Make sure you tune in from 18.00 CET to see snowboarding legends like Terje Haakonsen, Gigi Rüf, David Benedek, Jamie Lynn, Stefan Gimpl and more throw down in the burn Style Session alongside pretty much all of today’s kicker bosses. Gonna be BANGING.

Watch it live HERE.

More than 50 international riders have travelled to Innsbruck and the city will be once again the snowboarding hotspot of the season. A total of 11 X-Games winners are on their way to this year’s Billabong Air & Style in Innsbruck. Next to the Style king and the winner of the Billabong Air & Style this year’s World Snowboard Tour Big Air champion will also be crowned in Innsbruck. It’s the last 6star Big Air event of the ongoing season and a total of 12 riders could take home the Big Air crown.

The event will kick off on Friday, February 1st 2013, with a magnificent show and meet-up of four generations of snowboarders. The current top-ranking riders, among them Piiroinen, Smits, Toutant, Kadono, McMorris and Weißenbacher, will need to pull out all the stops in the jam session to have any chance of stealing the show from the sports legends, participating in the burn Style Session. All-time heroes like Haakonsen, Lynn, Iguchi, Benedek, Basich, Gimpl and Rüf, throwing down for the cream of the snowboarding public. The live stage, meanwhile, will feature rapper Left Boy and, for the second time since 2004, Die Fantastischen Vier.

On Saturday, February 2nd 2013, all eyes will be on the riders in the 6Star World Snowboard Tour Contest when the world elite battle it out for the title, the Ring of Glory, 1,000 World Snowboard Tour points and a total of 75,000 euros in prize money. The field has been bumped up from 16 to 24 riders to do justice to the larger numbers at the pinnacle of the sport. Last year’s winner Peetu Piroiinen, Air & Style Beijing winner Yuki Kadono, third-placed in Beijing Ståle Sandbech and co- favorites Sebastien Toutant and Mark McMorris will attempt to pull off the first Triple Corks on the demanding megakicker setup in Bergisel Stadium. Ethan Morgan will be flying the German flag, while Matthias Weißenbacher and Clemens Schattschneider will stand tall on their native snow for Austria. German Indie rappers Kraftklub and the current best American white rapper Mac Miller will provide the musical backing to match.

Weather forecast promises way warmer temperatures than last year to guarantee best riding conditions with a soft landing and perfect surroundings for all our fans. We are looking forward to celebrate this once in a lifetime episode of the Billabong Air & Style with 2 days, 4 Bands and more then 50 riders with you!

Make sure you watch it and get all the details and info to either enjoy it live on the webor on TV in your country: http://www.air-style.com/en/id-2013-air-style-innsbruck/live.html

Peetu Piiroinen: Winning Tricks at Air & Style 2012

Seppe Smits: Best Tricks at Air & Style 2012

Niklas Mattson: Best Tricks at Air & Style 2012

Air & Style 2012: All Highlights

Torgeir Bergrem soared a picture perfect Method over Innsbruck's skies that stoked the hell out of us Onboard hacks. Fist of nuff respect. All photos: Sami Tuoriniemi.

[CHECK THE BILLABONG AIR&STYLE 2012 VIDEOS WHEN YOU'RE DONE HERE]

Despite a stellar showing from rookies and big name pros alike on the Baltic, bulletproof Bergisel scaffold wedge, Peetu Piiroinen’s phenomenal consistency and ridiculously supersized hits saw him deservedly earn another Air&Style title last night. Check our Photo Ed’s Gallery of bang bangs first, and our report of how it went down which will follow below shortly…

The Friday night prior to the main event, amidst the Burn Rail Jam in downtown Innsbruck, the riders draw went down to decide who’d face off against who in the first round. This kind of head-to-head format has its advantages and disadvantages but despite the fact that there’s the potential for two big guns to meet early doors, its ease of understanding for the masses makes it an obvious choice for such a stadium event. When the names had come out of the tombola, this is how the first round panned out:

Seb Toutant v 4th Place Qualifier
Ståle Sandbech v 3rd Place Qualifier
Werni Stock v 2nd Place Qualifier
Nils Arvidsson v 1st Place Qualifier
Seppe Smits v Yuki Kadono
Ulrik Badertscher v Eero Ettala
Eric Willett v Roope Tonteri
Ethan Morgan v Peetu Piiroinen

The qualifiers kicked off on Saturday arvo with the dudes battling it out for the 4 spots that would get them into the main event and a chance to prolong their session on what Marko Grilc described as “the best the kicker’s ever been here.” Although it was bitterly cold and the landing must have resembled an ice rink, the guys chucked themselves for all their worth with Pat Burgener’s textbook switch backside 10 grabbed almost to the landing putting him through first, ahead of Niklas Matsson’s smooth front 10 dub, Torgeir Bergrem’s rapid Cab 12 and Petja Piiroinen’s properly doubled back 10.

Onto the main event and it was shaping nicely. The rookies from the qualis had their work cut out for them, certainly, but a couple of them defied expectations and dispatched their invited counterparts: Burgener’s flawless switch back 10 made short work of Nils Arvidsson’s iffy landings while Matsson’s clean landings made short work of Werni Stock‘s malfunctioning stomping legs.

There were no other major surprises in round 1 as veteran competitors Seb Toutant, Seppe Smits, Eric Willett and Peetu Piiroinen sent their invited opponents for early baths, the one eyebrow that was raised was when Ulrik Badertscher easily hopped over Eero Ettala‘s challenge by putting down a back 12 that Ettala could not match.

Much like the Champions League, it’s when the field gets narrower that things really get interesting and you can see who’s got the proper minerals. The draw had Toutant v Sandbech, Burgener v Smits, Matsson v Badertscher and Willett v Piiroinen in the Semi-off. Interesting times.

Toots has the front 10 dub pretty much on lock so Ståle needed to be on top of his game to progress, but it seemed he was having some issues as he’d let go the grab fairly early on his back 12 despite Toutant appearing to try to kill himself by riding the last bit of the kicker on his ass, somehow managing to control his flailing backflip to knuckle on his butt. His dub and regulation back 10 were enough though. Burgener was riding super well, but Seppe is a full-on machine so it was no surprise that he was sat in the lead with one hit to go. Pat knew he had to pull something special so went for… a back 14 triple cork. Sadly he overcooked it and took a tumble but in any conditions, let alone those in Innsbruck, that’s worth some full-on props. Matsson had been locking front 10 doubles like there’s no tomorrow from the qualifiers so when Badertscher couldn’t prevent a revert on the famed Ulrik flip it was the rookie who went through, and though Willett was stomping some techness Peetu Piiroinen was going bigger than everyone else while mixing between back 12s and Cab 12s. When Peetu’s on this kind of form it was always going to be bye bye Eric.

So, the finals rolled around with what you could call the usual suspects Seb Toutant, Peetu Piiroinen and Seppe Smits being joined by the new Rick Kane, Nicklas Matsson. And interesting side story was developing at the time, too. With Willett out Seppe could take the TTR Tour Big Air title depending on how he faired. Business time.

It was clear that with the monster consistency that Peetu’d shown all event that it would take something special to deny him and after 2 runs he was sat in first. Smits’ final cab 12 wasn’t as clean as he’d have liked, Matsson didn’t seem to have more than his front 10 double in his bag, so it was down to Seb Toutant on the last run of the contest to unset the Finn. He knew he had to send it, and send it he did with a back 14 triple cork attempt, the second of the night, but despite the unreal commitment it must have taken to dip his head for the third time all he got was an ass spanking and 4th place.

So Peetu won, Seppe took second and the TTR Big Air title, Matsson 3rd and Toots 4th. In the bulletproof conditions the riders were facing it was one hell of a performance. And one hell of a party at the Burn gig later it must be said.

RESULTS

Here’s the link to the stream. Click that bad boy from around 16.30 CET: www.air-style.com/de/id-2012-billabong-air-style-innsbruck/live

But hey. Also there’s only a few tickets left online and in ticket retailers for the Billabong Air & Style Innsbruck-Tirol 2012 so if you’re around Innsbruck get your arses in gear so you don’t miss the insanity. Ticket seller information and online purchase (print your ticket at home) here.

Some of the finest kicker riders on the planet will be doing their best to keep your fires stoked… well darn it let’s have a look who they are:

Starting list Top 16:

1 Peetu Piiroinen (FIN)
2 Sebastien Toutant (CAN)
3 Seppe Smits (BEL)
4 Werner Stock (AUT)
5 Nils Arvidsson (SWE)
6 Ulrik Badertscher (NOR)
7 Stale Sandbech (NOR)
8 Roope Tonteri (FIN)
9 Eric Willett (USA)
10 Eero Ettala (FIN)
11 Yuki Kadono (JPN)
12 Ethan Morgan (GER)
plus the top 4 from the qualification

Qualification riders:

13 Ethan Morgan (GER)
14 Dash Kamp (USA)
15 Torgeir Bergrem (NOR)
16 Marko Grilc (SLO)
17 Clemens Schattschneider (AUT)
18 Petja Piiroinen (FIN)
19 Jamie Nicholls (GBR)
20 Peter König (AUT)
21 Tom Klocker (AUT)
22 Christian Haller (SUI)
23 Pat Burgener (SUI)
24 Niklas Mattson (SWE)
25 Aleksander Ostreng (NOR)
26 Marco Grigis (ITA)

On Friday night starting at 5pm, don’t miss the Burn Rail Session, the Rider’s Draw, and a live concert by “The Heavy” all taking place at the Snow Festival on Maria-Theresien-Strasse in the heart of Innsbruck’s city center.

A word to the wise though, it will be one of the coldest Air & Style events we’ve had, and though we’ll do our best to make it impossible for anyone in the stadium to stand still, wear your warmest clothes for good measure!

If you can’t be a part of the banging atmosphere you can watch the The Billabong Air & Style on www.air-style.com/en/id-2012-billabong-air-style-innsbruck/live.html.

For more information log on www.air-style.com.

Robbie Walker happens to be a nice guy, a stylish rider, and he lives through some hectic days. You won’t get bored, we promise!

The kicker’s under construction, the riders – including Peetu Piiroinen, Seb Toutant, Antti Autti, Mark McMorris and the last edition’s winner, Marko Grilc – will begin to send it off the wedge from today as the training opens and come Saturday evening it’s game on proper as they throw down for a chunk of the €75,000 purse.

Check the highlights from last year’s huckfest. That was heavy, but we reckon Saturday night will top even that madness.

Full riders list, schedule and more on www.air-style.com

This clip is about our first PirateArtShow in Innsbruck. The remarkable location is called “Bäckerei” and is as variable as the PirateProject!
Listen to Ludschi, Lukas Goller and Björn Hartweger, who explain a bid about what this show, the PirateArtBook and the isolationCamp 2010 was about.

This artShow contained the work of following minds:
Maggo Graf, Carlos Blanchard, Danny Larsen, MrPapriko, Lukas Goller, Christo Daoulkas, Blotto, Ludschi, Björn Hartweger, Gigi Rüf, Marco Feichtner, Claudia Marclay, Gallileo Sioni, Julia Geissler, Flo Eckhardt, Matthias Egle, Rafael Ludescher, Torben Krüger (ZiP 6020)

The song is called “Rainy Days” and was recorded at the isolationCamp in Furx, Austria. Copy left, feel free to spread it!

Filmed & edited by Clemens Prankl for PirateMovieProduction.

Peetu killing it at last year's event in Innsbruck

The Air&Style just announced the dates for this season’s Air&Style events:

December 4th, 2010 in Beijing

and

February 5th, 2011 in the Bergisel Stadium in Innsbruck

For the first time ever, the Air&Style event is moving East, to be precise to the Olympic Sports Center Stadium in Beijing. The event presented by Oakley and Shaun White will be the first 6Star event in China, heralding a new era for the TTR World Tour. With the full size Air & Style 42m high stadium jump the riders will find perfect conditions to battle for the ring of glory and 1.000 TTR-Points. And as we’re used to, there will also be international top music acts to make it the unique and powerful happening it has been since 1994.

Next to the following provisional start list that will be announced soon, there will also be six spots for Chinese riders to qualify.

For more info on both events, check out air-style.com

With the Moreboards Stubai Zoo the Stubai Glacier has a massive snowpark for all you shred heads. The new glacierpark is one of the largest parks around Innsbruck (only 30 km away). The location of the park ensures sunshine till the afternoon and is the perfect place for the three thrilling lines, which are made with Schneestern wisdom and creativeness.

The kickerline with various take-offs, after kickers are a A-frame and a Lollypop, followed with a Down rail and Jibtone. The second line offers Rollers where beginners can try out their first jumps. And the third line consists of Jib-obstacles with new Pyrabox.

The snowpark Stubai Zoo is opened from end of October to May (depending on snowconditions).

Jibs

• Jibtonne
• Downrail (8 m)

• Pyrabox (9 m)
• Rainbowbox (6 m)

• Kinkedbox (10 m)
• Lollipop

• Flatbox (8 m)
• Curvedbox (6 m)

Industry pipe line + 3 Kickers (5 m)

• Straight pipe (4 m)
• Up/down pipe (4 m)
• High pipe (4 m)
• Stiffy pipe (3 m)

Kickers

• 3 Tables with 2 kickers each (10 – 16 m)
• 2 Transfer kickers

You need to love this. It’s just “über geil“!!!

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