With the begining of the new year TTR’s golden partner, TSG, launched their new website. This relaunch doesn’t only cover a redesign of the site but implements a bunch of new functions. The new website now has sophisticated filter functions, which gives user multiple possibilities to find his desired products. Starting by entering the appropriate sport world you will be guided through the collection untill finding favorite model.
One of the new features is TSG TV, which shows a collection of action videos as well as product videos, featuring team riders like Iouri Podladtchikov and Ellias Elhard
Here is part 2 of Oli’s story about his event: the 8th Red BUll Nanshan Open – TTR’s biggest event in Asia this season.
Day 5 – Competition, Day 2 & A Miracle
Another early start, and another morning with a 2-second breakfast! Today will be similar to yesterday, however with a lot more pressure – there’s an even stronger media presence today, and of course, it’s the Finals!!! We’re not as lucky with the weather today – it’s overcast, with a bit of wind, and most of the riders are forced to hit the smaller kicker line due to speed issues. Still, this does not seem to be holding them back! The mood in the judges booth is a bit more serious today – the riders are pushing themselves harder, and their scores matter a lot more now! It turns out Tobias’s ribs are OK, and it’s great to see him riding in the finals – he’s obviously taking it easy though.
Only the top 4 riders will progress through to the Super Finals, and as the results come in we go over the 4th and 5th placed runs. It’s a close call, but the judges are happy with their decisions. I boost to the nearest printer and print out 10 copies of the results for the riders and media.
The afternoon Super Finals sees Juuso Laivisto, David Bertschinger Karg, Nick Hyne and Sergey Lapushkin battling it out. It’s great to watch, but I’m making lots of mental notes for our press release – How’s the mood? / What’s the best trick so far? / Any upsets? / How close are the scores? As the riders finish their runs and the results come in only .1 of a point separates 3rd place from 4th, and some serious deliberation goes on! Iztok, the head judge puts it to the scoring judges and its 2 to 1 on the decision. Juuso Laivisto takes 1st, Sergey Lapushkin gets 2nd, with David Bertschinger Karg just nudging out Nick Hyne for 3rd.
Everyone heads down to the stage for prizegiving, and the live music is creating an awesome party scene down here! After Eric announces the results, I battle the other media to get a few quotes out of the finalists for the press release.
Yet again, it’s straight back into the office for press-release-writing-time! It’s even more hectic than usual, as everything is getting packed up / shutdown / rushed through following the event. Iztok sits with me and we go through the winning runs – again I write, rewrite and rewrite the press release. We’re making a big effort to finish earlier tonight, as I don’t want to miss the celebration dinner and karaoke session. Steve is happy with what I’ve written and gives me some photos to accompany it, Jess translates it, and we fire out the press release and newsletter in record time!
Arriving at dinner, however, I’m faced with possibly the biggest dilemma of the trip. The song my singing partner and I have chosen to perform (Blue – One Love) is not on the KTV discs there. We already have the whole song choreographed out, so switching songs is NOT an option. A last-minute mission to a CD shop next door and we spot a CD unlike the others. Glowing and emitting light, our song is on this disc. It is like a gift from an angel. As we arrive back at the restaurant, the crowd is already chanting our names, demanding a show. We take the microphones. The show-stopping performance that follows simply can not be put into words – the video cameras that tried to capture it simultaneously burst into flames, and every female in attendance fainted. A miracle happened that night; those that witnessed it will speak of it forever. [The above paragraph is the author’s own interpretation of the event and may not accurately represent what actually happened].
The rest of the night is of course a blur (or at least that’s what I’m going to type, because what happens on tour stays on tour or something like that).
Day 6 – The Day After..
Ah, it’s finally almost over! The morning is spent stressed out trying to get everyone out of their rooms and checked out in time, arranging how to get some of the early-leavers to the airport, and making sure everyone’s luggage fits on the bus. Today the guys will head to the Great Wall, however I pass on that trip and send my helpers to accompany them. We get back to Beijing, and Ishi and I have quiet lunch near my house. It’s a crazy contrast from what the past few days have been, and I find it hard to adjust!
Day 7 – Ice biking and shopping
If you haven’t experienced ice-biking, then you haven’t truly lived. Ice-bikes are basically old cruiser bikes from the 80s that have an ice-skate blade instead of a front wheel and sort of training wheels / bars around them to keep them upright. We all spend about 2 hours on an in-city lake in sub-20 temperatures ice-biking to our hearts content, doing big drifts, spins and racing. It gets pretty eXtreme. The afternoon is spent hitting the markets, buying fake Rolexes, shoes and handbags. I mean.. normal bags.
One of the competition judges, restauranteer Alan Wong has kindly offered to host all of us at his private residence for dinner tonight. Chef Asher has cooked up an incredible feed, and you can tell the guys are stoked to finally have some homemade western food! Following dinner, we head to a huge nightclub where we have an entire balcony reserved for us – including 40 bottles of whiskey and free-flowing mixers! It’s a Tuesday night, but the club is packed! Exhausted from one of the longest weeks of my life, I down a Red Bull, get my energy level up, and party with the guys till the sun comes up. Day 8 – It’s over!
That’s basically it for me! The riders are left to check-out of the hotel on their own time and make their way to the airport. I head home, take a shower, then sit on the couch and do nothing for the first time in eight days. It feels great.
As organizer of basically all things rider related for the 8th Red Bull Nanshan, I had a reasonably busy week for this competition! Follow my day-to-day madness, headaches and good times at Asia’s largest snowboard competition on the Swatch Ticket to Rider World Snowboard Tour.
Day 1- Arrivals
A relaxed day for the riders, but one of the most stressful for me. Basically the whole day is spent on airport pickups. (starting at 7am and finishing at 9pm), Thanks to some recent snow and general awesomeness of air carriers, almost none of the flights arrive when scheduled, messing up my whole transport schedule. I make a few changes, and luckily have some girls helping me out which takes some of the pressure off. As the invited pros come in it’s awesome to see some familiar faces from last year, and we greet each other like old friends. I head back to the hotel with a big group of them, and while they get to check-in and rest, I meet up with big boss / event organizer Steve Zdarsky and setup for a Press Conference that evening in the hotel bar.
Fast forward a few hours past the really exciting press conference, we get to relax with one of the best dinners of the trip – all you can eat and drink teppanyaki. Just as I’m enjoying myself, I hear one of the late-arrival riders still hasn’t been seen at the airport. Uh-oh. Meanwhile, we have a few drinks, get to know each other and are reminded of that ‘school trip’ feeling from back in the day. A relaxing group foot massage follows, and mid-massage I hear the missing rider has arrived – but his boardbag hasn’t. I decide to sort it out tomorrow. Finally by 1:00am I drop a few guys off at a nearby club to continue partying, and head home for a little bit of sleep.
Day 2 – Sighteseeing
I join the guys for an awesome buffet breakfast at the Hilton. I’ve got to make sure all the guys are checked out, bags packed by 11:00am, but I’m not surprised when by 10:30am there’s still no sign from last night’s ‘clubbers’. I get their room number from reception and pay them a visit – as expected, they’re still in bed, with some uneaten room service in the doorway.. haha.
We board the bus and head straight to the Olympic’s Bird’s Nest Stadium to check out the snow-world-park-thing they have going on there. It’s actually a pretty solid effort! Snow had been blown throughout the stadium, and just outside was a ski slope made out of scaffolding. Some of the riders opted to ski with hilarious results, a few hungover riders slept on the bus and some just wandered off. I make a call to the airport’s lost baggage claim to try and track down the missing boardbag. They’re not too sure about it, but tell it’s still in San Francisco and might arrive tonight.
A few hours later, and we’re on our way to the ski resort. The hotel is expecting us and we’ve made sure they pre-heat the rooms this year, the weather is freezing! It’s pretty funny watching the first-timers see the man-made ski resort for the first time, and you can feel everyone getting more excited.
A delicious and cheap Chinese dinner with the local crew allows everyone involved in the competition to bond and familiarize themselves. We have some hassle trying to get an official receipt for the meal, and they tell us to come back tomorrow. I wish I could relax sometimes!
Day 3 – Practice day
Ah.. today I don’t have quite as much to worry about. The riders are left to themselves for a full day of practice, however every 10 mins there’s another question. “Where can we use the internet?” “Can I get my board waxed?” “What time’s lunch?” Despite all this information being in the rider’s booklet I so thoughtfully prepared and handed to them on the first day.. I send them in the right direction. There’s still no sign of the missing boardbag, so I make another call to the lost baggage department. Apparently the bag missed its flight last night (bags can be so unorganized!) but is on its way now and will be delivered to the ski resort that night. I politely emphasis how important this bag is… the rider’s been forced to practice on a borrowed board in borrowed pants, boots, and gloves
Another good local dinner is followed by more desk work. I sit down with the head judge and we develop an excel file that will streamline tomorrow’s judging process. Thankfully my girlfriend has come up to join for the weekend, so after a long day I finally get to lie down next to her! I get a phone call at 2:00am letting me know the bag has arrived and will be delivered in an hour. I try to sound enthusiastic about this.
Day 4 – Competition, Day 1
I wake up, half excited and half stressed. Today will be non-stop madness, but at the same time I’ll get to witness and help run the largest Asian snowboard contest on the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour… which still stokes me out.
I get about two minutes to make a breakfast sandwich from the buffet selection before having to rush off. I get briefed on what the day’s plan of attack is, draft today’s press release, set up the judges booth for scoring and do a hundred other things that come up. The weather is great, there’s no wind, and eventually I get together with the judges to check out the practice runs. We’re all impressed by the level of riding and the vibe today is super good! My good friend Eric is doing a wicked job at MC’ing the event in Chinese, and the crowd is obviously hyped.
As the competition gets under way, I’m quietly proud that the judging system we made last night is working flawlessly. I’m even more stoked to see fellow Kiwis Nick Hyne and Nick Brown make it through to tomorrow’s finals – especially as it was Nick Hyne’s bag that was missing! Tobias Karlsson, however, injures himself on his second run, and as the scores are tallied up we’re left with quite the predicament. Tobias’s first run was good enough to qualify him, but with a suspected broken rib and no word back from the doctors, it seems unlikely he will compete tomorrow. We decide to bring through the 13th placed rider, which by chance is Chinese rider Wang Lei. The media and Chinese fans are ecstatic, and it’s great to have a local rider in the finals.
No time to see the announcement though, as we’re under tight deadlines! The second the qualified riders are announced, I head straight to the office to write up the press release on today’s results. I’m halfway through, and suddenly realize I can’t remember what the first placed qualified rider’s run consisted of! I hunt down the head judge, and he goes over the tricks with me. One hour and three-hundred rewrites later, and I send the draft to Steve – he gives it the OK, my colleague Jess translates it to Chinese, and we blast it out to the media – only 2 hours after the competition finished! Jess and I high-five, we’re a good team.
There’s still lots of work to do – as the riders head for dinner, we stay in the office; going through pictures, updating the judges sheets, sending out our own newsletter, drafting tomorrow’s press release, it seems to never end! However by the time the crew gets back from dinner with leftovers, we’re finished, and have a quick snack and beer before calling it a night.
TO READ THE FULL STORY CHECK BACK TO THE TTR BLOG THIS WEEKEND – THE SECOND PART UP AHEAD
It’s a foggy Wednesday afternoon in January. The Intercity Express train to Saalfelden, Austria is packed with girls travelling with boardbags and big backpacks. At the train station they get off with their luggage and enter several busses that are waiting for them to take them up to Saalbach-Hinterglemm. They seem a little tired from the long trip, but look relaxed, happy and smile in anticipation when they get off the bus in Hinterglemm to check into their energy efficient hotels. There is very tasty organic, locally produced food for dinner, which powers them for the three long days of hiking the park that lie ahead of them! Those girls are the world’s best female snowboarders and they are traveling to the Roxy Chicken Jam — 2020.
“Don’t destroy what you came to enjoy!” – credo of theQuiksilver Foundation
We write the year 2010 and only very few of the organizers, media or riders came by train and public transportation – among them Kjersti Buaas and Chanelle Sladics. The North Americans and riders from other continents had to take long-haul flights. Food was mostly not organic; overheated hotel rooms and diesel-guzzling snowcats far from energy efficient.
At least no cars had to be used for the duration of the event as hotels, snow park and parties were all walking distance from anyone’s accommodation. After all there were some first very important steps towards a greener Roxy Chicken Jam. It’s called going carbon neutral! And it’s about taking initiative and starting somewhere. Read the rest of this entry »
We received this interview from our media partners at Lime girls magazine and Freeride.cz/girls. Sarka Pancochova is currently in the Swatch TTR World No.1 ranking, and it will be exiting to see if she will keep her lead till the end of the season! If your language is Czech you can follow this season unfolding on Freeride.cz/Girls.
Interview with Šárka Pančochová
“Sharki” is so short you may stumble over her by mistake in a line for a lift and you won’t even notice it. This girl gets up first in the morning, leaves the hill last and can party hard all night long, riding different tricks than other girls and always speaks her mind. Being a little girl doesn’t mean having little energy.
Šárka comes from a small town in the Czech Republic which lies 200 metres above the sea level. She lives out of a boardbag and is travelling the world while her parents live in the UK.
Being a little girl doesn’t mean having little energy when you do the things you want to. “I’m loving it! I love snowboarding” responded Šárka in the darkness of the car when we were coming back on the highway from the Burton European Open.
We are sitting in your apartment in the Rockresort at the beginning of the Burton European Open but you are not riding today. Why? The main reason is because I’m tired. The second reason is that we filmed with Karkys for a new documentary about me and Martin Černík.
Why are you tired?
I’m tired because I rode three big events in the last five days - O’Neill Evolution, FIS World Cup in Kreischberg and Roxy Chicken Jam.
How is riding FIS World Cup? Is it fun?
Pretty much so, I know most of the riders. But the BEO is much more entertaining!
How was listening to the national anthem after winning the World Cup in Kreischberg?
It was really a big surprise! I didn’t expect it at all.
Was it emotional?
For sure! I listened to the Czech anthem for the first time in my life because I had accomplished something. I was actually singing.
What differences do you see between TTR and FIS?
INCOMPARABLE! FIS doesn’t respect the riders, listens to trainers only, the rider is on the last place. Even the weather is horrible during the event!
Do you think the level of girls’ riding has changed?
The level of girls’ riding has gone a long way in the previous year. Both here in Europe and in the USA. In the semi finals of Roxy Chicken Jam there was nearly nobody who would not do a seven.
What were you plans for BEO?
Doing my run well!
Did it?
Yeah, I was stoked from my runs but judges didn’t really like it but sometimes it is like this. I’m happy anyways!
Would you like to be a queen of the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour at the end of the season 09/10?
Yes, that would be great. I’m after it! But we are only in the middle of the winter.
One month ago, I talked about the situation of freestyle snowboarding in German speaking countries. While Germany and Austria are struggling to bring new talent to the TTR Tour and to the Olympics, seems to be different in Switzerland: the last two weeks have shown one thing, Switzerland is doing something extremely well in supporting the snowboard scene. We currently have two Swiss riders (Christian Haller and Sina Candrian) in World No. 2 on the Swatch TTR women’s and men’s rankings and we saw many podium finishes in Davos and Laax for the Swiss riders.
1 Ursina Haller
2. Cilka Sadar 3. Manuela Laura Pesko
Halfpipe Burton European Open
1 Peetu Piiroinen
2 Ilkka-Eemeli Laari 3 Iouri Podladtchikov
Halfpipe WOmen Burton European Open
1 Paulina Ligocka 2 Ursina Haller
3 Akiko Miwa
Slopestyle Women Burton European Open
1 Enni Rukajärvi 2 Sina Candrian
3 Sarka Pancochova
Also the Swiss team for the Olympics was decided yesterday and today in Davos during internal trials: Congratulations to both winners of the 6Star O’Neill Evolution Halfpipe Formats, Ursina Haller and Iouri Podladtchikov, who will both be competing at the Olympic Games in Vancouver this February. Also in for the Swiss team are current Swatch TTR World No. 2 Christian Haller and former Arctic Challenge winner Markus Keller.
Swiss team in Vancouver:
Christian Haller (989, Zernez)
Iouri Podladtchikov (1988, Zürich)
Markus Keller (1982, Bottighofen)
Sergio Berger (1983, Disentis)
The Swatch TTR 6Star Burton European Open Snowboarding Championships 2010 went down last week in Laax, Switzerland. 08/09 TTR World Snowboard Champion Peetu Piiroinen won the slopestyle with style and consistent runs, closely followed by Norwegians Mikkel Bang and Gjermund Braaten. Scandianavian podium dominance could only be stopped by Switzerland’s Iouri Podladtchikov. Check out the photos in the slideshow above and keep your eyes glued to www.ttrworldtour.com to find out what happens next at the 5Star Canadian Open, the last big TTR Event before the Olympic Winter Games 2010 in Vancouver go down.
Ready for the 6Star Burton European Open TTR has just launched their brandnew video player! New navigation with channels, tags, sort function, featured videos and more will improve the browsing of the dozens of videos aired during each season.
We have quite a lot of new features:
More video real estate on the TTR homepage and navigation to our different Channels
Channels: Riders, Tricks, Specials, 5-6Star Events and 1-4Star Events
A tag cloud and tag search to navigate to important content
A sort function by views to get to the most viewed videos
A video search, which also enabled us to include video results in the standard search
Individual RSS Feeds of each channel to subscribe to
direct embed URL for faster copy and paste into your website or blog
A little collection of photos from the Swatch TTR Women’s 6Star Roxy Chicken Jam 2010. Some sick riding went down in Saalbach Hinterglemm and Sarka could still defend her Tour Lead against Cheryl, while Enni Rukajärvi surprised judges, fans and media with solid riding. Video content from the finals is coming soon!
