686 Lights Out, a charity boxing event with the industry’s finest, debuts with boxing, bro’s and brews during ISPO on Monday February 4, 9pm at Backstage in Munich.

Once you’re done checking out all the 2014 shred gear, come watch professional snowboarders and industry insiders step in the ring for three rounds of hard hitting action to separate the men or women from the boys, all to support Fuck Cancer.

Host Drew Stevenson, aka Michael Buffer of the night, will be be on hand making sure contenders come out fighting and keep things somewhat clean between Ethan Morgan vs Mario Kaepelli and others, while a panel of pro riders will sit as guest judges and determine the victors.

The night will kick off at 9PM sharp and is ticketed entry only. Tickets can be obtained from 686, Electric, Onboard and Skullcandy at ISPO, and will go fast. Backstage is a club situated West of Munich: Reitknechtstrasse 6.

“We are excited to see the fights lining up. People are stepping up and putting their pride on the line for a good cause,” said Stephane Grenet, 686 European Brand Manager. “There are only a couple of spots left, and they are going fast.” Registration information can be obtained by emailing Stephane directly.

686 Lights Out is presented by Electric and Onboard and will feature sounds provided by Skullcandy. Additional support is provided by Monster and Warsteiner and the entire night benefits Fuck Cancer. Thanks of course to ISPO for their technical support.

For more information about 686 and its famous desing contest , click right here.

[We cocked up in the current issue – 123 – on our Ask the Expert page, so we wanted to apologize to Mike Fox who got his name spelt wrong, and post the page here. Enjoy the read!]

Mike Fox, DC Global Director, Snowboard Hardgoods is our expert of the month and not only does this guy know shit loads about board making, but he’s also involved in every aspect of the hard goods world: planning, researching, merchandising, marketing, testing, development, production, and design. Here comes the tech chat:

Obviously, the demands of pro riders are quite different from your average jo; How do you reach a compromise on the boards that get used by both?

Our focus with boards has been rider driven from day one. We are one of the few brands committed to Pro-models. Each series in our line starts out as a rider driven project and our riders test and confirm the final results. The other models offered in our line are the same pro designed boards, just in a wider range of sizes and with an alternative graphic. Devun has his own series, Iikka drives the MLF, Lauri drives the Tone, Aaron drove the PBJ and new for next year he has worked with Torstein to create the PLY. The boards we offer to our consumers are the same boards that our team designed and ride everyday. It’s true that from time to time they may love the feel of a certain test board that may not meet our consumer’s needs, but our team is extremely experienced and can make the call on adjusting the final product to meet their needs and also consider the needs of their customers.

Have you ever produced custom-made boards for your pros that looked like the generic model but rode quite differently?

Of course, through our development and testing process with the riders, they try a wide range of boards. Experimenting with shapes, cambers, flexes and materials. We make these prototypes with their graphics so they can continue to work and film with them. The goal in the end is not to create exclusive boards for their needs but to confirm the final board that they will ride and the same one that we will offer to consumers.

What comes first: A rider’s idea or one of your innovations?

We work together as a team and everyone contributes. We’ve had a great balance of ideas that come from the riders and from my team and me. When I come up with a concept or something comes from my design partner, Johnny Q or our factory partner, GST, it always begins with meeting the rider’s needs. So, in many ways the riders always come first.

How many rideable prototypes does your crew come up with every year?

Dang, I don’t even keep track but I probably should. I build as many as I can get away with. Obviously we have limitations and only enough time to test a certain amount. I’d estimate that we tested 35-40 boards over the last year not including pre-production sample rounds, which I would also consider important testing prototypes.

How many people ride a board before you deem it good enough to go into mass production?

Sometimes it’s just one. For example, if Devun is happy with the way a board rides, then I know it’s good. That was the case with his current pro-model. I believe we started out with 4 or 5 protos and one of them just clicked and that was it. I trust him completely, as I trust all of the team. The other testing done by our design, development and testing team is to confirm that we can duplicate the feel of the rider’s board and run it through durability trials.

How do you evaluate the risk of confusing the customer with so many different shapes? Or is big choice always a good thing?

We keep it simple. All of our riders want similar things; all of our boards are twins. In terms of shape, we tweak camber, sidecut, width and tip profiles to meet each riders needs but all DC boards come from the same shape DNA.

Lot of the pros are still riding regular camber. Does this mean the Rocker is more adapted for beginners or intermediate riders?

Not in our case. Our Anitcamber profiles using our Camber Core profile are innovations designed by Johnny Q to meet the needs of our team. Dev prefers only a slight, almost flat Anticambered board. Lauri’s has a bit more but he’s been leaning more towards flatter profiles lately. Ryan Tiene backs the feel of Lauri’s Tone and totally charges on that board, just watch his part in “The Storming”. I was also blown away by Mats Hofgaard’s part in “DC’s IT” riding the PBJ last season. But there is no denying that camber works and every one of our riders have a few MLFs and PLYs in their quivers.

Is it possible to make a board that is truly environmentally sound?

Wow, that seems like a loaded question. The word “truly” is a tough one to contend with since there is so many levels of what is considered “environmentally sound”. In my opinion there is no way to satisfy the requirements of someone who lives a “truly” sustainable existence. The reality is that harvesting materials and manufacturing anything impacts our environment in a negative way. We all need to do our best to be responsible and work with responsible partners to reduce waste, run more efficiently and leave the smallest possible footprint on our environment.

This is the first part of the TTR’s little history lesson on the origins of what all our hearts beat for: snowboarding. From Terry Kidwell and Jake Burton to Terje Haakonsen and the first Olympics in Nagano…

Markku Koski is by now a frequenter at the BEO. Photo by Sami Tuoriniemi

Burton’s European Open celebrated its 10-year anniversary in January 2009, so Onboard packed its bags and took a stroll down memory lane to glance back at the highs and lows over a decade of Europe’s premiere open snowboard contest. We already made a report in issue #105.

Photo by Sami Tuoriniemi

It’s 1998. Snowboarding has just seen itself swallowed by the global sports marketing jazzfest known as the Winter Olympics to a divided reception from the core. With control of the Olympic qualification wrestled from the ISF, and the ISF itself struggling financially, uncertainty about the direction of competitive snowboarding’s future is rife. Pre-millennium jitters of impending doom are not without substance.

It’s in this climate that Burton Snowboards decides that the time is right to introduce Europe to what has been successfully running annually in the US since 1982. With the emergence of Europe as a legitimate snowboarding power, it was a logical decision to replicate the successful US Open.

With Burton’s European HQ is in Innsbruck, it was a no-brainer to keep the inaugural event close to home. So in 1999, Seegrube, with its easy access and stunning view over the city, was chosen to play midwife to the newborn event by holding a primitive slopestyle Jam Session. The nipper had a more than decent babysitter for its first day in the sun as young local Burton rider Sani Alibabic became the BEO’s first ever winner before they upped sticks and setup for the pipe in the equally local resort of Axamer Lizum, where Thierry Brunner and Natasza Zurek would take the honour of being the first BEO pipe winners.

After a millennial hiatus, the BEO returned in 2001, this time to Fieberbrunn where it joined up with the infamous Lords of the Boards event. The second incarnation of the contest saw a corner jump on the cards, as well as giant slalom. Kier Dillon and Romina Massolini placed first on the hip, while Ueli Kestenholz and Ursula Bruhin had the pleasure of being the first and only spandex wearers to bag a BEO crown.

Mikka Hast is by now with the age of 27 one of the older generation. photo by Sami Tuoriniemi

2002 saw the contest leave Austria to relocate in the tax haven of Livigno, Italy, which was to be its home for the next 3 years. It was here that the BEO started to develop more into the event we know today: pipe and slopestyle were firmly on the cards, as was a quarterpipe event, while GS was put back in the dusty cupboard. 2002 was also when the first junior contest went down that has since served as a veritable barometer for identifying the most promising groms on the continent, with kids like Olivier Gittler, Christian Haller, Mikkel Bang, Iouri Podladtchikov and Peetu Piiroinen amongst those who’ve announced their intent on this stage. This year Nicolas Müller bagged the pipe title, DCP the slopestyle, and David Benedek won on the quarter.

Markus Malin had some very good runs in the finals. Photo by Sami Tuoriniemi

A dark cloud was to envelop 2003’s edition of the contest when on 20 January, a meeting was called to break the tragic news that Craig Kelly had been killed in an avalanche while riding in British Columbia. With everyone shell-shocked, the contest was postponed for the day as a mark of respect. As if pre-ordained, the clouds cleared and all went riding powder with thoughts of Kelly the man and Kelly the snowboarder. When the contest recommenced, Vincenz Lüps nabbed first in the pipe ahead of Terje, and in the women’s pipe Natasza Zurek claimed her second BEO title. Arguably the best freestyle rider at the time, Jussi Oksanen, reinforced his claim by winning the slopestyle. Usually more of a rider-focussed event than a big crowd pleaser, this year they also stoked out the masses with a night shootout session held in the valley, which saw Thomas ‘Beckna’ Eberharter do his best Rick Kane impression, fighting his way through the qualifiers to win. And that mental Swedish fella Prippa jumped the pipe on his skidoo.

The final year of the BEO’s Livigno tenure was 2004, when Heikki Sorsa mounted the slopestyle summit, with the pipe being won Olympic golden boy Ross Powers for the men and Doriane Vidale for the women. In another nod to the future, Christian Haller, Luke Mitrani and Mikkel Bang rocked out on candy and soda to take junior titles. With that wrapped up, the contest bade farewell to the chintzy streets of the Italian town and struck out for Switzerland.

From the moment the BEO set foot in the Swiss resort of Laax, it seemed like it had fund its spiritual home, with the ethos of both parties harmoniously united in their raison d’etre. Both had believed in snowboarding before it was fashionable to do so, and with Laax having become well-known for the best pipe in Europe along with a rider-friendly mentality from the get-go, the heavy petting commenced in 2005.

Per- Iver at his impressing Slopestyle run. Photo by Sami Tuoriniemi

Here we were privileged to witness Andy Finch putting down one of the most insane pipe runs to date to take the men’s, and Kelly Clark stepped it up for the women. In the slopestyle, young Swede Chris Sörman took his first major career title, with Natazsa Zurek claiming her 3rd BEO win for the ladies. It was also here that 2008’s Global Open Series winner, Peetu Piiroinen, forced himself into snowboarding’s collective consciousness by placing first in the Junior slopestyle.

Come the following year, Peetu was old enough to compete with the seniors and duly blew them all away to win the slopestyle and Natasza Zurek bagged her 4th European Open win in the women’s event. As it was Olympic year several countries used the BEO pipe contest as the last qualifying event to select their teams, and the 0506 season was also the first year of the TTR World Tour, the BEO being awarded a 5 Star status in the Tour’s inaugural year. Subsequent years were to see it elevated to 6 Star status. 2006 saw Risto Mattila and Doriane Vidale take the honours in the finely sculpted U jump.

A crappy winter took its toll on the event for its 2007 incarnation. At the last minute the whole slopestyle was rebuilt up on the glacier due to a dearth of snow in the event’s usual location off the Crap Sogn Gion, but even this display of determination was to prove fruitless as high wind and fog caused the slopestyle to be canned. Rumours abound that the glacier course had been shaped so Shaun White could do all four 10s in his contest run, but it wasn’t to be. Furthermore, a clash of dates meant most of the heavy hitters in the pipe decamped to the US to attend the TV spectacular that is the X-Games. Nevertheless, Crispin Lipscomb and Holly Crawford put on a solid showing under now-bluebird skies to top the pipe podium, plus the BEO became integrated into the Burton Global Open series of events that rewards the highest placed riders with $100,000 each.

Last year’s BEO is memorable for perhaps one of the finest pipe finals ever, and certainly one of the most dramatic. With all and sundry in agreement that Shaun White had produced an unassailable performance and resigned to another ginger win, Kevin Pearce dropped and threw it out the window with a ballistic run that saw him chuck one of the biggest frontside 10s and McTwists to beat White at the last. Kelly Clark continued to show she’s head and shoulders above the rest of women’s pipe riding by going bigger than most of the dudes, and in the Slopestyle it was Shaun (with three 10s and a 9, no less) and Jamie Anderson who spun and jibbed their way to the top of the pile.

This was the opener of Kevins´last run. Photo by Danny Burrows

So, with champagne and balloons abound, the 10th edition of the BEO made party in Laax, and what a party it was. Both the men’s and women’s slopestyle were hotly contested affairs and saw leads changing hands on a run-by-run basis. For the ladies, Norwegian Lisa Wiik claimed the first major title of her career after struggling with injury over recent years and in the duder comp all signs were pointing to Peetu netting his second BEO slopestyle crown until the good American Danny Davis turned it up to 11 on his last run and blew all-comers away. The perfect bluebird and profusion of pink balloons set the stage perfectly for the super-duper pipe finals and, lo and behold, lightening struck twice as we were treated to a repeat of last year’s results. Kevin Pearce left it to the last run to put down an absolute barnstormer of a run – arguably better than his defining effort a year earlier – to again leave Shaun White nursing an ego bruise, and the women’s event was once more dominated by Kelly Clark whose last run when she knew she’d won was truly something to behold. All in all it was an epic party and a great way to celebrate a decade’s worth of Open snowboarding contests in Europe.

So, here’s to you BEO, and to another 10 fun-filled years of progressive contest shreddery. See you for your 20th when you can drink…

Hey There,

I just got back from intense weekend in Zürich, that left a thousand impressions in my head.

First of all I was really stoked to be invited to the freestyle.ch again, as I think it’s one of the most fun contests of the year. Strong riders and good friends all around, a big crowd, good kicker, warm temperatures and very good parties every day! I had qualification on friday. I was really happy that I could land the bs 1080 double cork, a trick I learned just a day before riding in Hintertux. With this trick as a technical and a bs five japan as a style trick I was stoked to win the qualification and that I could ride on saturday and sunday again.

Saturday we did the crossover session, a big show where the different riders (Snowboarder, Freeskier, FMXer and Skateboarder) defend their sport. The crowd decides who wins by chearing after the trick. That was pretty fun, especially when we, the snowboard team rode the kicker all at the same time…rapidfire style. The crowd loves it and it’s quite exciting to ride as well. Thanks to Juri Podlatschikow, better call him I-Pod so the spelling is right, the snowboard team got the title in the end.

On sunday, the final day, I was pretty tired already. I felt the partys of friday and saturday and that I was riding since a while without a break. Anyways, I tried my best and I was happy I could land some tricks. In the end I didn’t make it in the superfinals and ended up 5th place.
After such a good Weekend, with many friends and a super good time on the board, guess what was on on Sunday night…..yes, partytime !!!

And the story goes on in a week or so at freestyle.berlin. see you there. I understand better now, why they compare riders to super heros in those events. ☺

Here is a link to couple tricks and few pictures

http://www.zapiks.com/bs-1080a-double-cork-par-eli-1.html
http://www.zapiks.com/style-trick-bs-540-japan-ove-1.html

Elias

Rainy days, sick powder shredding and 3 days of journey to reach the Pirates world premiere

By Elias Elhardt

Here’s a little report about my past two weeks in Argentina.

When I arrived in Bariloche (Argentina) it was raining up to the top and it didn’t really stop for almost a week. The picture below shows my most common action in these days: Laying on my bed, listening to music, watching the rain falling and from time to time birtd passing. And of course….party at night! I was pretty chilled out even though we couldn’t do what we came here for.

By the time it got colder, raindrops turned into snowflakes and just a bit later blue bird days came up. Time to shred! Coming up the mountain, the view was simply amazing! Everywhere you looked you could see the big, white mountains, the deep blue lakes, which where all around and the green islands and forests. Although the snow wasn’t the best ever, we found some fun stuff to hit and had a super good fist day of shooting. I was pretty stoked on hitting some cliffs natural and to feel some powder under my board.

The next day the snow got already quiet crusty and it was hard to find good snow anywhere. So we ended up, spending a full day building a step up and another day for finding out, that the kicker wouldn’t work….hehe. Anyways, we the crew had a super good spirit and we had really good time hanging out together! The funny thing is that I wasn’t even pissed when we found out after the first try, that it wouldn’t work…We were rather just laughing about ourselves…

After another three days bad weather, a perfect day of blue sky and powder came up. That day was amazing. One of the best days on snow that I can remember….But that’s hard to say, because there were sooo many super happy days on the board in the past 10 years…. Anyways, that day was good as well! We arrived at the mountain early and found the lines we wanted to do completely untracked with fresh light powder on top. I started with a really fun powderline containing cliffs and windlips. After that I was super stoked to land the first natural fs 7 I ever tried on a big windlip. The day continued with some more powder turns and cliff jumps…It was really good. Here a shot I took from the video footage of that day. It shows a cab 7 from a cliff.

A day later my journey back home began. 22 hours bus from Bariloche to Buenos Aires, 7 houres waiting at the Airport at Buenos Aires, 15 hours flight to Madrid, one night in Madrid visiting my friend Willy, next day flight to Zürich, from there with the car straight to the Pirates World Premiere in Innsbruck, one shower before and the party was on…

Me with Basti Balser, the head behind it all

The Pirates Premiere was super good. Most of my best friends came to party with me and even my family was there to see the movie. When I saw the movie I couldn’t believe I got the last part. I was so happy about it, especially because it was my fist time filming and I didn’t expect much, as I just got to film for one and a half month. I was just really lucky, I guess…

Keep shredding….enjoy!

After an foot injury in February, I couldn’t wait for the time I would finally be back on the snow! So my “endless winter” summer would start up in Mt Hood. I went there for almost a month and as usual I had a lot of fun. Pipe and weather were great until Arthur Longo, Aluan Ricciardi and our coach joined me.

The High Cascade park crew had pulled up a 22 ft pipe for the US team to come train and we got lucky to be able to ride that pipe, but the weather got a little tricky. Anyway, that was a fun trip, it felt amazing to be back on the snow, I got some new tricks in my bag and that was good for the upcoming olympic season. The only bad thing was that my foot was still feeling sore, so I decided to take a break and went surfing in Mexico. Life’s hard!

2 weeks there surfing some of the best waves of the planet made me want to explore more of that country, but I’m still young, and it was time to be back on the snow.

This time it was winter, well almost. I joined the whole Quiksilver team for our annual photoshoot in Mt Cook, New Zealand, but after a great start of the season over there, it turned warm on rained all the way to the top. Not a single powder turn and it was already time to get to Wanaka and the first half pipe world cup of the season.

The level in the pipe got pretty crazy while I was recovering, with pretty much everybody training on airbags and throwing double corks and stuff! But few days of training got my confidence back, and I was actually surprised on how I was riding after such a long break.

But once again karma hasn’t been good to me and on the trainings for the contest I sprained my ankle. I’ve been resting for 10 days now, witch allowed me to visit the south coast of New Zealand in a camper van and I’m now back in Wanaka and will go ride tomorrow to see how my ankle feels. I’m staying for one more month so surfing back will have to wait a little bit!

Talk soon for more!
Mathieu

After three months of summer break, German shredder Elias Elhardt is stoked to be rocking his board on the white gold again. The Rip Curl photo shooting brought him to an early season trip to Argentina, check out his little photo story…

“One week ago I went snowboarding for the first time after the 3 month summer break, it was sooo fun! So for me from now on, the season is on again….I just arrived in Argentina for a Rip Curl shooting, to hopefully shred some powder soon!

I went to Saas Fee for 3 days before I flew over to south america. Riding there was super good. Just to be back on the board was so much fun.One day, we got up at 4:30, because a friend told us, that only on this day, there’s a special “sunrise gondola” going up at 5:30 already. Unfortunateley he got confused with dates and sent us up one day to early. Didn’t matter to much though. Then we just slept on the bench for a while, went up with first regular gondola and had a supergood day shredding again.

After three days of riding in Saas Fee I drove to Zürich, left my car here in a friends place and got a flight over Madrid to Buenos Aires. I took this picture in the airport of Madrid.

I spent two days in Buenos Aires then. That was really nice. In the hostel I stayed I got to know a super cool guy, called Tom, with whom I spent most of the time there. The first night we went out for
partying till 7 in the morning… On the Picture you can see Tom with some musicians playing in the streets of Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires sunset.

After these couple days in Buenos I went with the Bus to the Skiresort Bariloche. That meant 20 hours of bus ride on the forever straight roads across Argentina to the Ants. I slept most of the time anyways, I was still supertired from the flight and the party straight after.

I’m here in Bariloche since three days now and it hardly ever stopped raining (to the top). So at the moment we’re just waiting for some better weather to come…

But that isn’t so bad anyways as I’m hanging out with my friends from Rip Curl and weather forecast is predicted fresh snow for end of the week. We just got back from eating in that place.

More about my time in Argentina soon…..”

Standard Films – Black Winter

Absinthe – Neverland

Pirate Movie Productions -Jolly Roger

Forever Forum

Teasing Forever – Eddie Wall

Teasing Forever – Nic Sauve

Teasing Forever – Niko Cioffi and Cameron Pierce

Forever Teasing – Joni Malmi

Forever Teasing – Jake Blauvelt

Factor Films – They Came From…

IsenSeven – Let’s Go Get Lost

Teaser 1

Teaser 2

Think Thank – Cool Story

32/Stepchild – This Video Sucks

Ero One – Stick ‘em Up

Burton: The B

Burtons new movie is going to be so grand, that they decided one teaser is not enough…

The Backwards Teaser

The Bail Teaser

The Beautiful Teaser

The Banger Teaser

The Butchered Teaser

The Basic Teaser

Flow – Bad Reputation

First Teaser

Superpark Teaser

Videograss

Alterna – Elektro

Snowworld Productions – Homies 2.0: Locked Outside

Flatlight Films – 9 Months of Snow

La Famiglia – Serious…Not

First Tracks Productions – Droppin’

Finger on Da Trigger – Hard to Earn

The Airblaster Movie

Teaser 1

Teaser 2

Quite Alright Productions – White Lies & French Fries

Happy Niu Year

People Creative – Nice Try

RipCurl – Welcome Home

Völkl – Logistricks

JimmyFilms – Basic Stuff

Kurt Jenson – How the northwest was one

Teaser 1

Teaser 2

M.O.G. Production – Manglo Moves

Bamboo Motion Pictures – Mosaic

Goofy Movie

Autumn Line – Montevideo

Variety Pack – Not Bad!

Brothers Factory – Time is Now

MEP – Magic Moments

From Romania with Love

S-Cut Productions – In Beetween

RandomVideo – Gimme Some

Vaca Films – So much to say

Sandbox – Shine On

Snowboard Connection – As Green as it Gets

Teaser 1

Teaser 2

Team Thunder – Beauville

Mellow Mood Productions – Piiteraq

I Heart Snow Productions – Recession Proof

Teaser 1

Teaser 2

Teaser 3

JMills Prdouctions – Stance

Peep Show

Friday Productions – Tracking Eero

Ducksjen

Party Snake Again

More party-snake Snowboarding >>

DIY – Elo Pictures

Here’s a little diary:

Slowly but continuous everyone arrived in our venue in the Schnalstal. Because of the G8 meeting, the journey was more stressful and had taken longer than everyone had thought. Thanks to border control for checking nearly every single bag…!

With me are Simon Gruber, Fabian Fasnacht, Clemens Jezler, Andre Kuhlmann, Gian Simmen, Stefano Munari and filmer Nicklas Löffler with his assistant as well as photographer Fizza. After such a day we abviously had to have some beers together before going to bed and praying for good conditions for the following day.

Gian Simmen killing the hip

Unfortunately our prayers were not heard, it rained in the valley and on huge snowstorm raged on top of the mountain! No sight at all…

But super motivated Simon Gruber and Andre Kuhlmann, accompanied by a fearless camera man, fought the conditions and made their way up to the top anyway. Though in fact no one really knows what they were doing up there, maybe they just had some boys pleasure in the snowstorm…

In the meantime the rest of the crew prepared for the first lifestyle collection shooting. The game was cloth on – cloth off and continued until lunch, which brought some serious fun for everyone!

Luckily it stopped raining after that, so we could hit the streets with some serious S.K.A.T.E action!

In the evening we had an amusing little hunt for free wireless spots in the hotel to at least check some e-mails. For some it worked out, for some it didn’t – right Mr. Simmen?!

Fabian Fasnacht spinning till the end – or till it’s a 10er

Again we woke to a cloudy sky before we made a run for the gondola.

But on the top it was freezing and the set up looked absolutely perfect, the shapers had done a pretty good! After warming up with some speed checks in windy conditions on the big kicker we were ready for killin’ it. Being back on the mountain just feels sooo great!
But the weather still wasn’t on our side and we had to take the chance for a shot at every minute of sun peeking out behind the clouds. Fabian Fasnacht was spinning FS 10s and working on perfect landings while the rest of the team had some fun with SW 7s, 9s and other spins in every direction.

The successful session ended around 1 pm and everybody got off the mountain really stoked befor it was time for lunch and another lifestyle shooting in the valley.

At 5pm, the park crew invited us to some fishing action and a great BBQ. Many thanks for that folks, it was awesome!
Catching trouts and grilling them was a great experience for all of us, but it was Mr Jetzler who made the catch of the day!

Clemens – obviously very proud of having made the biggest catch

No surprise, the weather conditions still hadn’t changed! But we were up for catching the early bird on the mountain anyway.

The night had been pretty clear so the whole park was icy – no more stories about summer snowboarding and slush please… We should better have brought some ice skating equipment with us!
With even less sun than the day before it took a while until the park got softer and we could start riding. But the Ftech Park crew sized up the big kicker once more and we were now facing a massive 24m table with take offs in 3.5 to 4m. That was what the team had wanted! Unfortunately the wind didn’t stop and it was a question of pure luck (at least almost) to find the right speed.
Gian and Simon nearly rocketed over that monster but somehow still they still managed to stick their tricks anyway. Big up on that guys!

Tired but happy we went back down to valley with the last gondola at 4.30 pm, where some of the riders already had to say their goodbyes.

Stefano Mauri – 360

On the last day conditions finally got really great. We packed the cars for the trip back home in the morning and prepared for great final day on the mountain and the final shooting.

When we entered the park, everyone was sure that this was going to be the best day of the week. The set up looked perfect, the in-runs were packed, the landings looked really smooth and finally we were spared of the hauling winds. The cameramen and photographer got in position on the crane immediatetly. And the team was on fire, spinning 5s, 7s, 9s and even 1080ies in front of a bluebird sky and the day was a huge success. Simon Gruber earned the most respect for nice double tail bs 720ies! Only Clemens, who had shown some great riding, had some bad luck and snipped his lip with the last FS10 and had to leave the park earlier than the rest of the crew.

After leaving the big kicker we decided to re-shape the hip to start session that baby again. But riding in the blazing sun the whole day slowly got at us and so at 3pm it was time to leave the park. To add some more bad luck, I nearly cut my fingers on the skidoo when I took it back to the gondola but fortunately I was still able to write this last day down as well.

Going down back to the valley everyone felt really satisfied with what we had achieved in that week.

Back in the parking lot we switched our outerwear to boardshorts and it was clear that the trip had come to an end here. After everyone had to split up in different directions I was feeling both happy and sad. Sad that the trip was over so quickly, but happy that we had so much fun, no one got seriously injuried and that I met a bunch of really nice people!

Thanks to the Fteck crew for the great support – without you guys this wouldn’t have been possible! We really had a great time…

See you soon at the Ftech Park!