Last weekend the all mightly Snowpark hosted NZ’s second biggest snowboard event, the Billabong Slopestyle.

Weather was forcasted to be be crap but Snowpark emerged from the clouds and retained it’s untouchable bubble turning out an absolutely sick Weekend.

Riding standards were blown out the window with international pros from the whole world including my fellow Mountain Dew pro riders Jeremy Thorns and Tim Bathurst.

1 NZ shreder Stef Zeestraten threw down to show the international boys where we stand pulling in second place.

But the highlight of the whole event for most people was definitly the most insane after snowboard after party ever. Snowpark and Billabong kept the mountain open an extra hour and built a huge spine for all the shredders to launch over top Elemno P blasting out sweet tunes for the crowd. They topped that with free food and any drinks you wanted including cocktails . . . the next morning people were found in groomer sheds and all sorts of weird places.

Results from the comp are:

Open Men
1st Matts Kuli (CAN)
2nd Stef Zeestraten (NZE)
3rd Risto Matia (FIN)

Open Women
1st Jamie Anderson (USA)
2nd Izumi Amaike (JAP)
3rd Claudia Fliri (AUT)

On Friday 25th everyone in Wanaka came out of the woodwork to check out this mad jibbing event. The event was to mark the end of NZ free ski week and because those awesome guys love snowboarders so much, they invited us to shed with them. Cheers guys.

The setup was a pretty sweet down box with a super fast run in. I have to admit those skiiers really did kill it and make us boarders look kinda lame at times but they even dished out prize money to boarders. Ye-ah.

Alot has been going on in the past wee while, just been busy with work, and riding a bunch, also, got my first prototype frame from Colony; its called the sect, and is designed by my good buddy and Colony team member Kenny Raggett. This frame is awesome, and from the first moment I saw it I knew it was gonna be great, its a lil bit shorter than most frames that are on the market, but i like short bikes so its perfect for me, and I couldn’t be happier with it.

Its crazy though to think that this frame and the one that Kenny is riding are THE only frames of their kind in the world, basically, Kenny and I are testing these frames, and if they hold up for a few months without any bending or denting, then the frames will go into production. Along with the frame, I got a pair of the new unlucky 13 bars, that are designed by my other friend and Colony team mate, Ryan Guettler. Ryan has been KILLING it in the states over the past few years, (at one contest, Dew Action Sports Tour year end final, one check for $250,000 and two chevy trucks, and thats just for winning the comp, his sponsors probably match that dollar for dollar!!) so Ryans bars are super light and are perfect. Along with speccing the frame and bars, everything else was made up by Shadow Conspiracy, everything, wheels, grips, chain, all specd and brand new. I haven’t had a new bike for a good two years now, so its kinda crazy to get used to having everything straight, but it feels awesome though.

No riding shots yet, as I’m still getting used to the weight, but will have some soon. Also, had a bunch of friends in town for the McDonalds Cirque Rocks thing that was on in Auckland over the last week, so it was fun to catch up with them all and hangout.

All in all has been a busy few weeks, but keep an eye out for my interview with US Mountain Dew rider and winner of X Games vert 006, Chad Kagy, as he was here to perform for the McDonalds Cirque Rocks show, and we caught up for a chat…coming soon.

The NZ Uni Games kicked off yesterday (Monday) with a mellow GS held at Cadrona, it became pretty icy and windy and without an inspection before my first run I came 3rd with the combo of both runs; my second run was much better, hauling ass helped, was point 4 seconds off the fastest time…STOKED. Uni student antics were not to be missed, riders in lycra, wetsuits and one with just his bib on and his pants down round his boots…classic.
Looking forward to the boardercross on Wednsday….go Canterbury!

Joe and I are going to be heading down to Waihi on the 9th of next month (September 06). We’re going to be meeting up with Scottie and Viv. Theirs the possibility of a community mountainboard park being built by the sports programme that the local mine runs so we’re really keen to check out the site! Will get out and about riding some new spots around Waihi as well.

Then on the 10th were going to head to either Rotorua or Castlerock to get in some slightly more intense riding (good weathers coming and it’s time to get down n dirty!!!).

If you see us round make sure you come grab some Dew off us!

This week was the South Island Snowboard champs up at Mount Hutt. Thursday was borderx qualifying and slalom i think (personally i pay no attention to the hard booters activities). The borderx finals were on the Friday and the wind was feely strong but died off for the afternoon. Md’s top hope in the borderx took an unlucky fall on the first corner thanks to serious congestion and everyone getting to the corner at exactly the same moment. I’ll let her tell you more about that.

Neway we got to have a litlle bit of a slide and got a couple of runs through on the kickers before the wind got back up and the sun went down. We rocked the infamous Canterbury University hutt Friday night which was great as we got a mini sleep in til 9 on the sat morn.

The halfpipe was on the Saturday and some insanely high winds made the day reasonably scary for anyone attempting to get airborne, that along with a typical Mount Hutt pipe made it an interesting day but i heard that the switch academy from wanaka were killing every division including their coach taking a win in the open – shot niels!

We played round on the wind blown snow and then when the big park opened at around 2 we got our shred on there. Nev was twirling up sum back sevens which was sick! I think I had one good run in the arvo learning a new trick on the double kink down flat down box.

The highlight of the day was seeing the entire uninc Burton snowboard team doing handplants on a mini qp that they made infront of the cafe – with tree stump and all. Literally the best snowboarders in the world shredding at Hutt on one of the dodgier days of the season. Romain Demarchi’s bright one piece suit was way out there – guess you can wear whatever when your that good.

So on to the sunday slopestyle – the mountain was on hold till 9:30 but the event went ahead and it wasnt that bad weather. It snowed on and off but the wind and snow weren’t as bad as other days so all good. They added a bit more pop to the top 2 jumps which was cool. I had a reasonably conservative run on the rails on my first run but it paid off with the a clean run so i was infront after the first round with a best run of 2 format that was all good but i knew there was a bunch of cats on my heels. So run two comes around and I’m just strapping in when disaster strikes and my binding clicker broke which really did suck but fortunately Jenna has similar bindings to me so i just grabbed one off hers which I’ll always be thankfull for but i was still in panic mode when i strapped in for my run – stupid i shud have gone and chilled for a bit as i fell on my money trick which i’d been stomping every time for the last 2 weeks damn cab 270 in 270 out gap on the vans flat down box neway Bevan hall my buddy killed his jibs and pipped me at the post. It was a fun day and in all I ended up with a second to a close friend which is good
- definately annoyed i didnt put down the best rail run but sometimes you just have to hold off on the big guns and stick with stuff that you know you can land.

Nev ended up in 4th and Jenna in the 3rd behind Nevs girlfriend Lisa in 2nd and our buddy Fem in 1st – Good times. I’m prety sure that Nev and I were the only to land sevens for the day, Nev got a back 7 and I had a cab7 which in those conditions was definately something to be happy about. Catch every one up down south in Wanaka over the next two weeks or back up at Hutt after that. I’m hearing there is freshies galore down south should be great.
Peace!

Thursday had arrived and i was fully equiped with a new tooth and legs that hadnt snowboarded in 4days so the plan was made to hitt up Mount Cheesman and score the fresh that arrived earlier in the week with my buddies Tom Dillon and Logan Holt who were cribbing it with me in Christchurch.

Funniest thing of the day happened before we even made it up the road when we found the grader with no1 in it burried off the side of the road in the trees – check out the pictures!!!

The Huffer team were in town shooting for their new catalouge so we met up with them at the base, scored a ride to the top and then hiked to some lines available off the top left of the top t bar. The snow was good, not really that deep but solid in terms of not sliding and a soft enough untouched pow to get a pretty tail heavy. The boys started building a booter and we made it down just in time for the session – sorry we didnt get time to help out with the building we owe you one big time but they did a great jump, we got some serious air! Logan stomped a huge switch backside five which had every1 on the feet and got super close to the biggest indy backside rodeo sevens I’ve ever seen. Kristian Phillip was killing 5’s backside and cab. T WAT WAT Tim Watson hit a sick front five then uped the ante with some super steez front nines spinning down the hill which was prety hard as you came in hard on your toes if your goofy which Tim is. I really struggled to get a consistent run in but nearly hada cab 9 but the landing was pretty bombed by that time. Tom stepped up and hit a solid 40ft plus clif at the end of the day – taking on the biggest section he could find and coming away unscathed – increddible! If it was a little steeper on the landing he would have stomped it and gone down in history which he does already in my books; yeah Tom- lucky we have that to watch on your new 3cc digital video camera!!!

On the 17th-20th August, Mt Hutt hosted the South Island Regional Championships. The weather was looking pretty dodgy but the show rolled on with many of NZa??s best rippers and groms unphazed.

Mountain Dew team riders showed up in force for the slopestyle on Sunday and pulled through some solid results. Tim and I placed 2nd and 4th respectively in the Open Mena??s division. Jenna placed 3rd in the Open Womana??s and Mountain Dew groupie Lisa Corcoran, who is starting to develop a successful array of competition podium spots snuck into 2nd Open Womans. Snowpark Switch coach, Bevan Hall took Open Mena??s glory with Femke Hiblink stomping hard into the Female Top spot.

Big shout out to the Hutt terrain park crew who put together and maintained a super fun course!