World Rookie Fest

Swatch TTR came out with yet another successful snowboarding event; the 3-Star Völkl World Rookie Fest which once again showcased an assortment of snowboarding talent. The event took place just last weekend with Norwegian snowboarder Gjermund Braaten cruising away with first place. He received 550 TTR Ranking Points, giving him a TTR World ranking of 53 and also the title of World Rookie Champion 2008.

Braaten showcased impressive riding; awing the judges and crowd with a huge switch BS7 and a Cab 9. In addition to TTR ranking points and a world champion title, Braaten was also awarded with a ticket to the Nokia Air and Style rookie challenge in Munich, a trip to Canada for featuring in the next Pirate Movie Production, ‘Boarbegged’ and a ‘Fresh Meat’ profile in Method Snowboard Magazine.

This event was the last of the season adorned with a slopestyle set up with two kickers and several rails. The judges allotted scores to the riders based on a three-run format. The riders had to give an overall impression on both the kickers and rails.

Despite Braaten winning, the best trick was performed by Petja Piiroinen from Finland. His huge BS 7 on the 20 meter kicker was a visual treat. Italian rider Giorgio Ciancaleoni performed a series of 720s on the kickers, one of the most impressive rail tricks and a 270 on the kink, landing him in the second overall position among the male rookies.

A majority of the finalists walked home with prizes, despite not getting a winning position. They won tickets to the World Rookie Fest 2009 in Livigno. Dimi de Jong and Maria Delfina Maiocco, who were voted upon as the best male groms, received a Golden Card enabling them to join every World Rookie Fest of 2009 for free! Among the female rookies, Kari Maeland of Norway came out victorious with her TTR world ranking now being pushed up to 35.

So the World Rookie Fest 2008 finished things off with a bang!

Billabong Banked Slalom

At just 18 years of age, Australian World Cup snowboarder Alex “Chumpy” Pullin proved too quick for his opponents after claiming 1^st place in the Billabong Banked Slalom presented by Panasonic on Sunday, April 20^th 2008. The event took place on Mt. Hotham and is based on snowboarding events that took place in the 80’s and 90’s where all that mattered was who reached the bottom of the mountain first.

Pullin took strong control over the International field which consisted of over 100 snowboarders, all the way from the opening ride to the final event. He won the final ten man decider with a time of 51.80 seconds, earning him $2,000 USD and a Panasonic VDR D150 Digital video camera. The second and third place winners, Taan Robrhan (United States) and Clint Allan (Australia), followed close behind with times of 52.48 seconds and 52.58 seconds respectively.

Despite crashing in the first round and suffering from a grazed and bloodied face, Pullin managed to maintain his form throughout the competition. In a recent interview Pullin said, “I took a hit in qualifying when I caught an edge on one of the banks and fell flat on my chin. I tried not to let that affect my confidence and luckily I kept the momentum going right through to the final.” Pullin also added, “There were a few Olympic team members in this field so I respect a lot of these riders and acknowledge the history behind this event.”

In the women’s division, 21-year-old Stephanie Hickey (Australia) bagged first place with a time of 57.75 on Mt. Buller. Laura Williams (Australia) finished second with 57.77 seconds and Abi Bright (Australia) calimed third with 1:00.77 seconds. A very elated Hickey said, “The course was quite technical in parts and a bit slow in others but overall a wicked event. I love the whole concept of this format and I’ll be back next year for sure.”

So Australia shines once again after bringing to light an age-old snowboarding tradition of reaching the bottom of the mountain fastest!

Shaun White Wins 4-Star Snickers Classic and Popcorn Wallride

Bright sunshine, loud music and fantastic entertainment; the last and final event of the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour could not have gone more perfectly in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. The final event was the 4-Star Snickers Classic and Popcorn Wallride, which took place on Saturday, April 19^th 2008, with the riders displaying their moves in full-swing.

Shaun White, making his second European appearance this season, bagged first place after performing tricks such as FS 180 to a crazy Inverted Cab 9 up top, a BS 9 and a huge Cab 1080. White walked away with 700 TTR ranking points and $10,000 USD. In addition to this, White also received $50,000 USD for his stellar performances in every contest he entered, and also for achieving the number one spot in the Swatch TTR rankings, having received his 6^th TTR result. Though White currently holds the number one Swatch TTR position, his fellow American rider, Kevin Pearce, retains the title of tour champion.

The event took place on top of a glacier in Saas-Fee. The slopestyle course was designed specifically to allow riders to perform their various unique tricks, and impress the judges. The course had a kicker in the middle, a step up kicker in the bottom and a gap to table to feature up top. However, despite all its scenic beauty, the audience’s attention was focused on the riders at all times.

Shaun White was by-far the most entertaining, but the second and third place winners had a few tricks up their sleeves as well. The second place winner, Laivisto performed a Half Cab to BS 7, a jaw-dropping Double Back Flip, a FS 900 and a Switch BS 7. Fredi K., a Swiss legend, bagged third place after performing a Half Cab to FS 3 melon, a Cab 9, a BS 9 and a Switch BS 7. Laivisto and Fredi K. walked away with $6000 USD and $3000 USD respectively.

So, after 10 months of sheer entertainment, the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour bids good-bye to another successful year.

North Face Ski Challenge

The North Face Ski Challenge Tour is an event open to all residents of Europe between the ages of 12 and 18 years. This youth-dedicated event is the only one which mixes free ride and freestyle. The event concluded just last weekend in Val Thorens, with the winner of the final walking away with a two-year sponsorship contract with the North Face.

Throughout winter, 350 hopefuls from Europe gave it their all, hoping to qualify for the tour finals. Over the weeks, the number of participants started increasing rapidly. Finally, 73 young skiers from 11 nations across Europe were selected to take part in the tour finals held on April 12^th and April 13^th. These 11 nations included the UK, Finland, Italy and Switzerland.

Director of the Club des Sports in Val Thorens, Vincent Hudry said, “We believe that the North Face Ski Challenge has the potential to reach a young, new public and demonstrate to the snow sports world how big hidden talents can be. This is, in fact, totally coherent with what we’ve been doing for years during the Boarder Week. This is why this will be our only ski event.”

Sweden’s Tom-Oliver Hedvall was the top finisher in the ‘king’s’ category (16-18 years), and walked away with the sponsorship contract. After hearing the final result, a partly fazed Hedvall said, “I can’t believe this is happening to me. This is like the most magical dream come true. I’m very excited to see what this is going to bring me over the next few years…!” Apart from a kit, the North Face contract also involves helping develop Hedvall’s potential to the fullest, exposing him to the international pro rider scene and gathering support to help him enter other relevant free ski events in the coming winter seasons.

So congratulations Europe, you have once again discovered your skiing ‘king’.

Janica Kostelic Retired

Croatian skier Janica Kostelic announced her retirement from skiing on Thursday, April 17^th, 2008, to put an end to her continuous string of injuries. Although Kostelic has been considered one of the greatest and strongest female alpine skiers, she had to undergo ten knee injuries and three knee surgeries over the course of her career! In a recent news conference, Kostelic announced, “The moment has come to end my career, although I still want to ski. The main reason for this decision are injuries. I have suffered so many injuries and pain and don’t want to go through this again.”

Kostelic has been coached by her father, Ante, and started skiing and the young age of three. So it’s no surprise how good she is! The International Olympic Committee gave Kostelic a scholarship to help her with her training when she was just 13 years of age. Despite many thinking she needed a top-of-the-line coach, her father worked out perfectly for her. At the age of 16, she qualified for her country’s team in the 1998 Nagano Olympics and her best finish was 8^th place in the combined.

Kostelic was raised as a typical teenager in Croatia, watching Die Hard and becoming a part of the Bruce Willis fan club. Now at the age of 25, she holds the status of quadruple Olympic champion and has won nine gold medals from world championships and Olympic games since 2002. Kostelic has also collected three overall World Cup titles and achieved a record points total after winning nine world cup events across all five disciplines.

After a dysfunctional thyroid, knee surgeries and various other persistent injuries, Janica Kostelic now says she wants to focus on her newly-opened beauty parlor, and lead a normal life, keeping her private life away from the media and limelight for a while.

John Nicoletta - Tragic Death

On Friday, April 11, 2008 Colorado extreme skier John Nicoletta died in a jump- off-rock-wall during the Subaru Freeskiing World Championships at the Alyeska Ski Resort in Girdwood. Nicoletta lost control while attempting to ski off a band of rock known as the “Headwall”, leading to his death at the tender age of 27. The assistant emergency medical services chief of the Girdwood Fire Department, Terry Kadel, described Nicoletta tumbling down head over heels down the side of a mountain which measures up to 3000 feet above the valley ground.

Kadel had seen Nicoletta cart wheeling towards his death during a live broadcast in a restaurant where he was picking up food. Even though the fire station was called upon immediately, they were unable to help, as Nicoletta had stopped breathing and was in cardiac arrest. A helicopter ambulance, which had been called upon at the same time, was unable to attend to Nicoletta as they were busy carrying a different patient to another destination. The impact of the fall was so severe that he died as soon as he hit solid ground, with his helmet instantly falling off.

Alaska state trooper, Sergeant Bryan Barlow said the cause of Nicoletta’s death has been finalized as “massive blunt force trauma to the chest”. Commonly described as an “ex-Eastcoaster”, Nicoletta was one among 70 men and 26 women who qualified for the extreme competition at Alyeska, fighting for the cash prize of $12,500. Nicoletta had finished second at the Subaru Telluride Freeskiing Open just two months ago, and had featured in various ski videos as well. After Nicoletta’s fall on Friday, the competition had been halted. But after discussions with various competitors, the competition has been resumed once again.

Girdwood fire Chief Bill Chadwick, did however admit that with increasing new areas being opened up at Alyeska for the ski competition, the risk factor increases as well.

Whistler to Stay Open for Two Months

Whistler has said that it will continue this years skiing season for another two months. Skiing on the Whistler mountain itself will stop on the 20th of April.

However, skiing and snowboarding will still be possible on the Blackcomb Mountain until the 8th of June which is just under two months away.

This is especially late for the resort to be open for the Winter season, usually it is sooner that it switches over to summer activities. This is partly due to the very large amounts of snow this year, it is thought that the snow base is currently over 250 cm.

So, it will still be possible to ski and board for two more months.

Snow Surge Advances

We are proud to announce some major advances in Snow Surge, just a few days after it’s launch. We also have some big plans for Snow Surge, so keep reading.

The first thing that I (Calum Neilson, Snow Surge Owner) would like to talk about is what we have already done. After spending quite a bit on a decent wordpress theme for the news site and some more on a custom logo the site is coming together design wise. All features are now workings and everything seems to be set up.

We have added all the usual to the Snow Surge site including a contact form, privacy policy and about page. We have also made a few news posts, roughly two per day so far. We hope to keep this amount of posting up or even make more news posts when there is more news.

Now, I shall tell you about our future plans, of which there is many. The first of our plans is to expand our writers base so that we have a larger number of freelance writers who will work for Snow Surge. This means that you can expect to see news posted even faster and more news being posted.

Secondly we plan to partner with several snowboarding and skiing shops to offer our readers discounts on products. We are in discussion with several different online snow sport shops and let me assure you it will be worth it. Some of the shops might be offering up to 30% off full products such as skis and boards, now that’s worth it.

The final planned advancement that I have in mind at the current moment is the introduction of a skiing and snowboarding discussion forum. I already have experience in setting up and managing an active forum because I have already done it at www.computalk.net

We hope to have the forum fully integrated with the main Snow Surge website. It will share the same design/theme/template and we even hope to bridge the two scripts so that you will be able to use your forum account to post comments at Snow Surge and vice versa. We are currently working on this with our developers and you can expect to see a forum within one or two months.

So things are looking good for Snow Surge at the moment, with all the good news and future plans. Please make sure that if you have any recommendations that you contact us.

Season Pass Prices Set in Colorado

Most of the major ski resorts in Colorado have announced the prices of their season passes for the 2008 to 2009 winter season.

However, one of the biggest ski resorts, Aspen, has yet to announce it’s prices for the next season, but you can expect them to be similar to this years prices, with the cheapest pass available for around $1,240.

Another large resort, Vail Resorts has given out details of it’s so called “Epic Pass”. The Epic Pass gives skiers and boarders access to all parts of the resort including Vail, Keystone and more. The price that Vail Resorts has given the Epic Pass is $579.

With a wide range of other pass prices being announced by the majority of resorts in Colorado, you will be able to plan your skiing and snowboarding well in advance.

Tribute Paid to Wallace Westfeldt by Family & Friends

The friends and family of snowboarder Wallace Westfeldt have paid him tribute after his horrific and shocking death on the 4th of April whilst snowboarding for a film just outside Aspen.

Wallace was only 22 and was filming for a movie when something went when he fell from a cliff and suffered several injuries including internal bleeding.

His death has shocked the snowboarding community and on the 8th of April a tribute was paid to him and over 500 turned out.

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