The finals of the inaugural Ästhetiker Winter MÄSH lit up the Saalbach-Hinterglemm Nightpark last friday night, and now you can check the highlights of the teames that rocked out despite the heavy snow. Banging event, banging riding, banging Gang Bäng doubles format. Nice work Ä team…

These boys sure know how to put on a gig that’s ‘for us, by us’, and the riders were stoked. “It was super fun to ride, like normally riding with your friends – following each other – so it was one of the best contests I’ve ever been to,” said a Finnish-pumped Janne Lipsanen. You can read our recap of the Winter MÄSH finals, and the qualifiers too for that matter.  Thanks to all involved for an epic contest and goodtime vibe.

Nejc Puco, Max Weickl, Clemens Schattschneider, Matevz Pristavec, Dominik Wagner, Robert Wallner, Patrick Pitter, Anja Stefan, Jan Necas, Erik Harc, iga Rakovec, Andrej Marincic, Herby Thaler, and Marko Grilc.

You are tired of your FS 180s off straightrails? Step your game up! Blue Tomato teamrider Clemens Schattschneider shows you how to do FS 360s out of a donkey rail!
Watch the video and try it on the mountain!

Follow them on: Instagram @random_bastards blog.randombastards.com facebook.com/randombastards.tv!

The new Teammovie from the austrian label LOVE. Featuring: Marc Swoboda, Seppi Scholler, Markus Keller, Dominik Wagner, Gulli Gudmunddson, Kurt Rubik, Senad Grosic, Thomas Feurstein, Clemens Schattschneider and Matevz Pristavec.

This is Clemens Schattschneider’s full part from Bamboo Motion Pictures’ “Good Times Rollin.” This young Austrian is at home on rails and in the park, and he’s quite good at it.

Watch out for the release of Random Bastards’ new film “Blue Balls” September 2012, another crew he is filming with.

Seppe Smits, photo: Markus Deutinger

From March 28^th to 31^st, the Quiksilver Spring Battle celebrated its 10^th Anniversary at Absolut Park Flachauwinkl in Austria. For the very first 5Star TTR Event of the TTR World Snowboard Tour 2012/2013 some of the world´s best snowboarders travelled to Absolut Park Flachauwinkl to go for the heavy total prize purse of 50.000 US Dollar and up to 850 points for the TTR Big Air Tour Ranking 2012/2013. For the second time in a row, previous year´s winner Seppe Smits from Belgium took first place on the podium. Finnish rider Nuutti Niemelä became second before the American Eric Willett. Clemens Schattschneider was the best Austrian rider who made it up to the 5^th place.

Jan Necas

For ten years the Quiksilver Spring Battle has made a reputation as one of the most popular snowboarding events in Europe. An accomplished combination of the premium setup at the perfectly shaped Absolut Park with an innovative video judging system has been thrilling riders and spectators at this year´s 5 Star TTR Big Air snowboard competition. In the Qualification round on Thursday, all riders were showing off on the perfectly shaped 22 metre Big Air kicker, even if the weather conditions were getting worse due to strong winds. With the actual start list it was hardly surprising that double corks and 1260´s have been stomped even in the first round. The best ten competitors advanced to the subsequent Semi Finals. Together with ten invited riders out of the TTR Top 10 World Tour Ranking, they kept on pushing it to the limits, ignoring the upcoming storm in the Semis. The Finals were supposed to go down on Friday, 31^st of March but had to be in the true sense of the word blown off in last-minute. The ten best Semi Finalists were automatically nominated for the final Video Judging on Friday Night. They had the opportunity to pick their favorite run for the Video Juding, which was conducted on a video screen from different viewing angles.

Skate action. Photo: Markus Rohrbacher

International Podium and local Superstars in the top 10

Again, previous year´s winner Seppe Smits could not be beaten. Despite tough conditions due to strong winds, the Belgian convinced the judges and audience stomping a clean Cab 1260 Mute Grab over the Big Air kicker. Seppe won the Quiksilver Spring Battle for the second time in a row. Beside honour and glory, he took home 15.000 Euro prize money and 850 TTR points counting towards the 2012/2013 season. Nuutti Niemelä from Finnland was close on his heels and became second with the same trick, a Cab 1260 Mute Grab for which he was rewarded with 9.000 Euros. The American Eric Willett took 3rd place on the podium with his Frontside Doublecork 1080 Mute Grab, that brought him in 5.000 Euros of prize money. Finnish rider Ville Paumola missed the podium, but raked in 2.000 Euros for the 4^th place. Clemens Schattschneider was the best Austrian rider in the final round, reaching 5^th position. He took home 1.500 Euros as well as Markku Koski from Finland for his 6^th rank.

Another Austrian snowboarder, Michael Macho, became 7^th before Max Buri (SUI), Jan Necas (CZE) and Sven Thorgren SWE). They all got rewarded with 1.000 Euros each for their spot in the Top ten of the Quiksilver Spring Battle 2012.

After the prize giving, FM4/Texta DJ Dan took the tiller for the FM4 Club Aftershow-Party at  the ceremonial hall of Flachau. Riders and party people celebrated the 10th Spring Battle Anniversary properly until the break of dawn.

The prizegiving.

Several winners and three awards at the Skateboarding „Cash for Trick“ Sessions

On Wednesday, 28^th of March 2012, the Quiksilver Spring Battle 2012 showcased finest transition skateboarding at the Chillhouse on 1600 metres above sea level. 26 skateboarders from all over Europe were sending it for the Skate Jam. Most of the time up to five guys rode the miniramp coincidentally, intending to grab for some notes out of the 1500 Euros total prize pot. There were many winners but Andy Scott, Philipp Schuster and Dustin Vonach took home the awards for as “most impressive riders” of the day.

Asymbol Art Show of the Art Of Flight collection

Snowboarding legend Travis Rice and renowned artist Mike Parillo brought their Asymbol Art Show with the Art Of Flight collection for the Quiksilver Spring Battle to Flachauwinkl.

Riders' Night.

Ten years of Spring Battle – a flashback

The very first Spring Battle was taking place in 2003. The Aesthetiker Andreas “Mone” Monsberger took home the glorious trophy. In 2004, it was the Slovenian snowboard star Marko Grilc who won the Spring Battle, before Steve Gruber, another legend rider of the Aesthetiker crew, took over the lead in 2005. The following two years were under the sign of the scandinavians: Sweden´s Martin Sandberg won in 2006 and Ville Uotila from Finland was on top of the podium in 2007. The German “Pirate” Lars Oesterle claimed victory in 2008 and Jakko Ruha took back home all honour to Finland in 2009. Swedish young gun Kevin Backstroem won the competition in 2010, before the Belgian super talent Seppe Smits wrapped up the Quiksilver Spring Battle successfully in 2011.

All infos and rider profiles on:

www.ttrworldtour.com und www.snowboardingresults.com.

All infos on the Quiksilver Spring Battle:

www.absolutpark.com

www.facebook.com/quiksilverspringbattle

www.quiksilver-europe.com

Our buds over at Ride Snowboards have made some tweaks to their team – bumping a couple of dudes up to pro status and recruiting new Rookies – and launched a new Team microsite where you can keep up with their haps. Read more…

Following the launch of its 2012 product offering and website, Ride Snowboards is amped to announce some big changes to the pro team. Ride favorites including Sebastien Toutant, Mikey Leblanc, Jake Blauvelt, Hana Beaman, Juuso Laivisto, Marco Feichtner and Darrell Mathes will now make room for Alex Cantin and Austin Hironaka, both of whom have paid some serious dues in the Ride lineup over past seasons.

Joining Ride’s Rookie pro team will be Dani Raycsani from Germany along with Clemens Schattschneider and Sebi Geiger of Austria, who bring the latest style and progression out of Europe to the global stage and are making all the right moves to motivate the next level of snowboarding. The fresh-faced additions to the international team are wonder boys Yuki Kadono of Japan and Seamus O’Conner who splits his talents between Ireland and the USA. These youngsters caught up with professional snowboarding by the age of 13 and have no signs of slowing down. They are without a doubt the future of riding.

Ride’s Team section hosts complete coverage of International, Rookie, and regional riders from North America, Europe and Japan – Riders like Silvia Mittermüller whose unmatched technical stylings have been crushing the women’s contest circuit for years, Japanese legends Aki Hiraoka and Takashi Nishida, along with everyone’s favorite Canadian stunt/comedian Andrew Hardingham.

Building off of the record snow season that lasted until the summer months, Ride has geared up for the best year in snowboarding history with a product and team line-up that promises to deliver temptation until the season begins and carry you through the last lift in the spring. To follow along with the team, go to ridesnowboards.com/riders today.

Good Times Rollin’ is the upcoming new snowboard movie from the Bamboo Motion Pictures crew out of Eastern Austria. It has Marc Swoboda in it, so we’re pretty sure you’re going to watch it.

Featured riders: Clemens Schattschneider, Gerald Fuchs, Dominik Weghaupt, Matthias Gober, Marc Swoboda, Rudi Janda, Dominik Wagner, Robert Wallner, Seppi Ischepp, Jasmin Reicher, Karl Terzer, and many more.