Nike ACG Team Blog : News from the snowbard team

The Brits – Laax, Switzerland

Team Nike ACG were killing it at The Brits this year – Murray Buchan (16 yrs) set the standard on day 1 by taking home the British Half Pipe Freeski Championship title. He was on fire stomping his run which included a 900, to 1080 and reverse mute alley-oop. Paddy Graham was hot on his tail claiming 3^rd place with some huge airs and a massive d-spin 900.

Zoe Gillings showed us all why she’s one of the world’s top boardercross riders by throwing herself out of the start gate and leaving the other boarders trailing in her wake. She had a solid run and kept her lead throughout to claim the Gold.

Dan Wakeham just missed out on a podium place in the Half pipe, despite scoring the top score on his qualifying run. He was clearly on top form during qualifying, throwing down perfect frontside 10s and proving that he’s still the best pipe rider in the UK. Other notable results were Murray taking second in his age group in the ski slopestyle, as well as runner-up in the carnage that was the Red Bull Home Run – not bad for a wee guy. Paddy on the other hand chose style over speed…

BUSC – Hinterglemm, Austria

Whilst some stayed to represent Team Nike ACG at the Brits, others went to join 2,500 British students living it up in the resort of Hinterglemm, Austria. Similar to other alpine resorts across Europe, the snow was still dumping which meant Noddy Gowans could not be held back; he took a crew of eager BUSC students to shred some serious pow, whilst Zoe Gillings spoke about being a pro and riding for the Nike team. We then headed to Tanzhimmel for the Nike ACG party where 2,000 students rocked out to Alps band, Hail Carta.

Nike ACG Press Trip – Pontresina, Switzerland

Having refuelled on schnitzels, we were on the road again, putting the Nike ACG Volvo through its paces, whilst heading back to Switzerland. This season the Nike Press Trip was all about the backcountry so the remote resort of Pontresina was the perfect destination for our shoot.

The team was reunited in Pontresina near Saint Moritz where we would be based for the next few days. Following a day’s avalanche and off-piste training, we awoke to bluebird conditions and epic powder – the perfect setting for our backcountry shoot and long hike to the remote Mountain Hut (complete with its own hole in the ground – luxury this was not…).

Noddy was in his element, continually searching for cliff jumps and leading the way for the rest of the team. The guys took to the off-piste straight away with Dan and Paddy taking their park tricks to the backcountry, whilst Zoe proved that she was just as comfortable in waist-deep pow as she is on a boardercross course, getting some great shots for next season. The trip and stay in the Mountain Hut was an awesome experience but we were all happy to return to the comforts of our hotel and their motto ‘good food – good mood’.

The full story will be in Document Snowboard and Fall-Line Skiing magazines next season, and if you can't wait until then, there will be videos and shots of the document website coming soon: www.documentsnowboard.co.uk 

Images by Yves Garneau 

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

Hey everybody

just wanted you all to know that i had been in Austria for the weekend to take part in the Newschoolpicknick(one of the biggest comps in whole europe after the european open...) and the X-Override!

everything started of on friday, when we started our trip in Schönried(near by Gstaad, Switzerland).
there was a huge snowstorm and about 20cm of snow on the highway, the traffic was crazy and we already needed 2hours 
then usually to get to Bern, so we decided to go back home and ski some pow, but when we had been home already i got a call from a friend and he said that it´s supposed to be good weather i Austria and no big snowstorms at all....

so we turned after 1,5h of an detour and went to St. Gallen to pick up Henrik Harlaut and Kalle Leinonen....
we arrived in Austria at 2am in the night....after good 13h of driving....luckily the comp on saturday was just starting at 11am....


after 1h of training things started of and everybody got 2runs, and out of the 2 the best one counts, i made it to semis with a smooth sw7 mute to tail, while everybody else was busting sw 10s...
at 7pm we came back up to take the training...the kicker was just 14m of flat but really poppy and a huge, step landing, so everybody could go really really big as u can see in the picture...

16people had made it to semi finals! the concept stayed the same like in qualis, and 8people advanced to finals...
i got 7th with a sw10 mute to opposite tail, which i just learned in training...everybody else was going huge and busted super stylie sw10s...

the finals went down as a head to head system were the 8th had to go againts the 1st, 7th/2nd, 6th/3rd and so on...but now everybody got 3runs, a technical one, a style one and one you were able to choose...

i had to go against Thomas Hlawitschka out of germany who did huge and really good looking sw misty 10s!
so the first round was the technical one and Thomas put down his sw 10 perfectly and i did my sw 10 too, the style jump had to decide...Thomas went for a smooth bio5 but struckelt in the air and i nailed my 5blunt tail perfectly.
Now Thomas went for another bio5 but overrotaed a little bit in the landing, so i advanced to super Finals, as well as Henrik Harlaut, Kalle Leinonen and Oscar Sherlin...

Due to time proplems every rider just got 1 more run, so everybody was trying to do his best to get a new suzuki...
I was first and put down my sw 10 mute to tail better then ever before, next was Kalle, who did a huge sw misty 12 but missed the grab and slightly landed on his ass, Henrik did a sw14(with 16years...) but unfortunately he put his hands down and missed his grab too,
now Oscar dropped in and put down a huge perfectly tweaked sw 10 nose mute.....which was putting him into first place, right before me...

but everybody, especially me, was really stoked about the comp and the results.....

8th Pekka Hyysalo Fin
7th Martin Misof   Aut
6th Thomas Hlawitschka Ger
5th Russ Henshaw Aus
4th Kalle Leinonen Fin
3rd Henrik Harlaut Swe
2nd Roy Kittler Ger
1st Oscar Sherlin Swe

now everybody  was going to the afterparty, exept of us because we had to go to kitzsteinhorn for the x-override a friend had invited us too....
after 2more hours of driving we arrived there and finally good some sleep....

I had to get up really early on sunday, cause training was starting at 8.30am

Sadly the weather was not on our site and the organisation had to change the format after one kicker run to a rail session
Everybody got a good session and had fun even the weatehr wasn´t to good...and in the end the top three had been:

3rd Szczepan Karpiel Pol
2nd Patrick Hollaus Aut
1st Roy Kittler Ger

unfortuneatly we also had to leave right after the comp to drive another 8h back home, because i destroyed the wheel of my car on thursday, so we had to take the car of my girlfriends parents company, and we had to bring it back until monday morning because of work...
so we were not able to party at all but still had a good time and some funny driving hours

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 

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 

I have spoken to some of the guys in the team and its all go at the moment.

Rich is just back from japan and has been shooting in chatel and has some grreat shots including a rude boy double backflip in the backcountry. He is now on his way over to Austria to the Red Bull Playstreets before continuing his filming with Rage films who are coming over to Europe for a couple of weeks.

Andreas has been in colorado training and doing some park filming, he has not had too many days shooting due to the horizontal snow however the sessions he has got have been killer. Every day for the rest of the season is now booked up with tonnes of filming so its going to be super hectic but loads of fun. A big shout out to Andreas and Jon who have been with Mirjam over in colorado making her recovery as easy as possible after she bust her ACL in the US Open final but still took second.

Henning is also going under the knife this week after getting fast tracked up the waiting list for the operation to get his ankle better. He has used this opportunity to get his school work up to date and is one of the judges for the Norwegian Atric challenge qualifier. If you are over at the Artic challenge then you will definitely see Henning hanging around taking notes so that he can come back and blow minds next year.

Gary and sophie and continually on the comp circuit and are heading over to Calgary for the World cup at the end of the month before the world Superpipe champs in Park City and the US Open. In between this gary has to shoot his sweetspot which is shaping up to be a big adventure into the unknown...fingers crossed but I think its going to be sick.

Ulrik has been filming hard with Factor films and has already stuck a backside 10 and heelside rodeo 7 in the backcountry so a grreat start, he is now back in Mayrhofen on the best kicker line he has ever ridden to put down some big lines. Stoked that it is coming together although he did manage to lose his filmer for a short period of time but thats Ulrik.

Mati and Laurent are off on a major adventure down in Nepal for their sweetspot and it is going to be a beauty but you are going to have to check out the website for when it goes live as it will be a world first.

I am back at home after a month on the road and catching up with the backlog of e-maiils, the season is going great and whenever I talk to anyone they are having a lot of fun with all the snow, long may it continue and I cant wait to get the shredstick back on.

 cheers

G

The US Open finished with a bang for Nike ACG in 2 ways, we got our first podium with Mirjam taking her second silver medal in 2 weeks and only just missing out on first place with Jess Cummings beating her with her last run. The down side is that on Mirjam's last trick of her third run she took an awkward fall and tore her ACL ligament.

Mirjam has remained in Colorado to get her operation this week so she can start the recovery process as soon as possible and the doctors over there are fantastic so we wish her a speedy recovery and hope that she can come back even stronger than the incredible form she has been in this season, a podium in every contest she has entered.

have a good recovery,

team ACG