A couple of weeks back Vans threw a wodge of cashmoney around in the Ziller walley to the riders with the most stylish tricks. In an effort to make contests more fun to ride as well as to watch, Vans recylced the good old jam session format on a stair set and a big air kicker, this time adding a dollop of X Factor judging, a heap of 20 Euro notes, and a ban on spins over 720s and then fired up the barbecue let the good times roll. For details of the winners check our full event report and photos right here.

Photo: Rory Johnson

What do you get if you send a bunch of sweaty boys over a tabletop and a stairset on a slushy afternoon in the Ziller walley? CASHMONEY, that’s what. When it comes to snowboard contests, recent independent surveys carried out ever so carefully in a single Google search have conclusively proved a glaring three way split in opinion as to whether people care any more. Half of us are continually drooling over live streams of ever greater spintrickery while the other half of us moan that if we wanted gymnastics, let’s watch some ice skating, at least there’ll be lycra involved in that. And then there’s the unschooled masses getting all flustered in their rento boots just beyond the sidelines who are baffled as to how several tricks in dizzyingly quick succession can be mathematically valued out of 100, but only after a couple of minutes’ consideration. So Vans took it upon themselves to simplify the whole shebang, remind folks where we come from, and have a jolly good laugh while we’re at it. The Vans Hi Standard Series gave riders a chance to show off, with steeze scoring higher than spins – a jam session with a ban on anything over a couple of rotations.

Photo: Rory Johnson

No complicated scoring necessary – if the judges liked the way you move, collect your notes before you pass go. After a few initial bails and wash outs, suddenly there were nosegrab late 1s, super slow 3s, and methods dropping all over the show. The judges were getting more loving than your average Bangkok hooker and they weren’t ashamed to pay for it. Ghost grabs and window wipers drew blank expressions and we could see shame faced riders hurrying round again to have another stab at it. Standards were kept as high as the contest’s name suggests, and if the guys thought you should do better or a tweak was missing then MC Henry Jackson would tell you as well as everyone at the Grillhof all about it.

Photo: Rory Johnson

Photo: Rory Johnson

There is such thing as a free lunch – despite what your gran might tell you – and we all topped up our sunburns whilst munching on it. As if the tourists on the terrace weren’t stoked enough to have understood the simple format of the comp, there was a whole pile of swag to give away for anyone willing to handstand or breakdance for our amusement. The jackpot went to a girl who proudly proved snowboarders just are inherently cooler by humiliating a skier in a running race around the restaurant.

Photo: Rory Johnson

After lunch the bank of Vans reopened over at the rail set for another jam session. This was a chance for Betty, the only girl with balls enough to throw down with the crowd to make some bank. She promptly did so with some smooth boardslides over the hand rail – proof enough that the fairer sex can ride with style when they’re told to. Taking part does count for something, as proved by Charlie Rowlands, whose double backflips to face were an easy choice for ‘best slam’, take a hundy for trying Charlie. Rowan Coultas got a tip of the cap from the judges as best under 16 rider, while Flo Heim took best mens.

Photo – Rory Johnson

Vans may have brought the X Factor into our snowy little world with their yes or no judging, but combining that with some instant gratification for all the riders which we all love in this digital age, they have struck a surprisingly engaging balance between competition and camaraderie with the Hi Standard Series, and the crowd were loving it too. 

Buckle up, Mayrhofen, the Vans Hi Standard’s on its way to change the pace. Pop up to Penken and pick up some particularly pretty prizes this Saturday. It’s Big Air with a twist – not a triple cork: anything over a 7 won’t count, and there’s minus points for repeating a trick. And there’s a railjam too where style wins, and even if you’ve got none then fear not – there are prizes for the worst tricks too. It all seems very warm spirited, which fits nicely with the boozy barbeque session they’ve lined up at the Grillhof and there’ll be no shortage of spirits at Scotland Yard afterwards either. And they’ve imported DJ Flippstarr off of Berlin to play some Adult Rap for us, so be there or be… forever in the dark as to what the heck that is.

For more details click over to the event facepage here and the dj’s soundcloud here

And, lo, it’s another edit of British buck Jamie Nicholls pulling some cunning stunts in the Vans Penken Park.

Jamie seems to be on a one-man mission to film as many edits of him manhandling Mayrhofen’s Vans Penken Park as is possible. Here’s edit 109,265 of his ever-increasing stack.

44 seconds of Jamie Nicholls knocking the back end out of Mayrhofen’s booters, from mellow 5s to hectic Cab 1440s.

Jamie puts down all four 10s in this edit (which we remember being kind of a big deal a few years back – scratch that, we were thinking of all four 7s!) plus a Cab 12 and 1440. No big deal for kids these days, eh.

Rowan Coultas on his way to first place. All Phots: Christian Eberl.

The young Brit bags the win at this year’s edition of the grommet contest in Mayrhofen.

The Hotzone.tv Groms Open was held as ever in the Vans Penken Park, Mayrhofen, Zillertal, on the St. Epiphany on Sunday 6th January 2013. The competition offers young and upcoming riders (aged under 18) a platform where girls and boys can simply join their first contest or compete against people in the same age bracket for money, honor and fun. Riders joined the competition from several different countries. Competitors from Belgium, Italy, Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria, Germany and Russia showed up in Mayrhofen on this epic bluebird day.

Roland Tschoder

The slopestyle run consisted of optional down rail or down box, followed by a kicker with about 12m table and a kicker with about 14m table in the end. After a heavy snowfall on Saturday and Sunday night, Sven Toller and his shaping crew did an amazing job cleaning the park so the competition was able to start on time.

After a one hour jam session, the judges Thomas “Beckna“ Eberharter, Roman “Fenky“ Fankhauser and Andy Lehmann chose the 8 best riders for the finals, with Philipp Kundratitz from Innsbruck in the leading position after showing some nice tricks like frontside 7, backside 7 and a backside 9.

Maximilian Preissinger

In the end it was the British rookie, Rowan Coultas, who took home the first place – showing some really technical tricks on the rails, clean and smooth style over the kickers with 270 to frontside boardslide, a frontside inverted 5 at the first kicker and a cab 9 melon at the second kicker. A 14-year-old Maximilian Preissinger from Staubing in Bavaria took second and also won the title of “Best Grom“ with blunt slide 270 out on the rail, a cab 5 and a backside 9 at the kickers. Third place went to Vladislav Khadarin from Russia. He impressed the judges in the finals with backside 50/50, backside 7 and frontside 9. The unlucky fourth place went to Roland Tschoder from Ischgl (Austria), the same as at the Groms Open in 2011. The first place in girls category went to Kaja Verdnik from Slovenia, right in front of her rival and team mate Eva Kralj.

Look how small Jordy Keesmeekers is!

Prize giving was held at the Grillhofalm, just next to the park. The successful participants were awarded a prize amount of 1000€ (in total), a wild card for the World Rookie Fest in Ischgl and outerwear from Vans.

Not only was the level pretty high in the contest, but also in the Vans opening Party in Scotland Yard Pub. Many motivated people showed up to celebrate the upcoming season together with the Disco Dogs.

Check out the full results here: www.gromsopen.com

Podium

In the new 2012/13, the Vans Penken Park again impresses with a spectacular setup, which has something in stock for everybody, from rookie to pro. Have a first look at it in our cool 3D-animated Roundflip.

First things first:

Once again, park designer Sven Toller and his hardworking shape crew will outdo themselves with this year’s setup. Be it beginner, advanced rider or pro, over a length of 520m, the Vans Penken Park offers shred fun for everyone. You can prove your riding skills at no less than four different lines. The kids park bursts with training facilities for all young bloods and offers an armada of butter-boxes in addition to three kickers. In the public area, airtime is the key word as the six take-offs between 5 – 8m guarantee kicker fun at its best. The advanced area offers a lively mix of jibs, boxes, tubes and rails, as well as a funbox and two kickers with 12 and 14m. Yet another highlight awaits you in the pro area: the multi jib beast box, which will spice up your shred day. Also, a little rail garden will be at your service with a down, a flat/down and a flat/down/flat rail. No matter where you want to give your skills free reign, at the Vans Penken Park Mayrhofen you will always get your money’s worth!

Girls just wanna have fun!

Naturally, this year will be packed with action surrounding Mayrhofen’s most popular playground. At the Girls Day, for instance, all female shred heads will be invited to a special gathering to celebrate and encourage the increasing number of female freestyle talents properly. Girls, it’s time to get excited, because the Girls Day gives you the chance to improve your riding skills with the help of a pro, and to experience an awesome day bursting with an action shooting, BBQ and massive girl power. Ready, set … raffle!
For all raffle enthusiasts, we have something else in store: twice in this season, you’ll get the chance to win high-quality boots dryers at our “Happy Feet” raffle. Those among you who can’t get enough gamble action should definitely pay attention to this year’s edition of “Clash of Communities”.

Once again it’s all about securing a phat obstacle.

Who manages to mobilize the most fans for their homebase at the end of the day can look forward to a high-class obstacle that the victorious community may shred vividly from dusk till dawn. So check out the Vans Penken Park Facebook Fanpage and vote till you drop!
Get your boards and twin tips out of their summer stash and prepare yourselves for another awesome season at the Vans Penken Park Mayrhofen! See u soon!
Let’s get ready for another awesome season!

Watch Jamie Nicholls, Peetu Piiroinen, Tom Klocker, Mario Wanger, Ethan Morgen, Peter König, Marvin Salmina, Roli Scharmer and many more shredding last years Vans Penken Park in Mayrhofen. We hope that this will get you in the right mood for the upcoming winter! www.vans-penken-park.com

The third installment of the Gastof Zillertal’s video comp has come to a close and the top 3 movies of Shoot Your Friends announced. Check them out

Here’s what Jan from the Gastof had to say: “3 years ago, Jim Healy (Gasthof-Zillertal Bar Manager at the time) and myself (Gasthof-Zillertal General Manager) sat down and came up with the idea to organize this competition. Wanting to show the world the life and lifestyle of a snowboarder during the winter season, we molded the idea into a competition over a 6 week period. To make things even more interesting weekly assignments were made up that had to be included. Some assignments were riding related, some were lifestyle related and some were just straight up funny. And that’s exactly what they wanted to see, the humour and creativity of snowboarding!

“The 6 week during Shoot Your Friends video competition has come to an end. It has been a fun and eventful. We have put our contestants trough alot of weird things for them to show us, from kissing 40plus year olds to waist deep forest powder. While they where out doing their homework we were racking up a giant prize pile for them to take home after our premiere night at the Gasthof Zillertal.”

And the winner is. Drumroll…

First Place

The Sundance Kids

“Well deserved with succeeding in pretty much every thing that we had to throw at them.”

Second Place

Papoea’s

“Strong edit with strong riding, unfortunately didn’t cope with succeeding in completing all the challenges.”

Third Place

M.A.C.K.N.

“The most funny edit for sure, Swedish meatball crazyness. Creative riding and filming.”

All of us from the Gasthof Zillertal are very proud of the outcome, and are looking forward on planning next year’s edition.

Special thanks to all our sponsors for making this happen.
Bataleon
Thirty Two
Tom’s Wholesale Distribution
GoPro
Sabre
Holden
LibTech
Quiksilver
Raiden Bindings
Million Thoughts
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