The crazy Japanese snowboard bowl event – The Holy Bowly – is back. Once again a fine selection of international and local riders sessioned this unique bowl and tranny parcours. This looks so much fun.

Featured riders: Mike Rav, Desiree Melancon, Scott Blum, Forest Bailey, Yuta Kohara, Yo Nishiyama, Jake Olson-Elm, Teddy Koo, Rio Tahara, Yo Amagai, Mitshiro Sugimoto, Katuro Taguchi, Goro Komatusu, Jesse Burtner, Jamie Lynn, Wes Makepeace, Kohei Kudo, Zak Hale, Blake Paul, Zak Hale, Kohei Kudo, Wes Makepeace, Jamie Lynn, Jesse Burtner.

A bunch of Dakine’s band of shredders made their annual pilgrimage Mt Baker for the Legendary  Banked Slalom and they made a rad edit from their time there. If you don’t know what the LBS is, this will show you why each year dudes all the way from Johnnie Paxson and Curtis Ciszek to Jamie Lynn and Terje Haakonsen make a beeline for Baker. If you know what the LBS is, you’ll want to go there even more after checking this.

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

Although Mervin always kept it original ‘human size’, the different brands under the Mervin umbrella have been making a lot of noise through the years with its two innovative snowboard brands sharing the same technology – Gnu and Lib Tech – and its binding brand, Bent Metal. This original snowboard company based in the North West of the US have seen many world class riders help them develop their products, from Jamie Lynn to Travis Rice. Jamie Lynn is and always been ‘Lib Tech’. This is why we decided to take the example of Jamie’s 12/13 model to go through the latest technology that Mervin has been busy with lately. And at the same time you’ll know everthing about Jamie’s board, you will also find out what exactly means ‘Magne-Traction, Banana or C Power…

Lib Tech Jamie Lynn Phoenix Classic Series C3 BTX

LIB TECH – Jamie Lynn Phoenix Classic Series C3 BTX

Ok so here’s the beast. Not only one of the best looking boards that Jamie has drown himself, this is a concentrate of what kind of tech Lib is capable of. As it says on the paper, “Jamie ripped on old ski camber, Jamie rips on banana and C2, and for this season he’s been shredding the latest what-Lib-calls ‘experiMENTAL division project’ known as C3 Banana Camber Jamie “Classic”. What is this mish-mash? “It’s a dominant camber with a submissive banana”, and can’t really be explained in a better way… This board features a trapezoidal camber and rocker between your feet. Trapezoidal camber straightens the camber curve out as it approaches the contact points spreading tip pressure creating a broader tip hook area up and turn initiation you can count on. The Banana rocker between your feet gives killer edge grip at and between your feet in hardpack and ice carving situations, provides float in the pow and catch-free jibbing. The combination of these two concepts results in a really even pressure map, tons of pop, rock solid stability, power carving and one of the best camber board we’ve been lucky enough to ride.

Check all the details and Jamie’s explanative video here.

A little more info about the different technologies squeezed into that bad boy:

C3 CAMBER DOMINANT BANANA (C3 BTX)
As we said, it’s a Camber enhanced with Banana Tech made for “aggressive new traditionalists and 90’s camber studs”, in case you recognize yourself in those categories… Focuses a mild amount of pressure between your feet for carving, edge grip on ice, float in powder and our maximum amount of pressure out to the tip and tails for super power, end-to-end stability, pop and control in critical situations.

MAGNE-TRACTION
Magne-Traction serrated edges is design to cut into the snow like a knife (imagine a bread knife for example) giving you more edge hold and control. Magne-Traction features 7 strategically located and sized bumps along each side of your sidecut. The biggest bumps are at and between your feet where your balance is centered adding maximum control and power where you need it most. The bumps outside your feet are smaller and less aggressive providing tip and tail control but maintaining freestyle freedom.

H-POP CORE
Wood Alloy Core. Experimental new dead tree with the highest compression response ever used in a snowboard. It has half the glue weight and absorbs less resin weight. Another industry first for Lib Tech.

DIRECTIONAL TWIN
Effortless freestyle and freeride geometry. Twin chassis (from contact to contact) but with an ever so slightly longer nose than tail. Floats on powder and blasts thru crud, a Twin with an advantage.

BIO BEANS TOPSHEET
As many others – that we salute here – Lib Tech has grown an eco conscience and try its best to minimize its impact on environment (check this funny shit). One of the solutions brought by Mervin is this new generation topsheet made out of beans, water based inks or wood core made out of fast growing renewable trees.

TNT BASE MATERIAL
Fast and low maintenance dual layered fluoro base material. Wax it or maybe skip a day, no biggie.

TECH RECAP:

• C3 Power Banana / Camber Combo Tech
• Magne-Traction
• Basalt / fiberglass combo
• Bio Beans Topsheet
• H-Pop Core
• Directional Twin Geometries
• TNT Base
• Flex: 5.5 – 6.5 (depending on size)
• Art by Jamie Lynn

Check also the whole shabang on:

Mervin webiste
Lib Tech website
Gnu website
Bent Metal website

Legends, the pair of them. And they’ve still got the skills to pay the bills. Check Iguchi and Lynn’s Individually Produced Part from Volcom. This is AWESOME.

Here’s the full flick. Enjoy 53 minutes of madness from the Winter of 2011-2012.

The Mad Ones is a a web-based video project by Liam Gallagher. Inspired by the Beat Generation and specifically the writings of Jack Kerouac, The Mad Ones followed the freaks, all winter long. This is a movie about snowboarding and some Beatniks.

Riders:

Forest Bailey, Forrest Burki, Patrick McCarthy, Shaun McKay, Wyatt Stasinos, Nick Russell, Kael Martin, Bryan Fox, Mark Landvik, Lucas Debari, Nick Ennen, Scott Blum, Dan Liedahl, Alex Beebe, Will Lavigne, Jamie Lynn, Sebi Geiger, Marco Feichtner, Atsushi Hasegawa, Kohei Kudo, Austin Hironaka and many more.

Re-live the times when snowboarding was actually cool by watching this gem from 1993. The rider list is like a who’s who of shred legends, with Terje, Mike Ranquet, Jamie Lynn, Bryan Iguch, John Cardiel and more tearing shit up. Hell of a find, Powder & Rails dudes.

Here’s the spiel from Vice’s Powder and Rails guys, who you should definitely bookmark if you like a bit of vintage legendary shred.

In 1993 Dave Seoane followed a group of snowboarders up and down the West Coast and the Mid West as they leave their limousines only to shred the mountains along the way.

Roadkill was the first video Dave Seoane directed way back in 1993. It was a huge departure from the previous FLF videos: there was no narration and no filler; it was all riding and lifestyle. It was also back when everyone listened to Epitaph Records bands, so there’s a lot of those on soundtrack. The crew all ride around in a limousine, between breakdowns, up and down the West Coast and Mid West, shredding at different mountains along the way.

There are a billion highlights: Jamie Lynn traveling with Circe Wallace from Washington to Tahoe to shoot what would become his signature frontside 3′s, Steve Graham going bigger than everyone, Shaun Palmer sporting a clown hair-do doing an enormous backside 3 off of the Donner cliffs, John Cardiel wildly ripping both snowboard and skateboard, just to name a few. Actually, Cards does some of the best looking air to fakie’s of all time in this thing, all on a mini ramp surrounded by snow in the woods. Future legends of style Jeff Brushie, Brian Thien, and Bryan Iguchi also show up, ripping everything Big Bear had to offer—from rails to jumps to pipe. If you love the early 90′s skate style vibe of big Blind jeans and fast music you’ll love Roadkill.

If we understand correctly Volcom gave ten of their riders some budget to film their own video part, and now they are going to put them out one by one, starting with Daniel Brown on September, 3rd. Don’t worry, we’ll keep you posted!

IP2 is just about ready for your consumption. But first, here’s a little info…

IP2 stands for “Individually Produced Parts” . Whereas, each rider has 100% control of the direction, action and content collected to produce their own part for Volcom’s 2012 Snow project. We identified the riding characteristics of our team, matched them up with a videographer and gave them the green light. We are excited to share their personalities, travel experiences and shit they pulled off this past season.

Riders:
Curtis Ciszek
Jamie Lynn
Dan Brisse
Dylan Alito
Bjorn Leines
Scott Blum
Zac Marben
Bryan Iguchi
Seth Huot
Daniel Brown
Cody Beiersdorf
Arthur Longo

This Monster video offers more insights into this one of a kind snowboard even in Japan. We want to ride this so bad!

An “International gathering of creativity and flow”, The Holy Bowly was a collective effort with some of the most respected snow bowl builders in Japan as well as some of the most respected riders in the world all coming together for a common goal of showcasing another option in the future of freestyle snowboarding and park design. Check out Monster Energy’s Jess Kimura, Teddy Koo, Harrison Gordon, Kohei Kudo and friends mix it up at this one of a kind event—kampai!

Hot on the heels of their epic Boxes For Days season ender at Bear Mountain, the Lib Tech guys hit another home run of an event in Japan – the Holy Bowly. With guys like Jamie Lynn and Pat Moore flying in you have the inkling that it’s something special. And it is…

Bowl sessions are nothing new for snowboarders in Japan – they’ve been sculpting these epic transition-filled playgrounds for the over 10 years as the season winds down and, as we showed you when we posted a Japanese bowl session from last year (aka The Funnest Looking Snowboard Park Ever), they have it down to a fine art.

In Europe, too, shapers have been toying with skate-inspired snow setups – the infamous Wängl Tängl with its various RedBull End Sections and more recently the bowl feature at the Nike Chosen Sessions – but when Lib Tech decided they’d put on their own bowl session there was only one place they could do it.

Lib’s Event boss Krush Kulesza had been inspired by the Japanese scene, and hooked up with local shaping legends Hayato “Bubbles” Maruyama, Goro Komatsu and Shuji Kajiura to build a beast, call over some US rippers to ride with the local Dons and put on a session. As you’ll see, everyone was pretty hyped on the outcome with “The best snowboard event ever” a common statement.

This, indeed, looks SO much fun.