With just a few days to go before the end of the trip, the four Rip Curl riders are discovering the summits and steep slopes of Annapurna. Accompanied, as ever, by Jérôme Ruby and Stéphane Dan, Baptiste, Chris, Per and Darius are starting off cautiously as they face the natural monster that is the Himalayan range…
It’s Saturday 17th February and the Rip Curl Team are stuck in Jonsom. The guides have never seen such bad weather for the season. The heavy snowfall means that the boys are running out of time on their acclimatisation schedule… far too much time! The timing is already running three days late. However, our 4 riders refuse to be beaten. Chris and Per are helping out the army shift the snow off the runway of the small airport. They end up messing around together. As the sun falls, there is still a huge layer of ice on the runway and the doubt sets in – ‘will we be able to take off tomorrow morning?’ Maybe… whatever happens, happens.
Freestyle have announced the launch of the ‘Freestyle $100,000 Challenge’ on their all-new website. Visitors will have the opportunity to submit photos and video footage for monthly prizes and a chance to win the grand prize of $100,000.
Following the most recent snowstorm that dropped 22cm (8 inches) in 24 hours, snowfall accumulation totals at Whistler Blackcomb have reached record highs.
For snowboarders and twin-tip freeskiers alike – there’s great news – Big White Ski Resort will open TELUS Park this weekend! Flynn Seddon, TELUS Park manager, says “we’ll have an array of boxes and rails set up in all four lanes – small to XL – and as the snow falls we’ll be improving the features.” Seddon is also excited about Steve Petrie’s arrival at Big White. Petrie is one of the top pipe builders in the world and he will be at work cutting the Super Pipe for the 2007 season, as well as educating Big White’s pipe grooming staff on the finer points of pipe maintenance.
On Tour Expeditions (OTE) organizes exciting and unique adventures for young people interested in broadening their horizons. OTE chooses only the finest travel destinations and offers the most exclusive activities and creative programming.
Nine US Olympic snowboarders have been nominated for the inaugural Action Sports Awards presented by FUEL TV, U.S. Snowboarding announced yesterday. Up for nomination are silver medalists Gretchen Bleiler (Aspen, CO), Lindsey Jacobellis (Stratton, VT)) and Danny Kass (Mammoth, CA), as well as gold medalists Hannah Teter (Belmont, VT) and Shaun White (Carlsbad, CA).
The Whistler Valley Snowboard Club (WCSC) has just announced the launch of the Whistler Valley Snowboard Academy (WVSA), a new program that allows up-and-coming young snowboarders to get top snowboard training while continuing to live and study at the in-house academy.
The concept of skiing or snowboarding in the Middle Eastern seems pretty unlikely, but snowsports fans in Dubai now have access to top level snowboard training.
The 14th South African National Ski and Snowboarding Championships were staged at Tiffindell Ski Resort in the Eastern Cape, Southern Drakensberg last weekend.
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