Shhh... here's a glimpse of Christie Shinn's winning design. As it'll be a part of Dragon's 2012 line we're obliged to keep it hush hush, but here's a teaser.

It sure took a while, but we’re stoked to announce Christie Shinn as the winner of the Onboard/Dragon Design Contest 2011.

Suuuuper sorry this took so long to get out there – there was a bunch of mumbo jumbo to sort out between the winner and the Dragon guys – but we’re pumped we can now let the world know that Canadian Christie Shinn is the winner of the 3rd Onboard/ Dragon Design contest. There were some killer entries this year so thanks to all who entered for making the decision so tough. Check out some of the bangers that ran Christie’s effort close at the bottom of the page.

The Dragon crew dug Christie’s design so much that as well as making her her own goggles they’re also incorporating it into their 2012 line, so they’re keen to keep the full design hush hush. We managed to convince them to let us give you a teaser but you’ll have to wait till next year to see it in all its colourful, fishy glory.

We hit up Christie to find out more about the girl behind the lens…

Age: 30… which I’m told is ‘old as dirt’.

Hometown: Toronto, Canada.

Home mountain: Blue Mountain, Collingwood.

What’s your favourite place to ride? My favorite right now is Heavenly, Lake Tahoe. Really, though, wherever my friends are is the best place to be. They can make a jib spot in the backyard with an upside-down shopping cart as fun as fresh tracks.

How did you hear about the contest? I came across it while browsing the Onboard site.

What inspired your design? My design is equal parts rainbow trout, Salmon Dance and the 80′s Zinka colour palette.

How did you make it? I start all my designs as pencil sketches. In this case, I drew like three pages of fish to get the ones I really wanted to use. After that I inked them in black with a liner brush, then scanned and converted them into vector shapes in Illustrator. Then it was just a matter of colouring in and experimenting with placement. The most important step was getting feedback from my close friends and letting it sit for a couple days before sending it in. I ended up making some minor tweaks right at the end that made all the difference.

What was your reaction when we told you you’d won? I was up late working the night before, so I was still half asleep when I got the email. No matter how many times I read it, my brain refused to believe it. It hit me fully while I was standing at the coffee maker, my hands started shaking and my heart was thumping super hard. I skipped the coffee and phoned everyone I knew instead. It was the beginning of a really really great day.

Well, congrats once more, Christie, and we’re well looking forward to rocking your fishy Rogues on our faces.

Here’s just some of the other entries that had us pumped…

Jan Krahnert-Luzar

Patrick Tuoti

Jimmy Browning

Mikhail Kiryanov

In our latest report from ISPO we get to see the Dragon dude show off two of their premier models, the all-new APX and Gigi Rüf’s signature model.

Firstly, the APX is a brand new model to Dragon’s broad stable of goggles and boast some damn fancy technology and design that we think might be unique to this pair of eye-catchers. It has what the dudes at Dragon call the Infinity lens, which in layman’s terms means the lens goes right to the edge of goggle. Say what? Yup, unlike other goggles the lens doesn’t appear to be housed in the frame. So what does this do? Well according to Dragon it gives the wearer enhanced lateral and vertical vision, which can only be a good thing on the hill. This also makes the lens more easily changeable, which is also rather useful as you will know to well having struggled in the past with gummy frames in the cold. Like other goggles in also has plenty of venting and some cushy Polar Fleece on the face foam to make that interface between man and goggle all that more comfortable. So there is the APX.

Next up is Gigi’s signature model goggle, which is basically a souped up Ranger frame with a red ionised lens, and some pretty unique styling, including the first ever customised Dragon logo, just for Gigi.

Now that rocks!

As you may have noticed from our earlier guttural post, we are deep in the bowls of the snowboard tradeshow ISPO, feasting our eyes on that latest, freshest product that the brands will be offering you up come fall. Check out some of the highlights from our first day of snooping, with the Ride, Dragon, K2, Capita, Union, Analog, APO, DC, Rome, Bataleon, Rip Curl, Volcom and more in snappycam’s eager viewfinder…

Dragon has launched its research and development facility in the remote backcountry of Silverton, Southern Colorado, to coincide with the launch of the revolutionary new APX goggle. And Dragon Europe have got on the Facebook train too.

Sitting at an altitude of over 12,000 feet and dubbed the APX cabin, the facility was designed to test the new goggle in the most extreme conditions by Dragon’s Pro Team, product designers and key retailers.

True to its name, the APX is Dragon’s most advanced goggle masterpiece yet. It features Super Anti-Fog, Triple-Layer Polar-Tech Face Foam, Armored-Venting and Infinity Lens Technology, resulting in a unmatched peripheral vision, comfortable, fogless goggle.

The Infinity Lens design means the goggle is completely frameless offering the most amount of vision, with the least amount of bulk. Dragon’s new design for Armored Venting on the top of the goggle creates a funnel for water to move (rather than absorbed by foam like other goggles). A triple layer of Polar-Tech fleece around your face means the APX is Dragon’s most comfortable goggle to date and if you don’t know what Super Anti-Fog technology is by now, you have been living in a world of foggy lenses.

In other Dragon news, us Euros will be happy to learn Dragon Europe are now making mischief on Facebook. They’ve got some Gigi goggles up for grabs till today and will have all the Eurocentric Dragon chatter you’re after so head over and ‘Like’ their asses.

As part of growth in the European Market, Dragon has announced the signing of three snowboarders to its Pan-European Team.

Tore Holvik, Gerome Mathieu and Luka Jeromel make-up the Pan Euro team bringing a range of skills and backgrounds to Dragon’s squad of athlete’s including Gigi Ruf, Danny Davis, Wolle Nyvelt, Luke Mitrani and Lucas Debari.

Coming out of Norway, Tore is consistently ranking highly in TTR events and took home first place at the recent Sweet Rumble event in Norway and is working with Process films.

French Pyrenees legend, Gerome Mathieu has risen to the top of the Euro snowboard scene over the past couple of years. With a banger part in the Pirate’s movie, Hooked, pro models with both Apo and Deeluxe and being part of the Nike 6.0 Euro team, Gerome has cemented his place as one of the top French riders. Gerome’s season got off to a great start with a first place finish at the Modena 4 star TTR “Stomp It” event in Italy.

Luka Jeromel is the youngest of our athletes. At just 19 years old, this Slovenian shredder is already on the Forum Youngblood team and is quickly being recognised by the media as a new rising talent within snowboarding. Luka is a versatile rider who shreds urban rails, back country kickers and everything in between. He recently won the first stop of the Peanut Butter Rail Jam in Laax, beating 70 other young shreds.

For all the news on Dragon’s Euro Squad check:

Our facebook:
www.facebook.com/DragonEurope

And our blog:
dragonalliance-europe.blogspot.com

Photo: Lorenz Holder/Dragon

Strauss to rock Dragon gogs & shade from here on in.

Young german ripper Tobi Strauss, who you’ll no doubt have seen tearing it up in IsenSeven‘s films or confusing the hell out of you with his twin brother Fips at parties, has just joined the Dragon Alliance family.

Tobi was pumped: “I am stoked on the image of Dragon and the products and happy to represent this company in the future!” Perhaps as surprising as discovering the Pope’s religious orientation, that, but there you go. Look out for the young scamp having at it in IsenSeven’s latest release, Don’t Panic, dropping this fall.

dragonalliance.com

They came, they shredded, they partied. For the six winners of Dragon’s Mystery Tour Web Game, one week in Whistler with legendary snowboarder Gigi Ruf has been nothing short of life changing.

Shannon Rosser (Canada), Chad Payne (USA), Trym Haatuft (Norway) Sebestian Reategui (Peru) Jason Shepard (New Zealand) and Ben Griffiths (Australia) beat over 19,000 users worldwide to win the trip to Whistler by logging on and playing Dragon’s now infamous Web Game.

For the eight weeks the competition ran users all over the world virtually snowboarded and free skied, with Gigi Rüf and TJ Schiller, earning points for tricks and maneuvers executed. For the winners, all of the hard work was worth it even though TJ Schiller missed the trip after a recent Volcano eruption in Iceland left him stranded in Sweden. TJ, who was in Sweden competing at the Jon Ollson Super Session, which his team went on to win had already heard stories about the winner’s antics with Gigi. “I was so bummed I missed it,” TJ said. “I’ve seen pics, they looked like they had a wild time.”

Trym Haatuft’s ( Norway) trip to Whistler also looked in jeopardy earlier in the week, but luckily he managed to get on one of the few planes leaving Europe. “I was freaked out that I would miss the whole thing, I was really happy when I got the word from the airline that I could go, it was the best day ever,” Trym said. “It was a roller coaster of emotions.”

For Australia and New Zealand winners Ben Grifiths and Jason Shepard, Whistler was a surreal experience. “I had heard about Whistler but to actually be there and to party the way we did, it was crazy,” said Jason. “I’ve never experienced anything like it”. “Gigi was so cool, he partied harder than anyone,” said Ben, “Snowboarding with him during the day was a dream come true.” Shannon said, leaving Whistler has been difficult for her. “Normal life sucks! I miss shredding and partying with the craziest crew of people from all over the world that share the same love of shredding.” “Thanks to Dragon for the amazing trip.”

Chad’s said, “His first trip out of America had been beyond what he could have imagined.”
“Holly sh*t last week I didn’t even have a passport. Then one week later I am hanging with Gigi in Whistler, getting f’d- up. Rad. So rad.” Sebastian was also awestruck by the experience. “Whistler is so beautiful, I love having the opportunity to meet the people from all over the world especially Gigi.” “It was also pretty cool being followed around by a filmer all the time, I can wait to see the movie.”

Dragon’s Snow Marketing Manager, Alex Pashley had this to say, ”I felt lucky to get out of there alive.” “We thought we would shred and then have a few drinks at night, but these kids took it to another level.” Dragon International Director, JC Clenet is pleased to see a growing success of the DMT webgame concept, adding more and more players from all other the world. In 2009, the DMT web game was a surf contest inviting 5 winners from around the world to spend a week in Southern California with pro surf legend Rob Machado.

DMT winners riding BC with Gigi

Last winter, Dragon held an online webgame contest where you guys could pilot a robo-Gigi over virtual terrain. The winners were rewarded with a trip to BC to ride with Gigi Rüf in the real world and have a chance to see what life is like for one of the hardest working, most talented riders in the game. This summer, Dragon will be releasing a movie of the Dragon Mystery Tour to show what the rest of you missed out on…

The news you have been waiting for.

With only 7 days left in the competition, Dragon has announced that the winner of the DMT Webgame – the online virtual snowboard game – will be heading to Whistler, B.C. to spend 5 days with Gigi Rüf. Not bad for a bit of office timewasting

Whistler, the home of 17 alpine bowls, 200+ trails and 8,171 acres of shredable terrain is also hosting the annual Ski and Snowboard Festival where you will be a VIP guest from April 20th-25th 2010, shredding the gnar during the day and making mischief in all of the parties at night.

Jump over to dragonalliance.com/dmtwebgame to get your virtual shred on with Gigi and should you score high enough you’ll be in with a chance to win. Trying to get those double corks on lock is pretty tricky though…Don’t be selfish, invite your friends and make sure you play all of the games for the best chance of winning!

Score the most points and you could be one of six winners from around the world shredding with the pros in Whistler this April.

Competition closes April 4th.

Play the game…. win the experience. It’s that easy.

Reckon you can do better than any of these?

If you’re a creative type and fancy winning yourself a pair of Dragon Rogues with your own design on you’ve only got until March 19 2010 to submit your entries.

Below you can check out but a fraction of the designs that have come in so far, so if you think you’ve got what it takes, check out all the details HERE or just download the files below and get on it. Email your designs to thecrew@onboardmag.com with the subject: Dragon Design Comp.

[Download the Rogue blank template HERE]

[Download the Onboard logo HERE]

David Olsson.

Vasco Borges.

Tamara Magitteri

Patrick Tuoti.

Oriol Sanchez Castello.

Dima Shapiro.

Clemens Rothvauer.