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Burton European Open

Editor — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:02:58 +0000

The Burton European Open is an 8 day, 6 Star TTR Event that will see amateurs competing against renowned pro-riders. The event will feature slopestyle and halfpipe events, with hundreds of competitors and great prizes.

Date: 25 February to 3 March 2012
Location: Laax
Country: Switzerland

World Snowboarding Championships

Editor — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:57:21 +0000

The World Snowboarding Championships forms part of the TTR World Snowboard Tour. Held every four years, this is a freestyle competition with slopestyle and halfpipe. the 2012 championship will also feature a thrilling monster quarterpipe event.

Date: 12 to 19 February 2012
Location: Oslo
Country: Norway

Volcom Peanut Butter & Rail Jam

Editor — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:48:58 +0000

The Volcom Peanut Butter & Rail Jam is a fun-filled snowboarding event. Divisions are divided into guys of 15 years and under, guys of 16 and over, girls and open.

Date: 11 February 2012
Venue: Blue Mountain
State: Ontario
Country: Canada

Visiting the Utah Snowboard Museum

Editor — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 09:05:56 +0000

The Salty Peaks Snowboard Shop is located in the ideal location in Salt Lake City, as it is in close proximity to world famous and very popular skiing and snowboarding resorts, such as Canyons, Snowbird, Park City and Brighton. It is nestled between two canyons, namely Cottonwood and Parley’s at Wasatch Mountain’s base. Not only is the shop conveniently situated for winter sport enthusiasts to do their last minute shopping, or to purchase a new snowboard while on vacation, but it is also home to a very intriguing attraction.

The Utah Snowboard Museum offers visitors the opportunity to delve into the history of snowboarding and skateboarding, as it has a collection of more than a thousand items on display. With display areas filled with boards, the ceiling as also become a display unit and each snowboard displays its make and date of manufacture. Depending on funding, it is hoped that the Utah Snowboard Museum can be expanded to accommodate more exhibits, and it is proud to boast the biggest snowboard collection in the world. The museum is a self-funded establishment that relies on donations to keep it running. It was founded in the year 1981, and by 1989, the museum was in full swing. Every make and model that snowboarders can think of is displayed in the museum that ranges from vintage snowboards to the most modern, creating a visual display of the evolution of snowboarding.

Another feature of the museum that makes it quite unique is the display that hosts prototype snowboards that date back to the 1940s and also exhibits boards that were used by the pioneers of snowboarding, as well as snowboarding champions. Visitors will also get to see the longest snowboards ever produced, and visitors are also recommended to explore the Snurfer room. Many of the pieces in the collection have either been sold or donated to the museum, and the Utah Snowboard Museum is constantly on the lookout for places to display either permanent or temporary collections, to promote the sport and educate the public on the history of snowboarding. The Utah Snowboard Museum is most definitely an attraction that all snowboard enthusiasts should visit, as they will be amazed at what is on display, whilst learning more about the sport they are passionate about.

A Skiing Vacation in Russia

Editor — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 08:54:39 +0000

With over a hundred ski resorts in Russia, there are quite a few destinations to choose from. Most of the resorts in Russia are small, and some need a little upgrading to get up to international standard, but do have the basic equipment. There are a few resorts, however, that do stand out. Russia, famous for its cruel winters, provides ideal conditions for skiing enthusiasts and snowboarders to enjoy a winter sport vacation. With interest in Russian ski resorts increasing each year, it is foreseen that most resorts will upgrade and develop to accommodate the growing requirements.

Skiing in Russia has become such a popular attraction that the country will be hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics, proving that it has enough resorts and exciting slopes for even the most experienced skiers and snowboarders to enjoy. When looking at the various skiing locations in Russia, the Caucasus Mountains are definitely the most popular, as it is the home of Mount Elbrus, which stands at a height of 5 633 meters and is the highest mountain in Europe. This magnificent mountain accommodates snowboarding and skiing all year round, and is therefore a very popular destination.

One of the popular resorts in this area is Cheget Polyana. It is filled with shops where winter sport enthusiasts can hire equipment, cafés and comfortable hotels for accommodation. It also has a chair lift that will take skiers and snowboarders up the mountain, and though it is not fast, it is worth the ascent. All that is left for visitors to enjoy is an exciting ride down. Another option is Azau, which also has a cable car that can take visitors up to 3 500 meters, and if they so choose, they can ride the piste basher up to 4 100 meters. It is also the ideal location for heli-skiing and numerous operators are based in Azau.

Along the South Ural ridge, on the eastern slopes, is Abzakovo. The resort is popular with locals, especially for those in the Magnitogorsk region, as it features a ski complex with modern features. Known to many as the Red Valley, Krasnaya Polyana features four lifts and goes to a height of 2 228 meters. Visitors are also able to take a helicopter ride to higher positions on the mountain, as this facility is available at Krasnaya Polyana. There are so many options available in Russia, that winter sport enthusiasts will have a difficult time deciding where to visit first.

2011 Burton New Zealand Open

Editor — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 08:49:07 +0000

Every snowboarder looks forward to the Burton Global Open Series that was established by Jake Burton, as it not only allows professional snowboarders to show off their skills but it also draws thousands of snowboarding enthusiasts to come support their favorite competitors. The Burton Global Open Series takes place across Europe, the United States, in Canada and in New Zealand. On the 12th and 13th of August the 2011 Burton New Zealand Open will be hosted at the Cardona Alpine Ski Resort, located between the Crown Range and nearby cities of Wanaka and Queenstown, kicking of the Burton Global Open Series.

Cardona Alpine Ski Resort is the ideal location for such a high profile event, as it always offers reliable and favorable conditions due to its great weather, which in turn provides good snowfall and pristine terrain for snowboarders and all winter sport enthusiasts to enjoy. Both beginners and intermediate skiers and snowboarders are catered for, as well as advanced riders, as the Tulips and Arcadia chutes offer a challenging course to satisfy their needs. It also features an eighteen foot halfpipe and a twenty-two foot superpipe in its diverse terrain park that can accommodate riders of all skill levels.

There will be two divisions for the top riders to compete in, namely Slopestyle and Halfpipe. Even though the competition begins on the 12th, riders will be participating in training sessions on the 9th of August, which will then be followed by the Slopestyle Pre-qualifiers and qualifiers for both men and women. Qualifiers for the men’s and women’s Halfpipe event will be hosted on the 10th of August. Only the top five women and top ten men in this event will move forward toward the semi-finals. The top eight women and the top sixteen men in the Slopestyle division will be selected on the 11th of August, during their semi-final session, and only those selected riders will continue to the finals.

Halfpipe semi-finals for both men and women will then commence, with Halfpipe semi-finals for women taking place on the Friday, with their finals on the Saturday. The men on the other hand will be doing both on the Saturday. Over and above the fierce competition that will be taking place at the Burton New Zealand Open, there will be numerous activities for both riders and spectators to participate in, making it an exciting and interactive event.

Additional Disciplines for Winter Olympics

Editor — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 09:46:55 +0000

The 2014 Winter Olympic Games will be held in Sochi, Russia. Additional disciplines have been added to the games, and have been welcomed by athletes, giving them more freedom as to the events that they can qualify in. Now snowboard slopestyle, parallel slalom snowboarding and slopestyle skiing events will also be allowed, and the International Olympic Committee has also made the decision to allow women’s ski jumping and halfpipe skiing into the next Winter Olympic Games.

Bill Marolt, the CEO and President of the United States Ski and Snowboard Association, commented on the decision made by the International Olympic Committee with great enthusiasm, saying that the addition of the new events, especially slopestyle, will encourage the youth, as there are already millions of younger athletes who are enjoying the terrain parks and perfecting their skill. The inclusion of these events will have a far reaching effect, with U.S. Freeskiing and U.S. Snowboarding being impacted positively by this decision.

The slopestyle event involves a man-made course that consists of various jumps, rails and boxes, making up a terrain course. Many ski resorts have included terrain courses as part of their facilities as they are popular with both snowboarding and skiing enthusiasts. There will therefore be nine new events for contenders to receive medals in, for both men and women.

Shaun White, a snowboarding superstar in America, competed in the 2010 Vancouver Games and won two gold medals for halfpipe events, and said that he would definitely be considering the slopestyle events in Sochi. Snowboarding made its way to the Nagano Games in 1998, and ever since the games, the sport has developed into various disciplines such as snowboardcross. The inclusion of the parallel special slalom is also exciting, as it is a more technical discipline than giant slalom. Recognizing that slopestyle has become a major developing sport in the winter sport industry has seen it included in the 2014 Winter Olympics, and will most definitely give the youth more encouragement to practice and improve their talents to make it to the Olympics one day.

2011 SIA Report Released

Editor — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 08:50:35 +0000

SnowSports Industries America was originally founded under the name National Ski Equipment and Apparel Association in 1954. It is a non-profit organization, member owned national trade association and today it has numerous functions. It not only promotes snow sports in general, but it also serves as a representative for suppliers, from ski resort communities to retailers. They also work with various others in the industry to gather data in regard to skiing participants and services, and assist in marketing all aspects of snow sports by hosting a massive trade show that offers wonderful networking opportunities for industry members.

The association does not only represent one winter sport discipline, but promotes all sporting activities that take place on the snow covered slopes. Recently, all the data gathered by SnowSports Industries America has enabled them to release their 2011 SIA Snow Sports Participation report that shows a dramatic increase in participants. The report includes disciplines such as snowboarding, skiing, snowshoeing, park and pipe riding, telemark, cross country skiing and Alpine skiing.

The report has revealed that there has been an increase in the snowboarding disciplines as well as freeskiing. There are a few points that have been highlighted by the report, such as the fact that there are more than twenty-one million people who participate in the various six snow sport disciplines within the United States of America. It also showed that over seven percent of people older than six years of age living in the United States participated in one or more disciplines. There are also ten states in the United States that have a concentration of more than sixty percent snowboarding and alpine skiing enthusiasts. The report has also shown that snow sports is growing as an interest amongst ethnic groups such as Asians, African Americans and the Hispanic communities by five percent each year.

The SIA report also indicated that snowboarding is a male dominated discipline, with more than sixty percent of participants being males between the ages of thirteen and thirty-four. The same was confirmed in the report in regard to Alpine skiers, with approximately sixty percent of the participants also being males between the same ages. The report assists the winter sport industry to see how the various disciplines are increasing in popularity, as well as working on target markets and marketing strategies. Over all the report has shown a growth in the industry, which is encouraging, and it is hoped that the numbers will improve even more by the release of next year’s report.

10th TTR World Snowboard Tour Begins

Editor — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 09:29:49 +0000

Operating as a non-profit organization, the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour has as one of its goals the establishment of snowboarding as a major snow sport on a global scale, while at the same time providing high quality competitive experiences for snowboarders around the world. The TTR (Ticket To Ride) World Ranking List along with the TTR World Tour, sees organizers of a host of independent freestyle snowboard events collaborating to present a global tour, catering for snowboarders of all levels of expertise – from rookie to professional. As the TTR World Snowboard Tour kicks off for its 10th season, riders and their supporters have loads of excitement ahead of them.

With increasing interest and ongoing development in snowboarding as a sport, the TTR World Ranking system has been revised for the upcoming season. The four new ranking lists are: TTR Halfpipe World Tour Ranking; TTR Slopestyle World Tour Ranking; TTR Big Air World Tour Ranking; and TTR Overall World Tour Ranking. Riders can start notching up TTR Big Air World Tour Rankings at the 5 Star Billabong Ante Up at Whistler on July 1, 2011. The all-male competition is expected to be intense as big air competitors, including Sebastien Toutant, Mark McMorris, and Seppe Smits, take to the snow.

The Burton New Zealand Open, taking place from August 9 to 13, is considered to be the cornerstone event of the competition’s Southern Hemisphere Season. It has been re-graded as a 5 Star event, and offers both men and women the opportunity to gain ranking points for the TTR Halfpipe World Tour Ranking and the TTR Slopestyle World Tour Ranking. Other events taking place in New Zealand are the 4 Star Billabong Bro Down (August 5-6) and the 3 Star New Zealand Winter Games (August 19-24). Australia will be hosting the 3 Star Dew Hut Jam at Mount Buller (July 30-31) and the 4 Star Stylewars at Falls Creek (August 21-24).

The function of the TTR in the freestyle snowboarding world is to operate in the interests of the riders and the sport that brings them together. The TTR encourages creativity and innovation as the sport evolves. It has an open-door policy, with the primary goal of creating a network of events and contacts to benefit athletes and the snowboarding industry. It also seeks to expand awareness of a sport that offers fun, creativity and friendship, as well as competitive events to encourage progress in developing snowboarding skills. If you have the opportunity, you may want to check out snowboarding at its best at one of the TTR World Snowboard Tour events.

NASA Looks Into Snowboarding Goggle Technology

Editor — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 09:26:05 +0000

Anti-glare, anti-fog goggles have long been an essential item for snowboarders. State of the art technology now gives snowboarding enthusiasts the option of incorporating full GPS features in their goggles, thereby having access to real-time statistics such as speed, vertical, altitude, temperature, total distance readings, run-counter, and stopwatch/chrono mode clock. Moreover, the head-mounted, full color LCD display provides features such as Google maps overlay, and logging of averages, as well as maximum and minimum statistics over several days. A micro USB port allows for data transfer and charging – and all this in a package weighing just 257 grams.

The benefits of this amazing technology has recently caught the attention of the world’s most advanced space exploration agency, and in a joint statement released by NASA and the developer and manufacturer of this GPS gem, Recon Instruments, it was revealed that NASA would be testing the equipment during their desert RATS (research and technology studies) field tests in September this year. Currently astronauts are limited to verbal communication with ground control, or fellow astronauts in the vehicle when collecting data while space walking, and one of the objectives in developing new space suits is to make each crew member more autonomous. Experts in the field have noted that this will be even more essential as man probes deeper into space.

In a formal statement, NASA systems engineer Scott Bleisath revealed that the team at the NASA Glenn Research Center has been investigating the possibility of in-helmet displays for some time. The research and development undertaken by Recon Instruments for the snow sport industry will give NASA the opportunity to test this technology for future spacesuit designs. Recon Instruments CEO Dan Eisenhardt noted that the company is proud to be working with NASA and look forward to developing a solution for the next generation spacesuits.

So as NASA heads out into the Arizona desert in September to test out a variety of equipment under the harshest conditions, there will no doubt be many a crew member who would welcome some fun in the snow. And as snowboarders don their kit to hit the slopes they can enjoy all the features of their high-tech GPS enabled alpine goggles and can rest assured that they will find their way home.