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

Rowan Coultas, 15 year old uber shredder from the UK has joined the ranks of APO’s european team. Riding with the likes of Tyler Chorlton and Gerome ‘Coin-Coin’ Mathieu will push Rowans already bulging quiver of skills on a sideways plank to mind boggling heights. Rowans family relocated to Maryhofen, Austria 2 years ago and Rowan has been turning heads on the european scene ever since.

We caught up with Rowan to see what he thought of the move, “I am stoked to part of the APO team I have already met a few of the guys and they are all really cool. I think the boards are sick, really good pop and flex and they feel so good to ride on any terrain. The APO company is a cool company and I can’t wait to work with them more in the next few seasons!!!”

Sick things to come this winter with plans to get out shredding as much as possible, competition dates booked in the diary and training with the GB team in the US and Austria. He’s a busy boy, but you can also watch his silky skills as he shreds at the Freeze Festival at Battersea, UK this month.

Michael Schärer, Fridtjof Tischendorf and Rowan Coultas blew minds back at the end of last season when they dropped in on our Send Off Session. All are under 16, all ripped. Watch the future.

At our end of season Send Off Session in Kitzsteinhorn’s epic park, we invited three young bucks who’d placed well at the World Rookie Fest last season. They came, all shy and quiet as 15-year-olds can be, but once on the mountain they went ballistic, impressing us old hacks and the riders in equal measure. Watch them send it…

We noticed you liked the Jibbing Laax with Ethan Morgan clip, and we are confident you will like Jamie Nicholls and Rowan Coultas’ video just as much.

In Jamie’s own words: “Perfect weather in Laax and the rail line is unbelievable! You should go check it out!” Seconded.

The winners. Photo: Christian Eberl

Normally there would have been a slopestyle with two kickers and one rail or rather a box at Vans Penken Park but due to massive snow fall over Tyrol’s area we had to change plans. We just could have a railjam on the first rail of the advanced linefor all motivated shredders.

After an one-hour session, Jesse Augustinus from the Netherlands won the trophy and was to first to chose out of a big goodie box what to take home. Alois Lindmoser from St. Martin got second while British Rowan Coultas resident in Mayrhofen took the third place. Katie Omerod won the girls challenge.

Photo: Christian Eberl

Eight-year-old Jordy Keesmeeker from Belgium was the youngest rider of all and enthused the whole audience with his frontside backslides.

At night the famous Discodogs from Cologne had a great party with the crowd from Vans Park at Scotland Yard Pub.

The wildcard for the rookies final in Ischgl hasn’t been given away though, but we will keep you posted where and when this ticket will be out for winning as soon as possible.

Photo: Christian Eberl

Thanks to all who came to Vans Penken Park in spite of the bad weather – the few smooth powderlines which lead straight to the valley were the reward for all riders and workers there.

www.hotzone.tv

Results:
1 Jesse Augustinus (NL)
2 Alois Lindmoser (AUT)
3 Rowan Coultas (GB)

Best Girl: Katie Omerod (GB)

A 'groms party'? Interesting.