A little over a week ago Alex Tank, with help from his homies at Head Snowboards, Arnette Eyewear and the resort of Oberjoch, laid down the fourth edition of the Head Jib Factory. 20 grade-A jibbers hit up the biggest setup the session’s ever had and the result was some steller stunt sledging. Check the edit and gallery by Flo Jäger…

Could there be a better ending for the winter season than hanging out with all your friends having a sick session, BBQ and a DJ for the perfect sound? That’s exactly what happened on April 16th and 17th at Oberjoch in Germany, where the fourth Head Jib Factory by Alex Tank & Arnette went down. 20 invited riders from all over the world came to the Allgäu to ride the brand new setup which was the biggest one the Jib Factory has seen so far.

As always, the goal was to get creative and to have as much fun as possible. To make that even easier, a new accommodation was chosen, all riders stayed in a typical Bavarian hut right next to the setup. So everybody could start and finish his session whenever he wanted and ride home on his snowboard. Some heavy tricks have been thrown down; naming them all would take way too much time, so you better check out the official Jib Factory edit.

On both days the riders played the “Game of Out” on the Arnette granite ledge. As we knew from previous years, this takes some time because almost every rider was able to do every trick – hence it was decided to turn it into a team competition. Every team had two riders and could decide by themselves who had to do the trick.

At the end only team Innsbruck (Raffael Kossmann and Tobi Hartmuth) and Team Mustachio (Eirik Nesse and Kas Lemmens) were left. After playing for more than two hours they decided for a tie and split the prize money of 500 €. Kas Lemmens was the most outstanding rider for sure, not only that he always was the first rider hitting the setup and the last one to leave, he also landed pretty much everything he tried. So it was no surprise that he was voted Best Rider Overall and cashed out 1000€ on top of the team event.

The decision for Best Trick was way harder because Eirik and Kas stomped some really hard tricks. At the end Kas Lemmens BS 270 Hardway to Fakie at the stair set got the most votes. Boom, another 500 € for Kas.

To finish things off, the Atagge Highest Ollie contest took place. Everybody could join this session, no matter if filmer, shaper, DJ… At the end the host Alex Tank himself took home the wander trophy with a winning height of 95 centimeters. We had two awesome days at Oberjoch, thanks to all people involved.

Hope to see you all again next year!

The Postland Theory crew hit up Alex Tank’s Jib Factory last week for a sick session of jibbing. Check the edit…

In a deserted south Germany, in the small town of Oberjoch, Alex Tank and Head snowboards built this private park to invite a bunch of friends from the top of the snowboard game and enjoy spring for two days and even win some money.

Riders in order of appearance: Toni Kerkelä, Dominik Wagner, David Struber, Benny Urban, Will Smith, Tobi Hartmunth, Eirik Nesse, Kas Lemmens.

A ton of more footage and also photo’s has been shot so keep your eyes out for a b-footage edit and Lenns photoreport on zeStache.

www.postlandtheory.com

Peep some more of the slush springtime jibbing that went down at this year’s Head Jib Factory, the brainchild of German ripper Alex Tank. Some goods for sure!

April 10th the Head Jib Factory 2012 by Alex Tank & Arnette went down for the third time. 20 invited riders had a good time riding the brand new setup accompanied by BBQ and sound from DJ Smart.
Enjoy the edit!

Where: Top Fucking Secret

Alex Tank, dominating his own event. Photo: Sami T

Head Snowboards deemed it about time to host another Head Jib Factory by Alex Tank & Arnette event. Once again, a select crew of some of the finest rail riders will gather in a secret location to shred the shit out of an all-new jib setup. The whole shebang goes down on 10/11 April 2012, and you could take part in it, too! How you can score one of the two wildcards? Read through the attached flyer! Oh, and we pasted last year’s video again to show you just how awesome the event is.

Do you remember Denis Leontyev’s impossible rail skills? The talented jibber from Russia is back with a nice edit from the Head Jib Factory and the DC Kirovsk Lab in Russia. 540s in… madness…

Alex Tank on a tank. Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

It was quite amazing what the shapers had built, considering there was hardly any snow left in the entire mountain range: It featured a down rail, a gas tank on a small hip including a pole jam and a wooden bank, and a straight rail to 14 steps stairset with two 9 meter down rails. The left down rail could also be ridden via a pole jam.

With everything set up and the riders already going wild on the down rail it was time for a Game of Snow. Alex Tank rolled some ‘snow dice’ that determined the tricks to be performed by each rider. Strangely enough, most of the tricks had to be approached riding switch, which showed pretty soon who got that jib game down. Or would you know how to throw down a switch FS 270 hardway to switch or switch backside lipslide pretzel, to name but two examples.

Marc Swoboda stood out the most as he had pretty much all tricks on lock and even two letters left at the end of the game. That guy is a machine, believe us! And being the nice guy he is he shared his 500 euros prize money with runner-up Toni Kerkelä from Finland. It is funny how much your style on a down rail tells about your snowboarding skills. Guys like Gerben Verweij, James Niederberger and Benny Urban were as smooth as it gets – only to fail after the umpteenth switch backside trick. And kudos to Denis Leontyev, who has those sex change swivel things on lock, a personal filmer/translator/hot girlfriend, and some custom-made gangsta pants.

The venue, the obstacles, and the riders. Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

The down rail action was followed by two sessions at the gas tank and the stairset, and a chilled bbq somewhere in between. The gap between the pole jam and  down rail was quite a challenge but, after a few tries, most of the riders took it apart. Speaker Jagge was eager to award the best tricks with some cash from his man-purse. And boy did we see some progressive riding: Benny Urban showed a backside 360 off the pole jam into a 50-50 backside 180ß out on the gas tank (which also scored him the best trick award and 1000 euros cash) and Dani Rajcsanyi found his infamous form just in time to stomp a BS bluntslide transfer FS bluntslide on the stairset (which was the most creative trick and also 1000 euros cash). Only the setting sun was able to end the first day of the Head Jib Factory and Marc Swoboda’s urge to stomp yet another banging trick. There was little doubt about him being awarded with the best rider overall trophy.

Unfortunately the weather changed on the second day and the contest had to be cancelled due to heavy rain. But as everyone had been shredding their brains out the day before this didn’t matter too much. Alex Tank said after the event: ”After two days of super hardcore digging in the snow we had a perfect park for the weekend which was completely taken apart by the invited guys. There where more bangers than you can imagine. Thanks a lot to all the riders, photographers and film crews. See you next time!”

The winners:
Best Rider Overall: Marc Swoboda AUT (2000 €)
Best Trick: Benny Urban GER, Polejam BS 360 to 50-50 BS 180 out at the Gastank (1000 €)
Most Creative Trick: Dani Rajcsanyi GER, BS Bluntslide tranfer FS Bluntslide at the stairset (1000 €)
Winner Game of Snow: Marc Swoboda AUT (500 €)

Riders:
Alex Tank GER Marc Swoboda AUT Benny Urban GER Dani Rajcsanyi GER Toni Kerkelä FIN Flo Geiger GER Denis Leontyev RUS Chris Chatt GBR Elmar Bossard SUI Simon Gruber ITA Gerben Veirwej NED Joey von Essen NED James Hull GBR Julien Emch SUI James Niederberger SUI Seppi Scholler AUT Michi Miethig GER Jesse Augustinus NED Basti Rittig GER Robert Butscher GER

This year the Head Jib Factory by Alex Tank will be on for the second year, this time set to go down in a secret spot in Allgau. Find out more…

To keep it fresh, shit’s been mixed up from last year, but the basic idea still remains: having a mellow but progressive jib session by snowboarders for snowboarders.

Here some things that have been freshened up…

- Prizemoney (5000 € overall)

- Different Location without a crowd so the riders don’t get disturbed and can really focus on their riding and don’t have any pressure.

- The Park is way bigger (at the moment we are building four new obstacles only for this session)

- The session is on for two days (23rd-24th of April)

- 20 Invited international Riders

- People can apply for wildcards

Here is a list of already confirmed riders:

- Alex Tank GER
- Benny Urban GER
- Dani Raycsani GER
- Ludwig Lejkner SWE
- Marc Swoboda AUT
- Robert Butscher GER
- Boris Bühler SUI
- Toni Kerkela FIN
- Fredrik Evensen NOR
- Michi Miethig GER
- Julien Emch SUI