Nike ACG Team Blog : News from the snowbard team - events

Freestyle.CH

noreply@tales-from-the-elk.com (the-elk) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:46:38 +0200

Nike ACG Skiers were out in force last weekend at the Freestyle.ch in Zurich.

Our riders included Andreas Hatveit, Rich Permin, Roy Kittler, Martin Misof and the UK’s Paddy Graham who all competed in the Freestyle Ski comp. Freestyle.ch is a fantastic event with packed crowds and a cross over action sports format including Snowboard, Freestyle skiing, vert skateboarding and FMX.

Andreas was of course one of the favourites for the event but disaster struck when he pulled up 4 feet short on the knuckle in training and had to be taken to hospital for what looked like a bad knee injury. We are all hoping it’s not a serious as it looked and hoping for a speedy recovery – get well mate.

From a Nike ACG standpoint, the weekend belonged to Martin. He’s absolutely the crowd pleaser and really steps it up in big crowd kicker events like these. His switch back-flips and stylish switch 10’s had the crowd going ballistic. Martin sweeped through to the Cross-over jam on Saturday night along with Simon Dumont (Nike 6.0 rider). This year, Skaters took the honours in the cross over with Sandro Diaz putting down enough amplitude and tech in his run to gain the biggest cheers from the 45,000 strong crowd.

In the ski finals on Sunday, no one could compete with Jacob Wester who won the super-final with an incredibly stylish double cork 12.

The next big snowsports event will be in London and again we’ll have a big team of Nike ACG athletes riding in both ski and snowboard. Check it out and get your tickets at www.londonfreeze.com .

Rudi Kröll - 2nd Grandvalira Total Fight 2008

noreply@tales-from-the-elk.com (rudi-kroell) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:20:00 +0200

El Tarter. On the 26th of March i made my way to Andorra for the 4 Star TTR Contest Grandvalira Total Fight. It was the second time I have been there. We (Louis Purucker, Michi “Stani” Stanschitz) arrived with the shuttle on Thursday afternoon in El Tarter (Andorra) while a snowstorm was hitting the Area. Just right for a afternoon wellness session. Unfortunately it got already warm again in the evening and it started to rain up the mountain. There went our Pyrenees powder turns.

On Friday it was Bluebird again and temperatures were climbing rapidly to 17°C at the park. Friday was qualifying day and so I could just go get some slush powder lines and ride the park during training. There were 2 different lines to go:
- Pipe -> Gap Kicker (18m) -> Step up Butter Box Step Down
- Big Kicker (20m) -> Gap Step up Transfer (MotoX Jump) -> Step up Butter Box Step Down
So we had a fun day riding and got ready for the final day on Saturday.

On Saturday about 50 riders were competing for 16 Spots in the K.O. System. We had two runs and the better one counted. I did cab 9 on the big kicker, Bs Air over the Step Up Gap and Fs 180 to Sw Bs 540 at the butter box. I qualified first for the K.O. System. First round and quarter finals we had just one run each. The guy with the higher points decided who goes first.
I won my battle in the first round. Quarter finals were next which I had to go against Jaakko Ruha. I had more points from the first round so I let Jaakko go first. That moment I was thinking about doing a cab 9. Then Jaakko dropped in and did a BS 10 to Backflip and to Fs 360 down the butter box. Damn, nice run. I was standing up there and had to change my run in seconds if I want to beat this. So I dropped in normal and went for a Fs 10 Mute which I stomped perfectly before I did a Backflip over the Step-up Gap Jump and a Fs 180 to Sw Bs 540 on the butter box! I guess my trick on the butter box made it clear and so I kicked the first finish rider out!

But what a surprise, there was the next finish kid waiting in the semifinal. Now we had two runs and the better one counts. I was dropping first with a Cab 9 on the Big Kicker. Ville Paumola went straight for the Fs 10 but he slide the last 90° and couldn’t land it clear. 2nd run Ville went for the Fs 10 again but from up there I didn’t see the landing. So I went also for the Fs 10 in the second run and stomped it perfect like the backflip and the Sw 540. Turned out that Ville just did a Fs 9. Sick, I just kicked out the second finish guy.

And guess what, there was another Finish guy waiting for me in the Final. Ville Uotila made it also to the Final. 2 runs each again. I went first and I really wanted to take the title so I went for risk. I did already two Fs 10’s and stomped 100% so I thought I go for it again and out of two runs I’m going to stick one and the rest of my run. But I couldn’t land the first one and Ville did a nice Sw Bs 9 to Fs 7 to Sw Bs 540. So I had one more run to beat that and my point was that I cant kill that Sw Bs 9 with a Cab 9. So I went for risk and Fs 10 again. Unfortunately I also couldn’t land my second either. I went to big and I guess the 12 would have been easier to land as the 10. So I guess my Tactic for the final was not the best, but you loose and you learn! And a 2nd place on a really high leveled 4 Star Contest is amazing and I’m really stoked!!!

The party was on! There was Motocross action in the evening and a big tent where the party was going off till 1am. Then everyone moved to “Nemo”, the bar that is managed by Merlin Balfour. I know Merlin since the SPC Times in Mayrhofen and from me a big THÄNKS to Merlin for the amazing hospitality all weekend.

In the TTR Ranking I caught up 4 places to 31st position. I got one more chance to climb the Top 30. In two weeks the Snickers Classic in Saas Fee is going down, which is the last 4 Star contest of the season.

So I’m looking forward to some nice spring sessions!
Greets from the Chillertal
Rudi

Wängl Tängl 2008 Movie Clip on Method.TV

noreply@tales-from-the-elk.com (rudi-kroell) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 01:25:52 +0100

Found a nice Review Clip of the Ästhetiker Wängl Tängl Jäm 2008 on Metho.TV:

http://stream.method.tv/?ch=00034&id=878

Have fun watchin

Rudi

10t in world cup finals

noreply@tales-from-the-elk.com (dan-wakeham) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 02:00:00 +0100

Dan Wakeham and Ben Kilner from the British World Cup Halfpipe Team wrapped up the 2007/2008 FIS World Cup season in style over the weekend when they competed and finished in 10th and 20th place in the final World Cup Halfpipe event in Valmalenco, Italy.

The British World Cup Halfpipe Team
Dan Wakeham ended his World Cup competition season on a real high over the weekend when he qualified into the top 12 men final in an impressive 9th place. Wakeham continued to push the limits in the final and stomped a perfect McTwist and massive air-to-fakie during his run to take 10th place overall. This is Wakehams best result in the World Cup circuit this year and places him 28th in the World standing.

Ben Kilner was also on top form and threw down a technical run with signature Kilner style to finish in a respectable 20th place. Coverage from the Valmalenco World Cup event including interviews with Dan and Ben will be aired on Channel 4 at 8am on Sunday 30th March, so make sure you check it out!

Dan and Ben along with the rest of the British Snowboard Teams will be heading out to compete at the BRITS 08, Laax Switzerland from the 29th March – 5th April and following on from the teams great European and Worldwide results and achievements this season standards are set to soar. For regular team news updates subscribe for FREE to the “Across the Board” newsletter at www.snowsportsgb.com

Rudi Kröll - 5th place @ Wängl Tängl 2008 (5 Star TTR)

noreply@tales-from-the-elk.com (rudi-kroell) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 12:40:00 +0100

Too bad it’s over! It was an amazing week!
This years Wängl Tängl got into new dimensions with one week of snowboarding, skating, art and parties!
Unfortunately we did have bad weather the first 4 days, so we didn’t get the training days we planned.
We had 2 Qualification days. On Thursday we had Kicker Line qualification and on Friday the Alternative Line qualification. Both points got added and the best 24 Riders advanced to the Final day on Saturday. It was such a high level at the qualification so I was really stoked to advance to the Final day.

Too bad we were not lucky enough to have bluebird on Saturday. Instead we had clouds, hard landings and bad sight. But we pulled the Final through anyway. So we started up with the Kicker line. I had a really nice run with Cab 9, Bs 7 and Fs 7 Tail which I stomped far down near to the K-Point of the landing.
After that everyone had one run on the Alternative Line which I stomped all including Cab 180 to 50-50 to Bs 180 off on the Surfboard rail on the Suzuki, double handed Nosegrab and Fs Alley Oop on the Quarters, backflip over the little Jump and a Bs Air over the right corner. I didn’t slam once in my runs so I was pretty stoked.

Because of the weather we decided in a Riders Meeting that we don’t do any more runs. No more Kicker runs because it was concerned to dangerous and no more Alternative runs because it would have been unfair to get a better Alternative run but no change for the other riders to get a better Kicker run.

Those two runs together made the Final result of the Wängl Tängl 2008 which put me in the 5th place in a contest with one of the highest International Level of the TTR Contests.
I’m really stoked about that result and it also pushes me in the TTR World Ranking:

Out of the TTR press release:
“Rudi Kroell (AUT), who finished 5th at the Wängl Tängl, took a huge leap in the TTR rankings, moving into the Swatch TTR Top 25.”

So the Wängl Tängl pushes me into place 24 of the TTR World Ranking, which makes me not only the best Austrian but also the best ACG Rider for the moment!

Eeeeöööööhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Greets from the Chillertal
Rudi

Links:

Ästhetiker -http://www.aesthetiker.com/tour/2008/snowboard.php

Hot-Zone.TV - http://www.hot-zone.tv/content/12.0.html?&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=867&tx_ttnews[backPid]=4&cHash=5ce0f31e96

TTR - http://www.ttrworldtour.com/news/news-detail/article/andreas-gidlund-takes-it-all-home-at-5-star-aesthetiker-jam-waengl-taengl.html

TTR Wängl Clip - http://stream.ttrworldtour.com/mov.php?mid=146&aid=146&cat=00001&br=256

final x-games update

noreply@tales-from-the-elk.com (the-elk) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 07:42:08 +0100

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

X-Games Saturday

noreply@tales-from-the-elk.com (the-elk) — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 22:04:36 +0100

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.

BUDS - The Proof

noreply@tales-from-the-elk.com (the-elk) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 11:40:29 +0100

Hey All,

Thanks to Nike ACG's sponsorship of BUSC (British University Snowsports Council) and the skills of super-editor Chris Asquith, we were able to make this film to share with you the joys of the British student snowsports scene. Here's what happens when 1,500 students gather on a hill in Scotland some time in November....Enjoy :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbBDedBRiNA

X-Games Update

noreply@tales-from-the-elk.com (the-elk) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:00:50 +0100

Breaking news on the x-games front, we have 4 riders in the X-Games this year with Andreas Hatveit riding in the slopestyle and superpipe, Mirjam Jaeger in the superpipe, Gary Zebrowski in the superpipe and the surprise this year, Norwegian skier rookie Thomas Dolplads got a wildcard invite for the slopestyle after his fantastic 7^th place finish in the US Open slopestyle last year, lets hope he can have another great result.

BUDS....The British Way

noreply@tales-from-the-elk.com (the-elk) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 15:25:00 +0100

Last weekend 1,200 students descended upon a grassy hill somewhere in Scotland for 48 hours of skiing, snowboarding, partying and utter mayhem. It was cold, it was windy, it was competitive, it was dendix central…it was BUDS - The British University Dry Slope Championships.

An annual event, it is the largest (and undoubtedly the coldest) dry slope event in the country which sees University Snowsports Clubs go head to head in a variety of disciplines including Slopestyle and Big Air.

As head sponsor of BUSC (British University Snowsports Council), Nike ACG were there in force. We hosted the ‘Sweetspots Lounge’ – a place of refuge from the Scottish climate with sofas, beanbags, heaters, TVs screening the Nike ACG sweetspots, and the all important bar – Sweeeeeet!!

Top UK skier and star of Sweetspot #2, Paddy Graham was there to judge the freestyle, as well as use and abuse his rights to the mega phone. And of course we had young gun Murray Buchan and freestyle guru Tom Last holding the flag for Team Nike ACG.

Well done to Tom for scoring 2^nd in the Big Air ski and to Muz for winning the overall Pro-Am Big Air with a huge Switch 720 Truckdriver – nice.

A link to the Nike ACG film of the event is on its way….

Zinnia