burn energy are adding another string to their bow with Real Snow. It’s going to add a new dimension to the Winter X Games in Tignes and it’s part of Human/Machines so, all in all, it’s set to showcase the contrasting schools of snowboarding. Still a bit confused?
The White Battle Freestyle comp has taken over from Xbox Big Day Out, which took over from Gumby’s Big Day Out.
Gumby’s Big Day Out was running for about a deco and a half and was the brain child of Anthony ‘Gumby’ Gumbley. It started out as a BBQ and piss up while some other threw themselves off of a kicker but the year after that, they started to get some sponsors on board. Year 2 saw a big air and boardercross (with the first snowboarders vs skiers challenge). So where do you go from there?
Well, with Xbox taking over the title from Gumby, they moved the jump 60m so that they could build a much bigger kicker and with this, the comp just kept growing.
2012 comes around and the comp is continuing to be bigger and better than ever. The format this year will be for teams of three, compromised of a skier, snowboarder and newcomer, to take on the kickers and obstacles to advance to the next round. Obviously this continues until we crown a winner. The prizes haven’t been announced just yet but you can be assured that it’ll be well worth the entry!
Not one to shy away from a competition like this, we thought about how you might enjoy yourself in Val d’Isere and we’ve come up with a solution. We’ve sweet talked the guys at Catered-Ski-Chalets.co.uk to sort you out with a 1 week package holiday in March starting from £799. That way you can be hitting the slopes towards the end of the season and watch one of the biggest and best European snow comps out there!
Photo: Christian Pondella/Red Bull Content Pool
Red Bull Stratos was one of those events that we just couldn’t wait for it to happen. With all of the videos that were released and every image that was sent out, it was an event that was going to blow minds. For those of you that don’t know anything about Red Bull Stratos, read on…
So, in an over simplified way, Red Bull Stratos is essentially one man attempting break the record for the highest ever sky dive. Whilst doing this the crazy person who’s attempting to break this record is going to break the speed of sound upon his extremely fast descent. Sounds crazy right? You’d be correct in agreeing. It is crazy.
The man who is going to be attempting this feat is Felix Baumgartner – certified ‘crazy-enough’ to go through with it and have a stomach that’s stronger than diamonds!
You may remember a little while ago we showed you the trailer for Travis Rice‘s new epic snowboarding event, ‘Supernatural’. If you don’t remember then check it out on our blog here. If you do remember then this might be interesting news for you as the rider list for the event has been announced and, my god, it looks good.
David Carrier-Porcheron CAN
Devun Walsh CAN
Eero Niemela FIN
Gigi Rüf AUT
Jake Blauvelt USA
John Jackson USA
Kazu Kokubo JPN
Lucas Debari USA
Mark Carter USA
Mark Landvik USA
Nicolas Müller SUI
Eric Jackson USA
Scotty Lago USA
Terje Håkonsen NOR
Travis Rice USA
Wolfgang Nyvelt AUT
Supernatural. As the dictionary defines it – Pertaining to, or being above or beyond what is natural; unexplainable by natural law or phenomena; abnormal.
When it comes to Travis Rice, supernatural can only be defined as fucking epic. After The Art of Flight everything TRice does from now on is going to be nothing short of spectacular. But what is Red Bull’s Supernatural all about?
Well, it’s the first-of-its-kind backcountry competition designed to challenge the best all around snowboarder on the planet. Travis has grabbed himself a gaggle of lumberjacks (that has to be the title for a group of lumberjacks) and hacked away at a mountain in Baldface. As you’ll see from the video they’ve created some ridiculous features that are ready to be covered in snow, and by this time, they’re probably drowning in the white stuff. So who will be invited to this? Your guess is as good as mine at this point but what we do know is that there will be 18 of the top snowboarders in the world going for the crown.
Seriously… this looks amazing.
After writing about the O’Neill Evolution the other day, the weekend couldn’t have been packed with more action! It was postponed by a day because of an unprecedented amount of snow falling in Davos but it didn’t cool down the heat of competition!
After exceptional qualifying rounds from fellow Brits Billy Morgan and Jamie Nicholls, a late surge by two North Americans, Mark McMorris and Spencer O’Brien took the men’s and women’s crowns.
The women’s contest was close with frontside 7′s being the trick of the afternoon as Spencer O’Brien and runner-up Sina Candrian both threw them down but it was the decision to gap the double-kinked rail with a frontside boardslide that gave her the crown. Just behind them in third was Anna Gasser with a backside 5.
The new year is here and it ushers in a snow season that is set to be one of the best in recent years. With the competition that is on the rider lists, you just know it’s going to be hard fought. As the TTR Rankings start to amass and riders already look for the top spot, the O’Neill Evolution couldn’t turn up at a better time. It marks the start of the new year and marks the start of when the competition really hots up.
So what can we expect? With riders like Ethan Morgan, Ville Uotila, Jamie Nicholls, Billy Morgan, Sven Thorgren and a whole load more, the fight for TTR points is going to be a scrappy one. There’s still a lot of big named riders that aren’t in attendance but they’ll rear their snowboarding heads at other events. And then the party is really going to kick off!
With Davos dumping down the white stuff, we got a chance to check out what’s on offer this season and Billy Morgan smashed the expectations out of the water. He stomped a double rodeo off the kicker and a cab 270 on to the rail. That gave him a score 85.58, a full 5.5 points ahead of Ville Uotila. But with that in the bag, we looked at heat 2 and noticed another British ripper gaining some plaudits. Jamie Nicholls took second place behind Sven Thorgren, which means that Jamie will now face off with Billy making it a true battle of Britain… in Davos.
The Winter X Games is an even that’s stuck on every snowboarder’s or skiers calendar. It’s placed in the diary of everyone that works in the industry and it’s scribbled onto the hand of every fan out there. We’re no different at Mpora and we’re looking forward to this season’s Winter X Games. So much so that we’re over the moon that the schedule has been announced.
Interested as well? Well, here’s the event list:
Photo: James North
Avid followers of the Mpora blog (I know there’s thousands of you out there) may remember that I posted up some info last Friday about the event Whitelines were holding to break the record for the World’s longest snowboard rail ride. Did they do it? Well…
Whitelines and Mpora have teamed up with EA Sports’ new snowboard game SSX Tricky and Sno!Zone to try and break the world record for the longest rail slide ever on a snowboard!
It’s a record that’s currently held by a Spanish rider in the Madrid snowdome so we’re intending to bring the trophy and accolade back to the UK. It all kicks off tomorrow at the Milton Keynes Sno!Zone and with a £1000 cask prize waiting for the rider who completes it, along with a spot in the Guinness Books of World Records. it’s well worth a try!
The previous record stands at 66.9 metres and we’ve built a rail that’s 80 metres long so it’s going to take some stamina and balls. If you’re interested in trying it out then email craig@whitelines.com to get your name on the paper but if not, then keep tuned on Mpora as we’ll have an edit when it’s all done.
© 2012 Factory Media Ltd.