Nike ACG Team Blog : News from the snowbard team

Well the london freeze has come and past and what a weekend it was. The top riders from around the world came to compete in the first UK big air contest since the infamous Board-X and also for their listening pleasure the likes of Cypress Hill and The Enemy headlining.

Rich Permin did a sterling job and finished third showing his usual class and style and massive airs. The title was taken by PK Hunder who double cork 10'd his way through every round stomping like a machine - he is going to kill the X-Games this year.

For a full event report check out - http://www.newschoolers.com/web/content/news/news_id/2314/ 

On the snowboard world cup side Ulrik was representing ACG and Norway and did a sterling job. He was lying in second place after the qualifications where he stomped a perfect back 9 rodeo and a cheeky 1260 (but with a hand drag). Going into the final he was trying the same combo but cleaner if possible, but unfortunately he landed them but just short on the stompage and finished in his highest world cup position so far of 7th.

The rest of the crew had a great time riding and hanging in London, some of them over here for their first time.

At the same time, Mirjam, Mati and Theo were over in Les 2 Alpes for the Mondial du ski. The park was in good condition although these days there is no pipe due to lack of snow. The evenings were as mental as usual with a good time guarantee, the mondial du snowboard was last weekend and again a great success.

Next on the cards for some of the riders is the next inner city big air stop at the King of Style in Stockholm where Rich will endeavour to defend his title.

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 .

Last week saw the launch of Nike's new sports exhibition, 'Changing the Game of Women's Sport', at the Blink Gallery in Soho, London. The exhibition is designed to celebrate the country's finest sportswomen highlighting their strength, passion and individuality.

Nike ACG team riders Zoe Gillings and Rebecca Cullum were there, amongst other top Nike female athletes across a wide sporting spectrum, to help raise the profile of women's sport in the UK and encourage more youngsters to follow in the footsteps of the stars. The exhibition has features on different female athletes from the entire sporting world, including world championship 5000m Irish gold medallist Sonia O'Sullivan.

                                Last month Nike ACG rider Henning Marthinsen came second in the Quaterpipe at the O'Neill Pro Freestyle event in Avoriaz. Henning was naturally super-stoked and since then has moved up to 5th position in the TTR rankings.

After his podium placing Henning gave a rare interview in which he discusses the fundamental issues of todays professional scene..well, not really, but its a good crack so check it out at

Check da Jacket!!!

http://www.ttrworldtour.com/index.php?id=89

go to the page and look on the left hand side for a thumbnail of Henning, below Miss Bleicher.