sequence magazine 50 english

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THE DON REGULAR 20+ THE NEWEST ONEBEAR MNT, CA

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BLAHZAY PANT SHILOH JACKET LIGHT BOOT PULASKI FLEECE SHERWYN ZIP BOMBER SHERWYN SOCK

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D I S T R I B U I T O I N I T A L I A D A F R I E N D I S T R I B U T I O N - I N F O @ F R I E N D I S T R I B U T I O N . I T - F R I E N D I S T R I B U T I O N . I T

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Markus really fell in love with Nitro’s Quiver Pow! After riding it in pipe at the Burton European Open in Laax, deserving the respect of all the riders and media up there, he managed to use it for a powder shooting too. Brands should pick these colours for their boards’ base more often like this one here: a true winner for all us photographers!

MARKUS KELLER BY MATT GEORGES IN MAYRHOFEN, AUSTRIA

During Finland’s wintertime temperatures hardly get more than 0°, and when you find yourself shooting under a snowfall the usual question comes back again: “Why did I be-come a snowboarding photographer?”. Still, the opportunity of bumping into a who-le powder wall to the groomer’s side, just ready to get slashed and with space enou-gh to place your flashes at its back doesn’t happen too many times. So, fuck the cold!

ANTTI AUTTI BY MATT GEORGES IN RUKA, FINLAND

I don’t like this shot at all. Despite the spine was really huge, I couldn’t find the right angle from where to highlight Marco’s jump amplitude. Unluckily, after he stomped the trick, he blew his knee and so kiss the rest of the season goodbye. Come back stronger than ever, Marchino!

MARCHINO GRIGIS BY DENIS PICCOLO IN SAN DOMENICO, ITALY

All is not lost, yet. Take this kid with his Custom –

making its 20th anniversary this season. His name

is Ben Ferguson, and he’s 20 years young just like

his stick under his feet. And he is one of the riders

we are going to hear of more and more in the next

ten years. People say he represents the future of

snowboarding, because he is strong both in pipe

and in slopestyle, but most of all he is fun to wa-

tch. Fun is the word here. The things he does, the

tricks he invents, make you want to grab your bo-

ard and go out and try the same stuff. Because not

only he stomps ultra technical or insane tricks like

a double cork five meters above the lip of the pipe.

Well, he does that too, still... not only those thin-

gs. The future of snowboarding is not lost at all

TXT: GIACOMO MARGUTTI PIC: BLOTTO RIDER: BEN FURGUSON

because heterogeneity is hope. We cannot allow

ourselves to reduce such a fun thing like snowbo-

arding to a mere gymnastic exercises sequence:

riding is a trick in park, a carve on groomers, a

powder slash – not only a 20-meter street rail or

some dull triple/quad corks. If it became like that,

it would miss the philosophy at its core. Like Mark

McMorris said to me during our long but sincere

interview: “Every third run there’s someone who’s

doing a triple, even kids you’ve never even heard

of or seen, and then you see their Instagram and

there’s bunch a trampoline videos. All the kids

are trying these tricks now are trampoline ae-

rialists. It’s fucked. It sucks.” Just have a look at

what Ben Ferguson does. No, nothing is lost. Yet.

www.northwavesnow.com

@northwavedrake#rideyourway

DRAKENORTH WAVEVICTORDE LE RUE


Photo: Chirs W

ellhausen

Check out the new TWS “ORIGINS”movie featuring the adventures of Victor De Le Rue

Drake Team 161Drake Reload Charcoal BindingNorthwave Domain Grey boots

www.northwavesnow.com

@northwavedrake#rideyourway



Photo: Chirs W

ellhausen

Check out the new TWS “ORIGINS”movie featuring the adventures of Victor De Le Rue

Drake Team 161Drake Reload Charcoal BindingNorthwave Domain Grey boots

DIRECTORAmerico Carissimo

EDITOR IN CHIEFDenis Piccolo ([email protected])

PHOTO EDITORCristian “Murio” Murianni ([email protected])

ART DIRECTORGeorge Boutall ([email protected])

COPY EDITORGiacomo Margutti ([email protected])

ILLUSTRATIONS & LETTERINGGeorge Boutall ([email protected])

COMMERCIAL DIRECTORPaolo Salvatore ([email protected]) +39 393 9927462

WEB LIKEMILK.COM EDITOR(sequence-magazine.com) & matteo rossato ([email protected])

PHOTO SENIORSDenis Piccolo, Matt Georges

FILMER SENIORSMarco Morandi

PHOTOGRAPHERS & FILMERS

Murio, Alessandro “Killer” Miniotti, Davide Spina, Arturo Bernardi, Ales-

sandro Belluscio, Lorenzo Belfrond, Roberto Bragotto, Lorenz Holder, An-

drea Rigano, Marco “Boiler” Boella, Luca Benedet, Vasco Coutinho, Cyril

SUBSCRIPTIONSMichaela Stefania

[email protected] +39 333 7741506

EDITORJpg Edizioni di Salvatore Paolo, Piccolo Denis, Murianni

Cristian. Via Colle di Andromeda 4, 65016 Montesilvano (PE)

Tel: (085) 9151471 | Fax: (085) 9151230 P.IVA: 01875110684 |

www.likemilk.com | [email protected]

OFFICESVia Pellegrino Rossi 81, scala C, Milano

PRINTGrafiche Ambert, Via per Chivasso 27, Verolengo (TO) 011 9149227

DISTRIBUTIONFreepress Sequence Snowboarding rivista mensile registrato

al tribunale di Pescara il 14/05/2003 al numero 173/15

COVERDenis Piccolo

BY MATT GEORGES

BEHIND THE COVERFIRST LAYERPOWDER HOUNDSPRODUCT FOCUSKILLER COLLABSTECHNINE BOOT CAMPGOOD TIMES CAMPSPLIT SELECTION20 YEARS OF THE CUSTOMUNION COLLECTIONSUPERTRICK

MONTENEGRO DREAMINGBROKEN CIRCUITMARK MCMORRISMADE IN JAPANWORD OUT

S H E L L , S O F T S H E L L , P A C K A B L E D O W N .

E L E M E N T S T H A T W O R K T O G E T H E R W H E N T H E

E L E M E N T S A R E W O R K I N G A G A I N S T Y O U .

J E R E M Y J O N E S S Y S T E M O F D R E S S .

There are plenty of unforgettable moments during a

jump’s construction in powder. The working hours

are usually anticipated by not so much democratic

discussions on where and how to build the jump it-

self. You go from choosing the right shovel to the

neverending meal or cigarette breaks. Right du-

ring one of those breaks, our filmer Marco Moran-

di (better known as “Johnny the ladies’ man”) came

up with the idea of getting portrayed while being

sprayed, ending up with his beard all covered wiyh

snow. Oh, the fights to get the privilege of being the

one who could throw snow on him! As far as I’m

concerned, one more time I was more than happy

with just shooting the picture of it all. Nicholas Bri-

dgman was the lucky one who had to get it done,

while Simon Gruber, thanks to his German roots,

TXT & PIC: DENIS PICCOLO SNOWMAN: MARCO MORANDI

went on building and preparing the jump. John-

ny’s beard is the best depiction of his manhood, thi-

ck and dense. If you take a close look at his beard,

you can even glance at some weird presence who

live in the bushes. Perfect for that shot, as perfect

was also his old tee made of wool, legacy of some

distant relatives. Perfect was the background, as well

as the light... well, there we go. 3, 2, 1... action! Fast

sequence and a good laugh to see Johnny com-

pletely covered up with snow, his beard frozen as

a modern Santa. I couldn’t believe that everything

went oh so well, with the snow flawlessly stuck to

his beard. I took a look at our future cover shot and

I was much happy with it. So we could finally start

our sunset session off with, as we begin Sequence

Magazine’s new season with Johnny’s frozen beard.

STEVENSSCOTT

WWW.CAPiTASNOWBOARDING.COMPURVEYORS OF THE WILD LIFE

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ITW: DENIS PICCOLO PIC: MATT GEORGES

A NEW PROJECT BY VANS AND MATT GEORGES First Layer is intended to showcase the large talent of the European Vans snowboard family: Arthur Longo, Sami Luhtanen, Will Smith, Sparrow Knox, Wolle Nyvelt, Enzo Nilo, Markus Keller, Valérian Ducourtil, Tyler Chorlton, Kalle Ohl-son, DBK. Vans collected footage from the night of Lapland to the light of Patagonia passing by the Alpine powder. A good mix of street riding, backcountry and travel. The journey have been documented by the ta-lented french photographer Matt Georges and his best shots gonna be compiled into a real printed photo booklet, released for free in the best snowboard stores all around Europe, coming together with a 10-minute web video, edited by Pirmin Juffinger. Here’s a Q&A we did with Matt Georges.

WHICH WAS THE MOST DIFFICULT SHOT YOU TOOK? A street spot in Ruka, Lapland, with Sparrow Knox and Will Smith. It’s a high flat rail to gap over a staircase to a down rail. Super sketchy and pretty big, plus it was in the middle of the night in a crazy snowstorm with lots of wind and limited angles. You definitely don’t want to fuck up otherwise you go face first in another rail, crash in a wall before falling into stairs on the down floor. No one could see much and Sparrow and Will were kinda riding half closed eyes. I shot with 3 flashes but it was super cold so I had to save up batteries and get the shot super quick. They started with “easy” tricks and when they felt comfortable they sent some bangers, unfortunately at that time 1 flash was already down so it pushes you to get creative and find a way to make it look good anyway.

WHAT KEEPS YOU GOING ON SHOOTING SNOWBOARDING? First of all it’s just nice to be outside and not sit in an office all day long. Imagi-ne this: you are paid to travel all around the world to shoot something you love. It could be worse! Of course after couple of years you can be over it sometimes, especially when it doesn’t work well, weather is shit-ty, budgets all around you are dying, people getting fired, riders losing they sponsors and so on. It was really nice to work together with Vans this year because they just did the opposite of most of the brands does. Instead of trying to save budget, they trusted in a cool project and put some money in there. Print is dying but still, we produced this pho-to book. So projects like this keeps me motivated of course! Shooting snowboarding is really expensive and if you want good results you re-ally need to go full on, which means you need some minimum support behind. When I have it, I feel like I can do cool stuff, otherwise I think I will just do something else. I have 2 kids now and I don’t want to strug-gle shooting something that doesn’t bring food on the table.

WHAT’S YOUR MAIN GOAL FOR THIS SEASON? I’m working on a second volume of my D.I.Y. annual book THE.DIRTY.DOGS. It will be released around January 16. We are lauching this FIRST LAYER Project collab in London at the House Of Vans, with a photo exhibition and opening party. We are working on another photo book with Vans for next winter. More news soon. Otherwise I’ll just travel around and make the most of it. Produce stuff for my faithful clients, keep working on some creative projects, alone or with other photogs or art directors.

RIDESNOWBOARDS.COM

2016_WILD LIFEMARCO FEICHTNER

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RIDESNOWBOARDS.COM

2016_WILD LIFEMARCO FEICHTNER

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ARBOR COSA NOSTRA 20 years ago, Arbor pioneered the wood-topped snowboard, pairing this aesthetic with an environmental-ly conscious approach to snowboard production. The Cosa Nostra packs these foundational characteristics and core values into a premium gun shaped plank for the powder sensei.

BURTON LANDLORD Twin balance meets directional prowess in a board that floats and flies like a dream. With Malolo ro-ots, the Burton Landlord revives the precise stomp and surfy feel that chargers have been asking for.

CAPITA MERCURYThe Mercury snowboard is next level awesome. This snowboard is so fun, you will not want to stop snowboarding. When it comes to all-terrain versatility, the Mer-cury series has little competition.

CAPITA SPRING BREAK With a wide-body chassis and our Surf Rocker camber configuration, the Spring Break Slush Slashers are your affordable tool to the most memorable and fun days spent ripping around with your bros.

DC FOCUS The Focus will be your breakthrou-gh board.A true-twin shape with forgiving flex, it’s a design engine-ered to help riders boost their abi-lity. A Rocker camber profile and catch-free 3 Degree Bevel on the edges helps rider move beyond the basics quickly and confidently..

DRAKE GUERRILLA The Guerilla with its new surf shape takes the form of a backcountry board but that has been specifically designed to handle the whole mountain.

FLOW DARWIN This quiver filler was designed in collaboration between Mike Ba-sich and has been making waves for the last few years. The Darwin is not just for powder hound and backcountry enthusiasts dream bo-ard; it also works incredibly well on hard pack and all-mountain terrain.

JONES FLAGSHIP The cornerstone of the Jones bo-ard line, as he spent two deca-des perfecting this freeride board design and thousands of riders worldwide now revere the Flag-ship as the most confidence in-spiring snowboard on the planet.

€ 670 € 650 € 529 € 349

€ 299

BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF

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K2 CARVE AIR “Take a solid all mountain ripping slo-petool, but then chop and widen it for maximum air and laydown carves and you get this quick and nimble fun ma-king machine. It’s most happy spin-ning, flipping, tweaking, slush bashing, powder partying, ice shaving, and rip-ping all things awesome,” Tim Eddy.

KORUA APOLLO Short but float, this board is real-ly nice in the trees, the short len-gth still allows fast moves. Even though the look reminds us of a retro fish the overall characteristi-cs give it quite the feel of riding a shortboard in small clean waves.

LIBTECH ATTACK BANANA The all terrain quiver killer. This board has enough pop and sta-bility to stomp anything, flo-ats the powder, kills the park, carves the groomers and ice and effortlessly floats the pow.

NITRO DIABLO The return of the greatest backcoun-try freestyle board Nitro ever made. The large nose and tail will al-low you to float and play through the deepest of powder, and allow you to butter all over the moun-tain on those slushy spring days.

NITRO QUIVER POW 154 Hand designed by Austin Smith in his Bend, OR home. This bo-ard was designed to be as quick as possible, without loosing the float you need in nipple deep pow.

RIDE BERZERKER Its rocker under the tip and its cam-ber under your feet give it right that perfect float and that optimised sta-bility we all search when charging in powder. To cut a long story short, it’s an awesome board, an all-moun-tain hybrid with an intermediate flex for anything and everything.

SLASH NAHUAL Manuel Diaz’s Nahual is a twin di-rectional construction type of bo-ard with a centered stance. The combination of the Flat camber and a slight rocker on the nose in-creases the board’s floatation and enhances the responsiveness.

T9 LM BLOCKFATHER Lucas Magoon wanted a second pro-model dedicated to a hi-storic rider like Pat Bridges, The Killington Blockfather. It’s a fun board, perfect for park despite its curious shape. Gooner uses it in SFD too, have a look at that.

€ 450 € 399

€ 499 € 459


REXFORD MITTUNIQUE DESIGN • SUPER WARM • GREAT COMFORT • FULL LEATHER • WATER PROOF

SIMON GRUBER

Sequence1.indd 1 27/11/15 11:13

Want to go mountaineering? Wonder what a game changer looks like? Jeremy Jones and 32 have built a never before seen snowboard boot that is built for the rider that is ready to explore any mountain range. 32, usally a boot company which focusses on freestyle, has designed a backcountry boot around big mountain legend Jeremy Jones, ri-ght after he finished his trilogy of movies with the end cap Higher.

The Vibram outsole has already become a standard of most hi-gh-end boots, and it also has solid boot to crampon compatibility. This boot has laces, which sometimes can get frozen by the amount of snow accumulated over, but they’re protected with a Cordura gai-ter - an outer layer that zips closed over the top. By having this zip over the laces, it keeps them from freezing in subzero temps and also prevents any snow from creeping into the boots while skinning.

As with all 32 Boots it does feature a true Intuition liner that is heat moldable. This liner is compatible with a dedicated walking fun-ction, which makes it unique to this model of boot. The coolest fea-

ture is in fact this adjustable cuff, with a rear piece that can be lowe-red with the Boa® reel to give more range of motion and a longer stride when splitboarding.

The flex is obviously stiff helping you out with a pivotal support when you’re charging down lines on steep faces, and goes together all the other mountain-ready features you’d need when after tho-se big backcountry lines. Much more practical with the crampon adaptable Vibram sole which still flexes though, heel welts for me-tal crampon bails, sports vented, heat-moldable Intuition liners and footbeds, an internal lacing system for heel hold, that above-men-tioned zippered Cordura lace cover and also taped seems for water-proofing. All these off-piste features don’t spoil the pleasure of using this MTB boot on a more average day like when you take the lifts and you ride down groomers.

Just like the boot, its price is premium too, but 539€ is totally justi-fied by its exclusivity.

TXT: GIACOMO MARGUTTI PICS: DENIS PICCOLO

LEVEL 3 FOOTBED: Custom molded Evolution foam for ultimate in lightweight and comfort Molded TPU heel cradle and arch support Dual density Evolution foam heel pod for maximum impact pro-tection.

LEVEL 3 LINER: 100% Heat Moldable Intuition foam for a custom fit. Dual density Intuition foam for comfort, warmth and support. In-ternal anatomical foam overlays for optimal heel hold. Integrated pockets for heel hold kit. Neoprene toe cap to reduce toe pressure. Dual power wrap Velcro cuff closure.

VIBRAM OUTSOLE: traditional hiking tread with heel welt compati-ble for strap.

PROGRESSIVE FLEX SHANK: stiffer flex at toe, torsional flex and me-dial/lateral support.

WALK MODE COLLAR: cuff release for longer strides while split boar-

ding. The Boa® system in fact not being a traditional closure system for locking the foot in. When this collar is open it allows for longer strides when skinning as well as to aid in walking around either the campsite or natural features.

STRETCH CORDURA GAITER: water proof protection, lace protection, prevents lace from freezing water proof YKK zipper.

MOLDED RUBBER TOE CAP: toe protection.

TAPED SEAMS: water proofing.

IN SHORT: Premium Vibram outsole with traditional hiking tread,contains a walk mode collar that has a cuff release for longer strides while split boarding, stretch cordura gaiter that has water proof pro-tection and keeps laces from freezing, has a molded rubber toe cap for protection, progressive Flex Shank for stiffer flex at toe, vented liners for heat dissipation, stiff flex, performance fit.

TXT: GIACOMO MARGUTTI PICS: DENIS PICCOLO

The idea for Melon Optics was born during a winter in the French Alps in 2012. After the winter, they escaped to remote Indonesia to surf and work on the concept and finally launched the Melon brand in June 2013 with the first goggle released in Winter 2013. The brand is about having fun and the slogan “Ride Stoked” encapsulates this: snowboarding is not about being the best boarder on the mountain or hitting the biggest kicker in the park, it’s about shredding with friends and having fun.

Melon’s team is super important and everyone brings something dif-ferent to the table. Right now Pucko (Nejc Puko) is killing it. He’s been filming a project which is shot entirely in the woods, where all the features have been built by himself from the natural surroundings. The concept is super different and concentrates on the idea of “riding your way”: that idea is exactly what Melon is all about.

The goggles Melon create come from one of the most renowned gog-gle manufacturers in the world, consistently producing some of the best goggles on the market. Two main criteria about Melon goggles: 1. They don’t fog up. 2. They look fucking rad. That’s it.

Melon concentrate on creating exceptional airflow through all of the goggles so that when you’ve hiked to the top of that ridge and you’re about to drop into the best line of the day, your vision is crystal clear. Of course all the lenses are interchangeable, there are silicon lined straps and all the other features you’d expect from a quality pair of goggles. But at the end of day create goggles you want to ride in all day, everyday.

The peculiar thing of Melon is that you can decide on the design of your particular goggles, as everyone is allowed to express his own style. Melon now has over 1,500 custom frame, lens and strap combi-nations to choose from, available both in retailers and online. There are some truly unique patterns and designs that stand out from what people are used to seeing on the mountain: it’s pretty fun. After brin-ging design and technical work together, the end result is a goggle that looks sick and is ready for any conditions that you want to ride in.

For example, the Melon Parker is super comfortable and with a li-ghtweight design. The cylindrical lens looks clean and the goggle as a whole is so understated.

TAKE YOUR PICK With over 1,500 custom designs to choose from, we’ve got you covered this winter

DESIGN YOUR PAIR AT:WWW.MELONOPTICS.COM

5th season ad 2015.pdf 1 03/09/2015 11:34

BURTON X NEW BALANCEInspired by shared New England roots and si-milar brand ideology, the Burton x New Ba-lance collection will offer three New Balan-ce outdoor footwear SKUs and three limited edition Burton snowboard boot styles that mer-ge distinct design aesthetics from both brands.

VOLCOM X OUTLANDER BRYAN IGUCHI BOOTSTrue grit and authentic street wear style combine to create the Outlander Boot’s rugged appearance. Inspired by a classic back woods design and Volcom team rider Bryan Iguchi’s signature ar-twork, with tech details like a molded heel counter and an EVA heel strike for an always-comfortable fit.

GIRO X TOPO EDIT SNOW HELMETGiro’s first collaboration with Topo Designs resulted in their lightest full-featured snow helmet ever, the Edit, which, as its name hints at, boasts a steal-thily concealed GoPro mount on its forehead for straightforward POV integration. Wth Giro’s Roc Loc 5 fit system for on-the-fly adjustmen-ts and 10 vents with slide-to-adjust control.

FILSON X BURTON WHEELIE FLIGHT DECK BAGLeaders when it comes to outdoor gear, Filson and Burton have joi-ned forces again for this Wheelie Flight Deck Bag. The bag takes the Burton Wheelie Bag line to the next level, adding Filson touches like the 18 oz. oil finish luggage twill construction along with leather zipper pulls and PU back panels.

JJF CAPSULE COLLECTIONThis is the John John Flo-rence Capsule Collection, a collaborative, “Team Desi-gned, Custom Built” project between JJF and Nixon’s product team. Featuring a limited release of items that brings together John’s surf sensibilities, love of photo-graphy and his well-traveled perspective on the world.

DIEMME X BURTON ROVER A snowboard boot has moved beyond the classic moon boot design. Burton has always been at the top of their game, but it has taken a collaboration with Italian based Diemme to bring a higher level of style to the classic

snowboard boot design. The ove-rall footprint is reduced by one

full size: it’s way lighter, shorter, and thinner.

NITRO ADDICTNitro worked with photographer Steven Stone to capture this feeling of addiction. Response and snap from the combination of Roof Chop camber and Bi-Lite La-minates for all day comfort. Steven added his love for women, nightlife, and unique situation to the graphics.


DYLANTHOMPSON

WWW.TECHNINE.COMP: E-Stone

Splitboarding is not even the next big thing.

It is the thing, nowadays. Once there were

mini-skis and people used to walk and suffer

with boards hung on their huge backpacks,

while now it is way more simple: a board di-

vided in two, that’s it that’s all fellas. Game,

set, match. Perfect for seeking out pillows,

lines and fresh untracked powder, splitbo-

ards have created their own wide open mar-

ket reaching a broader audience than what it

1. Burton AK 3L Hover 2. G3 Alpinist Climbing Skins 3. G3 Sca-pegoat Carbon 4. Karakoram PrimeCarbon 5. Melon Chief 6. The North Face Modulator Abs Backpack 7. Lib Tech T-Rice Hp 8. Burton AK Balaclava 9. Stinky Socks Yawgoons 10. Mammut Pulse Barryvox 11. Jones Solution 12. Burton Ak Abs Vario Cover

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TXT: GIACOMO MARGUTTI SELECTION: DENIS PICCOLO

13. Anon Blitz 14. K2 Ultrasplit Splitboard Skin 15. Jo-nes Hovercraft 16. Burton Photon Boa 17. Quiksilver Tra-vis Rice 18. Burton Ft Landlord 19. K2 Ultrasplit 20. Spark Arc 21. Ortovox Free Rider Abs. 22. Anon M3 23. Bur-ton AK Clutch 24. Burton Ak 3L Freebird 25. Level Stealth

used to be only a few years ago. The number

of splitboards’ aficionados is steadily growing

more and more, as reaching the top of the

mountain without the help of mechanical li-

fts mainly means two things: a lot more per-

sonal satisfaction, plus avoiding all the riding

weekenders. Splitboarding market not only

includes the basics of it, like boards, bindin-

gs and boots (both special – to walk and hike

in the most natural way), but also lots of hi-

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gh-tech accessories and gear like skins, pro-

be, shovel, poles, ultra-technical outerwear,

lightweight backpacks, gloves and so on. You

have a look here as we shuffled some of the

most interesting items on the market, just

to come up with some kind of general idea

about what you need to pick splitboarding -

soon to become your next addiction, beware.

26. The North Face freethinker 27. Burton Custom 28. Thir-tytwo MTB Jeremy Jones 29. Mammut Element 30. Burton FT Fish 31. Evoc Zipon Abs 32. Spark Ibex 33. Burton Hitchhiker 34. Karakoram Split 30 35. Voile Revelator Split 36. Pieps Jetforce

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This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Burton Custom. The Custom has become one of the most versatile boards in the industry, and in turn, has become a foundation piece for Burton line-up of snowboards. The Custom shape has spaw-ned additional shapes like the Custom X, Custom Twin, Cu-stom Smalls, and a number of other boards in the line. And to celebrate the 20th year of the Custom, Burton continued to build off of the shape by evolving a new, super lightweight Mystery Custom, and an accessibly priced Custom Split board. Often imitated, never outdone, and backed by a 20-year legacy as snowboar-ding’s one-board answer to all ter-rain. Since its humble beginnings, innovation has defined the Burton Custom Snowboard series and set it apart as the most popular, versatile, and mimicked board in snowbo-arding. These days, the one-board answer to all terrain celebrates its 20-year reign with a proven formula that combines time-honored design and envelope-pushing ingredients for a lightweight, poppy, and stable snowboard that were unheard of two decades ago. The two main versions are offered with the precision and stability of camber (the top choice for pros like Mikkel Bang), while Flying V combines camber’s power with the relaxed float of rocker for the best of both worlds. Versati-lity is the key here: it can push the boundaries everywhere on the mountain from steep lines to slashes fresh snow, equally passing through freestyle tricks. Burton Snowboards also reis-sued a handful of iconic snowboards as part of their Backyard and Holiday collections for the 2016 Winter Season, and of

course the Burton Custom 20th Anniversary edition will be a cambered, directional twin with medium flex. Available in three sizes, it will feature base graphics from 1997 (151cm), 1999 (154cm) and 2000 (158cm). CUSTOM TWIN: The sections are angled to line up with the stance of a duck-footed park rider. The edges, too, vary sli-ghtly – not in the shape of the depth of sidecut as with other asym boards, but in where on each side the ‘Frostbite’ edge

protrudes out to grip the slope. If you like park riding, go for the Cu-stom Twin. CUSTOM FLYING V: The most fun to ride. It’s fast and holds an edge well at speed, but when going a litt-le slower it’s super fun on side hits and for general jibbing, as it com-bines the float of rocker with the power of camber for a snappy yet surfy package.CUSTOM X: An ag-gressive All Mountain camber board with a tough and rough personality: so don’t expect from it an easy float and catch free edges, but just able to carve amazingly and with an even more powerful pop.

CUSTOM SPLIT: This season the icon of the icons also develo-ped a split personality. Without a doubt the most versatile bo-ard ever build, with the new Burton Custom Split you can put two feet forward towards an all-new world of self-propelled ascents and untracked adventures. CUSTOM MISTERY: The lightest weight board Burton has ever made with the Custom’s versatile and venerated shape. The result is an aggressive all-mountain machine that practically hovers over any terrain you take it on.

TXT: GIACOMO MARGUTTI

SETUP NIGHTPARK:

Aperto nelle serate di ma, gi, ve, ore 19:00 – 22:00 lungo la pista Obereggen (2A)

e tutti i giorni dalle ore 8:30 – 16:30

STRUCTURES: Down BoxKicker BankDown TubeButter Rail

Wave BoxRainbow Wave Box

Kids Up & Down Box

Up & Down Tube

Setup Snowpark & Nightpark

e tutti i giorni dalle ore 8:30 – 16:30

STRUCTURES: Down BoxKicker BankDown TubeButter Rail

Wave BoxRainbow Wave Box

Kids Up & Down Box

Up & Down Tube

www.facebook.com/OBEREGGEN.SNOWPARK // www.obereggen.com/snowpark

Halfpipe (100 m, 4,5 m),

10 Kicker (2 – 16 m),

Fun Box, Mini Spine, Roller,

Flat Box, Down Box, Kinked

Box, Rainbow Box, Up Box,

Straight Box, Kinked Box,

C-Box, A-Frame Box,

Rainbow Box, Kinked

Rail,Down Rail,

Straight Rail, Wallride,

Mila Milk Box (Special),

Up double Tube, Fun Tube,

Starship (Pyramide)

BOARDERCROSS NEW SETUP

BANKED SLALOM

& NEW KIDS SETUP

NEW STRUCTURES:

Double Kink Rail

Down Rail

SETUP SNOWPARK:

HI MARTINO, TELL OUR READERS WHO YOU ARE. I’m Martino Fu-magalli Union CEO-President. I take care of the product develop-ment and production, and basically sales a part from Europe.

WHAT’S UP IN THE 2015/16 UNION COLLECTION? We have a lot of new stuff in our 2016 collection. Sometimes they are not so visi-ble, but nonetheless very important. After some years of research we eventually managed to create with our supplier a particular blend for plastic, specific for low temperatures and for use and abuse during riding. We have some brand new models like the ST, Contact, Juliet, Milan. Not to forget the comeback of the At-las, Ultra and T.Rice.

HOW, WHY AND WHEN WAS UNION BINDING BORN? Union Binding was born at the end of 2004, we presented our first collection at Ispo in February 2005. But me, GP and our partners we were all already involved in the industry of this product. Simply put, back then in the bindings market there was space for a new brand all based just on the product. Union showed up in a solid way, and little by little we developed and improved our company; also, we put together the best Bindings Team ever.

WHY DID YOU NAME IT AFTER “UNION”? It’s a union of people, ide-as, product, team. In the end the binding itself is an union of many components. The best, possibly. We’ve never bought a component already existing on the market. We designed and built everything: from the single screw, until the most important components like plate bases and high-backs.

WHEN DID UNION BECOME THE BINDINGS MARKET’S LEADER AS WE KNOW IT NOW? Sincerely I don’t exactly remember that moment in which we as a company became that big, but four years ago thin-gs got more serious at all levels, as our product reached that kind of good reputation about quality and performance. Design, distribu-tion and team did the rest.

HOW MUCH AND WHERE DO YOU INVEST THE MOST? We constantly invest on the product: 360° R&D. We try to improve and get better every day to have a ever most sophisticated product on the market. About two years ago we invested on the internal production of For-ged Carbon details, another exclusive material and very innovative. This year we got back in Italy some of the models from the printing, painting and assembly. Being Italians, design is very important to

ATLAS

FC FLITE PRO

JULIET MILAN

ITW: DENIS PICCOLO

us, we don’t care about products which are only functional: they also need to be good looking. Surely we invested a lot into Team & Marketing sides in the past few years, and much important news will follow in the next future. In the end you only invest if you really believe in what you’re doing, and we do it a lot.

WHICH IS THE PREMIUM UNION BINDING FOR THIS 2015/16 SEA-SON? Surely it’s the Ultra model, because you can find all Union’s top materials: Forged Carbon, Vaporlite Bushing, magnesium buck-les and also Duraflex, our plastic exclusive material.

YOUR SUGGESTION OF THE BEST BINDING FOR EACH KIND OF RI-DER: FREERIDER, JIBBER AND ALL-MOUNTAIN. Contact Pro, Force, Contact, Ultra-Atlas and, if you can still find it, FC.

HOW MUCH DO YOUR TEAM’S PROS LIKE TRAVIS RICE, TORSTEIN HORGMO AND GIGI RÜF HELP HELP YOU OUT WITH THEIR FEE-DBACKS? All our athletes are involved into product’s development. For some models like Travis Rice’s and Gigi Rüf’s there’s also a con-sistent participation into the final fine-tuning. We’re lucky to have athletes who, in most cases, tell us their needs in real time so we can

LEGACY

ROSA

CONTACT PRO

FORCE

improve the product even more. Some ten days ago, we had a spe-cial guest here at our HQ: Travis came for a visit, and we talked about a lot of things: current products, future ones and his needs. Now we just have to put all this into reality. You’ll see, it’s going to be grand.

HOW TO BE PART OF YOUR PRO-RIDERS TEAM? Our Team is 100% in the hands of George Kleckner, one of our Union partners how lives in Colorado. We have simple rules, nothing complicated. I have to say that George did an incredible job as our team is all made up by just good fellas, who love snowboarding just like everyone of us.

IS THERE STILL ANY SPOT LEFT IN SNOWBOARD BINDINGS’ HI-TE-CH FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMEN-TS? Actually I think we’re still and always at square one: anything can get better as there are new materials and technologies which can be used in our products. We are always well aware of this and most likely we are the only ones who invest so much time and mo-ney into research. I think we’re going to see many other improvements on this product in the next years. We’re already working on many new ideas.

WHICH IS YOUR FAVOURITE BINDING? I personally use the Ul-tra, lightweight and powerful. But the binding I love the most is still the Force, because it’s timeless. Each of our bindings has its own story, like Union Custom House. Season after season they get better and better.

DON’T YOU THINK THAT A TOO MUCH WIDE LINE-UP CAN MIX UP THE USERS A LITTLE BIT? We’ve always been very careful not to com-

mit this error, Union collection in fact is very tight and in 2015 has been even more reduced. We have three entry-level bindings, three medium-high models and three premium ones; we only have five women’s bindings and one for kids. I always prefer a much compact line-up instead of huge collections to fill up an entire price list.

HOW MUCH IS IMPORTANT OUR BINDINGS’ CHOICE FOR OUR SNOWBOARDING GENERAL FEEL? This is one of the main reasons of Union’s success: we’ve always thought that dealers and consu-mers have been treating this product as just an accessory. We’ve

insisted on it much, and after so many years bindings are finally re-cognised for what they actually are: a product on its own. If you talk with Travis, Gigi, Iguchi and others, all of them will tell you that bindings are so much important for a good feel with your board. All Union bindings have a “bushing” system which gua-rantees the boards to maintain the original flex the most. This is very important: aluminum bases or bars into a board just kill its flex. This a

very long debate, but who uses Union knows what I’m talking about, who doesn’t - he just needs to try them out to understand.

WHY SHOULD A SNOWBOARDER BUY YOUR BINDINGS? Our bin-dings are “ready to go”: as soon as you mount them on your board, after some personal adjustments they’re ready. Also, we only make this product: we’ve been concentrated only on this since a long time now, and we have no distractions. There must be a reason for none of car manufacturers produce tyres.

FUTURE PLANS? Too many. But all of them follow Union’s philosophy.

ST TRILOGY

ULTRATRAVIS RICEMINI CONTACT

AFTER MANY YEARS BINDINGS ARE FINALLY RECOGNISED FOR WHAT THEY ACTUALLY ARE: A PRODUCT ON ITS OWN.

THE FORCE BINDING ALSO AVAILABLE IN SATTELITE, GREEN, BLACK AND ORANGEPH

OT

O: D

AR

CY

BA

CH

A

KAZU KOKUBOTHE FORCE BINDING

UNION BINDINGCOMPANY

THE FORCE BINDING ALSO AVAILABLE IN SATTELITE, GREEN, BLACK AND ORANGE

THE FORCE BINDINGRIDDEN BY KAZU KOKUBOSTRONGER. INSTAGRAM: @UNIONBINDINGCO

UNIONBINDINGCOMPANY.COMUNION BINDING CO.2015 - 2016

UNION IS DISTRIBUTED IN ITALY BY CALIFONIA SPORTSTEL 011 9277 943 / WWW.CALIFORNIASPORT.INFO

On March 2015, European Dealer AL1 Distribution and Les

2 Alpes official Dealer Atelier Du Snowboard started talking

about an European Team Gathering in the summer

snowboarding capital, to ride, shoot, film and

socialise. Despite many of them were already

in the team for a while, they never met each

other and the week seemed to be a good

occasion to tighten up the wolfpack.

What in fact distinguishes a Technine

rider from the average sponsored ath-

lete, is the deep sense of belonging to

the brand and its heritage, more than

his skills on steel. Finally the idea took

shape with the help of SMK camps, that

provided an apartment for the week from

august 1 to 8. What nobody really expected,

was the serious lack of snow on the 3600 high

Ice field, when statistically mid august flakes were nothing

strange.However that didn’t stop the guys, who rushed

from every corner of Europe: Benno Bauer from Austria,

Jack Errichiello from Italy, Czech Thomas Löttl and Michal

Bisa, Robert Butscher from Germany, Jacob Rober-

ts Englishman in 2Alpes, Isabella Groenestein

straight from Switzerland and finally Jordy’t

Gilde and Thomas De Laet from Belgium.

Once there locals Ulysse Grosejan and

Laure “Bulle” Bertiere joined the crew.

Julian Nurdin, Atelier du Snowboard

and DOPS Distribution CEO took care

of the dirty dozen for the whole week

going with them every morning uphill

and helping filmer Kevin Marchal and

photographer Oreli B. or bringing around

the angry wolves in the long Les Deus Alpes

afternoons or making sure they were correctly

fed by the Generous dudes at The Spot Restaurant,

another partner of the Team Camp. The week was opened

for campers too, and despite the lack of snow, many came

ITW: MATTEO ROSSATO PICS: ORELI B.

from all over Europe to join the crew and have some run &

fun with them. As they stepped into SMK building, a cocktail

party with BBQ was held for them and free Technine Stuff

for everyone was given away, so there was Niners all over

the places. Up at 3600 mt then thigs got interesting real

soon: after some warm up to get confidence with the fea-

tures of the huge snowpark, the squad started landing ballsy

tricks: we had German Robert Butscher, blunting and sliding

with his buttery skate style, or Czechs Thomas Lottl and Mi-

chal Bisa getting tech with mad in-out combos, Benno Bau-

er with his Cali style and Do or Die tricks from mad Italian

Jack Errichiello. The only girl in the crew, Isabella Groene-

stein, wasn’t suffering the “girl in a man’s world syndrome”

and did some jaw dropping runs, , while local Ulysse Gro-

sejan spun heavy rotations on massive kickers and cleared

landing when the most were dying in the very middle of the

flatt: we were all figuring out which kind of wax he put on

his sole… Head shaper Sylvain Garabos, built also a pro fea-

ture designed by Jack “Jack Nine” Errichiello, amongst other

crazy setup created by other resident riders; in the very he-

art of the week then, Sylvain and his crew set up for us a

private sunset session, with the huge park all for the Niners

team. The daily routine was like wake up at 7 in the mor-

ning, quick breakfast and then Jandrì gondola to the top, to

take advantage of the small time frame when snow was soft

but not totally done; back in town at 3 pm way after slopes

closure, then some walks in town to eat burgers or chilling

at the lake, a lil skate session at the SMK skatepark, a cold

one at Atelier du snowboard on late afternoon and dinner at

The Spot; sometimes nights ended at a fair hour, some times

didn’t ended at all. The week gloriously finished with a wild

party at The Spot, where Dj B Kill graced the crowd with heal-

thy hip hop till late, and once switched off the sound system,

someone went to bed and someone else crawled till Avalan-

che Club for the nightcap. A full week side by side made tho-

se 11 strangers a real crew, riding, chilling and having fun

together. It’s awesome to see genuine camardarie and sense

of belonging to the brand in hard times like those: One Love!

“Built For Good Times” is the main concept of everything we produce at Nitro. We want to create products that guarantee people from all around the world to spend some “good times” on the mountains and anywhe-re else! The next step is to bring this concept even beyond our products and that’s why last season we organised our first Good Times Camp at Kitzsteinhorn, in Austria, in collaboration with Elooa Snowboard Camps. Besides a lot of “regular” campers, more than one hundred Nitro Family’s members came, like designers, distributors, agents and, of course, riders too. This is only because us from Nitro we love snowboarding, riding and, most of all, doing it with some friends! In total, more than 160 snowbo-arders came from more than ten different countries: Americans, Chine-se, Germans, Swiss, Russians, Australians, Italians, Swedes, Norwegians, Finns, French, Slovenians, Czechs, Croatians, all gathered to have some “good times” with the Nitro Family who showed up almost as a whole. Everyone knows snowboarding is such a cool and fun thing – or, at least, the ones who actually do ride, know it! - but there’s something even more special, almost magic, when a massive group of people ride all together in the same park, gathered for the same reason. Every morning we woke up and in all tranquility we went up to ride at the custom park which Kitzsteinhorn’s crew prepared just for us. After the first few days the “differences” of pla-ces of origin and ability completely disappeared and in just a short time we all were just a bunch of riders who got friends, simply up there to have fun. Different ages, different countries, different abilities, ma most of all we were snowboarders: this was obviously so cool for the “normal” campers, but also well-experienced riders like Eero Ettala were struck by that: “It’s been such an inspiration riding together with Tommy and Sepp, being on the lifts with one of the campers who just began to ride in a park for his first time and talk with him about new tricks... about how he sees and lives snowboarding”, Eero said about the Camp experience. He was one of the most stoked riders up there: “Seeing how snowboarding is so much loved from so many different people, but who also share the same

passion, has been really nice and inspiring.” In the mini movie Good Ti-mes Camp we’re editing you can see all this, amongst tricks of any kind of difficulty, many different faces but many similar smiles! There are not so many companies out there whose founders ride in park with their sons, their company’s riders and co-workers together with normal campers... and then they stop by to have a chat and to share snowboarding beauty. Every day on schedule there was a common breakfast, so everyone mo-tivated everyone else about the riding day that was about to get started, some park riding with random breaks at the bbq station placed right hal-fway through the park, filming and photo sessions. After snowboarding, of course there were many other activities like football or skating on the mini-ramp, but most of all we will all remember the tennis table matches. It came out that Eero Ettala and Elias Elhardt are true pros in this discipli-

ne as well! In the end the Good Times Camp is also this: a mix of things and persons that you rarely see anywhere else, a private and easy party open to any snowboarders. On Friday night there had been organised a special party at the old Kaprun’s castle: we rent the whole castle! There were two bars and a stage where Marc Swobo-da played with his band, and even Ni-tro’s founder Tommy Delago played

the drums (he’s a super drummer) and we all had some great fun until late night... an entire week’s closing party amongst friends. 160 happy snowboarders who just wanted to have fun in an old castle: the funny anecdotes are many, and also many of them will be confidential forever...In the end, the camp was so good that we have already confirmed the next edition – so if just reading these lines made you want to participa-te, you’ll get your chance! We are also thinking of organising even some event and smaller camps somewhere else too... so stay tuned on our so-cial media and our website www.nitrousa.com for more news to come. Just remember snowboarding was created to have fun: it was born from the fun of sliding on a wooden stick down the mountains, to have a good laugh with friends after a fall in powder, to get yourself stoked even with little things and for all the rest which makes us love so much our sport!

THERE’S SOMETHING MAGIC WHEN A MASSIVE GROUP OF PEOPLE RIDE ALL TOGETHER.

PICS: DENIS PICCOLO & MARKUS ROHRBACHERTXT: MAX GIONCO

MAH HORN: HANDPLANT BY MARKUS ROHRBACHER

BASTI RITTIG: STALEFISH BY MARKUS ROHRBACHER

MARC SWOBODA: BS NOSEBONE BY MARKUS ROHRBACHER

EERO ETTALA: FS ROCK BY DENIS PICCOLO

ALBERTO MAFFEI: HANDPLANT BY DENIS PICCOLO

BEFORE THE REAL THING If want to stomp a trick in street, more than only owning the necessary physical abilities, it’s most important to find the right and ideal spot and to set it up the best you can do. If you are new to building stuff in street, take a look at all those magazines and online.

APPROACH To understand transition and speed, just try some speed checks and if you do want to jump over the last part of the rail, I’d suggest you to do it first in frontside boardslide or, and it’s even more simple, in 50-50.

INRUN AND TAKEOFF When you’re ready for it, drop with your board flat and towards the rail. On the kicker put a bit of weight on your toe edge and pop an ollie rotating both your shoulders and legs in backside, leaning your board over the rail around your rear bindings’ height.

MANEUVER If you hit the rail in the right way, hold on to your legs position while your shoulders go on rotating. Once you’re at the kink section, pop an ollie to get off the rail and get your legs together as they follow your shoulders’ rotation.

LANDING This is the moment of truth. If you pick the right speed, takeoff and position on the rail, you should find yourself mid-air looking towards the landing. This is the moment in which you block your shoulders’ rotation and let your legs complete the 270° rotation from the rail. Bend your legs while landing to avoid your knees tough impacts.

BY MATT GEORGES IN FINLAND

RIDE RODEO | RIDE KINK | VANS HI-STANDARD

BY MATT GEORGES IN CERVINIA

BEFORE THE REAL THING No doubt the delicate steps of building a kicker in powder are the inrun, the takeoff and the landing. When you build a jump and prepare its inrun, it’s much important to avoid bumps because it could compromise or make the takeoff more difficult. Do some speed checks then, to get the right speed.

APPROACH On the inrun you don’t have the same space as you do on a park’s jump, so your line should be the most linear as you can. You are on the kicker with your board well flat, bend your legs and just before taking off bring your weight on your heels.

TAKEOFF The takeoff is a very delicate phase of the whole thing, because you can’t counter-turn too much – as you usually do in the park. In this case, spinning comes a bit more from the legs and shoulders rotation. At the end of the transition stretch out your legs to pop an ollie and with your shoulders give the necessary angular impulse.

MANEUVER Reach down for your legs and with your left hand grab your board in between the bindings on the toe edge and if you feel you’re in total control of your trick, collect some extra-style points stretching out your front leg with a nosebone. Your rear arm is essential to balance yourself during the aerial phase. Hold on to the grab as long as you can to be even more stylish.

LANDING When you find yourself more or less 90° away to the end of the trick, leave the grab, block the rotation with your shoulders and let your legs finish the 720°. When you land you, balance yourself on the tail of the board, otherwise the nose ends up into the snow and your clip will go straight right into the bails’ section of your videopart.

REMEMBER Don’t exaggerate with the counter-turn and the push on the edge when you take off from a kicker in powder, if you don’t want to re-build the jump from square one all the time.

UNION ATLAS | RIDE SUPERNATANT | DC JUDGE

PICS: DENIS PICCOLO TXT: ACHILLE MAURI & ANDREA BERGAMASCHI

Flashback: - Montenegro?! Are you sure, Ste? - Sure, man, it’s the

shit for powder, it snows a lot and nobody goes there! - And which

crew? - Lollo, Manuel, Buzzo, Andre, Denis and Massi! - Fear and

loathing... with such a crew, I definitely join you guys!

Flash Forward: 6.30 in the morning, Malpensa international airport

in Milan. People staring at all our gear, and saying: “look at tho-

se pro riders who are flying to Alaska!” Or: “I wonder which kind

of amazing lines in powder they’ll have in Canada!” Instead: Mi-

lan-Belgrade, and then Belgrade-Podgorica. Easy trip, except for

Lollo who went a bit crazy about our second flight – not enough

modern, for his standards. We eventually landed safe and sound

anyhow, as we were in the capital of Montenegro: Podgorica. An-

drea Bergamaschi’s friends of friends were waiting for us as they

kindly lent us a van we could drive around. With these friends have

a climbing gym in Italy and organise trips to Montenegro, and they

know locals who have some chalets – our accommodation. Snow-

boarding was immediately moved to the background, after we all

realised which kind of place we ended up to. War is over now, not

so many years ago though. Houses, shops, fields and people are

still marked with invisible and much visible scars forever, from the

destruction that during all those years hit this part of Europe – not

that far away from Italy. We visited Podgorica with our local friend.

It’s a town with many contrasts: rich areas, with bling-bling cars

and women wearing expensive furs all mixed up with ghettos and

half-ruined buildings, falling apart since war times. It looks like a

city which is slowly getting itself together, from a past which went

hard on its inhabitants and its places, but it’s steadily reassessing.

We carried on with our trip in silence, each of us with his own eyes

and his own deep thoughts on what we had just witnessed. In just

a couple of hours we arrived in the cold Kolesin, at the base of the

mountains. Four beautiful wooden chalets with all the comforts

welcomed us warm and cosy. Lucky us! So far, so good. Even if it

ANDREA BERGAMASCHI: BACKFLIP

SNOWBOARDING IMMEDIATELY MOVED TO THE BACKGROUND, AFTER WE REALISED WHICH KIND OF PLACE WE ENDED IN.

LORENZO BARBIERI: MILLER FLIP

didn’t look like there was tons of snow anywhere around, but the

locals told us to take it easy because in just a few days the situation

would have turned around, getting worse – or better: they were

sure it was going to snow, a lot. We spent our first shred day in

the resort of Kolesin, which is tiny and has only four chairlifts. We

took some laps around, just to check it all out, searching for some

good spots for cliffs and where to build a couple of kickers, althou-

gh basically it was impossible because of the lack of snow. The

following days we tried

to arrange ourselves with

what we had, hitting stre-

et spots and also having

a look around to be rapid

and efficient for when it

would snow. The second

day we tried to make a

check around with a snowcat, into the super wild territory where

basically nobody goes. It took us one hour to get to the top with this

super old snowcat, which at the very beginning of the trip mana-

ged to cut a turn and demolish our boards. Just a few minutes and

we already were 1-0 down to Montenegro. After one hour we got

to the top risking our lives several times – the road was tiny and

super tight, only 2 meters and a half wide. One of the two snowcat’s

caterpillars were completely out facing the cliff to one side. Risk is

their own thing in Montenegro: nobody has ever heard of Arva,

to start off with. There were very few snowboarders, and those

we saw riding around looked like they were coming straight out

of the 80s. With the snowcat we eventually reached a super wild

territory and apparently we were the first ones trying to do some

stuff in powder. I tried to take a walk around to find some lines. I

would love to talk about fresh snow, but there was actually just a

thick crust. The others went check some other spots, small ones

since the snow was what

it was. All in all that spot

was nothing bad, but we

had to wait another cou-

ple of days. There were no

other chances. Our group

was anyway solid, despite

the bad conditions of the

terrain and the fact that most of us were powder animals more

than street shredders. It already was halfway through our trip and

nothing was done yet. But, eventually, there was a day in which the

weather forecast looked down on us and said: 65cm of fresh snow

for the next few days. One day later, even double as much. There

we go, we all thought, our time has come. Flash forward:MAN, look,

it snows! Booooooom! Let’s hope it keeps on snowing for the whole

night.Already 50cm and went on and on and on... we woke up and

APPARENTLY WE WERE THE FIRST ONES TRYING TO DO SOME STUFF IN POWDER.

MANUEL PIETROPOLI: CRIPPLER FLIP

it was just amazing: the whole landscape had already changed into

something beautifully different. Shovel, Arva, probe, batteries and

gear check, and we were off to the tiny resort we visited the first day

and that potentially with the fresh new snow could come up with

something really good. There was no chance to go all the way up

with the snowcat, so the resort was our only possibility on that day

to bring home - at last! - some footage. Lollo, Buzzo and Manuel

went check some spots. Me, Denis and Massi we took another di-

rection. In those cases, the

avalanche risk is very high

as the new layer of snow

isn’t stuck together with

the old one yet, because of

the temperature difference.

We split up in two groups,

knowing we had to avoid

slopes too steep or wide open spaces. The woods were the most

clever call. We began to get some runs down on the only chairlift

open, as there was too much fallen snow already. At some point we

even got stuck on the lift, because of an electric blackout (only later

we found out it concerned our whole region). With a power unit

they eventually managed to get us to the top, so from there we lo-

oked for some spot in fresh deep snow. We rode down a bit and we

found this pillow in the middle of the woods. While I was walking

upwards in a canal, suddenly a huge avalanche from above us in

just a few seconds hit me. I found myself into it and I ended up

more than ten meters below. Silence. I was covered with all the fre-

sh snow of the avalanche, completely buried I didn’t even know

how much deep. I was alive, the only positive thing. I tried to get

calm. I tried to push as hard as I could to get out from down there,

but I couldn’t move. I heard something was moving from above. I

pushed hard and I eventually managed to get one hand out of the

snow. Denis then did the

rest. I had a hard time, ma-

king a narrow escape. We

left the resort a bit shaken

still for what had just hap-

pened. In the middle of

May then, Andre received

a call from one of our local

Montenegro friend who told him they eventually found my board,

which had been under the snow of that avalanche for more than

two months. They found it after everything melted. Just to give

you an idea of how much snow there was and how deep it was. We

went drink something trying to forget that scary episode. When we

got back home, the icing on the cake of that crazy day was waiting

for us: the blackout not only hit the resort, but our entire town and

almost the whole Montenegro.

SUDDENLY A HUGE AVALANCHE FROM ABOVE US IN JUST A FEW SECONDS HIT ME.

MANUEL PIETROPOLI: 50/50 TO 360° MELON

That meant for us to stay without electricity for two days: no gas, no

fire, no hot water, no light, no wifi, nothing. Situation began to be a

little tense. We only had the light and the warmth from the fireplace.

We were completely stuck over there. Also because Kolesin has only

one vehicle to clean up the roads, and they just couldn’t keep up with

the falling snow. Since they couldn’t clean the streets, unluckily we

didn’t have the chance anymore to get up to that first super cool ter-

rain we checked on our first day out with the snowcat. But we didn’t

give up. So we began to hit some spots around our place, as we were

waiting for the bad weather to end. Two difficult days went by: no wifi

and no other modern technologies we are all used to, so we had to

learn how to spend some time alone and in silence, to cook with the

fireplace, to conserve what we had bought and to get to know each

other with some long talking around the fireplace. The essence of a

trip is also this, not the super tricks. We also went to Kolesin’s restau-

rant, another of those very interesting and peculiar experiences. To-

othless waiters, the loudest disco kind-of-80s music ever, so loud that

we hardly managed to talk to each other, people next to us who ate,

danced and made a mess. That typical colour from the Balkans. And,

finally, there was time also for sun and bluebirds. So everyone did his

best enjoying the mountains and the terrain. But we soon had to leave,

and we didn’t have the chance to film a lot even. Andre wanted to stay

one more week, with Lollo, Buzzo and Massi. Me, Denis and Manuel

we had to go back home. From then on, there were the best condi-

tions ever and the fun part began but, - unlucky us! - we couldn’t ap-

preciate it. Cliffs, powder, spines and all that natural features Andre told

me about. It’s been a good snowboard trip anyway, rich of emotions. I

have to thank Stefano Bergamaschi of Gnarcolate, who helped us out

with organising the whole thing, if only there were more situations

like this one, snowboarding world would be a lot cooler. A big thank

you also to Andrea Marangoni of the Vert Climb gym from Gessate,

for hooking us up with our very helpful friends from Montenegro.

ACHILLE MAURI: HAND DRAG

WE HAD TO LEARN HOW TO STAND ALONE OR TO GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER WITH SOME LONG TALKING AROUND THE FIREPLACE.

SLASH: LORENZO BUZZON

ANDREA BERGAMASCHI: FUNKY ARGOGUN BOOTS: VANS V66 BINDINGS: UNION FLITE PRO LORENZO BARBIERI: CA-PITA MERCURY BOOTS: DC LYNX BINDINGS: UNION T-RICE GOGGLES: SPY BRAVO LORENZO BUZZONI: DC MEDIA BLITZ BOOTS: DC LYNX BINDINGS: UNION ATLAS GOGGLES: SPY RAI-DER MANUEL PIETROPOLI: DC MEDIA MEGA BOOTS: DC JU-DGE BINDINGS: UNION CONTACT GOGGLES: SPY MARSHALL

ITW: DENIS PICCOLO PICS: DENIS PICCOLO, ROBERTO NANGERONI & ALEXANDER KLERUD

SIMON GRUBER: CAB 540° MUTE BY DENIS PICCOLO IN PASSO ROLLE, ITALY

OIVIND FYKSE: BS OLLIE BY ALEXANDER KLERUD IN NORWAY

WHEN AND WHY DID YOU COME UP WITH THE IDEA OF NAMING YOUR VIDEO “BROKEN CIRCUIT”? I called it Broken Circuit because in my opinion snowboarding world is like a broken electric circuit, not totally broken yet. Broken Circuit’s message is this: despite all the difficulties, we have to hold on and keep snowboarding’s spirit alive. The idea came to me on a Sunday during last year’s December when I took my old computer to the garbage dump: there I saw a container full of electric circuits. From there the idea of grabbing old circuits to create the video’s graphics and name it like that.

IT’S GETTING MORE AND MORE DIFFICULT TO PRODUCE SNOWBOAR-DING VIDEOS COMPARED TO WHAT IT USED TO BE BACK IN THE DAYS. BUDGETS AND MONEY IS KING, AND THE VIDEO PRODUCTIONS AND THE RIDERS AS WELL ARE ALL IN DEEP CRISIS. WHAT ARE THE MAIN IS-SUES? It wouldn’t be true if I say there are no problems at all, and both the companies and their riders are doing really well. But at the same time, I think that, just like all things, if you really believe in something you find both money and motivation from the companies and the riders.

YOU HAVE A CREW MADE OF VARIOUS ITALIAN AND EUROPEAN RI-DERS, FROM FREERIDERS TO STREET RIDERS: IS IT A CHOICE FORCED BY SPONSORS OR IS IT JUST YOUR EVOLUTION PATH YOU’RE GOING THROUGH? Since our very first full movie Shadows by DVP, my idea was to represent snowboarding in all its aspects, from backcountry to street, even with some park shots too. It’s quite obvious that the riders take the first call. Each of them has his own style and he belongs to a certain favourite terrain, where he can show all his talent. This year I had the chance of filming with riders like Simon and Bridgman, who both like

powder and park, but also Oivind, Jess and the other European riders who are some real street machines. Sure, it’s not easy to combine this all together, but I also think that there’s been a clear improvement from Octopus most of all thanks to everybody’s commitment to this project: both filmers and riders.

TALK ME THROUGH EACH RIDER OF YOUR CREW, HOW HIS SEASON HAS BEEN. Starting from Simon Gruber, since he got the video’s ope-ning part, I’d say that despite all the weather difficulties and the snow conditions which weren’t that ideal to film, it could not have been better. Simon basically filmed his video part in powder in just three times. I can’t imagine what we could have achieved if we had had chance of filming the whole season. Jesse Augustinus is a trick machine, although the sponsors didn’t totally back us up since he had to shoot two full parts with two different projects, so we only had the chance of going together on two trips. Nevertheless, I think he has a peculiar style and nowadays he’s one of the new street riders who surely will draw much attention on himself in the future. Max Vieider, also AKA Max “Punk”, I’d say in those rare chances of filming together he showed to be a true punk… as he’s been trying to film different tricks in spots a bit unusual.

WHICH RIDER OF YOUR VIDEO YOU LIKED THE MOST AND WHY? Oi-vind is the one who struck me most. It’s the first year we’ve had the chance of shooting for the whole season together, and surely he de-served Broken Circuit’s ender part. He has an unique style and he has a whole crazy set of different tricks under his belt. The shot I loved the most is his line all in switch filmed at the double wood set in Lilleham-mer, apart from the ender shot. Epic!

OIVIND FYKSE: METHOD TO TRANNY FINDER BY ALEXANDER KLERUD IN NORWAY

WHICH DIRECTION AND WHAT EVOLUTION FOR SNOWBOARDING? I remember 7, 8 years ago when I was a shaper in Bardonecchia, I used to spend my nights playing at Amped at home. In recent times snowboarding has already reached and possibly overtaken those vi-deo games levels. Riders now stomp triple or quad corks as if it were nothing, crazy street spots and riders who go down powder lines against the laws of gravity.

PRINTED MAGS, VIDEOS, INTERNET, SOCIAL MEDIA, EVENTS AND SO ON. COMPARED TO WHAT IT USED TO BE A FEW YEARS AGO, SNOW-BOARDING HAS MORE OPPORTUNITIES TO BE COMMUNICATED AROUND, YET IT HAS LOST SOME OF ITS APPEAL AMONGST A GREAT, MORE GENERAL AUDIENCE. WHY? I think snowboarding actually hasn’t lost its appeal, on the contrary there’s only a kind of more natural se-lection amongst the users interested into. I believe that skateboarding, surfing and other sports like snowboarding won’t ever be main stream sports, most of all in Italy. All that we media can do is to give the right look it deserves.

WHO’S THE IDEAL RIDER FOR A FILMER? Haha! You’d better ask a rider who the ideal filmer is. Each of us has his own brain, warts and all, ob-viously it’s not easy to mix it all up. It might look like it’s easy and fun, but each trip and at each shooting there’s always some stress into. It’s stressful thinking of ending up with no shots, after you already spent 1’500€ for that trip. So I think the perfect rider ideally is that one who manages to get 10 shots on a daily basis, while the ideal filmer is the one who doesn’t mess up on any of these shots, also the one who can make them look like better and cooler.

TELL ME THE TEN BASIC RULES TO SHOOT WITH YOU! Like the Ten Commandments? Haha! I don’t think I should dictate any rules and I don’t think there are any in snowboarding either. Yet I believe a rider who wants to film with me must have one quality - Strive. He must be willing and able to work his ass off, he has to crave to film.

ALL THE WEB IS BOMBED BY LOW-QUALITY VIDEOS ON A DAILY BASIS. HOW DO YOU DEFEND YOUR OWN PROJECT AND YOUR WORK FROM THIS DIGITAL ASSAULT? I think the only way to emerge from all this is to go for high quality’s projects and videos. Both on the filming and edi-ting parts, as well as for the riding.

WHICH HISTORIC SNOWBOARDING VIDEOS HAVE INSPIRED YOUR WORKS? I’d say there are different and several video production which inspired me throughout all these years and inevitably I’ve been influen-ced by. Like Robotfood ,People and Videograss.

WHICH ARE THE EUROPEAN VIDEOS YOU RESPECT THE MOST? I think Postland Theory is the video production which, like DVP, has had the most positive feedback in the past three years. Both the productions grew up the same way, from being small crews they’ve transformed into two of the biggest video productions in Europe. Surely the video are “made” by the riders, but the main difference is made by the ones who are behind the scenes, the ones who, thanks to new ideas, manage to realise different videos.

DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA OF THE CREW YOU WILL FILM WITH NEXT YEAR? Yes I do already have a project, since it’s already November now.

SIMON GRUBER: FS 720° MELON BY DENIS PICCOLO IN PASSO ROLLE, ITALY

SIMON GRUBER: METHOD BY DENIS PICCOLO IN PASSO ROLLE, ITALY

NICOLÒ PEZZATO: MILLER FLIP BY ROBERTO NANGERONI IN MADESIMO, ITALY

My idea is to have two different videos, one set in powder and the other in street. Anyway, I don’t want to disclose it all right now, surely the main characters will be the riders who have been the most active in the past two years plus some other new faces which is always a positive thing to add.

WHICH ARE THE TRIPS YOU’RE GOING TO PLAN? My plan is to have our own van tour of 2/3 weeks in Europe, searching for the best conditions to film in backcountry, and other 3/4 trips in between North and Eastern Europe for street spots.

BEFORE FALLING ASLEEP WHAT DO YOU DREAM OF DREAMING? It mi-ght look like strange to you, but I’d like to have a family and support it with this job.

IF YOU REALLY BELIEVE IN SOMETHING YOU WILLFIND BOTH MONEY AND THE MOTIVATION FROM THE COMPANIES AND THE RIDERS.

NICOLÒ PEZZATO: FS 360° NOSEBONE BY ROBERTO NANGERONI IN MADESIMO, ITALY

JESSE AUGUSTINUS: FS BLUNT PRETZEL BY ROBERTO NANGERONI IN MADESIMO, ITALY

PICS: BLOTTO, SCOTT SERFAS, FRODE SANDBECH PORTRAIT: DENIS PICCOLO ITW: GIACOMO MARGUTTI

Dawg, like his part in Follow Me Around I went crazy for it. Absolu-

tely awesome. I liked the powder sections the most, I didn’t care a

lot of street rails or riders who just hit rails, I’ve never understood it,

it’s a poor way to intend snowboarding. But Eero has always been

one of the best all-around snowboarders out there. I idolized so

many riders. When I participated into the Red Bull Supernatural I

was blown away to see the way Nicholas Mueller and Jake Blauvelt

rode in powder. They are just amazing riders, with their own style,

so much recognizable. I had few experience in powder and a lot

of guys helped me out. I understood that jumping in powder is so

much different than in contest.”

WHO’S THE MOST UNDERRATED RIDER IN THE WORLD? “Mikkel

Bang, for sure. He rides awesome, he has an amazing style

and he makes everything he does look like nothing and sim-

ple, especially when he jumps in powder. I admired him sin-

ce he was a kid, when the best Burton rookies were him, Luke

Mitrani and Freddie Austbo. I watched those Burton videos

with them three and I was thinking that one day it would have

been good to ride like that. Despite all his style, Mikkel doesn’t

get that much reward internationally, that he would deser-

ve. There are so many other riders who push progression less

than him, but they are more emphasized and I don’t get why.”

WHY DID YOU DERANGE FROM YOUR USUAL CONTEST SCENE?

“Before Sochi 2014, every week for

months I had been taking part to a

contest. Everywhere in the world. I

just didn’t stop traveling and com-

peting for months. Big airs, slo-

pestyles here and there, X Games,

Air&Style, European and US Open...

anything. I went there, I competed,

I went on the podium when it went

well, I took another flight, I landed,

hotel, contest, podium, flight, hotel,

contest and so on and on. On one

side it was really cool because I could get people stoked and myself

too when the contest went well and I really had fun. But there was

a lot of pressure as well to live up to the expectations of everyo-

ne. And everything came together at the Olympics, coming there

with a broken rib, the whole contest and the bronze medal with all

that fuss. So much stressful. I wanted to change things for a sea-

son, so I took the decision of not getting into any contests trying

to film in powder, with a bunch of friends I chose. That’s why “In

Motion”. But I soon found out that it was sometimes stressful too,

there’s a lot of pressure even while shooting a movie because so-

metimes things are not going your way: bad weather, shitty snow

conditions, walking a lot, hiking, jumps which don’t work out...

everything is way more difficult in backcountry with natural con-

ditions, of course. But I’m super stoked with how this video came

out, I had so much fun with all my friends and this season I’d like

to do both: contests and filming in powder.”

I HAVEN’T BEEN UP TO STUBAI THESE DAYS BUT WHAT LOOKS LIKE FROM DOWN HERE OR, BETTER AND ACTUALLY, FROM WHAT THE SOCIAL MEDIA TELL US IS THAT TRIPLE CORKS ARE THE ORDINARY AND MARCUS KLEVELAND STOMPED HIS FIRST QUAD 1800. DO YOU HAVE YOUR OWN IDEA OF WHAT’S GOING ON RIGHT NOW IN

10 medals at the X Games (5 gold plus 5 silver), a bronze medal at

Sochi 2014 Olympic Games (with a broken rib), first man on the

earth to throw down a backside triple cork 1440 in contest, almost

500’000 followers on Instagram (Shaun White has only 380k...

oops!), a beautiful girlfriend who is a pro surfer, his own reality

show with his brother Craig on MTV Canada, now his very first

own movie (“In Motion”) all about himself and his friends. And on

December 9th he turns 22 years old. Despite all this, Mark McMor-

ris is a normal boy still with his feet on the ground, when he’s not

strapped in to a board flying high.

I find him lying down on a sofa of an elegant 4-star hotel in Milan.

Around us, Japanese, Russian, Italian business men try to under-

stand each other in a language that should be English, while others

hurry up to reach their event’s congress room. Mark is still a bit

jet-lagged and despite being so young, he has already seen it all to

play a tactiful diplomatic as he says what he thinks and he thinks

what he says. And what he says, he throws it at you:

“Mine is a job. It’s sometimes tough. But it’s the most beautiful job

on earth. It’s funny, I’m here because of my movie, and since it’s

my movie I can’t say ‘Oh, I’m taking it easy tonight, just one beer’:

they all came to celebrate my movie in Vancouver, Toronto, Mon-

treal, New York, Park City, Newport

Beach, Denver, and then I came

over here. It’s been a fun month.

It’s fun also because this trip is the

longest one I’m stationary for so

long. I’m in Europe for two and a

half weeks, it’s pretty nice since I

don’t have to get on the plane. I just

drove here in Milan, drove back to

Innsbruck, go shred for another ten

days. It’s sick.”

Oh yes, you read it right. He shows

up in Milan, he spends the who-

le day doing interviews, printed

magazines, radio, he catches up with media and fans, goes to the

party, enjoys it, goes back to Innsbruck, goes up riding in Stubai

awesome park the very next day. He sincerely loves snowboarding.

Really.

WHEN DID IT ALL START? “It all started with my brother Craig in

our place’s backyard. We’re from Regina, Saskatchewan province,

and we got no mountains at all there, it’s all flat. One day we were

brought up to the mountains and we tried snowboarding and it

was love at first sight. So we came up with riding some stuff in the

backyard, whatever we could hit and whenever. Basically all the

time we didn’t spend at school, we were riding. Sometimes our pa-

rents took us to the next resort, 40 minutes away from our place, it

was nothing but a super small hill, they didn’t even have a chairlift,

but it was enough for us. There were just a couple of boxes, still we

had fun anyway.”

WHO WERE YOUR IDOLS BACK THEN? “When I was a kid my hero

was JP Walker. I watched and re-watched a thousand times all his

videos, I loved his part in Technical Difficulties. Tons of times I wa-

tched it. I just wanted to be like him, ride like him, become like him.

Then I liked so much how Eero Ettala rode in the videos of Mack

ALL THE KIDS ARE TRYING THESE TRICKS NOW LIKE TRAMPOLINE AERIALISTS. IT’S FUCKED. IT SUCKS.

FS 360° NOSEBONE BY SCOTT SERFAS

BY SCOTT SERFAS

MICHELCHUCK TUCK KNEE BY FRODE SANDBECH

THE SNOWBOARDING PARK SCENE? PERSONALLY, IT JUST LOOKS LIKES LOTS OF SPINNING. “It sucks that they had to do that quad

cork. It really sucks. But I would never do it training. It’s not gonna

be something I want to do. But let’s say it’s the Olympic final and

you have to do a quad cork to win, and I can do it first try, it’s a stu-

pid extra flip. You just gotta chuck a little harder, but it’s not gonna

be fun. Not at all. I think it’s super wack, but... whatever. It’s gonna

be fun for the spectators probably, but not for me. You see when

these kids are trying these tricks... you know how dangerous that

is? If you clip your toe edge that fast you’ll die, you smash your face

into the landing. It’s so sketchy. Marcus kind of did it in a safe way,

‘cause it wasn’t really cork, to the side... but hey, so much respect,

because he did the best one that has been yet. Max Parrot’s was just

backflipping. It’s crazy, dude, so many triple corks up there! Every

third run there’s someone who’s doing a triple, even kids you’ve

never even heard of or seen, and then you see their Instagram and

there’s bunch a trampoline videos. All the kids are trying these tri-

cks now are trampoline aerialists. It’s fucked. It sucks. Even the Ca-

nadian team, all those young kids, when

we were in Vancouver for the premiere

I asked them to come down earlier to go

skating, they answered me that they had

to go to the trampolines. Are you fucking

kidding me? Why are they becoming like

that now? The national team sees all this

Olympic stuff on the TV and they’re like

“yeah, we need to make like what Seb To-

ots or McMorris are doing and train on

the trampoline everyday”. I am a snow-

boarder, I can go from edge to edge, why

these kids can’t even do that? Do you see

how they ride a jump? They can’t just go

from edge to edge on transitions, they

go flat base. I’ve never seen somebody

snowboarding the way Max Parrot jumps,

who goes sideways from a jump with

both his arms behind himself. It’s actual-

ly aerials. Like you are actually taking off,

sideways. It’s so bad, so uncool to watch

that. I’m sorry I’m talking so much shit

right now, but... I don’t even wanna talk

about this anymore.”

ARE YOU GOING TO PARTICIPATE TO THE NEXT OLYMPICS, AS THEY ADDED BIG AIR TO THE OFFICIAL PROGRAM? “As up today, I wan-

na go to the Olympics and do well in both big air and slopestyle

events. But there’s a lot of water to go under the bridge. The dif-

ference between 2012 – two years before Sochi 2014 - and 2016

is pretty big, as we’re two years away from Korea 2018. It’s crazy

what’s happening, the resources they’ve been putting in slopestyle

is just crazy. There are hundreds of national team kids up in Stubai,

on the small line beside the big one kids doing triple underflips like

nothing... Russian kids I’ve never seen, they don’t even know how

to ride a jump but they can do triple corks. But I’ve seen it for years,

kids that they can do all these double corks and then when it comes

time when they actually have to put a slopestyle run together... but

that’s the weird thing about big air. You don’t have to do anything

but ride down and do a triple. But the cool thing is that the Olym-

pic big air format is two runs out of three count, and you have to

spin different ways and like do two different tricks. And that’s what

the Air&Style has changed into, and it’s so much better. So people

aren’t doing triple corks in the first rounds, ‘cause you need to do

two different tricks. I think it’s really good that they chose that in-

stead of best run out of three. Because this way we don’t see just

triple corks all the time. Like we don’t see Chinese kids coming out

from nowhere, like this. That kid, Yewei Zhang, the pipe rider, he

started snowboarding five years ago and now he was the first one

to stomp a triple, and he even won at Park City, the GP event. He

went huge! If you see him ride the pipe transition he’s the only one

really going for it, it’s crazy.”

WHEN DID YOU REALISE YOUR LIFE WAS CHANGING OR ALREA-DY CHANGED FOREVER? WAS IT A GRADUAL PROCESS, OR ALL AT ONCE? “I won a FIS slopestyle in Calgary in 2010 and in 2010/11,

the winter after Vancouver, I got a spot in Dew Tour slopesty-

le, and I was already trying to get known like I had just signed

with Burton and Red Bull, and it was happening but still I didn’t

get any invitations to do contests. I still had to do pre-qualifica-

tions, qualifications, semifinals, made it

to the final and then I got second next

to Torstein and that gave me the invite

to the Xgames and then I got second at

Xgames and then they told me “you can

come for the Air&Style, the Rookie Con-

test”. And I said “I’m not coming so.” And

then, 10 minutes later, I got an email in

which they said “OK, you are in the real

thing.” So I won the Air&Style. That year

it was all like boom, boom, boom! All tho-

se things happening at once, in just one

season. The next year, 2012, it’s when

I did the triple cork and then I won the

double gold at Xgames, and that’s when

I knew my life was changing forever.

And that’s when the Olympics got slo-

pestyle in their programme, and I wan-

ted to go there and win. And then it was

the time when the media said I was up

against Shaun, me and him all the time.

And then I was able to perform that in

that win at the Xgames. Like this year, in

2015, it was super random, I didn’t think

I could win the Xgames again, but I did

it. You never expect it, it’s so cool when it happens.”

HAVE YOU BROUGHT ANYTHING POSITIVE BACK FROM SOCHI 2014, AFTER GETTING THERE WITH ALL THAT STRESSFUL SITUA-TION OF LIVING UP THE EXPECTATIONS OF EVERYONE, BEING THE FAVOURITE BUT WITH A BROKEN RIB AND ENDING UP WITH THE BRONZE? “So many people told me ‘you rode good, you should

have won’ and stuff. And I was like, that’s so nice for you to say,

thank you. But the truth is that it could have been shittier if I got

fourth. That’s all I can think about. I did it with a broken rib and

this is so cool, how can I be bummed out on anything? During

this small Olympic bubble any people know what’s up and then

our event was the first one of the entire Olympic Games. So I flew

back to Canada as soon as we were over with it. And it was so wild.

In the streets of Toronto everyone recognized me, I couldn’t go

anywhere. It was crazy. I was at the Toronto Raptors game, me and

Coco were sitting on the court and at this point it was so fresh, so

BS AIR BY FRODE SANDBECH

BS ALLEY-OOP INDY BY FRODE SANDBECH

many people were watching the Olympics. The Olympics in Canada

is like... god. Winter sports in Canada is everything. When we went

to this basketball game, they were pushing fans off the court becau-

se the basketball players couldn’t warm up because they were swar-

ming around us two. I was like ‘How do all these people even know

me? These are not snowboard punk,’ and that’s when I was all like

‘holy shit!’. The reach that the Olympics have is beyond anything on

earth. It sucks but it’s true. I say everybody knows about Xgames, but

everybody’s granma knows about the Olympics. It doesn’t matter

about who you are, when the Olympics comes around every four

years, you see it, you watch it, you have to hear it, it’s everywhere.

Sochi 2014 brought me a lot of positive, with a lot of negative went

on before and during, that I don’t have any hard feelings because

it could have been somebody different than Sage up there. It could

have been like... you know. And Sage is such a good representation

of our sport, he is fun, he talks positive stuff, there’s so many worse

people to take away that win from Staale and then I would have been

so mad about! I love Sage and he rode so fucking awesome, still the

judges had their heads up their ass. It’s crazy, they had Phoebe Mills

who’s a FIS judge who’s like a trampoline coach. They didn’t have the

judges that they would have at the Xgames. Or any big contest. They

had these random people. They don’t know anything about hard tri-

cks versus easy tricks or rail tricks. It is what it is. I don’t even wanna

watch it again because that gets

me so frustrated. Whatever.”

WHAT’S THE SURFING SCENE COMPARED TO THE SNOWBO-ARDING ONE YOU’RE MORE ACCUSTOMED TO? “It’s defini-

tely different, a little bit more

competitive. Well, a lot more.

They don’t like each other, it’s

not like they can be friends

after. A lot of them can’t. They

wanna kill each other! OK, not

really kill haha, but they wanna

beat each other so bad. There’s a lot of trash talking in the water so-

metimes, because it’s not like everybody has a fair thing of having

two runs. I can understand, it’s a one-on-one sport, even if you’re

thinking head-to-head snowboarding can be like that, but it’s not.

Everybody gets an equal chance, you can only be mad at yourself,

which I love because I wouldn’t like to not like somebody, when I’m

on the tour with them and I’m seeing them. It’s different. I’m lucky

I’m a snowboarder. I’m a bad surfer of course compare to all tho-

se pros, because all the time I surf with them. Compared to all the

other snowboarders I’m pretty good instead. But not like Terje. He

is really good. I’m always amazed by how well he surfs. You can see

it in snowboarding too. It helps, any time you stand sideways, like

skateboarding and surfing. I just like surfing more ‘cause I don’t hurt

my ankles and I get in shape and re-hab shoulders. But at the same

time I hate so many things about surfing: why do people get mad at

people in the water? There’s nothing never like that in snowboar-

ding, because everybody can ride in different directions, in surfing

there are so many waves but people are acting like they own the

Ocean. That side bums me out. Snowboarding is more like sharing

good things together, with your friends. When you find a new hip,

everybody hits it and everyone is sharing nature. It’s like they take

the Ocean for granted, they don’t appreciate it. I’m not speaking for

everybody, of course. Basically when it’s powder day, it’s more fun.

Nobody is getting mad at you. Even if you suck at snowboarding no-

body is going to get mad at you. They’re crazy. When I’m in Hawaii,

you know shit that goes on in the water? It’s crazy, I’m scared for

people’s lives haha! It’s gnarly, like holding people under the water

and stuff. But I’ve only seen this in a couple of occasions. I don’t get

in fight, I’m like a lover haha.”

THERE ARE MANY POSITIVE THINGS IN SNOWBOARDING, WHI-CH ARE THE CONS? “The only cons are the impacts on your body

and I wish I don’t have to deal with that, I wish there wasn’t so

many injuries. I’ve been super thankful for that, like you see

some guys deal with it and it sucks, really. I think park builders

should be so much better. I mean, we progress so fast but they

don’t progress as fast, not at all. Build safe jumps! You all know

what a safe jump is: take a look at the Gap Session ten years

ago. They built safe jumps back then, just build every jump like

that! So if you land off, if you land to the side, you’re not out for

a couple of months. You go back up. That’s something that is

frustrating to me. There are good park builders that are getting

better, Charles Beckinsale who builds in Perisher and Whistler

is so good at building safe jumps that actually work. But there

are so many... who aren’t! Come on, man, just build a jump that

is safe, but with the same airtime! I sometimes get sad in the

off season. Because it’s tough

for me when I’m in Australia

snowboarding for a month

and I go home for two mon-

ths and so many people ask

me ‘what are you doing?’ and

I’m snowboarder but I’m not

snowboarding. It is also cool

too, because at the same time

it’s nice we have an off season:

snowboarding takes a lot on

your body and you need bre-

aks sometimes. But the fucked

up part is all these young

kids go straight from Australia to Saas Fee, to Stubai to Co-

lorado... they never stop. They just don’t stop. It’s crazy.”

DO YOU TRAIN A LOT IN THE GYM? “Yes I do, of course. Because

you’re training your body that doesn’t mean you’re not a core snow-

boarder. In skateboarding all those gnarly skaters are ice-bathing

every day, you just need to take care of your body if you wanna do it.

My body is my income.”

WHERE WOULD YOU BE WITHOUT SNOWBOARDING? “I don’t know.

I play a lot of hockey, I skateboard a lot, I don’t know. I could be

doing something like that, but I don’t want even like to think about

it. Honestly, it would suck without snowboarding. Since the first

time I was snowboarding, that was my passion. There was nothing

compared to it. I loved being on the lake with a boat, I loved skate-

boarding, but when I was snowboarding - that was when I was most

stoked. I wanted to watch every single snowboard movie that came

out, I just had and currently have a really, really strong passion for

it. It’s even hard to explain. I wanted to be a part of it, it was cool. It’s

cool to have the power of stoke people out, to be an inspiration to

somebody is the best feeling to me, that the kids are actually doing

what I was doing back then: idolizing people. It’s cool to be able to

give that service, so to speak.”

EVERYBODY KNOWS ABOUT X-GAMES, BUT EVERYBODY’S GRANMA KNOWS ABOUT OLYMPICS.

FS INVERT BY BLOTTO

BY BLOTTO

BS 1080° DOUBLE CORK INDY BY SCOTT SERFAS

PICS: PHILIPP STRAUSS TXT: ALVARO VOGEL

Japan is one of the most beautiful places on earth and last season I got the chance to bring part of the Northwave & Drake team there for an intense week of fun! The schedule was pretty tight, therefore it was key to plan everything really well and hope that the snow will be still good enough to enjoy some light Japanese powder.

We all met up in Sapporo in early March, a warm breeze wel-comed us on the northern island of Japan. The vibes were quite good but I could see some anxiousness in Antti’s and David’s eyes. Kohei was a bit more relaxed, probably because he already knew what was going to happen the next couple of days. After cruising through the airport’s parking lot we fi-nally found our car. Neil Hartmann, the man behind the Car Danchi’s movie, was cool enough to let us use his car for the next couple of days in Hokkaido.

Totally jetlagged and tired as hell from our intercontinental flight, we started driving toward the goods. Late in the eve-

ning we finally made it Asahaidake. The snow banks looked dirty and nice crusty layers were covering the entire moun-tain, but we were too tired to think so we went to sleep in order to be fit the next day and start having some fun.

The next day we woke up, or really it was only five hours later we all woke up, the wind was blustery around town, the tre-es were bending in all directions. The weather looked crappy, but we were there to ride so we decided to stay lower in the trees because of the strong wind and find some fun spots to get started.

This was my fifth trip to Japan and my fourth time to Asahi-dake. Antti flew over 20 times to Japan in the last 10 years and Kohei knows every corner of Hokkaido, so it was quite easy to find some nice terrain to ride. Due to the wind and the hot temperature the snow turned really bad, but this didn’t stop anyone. The motivation was so high that in less than an

The next day we woke up and unfortunately the wind kept blowing all night long, and the temperatures dropped even more making the snow flakes even smaller. After breakfast we all sat together and started to plan our day, we knew we had only one more day so we wanted to be the most efficient we could.

We jumped in the car and we hit the road. Antti’s feature was the first one ready and started to hike the way into the goods. Dave was the rookie of the crew and he was more than hyped to ride some fresh powder. For him it was the first time in Japan and he was more than excited to be there with such a crew of rippers. From one side it was good for him because they helped him a lot on the other side he had lots of pressure to deliver and sometimes he set himself on really complicated spots instead of going for the sure things that Kohei and Antti showed him. I think this all part of the learning curves that every rookie goes through when they first get into new terrain with a banging crew.

hour everyone had a spot ready. Conditions were tough, I was starting to get worried. The wind started to blow even stron-ger and a light rain started to fall, but the boys were super motivated, so after already scoring a shot we kept searching for more good spots. After a short drive down the mountain we found a nice gully were Antti, Kohei, and David, who are all really good transition riders, found the perfect spot to build a nice quarter pipe.

We shaped all afternoon under the rain, we were soaking wet when we left, but something changed really fast; on the way to our mini van the temperature dropped and the heavy rain turned into heavy snow. Once we got back to the car the snow already covered the entire road in white and I saw some sprinkle in the eyes of my team. We all started dreaming and telling Dave stories about Japan’s heavy snow fall although everyone was aware that we were already late in the season and the weather could have changed back to spring time in less than an hour. We all went to sleep with the same hope to wake up with a solid meter of fresh.

ANTTI AUTTI: BS AIR

WHAT MOST OF THE ROOKIES DO NOT CONSIDER IS ALWAYS THE INRUNS AND THE OUTRUNS OF MOST OF THE FEATURES.

KOHEI KUDO: FS RODEO

WE HIKED THREE DAYS, WE NEVER TOOK A LIFT AND WE SHREDDED EVERYDAY FROM SUNRISE TO SUNDOWN.

KOHEI KUDO: HAND DRAG

Japan has great snow and really nice looking terrain, it’s easy to imagine yourself riding a mushroom or hit a pillow, but what most of the rookies do not consider is always the in-runs and the outruns of most of the features. Most of them are really complicated and sometimes even more technical than the trick itself.

We spent all day hitting everything we found in front of us and we ended the day at the quarter pipe we built the day be-fore. As Team Manger and Filmer I couldn’t be more happy that everyone delivered and everyone went home with a big smile and this is the pure essence of snowboarding: discove-ring new places and having fun with your friends. There are no rules or styles you need to match everyone can ride and express themselves the way they wants to.

The snowstorm didn’t stop, so the next day we woke up with over a meter of fresh. Huge snowflakes kept on falling from the sky and my boys kept on sending it all day long until the

sun went down. I was even happier than the day before, this was my first trip to Japan as a filmer and watching Antti, Kohei and David having fun through my lenses is something indescribable. All the hiking, the heavy backpack and those frozen fingers are all forgotten once you keep getting banger shots and watching how much fun it is riding waist deep pow in the middle of nowhere.

We hiked three days, we never took a lift and we shredded everyday from sunrise to sundown. We jumped, we rode pil-lows and we hiked even more and after that we jumped in the Onsen.

Our first three days just flew and we were back in the car driving to Sapporo in order to participate at the AIR MIX in Gala the next day. We flew from the northern island to Tokyo and then we took the Shinkanzen to Gala, where our friends from Northwave/Drak Japan welcomed us with a delicious dinner.

WE HIKED THREE DAYS, WE NEVER TOOK A LIFT AND WE SHREDDED EVERYDAY FROM SUNRISE TO SUNDOWN.

KOHEI KUDO: BS AIR

The next day we showed up at the comp with some really hea-vy legs from the previous days hiking in the back country and travelling through all Japan with public transportations. The boys were motivated and the features ware were super good, but I believe the that all travelling made my them a bit tired. I was still seeking to get some filming done so we started off a nice hand-plant session on the quarter pipe at the bottom of the park. It qQuickly became a session into the session, everyo-ne joined in although the contest was almost ready to start.

We sessioned the all whole park for two days we in totally spring conditions, we partied for Antti’s 30th birthday at the Pirates Bar and we met a lot of cool people sharing the same love for of snowboarding. and Uunfortunately we had to leave in order to make it to our flight back to Europe the next day.

Team trips are always fun but this one will forever stay in my memories. We experienced every kind of weather condition, we travelled all around the country just on a mission to ride

our snowboards, test the new gear, and most importantly to have fun. We met a lot of cool people and we made a lot of new friends and our team Northwave/Drake became a family. Everyone was always there for each other to help and to share the fun.

Japan trips are a must for me and I’m happy I could bring the team to the land of the rising sun. For me it is the best place in the world to ride powder and have a good time. The food, the culture, the hospitality, the mountains, the snow and the cities as well are just amazing. You can travel all around the world looking for the best snow conditions, but if you want to be sure to find it, you just need to buy a flight to Japan and hit the roads.

Our seven-day trip to Japan finished up with a pure fun spring shred day and with some cold Japanese beers .

See you soon Japan.

ANTTI AUTTI: DRAKE GUERILLA BOOTS: NORTHWAVE LEGEND BINDINGS: DRAKE FIFTY OUTERWEAR: HAGLÖFS GOGGLES: SHRED OPTICS

KOHEI KUDO: DRAKE TEAM BOOTS: NORTHWAVE DECADE BINDINGS: DRAKE FIFTY OU-TERWEAR: OAKLEY GOGGLES: OAKLEY

DAVID DJITÉ: DRAKE GUERILLA BOOTS: NORTHWAVE PROPHECY BINDINGS: DRAKE RELOAD OUTERWEAR: ZIMTSTERN GOGGLES: SHRED OPTICS

DAVID DJITÉ: SLASH

“Two difficult days went by: no wifi and no other

modern technologies we are all used to. We had to

learn how to spend some time alone and in silen-

ce, to cook at the fireplace, to conserve what we

had bought and to get to know each other with

some long talking around the fireplace.”

“The essence of a trip is this too, not the super tricks.”

These are the words from Achille Mauri, to end

up with his report on their Montenegro trip.

Friendship, in addition to the fun itself, is a con-

stant if you speak about and you write of and

TXT: GIACOMO MARGUTTI PIC: DENIS PICCOLO

you live for snowboarding. Take a look at this

picture here in this page. You do not see any

trick, it does not document any incredible ma-

noeuvre: you just see four friends who are get-

ting home with a smile of their faces after a day

in powder. So much powder has come down

that they can ride their boards on the street.

We started and ended this issue with a smile and some

fresh snow. Usually the latter causes the former.

May this be a good omen, for all of you and us too.

Have a great winter.

REACTIVE FLEX HELPS AVOID GETTING HUNG UP ON RAILS

PHOTO > CRISPIN CANNON / RIDER > NIC SAUVE#slashSPECTRUM SLASHSNOW.COM

DISTRIBUITO IN ITALIA DA FRIENDISTRIBUTION - [email protected] – friendistribution.it

Explore The Perfect Solution For Protecting Your Face And Keeping Your Goggles Fog-Free With Manuel Diaz At anonoptics.com/MFI

Photo By Vincent Skoglund

MAGNETIC FACEMASK INTEGRATION MIG + HOODED CLAVA

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