Nike ACG Team Blog : News from the snowbard team

We are over in Copper Mountain now for the US Freeskiing Open and it is fecking freezing. On Tuesday we went up to check out the course and were not to impressed, it had snowed the day before however the jumps were shaped pretty badly and the rail set up was a bit sketchy. the organisers have tried to do some work on the course however Andreas is considering not riding to avoid injury, Thomas is stoked as it means he has a better chance of winning.

As it was slopestyle qualification yesterday, Thomas, Roy, Andreas and myself headed over to Keystone, the park there is sick, so good in fact that I even hit the jumps which doesnt happen very much these days. The resort was open until 9pm so we got to do some night riding under the lights which was pretty cool and very cold. 

Mirjam headed over to SIA in Vegas and only got 2 hours sleep, she arrived back in Copper last night and seemed to have had a great time.

Today was the second qualification day for slopestyle and Roy was riding this morning, not seen the results yet but hopefully he got through, unfortunately Paddy didnt make the cut yesterday but hopefully he has more luck in the pipe.

Hi everyone!!!

My name is Thomas Dølplads and for those who didn't know I'm a norwegian ACG skier. I'm trying hard to write my first blog, with some help from Andreas and graham.

well....
I have just done my first X games event and I got 9.
I've been injured for a long time so the one week of training in the slopestyle was a bit hard for me, and i also had to get all of my tricks back again and the hard landings wasn't really helping. each time i landed my ankle hurt but with a lot of help from the medical guys and some pain killers i got trough with the comp. with a good result so I'm really stoked.

Next up is the US open slopestyle. i'll get back to you with the results.
peace out/ T

well here is the last installment of a very successful x-games...ANDREAS WON GOLD..hell yeah. After falling on his first run and dealing with massive nerves he pulled himself together and nailed his second run to take the title, RUDE.

As you can see from the results, Thomas got 9th in the final after sticking his second run clean when his ski came off after sticking the first landing. This was a great performance for his first x-games at 18 years old and hopefully he can continue like this.

The results                       happy andreas with medal     super stoked andreas           Thomas doing his blue steel

Gary had a tough time in the pipe final with tough snow conditions and took home a 9th place, he is focused on getting that podium next year and it will be the X-Games 13 and 13 is his lucky number so it should be all good.

We left aspen yesterday and have now arrived after a nightmare drive in a snow storm at Copper Mountain where we will be all week for the US Open. the forecast is super bad but hopefully the organisers will be able to keep the comp running to schedule. Paddy has his quali in the morning so fingers crossed, I have told him to take out his powder skis and get some nice turns down the landing.

 cheers

G

well last night was great, Gary got 9th in qualifying in the pipe so is through to the final tonight. Gary qualified with his super mellow and styly safety run which means he has saved the big tricks for tonight. Hopefully he will stick his back to back ten's and get the high amplitude which he is known for. A relatively unknown Japanese rider took first place in the qualifying in front of Shaun White, his run was so big and technical and he was way in front of the rest of the field, everyone is going to have to step it up if they are going to beat him.

David Spieser, our german boardercrosser, took third yesterday in a super tight final and he is still super stoked today so a big congratulations to him and a great second medal for Nike ACG, lets hope that Andreas can take a medal home tonight, gold is calling.

Yesterday was also the gilrs and guys snowboard slopestyle final and they were both great comps. Jamie Anderson took the girls title on her last run to pip claudia fliri for a european gold but it was a great effort for her first x-games. In the mens comp Andreas Wiig toook the title in front of Kevin Pearce. Shaun white had a shocker by his standards doing his first run with a broken board and landing it but the judges not feeling it deserved first place. He then didnt stomp his following runs perfectly and ended up in third place. He was a bit pissed off and went straight back up to the top of the course and did a 4th un-judged run and stuck it perfectly but unfortunately for him just too late. Another notable moment was Heikki Sorsa who was unstrapping his back foot after the second last jump and doing the last big booter with a one foot FS3 which he was stomping,....sick.

Will let y'all know later how the team get on today.

cheers

G 

what an event. its been non stop action for the last couple of days which is why I am a bit behind with the blog. On Thursday night was the mens superpipe final and Andreas was representing. Things were looking great as he was sitting in first after the first run but dropped to second on the second as Tanner Hall came down. Dumont then landed a monsterous run run which started with a 21ft 540 but it was technical enough to overtake Tanner. It was looking certain that Andreas was going to finish on the podium with only a couple of riders left to go but much to my surprise Colby West just pipped Andreas' score to take third - I was not sure that I agreed with this - and Andreas was gutted once again to finish 4th in the superpipe. considering Andreas only did 4 days of pipe riding before the event its a great  result but in all honesty 4th place sucks so hopefully next year he is going to nail it.

Last night was the womens superpipe and Mirjam had qualified in 3rd place so we had our fingers crossed. The guys at Durrance sports were tuning her skis to perfection to give her all the help she needed and it worked, Mirjam took SILVER with a great run which included back to back 5's (natural and unnatural) - she was the only rider in the comp to spin unnatural. It was fantastic to see her doing so well in a world class field and she is just continuing her run of podiums around the world.

Yesterday was also the skier-X and boarder-X qualifications and both Zoe and Thomas got through, Zone in 3rd and Thomas in 9th so it is all go for the next rounds today and tomorrow.

Tonight is the men's superpipe elimination so I will let you know how Gary gets on soon.

Oh and Thomas is hanging around as well (with PK and Kris in this case), he is not riding until sunday in the slopestyle but he is on good form.

The British Olympic Association (BOA) recently announced the full list of recipients of the 2007 Olympic Athlete of the Year trophy. Amongst them, Nike ACG teamrider Zoe Gilling!

Congratulations to Zoe for being awarded 2007 Olympic Athlete of the Year for Ski and Snowboard by the BOA. Zoe’s 7^th place at Winter X last year was an immense achievement and confirms here place amongst the elite in SBX. Zoe goes again this Saturday – fingers crossed for her!

Myself and thomas Doelplads travelled over to the states on sunday for the x-games, we were meeting up with Mirjam in Breck to get over our jet lag then heading over to Aspen on monday for the first halfpipe training session in the evening.

 Gary and Andreas were already over here and ready to go, both totally stoked with the shape of the pipe, it looks wicked - photos to follow, I kept forgeting to take my camera, will defo get some shots tomorrow. 

On Tuesday Mirjam and Andreas were involved in some superpipe training and Thomas and I headed up to Snowmass so he could get a warm up on some kickers. We then headed over to catch the training and Tanner and Simon were killing it as usual and Andreas was being silly technical. Mirjam was stoked by the end of the night as she was landing her unnatural 5's so her run was coming together.

Today Thomas and Andreas had slopestyle training and cautiously tested out the course. It is different to last year with a lot of speed, there is an A-Frame box, then an up box to large gap then onto 4 kickers, the last being a big step down. It took most of the day for the guys to get the speed right but there were smiles all round and with the comp not being until Sunday there is lots of time to practice. Gary was doing well in the pipe with some big airs and landing his cab 10's although he took a bit of a hit on his knee at the end of the session trying the FS10's but with no training tomorrow and a day off he reckons he will be fine for the next training session.

Well that is about it up till now, there is the guys ski superpipe qualis tonight so we are heading over to check out how Andreas gets on, will let you know tomorrow.

cheers

Graham

check out my new podcast

click on the picture below to link to the podcast subscribe page, then choose how you would like to subscribe.you can click add to itunes and it will automatically subscribe you and the each time a new podcast is available it will automatically download. 

With a little delay, some tricks from the sky in fall time...enjoy.

laurent niol.

On behalf of the whole Nike ACG and 6.0 team we would like to express our thoughts in memory of Daniele Mottini, who left us on January 13th in a very sad avalanche accident.

You will be missed greatly by all of us.

Un pensiero in memoria di Daniele mottini da tutto il team acg che nel giorno 13 gennaio la montagna ci ha portato via. Ci mancherai!