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.

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(c) Carlos Blanchard

The first 6Star event of the season, the Billabong Air & Style in Innsbruck,turned the spotlight on Slovenian rider Marko Grilc, who has been constantly successful on the Swatch TTR Tou but never had the big breakthrough at 6Star contest. To watch him talking about his win, check out TTR’s latest video right here

If you’re from Slovenia, what are the odds that you’ll win the TTR 6-star Air&Style event one day? Hell, they are pretty low even if you are from one of the snowboarding strongholds like the US or Finland! We caught up with Marko Grilc, who has just been crowned the new Billabong Air&Style winner, after pulling off an amazing bag of tricks, including a switch back 10 late cork. Read on to learn the secrets of his success, how many text messages he received after his victory, and why Travis Rice is still crazy…

Hey Grilo, congratulations on this great success. Tell us, at what time into the contest did you realise that you might win it?
It wasn’t until the last jump that I really thought about that. Before that I had too many other things in my mind. First I was just happy that I was in the starting field. When I made the top 8 I thought ‘Wow, I will get an invitation for next year’s event!’, and even when I was in the superfinals I always focused on my next jump. So when I landed my last jump I realised ‘Cool I could win this!’ – and I did!

To read the full interview go to www.onboardsnowboarding.com

Women from all corners of the world gathered in Saas Fee, to meet and discuss their work and common passion for boardsports. We heard some inspirational stories form the lives of Nicola Thorst, Maritxu Darrigand and Donna Carpenter. Many interesting issues were discussed, such as how to balance work life and life as a mother, new female boardsports initiatives, female riders in the media etc. It was great to hear the views of journalists, photographers, magazine editors, shop owners, riders, PR and marketing people and many more. Of course there was some relaxation involved -yoga, spa and cocktails. Big thanks to Daniela Meyer (Popcorn Saas Fee) and  Carmela Fleury (Les Ettes) for starting this great initiative and bringing up many of such interesting topics of discussion for women working in the boardsports industry.

Shaun White’s double corks wrote history this Saturday, August 15th, in the Snowpark NZ halfpipe during the 5Star Burton New Zealand Open Snowboarding Championships. Despite sick, stylish and high runs, some of them also including a double cork (e.g. Vito’s) no one could get past Shaun in the pipe finals. The Mitranis, Kazu, Mason, Antti and even current Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour Champion Peetu Piiroinen all watched Shaun laying down the pipe run of the year (if not the century) which might make history again later this season, if no one can step it up. Only 2 years after David Benedek brought double corks to competition at the Air&Style and Travis Rice mastered them in the backcountry they entered the pipe stage – Halfpipe Snowboarding has reached a new level!Don’t miss to watch the TTR Special on Shaun’s double corks and check back early next week to get the TTR lowdown from the NZ Open with the latest ranking developments and behind the scenes content.Link to the video section: http://www.ttrworldtour.com/multimedia/video.html

It’s been a long time coming: Next week, the Burton New Zealand Open will mark the major kick off of the 2009/2010 Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour season.Reason enough for more than half of this season’s Swatch TTR Top 10 to make the trip to Downunder and collect some crucial early season points. On board are not only TTR’s current male Top 3 riders, Peetu, Chas, and Antti but also Kelly, Lisa and Jami, TTR’s current female Top 3 riders – they all will be battling it out for the early Tour lead. But winning won’t be easy with the best riders from Europe, North America, Asia and Australia/New Zealand also keen to collect points – Up for the taking: two times 850 Swatch TTR ranking points!To find out who else is coming to the show and what’s going on next week check out the latest news release right here. If you don’t wanna miss any action, watch semis and finals live on 14th and 15th August go211.com.

Well, the seasons over, the snow is melting and the champions have been crowned. Are you having withdrawl symptoms too? Just incase TTR has decided to air its 26 minute Television show wrapping up the entire season exclusively on ttrworldtour.com. From Chas’ knock out down under, amazing double corks in Japan and Canada, as well as the clash of the titans at the European and US Opens. Read the rest of this entry »

Perisher Blue – Yabby Flats – Mid station Forester quad express (webcam shot: 29.04.09 @ 0° Celsius)Due to severe weather in SA, Victoria and NSW half a meter of snow has already fallen on Falls Creek’s slopes and it’s still only April down under. With resort openings still 5 weeks away this is quite a historic happening in Australia and phones won’t stop ringing with people asking for passes to go snowboarding. The same story for Perisher where it’s already possible to get some cheeky powder runs in if you are willing to hike a bit (if your car makes it up there). Overnight temperatures dropped to -5 degrees Celsius. Mt Hotham has had a similar snowfall.(addendum: just heard on the news that the European April has been the hottest April in 50 years as well as a very hot fall in Perth, Western Australia, with basically no rain at all – welcome climate change! New headline: TTR Tour soon to expand to Africa…) Read the rest of this entry »

Saturday, April 18th Mellowparks.cn celebrates the beginning of summer with the Great Burton Qiaobo Mellow Park Summer 2009 Opening. This summer Beijing’s finest indoor snowboard playground introduces a revised park layout including a two-hit kicker run, a wallride and a bunch of new jib features to maintain it’s reputation as one of the best indoor parks in the world. Sick prizes from Burton go to the Best Male/Female Shredder Overall, Best Jibber(Male/Female), Best Kicker Rider (Male/Female), Sickest Wall-rider (Male/Female) and Worst Slam. Join us as we celebrate summer snowboarding with Burton Snowboards!11:00 – 13:00  Free-shredding13:00 – 13:45  Park maintenance13:45              The Burton Qiaobo Mellow Park Grand Opening Ceremony14:00 – 15:00  Burton Jam Session with prizesNeed a ride out there? 360 Snow Tours is running a bus to and from the venue on the day, leaving at 10:30 from Club Sandwich for only 75 RMB – not a bad deal considering a taxi only one-way is around 300 RMB! Contact Marcel on 13718910872 to reserve your seat. Not only that, but we are also running a special deal on lift tickets & gear rental – only 188 RMB for the whole day! See you there!

History went down today on Stratton Mtn., Vermont as Danny Kass won the 5th USO Halfpipe title of his career. But the man of the day was without a doubt… no, not Shaun White – he was forced to watch from the sidelines with an ankle problem – …Peetu Piirionen. The calm pal from Finland managed to land on the podium once again this season and thus took home the Swatch TTR World Title and $50.000 a day earlier than expected. The official crowning ceremony will still be held tomorrow though. http://www.vimeo.com/3796291 Read the rest of this entry »

The 6Star US Open has been the final stop on the TTR Tour for 4 years now for the men and it’s never been this exciting.2006 – Tour Champion Mathieu Crepel (FRA): It all came down to Risto and Mathieu battling it out in the HP final in Stratton – Mathieu finished 5th and Risto 6th in the pipe after both messed up in the slopestyle. The Frenchman had only 5 points more and won the first ever Tour title!2007 – Tour Champion  Shaun White (USA): After Travis won the snowy slopestyle and Shaun only managed to come 3rd it came down to the pipe! Shaun won, while Travis got injured breaking his collarbone bailing on the last hit after a sick run and Mr. White became the first ever American TTR Champ. Antti Autti finished just outside the podium in both formats and held on to World Nr. 2 while Kevin Pearce finished in World Nr. 4 and earned his entry ticket to ride in 07/08 TTR events!2008 -  Tour Champion Kevin Pearce (USA): After an incredible season winning 2 Air&Style rings of glory, the BEO HP, TAC – it was one simple gust of wind that almost cost Pearce the title against Shaun. Even though Shaun won both USO formats, Pearce could hold it together and came 3rd in the pipe. Due to 1 result missing on Shaun’s list of results he couldn’t capitalize and the title went to Kevin. Peetu Piiroinen also had his first appearance on the international TTR contest scene and consistent TOP5 finishes and several podiums at the big quarterpipe events paid out and let him jump to World Nr. 2 in the end.Now in 2009 it’s between Shaun and Peetu Piiroinen from Finland for the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour Title and it all comes down to the final standings in both halfpipe and slopestyle on Saturday and Sunday. What can happen and who can go where in the rankings – find out all about this nailbiting season finish-up here. Read the rest of this entry »