Seppe Smits, photo: Markus Deutinger

From March 28^th to 31^st, the Quiksilver Spring Battle celebrated its 10^th Anniversary at Absolut Park Flachauwinkl in Austria. For the very first 5Star TTR Event of the TTR World Snowboard Tour 2012/2013 some of the world´s best snowboarders travelled to Absolut Park Flachauwinkl to go for the heavy total prize purse of 50.000 US Dollar and up to 850 points for the TTR Big Air Tour Ranking 2012/2013. For the second time in a row, previous year´s winner Seppe Smits from Belgium took first place on the podium. Finnish rider Nuutti Niemelä became second before the American Eric Willett. Clemens Schattschneider was the best Austrian rider who made it up to the 5^th place.

Jan Necas

For ten years the Quiksilver Spring Battle has made a reputation as one of the most popular snowboarding events in Europe. An accomplished combination of the premium setup at the perfectly shaped Absolut Park with an innovative video judging system has been thrilling riders and spectators at this year´s 5 Star TTR Big Air snowboard competition. In the Qualification round on Thursday, all riders were showing off on the perfectly shaped 22 metre Big Air kicker, even if the weather conditions were getting worse due to strong winds. With the actual start list it was hardly surprising that double corks and 1260´s have been stomped even in the first round. The best ten competitors advanced to the subsequent Semi Finals. Together with ten invited riders out of the TTR Top 10 World Tour Ranking, they kept on pushing it to the limits, ignoring the upcoming storm in the Semis. The Finals were supposed to go down on Friday, 31^st of March but had to be in the true sense of the word blown off in last-minute. The ten best Semi Finalists were automatically nominated for the final Video Judging on Friday Night. They had the opportunity to pick their favorite run for the Video Juding, which was conducted on a video screen from different viewing angles.

Skate action. Photo: Markus Rohrbacher

International Podium and local Superstars in the top 10

Again, previous year´s winner Seppe Smits could not be beaten. Despite tough conditions due to strong winds, the Belgian convinced the judges and audience stomping a clean Cab 1260 Mute Grab over the Big Air kicker. Seppe won the Quiksilver Spring Battle for the second time in a row. Beside honour and glory, he took home 15.000 Euro prize money and 850 TTR points counting towards the 2012/2013 season. Nuutti Niemelä from Finnland was close on his heels and became second with the same trick, a Cab 1260 Mute Grab for which he was rewarded with 9.000 Euros. The American Eric Willett took 3rd place on the podium with his Frontside Doublecork 1080 Mute Grab, that brought him in 5.000 Euros of prize money. Finnish rider Ville Paumola missed the podium, but raked in 2.000 Euros for the 4^th place. Clemens Schattschneider was the best Austrian rider in the final round, reaching 5^th position. He took home 1.500 Euros as well as Markku Koski from Finland for his 6^th rank.

Another Austrian snowboarder, Michael Macho, became 7^th before Max Buri (SUI), Jan Necas (CZE) and Sven Thorgren SWE). They all got rewarded with 1.000 Euros each for their spot in the Top ten of the Quiksilver Spring Battle 2012.

After the prize giving, FM4/Texta DJ Dan took the tiller for the FM4 Club Aftershow-Party at  the ceremonial hall of Flachau. Riders and party people celebrated the 10th Spring Battle Anniversary properly until the break of dawn.

The prizegiving.

Several winners and three awards at the Skateboarding „Cash for Trick“ Sessions

On Wednesday, 28^th of March 2012, the Quiksilver Spring Battle 2012 showcased finest transition skateboarding at the Chillhouse on 1600 metres above sea level. 26 skateboarders from all over Europe were sending it for the Skate Jam. Most of the time up to five guys rode the miniramp coincidentally, intending to grab for some notes out of the 1500 Euros total prize pot. There were many winners but Andy Scott, Philipp Schuster and Dustin Vonach took home the awards for as “most impressive riders” of the day.

Asymbol Art Show of the Art Of Flight collection

Snowboarding legend Travis Rice and renowned artist Mike Parillo brought their Asymbol Art Show with the Art Of Flight collection for the Quiksilver Spring Battle to Flachauwinkl.

Riders' Night.

Ten years of Spring Battle – a flashback

The very first Spring Battle was taking place in 2003. The Aesthetiker Andreas “Mone” Monsberger took home the glorious trophy. In 2004, it was the Slovenian snowboard star Marko Grilc who won the Spring Battle, before Steve Gruber, another legend rider of the Aesthetiker crew, took over the lead in 2005. The following two years were under the sign of the scandinavians: Sweden´s Martin Sandberg won in 2006 and Ville Uotila from Finland was on top of the podium in 2007. The German “Pirate” Lars Oesterle claimed victory in 2008 and Jakko Ruha took back home all honour to Finland in 2009. Swedish young gun Kevin Backstroem won the competition in 2010, before the Belgian super talent Seppe Smits wrapped up the Quiksilver Spring Battle successfully in 2011.

All infos and rider profiles on:

www.ttrworldtour.com und www.snowboardingresults.com.

All infos on the Quiksilver Spring Battle:

www.absolutpark.com

www.facebook.com/quiksilverspringbattle

www.quiksilver-europe.com

Nuutti soars into first place.

The latest edition of the Total Fight Masters of Freestyle took over the Andorran resort of Grandvalira once more, and under epic bluebird skies Finnish rider Nuutti Niemelä bagged the win.

Spring sessions always rule, and the Burton & San Miguel Total Fight Masters of Freestyle held in the Andorran resort of Grandvalira was no exception this year, offering the highest quality of riding, burning sunshine, fresh snow and a cheering crowd to keep spirits high.

Kim Rune Hansen

The Coliflor Freestyle shapers spent the previous week carving magic into the slopestyle’s five modules, starting with a 10 metre long rail followed by an impressive San Miguel lookalike 2 metres by 4,5 metres “can” and polished off by 3 massive crowd pleaser kickers.

Big tricks ruled the day, with only 16 riders out of the original 31 qualifying through to the second round. The Norwegian Team Burton rider Kim Rune Hansen, who recently came second in the WSC Quaterpipe, dominated the first round with a Switch FS Slide on the first rail, followed by a Switch 50 to BS 180 Out on the San Miguel “can” and neatly polished off with a perfect FS 7 Melon on the first kicker, a super stylish BS 5 Mute on the second and a Switch FS 9 on the last.

The setup. Not too shabby.

To go through to the next round, each rider was paired against another, with only one rider per pair making it through. The pairings were as follows: Kim Rune Hansen against Spaniard Carles Turner, Finnish rider Valtteri Paunonen against the Norwegian Joachim Krogstie, Finn Hanri Lakkonen against the Argentinean Santi Gamen (who actually hurt himself and chose to be paired against the Spaniard Albert Piñol), Finnish rider Ville Paumola against the Spaniard Isaac Vergés, German rider Patrick Cinca against the Argentinean Facundo Vial, Finn Roni Rintale against the Argentinean rider Nico Fuentes, Finnish rider Ville Uotila against the Argentinean rider Mattias Schmitt and finally the Finnish rider Nuuti Niemela was paired against his fellow countryman Tommi Rokolampi.

After an intense battle on the slopes only 8 riders were left to compete for the finals, with Kim Rune Hansen seeming to lead the pack with a Switch FS Slide followed by a 50/50 and a BS 7 Tailgrab, BS Rodeo Mute finished and a Switch BS Melon on the last three kickers. For this round, Hansen was paired against Patrick Cinca, Nuuti Niemela against Ville Uotila, Hanri Lakkonen against Ville Paumola and Valtteri Paunonen was paired against the Argentinean rider and Grandvalira local Nico Fuentes.

Patrick Cinca

Knowing that they had nothing left to lose to get to the finals, the remaining 8 riders pulled out their best tricks, Nuuti Niemela especially surprised everyone with his inspired BS Double Cork on the last kicker, effectively eliminating the undefeated champion of the last few Total Fight’s, Ville Uotila.

The finals of any competition are the real nail biters, and the 2012 Total Fight was no exception, with three Finnish riders, Paumola, Niemela, Paunonen and one German, Cinca, preparing to fight it out on the grounds of the scorching El Tarter Snowpark.

Each rider had three chances to outshine each other, and the crowd wasn’t complaining, but it was finally the Finnish rider Nuuti Niemela who stole the day with a spectacular FS Lipslide on the rail, followed by a 50 to 180 out on the San Miguel “can”, a Cab 9 Stalefish on the first kicker, an FS 10 on the second and a BS Doble Cork 12 on the last kicker. There was simply no doubt, Nuuti Niemela is 2012’s new king of the Total Fight Masters of Freestyle.

Podium

Nuuti Niemela, one of the top 8 world slopestyle riders told us: “I love this event, it’s one of my favourites. I’m so stoked with my round, the Slopestyle was so good and you had to get lots of speed to do good tricks. I’m really happy to be here”. Ville Paumola placed second, followed by Patrick Cinca and Valtteri Paunonen in fourth position.

For this edition of the Total Fight, the riders split 14.000 Euros between them, 7000 for the first, 4000 for the second, 2000 for the third and 1000 for the fourth. The party, of course, went off with the Total Fight Night Jibbing and the San Miguel Night Music – Flaix FM party, with the amazing Crappy Tuesdays Dj’s ripping it up.

www.totalfightmasters.com

As they drop in on Mammoth’s terrain park the crew of Finns – Ville Paumola, Ville Uotila, Aleksi Kumpulainen and Markus Malin - find the big line closed but have themselves a blast on the medium and jib lines regardless before taking it to the backcountry where they find a good spot for a solid kicker session. Next up they take it back to the park at Bear Mountain and to wrap it all up, the boys get some Californian dreaming going on in San Diego. Surf’s up, bitches…

That’s the season wrapped for the series, but you can keep in the loop on these boys’ haps by tuning into the Flying Finns Facebook page.

The Quiksilver Spring Battle wrapped up in Flachauwinkl last week and despite greybird skies and a bunch of slush, the riders stepped up and threw down some hammers on the double kicker line.

Seppe Smits – holy cow that boy is good – came first ahead of Marko Grilc and rookie Finn Ville Paumola. Check all the top 3 runs…

1ST – SEPPE SMITS

2ND – MARKO GRILC

3RD – VILLE PAUMOLA

They kick things off with some fun park shredding in Northstar, but then the heavens open and there’s almost too much snow to ride as they get involved with the Tahoe backcountry.

Riders: Ville Uotila, Ville Paumola, Aleksi Kumpulainen

Check it out.

Elias Elhardt, shot by Roland Haschka.

The Horsefeathers Pleasure Jam 2010 finals passed off with a remarkably high riding level. After a terrific qualification at the Horsefeathers Superpark Dachstein on Saturday, the gathered snowboarder-scene witnessed a fulminate spectacle on a perfect sunny Sunday. The final of the TTR4 star contest made the audience gasp until the last rider went for the huge kickers. For the second time in a row, the “Jamps” of the 8th Horsefeathers Pleasure Jam 2010 are Elias Elhardt (GER) leading the male and Enni Rukajaervi (FIN) the female ranking.

Sunday boasted with blue skies and almost summerlike temperatures on top of the Dachstein glacier. These conditions made it difficult for some riders though to get enough speed for the massive kickers at the beginning. However, most of them adjusted their riding accordingly to the conditions, leading to innovative and stylish air maneuvers on a very high level. The day started out with the semi-finals, where the qualified riders met the invited riders for the first time and showed that they can hold the pace of the big names.

Getting ready for the Jam.

Male category: Doubles, tens and happy faces

Among the men, the first 1080s and double backflips were already shown in the semi-finals and the qualifiers challenged the invited riders heavily. Above all the Finnish riders Ville Paumola and Roope Tonteri impressed the jugdes with some technical tricks. Invited rider Ville Uotila promised already during the qualifications day that his Finnish buddies will rough up the finals. And so they did! Ville Paumola boosted himself to the 2nd place by pulling off a Cab 5, a FS 10, BS 9 on the kickers and a FS 1 – 360 off at the wall ride. Only to be beaten by one man who stood again above all: Elias Elhardt. The sympathetic German left the mouths of the crowd wide open by showing a Cab 5, a BS 10 double cork and a FS 9 on the kickers, plus a Cab 1 rock 360 off at the wallride in his 2nd run! “I’m super stoked about sticking the double cork. I didn’t intend doing that trick until the last second. It wasn’t easy with the speed, so I was doing BS 7s all day just to calibrate the speed for the timing, and at my last run I just thought: now or never!”, says really happy Elias after his victory.

The girls geared up!

At the girls competition, two riders already raised all attention in the semi-finals: Aimee Fuller from the UK and last year’s winner Enni Rukajärvi from Finland. At the finals, Enni had the better run and took the victory with an amazing Cab 5, FS 3 and BS 5 in a row! After 2009, this is the second victory for the Finnish girl at the Horsefeathers Pleasure Jam. “I just have a good feeling for the park I think. It’s just so much fun riding here!”, says Enni after her victory. Amazing was also the best-trick performance by Klaudia Metlova, who has hence won a trip to the famous Balicamp. She let the audience breathless after her perfect BS 5 Rodeo, which was outstanding for a girl, also considering the incredibly huge tables of up to 20 Meters.

Flo Galler with the shot of the day. Photo: Roland Haschka.

A relaxing event for riders, friends and folks

The international significance of the Horsefeathers Pleasure Jam is underlined by Enni, now taking the lead of the TTR World-Ranking with her great 1st place on the Dachstein glacier. Speaking of the whole event, the 8th edition of the Horsefeathers Pleasure Jam kept what it promised and the overall mood within the rider field was very relaxed. Besides its international significance as a Swatch TTR 4 Star event, it is especially the familiar feeling which attracts the riders and which they fully enjoy when coming together here on the Dachstein at the beginning of the season. Kicking off the winter with your buddies, shredding all day long in a beautifully maintained park and having some awesome parties at night create the special atmosphere which marks the Horsefeathers Pleasure Jam as such a distinct event within the international snowboarding scene.

More news and features on www.pleasurejam.com, www.facebook.com/qparksjam and www.qparks.com!

One happy Elias. Photo: Roland Haschka.

Here is the final result, the top 6 riders, men:

And here's female winner Enni Rukajärvi. Photo: Roland Haschka.

And also of course the top 3 ladies of the Horsefeathers Pleasure Jam 2010: