In this episode, Marko Grilc shreds his home mountains of Slovenia and nearby Austrian resorts in eager anticipation of the birth of his son, Maxx. Featuring sessions with Wojtek Pawlusiak, Mitja Kordič a.k.a. Framski Princ, Tim Kevin Ravnjak and Peter Podlogar.

snowpark-soelden.com

The park opening on the Hintertux glacier rang in the season in style a week or so back, now you can relive the highlights both on and off the hill in this sweet edit. 

The Hotzone.tv Park Opening went down from 5 to 7 October on the Hintertux Glacier in Austria. Once more Europe’s earliest park opening boasted good weather, world class snowboarding and a unique party schedule. The excellent park conditions and the many international snowboarders make the annual event one of the most important dates in the snowboard season.

Check the action from Hintertux last weekend, featuring heavy hitters like Seppe Smits, Roope Tonteri, Marko Grilc and more throwing hammers in the Session of the Dudes…

Above is the edit from Saturday’s contest, where there’s some intense spinning from the dudes, while this below has Sunday’s grom photoshoot. The mini men were killing it. Skip to the bottom if you’re keen on Friday’s action.

[Sunday Grom Session.]

Here’s a rundown of events in text format, should you be able to read…

The weather conditions could not have been any better for the Saturday of this year’s Hotzone.tv Park Opening. Despite last night’s activities – the fun- and goodie-filled UNIQUE8 premiere as well as the Pirates and the Shred Warm Up Parties – the hungry snowboarders encountered many happy faces already quite early in the day. Blue sky, no wind and pleasant temperatures just above zero degrees made for the typical Opening flair in the busy test area and the Skullcandy Lounge and for perfect conditions in the Betterpark.

At the Session of the Dudes a lineup of top riders like Marko Grilc, Chas Guldemond, Christian Haller and Gigi Rüf showed that the pro line is once again the benchmark in Europe. And while Roope Tonteri scored the Overall Winner trophy with his extremely technical tricks, local hero Werni Stock showed run after run that he was the clear winner in the Style category and the Best Rookie Award went to Tim Kevin Ravnjak from Slovenia. And apart from the big kickers rider crews and filmers swarmed around most other obstacles, too. It did not take long to spot a one-footed boardslide or a backside rodeo.

In the afternoon, the Hintertux parking lot turned into an event arena: Bag Jump, tarp surfing, many other activities and a glass of beer in the sun were perfect to wind down after a day on the mountain. Come nighttime the dance floor of the Hohenhaus Tenne rocked during the Analog Opening Night. The Wax Wreckaz DJ collective, DJ NLP, local act SMOK1NG FING3RZ and London-based DJ IRK were just some of the reasons for a long night after a perfect Opening day. And on Sunday in the morning the focus shifted to the youngsters at the Billabong Kids Shoot, where motivated mini shredders had a chance to re-finance their trip in the Cash for Trix Session starting 12:30, plus have the man, the myth, the legend that is Fischi point his lens at them.

All in all, epic as ever. Season’s on!

[Here's Friday's action, if you missed it.]

We just received this press release and video clip announcing three new team riders on the Planet Sports snowboard team: Tim-Kevin Ravnjak, Moritz Neuhäussler and Linus Birkendahl. Read on to find out more about these three promising groms!

The Kids Are Alright

Snowboarding now has more than 30 glorious years under its snowy belt, and our sport certainly wouldn’t be where it is today if new and daring kids hadn’t consistently done their thing to turn the scene upside down with fresh styles and limitless motivation. So it is absolutely normal for the superstars of today to hand over the reins to the shredders of tomorrow at safe and secure intervals, thereby ensuring that snowboarding not only stays alive, but also continuously further develops accordingly. We can now welcome three ballsy and talented young guys with the stuff to continue this legacy right away at Planet Sports. With 16-year-old Linus Birkendahl from Starnberg (Germany), considered Germany‘s no. 1 youngblood boarder and top hope for the 2014 Olympics, 19-year-old Moritz Neuhäussler from Miesbach (Germany), who everyone is talking about as a jib specialist on all rails and boxes, and 14-year-old Tim-Kevin Ravnjak from Velenje (Slovenia), who will be taken under the wings of none other than our team member and Burton Pro, Marko Grilc, and is already seen as the next big name in the game, we have laid an important foundation stone for the brand new Planet Sports Snow Rookie Team, which promotes young talent and will also secure the sport’s development for the next 30 years. To this end our experienced Pro Team with icons such as Eero Ettala, Torstein Horgmo or Silli Mittermüller, for example, will guide the “next generation”, and not only accompany it with tricks and the like, but will also be on hand for advice and actions in business matters. With professional support like this, pretty much nothing can go wrong, and there’ll be plenty to hear from Linus, Moritz, Tim-Kevin and other Planet Sports Rookies. So let’s just say, welcome on “board” guys – let’s get it on!

Quotes from their friends:

Christophe Schmidt about Linus

I really got to know Linus four years ago on a trip we both made to New Zealand. He is now sixteen and not just a good snowboarder and in my eyes Germany’s most promising talent – he is also and especially, a really cool guy, who we will be

Munich, 12th October 2011hearing a lot about in coming years!

Marko Grilc about TK:

TK is the future of snowboarding. he has insane board control and a sick style. and what makes me happy is that he is a really cool guy, and he has the right attitude. nowadays the spirit of snowboarding is getting attacked by mass media, sponsors, … but with guys like TK snowboarding is in safe hands. and its spirit will never die. love you bro. now go brush your teeth. Hehe

Basti Rittig about Moritz:

What’s the best way to describe Moritz? Hmm …, I think a mixture of the words motivated, lazy, chaotic and intelligent would probably best hit the mark. But there’s no one word for this combo, so my invented word would simply be, “Mo”…, yeah,

and he can snowboard as well

Our homies over at Planet Sports just fired us over this neat-o edit of Marko Grilc, DBK and Tim-Kevin Ravnjak knocking the back out of Saas Fee’s park. Amazing how cats can pull doubles off such little jumps these days…

In terms of pre-season warm-ups, here in Europe it seems to be all about Hintertux and Saas Fee right now. We’ve seen a fair few from both in recent weeks and now Planet Sports team riders David Bertschinger Karg, Grilo and Tim-Kevin weigh in with their edit. You will learn some bad words in Slovenian from this edit, see some steezing, funshred and double corkers.

It all started when Rene Strgar (snowboard rider) and Anže Suša (snowboard rider) opened the 5-0 Store last year and subsequently the 5-O Team was born. By that time there had been only one snowboarding movie produced in Slovenia in which both of them had a part. With a few friends Aleš Kegl, Andraž Kadunc, Blaž Vizjak, Jernej Zver, Niko Poljanšek and Peter Perunovič they started shooting. For starters it was just for fun. They produced short clips and little trick tips that should help with the progression of Slovenian freestyle sports like snowboard, skate and BMX. After that there came little reports and soon they found themselves filming for their first big project “Shut Up!“.

With video they just want to give the people a sneak peak into what they were doing this winter and how a couple of guys are living thier everyday life toghether or seperate… How they have fun and how they spend their time togheter. The idea behind the movie and the team started small and basically they tought that this is where the idea is going to stuck, but the future brought something else.

Riders: Anže Suša, Rene Strgar, Žiga Erlač, Mitja Kodrič, Matej Pavlič, Peter Štrafela & friends (Tadej Valentan, Domen Bizjak, Marko Grilc, Tim Kevin Ravnjak)

Filmed by Niko Poljanšek, Jernej Zver, Dario Krnjak, Aleš Kegl, Blaž Vizjak

Edit: Niko Poljanšek, Jernej Zver
Design: Niko Poljanšek
Produced: Niko Poljanšek & Rene Strgar
Manager of the project: Rene & Niko

5-0production.si

Check the best of the action from the event that give you a glimpse at who’ll be ruling snowboarding in the not-too distant future…

The World Rookie Fest Finals is the season-ending stop on the World Rookie Tour, series of contests across the globe offering grommets the chance to showcase their skills and shred with their peers at the same time. The fact that Peetu Piiroinen – current TTR tour champ and the only rider to have won back-to-back titles – won this back in 2004 tells you all you need to know about this end-of-season rookie throw down but if that’s not enough you should know this year’s winner, Roope Tonteri, finished off the season in 8th on the TTR rankings, while Gjermund Bråten – who won two years ago – finished up 4th. These kids are on the verge of busting down the door.

Watch the video to see the kids who’ll be dominating European snowboarding’s next generation right now. It takes a while to really get going but until it does you can amuse yourself with Roope’s attempt at growing a ‘tash…

Roope Tonteri. Photo: Raggi Eleonora

It must be what is commonly known as “sisu“: The strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in the face of adversity that only Finnish people seem to have. Because once again a kid from Suomi has dominated a big snowboard contest: Roope Tonteri becomes the first rider ever to take the WSF World Rookie Champion Title for the second time with his victory at the 4Star World Rookie Finals in Ischgl, Austria last Saturday, April 10th 2010. With Finnish Peetu Piiroinen and Enni Rukajärvi crowned male and female Swatch TTR World Champions, Finland was able to take home all Swatch TTR World Champion Titles as well as the WSF World Champion Title this season, which roughly translates to Finland kicked ass big time in 2009/10.

But back to the WSF World Rookie Finals: Second came Austrian rookie Clemens Schattschneider followed by Sven Thorgren from Sweden. The winner of the Rookie girls category was Polish Katarzyna Rusin, followed by Anna Gyarmati from Hungary in second place and Silja Suitiala from Finland in third.

After an already successful season for Tonteri, he ends his season in an impressive World No. 8 on the Swatch TTR Ranking. Among his results are a third and fifth place at the 5Star Burn River Jump in Italy, a sixth place in the slopestyle format of the 5Star Burton Canadian Open and a seventh place at The 6Star Oakley Arctic Challenge.

Diana Augustinova. Photo: Raggi Eleonora

The World Rookie Fest stop in Ischgl boasted a park setup par excellence for the rookies with three jumps up to 18m, a hip and finishing with a jib section. The 18-year old Tonteri took the victory with a run consisting of a cab 900, frontside 720, backside 720, a massive double backside rodeo on the final hip and a lot of the aforementioned sisu stuff. Roope does not only walk away with the Rookie World Champion Title, but can also look forward to freeride trip to Chile, an invitation to the Red Bull Evolution Camp in New Zealand, a film shooting with Pirate Movie Production and a ticket to the Billabong Air & Style Rookie Challenge 2010 in Innsbruck, Austria. And best of all, Roope, along with Tim Kevin Ravnyak, Clemens Schattschneider and Sven Thorgren, are now joining an Onboard Europe on a photoshoot in Italy.

In the Groms category (born after 1995), Tim Kevin Ravnyak from Slovenia stood atop the boys’ podium while Diana Augustinova from the Czech Republic won the girls’ comp. Both riders win a “Golden Ticket” to all Rookie Fest events in 2011.