This week GoPro brought together a bunch of their heavy hitting international team in Laax for 5 days of chilled out shred and afternoons spent nerding off learning the possibilites of the new Hero3 camera. Check the rad gallery of selfies and a lowdown of the haps…

Would I like to spend 5 days with GoPro riders Sage Kotsenburg, Eric Willett, Jamie Anderson, Iouri Podladtchikov, Ralph Backstrom, Elena High, Xavier de Le Rue and Hannah Teter while getting schooled on how to use the magical box of tricks that is GoPro’s Hero3? The fact that it was being held in Laax – right up there in my list of ‘Most Awesome Resorts In Europe’ – only hastened my reply in the affermative. Having said that, even if they’d held it on a dryslope in Bognor Regis the chance to hang with that crew of bosses and tinker with the GoPro would have been too hard to pass up.

Ralph Backstrom, still smelling of Champagne from his winning of the whole damned Freeride World Tour a couple days before, was already there by the time I rolled in, while the rest of the crew, who’d been crushing the Euro X Games, cruised into town on the 12-hour party bus a little later accompanied by a bunch of dudes who boast a knowledge of what those little black and silver boxes can do that borders on the extreme.

This was to become apparent the next morning when we met up for the first of many clinics on how to work the Hero3. Now, previously I’d pretty much only ever hit Go and Stop, so to get the lowdown on what that camera can actually do, and how to do it, was an eye-opener. Videographers I know have expressed bafflement at the amount of sheer tech they can cram in and the quality of the output the Hero3 produces, and we’ve all marvelled at the Hero3 promo video, but to truly get the most out of the camera you really need to learn the modes, the software, the different ways of mounting it and so on.

Reeling with a mind full of ’1440p for POV’, ’30 shots in 2 seconds’, ‘timelapse mode’, ’4K capability’, ’720p shoots at 120fps and can be slowed down to 1/4 speed’, it was interesting to see how into it all the riders were. Perhaps unsurprisingly, as it offers them the chance to provide a unique angle on their riding and to pump out a bunch of content without even needing to wait for the filmer to drag his ass out of bed. You had Iouri strapping himself into a back brace with a pole jutting out the side and grilling the tech dudes on what was possible and how to achieve shots he’d been dreaming up, Elena having a bizzarre extension grafted on to her helmet and Hannah being wowed by the app that connects using WiFi so you get a live view of what the camera sees.

Ordinarily such technically-focussed nerd-offs would have sent many to sleep, but the media specialists they brought in from the US were just a bunch of laid back shredders who managed to strike the right balance of information and bro down-ery so it never felt like being at school. Of course, it wasn’t just about the nerd room and when up on the hill the guys and girls cut loose as they filmed and shot themselves, follow-cammed each other, while us media types failed miserably at bagging anything more than a Finnish faceshot. The riders earn their coin for good reason and bagged a bunch of bangers lapping Laax’s epic freestyle setup – Eric and Sage even managed to pass the camera between them mid-air, which is so insane that when you doubtless see it in a GoPro ad you’ll probably think it’s faked, while Ralph and Xavier sent it off the booters before heading off for some steep action.

Undoubtedly the highlight was the last day when the weather really turned it on and we were able to stay on the hill late for a sunset session that will have produced a heap of sick footage, the crew all smiles and high fives reflecting on this few days of deserved wind-down after a hectic season of travelling, filming and contests.

Yes, I was fed well and they bought me a couple of drinks, and, no, I have not tried any of the competition, but the fact is that the GoPro is an incredible bit of kit that allows everyone – from these cats on the team to Peter Punter – to create a ton of super high quality photos and videos. Are there any faults? My camera froze up from time to time (to fix just take out the battery and put it back in again), the software, while very good, is not the most intuitive, to get the best result you need to learn the modes and the post-production software, and they’re not cheap – the Hero3 Black edition with the WiFi remote is in the region of €450 – but if you’re into shooting yourself or your homies shredding, surfing, skating or whatever, it’s an investment you won’t regret.

We’re trying to get an edit of the trip dialled, but in the meantime peep this one from the DC Finland team for an example of what this box of tricks can do..

1. Silje Norendal

2. Jamie Anderson

3. Kjersti Buaas

With any luck the Slopestyle will go down today in Tignes at the Winter X Games Europe, so our man on the ground canvassed a bunch of pros and punter to see who they were tipping for the win. Check it.

As with yesterday’s pipe predictions, opinion is divided between a few of the heavy hitters – predominantly Torstein Horgmo and Mark McMorris – and once again we’ll step up to offer our own educated guess. For men, we’ll go for Torstein taking the win – as Vito says, his steeze on rails could play a big part – ahead of Marc McMorris and Max Parrot. As far as women go, it’s hard to look beyond Jamie Anderson to edge this, though we reckon Spencer O’Brien will run her close with Enni Rukajärvi rounding out the podium. Will we be right? Who do you think will have what it takes? Shout out below or Tweet using the hashtag #xgamesnow

Our man on the ground from the Mpora mothership was cruising the X Games event site yesterday, hitting up a mix of riders and punters to see who the bookie’s favourite is to take out the superpipe title. Check who their money’s on…

As you’ll see, opinions are divided and… what the hell – we’ll throw our hat in the ring too. For men’s superpipe we’ll weigh in with Iouri Podladtchikov to win, with Louie Vito and Scotty Lago rounding out the podium. And seeing as there’s also women’s pipe – today in fact – we’ll call that too: Kelly Clark will be after revenge on Euro soil after coming up short at the BEO, so she’ll have what it takes to just edge out Arielle Gold, with Gretchen Bleiler taking third.

Who do you think will win? Let us know on Twitter, making sure you use #xgamesnow and you’ll also be entered to win an Onboard subscription and a whole heap of shred gear too.

And in case you missed our earlier X Games post, here’s the full rider list plus the schedule for the event. Times are in CET.

HALFPIPE

Men

1. Arthur Longo, FRA
2. Janne Korpi, FIN
3. Jan Scherrer, SUI
4.Benji Farrow, USA
5.Christian Haller, SUI
6.Aluan Riccardi, FRA
7.Taku Hiraoka, JPN
8.Nathan Johnstone, AUS
9.Taylor Gold, USA
10.Scotty James, AUS
11.Scotty Lago, USA
12.Markus Malin, FIN
13.Luke Mitrani, USA
14.Iouri Podladtchikov, SUI
15.Louie Vito, USA
16. Peetu Piiroinen (FIN)

Women

1.Gretchen Bleiler, USA
2.Maddy Schaffrick, USA
3.Hannah Teter, USA
4.Kelly Clark, USA
5.Kaitlyn Farrington, USA
6.Arielle Gold, USA
7.Ellery Hollingsworth, AUS
8.Elena Hight, USA

SLOPESTYLE

Men
Ulrik Badertscher (NOR)
Gjermund Braaten (NOR)
Chas Guldemond (USA)
Torstein Horgmo (NOR)
Yuki Kadono (JPN)
Sage Kotsenburg (USA)
Mark McMorris (CAN)
Aleksander Ostreng (NOR)
Maxence Parrot (CAN)
Peetu Piiroinen (FIN)
Ståle Sandbech (NOR)
Seppe Smits (BEL)
Roope Tonteri (FIN)
Sebastien Toutant (CAN)
Eric Willett (USA)
Jamie Nicholls (GBR)

Women

Jamie Anderson (USA)
Sina Candrian (SUI)
Aimee Fuller (IRL)
Silje Norendal (NOR)
Spencer O’Brien (CAN)
Kjersti Oestgaard Buaas (NOR)
Sarka Pancochova (CZE)
Enni Rukajärvi (FIN)

And here’s the competition schedule for the whole event:

Wednesday 20th March 2013

- 10:30 am – noon: Men’s Ski Slopestyle eliminations
- 1:00 – 2:15 pm: Women’s Ski Slopestyle final
- 6:30 – 8 pm: Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe eliminations
- 8:30 -9:45 pm: Women’s Snowboard SuperPipe final

Thursday, 21st March 2013

- 10:30 am – noon: Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle eliminations
- 1:00 – 2:15 pm: Men’s Ski Slopestyle final
- 6:30 – 7:45 pm: Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe final
- 8:30 – 10 pm: Men’s Ski Ski SuperPipe eliminations

Friday, 22nd March 2013

- 10:30 am – noon: Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle final
- 1:00 – 2:15 pm: Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle final
- 6:30 – 7:45: Men’s Ski SuperPipe final
- 8:30 – 9:45 pm: Women’s Ski SuperPipe final

If a picture is worth a thousand words, surely a washed out digital polaroid of a rider’s eye view of the rockstar life you wish you were living has got to be worth a quick butchers. If you fancy stalking some famous dudes, you could do worse than to download yourself  the instagram and see them the way their iPhone sees them (other handsets are available). You could even stalk us @onboardmag while you’re at it.

Everybody imagines that their heroes live in a rose tinted world of free flowing beers and bottomless pillows, which is fortunate since nobody can resist the temptation to insta-age their life with filters, blurs and borders until it looks like you’re back in the 60s, and snowboarders are no different. What’s that you say? It’s waist deep in junk out there on the internets, possibly more than you can manage to wade through whilst waiting for a gondola, however nifty you are with the Google. Well have no fear, we’re here to help lighten the load. We’ve compiled a who’s who of snowboarders stroking their egos with the knowledge we’d rather procrastinate in their virtual company than with the real people sat around us, so you don’t have to do the legwork yourselves. Phew.

10. Kicking things off is Jamie Anderson at number ten, setting the standard pretty high for vast snowscapes and fluffy pillows we all want to get stuck into. But frankly we don’t need to know what beetroot dinner you’re eating or what colour tea you’re drinking. In fact if it weren’t for the  delicious selfies and lady-yoga shots peppered between the all the self help slogans and your dietary requirements, you wouldn’t have gotten anywhere near this list. And we know you live by Lake Tahoe, we don’t need to see the view again. I’m wondering now if this should have been a ‘top 9′ instead…

@JME_ANDERSON

9. In at 9 is the affable Gigi Rüf, an Austrian unfamiliar with this end of any competition. ‘Shred Dad’ is still keeping it real in between his trophy collecting trips in far off fluffy places as well as producing his own planks to do it on. This guy knows his way around an instafeed, mixing life on the hill with artwork, landmarks, and his mates standing by adverts of themselves on busses. What Gigi lacks in rock and roll he makes up for in stoke, which it’s immediately clear his kiddies have inherited.

@GIGIRUEF

8. Next at 8 is Kevin Pearce, the second coolest Kevin of the week. That dude’s grin must have a lot to do with why he has 9931 followers lapping up his every instamove. As our man on the ground in the FRENDS house, he’s pretty handy with the camera. After hard months of rehab pics it’s great to see some riding creeping back into this guy’s feed.

@KEVINPEARCE

7. Number 7 is Frank April, whose online persona is just what you’d expect from someone who in real life spends his days gliding down handrails like a boss and his nights necking Grand Marnier. His feed is a one stop shop for gnarly places to sleep, beer bongs on wakeboards and empty booze collections. The man’s got plenty of rockstar in him and mayhem around him – get your glimpse here.

@FRANKAPRIL

6. The top Kevin of the internet is Kevin Bäckström, our 6th Favourite instasnapper. A healthy portion of his 15,000 followers are swedish girls who seem to like nothing better than to scrawl his initials on their perfectly hemispherical buttocks in order to qualify his status as Scandinavia’s favourite rebel son to hate. In between tattoos, parties, and moody portraits, there’s snaps of lines and from events as well as plenty of reminders of his initials.

@KEVINBACKSTROM

5. Shaun White is like Marmite in whatever he does, and it’s no different here at number 5 in our oh so crucial list. No doubt he’ll be devastated with most likely his worst result of the new WST year. Those of you outraged by what he choses to dress himself in each day will get no end of amusement here, where bare chests, hawaiian shirts and cravats are just the start of it. If dog beauty pageants are more your thing or you want to know what he’ll look like in 25 years time before your man crush goes head over heels for him, you’ll be well catered for. And If you can’t remember what Lake Tahoe looks like since Jamie last reminded us, he’s got that covered too. 

@SHAUNWHITE

4. Mark Landvik is actually quite good at taking pictures which, combined with being privvy to some banger action most every time he goes riding bags him spot number 4. Silhouettes, tilt shift, double frames, you name the settings and Landvik’s all over them. If it’s too long since you were last out there getting after it, let Landvik lend you a glimpse from his drop in for you to dream a line down. Cats have been winning the internet since before it was dial-up, and mark’s is one ridiculously hairy feline. Shaun’s bulldog’s never had a chance.

@MARKLANDVIK

3. Eric Jackson takes home the bronze medal today, albeit with a little help from his friends. It’ll not surprise anyone that the man who apparently never stays still has done a few things recently that might blow your mind. Luckily for us, he had the good grace to share the stoke from along the way. He’s got fish on hooks, ridiculous lines and heaving barrels up in his page there, and a beard to be proud of too.

@EJACKSHREDS

2. Second place goes to the man with the most pets and guns in the industry, Scotty Lago. Man’s got style for days in the pipe, and he’s none too shabby behind the camera either. Also, his was the only page with a horse’s head mask, always a winner. What more could you want?

@SCOTTYLAGO

1. The biggest of the instadogs of snowboarding right now is Xavier De Le Rue. It was always going to be tough for anyone to compete considering what the Frenchman’s been up to. Then he went and dropped the ‘waterslide with a penguin’. There was no looking back from that really, was there? Big lines, big hair, and big animals are a winning combination even in real life, and right here they’re all that mattered. Hats off to you Xavier, we wish we could’ve been there.

@XAVIERDELERUE

When you’re done you can also watch the Burton US Open halfpipe podium runs.

MEN

1 – Mark McMorris

2 – Torstein Horgmo

3 – Chas Guldemond

WOMEN

1 – Spencer O’Brien

2 – Jamie Anderson

3 – Brooke Voigt

After the triple-festing madness of the dudes’ Big Air there was no letup in the slopestyle. Once again, it looked like video games need to step up as the real world riders are doing things that you’d struggle with on your Xbox. Doubles mixed with triples were the norm, and Mark McMorris walked away with the title thanks to his last run that detonated over Aspen and scored a huge 98 points. It was also nice to see that despite not even coming close and their supposed ‘beef’, Shaun White was sporting enough to congratulate Mark on his win. In the women’s, Jamie Anderson once again continued her domination of female slopestyle riding, following up tree hugging with another display of silky smooth steeze. Sochi will be stupid.

MEN

1ST – MARK MCMORRIS

2ND – MAX PARROT

3RD – SEPPE SMITS

WOMEN

1ST – JAMIE ANDERSON

2ND – SARKA PANCOCHOVA

3RD – SPENCER O’BRIEN

Jamie Anderson has more style than you and your mate Dave put together. Watch her and homies like Kjersti Buaas, Isabel Derungs, Erin Comstock and Sarka Pancochova put the beatdown on the Ms Superpark hits…

The riding is impressive, and so is the lineup in this latest “P.S….” episode: Enni Rukajärvi, Erin Comstock, Kjersti Buaas, Jamie Anderson, Alexa McCarty, Madison Blackley, Laura Rogoski, Megan Ginter, Hana Beaman, Sina Candrian, Leanne Pelosi, Elena Hight, Kelly Underwood, Nirvana Ortanez, Megan Ginter, Spencer O’Brien, Isabel Derungs

1st – Jamie Anderson

Second placed Spencer O’Brien went just as technical, but was slightly less committed on the rails, and clearly did not have the energy and pop that Jamie’s riding oozed. Her best run was the first, where she showed an excellent combination of backside 5, switch back 5, and front 7. A later attempt at a front 9 failed, but still her riding was as impressived as her entire season has been.

2nd – Spencer O’Brien

Enni Rukajärvi took the bronze medal, this time wearing goggles and laying down a back 5, a cab 5, and a slightly sloppy front 7.

A couple of other riders took a shot at making the podium, among them British rider Jenny Jones with a failed front 9 attempt, and Kjersti Buaas with her praised stylish riding. Nobody, however, seems to be able to beat Jamie Anderson these days.

3rd – Enni Rukajärvi

Full Results

Rank          Name                   Run 1          Run 2          Run 3          Best

1      Jamie Anderson        96.00        98.00        19.33        98.00

2      Spencer O’Brien        92.66        89.00        38.33        92.66

3      Enni Rukajärvi         88.00        60.66        38.33        88.00

4      Kjersti O. Buaas        34.00        38.00        86.00        86.00

5      Silje Norendal          45.00        84.00        12.00        84.00

6      Sina Candrian          82.00        29.00        29.66        82.00

7      Jenny Jones               77.66        79.00        29.00        79.00

8      Cheryl Maas               75.00        19.33        21.66        75.00

9      Aimee Fuller               43.00        19.66        45.00        45.00

10    Charlotte van Gils     20.00        29.00        43.00        43.00