The Diaries Downunder crew take a different look at the hectic riding at the recent Burton High Fives at Snowpark NZ, and then things get even more out of hand on a gap to down bar. One-foots, frontflips and backside rodeos on. Woo-haa!

Burton High Fives brings top level international riders to Snow Park, New Zealand to take part in insane activities and a contest format that would be hard to mimic in any other part of the world. Hectic car driving, shooting, knife throwing, buggy driving and jet boating combine with one of the most progressive competitions ever. Mark McMorris attempts the world’s first slopestyle triple cork, Stale Sandbech lands a 1440 and Mikkel Bang still puts style first. A must -see!

A big gap to rail then awaits us at Cardrona, built especially for DDU. The aim was to test what exactly is possible when you have an amazing 20 foot jump onto a 30 foot rail. Flips, spins and another crazy episode of Diaries Downunder for you!

Mikkel getting plenty of Bang for his buck.

The first annual Burton ‘High Fives’ snowboarding competition, presented by MINI, continued today at Snow Park NZ in Wanaka with the exciting Slopestyle Finals. Taking first place and walking away $USD 10,000 richer each, were Burton riders Mikkel Bang (NOR) and Enni Rukajarvi (FIN).

60 of the top snowboarders in the world have experienced a snowboarding event like no other in New Zealand this week as the Burton High Fives combined traditional snowboarding eventswith unique off-snow team challenges. The first two days of the event saw the riders taking part in a variety of Kiwi-influenced challenges including skeet shooting, knife throwing and jet boat racing, just to name a few. The athletes also took to the driving track for the MINI Countryman Winter Driving Challenge where the fastest teams got the advantage of selecting the order for halfpipe and slopestyle. With the first two days of off-snow team challenges now completed, the action today shifted back toSnow Park NZ and the world-class slopestyle course.

Enni gap tackling with a tail grab.

Under sunny skies, the women were first up in the slopestyle finals. The Burton High Fives’ jam format allowed each rider to get four runs, which lead to an exciting competition for the women. Burton’s Enni Rukajarvi’s (FIN) impressive third run scored her an 83.80 with an indy air, boardslide, frontside 3 indy, back 5, cab 5, and stale. Local New Zealand rider Christy Prior felt right at home nailing second place in her final run with 78.20. Her solid run consisted of an ollie, backside lipslide, front 3 tailtap, front rodeo 7, back 3, and backside air. Ty Walker (USA) came in third in her final run with 77.00. She locked in the final podium spot with a run that included a 50/50, lipslide, front 3 tailtap, frontside 3, back 7, and a method.

Burton rider Mikkel Bang (NOR) was the clear standout throughout the men’s competition as he took the lead right off the bat with his first run score of 91.00 – only to top it on his second run with 95.40 points. Mikkel’s winning run started out with a switch backside 1, front 270, back 5, switch back 12, front 10 double, and a backside rodeo 5 stale over the final hip jump. Head Judge, Mel Simmons, commented, “Mikkel’s run had everything, it was tech, it had the spins, and it was totally stomped. It was the complete package”.

Ståle begins the defence of his crown

For the rest of the men’s field it was a matter of catch up, and it all came down to their final runs as top riders leap-frogged each other for the remaining podium spots. Sebastien Toutant (CAN) busted into second place with 94.00 points, courtesy of a back 3, frontblunt sameways 270, front 3 tail, back 10 double, front 10 double, and double back rodeo to finish. Taking third place with 92.00 points was Stale Sandbech (NOR), his run started with a 50/50 front 1 close out, hardways 270, cab 5,front 10, back 14, and alley oop.

Prize money today totalled US $35,000, with the same amount on the table again for tomorrow’s halfpipe finals. While competing for individual results in slopestyle, riders were also representing 12 teams selected earlier in the week for the off-snow challenges. Points from those challenges will be combined with points from today’s slopestyle and tomorrow’s halfpipe rankings, and the top team will walk away with an additional US $10,000 to split between them. The total prize purse of US $80,000 is the largest to date in New Zealand snow sports history.

Second place for Seb Toutant

The Burton High Fives will wrap up tomorrow with the halfpipe finals so be sure to check the live webcast on www.opensnowboarding.com starting at 10:15am New Zealand standard time. At the conclusion of the Halfpipe prize giving, the High Fives Sunset Sessions will take place at the Woolshed at Snow Park NZ from 3-6pm, featuring Dudstown Soundsystem. The entertainment continues with the High Fives Closing Party later in the evening at Opium Bar in Wanaka, also featuring Dudstown Soundsystem.

Antti Autti dropped us a line to fire over this webisode from his time in NZ and Chile for his upcoming movie, ANTIOUT. Peepit.

Thinking filming was done at the end of last winter Antti and his filmer made the spur of the moment decision to head to the southern hemi this summer – to NZ and Chile. It turned out to be one of the best times they had shooting for ANTIOUT. Keeping it strictly natural was a challenge but, as Antti says, “it’s the direction I want to go with my riding.”

The man himself says, “the whole ANTIOUT movie will be released November 4th so there is gonna be pretty nice part from southern hemisphere in it. This is just a little taste.”

This just got us mad stoked. Some Snow Porn from Burton’s theliftline.tv with Nicolas Müller, Stephan Maurer and Kazuhiro Kokubo getting it done in the NZ backcountry.

That method by Müller is the nuts, and those pow butters… so fun. Roll on winter.

Though there’s no doubt that this is nicely filmed and nicely edited, and has some nicely nice park- and frontcountry riding in it to boot, the best thing about this clip is that it uses a full-on frickin’ TUNE!

The NZ leg of the TTR World Snowboard Tour kicked off with the 4-Star Billabong Slopestyle in Snow Park. Roope Tonteri and Jamie Anderson won – watch what went down…

Our good buddy Roope Tonteri thankfully made it out of Les 2 Alpes alive (where we discovered his and our Photo Ed’s mutual love for l’Avalanche club) and made it down under where he’s kicked ass in the Open Men’s division of the Billabong Slopestyle 4Star TTR World Snowboard Tour event which wrapped up at Snow Park near Lake Wanaka, New Zealand yesterday, coming out top of the pile of the 50-odd riders who entered.

Though Roope left the Cab 1440 he pulled out the bag to win last season’s Burton European Open under wraps, he dominated qualifying on Friday and sent it in his first finals run to ensure the top-spot on the podium ahead of the USA’s Sam Hulbert (USA), 2nd, and fellow Fin, Antti Autti (FIN), 3rd.

Tonteri’s winning run went like this: a frontside boardslide to front 360 tail tap, a back 900, a cab 900 and a backside 540 over the final feature dubbed the ‘Monster Volcano’; a channel-gap nipple jump over a giant inflatable Monster Energy can.

The judge’s score of 89.40 (out of 100) saw Tonteri walk away with 500 valuable TTR World Tour ranking points, $5,000 in prize money and a swag of prizes that included a state-of-the-art Nex5 Sony Camera.

One of our favourite girls to watch ever, two-time TTR World Champion Jamie Anderson flaunted her style and tech in the Open Women’s, bagging yet another first place Slopestyle finish. Isabel Derungs (SUI) finished 2nd with Jordie Karlinski (USA) in 3rd.

For more on the Tour, head to ttrworldtour.com

Nice to see some winter in the midst of summer, though it looks like Snowpark could do with another dusting or three. In the first of this season’s Diaries Downunder Jye Kearney gets all Mean Streets in the intro before jetting to NZ to hook up with the Kiwi crew, before razzing up to Snowpark to hit up the late arvo/night session. The boys are pumped to be back on god’s spuff. Nick Hyne‘s so stoked he even forgets to do up his back binding for a few hits of the box.

See you next year!

Watch what went down in Snow Park, NZ, last weekend.

10-11 September 2010 saw Billabong throw down the Bro Down in NZ’s Snow Park with $10K up for grabs. As the winter starts winding down in the southern hemi, riders rolled up to a perfect-looking 20m kicker, the threatening weather held off and allowed the guys and gals to step their game up to try to snatch the cash.

The qualifying round was a flurry of 9s and 10s, even some double back Rodeo’s were getting put down in the the Open Mens with 3s, 5s and backside rodeo’s being landed in the Women’s. The top six Men and top three Women advanced to the final in which they were given 3 judged runs with their best counting towards the final score.

In the end it was Local rider Jake Koia (NZ) who took the top spot on the podium with a huge, flawless frontside 1080 melon, following him was Seppe Smits (BEL) with a buttery Cab 9 and rounding out the top 3 in the Open Men’s was Dave Schmidt Rodriguez who was throwing sick front 9s and 10s off the toes. In the Women’s it was standout rider Klaudia Medlova who channelled the spirit of Tara Dakides to take first spot with her huge smooth backside rodeo, Rebecca Torr (NZ) came in at 2nd with a stylish back 3 melon after not quite stomping a cab 5 and Silvia Mittermüller took out 3rd place after not quite putting down her big frontside 7s. All riders also claimed valuable TTR points at this early stage on the TTR World Tour.

Eyes on Snow Park NZ from 10-11 September.

Billabong’s Snow Event is well established, running for 9 years and is held at New Zealand’s premiere terrain park (Snow Park). It started out as a Slope Style event, but for the last four years it has been a big air event. For the last three years it has been part of the TTR (Ticket To Ride) world circuit with a 3star rating.

Registration will be Friday 10th September 10am @ the Woolshed, Snow Park, Wanaka. Here you will be given your Bib and registration pack. Practice on course 11am – 12.30pm. Saturday 11th, practice on course 10.30am – 11.30 pm. Event starts 12pm

Entry includes a Billabong limited edition event hoody and Beanie, Accommodation (limited amount available) at Snow Park and entry into the VIP after party (Saturday 11th September, The Woolshed @ Snow Park). Drinks and food provided.

Buses will be available on Saturday 29th for competitors. They will leave from Outside Good Sports in Dumore St, Wanaka at 8am and 10am. There will be buses back from Snow Park to Wanaka at 5pm, 11pm and 12pm.