Nike ACG Team Blog : News from the snowbard team

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

Air & Style

Bergisel, Innsbruck
02.02.2008

This year the Air & Style came back home to Innsbruck with a Quaterpipe Contest. 2 weeks before the contest i got a call if i want to be a Backup rider for the contest. I had to think about that because i didn’t ride Quaterpipe for more then 3 years. But how could i say no to be part of the home coming from Air & Style!
So i confirmed and on wednesday before the contest they finally told me that i just made it to the main contest. So the pressure was on.

We didn’t really had that much training that we supposed to have because the weather was really warm and they were afraid that the Quaterpipe gets fucked. So i had to go for the Contest with not a lot of training.

To stand up there at the start gate was amazing!! 12.000 people were going crazy in the arena while i was droppin in and hit the quarterpipe with 90 km/h. I was pretty high on the second run and because i did pop a little bit to less i landed on the couping after a 6m Backside Air. So i bruised my right knee. I still did the third run but didn’t really feel it after that slam. I got just 21th but i was really stoked to be part of the Air & Style. It was an amazing expirience with an incredible crowd and „Queens of the Stone Age“ as LiveAct! Siicckkk!!

I had to take 2 weeks off riding to get my knee better again. I went riding after 10 days at the Penken Park and did some jumps while i had a little short landing on a BS 720, i felt the bruise in my knee again.
Anyway i went fort he Check the Ripper on the Seegrube.
 

Also check:

- http://fm4.orf.at/michael/221625                                                 FM4 Report

- http://www.tirol.com/sport/sportmix/innsbruck/76297/index.do            Tirol.com

Check the Ripper

www.nordparksessions.com 

Seegrube, Innsbruck
23.02.2008

Last weekend the Nordpark Sessions took place again on Seegrube in Innsbruck. A Photo Session on Thursday, a night pipe Session on Friday and the Legendary Check the Ripper contest on Saturday. It’s all about finding the best allround shredder.
The setup is a run which includes a kicker, a lot of banks, little bumps and a about 250 meter long and steep freeride slope with about 8 gates for the directions.

The whole thing runs on time. At the kicker you can get up to 12 seconds off your time depending on what trick you do. On my first run i did cab 900 and my time was 01:42:56. That seemed allready pretty good. But i wanted to be faster on my second try. So i did cab 900 again to get a lot of time off. I had a pretty good run. My second run was 4 seconds faster with 01:38:88! I was really stoked espacially because a german tourist crossed my way and i had to scream at him and shred around him.
There was another guy who also did cab 900 on the kicker but he didn’t know his time because someone else crossed the goal line. He said that he didn’t feel to good on his second run. So i thought it could be possible to take the title of the Ripper. I was really stoked and also a lot of other guys said that i won that shit!

So we went to the price giving at 9 pm in the Jimmy’s in Innsbruck. It was unbelieveable. but the other guy really kicked my ass by 0,13 seconds!!!! I couldn’t believe it. So i got 2nd again like i have been last year already! DAMN! Seems like thats life.

And it also seems like i have to go there again next year to try to finally get the Title „The Ripper“!
 

Greets from the Chillertal

Rudi

P.s.: WÄNGL TÄNGL is coming up! Check www.aesthetiker.com 

5* TTR Event

Last weekend the Wängl Tängl 07 took place in my home resort Mayrhofen. The park up on the Penken was in perfect shape and I have not seen a park like this somewhere else this season! The Ästhetiker and the Burton Park Mayrhofen guys did a perfect job! I also helped them shaping the park on Wednesday and Thursday. Thursday afternoon the training took place and all the guys checked out the park for the contest.

On Friday was the qualification with about 50 pre-qualified or invited riders. We had sunshine on Friday although the weather forecast predicted bad weather and snowfall. The system was that every rider had 3 runs, 2 got judged and you had to do at least 2 different lines. Like a kicker line and an alternative line (rails, cradles, …) . I got 7^th in the qualification on Friday. I did a kicker line with cab9, bs7,fs7 and a nice alternative line. So I was stoked about that and we had a really nice party that night.

Because of bad weather forecast the semi-finals and finals got postponed from Saturday to Sunday. Perfect decision because we had really nice weather on Sunday again! 30 riders were fighting on an amazing setup to take part in the Final. The riding level was really high. No wonder that the Ästhetiker Wängl Tängl got promoted from a 4 Star to a 5 Star TTR event this season.

Everyone had 4 runs, you had to do 2 different lines and the best 2 runs counted. I did two kicker runs with cab9 to bs rodeo 7 to fs7 tail and fs9 to sw bs 5 to bs 1. And I did two nice alternative lines. As I was pretty unlucky in some of the judge’s decision this season I also was pretty unlucky in the judging decision on the semi-finals. They took 12 guys into the Superfinal and guess what: I got 13^th.

As it really is a very high riding level it’s not a bad result. But for me as it is my local contest and it was one of my season goals to be in the final of the Ästhetiker Wängl Tängl I was really disappointed that moment. But that’s life.

Anyway it was a really nice contest in my home resort and I am happy that I could take part in it!

Yesterday I already was filming again and after a day off today I go to Andorra tomorrow! There is a 3 Star TTR Contest called ”Grandvalira Total Fight” which I will take part in. I’m looking forward for that! I have never been in Andorra before.

So I send u greets from the “Looking like summer again” Chillertal

Rudi

Links:

Ästhetiker        www.ästhetiker.com  (Contest results, pictures, etc.)

TTR                 http://www.ttrworldtour.com/88.0.html (Snowboard Tour, Results, etc.)

Method.TV      www.method.tv           (Check out movies from the Quali and the final day)

Hot-Zone.TV Mag      http://www.hot-zone.tv/content/index.php?id=177&langu...