red Bull guys told me that I had to be at some restaurant to meet them but they wouldn’t tell me what it was about. So I thought it has to be mega-lame if they didn’t want to tell me. But then we went there and it was sick – they called me on stage and showed the movie we shot, Double Air, where I jumped over a snowcat. It was really cool.

If you’d have to pick one of these girls for a game of Scrabble, which one would it be?

The one on my right, Barbara. She is even more smoking in real life.

Be honest: does winning contests help with girls?

I don’t know. It helps with some things, but I think girls are not attracted just by that fact.

What’s your favourite chat-up line? Or the cheesiest one for that matter…

Ahh, that’s never really my style. I talk so much shit anyways that meeting up is not really a problem. I think it is more like just to try to be yourself and be normal.

Which rider would you say is the best at chatting up the girls?

Hmm…. Kim Rune Hansen.

IPSO Corner

Snowboard Gear 2011/2012

ISPO is like a second Christmas for all of us editors, with free booze, free gear and free dancing girls. Hang on, that was before the economic crisis struck. Damn you, crisis! Anyway, for your eyes only, here’s just some of the goodness brands are secretly cooking up for the 2011/12 season.

1.WESC

These are one of the product highlights of this winter even though these are all about looking good at the bar… WESC launches a fi rst line of killer urban shoes. Slick!

2. ELECTRIC

The hype from Electric comes from a new goggle mixing the EGB and the EG1: meet the EGB2. Other stuff in the mixer is a Peter Line series, and a co-op with Volcom.

3. GNU

Check the up and coming B-Pro Series C2 BTX for girls, which comes in sizes 146, 149, 152, 155.

4. vON ZIPPER
The FishBowl (John Jackson’s model shown here) will be the fattest goggle on the market. Other highlights from the brand include a Bob Marley colab on several goggles in the range, as well as a Smoke collection and the Shift Into Neutral (eco) with recycled padding and a bamboo strap.

5. NIXON

Brand new to the Nixon range is The Riot. It comes in 3 colorways (Navy, Black and Steel), and is inspired by a guitar amp.

6. DC

The award-winning Devun Pro series once again represents the pinnacle of DC’s snowboard line. It features a true twin tip shape with 2mm  Anti-Camber, and it comes in sizes 154, 157, 162.

7. APO

The French brand presents this all-mountain board designed by Tyler Chorlton, called the TC, and best suited to riders whose boot size is between 43 & 45 (9-11.5 US). It’ll be available as a 159 wide and 159 wide with rocker.

8. QUIKSILvER

Taking inspiration from their wetsuits, the design team at Quiksilver adapted the famous Cypher to the snow and developed the Pinnacle, complete with chest pocket, cuts, fastening systems and more…

9. O’NEILL

Here we have the signature line of legendary freerider Jeremy Jones. Jeremy sat down with O’Neill’s designers and the result is a three-product offering of a down jacket, a 3 layer stretch jacket, and this two layer jacket (pictured) on which he has worked with artist Mike Ennen.

10. THIRTYTWO

Next year’s JP Walker gear boasts a bad ass look, with the bright orange Shiloh jacket, the camo Blahzay cargo pants (both coming in 10,000mm), and the rather irie JP Walker boots. Booya!

11. CONTRACT

The Polish board brand’s Code model has been designed for the deepest powder, highest mountains, biggest cliffs and wildest extremes. It comes in 147, 152,157, and 163.

12. ANALOG

The Greed jacket is made of a 10/5k microporus material, and comes with a super effi cient insulation system.

13. CAPiTA

The Totally FK’n Awesome! (155 featured) is a new model for season 2011/2012. These hybrid camber boards were built to manhandle each and every feature of Mother Nature’s great mountainous terrain. Available in 153,155, 157,189, 161.

14. UNION

Gigi’s binding of choice is the upgraded version of one of Union’s top models – the Contact. The Contact Pro version is not only lighter, but also has a carbon injected baseplate, which makes it even tougher.

15. K2

Three years in the making, the developers at K2 brought it all to this lightweight, bamboo cored backcountry tool, dubbed the Panoramic.

16. OXBOW

This new line is dedicated to hardcore shredders, and will be distributed exclusively in specialized stores.

17. SMITH

Not only famous for making goggles now (the top of the range I/0 on show here), Smith also crafts some fi ne helmets, including the Maze – the lightest helmet on the market. Ear pads are compatible with Skullcandy’s optional Drop In audio system.

18. BOND & WEEKEND

These twinned brands are pushing the envelope again with Bond bringing the Hudson Jacket and Compound Pants (10k waterproofing/breathability with insulation); and Weekend dropping the Comfort Cruiser 154 (coming also in 148 and 157), which is available in regular camber or rocker versions.

19. ROXY

The Olympic champion Torah Bright will be rocking this stuff next winter: a bomber-inspired down jacket, 100% polyester micro twill, crammed with all the features you could ever need.

20. 686

Here’s the well turned out New Balance/ 686 speedlace boot in cyan. As for outerwear, a fi ne example of their technology could be this women’s
outfit – the Reserved Avalon Insulated Jacket and the Reserved Secret Softshell pant.

21. BATALEON

Playful and forgiving, the Feelbetter doesn’t have that name for nothing. Bataleon have introduced this women’s model as a Les Ettes colab, and this twin shaped board comes in 143, 146, 149 and 152.

22. RUSTY

These damn good hoodies include an audio system in a total new way, and they go by the name of The Wired Series.

23. ROSSIGNOL

The badass board in Rossignol’s line next year is certainly this boy right here – the Jibsaw MagTek, illustrated by London activists 2sickbastards. Rocker and MagneTraction are on the program, and sizes are 153, 155, 157, 159, 158 mid-wide and 160 mid-wide.

Words: Danny Burrows

Photo: Matt Georges

Panting our way through Autumn like thirsty dogs we, the Onboard crew, finally quenched our thirst for shred at the local resort of Spitzingsee in early December. The snow wasn’t epic, even though some resorts nearby were claiming a metre of fresh, but it was good to feel the cut of an edge on snow and knock a few hits into the banks of the piste.

In the same week the TTR series kicked off in earnest with China putting its ex-Olympic  stadium to use, hosting the inaugural Beijing Air&Style. It was a homecoming of sorts for snowboarding as the local factory workers could finally watch the gear that they assembled for export being put through its paces.

Tom, the web-itor, and I spent that afternoon writing a blowby- blow blog on the .com as the world’s best rippers fired off a volley of perfect hammers on a jump that, judging by the riders’ low-impact landings, was built with mathematical precision.

Seppe Smits stormed in from the  flatlands of Belgium ousting last year’s tour winner Peetu Piiroinen in the semis and stomped into a second place with a faultless back 12 – apparently a prerequisite spin for events these days. The Canuk, Seb Toutant, and his balls of steel were the clear winners, bowling a Cab 12 double to clear the lane, having somehow kept his cool after a slam that had he been a cat would have cost him 8 lives. Podium climbing aside, Bang earned Onboard’s high-funf for a back rodeo stale, opting for style over rotation, closely followed by Elias’s front 10 melon, which he seasoned with a poke that would have made Ingo proud.

Without question it was a good event, if, as a conscientious human being, you were able to put aside the feeling that by holding it in China  snowboarding was legitimising the country’s abysmal record of human rights abuses and poor record of environment neglect.

Also, there was another itch and that was that the event bore an odd coupling of title presenters: Oakley was logical, but Shaun White? When did he become a brand? Absent from the riders list he did appear at the base of the jump grinning broadly, his red mane flowing over the collars of a pea coat and surrounded by rigid police officers of the sort you find clearing Tiananmen Square. A broad definition of presenting, perhaps.

When I asked the TTR what the deal was I was forwarded a statement from Air&Style that read “Shaun White will not compete at the Oakley and Shaun White present Air&Style in Beijing. He will be present at the event and focuses on his duty of being an ambassador for snowboarding in China”. When did riders not riding become ambassadors for snowboarding?

There are plenty of things in snowboarding that bear the names of pros, like signature boards and outwear and a short list of events including the likes of Gumby’s Big Day Out or Joni and Jussi’s Invitational but they are all things that they have earned or owned. Shaun himself has a whole cupboard full of gear bearing his name and deserves them all but White Presents Air&Style? Why? In my conspiratorial mind a sign flashes: CULT OF PERSONALITY, which Wikipedia describes as arises “when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create an idealized and heroic public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise.” White has that heroic public image and deserves a little flattery and praise for his riding but he god forbid that he becomes a personality bigger than his riding for in the end he won’t be the one to benefit; perhaps financially, yes, but spiritually? I think not.

In my opinion it is as a reaction to the manifestation of a saleable and sanitized face of snowboarding that a new generation of shredders are riding beyond over priced resorts, in homemade parks and on the streets. They are foregoing expensive technical wear for jeans, the music is hipped out
grunge and, in the case of gangs like the Gremlinz, guns, booze, bongs and bitches are what defines their take on the shred – it’s like Whisky revisited. This is snowboarding in the raw; unsavory and in need of a parental guidance sticker. But it’s snowboarding’s rebirth as a subculture and apart from the guns and bongs it is fucking awesome. I have the greatest respect for riders whose riding has earned them pro models and the like but I don’t, like I am sure many snowboarders, don’t want to be sold a cult of personality. After all we should be able to choose our heroes, not told who they are.

Ride on.

Danny

WORDS: TOM COPSEY

Snowboarders have always been ravenous for any kind of shred sustenance, but recently the way we sink our teeth into snowboarding’s rumpsteak has changed immeasurably. Following the sport used to be a much more lethargic affair: In the days of old school shred media kids went snowboarding. If they were good they’d have pictures taken of them, words scribbled down of their achievements to be typed up six months later, and if they were really good their hucking would also be burned onto celluloid and pumped out on Vhs the following season. If you wanted to be involved, to know what was happening in the scene, you either had to be there bro-ing down, or buy the mag or video the following winter. If they weren’t from your local hill, the pros you looked up to had all the real life qualities of hollywood’s finest. Not much.

Of course, now everything’s turned on its head. Today’s generation demand their information yesterday and when it comes to keeping up with riders chances are you’re ‘friends’ on Facebook with those that get you amped, you follow their brain farting tweets and have their blogs bookmarked. The boundaries between us mortals and the pro shred-head has narrowed to the point that whereas before you might know what they were up to six months ago, you now where they’re at the moment they login, what music they’re digging, and what trick they just stomped. We are better connected than ever before with the guys and gals pushing the sport.

The medium for bringing snowboarding into the ‘now’, of course, is the internet. As the web and its workings have tweaked increasingly for ease of use for people who can’t be bothered to go full geek, so with a minimal amount of nerdiness the riders themselves are now able to use the net as a platform to take control of their image and inform, stoke out, entertain and interact with the rest of us on their own terms. Snowboarders with websites or blogs is nothing new – there’s a bunch of riders who’ll intermittently post their ramblings from the road with a couple of shots – but over the last couple of years a notable few have really tapped into the true potential the web holds – video. Let’s face it, these kids might not be so good at penning Pulitzer Prize-winning road trip reports, but when it comes to shredding and charisma, this lot have it in spades and with it the potential to churn out online gold dust.

“I’m so bad with all geek stuff, so if I can do it everyone can,” says Halldor Helgason who, along with his brother Eiki, have been leading the charge of rider-generated content with their site helgasons.com, a site where you’re just as likely to see Halldor getting a cock tattooed on his fi nger as you are some Grade-A shredding. The Helgason’s site, now with backing from the boys’ sponsors that allows fi lming nutter Johannes to tag along, is perhaps the perfect example of how riders can put themselves about in the pipes. With that winning mix of rapid-fi re clips featuring fuckwittery, fun shredding that regular Joes can relate to plus a fair amount of Hero shots too, it gives you a decent insight into the lives of these freakishly talented Icelanders.

Eero Ettala is another guy who’s got it dialled, with regular video shot by buddy Rasmus or himself, plus some awesome archived stuff he digs out from old VHS tapes. Though he initially conceived ettala.com as a kind of online diary where he could post stuff from the road and footage that would otherwise be orphaned for his buddies to see what he’d been up to, he realised from the get-go he wanted more than mere words and pictures: “From the very beginning of creating my site, I wanted it to be a bit different than most of the blogs, and have it concentrated more on the videos than photos. When I do something I want to do it as good as possible.”

Kevin Backstrom, Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

Eero’s compatriot, Antti Autti, also echoes the desire to go further than the norm, which is refl ected on his site, anttisworld.com, featuring a decent amount of video, slideshows, and musings from the Finn. “I think it’s good to offer more than just blog,” he states. “Doing a blog is really easy but doing a blog that actually gets you addicted and stoked is way harder.” He also makes another good point about how having such a site frees riders from the constraints other people’s preconceptions, as he explains: “I thought it’d be a great opportunity for me to expand my riding from contests only. I guess the main reason for it is the fact that it’s really hard to get into fi lm crew nowadays. You know, I’ve done so many contests throughout my career that I’m for sure in that ‘contest rider’ box so with my website I wanted to create a chance to fi lm and post it online for people to watch.”

As much as it’s about the a bit of self-indulgent fun, the real gravy lies in the fact that now, online, these infl uential riders can now connect with the kids better than ever. Something that both the riders and the groms are equally stoked on – after all, today’s pros were groms themselves not so long ago… As Antti says: “If you actually have your own site people can hit you up with questions and have a chat with you about snowboarding and other stuff. I’d have been so stoked to do that with Kevin Jones or Terje when I was small…” Ettala believes it’s not only awesome for kids to be able to regularly check out what’s going on with their heroes, but also that “it’s something they can relate to too, just to see their favorite riders riding regular parks in resorts. If I was a kid I would like to see more footage of my favorite riders than just that 3 minute video clip in fall and then wait another year for the next clip.”

Torstein Horgmo hits the nail on the head when talking about narrowing the gap between pro and grom: “That’s the part I was missing the most when I was watching all the pros shred in the videos,” he acknowledges, “when I was 13 and watching The Resistance 10 times a day that is… I wanted to know everything there was about all the pros. It was important to me, so I just do the best I can with it now.” Though he admits that for his “snow, website good; no snow, website suck!” it was on torstein.net that he chose to drop the now infamous triple cork video. “I wanted to update it with good video clips everytime, so I knew I couldn’t post everyday,” he says, but for the coming season he has plans to hire a fi lmer to up the output.

Antti Autti, Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

In his column on onboardsnowboarding.com, Nike team manager Jon Weaver asked ‘So could it be that soon we’ll see a rider who never wins a contest, never has a video part and is on a pro team, purely on the strength of his online presence?’ Rightly he explains that without sponsor backing it would be hard to achieve, but that fundamentally, yes, why not? He alsomakes another excellent point: “So the middle-of-the-road pro
snowboarder who now makes a video part once a year, well what connection does he have to the kids? Do they know his personality? Is he a nice guy? How does he shred his home mountain?” And when you break it down to the barest, most cynical bones, professional snowboarders are there to sell product and a big part of that is how kids relate to your riding and your personality.

Connecting with them is therefore a big deal and, with a good site, chances are the kids will be down. Though Jon admits it’s not essential yet that potential team riders are active online, it’s certainly something he takes note of when scouting: “It just shows that the rider is aware of their role and people who do it well can carve themselves a great niche.” Needless to say his charges are all encouraged to get involved with producing
internet-friendly material. Backing up to the riders who don’t currently sit at the apex of snowboarding’s Pyramid of Awesome, at the time of writing the online video part is kind of a big deal. Ok, your Rices and Rüfs have no need, starring as they do in one or more of the biggest productions around, but for rookies looking to break out or those who can’t get in to the bigger movies it’s an ideal way to get your footage uncaged and into the wild. Recently we’ve seen Ståle Sandbech, Kevin Backstrom and Ethan Morgan fire out solid edits of their riding highlights last winter and surely more will jump on the bangwagon. Let’s face it – if you’re not locked in for a movie part right now and your sponsor’s not footing the bill for a fi lmer, there’s no better way to put the footage to good use than chopping it up and chucking it in the boiling oil of the internet’s deep fat fryer. These guys went it alone, whereas the True Color Films guys bandied together to release their roadtrip movies through last winter and Miika Hast and Jonas Hagstrom convinced Protest to let them live the dream and simply ride pow, the only caveat being they had to fi lm it all with their GoPros. For riders like this who, no disrespect intended, aren’t in the A-lister bracket, saturating the internet with quality content is a good way to keep your name on people’s lips.

But what does this all mean for you? Aside from being better informed than ever of what your favourite riders are up to, and having a never-ending cascade of content at your fingertips with which to amuse yourself until your next shred fix, it also means you and your crew can get yourselves amongst it. As Halldor says, if he can do it anyone can, so what’s stopping you? Get out there with your iPhone, GoPro, whatever, Google yourself
a tutorial or tap up your speccy mate, get posting and at the very least your buds will be pumped. At best, well, who knows what team manager might stumble upon your creation? And the worst is it’ll just be fun way for people to check out your haps. Not exactly ‘bad’, then…

ASK THE EXPERT

HANS ÅHLUND

To coincide with our motorized jib article on page 104, we’ve asked a tow-in and winch expert to tell us more about the technique that’s rapidly become the new urban jib phenomenon. here’s hans Åhlund’s two cents on the matter…

First of all, why do you use a winch for riding?

I’ve used a winch quite a lot, especially last winter because I’m pretty good at seeing spots and their potential. With a winch, you can fi nd spots everywhere, spots that I’ve been claiming and seeing before but that were not doable. The first time I saw a winch was at the Zimtstern Leaves shoot and I didn’t understand the potential it had. Then we used it on the Pirate flick Jolly Roger last year, and then I understood and saw what it was capable of. I fell in love!

how did you start with equipment?

At the beginning of last year I bought one together with the Pirates and my local homeboys and I used it a lot last year. If you’ve seen my part you know what I mean. It’s for spots that need lots of speed. If you just want to hit rails you might as well just use friends to pull you, a drop-in ramp, or a bungee – there’s no need for a winch for most rails –but on a lot of my spots we maxed out the winch, which is claimed to go 70kph but I think it’s more like 55kph maybe. Bottom line, I will use the winch and probably the Bungee mostly this winter, so if you got the money buy both.

Is it not an added danger to hit rails?

Well, shit happens for sure: in Italy, Simu broke his hand because he didn’t brake the accelerating handle, and it hit his hand. So watch out – it’s not a toy. Remember to brake the winch directly after the rider’s let go of the handle, and make sure the bungee is correctly secured to whatever you attach it to, and also try not to have the bungee snap! But, you know, ramps might look safer until you fall off one plus you can never reach the same speed or it has to be one hell of a ramp!

What is your winch equipment?

It’s that Grinch one, that’s the one I’ve seen most of.

- What do you want to look at when purchasing a winch?

Price, top speed, and if it’s built to last. I paid 2000 euros for mine second hand.

Is there different approach techniques for different tows?

Whatever you choose to ride it’s always a hassle to find the good speed and where to put the ramp/bungee/winch to get the right speed and set up. It’s good to keep that in mind before you start building the spot.

What features does a spot have to have to be good for winch?

It has to be spot that needs a lot of speed to work, otherwise there’s no use for the winch. Then it’s just go for it and max out the speed.

Is everything possible to hit now?

As long as you have a good in-run or a good plan for it, kind of yes. It’s only your mind and imagination that set stop for what could be hit.

DESIGN YOUR UNLIKELY FEATURES WITH ANALOG

Analog launched a global design contest a few months back, giving snowboarders the opportunity to conceptualise their dream jib obstacle. It’s a unique chance to have your very own snow feature constructed. Draw it by hand, create it on your computer, sketch on a napkin… use whatever method you want, but be creative! Here’s what Analog’s Greg Poissonnier had to say for your guidance: “Here is one of the most noticeable entries Analog received so far, the rail to wall feature. As you can see creativity is there, but there’s probably room for improvement, so if you have the killer idea, get your pen out or computer on!” And remember, as Greg says, “The feature must be creative, offer many riding options, easy to build and to move.” Reckon you can do better than that? Then grab your pen or laptop and freakin get on it! If you win, not only you will have your dream creation built, but Analog will bring you out for the weekend to the Design Unlikely Features Contest on March 19th, 2011 in Avoriaz, where you can participate in the first ever contest on your winning feature. No pressure, competing is optional.

In addition, the winner will receive:
1st Prize
• 2 round Trip Tickets to/from Avoriaz 1800 resort
• 2 nights lodging at Avoriaz 1800 resort
• Custom built snow feature at Avoriaz 1800 resort
• Contest centered around your creation
• Analog outerwear kit (gloves, Jacket, Pants)
• Analog Clothing Package (including: Jeans, beanie, t-shirt, fl annel, fl eece, backpack, and belt)
You’ve only got until January 15th to enter, so be fast!

Send your sketches to:
designunlikelyfeatures@analogclothing.com (mention europe in subject box)
snail Mail:
Analog
Design unlikely Features Contest
z.a de Pedebert
180 av. des menuisiers
40150 soorts-hossegor
France
You can also upload your submission on the Analog website.

Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

HIGH FIVE

GJERMUND BRÅTEN

He might have an unpronounceable name but you’d better fi gure out how to say it [Ok, it’s Yer-mund Braw-ten] because this young Norwegian ripper has been holding down the top spot on the TTR rankings for the fi rst part of the season. A good enough reason for us to dial him into a High 5.

We’ve followed you since you won the Rookie Fest two years ago. Now you’ve been TTR #1 for quite a while, how do you explain such a rapid progression in the world establishment?

A lot of hard work, helpful people and great sponsors!

Are you gonna focus all your season on the TTR to defend your points, or still go out in the backcountry to shoot?

My main goals are to win or place top 3 in the TTR, ride the US X-Games and fi lm for Standard.

What are the essential tricks you have to have in your bag if you wanna hold it down in the top ten these days?

10s for sure, and good rails skills.

Which upcoming contests are you the most confident for?

Air&Style China will be fun, looking forward to that one, and then the O’Neill Evolution and BEO.

What will you do if you win the TTR at the end of the season?

I’ll buy a Rolex, and go to Bali with the 6.0 team!

Reporter of the Month – Enzo Nilo

Here’s the fine reportage that made young French ripper Enzo Nilo about the beginning of his winter season. seems pretty hectic…

It all started with the strikes in October/November, when my school was closed. I then went to Grenoble for the French snowboard awards, where I had to get my best suit on since I was nominated in the category ‘Rookie of the Year’. Good thing I did that because I ended up winning the trophy and represent my A Branler Crew on stage, with the help of the usual losers Victor Delerue and Victor Daviet, Daviet, who disintegrated my boxers.
Thomas Delfino and Bruno Rivoire were on fire on the dancefloor and literally killed it. After this hard piece of work done, I went on the road to Saas Fee where plenty of pros were training, and where all the French team was hanging: Mat Crepel, Arthur Longo, Aluan Ricciardi, Max Tevelle and the rest of the crew. I only rode one day because of the shitty weather, but it was nice to dial again some basic tricks and get the legs ready. Plus I learned switch backflips!

Then I was back in Les 2 Alpes for the Rock On Snowboard Tour, where we planned to shoot a ‘Day in the Life’ podcast for Vans… But once again the weather was against us. Bastard. Nevertheless the park was good and I could get confi dent with my 5s and 7s. I spent the last evening with the Harakiri crew for the premiere of their video. After another hard weekend, it was time to go back to Saas Fee for a Euro Cup contest. Hard return in the icy pipe but I manage to ride at my level enough to qualify for the finals, where I end up in 7th place – which qualifi es me for the World Cup events. I want here to big up the brilliant performance of my partner Maxence Tevelle, aka ‘the only man brave enough to put his face down the icy pipe twice’. But more fear that pain for him. Hectic did you say? Hope it continues like that!

MOVERS & SHAKERS

It’s all go at APO right now. Regis Rolland’s baby has been boosted with the arrival of 24-year-old Brit ripper based out of Andorra, Tyler Chorlton, who you’ll no doubt know from his sick parts in the Pirates movies the last few years. “So stoked to be in the APO family,” said Tyler, pumped on his new BC 160 fl at cut board and Dual entry system bindings. “It’s an honor to hang out with the legendary Regis and to be part of the root of European snowboarding!” 23-year-old René Schnöller from Sölden has also jumped aboard the APO happy bus.

Rene Schnoller

Our senior photographer Matt Georges was recently honoured by having some of his shots printed on a very special and limited Rip Curl collection, as part of their eco-friendly program. Matt is already the sixth AOTS (Artist of The Search) so we give him the fi st of nuff respect for that. This collection, including two hoodies, one t-shirt and boxer shorts (on top of being awesome obviously) is a genuine way of reconciling the environmentally friendly and the artistic, of improving awareness among ‘Searchers’ and offering consumers a range of highly distinctive 100% organic cotton t-shirts. Find those products online at myripcurlshop.com

Thomas Gerin

Anne-Flore Marxer is now hot-stepping with Etnies and ThirtyTwo, and joins Danny Larsen, Markus Malin, Ville Paumola, Steve Gruber, and Kareem El Rafi e on the team roster. “My boots are made for shredding and that’s just what we’ll do!” was what AFM had to say, and she did just that: as soon as she’d picked up her Best French Female Rider award, Anne-Flore started her season early with a long preparation in Sass Fee. In addition to etnies and thirtytwo Europe, Anne-Flore’s sponsors include Billabong, Oakley, Swatch, Neff, Bluebird, Dakine and Les Ettes. Sticking with Etnies and ThirtyTwo, they’ve also signed Flo Achenrainer, for boots, footwear and outerwear.

Tyler Chorlton

How about that? Slap bang in the middle of the season, Forum comes up with another all-new board release: The Contract LTD, a Limited Edition urban board that puts the “&” in “Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll”. With the same urban-specific tech and construction as The Contract, this 154 features an additional photo from famed NYC photographer Allan Tannenbaum. Now it gets interesting: just like the regular series, every person who buys this board is eligible to go online and sign up to be on “The Contract Team.” Once on the team and listed on the Forum website, riders can send in their best urban shots on The Contract for a chance to score photo incentives if the shot is run. Go to www.forumsnowboards.com for more info.

Matt George's Rip Curl

With the arrival of David Livet as team manager for Oxbow it was just a question of time before some fresh news arrived on the team. And here it is: there are four new arrivals – Marion Gouwy, Sophie Rodriguez, Thomas Gérin (all from France), and Adán Baserba from Spain.

Marion Gouwy, Sophie Rodriguez

Airhole facemasks have fi nally arrived in France and some other countries in Europe that they’d not made it to before. The Canadian brand, created by Wildcats Kale Stephens and Chris Brown, is hitting hard on the team front with a monster roster, with the likes of the Jackson & Helgason brothers, Niemela, Backstrom, Heiskari, Geeves, Rencz, Stephens, Brown…. Morgan Le Faucheur, Max Delayen and Alicia Bonnaud being the first French members. Another Wildcat’s offspring, Endeavor, is also completing its European distribution, with some solid Euro representation in the shape of Kareem El Rafie, Jody Washniak or Torgeir Berre.

Forum LTC Contract

AFM in 32s

Adan Baserba

DC PARK LES HOUCHES:

One Spot. One concept. One Park. One chalet for the second year, Dc installs its Snowpark concept in les houches, chamonix, france.

From the 15th of December till the end of the winter season, the DC area will be providing snowboarders with all they have dreamt of in a premium snowpark, shaped by the fi nest shapers, with a new and specific program of entertainment, contests, shows, and more. Strongly inspired by the DC Mountain Lab in Utah, the concept of the DC area was to cater for riders of any level wanting to hit the best lines and best obstacles in order to make snowboarding more easily accessible. The base camp of DC area has been built around a shipping container that is the source of life and entertainment at events. After being delivered by helicopter last December, the container has a number of jobs: being as used for storage, to play music, have good times in and even as an additional rideable component in the park. But the most important element the DC area project has brought to the park is the “Know How” for building the park, with the best shapers. In choosing Les Houches as its Partner Resort, DC plants its flag in front of the highest mountains of Europe, which gives the park one of the best backdrops around. Chamonix has always been home to the freeriders, but despite its credentials as one of the fi nest ski areas in the world the resort has been lacking a decent snow park for a number of years. Now, with the DC area in place, that’s all changed and freestyle is fi rmly on the map. Les Houches appears to be the best place to re-activate the AREA 43 concept, together with the other European DC area in Kitzbühel, Austria.

New for 2011:

RIDING:
- An additional snowpark.
- several zones to ride (for different levels of riders).
- new exclusive obstacles mixing skate and snow inspiration.entertainment:
- An exclusive Chalet dedicated to riders, ViP and media.
- Parties and festivities.

PROGRAM
16-18.01.2011 snow Avant Premier les houches Fr
31.01-04.02 2011 DC special shoot la Clusaz Fr
12-13.02.2011 rookie Contest les houches Fr
13-14.02.2011 snow test les houches Fr
28.02-04.03 2011 Warriors les houches Fr
15.04.2011 Closing les houches Fr

www.facebook.com/dcshoes.europe
www.facebook.com/dcshoes.france

Not since 2004, when the main jump collapsed under heavy rain, had the Freestyle jamboree suffered such appalling weather conditions as it did on the 25th of September. But contrary to the pessimists hiding in various dry VIP tents the only thing that went bang were the salvo of tricks put down by the snowboarders. Believe it or not out of 15 riders 12 threw double cork. Peetu after a good night’s sleep the night before slotted into first place with a double cork 10, followed by the Swiss man of mystery IPod and Canada’s mini Seb Touts.

Day two and the weather had improved as had the number of spectators. The fifi nals were stupendous but after the dust of the fight had settled it was TTR head of table Mr. Braaten, Seb Touts, Peetu and Stale left standing. You have invariably seen the videos on line by now, suffifi ce to say that the podium was inhabited by Gjermund in first (banging double 12), Touts in second, Peetu in third and Ståle in fourth and a fifi ne weekend was had by all.

Photos: Danny Burrows

Photo: Danny Burrows

At the time of going to print Gjermund was sitting pretty at the head of the TTR table. Judging by his performance at the Freestyle he wanting to stay there.

Photo: Danny Burrows

Peetu strode into the second day of the competition in first place but perhaps the lengthly signing and photo session at the 6.0 castle knocked the puff out of him. Third and double cork 10 are pretty respectable though.

Photos: Danny Burrows

Photo: Danny Burrows

IPod in sunnies throwing down a double cork with Canadian bacon. WTF!

Photo: Danny Burrows

Markku Koski was claiming to be the oldest rider in the roster but was still throwing hammers with the ‘groms’. Who said 28 was old?

Words: Danny Burrows

Lucas Debari, Steven's Pass, WA, Photo: Cole Barash

I read, with trepidation, an article in an annual by Reporters Without Borders lamenting the death of documentary photography. According to them, the financial crisis within print media was its executioner as the genre, including that of snowboarding, is far from cheap to create.

A photographer needs to be in the thick of the action for long stretches of time and in the case of snowboard photographers this means slavishly following snow and those that shred it. Unless committed solely to banging the metal and ‘crete of the urban sprawl then they also have the added expense of resorts and all the rip-off bars, restaurants and squats they contain.

The article went on to ask “who will now pay for photographers to get out in the field?”, answering with dread “corporations and/or institutions”. Why dread? Because when your pay master has an agenda, impartial reporting and freedom of observation get put away in the drawer labelled ‘obsolete’.

In the field of truth this is truly a worrying phenomenon – imagine BP paying New York Times photographers to cover the oil spill in the gulf, and then leveraging a biased report through advertising.

Thankfully for snowboard photographers there is nothing more sinister than their snaps selling product when bankrolled by a company, and for bottom livers like Onboard and its fellow mags the by-product of this clever marketing union of snapper and brand is more shots to get you guys stoked on snowboarding. I would say it’s a win-win situation if the brands don’t start counting, comparing the amount of shots used by a mag to their advertising spend – but then such an idea is far too Orwellian for such a bro-down industry as ours, surely.

So, the documenting of snowboarding pictures is alive and kicking like the temperamental beast it has always been; you might even go as far as to say that it is veritably booming across all levels of aptitude, from happy snapping seasonaires to seasoned pros, thanks to the advent of the digital camera. The danger here is that publishers with little care for the sanctity of quality photography start believing that any old shot will satiate the apetite of shredders. Fear not – in every snowboard magazine this idea stops at the editorial office door.

Without dedicated snowboard snappers who suffer aching feet, frozen fingers and battle with the the elements, both natural and financial, this photo issue would be rather empty. Therefore we dedicate this annual to them.

Keep on snapping.

- Danny

ASK THE EXPERT

Nicolas Marduel – Shaper

This month’s expert is Nicolas ‘Mardu’ Marduel, one of the OG Shapers of European snowparks (such as Les Diablerets, Saas Fee and Les Deux Alpes) and today he’s in charge of shaping the infamous DC AREA 43 in Les Houches. We chased him down to ask him a few questions about the art of shaping snowparks.

How did you start shaping parks? Did being a good rider make things easier?

I started in Flaine in the 94-95 season. After that winter I went on shaping Les Diablerets park during that summer and I haven’t stopped since. I do three seasons per year, which means an average of 1200 hours in a cat. I learned by driving cats, but being a passionate snowboarder helped me evolve quite rapidly. It’s important to be able to judge your work; expectations are big and opinions always varied…

What are the basic tools for a shaper?

I feel I’m more of a builder than a shaper; I spend more time in the machines than with a shovel. So on top of the shovels, what I would use is a pipe dragon, of course, turbines to help us move the snow faster and air it a bit making it better for construction of the big stuff. We use a lot of earth works too, that’s why I think I am more of a builder. Nowadays GPS are used to shape the terrain before the snow falls; most of the resorts use artificial snow and lasers are rapidly being introduced! It used to be a “freestyle” job but it has become very precise; security and shaping skills are crucial!

How have snowparks developed in your opinion?

[The development] has been as incredible as that of freestyle itself, and it has largely contributed to its progression. 15 years ago I built a big air with the amount of snow that today would barely be enough to set a rail… halfpipes have gone from being 2.5-3m wide by 80m long, to 7m wide and 200 long! It has evolved constantly through new machinery and investment. Parks used to be ridden by just a few riders and now they are open to all levels; most resorts couldn’t do without them these days. The terrain and the goal determine what we can or can’t do. Most of the time a good park depends of the skills and dedication of an über-amped bunch of riders/shapers, but more often than not they are quickly discouraged through the resorts’ lack of means (or interest). However, progression is determined by money and halfpipes are very expensive; most of resorts cannot afford them. They’re slowly becoming luxury products!

Which are the best parks in Europe and the best ones you’ve shaped?

We always looked up to the States but in my opinion its a matter of the amount of money invested and we’ve caught up quite decently with resorts like Laax, Les Deux Alpes and Avoriaz, and all the resorts dedicating a bit of passion! My most important works include Les Diablerets Glacier,
Les Deux Alpes, Quik Cups and Candide Invitational.

HIGH FIVE

RETO LAMM, TTR President

To complete this TTR update, we asked the Tour boss Reto Lamm to answer this month’s questions for High 5.

What’s your view on the past TTR season, and more generally on the past contest season?

TTR has again improved its output on pretty much all levels, even if the economic situation across the globe was diffi cult. All events delivered a good product and luckily the season went really smooth. The Olympics were good for snowboarding and actually increased the interest of mainstream media towards our sport, it indirectly brought some momentum towards the TTR.

What’s your view on the FIS talking about including slopestyle at the OG?

Of course it is a difficult topic. Snowboarding has to be governed by snowboarders and not by skiers. TTR has so far done a great job to serve the riders – we will keep on doing our best. TTR is a very progressive model. It is hard for other organisations to deliver what we can. We will protect our interests and our assets. We will stand strong for our sport and keep on delivering a good tour and will crown world champions in Oslo 2012.

So you think discussions between FIS and TTR will be possible one day so that TTR is the unified world title?

There are no plans that support this idea.

What are the main developments concerning next season’s TTR?

We are working hard on our visibility on TV, working out new formats and new ways to display snowboarding in a way that general public understands by preserving all the good sides snowboarding has to offer.

What in your opinion is the best way to designate a tour champion?

Number of events etc… It is a delicate balance to make riders happy. Riders need enough freedom so they can spend time shooting and other projects. We talk to riders and take their input on how many results are best for them and for the tour. Of course it’s always a compromise in the end.

TTR RESHAPES JUDGING

Many of this year’s TTR contests will utilise a new type of judging system – and already have like at the Open in New Zealand. The Snowboarding Live Scoring System™ was introduced at the last Oakley Arctic Challenge slopestyle. Based on the overall feedback from riders before and after the event, spectators and television viewers, the general consensus is the system will be a major leap forward for the sport. As a result, major events on the Swatch TTR World Tour have agreed to work together to implement the system for all halfpipe, slopestyle and big air competitions for this coming season. Leading the development of this new judging system are experienced head judges Dani Kiwi Meier and Greg Johnson who have both been involved with snowboard judging systems for over 15 years. Meier and Johnson have been working with top riders on the new judging system, especially Torstein Horgmo, Andreas Ygre Wiig and Terje Haakonsen, who have been key players in its overall development.

In comparison to the current system in use, called Overall Impression (focuses on a rider’s run in its entirety), the new Live Scoring System is more transparent and allows everyone to clearly see how judges give points by scoring each trick individually in a rider’s run. Each trick score is added up to generate a total trick score that is then combined with a total flow score (how well a rider links all tricks in the run) to make up the final score for a rider’s run. With this new system TTR hopes to improve the presentation and understanding of competitive freestyle snowboarding as a whole. The first contests in South Hemisphere shown already the improvements in the judging, and the Tour could be more interesting this year than ever before!

Silvia Mittermüller uses TSG for protection

Tobi got Dragons for his face marbles

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

Queralt Castellet got her redemption after her Olympic KO (she was in 3rd till she sparked herself out) by placing 2nd at the Burton NZ Open halfpipe last August, behind Kelly Clark. Queralt was joined in Wanaka by a good bunch of Spaniards who’d cruised down for the NZ Winter: Rubén and Isaac Vergès, Kike Carcelen, Turny, Nina Manich and Adan Baserba, amongst others. In the same hemisphere but the other side of the pond, Marc Sala and Dani Sastre spent their summer in Bariloche and other Argentinean resorts filming for BQP, the Argentinean filming crew.

Dragon eyewear has recruited the talents of German IsenSeven regular Tobias Strauss. “I am stoked on the Image of Dragon and the Products and happy to represent this Company in the Future!” was what Tobi had to say. Silvia Mittermüller is now protecting herself with TSG gear. And the German lady’s already found herself designing and developing new ideas for next year’s TSG products alongside their R&D team. Silvia chose the Lotus women’s snowboard helmet, the Big Bear kneeguard and Backbone Trooper back protector to protect her on the mountain.

We didn’t know that Marley was actually a brand, but Burton did and teamed up with Marley & Co to create an all-new, limited edition snowboard: the Whammy Bar Marley. The board is part of Burton’s Restricted collection, a special assortment of outerwear and hardgoods that can only be found in selected shops. Burton’s Whammy Bar Marley is an all-new snowboard for the 2010/2011 season that has a smooth, catchfree feel for plenty of fun times all over the mountain. The Whammy Bar Marley is available in four sizes and retails for $399.95.

Planet Sports launched their hardgoods-only store next door to their existing flagship store in Munich’s city center. It hosts one the biggest selections of snowboards in Southern Germany. An 11-year-old kid going by the name of Marcus Kleveland has signed onto the Volcom Euro team. We don’t have pictures of the kid yet, but we bet we’ll have some bangers soon – the info itself was big enough to put this in writing. Bet he’s doing doubles already, the bastard! After five years of absence the legendary “Boarders” shop made a return to Munich on October 1st. Back in the day it was the premier hangout for skate, surf, and snow addicts and looks set out to become it once more. More information under www.boarders-muenchen.de

COLLAB HEADPHONES

O’Neill and Philips have teamed up to offer their riders and the rest of the world a series of high end headphones, giving you longlasting durability and complete comfort so you can enjoy the music that fuels you every day, no matter what you put them through. The first collection is available this Autumn worldwide and features four different styles, each completely unique and simple in design, yet able to add tunes you in your everyday shredding habits. www.oneill.com/TestedOnAnimals

WATCH OUT, DANS CROSSING THE ROAD

PIRATES & ABSINTHE PREMIERE CARNAGE

It was a heavy few days and required more than a little liver-juggling, but the Onboard crew managed to hit up both the Pirates world premiere for Hooked in Innsbruck and Absinthe’s premiere of NowHere in Munich – all Absinthe shots above are from the world premiere in Zurich. Divide and conquer. Though memories are blurred, the camera never lies so here’s some snapshots of the mayhem.

JULES THE GENT OF SNOWOBARDING

ALL ABOARD THE NOWHERE BUS

DAN BRISSE APPEARS TO HAVE TWO LEFT PEACE OUTS FOR HIS ABSINTHE BROS

ALL LIGHTS AND ACTION FOR NOW HERE IN ZURICH

JP RAISES A GLASS FOR VIDEO JOCK PRENDI

THE ABSINTHE CREW PUT OFF HEADING BACK TO BED IN THE BUS

WAS IT THE SNUSS OR THE BOOZE THAT MADE ERIK GAG?

MAX P (SO THERE HE IS) AND TREVOR

THE PIRATES AND SOME OTHER BLOKE ON A CROSS

DAN ASSURES THE CROWD THAT NORS LEGEND REALLY IS THAT BIG

ONE MORE FOR STIAN SOLBERG PLEASE

WESTSIDE DAN AND THE FINNS

INNSBRUCK LOVING THE PIRATES

ERIK LOOK BEHIND YOU!