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Huge Crowd for NZ Free Ski Open

J Dogg — Fri, 1 Sep 2006 01:36:25 -0400

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NZ Free Ski Open wrap up.The NZ Free Ski Open concluded a few nights ago with a huge crowd turning up to watch skiers and snowboarders show off their skills at the BASE Down-town Rail Jam. Some 2500 people packed out the Bullock Bar car park to see the rail jam, where 30 riders slid down the BASE rail that was part of a 3m-high, 6m-long structure, performing their tricks, slides and rotations. One snowboarder, who had not officially entered the competition, was brave enough to take on the challenge by MCs to do a back-flip off the kicker, which he successfully achieved on his second attempt.

Kiwi Pip Simmonds, who last week won the Open’s K2 Superpipe event at Snow Park NZ, took first place in the women’s ski event last night after hitting the rail back-side on, switch out. Maia Stier (NZ) won the women’s snowboarding prize after hitting the rail switch to board slide, coming out 180 (half a rotation).

Patrick Goodnough (USA), won the men’s ski title with a 630-on (hitting the rail after one-and-three-quarter rotations). James Hamilton (NZ) took first place in the men’s snowboarding field with clean spins on to and off the rail.

Judges were impressed with the standard of tricks the riders were performing off the rail. “We finished the NZ Free Ski Open with a great night. Everyone rode to a super-high level, and we couldn’t have asked for a better rail set up,” head judge Jake McCleary said.

The NZ Free Ski Open is the southern hemisphere’s largest event of its kind. It began with the K2 Halfpipe on Tuesday August 15, followed by the Slopestyle on August 16, both held at Snow Park NZ. The Volkl Big Mountain finals were held at Treble Cone on Wednesday August 23.

Jossi Wells Wins NZ Slopestyle

J Dogg — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 02:53:22 -0400

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Wanaka teenager and rising ski star Jossi Wells proved he is up there with the world’s best after taking first place in the slopestyle event at the NZ Free Ski Open today at Snow Park NZ.

Canadian Kaya Turski, who is also a pro rollerblader, picked up the winning title for the women’s slopestyle event.

Wells (16), who is now New Zealand’s top freestyle skier, displayed an outstanding performance at today’s event, including a switch 720 double nose grab (rotating twice and holding onto the front tips of his skis before landing), a switch 630 (rotating one-and-three-quarter times) before landing successfully on the rail, as well as a switch 1080 (three rotations).

“Everything he did was so smooth and so easy. Jossi’s improved so much this year. Last year, he was good, but he didn’t quite have the tricks to take out the big guns. But now, he’s proved he’s one of the world’s best,” Open head judge Jake McCleary said.

Wells said his winning run was one of the best he’d ever had. “I’m aiming for the world scene, and this definitely a great competition with lots of international riders. Every little step counts.”

Turski (18), has been freestyle skiing for a year-and-a-half. Her winning run included a cork 540 mute grab (spinning one-and-a-half times off axis, grabbing the front of one ski with the opposite hand). She also successfully pulled off a switch 900 (rotating two-and-a-half times) and attempted a switch 1080 - a world-first in women’s free skiing, but unfortunately her ski came off on landing.

“The standard of competition was unbelievable – we were blown away with today’s event. Competitors were all throwing down as hard as they could,” McCleary said.

The slopestyle course, designed by Snow Park NZ slopes manager Frank Wells, began with a quarterpipe-style drop-in, down to a custom Snow Park NZ stair feature. Skiers then approached a gap-to-snow box, before moving to a 14m jump, followed by an 18m jump. They completed the course by hitting a flat-down rail and a jump-to-down box, which is the latest craze in free skiing slopestyle and makes for spectacular tricks, such as 900 and 1080 rotations.

The NZ Free Ski Open is the southern hemisphere’s largest event of its kind. With park and pipe events now completed, the next stage of the competition the Volkl Big Mountain prelims, which take place at Treble Cone on Friday August 18. The finals will be held at Treble Cone on the first following fine weather day.

Results:

Womens

Kaya Turski (CAN)
Tori Beattie (AUST)
Anna Segal (AUST)

Mens

Jossi Wells (NZ)
Russ Henshaw (AUST)
Alexis Godbout (CAN)

NZ Free Ski Open - Streamed Live

J Dogg — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 00:12:06 -0400

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Snow sports enthusiasts will be able to catch this week’s extreme action of the NZ Free Ski Open live, without even having to be on the mountain. New Zealand’s leading ski and snowboard website, www.snow.co.nz, will be streaming coverage from the Open live via satellite to several websites, including www.snow.co.nz, www.freeskier.com, www.freeskier.co.nz, www.snowparknz.com, www.tv3.co.nz and to Vodafone 3G cellphones.

It is the second time that this cutting-edge technology has reached thousands of people all over the world from the slopes. Snow.co piloted the live streaming at the Burton NZ Open, held at Snow Park NZ, on August 3 to 5, where the website received more than 4500 page impressions each day. “Given that this was our first winter-based event that we streamed which happened during a working week, we are very happy with it, but obviously it’s something we are keen to grow and make people more aware of. We are hopeful for similar successes at the NZ Free Ski Open,”

Snow.co content manager Martyn Davies said. Snow.co hoped the live streaming would become a routine way of providing information. “The web lends itself to these sorts of events. We can deliver content to a niche audience in a far quicker way than mainstream media can,” Davies said.

Two cameras will shoot live footage at Snow Park NZ, which hosts the K2 Halfpipe event on Tuesday August 15, and the Slopestyle event on August 16. Because access to the Volkl Big Mountain event at Treble Cone’s Motatapu Chutes would be more difficult to stream live from, Snow.co will be creating a highlights package at the end of each day’s competition. The big mountain prelims run on Friday August 18, with the finals on the first following fine weather day.