“Don’t destroy what you came to enjoy!” – credo of the Quiksilver 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.

And that’s what the Roxy Chicken Jam 2010 was all about! It was one of the first carbon neutral boardsport events in Europe. Recent major events that have taken responsibility for their greenhouse gas emissions include: the 2007 Academy Awards, 2006 FIFA World Cup Soccer, and the Dave Matthews Band concert tour. The environmental leadership demonstrated by these events is helping to transform the event industry, with green initiatives quickly becoming an expected part of holding an event. Let’s hope the snowboarding industry – highly dependent on the earth’s climate – starts leading by example.

Austrian event organizer Matthias Hofmann went down this alternative road and offset all carbon emissions by buying into a project called SRARFI – Sudden Rush Atlantic Rainforest Institute. The Brazilian company was founded by Swiss event announcer and Sudden Rush owner Chris Bachmann in 2005 and is supported by ambassadors like Nicolas Mueller and Terje Haakonsen. Nicolas himself owns 800m² of Atlantic rainforest to even out his job-related travels around the world.

Goal of the SuddenRush Atlantic Rainforest Institution (SRARFI) is to create an ecological corridor near Itacare, Brazil

Here is why Maritxu Darrigrand, Marketing Director at Roxy, now in also charge of sustainability at the company, thought SRARFI was the right organization to work with:

“It was good, cause we already had been in contact regarding another Quiksilver Foundation project, which is about forest reservation in France, but back then we decided to work with an organization called “Coeur de Forêt”.

But Matt (Hofmann) asked us to think about the “Atlantic Rainforest Foundation” again – and we did – and after all it’s even better, because it’s connected to our world – boardriding – Terje is involved for example. We know these guys and we know our money is in good hands. Here it’s not used to partly pay for a big office in New York and stuff like that. We have to be careful that the organizations or associations we give our funds to do the right thing.

It’s good to not put all your energy in the same one. It’s good to split up – we do a lot of other things, too. I hope with positive effects.”

The event’s footprint was accurately calculated with the help of Climate Partner, one of the European market leaders. The produced 116 tons of CO₂ were compensated in co-operation with the Suddenrush Atlantic Rainforest Institution (SRAFRI) saving 1,500 square meters of rain forest in Brazil. One ton of CO₂ produced, can be absorbed within 75 years for the amount of € 42 which equals 13 m² of Atlantic Rainforest (Do the math – that would be € 4.950,00 out of the budget – a fairly small amount of money for an international 6Star snowboarding competition, attended by several 100 people, in relation to total spendings).

Event Organizer: Matthias Hofmann

Here is the full interview with Matthias Hofmann:

Why and when did you decide to make your event eco-friendly?

That was very short term. I was talking a lot with Drew, the former CEO of the TTR and a good friend – he pushed for it. And we decided to not wait any longer. As the climate conference in Copenhagen didn’t bring any results, we thought we lead by example. (Matt smiles)

Where do you see the benefits for the event in general?

Benefits are on all sides. First of all the nature and the local area around here is profiting the most. We produce less trash or barely any at the concert and the park venue, we try to minimize emissions as much as possible and only the ones that still can’t be avoided would be offset.

And it’s also a big benefit for the brand Roxy itself, because it’s just a good, positive message you attach to that normal message that you do a snowboard competition and that it’s fun, you know. It’s also good for the TTR at the end of the day, if more events start to become green, it’s a good thing for the organization and last but not least the main sponsor Swatch.

That’s out of question, and I hope more TTR events will be picking this up.

What about the disadvantages?

Well, you know, natural resources like air, water and soil, have been free so far, but this can’t be the standard in the future as negative external effects keep messing up our system. And it’s still not calculated within our entire monetary and value system. If companies do something, they use resources that are owned by everyone on this planet. There are no real disadvantages. If you play you pay, and that’s how it is.

And if you play harder and more, you should pay more. That’s not negative, that should be natural.

How are you doing your emissions assessment? Who does it?

I chose a 2-way system. First of all I am working with Climate Partner, they are offsetting the soccer European Championships or the Austrian Airlines, they are more or less the official offsetter for the republic of Austria. It can’t get more official. They are very precise and very experienced in this. So I went there, did the calculations with them and on top of the result we added 15% safety cushion to account for smaller, less tangible things.

And then, because I didn’t really the idea to give the money to an organization I don’t know, and nobody here knows, I chose the Rainforest Project from Chris Bachmann to offset it. Because people like Nicolas Mueller, Terje Haakonsen, Drew Stevenson, and more that come from the boardsports world are behind it and are driving the project.

So in a nutshell: Do your calculations precisely with a good partner (e.g. Climate Partner), which is a global company, and then choose an offset project that people can connect with and you can rely on. That’s a big part of it, cause then you tell the kids: Look at this – it’s cool! That’s the mission that we have. So take it on and don’t communicate only dry and boring, but make it cool and show them that it’s a lot of cool people standing behind that idea. (and it’s worth to join the cause.)

It would be nice if more events follow your footsteps and the whole Tour becomes greener. The Arctic Challenge is a leading example with their Norwegian certification (Miljøfyrtårn Foundation), which is a pretty high standard and they are trying to get the ISO certification.

Yeah, I am also talking to Marco (Sampaoli), the head of the WSF and organizer of the World Rookie Fest, who wants to do it now with his rookie event and maybe he is approaching the whole WSF to do that. I think it’s really important. The Federations also play a very important role, cause if they say: Hey guys, if you go green and you fulfill certain standards, avoid trash and emissions, and the more you do and offset, we reduce the membership fee for your event. And the carbon offsetting could be covered by a sponsor. There are a lot of options how to build motivation for event organizers.

Develop this thought further – we could work towards a green standard in TTR and WSF, a minimum goal or requirement understandable and achievable on all star levels. It would be interesting for mainstream media to communicate and for the general public to understand that we are working towards the goal to produce greener events – and lead by example.

I think we should sit together and work out standards that make sense for snowboard events. We could potentially do this at the General Assembly. If you make one meeting about sustainability, and develop a concept, where everybody is contributing, then you could really end up with something that makes sense. Cause then you produce different ideas, from different events, from different countries, and then we could set up a standard that suits our needs. And we don’t have to buy some expensive ISO certificate and you don’t have to go through bureaucracy that takes forever. I am not a big friend of that.

What are the officials doing? They are making the train more expensive than the car. And the same people want to tell me what I have to do and how to produce my event environmentally friendly. I don’t believe in that.

How did the media embrace your efforts?

The media echo was really good. We had newspapers like Sueddeutsche Zeitung, one of the biggest newspapers in Germany, then also a lot of special interest media and some other big newspapers. But we are also communicating what we are doing in the TV production and other channels That’s a very important point for us.

Is carbon neutrality a key part of the communication e.g. with a whole paragraph in the press releases?

Well, it’s not a key part. We are still a snowboarding event with a focus on sports performance. That’s why we are doing it. But it’s a very essential part because I think we, as snowboard event organizers, that reach young people in a credible way, can make them become more interested in what we are doing. We can package this message really cool so that the awareness of the kids starts growing. And that must be the goal…

In all the podcasts and TV Shows we are doing, we have interviews with people about the topic. Also we wanted to have Nicolas Mueller here to talk a little bit about his project, unfortunately he had to be at another event. So for sure, this is something we want to let people know.

Is the US chicken Jam also trying to create a carbon neutral event?

Not confirmed yet. (Editorial note: Matt and Roxy are working on making it happen.)

Do you think you can improve something for 2011?

Sure, this time it had been a very short-term decision. There is a lot you can do. I have the calculations now and I see that over 60% of everything we neutralized is caused by individual traffic. This means all the snow production and the stuff on the mountain venue, all of that produced less CO2 than all the travel by flights and car.

Here we can encourage people to rely more on public transportation. Maybe we can work on a cooperation with the ÖBB (Austrian train corporation) next year, so that every rider that comes to the Roxy Chicken Jam gets a voucher to travel free within Austria.

It’s a lot you can do. Reducing waste further is the easiest. If you use your brain for one minute you will see there is no waste if you do it right. Like using recyclable branding materials. We already talked to Roxy and we are working on improvements!

——————————————————————————————————————-
So let’s hope the TTR Tour final will be carbon neutral as well! As Maritxu said: “Without offsetting both events to the rainforest we are not showing a real commitment.”

It is impossible to reduce our carbon emissions to zero, no matter how hard we try. But some events and athletes do their best to improve their footprint. The World Rookie Fest 2010, a snowboarding competition for riders below the age of 18, already followed the footsteps of the Chicken Jam. The 3Star WSF event has been voluntarily certified “climate neutral” by Climate Partner and over 140 tons of CO2 have been offset by credit for certificates of CO2 emitted from a local Italian biomass factory.

Biomass production site in Tirano, Italy

And the 6Star Oakley Arctic Challenge has already been environmentally certified with a Norwegian certificate at a very high level. We will have an interview with Henning Anderson from the Oakley Arctic Challenge here soon.

And to clarify this: I don’t think we need to rely solely on hiking 10 years from now – humanity has invented a lot of innovative transportation systems – we will manage to come up with one to keep on riding sustainably for sure!

If you want to read an entire interview about sustainability at Roxy and Quiksilver with Maritxu or learn more about how to make your event carbon neutral keep checking www.sustainabilityinactionsports.wordpress.com for updates.

Stay sideways – and think green!

Links & Sources:

Sudden Rush Atlantic Rainforest Institute: http://www.atlanticrainforest.org/

The Quiksilver Foundation: http://www.quiksilverfoundation.org/

David Suzuki Foundation: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Climate_Change/What_You_Can_Do/carbon_neutral_events.asp

Sustainability in Action Sports Blog: http://sustainabilityinactionsports.wordpress.com/

RCJ News Carbon Neutral: http://roxychickenjam.com/chickenjam10/blogEntry,62.en.html

Roxy Chicken Jam 2010: http://roxychickenjam.com/

TTR Roxy Chicken Jam Event Bio Page: http://www.ttrworldtour.com/events/season-0910/6star/roxy-chicken-jam-europe.html

World Rookie Fest 2010: http://www.worldsnowboardfederation.org/

Unfortunately, I missed Chanelles’s dance party the last night but maybe some photo footage from that night will be posted by someone else…you never know. Enjoy.

• Lisa Wiik
• Silvia Mittermueller
• Kjersti Buaas
• Cheryl Maas (05/06 TTR Champion)
• Kelly Clark

For further more detailed information please contact: andy@ttrworldtour.com

RANK	NAME	COUNTRY	SCORE	# RES.	MAX. SCORE	INFO
1	Anderson, Jamie	USA	821,35	7	956,79	injured
2	Wiik, Lisa	NOR	785,99	7	863,09	TOP 5
3	Candrian, Sina	SUI	746,88	7	852,75	not there
4	Mittermueller, Silvia	GER	719,1	7	852,9	TOP 5
5	Pancochova, Sarka	CZE	690,73	7	803,29	TOP 5
6	Hollingsworth, Ellery	USA	669,84	7	788,03	–
7	Buaas, Kjersti	NOR	659,45	5	945,16	TTR Title
8	Maas, Cheryl	NED	651,58	6	854,76	TOP 5
9	Clark, Kelly	USA	644,77	5	930,48	TTR Title
10	Karlinski, Jordie	USA	597,25	7	731,98	–
12	O`Brien, Spencer	CAN	582,12	7	772,27	–
13	Sladics, Chanelle	USA	531,3	6	779	–
19	Bright, Torah	AUS	405,4	3	691,12	Only 5 res.

1. As they have the highest potential score (calculating with 2000 points), it’s between Kjersti and Kelly for the title, Kjersti having better chances with a higher maximum score and better Slopestyle skills
2. Example: Kjersti can finish TOP5 in both formats and wins if Kelly wins the HP and 8th in SS
3. Other girls in the game for TOP5: Lisa Wiik, Silvia Mittermueller and Cheryl Maas (who could all potentially still win the Tour)

Why are Kjersti and Kelly the 2 title contenders having a lot less point than Jamie and Lisa? They are also not even in the TOP 5 right now. Well, with only 5 out of 7 results, they are called “sleepers”, as they have the potential to jump up into the TOP spot at the last minute after hiding in the lower areas of the ranking till the very last minute (just like Shaun White, as he most often gets his 7th TTR 6Star result at the US Open). 06/07 TTR Champion Torah Bright will not be able to close the gap anymore as she currently only holds 3 results and 7 are necessary to accumulate the full ranking score (the best 7 results are taken and devided by 7).So Kelly and Kjersti are the 2 riders with the highest ability to win the Swatch TTR title 08/09 and Kjersti has a slight advantage in slopestyle (Her average statistical finish in SS at TTR events is 6th and HP is 8th while Kelly’s is 13th in SS and 3rd in HP). If we take the average finish and use it as it was next weekend Kjersti would have 888 points while Kelly would have 873 (again this is statistics and not snowboarding – but statistics can be pretty accurate).Check out what went down between Jamie, Torah and Kelly last year in Mammoth:[youtube width="640" height="380"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP8EIffghEw&feature=channel_page[/youtube]The possible scenarios for the 6Star Halfpipe comp are as follows:

RANK	NAME	COUNTRY	AGE	6STAR Roxy Chicken Jam HP
1st	Jamie Anderson	USA	18	Could be bumped out from the World Nr. 1 spot only if Lisa places 1st
2nd	Lisa Wiik	NOR	29	Could take Tour Lead if she places 1st; stays 2nd otherwise
4th	Silvia Mittermueller	GER	25	Fights with Sina, Kelly, Kjersti and Cheryl for the World Nr. 3 spot
5th	Sarka Pancochova	CZE	19	Could move down in the TOP 10 even if places on podium
6th	Ellery Hollingsworth	USA	17	Could move down in the TOP 10 even if places on podium
7th	Kjersti Buaas	NOR	26	Fights with Sina,Kelly, Silvia and Cheryl for the World Nr. 3 spot
8th	Cheryl Maas	NED	24	Fights with Sina,Kelly, Silvia and Kjersti for the World Nr. 3 spot
9th	Kelly Clark	USA	25	Fights with Sina, Silvia, Kjersti and Cheryl for the World Nr. 3 spot
16th	Elizabeth Beerman	USA	17	Could improve her TOP 20 position
19th	Torah Bright	AUS	22	Could improve her TOP 20 position

For further more detailed information please contact: andy@ttrworldtour.com

After winning the slopestyle today at the Chicken Jam, Jamie claimed enough points to win the 07/08 TTR Championship. Rockstar is not only officially sponsoring the event, but is so stoked about her result, that the guys decided to sponsor Jamie’s unofficial TTR afterparty. I have the slight feeling it would have taken place anyways to wrap up a long season and fun event, but with that much to celebrate you better get your fake IDs out, your partypants on and swing your ass down to the Whiskey Creek in the center of Mammoth (if you bring your credentials you might even enjoy a couple of free drinks – don’t ask for Vodka Red Bull though…)

And by the way – if you happen to have unpurposely taken the 5th place TTR check, that does not only mean bad karma…Cheryl Maas will come to haunt you for those $9.000 Terje dollars.

Be there or be square…

Matthias clucking about the weather

Crazy weather has been following the Swatch TTR World Snowboard tour for the last couple of weeks and the Roxy Chicken Jam, being held this weekend at Mammoth Mountain, California, has been no exception. The first day of the Chicken Jam (the last 6-Star event on the women’s tour) was delayed due to some unexpected snowy weather today.

The organizers of the event tried to wait things out to see if the weather would improve, but conditions were just not fit to run the qualifier competition. With the weather forecast pointing to bluebird sunny skies for the next two days, the decision was made to wait until the riders had optimal conditions to run the comp.

Jamie Anderson defying the conditions

Some riders still braved the windy conditions and headed up on the hill to cruise around and get a feel for 2008 Roxy Chicken Jam setup. The slopestyle course is looking prime with two jibs at the top of the run and three kickers each with two take-off options. The halfpipe was a bit hard today, but the sun should soften things up nicely for the competition tomorrow. The Chicken Jam mascot was seen ripping things up on both the slopestyle course and in the halfpipe which was crazy site to see on the hill.

Chicken got jammed

Stay tuned to see who will be crowned Queen of the TTR Women’s World Tour as the ladies battle it out for the World Tour Champion title and a piece of the Women’s TTR Prize Purse worth $110,000.

Updated schedule for the tomorrow’s halfpipe event:

9:30- 11:30am Halfpipe Qualifiers
12:30-2:30pm Main Event-Halfpipe Finals
2:45-3:15am Chicken Jam Mascot Compeition
3:30pm Halfpipe Awards

We’ll tell you tomorrow what came first: the chicken or the egg…

The TTR Crew took the massive 60-person gondola to the top of the Kitzsteinhorn Glacier to meet up with the girls at the top of the Roxy Glacier Park. The wind was howling and it was freezing! It was hilarious trying to get down.

While we were waiting in the restaurant at the peak, we noticed that all the rider’s boards were sitting in a row, so a TTR employee, who will remain anonymous, decided to bring back the sticker slap and plastered the TTR World Snowboard Tour logo on Jamie Anderson’s board. We’re still not sure if she’s figured it out, so we’re hoping it’ll stay on long enough for the finals tomorrow…

We also took a gander at the shaping of the DC Central Park that’s being prepared in case the weather gives us a hard time tomorrow. Some of the girls were testing it out, so at least we know that no matter what happens, the Roxy Chicken Jam will still go down.

Check out the video player for what some of the riders were saying about the competition being postponed and the crazy weather!

Up on the Kitzsteinhorn Glacier at the Roxy Park, qualifications for the Swatch TTR SIX(6)STAR Roxy Chicken Jam went down today and we had a chance to catch up with some of the girls up on the side lines. Qualifications went down without a hitch, except for the slightly cold weather. Nevertheless, the Top 8 qualifiers will be moving on to tomorrow’s main event! Here’s a run down of the girls who made it:

1. Aline Bock, Age 25, Germany
2. Heidi Paumola, Age 20, Finland
3. Sarka Peneochova Age 17, Netherlands
4. Britte Van der Pouw Age 17, Netherlands
5. Aimee Fuller Age 16, Great Britain
6. Sandy Gecek Age 28, Austria
7. Steffi Hamann Age 24, Germany
8. Basa Stevulova Age 20, Slovakia

Aline Bock took the top spot of the qualifiers with a sick first run that included a FS 3 mute, a BS180 nose, and a rock to fakie on the Wall Ride Box. Aline was stoked on her run saying

“I never expected anything like winning, and it’s sick that I get to ride tomorrow, but I’m kinda scared to ride with all the others, but hopefully it works out fine as well! My winning run was my first run, and was the first contest of my whole career that I didn’t feel under pressure at all. It was super smooth and I was super calm, just thinking well, whatever. All the young girls were throwing down crazy tricks, I was just riding and trying to get my tricks down with easy style. It was funny for me and I’m really stoked!”

We also caught up with Tina Birbaum, the Roxy Chicken Jam Event Organizer, by the judges booth on the sidelines. She was stoked and gave us a few words on the event!

“Hi I’m Tina Birbaum, and we’re here at the Roxy Chicken Jam in Kaprun and it’s a Swatch TTR SIX(6)STAR event. It’s Friday now and it’s a beautiful day at -14 degrees Celsius on the qualification day. The girls are ripping on an amazing course today, we have three kickers, one after the other, and then we have some rails and a quarter pipe. We’re doing pretty well. But it’s a bit slow, but I’m think we’re going to change some things so that tomorrow they have more speed. Tomorrow we’ll have the main session. 5 of the qualification girls will go on to the main session. We have a really good field of riders, Jamie Anderson, who last year won the Roxy Chicken Jam in Kaprun, Torah Bright, who won the TTR World Tour last year, Cheryl Maas, and we have Tara Dakides who won the Roxy Chicken Jam in the States and lots and lots of other good riders. We have really good weather it looks like, and lots of spectators hopefully, and yeah it’s going to be really nice, and tomorrow night we have the Roxy Chicken Jam Party which is always a great thing, it’s right before Christmas, so it’s a Christmas party and all the girls are going to dress up which is going to be fun, and that’s going to be a late night!”

About 2 seconds later, we ran across the park and found Torah Bright! With a bright smile she gave us the low down:

“Hi I’m Torah Bright and we’re in Kaprun for the Roxy Chicken Jam Swatch TTR SIX(6)STAR event, we just have the qualifications going on right now, and right now it’s wafting in out with clouds, and it’s beautiful and sunny, so I think everybody is pretty stoked. It’ll be a good showdown. And tomorrow we have the finals! We have Cheryl Maas, Jamie Anderson, Tara Dakides is rumoured to be here, a lot of good girls are here! It’s a SIX(6)STAR TTR event! The best are here!”

Claudia Fliri was also chillin (literally – it was freezing!) on the sidelines for the qualification action and she gave us some info on the Chicken Jam and her plans for the TTR season:

We are here at the Roxy Chicken Jam in Kaprun, have you got any powder riding in today? Ummmm…not really. I’ve been outside on the side of the slopes a little bit, but actually for me it’s more important to get on it here in the park. That’s the main thing right now.

How’s the park looking? Oh pretty sweet at the beginning it was really really slow, but now It’s getting better, they’re just adjusting the course, but still the last jump is hard to clear, so the set up will be changed for tomorrow, with a little bit of a slight improvement? Haha. So yeah tomorrow we can…work it!

What are your plans for the tour this year? Are you going to try ad make it out to more SIX(6)STAR events? Oh yeah yeah for sure, I’m totally going to follow the tour again, I like to ride TTR, its cool, and for you guys it’s something to measure you know, and that’s pretty sweet. I started my season in New Zealand, and got a lot of points! So it was pretty sweet! But in New Zealand I got hurt so I had to take a break for three months, and I had surgery on my knee. But now I’m back to normal. It still plays with your mind though. I’m getting used to it though!

What do you think about girls riding? Last year it stepped up a lot, do you think it’s going to be bigger this year? Yeah, definitely. But it also depends on the conditions, if it’s not that fast, sure you’re going to do safer tricks without too many spins and stuff. But at the Roxy Chicken Jams it’s just all girls riding, so the girls can show their skills which is the main important thing, especially with huge jumps, so every girl can show what they got which is great.

All photos © Andy Juegelt 2007