© diaq for Ronin Snowboards, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Cecilia Larsen, Folgefonna, Hemsedal, Jocke Hammar, Jocke Hamrin, Jonas Frid, Lindvallen, Markus Rehn, Mattias Larson, Mattias Rehn, Niklas Thirus, Our Cup Of Tea, Sweden, Tandådalen, teaser, Tobias Larsson

With a month to go before the 8th year of Stylewars anticipation is growing on what’s in store for 2010. At this stage five of the current top 10 World ranked snowboarders are confirmed to compete for the $15,000 in cash and valuable 4-star world tour points and a line up of some of Australia’s top music acts will keep the party going nightly. Known as the endurance marathon of the TTR World Snowboarding tour Stylewars has a history of showcasing the best in world-class snowboarding daily combined with huge nightly parties turning the small town of Falls Creek temporarily upside down.

Leading the confirmed line up of internationals is Sebastien Toutant, from Canada, (currently placed 3rd in the world) who made history last year at Stylewars with the first backside double corked 1260 ever landed in major competition, which helped him to win the overall Stylewars 2009 title. A 16-year old Sebastian left Australia last year in 1st place on the tour only to get injured not long afterwards in Europe shattering his chances of being the youngest snowboarder to hold the number 1 position for year.

The three-day and four-night festival, which is an integral part of the prestigious Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour, will kick off on Sunday the 22nd of August with the opening party featuring Aussie rockers CALLING ALL CARS, fresh off their tour with AC/DC and Brisbane punk group DZ. Monday will see the opening day of competition in the notoriously well built and world class snowboard park backed up by one of Australia’s best electro acts, BAG RAIDERS. Tuesday will see day 2 in the park and the nightlife will feature SPACE INVADAS, KATALYST and DJ DANIELSAN. The final day of competition is sure to be action paced with a full day in the park backed up by the under lights rail event 28 Stairs featuring 3 x DMC Champion DJ PERPLEX playing till late.

Also confirmed is Charles Reid, also from Canada (currently 9th in the world) returning to Stylewars having won the title in 2008. Both Charles and Sebastian are leaders in street rail competitions and Stylewars boasts a night event called 28 Stairs, which is Australia’s most reputable rail event. 28 Stairs in 2009 saw these two go head to head in duel that resulted in a tied win as the judges had never witnessed such a close competition where each trick was more insane than the one before it and neither athlete faltered over the 2 hours of non stop competition. Charles was not too happy about sharing this title and we can expect him to come out firing in a month’s time.

2010 Air and Style winner Slovenian Marco Grilc will return for his 3rd attempt at winning the night-life party title and 2010 European X-Games slopestyle gold medallist Eric Willett will be back as well to have another shot. Young Swedes Kevin Backstrom and Tor Lundstrom are both confirmed after both proving their park worthiness with Tor taking out a slopestyle title in Hemsedal Norway and Kevin sitting in 6th on the World Tour. American riders, Jeremy Thompson who was the standout at the 2010 Superpark event and Ian Thorley who placed 3rd in the Dew Tour Slopestyle have also just confirmed. Local riders including Ryan Tiene who features in the new Standard Films release The Storming, Robbie Walker, Clint Allan, Jye Kearney and a line up of only Australia’s best will all be hoping to steal some of the glory from the invading internationals.

Stylewars 2010 promises to be the biggest snowboarding event in Australia for the spectators as well as the athletes in both on hill action and out of control nightlife so get to Falls Creek from the 22nd – 25th August and check out the latest information and accommodation packages on stylewars.com.au

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Post tags: AC/DC, australia, backside double corked 1260, BAG RAIDERS, CALLING ALL CARS, Charles Reid, Clint Allan, Dew Tour Slopestyle, DJ DANIELSAN, DJ PERPLEX, Eric Willett, European X-Games slopestyle, Falls Creek, Hemsedal, jeremy thompson, Jye Kearney, Katalyst, Kevin Backstrom, Marco Grilc, Norway, Robbie Walker, Sebastien Toutant, Space Invadas, Stylewars 2010, stylewars.com.au, swatch, Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour, The Storming, Tor Lundstrom, TTR World Snowboarding

The park in Vierli have developed immensely the last few years, and is ready and prepared to welcome hungry riders with bags of tricks. SWAG MAXIT is part of the Evovler Tour, and is a TTR 2Star event.

Prize money: NOK 15.000,-

There are lots of stash and great prizes to be won from the event sponsors.

Compete in:
Mens Open (born 1995 or earlier)
Ladies Open (born 1995 or earlier)
KIDS (boys and girls born 1993 or later)

You may in other words choose if you would like to participate in KIDS or Mens/Womens Open if your born from 1993 to 1995. You may even get your hands on a wild card for Tacky Invitational, that goes down in Hemsedal, Norway in December.

Established in 1999, The Oakley Arctic Challenge was created as an independent alternative to more established snowboarding events. The Oakley Arctic Challenge is owned by Terje Haakonsen, and the event protects some key values; independence, creativity, progression, borderless, playfulness, social and environmental responsibilities.

TAC 2010 is a TTR 6str slopestyle, in Wyller, Oslo, Norway, gathering some of the worlds leading snowboard athletes to a New Years snowboard extravaganza.

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Post tags: Hemsedal, New Year, Norway, Oslo, slopestyle, SWAG MAXIT, TAC 2010, Tacky Invitational, Terje Haakonsen, The Oakley Arctic Challenge, TTR 6str slopestyle, Vierli

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Post tags: finlandia, Folgefonna, Hemsedal, icon, Icon Snowboards, Klappen, quitealrightproductions.com, Salen, snowboarding, Tandådalen, teaser, White lies & French fries

Generation trends
In the 1990s, resorts like Les Deux Alpes, Espace Killy and Les Diablerets had the most avant-garde snowparks in the French-speaking Alps. Unfortunately, the trend continued mainly in more isolated resorts and they generally failed to produce. This was the first problem for the development of freeskiing and snowboarding. This remained the case until the Olympic games introduced snowboarding and highlighted freestyle, transforming the image of a “rebel” niche sport into a mass sport recognised by the IOC.
From then on, the attitude of even the most backward-thinking resort managers changed. There are several reasons for this epiphany, mostly economic of course, but also the modernisation of an ideology that aimed to meet the demands of a new generation of clients.

Snowparks appeal to the young who are much better versed in the new disciplines than traditional mountain clientele. Attracting youngsters is of paramount importance because, demographically speaking, the number of total participants is slowly but surely decreasing, each year sees approximately a 1% drop. As a result, resorts are obliged to alter their target market, turning towards a younger clientele.

Moreover, snowparks are important marketing tools, as much on a mainstream level as on an informed public level. It is totally feasible to change an unknown resort like Hemsedal, Norway (shaper: Lars Eriksen) into a freestyle Mecca. This resort started with Burton shoots every spring with amazing, experimental jumps that surpassed the limits of the sport each year. This is how the whole snowboarding world came to turn toward Hemsedal, which quickly capitalised on its notoriety through the presence of pros and the media. With an image that is used commercially, right through to TV, the resort has a very powerful marketing tool right at their fingertips.

Specialised profession and companies
Outside the realities of markets and economics, the present issue is that there are very few companies who make real snowparks in Europe. Over the last ten years, we have witnessed the birth of a new profession: the shaper. Although existing works were undertaken on a professional level, they have long-since remained works conceived by isolated individuals whose know-how is highly developed. One thing to note about the shaping profession: it is tightly restricted by distance and languages. Naturally, nothing stops a Norwegian from making a snowpark in Italy, like Lars Eriksen did for the European Open, but these are more often short-term commissions than complete snowpark concepts that could last several weeks.

These days, specialised snowpark companies such as h.o.5.park, QParks and Mellow Parks are springing up all over Europe. These companies are therefore confronted with cultural and linguistic barriers that are still difficult to overcome and that set the tone for shaping in Europe. In actual fact, the continent is split into linguistic areas: Scandinavian, Germanic, Francophone and Latin, and each of these sectors has its leaders. In the Germanic sector,
we find QParks and Mellow Parks; h.o.5.park in Francophonia; the Latin countries, and more precisely Spain, have Snowpark Division. For Scandinavia, Lars Eriksen is the man.

These companies have developed concepts to deal with the specific needs of the snowpark market. For instance, h.o.5.park is a brand name of N.S.I. S.A.R.L., which is divided into two branches. Le Bureau Technique, called h.o.5., is based in Chamonix, and has three areas of activity. The first area is technical (h.o.5.tech) run by Jean Philippe Catalan, who develops and sells equipment like rails, bridges, shaping tools and signposts. Another area is conception (h.o.5.park), which is a research, study, operation and conception office for sports courses like skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking. A third area is events (h.o.5.event), managed by Xavier Marcou, which is responsible for sponsoring h.o.5. and event organisation. And finally, there is the marketing office called N.S.I. and that also is divided into three areas: Multimedia, Consulting and Marketing.

These specialist snowpark companies have also developed significant client bases. Qparks for example operates snowparks at Senonerpark in Hochkar, on the h.o.5.park, QParks and Mellow Parks, Atomic Superpark on the Dachstein glacier, Snowpark Gastein in the Gastein Valley, the two snowparks in Kitzbuhel (north and south), Snowpark on the Steinplatte in Waidring, Swatch Snowpark in Sölden, and Sajas Diedamspark in Diedamskopf.

Year-round snowboarding
Alongside traditional parks, we have seen an expansion of artificial pistes, often nicknamed ‘domes’ or ‘fridges’. The shaping work carried out in these enclosed structures is distinguished by the context, with specific temperature and snowpack regulation. The work does, however, remain similar to the job performed by the professional shaper working in natural surroundings.

We have also seen the emergence of synthetic parks, especially in France and England. This very recent trend makes it possible to practice all year round and attracts a clientele ranging from the newbie right through to the expert. One of the main manufacturers of synthetic snowslopes is Briton Engineering Development Ltd, based in Yorkshire, Great Britain. BED has combined many important factors (terrain, surface quality, feature variation) to conceive high-tech installations in all kinds of sites and environments, aimed at all ability levels. Their high-tech surface system, called Snowflex, is a smooth polymer composition with a high-tech, flexible, slippery layer on top of a shock-absorbing layer that the manufacturers claim has similar qualities to snow. Coupled with the design and expertise of BED, Snowflex offers a unique product that can be set up anywhere.

Dome or synthetic, the two concepts prove that snowboarding and freeskiing can be practised year round, even in 40°C. Could this be the answer to global warming?

Why have a snowpark in a resort?
Snowboarders and freeskiers first started hanging out together in snowparks. The snowpark is the learning terrain where people get to know the basics. A well-made snowpark is just plain fun; in other words, a place where everyone can enjoy themselves. Whether it is a hop of 50cm or a 30m flight, everyone finds his or her limits. The important part is accommodating everyone so they can all enjoy it and that is the main challenge for European snowparks.

These days, most parks are ‘superparks’ with oversized jumps aimed at professionals. These parks generally ignore 90% of the clientele. So, it is essential that resorts set up parks that can be used by all skill levels, especially beginners and the wider public in order to seduce them into the discipline. Furthermore, these user-friendly areas are not space intensive, do not require too much snow, attract a lot of people and, in the end, represent huge marketing opportunities. A snowpark that attracts a large amount of people to one specific place becomes a direct link to a certain target group since these aficionados will spend most of their day there. It is therefore a good place for marketing campaigns, product tests, etc.

Standoffish resorts
“In the Alps, ownership is much more complicated than in the USA where one company owns everything and makes the final decision. In dealing with Alpine resorts, the process often becomes more and more political and that is why it takes so much effort to truly develop a project,” commented Jürgen Kipperer of Qparks. This is further complicated by scare stories, which in turn are due to bad training and lack of foresight into park maintenance.

Many resorts followed the example set by some skateparks by setting up without enough consideration towards upkeep. It only takes a few days for the jumps to become unusable, if not dangerous. A snowpark requires maintenance every day throughout the season and this requires a competent team. This team must include a professional shaper and many resorts do not fully acknowledge the huge risks they take by employing amateurs. A badly calculated kicker trajectory, an overly long flat, a misjudged landing angle and you are guaranteed to have accidents. And you need to think about more than just the kicker. There is the run in too, which must be designed to give the right amount of speed for the jump, not to mention the fact that the most popular landings get bombed out quickly and so require regular maintenance. That is why makeshift repairs can’t be relied upon. This job demands specific skills and constant attention.

The number of necessary “machine hours” presents another problem. The cost of a piste machine comes to around €175 per hour and many resorts prefer to use their machines for grooming the pistes. As a result, neglected snowparks often end up in the same situation as a badly maintained piste and even though a lot of the work can be done by shovel, a large part of it is still up to the machine. It is important not to make a half-hearted decision.

Although it is important to hear what the riders have to say about a snowpark’s development, it is also important to not be over-influenced by hardcore riders who want to go straight to a snowpark of professional proportions (that some days is even too big for them). Making such an investment ignores 95% of your clientele.

Total investment
Calling on the services of professionals to create and maintain a snowpark also means integrating that company into the wider operation of the resort. The snowpark company becomes a tool as well as work relief for the existing staff. It must be noted that the mentality of the snowboard world is not the same as the more traditional attitudes of the ski resorts. This divergence can sometimes generate so much political tension that it leads to a rift, which can spell doom for the snowpark.

What we must understand is that investment in a snowpark carries certain responsibilities and so it is understandable that not many resorts are equipped for it. Recouping cost of equipment, management wages, “machine hours” and fuel, the costs are felt but the results are for all to see.

Knowing that a small snowpark with Beginner, Intermediate and Expert lines demands a full-time piste machine throughout the season, the resort must bank on spending between €250,000 and €300,000. This investment can double or triple if we’re talking about a larger park, which needs between two and four machines over the season.

Nicolas Watier of h.o.5. has found that no two projects are the same. The biggest things to assess are safety, profitability, performance and environmental responsibility. Moreover, it is possible that the sponsoring brands demand that a spectacular kicker is made to heighten media interest. The creation of such a jump alone can cost €20,000 to €30,000. But if only a few riders hit this kicker, spectacular as it is, and only a few photos of it appear in the media, the return on the investment (ROI) remains questionable. It is therefore important to make the brands realise that this demand must be accompanied by a certain added value, in other words, a specific marketing campaign that will generate trade and contribute to the ROI.

These days, ROI may include commodities and sustainability aspects. For example, h.o.5.park offers a Bio Rail composed of 90% Douglas wood, 5% plastic, 5% steel, very light and detachable. It is easy to store (off season) and was conceived to be immortal and totally recyclable.

The public, media and especially the freestyle community must understand all this before condemning a resort for not having a snowpark.

Stepping up
So, how can we come to see the emergence of more snowparks? We have to realise that resort managers – far from being dimwits or negligent, most of the time – must evaluate the marketing and commercial gains in order to justify the investment. If the project does not present concrete arguments from a business point of view, it will not see light of day or else will be susceptible to compromise. Parks for beginners and intermediates are more easily developed because they are more accessible to the mass of participants. Once again, thanks to its everyday experience in the field, h.o.5.park has wedged itself into the niche of user-friendly, fun and safe parks with its Park 2.0. This concept offers zones with jumps and trails designed for snowboarding and freeskiing of all levels and complemented by specific signposting.

Qparks believe that resorts will specialise more in the future. That means doubling up what is on offer and improving the means of communication. Existing freestyle spots will be more specific and there will be more of them. Supply creates demand and vice-versa. Each new snowpark creates a new scene. In the long-term, providing a basic, high-quality snowpark will become standard for each resort. Current progress is already showing this in an impressive fashion. There will also be some big differences. On one side there will be public parks, and on another side will be big zones for more experienced riders. However, we are not expecting to reach American standards any time soon because, thankfully, most Alpine resorts have much more to offer the rider, like freeriding for example.

Conclusion
The advantage of snowparks is that they represent a fun activity that is less dependent on snow conditions than the pistes.  Because of this fact, the park can stay open throughout the season. If we consider global warming as a threat, then snowparks are a cost effective solution.

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Post tags: alps, America, Atomic Superpark, Austria, Briton Engineering Development, Burton, Dachstein Glacier, Espace Killy, Europe, Fred Maget, freestyle, Hemsedal, ho5park, Italy, Lars Eriksen, Les Deux Alpes, Les Diablerets, Mellow Parks, Norway, QParks, resorts, Sajas Diedamspark, shaper, snowboarding, snowpark, Snowpark Gastein, snowparks, Sölden