Snowboarding gets reinvented - Winter XGames 15

Just when you thought snowboarding had hit a plateau as far as progression goes, along comes Winter XGames 15. The sales line for the Games was, "You haven't seen everything!" How right they were. This year the guys took it to new heights, led up front by the man previously known as the Flying Tomato, he now goes by the moniker - The Dark Knight. Shaun White led the charge taking his four-peat in the Superpipe and blowing minds on route to doing it. He was running a 19ft Straight air out of the pipe straight into a double cork that defied description.Then, just to ensure he was winning, he busts out a double Mactwist -WTF!

Ok, so our minds are blown, lets take a breather and head over to the Big Air event. Nothing to exciting going on - oh shit, is that Torstein Horgmo trying a triple cork? He eats absolute crap, gets up and heads back up for another run, then lands the craziest air ever - I mean ever! The definition of impossible no longer exists.



My hands are shaking right now! What's next?

SA will qualify for World Snowboard Champs today - Go Marta Jekot

At 2pm today, Euro time, our good mate and super style bandit, Marta "Smarta" Jekot, will be competing in the qualification round of the Slopestyle World Champs, being held in La Molina, Spain. This is a massive boost for SA snowboarding as she could be our first ever finalist at a World Champs in snowboarding.

That is one large Slopestyle Course!

Our man at the top, Olly, head of Snowboarding SA, sent us the following message from the slopes:

Hey Guys,

Today at 2pm is Mawa’s qualification run for the World Snowboard Champs and she’s riding in bib 2 in a field of 28 women. Our Afro-Molina jokes have died down because the weather turned and the temp will be around -16C with winds of up to 65km/h today which isn’t great for Mawa who must face quiet a gnarly slopestyle course as it is.

Win, draw or lose, today’s qualifiers are going to be an exciting day for us. We are waving the only African flag at the comp which is dominated by European and American riders. It’s also a bit nail biting for slopestyle itself because this whole format will also be under review by an Olympic panel to see if it’s worth introducing as a new Olympic discipline. Personally it’s also feels quiet good because we stand here on the shoulders of a really big and passionate effort of many of you guys at home and it’s good to be reminded that passion and hope still flow.

Mawa has shown big heart and composure to roll into this course in Spain because its pretty woes. This event was unexpected and not part of the plan but we’ve also got a great coach in  Iztok who gave her a motivational talk last night that nearly had me strapping on a board to show the sceptics that Africa can compete in snow !

Hold thumbs for Mawa and I’ll get back to you once the craziness is over and we know how today went.

Oliver

Marta Stylin at practice!

If you wanna send Marta some love and support, check her website - Marta Jekot

And on facebook -  http://www.facebook.com/amasmarties?sk=info

Go SMARTY!!!!!!!

Canal Walk Snowboard Jam - World Snowboarding Day 2010

On a balmy and very hot day in Cape Town, spectators at Canal Walk Shopping center were surprised to find a Snowboarding competition in full swing, this Sunday the 19th December.

Chris Cab straight out of Austria and onto our tiny slope!

To celebrate World Snowboarding Day, Canal Walk, along with Liqui Fruit and DC, hosted the first ever, Canal Walk Snowboarding Jam. The event was attended by some of South Africa’s top Snowboarders, including current Euro Cup holder, Marta “Mawa” Jekot. There was also an international flavor, thanks to Austrian Pro, Chris Cab.

Cab takes the low road, while Mens winner, Marcin Jekot takes the high road.

All the riders threw themselves onto the 3m Rail setup on the small slope inside Canal Walk for over R20’000 in prizes. There were big spills and huge thrills for the hundreds of people who came to watch the event, while getting in a last minute Christmas shop. The contest was run on a “Jam Format”, meaning the riders had 3 open sessions to impress the judges and the crowd. The first two sessions went down on the rail, before organizers took it out and the last session was an Air Jam.

Sally looking pretty pleased with her 2nd place and Best Newcomer prizes!

In the ladies division it was no surprise when Marta Jekot took first place, but Sally Berold, in her first competition came in a deserving second place, as well as winning the best Newcomer Award. Marta completed some high risk tricks with a couple of 180 on, 180 off slides on the rail, as well as a clean 360 off of the small kicker in the air section.

All smiles for the Queen of African snowboarding, Marta "Mawa" Jekot.

The men, with a much bigger field, were a very close affair. Katlego “Kat” Maponyane, a rail specialist, was throwing down seriously technical tricks, but due to their difficulty had a lower completion rate than some of the other riders. He took out third place, along with the best trick award, for a huge 270 on, 90 off board slide on the rail. In second place was the Austrian, Chris Cab. He was showing his experience with a wide range of tricks and approaches to the rails. Unfortunately he injured himself landing a one-footed air in the last session and had his Granny and family in the audience extremely worried. He turned out to be ok, but he will definitely be out of action for a while.

Katlego Maponyane doing what he does best - kills jibs and rails!

In first place was seven time SA Champion, Marcin Jekot. He quietly went about his business and stuck multiple board-slides and airs, including a 540 Method Air (Amazing on that small kicker). The judges were suitably impressed and he walked away the first ever Canal Walk Snowboard Jam Champion.

theGoodLife riders, commentators and judge!

There were numerous wipeouts during the day, a couple of very close calls, but it was Darren Swanepoel, who body slammed the rail face first in the practice session, who took the best Wipeout award. The Guts and Glory award went to BMX rider, Rupert von Tutschek, who impressed everyone with his commitment to pushing his limits and trying new tricks.

Canal Walk Snowboard Jam - World Snowboard Day from Kai Linder on Vimeo.


The event was a huge success and we can but hope that we will see it on the Snowboarding Calendar again in 2011.

Podium:
Mens:
1st Marcin Jekot (SA)
2nd Chris Cab (Austrian)
3rd Katlego Maponyane (SA)
Ladies:
1st Marta Jekot (SA)
2nd Sally Berold (SA)

Best Trick: Katlego Maponyane (SA)
Best Wipe Out: Darren Swanepoel (SA)
Guts & Glory Award: Rupert von Tutschek (SA)
(For the rider who pushed their limits even though they had major falls.)
Best Newcomer: Sally Berold (SA)

Feel the LoVE

Our pals from Austria, Seppi and Marc, who are both completely crazy and snowboard like juiced up chipmunks on meth - are launching their new snowboard and skate movie in mid November. Last years "Loveolution" was pretty epic and I can only say that version 2 should be great!

Check out the trailer -



Seppi, or Doctor Love, says the following about the new movie:
"Our whole Teammovie project is nearly finished! So far i think it will be a good step up from last years movie, in all subjects such as: riding, film quality and of course acting.. :)
Also we have 3 more riders in our LOVE team this season. (icelandic gulli gudmundsson, Swiss markus keller and from USA: mike casanova) all of them also worked good to get some good shots for Loveolution2!
The movie was shot i think all around the world. Having it s focus on riding and entertainment! :) The music will be a good mix of everything i think."

I have supported Love for a couple of years now, they make sick T's, Hoodies, Skate boards and snowboards - plus the ladies will literally offer themselves for the stickers, I kid you not!

You can see their website here - LOVE

LOVE YOURSELF

Captain Kai

African Snowboarding - Kings Cup Day 1

Yes, as crazy at it may seem, there is snowboarding in Africa. In fact from this year, 2009, we have a world class small park with plans to further develop it in 2010.

The park is situated at the Afriski resort, in Northern Lesotho - a small principality right in the middle of South Africa. Its one of the most beautiful, remote and rural areas on earth. It takes about 4 hours of driving to get there from Johannesburg - 16 Hours from cape Town, so this is not advised. The park is run by Gone Skiing, Ski and Snowboard shop and the guys at www.snowboarder.co.za, who it must be said, have done a fantastic job.

The slope at Afriski is Southern Facing, meaning its protected from the wind and sun, and they have plenty of hours of optimum snow blowing time during our winter. There are also dumps of real snow on a pretty regular basis and when this happens it is one of the best Free riding areas i have ever seen. No chopper needed as the road system threads through the passes and with a minimal amount of hiking you can use the car to access some great runs.

The Kings Cup Slopestyle competition has been running for a number of years, but this year proved to be the best ever - probably due to the insane park and beautiful blue sky days we had the whole weekend. On day 1 the park was open for training and most of the top SA riders took full advantage of the opportunity to steaze out and get their runs sorted for the next day. Some of the best riding was done by the Jekot siblings, who have long been the top male and female riders in SA. But, the level is definitely being raised in our small boarding community and guys like Matt Ammo, Kat Maponyane and Ruben Storbeck - also the guy in charge of maintaining the park - were busting out.

Saturday night saw the usual Apr es mayhem - I sum how don't remember much other than some serious dirty dancing and a bottle of Johnny Walker - surprising is it not? ha ha

Take a look at the attached video for the visuals and keep an eye out for Day 2 soon.

Keep it good,

Captain Kai