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

November team update

noreply@tales-from-the-elk.com (the-elk) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:49:11 +0100

The team are revving up and up to various activities throughout the globe in preparation for the coming winter.

As reported in the London Freeze update the guys did really well and quite a few of them are moving on to the next stage in Stockholm for the King of Style.

On his way to Stockholm Ulrik has been over in Hintertux for some photo shoots but unfortunately the weather worked against him and they didn’t manage to get what he was looking for, but nonetheless he is looking forward to the next contest and will hopefully finish even higher up.

Henning has not had it so lucky so far in his return from injury season as there has not been much snow in his local resort. However it is now open and he is looking forward to getting some shredding done as soon as he has recovered from his 40 degree fever.

As per usual Roy is on it early in the season and has already won 2 contests. In the Kaunertal Opening he was voted rider of the day, check out the link www.kaunertal.opening.at and youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMP-evNELLs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st7CgH531A8

Here’s a pic of him hitting the kicker

It was also prodcasted on RTL (German TV)

After Kaunertal Roy then went to Modena in Italy and did a rail jam there and won against Tom Wallisch with a 450 in blind 2 out. This victory meant that he won a spot for the Champs Open in Crans Montana this Winter! This was followed up by the Monsterpark Invitational in Les Diablerets. However you can’t win every contest so he let someone else take the glory…

Eva Walkner is one of the new members of the team from Austria but she has been having a pretty slow start to the season as it is too warm in Austria (up to 24 degrees recently) - so she still goes riversurfing when she can. However she has done some filming for a report about her on Austrian TV and now she is training hard and feeling stronger and stronger in preparation for her projects this winter. Up next is another shoot on the Kitzsteinhorn next weekend (snow dependent). Check her out in the second report on this webpage - http://www.inaction.at/in-sport.8.0.html

Mirjam’s road to recovery continues and she is getting as much riding in as possible and is now riding the less intense features in the park to build her knee up steadily and she is hoping to be over in the states for a couple of weeks to train with the X-Games always at the forefront of her mind and being back on her level.

Paddy is also heading out to the states with a German crew and will hang out in Breckenridge for a couple of weeks. He returns for the Laax opening weekend and has promised a hot off the press blog and photos from what went down.

Sophie has started the season on fire with a podium finish in the Saas Fee World cup Half-pipe event. With only 18 months until the next winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010.

Sverre has been super busy this summer/fall. Although he had minor surgery ion his ankle in July he’s working out every other day in the gym.

At the same time he is renovating his house, and his girlfriend Hanna and dad Frank helping out. One weekend every year it's moto cross weekend at his friend’s farm: check out the shot below:

Last week he went to New York on vacation, and bought a camera. So now hopefully he can take some sick shots this coming winter, and also with a great zoom that he needs for scooping his lines on the mountain.

This Friday the Swedish ski film production from Free Radicals had a premiere in Stockholm for their last film, "Satisfaction Guaranteed".

Sverre had the cover (portrait) and the back (backflip) on the dvd. Nice...

Also Sweden’s biggest rap star Petter made Sverre a personal song for his section in the film, that's pretty sick!!

This Wednesday he is going to Kaunertal for a Gore Tex event, along with Kaj Zackrisson they will have a presentation there for the key accounts from Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

From mid December he will be based at skilodge Engelberg for a month, to get ready for the first world tour event in Sochi Russia. By the way, Rich has got a wildcard as well.

Rich is stoked to have been invited on the tour without doing the qualifying series. I think a lot of it comes down to the insane riding he did last year on the Swatch Freeride contest where the top 20 athletes in the world toured Europe in a bus for a few weeks looking for the perfect conditions. On one occasion Rich did a big 180 off a cliff and landed going about 80km/h switch and rode out for a few turns until it all became too much but Swatch were well stoked and Rich has been taking big steps ever since. Rich’s new sweetspot (number 27) is also online now and you can see a similar 180 there. Gary and Rich headed over to Golden last March to film in some epic conditions and explored the backcountry on ski-doos with varying success and a lot of digging – tricky business the old sleds and powder combo.

Andreas is coming along well on the road to recovery after he injured his knee at the Freestyle.ch. Doctors say he is 5 weeks ahead of schedule and should be back on his skis in December so fingers crossed. Fellow Norwegian, Thomas Doelplads has been getting some urban riding in with some street rails when they were lucky enough to get some snow in the city last week. Then he headed over to a local mountain bike track which has drops, jumps and wall-rides and he got some pretty tasty shots.

Rudi Kroell has been hard at it already with an 8^th place in the Kaunertal Opening, training and shooting on the Hintertux glacier and a wicked weekend at the Horsefeathers Pleasure Jam last weekend. He said the field at the pleasure jam was like a TTR 6 star event – it went off but unfortunately he didn’t make the final. He also has had a small piece in an Austrian Magazine called the Tirolerin, always good to get that first shot out of the way in a season.

In France Mati and Laurent have been getting ready. Laurent has been busy planning his season with Sweetspots coming up both in base jump and ski, some trips with salomon and helping organise the freeride session in La Clusaz while mati, who is now based in Chamonix has been watching the snow fall and planning his secret idea in the crevasses.

Gary has been globe trotting again, he has been chilling in Tahiti with his family for the last couple of weeks getting some surfing in before starting the hectic season which begins with the Grand Prix in Breck in December...hopefully this is Gary’s year to pick up his first major contest win!

So that’s it for the moment from the team but I will keep you updated as things happen.

Cheers

Graham

Team update

noreply@tales-from-the-elk.com (the-elk) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:23:39 +0100

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.

Pre season team update

noreply@tales-from-the-elk.com (the-elk) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:43:15 +0200

The winter is coming around again so I thought it was time to bring everyone up to date on how the team is getting along.

It has been quite a quiet summer with none of the riders going to NZ this year after a gruelling 2008 winter some time off was definitely required to recover and relax. Various members of the team were located in Les 2 Alpes, Hintertux, Foglefonna and Les Diablerets training and learning new tricks with their friends and relaxing, what riding is all about. Now with winter approaching minds are firmly set on fresh snow, contests and filming.

Contest News

The first contest of the year was, as usual, the Freestyle.ch in Zurich and ACG had a strong representation from the skiers with previous winner Martin Misof back in the line up after missing last year due to injury. Also riding was Andreas Hatveit, (our 2008 X-Games gold medallist), Rich Permin, Roy Kittler, Paddy Graham and Mirjam Jaeger on the judging panel. The worlds top riders were representing on this new and even bigger jump. Some of the riders had some speed issues which meant that there was quite a lot of knuckling or people just scraping past and it wasn’t until the cross-over session at night until we saw riders really enjoying the speed necessary. Martin Misof qualified in second place which meant he competed in the night session and put in a great performance in front of the 30,000 strong crowd with a huge switch backflip as a crowd pleaser. On the down side Andreas came up short in qualification and was taken to hospital to have his knee looked at. He returned on crutches to watch the finals and speak to the other riders and has since seen his specialist back in Norway and has told me that he hopes to be back riding in December.

The next stop on the calendar is the London Freeze on the 23^rd October (www.londonfreeze.com) where we have the same riders representing along with Thomas Dolplads from Norway. Paddy will be keen to do well in front of his home crowd and will have two chances, firstly in the international contest of Friday against the worlds best and then again for the UK title on Sunday. As well as looking after the team in London I will be in charge of shaping the ramp to make sure it is at its best throughout the weekend for everyone involved....should be a great weekend and Cypress Hill are even headlining on the Saturday night.

The final event in the season opening trio is the King of Style in Stockholm with Rich Permin heading back to defend his title with the rest of the team following to try to take it off him, keep your eyes peeled to see what happens!

Early season

The crew are spread across Europe at home making their preperations for winter. Roy has rented an apartment in Mayrhofen to train in Hintertux each day, Mirjam is off to Breckenridge to get that knee back in shape and learn some new tricks to try and improve on her silver in last years X-Games halfpipe. Martin is shooting straight over to the states to start filming with Broken Radio/Headbutt films where they have rented a house in Breck for a month to try and get a good start to the season and get the early shots in. Sverre has been surfing lately in Sweden, sounds cold, and is heading over to Kaunertal for the Gortex/Kask sales trip where Kaj and himself are presenting freeride skiing to the industry, following that he heads to Engelberg for a month in Dec-Jan to find his legs and search for the snow.

Off the back of a missed season Henning has been training hard and is looking forward to competing in the top quarterpipe contests around the world again and in between is keeping on top of his studying, soon (well a few years) we will have our own team physio!

This seasons films are starting to premier around the world and ACG has sponsored some of the top titles out there with the team representing strongly throughout and showing that the sweetspots are only the tip of the iceberg. Turbo, the new film from Level 1 is just out and Flo Kofer has been leading the freeride charge, Ulrik has a super strong section in the new Factor Films Production and for his first ever part he has to be happy, I am looking forward to seeing what he comes up with this year. Rich Permin had his first trip to AK with Rage films and although he hit some bad weather out there he came back content and smiling confident he got the goods. Jules Reymond has been filming with absinthe all season and spent six weeks in AK and got two great week for the first two weeks and sent back stories of unreal lines.

The winter is coming

London is the start of winter for Nike ACG with the sweetspots 2008-2009 launch happening in London before the Freeze event with the team representing among the press and audience. Date and time is still to be released however its sure to be a good night and the perfect pre-party to the Freeze....see you there.

Cheers

Graham

Roy kittler kills the dome

noreply@tales-from-the-elk.com (the-elk) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 18:02:00 +0200

Hey Everybody,

a couple of weeks ago we had our Indoor Summer Camp in my home Ski Dome,
called Snowtropolis!
It´s not too big but a really cool alternative to melting glaciers, and hot summers!
You can ride until 10at night and you need like 1min to get up with the lift!

But check it out yourself i hope you like it!!

Here is the link to the video were my friend Bene Mayr and me are jibbin some rails!

Hey Everybody,

a couple of weeks ago we had our Indoor Summer Camp in my home Ski Dome,
called Snowtropolis!
It´s not too big but a really cool alternative to melting glaciers, and hot summers!
You can ride until 10at night and you need like 1min to get up with the lift!

But check it out yourself i hope you like it!!

Here is the link to the video were my friend Bene Mayr and me are jibbin some rails!

http://www.newschoolers.com/web/content/videos/id/206759/cat/top/

And here are some photos which a friend of mine took!

And here are some photos which a friend of mine took!

Enjoy!
Cheers Roy

Enjoy!
Cheers Roy

Roy Kittler summer update

noreply@tales-from-the-elk.com (the-elk) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:34:00 +0200

Hey Everybody,

just a quick update of my summer training i wanted to keep you guys updated!

Here are some shoots from my home town, Dresden in Germany,
having a cool session with my friend Sven Hausmann!
The Photos are taken by Philip Herfort, also a friend of mine, from my hometown!

Something different then wintersports but i hope u like it as well!

hope you guys like the shoots
have a great summer

cheers Roy

Team Update from the UK

noreply@tales-from-the-elk.com (the-elk) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:32:04 +0200

It’s been a busy few weeks for the Nike ACG UK Team; they’ve left their mark in Laax at the British Championships, taught over two thousand UK students a thing or two at BUSC in Hinterglemm, and hiked for hours across the backcountry of Pontresina, Switzerland in search of the ultimate powder runs on the Nike press trip…

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

Highlights Grandvalira Total Fight

noreply@tales-from-the-elk.com (rudi-kroell) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:30:00 +0200

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

roy kittler update

noreply@tales-from-the-elk.com (the-elk) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:46:15 +0200

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

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