Category: World Rookie Tour

Soelden Glacier in Austria, hosted the first WRF Finals. Here is the story of this incredible competition.

The WSF World Rookie Tour 2006 ends with the summer final event in Soelden, Austria, to assign the title of “World Rookie Champion”, and many tickets for TTR pro events (1 for the rookie session of the Air&Style 2006, 3 for the Billabong World Pro Junior and 2 for the Pinky Jam). But the Rookie Fests are not “just” competitions! Fun and ride, meet new friends from all the world, extra activities for having fun or learn something new about snowboarding.

After the others WRF06 in Italy and Japan, 40 riders from 14 national team, arrived in Tirol with coaches and media to join this new event organized by the New Austrian Snowboard Association (N.ASA) and the italian Snowboard League (SL). The program of the WRF Finals combine a very high level competition in 3 days (training, quali and final for the best 16 riders) with many extra activities like avalanche clinics, social dinners, parties and skate session.

On 28th june, the team arrived and enter the first riders meeting to know all details about the event and the slope. Some of the most talented rookie of the world travel to the WRF to compete for the huge prizes! USA Champions in slope style (Bobby Witty) and Half Pipe (Trestein Sweigard), the itailan hero and olimpic rider Manuel Pietropoli, the japanese Ryo Kunisato, the super talented swiss Christian Haller, Wunter De Lange from Belgium, the finnish Petja Piroinen, norwegian Stian Sivertzen and the local riders Roland Scharmer are the favorites of all.

After the first day of training in a stormy and rainy day, Marco from SL explained to all riders and coaches the program of the event and annunce the last minute news about the Billabongs’ tickets. Then all the rookies take part at the avalanche clinics arranged by the N.ASA, to learn how to deal with the freeride trip and understand better the hazzard of the mountain experience. Late evening was arranged a social dinner to have some chill out all togheter before the qualifications.

On friday 30th june finally the show case started with the qualifications! About 2 hours of jam session on a jump line (2 table top, one huge corner jump and a final wall ride) and a rail line. In a real positive situation, the rookie express how high was their level with very good rotations on the tables and super high jumps on the corner. Unfortunatly the japanese Ryo was lightly injured after the hugest jump of the event (about 6m out of the corner) but no one else have problems during the entire event. Immediatly after the quali, a nice skate session was arranged by the SL (with the assistence of Ishi from Japan) at the Soelden Skate Park.the rookie rocks also on wheels! Late evening, at dinner, the best 16 riders were nominated. Wunter (Bel) was the best of the day followed by the austrian Michael Freudenthaler (new entry of the WRF) and Petja Piroinen.all the favorites enter the finals and of course there were some more surprise in the ranking like Sam Cullum (Eng) at 5th and Roni Rinatala at 6th.

Final day was sunny, without wind and good snow condition thanx to a cold night in the glacer. The best 16 male and 2 femals are ready from early morning and wait from Jimmi the starter to express their best and compete for the title and the tickets.and this was! A super high level snowboard show case, regardless of the summer condition and many weeks without training.they showed tricks like cab9 and bs libslide, tons of style on the rails, super huge jumps on the corner and very long rocks on the wall (Bobby Witty arrived at 4seconds!). For the entire final was evident to everybody that Christian and Petja were the two competitors for the first position while the battle was open for the 3rd place for many other but Michael Freudenthaler from Austria resulted the best of them.

The ranking were announced after the dinner and gift distribution by Neuro for everybody. Immediatly before the live concert of the I-Shine, Christian Haller was nominated World Rookie Champion and the winner of the ticket for the Air&Style rookie session. The swiss Silvana Backmann resulted the best girl of the event and some gift was assigned also for the best tricks.

WORLD ROOKIE FEST FINALS 2006, SOELDEN, AUSTRIA
OFFICIAL RANKING

RANK-BIB-NAME-NAT-YOB-SPONSOR

BOYS
1 30 Christian Haller SUI BURTON
2 10 Petja Piiroinen FIN 91 FLOW-OAKLEY-BILLABONG
3 32 Michael Freudenthaler AUT 88 SALOMON-BONFIRE
4 20 Wunter De Lange BEL 89 NITRO-ANIMAL
5 17 Roland Scharmer AUT 88 ATOMIC-NIKE ACG-SMITH-BLUE TOMATO
6 31 Manuel Pietropoli ITA BURTON
7 11 Roni Rintala FIN 90 BURTON-DRAGON
8 28 Roman Dlauhy CZK 90 BURTON-VOLCOM
9 3 Ben Kilner UK 90 RIDE-OAKLEY-DC
10 23 Tresten Sweigard USA 91 FORUM-SPECIALBLAND-OUTOFBOUNDS
11 2 Sam Cullum UK 88 RIDE-OAKLEY-DC
12 25 Stian Sivertzen NOR 89 INTERSPORT
13 22 Bobby Witty USA 89 686-ADIDAS-SANTACRUZ-32-PORTERS
14 5 Florian Krummenacher SUI 90 K2-DC
15 26 Christian Ruud Myhre NOR 91 NO SPONSOR
16 15 Hikaru Watanabe JPN 88 NOVEMBERSNOWBOARD
17 6 Thomas France SUI 88 ROSSIGNOL-DC-OAKLEY
18 29 Jan Dolejsi CZK 89 VEHICLE.CO-FLOW-SPY-LEVEL
19 8 Sergey Tarason RUS 88 BURTON
20 24 Thomas Hrnciar SLK 88 RIDE – 32 – ARNETTE – DEMON
21 12 Iikka Eemili Laari FIN 89 BURTON – DRAGON
21 27 Ethan Morgan GER 91 VÖLKL – WESTBEACH – ADIDAS – 32 – NOMIS
23 13 Dimi De Jong NDL 94 NITRO – O`NEILL – REPAIR
24 16 Ryo Kunisato JPN 88 MOSS SNOWBOARD – A7 – FLUX – DEELUXE – DRAGON
25 19 Calle Frassi ITA 91 M6 – APO – 32 – SPLIT
26 18 Pier Frassi ITA 89 F2 – DELUXE
27 7 Johannes Handle AUT 93 F2
28 9 Simon Pircher AUT 91 VÖLKL – VOLCOM – DELUXE – REDBULL – ADIDAS
28 14 Akito Sada JPN 89 UNITY
30 21 Yannick Sleeckx BEL 90 CAPITA – UNION_BINDINGS – SPY – PROTEST – 32
31 4 Collin Frei SUI 88 K2 – QUIKSILVER
32 34 Andy Rives UK 91 BURTON – RED – ANON

GIRLS
1 59 Silvana Bachmann SUI 88 SEED
2 60 Rebecca Cullum UK 90 NIKE ACG/ ATOMIC

SPECIAL PRIZES
BEST JUMP: Christian Haller SUI CAB9
BEST RAIL: Christian Haller SUI BS LIBSLIDE
BEST WALL RIDE: Bobby Witty USA ROCK TO FAKIE 4″
HIGHEST AIR: Ryo Kunisato JPN 6m

PRIZES
BOYS
1 “WORLD ROOKIE CHAMPION” TITLE, TICKET FOR A&S06 ROOKIE SESSION, TICKET FOR BILLABONG WORLD PRO JUNIOR 07
2 TICKET FOR BILLABONG WORLD PRO JUNIOR 07
3 TICKET FOR BILLABONG WORLD PRO JUNIOR 07

GIRLS
1 TICKET FOR THE PINKY JAM 2007, ITALY
2 TICKET FOR THE PINKY JAM 2007, ITALY

After the World Rookie Fest in Asia and Italy, some WSF Rookie were admitted at one of the most famous and respected snowboard competition of the world: the Artic Challange, Oslo (Norwa) organized by Terje Haakonsen.

TAC06 Quarter Pipe

Manuel and Ruiki in action

Ruiki Masuda and Rikuya Narita from Japan, Manuel Pietropoli from Italy, Ulrik Badertscher from Norway and Christian Haller from Switzerland joined the TAC06 after competiting in world rookie fests 2005 and 2006. They had fun and join an international competition with many snowboard stars present, progressing their level of riding and introducing themselves in the professional world of snowboarding.

Manuel at Kronsberg Session

TAC 2006 edition was arranged in Oslo, Norway, and consist of a huge quarter pipe competition at the ski jump stadium Holmelkollen, followed by a freeride trip reserved to the best riders of the event. During the event were arranged also a free day of riding in the resort of Konsberg and a very nice urban photo contest in Oslo.

Manuel and Ruiki during the photo contest

Unfortunatly Manuel was injured in the training day. The other compete in the city photo contest and in the quarter pipe, expressing their riding level togheter with the pros.

WSF Rookies

Txt: Marco SampaoliPics: Marco Sampaoli and Gianluca “Jimmi” Zanetti

Terje Haakonsen, organizer of the Arctic Challange

From 7 to 10 january 2006, the Snowboard League organized the european edition of the WSF World Rookie Fest, a world tour (Japan, Italy, USA and a final in Austria to be defined) for riders from 1988 and up. Every WRF06 counts as qualifing event for the Arctic Challenge by Terje Haakonsen. The WRF in Livigno, totally dominated by norwagian team, with 40 extraordinary riders from 11 country, a spectacular snow park, lots of extra activities and a very good organization, was the best edition of all ever.

7 january. Arrival Day and Opening Contest
The WRF started with a little regional contest in the “medium” snowpark of Livigno with 15 riders from 5 country. Easy contest winned by Bobby Witty (USA) while Britte Van Der Pow was the best woman after one hour of jam session.

Rank SL Rookie Tour . 7 january . Livigno
Boys
1st Bobby Witty (USA)
2nd Tresten Swigard (USA)
3rd Sam Cullum (UK)
4th Thomas Eschwaller (Italia)
5th Pier Frassì (Italia)
6th James KcElvany (UK)
7th Maarten Van der Pow (NL)
Girls
1st Britte Van Der Pow (NL)
2nd Denise Balza (ITA)
3rd Caroline Frassì (ITA)

For the entire day the others rookie teams enter in Livigno while the firsts arrived could enjoy the “snow mini half pipe” owned by Kikko Ciapponi (presenter of the event and nice italian pro). At the first riders meeting in the evenig, the positive vibration of the rookie event were around us. Fortunatly the meteo was supposed good for the 3 days…everything sounds good.

8 january. WRF Training
In early morning all the WRF crew went up at the spectacular Mottolino “pro” snowpark: on the start a car, then a straigh rail 7m long or a rainbow one, after follow the huge table top with 3 kickers (22,15 and 10m) followed by a double step up (15 and 12m). On the finish line a “wave” rail 8m long. During the 3 hours of training, the rookies tried the slope style and all the present focus how high was the level of riding: staff, media, coachs and people around were incredibly impressed for the level of the rookies! Of course, some of them was extraordinary …but the avarege level was really high…Rookie Rulez!

The 5 norwegian were incredible and soon some of them became the favorits of the event: Badertscher Ulrik , Aanestad Stian and Sivertzen Stian. Very good training from the swiss captain Cristian Haller, like the Czeck rider Dlahy Roman (which will be the youngest finalist). An other very good riders was Bobby Witty, USA junior champ in half pipe and slope style…not less from the austrians Felix Wander and Sharmer Roland. Good surprise from the belgium team too, arrived with 6 rookies of which De Lange Wonter and Sleeckx Yannik seemed the bests. For Holland Maarten Van Der Putten and Britte Van Der Pouw get a lot of good tricks like the russian Sir Sergey Lapushkin (he get 36 hours of travel alone to join the WRF). Quite interesting the italians, english and pollish even if they need something more to compete with the others.

In the evening there was a Arva /Pinps simulation with training on freeride security and avalache procedure. Later, at the riders meeting, there was a short expanation on the point system of the slope style while there was a video review with the film footage of the morning training.

9 january. WRF Slope Style
Everything is ready for one of the most interesting junior event of the season. Photografers, filmer, coach,s judges, staff and, above all, the 40 rookies were waiting for the start. Another hour of training before the 2 qualifing runs to select the 16 riders for the finals in jam session format. Riders were incredibly positive and everybody smile for the entire day… positive vibrations is what the WRF want to give… and that was.

Qualify runs were quick and the best 16 riders selected soon: all the norwegians enter the finals with their huge rotations and solid rails. Very good performance even from belgium riders (4 on 6 in the finals). Bobby Witty (USA) is 3rd in qualifing and the austrians are very good too entering the finals in 2. Maarten Van der Putten (Nederland) enter the finals like the russian Sir Sergey (check individual rank for more details).

During the finals nothing changes in the attitude of the rookies, everybody was happy and getting a nice riding in Livigno with some friends …but the level incresed sensibly…in the hour of jam session there were a lot of excellent tricks: lots stylish rails and very good jumps like sw900, Rodeo7, 720crk and huge bs1080 by Ulrik. Great level. WRF crew, people and media receive an important vision on the future of snowboarding.

Ulrick Badertscher (Norway) was absolutely the best rider of the WRF06 winning a ticket to TAC06 while Britte Van der Pouw (Nederland) was the best woman… but the WRF went above the ranks, giving everybody a positive and memorable experience…again: Rookie Rulez!!!

After the competition, last appointment was at the closing party with the video footage of the finals. Everybody was happy and remember for a log the great time at the WRF06 in Livigno.

From the WRF it’s all folks…of course, until next edition!

WSF World Rookie Fest by SL, Livigno 7-10 genn 06
Individual Rank

RANK	BIB	SURNAME	NAME	YEAR OF BIRTH	NATION	BEST QUAL.	BEST FINAL
1	22	Badertscher	Ulrik	88	NOR	24,9	26
2	32	Haller	Cristian	89	SUI	17,4	25,1
3	26	Aanestad	Stian	89	NOR	18,7	21,3
4	4	Witty	Bobby	89	USA	22,3	20,7
4	25	Sivertzen	Stian	89	NOR	15,7	20,7
6	12	De Lange	Wonter	89	BEL	18,2	19,6
7	23	Krohn	Sebastian	88	NOR	20,4	19,5
8	14	Sleeckx	Yannick	90	BEL	15,9	19,4
9	24	Truls Handstand	Berg	88	NOR	22,5	19,1
10	3	Lapushkin	Segery	89	Russia	17,5	19
11	11	Wander	Felix	88	AUT	21	18,8
12	6	Van der Putten	Maarten	88	NL	18	18,6
13	17	Reynders	Christophe	89	BEL	17,7	16,9
14	21	Dlahy	Roman	91	CZ	15,8	14,3
15	15	Smits	Seppe	90	BEL	21,1	14,2
16	9	Scharmer	Roland	88	AUT	20	7,6
17	13	Bronkaers	Kevin	90	BEL	15,6
18	16	Smits	Antony		BEL	14,7
19	28	Cullum	Sam	88	UK	13,7
20	7	Massar	Sjors	88	NL	13,5
21	5	Sweigard	Tresten	91	USA	12,5
21	33	Faffenarcht	Fabian	89	SUI	12,5
23	18	Dytkowski	Jakub	88	POL	12
24	34	Krummenazart	Florian	90	SUI	11,8
25	35	Buzzoni	Lorenzo	88	ITA	9,7
26	10	Pribik	Thomas	89	AUT	9
27	41	Frassì	Pier	92	ITA	8,2
28	40	Frassì	Calle	92	ITA	7,2
29	8	Van Der Pouw	Britte	90	NL	7,1
30	29	McElvaney	James	89	UK	7
31	42	Frassì	Caroline	86	ITA	6,3
32	36	Ferrari	Jacopo	88	ITA	5,9
33	39	Sirtori	Carlo	90	ITA	5,7
34	20	Selek	Piotr	89	POL	5,2
35	37	Balza	Denise	88	ITA	4,4
36	19	Szkaradek	Jakub	90	POL	3,6
37	27	Leith	Angus	88	UK

WSF World Rookie Fest by SL, Livigno 7-10 genn 06
Team Rank

RANK	NATION
1	NORWAY
2	BELGIUM
3	SWITZERLAND
4	AUSTRIA
5	NEDERLAND
6	USA
7	ITALY
8	UK
9	POLAND
10	RUSSIA
11	CZEK REPUBLIK

For free download of pics, video, interview and extra content about the world rookie fest 06 in Livigno, check the official home page www.snowboardleague.com

Txt: Marco Sampaoli
Pics: Luca “Ciccio” Borghetti and Nicola Carignani

NOTES FOR PRESS USE OF THIS REPORT:

With these report I try to express a complete vision of what the WSF World Rookie Fest 06 was, hoping to transmit the feelings of the riders and crew involved, and explaining what happend in Livigno above the trick and the tecnical details. We trust in the concept of Rookie Fest as a link beetewn amateur/rookie and pros and hope to develope this idea more and more.

Feel free to make any use of these report, using just a part of it or focusing the attention just on what you consider interesting.

Attacched with this report you can find some images…if you need more check www.snowboardleague.com and feel free to use any photo on the web site.

If you need high quality photos for a magazine contact me at marcosampaoli@libero.it . Check on www.snowboardleague.com wich photo do you need and send me the request with the name/number of the selected photos. If you check pics of a specific riders, send me the name. I will send the requested photo to you asap by email.

If you want some video footage of the event contact me by mail.

IMPORTANT
.:. If you use the article for the web, please send me the link of the page.
.:. If you use the article for a magazine, please inform me and, if possible, send me a copy (Ing. Marco Sampaoli, Via Donizzetti 18, 40069 Zola Predosa (BO), Italy).

in snowboard we trust

Marco Sampaoli
WSF Board of Directors and Livigno WRF Director

World Rookie Fest 2006 touched Asia in the TokyoDome, Japan.Few hours before the huge TTR event Nissan X-Trail, a Rookie Jam was organized by the Japan Snowboarding Association(JSBA) on 9th december 2005.

The snowboard structure inside the TokyoDome

On 9th December 2005, in the TokyoDome the best japanese rookie meet and compete for a ticket to the Arctic Challange 2006 (Oslo, Norway) organized by Terje Haakonsen. Few hours later, the Nissan X-Trail started the TTR’s season.

Rookie waiting for their dedicated jam

Rookie Jam was another format event of the wsf World Rookie Tour. Riders came from JSBA’s top ranker in north island Hokkaido, Nagano and Tokyo. IJC licensed judge make special selection rider’s for TAC. It was a very short but hard time for young riders: just 15min of jam session! But the rookie were super motivated thanx to the super prize: 17years old rookie Rikuya Narita finaly win the golden ticket to “dream land TAC”!

Rikuya during his interview for tv

Rikuya win the big chance to go to TAC togheter with the Japanese Crew: Ishi as coach, Ruiki Masuda and him as rookie riders and Taniguchi as photografer and pro rider. Rikuya did 18th at super icy quarter pipe in Olso: It was amazing and, no question at all, it rapresent the best experience for his snowboarding life.

Japanese riders at TAC06, Oslo, Norway.

txt&pics: Ishi