Category: Reports

Saturday 24th of february was succesfully done the Sony Ericson Snowboard Fest, first TTR 2 Star event in Slovakia. For bad snow condition we had to move this event from Drienica (home base for this event ) to other place Oravska Lesna. For really good effort of ski resort we were able to build platform for two jumps (15m and 17m).

Training and Qualification
We had 33 riders from Slovakia, Poland, Czech republic and also riders from Great Britain came to fight for sword of Malaysia tiger. „Head to head“ was format of competion. Only best one can pass! In qualification riders were fighting for twenty free places which were in semifinal. No one knew who is going to be his rival because it was toss by judges. From beginning we had interesting couples like Dušan Bizík a Martin Grisnik ( friends from Martin), Richard Skandera – Pstruna (team riders) or Michal Ligocký – Honza Zajíc (two riders who had supposition to win).

Already in first run we had possibility to see ss bs 720 by Michael Ligocky, fs 900 by Honza Zajic or nice inverted bs 540 by Tomas Hrnciar. Tomas had bad luck, his rival was Richi Skandera and with his bs 7 knock out Tomas defiance his admirable inverted bs 540. Only departure from the rule was Honza Zajic, that was adjucitation for reason that Dano Frano and Juraj Boda fall off in both try. Definetly Zaja with his fs 900 was right rider for this place. Among best ten riders passed Martin Rybansky 9 (fs360) who was against Milan Purdes alias Droty (bs5 and fs5 not clean landing). Thin border was between Mato Matys (svk) and Tomášom Tuzarom (cz), both riders made bs 720, Matos one was done better and this moved him to next run. Next rivals were friends from same town, Dusan Bizik versus Martin Grisnik, Dusan passed with bs180. Nice fight was also between Matus Hubka and Miso Husar. Mate made amazing cab 7 and even Miso made fs 5 this was not enough. Most simple way between best ten riders had Martin Popper, his rival James Costa who abdicated because of lesion, Martin made bs 3 no grab. Last two riders who step forward were Juraj Matyas a Ondra Zvonicek with bs540 indy grab, they eliminated Riso Kubis and Richie Logan

Final
Aftre small repairing which were necessary for jumps we started with final run. There for audience and riders had to wait few minutes. Like first went Mato Matys and immediately he insured his advance with bs 900. His rival Dusan Bizik made stylish bs180 indy and later japan. Richi Skandera had his bad day. Aftre first jump he had to leave this event because of broken binding. Matus Hubka passed with cab fs 7 indy. Most heavy work had Martin Rybansky alias Ryba because of his rival Michael Ligocky. After first run it looked better for Ryba with his nice fs540 indy, but in second run Michael Ligocky made ss bs540 (one from highest air), Ryba fight till end but fs720 was not with perfect landing and this designated just one, end for Ryba in this event. Juraj Matias against Martin Popper. bs 540 with nice landing passed Juraj between five best riders. Last combat was between czech riders Honza Zajic and Ondra Zvonicek. Honza Zajic was present in really nice done jumps like bs 7 and fs 9 and that moved him to another round.

Superfinal
In superfinal round we had five best riders. Riders had 30miniutes to show us the best. Appreciation was overall effect from all jumps durind superfinal round. For first two places were struggling two riders Michael Ligocki and Honza Zajic. Both riders demonstrated snowboarding on professional level. Michael showed us switch backside 7, backside 7 indy, frontside 7 tailgrab, bs 180 a frontside 360 indy against bs 7, bs 9, fs 7, fs 9 a switch bs 5 which were done by Honza Zajic. But also Matus Hubka with Mato Matys did not capitulate. There for we could see bs 7 indy, cab 3 indy by younger Mato and bs 5 indy a cab 7 by Matus. Juro Matyas made bs 180 and streight air one foot.

Style Jump.
Price for most stylish jump took Michael Ligocki with his frontside 360indy grap.

Overall ranking:
1. Michal Ligocki (POL)
2. Jan Zajíc (CZE)
3. Mato Matys (SVK)
4. Matúš Hubka (SVK)
5. Juraj Matyáš (SVK)
6. Martin Rybanský (SVK)
7. Dušan Bizík (SVK)
8. Martin Popper (SVK)
9.-10. Ondra Zvonícek (CZE), Richard Skandera (CZE)

Women rounds:
We had just three girls who were registrated in day of event. First place took Basa Stevulova, one from best slovak riders.

On the 9th-11th of February 2007 the sixth festival BGV (“Big Race of the Vibiray magazine”) took place on the territory of the skiing resort «Metallurg-Magnitogorsk». The only one contest in Russia that has three stars according to TTR&WSF gathered more than 8 000 amateurs of exciting sports and active leisure on the same ground.

Speaking about the festival BGV, it is appropriate to use the phrase «for the first time», because many things during BGV’07 were for the 1st time and they didn’t happen before. For example, BGV’07 was the 1st three star event in Russia. And the fact that the traditional snowboard-camp BND.CAMP and the festival itself took place on the same ground in the park – is also a novelty. And there was a new logotype, and the knights style, and the type of finals – knockout, and the special souvenirs in the souvenirs’ shop, and the level of the park, and wild cards and what not. We can enumerate endlessly, but we will speak only about the main things. During the sport contests not everything went off smoothly, but still the event was bright and exciting. Due to the technical troubles the qualification was delayed, and the riders finished it only after midnight. As it turned out, not all the riders were ready to such a difficult park (two big-airs with transit of 18 and 12 metres). Five riders refused to take part in the contest. According to the results of the qualification taking into account wild cards, 16 snowboarders and 8 new-school riders got into the semi-final.

A heavy snowfall during the second day of the festival naturally excluded the necessity of the semi-final, but it didn’t frighten the participants of the mini-shred contest. Two picnic-tables and a barrel were set up on the lower ground. This was a real trophy for amateurs of jibbing. The winners in the disciplines «the best trick», «the best style» and «the best crush» were identified at once and were rewarded with presents from sponsors. At the appointed hour the opening of the final BGV’07 took place in the snow-park. Everything was tremendous, elevated and in European style. This was noticed not only by our and European riders, but also by the main television producer of the festival – Felix Urbauer. The prognosis that there would be no Russian riders in the super-final didn’t come true. Our riders showed excellent results: Peter Yastrebkov and Ilya Arzyutov are in the list of the super-finalists together with Otto Veijola from Finland and Aron Holtermann from Germany. As for new-school riders, Artem Glebov, Evgeny Vetoshkin, Pavel Korpachev and Gregory Fuzeev competed in super-final for prize.

SLOPESTYLE (SB)
the 1st place – Otto Veijola (Finland)
backside 900 indy + cab270-270off (Icebox)
the 2nd place – Peter Yastrebkov (Moscow)
cab900 indy + 50/50 (Abox)
the 3rd place – Ilya Arzyutov (Samara)
frontside 900 lien + 50/50-boardslide (Abox)

SLOPESTYLE (NS)
the 1st place – Evgeny Vetoshkin (Moscow)
fakie 900 mute –> 270 on – 450 of (Icebox)
the 2nd place – Pavel Korpachev (Ekaterinburg)
900 safety -> skislide (Abox)
the 3rd place – Gregory Fuzeev (St. Petersburg)
fakie 540 xcross -> skislide-to-fakie

The prize fund of the 6th festival BGV amounted 10 000 EUR. In addition to prize money, the winners got the exclusive dated medals, which have the same shape as the new logotype of the festival “Big Race of the Vibiray magazine”. Besides, the official financial partner of the festival International Moscow Bank presented every winner with a certificate for getting a card VISA gold.

The super-final was bright and magnificent and not only due to the riders, but also due to MC Fasahich, MC Pavel Zloy and MC Jazzz. Their comments were irrefragable and always to the point and such things as «the city – Germany», «BGV zwei, zero, zero, sieben» and «züppa finaleeee» became the catch-words at once, they spread on the ground quickly and even far beyond the park.

The festival BGV is famous not only for high level of sport contests, but also for the quality of the entertaining program. It is even more important, because thousands people from Russia and CIS come to the festival every year. According to all available information there were about 8 or 10 thousand amateurs of active winter leisure.
The endless games, and plays with prizes from such sponsors as – International Moscow Bank, the mobile operator «MegaFon-Ural», brand 686 and SPY OPTIC, the radio Europe plus, the magazine ONBOARD amused the audience. DJ Wide, DJ D?nis and Electro DJs’ non-stops and different performances and happenings fulfilled by the theatrical studio «Maneken» didn’t allow the audience to be bored.
The apogee of the entertaining program was the concerts of SEREGA and the German group PYOGENESIS. The punks from «the city – Germany» prepared for the festival BGV, because they started their concert from so called agitational phrase: “don’t eat yellow snow!”. The audience exulted.
By the way, it was the first festival which had its own BGVradio with studio, music, DJs and even jingles. All hot news was available on the air at once.

The organizers of the festival express their gratitude to the airline Utair, TM «Sportmaster», the mineral water «Arkhyz», the tourist company «AlpIndustry» and to the informational portals 74.ru and ural.ru.

P.S. The organizers of the festival BGV wish a quick recovery to Artem Kuleshov (Vorobey), who suffered an injury during the qualification.

If Santa Claus, while preparing his sleigh, was watching us from the sky, on this Sunday, December 17, he would have discovered an entertaining show: many European snow resorts celebrating the Snowboard D-Day.

Martin Cernick in freeride by Ducasse pictures

While the Swiss were enjoying their famous «raclette party», the Italian more motivated than ever, were performing snowboard tricks on their favorite DJ sound. On the upper North side, the Norwegian riders were welcoming the general public in one of their biggest resort. Not too far away from East Europe, the Austrians were amazed to have their lift tickets at the kids price whatever their boots size. To celebrate this initiative, they alternated jib and jam sessions until the end of the night. On the German side, riders hurtled down the slopes with the new season snowboard equipment before having a rest and a free lunch at the mountain top restaurant. During that time, the Slovakians spent their time downtown between rail sessions and parties in night clubs.

Bryan Fox by Mark Cohlman and Gary Zebrowsky

In La Mongie, France, Mathieu Crepel, the TTR World Champion 2006 and ambassador of the Snowboard D-Day had planed a session with his friend Paul Henri De Le Rue and the Pyreneans riders to try to beat the world record for the longest handrail ever grinded. The riders surpassed themselves to reach the former record of 39.50 meters. Finally, Paul Henri, bronze medal in boardercross in the Olympic Games of Turin, broke the world record with a ride of 46.50 meters long in front of an over-excited crowd.

Paul Henri and Matthie Crepel Autograph session by Etchelecou pictures

Everywhere in Europe, snowboard addicts and beginners were spending a great and sensational day. We would like to thanks all our partners who trusted in this fantastic adventure and congratulate all the actors of the snowboard scene for their motivation and initiatives. See you next year to make Santa Claus green with envy!

Wile yli-luoma by Mark Kolman

For pictures and video about the Snowboard D Day 2006 visite ti official web site www.snowboard-d-day.comPartners : Snowtime, Fluid, Source, HO5 Park, Chick’s Power, World Snowboard Federation, 7Sky, AFS, Onboard, Snowsurf, Mountain Riders, Beach Brother, Last Concept, Snowboarder, MBM, Playboard, Snowboard Surfer Rule, Hebe, Snowextreme, FSI, Boardlife, WazUp, Unleashed, Wat, Cultzine, Austrian Masters, Snowboardforbundet, Oz Sport, Extreme Channel, Sport +.

Last october the Japan Snowboard Association held is Board of Directors annual meeting. In this season the JSBA will have it’s 25th anniversary: the world long-standing independent snowboard association of ever. We hope the same future for all WSF national snowboard associations! Follows a short report about this important meeting of this important meeting of the Asian snowboard culture.

26 October 2006
ShinbashiKuminKaikan, Tokyo, Japan
JSBA held Board of Director’s meeting

This meeting based on Board of Director and Regional Club Director meet one table. There were delegates from Control Committee, Technical Committee, Educational Committee, Safety Patrol Committee and Industry Dept. They reported from each Committee, shared ideas and checked calendars.. but most important subject for this season is that JSBA coming season will be the 25th anniversary!

This mean taht JSBA is the world long-standing independent snowboard association of ever!In the photos the JSBA BoD! They seem (and are!) very serious but be sure, all of them are good snowboarders!