Mission Accomplished – Vans Hi Standard series successfully brought some style to European snow resorts. Paying homage to the roots of the brand, Vans introduced a new concept in ‘competitive’ snowboarding for 2013. Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of Vans’ first snowboard boots, the Hi Standard series aimed to bring the fun and style back to competition. Events took place in major European snowboard resorts throughout March and April, and featured an original big air format and rail jam. Riders were judged on individual style, creativity and ‘self-expression’, whilst to keep it clean, rotations over 720 were not permitted.

More than 200 riders, old and young, boys and girls, amateurs and seasoned pros, were battling for Van Doren Dollars in France, Austria and Scotland. The judging criteria strictly focused on style, variety and creativity – and of course, fun factor; having a good session together, enjoying a BBQ and celebrating the true spirit of snowboarding is all that counted over these few days.

The Vans Hi-Standard kicked off on March 12th in front of the infamous restaurant ‘L’Altiport’ in Les Arcs. During this round, the French riders could get their hands on 2,000 EUR cash for tricks, bringing out their best with style.

Moving on to Austria’s hotspot of snowboarding culture, Zillertal, the second stop of the series was a prime example of the “off the wall” spirit, with a perfect balance of competition and camaraderie, interspersed with some great riding.
With the resort having supported the sport at its best, there could not be a better location to host this event than the Vans Penken Park. Local support from those riding, watching or simple soaking up the atmosphere, was fantastic.

The morning of the 23rd of March kicked off with the big air and soon one rider stood out of the crowd: Austrian hero Herby Thaler, whose smooth methods are unequalled within the scene, pocketed some Van Doren cash straight away. His performance was closely followed by Gabor Abonyi and local shred heads Rudi Kröll und Friedl Kolar, who threw in some impressive one footed tricks. After lunch the bank of Vans reopened over at the rail set for another jam session. This provided the perfect opportunity for Betty, the only girl in the competition to really tackle the rail section, unleashing smooth b/s boardslides on the handrail with style.

Flo Heim walked away with the days biggest stash of cash, whilst 15year old Rowan Coultan achieved the title of „Rookie of the Day“. Finishing off with a tasty Californian BBQ and live act MC Henry Jackson performing at Grillhof Alm it was crystal clear that everyone there had a great time!

The last stop of the Hi Standard series took place in Scotland’s beautiful Cairngorm Mountains, on April 6th. The local park crew had created a truly epic set-up, perfectly for a comp of very high standards. More than 50 riders signed up, with the youngest being only 8 years old! Scottish locals Jamie Trinder and Danny McCormick were killing it, while 10year old Will Gilmore impressed the crowds with his no fear approach.

Overall 9,000EUR was awarded to the snowboarders who performed with style, rather than spinning to win, but also the best tricks and rail jam riders were also rewarded for their moves, and not to mention the worst bail!
For the 2012/13 winter season one can say that Vans accomplished it’s mission; the newly created Vans Hi Standard series successfully brought back some style to European snow resorts.
Visit www.facebook.com/VansEurope/events for more information and pics.

And also check out the Vans Hi Standard video edits:

From France
From Austria
From Scotland

All our previous posts on the Vans Hi Standard Series on this tag.

More behind the scenes footage with the last bonus edit made by Advita for the first edition of The Overall that took place in Les Diablerets last December featuring VonZipper, Nixon and Advita in an ultimate battle for victory.

Advita Team : Fred Couderc, Kuba Dytkowski, Mizhael Ståhlberg and Stepan Rokos.

Check all the Overall videos on this tag.

The first edition of the LM Spring Fighter – TTR 3star – took place in Les Menuires, France, here’s the full report.

The winner Enzo Nilo, Cab 9.

For this first edition in Les Menuires, Pony Up events, from Pyrenees mountains with his famous Poney Session came to Alps with his staff: Greg Poissonnier as speaker, Fred Egli as official photographer, Kim Multimedias as video production, dj Skillz as official dj, Dekaudio as sound engineer, and all the staff organizers.
The day 1 started with stormy conditions ! Despite the near blizzard conditions, riders were able check out the bigair, and test the jump.
With the sun on day 2, riders showed off their best skills and tricks. But 2 riders impressed both crowd and judges : french rider Enzo Nilo with these switch back 9, cab 10, doble back flip, front10, front 9, back 9,switch back rodeo and more ! And how about Alessandro Boyens ,with his massive style and these cab9, cab 10, cab 12, double corked back ! The vegetable lover JJ Roux complete yet another podium, congrats to him too!

Marc Grossgasteiger, Front 7.

Place and dates: Les Menuires (french alps – “les 3 vallées”: le plus grand domaine skiable du monde) – 30 & 31 march
Riders: 22 snowboarders, 5 nationalities were represented: ITA, UK, GER, FIN, FRA.

Results:
1-enzo NILO (fra)
2-alessandro BOYENS (ger)
3-JJ ROUX (fra)
4-raphael ROUX (fra)
5-felix CADIOU (fra)
6-marc GROSSGASTEIGER (ita)
7-benno PLANK (ita)

The podium.

An event supported by Les Menuires, Dakine, Von Zipper, Sevabel, Opel , ESF, Virgin radio.

Also check the dedicated website.

All photos from Fred Egli/Poney Up.

 Get ready for the 2013 European Peanut Butter and Rail Jam Championships on the Saturday 30th March, in Avoriaz, France!

The qualified riders from all around Europe in the four gang categories (15 and under, 16 and over, Girls, and Open) will brawl for the 8000€ prize money plus the 500€ Electric “Gooeyest move” prize.
On top of the mad rides and good times, there will be as always giveaways for all and some extra prizes from Volcom, Electric and Nitro!

Qualified riders only to compete in this event, but supporters and spectators are welcome!

For complete PBRJ tour info, video, photos, results:
pbrj.volcomeurope.com

SCHEDULE

Saturday, March 30:

10h: Riders check-in at the Piste Dromonts (center village in front of the tourism office)
12h00-15h00: Free BBQ
11h30: Qualification heats, live webcast
15h15: Finals, live webcast
16h15: Prize ceremony, live webcast
17h00: Après Ski in Avoriaz
21h-Late: After party in The Cavern, Morzine

Watch the teaser here. This year the event will be broadcasted live at this address.

Use the GO-SHRED platform to save gas money. Log onto www.go-shred.com to share or find a ride to the Euro PBRJ Championships.The Peanut Butter and Rail Jam is Volcom’s amateur snowboard contest series. The goal of the series is to give something back to the kids. (Beware of copies out there, this is the original!) Deviating from the established way of running snowboard contests, we came up with a fresh format. Instead of having three rails in a row, we put them side-by-side to create a rail zone. This boosts the energy level and fun nature of the contest because everyone is together, riding, hiking, and watching in a big group.

There are 4 divisions: Girls, 15 & under, 16 & over and Open. Winners from every division go home with loads of prizes while the Open division winners receive prizes as well as cold hard cash. The contest runs in a jam format so there are no scheduled runs. You can hit each of the rails as many times as you want during your 20-minute heat. Judges only score tricks you land, so you don’t need to worry about falling. The event is absolutely free to enter, on a first come first served basis, and boasts tons of free prizes, free drinks, free food and Peanut Butter & Jam sandwiches! Also, Everyone who enters walks away with some prizes!

Seppe Smits took top honours for the third year running at the Spring Battle in Flachau. For those of you who didn’t tune in on Friday night to the webcast from Flachau’s Spring Battle, you missed out on all kinds of shenanigans. For a start, snowboard raps. Yes, you heard it right, a bunch of white dudes rhyming about riding. Incredibly relevant, clearly. In between video judging of the riders’ best runs. It was like a pilot episode of X Factor meets snowboarding, the rappers providing the cringe and Henry Jackson as Ant, Dec, and Dermot too. Everybody there was sufficiently inebriated so as not to notice or care though, and one by one the riders would be up on stage to, umm, well they might as well talk about their tricks and plead a bit with the judges. Long legged ladies kept the ever changing leader in the big throne in the corner refreshed, and left us feeling like we at home were about to miss out on a suitably shambolic party that was slowly snowballing along, rappers and all. Smits trumped Carlos Gebber with a backside double 10 nosegrab, no mean feat given the variable light and the falling snow. Since this was the first 5* event of the new season, Smits will be returning to Belgium with 17 grand and a fistful of 850 World Snowboard Tour points for the new year.

Here’s what the organisers had to say about it:

Anne-Flore Marxer just got hooked up with APO and will be riding their MTD board from now on. X Games medallist Spencer O’Brien is also in their team and they’ve got a whacking great 4 girls boards in next year’s line. AFM has fingers in just about every snowboarding pie from comps to big booters in the soft stuff, and whenever she pops up on the youtube she’s having a laugh. She’s downright rad at sliding down mountains, and not even ‘for a girl’ rad, just plain rad. Plus, she has the industry standard 3 letter name, she’ll go far for sure. Big up yourself AFM.

Here’s what APO and AFM herself said about the move:

‘‘I’m glad to announce that I just signed with Apo!  I most definitely LOVE my new board! Super playful, light under the feet, mad pop, double rocker and super easy in pow but still awesome for freestyle moves!  It’s been a while since I had such a fun toy under my feet!  The team is full of really fun shredders who I have tons of respect for and love to hang with! The Apo office is right around the corner and I LOVED our very first meeting which was supposed to happen in the office and ended up as a big half day of pow shred before everyone went back to work!  40cm and blue sky, what else for a great start!?!

Blimey, its only a month until Kaunertal’s Spring Classics gets underway. The weather has been a bit menstrual these last few weeks, chopping and changing it’s mind as and when it fancies and there’s just no reasoning with it. By mid February we were rolling around with half a tan on our faces and skipping through puddles on the way home from the hill, and now that it’s march we’re back to extra layers and down jackets. Huh, whatsupwiththat? If it weren’t for the afternoons getting longer, anyone could forgive us for wondering had we accidentally skipped a page on our calendars. And then along comes good old Kaunertal to remind us that spring first brings slushy park laps and before anyone worries about the end. Fear not, you gloves will soon have that familiar suncreamy barbecue stench we all know and love, until it festers in your board bag all summer long and won’t wash out in October. Here’s what Kaunertal’s got in store this time around:

From 13 April to 20 May 2013 the Snowpark Kaunertal opens its doors for the Spring Classics 2013. Over this period of five weeks the Spring Classics offer a top snow park and various funny events. Better be there!

You are up for varied creative lines, smooth obstacle landings and lots of sunshine? The Spring Classics are just around the corner. From 13 April 2013 to Whitmonday 20 May 2013 it is going to be a wild one at the Kaunertal Glacier. The snow park still offers a two pro kicker line, two medium kickers and 21 jib obstacles in total. Over five weeks the crew daily shapes and regularly rebuilds the park setup. Brand new at the Snowpark Kaunertal – from now on the whole park area owns free WiFi.

This springtime several events take place at the Kaunertal Glacier. The Spring Classics 2013 program:

The Euro X Games will descend on Tignes, France once again from March 20-22, and Skullcandy will be in charge of getting your booty shaking. Check out how they’ll be taking over the sound…

Skullcandy’s vision and identity was born on snowy chairlifts and is proud to return to support the world’s best freestylers at this year’s European Winter X Games.

Skullcandy will showcase the best music the continent has to offer, bringing the coolest acts to the X Stage, Skullcandy tent in the X village and all X games after parties, including the opening night of the Backyard sessions.

Highlights from the Skullcandy sponsored X Stage include: • 20th March 17.45. X Stage // LEMAITRE Norwegian indie-electronic duo Lemaitre, whose current single Continuum was recently premiered on BBC Radio 1 as Zane Lowe’s Next Hype track. https://soundcloud.com/serious-url

• 21st March 17.45. X Stage // URBAN CONE Swedish electro pop heroes Urban Cone, hyped by key taste-maker blogs such as The Burning Ear and EarMilk. https://soundcloud.com/urbancone

• 22nd March 17.45. X Stage // CLUB CHEVAL French House/ Techno pioneers Club Cheval, who have remixed the likes of Nero, Rihanna and Vitalic as well as dropping mixtapes for Mishka, Triple J (AUS) and Radio 1’s Rob Da Bank. https:// soundcloud.com/canblaster

Skullcandy will be programming the best X Games after parties in the 3 Valleys at Blue Girl and the Opening Night of the Backyard Music Sessions at Club Le Melting.

• 20th – 22nd March. X Games After Party at Blue Girl // DJ BLACKKENPOUPERZ, DJ SHARKY AND GLEN (20th & 21st), CLUB CHEVAL (22nd). Allow Skullcandy to warm up those frozen toes and bruised elbows at Blue Girl with the best Electro, Grime, House and Techno vibes till late.

• 20th March. Club Le Melting // ONRA. Expect the usual mayhem as Skullcandy takes over Club Le Melting for the opening night of the Backyard Music Sessions, featuring beatmaker extraordinaire and previous Skullcandy collaborator Onra (All City / Fools Gold).

Remember to check www.skullcandy.com on 22nd, 23rd and 24th March for daily episodes of behind the scenes action, interviews and all the madness from the Skullcandy X Games after parties. Also be sure to drop in to the Skullcandy Marquee to session the latest Skullcandy products, meet Skullcandy athletes, musicians and DJ’s and hang with the crew.

Check out the full European Winter X Games event programme here: www.xgames-tignes.com/index.php/fr/programme

Follow Skullcandy on Instagram: www.instagram.com/skullcandy_europe and Twitter: @skullcandy_eu

Hochkönig Style ChampionJIB´s took place over the weekend despite terrible visibility. Rails replaced kickers so that people could see what they were up to, where Clemens Millauer took top honours for the lads, and Lisa Veith shared the girls’ win with Kathrin Gappmayer. Here’s the organisers’ wrapup of what went down.

Jib ahoy at Blue Tomato Kings Park Hochkönig on March 9th 2013. Due to a break
in the weather, we saw sick rail action instead of massive airtime. Numerous
riders defied the conditions and showed us exciting battles on the rail-line.
Weather doesn´t matter – the participants of the Hochkönig Style Championships agreed
with this motto. In order to run a fair contest for everyone without risking injuries, the
decision was made to switch the contest setup from the kicker-line to the jib-line in the
upper park section.
No sooner said than done: the riders repaid the spectators with spectacular tricks on an 8m
downrail, an 8m straightrail and an 8m riffelpipe. Speaker Felix Prankl and the Red Bull
Brandtruck took care of mellow beats and top-notch entertainment in the chill area. Kathrin
Gappmayer, winner in the snowboard girl’s category on the contest: “I was actually
practicing and looking forward to the kickers of the Blue Tomato Kings Park Hochkönig, but
it was the best decision to run the contest on the jib line. And in the end, it was still enough
to take home the victory!”
In the snowboard men category, it was Austrian rider Clemens Millauer who showed the
best jib performance with a 270 on – 270 off on the downrail and a Cab 180 – 50-50 – 360 off
at the straightrail, and therefore took first place. His compatriots Michl Graf and Fabian
Wolfsgruber came in second and third. Young blood snowboarder Felix Reicher, also
from Austria, was able to impress the judges the most with his run. Maximilian Deutinger
and Moritz Kaufmann took second and third place.
By showing the same performance, both Kathrin Gappmayer and Lisa Veith were
crowned champions in the snowboard girls’ ranking ahead of Sabina Pintar who came in
third. “Without any pre-arrangements, we both did the same tricks in our runs, thus I am
really stoked to share the first place with Lisa,” Kathrin Gappmayer said. 

Prepare yourself for a lot of shred action and also some crazy night parties at the X Games with this pretty amazing line up in the famous Melting Club! Here’s a little recap on what’s going to go down in Tignes:

Wednesday 20th March 2013:

- 10:30 am – noon: Men’s Ski Slopestyle eliminations
- 1:00 – 2:15 pm: Women’s Ski Slopestyle final
- 6:30 – 8 pm: Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe eliminations
- 8:30 -9:45 pm: Women’s Snowboard SuperPipe final

Backyard Music Sessions Opening Night:

TEKI LATEX

ONRA

ANORAAK (DJ SET)

NICOLAS MALINOWSKI

Thursday, 21st March 2013:

- 10:30 am – noon: Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle eliminations
- 1:00 – 2:15 pm: Men’s Ski Slopestyle final
- 6:30 – 7:45 pm: Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe final
- 8:30 – 10 pm: Men’s Ski Ski SuperPipe eliminations

Backyard Music Sessions Hip-Hop Night:

DJ BABU & RAKAA: EXPANSION TEAM SOUNDSYSTEM

DJ SUPA!

DJ PACE

Friday, 22nd March 2013:

- 10:30 am – noon: Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle final
- 1:00 – 2:15 pm: Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle final
- 6:30 – 7:45: Men’s Ski SuperPipe final
- 8:30 – 9:45 pm: Women’s Ski SuperPipe final

Backyard Music Sessions Closing Night:

DVNO

BOSTON RUN

PARADE

VANITÉS

Don’t forget to like the Backyard Music Session’s Facebook page to know everything about the shows and watch the teaser.