Nike ACG Team Blog : News from the snowbard team

Yeah Down Under!!

The last week was amazing. After the Aussie Open in Perisher Blue Resort we drove down to Falls Creek (Victoria ) last Sunday where I got invited for the Stylewars. It was such a relaxed and beautiful roadtrip. I was standing next to some big Kangaroos and also saw a baby Roo jumping around. I saw some Emus and Wombats. We stoped at a lake that was coverd with dead trees and the view was just amazing! In the evening we checked in into Silverski Lodge, which was the base for the whole event including a bar at the ground floor.

Monday was the checkout and warm up day. The park was not really finished that day and kinda closed. They had a Slopestyle with 3 kickers in a row, a hip and a massive kicker that measured 38m to the knuckle. It looked soooo big! They got the big Budda ready to jump in the afternoon. A lot of guys speed checked it including me. But just one went for it and it was Andy Finch. First Straight air and then bs 180. At the third try Andy caught his edge in the slush on an Fs 360 try and crashed at his back in the middle of the table. Never seen a crash like this live before but the slushy table was luckily forgiving! Andy, the animal, went for it again after this slam and hit it to far hurting his foot and being out for the rest of the week. Crazy shit!!

Unfortunately I overshot the third of the slopestyle kickers and I hurt my left ankle so I couldn’t even walk properly that evening. That sucked if I thought about the big kicker on the mountain!

Tuesday was 1^st Competition Day. Bluebird and a little bit windy.

There have been always two judging sessions a day. First one on the three kicker combo slopestyle and the big Budda. The afternoon session was judged on the Hip and the big Budda.

Surprisingly my ankle was a lot better in the morning but I didn’t even think about jumping the 38m kicker. I was happy to do 4 easy runs on the slopestyle at the morning session. I didn’t ride the afternoon session that day which put me in the 24^th place after day one.

That  day only Quentin Robbins had the balls to hit the big kicker. The whole mountain always stoped breathing if one shoot down the bumpy run-in with about 80 – 100 km/h. Quentin went for the bs 360 on his first try and landed perfect right behind the knuckle about 40 meters away from the take off.  He went up again to go for the 2^nd hit. He went for a bs 540 and it looked pretty good in the air but he was about 2 meters short and crashed so hard that I straight thought he is not getting up again! He was pretty lucky just bruising his right knee and breaking his board. Quentin said: “I couldn’t believe it either that I got up again after that slam!”

Wednesday, 2^nd competition day. Bluebird and no wind – best day of the week.

My ankle was good enough to do both sessions of the day. I didn’t ride the big kicker this day either. My ankle was just not good enough and you want to feel about 100% fit going on that massive jump! So I hoped for it to happen maybe on Thursday. I was riding pretty good in the slopestyle  and the hip session and improved to place 17^th at day two overall result.

About 6 guys hit the big jump that day. Torstein killed it with a fs 1080 and 4 more sick tricks. He tried it again after the BBQ lunch and was 2 meter short on that one. He also was pretty lucky to don’t hurt hisself. My favourite was a nice bs rodeo 5 by Stef Zeestraten. In the evening we had an amazing concert at “The Man” featuring Airbourne. That band rocks like hell! I first thought I’m at a AC/DC concert!!

Thursday, 3^rd competition day, Bluebird but windy. Everyone was pretty hangover from last nights party, so it started pretty slow that day! On the mountain they decided to do just one Session at the slopestyle. 60 min Tech session and 45 min style session! They also called it the last judged session of the Stylewars. Someone must have seen the weather forecast for Friday. They didn’t judge the big kicker and no one was hitting it that day due to heavy winds. I was riding pretty good again that day and did some nice runs. Bs rodeo 5, cab9, fs9, bs7, cab 7, fs3, bs1,…. So I missed one session during the week and couldn’t hit the big kicker but I still could do some good riding and finished the Stylewars at 11^th place. I’m kinda stoked considering my ankle which still hurts. In the evening was the pricegiving following Katalyst featuring RUCL and HAU [Koolism] and ATOME playing at the Silverski lodge. So we got drunk again.

And it was a perfect schedule considering that Friday was very shitty weather with rain up the mountain. A lot of people already took off that day. We chilled that day having a Jacuzzi at the top balcony of Silverski Lodge. And it was worse staying another day because that night one of the best Aussie HipHop band “Bliss’n Eso” was rocking the Oishii Go bar at the Silverski Lodge. The DJ was unbelievable fast, nearly scratching at speed of light.

Stylewars 07 was truly rocking whether snowboarding, band line up or the people that have been there. I’m glad I could be part of it!

So, my Southern hemisphere tour 07 is over and I moved to the 20^th place at the TTR World Tour 07/08. I’m in Sydney right now trying to get some waves before I’m on my way back to Austria.

Greets to all of you out of Dee Why!

Rudi