Matthias Vogt and Christian Beri are the Quiksilver Wir Schanzen Champions 2010

They came, saw and stepped on it! At the Big Final of the Quiksilver Wir Schanzen 2010 with bright sunshine in the perfectly shaped Betterpark Hintertux 49 Freeskiers and Snowboarders showed why it was them who qualified for this final. It really was Freestyle Action on the highest stage.

For many riders the Big Final of the Quiksilver Wir Schanzen 2010 was the last contest of the season, but the smiling faces at the accreditation already showed that there was a lot of motivation left to step on it one more time.
The organizers chose the Jam-Session Modus so the riders could make as many runs as a preset time period allowed. And it was the right decision: the riders pushed each other from run to run to a top class riding level.

The Kids and Girls went first on the Medium Kickers and Jib Line. Mini but mighty! The Kids made everybody sit up. In the end it was Lucas Mangold (GER) to win the skiing category and Christian Geiger (AUT) took the snowboard victory. The rookies have been awarded with summer season tickets for the Hintertux Glacier worth more than 500 Euro each. For 222 days the Betterpark Hintertux as the only summer snowpark of Central Europe will now be second home.

And the supposedly weaker sex showed that girls as well do not shrink from challenging tricks. Local heroine Christina Gruber (AUT) nailed down the victory in the snowboard category with the best action in this class and could take home two tickets for the Taubertal Festival. At her second contest the ski girl Lisa Zimmermann (GER) astonished spectators as well as judges with her 720s and one 1080. She too could hold two Festival tickets of Red Bull in her hands – on top of the podium.

The big showdown came in the superfinals of the Men. The riders could not get enough and the tricks became faster, higher and further from run to run. With double flips and his smooth style Christian Beri (SUI) could convince the judges. In the snowboard category it was Matthias Vogt (AUT) who won with creativity, challenging tricks and a lot of style. Both champions took home a cheque worth 1000 Euros from the title sponsor Quiksilver.

At the last Red Bull Best Trick Session of this year’s tour the challenge was to overcome an Up-Box with a Gap. Again Matthias Vogt (AUT) wrapped this session up with a switch 50-50 Backflip out. Raphael Schweiger (AUT) showed the best skiing trick and took home the Red Bull IPod Touch. For those who cannot get enough of kickers, boxes and co. in the summer, the Betterpark Hintertux is THE place to be. The snowpark is open from April to December – Superpipe included!

The Afterparty at the Kleine Tenne in Lanersbach topped off the Big Final of the Quiksilver Wir Schanzen 2010. The winners and the successful ending of the tour were celebrated adequately to the dance music of the Drunken Masters.

All in all it was an absolutely felicitous and worthy final of the Quiksilver Wir Schanzen 2010. A big “Thank You!” goes to the sponsors, to the Hintertux Glacier and the Tux-Finkenberg Tourism, to the crew and of course to all the motivated riders of all tour stops, without you the Wir Schanzen would not exist.
See you next season!

Oh and by the way – as always there is a cool video made by RebelTV for those who could not come to the Hintertux Glacier. All those who want to upload their own movies and take part the video contest can do so until midnight May 02nd on www.rebel.tv and cream off awesome prizes. Who does not want to win IPods, Quiksilver Stuff or even Allgäu-Gletschercards?

Snowboard Men
1. Matthias Vogt AUT
2. Patrick Cinca GER
3. Piotr Janosz POL

Ski Men
1. Christian Beri SUI
2. Flo Geyer GER
3. Mike Hauser AUT

Snowboard Girls
1. Christina Gruber AUT
2. Diana Sadlowski POL
3. Nadine Härtinger GER

Ski Girls
1. Lisa Zimmermann GER
2. Sarah Neuhauser AUT
3. Christl Radulowiz AUT

Snowboard Kids
1. Christian Geiger AUT
2. Andre Höflich GER
3. Tobias Michel GER

Ski Kids
1. Lucas Mangold GER
2. Sebastian Scheck GER
3. Eric Schwabl AUT

The ultimate showdown of the best European Peanut Butter & Rail Jam riders went down in LAAX, Switzerland.

More than a hundred snowboarders from more than 18 European countries made a pilgrimage to the Swiss Alps to attend to the event and battle for the prizes, honor and ransom. Local shapers did an amazing job dealing with the end of season warm temperatures and set the rails at the bottom of the slopes next to the Rock resort. This year European PBRJ Champs featured a down rail “the Pacific Union”, a mellow double kink “double colt” and a massive plastic tube alias “T.N.T.” stick; all rails were round ones, and that made a difference for riders only used to flat bars or boxes.

We will not go into a trick list cause you better watch the clip to get an idea but some of the highlights were Jesse Augustinus masterizing the 15 and under division from qualifications to final, Girls charging hard in their qualification heat, impressing even our Judges-deputies such as rail expert Anton “Tonton” Holland with for example throwing perfects nollie back lips on the “Pacific Union” first try. Also, apparently next trend would be the small stance come-back, and there are less crazy spinners 450 ins- 450 outs but way more sexchanges and other swingswangs…

After a long day of action, showdown and serious chill under the sun, prize ceremony went down and prizes literally covered top 5 of each category, with Open division winners getting some money on top of that. A thousand Thanks to our friends in the industry for the product supportVans, Electric , Aerial7 , Onboard snowboarding magazine! and Nitro who gave out the prize of a brand new board to polish qualifier Kacper Kilar via the raffle.

In the end, Jesse, local Gina Somani, Thomas Coldebella, and Sami Luhtanen won their tickets and accommodation to compete in the world PBRJ champs in Mammoth mountain (USA) and have a shot at the 30 000$ prize money. Don’t miss the live Webcast on Saturday April 25 from 6pm to 2am (Paris time) on volcom.com

Everybody then enjoyed Swedish band GRAVEYARD playing some good rock’n roll at the Riders Palace and throwing a sick show for free until late night.

See you all next season for another good one!

Thanks to the good work of all Volcom staff, LAAX resort, all the shapers from LAAX, Jon and Henry MCing, Jarnold, Tonton, Pacome, Micha for bringing Graveyard, Vernon Deck and Miha Matvz for the pics, Chris Garside and Simpert for the clips.

Results:

Electric “Gooeyest” Moves of the day
Dominik Wagner 100€
Sami Luthanen 100€

15-:

1. Jesse Augustinus – Netherlands 900€ trip to Mammoth
2. Andrej Marincic – Slovenia 400€
3. Teemu Lambert – Finland 200€
4. Sindre Cottis – Norway
5. Johannes Refsdal – Norway

Girls:

1. Gina Somani – Switzerland trip to Mammoth
2. Urska Pribosic – Slovenia
3. Stephie Kauert - Switzerland
4. Basa Stevulova – Slovenia
5. Marion Hearty – France

16+:

1. Thomas Coldebella – Switzerland trip to Mammoth
2. Jessi Blackwell - Norway
3. Aljaz Gnezda – Slovenia
4. Matic Zavodlik – Slovenia
5. Tobi Hartmut – Austria

Open:

1.Sami Luhtanen – Finland trip to Mammoth
2. Flo Heim - Austria
3. Florian Galler – Austria
4. Simon Pircher – Germany
5. Ziga Rakovec - Slovenia / Stefano Benchimol – Italy

And the big winner is:

Sami Luhtanen, happy winner 1000 euros in total, and a plane ticket to the PBRJ world finals in Mammoth!

See the full report of the Volcom PBRJ 2010 on Volcom Europe’s website.

But that’s not all folks! We also wanted to give you the results of our great Volcom/Onboard competition that run all the way during the PBRJ across Europe. For those who need a reminder, click here.

You guys have been pretty talented at naming the tricks well, as well as being very creative on other trick terms, to say the least. But the best of you all, who had the privilege to go and judge at the Euro finals, all expenses paid, was Max Wettstein from Germany. He even corrected some of the senior trickspellers around, and got 21 rights answers out of 24! His mistakes: on the second trick, Mark Swoboda is riding switch, and sorry but a ‘one foot indy tap’ is most commonly known as a Fast Plant… Anyways, congrats to him! We hope he enjoyed his crazy week-end in Laax with all the pros!

Here’s the list of the 4 other winners to win one year free subscription at Onboard, for showing us all their talents at smelling trick names:

1st Place: Max Wettstein

Second Place: Alex Simopoulos

Third Place: Aleksi Kemilainen

Fourth Place: Keijo Ruuven

Fifth Place: Noel Garsou

If you want to read all the trick names they put down, go here.

Source: onboardsnowboarding.com

After an action packed few days at the Ruka Battery Park in Northern Finland, snowboarding’s upcoming star Enni Rukajärvi took the victory at the 3Star Oakley Girlsessions. The event had attracted a crowd that was curious to see the local rookie talent, who had last month been crowned Swatch TTR World Snowboard Champion. In second place came Saana Pehkonen (FIN) and in third Claire Frost (GBR) who all got a piece of the $10000 USD prize purse.

 Once the morning fog eased up, the qualifiers began and the riders boosted off the kickers in the hope to become one of the eight finalists. The shapers had done their best to tame the unusually slushy spring snow conditions, in order to create a progressive slopestyle setup for the girls. Claire Frost (GBR) said after the event:“ It was a fun course, the jumps were well shaped and it had a good flow. In one run you can do a bit of everything, with a fast lift to get up. I would say its one of the best parks I’ve ridden in Europe.“ Claire, who had won a wild card from the 3Star Skullcandy Sista Sessions earlier this year, stomped a backside 360 mute and frontside 720 melon over the top kickers in her second run in the finals. Saana Pehkonen from Rovaniemi, who won the 2Star Finnish Snowboarding Championships slopestyle this year, was also in contention to knock Enni out from the top spot. Saana is a constantly progressing rider and stomped a backside 360 melon, frontside 540 tailfish, a cab 180 nosegrab and a frontside 270 on 270 out and a cab 270 in 270 out in the jib section.

Enni Rukajärvi qualified in first and held on to the lead throughout the day. Her effortless airs showed no sign that she had been away from her home park most of the season demonstrating her impeccable technique by stomping a solid winning run consisting of a backside 540 indy, cab 720 indy, switch backside 180 indy on the kickers into a frontside 270 on and a nose press switch-up in the box section. On her last run in the finals she only barely bailed on a cab 900 attempt, showing the spectators what lies ahead in the upcoming winters. This year, Enni returned to this event, which had once been her first competing experience. “This year here at the Girlsessions I have had a bit of a different program, as I have been coaching the future stars, and on Friday night we had a bit of a celebration and ate some cake”, sais Enni after the comp. The party honouring Enni’s success on the Swatch TTR World Tour as well as many other victories this season included speeches among all of Enni’s friends and family. The 19-year old looked happy and relaxed among her close peers and exclaimed “It's great to come back here every year to ride at the Oakley Girlsessions. Its an amazing feeling, its the best event of the year and has the best vibe!” In a generous gesture she shared her prize money with the other finalists.

This years’ Oakley Girlsessions attracted more than 80 enthusiastic girls from 8 different nations to participate in the various activities during the four days. Activities included coaching, photo shoots, seminars, amateur competition sessions, parties and a lot of fancy dress action. It is a setup created to push the progression of the female athletes and shine the spotlight on the new emerging talent. With the huge international success of Enni Rukajärvi this season it has been particularly rewarding for the event organizers who are more than proud of Enni’s accomplishments.

TOP 8 AT 3STAR OAKLEY GIRLSESSIONS
1. Enni Rukajärvi FIN 95.75
2. Saana Pehkonen FIN 87.25
3. Claire Frost GBR 80.25
4. Laukkanen Hanna FIN 70.75
5. Chani Michaux ARG 66.75
6. Veera Vihervaara FIN 60.50
7. Tiina Lindström FIN 60.25
8. Emilie Evensen NOR 26.50

The German rider Patrick Cinca was the guy to take first place at the 7th Chill and Destroy (CaD) finals up on Arosa Snowpark last Saturday. In best weather conditions, the Arosa snowpark was perfectly shaped and all riders were really stoked about the course. The spectators and judges saw highclass riding-level with lot’s of different „nines“ and „tens“.

 Patricks Cincas winning run included a frontside 900 mute on the big kicker and a switch double frontflip on the step up kicker. Second place went to Thibault Berard (FRA) who earned his spot thanks to his best run that included a switch backside 900 and backside rodeo seven. The 2008 CaD tour winner Jonel Fricke (GER) took third place with a real sick run that included a double frontflip and a huge backside rodeo five.

Frank Knuerr, contest chief director, was super happy about the CaD snowboard finales and stated: “This was the best riding I’ve ever seen at a Chill and Destroy finale! The Snowpark in Arosa allowed the riders to push their limits up and stick really crazy technical tricks!!! Magnificent...!!!”

The kids final competition had been dominated by local rider Urs Hediger (SUI). He showed real smooth riding with high amplitude and lots of style and was the only kid who jumped the „big 20m table-kicker“ with a frontside inverted five mutegrab. Gabriel Polkovich (AUT) took 2nd place with a real technical rail/obstacle-run included a frontflip over the lip, a nice no grab bonk, frontside boardslide 180 off at the flatbox and a nice barrel roll followed by a backside three. Third place was caught by Dominik Metzler.

Zimtstern teamrider Helen Nadig (SUI) won the girls contest, showing backside lipslides at the downbox, frontside 360 indy, backside noseslide and frontside five.  Second became Martina Zollner (GER) and third place went to Maria Teifel from Austria.

At the after show party in the LOSBAR in Arosa the riders and the organizers got their groove on with some oldschool hiphop music in the basement and rock at the first floor. They celebrated the winners and hailed the best CaD finales, with the sickest riding level, ever held...

For further information check: www.chillanddestroy.com