Category: Reports

Categories
Banked Slalom Events Features News report Reports

Perfect season finale at the CharitySläsh Banked Slalom 2018

The event united the local and international snowboard community in Kühtai 

On April 14, 2018, the CharitySläsh Banked Slalom 2018 took place in Kühtai. The charity race for the Wings for Life Foundation attracted 171 starters and many visitors. With fabulous weather and terrific snow conditions for a banked slalom, the riders were celebrated by the spectators and carried to the finish under the tunes of the local DJs InnFayas & Gundada Sound. The atmosphere was excellent.

The race 

At 9 o’clock opened the registration. The race started at 11:30 a.m. and lasted until 3:30 p.m. The participants rode in five categories: Groms (under 14 years), Adults (men & women) and Legends (men & women, born in the 70s and older). You could win medals designed and made by a project team member, snowboards by Nitro Snowboards, glasses by Gloryfy Unbreakable, equipment, vouchers and more.

A day full of action! 

The food and beverage offer provided all hungry participants – these donated diligently in the donation boxes on site. In the raffle there were great prizes to win. The supporting program was also very well received: the EXPO stands of the exhibitors Nitro Snowboards, KORUA Shapes, The Bakery Snowboards and Freshlines Boards offered equipment for borrowing and testing as well as advice and comprehensive information for all those interested. The unique fun bikes from Hillstrike Snowtrike and the snowskates from Leise Bretter 03 have been extensively tested and were the attraction besides the race. Daniel and Benjamin Mösl from the Yamaha Action Team kept surprising visitors with unique stunts on the skidoo and a paraglider.

Learning effect for the students 

The event was organized by five students of the University of Applied Sciences Kufstein Tirol as part of the compulsory practical project of the Sports, Culture & Event Management degree program. The event process required a lot of flexibility, spontaneity and communication and served as a perfect lesson for the project team. Project manager and snowboarder Melina Merkhoffer draws a positive balance: “We have reached our goal to unite the snowboard community. The fun of snowboarding and the experience for young and old were in the foreground. We received very positive feedback “.

Pictures on Facebook: www.facebook.com/BANKED18 

Photo Credits by Max Meissner© Sylvia Asen©

Categories
Events Features News Reports

50 enthusiastic riders took part in the Snowboard Championship in India!

The longest slope of Asia, in India, hosted the first edition of the International snowboard championship on 01/04/2018!

For the first time such type of competition has been organised in India by the Snowboard  association of Himachal Pradesh. Around 50 enthusiasts take part in the event.

 

The Sports Minister inaugurated the competition and the prize giving had the honour to have the education Minister of the state! The young and motivated Snowboard association of Himachal Pradesh proudly announces that the Government assured the support for the future years and recognise its precious work in the sport of the Indian Nation!

 

Categories
Banked Slalom Features News report Reports

The first Shred Down Banked Slalom was epic!

A challenging and worth seeing Shred Down Banked Slalom course gather together more than 80 motivated riders, from the youngest kids to the best snowboarders in Austria.

The twentieth anniversary of Shred Down in Boarders Playground was the perfect anniversary to change the format and introduce the Banked Slalom.

The man of the day was, without any doubt, the Zillertal hero Wool Nyvelt with the fastest time, in front of Steve Gruber and Thomas Eberharter among the Master category. Big up to all the young guns who showed great enthusiasm and challenged the pros!
The first edition of the Shred Down Banked Slalom was a big success and there is incredible potential for future editions!
Categories
Events Features News Reports

Family Freestyle Weekend, Snowpark Alpendorf in the Snow Space Salzburg!

Eric, 7 years, couldn’t stop hiking the little hill right in front of the test booths to practice his Indy Grab on the Wriglet Box. His mum took pictures of him with her phone and with every try, he jumped a little higher. Zoe is 6 years old and normally a ski racer. But at the Family Freestyle Weekend in the Snowpark Alpendorf in the Snow Space Salzburg she took the opportunity to try out snowboarding and spontaneously postponed the planned ski race because she had so much more fun sliding sideways. Yet in between Zoe also headed for a couple of laps through the park with the freeski coaches, as she enjoys that a lot as well.

Tobi and Hubi, two pro freeskiers from St. Johann-Alpendorf offered valuable tips to kids between 4 and 16 years for hitting rails and kickers, so that in the end every participant got to take at least one new trick home. Every rider with skills surpassing the classic plough or pizza was welcome to join. On Sunday there were so many participants lined up for the freeski coachings that shaper Mo was mobilised as an additional last-minute coach. In total, they coached 60 kids in their sessions during these two days!

Benji and Raphi, the snowboard coaches from the Shred School had no chance to complain about lack in participation either. Together with Stefan and Chris from DSV Recruiting Training they gave 35 kids a detailed understanding of freestyle snowboarding on the superbly maintained boxes, rails and kickers in the Snowpark Alpendorf. And each time they passed the event area at the Strassalm, the smiles in the kids’ faces had grown wider.

And since the name reflects the program at the “Family Freestyle Weekend” not only the kids got to freestyle but their parents as well! Papa Oggyi from Australia, Prime Magazine publisher Basti, former Pirate Movie Productions filmer Cepten, former Völkl Snowboards technician Thomas and former pro rider Alex followed the group of kids and coaches for a couple of laps, before heading for some more runs by themselves. Stefan from DC Snowboards teamed up with 3 of his buddies for a daddy-kids-trip to the Family Freestyle Weekend, while “The Snowboarding Family” represented with 3 generations on board, including 4 kids, providing for the youngest as well as the oldest shredders at the event: grandpa Dieter is 76 years old and still riding, while his 2 months old grandson Stani made his first laps in the carry sling with Mama Kathi. Everyone got their money’s worth!

The warm weather due to the Föhn added to the amazing atmosphere and happy vibes, only the photographers didn’t have the ideal conditions shooting in flat light. The event area at the Strassalm offered an ideal base for parents and kids alike. At the Snow Space Salzburg and Gorilla booths the freestylers were catered for with apples, tea, chocolate and vanilla milk. At Burton, Yes. and Jones young and old got the latest snowboard gear for testing by themselves or in the kids beginners course that’s offered by the local snowboard school Toni Gruber. And as a little side note: all test booths were managed by shred daddies as well, who came with their families! Among the former pro riders Tanja Baumgartner and Tom Recheis.

This fostered lots of great talks among parents on their experiences at what age to get the offspring on board and when their little ones learned their first turns. Next to pioneering snowboard parents there were also some who had never tried out freestyle before.

New friendships between kids and also between parents were deepened at the Barilla Pasta Party on Saturday afternoon in the Hotel Alpina, next to the bottom station of the gondola in Alpendorf. The kids bingo with goodies from the participating brands inflames the kids passion one more time, who anxiously waited for the right numbers to finally be drawn for them. In the end all kids and also the parents left with at least one prize and a nicely filled belly. Ensuring for a proper good nights’ sleep without any of the kids asking for play time with their parents’ smartphones…

Find photos and video footage on the Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/snowparkalpendorf/

Categories
Features News Reports

National Judges Education Clinic 2017/2018 – Report

At the end of September, the national judges education clinic went down in Bulgaria: Ivan Ivanov organised a great clinic and made all the judges feel great and embrace Bulgaria as it welcomed us with its usual Balkan hospitality.
Around 60 judges from 23 countries took part in this session and everybody was really satisfied for the great experience and outcomes, also thanks to the participation of Pat Duffy, legendary pro skater from California (also a skateboard judge).

The material, explained and showed during the clinic, was financed by the WSF and TTR to help all NSAs judges to provide the Judge Training in the Nation.

21951103_10214673218730498_6799909634982667305_o

The National Judges Education Clinic includes two parts. The first part is the PowerPoint presentation and the second part are videos for amplitude, trick recognition, difficulty and videos for deductions and for practice judging with steno and ranking. It is course divided into two days. The main focus on the first day is on theory with some videos and the focus on the second day is on practice judging. The content of the presentation should be well structured and should allow a training for both beginning judges and advanced judges. If you have only advanced judges participating in the clinic you don’t need to spend too much time on Judging and Snowboard basics. Instead you should focus more on the videos. Please feel free to add general information and news from your nation by yourself. You also can choose a subject by of your own  for the last point – special topics – or you leave it. Timetable wise feel free to change according to your needs wherever you feel like going a little deeper into it. As the judge director of your Nation you should know your judges and where some more focus on theory or practice would be appreciated.

22050964_10214673208770249_7456182556725322777_o

For deduction you have for each discipline Big Air, Rail, Slopestyle and Halfpipe 5 runs with small, medium and hard mistakes Men and Women mixed. For amplitude, trick recognition and difficulty you can choose some videos by yourself from the selection of all videos. I would recommend you to take some Men and Women mid level runs from Big Air, Rail Halfpipe and Slopestyle. The practice videos for Big Air, Rail, Slopestyle and Halfpipe you also have for Men and Women different level from low to pro level – attention there is not that many Slopestyle feeds (don’t waste them all for amplitude, trick recognition and difficulty).

 

For any further questions, feedbacks and material request, please contact directly Anna Negri (anna@worldsnowboardfederation.org), WSF general secretary, who will provide you with further information or get you in touch with the people in charge.

Photo Credits by Bartek Golebiowski

21992902_10214673209210260_6061281208665689542_o

Categories
Features News Reports

World Snowboard Federation announces new strategy and launches World Snowboarding

The World Snowboard Federation (WSF) today officially announces the completion of the merger with TTR Pro Snowboarding (TTR). Already for the 17/18 winter season, the merged organization will offer direct memberships and services for the sports key stakeholders: National Snowboard Associations, Event Organisers and Riders. All stakeholders will have voting rights in the WSF Annual General Meeting and representation on the WSF Board of Directors. All business operations and commercial activities will be provided by the World Snowboarding Marketing & Services GmbH, a company registered in Switzerland since 2011 and wholly owned by the WSF. This step marks the end of an era that began with the foundation of the WSF and the TTR in 2002 and the beginning of a new one with combined inherited values and culture ensuring the history of the sport will live on within its future framework.

Following a lengthy research project involving all of snowboarding´s key stakeholder groups, the WSF Board has approved the strategic plan proposed by an internal working group in a Board Meeting held in Zurich on Oct 4. A large cross section of National Snowboarding Organization’s, event owners and athletes were both interviewed and surveyed on the current situation within the sport and their needs. The overwhelming consensus of those surveyed has justified the relevance and essential existence of the WSF to the sport of snowboarding and its many stakeholders. This has led the board of the WSF to redefine its Vision and Mission statements as the foundation for the development and sub sequential implementation of the strategic plan.

VISION STATEMENT: ‘Inspiring people to participate, follow, and perform within snowboarding worldwide.’

MISSION STATEMENT: ‘To lead the development and growth of snowboarding worldwide, founded on its unique values and culture.’

As a first major strategic step in delivering our mission, the WSF has engaged in a dialogue with FIS to create a consistent and clear pathway for athletes and events at each stage of the sport development system. The desired outcome of discussions should see FIS and WSF work seamlessly within the proposed sports system servicing agreed components of the events pyramid eliminating confusion and simplifying the pathway for all stakeholders.

With its newly approved strategic direction, WSF will continue to focus predominantly on development of the sport and the events that fall into that arena on behalf of its NSO members, event members and the snowboard athletes worldwide. The WSF will continue to provide and maintain the world rankings for all freestyle disciplines (WSPL), the global event schedule and planning calendar, the Sports Data and Stats Center, an Officials Education Program, event resources and the bulk share of the world’s developmental snowboarding events and activities in service to its NSO, event and rider members.

Moving on – From World Snowboard Tour to World Snowboarding

The World Snowboard Tour, predecessor of the TTR World Tour, once represented the world´s largest collection of independent snowboarding events, ranging from entry level amateur events to the pinnacle events of the sport. With the changes in the marketplace over the last 3 winter seasons, what the World Snowboard Tour was originally built around ceased to exist or changed dramatically. Instead, the WST became a banner to unite snowboarding; the WSPL, whole of sport calendaring, judging education and a communications platform for the whole of sport in terms of competitions, rankings, rider information, stats and data, but no longer a tour in the original sense. With the merging of TTR and WSF, the World Snowboard Tour brand name will cease to exist. All existing and future services will be hosted under the new brand World Snowboarding on the World Snowboarding website (www.worldsnowboarding.org). The services will remain and be truly representative of the whole of sport. It will be the one stop shop for all information about snowboarding, its events and athletes.

‘With its legacy and foundation in the core snowboarding community, the WSF will strive to maintain the unique values and culture that its Mission Statement references. Snowboarding is an inspiring sport with a celebrated history and the WSF will do everything it can to keep that passion alive in the governance of our sport for the future generations of snowboarders.’

For more information and any questions please contact either:

WSF – General Secretary: Anna Negri anna@worldsnowboardfederation.org

WSF/World Snowboarding – Communications Manager: Rich Hegarty rich@worldsnowboarding.org

 

The websites of both the WSF organisation and World Snowboarding will be updated over the coming weeks to better inform of the new direction.

www.worldsnowboardfederation.org

www.worldsnowboarding.org

Categories
Reports

Big Success for the Yours Truly event!

Yours Truly event was hold at Talma, Finland, the 19th of February 2017. It was successful and 25 women from all ages and different riding levels participated. The weather was not the best blue bird weather that you could get, but they had still lot of fun.

truly 2In addition the crew organized some coaching by the Pro rider Merika Enne, with some photoshoots, highest ollie and best trick competition! Beginners was also awarded in the competition. The event was good and everyone had fun!

Here is a link to some photos from the event and the video report! Enjoy!
kristermajander.kuvat.fi/Girls+On+Tour+Talma

Categories
Features Reports

Ski and Snowboarding Foundation Nepal

After the devastating earthquake which hit Nepal in 2015, Nepali students and mountain guides initiated the Ski and Snowboarding Foundation Nepal.

nepal_3

The objective was to bring something attractive to the remote valley areas which would allow to bring something positive and empowering to some of the areas which badly suffered and to build up a mid term perspective to introduce skiing and snowboarding in an area which was dominated by a limited season of climbing and mountain hiking.

nepal_2

Ski and Snowboarding Foundation Nepal aims to teach Nepalese youngsters skiing, snowboarding and skitouring. With the support of a consortium of Austrian, German, Swedish and Swiss ski instructors that are keen on sharing their skills and knowledge with Nepalese tourism students we started a dual track ski school project. We train mountain guides and Climbing Sherpas how to conduct skitours securely with tourists, and at the same time will encourage Nepalese students and youngsters to learn how to ski and snowboard. A first training session, supported with equipment from sponsors and private donations was held in February 2016 in the remote Rolwaling Valley. In September 2016 we conducted an advanced ski training for mountain guides in the Solokhumbu area to improve on their basic skills in ski touring. This included the first Nepali Ski and Snowboard Expedition to Mera Peak (6471m).

nepal_5

From December 18th until 6th of January NFSS will organize a beginner course in Langtang valley with the support of another NGO dedicated to promote skiing in Nepal. We will also conduct the first Banked Slalom Snowboard race and the highest ski tour race in the world. During February 2017 we will organize a major beginner and advanced ski training with locals, students and mountain guides. All courses include a professional avalanche and crevasse rescue training. The goal is to empower Nepali stakeholders to establish several ski tour resorts so that they can expand the tourism season, create new jobs and opportunities through existing infrastructure. Various locations for such a possible ski resort have been scouted and we are working on feasibility studies for the construction of ropeways and cable cars at the respective locations, too.

nepal_1

In addition we will conduct a workshop for a draft of a ski legislation in December. Stakeholders like the ropeway companies, Ministry of Tourism, Helicopter Ski Operators, Mountain Guide Association, NGOs come together to develop a legal framework that guarantees a secure investment climate, environmental and social guidelines.

In the past year we managed to become members in several INGOs. We represent Nepal in the World Snowboard Federation (WSF) and in the International Ski Mountaineering Federation (ISMF).

More info 

Web: skisnowboardnepal.com
FB: www.facebook.com/NFSSskifornepal
Insta: www.instagram.com/skisnowboardnepal
Twitter: twitter.com/NepalSkiBoard
Youtube Channel: www.youtube.com/channel

nepal_1

high res

Categories
Reports

Freeride Fun for Snowboard Competitors on Day Three at Cardrona NZ Junior Nationals

Competitors in the 2016 Cardrona NZ Junior Freeski & Snowboard Nationals were met with murky conditions for day three of competition at Cardrona Alpine Resort near Wanaka today. Overnight rain left the halfpipe saturated and unsafe to run the Salomon Ski Halfpipe event; however, the K2 Snowboard Freeride was able to go ahead with a skiff of fresh snow on course on the Tulips run in Captain’s Basin.

With conditions firm and bumpy under a couple of centimetres of fresh snow, judges were looking for safe runs which were well controlled and fluid from top to bottom, demonstrating good riding technique.

Competition started with female snowboarders and first rider on course, Eliana Collins (Arrowtown) set the bar high with a technical run, incorporating several rotations and good control for the win in female primary year 5-6.

Maddison Butcher (Auckland) one of eight Ruapehu Snow Sports athletes who have travelled south to compete at Junior Nationals, topped off an “incredible” few days by finishing in second place in the female Secondary 11-13 years’ age group.

After only a “couple of weeks on snow” when she was younger Maddison joined the RSS programme this season and jumped at the opportunity to compete for the first time. She showed no sign of first-time nerves, speeding through the course, dropping two rocks, ollying over tussock and maintaining control top to bottom.

“It’s been so great,” she said. “I haven’t seen so many amazingly talented skiers and snowboarders all in one place before. I’ll definitely be back again next year, 100 per cent.”

Zoi Sadowski Synnott (Wanaka) was the category winner with Juliette Perera (Auckland) in third.

The Primary 5-6 boys ripped through the course looking for features to hit in order to up their scores. Campbell Melville Ives, already a season Junior Nationals competitor at only 10 years old, figured that the judges would be looking for a “fast and flowing” run and knew just how to deliver. Coming out of the start gate fast but quickly adjusting to the catchy snow conditions, he “chilled out” and lined up three jumps, including some stylish grabs and was “pretty happy” with his performance.

The judges were more than impressed, wowed by his big rock drop at the top of the course and pleased to see him having fun while maintaining total control. They awarded Campbell first place, with Zephyr Lovelock (Wanaka) second and Jack Jeffs (Hawea) third.

The male secondary 7-8 category had the judges deliberating hard over how to award the top four placings. Timo Fitzpatrick (Queenstown) took the top spot, Xandah Gibson (Queenstown) second, and Sunny Steele (Australia) third. Harry Hart (Australia) just missed out on a podium finish by 0.33.

North Island competitors had a strong showing in the boys’ secondary 9-10 group, all three medal winners hailing from Auckland. Noah Wotton wowed the judges with a wildcat (side on backflip) right at the start of his run, followed up with a big method air. Coming through the bottom of the course fast, fluid and in total control, the win was his. Oliver Whiley placed second and Mac Rogers third.

Following in his younger sister’s footsteps, Tiarn Collins took the win in the 11-13 secondary year age group.  His second run had the full package: Fluid, fast and technical, with grabs and rotations and a big smile on the face. Second place went to Ethan Cruise (Queenstown) and third to Ryusei Wakushima (Queenstown).

Find full results here: www.snowsports.co.nz/events-and-results/results-2

Competition continues tomorrow at Cardrona Alpine Resort with the Bonfire Snowboard Halfpipe and K2 Ski Freeride. The Salomon Ski Halfpipe has been postponed until later in the week, and may run first thing on Friday morning. A new schedule will be released tomorrow.

For further information follow us on social media:
Facebook.com/snowsportsnz
Instagram: snowsportsnz
Twitter: snowsports_nz

Categories
Reports

Freeride World Qualifier 2* at The Remarkable

We’re excited to release the edit for The North Face Frontier Freeride World Qualifier 2* comp which took place at The Remarkable ski field in Queenstown, NZ on Monday 22 August!

The competition saw a heavy hitting field of 80 skiers and snowboarders battle for top scores at Queenstown’s The Remarkables Ski field in New Zealand. The riding was next level as competitors made the most of the stunning natural terrain of the Shadow Basin to attempt their most daring tricks and technical lines.

More info & results here: freerideworldqualifier.com

You’ll find the edit on The North Face Frontier 2016 1st Place Men’s Snowboard – Rupert Smith: