Only two words can describe the PONEY SESSION on DAY 2: EXTREME action! Check what went down in the media of video and words…

Due to near blizzard conditions on Thursday and the forecasted windy conditions on Saturday and Sunday, PONEY organization and riders worked together to complete course training, qualifications AND finals in one day – Friday, March 15th.

At the end of Friday afternoon only ten finalists remained. Greg Poissonier, competition MC extraordinaire, guided the crowd, play-by-play, through a series of 45 minute heats in which the squad of Finish, Norwegian and Russian riders showed off their best skills and tricks – e.g. the double, 10, ‘Miller’ flip, back flip, front flip, to name a few… To say the crowd was excited to see so much talent perform on the PONEY course, in one day, would be an understatement!

The competition results are as follows:

At just 15 years old, Vlad Kadharin from Russia, earns the Best Rookie title and 500 € with his impressive action on the rails section and jumps.

Sami Luhtanen from FINLAND wins Best Trick on the SALOMON sponsored JAIL RAIL section (cash prize: 500€) with his performance of the ‘Cab 27 front board’.

Aleksi Partanen, another ripper from FINLAND, wins the BIG AIR MONSTER (500€) with a switch double rodeo back.

Martin Kalliola, yet another Finish rider, wins the Best Trick on DAKINE TABLE GAP (500€) and landed one of the few tricks made on the GAP, a backside 5 stale-fish super engaged!

Overall 1st place for the PONEY SESSION 2013, goes to newcomer Aleksi Partanen, 20 years old. He impressed both crowd and judges with his 50/50 180 out, on the JAIL RAIL Section, followed by a switch double rodeo back on Big Air, and then finishing with a massive Front 10 on the Dakine Table – winning him 5000 € in prize money!

Overall 2nd place goes to the Finish machine, Sami Luhtanen, who earned his place on the podium (and 2500 €) with his consistent audience wowing doubles.

Last but certainly not least, overall 3rd place goes to Martin Kaliolla, winning 1200€.

The PONEY’s off slope grand finale heats up at the “GARDE A VUE” electro party on Saturday, March 16th! DJ’s such as Etienne de Crecy, Radio Nova Battle, DJ SKILLZ vs. DJ PACE and MODULAR DJ vs. MERIDIANS, will be lighting up ST LARY on Saturday night. This is a party NOT to be missed!

“GARDE A VUE” party details are shown below:
March Saturday 16th, GYMNASIUM SAINT LARY SOULAN, 21H00 – 03H00
Reservation on digitick.com 20 €

Day 1 is done at the Nescafe Champs in Leysin, and it was a mix of American and Finnish riders that were making the most of the unique slopestyle/halfpipe hybrid course. Check the highlights video and qualification results…

Sun, snow, blue skies and clouds. Leysin provide the perfect natural backdrop for the Qualification Day here at the NESCAFÉ CHAMPS, as 14 Women and 24 Men put on an intense show of freestyle snowboarding looking to land the 6 and 10 open places respectively for Friday’s Semi Finals. Some small fine tuning overnight resulted in the perfect riding infrastructure for the Qualification session at the 22nd Edition of the NESCAFÉ CHAMPS.

MEN

1. Martin Kalliola (FIN)
2. Roni Rintala (FIN)
3. Codey Ellison (USA)
4. Quinton Jones (USA)
5. Scott Moline (USA)
6. Markus Mathis (SUI)
7. Clemens Schattschneider (AUT)
8. Spencer Link (USA)
9. Max Buri (SUI)
10. Marco Grigis (ITA)

WOMEN

1. Phoebe Novello (USA)
2. Haille Soderholm (USA)
3. Christine Szumovski (AUT)
4. Michelle Zeller (USA)
5. Atti Holst (SWE)
6. Tina Ramholt (SUI)
7. Serena Shaw (USA)
8. Kirra Kotsenburg (USA)

This will blow you away. Martin Kalliola might not be a household name to many, but he is a damn fine snowboarder on all kinds of rails.

A bunch of Finnish guys go on a summer shred mission to Folgefonna/Norway. And since they’re Finns you know it’s going to be good!

Alternative title: OMG, Enni Rukajärvi does some summer shredding!

RIDERS: Aleksi Kemiläinen, Enni Rukajärvi, Hate Salminen, Lauri Lehtonen, Martin Kalliola,Saku Tiilikainen, Silja Suitiala, Suvi Suitiala, Tero Manninen, Valtteri Paunonen

You will most likely know by now that Martin Kalliola is the Horsefeathers King of S.N.O.W. 2010. If not you might want to stop by here and read about his victory first.

As a lot of people out there have been quite interested how he got there and who he is in the first place our friends from German Playboard magazine sent us an interview with him. Read on to learn more about the whats and hows.

SHORTCUTS
Nickname: Mara
Age: 19
How many years on board: about 8
Sponsors: Contract Snowboards
Chosen Setup: Contract Citizen Shred, some bindings, 32 boots
Stance: about 59cm
Residence: Lapua, Finland
Trick: FS 2000
Spot: Home
Food: Mom’s
Drink: Dad’s
Music: Eurodancer
Car: My roommate’s grandmother’s Ford Fiesta ’89, haha

Hey Martin, congratulations to the victory of the 2010 edition of the Horsefeathers King of S.N.O.W. How do you feel right now?
Stoked! Last year I was second and this year I won, so next year I´m aiming to be third to get the whole podium. Hehe. Did you had a good party with your friends? Hellyeah, we were at springbreak in Ruka so it was hell a party there anyway.

On what will you spend the 5.000,- USD cash?
Don’t know yet, so much to do. Surftrip to Bali would be awesome…?

You won four rounds out of fifteen. Means you received four Horsefeathers Prize Packages. How do you like them and what are you doing with so much stuff now?
I like the jackets, I have used one the whole season. Mänätseri borrowed one jeans I got, but I think it´s a neverback deal, haha.

Last year you became 2nd and now you made it. Do you want to participate next year, too, to defend your crown?
I dont know yet, but I think I got my goal though.

What was the worst and what was the best experience while competing at King of S.N.O.W?
The worst was propably the first 5 tricks because it was really cold in Finland and it was hard to talk friends into filming. The best moment was when we were filming the Cab 900 because the day was maybe the best shred day of the season!

Which one was the hardest trick to redo and why?
Handplant, because I broke my wrist just a couple of days before that round so it was kinda sketchy.

Did you learn any new tricks with the help of King of S.N.O.W?
Yeah, I learnt riding walls, never did that before.

What are you doing when you’re not competing at King of S.N.O.W?
Watching House, the coolest guy ever! I also tried to learn playing the guitar but, it didn’t work out so I changed to piano. But seems like piano didn’t work out either.

How did you get involved in snowboarding?
Local snowboard hero arranged a snowboard camp at a local resort for one weekend. I wasn’t really stoked to go there but my dad talked me into it, so I did it and I was pretty much taken after the weekend.

What are you doing in summertime?
We planned a roadtrip to Folgefonna so it would be awesome to go there for a couple weeks. Otherwise just skating and chilling with homies. I also looked for a summer job because last year I didn’t worked at all, but it was my best summer so far though! Sunset at the lake with a beautiful girl and love in the air, what could be better?

What are your friends thinking of your victory?
Seems to be stoked I guess.

Who helped you out with filming and was it hard to get your friends motivated every week to film you?
No one wanted to miss a lap if there was good weather at the moment because of finnish dark cloudy winter. Otherwise it wasn’t a problem.

Did you promise your friends a small amount of the price purse in return for filming you? Or what was the deal?
Not really, we just filmed each others in turns. But I promised some benefits to those guys if I win. So now its on!

Any Shoutouts?
Check out our crew’s blog wnbcrew.blogspot.com. Wanna be movie coming out fall 2010, trailer on the blog soon! Thanks to everybody who filmed me during the contest, family, vuokattiboys, joupiskaboys, rukaboys, siirilänmafia, all other friends, sponsors, antti, simo, pekka, gb and everybody I forgot…

Winner Martin Kalliola - photo: Samuli Ronkanen

15 rounds of fierce trickery later the new King is crowned. His name is Martin Kalliola and he reigns in Finland!

In the finale in the Horsefeathers Superpark Planai he stomped what you voted as the most beautiful Switch BS 9 – check it out below. Besides his crown, he also earned 5.000,- USD cash and a lot of coverage. Congrats Martin!

King of SNOW 2010 – Winner >>

And here’s the report from the final weekend:

Friday, Warmin Up: Horsefeathers teamrider Ville Uotila, Darek Bergmann and Jan „Honza“ Zajic as well as the photographer David Blazek and cameraman Vit Kratochvile already arrived one day before the final in the Horsefeathers Superpark Planai. The attendants turned in a good session and warmed up for the upcoming final at sunset. Due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland, only four of the ten invited riders could come – for the rest a special arrangement has been made: They could film and upload their tricks at home and hence could participate at the judging.

Matthias Vogt - photo: Helge Zirkl

Saturday, Final: The motivation of Matthis Vogt (GER), Luis Gärttner (AUT), Matias Jurai (CZE) and Filip Hrkel (SVK) rose already at the collective breakfast. From 11.30 am the sun pushed its way through the clouds. Thanks to the low temperatures during the night, not only the atmosphere but also the snow conditions were ideal and provided a dignified closure of the Horsefeathers Superpark Planai.

Matias Jura - photo: Roland Haschka

Just having arrived on the mountain, the pro line became immediately the center of the happening. At the riders meeting we decided to hold the final at the third kicker of the triple line. Already at the second run, the Finnish Ville Uotila showed the final trick – a Switch Backside 9 – and set the bar very high for the finalists of the Horsefeathers King of S.N.O.W. The final’s on! There wasn’t a time limit for the riders: After the riders acquainted themselves with the kicker, they gradually approached the 900 degree rotation. The setup inspired the participants to a real trick-flush that came to an end almost 3 hours and some reshapes later.

Luis Gärttner - photo: Roland Haschka

And it became even thicker! Afterwards, the finalists and Horsefeathers pro team riders didn’t rest, but lively showed their 9s, 10s and double backflips! To the delight of the cameraman and the photographer who could collect plenty of material! Also QFilmer Clemens Prankl has been on site and was obviously enthusiastic: „In my opinion the last weekend was the best of the season: Many popular faces, good moods and the small but nice session at the third kicker of the pro line.“

In the chill area the tunes of SUBLIME were played in the meantime; here and there the smell of barbecue ascended and thanks to the spring weather, the numerous deck chairs were occupied by the visitors.

Martin Kalliola in action - photo: Samuli Ronkanen

So contest- and farewell-atmosphere dominated the weekend, as on Sunday the boxes, rails and kickers of the Horsefeathers Superpark Planai have been shredded for the last time in this season. Despite the bar-tour alias „After Contest Party“ in the evening Clemens Prankl, QPhotographer Roland Haschka and the riders came together again on Sunday in the park to capture some good shots!

But the freestyle-depravation won’t last long: In about a month, on the 29th of May, the Horsefeathers Superpark Dachstein is opening its gates and guarantees for some legendary summer-shred sessions 2010!

For more information go to: king-of-snow.com

Watch the highlights of the finals weekend: