This is a crop of a shot of Eero Ettala in the gallery that our photo ed will probably kill us for chopping for our own purposes. Place your bets. All Photos: Sami Tuoriniemi.

Training’s been going down in the bitter cold of Innsbruck’s Bergisel stadium in preparation for tomorrow’s madfest and the riders have been getting it done. Check the gallery and who got nasty at the pre-event rail jam put on by Burn.

And in the pre-event rail jam put on by Burn, Sweden’s Noah Gadelius came first followed by Gulli Gudmundsson and Flo Corzelius. We gotta give a big shoutout to the Burn massive for being frickin’ awesome, too. Thanks peoples.

Film a 1 minute clip, stoke Grilo out by including his favourite trick, upload it and you could be rewarded with a trip to Whistler. Oh yes…

We received this communique from Grilo. “hey bud, good seeing you at the party do you think you could post this contest i am doing on your webpage and facebook. would mean a lot to me.” The last we saw of him at said party he was kindly trying to help one of the Onboard crew to pull. Sadly he failed to realise it was they guy’s missus but stirling work regardless. Of course we’ll help the bauss… Here’s more of his chat:

Grilo’s Cliptionary is a competition that connects 3 of my biggest passions: snowboarding, Facebook, and video clips. I want you to grab your snowboard, and film and edit a 1-minute clip. The only rule is that it has to include one of my favorite tricks: bs 540. More info on www.grilo.si/cliptionary

Next Saturday, 11 February, the French resort of Gourette (Pyrenees) will be hosting this one of a kind event, consisting of a Banked Slalom, a gear test center and an outdoor disco/DJ sesh to make you pump your riding up!

The event will open for all riders: the 11€ inscription fee includes the lift ticket and a bag of goodies, as well as the opportunity to bag a weekend at a Pyrenean resort. It’s been snowing non-stop for a week in Gourette and conditions are at its best. Come, test some new gear, dance to DJ Club Cheval and don’t miss your chance of being King/Queen for a day!

More info on: www.n-py.com

Dylan Thompson “FAMILIA 2″ F.O.D.T. from FODT/COLE TAYLOR on Vimeo.

FODT’s Familia 2 is one bang heavy bit of shred porn. Dylan Thompson has the 2 song ender, so that should be all the info you need to want to watch this now…

In the words of FODT’s Cole Taylor, “Dylan is slowly gaining momentum as one of the best urban riders in snowboarding and this part should place him in those rankings.” He’s right. He’s damned good that boy.

Click the following to download Famila 2 from iTunes.

Here’s the link to the stream. Click that bad boy from around 16.30 CET: www.air-style.com/de/id-2012-billabong-air-style-innsbruck/live

But hey. Also there’s only a few tickets left online and in ticket retailers for the Billabong Air & Style Innsbruck-Tirol 2012 so if you’re around Innsbruck get your arses in gear so you don’t miss the insanity. Ticket seller information and online purchase (print your ticket at home) here.

Some of the finest kicker riders on the planet will be doing their best to keep your fires stoked… well darn it let’s have a look who they are:

Starting list Top 16:

1 Peetu Piiroinen (FIN)
2 Sebastien Toutant (CAN)
3 Seppe Smits (BEL)
4 Werner Stock (AUT)
5 Nils Arvidsson (SWE)
6 Ulrik Badertscher (NOR)
7 Stale Sandbech (NOR)
8 Roope Tonteri (FIN)
9 Eric Willett (USA)
10 Eero Ettala (FIN)
11 Yuki Kadono (JPN)
12 Ethan Morgan (GER)
plus the top 4 from the qualification

Qualification riders:

13 Ethan Morgan (GER)
14 Dash Kamp (USA)
15 Torgeir Bergrem (NOR)
16 Marko Grilc (SLO)
17 Clemens Schattschneider (AUT)
18 Petja Piiroinen (FIN)
19 Jamie Nicholls (GBR)
20 Peter König (AUT)
21 Tom Klocker (AUT)
22 Christian Haller (SUI)
23 Pat Burgener (SUI)
24 Niklas Mattson (SWE)
25 Aleksander Ostreng (NOR)
26 Marco Grigis (ITA)

On Friday night starting at 5pm, don’t miss the Burn Rail Session, the Rider’s Draw, and a live concert by “The Heavy” all taking place at the Snow Festival on Maria-Theresien-Strasse in the heart of Innsbruck’s city center.

A word to the wise though, it will be one of the coldest Air & Style events we’ve had, and though we’ll do our best to make it impossible for anyone in the stadium to stand still, wear your warmest clothes for good measure!

If you can’t be a part of the banging atmosphere you can watch the The Billabong Air & Style on www.air-style.com/en/id-2012-billabong-air-style-innsbruck/live.html.

For more information log on www.air-style.com.

[This is Hans Ahlund's Behind The Spot episode. There's a bunch of other goodness from the Pirates to discover on Pirate TV.]

Our Pirate homies are diving full on into the deep end of the internet with the launch of Pirate TV. They’ll regularly be dropping a bunch of web video content from here on in, so check out what they’re offering in addition to one of the sickest Euro shred flicks around…

Basti, Ludschi and the boys will now be backing up their annually awesome movies with what looks to be a whole heap of different online content. As Ludschi says, “The goal is to come up with up-to-date edits in a frequent matter, so people can stay in the loop and get hyped straight away!”

The first episodes of their various programs are out already and there’s some good stuff to get involved with. They’ve gone with a many-layered approach. Categories include travel impressions in a section called Boardbagged, short clips of bangers in 40 Secs, getting in depth with certain spots in Behind The Spot (above), 4FunFun which is all about enjoyable riding, Day in the Life episodes with the dudes, and a Tech Talk section where riders, shooters and the crew explain the gear they use and why they use it.

“We’ll be adding some educational and fun content as well,” adds Ludschi, “because we really wanna add value to the snowboarding world.”

Check what they got on the Pirate TV site, and we’ll be posting them on Onboard from here on in so you stay in the loop.

Check the 101 on these face-forming peeper protectors from Adidas eyewear. Marko Grilc’s model of choice, no less…

Face fit is often overlooked in a goggle’s manic dash to bedazzle you with its crystal clear vision, anti fog properties, UV protection and badass looks. Not the Adidas ID2 goggle, though. This boasts an innovative double frame construction that’s super flexible allowing it to fit comfortably on even John Merrick’s face. Of course, they ain’t skimped on the other essentials – nano-foam along with Clima-Cool ventilation guarantees a fog-free ride, the high-grade spherical lens offers epic visibility and it flips the bird to all the sun’s harmful death rays.

Alex Stathis, E-man Anderson, Layne Treeter, Davoucci Mane, Andrew Burns and many more are featured in this grungy yet commendable snowboard flick called Dope II. Watch it here or download your own HD version on www.dope.tv.

The fourth stop of the Nike Chosen Series were held in Hoch Ybrig in the foot hills of the Swiss Alps, and got underway despite being pushed back a day due to bad weather.

Markus Mathis on his way to the MVP award.

The riders that made the trip to the NBC Snowpark were nonetheless determined to not let the challenging conditions get in the way of the invite to the Nike Sessions that would be granted to the winner of the day’s jam.

With only occasional breaks in the cloud, visibility gave the riders an added challenge over the 15m kicker and bonk obstacle, leaving the 3 judges (DBK, Raphi Rocha and local shaper Matthias Burch) to make a call to skip qualifiers and run a straight up final with all riders.

Roger Schuler

As ‘Eleven’ pro rider Mike ‘Aemka’ Knobel threw down the music and MC Sam Messerli hyped up the crowd it was clear that the riding standard was pretty high for this AM contest as Markus Mathis laid out a back 5 and a back 7 in his the warm up run.

With a Nike Sessions ticket on the table all riders upped their game in what was a great atmosphere in the park, local Arvet Fuchs styled a Super man front flip and his first ever backside double cork and Roger Schuler held onto a switch back stale almost all the way to the ground.

Arvet Fuchs

Making the trip up from Berne, Markus Mathis took the MVP of the day with a consistent array of tricks throughout the jam including a back 10 double cork. Markus will travel to the Nike Chosen Sessions in April to session with the Nike Pros and compete against all the Series winners to find ultimate Chosen.

RESULTS

BEST OVERALL (MVP) – MARKUS MATHIS – BERN

MOST CREATIVE – ARVET FUCHS – EINSIEDELN

BEST STYLE – ROGER SCHULER – EINSIEDELN

BEST GIRL – CELIA PETRIG – EINSIEDELN

Winning!

Best Trick Wildcard

3 competing riders from each stop will also have the opportunity to gain a wildcard entry into the finals ‘Nike Chosen Sessions’. Watch the tricks and vote for which rider you think should make the finals.

www.nikechosenseries.com

NEXT STOP ON THE NIKE CHOSEN SERIES

EHRWALD, GERMANY 04.02.12

REMAINING DATES

DATE / COUNTRY / RESORT / RIDER HOST
04 FEB – GER – EHRWALD Ethan Morgan
11 FEB – FRA – CHATEL Gerome Mathieu
18 FEB – ESP – VALLNORD Jan Scherrer
26 FEB – AUS – HOCHKONIG Gigi Ruf
03 MAR – NOR – TRYVANN Gjermund Braaten

01 ARP – 07 APR FINAL – NIKE CHOSEN SESSIONS