Category: News

Spring Battle 2025

Absolut Park Flachauwinkl (Austria) hosts the Snowboard World Cup Finals

Snowboard history is being made in Salzburger Pongau: The Spring Battle at Absolut Park, Europe’s longest-running independent elite snowboard competition, will be complemented by a Snowboard World Cup for the first time, merging the best of both worlds.

Since 2002, Spring Battle has been held annually at Absolut Park Flachauwinkl, becoming the longest-running snowboard contest in the independent snowboard scene (WSF). Driven by technical innovations and the progressive development of snowboarding, the Spring Battle format has always been ahead of traditional snowboard events. With its current Follow-Cam-Jam-Session mode, where the world’s best snowboarders are tracked by their cameramen and FPV drones, athletes have new opportunities to put down the perfect run using only their best tricks on a creatively designed slopestyle course. A panel of judges evaluates the submitted videos to determine the winners of the event, which boasts a prize pool of € 65,000, put out by the World Snowboard Federation.

The Slopestyle World Cup, originally planned in Livigno, Italy, as a test event for the 2026 Winter Olympics, had to be canceled due to ongoing work at the venue. Recognizing the potential to combine both series, in collaboration with the Austrian Ski Federation and Snowboard Austria, the World Cup Final was moved to the unique training facility at Flachau. The excellent infrastructure of Absolut Park made it possible to step in at such short notice. Instead of leaving a gap in the FIS competition calendar, a true season highlight has emerged thanks to the tireless efforts of Absolut Park management under CEO Seppi Harml and FIS Contest Director Roby Moresi.

As a result, athletes will have two opportunities within a week to earn valuable points for the World Snowboard Points List (WSPL) and a significant prize purse. From March 8 to 12, 2025, the legendary Absolut Park Spring Battle will take place as scheduled, seamlessly transitioning into the FIS Snowboard World Cup Flachau on March 13 and 14. While Flachau has a long history of hosting FIS Alpine events dating back to 1993, this will be the first time the region hosts an FIS Snowboard Park & Pipe World Cup. Home to local snowboard icons Anna Gasser and Clemens Millauer, as well as numerous international top riders and national teams who regularly train there, snowboarding history will once againbe made in Austria—where an independent WSF event merges with the FIS Snowboard World Cup.

“It’s incredibly cool that we now also have a Slopestyle World Cup in Austria. Together with theBig Air events in Klagenfurt and Kreischberg, we now have three home World Cups this season.The fact that both the Spring Battle and the World Cup finals are taking place within a week isvery exciting. Going straight to the World Championships in St. Moritz afterwards adds evenmore value to the week in Flachau,” says double Olympic champion Anna Gasser, looking forward to her “home game.”

Oyvind Kirkhus from Norway just visited Absolut Park and says: “I’m really looking forward tothe World Cup in Absolut Park! Absolut is one of the best parks in Europe and it has been forover 10 years so I would say it was about time we had a slopestyle World Cup there.” As the final Snowboard Park & Pipe World Cup of the season, Absolut Park will also award the coveted crystal globes to the best slopestyle riders of the World Cup season before they head to the 2025 World Championships in the Swiss Engadine.

The Junior Jam is a slopestyle contest specifically for kids and teenagers up to 16 years old, taking place on February 8th, 2025 in Westendorf, Austria. 

Young snowboarders and freeskiers can showcase their skills and earn their first points for the World Rookie Ranking. The event also serves as the club championship for the Freestylas Westendorf.

However, the main focus, as always, is on having fun and enjoying the sport with like-minded peers! Participants have the chance to win the coveted BP Trophy as well as great prizes.

For more information and registration, visit: https://www.boardplay.at/events/junior-jam

The second Zillertal VÄLLEY RÄLLEY Tourstop hosted by Blue Tomato took place in the Zillertal Arena on 25th and 26th of January 2025 with an international field of competitors. Many young talents took the opportunity to present their best tricks at the snowboard competition in the ‘Slopestyle’ discipline. The best performances in each category were rewarded with valuable points, medals and prize money. In addition, the highly endowed Horsefeathers Best Trick Award and other honours were up for grabs on this action-packed weekend in the Zillertal Arena.

Lots of happy faces in the Zillertal Arena

The Actionpark Kreuzwiese presented itself with bright sunshine and perfect conditions on Saturday for the 2nd Zillertal VÄLLEY RÄLLEY tour stop in the Zillertal Arena. Manfred Brandacher and the Zillertal Arena shaper team had done a first-class job and conjured up a competition-ready setup in the snowpark. And so the young snowboard talents reached deep into their bag of tricks at the slopestyle contest on Saturday to impress the judges and spectators. Plenty of medals, prize money, non-cash prizes and of course valuable points on their athlete account (WSPL) in the world rankings awaited the participants in a total of eight categories.

International winners at the 2nd stage

Jascha Nunez (AUT) from Carinthia impressed the judges with his solid performance and ultimately took the overall victory as the best male participant in all categories. Second place went to his team-mate Eric Dovjak (AUT), who also claimed the Horsefeathers Best Trick Award with a stylish ‘BS 1260 Melon’, relegating Iceland’s Arnor Thoroddson to 3rd place. In the ladies’ category, it was Marie Kuhlmann from Team Germany who took victory with her strong riding performance in her age group in the Grom Girls (U16). Marie also secured overall victory as the best female snowboarder of the day. However, Olivie Pochova from the Czech Republic was hot on her heels and took the silver medal in both the Grom Girls (U16) and the Open Class. Adele Vankerschaver (POR) finished just behind Olivie in third place and took home two bronze medals. Adele also received the ‘Most impressive Grom’ award from the aestheticians for her progressive performance. Mia Langridge (GBR) and Jan Golinczak (POL) were at the top of the podium in the Rookies (U18). Brothers Gustav and Ricco Nawarkiewicz-Wiśniewski, also from Poland, took first place in their respective age groups in the Grom Boys (U16) and Super Grom Boys (U12). Finally, Klaudie Pouchova from the Czech team was delighted to take first place in the Super Grom Girls (U12). The complete results and tour stop rankings can be found at https://valleyralley.at/results.

Freestyle coaching and lots of awards

Sunday continued with free freestyle coaching sessions with the Ästhetiker and joint sessions in the Actionpark Kreuzwiese. At the end of the day, Adele Vankerschaver (POR) and Nils Soleymieux (FRA) were delighted with their session awards. Brothers Johann and Florian Sandner were stoked with what was possibly their very first ever award in the ‘little ones’ (U12) and shared the podium with Charlotte Mertins from Germany, who was the same age.

Cool programme and free shredschool freestyle workshops in the Zillertal Arena

The shapers of the Zillertal Arena are delighted with the successful event: ‘The Zillertal Välley Rälley has once again brought the young stars of the snowboard scene to the Actionpark Kreuzwiese this year. Thanks to the Ästhetiker team and the participating kids – we’re already looking forward to next year!’ The Actionpark Kreuzwiese in Zell will remain open until mid-April and will be shaped daily. Every week, the Zillertal Arena offers free freestyle coaching sessions with the Ästhetiker Shredschool. The meeting point for the coaching sessions is always Tuesdays at 11.00 am at the tipis in the Actionpark Kreuzwiese.

On a journey to overall victory: the cards have been reshuffled

With the second of four contest results and freshly awarded points, the cards have been reshuffled in the Zillertal Arena. The new overall tour ranking can be viewed at https://valleyralley.at. The overall tour winners will be crowned the new Zillertal VÄLLEY RÄLLEY royal family after the fourth and final tour stop. Points on the international World Snowboard Point List (WSPL) will also be awarded for participation, allowing athletes to qualify for FIS events (European Cups, World Cups). The tour stop counts as an ASA (Austrian Snowboard Association) Austria Cup and rookies (U18) receive credits on their World Rookie points account. All results and the new tour ranking can be viewed at: https://valleyralley.at/results/

The remaining Zillertal VÄLLEY RÄLLEY dates 2024/2025 at a glance:

3rd stage 08-09 March 2025 Penken Park Mayrhofen, Mayrhofen-Hippach in Zillertal

4th stage 03-04 May 2025 Hintertux Glacier, Betterpark Hintertux, Tux-Finkenberg

The Ästhetiker would like to thank the partners of the Zillertal VÄLLEY RÄLLEY for their support:

Zillertal Tourismus, Zillertal Arena, Uniqueparks.com, Blue Tomato, Red Bull, Horsefeathers, Dana Beanies

Special thanks to the co-operation partners:

World Snowboard Federation (WSF), Austrian Snowboard Federation (ASA), World Rookie Tour (WRT)

For more information: www.valleyralley.at.

Photo-Credit: (c) Gustav Hersmann