The what-went-down at the recent Chamrousse crew battle.

This years’ Intercrew was all about the magazines. Every mag in Europe – almost – sent their riders to fight over the terrain in the epic Sunset Park of Chamrousse. 4 days of stellar riding, but sadly less than epic weather, confirmed that Bruno Rivoire and his crew certainly know how to put a banging event together. As for the crews, we had: Entry (Italy), Snowboarder MBM (Germany), SCS (Belgium), Whiteout (Swiss) Snowtime (Fr), Snowsurf-SKG (Fr), Fluofun (Fr and current champs), Opium (Fr) and of course Onboard. On top of this we had a couple of riders crew, the local Atom crew, Les Deux Alpes Bouchkail crew, and finally the new comers called.. The New Comers.

The usually well named Sunset crew didn’t see much sun on this edition unfortunately, which kinda put an end to the hopes of all the filmers and shooter desperate to get the infamous sunset shot from Chamrousse. But despite the difficult conditions, the organisers once again created yet another sick set up with multiple possibilities, that were shredded to the pieces by every man and his dog. The foggy weather left only the bottom section of the park visible to the judges and photographers where the big hip was the focus point for all the french craziness. Enzo Nilo didn’t hesitate on his double bs rodeos, even though a hand was always dragging him along, and what can we say about Bruno Rivoire… he showed everyone what ‘home turf advantage’ really means.

The jib session was up next with the Vans best trick on a flat down rail. Manu Gomez showed his deep wizard’s sleeve with combos like nollie backside hardway switch backside out, for example… just before the big injury of the day – a little big up for Martin Beauchaton, who had to leave in the heli…

The final day started with a super hard wake up call for most of us after a very heavy night – what else would you expect from the Intercrew? – and the clocks going forward to summertime didn’t help the mind to see clearer. The very bright morning definitely gave an advantage to the Belgian crew – did they drink less than the others the night before? – as they were just slaying the big table time after time.

After that the only thing left was the big mystery of this 2010 edition: the 400m freestyle – as written on the program… Nobody knew what to expect, until Opium laid down the rules and every fall punished by the riders having to take a chug of booze. The bottles of Chartreuse went down pretty fast on that pace, and in no time even the mandatory (mandatory!) backscratchers were hard to perform on the quirky slopestyle in the woods.

When all was said and done, it was once again the Fluofun crew aka A Branler – which I won’t translate here – that won the trophy for the second time running, in front of the solid and fighting Bouchkail crew.

Thanks to Bruno and his crew (Cocote, Ludo, Manu…) and the Chamrousse resort for putting on one of the funnest events on the continent. Thanks to Matt G and Onboard for the opportunity, Onboard did represent well even though we didn’t beat our last year’s third place… it was worth my 25H in the car. See ya all!

- Words and photos: Germain Ozer

Where: Chamrousse, France

The infamous Intercrew of Chamrousse, France, is starting tomorow 25th of March, and this 7th edition is set to propose 4 days of shredding and parties in an ecological and friendly approach. The contest? Jam sessions on the more than creative slopestyle of the Sunset park, and a pretty big list of crews, mainly formed around magazines and snowboard websites from all over Europe.

The media crews: SCC from Belgium, MBM from Germany, Entry from Italy, White Room from Bulgaria, Surfer Rule from Spain, Fluofun – the defending champions, Snowsurf, Opium and Snowtime from France, and of course Onboard, who will try to be even stronger than last year (3rd in the 2009 edition). There will be also some regular snowbarders crew: Bouchkail, Audience 33, Dare To Live, and obviously the local and organisers crew, Atmo (Bruno Rivoire and his tough men).

The Sunset Park, Chamrousse.

New this year will be the ‘Vans Best Trick‘ session, the Harakiri party, and the highly mysterious ‘Opium 400m freestyle‘. In short, everything but your regular snowboard contest. Go there my friend, go support Onboard! And check the full program on the Intercrew website. And of course check back in here for the report!

The X-Games drops in on Europe – Tignes, France to be specific – on March 10-12 2010 and construction’s already underway.

The slopestyle and pipe will be held in Val Claret, by the Les Lanches lift for those who know the hood, and as you can see they’re already digging the ditch and building what looks like a mini Oktoberfest tent on site.

Admission to check the action will be free and as for what goes down when… here ya go:

We’ve also got the latest invited riders list, with more names to be added over the coming weeks. We just heard a rumour that our boy Tyler Chorlton has just unwrapped a candy bar and found himself a golden ticket to the slopestyle too (that’s how they do it, right?), so things look to be shaping up nicely…

Snowboard Slopestyle – Men

Mikkel Bang, Norway
Mathieu Crepel, France
Chas Guldemond, USA
Travis Rice, USA
Andreas Wiig, Norway

Snowboard Slopestyle – Women

Jamie Anderson, USA
Jenny Jones, USA
Cheryl Maas, Netherlands
Kjersti Oestgaard Buaas, Norway
Sarka Pancochova, Czech Republic

Snowboard SuperPipe – Men

Mathieu Crepel, France
Scotty Lago, USA
Iouri Podladtchikov, Switzerland
JJ Thomas, USA
Louie Vito, USA

Snowboard SuperPipe – Women

Gretchen Bleiler, USA
Torah Bright, Australia
Kelly Clark, USA

Cafe, mec?

X-Games Europe will hit Tignes from March 10-12 2010, and now you’ve got the chance to bag yourself two VIP tickets.

Now that the Olympic snowboarding has come and gone, the next major contest on the horizon looms. The Winter X-Games has been the vehicle by which the average joe has snowboarding dropped in their living room in the US for many a year and now they’re bringing the circus to Europe.

The latest X-Games in the US was off the frickin’ meat hook (check out all the X-Games highlights) and we’re expecting more sickness when they roll into Tignes. And now you have the chance to be amongst it, VIP style. Just remember to chuck us a bottle of Cristal over the fence when you see us.

For full details, head over to MPORA X-Games page and join the community. There’s other stuff to be won too, like iPods, backpacks and more…

Now that the Oxbow Back To Powder 2010 is wrapped up and we have the videos of the jazz, here’s what went down over the five days  in Areches-Beaufort, France.

The idea of Oxbow’s Back To Powder event is a straightforward one, albeit with the übermotivational prize of a trip to Hawaii at stake. Two of Oxbow’s premier riders, Christoph Weber and skier Lolo Favre, were allowed to invite six riders each to head to the small but epic terrain of Areches-Beaufort in France to battle it out on the steeps, put it down on backcountry kickers and get their jib on in the wood zone. With a fresh dump just before the event began and renowned shaping crew hO5 in charge of features, it was bound to be legit.

For the snowboarders, Weber had recruited German buddy and snowboard innovator David Benedek, Norwegian styler Fredrik Evensen, and Frenchies David Livet, Alicia Bonnaud, Thomas Delfino and Valerian Ducourtil. Each night the crew would meet to discuss forecasts, safety and to review the day’s footage with two guys to be awarded with ‘Lines of the Day’. Here’s the haps in words and video, and a gallery of shots at the bottom…

Day 1

More Snowboarding >>

Day 1 was Freeride day with all the riders heading up to Les Tetes Rouges (which sounds suspiciously like a Frenchie nickname for the English) to rip the smoothest lines they could and mix in some creativity on the ride down. Unfortunately the afternoon’s plan of hitting the backcountry kickers had to be postponed as the big wedges were buried by the recent snowfall but a team effort saw them dug out in, well not quite no time but they were ready to be sessioned later in the week.

Day 2

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The second day saw the riders take it to the jibs with some feeling the effects of a few too many Genepis from the night before. There’s no better way to blow away the cobwebs than getting the shred on, though, so before long everyone was taking on the wood zone with Fredrik Evensen and Valerian Ducourtil standing out.

Day 3

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The third day was set aside for the highly anticipated Perfect Jump day. The 21-metre rounded shaped tabletop built by hO5 didn’t seem to cause many problems to David Livet and Fredrik Evensen, despite the long airtime and the high speed required on the in-run. Thanks to the soft landing created by the perfect shape of the jump, some solid riding went down.

Day 4

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Day 4 involved a short hike in the beautiful surroundings of Areches. When they got to the drop in zone, riders faces were split into grins that would have the Cheshire cat envious: the riding area had 6 kickers in a row on the same backountry slope, radness. An epic end to a killer week of rider-focussed competition and fun.

Day 5

More Snowboarding >>

The last day was the rider’s vote day, to determine who ripped the hardest. And coming out top was…. Fredrik Evensen who got voted by his peers as the standout rider of the contest and will accompany skier Arnaud Rougier to a trip to Hawaii, surfing with all the Oxbow surf team.

See you next year for the BTP 2011.

Gallery

All Photos: Elina Sirparanta/Oxbow
d1OxbowBackToPowder_06_ElinaS d1OxbowBackToPowder_14_ElinaS d1OxbowBackToPowder_ChrisWeber_01_ElinaS d1OxbowBackToPowder_DavidLivet_01_ElinaS d2OxbowBackToPowder_DavidBenedek_02_ElinaS_lowres d2OxbowBackToPowder_DavidLivet_03_ElinaS_lowres d3OxbowBackToPowder_ChrisWeber_03_ElinaS_lowres d3OxbowBackToPowder_DavidLivet_05_ElinaS_lowres d3OxbowBackToPowder_FredrikEvensen_04_ElinaS_lowres d3OxbowBackToPowder_ValerianDucourtil_03_ElinaS_lowres d4OxbowBackToPowder_24_ElinaS_lowres d4OxbowBackToPowder_25_ElinaS_lowres d4OxbowBackToPowder_26_ElinaS_lowres d4OxbowBackToPowder_ChrisWeber_04_ElinaS_lowres d4OxbowBackToPowder_DavidLivet_07_ElinaS_lowres d5winnersOxbowBackToPowder_Podium_02_ElinaS_lowres avOxbowBTP10

Our homie Bruno Rivoire just hollered at us with news of a new event coming to France next week – the Fils Routain experience…

Stéphane ‘Fils’ Routin is without a doubt the funniest rider ever, it’s not a joke at all: Vans is proud to be associated with a rider who lived the snowboard explosion back in the early nineties and who still is hard as a rock on his board.
The purpose of the ”Experience” is to gather the riders and photographers of different generations that Fils Routin has met during the last 15 years.

Join the party on January 30 to January 31 in Les Karellis in Maurienne station. Les Kardellis, a real little pearl of Maurienne, offers huge riding potential and fits perfectly with our vision of the mountain.
The program is secret, all we can tell you is that some SNOWBOARDING is gonna happen!!!
Will the 20 riders and 10 photographers invited  survive the experience? Shout out to Wise Ride, Bruno & les Karellis for the organisation.

www.vans.com

www.karellis.com