Laax built a big ol’ end of season megabooter the other day, and Sina stomped her first ever front 10 over it. We know Kelly Clark’s been putting them down in the halfpipe for a while now, but is this the first ever kicker front 10 on film from the fairer sex? It’s late, we’re not certain, but one thing’s for sure – Sina just gave that poor big gap jump a bit of the good old Swiss slap ‘n’ tickle.

The last episode of the 2012/13 winter is all about the Spring Session and sees a bunch of rad dudes seeing off the season in style. Radboardin’

Thanks to everyone for this awesome days during Pleasure Spring Session.

The Spring Session edit featuring: Alex Tank, Gido Gfoellner, Lucas Baume, Andy Walker, Reto Kestenholz, Gian Simmen, Davo Struber, Lukas Lengle, Jesse Augustinus, Marco Rinke, Max Zebe, Boris Bühler, Jacco Bos, Max Buri, Raffi Kossmann, Jeron Lohner, Julien Emch, Phil de Vries, Blume, Diego Koch, Andreas Arn, Thomas Laich, Rob Imfeld, Philipp Ruggli, Adrian Oesch, Joelle Juchli, James Niederberger

Music: Band of Skulls -Death by Diamonds and Pearls // KROOKED C – BULLETPROOF
Camera by Elmar Bossard, Blume and Jeron Lohner
Edit by Blume

The latest homage to the awesomeness of spring shredding comes from the Postland Theory dudes, who drop this cut from their trip to Laax a couple weeks back shooting for Periscoping/having fun for the hell of it. 

Spring Sessions is the way to end your season in Europe. We went there with Kas Lemmens and Wessel Van Lierop and tried to film some laps over the slushy moguls, perfect days. 
Only bad thing was that Wessel broke his collarbone on his first attempt for a shot, typical end of season. 
Thanks to Monster Energy and Laax.

Featuring: Kas Lemmens, Dani Rajcsanyi, David Struber, Jacco Bos, Sindre Johan, Cottis Hoff

www.postlandtheory.com

Is there ever a bad time to ride Laax? By the look of these monthly edits, apparently no. Look out for tiny weeny riders sending it over not so teeny booters, and the questionable new swiss fashion of having your jacket only done up at the collar. This has us wondering exactly how irritating it must be if your jacket wraps itself over your head halfway through every trick. Anyways, here’s two and a half minutes to distract you from real life.

Riders: James Niederberger, Jah Harris, Joos Caviezel, Mättu Wattinger, Bastian Jaslin,Tobias Supertramp, Thomas Laich, Denis Leontyev. Mary Luggen, Stéphanie Kauert, Stefano Giudici, Marco Lazzaroni, Elio Fumagalli and Boris Bühler!

Music: Rex Lobo – Ride (Original Remix) https://soundcloud.com/rexlobo

Camera & Edit by Blumepictures

Russian jib phenomenon Denis posted up in Laax, lapped their epic park-cum-run, snagged a heap of hammers and knocked out this banger edit.

Denis having good times in Switzerland, Laax.

Special thanks to the resort – laax.com

Soundtrack: Notorious B.I.G – Notorious B.I.G (feat. Lil’ Kim And Puff Daddy)

denisbonus.blogspot.com

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..

While the contest cats were getting busy at the BEO finals, Clast rookies Max Buri, Lucas Baume and David Djité – dudes that Clast call “so non-blessed with competing skills” – spent the time riding loser laps on Laax’s epic park run. This is rad.

Filmed and edited: Kris Lüdi (HILLTON/ vimeo.com/hillton)
Check the full Clast Neckwear range on clastzoo.com

Ayumu Hirano. What were you doing when you were 14? Ayumu was winning the BEO with monster hits like this. All photos: Sami Tuoriniemi

It was a case of ‘the kids are alright’ today here in Laax as 16-year-old Arielle Gold and 14-year-old Ayumu Hirano bossed the super ditch to take the BEO halfpipe crowns…

After the disappointment of yesterday’s slopestyle finals having to be canned due to crappy conditions, today Mother Nature cracked a grin and – though conditions weren’t tip top – stopped blowing a gale and lifted her cloudy skirt to allow the pipe finals to go down as planned.

Arthur Longo.

The women were first to drop and, despite some snowfall and foggy conditions, put on a decent showing with a bit of a shock result to boot. Back-to-back 720s from the likes of Elena Hight and Serena Shaw were impressive, as was Elena Hight’s style, Ellery Hollingsworth‘s Michaelchuck flips and – naturally – Kelly Clark‘s monster amplitude. However, turning heads was 16-year-old American Arielle Gold, who took the early lead with a heady cocktail of style, huge hits and tech combos. She even turned it up a notch for her final run, improving on her earlier score to tighten her grip on first place, her proper poked backside airs to steezy front 5s up top standing out.

Arielle Gold gets the shower from Kelly Clark.

Kelly Clark was sat in second after 2 runs, the high scoring one being solid but with Gold in pole we were expecting her to use her experience to unleash in the last. The pressure, which she can’t have felt too often here (usually she tends to have a victory lap) was most certainly on bu unfortunately for Kelly, she slammed on the first hit leaving Gold to take the top spot. “This is a huge win for me,” said a clearly delighted Arielle. “I am pretty stoked. It’s my first 6Star title, that’s crazy!”

Matt Ladley.

After a quick reshape it was time for the men to take centre stage and as if on cue the clouds lifted and the sun beamed down setting the scene for a memorable showdown. Huge airtime, insane spins and a peppering of double corks were the order of the day from the get-go, with some dudes who’d battled through the early rounds making a good impression – namely Swiss teenagers David Hablützel and Lucien Koch. But the invited dudes were, predictably, making their experience count too. Scotty Lago had the crowd hooting for his unique approach to pipe riding, often triple-poking his spins or double nosegrabbing his frontside 900s that saw him settle into second place after the second run, but he was bumped down a spot when Iouri Podladtchikov finally managed to put the run he wanted down.

Scotty Lago.

But this final was all about 14-year-old Japanese sensation Ayumu Hirano who’d recently announced himself taking silver at the X Games. Though he technically should ride in the Junior category he was going bigger than any of the other riders, and with style for days. His second run consisted of an enormous backside air, frontside 1080 tail grab, Cab 1080 nose grab and a frontside double cork 1080 that earned him an unassailable 87.60 points and his first BEO pipe title. “The conditions were really difficult,” he said after the Champagne shower, “but I am very happy that I could show my best riding. I am super stoked”

Taylor Gold.

As they say, “Booom!” Junior Jam tomorrow. More then then.

Ayumu ist the boss.

With the finals cancelled Torstein Horgmo takes his first place spot in the semis to the bank ahead of Mark McMorris and Seb Toutant.

High winds and an incessant deluge of snow meant all today’s action was cancelled here in Laax, which resulted in the women’s BEO slopestyle being abandoned while the standings from yesterday’s men’s semis became the final results.

In such situations it’s always a double-edged sword: on the one hand you can’t help but feel for all those invlved behind the scenes who’ve grafted long and hard to ensure an event will be as awesome as possible, and for the missed opportunity to see the world’s best stuntboarders go wild, but on the other hand… well, there’s a LOT of pow.

At the end of the day no one would have been surprised had this podium come at the end of a mindblowing final, but when you saw the standard of riding in the semis and knew the guys would be turning it up to 11 to make it count it’s understandable that the riders, organisers and even us hacks can feel a sense of disappointment at would could have been. But the positive thing is that this was a call made by the riders and organisers together – it would have taken hours to clear the overnight snow that had accumulated, and even then the clouds kept socking in and the wind was howling making speed a serious issue.

Torstein bossing the semis. Photo: Olav Stubberud

Torstein had mixed emotions on the result: “It does feel a little weird to win like this, but I’m just stoked they made that call and didn’t try to run it like a lot of other contests this year have done. It’s weird and it doesn’t feel 100% right to win this way but at least we got some really good pow days. It’s my first pow days of the year so it’s been a good vacation [laughs].”

With any luck the wind and snow will ease up and we’ll have a banging pipe final tomorrow to write about. More tomorrow…

One of the immutable Laws of Snowboarding is that any video with Nicolas Müller in it will be worth watching. Another is that riding with him is funner than a bath full of boobs, so watch this!

Doodah is a chain of Swiss snowboard stores who throughout the season will be sending some of their team riders to hook up and rip with shredding’s great and good at their gaff. They kick off by dropping in on the boss of bosses, Mr Nicolas Müller and hot-lap their way through Laax pow. Riding with Nico is one of the most enlightening experiences in shredding, and the boys clearly had a grand old time…

Riders: Menno Labruyère, Dario Kneubühler, Markus Mathis and Bastian Jauslin.