Archive for the ‘Highlights’ Category

Canadian ripper and winner of the Air & Style Innsbruck 2011, Mark McMorris impressed everyone last week by sticking a new and insane trick – backside triple cork 1440. Mark was filming with the Transworld crew in Snowmass, Colorado for an upcoming project when Mark felt the jump and went for it.

In a Transworld interview Mark had the following to say – “I’ve been doing a variation of the double cork back ten for quite awhile and nobody had tried it, so I just wanted to see what would happen if I just started it like a back ten but go a little further, hold my grab—I don’t know. The first one I just didn’t start as flippy, I kinda did a backside fourteen double and just fell. It kinda made sense so I just eased my way into it on the next two. I did it with no injury, so that’s cool.

 

Also check out Mark’s winning run at Billabong Air & Style Innsbruck 2011

 

It’s Monday and time seems to be crawling? We’ve got just what you need to pass this day! Halldor Helgason’s full part in Hooked, a Pirate Movie Production. If you don’t know Halldor, he’s the guy who threw hands down, the most stylish trick at the Nike 6.0 Air & Style Munich 2011 – the Lobster Flip. Although he didn’t land it, it was still sick to see him try it over and over again. Halldor ended up getting third place at the event earning, aside from TTR ranking points, many steez points.

Halldor’s Full Part in Hooked:

Also check out Halldors Lobster Flip attempts

The weather gods finally smiled upon Nanshan Ski Village as riders were met with perfect conditions for Day 2 of the 9th Red Bull Nanshan Open! In a closely fought battle, Finland’s Janne Korpi would clinch top honors at this 4Star Swatch TTR slopestyle contest, edging out young-gun Anton Bilare by a close judging decision. “I’m feeling pretty good! The weather was nice and the riding was great – it was really fun to ride today,” said Janne.

Sunday morning’s finals saw yesterday’s top 12 ranked riders battle it out for the four spots in the afternoon’s Super Finals, with Anton Bilare (SWE) going into the session ranked first, followed by Sergey Lapushkin (RUS), Knut Eliassen (NOR) and Janne Korpi (FIN). As the only ‘double-corker’ of the event, 20-year-old Anton Bilare earned the highest scoring single run of the Super Finals with a huge front 1080 ‘dub-cork’ off the first kicker followed by a front-7 late cork, a tail-press on the up-cannon and boardslide on the down-rail finished off with a bs rodeo over the spine. However with the best two out of three runs being counted, Janne Korpi’s versatility and consistency would inch him into first place as he showed off all four 900s within his top runs while also throwing down on the jib section – including a 360-off on the down-rail and front flipping up the mini step-up. If style was the only factor being judged, Anton’s final run could have put him back on top, stomping a huge floaty frontside 5 off the first kicker followed by a cab 900 off the second, however it would not be enough to take top spot on the podium.

Honorable mention goes to Sergey Lapushkin – popping his shoulder out in the lunchtime warm-up, a few painkillers later he was back in action to stomp one of the largest BS1080s of the contest, putting him in third. Earning the highest ranking a Chinese rider has achieved since the Nanshan Open gained TTR status, 20-year-old He Wei gave the locals something to cheer about with his FS720 to FS rodeo method runs in the morning for an 8th place finish. “It was such a good feeling riding today with these guys… I’m stoked!”

 

Check below for videos:

Janne’s Winning run:

The New Year 2011 has kicked in and the Swatch TTR season is in full swing! Our partners at Onboard Magazine have published a brilliant piece encapsulating the essence and most important moments of the 2010 snowboard seasaon! Check it out to make sure you did not miss any of these moments!

“We caught up with Antti Autti as he was getting back on it from injury, and in contest land it’s game on in Davos as the O’Neill Evolution gets the TTR underway for the new year. Marko Grilc has the bookies slashing his odds for the Tour title as he follows up his December Air&Style win with 1st in the Slopestyle. Ursina Haller takes the women’s pipe, and it’s eyes on the double corks in the men’s pipe, with Iouri Podladtchikov coming out on top.”…..

To read the article…

For 2010/11, major events on the Swatch TTR World Tour have agreed to work together to expand and implement the Snowboarding Live Scoring System (SLS) for all halfpipe, slopestyle and big air competitions for the upcoming 2010/11 season.  The Live Scoring System is planned to be introduced across all 6Star TTR events in an effort to break down barriers posed by the current Overall Impression system and to improve the presentation and understanding of competitive freestyle snowboarding as a whole.

To read more about the system read the interview done by TTR’s media partner Method.tv with Dani Kiwi Meier, one of the main persons behind the development of the project.

TTR VIDEO INTERVIEW ABOUT THE SLS SYSTEM

On September 23rd, 2010, the third Whiteout Swiss Snowboard Awards will be held oin Zürich / Switzerland. With a red carpet show, many VIP’s and the who is who of snowboarding, the event will be the most glamorous yet. The awards are only for invited guests, however, if you wanna catch an autograph from one of your favorite riders, make sure to attend the after party at Stall 6.

Awards will be handed out in eight categories:

Best Video Part
Best Competitor
Best Rookie
Rockstar Award
Outstanding Sister

There is an online voting for the categories Best Photographer, Swiss Brand and Park Resort. This is your chance to vote, so go to www.whiteout.ch and win your entry ticket to the award show.

Check out the video of lat year’s awards right here.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Nothing but astonishment and respect for Kev! We all want to see you rip it up again – you are an amazing individual…

Almost two months after Kevin Pearce’s tragic accident NBC did a moving piece on him. It includes some photos showing him smiling at the camera and discusses the long way to recovery in front of him. Due to copyright restrictions and whatnot readers from outside the US cannot view the clip on the NBC Olympics website. However, someone filmed the whole thing off the TV screen and posted it on youtube.

The clip includes short interviews with Kevin’s parents and his brothers, and even though the sound is weak at times it is definitely worth watching. Keep sending your good vibes to KP, his family and friends on the Well Wishes to our Frend Kevin Pearce Facebook page.

Thanks to our media partner Onboard for posting this article – we just copied it in here to give people outside of the US the opportunity to watch it: http://onboard.mpora.com/news/kevin-pearces-family-appears-tv.html

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZsYPBacfRs[/youtube]

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

06/07 Swatch TTR World Tour Champion, Torah Bright, is said to be practicing Double Corks. Read the article that was published today in the New York Times to see what’s up with that: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/25/sports/olympics/25bright.html

Excited to see what Torah will do. Go girl!

If you want to find out more about Torah, watch her TTR Rider Check Out below or take a peak at her profile on www.ttrworldtour.com.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEB1hMyJwOg[/youtube]