Last weekend’s Swatch TTR 6Star snowboard mega-event, the Billabong Air&Style Innsbruck 2009/II was one of the highlights of the 09/10 Season for sure. The double cork factor has changed snowboarding in a groundbreaking way and there is no end in sight in terms of variations. We made a little slideshow about the Rider’s draw on Friday and Saturday’s event night with focus on the riders for you to enjoy below.
To watch all the great video content including individual runs from pretty much every rider in the contest go to: http://freecaster.tv/ttrworldtour

For all the infos and results about A&S go here: 6Star Air&Style TTR Event Bio Read the rest of this entry »

Article in one of Germany's biggest newspapers in November 2009

With the Air & Style coming up in Austria and Elias Elhardt kicking a*** on the Tour, I started thinking about the snowboard scene in those two countries mentioned. Also, if you are capable of the German language, you may have noticed that the German snowboarding scene, especially the Olympic team, has been in the spotlight in the media lately (like the article of FAZ you see above).

Why? Well….because apparently there is no German snowboarding scene???!!! Prove me wrong, but at least this seems to be the opinion of some skiing guys that sit in some pretty powerful positions and who, apparently don’t give a darn about supporting the sport and its young athletes. Or how can a country with such a great interest in the sport and so many fans of snowboarding not have a whole lot of successful riders out there at the comps. Austria is the same I guess, especially in regards to the upcoming Olympics: neither Germany nor Austria have a halfpipe hopeful in place. I mean riders like Silvia Mittermueller and David Benedek from Germany, the Aesthetiker crew, Julia Baumgartner, Lisa Filzmoser from Austria and loads more…they are rocking it but mainly in Slopestyle! And still they are underrepresented in the mainstream especially.

Again WHY????? No good possibilities to practice (halfpipe especially), are the good riders mainly going for photoshoots or are we (as in: I am German, too, as you might have guessed by now) simply not good enough??!! I hope to explore this question a lil bit more over the season so watch out for some more blogs coming out. And those of you that are not interested in this topic – go and read another blog

The Northern Hemisphere leg of the TTR Tour is about to begin, and one sure sign of the winter coming are the snowboard video premieres. Last season Elias Elhardt (GER) bagged some great results on the Tour and managed to squeese in the filming for a great part in the Pirates new snowboarding video. Here’s the scope from the premiere:pics: Elias with Lene (itslenejohansen.com)On Friday night the Pirates were celebrating the result of their season quest at home in Innsbruck with a huge party, concert and DJ set for the premiere projection of “Jolly Roger” their latest video. Since Pirates mastermind never submitted to digital attraction, their movie are well known for combining sick actions with artsy quality 16mm filming.This year the crew composed amongst other by riders such as Austrian artist Gigi Rüf, Jibbing limits explorer Hans Ahlund, US prodigy Drew Fuller, tricks machine like Marco Grilc, Osa or Marco Feichtner saw the addition of quite a few talented riders: Juuso Laivisto, Stefan Maurer, Tyler Chorlton, Filippo Kratter, Stephan Maurer, Markus Keller and Elias Elhardt. Read the rest of this entry »

Here at the Swatch TTR office we are getting very exited about the 6Star Air & Style approaching. The setup is pretty crazy with huge metal structures all over the place and one very large quaterpipe. It has taken 12 days to get ready, and to take it down will take another five days!!Air & Style quarterpipe beeing build. Pic by Florian Auerbach.We had a sneak peak at the Bergiesel Stadium in Innsbruck. The quarterpipe was almost ready. Standing on the top by the coping it is damn impressive and to think that the riders will attempt to fling themselves in the air to reach that 10meter mark.They have brought snow from the Stubai Glacier as well as produced a whole bunch of it on site. It’s an awesome location as the viewers get to sit right next to the quarterpipe and with a superstar lineup and 13, 000 people in the audience, theres gonna be some noise!!Above: Dropped the shovel! pic by Florian AuerbachThe success of the event depends largely on having a well shaped quarterpipe, built to scientific precision. Shaping one of these beasts is fine art. It has to right, and that is why the Master of Quarterpipe contruction Mr Claes Högström from Norway, has arrived shape it up. So, It’s all looking good, so get ready for a wikid competition on Saturday!We just had a visit from Chas Guldemond at the office, so it is official, he will be there to defend his current top spot on the  Swatch TTR Rankings!! Here are the facts about this mammoth quaterpipe!Steel structure 120 tons (3850 cubic meters steel)Snow 4500 cubic meters (whole area)Start height 81 meters above level zeroSlope inrun 38°Length inrun 150 metersHeight Quarter Pipe 12,2 meters above zeroBreadth Quarter Pipe 25 metersTime of assembly 13 daysTime of disassembly 5 daysApproach speed 70-105 km/hHighest Air world recordIn a quarter pipe 9,80 m by Terje Haakonsen (Oslo 2007)Cables 15.000 meters for electricity, video, audioSound system 75.000 WattElectricity need 5.000 AmpereFences and barriers 1.200 metersStaff member 120 for the assembly, 600 on the day of theevent, 160 for the disassemblyAbove: Snowcat working hard. Pic by Nugg

It was really warm out today, highly irregular for the beginning of February in the Austrian Alps, but that didn’t stop the riders from getting in some training on the Quarterpipe the day before the Billabong Air & Style in Innsbruck.

Despite the high winds, riders were still going huge, reaching 7 and 8 m. The question is, will we see any of the riders break Terje Haakonsen’s Quarterpipe record of 9.8 m? Jack Mitrani seems to think so claiming that he’s “trying to go for that 20m mark.” Optimism is always a good thing so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

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Welcome to the official online blog of the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour! The purpose of this blog is to let all you keen readers in on all the behind-the-scenes action of the tour. We’ll have weekly updates of new and interesting info and happenings, from office shenanigans to big tour announcements. So keep looking every week for new and exciting info brought to you by the hard workers of the TTR World Tour.

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